Katalina
Come evening, I met up with Hoseok at David’s school. He had the box of train set, the promised pizza, and a bucket of cream.
I was caught between telling Hoseok what happened and handling it myself. Emilia wanted me to tell him and see what he would do. She felt that however he handles the situation should be the yardstick I should use to grade him, deciding if he gets a ‘Yes, or. No’ from me.
But I think otherwise.
Looking at the whole situation, I felt that the best thing was to handle it myself. Not because I was scared of blowing it out of proportion, but because I was scared that instead of clearing my name, he may actually use the situation to pressure me into saying Yes!’
Hoseok can’t be called a mischievous, cunning man, but when it comes to me, there were things he had done that made me feel that he would do anything to keep me by his side, just like Huracio.
And that scares me.
I joined TopLink as an agent. Being an asset management and liquidation company, it naturally has an Auction house, an Art gallery, and a Pawn shop. As an agent, my job is to convince clients to let the company handle the disposal of their assets. My clients include, the old, retired, and waiting to die, Families of deceased, and anyone who wants to dispose of anything as long as it has some monetary value. For each sale, I have a percentage cut.
I met Hoseok after bringing in a huge client. A man who was forgotten at the old people’s home, whom I had gotten close to and stealthy convinced to sell. After this old man discovered that his kids didn’t care about him, he asked me to discreetly dispose of his things without their knowledge. After that, he gave everything to charity and then committed suicide.
It was this deal that made Hoseok notice me as the man’s family tried to sue the company after the man died and they discovered that everything they were looking forward to was gone.
It was around this time that Williams, who was a master student also started pursuing me. Though Hoseok knew that I had rejected Williams just like I rejected him, he still went after Williams, causing trouble for his company.
There was also a time when he vaguely convinced other suitors that we were dating. When I confronted him, he said he was just protecting his territory. I remember reminding him that we were not together and I wasn’t his property or territory. He just gave me a lopsided smirk and ruffled my hair.
Just to keep me close, he offered to let me intern in his office while keeping my job as an agent. I am the only staff member with that arrangement. To become a permanent staff at TopLink, one must have stayed for 6 months, and have no fault within that period. But I was offered employment after three months. That was the beginning of my troubles.
Hoseok looks gentle and soft, but he has a dark side to him when it comes to me. This reminds me a lot of Huracio. Therefore, I am worried that if I let him handle things, it might not be in my favor. He is already making everyone believe that we are together, asking him to debunk it in public will only make him push back.
Though I have rejected his advances several times, he seemed intent on staying by my side, and invested in making my son like him. Pushing him away in such a manner might not work. I need to ease him out of it.
Next morning, just as I was about to settle in for the day, my office door burst open and Grace barged in, looking like a fiery beast.
“You slutty bitch! What makes you think you can report me to HR? What gave you the gut? Do you really think that the CEO can protect you? Do you know who I am? You think you can get fired?”
“…”
Well, after a night of deep contemplation, I decided to report last afternoon’s incident to the HR, complaining of workplace bullying. I felt that if she doesn’t even get fired, at least she would be curbed. How wrong I was. She didn’t get fired just like I suspected, but she wasn’t curbed either. For her to come into my office and start shouting like that, she must have some backing and confidence.
Wondering what was giving this girl the guts to behave like she owned the place, I rose to my feet.
I didn’t sleep because I was figuring out how to handle this girl. It was until dawn that I decided to report her to the HR. A few hours later, she was in front of me, yelling in my face. The more I listened to her, the tighter my chest got. I tried to hold back, To say nothing. To ignore her, but then, she got in my face and pushed me just as I rose to my feet.
Well, it is one thing to be yelling at me. Touching me is another matter entirely.
The moment her hand touched me, all my resolve to hold on and bear with it disappeared. Before I could stop myself, my hand swung out and landed on her Pretty face.
“…”
If a pin dropped, its clanging sound would have been louder than hitting an aluminium drum.
I share an office with four others, and they were all so shocked that their eyes were almost popping out of their sockets.
“You slap me?”
Grace was so shocked that her face went pale. It was as if she couldn’t understand the concept of getting slapped.
“You slapped me?” She yelled. For a moment, I thought she was going to start throwing tantrums like David. She stomped her feet, and flapped her hands around while screaming.
“Yes, I slapped you. And if you utter another word, I will slap you again.” I sneered.
I knew I had broken a rule, and instantly decided to resign once this situation turns on me. Therefore, there was no reason to hold back.
Ready to have a full blown confrontation with her, I circled round my desk, so we could be directly facing each other. Seeing this, fear entered her eyes and she took several steps back, creating a large distance between herself and I.
“You! I will have you fired. Just watch and see.” She yelled. Just then, she abruptly turned around and hurried out of the office.
*This is bad Catherine.” One of my staff whispered. I could hear the trepidation in her voice.
“It’s what you wanted, right? You should be happy, right?” I sneered at her, then gave each one a pointed look, making them know I was referring to all of them.
“I will find out who shared my schedule with others. And I promise that I will not let them go.”
Looking uneasy, the girl who spoke cleared her throat, stood up and headed out of the office.
Once she was gone, I started packing my things. I had no idea how things would end, but I wasn’t going to wait around for them to keep messing with me.
After clearing my table, I typed my resignation letter, and started waiting…