The dark thick liquid glided smoothly and he hummed in contentment. He put down his glass and focused on the report in front of him. Drumming his fingers on the table, he corrected his glasses before continuing to read the documents carefully.

KNOCK KNOCK

"Come in."

Sungmin turned the knob quietly and entered the room, bringing another set of files with him. Sighing, Heechul leaned on his seat and waited for his sub to give the information he most likely brought.

"Good morning, Boss."

"Morning, anything new?" Heechul said as he skimmed the new files before putting it down and giving Sungmin all the attention.

"I forgot to tell you that there was a new order on the day you were absent, you know... After you drank a lot-"

Heechul abruptly raised his hand to shut his staff before Sungmin blabbered the embarrassing memory once again. The morning he woke up after getting completely wasted, the hangover hit him severely that he couldn't proceed to work. Nothing from that night he remembered except for Kyuhyun was the one taking him home. He blamed himself for being so careless and even got a fight in the club until he got all the bruises. It made him shiver when he remembered how frustrating he might have looked that time. As for Jungsoo, he hadn't heard about the CEO simply because he didn't answer either messages or calls from him.

"...they will come- Boss?"

Heechul quickly snapped back to reality when Sungmin swayed his hand in front of him. Daydreaming was never acceptable he scolded himself.

"Sorry, you're saying?"

Sungmin sighed; he knew Heechul had gone through a lot yet the older still tried his best to be professional. He smiled and repeated, "The order, Boss. I'm sorry to inform you just now. It is under the name of Mr. Oh for his son in law. If it goes as planned, they will come today for the measurement."

Heechul nodded understandingly, scribbling some notes on his book.

"And about the design? The deadline?"

Sungmin pondered for a while before smiling apologetically.

"That too, we may discuss today. They're so busy so we haven't met them yet."

"Fine, my schedule?"

"I've talked to Donghae and he said he had fitted the meeting to your schedule."

"Alright then. Come with me, Min. I'm sending Donghae to another agenda today."

][-ooo-][

Heechul fixed his fancy jacket as he walked through the corridor with Sungmin approaching the meeting room. One thing he learned was that he should look decent and believable to be a designer if he wanted to convince his clients. Therefore, he would always groom himself a little before having a meeting with his clients. Sungmin pushed the door opened and led him to the room. It had been a long time since he used this room because he usually had a meeting outside adjusting to his clients' preference. The last time this room functioned was when he was the tender of Jungsoo's hotel anniversary. Again, whatever he did, it bounced back to him.

"Hyung, I'll get them at the front, wait here for a moment."

---

Sungmin was stunned. If he could resign from his work now, he would. He didn't know how this could make a correlation but the people he was bringing to the room where Heechul was waiting were not all new to him—at least, he knew who Jungsoo was. His heart began to race as he was nearing the damn room. He could tell that Jungsoo was having the same problem as the CEO had a cold expression, stubbornly looking at the ground. He weakly knocked on the door to inform his boss that they arrived, as well as informing that he was sorry for bringing more pain.

"Boss."

Heechul looked up from his sketchbook and as though his brain halted to function for a moment and his whole body were in spasm, he felt like it was a paused scene of a movie. The moment he lifted his gaze, that was when his heart was tossed mercilessly. He knew it; judging from the nasty smirk on that woman's face, he knew they came here to seek revenge. Yet, he would not wave a white flag just yet in the name of professionalism.

"Good afternoon," Heechul greeted, calmly stretching his hand to his special clients. Jisook hid behind her mask as always and received the handshake warmly. The same thing, however, didn't happen with Jungsoo's mother as she only looked at Heechul's hand haughtily to which Heechul only smiled. He was hesitating for a moment when he was about to offer his hand to Jungsoo but he, again, reminded himself to be prudent; therefore, he was glad when Jungsoo accepted the gesture although Heechul made a mental note that the other people threw a look when the CEO held his hand exceptionally tight.

"Welcome to Petal," Heechul beamed and asked them to sit down. Sungmin came to sit beside him to read the overall order. Noticing that his staff got a bit stiff, Heechul patted his back to tell that it was okay—he was okay.

"My name is Lee Sungmin, the head of the production team in Petal. I'm very honored to be a part of this so let me read your order before we continue to the details."

Sungmin gulped, mentally slapping himself for being nervous.

"The order is under Mr. Oh Jaewan, a tuxedo for his s-son in law. We haven't received any design from him so I assume that it will be our main focus today."

Heechul smiled at Sungmin before he wrote something from his staff's explanation as well as some answers from Jungsoo to Sungmin's questions on his sketchbook like his height, his weight, what kind of shoes he would wear and any other needed information like how he always did with the other orders. He, then, turned to his audience and began his presentation.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter