[曦澄 | XiCheng][MDZS Modern AU]: All The Things I Never Told You [~PART 2~]

〽️👁‍🗨 Chapter 197: Press./Menace.

Links: 

https://mobile.twitter.com/notmaycrusade/status/1599369000756314113 

https://www.facebook.com/moonsoulchild/posts/571618604962852

****

Lan Xichen's secretary was going a little crazy. Her boss was so busy that he barely had the time for anything that was not work any more, and she was taking his calls, and just putting them on sticky notes  –  piles upon piles of messages for him to check out later.

But that menacing pile of sticky notes was piling up too high, and she ran out of yellow ones, so she started on the pale green ones now, worried.

Mister Lan's mother tried to call him a couple of times more, but she remembered his instructions: he was going to deal with this personally.

There were also quite a few journalists attacks  of sorts too  –  different newspapers and TV stations were begging her for interviews now: the Victor Zorn trial was getting nearer, and after that one legendary morning show, everyone was hoping for spicy details on that bachelor's personal life as well.

She had been patient in the beginning, deflecting and rejecting their suggestions politely, but after 10 days of this  her patience ran out too, not so much unlike the yellow sticky notes, and now she would just hang up on people, unapologetically, totally exasperated.

The worst part of it all was that the building was surrounded by vans from different TV channels, and everyone sought for some scandal, some sensation. She truly admired her boss too  –  Lan Xichen was just smiling and waving at them, as if he was the damned President, or some Hollywood star. 

But she noticed that his working schedule changed this month, and he would arrive at work at different hours, and stay up late, way later than everyone else, to work on, and check things, even after this team was long gone, long after she herself was long gone.

It wasn't very comfortable, because he would usually arrive after 2 in the afternoon, and she would be going home at about 6:30 p.m., but he often saw her out, on her way home, taking a break and visiting the bar across the street for what she suspected was a moment of relaxation and a drink.

But sometimes he would be really flushed and impatient, and, travelling down on the elevator together, he would be smiling and humming to himself, and she guessed, she was almost sure that he was going to see his current lover.

She liked him. Perhaps she liked him a little too much. She had never met anyone who was as kind and smart and charming as him. She had truly thought that after that blemishing and embarrassing scene on TV it would be awkward for them to talk, but Mister Lan was the same as always, nothing changed. Yet, she remembered the explicit exclamations caught on camera, and she believed that this time things were truly serious. She could not remember ever seeing Mister Lan looking so impatient to meet any of his previous lovers. After all, she had been working with him for the last 3 years, and knew; she knew quite a lot.

Tonight was one such night, her boss was smiling gently to himself.

- You are in a good mood today, sir.  –  she murmured, blushing slightly as he was helping her put her coat on.

- I am going downstairs for a quick whiskey, darling.  –  he smiled.  –  God knows I need it today!  –  he cheered.

- You work too hard, sir!

- Just until the end of the month, darling. Soon it will be all over. All of it.  –  his smile got broader, and somehow mysterious.

She bit her lips, stepping into the familiar elevator again. Lan Xichen was only wearing his shirt, but she did not dare remind him of the cold weather outside. After all, the bar was just across the street.