In the Rain (Prequel to Rain Again)

Chapter Eight: The Creative Heaven

In the middle of her glaring session, suddenly making her blink, the door opened. At first, she thought it was going to be the junior Leon, but out came someone else — the other suit-wearing guy from that day at the shrine, who had approached her and thrust the stack of money into her hand because of whom she had fallen such embarrassingly into the mud.

What Kate really wanted was to throw all the files in her hands right at his head. But she didn't.

Her glare hardened when he passed by, though. He looked at her briefly and then a bit awkwardly looked away. There, he recognized her.

"Minion of the devil!" Absentmindedly, she blurted out through gritted teeth.

"Girls of the office might gang up and kill you if they heard what you said, so you should be careful in what name you give Kyle, you know, newbie."

Kate looked to the side to see a pretty-looking girl with friendly vibes standing beside her. She had decent makeup on, donning a mini maroon-colored dress with matching maroon lipstick on her lips which were now stretched into a bright smile as she looked at the devil's minion — whose name apparently was Kyle — walking out of their sight.

"Majority of girls in here have a crush on him. Also, he's quite arrogant, being the CEO's favorite among the entire security team. He has achieved great heights quite quickly," the girl looked her way, giving out information Kate didn't ask for. Then suddenly, she noted Kate's face and also the awkward silence. "Oh," Now she fully turned to face her. "Myself — Gloria. I work upstairs as a fashion designer."

"Upstairs?"

There was a small pause from the still-smiling Gloria, after which it seemed she finally realized that Kate didn't have any idea about what was upstairs. It made her raise her brows high. "You seriously don't know about the bestest part of Quartz!"

Kate found she could trust this girl, so she said, albeit a bit guardedly, "So far, the entire office is an epitome of eternal boredom and military discipline, except for the looks of those weird-looking glass cabins. You mean to say there's a place upstairs colder than this?"

Gloria placed a hand on Kate's shoulder while laughing as if she had heard a nice joke. "You must see it for yourself, hon. You're in for a huge surprise. Omg, I'm so thrilled I'm going to be the first to show it to you. Come with me." Suddenly Gloria was trying to drag her towards the stairs in the distance.

"Wait, hey, wait," Kate dug her foot into the ground to stop herself from being dragged away. "I'm not sure I'm allowed upstairs," she said urgently.

"They told you that specifically?"

"Ah, no."

"Then we can bend what all they said and didn't. By the way, what's your post?"

Surprisingly, Gloria didn't look down upon her when Kate replied. Instead, her eyes shone. "And that just made things super easy. Did you see those pamphlets? Grab them." When Kate stood in uncertainty, Gloria urged her, "Go on!"

Kate had no other way. The girl had a vice grip on her arm.

"By the way, what's your name? You didn't tell me." Gloria asked while in the process of half-jogging up the staircase.

With the pamphlets in hand, Kate struggled to catch up with her. Looking at the side of Gloria's face, she began to feel pleased and grateful that this free-spirited, friendly girl worked in this company. It, no doubt, made this less of a war zone.

Soon, they reached the top of the second flight of stairs. While Gloria halted herself to a stop easily, Kate, on the other hand, found herself coming to a standstill almost simultaneously with the surprising scene right before her eyes.