“It’s nothing to do with Inhale. I promise.” Meilei still had no idea what she was going to tell her team. They wouldn’t be as easily subdued with vague reasons. They would want to know everything, and she just couldn’t.
“Inhale was your baby. At least consider staying to see it to its final release.” Manager Lee didn’t know when that would be, but he was sure management wouldn’t hold it up for long. It was one of their strongest apps in process and had great market potential.
Meilei knew talking this out with him was pointless and nodded instead. She had no intention of reconsidering, but Manager Lee had always been so good to her she didn’t want to disappoint him.
“I should go see my team and tell them. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.” She rose a respectful nod, and Manager Lee waved her away. His mood was grim, and he had nothing else to say. Watching her go with a solemn frown before picking up his internal phone to call HR and inform them of her resignation.
Meilei wandered through the quiet department, passing team one, who was hard at work. She slid into her own team’s space between their dividers and spotted Chou immediately. She braced herself for what she had to do.
Meilei’s eyes widened in surprise at that news. Manager Lee hadn’t told her that, and she knew this was unusual. Employees had been taken in alphabetical order of name, not department. All seven of her team in one go sent the alarm bells off, and Ling’s comment about axing employees came to the forefront of her mind.
What was Kai doing?
Meilei spotted her other members had returned from fieldwork at their desks, also looking her way with hopeful expressions. Everyone was here already. At least she would see them all at once and miss no one.
Meilei had a sickening lurch in her stomach with how they all gazed at her with wide eyed hope she had intel or a plan.
“Are you here to save us? Did you know before you left?….. Is that why you were absent?” Zhu’s watery eyes and trembling lip made Meilei feel awful knowing this situation had arisen because of her, and she raised her hands to quiet them before any more questions were fired her way.
“How? How can someone in our department sway them upstairs? They wouldn’t see any of us when we were told.” Tao sounded pissed, and Meilei knew he would have been one of the first to march upstairs to see what was happening and throw a Tao tantrum. She loved him for his bold personality.
She knew Kai was doing this because of her.
Meilei’s heart stopped mid-beat, and her breath paused. Staring at him with a wide-eyed blankness as his words filtered through.
Not HR.
Not to see any of the superiors who dealt with employee contracts.
But straight to the main man.
Meilei wanted the ground to open up and devour her. This had not been an outcome in her plan of how things would go. She assumed he would not want to lay eyes on her again, and he would have someone wrap this up on his behalf. She lost all of her bravado and courage with that one little sentence.
Her legs began to tremble, and her body turned icy cold as though all the blood had just drained from her body via her toes.
“Enter.” The voice at the other side of the closed wooden door gave Meilei heart palpitations and a slight lightheadedness. She glanced back at the secretary, nodding towards her to proceed, and hesitated. Courage gone now she was here and she didn’t want to open that door.
“He’s expecting you.” The young woman coaxed her, unsure what she was stalling for, and moved forward to push the door open on her behalf. Meilei was rooted to the spot. She was unable to breathe, and her hands were trembling so badly that she had to clench them together.
She inhaled to regain her composure and walked into the office tremblingly, having to force each step.
Kai was sitting behind a large curved desk on a padded armchair-like seat, a laptop open before him, and he glanced up over the top as she entered. His gaze seemed to immediately turn to steel as he locked a penetrating stare on her face, and Meilei hesitated and looked down at her feet instead.
She flinched when the door was pulled closed behind her with a click, leaving her locked in here alone with him. Although it was a large, airy space with several feet between them and huge windows, she felt suffocated, as though they were in a confined box together.
He looked every bit like the formidable, intimidating CEO here. Still as pulled together and sharp as always, she hated that he had only grown more handsome in five years. He had matured, losing the boyishness, and instead, a man sat in his place. Face on, seeing him sat calmly, he looked like the Kai she loved so much, yet not. There was a cold aura where warmth once existed, and his wide shoulders and posture were straighter and stiffer. His clothing was now tailored dark suits and monochromatic ties instead of leather jackets and jeans. He was no longer a postgraduate kid starting in life but a successful businessman who commanded obedience. There was nothing gentle about him anymore.
Kai appraised her with a cold and judgmental slow gaze that traveled from her flat shoes to her modest floral dress and her loose wavy hair, seeing the picture of innocence she always presented and scowled. He found it unbelievable that this plain Jane attire had once been so attractive to him. Her feminine, soft clothing and gentle curves had been like a drug for him. Now, looking at her, he saw a manipulative wench.
“Hmmm.” He was closed off, harsh, and disinterested. Kai was using his email to keep his focus on the task and not on her. As much as he had perfected the cold, heartless living of an icy CEO over the years, she still was the one person who screwed his head up. He could deny it all day, but he had been a mess since he walked into her in that elevator. It added to his anger and hostility when it came to her. That she could still affect him even though he despised her.
“So what do I need to do to have it approved? If I leave, will you reinstate Inhale?” Meilei’s voice was soft and unsure, her breathing heavy, and she crossed her hands over her lap to hold them still. Her ankles pressed together to keep her legs from twitching, and she sat stonelike because she was so tense. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him and stared at the back of his desk instead. The wide walnut expanse facing her.