This is my treat to all of you for Christmas. I wasn’t able to finish part four of the reader but I didn’t want to leave you guys without a present for Christmas. This is just a simple Taengsic one shot. I hope you guys like it. New Year is coming I will sure finish The Reader before New Year comes. Enjoy!

Christmas Tales

A Christmas Carol

            The employees of K&L Corporation rushed to return to their workplaces. They immediately focused their attention to the piles and piles of paper work on their desks. The doors of the Accounting Department opened and a handsome Adonis entered the room. His entrance was followed by the hushed whisperings of the employees. The handsome Adonis was Mr. Erick Kingsley, the President of Kingsley and Langsford Corporation and son of Mr. Victor Kingsley and Mrs. Gianna Langsford. Most people call him President Kingsley but his parents call him by his Korean name Taeyeon.

            They all look tense as the President passed them each of them looking down on the documents on their desks and on their computer screens pretending to work. But President Kingsley knew best. He knew that they were all cowering in fear at the very sight of him. He doesn’t blame them he was after all Erick the Scrooge, a nickname he got because of his foul temperament towards everyone and especially towards the Holiday season. There was nothing Erick Kingsley hated more than the Christmas season. He hated it because it reminded him of a past he knew he could never change.

            He walked into the office of the Department head and found it empty. He smiled and said to his secretary in a very cultured voice.

            “Tell Mr. Coswell that as of today he no longer has to go to his office, because he is FIRED!”

            His secretary looked at him dumfounded but nonetheless wrote down what he had said. His assistant though looked unsurprised.

            He stepped out of the department head’s office and looked at the employees working. He stood at the center of the aisle and signaled his assistant to get everyone’s attention. His assistant cleared his throat and immediately got everyone’s attention on him. All the employees looked at their president and his assistant with worried faces. The fact that President Kingsley had called their attention and was now looking and all of them with that hidden smug look on his face meant bad news.

            When all of the employees focused their attention at the President he began to speak.

            “As all of you know I have made it clear in our protocol that your Holiday break would depend on your performance from the month of November to December.”

            All the employees went rigid. They knew the worst was coming based solely on the faces of Secretary Evans and Assistant Rogers. Secretary Evans looked horrified while Assistant Rogers wore a blank expression.

            “Due to the absence of your department head who was assigned to report your work as well as show to me how good your ratings are. I am sorry to say that all of you will not be having your much awaited 2 weeks break.”

            Gasps could be heard all around the room but the President paid no heed and walked straight out of the department like nothing tragic happened. Many of the employees were crying. The fault of one man doomed an entire department. Here they thought that they were lucky because out of all the departments they were the only one who didn’t screw up. They were the only one who was not given the red flag of no Christmas vacation. They were all wrong, one way or another The Great Scrooge of K&L would find a way to hang them all!

            Scrooge had found it alright. For the first time in his career Gregory Coswell failed to show up at work damning them all. No matter how many tears were shed there was no way that the decision could change. K&L paid their employees high and this was one of the main reasons why the employees never quit. There was no foul play in work when it came to credit and promotions. You get what you deserve that was the motto when it came to monetary value and promotions. The company also granted scholarships to its employees’ kids as well as entrance to K&L Academy the best educational institution in the country, tertiary level excluded. The company also secured spots for their employees kids in the best universities in the US.

            Vacations were another matter ever since President Victor’s son took the reins of the company it became hell for the workers when it came to this aspect. The worst of it was getting a Christmas vacation was almost impossible not unless you are hospitalized for massive life threatening injuries and needed to be away from work for two weeks or more. Erick Kingsley hated the Christmas Season like it was a curse. And he avoided all things related to it like it was Ebola or some other deadly disease.

            K&L never decorated its company buildings to fit the holiday season. For a company known for being the head of the entertainment industry its employees were nowhere near entertained.  The hotel, resort and department store sector was another matter though since it was the only sectors of the corporation allowed to be covered in holiday cheer. The electronics, real estate, medical and food sector suffered from the lack of holiday cheer as well.

            The President tolerated other seasonal occasions like Easter, Halloween, national holidays and whatnot but not Christmas. No one really knew why he hated it so much but doesn’t stop them from cursing at him behind his back though. The handsome torturer was one of his other nicknames besides The Scrooge.  No wonder no woman wanted to date him.

            He sneered at all of them. He knew they were all cursing him now but he didn’t mind. He admired the view of central park from his office located at the very top of K&L Entertainment building. Man he hated the holidays. It reminded him so much of his childhood and of her. That was why he hated it so much and his employees were right about their description of his hate.

            If there was one thing his employees got wrong about him, it was the fact that he never dated. To be honest he dated numerous women but he was never serious with any of them, they were all just game to him. the women he dated were serious though, some even got far to arranging meeting between their parents. His parents of course would never force him to marry anyone; they knew they had done enough damage to last his whole lifetime.

            As he admired the view amidst the down pour of snow. Amazing it snowed in the big apple. The snow was a painful reminder of his past but he couldn't look away.

            He was the son of a Las Vegas dancer and a rich businessman. The businessman was already married and had no intention of ruining his marriage with the woman he loved. So his father and ordered his mother to abort him and paid her money to do the abortion and keep shut. Her mother did go to the clinic but she couldn’t do the deed and kept him in secret until he was born.

            A month after he was born his mother left him in an orphanage and never looked back. She gave him life and the chance to live and for that he was ever grateful. He grew up in the care of kind and loving nuns and priests something he was very lucky to have. Though he was an orphan he never lacked in love and he was content with what he had. He was also a very intelligent child who was very aware of everyone around him. He dreamed of becoming a priest someday but that all changed when he turned four and met a beautiful blonde hair Asian girl named Jung Sooyeon.

            If it was possible to fall in love at such a tender age then he had fallen in love. Sooyeon was his world; she made everything burst into a kaleidoscope of colors. She was his guiding star, his compass. From the moment he met her he knew what he wanted to become and that was to be her husband.

            Each day, each minute and each second with her was pure bliss and he cherished each memory. Christmas was the most beautiful time of the year because it was Sooyeon’s favorite season. They would hang the garlands together all over the halls of the orphanage and of course on the fireplace. They would also help in putting up the Christmas lights. He remembers the time he almost took a pair of scissors out to cut the tangled wires apart because he was frustrated. He also remembered almost falling off the window trying to help Father Lavigne put up white colored Christmas lights up on the second floor of the orphanage.

            He remembered Sooyeon screaming in fear when he almost fell. He remembered hugging her eight year old body tight to reassure her that he was safe. He remembers going to the Christmas Tree Orchard to get a tree, then afterwards decorating it with Mrs. Brown’s fancy balls and tassels and tinsels. It was the moment in his life that he cherished most. Sooyeon’s happy smile and the good feel of home.

            After the decorations were put up they wrapped their presents for Christmas cringle. The year he turned ten was the year he had Sooyeon as his manita and he gave her a cross necklace he made himself from melting scrap metal and wires. He was very proud of that necklace. Sooyeon said that to her it was the most beautiful necklace on the face of the earth because he made it. When they finished with the presents they ate the Christmas dinner they all helped make. And in the afternoon after snow sledding they snacked on the cookies they baked themselves. He could still remember the cookies that Sooyeon made sweet and tangy and little burnt but they were still the best orange cookies in the world because they were uniquely Sooeyeon's.

            The presents, garlands, snow and food reminded him so much of his first and last love Sooyeon, the girl his parents forced him to leave behind when they took him from the orphanage, the year he turned 11 on a Monday morn in the month of May. His father the rich man had lost all his children in a terrible accident and he and his wife could no longer have kids because they both got surgeries to prevent reproduction. His father’s wife had also reached menopause stage that year. The surgeries were his solution to his wife’s request to have a divorce when she found out he cheated so he could never sire bastards ever again. Neve realizng that this would damn both of them and that a bastard would save their lives and the family line.