Chapter - 7
"Thank you…" The girl said coming out from behind Ethan.
Ethan turned halfway toward her. "No problem," he said, eyes flicking over her outfit. "But, uh… I have to ask. Are you like… robbing a bank or dodging an ex?"
"Excuse me?" The girl didn't know what else to say.
"Haha… Don't worry, I am just messing with you," Ethan laughed it off.
"But it's not big deal," Ethan continued, "It was either this or watch you get dragged away by them. The choice wasn't that hard."
"Still… you didn't have to help. Most people wouldn't." The girl said, appreciating Ethan's help.
"Guess, I am just a good guy," Ethan looked at the ridiculously oversized hat, sunglasses that she had on. They looked too dramatic for the place they were in.
"So," Ethan couldn't help but ask, "What's your deal? Some kind of influencer? Did you sneak out of a livestream or something?"
Her lips curled up in a smile. She proudly spoke, "Well… something like that. You could say I am a bit of a celebrity."
Ethan blinked once, "Oh," he said flatly. "So you are one of those people."
Her eyebrow twitched, seeing his reaction,"What do you mean those people?"
"You know the ones who get paid to look pretty and eat ramen in front of a camera," he said with a straight face, "Poor you. You must be exhausted from all that… spoon lifting."
She turned her head sharply, eyes narrowing, "Excuse me?"
"You don't look like you could finish a large bowl of noodles," Ethan said as a matter-of-factly.
Then, without really thinking about it, he reached out and grabbed her wrist. It was not rough, but it made her freeze, "Your hand's so tiny. You would drop the chopsticks before you were halfway through."
Her breath hitched. His fingers felt so warm. But before she could even react, he let go, turning back toward the doors like nothing had happened.
Meanwhile, the woman stood there, completely thrown off balance. What was going on?
Men didn't talk to her this way. In front of her they stammered, flirted, and offered compliments like offerings to a goddess.
But this guy? He had just insulted her appetite and grabbed her hand like it was nothing.
This was a first for her and she did not know how to react.
Meanwhile, since there was nothing else to do, Ethan decided to engage in small talk to pass time.
He cleared his throat, still facing the doors. "So… why were they really looking for you?"
She hesitated, "I, uh… I might have sneaked out of a meeting."
He turned to her, looking genuinely puzzled, "Why would you do that?"
"Because it was boring," she said, trying to act cute. But Ethan didn't see it that way.
"Right," Ethan nodded, sarcastically, "Nothing is more mature than running away from your responsibilities."
The girl's eyes widened, "Excuse me?"
Ethan shrugged, "What? I am just saying. If you are important enough to cause chaos by sneaking out of a meeting, you could at least do it for a good reason. Not because you got bored. That's so immature."
"You… Me? Immature?" The girl was finally losing it. This guy was just so… so brazen.
"Oops!" Somehow they did not notice and they were already on the 17th floor. The door opened, but Ethan closed the elevator door quickly.
And even Ethan felt that he had been too harsh on someone whom he didn't even know. He sounded like a jerk.
He just wanted to make her understand, but it all came out wrong.
He let out a sigh, and rubbing the back of his head he spoke again, "Look, I didn't mean to scold you or anything."
"It's just… those people downstairs sounded like they were losing their minds. They are just doing their job. Maybe you should just go and talk to them before someone has a heart attack."
The woman's eyes flickered as she looked at him, "You don't get it," she said quietly, "I have been locked up between the apartment and this place. No sunlight, no fresh air, just… meetings and rehearsals and calls. I felt like I was drowning."
"Umhmm," Ethan nodded
"It's suffocating. Everyone wants something, a performance, a statement, a smile, a photo. But no one asks what I want? How I am? So I ran."
And as he heard her, Ethan just stared. The way she said it, it wasn't an excuse, she genuinely meant every single word of hers.
But before he could find something to say, the elevator gave a soft ding.
"Fourteenth floor," he murmured, glancing up at the display, "That's me."
The doors slid open, and Ethan stepped out, but then paused. He turned back to look at her.
"I don't know what your situation is," he said, "But running away won't fix anything. If you need air, ask for it. If you want some space, ask for it."
"If you want anything, just ask."
"People usually listen when you use words."
"Anyway," Ethan gave a small shrug. "I hope it works out. Bye, Miss Famous."
And with that, Ethan walked away.
"Wait?" The girl blinked. Miss Famous?
She called out, but she was a step slower, the elevator doors had already closed.
For a second, she just stood there, staring at the closed door. Then, slowly, the corners of her lips curled upward.
"Interesting!"
That damsel in distress tone in her voice was gone, and she looked more amused than sad.
What kind of man talks to her like that? There was no flattery, no eagerness to impress her. He was just a blunt, completely unbothered man who treated her like a runaway teenager.
"Unbelievable," she muttered under her breath, but there was amusement in her tone now. "What a ridiculous man."
"Even if he could not see my face, I am a girl. Didn't he feel anything?"
As she pondered about Ethan, the elevator began to descend. She traced her fingers over her wrist, and found herself smiling, "Interesting," she whispered, "Very interesting."
But her chain of thoughts was broken when her phone buzzed. She pulled it out, sighed looking at the name, and answered.
"Veronica! Where are you?" a panicked voice shrieked from the other end. "Please don't do this again! If you want to go out, I will send a driver, a couple of security guys, or just anyone! Just don't disappear on me you know."
The girl, Veronica leaned against the elevator wall, rolling her eyes, "Relax. I am fine."
"You are not fine! Do you know how furious the CEO is? You can't just walk out before a brand meeting! Please, just tell me before…"
"I am coming back," she interrupted, voice smooth but firm.
And a stunned silence followed on the other end.
"What?" the woman finally squeaked, unable to believe her ears.
"Keep it down,"I am coming back," Veronica repeated, "But if you are going to bleed my ears out, I will change my mind."
"No, no, no! Please, come back! I will be waiting for you right by the lobby elevator, okay? Don't stress yourself. Take your time, I will just wait for you here!" The manager's voice shifted instantly to one of fawning relief, "I will wait."
"Ugh, just hang up already. I am almost there." Veronica ended the call and leaned against the elevator wall, smirking looking at her reflection.
"Thank god, Veronica, I swear—"
Ting.
The elevator door opened to the lobby, and in front of Veronica a middle-aged woman was pacing frantically.
She looked up, her eyes wide with a mixture of disbelief and pure relief. "You are here! You really came back!" she gasped.
"Are you sure you don't want to go somewhere? We can reschedule! The director and producers all agreed, they said we can push the meeting to tomorrow! We just want you to be at ease. No burden."
"Can we just go and get it over with?" Veronica felt irritated. She regretted listening to that complete stranger, "Or do you really want me to leave again?"
"No! No, no, I just... you know... like... you know..." The manager was struck dumb. Veronica was the one who threw tantrums and made impossible demands. She was never the one to get irritated. Something was different today.
Veronica took a deep breath, "Let's get it over with."
"Right! Right! This way, this way," the manager stammered, practically tripping over herself to lead the way.
~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile on the 14th floor, when Ethan got off the elevator, there were dozens of more guys and girls sharply dressed.
And then he saw him there as well, Julian Thorne.
Julian sat off there on the whole couch all on his own, legs crossed, with an ice pack massaging his bruised cheek.
He was already boiling, thinking about the humiliation he suffered in the lobby. But when he got here, he did not see that cowardly bastard nowhere. He thought maybe the consequences of offending him, just to impress some hoe, finally got into his dumb brain.
But now that his gaze met with Ethan's, the memory of his face hitting the marble floor made his cheek sting.
Ethan couldn't help himself, "Didn't expect to see you here," he said casually, taking the empty seat a few chairs away. "Interviewing, huh? Must be rough. Guess even your dad's company needs a bailout these days."
Julian's fingers froze around the ice pack. He opened his mouth, then shut it again. Whatever comeback he had died on his tongue. He just turned away, staring at the wall as if he hadn't heard a thing.
Ethan leaned back, suppressing a grin. He hadn't planned on humiliating the guy again, but sometimes life handed you second chances.
A few minutes later, they were all taken to another big room and made to sit together.
Just then the glass doors to the main conference room slid open with a soft hiss. A woman in her early thirties stepped inside.
"Good morning, everyone," she said crisply. "I am Anya Sharma, Head of Public Relations."
As soon as she spoke, every voice in the room stilled. Even Julian straightened in his chair.
Anya didn't waste time with fake smiles. "At Aura Media, we don't just hire degrees, we hire problem-solvers."
"I don't really care where you studied or who your father plays golf with. If you panic when things go south, you are nothing more than a dead weight."
As she spoke, her gaze swept across the room looking at everyone. When her eyes passed over Ethan, she paused for a second longer than necessary before moving on.
"Fine then," She clapped, "Let's begin."
And just like that, assistants appeared with tablets, handing one to each candidate. The screen lit up with a scenario header:
CRISIS SIMULATION: A famous celebrity scandal: Nude leaks
Internal security breach suspected. Two of Aura Media's managed artists: Helena Krauss (Germany) and Li Yuna (China) have had their private videos and photos leaked online. The source appears to be their cloud storage system.
The media is exploding. Both clients' legal teams are demanding answers. The board wants a crisis response plan in the next 60 minutes.
"Holy Mother of God!" Someone muttered.
But Anya completely ignored the reaction from the people there. She continued.
"I want to see a step by step crisis response plan from you guys. You have one hour and your time starts…"
"Now."
"And yes, the supporting documents are in their native languages. I hope you have brushed up your foreign language skills.
And with that the test began. Everyone found files in their Tablets that were in German and English and looked like some legal documents, blurred screenshots that were hard to read and the Analytics of the hashtags #HelenaKrauss and #LiYuna that were trending worldwide.
Julian, sitting a few seats from Ethan, stared at his tablet. "You have got to be kidding me," he whispered, already fumbling with a translator app, "What he fuck is this?"
Meanwhile, Ethan just went through the files. He was about to pull out his phone to open the translation app, but somehow out of nowhere when he looked at the text in German, his mind automatically translated the text for him. He was able to understand what was written on the screen.
Ethan was confused, he didn't remember ever coming across German in any way since he woke up in the hospital, so how the hell?
Then he quickly opened the Mandarin file and it was the same. Those strange symbols somehow made sense.
"Am I crazy?"
"Or am I some kind of an immortal with amnesia?
Well, there was a lot of time that Ethan had to think about it. So he just went ahead and started working on the task at hand.
He began typing. He had no time to waste.
Step 1: Contain the Media.
Step 2: Humanize the Response, no need to go hard.
Step 3: Show the celebrities as victims.
Step 4: Spend money, buy the internet (The most important).
Ethan went into detail in explaining his proposal. He did not stop for a second and within 30 minutes, he was already done.
And when he was done, he leaned back, went through his plan once and hit the submit button without thinking twice.
He then turned towards Julian who was sweating bullets, still struck, translating German to Enhance.
A lazy smile tucked on his lips.
"Awww... Buddy!"
"Want me to help you, buddy?"
** ** ** ** **
[
Author's Question: What type of Mukbang do you think Veronica does?
Wrong answers only.
]