One Temptation | Choi Yeonjun Fanfiction

Chapter 02 - A Ridiculously Maddening Proposal

You reach your office, open your laptop and start typing away aggressively. After what happened today, you felt the intense urge to review your proposals and contracts with your future clients and other minor companies that are working under you.

Why don't you work harder to keep your clients more inclined to your deals?

Work harder to keep your clients...

Work harder...

Yeonjun's words echo through your mind like a broken record.

"Fuck!" You slam your laptop shut and massages your temples in hopes to push away his words out of your mind. You lean back into your chair and take deep breaths. You hated to admit how right he was. It annoyed you beyond words how someone knew exactly which buttons to push to trigger you.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

The telephone on your office table rang loudly, dragging you out of the thoughts circling your mind. You pick it up and hear your assistant from the other end. "Miss y/n, you have a meeting with Liam Archer. He has arrived. Should I bring him in?"

"Yes."

"Alright. We'll be there in a minute."

Liam Archer. The fifth generation son to Magnus Archer, the founder of Black Pearl Marketing Group. Liam's father and fourth generation son of the founder, Ryan Archer, lost hold over his own family company because he couldn't make the right decisions, always ended up getting involved in scandals and used illegal methods to acquire a few small businesses back then, resulting in the fast downfall of the company to the point it almost went bankrupt.

If it weren't for your father, who was working as Ryan's assistant at the time, taking control over the company during the time Ryan was in jail, there would be no Black Pearl M. G. today.

The company had just stabilized when Ryan got out of jail and the board members didn't want to risk another disaster, keeping in mind Ryan's history of always making the worst decisions that had the ability to finish the company for good, so they all unanimously agreed to vote for the next CEO, which obviously, your father won.

And that, is how the company was taken away from its founder's family, the Archers, and handed over to your father, who was merely an assistant that worked under Ryan Archer. After your father retired, the company ultimately fell in your hands and you've been running it as a CEO for five years now.

Liam Archer, on the other hand, despised his father for not only ruining their family's reputation, but throwing away the prestigious company to an outsider's hands, when it could have belonged to him. If he hated his own father that much, you didn't even want to know how much he hated you.

But that didn't bother you in the slightest. He lost his family's company, and now it belonged to you. Simple. It was practically impossible for him to ever have it back. His arrival today, however, was a little unsettling for you. The Archers never contacted you or your father directly ever since they lost the company, so today was definitely a surprise for you.

The door slides open and your assistant enters with Liam following her. She gestures towards a seat in front of you across the table, on which he sits down and faces you with a small forced smile.

"Park y/n, lovely to meet you. How have you been?" He asks, failing to hide the hint of disdain as he spoke.

"Successful and thriving. How about you?" You reply with a fake smile of your own, taking pleasure at his mask slipping at your reply, which he quickly fixes back. He clears his throat and proceeds to speak in a strained voice.

"Doing just fine too. Anyway, I don't like beating around the bush so I'll get straight to the point."

"Good idea. Since I'm very busy and all." You say sharply, eyeing him warily while adjusting the black rimmed glasses sitting on the bridge of your nose.

Liam's intense gaze pierced your skin, making you slightly uncomfortable. He pauses for a moment, as if calculating and weighing his words and options in front of him one last time before he opened his mouth.

"y/n, you know very well, the history of this company. You know what mistakes my father made in the past. Growing up, I've learnt so much from those mistakes and always trained hard and gave in all my efforts to learn more about managing a company. You're just a woman afterall, managing a company isn't what you should be doing. Perhaps, you should step down, and hand it over to the person who deserves to be in the seat you are currently sitting in. Someone who belongs to the bloodline that made this company."

The. Fucking. Audacity.

By the time he was done speaking, you were practically fuming. You were sure that if you looked into the mirror this very second, you'd see black smoke escaping your ears. Even your assistant, who had quietly been standing near the door, flinches in shock at the absurd proposal he put forward. You close your eyes and take in a deep breath.

Calm down. Calm down. I will NOT be going to jail for my actions today.

You slowly open your eyes and face the man sitting in front of you. If it weren't for the table separating you two, you would have strangled him without a second thought. But you couldn't. So that was that.

"Liam Archer." You speak up sternly. "Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound right now?"

Liam's mouth twitches at your response. "I'm well aware about what I'm proposing. You should consider it thoroughly."

Thoroughly my ass.

"You really expect me to hand down the company to the son of a man who nearly destroyed it almost thirty years ago?" You laugh hysterically. "Please. Be serious. This isn't some magical world where we can fix anything that goes wrong with the snap of our fingers."

Liam grits his teeth so hard, you could actually hear them screech under the force. "y/n. This company does not belong to you. It would be very wise of you to hand it over to the people who actually built it."

"Pfft." You chuckle in amusement. "The last time I checked, neither Liam Archer, nor Ryan archer built this company. In fact, they barely even contributed. The only thing your father did was ruin it. I'm not stupid enough to hand it back to the same people."

Liam was starting to lose his cool at your words, and how they stung at the very spots that hurt the most. He clenches his fists on his sides and replies with a voice that sounded like a pig growling, if that's even possible.

"y/n, stop playing these stupid games with me. A woman cannot run a company of this scale. It's best if-"