Evening.....
5:30pm
The night dawned faster than the morning sun as the schedules of hundreds of workers piled up due to an unexpected visit from an unexpected person.
"Boss!! You're here?!" A partially good-looking man with glasses and a perm haircut exclaimed wide-eyed because his sight lay on a tall man—about 180cm with a built body. "Get the conference room ready; we'll be having a meeting in the next ten minutes," the mystery man said as he adjusted the collar of his white chiffon suit with golden finishes.
"Yeah, boss," replied Lim Cheng, the assistant with the perm haircut.
As Lim Cheng and his boss ambulated through the hallway with graces that resembled those of a prince and his servant, the offices started to shut down one by one, much like the devil had come to banish them to hell. Expectedly, the whole company found out that the boss was back.
"Have you heard? The boss is back.
("What!?")
(How!? Why!?)
("The boss is back?")
...
"Mr. Lee, it's so nice to see you're here again."
In the conference room...
The air in the room was so tense that one could cut it with a knife. The faces of all the board members were so spooked. They tried to hide the drips of sweat that were falling down their faces.
Silence rained in the hall as minutes passed by without a word being said. Until a rather brave executive spoke up to welcome the boss.
"Mr. Lee it's so nice to see you are back-" the executive was cut off by the boss's thin and long fingers, which he raised elegantly with his hand to signal him to stop talking. His fingers moved again. This time, he was gesturing to his assistant to bring forth a series of reports.
"Five years" he finally spoke up "He was gone for five years" he continued in a subtle tone that wasn't harsh at all but somehow made the executives more tense.
"Those five years was all it took to turn Dreams enterprise into a talk in the mud" his voice got a little bit harsher before his silence rained again. Nobody wanted to speak for they were all afraid of losing their jobs. Furthermore, they joined in the silence the boss–Mr Lee prevailed as he glanced through the reports brought in with a look of minute anger.
"Bring in the sales and marketing team"
With his command, an encore of lined-up members belonging to the sales and marketing team made their way in with their faces to the floor.
"Look up" Mr. Lee said after pushing a button that brought forth a series of slideshows. "Look at these reports!" his voice tuned up making them break into cold sweat. And they finally raised their heads to see their failure.
"You are all fired" The atmosphere around fumed into imaginary flames that surrounded his aura like a volcano pit.
Hence, what the entire conference feared came through, and there was nothing they could do about it. Mr. Lee stood up from his chair to continue to graze the company with his fiery presence. Indeed, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
.....
....
Later that evening...
Stares from back and front as two people battled silently for a thing that is so valuable that they couldn't let the other get it, a thing so precious that even the president himself would want to get his hands on it. Like in a Western country film, a person was on one side and another on the other.
"Will you let it go?" the left side said
"Never," the right side replied
With a flash of a smirk, they were both in full swing to see who would get the item first. They could feel the wind on their faces as they both dashed through the living room to see who would get the TV remote first and claim victory over the television.
"Stop!!"
Unfortunately, they both froze in their tracks—only about an inch from the remote—when they heard the sound of a strict woman's voice—the one enemy they both could team up against to conquer, their mom.
"Tonight my favorite actor's TV show is on; you guys can watch your stupid teen shows later," She said
"But Tottenham is playing tonight," the youngest son complained
"No, the premiere of S.O.T.N 5 is tonight."
"..."
"Shadow of the Night 5, duh," the younger daughter, roughly around 15, stated.
"If you want the remote, then come and take it."
They both argued but didn't have the guts to stand up to their mother. Alas! The two siblings sighed at the same time. Defeated, they both sat at the two ends of the living space with the prayer of one thing, the show ending as quickly as possible.
The sound of the TV put on was accompanied by the knob of the living room's door opening. "I'm back," a manly voice of twenty-five spoke out while removing his shoes from the entrance patty. "Hello? I'm back...Isn't anyone going to welcome me?" he continued, then sat on the two seated sofas.
"Anyone?"
The attention of the family was forwarded to the TV show, and it seemed like he didn't exist. The funniest part of it was that only his mom was truly watching the show. His siblings were gawking at the remote and would glance at the TV once in a while.
"Errm..."
"Oh, hey, Lee Si Sheng."
"Hi, big bro."
"I'm going to my room," Lee Si Sheng stated
"Bye Lee, Si Sheng."
"Bye, big brother."
"..."
_ _ _ _
Author:
As the dignified author of this book, I'd like to thank you for trying out my book (Back Before Dawn) out of the thousands out there, [sorry for my bad English.]
(Scoff) First of all, thank you again for your acknowledgment I know this book isn't the best, but you still gave it a try. Thanks so much.
Some parts or paragraphs may not be understandable, but er, manage? Please...