Chapter 178 (1/2)

“I’m late!”

Restless, Noah checked the time on her phone once more. The time that appeared on the screen was as clear as a cloudless day.

8:54 A.M.

“Please, please, please…”

It was only two days ago that her entire team was reprimanded by the manager due to her sister’s frequent tardiness. Since then, employees who arrived late even a second past nine o’clock on the dot, especially new employees, were to write their names on the office’s whiteboard without exception. It was an exemplary discipline for new recruits.

Noah glanced alternately at the elevator and clock, her foot tapping the floor impatiently. Eventually, she turned around and ran toward the exit. She had worked for the company for a year, and there wasn’t a day she didn’t arrive twenty minutes earlier, but today, she overslept.

It’s all because of you… Jeong Yu-young. If it weren’t for the book she lent to Noah, encouraging her to rest and clear the fuss in her mind, she would have woken up on time.

Noah began to climb the stairs in haste all the while blaming her innocent friend inwardly. The office was a whopping seven stories high.

“Wow… Ugh…” Perhaps because she was hungry, Noah suddenly felt dizzy. She gripped the handle and turned around a corner. She checked her phone again, suppressing creeping nausea.

8:57 A.M.

“Oh, you should have got up five minutes early, Noah…” She climbed the rest of the stairs with exasperated breaths. She was in a hurry, but she was losing strength in her legs. Only two floors remained and only two minutes remained. It was not yet impossible to get to work on time. Just a little bit more, quickly…

Her damp palm lost its grip on the steel handle. Noah had just set foot on the six-story staircase and looked down with a stunned face. Papers from the pile were covering the stairs like snow. These were important data that outlined major cooperation plans with the trading company. Noah immediately descended the stairs and began to collect the scrambled papers. When she finished gathering the documents, the time on her phone had already changed. She clutched the disorganized heap of papers and stared blankly down at her cell phone.

9:02 A.M.

She felt heat below her nose. In the midst of a daze, she inadvertently rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, and blood was smeared on her skin. It had already been a while since she felt nauseous, and now, her nose started bleeding. Noah sighed as she looked down at her bloodstained hand.

After all, she couldn’t tolerate tardiness.

*

Noah awoke to a feeling of dampness under her nose. She brushed her hand against her nose and discovered blood.

“Tardy?”