Array of Tales (Michaeng)

Neighbors pt.8

The ground game was well underway.

Now it was time for the aerial campaign.

It was noon on a Thursday so Chaeyoung knew where Mina would be. Holding a bag of  McDonald's and a can of rootbeer, she strode right past her nervous assistant’s protests and right into her office.

“Simone I told you I can’t take any visitors right now” Mina says in an irritated voice once she hears the door swish open. She was hunch over a stack of paperwork, a scowl etch between her eyebrows and a twitching hand, like she was getting ready to throw her pen at her poor assistant.

“Don’t blame Simone” Chaeyoung replies good-naturedly. “I was the one who let myself in.”

That sure catches Mina's attention. She look up with a start at the unexpected voice and her mouth drops open. It brings back a flood of memories from the night at club.

Mina had been very skillful with her mouth then and it only made Chaeyoung wonder what else she could do with it.

“Chaeyoung ” Mina says in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s lunchtime” Chaeyoung replies, holding up the bag of burger and the beer. “I figured you needed a break to nourish yourself.”

Mina raises a eyebrow. “I’d hardly call a Burger nourishment.”

“Yeah but I got you the bic mac burger with a root beer” Chaeyoung says, walking toward the desk and taking a seat. “It's not really healthy but they're quite delicious together scientifically and I'll be quite disappointed if you won't eat it.”

For a moment Mina look genuinely torn well she was hungry, she bit down on that lower lip of hers and it honestly took all of Chaeyoung's self control not to lunge across the desk sitting between them to kiss her.

“Ordinarily I would eat it but I just have so much paperwork at the moment…” Mina trails off, staring forlornly at the stack in front of her.

Not to be deterred, Chaeyoung set aside the food. Dumping the papers in her lap, she starts rifling through them. “What are these for?”

“They’re project proposals” Mina answers, rubbing her hands over her face. “Every quarter, startups pitch us their ideas and I have to go through them all to see which ones are the most interesting. The meeting is tomorrow and I haven’t even gotten through half of them.”

Chaeyoung start flipping through them. Some of them had descriptions that were way over her head but most of them were just...insane.

“Seriously?” Chaeyoung laugh when she pulls out one of them. “Someone wants Son Enterprises to fund the creation of a laxative that has all the benefits of a juice cleanse?”

Mina rolls her eyes as she grabs the beer and poke the lid. “The terrible ideas in there are really what’s been bogging down the process.”

Chaeyoung flips through a few more of them the ideas getting more and more ridiculous. In fact a lot of them weren’t even applied sciences ideas but then she comes across one that caught her attention.

“Huh” she says aloud. “How about this one? A proposal for tiny, micro-robots to inject in someone’s bloodstream to help fight infections?”

Mina eyebrows shot up her forehead as she stuff a fry in her mouth. “That sounds a little too science fiction-y to be plausible maybe the writer had watch too much movies.”

“Not at all” Chaeyoung counters, she start flipping through the proposal. “He’s got the science to back it up. Prototypes, diagrams, charts...he’s even got projections if My father's  company ever decided to fund it.”

Mina still look skeptical. “Who wrote the proposal?”

Chaeyoung flip back to the front of it. “Uh.. Edward Claude”

That seem to catch Mina's attention. She look up from the burger she was unwrapping. “Edward Claude?” she demand. “ The Edward Claude? CEO of Thorp technologies?”

“Uh...yeah? Why you know who he is?”

“Are you kidding?” Mina answers through a mouthful of burger. “He’s the guy who invented smart wearables! He’s like one of the youngest, self-made billionaires! Not to mention, People Magazine named him the sexiest CEO in America unlike you whose only achievement is a club owner and womanizer”

Chaeyoung huffs in annoyance, suddenly regretting the fact that she picked out his proposal. “You’re right then” she scoffs, burying the document at the bottom. “It’s not plausible.”

“Hold on” Mina reaches her hand across her desk for it. “If it’s from Claude then it’s probably a good bet. I need to look at it perhaps I could set up a meeting with him.”

“Why?” Chaeyoung challenge “Stick with your gut instinct. Don’t second guess yourself. Pretty boy can find a different angel investor to fund his creepy micro robots.”

Mina blinks for a second at Chaeyoung's sudden reticence. Then she burst out into unexpected laughter. “Son Chaeyoung is that jealousy I detect in your voice?”

“What? No. I’m not jealous of some tech nerd who’s probably never gotten laid in his life.”

Mina roll her eyes. “Right well if it makes you feel any better, he probably doesn’t look as good as you do in a suit.”

Well that caught his attention. “Wait what?”

Mina's cheeks were pink which made Chaeyoung think she was a little bit embarrassed by what she said. She was not, however, backing down from that statement. “You heard me.”

Chaeyoung's grin return full force. “You think I look good in a suit?”

Mina rolls her eyes again and turn her attention back to her burger. “I’m just saying that compared to Edward  Claude you wear a suit better. Not that I check you out or anything.”

There was no way she could fully back down from what she had said. Chaeyoung now had somewhat proof that she finds her attractive. Which meant the ground game was working.

“Uh huh” Chaeyoung smirk. “Sure you don’t.”
she tuck away that small piece of knowledge in her brain, waiting for just the right moment to use it.

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Sorry for any errors

Only two chapters left..