Redamancy | BTS

17 - Connections

Your body feels particularly heavy this Monday morning as you trudge your feet down the empty hallway towards your personal office. The clicking of your heels is short and crisp and the staccato accents nip at your ears a bit too loudly for your liking.

When you push open the heavy door, you let a sigh fall past your lips, mentally preparing to tackle the day ahead of you.

"Good morning, dear." A voice startles you as your desk chair, which had previously been turned to face the window with its back facing the door, spins around.

"Mother," you startle with a loud gasp. You stumble backward a few steps and clap a hand flat over your sternum, the pulse of your wildly beating heart thundering right underneath your fingertips. "You scared me!"

"Where were you this weekend, Y/N?" the middle-aged woman asks, making no attempt to acknowledge the fact that she nearly gave her daughter a heart attack in her own office. Your eyes follow her movements, blinking blankly, as she pushes herself off your chair to brush past you.

"What do you mean?" you mumble in confusion. Your eyebrows draw together in a tight pinch as the sound of her pacing steps echoes tenfold in the enclosed space.

"I tried to call you several times on Saturday but I couldn't reach you. Then, when I dropped by your apartment on Sunday, you weren't there either," she explains calmly. You fumble to unlock your phone, and sure enough, there are six missed calls from your mother on Saturday alone. Your eyes widen in surprise when you finally notice the red notification bubble sitting on the top right corner of your phone app. Usually, you're pretty good at checking your phone but it seems as if your shopping spree with the boys had completely preoccupied your attention for the weekend.

You gulp subtly when your mother curls an eyebrow up at the end of her statement, eyes gazing coldly into yours as she waits for your response.

There's no way she knows, right?

"Sorry, I've been busy with work," you smile sheepishly, letting your body fall into your chair as a small distraction to soothe your racing nerves. "We have a pretty big project going on in the department right now. So I was out all weekend meeting up with coworkers over lunch and dinner to work on it - hence why I didn't get a chance to check my phone."

"Oh, really?" your mother hums. "What's the project for?"

You wince under your breath as you quickly rack your mind for a reasonable excuse to get the woman off your tail.

"Well, since we just finished our periodic employee evaluations not too long ago, we also conducted a company-wide survey to help us gauge any potential problems we might have missed. And through the responses we received, we're working to improve the overall efficiency in the office," you explain.

Quite honestly, this summary isn't too far-fetched since the evaluations were completed somewhat recently. But there was no company-wide survey and there are no improvements being made - at least not at the moment.

"I see," your mother nods. "If you're this busy, then I take it you're one of the employees overseeing the project?"

"Mhm," you nod quickly with a tightly pressed smile. "If all goes well, I think I'll certainly be one of the candidates for Chief Human Resource Officer once Mr. Shim retires."

"That's good. You better do well," your mother exhales with a rather dramatic sigh. "I'm the one who got you this job after all. If you become the next CHRO, then you'll finally give my name a good reputation."

"You got me this job?" you seethe angrily with gritted teeth.

"Don't you remember, Y/N? As soon as you obtained your graduate degree, I had asked my friend from this company about any job openings. You know it was a long shot, right? Sure you have your bachelor and graduate degrees, and experience with some internships, but companies usually don't want to take in young people like you. Not as a manager at least. I know I would personally feel extremely uncomfortable taking orders from someone half my age. But, of course, my friend was generous enough to tell me there was one opening for your department."