Krystal could not help but feel a tad unnerved by Amber’s presence. The girl was, as so to say, different. Too different from what Krystal was used. There was a reason why odd fishes were excluded from society and that was because no one knew how to handle them. Yet, Amber seemed to take pride in her appearance, which unsettled her even more.
She knew how to handle CEOs; vice-presidents; personal assistants; literally anyone who worked in a corporation. She was used to leading, to tell people what to do. She was used to people following her lead. But Amber was having none of that. Without her even saying something, she could feel that the air around them was different than the air around her and David. David would do as she said within a blink of an eye. Amber would scoff and laugh and do the exact opposite. It unsettled her to not be in control and it infuriated her that she had lost it in the very first few minutes of their conversation. Was she that weak?

“You said you weren’t interested in
“Information,” was all she said. Krystal narrowed her eyes.
Eventually, the taller woman pointed her twinkling, dark eyes at her and wiggled playfully with her eyebrows. Krystal clenched her jaw.
Amber started to laugh. She shook her head slowly. Krystal waited in irritation until her laughter died out, anger building more and more in her stomach as the seconds passed.
“Say what you want or leave,” she hissed. “I don’t allow you to come here for you to play games with me. There must be something that you want.”
The smaller woman rolled her eyes and combed with her fingers through her hair once, whereupon she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“I have a fourth of Liu Industrials’ stocks and am Chester Liu’s daughter. I have enough power,” Amber muttered with a sigh.
“Power, then,” Krystal tried once more, getting agitated by now. Was she playing some kind of game with her?
Amber shook her head. “What should I do with those? They don’t interest me at all.”
“Access to Rilex Internationals’ documents?”
“Nope.”
Krystal frowned. “Money?”
“Suggest something.”
Amber lifted one of her black eyebrows and pouted for a couple of seconds. She looked away, up to the ceiling, as if she was thinking. Krystal stayed silent, waiting for her to respond. After a while, the girl simply shrugged.
But everything had a price and Krystal reckoned that Amber wasn’t the kind of person who did things out of the goodness of her heart. Hell, even Krystal was more likely to do that.
“If this one is free, then what is your price for the next documents?” she asked. Krystal straightened her back and put on a neutral expression. It was hard, with the way her stomach was jumping up and down of excitement at the tons of secret information that laid in front of her on the counter. Rilex would already have such a head start with only this bundle of papers… let alone everything else Amber would bring.
After a few moments of silence, CEO Jung came back to life.
“I told you I’d give you something for free, as a token of my trustworthiness,” the other woman said casually. Amber was inspecting her short nails as she said so. Krystal still did not know quite right how to respond, as she was still baffled at what Amber had brought to her.
“These documents… They’re all of the projects Liu Industrials is working on and months of incomes and expenses. Why would you give me all of this?”
“And?” she asked remotely.
Krystal looked up with suspicion. Amber nudged her to take it. Slowly, she extended her hand and let it run over the front page. Krystal turned it. The second page showed an index. Her eyes widened at the different chapters. After quickly running through the document to make sure it was true and everything listed in the index was in it, she looked up to Amber. The woman had risen her eyebrow questioningly.
After downing Krystal’s drink, Amber had smirked and turned around. She had taken her backpack from her back and thrown a bundle of papers held together by a black paperclip onto the kitchen counter. The front page read: ‘Trust’.Rilex’s documents.”
“Not data. No numbers, no budgets, no projects. Nothing like that,” Amber smiled. “I want information about you.”
Krystal scoffed, “Me?”
Amber leaned onto the kitchen counter with one elbow and smiled like she had already achieved what she wanted. It was a cocky, self-satisfied, confident grin that caused annoyance to bubble up once more inside her. How could this girl be so confident? It was brave as well as foolish. “Yes, you.”
“There is nothing to be said about me. On top of that, I keep my private matters and work separate,” Krystal barked. She took both of their glasses and was ready to turn her back to the girl when a low chuckle made her stop mid-spin.
“Just like that boy toy whom you keep directing up to your apartment, I’m sure.”
Krystal froze. The glasses almost slipped through her fingers. The very little colour on her face had completely evaporated now, leaving her as white as a sheet.
When she did not reply, Amber went on. “Is it true I saw him atRilex’s anniversary party as well? The one in the suit with the fancy hair, who keeps barking instructions through his earpiece? Is he head of the security team? I suppose he is. How shallow of you to date someone like that, just an ordinary bodyguard.”
“I don’t date him,” Krystal hissed back, suddenly springing back to life. She turned around and placed the glasses back on the counter more forcefully than she meant to. The sound of the glass making contact with the marble ringed through the living room. Amber did not even flinch but kept eyeing her with those sparkling dark orbs. The cocky smile did not fade from her face.
“Then you’re ing him, which is probably even more obscene, Princess. I suppose every woman has their needs, every now and then. I just didn’t think of-”
“Shut up,” Krystal growled. “What kind of information do you want?”
“That was easy. I just had to spill one little detail about you and you gave in. I should remember that for the following time,” Amber muttered, more to herself than to Krystal. When she saw the other woman’s fierce look, she stopped and smiled apologetically. “What kind, you ask? Well, anything, really! Let’s say that I drop by every week to give you a fresh report and I get to ask any question I want. You have to answer truthfully, otherwise, the deal is off.”
Krystal pulled up her nose in disgust. “And why would you make a deal like that? You won’t gain anything out of it other than my favourite colour.”
Amber chuckled. “You see, that’s the thing, Miss Jung. I have grown interested in you and you alone. It does not happen that someone catches my attention and definitely not for a long period of time. But I have been wondering about it for a couple of weeks now and I want to know the person behind the façade. Not the CEO of Rilex Internationals though, since I bet your profession is probably the least interesting thing about you. I indeed want to know your favourite colour and so much more. At least, if you were willing to accept. Remember that I can ask anything I want and you have to answer.”
Krystal clenched her jaw. For a long time, she let her eyes wander over Amber’s face in search of any lies. Her deep, dark eyes which twinkled with delight, the pulled-up eyebrows, the piercing in her nostril and ears, the corners of which were only slightly pulled up into something that one could not just yet call a smile. She could see the edge of her tattoos curl up at the back of her neck.
There was nothing. No trail of a lie to be seen on her face. No tensed muscles, no sour smile. Nothing. There was nothing that gave her the impression that Amber was lying. But her request might have been the strangest she had ever gotten. It suddenly started to make sense to her why Amber was not in charge of Liu Industrials; the girl must be mad or something. But she had brought her these documents and promised to keep doing so in exchange for personal information. It seemed too good to be true.
As a wise CEO, Krystal knew it was not smart to take the offer. She had these documents already, she could crush Liu Industrials by solemnly these few pages of paper. But Amber had access to literally everything else that she needed and Amber was the only one who was willing to help her out. Giving away personal information in exchange for life-changing documents was a small sacrifice. A sacrifice that Krystal was willing to make, she realised.

She opened the door and left the apartment. Krystal watched the door fall shut with a strange feeling in her stomach. It
“As you say, Miss Jung. Next week it is.”
The words had left before she knew what she had said. Krystal clenched her jaws, making sure nothing else ill-considered came out. Amber started to grin. The woman winked.
“I take the offer. Next week, same time. My apartment.”
With a last self-satisfied smile, she turned around and walked back towards the front door. Krystal watched her go, her stride confident and her backpack hanging loosely over one shoulder. Amber was at the door when she heard herself call for her to stop. Amber turned around, one eyebrow pulled up in an unspoken question.
“You know how to reach me.”
The girl bowed down, grabbed her backpack and flung it over her shoulder. Amber ran with her fingers through her hair, pushing it back trying to keep it from falling in front of her face. It was futile, as her straight hair just jumped back right in position.
“Everybody is. But besides these papers, I can’t give anything more but my word. You can think about the offer if you want to. Take all the time you need. I’m not in a rush, Princess. I’ll wait.”
“You do get why I am suspicious of your right?” she heard herself say. Amber chuckled.
“Then I can only get better, right? If I’m already at my lowest now, I can only surprise you positively. Take the offer, save your company. The rest is just a detail,” Amber hummed. She pointed her dark eyes towards Krystal’s. For a second, she thought she could see them darken.
“Do you blame me for that? Your reputation can’t drop any lower.”
“You don’t trust me, Princess?” Amber snickered, the cheesy grin suddenly returning to her face. Krystal rolled her eyes.
Krystal shook her head. “If we’re going to do this, I want security.”
“We sealed the deal with these drinks. Next time, buy Jack Daniels, though. The Famous Grouse is just a waste of money. Get some nice wine for yourself as well.”
“Let me set up a contract,” she quickly added. Krystal already wanted to turn around, when she felt a warm hand curl around her slender wrist. Another shock made her body freeze on the spot. Electricity ran through her arm all the way up to her spine, making her shiver. Krystal roughly took her hand back and pressed her lips firmly to each other. Amber, either not realizing how uncomfortable she was with the touch or simply not caring, rose one of her eyebrows.
“I take the offer,” she said slowly, making sure every word was pronounced with extra care. She could hear the words echo in her ears after they had left .
There was at least a minute of silence before Krystal sighed. Amber had risen her eyebrows questioningly.wasn’t regret, but she feared what this deal might bring.

There were no signs that Amber Liu had been at Krystal’s apartment except for the empty glass of whiskey and the bundle of papers which held some of Liu Industrials’ secrets.
Krystal went to work early the next day.

“How was the date?
It was the first thing that left David’s mouth the following morning, which instantly caused Krystal’s mood to drop. She rolled her eyes. He followed her to her office, two mugs of damping coffee in his hand. One black as could be, the other one mocha coloured due to the amount of milk that had been poured into it.
“I told you it was not a date.”
“Then how was the ‘business meeting’?” David chuckled, eyeing her with a bright grin.
“Successful, as always.” Her voice sounded toneless and utterly bored. Krystal did not even try to hide how much this conversation annoyed her.
“So, you got laid then?”
“I think you should reconsider whom you’re talking to,” Krystal hissed at him. “I don’t wish to be spoken to like that.”
David chuckled and shook his head, knowing better than to taunt Krystal any more. Even though barking dogs did not bite, he did not like to risk his job.
“If you say so,” he sang, before leaving her to her job. Krystal shook her head, sighed and shut the door of her office once he had left. She placed her bag on her desk and took out her laptop. As she sat down and started up the device, she could not help to wonder towards the bundle of papers in her handbag. She felt like she was under fire, with a constant target on her back. Maybe, within a couple of minutes, two cops would come in and take her by the arm, accusing her of stealing from another company. They’d take her to court and Rilex Internationals would fall due to a lack of lead. She’d lose the company, her power, her money and wealth. All because she had trusted a street rat.”

It seemed so obvious that she was being fooled, which made it believable at the same time. Even though every detail pointed in the same direction, Krystal found herself wanting to trust the girl anyway. Perhaps it was just a bit of innocence of her younger
It made Krystal doubt whether or not she was being deceived. Amber could have altered the information so that it seemed Liu Industrials was working on projects it actually had dropped long ago. The data could be outdated and the numbers could be changed. There was simply no way to check if it was real.
Technically it wasn’t her who had stolen the documents, though. It was Amber. And even then, you could barely call it stealing, since she owned a fourth of the company. In fact, the information was hers and she could do with it what she wanted. Still, handing it to the enemy for something as futile as personal information basically meant Amber just gave it away for free. Nowadays, nothing is given away for free.
self bubbling up again. Maybe she just wanted to believe for once.
Her hoping heart was crushed by her head, as always. As she took the papers out of her bag to study them once more, Krystal decided that she would first wait Amber out. If her data turned to be true, there would still be enough time to crush Liu Industrials with all the information they had. Liu Industrials just needed to make a move first.
On top of that, it would look less suspicious. If Rilex suddenly overthrew Liu Industrials on every technological area would arise questions from everyone smarter than a first grader.
No, Krystal would wait her time and not blindly trust a stranger. She would wait and collect from Amber and see what the girl would bring her. Only then, Rilex would thrive. In the meantime, she needed to pretend like the didn’t know anything and resume her daily life.
It was late in the evening when Krystal finally went to bed. A content smile decorated her face for the first time in months.

A: Ugh I feel so guilty. This chapter wasn't long at all, as I promised it would be. I just had to work a lot last week so I was barely able to write ): This week I will be able to write a lot though! And if we're hitting the 250 followers then I really really really promise to make a good long chapter next time! Just be patient with this poor student who is studying so hard... >_<

A2: Ok guys this is what happens when I edit stuff late at night. Corrections are made sorry for the inconvenience.