Who was it that said, "No one actually gets to be with their first love" ?
Two hands accidentally touched as they both reach out for the same book
Oh no
I spaced out
The girl with short brown hair thought to herself as a deep blush was painted across her cheeks
"Taeyeon-Sunbae..." The girl with brown hair mutter as the shorty with blonde hair looked at her in wonder with a slightly open mouth.
And I made sure to only look at her from afar!
"U-Um. I'm sorry. here, take the book." The brunette said with frustration on her face and movements.
"Why do you know my name?" The blonde asked.
The brunette looked down and stayed silent as she was caught red handed.
For the past three years of junior high and high school, all I've done was watch her. This is the fourth year. I decided to keep these feelings hidden in my heart forever. But once she was right in front of me, my feelings started spilling over. I tried to keep them in, but they flooded out.
Sunbae, I love you.
I love you
I love you
"I love you." The deep blush didn't leave the brunette's face. A couple of seconds later she realized that she just blurted that out loud causing her to gasp and panic, "No! um...I mean..." She couldn't continue her failed attempt in explaining as the blonde in front of her extended a hand to her hair and patted it.
Everything was so pure back then.
But now, ten years later.
Tiffany Hwang, 25, I turned into a jaded adult.
"What?!" Tiffany yelled in English.
"I'm being assigned to the romance comics department?! H-Hold on, I made it very clear during the interview, I was in charge of editing literature in my last job and I want to work on literature here!"
A pound on the table made a few heads turn her way.
"It says here, Ms. Hwang employed mid-career, is to be assigned to the romance comics division of Im Publishing." The office woman in front of her pointed at a line in the paper she's holding, "That's how it is."
Tiffany grimaced at the paper when she saw that indeed she is assigned to edit romance comics from now on.
"Come on. I will take you to your department." The kind office woman offered with a smile.
Tiffany got up with a sigh and followed the woman quietly not wanting to make her any more trouble.
This sucks !
How did this happen?!
I specifically switched jobs so I could work on literature!
Why comics!? I don't even read them!
Especially not romance!
"Isn't putting someone who doesn't read comics in a comics editing department the same thing as shelving a useless employee?" She asked.
"Oh, that's not how it is at all!" The women's respond was a little too enthusiastic for Tiffany's liking, "I know it looks like a storage room, but a year after the current head editor joined us, it became the number one editing department. it even received an award from the president!"
Oh?
"Plus the editors are all beautiful women."
Tiffany could see hearts floating around the woman.
Even Worse. I would really like to quit now, but I can't exactly do that.
"A lot of people has their eyes on them. There are a lot of pheromones in the air at the beginning of the period."
"Period?"
"Well, you will figure it out once you see it."
Anyways I will stay for two weeks and then find a reason to quit.
As the two reached the fifth floor, the lady started turning right and left as if looking for someone.
"Ah excuse me, I'm from management. I have bought a new assignee." The lady talked to a man who was engrossed with his work.
"Oh, for Emerald? it's that way." The man answered and the two immediately started walking deeper into the huge building.
"Emerald?" Tiffany questioned.
"The name of the magazine you will be working on." The lady answered with a smile.
If I'm going to quit, it's probably a good idea to meet with the head editor. She might be useful later.
After all, you usually can't get back on your feet within a year after quitting a job.
I will have to assess the market trends and then make a detailed plan.
That's right.
If I do things exactly as planned.
As the two stopped in front of a big office, Tiffany closed her eyes and bowed, "Nice to meet you, I'm going to be working with you from now on. My name it Tiffany Hwang."
...exactly...as planned...not!
Tiffany's jaw hung down as she stared at the war zone like office once she straightened up. The floor couldn't be seen because it was covered in papers, books, files and a lot of questionable garbage. An awful stench floating in the air as if someone died in the room. She could see three dead(?) bodies with their heads on the desks.
"I'm- I'm sorry! It's the wrong phase of the period! Well, do your best! Excuse me!" The lady ran away with the speed of light not daring to look back.
"What?! Wait!" Tiffany took two steps to follow the lady but stopped when she saw that the lady had already fled out of sight, "Um, is this the Emerald magazine editing department?" She asked two men who were passing by the entrance of the office.
"Y-Yeah."
"But we aren't part of it!"
The men did not even bother to stop and walked at a faster pace to get away from this area as fast as possible.
Why are they avoiding me?!
Tiffany dared herself and stepped inside the office approaching one of the possibly dead bodies, a girl with short blonde hair. She covered her nose not bearing with the stench oozing out everywhere.
What is going on in here?! And why does it smell like a locker room?
"I'm Tiffany. U- Um..." Tiffany hesitated if she should shake the body or just run away but before she could decide the body moved on its own and fell lifelessly to the ground with a thud, also scaring the shit out of her.
"What...?" The girl was trying her best to get up from the ground but she looked like as if she was trying to do a push-up and failed at it.
That's what I would like to ask!
"Ah...as of today I will be working here." Tiffany got cold sweat as she held on to her pounding heart terrified of the barely alive girl on the ground.
"Oh...was there someone like that coming today?" The girl's voice was cracking and sounded pretty much sore either from lack of using her vocal chords or from raising her voice too much.
"Taeyeon! The new girl is here." The girl rose up from the ground to all fours and crawled back to her desk with much struggle, "Taeyeon! Taeyeon, you awake?! BOSS!"
"Shut the fuck up!" A fourth body appeared at the head of the table from under papers, files and a book covering her face, "I heard you the first time!" The girl who had her feet on the table slammed her heel on it once before getting off her chair and leaning down to tie her boot's strings.
Huh?
Tiffany scanned her from head to toe. Long black hair. black specs, neat chick clothes that hugged her perfect small body, and a terribly grumpy expression
This Girl?!
Boss?!
Well, she does look tidier than the others.
"So? Who's this? a part timer?" The girl called Taeyeon asked Tiffany with a stoic face but Tiffany could tell that the girl is tired and hadn't had enough sleep.
Thought Tiffany immediately got annoyed when Taeyeon referred to her as a part-timer and didn't hold back her glare, "I'm a full-time employee on contract."
"Your name?"
"Tiffany Hwang."
"Oh yeah. That's right. I heard someone like you was coming." Taeyeon yawned.
What the hell?!
What's "Someone like you" supposed to mean ?
"Pleased to meet you," Tiffany said.
"Oh yeah. I wasn't at the interview, but I heard that you have editing experience?" Taeyeon asked as she crossed her arms.
"Yeah, three years at Hwang Publishing."
"What genre did you do?"
"Ah, no. I worked in literature."
"Huh? Literature?" Taeyeon grimaced.
"Yes."
"So you're completely new at comics?"
"Yes."
There's something about her...
No, no, I shouldn't judge based on a slip of the tongue
But...
"Useless." Taeyeon turned away and muttered with the most annoyed expression on earth.
This girl, is, the worst.
"Taeyeon, Choi Junghun-ssi is here with her replacement manuscript. She's already in the lounge." One of the dead bodies rose up with a phone pressed to her ear.
"Got it. Follow me, newbie." Taeyeon signaled to Tiffany to follow her and made her way to the elevator, "Show me you can do your job."
Tiffany quickly followed Taeyeon in a hurry, "Is the replacement manuscript for this month's issue?" Tiffany asked.
"Yeah," Taeyeon answered without bothering to look at her.
"When is it going on sale again?"
"In seven days."
Tiffany's eyes widened in surprise, "It's going on the shelves in only seven days?! When did they start drawing the replacement manuscript?" Tiffany asked with cold sweat forming on her body.
"Three days ago."
Seriously?!
"Um...is there not enough replacements on hand? Like ones by new authors?"
"We have got a lot but they're all shitty."
Tiffany frowned, "But if we need to use replacements, then that can't be helped."
Taeyeon who was proceeding to exit the elevator completely stopped which made Tiffany bump into her back. She stayed silent for a moment and turned around to face Tiffany with the same stoic expression, "It doesn't matter if it's an editor or an artist, but the person who only thinks of compensating with replacements is an idiot. " Taeyeon pointed at her, "Why fill the empty spaces with plain old rocks when you can stuff them with diamonds? That's common sense." Taeyeon turned around again to greet the author who was making her way towards them in the lounge
Tiffany was bothered by what Taeyeon said.
That...may be true.
But in the end, it's too idealistic.
"Thank you for your work. I'm sorry I told you it would be impossible to finish in three days." Taeyeon started after taking a seat in front of the author who's still working on the manuscript.
"Oh no, it's alright. I had time." The author replayed without looking up and just continued drawing.
"Did you bring the manuscript?" Taeyeon asked.
"Ah yes. I did as you told me." The young man in front of Taeyeon stopped drawing and took out a file out of his backpack which contained a stack of papers which is the so-called manuscript and handed them to Taeyeon.
"About this kissing scene, can you make it a little more dramatic?" Taeyeon pointed at one of the papers that had a kiss scene that looked completely fine.
Huh?
Is she making him redraw it? Aren't the printed offices waiting?
"Er...like this?" The author quickly drew the scene again on a separate paper and showed it to Taeyeon
"More like you're seeing it from this angle." The author tried again as Taeyeon told him but Taeyeon was still not satisfied, "No, from this perspective. You have kissed someone before, right?" The young man blushed and continued drawing.
"Isn't it fine the way it is? it's already drawn very well. plus there is not enough time." Tiffany stepped in.
"We can still make it better. Amateurs should be quite." Taeyeon leaned on her hand and watching the author do his work.
Amateur?!
"But you can't see how you're kissing someone when you're doing it yourself." The author said as he looked up at Taeyeon nervously.
Taeyeon looked at him silently with a bored expression before standing up.
"You have got a point. All right, I will show you a sample, so draw it quickly."
"Oh, I will go get them. Where are they?" Tiffany said also standing up.
"Draw it from an angle where you can see the chin, and add a kind of breezy feeling to it." Taeyeon ignored what Tiffany said and gave instructions to the author.
"Um, I still don't know where I should go to get the samples." Tiffany looked annoyed at Taeyeon but froze in her place when Taeyeon placed a hand gently on her arm.
Huh ? What ?
Tiffany's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when Taeyeon's hand slid from her arm to her waist and the other on her cheek. Next thing she knew was that Taeyeon's lips were touching hers. It wasn't even a kiss, it was just a touch on the lips but it was enough to get Tiffany's soul screaming along with the artist who immediately scribbled the scene in front of his eyes. The moment Tiffany pushed Taeyeon away, Taeyeon looked at the author as if she didn't just do what she did.
"Did you get it?" Taeyeon asked.
The author nodded enthusiastically as he added effects on the drawing.
"Good. Now hurry up and finish it ink it." Taeyeon sat down and crossed her arms and legs.
"W- W- WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Tiffany yelled at Taeyeon who looked at her still stoically.
"What do you mean? That was work."
...
...
This really sucks.
I just need to last two weeks.
I probably don't even have it in me.
Things I know so far:
1. The girls from Emerald editing department are a bunch of weirdoes (Employees from other departments avoid them).
2. They're very passionate when it comes to work.
Passionate ?
Oh yeah, they're definitely passionate. Enough to use themselves as models.
Who would have thought that I would get sexually harassed on my first day here?
*Sigh*
My stomach hurts...
I wanted to edit literature. That's all I wanted to do.Turn a book into a work of art. It was probably because my dad was the president of a publishing company, but I have always loved books.
The only thing that I wanted to do was work in my dad's company. As soon as I started, there was a lot of pressure from working with big name authors, but I was happy.
It takes a lot of time to publish hardcovers. You have to reach a consensus with the author and consult with them on the book design. what kind of image do you want? Do you want a bookmark? In what color?
I poured my heart into the making and selling of books and I was happy
But even then...
"This month's best-seller is another book Ms. Hwang handled."
"You're kidding, again?"
"Yeah, well, she's only here because of her parents, so she has it really easy."
"You're right. We have been here longer but a new-comer like her gets to work with important authors, we have been working so hard but we only get to work with authors at the bottom of the barrel. It's not fair."
"They are only top-sellers because of the authors anyway, all she does is send the manuscript to the printing office, but she's still valued for her work, It doesn't make sense!"
"She's useless!"
But, I never wanted to use my dad. All I wanted was to try my hardest, on my own. My old self would have been probably too shocked to do anything.
But at that time, I felt my worth being called into question.
That's why I should quit this place already and go to another company where I can make a book that sells millions!
But in the end, this is my own fault.
*Sigh*
It feels like I lost sight of who I am, but it's not as though I feel this way because of what happened with Sunbae.
"I love you, Sunbae, I love you."
After what happened back then, I started to expect the worst in everything.
I mean, isn't it better that way?
Then, even if a situation ends up hurting you, none of the wounds will be as deep.
"..."
Ahhh!
No!
Stop!
You have already forgotten what she looks like!
Just stop thinking about the human condition!
Right now you need to figure out how to switch jobs again!
"Yah."
"What?!"
Tiffany said to the voice behind her harshly only to be met with Taeyeon's bored eyes when she turned around from her desk
Hey!
Apologize for that kiss back there !
"Did you send the manuscript to press?" This time, Tiffany talked calmly.
"Yeah, we finished the work for this month's issue, so I just talked to higher ups."
Tiffany erased the annoyed expression off her face at the next words Taeyeon said.
"You're the heir to Hwang Publishers?"
Tiffany looked down and bit her lower lip, "I'm not related to that company at all."
"Annoyed you got assigned here when you wanted literature instead?"
YOU HAVE NO IDEA.
"No, It's more like...I mean...is not romance comics all about love? That's not really my thing. It's not like I have a negative idea of it. I just don't really understand it." Tiffany finally looked up only to meet cold bored eyes.
"If you're going to be a burden because you don't want to do this, then quit. I think there are lots of people in the world who can't do what they like at their jobs."
"But that's..." Tiffany got annoyed again
"Everyone starts out as a beginner. There is no way that your experience doing literature will be useless here."
What the...could she be...encouraging me?
"Well, a useless person will always be useless, no matter how hard they try."
I'm going to kill her!
"The other girls have already gone home, so you can go, too" Taeyeon walked away to the head of the table where her desk is and started looking at some papers, "Oh yeah." She looked up and the look on her faced seemed like as if she had remembered something.
"What?!" Tiffany responded harshly.
Taeyeon stopped what she was doing and made eye contact with Tiffany, "Have I met you before?"
Tiffany raised an eyebrow, "Who knows?" She shrugged.
Taeyeon nodded and gathered some files from above her desk then put them in a navy blue Filson briefcase before leaving without saying another word.
Tiffany who stayed behind got a little enthusiastic and took out some old catalogs of the company's romance comics.
Then she realized something.
This office is a garbage dump. It's even on the desks.
She cleared some space on her new desk and sat down the catalogs on top with a tired sigh. She started flipping through them and found herself lost in her own thoughts.
If I lose here, it will be the same as before.
If I'm deemed useless after I try my hardest, then that's my own fault.
But, Being deemed useless when I haven't even started...is something I can't allow.
I Will show her what I can do!