The House

Chapter 6

My entire year was spent hopping from set to set. I was always working on something, either in the studio filming commercials for brands or at home in my little rundown shared apartment with Tzuyu, editing. I was living on cheap Chinese takeout and stale coffee for most of the year and right when I thought I could breakthrough, the year ended and so did the deal I made with my father, hence I didn't.

So, begrudgingly, after another round of trying to convince my father, and failing. I wrote my applications, packed up, and left for college. I finished my dual major degree in finance and cinematography with honors in five years and right off the bat I was working at Stonks Banking as an accountant. In a short period of time I even successfully climbed the corporate ladder to not be in the highest position but in a respectable one. Something my parents and I could mention without remorse.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not ungrateful for the job I have or the money I made. Or even mad at my parents for the decisions they had to convince me of. I was given more than most, but most of my days consisted of nothing more than work and sleep, if I was lucky enough to not have tasks to do at home.

I would order Chinese takeout just to remember the taste of days I actually enjoyed. Even though back then, the apartment above me housed an angry tenant who constantly yelled at his television screen, and the bathroom pipes made ghostly sounds in the middle of the night, it felt like I was working towards something. Living the starving artist troupe, but now I drove the latest Porsche and lived in a two story home in the middle of nowhere, alone, tired, and most of all silent. Like I had moved on from starving artist avenue right on to depressed, crazy old cat lady street. Without the cats of course, but I caught myself fawning over a tabby a couple nights earlier when I mindlessly scrolled through Twitter before falling asleep and that wasn't great.

So when I woke up come Friday morning to the jarring sound of my wind up clock, teeter tottering on my side desk, I slammed it with a heavy palm and flipped over in bed, a hand on my forehead trying to massage away the persistent tension headache I felt. Eventually, I fell back to sleep and when I awoke again an hour later I practically flew out of bed.

"IM LATE!"

I squeezed a dollop of toothpaste onto my brush, tied my hair, and ran into the shower, trying to amass all my morning activists into one fluid motion.

Ultimately, with half my coat on, and a piece of bread shoved in my mouth I plunged into my car, arduously trying not to fall over myself in my heels. I revved the car and backed out of the driveway a little faster than I would have liked, speeding on to the main road and highway until I got to work. I was already an hour late and definitely in trouble. I saw my assistant standing outside the main door with a coffee in hand.

"Come on," she called seeing me pull in. "You have a board meeting about Park Industrials right now, I've collated all the necessary information in this file. You'll need it." She grabbed the coffee from my hands and pushed me into the board meeting. I fiddled with the manila file in my hands before taking a seat, besides coworkers, more interested in their slicked back hair and suits then actual human interaction.

I opened the file to see the picture of a young woman, she could be no more than the age of 24, she was smiling in the picture and it caused her eyes to look as though they were crescent moons, her hair a flamingo blond that suited her well. I kept reading about her achievements until the room dimmed and the harsh lights of the projector spilled onto the screen hanging in front.

"Okay everyone, you know the deal." A man began speaking, "As third year accountants we are keeping eyes on all of you," He scanned the room lingering in my position for a second longer before continuing, "If you want to even be considered for VP you need to be thinking about bigger fish, whales even, clients like Park Industrials. They bring in a lot of revenue and have influence over smaller companies who would want to follow their footsteps."

He continued on with his speech for half an hour more, completely explaining the client and their company to us before waving a hand and flipping on the lights but as I was about to leave his coarse voice rung across the room, "Chaeyoung could you stay a minute?" I sighed and avoided the stink eye I got from a couple vexatious coworkers and walked back to the table.
I stood near the podium behind a couple desk chairs, to create a barrier.

He looked up from his file and smiled, making his graying stubble and crows feet prominent. "I have to say you put in great work Chaeyoung. Your clients always claim you to be hospitable, you're here overtime, and your work rarely ever has any flaws. To say us heads are keeping an eye on you would surely be an understatement." He walked closer to my position, pulling at his tie. I could smell the faint hint of alcohol emanating from him and I felt my body stiffen, I gritted my teeth, sawing them side to side to keep myself from landing two punches on his smirking face.

"The VP position could surely be yours as long as you know...you're willing to work for it." He enunciated the last letter as though the double meaning behind his words wasn't clear enough. I took in a deep breath.
"Thank you Cole, I'll be sure to try my best to not let down the other." I bowed my head politely, "I'll take your leave now, I have many files to work on."

"Of course, don't let me stop you. I was just letting you know the path to VP. Go on. Also, Park Industrials is a whale and has a strong woman at the head of it, I think you'd be great if you caught her attention." He smiled with both sets of teeth and I seethed as I took heavy steps back to my desk. I was about to walk into my office when Leia my secretary stopped me.

"I booked a meeting with Park Jihyo's right hand for Monday. Apparently if you can impress him then you're basically in. The Garner files are on your desk and you have...," She rummaged through the post-it notes littering her desk. "Drinks. You have drinks with Tzuyu and Dahyun tonight at 8."

I nodded my head in understanding and thanked her. Buried under files and clients I had totally forgotten about the event planned with Tzuyu and Dahyun tonight. I smiled a little as I walked into my office, the city skyline was prominent from the ceiling to floor window behind my desk.

But I quickly pushed it all to the side seeing the mountain of files and work I had to do before I could go out. I sat down on my desk and opened my laptop, setting my phone to 'Do Not Disturb' and dialing Leia with a quick "I'm working." In return which I got an affirmative hum and end dial tone.

Author's corner:

Ayo! How are you all feeling today? I hope it's on top of the world!! Enjoy the chapter. :)

-Vika

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