88 CH88: Give me a lil' respect!

and turn it into something resembling lemonade."

- Anonymous

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It was late morning and the sun was already high up in the sky with few clouds blanketing the sun, making the day less hot.

That day, Delilah was inside one of the meeting rooms, together with Aubree. They were working on the upcoming team-building activities and learning lunches [1]. Because they needed a larger table space, that was why they had to book a meeting room, even if it was only the two of them.

The two women had been working on these for nearly a week. Although it does not seem much, there were a lot of factors that the two women have to take note of. Hence, why it took some time for them to complete. Especially when there were many opinions and 'friendly' suggestions about it as well.

While they were working hard on the tasks, Bella came in after knocking on the door.

The two women stopped what they have been working on and looked up to see Bella standing before them.

"Yes, Bella?" Aubree asked.

Bella gave an awkward smile and said, "Ms. Aubree, there's someone who wants to meet you."

Aubree frowned in confusion. She could not recall making any appointment with anyone nor did she have anyone that she wanted to meet. "Who is it?"

"It's a Ms. Wanda from RST Industries."

Aubree frowned deeper. Again, she did not recall making an appointment with the woman. She then said to Bella to tell the woman that she will be down soon.

After Bella had left, Aubree turned to Delilah and told her that she will be right back and that the latter can continue doing the work. Delilah nodded and went on to continue her tasks.

A few minutes later, Aubree had returned back to the meeting room. This time, she has an annoyed look on her face which was rare for her. Based on her personality, Delilah always sees her as a very patient woman and someone who rarely gets angry. However, she looked quite irritated at that moment that Delilah could not help but ask what was wrong.

Aubree took a large gulp of water before rattling out the thoughts in her mind. The more she talked, the more displeased she was.

Apparently, the woman that she met earlier was one of their customers. She 'coincidentally' had a meeting with one of the trainers here whom Aubree had no knowledge of. Because usually, when there is a training session, it usually goes through Aubree for approval. However, she was quite surprised that there was one ongoing at that moment and Aubree had no clue about it. They did not inform her about the session nor do they even bother to call her to talk about it.

Aubree was greatly annoyed by all this and she felt seriously disrespected.

She was also feeling a bit peeved at the trainer for not telling her as well. The name of the trainer was Annie. She was a small brunette with large eyes. Despite her small frame, she has quite a fiery personality which can be fun at times but rude at other times. It was why Aubree was not surprised with her disrespect.

Annie was also one of the longest working employees in Kang Company, hence why she probably was familiar with Aubree and did not think that she did anything wrong by contacting the customer privately.

After she was done ranting, by then, Delilah too was extremely annoyed. She then began to curse the customer, ranting and raving about how ungrateful the customer was and how thick faced she was. Then when the latter heard about Annie's involvement, her annoyance also spread to her. Delilah decided to mark Annie as being disrespectful and no teamwork in her notes.

Once they were done complaining about the customer and the trainer, the two women continued to do their work. But it did not stop them to sneak in a couple of dissatisfaction in regards to the customer, seeing that she was still in the building.

Delilah even managed to take a peek at how the customer looked like, because she completely forgot how the latter looked like.

After she saw the customer, who was currently in one of the rooms, together with Annie, diligently learning and studying, Delilah let out a scoff. 'Such thick face,' she mocked in her mind.

She walked past the room and returned back to the meeting room. Aubree was inside, chatting with her niece over a video call. Although it was during office hours, Delilah did not mind and let her be. It was just a short call, anyway.

Delilah continued to do her work while Aubree chatted with her niece. In less than a few minutes, just as Delilah had said, Aubree was done with her call and resumed with her work.

The two women continued working, even missing lunch time, which they did not realize. And when Delilah suddenly felt hungry, she was surprised when she saw the time.

Since they were hungry, they decided to go for a late lunch before continuing their work. There was no use working on an empty stomach.

Before Aubree could say a word, Delilah had cut in by saying, "I'm too tired to think right now so go ahead and choose what you want to eat."

Aubree fumed. One of the hardest questions to ask was where to eat. Especially when you're on an empty stomach because you just want to eat everything. But then again, that might not be logical and stressful on your stomach… and wallet.

Delilah continued to work for a bit while waiting for Aubree to choose a place.

Few minutes later, Aubree had chosen a Korean restaurant. The nearest Korean restaurant was a few minutes drive away. Delilah nodded in agreement and the two women immediately rearranged their things before leaving the office.

When they arrived at the restaurant, it was empty, which was not so surprising since lunch hour was over. And when they entered the restaurant, they were greeted by a strong smell of kimchi, which was fermented cabbages. Although Delilah was not a fan of kimchi, she did not mind the smell.

Aubree, on the other hand, loved the smell of kimchi. So, when they were finally seated, that was the first thing that she ordered from the menu.

Other than that, she also ordered tuna kimchi stew with rice and a glass of water. As for Delilah, she had ordered bulgogi kimbap [2] and ramyeon [3].

While waiting for their meal to arrive, the two women fell into a comfortable conversation, both exchanging funny stories about their nephews and nieces. They had a good laugh, listening to their loved ones' antics.

Shortly after, their meal arrived. The waitress carefully placed the dishes in front of them, to which the two women thanked her.

Before she eats her ramyeon, Delilah decides to eat her kimbap first. She grabbed a chopstick and took one kimbap from the plate. Inside the seaweed roll, there were marinated beef, yellow radish pickles, carrots, perilla leaves and blanched seasoned spinach.

She ate one and the seaweed was a bit chewy and stretchy. She could taste the crunch from the pickles and the sweetness of the marinated beef. Together with the cooked rice, which has a tangy taste, due to the rice vinegar, it was quite delicious. The whole kimbap has that slightly salty yet sweet and nutty flavour in its taste. It doesn't have any dipping sauce like its Japanese counterpart, sushi but it does not matter since it was already delicious.

After eating three to four pieces, only then she ate her ramyeon. For Delilah, there weren't much differences when it comes to Japanese ramen and Korean ramyeon. But both of them were quite tasty.

While they were eating, they also talked with each other. It was times like these when the stress of work can be comforted by food. All those stressful things that you had from work, just bring it to food, which makes it all better.

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[1] One of the employee engagement activities where a company encourages each department to share what they have been working on and so forth.

[2] cooked rice, beef and other ingredients rolled in a seaweed

[3] Korean style instant noodles