Fire & Silk

27. Junior Associate Yoo

After working at J.Y. Park Law for a little over a year, Jeongyeon had gotten used to the early morning wakeups. The slightly burnt coffee she got from the first floor every morning. The slightly too sweet blueberry muffin.

The mornings were still tough sometimes to say the least. Every now and then there'd be a slight tug from the scars on her lower back, causing her to stretch out and take a few more seconds to crawl out of bed. Every now and then she'd have to take an extra ibuprofen if the tug didn't go away.

It really helped to have Mina by her side, though. The Japanese woman was always there for her when she'd wake up, sweating buckets, from a night terror. She'd be there for her when her back was hurting so much that she had to just lay down and do nothing. She'd be there when they'd have to work on a huge stack of paperwork at home.

Jeongyeon loved the new domestic side of Mina. She loved waking up next to the most beautiful woman in the world. She loved being able to make her breakfast and tell her how much she loved her. Sometimes it scared Jeongyeon a little just how much she loved Mina, but she was willing to take that fear and put it away. Her love for Mina always won over that fear.

"Ya Yoo Jeongyeon!"

Jeongyeon whipped her head around, startled at the sight of Nayeon speed walking toward her like her life depended on it. Jeongyeon stood still in extreme confusion, her water bottle lid half screwed on as she was tugged into her and Nayeon's shared office.

"Didn't you see this when you walked in this morning?"

Jeongyeon looked down to the thick stack of files Nayeon was pointing at and shrugged her shoulders. She finished screwing on her water bottle lid and set it down on the table by her chair. "I just got in like five minutes ago. It wasn't here when I set my stuff down."

Nayeon looked at Jeongyeon in suspicion, her eyes narrowed as she looked between the papers and Jeongyeon. "Well why is there a post-it on here that says your name on it?"

Jeongyeon was beyond confused at this point. She leaned over the desk and looked closer at the note, reading it aloud.

"Jeongyeon,

Please take care of these files for me by yourself. They need to be sorted by name and date.

Highlight these numbers as you sort through: 1, 17

Also circle any first names starting with: J, A, Y

Please have them on my desk by the end of the day today. If these are not sorted by the end

of the workday, you will be terminated.

Sincerely,

President Park"

"Terminated?! What the hell? Why would-What?" Jeongyeon said this as she looked at Nayeon, hoping that she had some kind of answer because she personally didn't have a single clue as to what was happening. Jeongyeon took the sticky note off and put it beside her water bottle, flipping through the files. "This is going to take me more than a day! I can't do this by the end of the day by myself. Did he go crazy or something?"

Nayeon stood beside Jeongyeon, just as shocked as the younger woman was. As she was about to say something, she got a call from Mina. "Mina?"

"Hey, Nayeon. I got a packet from President Park. He said that you have to assist me with this so please come up when you can."

"Oh, uh yeah. Sure. I can be up in five minutes. Yep. See you soon." Nayeon hung up and was met with a long groan from Jeongyeon.

"Great now I really have to do this on my own. How the hell am I supposed to do all this by the end of the day?" Jeongyeon looked up at Nayeon, a hint of defeat already in her eyes.