The past four weeks had been hell on my body and mind. I was a creature of habit, who didn't like too much change; so, having my entire routine completely shaken up without time to prepare was an absolute nightmare.

My weekends were always my relaxing days, time spent with family and friends. Each Saturday morning, I spent the day running errands. I did my usual grocery shopping and stocked my supplies of stuffed toys I kept in my office. It was also my day to catch up on housework, which I begrudgingly did only so I could reward myself with a movie and nice nap on the couch, and maybe a nice treat if I'd worked extra hard.

On Sundays, Lisa and I caught up for brunch, usually at a new café down along the Cobron River, which separated Samta from Acheron, the capital city of the country that sat on the other side of the river. My best friend and I never ventured to restaurants and cafes in Acheron since the city, and the country it resided in, was so unkind to its hybrid residents. Instead, we preferred to stay here, where there were far more hybrid-friendly establishments than not.

I had thoroughly missed my usual downtime during the past month. Instead of two relaxing days off a week, I was lucky if I got enough time just for stocking up on my plushie supplies. I had been working harder than normal and dedicating most of my weekdays to find staff that I could hire for Sanctuary's management team, with weekends being the time I set aside to do my normal jobs. I'd swapped my fridge filled with groceries for a stack of takeout menus, and my comfortable bed at home for the much less inviting sofa in my office.

The only time I did manage to take a break was for my brother's birthday. Since we had all been really busy, it was a low-key event where we all went to Ma and Pop's house for dinner and cake. It was so nice not to have to worry about cleaning my house or cooking, seeing as my place was a quite dusty since I'd been sleeping at Sanctuary more than at home.

But now, for the first time in what seemed like an extremely long month, I could finally breathe and relax. After scouring countless resumes for suitable candidates, as well as reaching out to my contacts in universities and recruiting offices, I had finally hired new administrative management staff: a COO, and a Director of Hybrid Services.

Taemin Lee was a gorilla hybrid and was probably one of the sweetest people I'd ever met. He was so intelligent and at only a year younger than I was, he had a bachelor's degree, as well as a master's – both in business and business management. In his master's thesis, he'd done it on hybrid hospitals and the need for differentiated care. I was not only impressed by his knowledge, but also his drive to assist other hybrids. Taemin was exactly what I had been looking for as my right-hand person.

Initially I was a little apprehensive about hiring an ape hybrid – not because they were dangerous, but because some hybrids feared them. However, his fluffy brown hair, along with those adorable squishy cheeks, had made Taemin seem approachable. It was important that not only the staff, but also our hybrid residents and patients, felt safe and comfortable in each other's presences.

Like Taemin, I was very impressed with the woman I'd hired to be the new Director of Hybrid Services. Joy Park was a fennec fox hybrid with the most adorably large, fluffy upright ears. She had been recommended to me by one of Jin's university friends, who was Joy's mentor. The hybrid was so incredibly kind and had a caring aura about her. She had apologised profusely to Bang Chan at the start of her interview for accidentally knocking him with her elbow has he placed her coffee down – my assistant told me afterwards that her scent had remained the same the whole time, not something she could do if the action was disingenuous.

Joy held a degree in hybrid health management,with a particular interest in improved healthcare options for hybrids. I likedhow she wanted to tailor the care given to what the hybrid needed instead of a'one box fits all' mentality. She told us how she wanted to create a 'box'specifically for each hybrid species and for each patient that came through thedoors. She also had a lot of very good ideas for the expansion we wereconsidering for the shelter.

In addition to overseeing hybrid patients in the shelter, Joy would also be responsible for managing the staff in the adoption office. Between Taemin and Joy, the two had some great suggestions on how we could make the adoption process better – in particular, how we could make sure the humans wishing to adopt were in fact the right fit for the hybrid, and not the other way around. My two new employees were excited to work together to upgrade our current system, which was working well but nevertheless could be much better.

I had put out an internal memo asking for all essential staff to gather in the lobby, the place where we held short announcements like this. Management staff, shelter employees who could spare a few minutes, as well as our head doctors and nurses were all gathered and as I looked over the large group in front of me, pride welled within my body. I had wonderful people working with me and they made every day at work a joy for me.

I cleared my throat and began my speech, "thank you all for making the time to be here today. I know you're all busy, so I'll keep this brief. One thing I love most about Sanctuary is that we're all family here."

I turned towards Joy and Taemin, motioning for them to stand beside me. "I'm very happy to announce that we have two new members joining our family. Taemin Lee is Sanctuary's new COO and he'll be overseeing the day-to-day operations of the hospital." I smiled watching said man wave and bow to the staff gathered in the room. I hid my giggles as I saw several women gush over how handsome he was.

"And Joy Park has been brought in as the Director of Hybrid Services. She will be helping our shelter provide the best care for all our residents. Joy will also be revamping our adoption processes, making sure that each hybrid is placed into the very best homes."

I was relieved to see smiles and excitement from the staff. If the people working at Sanctuary were happy and relaxed, it meant that our patients and residents were too. Hybrids were a lot more sensitive to emotions and moods compared to humans; scents change depending upon a person's mood. JK and Hobi, along with other hybrids, told me they loved my vanilla cream scent, but didn't like how it changed when I was sad or angry. Apparently, it took on a sour milk aroma when I was sad, upset or depressed, and smelled like curdled milk that had been poured into a smelly shoe and left in the sun for too long whenever I was angry.

"I wanted to introduce Taemin and Joy to you, since you'll be seeing their faces around Sanctuary. I will still be the CEO, but Joy and Taemin will be here to assist me in making Sanctuary the best it possibly can be. Thank you for your time, I'll let you get back to work. Have a great day and remember, my door is always open."

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ⋆͛♡⋆͛ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

"Knock, knock," I heard the sing-song voice of my best friend at the door of my office.

I smiled, calling for Lisa to come in. With all the running around I'd done the past few weeks, neither of us had much time to see each other.

"I come bearing coffee," she grinned, handing me my beloved vanilla iced latte on oat milk. "I've missed you, girl."

I sighed happily, wiggling as I swallowed the first mouthful of my delicious beverage. If a person could marry a drink, I'd make my vanilla iced latte on oat milk my husband. It was my happy place in liquid form. I didn't even care that it was winter and flurries of snow were dancing outside my windows right now; nothing would make me give up my beloved beverage order.

"I needed this, thank you. I've missed you too."

Lisa and I enjoyed our drinks as we caught up with each other. The good thing about our friendship was that it always felt so natural; even if we hadn't seen each other for weeks, it felt like it had only been days or hours. If Namjoon was my surrogate brother, then Lisa was the sister I chose.

"How's your hybrid patient going?" I asked, adding "the Himalayan cat" upon seeing her confused look.

She gushed about how well he was recovering from his injuries. Apparently, the poor hybrid was so wary of everyone that the only person he allowed to treat him was Lisa, even though she usually treated females.

"He loves that plushie you gave him," she smiled brightly, obviously thinking about the hybrid.

"Bang Chan had to give him that on my behalf," I admitted between sips. One thing I had done right from the day Sanctuary's doors opened was to give every hybrid that came through the doors a stuffie. Most hybrids came in with nothing, so having one thing they could call their own was a huge thing for them. In the years of running the shelter and hospital, I could count on two hands how many times I'd not been able to hand deliver the toy to new hybrids; unfortunately, the Himalayan cat was one of them.

"He's going to be in the hospital for a few more days, so if you want to give him one from you, you have time," she prompted, placing her now empty cup on the table beside her. "I know how it's the highlight of your job."

God, she knows me too well.

I strode over to the large cupboard where I stored the stuffed toys and opened the doors. I had so many options to choose from – animals, teddy bears, dolls, foods, characters, puppets, pillows. Considering the different options, I finally grabbed my favourite Kumamon bear, smiling at the cute toy. I hoped he liked it as much as I did.

As Lisa and I were making our way towards the hospital wing, we ran into Joy, who looked a little lost. I noticed the fennec fox hybrid sniffing the air, her fluffy tail swinging happily behind her. The look on her face as she turned towards us was one of pure joy.

"Mate," she breathed out, looking directly at the now blushing doctor standing beside me.

I introduced the pair and left them to get to know each other. As I made my way to the cat hybrid's room, I hoped that someday soon, if I was lucky, I would have someone look at me with a similar look of love that the fox just had.