Willow; Sep 5th

5. {hello Derby's}

Derby's was the town's most renowned publishing company, whoever was the owner of the company must be in big money. It has been I and Harry's dream to intern there during our second year in college. But somehow, she got posted out of town, to another printing industry.

The past few months, I had carpooled with Harry to school, Saturday hangouts, the mall and sometimes Jake did me the favor of picking me up from those places, so I've not had to use the metro for a really long time.

That's why as I walked to the station this Monday morning, the fear of having to be good at the office coupled with the fact that I was not riding in a space with someone I knew somehow got my anxiety multiplied.

By the time I dropped in front of Derby's, I had pangs of sweat lining my forehead. I cleaned it off and touched up my face at the waiting chair in the front before I sighed and went in regardless.

you'll be great, I focused on my brother's voice inside my head instead.

"Mae?"

I turned around to the source of the familiar voice. Kai's face held an amused expression, he was dressed formally to suit the official purpose, his usual dark tangled hair was now gelled and combed to the back. His figure towered above me as he further approached me with a small smile on his face.

"Hi Kai," I greeted with a smile as well.

"I didn't think you'd come," he mentioned as he took a seat beside me.

"Why?" My brows quirked at the thought if it had to do with me failing my classes and coming for my internship at the same time. I wondered if he thought I couldn't do it.

"I just didn't think of you as the type to fancy a place like Derby's," he remarked with another smile.

"Wrong assumption then, Derby's to die for. I've always dreamed of interning here," I answered him. He looked like he was about to say something else but we both got distracted when someone announced our names.

"Mr. Marece? Ms. Randell?"

"That's us," Kai acknowledged and we both stood up to meet a lady suited up with a brown wavy short hair. Her green eyes held a glint that made her super attractive and the smile she wore this morning made me warm up to her instantly.

"I'm Rita Valdez, Operations manager. You'll both be working in my department during your stay here," she extended her hands for a shake.

"Kai Marece, nice to meet you."

"Mary Randell, it's nice to meet you."

"Today is a fast day, you won't be getting a tour until much later in the day, you'll also be meeting other higher-ups later. We've not had interns in a while so the office is quite dusty, you might want to clean up," she explained as she led us to an office on the end of the hallway.

"This is Kim, you can ask her questions once you're done. Hopefully, I'll see you at lunch break," Rita added as she pointed to a woman sitting behind a huge printer working on some papers. She slightly waved at us with a crooked smile before we left to enter the space we'd be using.

"That's one smile right there," Kai muttered as we walked into the dark room. I only smiled knowingly without saying another thing about Kim's crooked smile.

Once Kai found the switch, he turned on the light. My smile grew bitter instantly at the sight in front of me. The board on the wall had almost fallen down, the papers brown from the dust, there was a big spider web extending from the door to the ceiling fan. There were small insects crawling across the wall and I wondered how long they had left the office like that.