"No man, I definitely didn't sign up for all this... Ugh!" Sera groaned as she held her head in her hands, her grip getting stronger by each second. After staying that way for a proper one minute, she fluttered one of her eyes open, attempting to steal a glance at the mayhem before her.

Basically, she had been already assigned her first duty ever as a university staff— not to forget just few hours post her arrival. Sitting at the registration desk, which was obviously one of the major ones in terms of significance, she was literally at the forefront of dealing with people who were behaving no less than some frenzied animals.

"Sponsor's Fest they say... Seems more like a supermarket sale to me." Sera mumbled to herself as she greeted the next applicant along with the sponsor accompanying him, shooting feigned smiles at them even when her patience tended to slip out of her hands.

THE PREVIOUS NIGHT

"Do you have an idea about how one would look at this act of yours? You pretty much abducted me! A—and I... don't even know your name or who you are!" Sera blurted out at the still-unnamed female who had dragged her into her apartment, with no one being a witness to it like a cherry on top—which actually contradicted Sera's claim.

"Uh, no need to get so worked up. Do I look like a serial killer to you—"

"Serial killers don't have tags of such sorts pasted on their foreheads!" Sera exclaimed again, trying her best not to let the apparent mad woman have her way.

"First things first, you can't address me so casually— I'm practically your senior in the field. Second, I'm Kim Gaeul. I would've said nice to meet you or something along the lines if you hadn't alleged me to be a cold-blooded... murderer? Oh Heavens, tell me that this is probably gonna be the worst thing to have ever been said to me." The woman who had finally disclosed her name as Gaeul, tilted her neck slightly to set her vision on the bare roof, eventually making Sera scoff in frustration.

"You heard that because of your own deeds! I'm a very sweet person otherwise, I normally don't swear at people."

Sera had always been good at observing people. One or two exchanges, and she would already be done scrutinizing the person's behavior. That was also why she had refrained from befriending people, for her intuition always got the best of her. A part of her always warned her in time against getting close to people, if she happened to disregard their toxicity for once. And amusingly, the said trait of hers was also what had kept her going all this while.

However, talking with Gaeul beckoned her of her heart being stained with zero amount of wickedness. She was an ordinary woman, a happy-go-lucky personality who chose to appear as someone too cool to be confronted. All her jokes, despite them getting acquainted with each other disastrously, and a handful of minutes ago, were nothing but an attempt to make friends with Sera with the utmost level of eccentricity— so that she did not get disheartened due to the pressurizing environment of her workplace and still could feel at home— or so Gaeul had thought.

As soon as Sera realized that, she set loose her facade and abstractly accepted the camaraderie of the most uncanny human whom she had apparently met.

"Look at you going all fangirl mode on yourself. I like it." Gaeul suppressed the potential chuckle, ultimately making Sera smile along with herself too. Though, she opened her mouth soon after, ensuring that she was not too late in completing herself, "We can leave the bickering for some other day. I need to make you abreast with tomorrow's event first."

"Event? What event?"

"The Sponsor's Fest. Our university holds it every year to find undiscovered gems for the patrons who have registered with us, to support them. Now what's important here is that originally, I was assigned the first desk to look after for. Though I can't help but feel like a sage suddenly, and pass over my duty to you." Gaeul took a quick side-look of the gaping woman, who was probably finding it hard to absorb such an unanticipated shock.

"No, why would I want to do that... I mean, the management must've found you responsible enough to assign that duty to you. Then why would you give it up for me?" Sera giggled gawkily, her single brow forever raised in mirth.

"It's your time to shine, my friend. Don't you want the management to have the same stance about you too? I'd kill to have such a feasible option." Gaeul put her hands on her new friend's shoulders in the hope that she would find the gesture convincing enough, but the addressed girl was still as clueless as ever. However, weighing her head down, she finally spoke something that transported Gaeul to cloud nine.

"Alright, I'll do it." Sera sighed in defeat, her crisp statement displaying that she had eventually caved in.

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PRESENT

"I must've felt like a war heroine yesterday. Like, seriously? Am I growing dumber as I age or wha— Oh welcome, what's your name?" Sera's monologue did not get concluded when a textbook example of a nerdy figure emerged before her.

Adjusting her glasses, the comparatively younger girl passed a wide grin at Sera, which unarguably made her shudder because of the overt cringe. Though she eventually managed to beam back at her when the thought of the girl hailing from an unprivileged background, and yet succeeding in entering into the prestigious university through efforts of her own, flashed across her eyes.

"Lee Soobong."

"Such an adorable name. Now let me check which fortunate person gets to endorse such a bright child like you this year..." Sera trailed off as her attention shifted to the list of sponsors lying atop her desk, following by checking out every name off the list that had been allocated a beneficiary or two, until just one was left unmarked by her.

"Mr. Park... Jimin?" She grumbled lowly as her eyebrows weaved into each other, eyes widening as if she had seen a ghost.

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