9 "... perfect to me."

When the two boys entered the office, they were surprised to see that the person seated in the office chair was wearing a red hoodie.

It was Grace. 

On the day of their interview, she had been wearing a button-down shirt, black jeans, and heels, so she didn't look very casual like she looked today. 

"Miss Anderson, they are here." The lady who led them inside announced.

Grace didn't lift her head. She simply waved her hand, telling her to leave and continued to look at the different pieces of paper on her desk as if she was trying to solve a puzzle. 

The first two minutes passed, and she didn't raise her head to look at them. She was still focused on what she was doing. 

A nervous-looking Nerd approached Brad, mumbling to him to say something to her, but Brad shook his head in horror.

They waited for three more minutes before they heard her voice and flinched from the surprise.

"Do you know the reason I do not have a secretary?" She threw the question at the two of them and finally raised her head, relaxing on the chair like she was a boss—which she was, by the way—and placed her legs on top of the desk, crossing one on top of the other. 

Brad and Nerd exchanged a sidelong glance. Not only was she dressed unprofessionally in a hoodie, matching joggers and sneakers, she was also behaving unprofessionally.

Nerd shook his head rapidly at her question. 

"Uhm.... you don't... have a secretary?" Brad asked curiously. He had assumed that the lady who led them here was her secretary. How did she cope with all the work then?

Nerd stared at Brad in horror and elbowed him on the side of the stomach as if to tell him to stop talking.

Grace's eyes lingered on Brad for about five seconds before she looked away. 

"I used to have three secretaries." She said, twirling a pen in her hand.

"The first one was nice. Really nice human. But she got greedy." She paused and then continued.

"When you have a secretary, you'll understand that your secretary is an extension of you. They know everything about your private life and business life. If someone wants to assassinate you, all they have to do is reach out to your secretary." She said carefreely before picking up a picture on her desk to throw at the two of them. 

"That was the first one." 

Nerd was too scared to pick it up, so Brad did so. 

It was a pretty girl with a stoic expression. She was dressed in a skirt suit with low heels. 

He took a look at it and handed it to Nerd.

"And that's her now." Grace threw another picture. 

Brad's eyes widened when he saw it. She looked very thin and was wearing shabby clothes by the seashore. She was standing beside some fishermen and an older woman who had the same facial features as her. Maybe her mother?

The lady looked nothing like the first picture. When Nerd saw it, his hands began to shake like he had just stepped into the den of the devil. 

"She sold out information about me." Grace pointed at the other picture, "That... is me being forgiving. I let her be a good daughter and join her mother."

Nerd threw another nervous glance at Brad as if he was considering turning down the job.

"And then... there were two more. Before employment, I made sure to let them know that if they dared betray me, I would ruin their lives. Of course, I gave them a choice." 

She put down her legs from the desk and took three mugs out of her drawer. There was already a water flask on her desk which she opened and poured a liquid that looked like coffee into the three mugs before sipping from one. 

"I don't get why people would sign that and still choose to betray me when I am a nice person." She feigned a hurt look causing Nerd to choke.

Grace's icy eyes turned to look at him, and his choking worsened. Brad helped pat his back, feeling sorry for the poor guy. 

Grace Anderson... was indeed scary. Even the way she spoke calmly was frightening. 

"I chose you two because the world is already full of shitty people who put work first before anything else. And I am one of those shitty people. So I'd prefer if those working around me still have a bit of humanity in them to help other people in the world who need to be helped. My contribution to the world is to help good people like you get a job." She smiled and looked pointedly at them. 

"But... if one of you betray me..." The smile left her face, and she threw two more pictures at the two of them. 

"I want you two to have a copy of each of those photos and see clearly how your life is going to turn out." 

She picked up two documents from her desk, one in each hand, and extended her arm for them to take one each. 

The two nervously received them and glanced at them. "I'll give you one day to take your time and ask yourself if betraying me is worth any money or promise you are going to be tempted to receive. Come back by this time tomorrow and give me your answers. Until then, your employment and internship are not going to be processed." 

When Brad heard 'internship', he frowned. 

The two boys looked at the document in their hands again and wondered if it was time to leave the office. 

"One more thing, let's have a toast." 

She finally stood up from her seat and picked up the two mugs on her desk, which she half-filled with coffee before giving them each. 

The boys looked at the mug warily as she returned to pick up hers.

"Go ahead, drink." She urged them with a warm smile and took a long sip from hers. 

Nerd was the first to nervously try his. As soon as he tasted it, he spat it back into the cup, causing Grace to frown. 

Brad looked at the cup, wondering what she was feeding them with, before tentatively taking a sip. He almost spat it in just like Nerd, but he noticed Grace's pretty green eyes staring at him.

How was she drinking this? It was black coffee without even a cube of sugar, and worse of all, the steam leaving the mug hadn't been hot water. It was really cold water! Only a terrorist would comfortably drink this like she was.

"Go ahead, you two. Drink it." She urged them.

"Because that is what your life is going to taste like if you even think about fucking me up." She took a bigger sip from hers.

"BITTER TO YOU. PERFECT TO ME."

She smiled broadly causing goosebumps to rise in their skins.