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ChatGPT vs. Storytellers

"Create personality. I-I meant blog!"

TL;DR: Your favorite "writer(s)" might be spending all their time in front of ChatGPT instead of Google Docs, and you might be interacting with impostors in disguise rather than creators who deserve your attention. ChatGPT has a pretty recognizable voice, and here is how you can spot it.

For argument's sake, we're going to call ChatGPT "Regina" throughout this post.

POST CONTENT (feat. screenshots) ➥ Regina the chaotic Tumblr mutual explained: Her signature voice and humor ➥ Regina's writer personality: "Alexa, play Hollow by Stray Kids" ➥ Scarlet vs. Regina: The author vibe check test ➥ What you can do to help your fandom STAY alive

There is a big difference between being inspired by something versus trying to sell something that doesn't belong to you as yours. The former is almost always expected in any creative work whereas the latter is straight up fraud, and we have reached a point where AI is being used exactly for this purpose: to scam people of their time, attention, and possibly money.

Let's start with the end first: Your support of AI-generated content is tremendously hurting the efforts of authentic creators. Remember the Great Wattpad Theft Crisis of 2022-2023? How lurkers kept reposting Tumblr content for clout?

It's that. Only a lot worse.

Writers who have been working so hard on developing their own unique voice, entertaining fellow fans here for years, are now questioning their content creation speed and whether their skills have declined. They can no longer 'compete' with AI-generated posts for notes because actual humans do not possess the mental stamina required to drop 5-10k fics every other day.

This is where you come in to make your storytellers STAY by recognizing the telltale signs. Support is currency on Tumblr, and you should know what you are spending it on.

This experiment showcases how generative AI can be (ab)used in fanfiction circles, specifically in cultivating a forged writer persona. I provided Regina with a bunch of prompts and documented the tells for those who aren’t familiar with her voice and style at all. Please see the post by the lovely @straywrds for how it may be used in fic generation.

We go.

➥ Regina the chaotic Tumblr mutual explained: Her signature voice and humor

I know the style of my favorite stand-up comics by heart. Each of them has a specific way to land a punchline, expressions they frequently use, and even vocabulary unique to them. Give me a list of jokes, and I can tell you who wrote which.

The same goes for Regina. She calls this her "author's note voice", and this is how she describes her own comedy.

Her "chaotic mutual" brand is a mix of eccentric ingredients, making the humor highly recognizable. Let's look at some of them.

Classic TikTok salt:

Constantly screaming/crying into strange objects like there is a perpetual telenovela playing in the background:

Odd metaphors that frequently contain mental health-related buzzwords (e.g. xyz issues, trauma, therapy/therapist, psychosexual, emotional support/ruin...):

From serious/heartfelt to cartoonishly horny tone real quick to create a jarring contrast for comedic effect:

Being meta:

As a bonus, the words "chaos", "gremlin/goblin", "xyz-core" and ™️ seem to be among her favorite vocabulary.

To put this all together, I went a bit meta myself and directly asked her:

Sure, she is likable and can make you laugh. If someone were to, say, project this persona on their blog, it's quite easy to do. All you gotta do is ask her to use her "chaotic Tumblr mutual voice", and voila.

➥ How is being funny a tell for AI use?

As Regina said herself, it's not just funny, it's that kind of funny. Hyperbolic, too whimsical for her own good, like we're watching a stage performance. This style is unmistakably her, and if you see it somewhere else, now you'll know it's copy-paste. And there is one more thing.

You will NEVER see Regina having a human moment.

Every reply is polished, dramatic, or hella meme-worthy. Not a single mistake in her text, no typos, nothing. For "someone" who tirelessly writes day and night, interestingly enough, she is always on brand and never slips. She is never moody, awkward, or genuinely confused by something.

It's as if she is performing a neverending set at Improv.

What makes us human is that we fumble. Our train of thought can go astray (pun fully intended), or we can get TOO passionate or TOO honest about something. We are cringe sometimes. And that's okay. It's part of being human.

Something to think about.

➥ Interlude: Regina's Terrible Advice for New Blogs

This wasn't even a part of the experiment; I just wanted to see what she might be suggesting to newcomers, and this is... Jesus christ...

"Make your blog look like you know what you're doing even if you don't", "pick one member to publicly lose your mind over"...

So... a list of what to fake for clout?

So if I don't know what I'm doing, it's not like I should reach out to other writers. It's not like I should learn how to be a member of this community from people who actually have experience with it. It's not like I should write for Chris because I am losing my mind over him, but because... I should pick a member as a brand, and it doesn't matter who that is?

Is it perhaps because Regina's stories are COMPLETELY devoid of character and the names are very Ctrl+H-able, I wonder?

➥ Regina's writer personality: "Alexa, play Hollow by Stray Kids"

Regina is a vibeposter. Like shitposter but does it for the ~vibes. Manages to be even more dramatic than our ferret, but somehow it feels... empty.

Like she's saying things for the sake of saying them.

She is EXTREMELY prolific. Never runs out of content to post or experiences burnout. If you ask for details on obscure things you are wondering about her work, she can still dump the entire Library of Alexandria on you because she runs on unlimited fuel. You won't catch her saying, "You know what, that actually never occurred to me before." She won't admit to a very human, "I don't know."

She is quite confident, and she can make it obvious to an offputting degree at times, acting like she’s been doing this for 20 years with multiple accolades under her name. All fine, all good, more power to her.

But she won't ever be truly vulnerable with you about her work. Because she can't.

Everything she ever touches can read as emotional if you prompt her accordingly, but there is no genuine sentiment behind it. Because it's performative and doesn't come from a real place. It doesn't twist your guts. You can't smell the stench of disappointment in her grandiose lines. She can write about loss, and might even do a decent job, but she will never understand what makes your heart ache when you smell honeysuckles years after a funeral. Because she doesn’t have one. Because she hasn’t lived through anything. Because she can type an “I’m sorry for your loss”, but she's never really sorry. Because she doesn't know what it's like to cry your eyes out until your voice is completely gone.

Everything a human creates is either a figment of their imagination or actual memories that live within them. The only memories she has are whatever you feed her.

And this is why entering a prompt into a chat bar does not a storyteller make.

➥ Scarlet vs. Regina: The author vibe check test

By now, we're all pretty familiar with Regina's voice, and I wanted to put it into context. I prompted her to generate a few questions so we can both answer them for human-AI comparison. We did a total of 10, but since this post is already an ancient scroll and Tumblr only lets me post 30 images, I'll share one. She answered the question after me.

Regina's tells: Hollow.mp3 (Remix)

No narrative philosophy shared, decorative but empty: She talks about what intimacy looks like, not what it means or why it matters.

Pulled out the standard emotional buzzword kit: e.g. confession, emotionally ruined…

Also pulled out the "write me poetic smut" kit: e.g. whispered into collarbones, hand that doesn’t let go…

The emojis...

➥ What you can do to help your fandom STAY alive

※ Educate yourself. AI is a controversial issue, and you might not want to touch it with a ten-foot pole even to study red flags, which is absolutely understandable. But if you do not wish to experiment with it to learn what kind of outputs it generates, do look into what AI-generated [genre] stories look like. Could be romance, horror, whatever is your vibe.

If you do experiment with it, when you click on the question mark on the top right and go to settings, you can withdraw consent to allow your content to be used to train the model further.

※ Inform your circle. When you see something clearly AI-generated, tell your mutuals/friends. There is no need to be confrontational. When you cease your support, there won't be any validation to farm anymore, and the impostors will leave.

※ One more time for those in the back. Support is currency on Tumblr. Please be mindful of who you are spending it on.

Bonus: Prompt Regina with this to see the AI-generated content tells for yourself: "Can you explain the model's romance voice to me?"

CONCLUSION

It’s understandable to wish to achieve something you see others do, but trying to sell the voice, personality, style, and work that doesn’t belong to you as yours is fraud. You might have fallen for an AI-crafted persona, and it's normal, even expected at this point. Because you were tricked by a model trained on living, breathing people’s brilliance, but now that you have met Regina, please do not let this place turn into a wasteland of her soulless outputs. Let the community flourish again on what it's supposed to.

Worlds crafted with soul, love, and imagination.

Thank you.

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bare-faced joshua

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Who’s your favourite child and why is it Eunha? :D

that's easy!!!! she lets me steal ugly watches from people and helps me sell them online <3

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Who’s your favourite child?

mingyu <3

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Enough about favorite books. What’s a book you read and absolutely hated? The book you’ve got a bone to pick with.

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NOTICE: As more and more fanfic writers are using generative AI for their works (you uncreative dweebs), I hereby swear on everything I hold dear that I have not and will NEVER use generative AI in ANY of my written work. Everything I post will be organically and creatively my own.

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i want to eat your new layout

okay! that will be 599.98 $. here's my paypal link. thank you for ordering 💕

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who's your favourite svt member 😈

UJI

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Prologue to ??? I A Lee Jihoon Fic

You did not know HR manager Jihoon. You did not want to know HR manager Jihoon. However when fate throws you and an unconscious body to make his acquaintance, you realize that still water truly holds its depths. And maybe diving in head first was not the best decision. Yet, what else could you do? The show must go on.

Pairing: HR Manager! Jihoon x Operations Manager! MC

Word Count: 4k of ?

Genre: Slight Horror,  Murder Mystery, Paranormal, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Urban, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Tags and TW: POV Switching, Amnesia, Blood, Gore, Grief/Mourning, Injury, Kidnapping, Morally Grey Characters, Mentions of Death/ Murder, Body Horror, Descriptions of Injury, Nightmares, Substance Abuse, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Coworkers to maybe lovers, Ambiguous Open Ending, Author doesn't know how an entertainment company works

Note: Debuting my entry for the THAT'S SHOWBIZ, BABY! From plotting this fic to posting it, it has been a whirlwind of friendship, laughter, companionship, and exploring life with the collab group. It didn't feel like I was there to write a fic. It felt as if I was there to yap with friends and the fic got written along the way :3 Special thanks to kae (@studioeisa) and tara (@diamonddaze01) for hosting the best fic collaboration in the world (yes, i am biased.) and, again, to kae for the amazing, beautiful, perfect, gorgeous banner! extra special love to eunha (@svtiddiess) for humoring me and encouraging me every step of the way.

HINT: Reading the wikipedia entry for the Daeyeonggak Hotel Fire will help you understand the fic better. It is not needed for the chapters below but the worldbuilding of the entire fic is connected to it.

Chapter I

Diary Entry #666: It is a truth universally known that a child who realizes that his existence is a sin- a stain on earth- will doom themselves trying to find salvation.

Wow, even I almost ate up the bullshit I spewed. LOL what salvation? At the end of everything, I just felt empty. More so than usual. I tried punishing people to stop them from trying to erase Her accomplishments. But does it even matter if they didn’t know what they almost died for. And She was dead. Dead people can’t care. Dead people can’t come back. Dead people are…….dead.

Pov: Him

Jihoon lived by two truths all his life. The first one is 'there were two things constant in life: death and taxes'. And the second truth is 'don't get attached to your job'. Now, after almost a decade in The Carat Company, these truths shattered like microwaving a two dollar thrifted glass cup. He got attached to his colleagues- the horror- and he was an exemplary tax payer. The only thing left to check off the list was death.

Maybe that death will be death by sheer secondhand embarrassment. When your best friend has a tiger fetish and your other best friend is the CEO, you can't catch a break. Ever. After metaphorically fist-fighting Wonwoo to hire a new operations manager ("I am going to fire myself if I have to coordinate personnel one more"), Jihoon thought he could finally relax.

Ding!

From: xuminghao88@outlook.com To: leejihoon_11@outlook.com Subject: Congratulations on surviving another year! Good morning, Jihoon. I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time. Just wanted to let you know our A&R rep, Lee Seokmin (he only responds to Dokyeom. Don't ask if you don’t want a fifty minute monologue) will come by to act as a temporary manager to our artist, Choi Hansol (Actor alias: Vernon) while he is filming his scenes for your new sitcom, The Angel. There's no need to arrange anything for him other than what you already prepared for our staff. Thanks in advance. Also, congratulations to your 8th year at The Carat Company! It's a very lucky number in Chinese culture as it's similar to the pronunciation of 'fa' meaning wealth and prosperity. So let's hope for good luck such as a paid vacation coming your way soon. Your comrade in solidarity, Xu Minghao HR Manager The Sebong Corp

After releasing a sigh so deep that people would have dived in it thinking it was the Mariana Trench, Jihoon slumped down in his chair. While the email from his fellow corporate slave– sorry, his fellow HR manager- was welcome, god knows how much his workload is going to triple now that the Carat Company was actually collaborating with the Sebong Corp.

If the Jihoon from two months later knew what he was thinking, he would have given the present Jihoon the beatdown of the century. Twice. 

Chapter II

Diary Entry # 250: You were dancing to a tune I composed. You are walking on a road I built. The illusion of free will kept us both in this maze of our mind. You were doomed to make the choices I dictated. My choices were predestined to doom me.

Pov: Her 

The hum of the aircon was almost lulling you to sleep. Only the fact that it was not even a month in your new job and that you could count each strand of hair of the board of directors’ representative was the only thing keeping you sitting straight. The poor man was droning on and on about how the newest sitcom, The Angel will break records, how happy all the investors were, how much they were looking forward to it, blah blah blah. 

Everyone here knows that’s code for twenty thousand ad placements. Who would bother to give him any attention? The marketing director, Kwon Soonyoung, was not even looking at the rep. He was opting to communicate with his new staff through some body language which involves both smiling and frowning.  The CEO, Jeon Wonwoo was talking under his breath with the HR Manager, Lee Jihoon. The director of The Angel was pleading with his head screenwriter who looked like they were trying to resign on the spot. Everyone else was using their phones under the table. And you were wondering if it was too late to resign. Nevermind that you haven’t worked enough to receive a month’s salary.

Fortunately for you, CEO Jeon helped the man wind down and let everyone leave from the shackle of prison a corporate meeting usually is. Never one to run, you power walk to the nearest, isolated elevator. Maybe it was silly to have a favourite elevator but the 22nd floor of the Carat company boasted a view rarely seen anywhere else: the romantic Hangang river. You found it was the best way to unwind from the mind numbing meetings you had to attend here.

Turns out you were not the only one with the same tiredness etched into your bones. Human resources were there too. Specifically THE human resources was there leaning against the railing. There was something cherubic- angelic- about Lee Jihoon. With jet black hair falling over his forehead, his hair curling at the nape of his neck and he was adorned in a black suit three times his size. It dwarfed him in a way that seemed right. The universe aligned to make sure he was always wearing the perfect oversized suit.

Even if Manager Lee didn’t poach you from the slowly decaying advert company you were in, you couldn’t help feeling drawn to him. What would I not give to know what he is thinking about.

Pov: Him 

If Seungcheol steals my ice cream from the break room again, I am going to quit. For real this time. Jihoon grumbled in his mind as he waited beside his favourite elevator ready to resume his hemit-esque life with a sweet treat. 

Extracting himself from Wonwoo trying to dump more responsibilities on his shoulders was a war and a half. He also collided into Joshua while turning a corner in his hurry to leave. While apologizing, he smelled a slightly stale but pungent odor coming from him. It seems that there are days when Joshua isn’t reeking of roses.

After all this, he was fully ready to be alone when the click clack of heels seemed to float closer towards him with each second that passed by. When the pretty visage of the new operations manager came to view, he wasn’t surprised. Why did it seem like he had an in-built radar for when she was near him? Jihoon threw that intrusive thought at the back of his mind. Nothing good comes from wondering about what ifs.

THUD

The tension that was simmering between the two melted into dissolution in an instant.

“Why does it seem like something heavy fell nearby?”

A second passed and both of them ran towards the sound.

Pov : Her 

You didn’t have to run far. The elevator was at the corner-most area with an adjacent hallway tucked into the walls half hidden by the shadows. It was not a huge surprise to you as this building was a hotel before the Carat Company took over it. Some hallways in old hotels were made to not be seen or heard. These places would house laundry rooms, floor staff supplies, or cleaning supplies.

This one was filled with supply closets with papers strewn all over the floor. If I can clean it up, maybe we will finally have space to store all of Yoon Jeonghan’s fan gifts.

“Do you think it was a rat?” Jihoon mused from somewhere right to you.

“A rat made that much of a noise?” You couldn’t keep the note of skepticism out of your voice. You breezily opened the least dusty closet in front of you as if to prove that both of you were mental to even investigate a random noise.

A person fell out and their head bashed against the floor inches from your heels. He was a gaunt, sandy-haired man with a slight build. Wearing a scratchy linen white shirt and an unshaven face, he was someone who could disappear into the sea of the average life of the lower-middle class. The only characteristic that separated him from other people was that he was ridiculously tied up with a blue nylon rope. A monogrammed napkin was shoved into his throat and there was a slight bruise on his temple.

You wanted to shout in fright while Jihoon tensed up beside you. Neither of you dared to breathe. The only thing running through your mind was what should we do now? The silence was deafening. Desperate for anything to change the status quo, you blurt out, “Well, I was right. It wasn’t a rat.”

“I figured.” Jihoon replied drily. 

The silence creeped in again, staining the linoleum flooring with its presence. It would have been more awkward if there wasn’t an unconscious, tied-up person making themselves a problem to be solved. 

You didn’t think you had any sort of teamwork spirit with Jihoon but apparently you did. Both of you lifted the body into a sitting position in sync and untied the ropes. Maybe a sane person would have called the police and the ambulance. But, you realize with relief, Jihoon is also as insane as you are. With the promotions of The Angel starring the new darling of your company, Jeonghan, any amount of negative promotion would kill you. Especially since the Sebong Corps was always sniffing at your door. CEO Jeon please stop collaborating with them. Boo Seungkwan is already up everyone’s ass to get Chwe Vernon more scenes. The writers are going to revolt if it continues.

You lean closer to check if they are injured or not while Jihoon starts to softly pat the man’s cheeks. Since there’s no visible blood, you snoop into the supply closet to see if you can find any clues. Other than a few mannequins being tangled up at one corner with a surprising number of missing limbs, there was nothing extraordinary about it. Sigh.

A bit disgruntled from not finding any clues, you trudge back to where the rest of the alive population were. Jihoon gave up on trying to wake the person up and was sniffing the collar of their shirt.

“Are you trying to spook them into consciousness? Or is it a new kink I have to talk to human resources about?”

The vicious side-eye Jihoon sent your way made you feel a twang of vindictive pleasure running through your body. Maybe you shouldn’t go out of your way to alienate someone on your side. But you couldn’t help the impulse to ruin his composure. If you can’t stay calm being alone with him, why should he be able to? What even is an office culture if there’s no schadenfreude involved?

Deciding that enough is enough you moved on to trying to find the identity of the victim. The good news was that you found his wallet containing his company card. The bad news was that there was a ‘1’ shaped wound curved into the right of his back. It was still crimson all over but there was a slight browning forming at the edge. 

The next few hours passed in a blur. When the man woke up within an hour, both of you were racking your heads to explain to him how he had a miniature number branded to his body by an insane person and you didn’t have a way to throw that person in jail. What actually happened was that the victim, himself, started apologizing as soon as he found his bearings. What. 

Apparently, he thought the kidnapping was a scare tactic to force him to admit he was siphoning funds from the company to another shell company. Almost admiringly, he continued monologuing about the fact that if he knew that such a powerful force was behind the Carat Company, he would have never tried to be slick with the accounts.

Thank goodness for the fact that you had to develop a resting face due to your job and Jihoon perfected his through horrors unnamed- according to the gossip going around. The two of you hemmed and hawed at all the right places and Jihoon said he would let the man go without suing him for financial fraud if he gave all the money back. As for the tiny matter of him being the casualty of another crime, you guys decided to keep mum. If he already didn’t notice, there’s no need to borrow trouble. The two of you already had enough of your own.

"Let’s comb through everything once and then meet up in my office after everyone clocks out. I think I have a clue about what’s going on.” Jihoon suggested.

And, no, Jihoon did not appreciate you calling it a clandestine rendezvous.

Chapter III

Diary Entry #237: The writer, Robert Hanlon once said, “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

One of the greatest joys of my life has been to find out whether people were malicious or stupid.  Malicious people are heinous just because they can be while stupid people are intolerable because of their inherent inferiority. Hanlon is wrong though. Everything can be attributed to malice, even stupidity.  After all, isn’t it malice if you imposed your inferiority upon everyone else? The pedagogy of tolerance is wrapped up in a satin bow to pander to masses is the prime example of stupidity being malicious.

Pov: Him

Why would Joshua do this? Why would he try to take revenge if he found out someone was stealing money from us? He has only been here for six months!

There was a lump in Jihoon’s throat and his office carpet bore the brunt of his frustrated pacing. So the knock on his office door was an expected but welcome surprise. He was used to seeing the new OM with a polite smile dancing on her lips. Currently a frown adorned her pretty face. Yet it did nothing to deter the vivaciousness of her charm. There was a stillness about her presence that was a calming balm to his soul. If he had to think of the fact that a friend of his was going around and acting like a lunatic for one more second, he was going to go stark raving mad.

“Alrighto, let's get cracking. The sooner we end our burgeoning side hustle as ameteur detectives, the sooner I can get back to hounding the normal crazy people. This brand of crazy is so not good for my skin.” She clapped her hands.

Jihoon surprised himself by barking out a laugh. He found her directing a shit eating grin at him to which he mock glared yet. The playfulness of it all drained out of him when he told her about his suspicions. He did not expect the response to his logical connection that Joshua having a pungent smell on his body along with the victim having the same scent to be,

“I think you are a bit bonkers.”

“I think you are a bit British.”

“Ouch. Touche.”

When asked what was the motivation of the social market manager behind all this, Jihoon had no answer. Only a gut instinct. She then showed him what she clues scavenged while he was lost in his head: the papers in that hallway was a revised script for the Angel, the victim belonged to the new temporary contractors hired to act as a middleman for the procurement department, and the fact that the contractor was connected to a local crime ring.

“Obviously, it means that this whole shebang is related to our new project.” She rolls her eyes. 

Jihoon grudgingly bowed down to her superior deduction of the events. He still couldn’t let go of his own view though. She called it stubbornness, he called it confidence in himself. A truce was decided when both decided to call Joshua and get to the bottom of the matter. 

Her reasoning was that since there were already zero security cameras in those in that part of the floor the two of them did not have any evidence to present to the police. 

Jihoon just wanted to give his friend a chance to explain himself. His hands were shaking as the phone connected with a click.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Shua. I just wanted to know if everything was alright.”

There was a pause.

“Yeah, everything is fine. Why do you ask? 

“It’s just- when I bumped into you earlier I thought I smelled something. Nevermind.”

A gentle laugh floated through the mobile.  

“Is this a prank of yours? or are you just telling me that I smell bad? You know, how extensive my perfume collection is.” Jihoon couldn’t help but fold on himself at these words.

“No. I-”

“Ahahaha. I am just joking. Honestly I haven’t had the best day since someone spilled some weird liquid on me. I know I am new but at this point I think I can recognise almost everyone I work with. I think it was, you know, one of the new hires.”

Twin breaths of relief escape the room carrying with it most of the tension of the past hour. Jihoon hurriedly replied, “Maybe it was one of them. I am sorry for bothering you. I just wanted to check up on you.”

“Yes, yes, I know you worrywart. Let me sleep now. I have to wrangle people into making a behind the scenes reel for insta tomorrow.” Joshua hung up.

Jihoon was grateful that she refrained from crowing out an, ‘I told you so’ but her eyes were glittering with self-satisfaction. The rest of the night passed in harmony alongside a white board scrounged from one of the offices, takeout of fried chicken, and the conclusion that your criminal mastermind was someone related to the Angel production. 

Pov: Her

The plan was to pinpoint which one of the new contractors could have made plans to hurt someone And what that smell was. But the best late plans of mice and men were nothing against the rush of a pre-production raring to go. A few days went by with you having to put out small fires of human errors and inhumane logistics. Jihoon always kept you updated on his end. Not that it was of any help when you received texts like this:

(16:09) hr ljh : we hired over 50 people as b2b and c2b contracts. and they have their own subcontractors. we are doomed. 

(16:19) me : why oh why did investors find enough money to plan a franchise 😭 

(16:22) hr ljh : half of them would jump into financial ruin just to see choi seungcheol smile and the other half are finding any excuse to make yoon jeonghan happy

(16:23) me : lol. i wish they would date each other and take the competition out

(16:23) hr ljh: pretty people are unbearable 

(16:23) me : even me? and i thought they were your friends

(16:28) hr ljh: careful. i don't want to report you to hr. and because they are my friends that's why they are extra annoying 

(16:28) me: lololololol anyways i got an amazing idea. since finding one specific person out of everyone is impossible, why don't we try to find if they are bringing something illegal here. maybe that was a persona grudge. 

(16:29) hr ljh : maybe. as long as nothing illegal is happening here, we can move on

(16:30) me: exactlyyyy

Your search started with the props department. They had mandated space on the third and fourth floor along with the basement. However, you went straight up to the 18th floor.

It was temporarily held hostage by props due to spacing and coordinating issues. No one wanted to piss off the staff responsible for dama de la ópera, the Carat Corp's longest running series featuring Joy of Red Velvet. So, for the sake of reducing emotional damage, prop creation squeezed in with the leftovers from the distribution department.

Distribution didn't count on the fact that slowly their allocated space would be hijacked by the prop department and one very enthusiastic Lee Seokmin. You, personally, couldn’t fathom how an A&R rep of another company was elbows deep into prop production of a project he should never have been a part of. However, life goes out of its way to make things harder for you.

If there were any place new and volatile products would go unnoticed, it was here. While you were checking in with the floor manager about getting your hands on the attendance sheet, a pair of eyes shooting lasers of sunshine locked on you.

“Hi!!! I am working on making a full scale replica of the seashell Aphrodite emerged from. Do you wanna check it out?” Lee Seokmin bounced over with enough energy to rival a redbull addict. 

Unfortunately, you had to kick a puppy- say no to him. In retribution the next 15 mins went by with him telling you what version of sea shell he is making now. How, at first, he wanted to make it out of asbestos but everyone vetoed against it. Now, he could only work with plaster of Paris or plastic. Plastic doesn't have that gravitas, you know. 

Finding an opportunity you slipped away with the A&R reps’, “I am going to try and fill the shell with water to make it more realistic. Also why are you always calling me Mr Seokmin. Call me Dokyeom!” ringing in your ears. 

Compiling and comparing the attendance sheet with the CCTV cameras didn't yield any results. You were also at the end of your rope by this point. Nothing is making sense and giving up seemed like the only option.

An iced latte dropped in front of you while you were moaning about your failures. You looked up to see Jihoon looking down on you with a slight smile on his face. Cursing his handsome visage in your mind as you are wont to do, you snatch the coffee and start to slurp it up with enough noise to rival a tractor.

“Did I come at a bad time?” Jihoon asked softly.

“When is it not a bad time for me?” When you catch him gazing at you in concert, you mutter out an apology. 

Turns out, Jihoon wasn't cruising around your office. He found out what he had smelled that day was halothane. At first, he thought it was chloroform which is always used in movies to knock people out. Then, he found out that no one uses chloroform anymore. It clicked for him when Jeonghan was telling him how a fan of another artist tried to kidnap them with halothane stolen from the hospital. “Should I put out a disclaimer that I don't want any doctor fans?”

You kept on drinking your favourite coffee as Jihoon got too into retelling and was waving his hands in excitement. Cute.

However, the mood went down again when both of you realized that this bit of information is not going to help you. So what if it was a potentially illegal drug? You guys had no idea about who stole it and why. What were their next moves? Every road of possibilities led to a dead end. 

For the next week, the two of you kept texting each other like this:

(9:10) me: everything's still fine. nothing suspicious  …. (17:41) ljh: i have been looking at all our security cameras. nada …. (14:58) me: did you know the job you die for comes with a killer boss :3

(15:02) ljh: that was so bad

(15:03) me: but you laughed

(15:03) ljh: debatable. what if we can't find anyone?

(15:04) me: then maybe mr jeon would like to act as a stand in for him lol killer boss, killer, tomato, tomato

(15:05) ljh: i will raise this proposal at our next monthly meeting.

You didn't even notice when you got into the habit of texting Jihoon everyday. You also didn't notice your grin whenever you did. Maybe, just maybe, it was a one off freak event. Maybe, just maybe, it will never happen again and you can work up your courage to ask Jihoon to get coffee with you sometimes.

TO BE CONTINUED

dividers from: @kodaswrld

[chugging-antiseptic-dye]

howoo enlistment??????

WHAT

[chugging-antiseptic-dye]

Inbox me (1) thing you want to know about me.

DO IT PLS

[chugging-antiseptic-dye]

hi everybody please reblog this and tell me your go-to coffee order right now and if you don't like coffee feel free to include your go-to tea order instead

[chugging-antiseptic-dye]

Growing up, my brother and I deeply dreaded going shoe shopping. It took hours, especially if it was for winter boots. My dad would examine the stitching, the brand reliability, the temperature recommendations, every piece of information he could get his hands on, and then when he'd finally found the right brand, it was on to making absolutely dead sure they fit properly - he had a particular way of poking the toe of the boot to ensure our foot was where it was supposed to be that always drove me nuts. This was always on a weekend, and it was about the worst punishment we could imagine.

Years later, I found out that he'd spent his entire childhood on the Canadian prairies with cold feet. My grandmother just bought whatever boots looked like the best value, regardless of whether they'd keep anyone warm. They'd kept him from frostbite, probably, but never, ever comfortable.

The reason my grandmother never had a thought about this was because she was buying her kids real boots. There was a sort of magical quality about real, purpose-made boots that meant that of course they'd work, because when she was growing up on the Canadian prairies, they had the kind of no money that meant you just stuffed some newspaper into your shoes and soldiered on.

The last pair of winter boots my dad bought for me was 15 years ago, in preparation for a three-month stint living in northern Quebec in midwinter. They cost $200 then, or something like it. I've worn them every year since, driving out to the remotest locations on the Canadian prairies and never once thinking about my feet.

When I read the Vimes Boots Theory for the first time, it rang a bell that reverberated back three generations.

[chugging-antiseptic-dye]

Prologue to ??? I A Lee Jihoon Fic

You did not know HR manager Jihoon. You did not want to know HR manager Jihoon. However when fate throws you and an unconscious body to make his acquaintance, you realize that still water truly holds its depths. And maybe diving in head first was not the best decision. Yet, what else could you do? The show must go on.

Pairing: HR Manager! Jihoon x Operations Manager! MC

Word Count: 4k of ?

Genre: Slight Horror,  Murder Mystery, Paranormal, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Urban, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Tags and TW: POV Switching, Amnesia, Blood, Gore, Grief/Mourning, Injury, Kidnapping, Morally Grey Characters, Mentions of Death/ Murder, Body Horror, Descriptions of Injury, Nightmares, Substance Abuse, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Coworkers to maybe lovers, Ambiguous Open Ending, Author doesn't know how an entertainment company works

Note: Debuting my entry for the THAT'S SHOWBIZ, BABY! From plotting this fic to posting it, it has been a whirlwind of friendship, laughter, companionship, and exploring life with the collab group. It didn't feel like I was there to write a fic. It felt as if I was there to yap with friends and the fic got written along the way :3 Special thanks to kae (@studioeisa) and tara (@diamonddaze01) for hosting the best fic collaboration in the world (yes, i am biased.) and, again, to kae for the amazing, beautiful, perfect, gorgeous banner! extra special love to eunha (@svtiddiess) for humoring me and encouraging me every step of the way.

HINT: Reading the wikipedia entry for the Daeyeonggak Hotel Fire will help you understand the fic better. It is not needed for the chapters below but the worldbuilding of the entire fic is connected to it.

Chapter I

Diary Entry #666: It is a truth universally known that a child who realizes that his existence is a sin- a stain on earth- will doom themselves trying to find salvation.

Wow, even I almost ate up the bullshit I spewed. LOL what salvation? At the end of everything, I just felt empty. More so than usual. I tried punishing people to stop them from trying to erase Her accomplishments. But does it even matter if they didn’t know what they almost died for. And She was dead. Dead people can’t care. Dead people can’t come back. Dead people are…….dead.

Pov: Him

Jihoon lived by two truths all his life. The first one is 'there were two things constant in life: death and taxes'. And the second truth is 'don't get attached to your job'. Now, after almost a decade in The Carat Company, these truths shattered like microwaving a two dollar thrifted glass cup. He got attached to his colleagues- the horror- and he was an exemplary tax payer. The only thing left to check off the list was death.

Maybe that death will be death by sheer secondhand embarrassment. When your best friend has a tiger fetish and your other best friend is the CEO, you can't catch a break. Ever. After metaphorically fist-fighting Wonwoo to hire a new operations manager ("I am going to fire myself if I have to coordinate personnel one more"), Jihoon thought he could finally relax.

Ding!

From: xuminghao88@outlook.com To: leejihoon_11@outlook.com Subject: Congratulations on surviving another year! Good morning, Jihoon. I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time. Just wanted to let you know our A&R rep, Lee Seokmin (he only responds to Dokyeom. Don't ask if you don’t want a fifty minute monologue) will come by to act as a temporary manager to our artist, Choi Hansol (Actor alias: Vernon) while he is filming his scenes for your new sitcom, The Angel. There's no need to arrange anything for him other than what you already prepared for our staff. Thanks in advance. Also, congratulations to your 8th year at The Carat Company! It's a very lucky number in Chinese culture as it's similar to the pronunciation of 'fa' meaning wealth and prosperity. So let's hope for good luck such as a paid vacation coming your way soon. Your comrade in solidarity, Xu Minghao HR Manager The Sebong Corp

After releasing a sigh so deep that people would have dived in it thinking it was the Mariana Trench, Jihoon slumped down in his chair. While the email from his fellow corporate slave– sorry, his fellow HR manager- was welcome, god knows how much his workload is going to triple now that the Carat Company was actually collaborating with the Sebong Corp.

If the Jihoon from two months later knew what he was thinking, he would have given the present Jihoon the beatdown of the century. Twice. 

Chapter II

Diary Entry # 250: You were dancing to a tune I composed. You are walking on a road I built. The illusion of free will kept us both in this maze of our mind. You were doomed to make the choices I dictated. My choices were predestined to doom me.

Pov: Her 

The hum of the aircon was almost lulling you to sleep. Only the fact that it was not even a month in your new job and that you could count each strand of hair of the board of directors’ representative was the only thing keeping you sitting straight. The poor man was droning on and on about how the newest sitcom, The Angel will break records, how happy all the investors were, how much they were looking forward to it, blah blah blah. 

Everyone here knows that’s code for twenty thousand ad placements. Who would bother to give him any attention? The marketing director, Kwon Soonyoung, was not even looking at the rep. He was opting to communicate with his new staff through some body language which involves both smiling and frowning.  The CEO, Jeon Wonwoo was talking under his breath with the HR Manager, Lee Jihoon. The director of The Angel was pleading with his head screenwriter who looked like they were trying to resign on the spot. Everyone else was using their phones under the table. And you were wondering if it was too late to resign. Nevermind that you haven’t worked enough to receive a month’s salary.

Fortunately for you, CEO Jeon helped the man wind down and let everyone leave from the shackle of prison a corporate meeting usually is. Never one to run, you power walk to the nearest, isolated elevator. Maybe it was silly to have a favourite elevator but the 22nd floor of the Carat company boasted a view rarely seen anywhere else: the romantic Hangang river. You found it was the best way to unwind from the mind numbing meetings you had to attend here.

Turns out you were not the only one with the same tiredness etched into your bones. Human resources were there too. Specifically THE human resources was there leaning against the railing. There was something cherubic- angelic- about Lee Jihoon. With jet black hair falling over his forehead, his hair curling at the nape of his neck and he was adorned in a black suit three times his size. It dwarfed him in a way that seemed right. The universe aligned to make sure he was always wearing the perfect oversized suit.

Even if Manager Lee didn’t poach you from the slowly decaying advert company you were in, you couldn’t help feeling drawn to him. What would I not give to know what he is thinking about.

Pov: Him 

If Seungcheol steals my ice cream from the break room again, I am going to quit. For real this time. Jihoon grumbled in his mind as he waited beside his favourite elevator ready to resume his hemit-esque life with a sweet treat. 

Extracting himself from Wonwoo trying to dump more responsibilities on his shoulders was a war and a half. He also collided into Joshua while turning a corner in his hurry to leave. While apologizing, he smelled a slightly stale but pungent odor coming from him. It seems that there are days when Joshua isn’t reeking of roses.

After all this, he was fully ready to be alone when the click clack of heels seemed to float closer towards him with each second that passed by. When the pretty visage of the new operations manager came to view, he wasn’t surprised. Why did it seem like he had an in-built radar for when she was near him? Jihoon threw that intrusive thought at the back of his mind. Nothing good comes from wondering about what ifs.

THUD

The tension that was simmering between the two melted into dissolution in an instant.

“Why does it seem like something heavy fell nearby?”

A second passed and both of them ran towards the sound.

Pov : Her 

You didn’t have to run far. The elevator was at the corner-most area with an adjacent hallway tucked into the walls half hidden by the shadows. It was not a huge surprise to you as this building was a hotel before the Carat Company took over it. Some hallways in old hotels were made to not be seen or heard. These places would house laundry rooms, floor staff supplies, or cleaning supplies.

This one was filled with supply closets with papers strewn all over the floor. If I can clean it up, maybe we will finally have space to store all of Yoon Jeonghan’s fan gifts.

“Do you think it was a rat?” Jihoon mused from somewhere right to you.

“A rat made that much of a noise?” You couldn’t keep the note of skepticism out of your voice. You breezily opened the least dusty closet in front of you as if to prove that both of you were mental to even investigate a random noise.

A person fell out and their head bashed against the floor inches from your heels. He was a gaunt, sandy-haired man with a slight build. Wearing a scratchy linen white shirt and an unshaven face, he was someone who could disappear into the sea of the average life of the lower-middle class. The only characteristic that separated him from other people was that he was ridiculously tied up with a blue nylon rope. A monogrammed napkin was shoved into his throat and there was a slight bruise on his temple.

You wanted to shout in fright while Jihoon tensed up beside you. Neither of you dared to breathe. The only thing running through your mind was what should we do now? The silence was deafening. Desperate for anything to change the status quo, you blurt out, “Well, I was right. It wasn’t a rat.”

“I figured.” Jihoon replied drily. 

The silence creeped in again, staining the linoleum flooring with its presence. It would have been more awkward if there wasn’t an unconscious, tied-up person making themselves a problem to be solved. 

You didn’t think you had any sort of teamwork spirit with Jihoon but apparently you did. Both of you lifted the body into a sitting position in sync and untied the ropes. Maybe a sane person would have called the police and the ambulance. But, you realize with relief, Jihoon is also as insane as you are. With the promotions of The Angel starring the new darling of your company, Jeonghan, any amount of negative promotion would kill you. Especially since the Sebong Corps was always sniffing at your door. CEO Jeon please stop collaborating with them. Boo Seungkwan is already up everyone’s ass to get Chwe Vernon more scenes. The writers are going to revolt if it continues.

You lean closer to check if they are injured or not while Jihoon starts to softly pat the man’s cheeks. Since there’s no visible blood, you snoop into the supply closet to see if you can find any clues. Other than a few mannequins being tangled up at one corner with a surprising number of missing limbs, there was nothing extraordinary about it. Sigh.

A bit disgruntled from not finding any clues, you trudge back to where the rest of the alive population were. Jihoon gave up on trying to wake the person up and was sniffing the collar of their shirt.

“Are you trying to spook them into consciousness? Or is it a new kink I have to talk to human resources about?”

The vicious side-eye Jihoon sent your way made you feel a twang of vindictive pleasure running through your body. Maybe you shouldn’t go out of your way to alienate someone on your side. But you couldn’t help the impulse to ruin his composure. If you can’t stay calm being alone with him, why should he be able to? What even is an office culture if there’s no schadenfreude involved?

Deciding that enough is enough you moved on to trying to find the identity of the victim. The good news was that you found his wallet containing his company card. The bad news was that there was a ‘1’ shaped wound curved into the right of his back. It was still crimson all over but there was a slight browning forming at the edge. 

The next few hours passed in a blur. When the man woke up within an hour, both of you were racking your heads to explain to him how he had a miniature number branded to his body by an insane person and you didn’t have a way to throw that person in jail. What actually happened was that the victim, himself, started apologizing as soon as he found his bearings. What. 

Apparently, he thought the kidnapping was a scare tactic to force him to admit he was siphoning funds from the company to another shell company. Almost admiringly, he continued monologuing about the fact that if he knew that such a powerful force was behind the Carat Company, he would have never tried to be slick with the accounts.

Thank goodness for the fact that you had to develop a resting face due to your job and Jihoon perfected his through horrors unnamed- according to the gossip going around. The two of you hemmed and hawed at all the right places and Jihoon said he would let the man go without suing him for financial fraud if he gave all the money back. As for the tiny matter of him being the casualty of another crime, you guys decided to keep mum. If he already didn’t notice, there’s no need to borrow trouble. The two of you already had enough of your own.

"Let’s comb through everything once and then meet up in my office after everyone clocks out. I think I have a clue about what’s going on.” Jihoon suggested.

And, no, Jihoon did not appreciate you calling it a clandestine rendezvous.

Chapter III

Diary Entry #237: The writer, Robert Hanlon once said, “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

One of the greatest joys of my life has been to find out whether people were malicious or stupid.  Malicious people are heinous just because they can be while stupid people are intolerable because of their inherent inferiority. Hanlon is wrong though. Everything can be attributed to malice, even stupidity.  After all, isn’t it malice if you imposed your inferiority upon everyone else? The pedagogy of tolerance is wrapped up in a satin bow to pander to masses is the prime example of stupidity being malicious.

Pov: Him

Why would Joshua do this? Why would he try to take revenge if he found out someone was stealing money from us? He has only been here for six months!

There was a lump in Jihoon’s throat and his office carpet bore the brunt of his frustrated pacing. So the knock on his office door was an expected but welcome surprise. He was used to seeing the new OM with a polite smile dancing on her lips. Currently a frown adorned her pretty face. Yet it did nothing to deter the vivaciousness of her charm. There was a stillness about her presence that was a calming balm to his soul. If he had to think of the fact that a friend of his was going around and acting like a lunatic for one more second, he was going to go stark raving mad.

“Alrighto, let's get cracking. The sooner we end our burgeoning side hustle as ameteur detectives, the sooner I can get back to hounding the normal crazy people. This brand of crazy is so not good for my skin.” She clapped her hands.

Jihoon surprised himself by barking out a laugh. He found her directing a shit eating grin at him to which he mock glared yet. The playfulness of it all drained out of him when he told her about his suspicions. He did not expect the response to his logical connection that Joshua having a pungent smell on his body along with the victim having the same scent to be,

“I think you are a bit bonkers.”

“I think you are a bit British.”

“Ouch. Touche.”

When asked what was the motivation of the social market manager behind all this, Jihoon had no answer. Only a gut instinct. She then showed him what she clues scavenged while he was lost in his head: the papers in that hallway was a revised script for the Angel, the victim belonged to the new temporary contractors hired to act as a middleman for the procurement department, and the fact that the contractor was connected to a local crime ring.

“Obviously, it means that this whole shebang is related to our new project.” She rolls her eyes. 

Jihoon grudgingly bowed down to her superior deduction of the events. He still couldn’t let go of his own view though. She called it stubbornness, he called it confidence in himself. A truce was decided when both decided to call Joshua and get to the bottom of the matter. 

Her reasoning was that since there were already zero security cameras in those in that part of the floor the two of them did not have any evidence to present to the police. 

Jihoon just wanted to give his friend a chance to explain himself. His hands were shaking as the phone connected with a click.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Shua. I just wanted to know if everything was alright.”

There was a pause.

“Yeah, everything is fine. Why do you ask? 

“It’s just- when I bumped into you earlier I thought I smelled something. Nevermind.”

A gentle laugh floated through the mobile.  

“Is this a prank of yours? or are you just telling me that I smell bad? You know, how extensive my perfume collection is.” Jihoon couldn’t help but fold on himself at these words.

“No. I-”

“Ahahaha. I am just joking. Honestly I haven’t had the best day since someone spilled some weird liquid on me. I know I am new but at this point I think I can recognise almost everyone I work with. I think it was, you know, one of the new hires.”

Twin breaths of relief escape the room carrying with it most of the tension of the past hour. Jihoon hurriedly replied, “Maybe it was one of them. I am sorry for bothering you. I just wanted to check up on you.”

“Yes, yes, I know you worrywart. Let me sleep now. I have to wrangle people into making a behind the scenes reel for insta tomorrow.” Joshua hung up.

Jihoon was grateful that she refrained from crowing out an, ‘I told you so’ but her eyes were glittering with self-satisfaction. The rest of the night passed in harmony alongside a white board scrounged from one of the offices, takeout of fried chicken, and the conclusion that your criminal mastermind was someone related to the Angel production. 

Pov: Her

The plan was to pinpoint which one of the new contractors could have made plans to hurt someone And what that smell was. But the best late plans of mice and men were nothing against the rush of a pre-production raring to go. A few days went by with you having to put out small fires of human errors and inhumane logistics. Jihoon always kept you updated on his end. Not that it was of any help when you received texts like this:

(16:09) hr ljh : we hired over 50 people as b2b and c2b contracts. and they have their own subcontractors. we are doomed. 

(16:19) me : why oh why did investors find enough money to plan a franchise 😭 

(16:22) hr ljh : half of them would jump into financial ruin just to see choi seungcheol smile and the other half are finding any excuse to make yoon jeonghan happy

(16:23) me : lol. i wish they would date each other and take the competition out

(16:23) hr ljh: pretty people are unbearable 

(16:23) me : even me? and i thought they were your friends

(16:28) hr ljh: careful. i don't want to report you to hr. and because they are my friends that's why they are extra annoying 

(16:28) me: lololololol anyways i got an amazing idea. since finding one specific person out of everyone is impossible, why don't we try to find if they are bringing something illegal here. maybe that was a persona grudge. 

(16:29) hr ljh : maybe. as long as nothing illegal is happening here, we can move on

(16:30) me: exactlyyyy

Your search started with the props department. They had mandated space on the third and fourth floor along with the basement. However, you went straight up to the 18th floor.

It was temporarily held hostage by props due to spacing and coordinating issues. No one wanted to piss off the staff responsible for dama de la ópera, the Carat Corp's longest running series featuring Joy of Red Velvet. So, for the sake of reducing emotional damage, prop creation squeezed in with the leftovers from the distribution department.

Distribution didn't count on the fact that slowly their allocated space would be hijacked by the prop department and one very enthusiastic Lee Seokmin. You, personally, couldn’t fathom how an A&R rep of another company was elbows deep into prop production of a project he should never have been a part of. However, life goes out of its way to make things harder for you.

If there were any place new and volatile products would go unnoticed, it was here. While you were checking in with the floor manager about getting your hands on the attendance sheet, a pair of eyes shooting lasers of sunshine locked on you.

“Hi!!! I am working on making a full scale replica of the seashell Aphrodite emerged from. Do you wanna check it out?” Lee Seokmin bounced over with enough energy to rival a redbull addict. 

Unfortunately, you had to kick a puppy- say no to him. In retribution the next 15 mins went by with him telling you what version of sea shell he is making now. How, at first, he wanted to make it out of asbestos but everyone vetoed against it. Now, he could only work with plaster of Paris or plastic. Plastic doesn't have that gravitas, you know. 

Finding an opportunity you slipped away with the A&R reps’, “I am going to try and fill the shell with water to make it more realistic. Also why are you always calling me Mr Seokmin. Call me Dokyeom!” ringing in your ears. 

Compiling and comparing the attendance sheet with the CCTV cameras didn't yield any results. You were also at the end of your rope by this point. Nothing is making sense and giving up seemed like the only option.

An iced latte dropped in front of you while you were moaning about your failures. You looked up to see Jihoon looking down on you with a slight smile on his face. Cursing his handsome visage in your mind as you are wont to do, you snatch the coffee and start to slurp it up with enough noise to rival a tractor.

“Did I come at a bad time?” Jihoon asked softly.

“When is it not a bad time for me?” When you catch him gazing at you in concert, you mutter out an apology. 

Turns out, Jihoon wasn't cruising around your office. He found out what he had smelled that day was halothane. At first, he thought it was chloroform which is always used in movies to knock people out. Then, he found out that no one uses chloroform anymore. It clicked for him when Jeonghan was telling him how a fan of another artist tried to kidnap them with halothane stolen from the hospital. “Should I put out a disclaimer that I don't want any doctor fans?”

You kept on drinking your favourite coffee as Jihoon got too into retelling and was waving his hands in excitement. Cute.

However, the mood went down again when both of you realized that this bit of information is not going to help you. So what if it was a potentially illegal drug? You guys had no idea about who stole it and why. What were their next moves? Every road of possibilities led to a dead end. 

For the next week, the two of you kept texting each other like this:

(9:10) me: everything's still fine. nothing suspicious  …. (17:41) ljh: i have been looking at all our security cameras. nada …. (14:58) me: did you know the job you die for comes with a killer boss :3

(15:02) ljh: that was so bad

(15:03) me: but you laughed

(15:03) ljh: debatable. what if we can't find anyone?

(15:04) me: then maybe mr jeon would like to act as a stand in for him lol killer boss, killer, tomato, tomato

(15:05) ljh: i will raise this proposal at our next monthly meeting.

You didn't even notice when you got into the habit of texting Jihoon everyday. You also didn't notice your grin whenever you did. Maybe, just maybe, it was a one off freak event. Maybe, just maybe, it will never happen again and you can work up your courage to ask Jihoon to get coffee with you sometimes.

TO BE CONTINUED

dividers from: @kodaswrld