The next morning, Mina is in her zone. She's had her fill of desserts, she has money to pay this month's rent, now is the time to hustle at work! She types away at her desk, focused and conposed. A coworker gives her a box of cookies, she doesn't even notice it. When she snaps out, it's been 3 hours. She stretches, then notices the cookie, then turns around, everybody is busy in their own world. She looks at the ceiling, "...god?"
Junho laughs loudly, then hides in his cubicle. She takes a bite and goes to make herself a cup of coffee to the pantry. She sees an unfamiliar face there, Isaac is standing infront of the coffee machine, his secretary, Emily, who usually handled it for him, seems to be out.
"Oh, good day sir." Mina greets warmly, but Isaac doesn't look at her. "Weird" Mina thinks, and goes to get instant coffee. It's empty.
"Oops-" she mutters, the CEO ignores her again, eyes set on the coffee brewing the coffee machine. Mina stands on her tippy toes, to try and get some coffee packets on the shelf above, but she is too short. She notices a small stool, and brings it over, the commotion causing Isaac to wince his brows, but he still doesn't turn. Maybe his quiet self time yesterday night mattered more than he knew, which is why he is taking measures to avoid her.
Mina stands on the stool, but is still too short, and as she stretches herself, she loses balance.
Isaac notices, and swiftly reaches for her, but hesitates, and pulls his hand back.
SLAM. She falls onto the shiny floor, visibly hurt, but no broken bones.
A shocked expression covers Isaac's face. Mina throws a fit, "You could've totally caught me, what the hell, I saw you pull your hand away sir, what is this behaviour????-"
Flustered, he fixes his tie, clears his throat, coughs, trying to regain his composure.
"I didn't want to touch you."
Mina gapes at him, then her jaw drops.
"What? You didn't want to touch me?" she repeats, voice trembling with disbelief.
Isaac straightens his cuffs, gaze sliding away. "Correct."
Her face turns red. "So that's it, huh? You think I'm…too lowly? Too clumsy? Dirty, even?!" She gestures wildly, wobbling on her feet again. "Sir, I shower every morning, okay?!!! And I use the good soap!"
Isaac pinches the bridge of his nose, avoiding her fierce gaze, sighing deeply. "That's not what I meant."
But Mina's already on a roll, her dramatic flair uncontainable. "Unbelievable. I nearly died falling off a stool and all you cared about was your precious hands staying clean. What is this, a palace? Are we untouchables to you, sir?" Her face is pouty, her tone is sulky.
Isaac finally looks at her, his mask of cool composure cracking with something unreadable. "….You talk too much," he mutters.
Mina, hands on hips, glares right back. "And you don't talk enough!" Then she huffs, grabs the coffee box off the shelf now that she's down, and storms out.
Isaac stays behind, exhaling a long breath, his pulse uncomfortably fast. He fixes his tie again, although one could swear it was perfect already.
She walks back to her cubicle, no coffee in hand. Furious, she munches on the cookie dryly, while others wonder what the loud thud back there was. Finally Mina pours, "Did you know the CEO is a germaphobe?" Annie wonders, "Is this because you fell and he didn't pick you up?"
Mina's eyes widens, "What are you, are you a clairvoyant? How'd you know i fell?" Annie and a few others chuckle, "The sound was a give away, and well...the CEO is like that." A few nod.
She dramatically hugs Annie, and with a fake crying voice whines, "He said he didn't want to touch me, like I was a pile of dirty laundry since 3 monthsssssss." Junho quietly brings her a cup of coffee too, which she looks at with tears in her eyes from the fake crying. "Oh,thank you!!" She looks at junho, her eyes look even more clear with the layer of tears.
Junho blushes, "Are you okay?" He says.
Dipping the cookie in coffee she says, "Ofcourse NOT!! My hip hurts. Buf my heart hurts even more!"
Isaac sits in his office, jaw tight, pen clicking in his hand. Through the glass he can still hear Mina's voice ringing above the others. He shuts the file with a snap and presses the intercom.
"Miss Kang. My office. Now."
Her coworkers ooooh quietly. Mina freezes mid-cookie bite, then whispers, "...he heard all that, didn't he?"
Annie smirks, "Better not say the laundry thing again."
Mina gulps, wipes her face with a tissue to look "presentable," and drags herself to the CEO's office door, knocking lightly.
"….Enter."
She pushes the door open, standing stiff, clutching the cookie box like a shield, "Y-yes, sir?"
He puts his fingers on his brow, clearly annoyed. "Please come closer.." he says, with a forced smile, that immediately scares Mina, although she does what she's told. He stands, slowly, and walks around his desk towards her, her entire body turning, following his direction as he moves. He stops at his usual distance, not too close, not too far.
Mina looks at his face, his brows are furrowed, his eyes are glistening. He doesn't smile. Mina is surprised at his expression, she has never seen in before. She might've been a bit too rude, she thinks, and tries to explain,"I didn't mean it like that -"
He steps closer, and Mina almost trips backward, startled. He catches her arm this time, and takes the cookie box and places it on his desk.
He takes a breath, and places both his hands on her shoulders, trying not to move it.
"When I said i didn't want to touch you, Miss Kang-" he looks at her face, their eyes meet. Mina has deep brown eyes, and with the light coming from the window, it sparkles with tinges of gold. Some baby hair messily surrounds her hairline, some coming up to her brows, her cheeks are flushed. It takes Isaac by suprise, he was staring.
He quickly puts a respectable distace between them, but his hands are still on her shoulders "I didn't want to because i thought it would be inappropriate. Please don't get the wrong idea, there's nothing wrong with old laundry..." he looks at her again, a little stern this time, "and please don't spread the misunderstanding among the other employees."
Mina stares at him, frozen. Her brain short-circuits somewhere between "hands on shoulders" and "old laundry".
"…Wait waiit, are you saying I compared myself to laundry for no reason?!"she blurts, her voice shooting up an octave.
Isaac exhales slowly, fingers tightening just slightly on her shoulders before he finally lets go. "That's exactly what I'm saying."
Mina's mouth falls open. "You let me cry and complain for hours, sir! Do you know how much pity coffee I've consumed because of this misunderstanding?!"
Her voice echoes in his office.
Isaac pinches the bridge of his nose again, muttering, "Miss Kang, do you ever stop talking…"
Mina folds her arms, pouting like a scolded child. "Not when I'm being compared to dirty socks!"
That earns a tiny twitch at the corner of his lips, but it is gone almost as quickly as it appeared. He clears his throat, face returning to stone. "You may return to your desk."
Mina blinks. "…That's it?"
"That's it," he says firmly, turning back toward his desk as if dismissing her.
She stomps her foot lightly, muttering under her breath as she picks up her cookie box: "Hmph. If you think this is over, you're wrong."
She scurries out, leaving him staring after her longer than he intended.