It was raining.
She found herself staring at the sky outside of the glass. Raindrops were falling from the clouds in a rhythmic motion, beside this skyscraper building, the pink cherry blossom flowers were covered with water drops. She could see the amazing wet petals, slightly wishing they would be more closer so she could touch them.
"So beautiful," she whispered in her mind.
The creak of the opening door brought her back from her luxury of rain. A black suit coated young man entered into the office room, wearing rectangular full rim glasses matched with his face shape. Myung-dae nervously glanced at her, he could feel his body already sweating, then looked down at the file he was holding in his hand.
"Miss Choi," he slowly stated.
She swiftly moved from the raindrop covered window and sat in the chair, ignoring him totally. It was her, Choi Dea. The famous and mysterious Chief Executive Officer of the top cosmetic company in Korea, 'Dream Shade'.
She tilted her head to him, shooting him a piercing look with her brown eyes and she immediately knew from his face.
"Miss Choi," Myung-dae said again, glancing at the chair whether he should sit or not.
Dea made a sweet gesture at him and waved her hand towards the chair. "Why are you still standing up, Myung-dae? Please, take a seat."
His eyes went bigger behind his eyeglasses, he leant to her with a questioning look.
'Did I hear her correctly?'
"Your expression is exaggerated, Mr. Lee," her smile fell, becoming impatient. "I just told you to sit. What's so surprising about it?"
"Because maybe it is the first time you didn't ignore a human being, my dear friend," Myung-dae brimmed with happiness and quickly lounged himself in the chair.
'My coldhearted friend is finally learning manners. Thanks God. I promise I will go to the church.....hopefully next year. Heh heh.'
"What are you mumbling about?" Dea raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't have my all time for you. Finish reporting why you did come here," she pulled out a cigar case from the top drawer of the desk.
"Hey, no smoking here," he warned her, looking at her like she was a five year old child.
"I am not smoking," she replied, although she wanted to. She kinda seemed soft today, she pushed the case aside.
"Good girl," he grinned, finally placing the blue file on the desk. "Uhm.....Dea, w-what I came to tell you is.....I think you won't be happy about this after you listen," he swallowed, his sweating system was running wild.
"Is...?" she marked the gap, frowning. "Gosh. You are sweating like crazy. What is the problem?" she handed him a tissue from the box.
"Is...." he chuckled timidly.
"Spit it out, Myung-dae." She snapped.
"Someone spread rumors in Internet about the new foundation 'Petals' we launched last week. Customers are complaining that the foundation created rash and pimples in their skin after using. They even threatened to file cases against you under their consumer rights and claimed that they have proofs of our 'Bad' products. Internet and mass media all where reporters are talking about this incident. I am afraid you need to answer them if you go out now. At the other side, our stock share has been reduced by five percent due to this situation," Myung-dae finished his speech breathlessly, then stood up from the chair. "That's all for now, Miss Choi. I'm off then," he stepped to the door steadily.
"Wait."
He stopped, squeezing his eyes. 'Oh Jesus, help me. I'm so fried today. No, no, I'm scared that she would eat me raw, if she had the chance. Well done, COO Lee, you are the finisher of your own life! I wonder if you will get a second life.'
Myung-dae turned to her, offering his best smile. "Hehe, Miss Choi. Is there....anything else you need to know?"
To tell in truth, Choi Dea wasn't that shocked hearing this news. She knew that something like this could happen any day, but she didn't think that person would go this far. Being in a top position wasn't easy, when she never wanted for it. She swiveled her chair and raised her leg one after another, glaring at the man standing in front of her.
"Why didn't I hear of this earlier, Mr. Lee?" she sweetly smiled at him, but all she wanted to do was grab his collar and throw him to the wall just like a superhuman.
'I am so screwed today. Why is she smiling at me like this?'
Myung-dae tried to brighten his features and took a step forward. He shoved his rimmed glasses closer to his eyes and roamed eyes through her desk. "Perhaps.....perhaps you didn't hear of this earlier because you turned your phone off? The news are all over Facebook and Naver. You could see them a while ago if your phone was on, Miss Choi," he giggled silently.
Dea's smile disappeared from her lips, she picked up her phone from the desk. It was true that it was powered off and seeing that, her expression darkened.
'You got me.' She threw the phone at the wall instead of Myung-dae. 'Why the hell is this happening? Why did she do that, huh?'
Myung-dae flinched at the sound of crashing the phone against the wall. He gulped down, staring at her with horrified eyes.
"Who spread the rumors?" Dea asked in a cold tone. "I want to see them. Bring it to me."
Myung-dae smiled nervously. The tablet was on his table, but he forgot to charge it before coming to office.
"I didn't tell you to show me one of your flirtatious smile. Bring the tablet to me and also inform Jae-hwa," she retorted.
Seo Jae-hwa was the Chief Financial Officer of their company, also amongst the his dislike ones. "Why do I have to inform him? What about your assistant?"
"His girlfriend is sick. He can't come today."
"What?" 'Am I daydreaming? From when did Dea get this soft to permit holidays to her personal assistant? Hell, look at my fate. She even doesn't stop bother me in Fridays.'
At that moment, the Chief Information Officer of this company briskly stepped into her office. His name was Park Ji-ho, normally he was quiet type and a workaholic. He glanced at Myung-dae for a brief moment and turned to Dea.
"Miss Choi," Ji-ho nodded and extended the tablet from his hand. "There are the videos which are causing the rumors. These tapes are made by a professional impersonator, even the sound system looks like real."
Dea scrolled down through the videos in that YouTube channel, there were total seven of them. Those already got many viewers and comments about the side effects of their new foundation 'Petals', but they weren't true. Dea was strictly handling her makeup industry, there was no way that the products could be made by bad ingredients. Whoever uploaded these videos truly wanted to annihilate her reputation. She noticed the channel's name, it was Spoiled Makeup, though she didn't recognize the model in the tapes.
"Who is this woman?" she asked.
"Our IT experts are now investigating this, Miss Choi. We already deleted the videos from this website, but since they got so many share, it might take a while. This fraud is very clever, he uploaded this videos from a public Internet cafe. It's just a matter of time we find the IP address and track his name and address," Ji-ho politely replied.
Myung-dae shifted uncomfortably in his position, thinking whether he should get out from here or not. Dea frowned at him, as if silently she was asking him why he was still standing there.
"I am leaving, Boss," Myung-dae walked to the door.
"I didn't tell you to leave, Lee Myung-dae," she spoke coldly and glanced at Ji-ho. "Mr. Park, could you please tell CFO Seo to come in my office?"
"Yes, Miss Choi," Ji-ho left the room.
'Please?' He rolled his eyes. 'Isn't she acting strange today? She could just use the phone to call that bloody CFO.'
Myung-dae tried to make his face serious and dropped himself again in the chair. But he was feeling stuffy in this room, if the windows were opened he would feel good. Raining had stopped already.
Dea sighed subconsciously, waiting for Jae-hwa. What happened to their stock share this time? She could guess who was behind all of this, but she made up her decision to wait until she found solid proof.
Suddenly a idea emerged in his head.
"Choi Dea," he eagerly said.
"What?" her eyes snapped to his. "Do you need to go to the washroom now?"
"Agh, shut up," he whined. "You like to make fun of me, don't you? In this great danger of our company...I would like to suggest something which definitely will help you out," he blinked his eyes.
"Don't give me that puppy look. Just tell me what your suggestion is. I am already very, very mad at you, so trust me that you would suffer if you don't say anything helpful," she poured a cup of coffee from the flask.
"Come closer," he moved his head forward, lowering his voice.
"No need. I can hear you."
Myung-dae was praising himself in mind for this brilliant idea, he was sure that she would be damn happy after hearing his super suggestion.
"Are you telling or not?" she sipped her coffee, looking at him with annoyance.
"Choi Dea, let's ask for help to a Mafia," he grinned like he just solved a math problem bigger than Einstein's.
Dea choked on her coffee, coughing.
'WHAT THE HELL DID HE JUST SAY?'