I know it has been months, summer has ended and I've run out of excuses instead of the obvious procrastination. Although it's late, I hope you are still with this story. Yes, this story is inspired from a Korean drama titled 'What's Wrong with Secretary Kim'.
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Elsa was lost.
This morning, instead of Anna's driver who had come to pick her up, Elsa hadn't expected the redhead CEO herself who rang her apartment doorbell awfully early in the morning.
Anna was standing on her porch with big cheerful smile and Elsa's favorite hot cappuccino on her hand. "Good morning!" Anna greeted cheerily.
Elsa wasn't ready. She opened the door expecting a milkman or someone else other than her boss knocking the door 6 am in the morning. So she was standing dumbfounded with her messy hair and toothbrush hanging between her teeth.
Oh sweet God. Is there going to be thunderstorm today?
Meanwhile dumbfounded girl number two couldn't help but stare.
It was nice to have their situation reversed once in a while since Elsa had seen Anna's morning face too often anyway.
Even though it was too late, Elsa made a move to hide her toothbrush behind her back and greeted Anna. "Good morning, Anna. Why are you-"
"I bring coffee and sandwich. Trust me, finding a place that's open beside convenience store in this hour is hard so I buy this from vending machine, I hope it is okay, if you don't like it we can throw it away. The coffee maybe is cold anyway…. I'm going to buy new one? Yeah, best I go to find better breakfast." Anna was rambling and her resolve crumbled the moment she noticed Elsa's frown expression. She took step back and turned to walk to her car.
Although Elsa hated to step outside with her sleepwear, she made exception today for Anna. She managed to catch the redhead before she walked down the stairs.
She took over Anna's hand and holding it firmly. "I like vending machine sandwich." With that she led Anna back inside her apartment.
Anna had visited Elsa's place several times in the past. However somehow Anna felt suddenly nervous as Elsa pushed her down to sit on the couch and wait for her getting ready. She was overwhelmed by lavender and fresh mint fragrance around the room.
Elsa always smelt nice or so Anna had always been thinking. However today she was able to distinguish and put a name of the Elsa's scent. The room was refreshing but Elsa had sweeter aroma on her which Anna guessed was from chocolate she always enjoyed during lunch break.
When Elsa reappeared from her room wearing her usual secretary's suit, she found her boss was grinning dreamily holding Elsa's cushion on her face.
"Anna?"
Snapping back to reality, Anna abruptly focused her gaze back to Elsa."Yeah? Are you ready?"
"I've been wondering what's the occasion? It is very rare of you to wake up early." And pick me up.
"Nothing. I want to do something nice. You are going to leave the company after all." Anna replied easily with slightly downcast expression. "You have done so much for me… and the company."
Elsa wasn't ready for this.
Until yesterday Anna had been passive-aggressively nearly volatile on the idea of her abrupt resignation, however today was different. Something was off and her analytical mind could not figure out what. She was out-of-depth since she was always capable to predict her boss's mood and action. Anna was wearing a pair of new hoodie which Elsa didn't recognize and the redhead also had forgone her twin pigtails by letting her hair down naturally not to mention that Anna smelt of fresh soap and sweet vanilla.
"I plan to do this every morning." Anna said.
"Wait, what?" Elsa who was still processing Anna's strange behavior and nice smell almost did a double-take.
"Picking you up, buy you breakfast, going to office together, and then going home together, have dinner, maybe going to date on the weekend." Anna listed the activities one by one with her fingers. "My regret is only that why I hadn't done these earlier."
Elsa prided herself as collected and calm individual, she was the type of person who was cool under pressure. Any kind of pressure, except…
The kind of pressure which was in the form of Anna Summers.
"What did you say?" Her voice went an octave higher.
"Picking you up, buy you breakfast, going to office together-" Anna was repeating her list verbatim.
"No… in the weekend."
Anna's face split into a big grin, "You and I are going to date." The redhead said it casually.
"Date." Elsa deadpanned. She was expecting another comic con or gaming festival but Elsa was pretty sure that those events wouldn't be on until next 2 months. She knew it since she had marked the date on her phone calendar equipped with most annoying alarm ringtone as strong and painful reminder. Or perhaps it was something like underground event that hadn't been advertised by official channels. It that was the case, Elsa had no choice but to accompany Anna since there were going to be questionable characters attending the event too.
"Yes, date."
It seemed Elsa had to cancel her spa appointment for this weekend. Anna always came first.
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Previously on Last Night's Video Conference
"So, what's the plan O' mighty Tsun Zu?" Flynn asked excitedly. They had been throwing idea back and forth which was very unproductive and lame. Anna cut short their meeting for short break and her senior team party was still holding on strong even though it was 2 am late night or early morning.
"Make her real busy that she will forget about resigning?" Mulan offered.
"Are you daft? That will make her resigning faster!" Merida interjected.
"Elsa is different than you lazy oaf! What's your plan then, genius Odin?"
"I told you already!"
"Begging her to stay is not a plan! She is not the type who is easily swayed with guilt! If she is, imagine how many partners and buyers would treat our company like a doormat!"
"Girls, calm down!" Kristoff tried which only triggered the two parties more.
Merida made a scandalous gasp, "are you saying I am easily swayed by partners?!"
"Well it wasn't me who was so guiltily convinced by BROOMWITCH developer to buy that bear-cookie prototype system which I have to remind you was the biggest spending mistake last year!"
"You do not!" Merida slammed her keyboard.
"Bring it on!"
"You and me, arena 5 minutes! Without healing potion!"
"It's on!"
And then Merida and Mulan's screen went off, it seemed they had switched to play the arena momentarily.
Anna sighed, followed by the rest of the team members.
"So how about you guys?" Anna had reached a point of exhaustion. Before Merida and Mulan's outburst there was Flynn's barrage cheap flirting to Adam and Tiana.
"Well Chief, you tell us. Aren't you the Elsa Expert?" Flynn shrugged with loopy grin. Everyone has dark circles under their eyes but his was the most palpable.
"Elsa what?"
"More like Elsa Whisperer." Tiana chipped in. She had been quiet during Merida and Mulan's conflict. The woman was tired for playing the referee between the two for the past 3 years. "Elsa only listens to you. Remember the company charity gala last year?"
"Uh huh." The rest of gentlemen on the screen nodded in confirmation.
"Our great chief here somehow managed to convince our Secretary Frost to get on the stage and sing! I must admit that the cold killing glare aside, she has angelic voice." Flynn's messy brunette hair moved along with his exaggerating nodding movement.
"Hey, Elsa doesn't have cold killing glare!" Anna went defensive.
"See! You two are made for each other! Secretary Frost and Chief sitting on a tree…" Flynn sang along with his out of tune style.
"What's your point?! Elsa and I are just friends!"
Kristoff was rolling his eyes, "sure and I love tea."
"And I love taking a bath." Flynn added.
"And Merida loves hair-straightener."
"And Mulan loves bacon…"
Anna was confused. "But Mulan is vegetarian."
"Exactly, Chief." Flynn jabbed again.
They all were having good time pointing out the most absurd things about each other.
"Are you guys saying that Elsa likes me?"
"Our dense Chief, everyone!" Flynn clapped cheerily. "If someone volunteered themselves to accompany you to comic con, there is no other plausible reason but true love!"
"Comic con is awesome!" Anna pouted.
Tiana cut in before Flynn threw a retort.
"Yes but no offense, Anna- you are kind of handful." She softened the impact despite that it still got Anna to glare at her. "We like you, but Elsa likes you more." Tiana tried again. It was certain thing that Anna would cut off the mana potion supply for her in next raid.
Then the conversation continued with topics of how Elsa would always treat Anna differently whether it was in professional or non-formal setting.
"Even during raid she had let me die horrible death many times just to restore Anna's health and keep it above 50 percents." Flynn pointed out with groan.
"She always knows where the CEO is and what she is doing even she remembers CEO's lunch from 3 weeks ago." Adam joined in. "She negotiated with our cafeteria chef to provide chocolate pudding every Monday and Wednesday."
"The day you bought that hover board and insisted to use it at work, she made sure the maintenance department had everything set up so your little wheel can go through without any accident." Tiana knew well enough since she was the head of the maintenance department. That day Elsa had been breathing down her staffs' neck to make sure the floor and stairs became safe passage for Anna's new little vehicle.
"Anna?" Kristoff noticed that his friend had been quiet during their team's conversation regarding Secretary Frost.
"I have no idea…." Anna muttered weakly. "What do I do?" without her?
"Do you like Elsa?" Kristoff asked sincerely there was concern in his eyes.
"She is like my best favorite person in the world!" duh!
"Ask her for a date, then ask her to stay."
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So it was Kristoff's idea which everyone had agreed on. However, during her date planning few hours ago, Anna realized that she had no single clue of what Elsa actually likes. She only knew that the blond woman loved chocolate very much.
Carefully she glanced at Elsa who was sitting on the passenger seat beside her. The secretary was fiddling her tablet with the vending-machine sandwich on her other hand.
"Eyes up front." Elsa chided her without looking up from her tablet screen.
Anna complied and returned her focus in driving. Elsa had offered to drive but Anna wanted to let Elsa have breakfast on the way of the office like their usual routine.
"How strange." Elsa murmured to herself.
"What is it?"
"Everyone from each department has submitted their report on time. And their reports are meticulous and efficient." Elsa was fascinated, normally she had to revise several points before compiling them to the management board.
Anna smirked, "I guess if everyone puts their mind into it, they can do simple reports."
Elsa turned her gaze to Anna, "Do you have something to do with this?"
"If we can beat the notorious Blackbeard alliance, we can easily keep the shareholder happy." Anna replied with a wink. "Are you impressed?"
Elsa's expression shifted back to be unreadable, "It is your job after all. Ah, the interview for new assistant is going to be this afternoon. Have you checked the candidate yet?"
Anna pursed her lips, her mood turned sour. "Yes, Miss Snow and Dearheart." She had done quick glance on their resume. They had stellar background and degrees, even the Dearheart woman had a minor degree on forensic crime. What would that knowledge for in working for game companies?
"I will appreciate it if you're present while I'm doing their interview."
Anna punched a frustrating honk to the car in front of them that had taken right turn out of the blue.
"Of-" Honk! "Course." Honk! honk! "I'll be there."
"I'm not aware that Human Resource is conducting employee's survey?" There was a pop-up window when Elsa accessed the department's homepage.
"Oh yes, she told me days ago. She said it's to help the PR department in promoting our modern and down-to-earth image or something." Anna blurted out followed by a chuckle.
Elsa guessed that the survey had fallen to 'or something' category since there were several odd questions in the survey.
What is your favorite food? Favorite place? Favorite movie? Favorite video game? What's your ideal dream date?
It sounded like too personal for a company's survey. Especially the last one.
Elsa shrugged it off since the survey was submitted anonymously and began filling in the form.
Beside her, Anna was celebrating with a victorious smile.
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The redhead CEO really went all out for her secretary today. She opened the doors for Elsa, abandoned her hover board so she could walk side by side to their office floor, signing and reading every documents diligently without drama and struggle, taking care her own needs even making Elsa some coffee which was the most bizarre thing for Anna to do.
The coffee was unexpectedly very great.
"My childhood dream was to be a barista." Anna supplied when Elsa was about to ask. "But then it changed to be an astronaut and then a librarian."
Elsa smiled, "I thought it was to be a princess?" the blonde's expression then changed slightly like she had said something she wasn't supposed to.
Anna was completely taken off guard by Elsa's thoughtless comment. To be a princess was indeed her longest childhood dream that no one ever know. "How-"
A phone call on Elsa's desk interrupted their conversation short. Anna never got to finish her inquiry and forget it later on the day.
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They both were walking side by side toward the interview room. Anna was reading the candidates' file and some documents which was why it was up to Elsa to maneuvering the redhead CEO from colliding with passerby and company' potted plants.
"CEO, if you are this busy I can handle this interview by myself. Mulan also offered to help." Elsa had linked her arm with Anna and pulled her boss closer to avoid a cleaning service crew and his mop.
"Nonsense. I can finish this in a minute." Anna wanted to be responsible at least this time on her life. She needed to prove Elsa that she was in fact was a responsible adult woman that can take care of herself. However apparently she had been procrastinating too much that the amount of documents she needed to sign had resembled a small mountain. She barely finished them all by the interview time.
They arrived at the interview room, before they entered however, Elsa noticed that Anna had smudged ink stain on her cheek.
"What?" Anna inquired realizing Elsa's observing look on her.
Elsa tapped and gestured using her own cheek, she preferred to not say it since there were staffs around the hall. To make the redhead CEO appeared silly in front of the employees was not on her job description list.
The silly CEO on the other hand raised an eyebrow staring back at Elsa's cheek questioningly
The secretary tapped her own cheek again, more desperate this time. It was such simple hint!
Understanding dawned on Anna's face. "Oh."
Elsa's relief was short as Anna immediately went to kiss her on the cheek. Exactly on the spot she had been gesturing before. It wasn't a quick peck since the echo of resounding smooch could be heard down the hall. Several heads were turned and maybe several cameras joined in to grab the moment.
The CEO's trademark grin bloomed radiantly, then she opened the interview room door like nothing had happened.
Elsa was lost.
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I guess their relationship is progressing :D, no the reason of why hasn't disclosed yet. I like to read the speculations of my awesome readers. (^^)