Side By Side

•1•

The CEO tapped the pen furiously on the table. The conference hall was echoing with the fast taps, while the clients were sweating seeing the agitated man.

The man was actually waiting for his business partner who was 10 mins late. He hates late comers, still he was waiting just because the other business man was his friend.

The door opened, all eyes went towards the door. The handsome tall slender lad came inside, his hairs tousled a bit, suited booted.

"Sorry Mr. Chivaree for coming late, actually my secretary was stuck in traffic"

"No problem Mr. Sutivanichsak, have a seat. Let's start the meeting already"

The lad smiled and looked towards the door, there comes another handsome man wearing white shirt tucked inside black jeans, hairs disheveled still in place perfectly.

"Sorry for my clumsy behavior sirs and madams"

"It's ok Win, come here" The lad called him. Win smiled and walked towards his boss, settled beside him unaware of the shocking stare coming from the CEO.

"Are you ok Win?" The boss whispered, Win softly smiled at his boss "I'm fine Sir Dew, thank you" Dew smiled. Dew looked up at the CEO

"Let's start shall we Mr. Chivaree?"
Win's breath hitched, he composed himself as soon as he felt slight discomfort.

The CEO cleared his throat "Ya-Yah let's start" He signalled his secretary. He sat on his chair, glanced at Dew's secretary who was paying attention what was showing on the white board. It was an important business plan, Win started jotting points which he wanted to clarify or giving opinions about it.

He felt goosebumps at the side of his neck, he rubbed the skin patting it. He very well knows what's going on, he didn't think of looking at the matter.

"So the percentage will be 60 and 40 for both the companies" The secretary said. Win frowned, he raised his hand, all looked at him.

"Um... If both the companies need to do the profit this year shouldn't we divide 50-50 instead of doing 60-40?" Win asked, he looked at Dew. Dew looked at the CEO.

"But our company is the head of this upcoming project, we're sending workers and engineers more in number to build the complexes. Of course we need more" The secretary said in anger. Win looked at him, who glared back at him.

"But it's partiality, both of the companies are sharing in building the complexes, you guys are doing the exterior portion while we have to sketch the structure according to the plots we have" Win insisted.

"We executed the plan first" The secretary snarled at Win. A loud bang was heard. All flinched, looked towards the CEO who was glaring at his secretary.

"Dare to raise your voice in front of me once again, I'll not hesitate to throw you out" The CEO warned in a cold tone.

"S-Sorry sir" The secretary looked down feeling ashamed. The CEO looked towards Win, who was fiddling with his pen looking down at his notepad.

"Mr. Sutivanichsak's secretary is right. Change the percentage to 50-50, we're equally contributing in this project" The CEO demanded.

"But sir..." The man glared at his secretary who immediately looked down. "If you utter a single word beyond me, be ready to loose your job"

After one hour the meeting finally ended. Dew was happy for his secretary, who gave the wonderful ideas in the meeting. Win's talent is beyond imagination, the man is perfect in his job. That's why Dew was happy to have him as his secretary. All stepped out of the room, except the two bosses and their secretaries. One was glaring at the other one who was looking down.

"So, how was my secretary's performance Bright?" Dew teased his friend. Bright looked at the man beside Dew and nodded slowly "Impressive"

"You challenged me remember? If I get a good secretary you'll treat me if not then I'll treat you" Dew recalled their challenge.

Bright nodded again still staring at Win. "Dude, stop staring at him that much, he'll melt" Dew chuckled.

"You're secretary is quite shy I might say" Bright said. Dew chuckled, he held Win's shoulder "He's shy to be honest, he's only friendly with me isn't it Win?"

Win looked at Dew and slightly smiled. "Then introduce him at least?" Bright said suddenly. Dew nodded "Win... You already know he's the CEO of Astro company but he's also my best friend.. And Bright this is Win Metawin my secretary"

Bright pulled out his hand from his pocket and raised it in front of Win, Win looked at the palm, his eyes stuck at the yellow band on his third finger. His eyes slowly travelled up finally looked at those black orbs which was looking back at him with same intensity.

Win's hand raised up, clasped with Bright's hand. Bright looked at Win's hand, his right eye twitched then looked up to Win again gripping the hand gently.

They shook their hands, but didn't leave each other's hands.

"Nice to meet you Metawin"

"Same here Mr. Chivaree"

Win tried to pull out his hand, but Bright gripped it tugging it towards him slightly. Win's eyes showed panic as his boss was standing beside him.

"Um.. Sir my hand.. " Bright looked at their clasped hands, his grip loosened, Win pulled his hand back. Dew cleared his throat "So my dear friend, it's time to treat me.. See you at dinner bye"

Dew gently tapped Win's back motioned him out of the room. Both males walked out of the room leaving the CEO and his secretary.

"Sir.. Your friend was bragging about him, his ideas weren't that great.. " He stopped as soon as Bright glared at him.

"His ideas were far better than yours, you couldn't complete the sketch within one year he did it within three months and emailed me. So shut your mouth, go away"

The secretary apologized and went away. Bright looked at his hand, rolled his yellow band of his finger, smiled softly.