Work Text:
“You’re cute, you know that?”
There’s words on the tip of Danielle’s tongue that she wants to say but it’s all jumbled up. The funny thing is, she’s not even the intoxicated one. “Thanks.” She manages to say through a hitched breath.
“No problem.” Minji murmurs in her ear and unevenly saunters out of the bathroom. The smell of champagne on her breath lingers and Danielle is left there alone.
She walks towards the sink and splashes water on her face, needing some refreshment after that interaction. Before she steps out of the bathroom, she takes a deep breath in to calm herself and heads back towards the battlefield that is her colleagues’ table
Company dinners are always interesting.
Danielle considers herself lucky in being able to land a job right after graduating college. A good one at that. After years of working at a luxury department store, she’s just thankful for landing a corporate job that pays well. Getting paid a salary and getting weekends and holidays off are a Godsend. Much different from retail where her hours varied day to day.
But like any other industry, it’s prone to road bumps as well. The company she worked for since graduated had decided to merge with another existing company, forming some mega-company. Some departments were closed, some employees were sent off with severance pay and some decided to look for another job elsewhere. Danielle, once again, is one of the lucky ones who was able to keep her job title and her seniority.
“Meeting in 15.” Minji’s voice booms from outside her cubicle. “You ready, Marsh?”
“Um, yeah—yes.” Danielle stammers and sighs when her boss walks away.
Despite being only a year older than her, Danielle wonders how Minji was able to land the position as a department head. Rumours say it’s nepotism or something more unsavoury, but nonetheless, everyone agrees that Kim Minji works hard. She just wishes the older girl wasn’t so intimidating sometimes.
Danielle is presenting today and while she’s diligent about practicing, something about presenting in front of Kim Minji makes her nervous and she’s usually not. As she goes through her notes and recites everything in her head, her alarm on her phone goes off, signalling that it’s time to head to the board room. She grabs her material and says a silent prayer.
Hopefully she won’t mess up.
“So… after that whole ‘incident’ in the washroom, she acts like nothing happened?” Her roommate, Hanni asks later that night.
Danielle nods, slurping up some of the broth of Hanni’s chicken soup. She had requested for her roommate to make the soup just because she wanted a pick-me-up. Hanni also works at the same company as her, but works for the web design department. She has the luxury of working remotely the majority of the time. Danielle wishes she could, perhaps doing Zoom meetings with Minji wouldn’t be as intimidating. “It was weird, though, Han. Like she was so close to my face. I thought she wanted to kiss me.”
Hanni smirks. “Would you kiss her back if she did?”
Danielle looks at her incredulously. “Of course not, that’s my boss.”
“Uh huh.” Hanni casts her a doubtful look.
Danielle sighs and throws her head back before composing herself and grabbing her bowl to wash in the kitchen. “Thanks for dinner.”
“Of course.” Hanni pops her head into the kitchen before fully appearing and hugs Danielle’s side. “I made a lot if you’re okay with leftovers.”
“You know I’m more than okay with it.” Danielle grins. It’ll save her time and money during lunch, all she’ll have to do is simply reheat it and she’s good.
As far as the washroom ‘incident’, Danielle will just simply have to brush that off.
Her cubicle is positioned near Minji’s office. Her office, unsurprisingly, is much bigger and it’s all glass. There are no curtains installed so anyone can see her every move. Nothing juicy ever happens, Danielle only knows this because she does find herself staring at Minji’s side profile every so often that she’s probably memorized it at this point. Minji’s resting face is expressionless and it’s hard to read her. She’s always so serious and hardly sees her smile. The last time Danielle has ever saw her smile was at—
The company dinner.
Did that count since Minji was drunk? Danielle wonders. She shrugs off the thought because why is she even thinking about the department head, anyways? She stares at the report in front of her and blocks out all non-work related thoughts and starts typing.
She had sent Hanni a text reminding her that she’d be leaving work a little late. Nobody asks Danielle to stay back, but she does once in a while when she feels like she needs the extra time to get work done. She can never get it done at home or at a coffee shop because she gets distracted and, being the social butterfly she is, meets new people. She’s finally got the report finished and is looking it over for any mistakes before she prints it out.
“I didn’t know you were still here.” A voice behind her says.
Danielle practically jumps out of her chair and puts her hand over her chest. When she turns around to see Minji standing by the entryway of her cubicle. “Oh, yeah I’m just about to head out.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” Minji says apologetically and looks at her phone. She sighs. “I have to get going, I’m running late but hey, can you do me a favour?”
A favour? “Sure.” Danielle says, wondering what it could be.
“The notes from the meeting last week… do you mind grabbing a copy for me? I need it for something and I’m running late.” There's a pleading look on Minji’s face.
“Oh, sure.” Danielle says, surprised to see that Minji shows some type of emotion other than impatience.
“Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.” Minji walks down the hall and before she knows it, she’s gone.
Before Danielle shuts off her computer, she prints out the notes from the last meeting and finds an opaque, plastic envelope to put it in. The dollar store comes in handy for supplies like these because Danielle has a plethora of them at her drawers. She evens out the papers and tucks them neatly into the folder before she heads out.
Danielle can spot Minji as she looks through the windows of the bar. She’s different when she’s outside the office, more relaxed… more personable. There’s a man standing beside Minji and Danielle can see her snuggling into his side and… laughing. She’s laughing?
This new discovery of Kim Minji’s emotions doesn’t last long when she meets her eyes and excuses herself to meet Danielle. “Did you wait long?”
Danielle shakes her head and hands her the notes.
“I do appreciate this, really.” Minji says and stops in her tracks. “Did you want to come in for a drink?”
“No, I have to get going.”
“Thanks again.” Minji gives her a tight smile and it looks like she wants to say something else, but seems to decide against it. “I’ll see you later Danielle.”
It’s the same thing when Danielle heads back to work the next day. Minji is still her cold, unapproachable self but seems to say hi to Danielle more often.
Danielle is in the photocopier room and watching the papers print out when Minji is there behind her. “Hey.” She says coolly.
Her heart skips a beat when Minji smiles—a genuine one at that. “Hey.”
“Did you need this? I’m almost done.” Danielle motions to the photocopier that is spitting out the last few papers. The other one is broken at the moment and Minji has yet to call someone to fix it or replace it. Once it’s done, Danielle grabs them and is about to leave when Minji grabs her by the wrist.
“Danielle…” Minji starts softly. “You don’t have to be nervous around me. Just relax a bit.”
This advice could apply to you as well, Danielle thinks but just smiles at Minji. “Alright… well, the photocopier is free now, so…” She awkwardly gestures towards it and when she’s free from Minji’s grip, she heads back to her cubicle.
“I may just use one of my PTOs tomorrow.” Danielle announces as she’s laying her head on Hanni’s lap.
“Wow.” Hanni blinks. “What happened today?”
They’re watching a rerun of My Wife and Kids but it’s more for background noise than anything. “Minji talked to me in the photocopier room telling me not to be so nervous around her.”
“Maybe she likes you.” Hanni snickers and yelps slightly when Danielle smacks her thigh. “I’m just saying. You said she’s been talking to you a bit more, right?”
Danielle rolls her eyes. “That doesn’t mean she likes me, Hanni. She’s probably just trying to be more personable with us in the office.”
“So what’s with the day off?” Hanni raises an eyebrow.
“I have so many of them, I can’t take them?”
“You’re right… might as well.” Hanni shrugs.
They resume watching the show and laugh at Damon Wayans’ antics on the screen until Danielle falls asleep to the sound of the fake laugh track.
Danielle is notorious for banking her PTOs. One of the good things with the company merger in her case was the fact that her PTOs carried over. She has not taken any of them yet until today. By all counts, she works just as hard as Kim Minji. She’s always early, will stay late if needed and is tenacious with her work. Unfortunately, her tenacity also means she’s needed by many because of her good work ethic. A blessing and a curse.
Today, it feels good to silence her phone from work-related apps. No messages and no meetings will be dinging from her phone and she loves it. Unlike Hanni, Danielle still likes to feel productive, so she has decided to go to the gym. She’s on the treadmill and has Future playing through her AirPods.
(She’s not too big on hip-hop but it keeps her motivated when she’s working out.)
She’s got the treadmill on ‘4’ for speed and a 2.2 incline and nearly trips when she sees Minji with the same guy from the other night at the bar. Out of all the gyms in the city, this is the one she goes to? And why is she here during office hours? Danielle looks for a place to hide, but this gym is too spacious. It’s a childish move to hide from her boss, but she took a day off for a reason. She presses the red button and waits until the treadmill slows to a complete stop. From her waist bag, she pulls out her own disinfectant wipes and is almost successful in her mission to successfully hide from her boss until it turns out that Minji is heading into the locker room as well.
“Hey Danielle.” Her boss greets her with that real smile again.
“Oh, hey Minji!” Danielle says, activating her lack of acting skills. “What a surprise to see you here.”
“He surprised me.” Minji nods in the direction towards the outside of the locker room. “He coaxed me out of the office today with lunch, but by the time I realized it, we were here. We’re going for lunch after this.”
“Oh, that’s nice of him.” Danielle smiles. At this point, it’s evident that she clearly doesn’t remember that mini flirting incident at the company dinner a few weeks ago.
Not like Danielle cares or whatever. Really.
“Well,” She looks over at her phone and there’s no notification, but she pretends like she has one. “Hanni wants to meet up and have lunch with her. I don’t wanna keep her waiting.”
“Oh yeah,” Minji understands. “I don’t wanna hold you up.”
“Have a good workout.” Danielle waves at her and grabs her things. She only had been working out for 20 minutes, but she really doesn’t feel like interacting with anyone from the office today. She didn’t expect to see Minji outside of the office, but it is what it is.
Everyone in the office stands up, trying to see what the commotion is about.
“What’s going on?” Danielle asks the person at the cubicle next to hers.
“Minji’s arguing on the phone, I think.” Her coworker says.
Nobody can hear what Minji is saying, but she’s very animated. Her straight eyebrows are furrowed into anger and her hands are gesturing wildly. It looks like she’s talking on the phone, but no one knows who. When she hangs up, she turns to everyone staring at her and Danielle and her coworkers sit down immediately. Danielle’s heart starts racing out of fear.
“You guys can work remotely for the rest of the week.” Minji announces and her voice shakes ever so slightly. “We will do our weekly meetings on Zoom.” With that, Minji walks back into her office.
There’s murmurs of confusion and excitement among the cubicles and there’s even people getting up to leave early. A part of Danielle wants to check if Minji is okay, but it’s evident that she’s not. She waits about 10 minutes before she gathers her stuff to leave as well.
The last image that Danielle has of Minji is having her hands buried in her face.
To no one’s surprise, it turns out that Minji broke up with her boyfriend. It’s the hot gossip that spreads like wildfire in her office and even the receptionist in the lobby knows. The gossip even reaches Hanni’s department and when Danielle comes home, her roommate has a shit-eating grin on her face.
“So what was she like?”
Danielle shrugs. “Upset, obviously. I feel bad for her.”
“I don’t.”
“Maybe we should lay off her.”
Hanni puts her hands up like she touched a hot potato. “Alright then.” Danielle can tell that she’s holding in a laugh but doesn’t say anything.
She heads back into her room and sets her laptop up on her bare desk. Aside from a few pictures of family and a few polaroids of her and Hanni tacked around her desk, it’s bare. She hardly works from home, but she will for the next four days.
The rest of the week had flown by and so did the weekend. She lets Hanni convince her to go clubbing and Danielle has a good time (sober) and Sundays are reserved for errands where they do groceries and Danielle cooks potato pancakes—cheese on top for hers—for the both of them for dinner.
When Monday comes around, the change in Minji is blatantly apparent when she greets everyone good morning and even asks them how their weekend was. Despite Danielle’s cubicle being close to her office, Minji skips past her and talks to everyone else until she’s the last one. “How was your weekend?”
“It was good.” Danielle smiles.
“Did you do anything interesting?”
“I went clubbing with my roommate.”
“What club?”
“I forget the name but it was on Main Street and 2nd.” Danielle tries to rack her brain but she doesn’t remember. There’s a bunch of clubs in that area but Minji doesn’t press.
“I never took you as the clubbing type, Marsh.”
“I’m not but my friend convinced me.”
“As long as you had fun.” Minji smiles, but it doesn’t last long until it goes back to a more familiar tone. “Don’t forget the meeting after lunch.”
“You know I won’t.” Danielle never forgets a meeting, just like how she’s never called in sick.
“Have you ever tried shisha before?” Minji stands by her cubicle again. Danielle reminds herself that she has to get used to it.
“No.” Danielle shakes her head. She’s heard of it, of course, but she’s never done it. Hanni has asked her a few times if she’s ever wanted to go to a shisha lounge but she always refuses.
“Do you want to?”
It’s a Friday and to ensure that her work is done for the week, she has stayed late. She’s already told Hanni once again and got a thumbs up emoji back as a reply. “Okay.” Danielle gives her boss a small smile and Minji smiles back, a comforting sight to see if she’s being honest.
It takes her a split second that Minji is actually waiting for her, so she quickly shuts off her computer and grabs her things. She trails a few steps behind Minji and as they exit the office, they both say their ‘goodnights’ and ‘have a good weekend’ to the security guard and enter the elevator. Danielle lets Minji get in first and then she follows suit, watching her press the ‘P’ on the elevator. It’s silence that fills the air between them and faint, friendly smiles from other people that get on from the other floors. There’s about four of them in there when the elevator finally dings open and they enter the parking lot. It’s only now that Danielle realizes she doesn’t even know what Minji’s car looks like and she trails behind her again. As she watches Minji pull out her car keys, a white car beeps and the lights come on. Danielle’s not surprised that she owns a BMW.
“It’s unlocked.” Minji tells her as they walk towards it, even though Danielle waits half a second for Minji to get into the driver’s seat first. She then follows, buckling her seatbelt in the passenger seat. The inside of the car smells like citrus and the interior is nice and comfy with leather seats. “I just bought this a week ago.”
“It’s really nice.” Danielle looks over at Minji who pushes the car and the engine roars. She watches Minji's fingers move rapidly against the screen and before she knows it, a robotic, female voice is barking instructions at them. She can only assume that it’s directions to the shisha place that they’re going to. The ETA is only 20 minutes, but with traffic, it may take half an hour.
“Thanks.” Minji says as she pulls out of the parking lot. They make one left turn and drive straight for a few miles until they come to a stop where a security guard is in a booth. Minji flashes her employee I.D. and the parking arm goes up and they’re out onto the street. “I worked hard for this car. Before, I was driving around an old Honda that my brother learned how to drive in.”
Danielle nods, listening to every word Minji is saying. Even the tone of her voice is different outside the office and she’s wondering why she’s only noticing it now, especially since she’s ran into Minji multiple times outside of the office.
“I’m not rich by any means.” Minji states and Danielle can only assume she’s saying this because she’s caught wind of the rumours swirling about. “I work hard.”
“You do.” Danielle agrees. It’s the one quality that everyone collectively agrees on. Silence falls between them again, aside from the low hum of the radio and Danielle watches the cars and the crowd of people heading to their destinations, possibly excited that they’re free for the weekend as well.
Before she knows it, they’re at the shisha lounge and Danielle notes at how busy the place already is. It definitely smells like smoke and hip-hop is playing softly in the background. Clearly, the workers seem to know Minji and they’re led to a booth with a U-shaped chair and are given menus. “It’s on me.” Minji smiles sheepishly.
“I’m surprised they serve food here.” Danielle muses as she looks at the menu.
“If you smoke too much, you get dizzy.” Minji explains. “I learned the hard way the first time I tried it.” She laughs like she’s reliving the memory. “What flavour did you want to try?”
Danielle furrows her eyebrows. How the hell is she supposed to know? “Um, just give me anything.” She’s not picky when it comes to food, so perhaps she won’t be picky when it comes to this.
“We can try apple if you want?” Minji offers.
“That’s fine with me.” Danielle has no preference, plus, apple does sound interesting to smoke. This idea of smoking fruity flavours is novel to her, but there’s a first for everything. When the worker comes over, Minji tells him their order and he ducks off just as fast as he appeared.
“You’re a regular here?” Danielle asks.
“I wouldn’t say regular… but once in a while. I’ve been coming here since college and it’s been renovated since then.” Minji scrunches her nose. “It looks a lot nicer now than before, but now it’s gotten more popular.”
“It does look cool here...” Danielle looks around the lounge. One side of the room is just for shisha smokers—where they’re sitting at—and the other side is more structured like a restaurant, with proper tables and chairs. The walls have exposed brick and wooden floors, giving it an industrial look.
“This is the only place I never brought my ex to.” Minji says out of the blue.
Danielle blinks. Where the hell did that come from? “Oh, how come?”
“He was too much of a health nut.” Minji rolls her eyes. “I don’t mind going to the gym—you saw me that one time—but he was trying to make me become vegan and shit like that.” She raises her hands up briefly, as if she was about to offend someone. “I think people should eat what they want, but personally, I can’t survive off veggies alone.”
“I like veggies…” Danielle giggles. “But I like a lot of things. I’m not picky and I’m lucky to not have food allergies.”
“I’m the opposite, I’m picky, but I’ll usually try anything once.” Minji plays with the ring on her right hand and looks up when the worker comes back with the shisha. There’s coals on top of the base and he explains to them how to smoke—standard procedure—and leaves them to it.
Danielle watches as Minji grabs the mouthpiece of the shisha, takes a puff and blows out smoke. She’s kind of curious to try herself, albeit nervous. She’s never smoked anything before and isn’t really big on drinking, but it’s all by choice. Minji offers the pipe to her and Danielle takes it. Why is something like this making her nervous?
“Just imagine you’re stucking on a straw.” Minji instructs and Danielle does, long enough to watch the water in the vase of the shisha pipe bubble up and puffs out smoke. Danielle can taste and smell the very faint hint of apple and it’s like the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Until she starts coughing. As she heaves, Minji rubs her back softly and she reaches for water. “Don’t think about it too hard.” The older girl laughs. When Danielle finally calms down, she tries again.
It’s not so bad this time.
She’s surprised that Minji has moved closer to her and offers the pipe back to her, done with smoking artificial apple flavoured stuff for the time being. “You remember what I told you, right?” Minji quirks an eyebrow.
You don’t have to be nervous around me , Danielle remembers. “Of course.”
“I know everyone in the office thinks I’m a bitch or I’m just… no nonsense, but I didn’t ask for this position. 6 months before the merger happened, I was just like you, in the same position. The previous department head quit and they liked how I worked so they picked me.” Minji puffs out ‘O’ rings. “I’ve just been stressed since then.”
Danielle mulls over Minji’s words and nods understandingly. Many jobs don’t look at employees as people sometimes, but just as machines who want to maximize their full potential, not caring or realizing that it can be exhausting too. It seems like that’s Minji’s case and now she sees her in a different light, quite literally. The dim lighting in the lounge illuminates Minji’s side profile. An all too familiar view that Danielle sees every day, but… it’s different seeing her outside of work. Her sharp jawline, her perfect hair… she’s actually drop dead gorgeous.
“...You good?” Minji snaps her out of her thoughts.
“Oh… yeah, I’m fine.” Danielle shakes her head and blushes. Was she caught staring? She turns down the offer to smoke and just tries to enjoy Minji’s company. She doesn’t want to be rude by being on her phone, but she’s not sure what else to do. She’s not sure what else to say until Minji breaks the ice.
“So… what happened last month at the last company dinner…” Minji starts. “I know I should have done this earlier… but I do wanna apologize for my actions. I was drunk.”
Danielle had pushed that whole interaction in the back of her mind, locked it up in the vault, letting it collect dust. But now, Minji has decided to open it back up. “It’s okay, Minji. I didn’t bring it up because I didn’t want to make things awkward between us, plus I wasn’t even sure if you remembered it.”
“I do.” Minji shrugs sheepishly. She glances at the coals on the shisha bowl and frowns, realizing that they’ve been long burnt up. Neither of them were in the mood to smoke anymore.
“I also meant what I said.”
Danielle doesn’t want to seem like she’s acting dumb, but she needs clarification. “About what?”
“About you.”
Maybe it’s the shisha, but Danielle feels lightheaded and her palms start to sweat. This isn’t happening right now. She stands up, a bit wobbly but manages to keep it together. “Um, thanks for tonight, Minji. I gotta go.”
“But―”
She doesn’t hear Minji calling her name, doesn’t look back at her as she starts speed walking out to the street. She calls an Uber and luckily, one is around the corner and picks her up almost immediately and she heads home.
Her weekend consists of sulking and listening to Hanni whine about the fact that she tried shisha for the first time without her. Danielle doesn’t tell her who she went with, but just says she went with some friends from work.
“That’s bullshit.” Hanni side-eyes her. Danielle can’t help but laugh because of the way she’s looking at her. She knows that she’s not actually salty about it and she’s grateful that she doesn’t press her about it either.
On her phone, Danielle scrolls through job postings. She doesn’t apply to them, but it’s a possibility because there’s no way she’s going to face Minji on Monday. She contemplates transferring to a different department, but HR will tell her to talk to her department head first and there’s no way she can do that. If she had the power to be invisible, she wishes her powers would come before the weekend ends. She tosses her phone aside on the couch and looks over at her roommate. “You wanna go out and drink tonight?”
Hanni looks over at her, surprised but has the most mischievous grin decorating her face. “I never thought you’d ask.”
It’s how they end up at a bar just a few blocks down from their apartment. Hanni is continuously pouring shots for Danielle who downs them. She can’t even say it’s with ease because it tastes disgusting, it burns as it goes down her throat and feels like retching every time, but every shot she takes is a step away from her thoughts drifting towards Minji and that dreaded feeling of heading back to work on Monday.
“Hanni…” Danielle slurs, leaning against her roommate. “I think ‘m done for the night…” The room feels like it’s spinning and everything else is a blur. The last thing she remembers vividly is her bed and being tucked in by Hanni.
It’s unavoidable, no matter how much Danielle wishes she had called in sick with every moment she got ready for work. The diligent employee in her could not bring herself not to.
She’s at her cubicle, pretending to look productive when Minji says her ‘good mornings’ to all of her colleagues and her usual morning routine at the beginning of the week. “Morning Marsh, don’t forget the meeting after lunch.” Minji reminds her and leaves it at that, no good morning or anything. That’s fine, Danielle thinks to herself. She expected that.
Danielle doesn’t have to present, but she does space out halfway. She tries to catch herself up with what she has missed due to her thinking about all the worst case scenarios. Will today be the day she loses her job?
“Alright guys, that’s it for today.” Minji dismisses them in the boardroom but looks straight at Danielle. “Miss Marsh, stay back for a minute.”
Danielle watches as her coworkers shuffle out of the boardroom and looks at them pleadingly. She feels like she’s on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and desperately needs the ‘Phone a Friend’ option. As every colleague walks out of the room, her chances grow slimmer and it’s just her and Minji. She’s stuck in her seat while Minji stands up at the edge of the table.
“How are you feeling, Danielle?” Minji asks, her tone has changed from work mode to a more casual tone that’s pleasing to Danielle’s ears.
“I’m… okay.”
“You left me a voicemail the other night.” Minji pulls out her phone and plays the voicemail before Danielle can defend herself.
“Minjiiiiii! I’m soooo sorry for running out on you the other dayyyyy.” Oh God, that’s her, sounding drunk as hell as some music plays in the background. “I didn’t know what to dooooo, you’re just so so beautiful.”
“You tell her, Dani!” Hanni’s voice is audible in the background, over the music at that.
“See you Monday!” And then the voicemail ends. Danielle’s face is burning and she knows she’s as red as a tomato. She feels like sinking into the floor or wishing that her invisibility powers could come right now. Minji is smirking at her with a look of amusement adoring her face.
“I’m… so sorry. I apologize on the behalf of Hanni too, she’s just…”
“I’ve interacted with Hanni a few times.” Minji chuckles. “I know she can be quite the character. She’s funny, though. The people in her department love her.”
Danielle’s palms start to sweat again and she doesn’t even look at Minji. She’s so embarrassed but thankful that the boardroom is soundproof for the most part.
“I guess we’re even now.” Minji gestures to her phone. “I had a drunk moment and so did you.”
Danielle buries her face in her hands and groans loudly. So embarrassing. She would have thought Hanni would be the one to discourage her, but then again… it’s Hanni.
“I know I probably seemed too forward at the shisha spot the other night.” Minji starts. “But my feelings are my feelings. Your job isn’t in jeopardy. I’m not that petty and I still want to remain professional if you don’t feel the same.”
“The feeling is mutual.” Danielle says softly and it’s quiet for a few moments. Did she say the right thing? Was this the right timing?
Minji smiles back and honestly, it warms the younger girl’s heart to see her smiling so much lately. “I know what you’re thinking, I’m your boss and you’re my employee but we can take it one step at a time. There’s no policy against dating here.” It’s Minji who reaches for Danielle’s hand and rubs small circles on her hand with her thumb.
It’s expensive dinners on rooftops, trips to tropical islands and cuddles in-between months later. Danielle definitely gets spoiled by Minji with gifts every so often and is spoiled in the sense that she gets to see a side of her that nobody else can see. Minji can be cheeky when she wants to and very endearing. She’s like a cookie: hard around the edges but soft in the middle.
Her colleagues congratulate her when she and Minji decide to become public and thank her because Minji’s mood has improved greatly. The productivity in the office has shot up in a short amount of time and the workplace environment has changed drastically.
Danielle sits beside Minji at another company dinner and this time, it’s not so awkward. Danielle finds herself resting her head on Minji’s shoulder every so often and kisses her cheek when Minji is focused on something else, emitting a blush from the older girl who turns and faces her.
“You’re cute, you know that?”
It’s the same sentiment from eons ago. The one Danielle had locked away in the vault. The one that her and Hanni dub The Washroom Incident. It’s different now, the way Minji says it. She’s not drunk and she means it with her whole heart. Danielle can’t help but grin.
“So are you.”