"Where are you going, Ms. Yeon?"

Kim Taehyung could tolerate Hayan for most of the time, but not at work. She was the most annoying at work. She never listened to him, half-assed her job, and walked out whenever she wanted. Taehyung thought that if she had been working anywhere else, she would have been fired on the first day, but if she had been working at another company, perhaps, she wouldn't have behaved this way anyway.

"Home." Hayan gritted her teeth, standing only a few feet away from Taehyung at the end of the hallway that led to Taehyung's office on the right side and the employees' cabins on the left.

"Do you think this is a shopping mall you could walk in and out of without a word?" Taehyung retorted in a stern tone. Hayan noticed that it was a certain type of stiff tone that he never talked to Hayan in anywhere else. He only ever used it at work.

"I have something important to do," She rolled her eyes, gripping her bag's strap tighter. Taehyung looked unimpressed with the response.

"Seems like you always have important things to do. At this point, you might be busier than the CEO." His lips formed a straight line. When Hayan didn't say anything but glare at him, he sighed and added. "In my office right now, if you really need to go, write a proper application and submit it before leaving." Walking past Hayan towards his office, Taehyung purposely bumped his shoulder into hers. Hayan wanted to cuss him out but restrained herself because she didn't want to make a scene where everyone could see. There were already enough rumors about her at the company. She didn't blame her colleagues, she knew she wasn't very likable.

Begrudgingly, Hayan followed Taehyung into his office, snatching a blank piece of paper and his pen from the table. With determination in her eyes, she jotted down something in bold, capital letters. Crumpling the paper into a tight ball, she unleashed it, aiming straight at Taehyung's chest. The paper hit its target, landing on the floor with a soft thud. Taehyung's expression shifted from surprise to disbelief as he stared at Hayan, a scoff escaping his full lips.

Taehyung was used to Hayan's sour mood. He assumed it had probably latched to her somewhere in her childhood and since then had been stuck to her already bitter personality like sticky tape on a heel. Her mood was especially sour in his presence, it always had been. Not like his brightened in hers though, either.

But her behavior over the past few weeks had been...different. She was more passive-aggressive than usual. It was as if her cranky attitude had doubled in intensity for some, weird, unknown reason. The usual scowl on her face seemed like it had sunken into her skin (which was going to leave wrinkles for sure) and he'd noticed that if her feet weren't dragging irritably on the floor, they were stomping. She kept snapping at anyone who talked to her which ultimately led everyone to avoid her at all costs, turning Hayan into an outcast in the company.

But that wasn't the only thing erupting through the office. There was talk about Hayan and Taehyung's relationship being the reason why she could get away with her lack of professionalism. While some of the employees seemed indifferent to this news, others were enraged, even going so far as to insult Hayan behind her back and calling her names. Taehyung didn't doubt that Hayan had heard all of it. She'd be deaf if she didn't. Taehyung wondered if this had anything to do with her sudden exacerbated mood.

"You and your shitty temper..." He muttered as he bent down to pick up the paper ball and straightened it. "What's this?" He glared at the so-called application she was submitting to him. The paper read 'Please grant me a leave, Your Highness,' in the largest worst possible writing Hayan could have scribbled in.

"What? I'm begging like you want me to," Hayan spat out, crossing her arms. Taehyung gave her a bland look and dropped the paper on his table like it was something repulsive.

"I don't feel like granting you a leave when you're acting like this,"

"Then don't. I'm going to leave whether you give your consent or not." Hayan retorted and turned on her heels to walk out.

The nerves of this girl, Taehyung mentally groaned. He wanted to grab Hayan and tie her to a chair just so she wouldn't be able to leave but he figured that would be a little...psychotic.

"Are you trying to get fired?!" He shouted. Taehyung's sudden outburst caught Hayan off guard, causing her to abruptly turn back around. His raised voice offended Hayan but she did not say anything about it. She figured she could always shout back.

"Precisely. I am trying to get fired, Tae- no, Mr. Kim," She corrected herself quickly, continuing to speak in a sarcastic tone. "Fire me, Mr. Kim." She demanded, walking up to his desk and slamming down a hand on it authoritatively.

"Fire you?" Taehyung let out a hollow laugh, leaning over the table across from Hayan. "Do you think I'm stupid? If you think throwing paper balls at me is gonna make me fire you, you're awfully mistaken. You can go around acting however you want but it's only ruining your reputation, Hayan, it doesn't affect me. If you hate it here so bad then I told you before too, resign."

Hayan really wanted to quit, but she knew she couldn't. Every time she thought about resigning, she couldn't help but think of Mr. & Mrs. Kim. They were the ones who had recommended Hayan to work at KMN or Kim's own because they thought it would be the best since Taehyung and Hayan were friends. If she were to resign, what would they think? Hayan felt like a traitor for walking away from the opportunity they had given her. Without them, she knew Taehyung would have never hired her.

Plus, it would seem foolish to leave one of the best companies in the country. There were other competing companies, but none were as skilled as Taehyung's in managing stocks and shares. Moreover, this company also gave the highest pay to its employees so it would be stupid to leave a high sum behind and go work for a lesser amount of money. Hayan hated that this was her best chance and that it was all in Taehyung's hands. If only this wasn't Taehyung's company, she sighed, feeling defeated.

But money was not an issue, Hayan decided, less money was worth it if it meant that she didn't have to be Taehyung's personal servant for the rest of her life. Still, resigning was not an option. She had to come up with a plan to make Taehyung fire her. That way, he'd be the one facing the questioning and anger of their parents, and Hayan would appear innocent. He would also seem like a bad friend and it'll give Hayan an apparent reason to end their nonexistent friendship. It was like hitting two birds with one stone.

"I know what you've been scheming, Hayan," Taehyung stated as a matter of fact. "I know you've been acting like a thorn in my side so that I'll get tired and fire you myself but it's not going to work. If you make things hard for me, I'll just make them harder for you too."

"Is that a threat?" Hayan raised an eyebrow, feeling frustration bubble up in her gut. She was frustrated with everything that had anything to do with Taehyung. It was driving her insane. She had to get this man out of her life. "Why won't you just fire me? You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? Forcing me to work for you because you know I hate it."

Taehyung scoffed but said nothing back. Hayan already knew it though, she didn't need his words. He was her karma for all the times she'd been an evil little prankster when they were younger. She didn't consider herself evil for everything she did to Taehyung though, she believed he deserved it simply because she disliked him. He believed she was a horrible person and a bully.

"I'll find something to blackmail you with soon enough then you'll have to fire me. I'll get rid of you one way or the other," she added.

"You can plot all you want but just know that this time I'm going to have a counterplan. We're not in middle school anymore." Taehyung retorted, his intense eyes staring at Hayan. He seemed angry but not the way Hayan did. She wore her emotions on her sleeves with her deep scowl and curled lip, but Taehyung seemed calm and composed on the outside yet his eyes were slightly narrowed, a dangerous look circling his dark brown eyeballs.

"You sure hold grudges,"

"I'm just mirroring you, Hayan." He sneered. She knew it, he was her karma. Damned universe.

"I'm leaving," She announced and turned around to leave for the second time but was stopped once again.

"Stop." A firm grip on her arm pulled her back with the same intensity that she had turned around with. An inaudible gasp escaped her lips as her side roughly crashed back into the table.

"Ouch!" She yelped as her eyes glared at where Taehyung's hand wrapped around her wrist, pulling her left arm in his direction. In an attempt to grab her before she could leave, he had climbed on top of the table like a maniac with his one knee bent over it and the other leg awkwardly hanging down, the tip of his Oxford shoes barely touching the floor. She stared at him, dumbfounded, and then her cheeks flushed due to the close proximity of their faces. The force that he had pulled her back with, he might as well have picked her up and thrown her across the room.

"Kim Taehyung!" She yelled, stomping her foot like a child to hide the embarrassment she was starting to feel. Did he just manhandle her? She felt small under his hovering tall stature and she hated it more than the fading throb she was still feeling in her side.

"Mr. Kim," Taehyung corrected stiffly. "and are you a human or a loudspeaker? Why are you so loud?" He added, cringing at her booming voice.

"Let go of me!" Hayan screeched, ignoring his comment and eager to pull her wrist out of his grip.

"I still need to know your reason for leaving early," Taehyung pressed. His eyes glanced down at her struggling wrist between his hand, and for a ridiculous second, Hayan thought that she felt his thumb softly rub it before his gaze lifted back to her fury-contorted face.

"Argh, I need to look for an apartment. Now let go!" She blurted out, feeling a mix of anger and embarrassment in every single cell in her body.

"An apartment? Why?" Taehyung's eyebrows shot up, his grip loosening on her until he retreated his hand fully.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm moving out." She spat at him as she rubbed her wrist, pulling it close to her chest. She had hoped that his grip would leave a bruise or red mark over her wrist so she could make a few threats about reporting him for physical assault, but to her disappointment, she was completely fine.

"Don't go around looking for an apartment. Stay here, I'll ask Jungkook to look into some good ones and-"

"No. I'm sure Mr. Jeon has much more important things to do than finding an apartment for a mere secretary, and I don't need your or your comrade's help." Hayan shut him down before he could even finish his suggestion. Taehyung sighed.

"Fine, you can sleep over at my place tonight. I can assume you don't wanna go back home, and you probably won't be able to find a place and settle in there in one day,"

"You don't need to worry about that, I'm staying at Sara's," Hayan told him as she readjusted her bag's strap around her shoulder as if to hint that she wanted to end this conversation and leave already. He was wasting her time.

"Lee Sara? You're still friends with that good-for-nothing brat?" Taehyung's voice hinted disbelief as he remembered the fake redhead back from high school. She had always been an unambitious student, a rule breaker, and an awfully rude person. Taehyung could use a hundred hands to count how many times she got in trouble in school and he would still run out of fingers. They never liked each other. There was mutual malice between Taehyung, Hayan, and Sara. Jungkook was always in the scene too but he was more on the sidelines. The girls never had anything against him because he stayed out of their way. That was partly the reason Hayan did not know much about Jungkook despite him being Taehyung's friend.

"Where does she live? Is it a comfortable place?" Taehyung asked. He was sure that girl never went to college. She barely graduated school with the lowest grades ever so he assumed that she lived in a crappy neighborhood somewhere, but he knew saying that out loud would have its consequences so he worded his question carefully.

"I'll be comfortable with my friend anywhere, Mr. Kim," Hayan spoke through gritted teeth. She had chosen to ignore his previous insult towards Sara but she wouldn't hear another.

"But still, Mom would be really happy to have you stay over, you know," Taehyung insisted, changing the topic back to them. He didn't have anything good to say about Lee Sara and Hayan didn't want to hear anything bad so he thought it best to not discuss his past bully's best friend.

"I know," Hayan said, feeling a little guilty at the thought of Mrs. Kim who genuinely liked her so much and whom she secretly resented sometimes. For what? Hayan wasn't so sure. She wasn't sure about many things in her life. Although she believed her resentment towards Mrs. Kim might have been born out of the need to depend on her throughout her childhood. Why had she depended on someone else when she had her own parents? She wasn't an orphan girl so why did she feel like one, growing up on another's kindness? Anyhow, she didn't want to think about that for now.

"But I already promised to stay with Sara so I can't change plans. I have to go now. Bye." Turning around without waiting for Taehyung's response, Hayan rushed out of his office, ignoring the fading sound of his complaining voice behind her.

"Hey, you still didn't submit a proper application though!"

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A/N: It literally takes me ages to finish writing one update idk what is wrong with me :(

I'm so lazy lol