7:50 AM

A long-black-haired woman dressed finely in a beige colored suit could be seen walking out of her brown Mercedes in the parking lot of W Corporation before she locked all the car doors remotely and proceeded to walk into the building in calm and confident strides.

At the same time, another woman in shoulder length hair got off a taxi and ran into the same building, looking restless.

She arrived in front of the elevator and found a big group of people already waiting. She cursed silently before deciding to run up the stairs instead.

7:55 AM

The woman in suit stepped out of a different elevator that has a signage notice “BOD & Senior Management Only” as she walked along the corridor of 6th floor of the building, with her phone in her right hand scrolling through her incoming emails.

A few meters behind, the anxious looking woman appeared from the stairs, huffing and puffing heavily from running up to the 6th floor but continuing to run toward her destination.

“7:55. You're dead, Jo Hyowon. You were supposed to arrive early. Now you're so dead,” she muttered to herself checking the watch on her wrist while running.

“Hmph!”

“Ah!”

When Hyowon realized that she bumped hard into someone's side from the back, she also noticed the phone from the person's hand slipped and dropped onto the floor from the impact.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was in a hurry. Are you okay?” she quickly apologized, checking the woman who fortunately seemed fine.

“Oh, your phone!” she walked forward to pick up the phone that had its screen faced to the floor, praying hard that she didn't cause any damage to it.

However, the odds clearly weren't in her favor when she slowly turned the phone over and found an obvious crack on the screen.

! Looks like the latest model of iphone. She commented mentally, scanning the device. She felt like crying.

“Is it broken?” She heard the woman's voice from the back.

She turned around with an apologetic face, “It's still working but looks like the screen got cracked,” she said and then took out a notebook from her handbag, scribbled some words on it, tore the paper and handed it to the other woman.

“Excuse me, I’m really sorry for causing this, I would really like to apologize properly but I'm now in a serious hurry as you see. So this is my name and number. Please do call me later for the compensation or anything that you'd like to talk to me on this. Again, I'm really sorry!” she said the words fast before dashing ahead.

“Jo Hyowon. 010-2783617.”

The woman briefly scanned the writing on the piece of paper before diverting her gaze back to the woman who quickly disappeared turning into a corner.

“Is she a new employee? I don't think I've seen her before,” she whispered to herself before slipping the paper into her bag and walking ahead.

8:27 AM

In her office room, Monika was looking at some departmental reports with her eyes fixed on her laptop screen before the telephone on her desk started ringing.

“Hello?”

“Director-nim, Digital Marketing Manager Jeong Hanee requests to see you. To introduce the new intern to you, she said,” was her Personal Assistant's information through the line.

“Please let them in, thank you.”

As she hung up the phone, the door to her room opened, revealing the said person and another girl close behind her whom Monika supposed was the new intern. She took her reading glasses off, walked to the chairs to sit on the center seat and gesturing the two guests to do the same.

“Good morning, Director-nim,” Manager Jeong Hanee greeted with a smile after letting herself and the person behind her take a seat on the surrounding sofas, “I'd like to introduce to you our team's new intern Jo Hyowon-ssi who starts working with us today. Hyowon-ssi, this is our Marketing Director Monika Shin.”

The new girl bowed at her, “Nice to meet you, Director Shin. I'm Jo Hyowon.”

Once the intern girl looked up from bowing and their eyes met, something clicked in Monika's head, a certain incident in the morning to be exact, “Oh, you're...”

“Omo,” the intern also exclaimed with a stunned expression, remembering the same thing. She felt so doomed for breaking someone's phone in the early morning of her first day at the company and that someone happened to be the Director of her department.

“What? Do you know each other?” Hanee asked in confusion, noticing the expressions on the faces of the two people.

As Hyowon hesitated to speak, Monika stepped in, “Not really. We just saw each other at the corridor this morning.”

“Ah, I see,” Hanee smiled, “Anyway, Hyowon-ssi, you're originally supposed to be reporting to me, but as you see, I'm going on maternity leave starting from next week,” she said, pointing at the big bump on her belly. Hyowon nodded with a smile, understanding.

Hanee continued, “So, during those three months of my leave, you'll be directly reporting to and working closely with Director Shin instead. She's an amazing person so I'm sure you'll have a lot to learn from her,” then she turned to Monika, “And Director-nim, I know you're very busy but I hope you'll spare some time to coach Hyowon-ssi. She's someone with a lot of potential so it'd be very helpful for her to be mentored by someone like you.”

“Absolutely,” Monika replied, flashing a broad smile, “I'm glad to be your mentor even if temporary, Hyowon-ssi. Welcome to the team and let’s work well together,” she extended her hand toward the woman which she swiftly took in hers in a handshake.

“I'm honored, Director-nim.”

3:47 PM

Monika slumped on her chair, feeling tired as she just got back to her office room after a 3-hour meeting. As she was stretching her back and massaging her forehead, the telephone started ringing.

“Hello?”

“Director-nim, Intern Ms. Jo Hyowon from Digital Marketing team requests to see you. She said she'd like to receive your approval signs on the renewal contracts with research agency.”

Monika hesitated a little, wanting to rest her body and brain for a moment without meeting anyone. However, she remembered that those agency contracts were important and finalizing in a few days.

“Please let her in.”

The intern walked to her in timid steps before placing an envelope on her desk.

“These are the contracts we'd need your approval on, Director-nim.”

Monika nodded, “I'll be reading and signing them. Meanwhile, you can sit and wait for me.”

“No, I’m fine actually.”

“Okay.”

Hyowon bit her lower lip in nervousness as she observed the Marketing Director intently focusing on reading the contract.

She decided to muster up her courage and opened , “Um, Director-nim.”

“Yes?” was Monika's reply without taking her eyes off the documents.

“Well...I’m sure you remember it too. I'd like to apologize once again for bumping into you and making your phone screen crack this morning. I was only thinking of arriving early on my first day so I got careless. For the compensation, I don't think I can pay in full amount with my salary, so if you would be understanding, I’d like to pay little by little every month till it covers full amount of servicing.”

Monika looked up at the intern, tearing her eyes away from the paper, “You see, usually, I don't let such thing get away.”

Hyowon hung her head low, mumbling a soft apology.

“But I decided to let you off this time because you're my new team member,” the director calmly continued, causing the intern to snap her head up in surprise, “Just be careful not to go around bumping into people next time, Hyowon-ssi, as it can cause you money and problems.”

“Thank you for your consideration, Director-nim! Thank you so much.”

A Week Later

Hyowon walked into the Director's office before standing in front of the table, “Good afternoon, Director-nim. I was informed that you wanted to see me,” she said with a bow.

Monika gave her a brief smile, “Yes, I do. How's your first week of work by the way?”

“It's been great. Everyone is so nice and supportive even when I’m new to a lot of things.”

“I'm glad to hear that,” the director replied, “Anyway, now that Manager Jeong has gone on her maternity leave, I'll start coaching you and giving you work assignments. Let's start with the first one. You know how to prepare presentations in powerpoint, right?”

“Of course, Director-nim, I do.”

“Great, because I'd like some help from you for my presentation for BOD meeting tomorrow. D