From Seoul With Love✅

14; Seoul Searching Hearts.

Papers flew in her direction, nearly striking her face. She flinched, stepping back unconsciously while inhaling sharply. Her eyes squeezed shut in fear of being hit in the eye.

Then, the commotion was followed by a shrill voice that was starting to give Amina nightmares. "Wrong, wrong, wrong!" That word, she was starting to hate it.

She had heard it one too many times, repeatedly whenever she did something. How could she not hate it?

Whether it was doing paperwork assigned to her? Wrong.

Sorting out orders as instructed? It turned out wrong.

Redoing it and giving it her all? Still wrong.

"Can't you even manage something as simple as this? If so, why are you here? Do you think you're here to play around?!" Veronica scolded, her voice escalating with each statement. She rose from her seat, patting the table repeatedly. "Tell me, are you incompetent or just stupid?"

The insult was becoming all too familiar to Amina. How could it not, considering she had been enduring it for over a month now? At this point, she was surprised Veronica hadn't officially changed the name on her documents to "Stupid Ibrahim Muhammad." Calling her stupid had become so common that it almost felt normal.

Amina hesitantly opened her eyes, making sure no more papers were flying her way. She lifted her gaze to meet Veronica's cautiously, swallowing thickly upon seeing the look on the woman's face.

God, that look could actually kill someone one day.

Still, she cleared her throat slightly to rid it of the impending hoarseness. "If you could just point out where the mistakes are, I'm sure I can try..."

"Oh, come on, aren't you tired of repeating the same bullshit all the time?" Veronica cut her off, as always. "You can fix this, you can fix that, blah blah blah. I'm sick of this!"

Amina pursed her lips, holding back from saying anything. She kept repeating the same thing she told herself when she started working there and got assigned the wrong job.

She told herself it was all part of life, and that no experience is a waste. That she could handle whatever was thrown her way, and it would all be worth it eventually.

However, as time dragged on and she found herself sinking deeper into this dark abyss with no escape, she couldn't help but wonder whether she had made the wrong choice by accepting the job in the first place.

Veronica glared at her with a look that could send someone to an early grave, her lips curling into a deep frown. It seemed as though she wanted to say more, to do more, but she held back, and that only frustrated Amina even more.

She huffed out a breath instead, her hand raising, curling into a fist, and then dropping with a thud on the table. Her previously straightened lob was now a bright orange color in waves, which she had tied into a bun - her new look for a while.

It fit her attitude quite well, actually. Fiery.

Drawing her lower lip between her teeth, she bit down before blowing out another harsh breath. Her narrowed gaze then slanted back to Amina, her lips curling into a sneer.

Suddenly, she chuckled humorlessly. "You know what? What more do I expect from a university dropout?" She mocked, shaking her head in the process. "You wouldn't have gotten anywhere near here without that connection of yours. Who would hire someone like you?" She added not so quietly, fully intending for Amina to hear.

And she sure did. Every word, every sentence. They permeated the pores of her being, diffusing into her bloodstream, flowing all the way to her central nervous system, then imprinting themselves in her brain along with the other piles of insults and degradation from other people.