Blue Sun

Let's Move to Korea!

Scrambling around the office are two young females, searching for lost papers, in need of more time...

"Do you have them on file?" Anya asks as she rips apart her filing cabinets. 

"I do on my computer, but we can't- sorry -can't print them again" Carla says, out of breath. "The copier stopped working 3 days ago and can only print one sheet of paper at a time." 

Anya stops with her hands in the highest cabinet, "Okay so why don't we just print it out real quick?"

Carla suddenly looks stops to look at Anya, "There are 89 pages... We won't be able to print them in time."

With those words, Anya becomes more frazzled than ever, checking her watch to see the meeting starts in 7 minutes. "Carla, what is this specific meeting about? We've had around 5 already today. What more do they need to say? Is it that important or can you go for me so I can look at the computer files?"

"I'm afraid not, Ms. Starken... this meeting has the Head Chairman, your father, leading this specific one. It's about branching out to more countries and observing the locations we have now. I over heard him saying he wanted you to look over the Korean branch and see how things go."

Carla starts picking up the files that were scattered around by Anya but suddenly jumps, "HEY! Whatcha doin' Carla?? What's up with all these files? Did you loose them again or did Susan steal them this time? Anyways, if you need help just ask me, I'm about to head over to that meeting but just text me okay? Okay well-"

"Alex! Stop. We need your help. We lost the files and the only have 5 minutes left until the meeting" Anya stops him in his tracks with both of her hands firmly on his shoulders, then wheels him around to face her and not the door, "Help us find them. Please."

Alex laughs, "You guys, there are extras outside of the meeting room because some people didn't get them yet due to the copier being broken. So, problem solved, right? Okay let's go!" He shows his smiling dimples and white teeth.

Ms. Starken and Carla share a thankful glance and head out of the office, following Alex. They catch an elevator to the 15th floor just in time for the meeting with 2 minutes to spare. The small group hurried to the meeting room to be greeted by the Head Secretary who was giving out the 89 paged packet of information. 

Anya caught the Head Secretary, Garrett, wink at Alex and smile, "Hello Mr. Alex Birdrum. Have you had a good morning? I hope you have. Here: It's the information packet." and with that, he smiles again. But mischievous this time. Like He and Alex did something that morning... ;))

Anya takes a packet for herself and enters the room, sitting in between to Carla and Alex, "Would you mind sharing what that wink was and what happened this morning?? It was obvious." 

"Anya, shhhh it might be obvious to you now, but the office folk are stupid. No one knows that we're dating. He's taking me to a pride party in California for New Years. I'm so excited. It's basically a month away. If you count the fact that it's November 29th. But yeah he took me on a first date to this cool place. It was a cock-tail making class and we made drinks then gave them to each other to try. It was unique which is a reason why I'm still with him. He's not boring, he listens, he cares, but most importantly, I can trust him. We've been dating for 5 months now in secret. He hasn't told anyone I know of and I'm just telling you now. So yeah, that's my tea."

Carla's jaw is dropped. Anya's eyebrows are raised. They never even knew. As the "Office Trio", they never kept secrets from each other and always helped each other out since high school. But the girls aren't mad. They're surprised they didn't figure it out sooner. 

"Holy cow Alex. I understand why you didn't tell us... because we all work together and we would make it obvious...duh. But wow. 5 months? That's a long time. I can't believe no one knows yet. Well, except us two. But you know what I mean." Carla says as she fixes her silky blonde ponytail then starts cleaning her glasses. 

Just as the room starts to grow louder with more voices and conversations, a booming voice makes the whole room jump and quiet down. It's the Head Chairman himself. Mr. Warren Starken. The boss, the devil-man, the billionaire, aka... Anya's father. 

"Good afternoon everyone. I see Mr. Raskew as given everyone the information packets. As you have heard, this meeting is about observing our other branches and also looking further into starting new teams in other countries" He pauses for only a moment to sit down,

"I have a list of everyone who has been voted to go to the current teams we have and help make the work environment a better place for our customers and our business." Garrett has a new stack of papers this time and starts handing them out.

Mr. Starken's facial expression never changes. It's always the same straight face that looks slightly pissed off. Meanwhile, his daughter is completely the opposite. Always tries to smile, even though the whole office building thinks she's faking it. Everyone thinks she's as cold as her father. However, her father seems a little off today.

The paper that was passed out was a list of names. A list that had a certain name. That name was Anastasia J. Starken. Her full name.

SOUTH KOREA:

Head of Public Relations, Anastasia J. Starken

Financial Analyst, Andrew K. Foreman

Credit Analyst, Robert L. Daren

Staffing Consultant, Susan M. Renald

Marketing Technologist, Tamilynn N. Watkins

*(the list goes on and on with different countries and job titles and names.)*

Anya looks up from her paper immediately to look at her father, who, to no surprise, was watching her to make sure she saw her name. She looks at him in disbelief but he only slightly nods in her direction. 

She didn't want to leave America yet. She just started working a year ago and just bought a new apartment. She didn't think she would be traveling for this job. Normally she would have the people on her team carry out tasks that needed to be done while she handled all the major calls and business. 

The only reason for her father to send her out of the country would be if things aren't going well at that specific location. Which means there's a serious problem. Otherwise, she would just have consecutive conference calls with the head of the team to sort things out.

"I notice some of you see your names. Not everyone has been picked. We still need good people at the office to handle things as well. Starting on page 45 of the information packet, you will see when you will depart and where you will be staying or if you need to buy a place. Depending on where you are and how long you will be there, you will either need to buy a living space for long term. For short-term, the company will provide a room for you to stay in. Understood? Any questions so far? No? Okay." Mr. Starken continues informing everyone about living space, limitations they will have and guidelines that they're required to follow.

Anya notices the departure date. Today is Friday, November 29th. She leaves Wednesday, December 4th. Four days from now. If it's this urgent, she wonders what's really going on over there. All of the other locations are 2 or 3 weeks from now. 

Mr. Starken changes subjects, "Most of you might be wondering why this is so urgent. The South Korean branch of Blue Sun has turned into an illegal gambling, drug smuggling, prostitution travesty. I am sending my best workers over there to fix it so we don't get noticed by the press and law. I don't want some of the best workers I know loose jobs. I have become concerned about the other locations. As you know, we only have one location per country. I want to expand more, but to do that, I need the current locations to be corrected. If you look back to the list, you will see the teams for the new locations. We will start working on that by next week on Monday. Be prepared for what may happen. Any questions?" No one answered. Everyone is shocked.

"Good. If you have any questions meet with your team and call my secretary. He will have possible answers you need. That's it for today. See you on Monday." Mr. Starken ends the meeting by leaving first with Garrett trailing behind him. Everyone starts packing up their binders and papers. Silence. 

Silence is all they hear as they walk out together, the three of them. "Wanna grab a drink?" Carla asks. 

Alex and Anya nod.