Chapter 4 - Red

In the car, the uncomfortable silence is slowly suffocating our ever-loyal secretary. While waiting for the stop light to turn green, Rod picked up his phone and quickly typed something.

Upon arrival at the Tan Corporation, Rod alighted the car to open the door for the president, but the president beat him to it. Rod can only hope that the president's irritation will subside soon.

When they entered the corporation's lobby, they were greeted by two receptionists. Usually, the lobby shouldn't be this bare of people - ie… there should be employees loitering, resting, or just plain walking in and out of the lobby, but now … it is as if something serious happened. The lobby wasn't lack-lustre like this a few minutes ago, until the employee chatroom received a one-word text from Secretary Rod. Upon seeing the word 'red,' the employees quickly scurried away from every possible path the president could take and went back to their desks. This is the power of the so-called 'red' code.

What is a code red you ask?

It is a code that informs employees of the president's irritable state, which means that the chances of someone getting on his bad side are significantly higher than his usual state. Now, don't get this wrong, Angelo isn't the unreasonable type even when he's in a bad mood. It's just that when he is in this particular state, those who committed mistakes will take the full brunt of Angelo's strict and 'sinister' side.

At Angelo's office, he was contemplating whether to inform his parents right away about his sister's predicament. Or to let his sister stay in the police station for a bit, to half an hour or an hour or so, just to give a lesson to her sister. In the end, he chose to wait it out until after his next meeting is done. It is for her good.

Knock. Knock. Then the door automatically opened for Rod.

"President, your meeting with the R&D will be in 10 minutes," Rod informed the president, not expecting any reply at all. He knows that it usually takes a day for the president's irritable mood to pass. For sure, he will continue ignoring him.

"Hmm." Well, that's fast, thought the puzzled secretary. Maybe it wasn't as big of a deal as he thought it was.

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In the conference room, a few minutes after the start of the meeting, a long and chilly silence has currently engulfed the room. Not even one person wanted to make a single sound to break the silence. Angelo looked the R&D members in the eyes and calmly stood up. This action of his, caused the apprehensive team members to flinch.

"Did I hire you all to be so lousy, Hmm?" Angelo enunciated every word so calmly that the R&D team became even more nervous than they were already.

"Don't make me regret trusting you all. If you can't think of any solution soon, then you are all welcome to collect your severance money." Angelo left the conference room and the terrified R&D team to stew in their horror.

The R&D team looked at Rod asking for help.

"Don't look at me, I'm only a secretary. If you want to survive this, work hard to devise a satisfactory solution. Or better yet, just prepare yourself for the worst." Rod stood up and look at them. He sighed which in turn made some members of the R&D team cry. Rod walked out of the conference room and immediately followed the president.

Angelo headed straight back to his office and sat down. He massaged his throbbing right temple for a few seconds before reaching out toward his pocket. He pulled out his phone and called his mom.

Ring. Ring. After a few rings, the call went through.

"Oh hello, my dear son who rarely called. What came over you to have called your poor neglected mom." His mom sarcastically and mockingly greeted his son.

"Hello, mom. Crystal was in a car accident. She.." then his mom hysterically cut him off.

"What?! Oh, my poor baby! Is she ok? What happened? How did this happen?" His mom fired questions after questions.

"Mom, I can answer your questions one by one. She is fine. She secretly drove my car and successfully wrecked it. Another car was hit due to your dear daughter's driving skills. The driver received some cuts and bruises. Just so you know, I didn't give her permission to drive my car." Angelo answered as concisely as he could.

"Oh.. that's good. No one was seriously hurt. Where is she now?" His mom calmed down a bit but of course, she is still worried. She needs to see her daughter with her own eyes to feel at ease.

"She is currently in the police station. I'll send the exact address of the police station. Please do bail her out and this time be more strict on her. She is becoming more reckless as she grew older. Do inform dad yourself, mom." Angelo informed and advised her mom at the same time.

"Sigh... your sister is really...Your dad is with me at home. We will do what you say. It is time to tighten the belt and put some limitations on your sister. Don't work too hard. And son… when will you introduce a girlfriend?"

"Take care of yourself mom. And tell dad to also take care of himself. I'll visit you guys when I have the time. Bye." He turned off the phone, not too keen on answering his mom's probing regarding his love life.

Angelo doesn't know why he is particularly irritated this day, but he wants to get rid of it as soon as possible to be able to go through the day in a fairly ok mood. He knows that his bad mood isn't caused solely by his sister's issue, because he rarely gets affected by any of his sister's antics.

What he wants to know is, is it possibly because of 'her'? That's impossible. Right? It can't be because of her - a stranger? A stranger he has seen twice, someone with whom he barely interacted during the first meeting and on the second one… he didn't even exchange words with her.

He can't wrap his head around the idea that someone that he doesn't know can elicit some sort of reaction from him.

Angelo sighed and reached out for the folder on top of the stacks of folders he has to review. His musings can wait, but business can't.