-1-

At exactly two o'clock in the afternoon, the head of the terrifying maintenance department walked into the office.

Yawning, she said to her subordinate, "Good morning. Your millet porridge and carrot salad this morning are still terrible. Your cooking skills are terrible... So, could you take some time to improve your breakfast-making skills? I can grant you extra paid leave."

Her subordinate seemed to be concentrating on reading some paper reports. He didn't look up or respond when he heard this.

He just flipped through the crisp papers, reached out and raised the mug on the table, and shook it silently at her.

-2-

This action requires no further explanation.

Because the terrifying boss of the maintenance department especially loves to snatch food from her subordinates. No matter what kind of snacks or drinks, as long as they are in his hands, she will run over to grab a bite - she has snatched his mug to drink drinks countless times in the past. Even if she complains about "strong tea is too bitter" ten thousand times, the thousand and first time, she refuses to use the mug that her subordinates bought specifically for her.

The pink cup with a line-drawn puppy on it had been gathering dust for decades until a subordinate took it out and filled it with soil to plant flowers.

Today was the same. As soon as Ms. M saw the drink sloshing in her subordinate's mug, she ran over.

...Oh, that's not to say she was so happy when she went over to grab his drink. The "tap tap" sound was neither a deliberate act of cuteness nor the sound of her paw pads stomping on the floor.

It's just that Miss M has a pair of platform shoes that she bought online and they happened to arrive today. She likes to step on any shoe with heels and hear the "tapping" sound it makes. This is her way of showing off her new shoes.

Of course, her subordinates pointed out more than once, "Are you sure you're not being cute on purpose? And every time you come over and grab my food, it's more like I'm luring you here to eat cat food."

Of course, the facts he pointed out were dismissed at every turn.

Subordinates are meant to be refuted, and she can knock over the drink or bag of potato chips he hands her at any time, but a cat can't.

-3-

She knew he never fed the cat.

Stop pretending to be a cat lover, he doesn’t like animals at all.

When on a mission, he would even use chemical attractants to drive away the puppies that would run to her feet and ask for a pat on the head.

A guy who can ruthlessly drive away a puppy can actually be called an angel, haha.

-4-

...Back to the topic, Miss M also went over today and took a sip from the cup raised by her subordinate.

She originally wanted to continue complaining about the breakfast he prepared today. Why did he cook the millet porridge into lumps of solidified lumps? When she ate it, it had no taste and did not quench her thirst.

But, well, after drinking it, Miss M smacked her lips.

She said, "Okay. You'll make coffee too."

His coffee-brewing skills are undoubtedly irrefutable.

Then she lowered her head again and took a few sips until she had finished all the coffee left in his cup.

-5-

Because it has one portion of cream and two spoonfuls of maple syrup, it is her favorite flavor.

Miss M naturally thought that "this was cooked specially for me."

"…I'm done, Xiao P. I want another drink."

The subordinate still didn't speak to her. He put the empty mug back on the table and looked down at the paper documents. The hand that was flipping through the documents was still holding a pen for marking.

Hearing this, he simply reached out and pointed to the coffee pot with the pen.

The coffee pot has always had a fixed place in their office - they actually have a small beverage table in their office.

You can't always run to the tea room on the other floor in the middle of work. There are only two employees in the maintenance department, and there is rarely any chance to waste working time.

——Especially today, the subordinates seem very busy and focused on the documents at hand.

-6-

He was so busy that he hadn't spoken to her since she entered the office.

-7-

Miss M thought for a moment, then ran to the small beverage counter and came back with a "click".

——Instead of returning with a cup full of coffee, she brought back a wooden stirring stick and the small nail clippers that were on her desk.

Miss M snapped the round stirring stick into a pointed one, then she leaned briskly over the armrest of his chair, put her arms around his neck affectionately, and pressed the pointed wooden spike against his carotid artery.

"Good morning, Xiao P~ Hello~"

“…”

"This is the second time the boss has greeted you~"

“…”

-8-

"Good afternoon, Ms. M. You are six hours late today, so I have no time to respond to your good morning. Besides, I have in my hands a valuable document that I don't have a copy of."

Mr. P was forced to reply: "The spurting of arterial blood will destroy these documents. Please be careful."

cut.

Miss M threw the sharpened stirring stick away. "It's because Little P won't talk to me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have planned such a hasty and unoriginal death for you."

"I'm just a little busy."

"Really? I thought you were in a bad mood and didn't want to talk to me."

"No, Miss M. I'm not angry."

"You're not angry, but you refused to have sex with me last night and left me alone to go to work this morning."

“…”

-9-

Mr. P put down the documents in his hand.

He glanced back at her and saw Miss M already humming a song and tugging at his earrings with her fingers.

...She is so heartless, just like her.

"I don't want to discuss this personal matter with you during work hours, which we discussed yesterday. And please don't stick to me like this during work hours."

"Xiao P also got new earrings today~ They're diamond-shaped opals, they're cool and really fun to touch~"

"...Playing with your subordinate's earrings constitutes workplace sexual harassment, Ms. M. Please stay away."

"I don't. I want to play. Besides, no one else plays like this anyway."

-10-

Miss M slid her fingertips across the cold stone hanging below, and then across the small iron earrings above. Then she began to poke the warm and soft places with interest.

When he poked his subordinate's face, he met his subordinate's blue eyes.

No fluctuations, no temperature. Just like always.

But it truly reflects her entire shadow.

——There was only her shadow in it, as if these eyes were only looking at her.

Coffee, breakfast, work papers.

...None of them. Only she is reflected in here, extremely focused.

It looks like...a puppy.

-11-

Miss M couldn't help but move closer and kiss his eyes.

"It's a new day. Don't be angry."

-12-

After the kiss, she was stunned.

Actions and words flow out without thinking——

She was not the type to think before acting, and at this moment, her ability to think was completely overwhelmed by the sudden action before.

She also clearly felt that somewhere in the place where her hands were hugging, there was a place that began to "thump" and "thump" to heat up and tremble slightly - perhaps it was the carotid artery that she had just planned to cut open, which was responsible for supplying blood to his heart.

But how can the dead have a beating heart or warm blood?

-13-

How could this strange guy whom she couldn't even understand be a simple puppy that could be dealt with by just a kiss on the eyes?

-14-

——And, the next second, she could no longer feel the changes in the carotid artery she was holding tightly to.

For she sprang from the arm of the chair, and just as her previous action had been quicker than her thought, so too had her movement been quicker than her next thought.

Miss M stood up stupidly in front of her subordinate's office chair, like a student being called into the teacher's office.

"…I'm sorry. I can see you're dazed, but I still need to confirm."

The subordinate sitting in the chair seemed to frown, or purse his lips—perhaps, she couldn't see clearly, she was a little confused—

He asked, "Did you just kiss me?"

"Well……"

-15-

She stuttered like every silly schoolboy.

"I'm not... not..."

The "teacher" waited patiently for more than five minutes, but her answers were still just err-er-er-wuuuu sounds that couldn't form a complete sentence.

So he strung an answer together from her stuttering reply, as any patient teacher would do.

"No. Not at all. So, you mean, it wasn't a 'kiss'."

“…Uh, yes.”

"Okay. So you just bumped into me by accident, and you were actually thinking..."

-16-

Ms. M, who rarely thinks before she speaks or does anything, said: "I just wanted to lick it. It's like seeing a soda-flavored ice ball. I wanted to lick it and see what it tasted like."

“…”

-17-

Mr. P said slowly, "You know, instead of answering, 'I mistook your eyeball for a soda-flavored ice ball and wanted to lick it,' you might as well just admit, 'I just kissed your eye.'"

"Uh... well..."

"That's not fair. Not only did you sexually harass me in the workplace, you also insulted my appearance, saying my eyes looked like hockey pucks."

"Uh... well..."

"Are you still experiencing stomach pain? Your expression when you spoke looked like you had a stomachache."

"……Well……"

-18-

Mr. P pushed the documents aside and threw away the pen he was taking notes with.

The look on his face when he threw away the pen was the same as the look on Miss M's face when she threw away the sharpened wooden thorn.

"Either I go downstairs and buy you some stomach medicine," he said calmly, "or you admit that you just kissed me in the eye."

Ms. M: “…”

Ms. M: "I'm sorry. I just kissed you in the eye. It was an accident... but I'm sorry."

Mr. P nodded, his expression suggesting he wanted to say "very good," but that was too condescending.

The subordinate's tone was still very gentle and calm, just like when he asked her what flavor of coffee she wanted every morning:

"Then please compensate me."

Ms. M: "...Compensation? Uh, you don't mean this counts as a kiss... I just accidentally kissed the eye..."

"No, don't worry, this certainly doesn't count as kissing, and it won't have any negative impact on our relationship as superiors or subordinates."

-19-

Mr. P said, "But this is undoubtedly workplace sexual harassment. My eyes are definitely not the place your lips should touch during work hours. I warned you many times, but you chose to ignore them. Now you've done something that scared yourself... Paying the necessary emotional compensation will help you calm down and return to your casual harassment."

Ms. M: “…”

Ms. M: "You're right. But I don't have the money to compensate you. Can I use your card?"

Mr. P shook his head: "I don't want any monetary compensation."

Ms. M: "...Then how about you kiss me back? That way it's a one-to-one tie, and it's all over?"

Mr. P: “This kind of thing can’t be settled one to one.”

Ms. M: "...Why are you bothering Xiao P so much! Are your eyes virgins that have never been kissed? I kissed them years ago!"

Mr. P: “But you were neither wearing any clothes nor fully capable of thinking.”

Ms. M: “…”

Miss M was speechless. She could only continue to stand before him stupidly.

-20-

"Okay. Then tell me what you want as compensation."

Mr. P opened the drawer, took out two tickets, and pushed them in front of her naturally.

-twenty one-

"It's simple," he said calmly. "This is an invitation to a concert. It's a cross-departmental mission between the Love Maintenance Department and the Horror Maintenance Department. But U from the Love Maintenance Department ate too much shaved ice this morning and got unexpected gastroenteritis, so she's on leave. I have to take her place and carry out this mission, but I need a husband."

Ms. M: “…”

"So you only need to marry me once and be responsible."

Ms. M: “…”

"I've heard you look very handsome in men's clothing, and that many people have seen you, Miss M. So it should be okay for me to see it once."

Ms. M: “…”