CHAPTER 1

Tao.

If there's ever anything that you shouldn't do to Kris, it's to disappoint him.

I don't know exactly what happened but all I know is that we've lost around 10 employees this morning and to see crying ladies so early in the morning in the lobby can be quite stressful. I don't know how Kris does it, I don't even have the heart to scold my secretary whenever she brings me my coffee late.

Sigh. But what can I do? Kris always has the final word to everything.

“Well, this is a nice way to start a morning” Suho approaches me with folders in his hand, the other inside his pocket. “What did they do?” I ask. Suho lets out a heavy sigh, he sounded so stressed out but who wasn't? We've all been working non-stop for the expansion of one of the branches to China. I don't even know why Kris wants another branch there, there are already around 3 branches of the company in China and surely, he's not running out of money anytime soon even if he didn't expand.

“His excellency got pissed off by the fact that the promotional shoot for one of the labels in the clothing department got canceled due to uncontrollable circumstances or if I should say: the model got sick” I pocket one of my hands and asked Suho “Couldn't they just hire another one?”

Suho nodded his head “They did but guess what Kris said”

“What?”

“Keep your job without pay or go and find another” Damn. That guy is as heartless as the wind and not to mention, his colder than the Arctic. “I'll catch you later Tao, I have a meeting over at SM Enterprise, wouldn't want to disappoint Kris”

I smiled at Suho as he gave me a pat on the shoulder and went off. I turned around and fixed my tie before walking to the elevator, giving curt nods to those who were greeting me. I pressed the top floor and stepped back, briefcase in hand containing the contracts that Kris wanted. There were only two things I could expect when I set this thing down onto his table, he'd either tell me to: end all ties or if he were by some miracle in a good mood, renew.

Ding. The doors opened and I stepped out, walking down the hall to his office or as others called it: Hades' throne. I gave it two soft knocks and heard a soft voice saying 'come in'. I walked in and there he was.

“Morning Gege”

“Hm.” Cold. Arctic cold.

“Here are the contracts you wanted” I placed the briefcase on top of his table and he abruptly stops writing and looked at it. “All of them?” I nod my head and he resumes writing “Pull them out, they're going bankrupt”

There you have it. It's once in a blue moon that Kris says the word renew.

I let out a sigh before walking towards one of the chairs infront of his table and sat down, crossing my legs and leaned back. Kris doesn't even look up.

“Tao...”

“Yes?”

“Didn't you hear me?”

“I did”

“Don't test my patience” Sigh.

“Gege, can I ask you a question?”

“Make it quick”

“You fired 10 employees because?”

Kris lets out a sigh in return and puts his pen down -or you can also say, softly slams it- as his eyes looked at me. I kept looking at him, waiting for his answer.

“Get Sehun, tell him to hire new ones before the week ends and while you're at it, go to JYP Co. as my representative, I can't leave the office today” he pushed himself off his seat and walked towards the mini bar at the corner of his office, pouring himself a glass of vodka.

“O~kay” I got up from my seat and began to head out but turned back around when I had grabbed the door knob “Gege, you should really stop drinking vodka at an early hour”

He just motioned me away with two of his fingers. When is he ever gonna change? I pulled my phone out from my pocket and called Sehun.

“Yeah?” He groans. Great, he's gonna be late... again. “Get your out of bed or Kris is going after it” he chuckles on the other line and I hear shuffling movements “That'd be a sight to see”

“He asked for replacements, he fired ten just this morning, make sure they're hired before the end of the week” I hear him sigh on the other line; I press the button and wait for the elevator doors to open “Great. You know, he should really consider firing people once a month, not every week” I step in as the doors opened and pressed the ground floor “Seriously, he needs to slow down”

“You know Kris...” I in some air and slowly released “He'll do as he pleases, he won't listen to anyone”

“Does Chairman Wu even know what the hell his son has been doing?” I shrug and reached the ground floor “I don't know but it's not like it will make any difference; anyway, get your up and give the names, arrange the interview date, I have to go on a meeting since Kris can't leave the office” Sehun 'tsk'-ed on the other line “Fine. Maybe I'll look for a pretty female to catch his heart” I chuckled “Good luck with that”

Hana.

“You're fired”

And... cue the sound of my world shattering.

Here I was, sitting down infront of my superior, letting the words sink in and break my heart. I have worked here for 3 years already and I have never once, did anything disappointing, so... how can she fire me?

“M-Madame Lee, I -” she held up her palm, stopping me from talking; she clasped her hands together and placed them on her desk. “Ms. Kim, I understand that you've served this company for a long time but... as sad as it is, we have to make replacements and Ms. Go has been doing exceptionally well”

That's unfair! I broke my mouth open “But Madame Lee -” a sigh escaped her lips and she handed me over a small brown envelope. There it is, the last cheque I will ever receive from this company. She really was serious.

“Good day, Ms. Kim”

“What am I gonna do now?” I rest my head onto the steering wheel. Looks like I'm gonna be saying goodbye to this car in a month if I don't find a new job soon. Sigh. I look up and pouted, there he was, looking over Seoul with his pretty face and good life. “What would you do, Kris?”

Great, now I'm talking to a billboard. But seriously... what would he do? He's not gonna do anything because in case you forgot, he's on top of the world and no one can fire him. Thanks for the comfort, self. Really helpful. Don't mention it! Okay, I'm really going crazy now.

I look up again. Wu Enterprise.

“That's it!”

I got out of my car and gave Kris a thumb's up... er... the billboard I mean. Wu Enterprise, I'm coming for you!

Kris.

If there's anything I hated other than my employees slacking around and disappointing me, it's interviews. I don't know why the hell I have to be present, heck, they can hire whoever they want so long as they don't cause me problems.

“Glad you made it!” Chanyeol needs to keep his voice to a minimum. My head is throbbing today and I hope to get things over with and relax in my office. I took my seat, two chairs from the middle seat; one: I'm not going to ask any questions and two: I don't want anyone to focus on me.

“Seriously, smile a little Kris or else, you'll grow wrinkles” Chanyeol chuckled and took his seat on my left. I looked at my watch “It's 8 AM, let's get this over with”

Everyone takes their seat and the interview begins. Suho and Sehun do most of the talking while all of us just sit there quietly; for some reason, as the 4th interviewee comes in, I notice one thing and turn to Sehun. What the hell is he trying to do?

“So, you've just graduated from Kyunghee University?” Suho asks and the female nods her head with a smile, she keeps glancing at me and it's beginning to annoy me. One more glance. “Well, I'm impressed” Sehun voices out, clasping his hands together as he rests his elbows on the table infront of us; the female smiles and gives a nod then after a few seconds, steals a glance at me.

A heavy, annoyed sigh escapes my lips. “What's your name again?” I ask her, shifting in my seat.

“Seong Shinae... s-sir” she flusters. I lean back once again in my seat, crossing my legs “Ms. Seong, how qualified do you think you are?” I question her and her eyes widen a bit. Tsk. Tsk. “S-sir?”

“I don't like repeating myself Ms. Seong, please answer the question” she hesitates for a moment then breaks to speak “I've had enough experience, sir”

“Ms. Seong, I didn't ask how much experience you've had; seeing as though you can't answer a simple question properly, I won't be needing you here in my company... plus, I don't like flirts” everyone turned to me. The female stood up and gave a quick bow before rushing out of the room; soon, the secretary popped her head in and asked if she should send in the next one but Suho asked her to give us a minute.

“Damn Kris, you didn't have to be that rude” Luhan said, leaning further back in his seat. “I don't intend on hiring someone whose sole purpose is to get under their boss; now bring the next one in so this could be quick”

The next interviewees were all females and I'm pretty sure that after this, I'll be throwing Sehun out of my office window. He gave me a smug smile when he caught me looking at him. Keep smiling idiot, I know what you're up to and you're failing. When the last interviewee was done, I got up from my seat, buttoned my coat and fixed my tie.

“Sehun, will you care to tell me why all the interviewees were female?” I turned to him; he gave me a smile and asked “Did you like any of them?” my eyes narrowed at him but he didn't seem affected by it. He just shrugged his shoulders and let out a sigh “Ah well, I tried but we will be picking 10 out of those 15 girls, do you have anyone in particular you want in, Kris?”

I my heel and started for the door “I don't care who you hire, as long as they do their job right”

Slam. The door closed behind Kris and everyone in the room let out a sigh. “He still scares me” Xiumin leaned back on his seat after he speaks out his mind; Luhan fixes his cuffs and gets up from his chair “Well, I'll leave the hiring to you guys... I'll go talk to him” he then leaves with a smile. Kyungsoo gets up from his seat and heads for the door as well

“Where are you going?” Lay asks him. He looks at them over his shoulder and gives a small smile “I need some fresh air, I'll be back”

Meanwhile, down at the ground floor. An oblivious Kim Hana enters through the glass doors and takes a deep breath. You can do this Hana! She silently motivates herself and fixes her skirt before walking up to the front desk. “How may I help you?” the woman behind the marble desk asks, not looking up from her computer. Hana clears and speaks “I-I'm here to apply for a position”

The lady continues to type “Sorry but the interviews have ended already”

Hana's eyes widened, she suddenly became at a loss for words. No. That can't be right. The schedule said 10 in the morning and it's only 9:30! “Miss, are you sure?” the lady sighs and nods her head. “B-but -”

“Ma'am, if you want, you can leave your resume at the box and we'll give you a call; as of now, there are no more interviews” Hana frowned and let out a sigh before turning around, before taking a step she turned back around and leaned over the desk a bit “Are you sure?”

The receptionist gave her a warning look; Hana turned around and headed for the door. I hate this. What am I going to do now? Aigo.

She sat outside the building's front steps, her folder beside her; she brought her hands to her face and leaned forward a bit, resting her elbows on her knees. She looked up and turned her head, the large sign hanging on the building: Wu Enterprise. Here she was, so close yet so far. With a final puff of breath, she grabs her folder from the side and gets up to leave.

Kyungsoo exits the building and breaths in the fresh air. All the tension in the room was stressing him; as he was about to go back inside, he felt something hit the back of his neck; he reached his hand back and realized it was just a piece of paper. He was about to throw it away when he saw a photo attached on the corner of the paper. It was a resume.

“Kim Hana?” he read the name before looking over the piece of paper. He looked around him, hoping to find the owner of the paper but no one's face came close to that on the photo. Kyungsoo walked back inside and saw Luhan, quickly, he walked towards his colleague “Luhan”

Luhan looked up from the folder that Suho had given him to submit for hiring “Oh hey, Kyungsoo... Chen was looking for you, something about coffee” Luhan informed him. “I see... ah, anyway, is that subject for hiring?” he asked, pointing at the folder in Luhan's hand and he nodded. Kyungsoo held out the piece of paper to him which he took in confusion.

“What's this?” Luhan asked, he took a look at the photo and the name “Kim Hana?”

“I found that outside, she has an impressive outline and she's worked with Cube Inc. as head of the financial department for 3 years” Kyungsoo explains; Luhan looks at him with a confused smile “So?”

“Cube replaces their employees under 30 after a year, she's only 24; She must've been exemptional for them to keep her that long” Luhan looks at the paper again and then at Kyungsoo “Alright. I'll schedule her for interview later in the afternoon if we get contact from her, if not then I'll put this in the rejects”

“Fine by me” Kyungsoo shrugs and bids him goodbye to look for Chen.

Luhan looks down at the photo once more “Kim Hana... hm... how strange, a resume of a girl with good background found in the streets”

Luhan hands over the folder to one of the employees to be hired and walks to the front desk. He smiles down at the receptionist who smiles back with a fluster at his presence “Yes sir?”

“Contact her for me, tell her she has an interview at 4... and uh... call me when she says yes, araso?” Luhan hands her the piece of paper and she takes it in her hand. their fingers brushing a bit but Luhan is not even hinting the littlest interest.

The receptionist smiles at him and nods her head. Luhan pushed himself off the desk and walks to the elevator with his hands in his pockets.