♞

NOT EVERYONE CAN BE given the ability to think of a quick solution, but lucky for Cj - even after years of hiding in the dark - he was given the privilege to be assisted by one of the most famous heirs in the world, a Sinclaire.

     "That kid is really something. Even after everything he's been through, it seems that not a lot can waver him," Cj says as he stares at the cigarette packages in front of his desk.

     "It's either he has a strong mindset, or he's already too used to betrayal. Either way, both are frighting traits," he adds as he grabs a cigarette pack titled the King flavor. Cj has been working on this flavor for months, and the final sample just arrived today. It's the last flavor that will complete the King's Tobacco set.

     Cj takes a stick from the pack and stares at it. Unlike other cigarettes, the cigarette paper used is black, just like their uniform. Other than the color, what's really unique is the inside.

     "I hope this works," Cj says as he pulls out his lighter. He was about to light the cigarette up, but then his phone suddenly starts ringing, immediately making him stop.

     Cj places the stick back in the pack and shoves his lighter back in his pocket to grab his phone. When he saw who the caller was, he was surprised to see that it was from an unknown caller. But not really caring if it was a prank call, Cj answers it with no hesitation.

     "Hello?"

     "Cj, it's me, Max..." the unknown caller suddenly reveals, surprising Cj.

     "Max? How'd you get my number?"

     "I got it from Krist."

     "Why on earth would Krist still have my number?" Cj asks back, more surprised at that than the fact that Max called him on his own accord.

     "That's not really important now is it?" Max immediately says. "Bring your cigarettes and take your leave. I'm already waiting outside your building."

     Cj immediately stood up from his seat and went straight to the window. And like what Max said, a luxury car with a Sinclaire emblem at the front was parked right outside, making Cj chuckle.

     "So you really are here. Now what, you going to take me on a date?"

     "Was that what you were expecting? Too bad," Max answers with a sly tone.

     "Oh yeah, I'm not vice president Gavriil," Cj suddenly reveals. The atmosphere between them instantly becomes awkward. It was only for a couple of seconds of silence, but Cj could tell that Max was flustered by the statement.

     "Alright, let's not go there. Just get your ass here."

     Cj laughs even harder and walks back to his desk. He takes all six flavors of his cigarette and shoves them inside his pocket before finally walking out of his office. Employees who were there instantly greet him, and Rose, his secretary, runs out of her room to catch up with their boss.

     "Master Charles, is there a problem? Was there something wrong with the new flavor?" She asks.

     "I haven't tried it yet," Cj explains as he looks at her. "Anyway, I'll be heading out first so handle everything for me here."

     Rose was surprised, but she nods her head and bows at Cj as he finally takes his leave. As soon as he got outside, Cj ends his call and knocks on Max's car window. The window slowly pulls down, and Cj is welcomed with an heir who was still wearing his white uniform.

     "Why are you-"

     "I've been busy. Get inside," Max immediately says, and Cj smirks and enters the car.

     Étienne, who was sitting at the driver's seat, glances at Cj through the rearview mirror to look at the young CEO, almost staring at him with a deadly glare. But when their eyes met, Cj winks at him, immediately making Étienne look away and drive off in annoyance.

     "Alright, so what the hell is going on? Have you come up with a plan yet?" Cj finally asks as he looks at Max who's sitting beside him.

     Max wasn't wearing his peak cap and his uniform coat anymore, but he still looked proper regardless of what he wore.

     "I didn't make a plan, but someone else did," Max reveals, making Cj furrow his brows.

     "The friend I mentioned to you before was Scarlet Romano. She was kind enough to give us her advice, and thanks to her, I know something that we could do that will make your brand skyrocket," Max explains, making Cj adjust in his seat so he could face Max properly.

     "As she advised...we're making Kings Tobacco a public brand for the masses," Max finally reveals, surprising Cj.

     "Big investors will never help us even if we assure them 70 percent of your company's sale; it's just never going to work. But if we make the middle class the target, we'll have higher chances with smaller investors," Max explains, making Cj nod his head in understanding.

     "I see. I never really planned to make it a luxury brand like the Mills Tobacco Company anyway so that's not going to be a problem," Cj honestly says.

     "Anyway, if you're worried about your father we can use Anthony's name rather than yours so the investors wouldn't face any troubles with your family. After all, Anthony is also your co-founder, right?"

     "That's not necessary. My father isn't shallow enough to target small investors. He'd rather use his precious time to do something more productive. The only problem I have with it is that if we make it for the masses, the brand will be more open to the public, which means if we fail just once, then the general public will ride the bandwagon and drop the brand," Cj tells Max, almost sounding like he was worried.

     Cj was expecting that Max would agree with him, but to his surprise, Max grabs hold of his shoulders and tells him, "It's not going to fail. I've tried your cigarettes, and trust me...they were the best ones I've ever had."

    The car ride becomes silent, and for some reason, something inside Cj sparks; something that had already died down before. Other than his brotherhood members, Max was the first person to say such things to him.

     So this is what it felt like to have someone believe in you.

     Cj almost teared up by how touched he was.

     "If I compare it with Mills Tobacco, I'd confidently say that it tastes like shit compared to yours," Max then adds, and Cj finally laughs it off.

     "Well, I am amazing after all, what did you expect," Cj manages to joke, making Max let go of his shoulders.

     "Alright, so what do you plan on doing now? How are we going to make the brand public? How are we going to reach a lot of people?" Cj finally asks, and Max excitedly smiles and pulls out a metal card. Cj's eyes widens when he recognized what it was.

     "I was a bit annoyed that you asked them to follow me around earlier, but apparently their appearance was beneficial to both of us," Max says as Cj takes the card from his hand. "The Monarchs...your underlings...will help advertise your product. After all, you can't use a cigarette without a lighter, isn't that right, count?"

...

Max and Cj enter a studio from the address that the Monarchs' manager sent. Étienne had to wait outside, so it was only the two of them. When they got there, they were welcomed by the four members of the band, all wearing casual clothes, with their manager who Max was talking to just minutes ago.

     The members were doing something on their own, but the moment they saw Cj, they immediately dropped everything to stand and greet him.

     "Boss!"

     The four bow to Cj and completely ignore Max, but Cj asks them to take a seat as he tells them, "No need for that. We're not in J.S High."

     "But it would be awkward if we treat you differently though," Heaven - their bassist - says, making Cj chuckle.

     "Whatever, do whatever you want," Cj says, casually taking a seat on the sofa like this wasn't his first time to come here at all.

     As the four members of the Monarchs humor their leader, their manager approaches Max and shows him his hand. "Sinclaire, right? We talked earlier."

    "Ah yes, Mr. Jefferson..."

     "Jeff is fine," he says.

     Max was about to say something, but then Jeff hands Max a folder and tells him, "These are each member's talent fee. If you want all of them to use the product that you mentioned earlier, it would cost more."

     Max was surprised by the sudden money-talk, and so were the members of the band. So Axel, their frontman, immediately heads to where they were and snatches the folder from Max's hand. "No need for that, we're doing it for free," he states, surprising their manager even more.

     "What do you mean free? You can't advertise something for free, we're not some kind of cha-"

     "This man is Charles Justin Mills," Axel suddenly reveals while pointing at Cj, immediately making the manager freeze in his place.

     Max thought that the manager was surprised since he was a Mills, but then Axel adds, "He's our biggest sponsor. Without him, we wouldn't even have debuted. Advertising his product wouldn't be so difficult now, would it, Mr. Jefferson?"

    Max's eyes widen from shock, but deep down, he knows that Cj's the person to actually do that, especially to his underlings. The only thing that really surprised him is that he still sponsored them even though he's broke himself.

     Looks like his underlings are really important to him. After all, he is the one who created the concepts of brotherhood underlings.

     "You're sir Mill?! Oh, how rude of me," the manager says, running in front of Cj to grab his hand tightly. "It's foolish of me to not even know what you looked like. You were just younger than I expected so I didn't—"

    Cj immediately pulls his hand away from the manager and tells him instead, "Buy us some coffee. No sugar."

     "C-Coffee? Right away sir," the manager says, running out of the room with no hesitation to buy coffee like what Cj requested.

     As soon as he leaves, Roman laughs and takes a seat beside Cj. "That's our boss for ya. I'm glad you put him back in his place. Our manager always acts like he owns us," he tells them.

     Max then approaches them and finally explains what they're here for. 

     "Before I begin, thank you for accepting this request," Max then says, making the four of them look his way.

     "You were so annoyed by us earlier but you really did call us. Don't worry, our boss did say to assist you with everything we can so it should be him you're thankful for," Axel explains, and the other three nod their head to agree to it.

     Max nods his head as well and continues with the explanation. "Alright, let's talk about what we're going to do. Your manager said that you're going to have a live stream thirty minutes from now. During that time, we want you to casually use the product. We literally only have one chance to make it viral. We're going to use it subtly because purposely advertising something gets a fifty-fifty reaction. But if your fans see you using it naturally, they'll find it more personal. They'd want to use something you really use, and authenticity is what sells."

     "That's fine, it's not technically a lie anyway. We've always wanted to get a taste of that cigarette, but the boss here just doesn't let us. It's also hard to get a hold of it since it's not sold locally yet," Jaehyuk tells them.

     Max looks at Cj but Cj just shrugs his shoulder, so Max sighs and continues, "Anyway, what flavor should they use? Should we use your best-selling one?"

     Cj doesn't answer, but he pulls out six cigarette packs from his pockets and places them on the table.

     "Whoa, those honestly look cool," Axel says, and everyone starts taking a pack to check them.

     Max looks at the packs as well and notices a black one that he hasn't seen before.

     "This is new..." Max says as he takes the pack from the table. He opens it up and was surprised to see a black cigarette stick with a red lining. "It smells sweet," he comments before reading the flavor to check what it was. When he saw the label, he couldn't help but be surprised by it.

     "King flavor? You finally have one?" Max asks, and Cj just nods his head as an answer.

     "Let them use this then. It would be better if they advertise the new flavor so we can use that to promote the other ones. What do you think?" Max asks.

     Cj was a bit unsure of it since he hasn't tried it yet, but he nods his head anyway. "That's fine I guess. If they don't like it they'll just fake the reaction, right?"

     Heaven approaches Max and looks at the cigarette too. "Don't worry, we'll make it look like it's the best cigarette in the world."

     Cj chuckles, and Max gives the pack to their frontman, Axel. "Use it during your live. You don't need to mention the brand. Just pull it out of your pockets and casually use it. That's it. Let's just hope it catches the attention of your fans."

     "How many fans do you even have?" Cj genuinely asks next, which Max finds strange since Cj's their sponsor and it looks like he knows nothing about them.

     "Honestly it's not much, we're not superstars after all. But during our live streams, we get at least twenty thousand viewers," Roman reveals, surprising Max because he honestly expected less from an indie band.

     "Twenty thousand is actually a lot. You don't know how strong a fanbase can be," Max assures them.

     Their manager eventually arrives with coffee like what Cj requested. He gives one to everyone who was there and started fixing the cameras for the band's Livestream.

     "Boss, we're about to start. Any words of encouragement?" Heaven asks while Axel and the others enter the vocal booth with their instruments.

     Cj pulls out his own cigarette from his pocket and lights it up. Before putting the cigarette inside his mouth, he looks at the members of the Monarchs and says, "Good luck."

     Heaven and the others smile and head inside the booth so they could begin. Max, Cj, and Mr. Jeff then approach the booth and stand on the other side so they wouldn't be heard inside.

     Their manager then clicks a button and says, "We'll begin the live in two minutes. Get ready everyone."

     Axel nods his head and starts humming to get his voice ready.

     "Are they going to sing a song first?" Max asks, and Mr. Jeff nods his head as an answer. Mr. Jeff then pulls out his phone to check the live. He checks the viewers, and to his surprise...

     "We have about seventy thousand viewers!?" Mr. Jeff says, surprising the Monarchs since he was still pressing the button.

     "W-What?! Why did the views triple? We never got that many viewers?" Roman asks in shock. And just before their manager could answer, Max's phone vibrates.

     Max takes his phone and sees that his butler, Étienne, sent him a photo. He opened the photo, and a wide smile instantly appears on his face when he sees that the picture was actually from Scarlet's Instagram post. It was a picture of her getting her hair done while she held onto her phone. The caption then said: Busy with my photoshoot with Forbes Magazine, but still not busy enough to miss the Monarchs live stream for their new album tonight. Who's excited!? #TheMonarchs #DearDevilAlbum #LegendsWillBeBorn

     "That woman..." Max says with a smile, and Cj leans and checks the photo too, making Cj laugh.

     "Did you make a deal with that woman? Do you know that it's a lot more dangerous to make a deal with her than make a deal with me?" Cj then asks, but Max just laughs it off.

     "Don't worry, she just requested that he wanted to have a dinner date with all four of them when she comes back from Singapore. Would that be alright, Mr. CEO?" Max asks back, and Cj laughs again. 

     After a while, the live stream finally begin, and the Monarchs start the live with their digital album's title track entitled Lucifer's Therapy.

     Cj and Max watch diligently as the band starts their song with a catchy beat. Max was amazed since he wasn't really that much interested in music and this was his first time to actually listen to someone live. He doesn't want to sound like he was just trying to look hip, but he can't help but be impressed. He might as well start becoming their fan now too.

     "No wonder Scarlet likes them," Max comments.

     "Yeah..." the only thing Cj could say as he takes a sip of the coffee that the band manager bought for him.

     As the band continues to play their song, Max looks at Cj and sees him staring at the band with eyes that screamed "I'm proud of you guys." Cj wasn't the type of person to care about people, but it seems like Cj really cares about people who believe in him. People like his underlings, his brotherhood, and even his employees. Who would have known that he'd have a soft side too?

     "Thank you," Max suddenly says, instantly making Cj look at him.

     "Thank you? For what?"

     Max looks back at the band and answers, "For trying to tell me the truth about what my family did to me. I know this is a bit random, but I just wanted to say that to you since it seems like you're the type of person who would rather have people hate him. You're a truthful man Cj, but you should start becoming truthful to yourself too."

     Cj was surprised by Max's sincere words that he didn't even know how to reply to them. Thankfully, the Monarchs were finally done with their song, and the live stream now officially begins.

    "Hello everyone, we are the Monarchs!" Roman greets as the other members put their instruments down so they could take a seat. "My name is Roman Fulwood, and I am the band's drummer."

     "Hi, I'm Jung Jaehyuk."

     "Good evening everyone, I'm the bassist, Heaven Carter."

     "And I am Axel Jean Dumont. Thank you everyone for tuning in on us tonight. The song we just performed is called Lucifer's Therapy. It's the title track for our fourth digital album, Dear Devil, which will be released at midnight." Axel explains as he and the rest of the band look back at the screen in front of them to check the comments.

     "Tonight we're going to talk about the album, listen to snippets from all the tracks, and update you guys on what we're planning to do after the release," Heaven then adds.

     The live stream continues for a few more minutes as more viewers start arriving to watch their live. Soon after, it was time for them to use the product.

     "Look, he's finally pulling out the cigarette pack," Max says as he watches Axel pull a stick from the pack while the other members continue to explain the song that just played a minute ago.

    "This will only be for a quick second. I hope their fans notice. Even a couple of them will do," Max says anxiously.

     Max and Cj continue to watch as Axel pulls out his lighter. He finally lights the cigarette and puts it in his mouth. Max and Cj were silent for a second, but then Axel's eyes widens from shock as soon as he tastes the cigarette.

     "O-Oh no...what's going on? Don't tell me that cigarette is spicy," Max says, practically gripping on the coffee cup that he's holding.

     "Just watch," Cj says with a confident grin.

     Axel finally pulls out the cigarette from his mouth and exhales the smoke. And at that moment, Max, Mr. Jeff, and even the other members instantly stop what they were doing.

    "Red...It's red. The smoke's fucking red. H-How? How did you do that?!" Max asks in amazement, making Cj smirk in satisfaction.

     Axel continues to smoke the cigarette as the red smoke escapes his mouth. He couldn't even help but smirk. He's pretty sure a lot of his fans are going to take hot pictures of him now.

     "It took me a while to gather the ingredients for that cigarette. I spent most of my time and the last of my money on that single pack. It's a bit more expensive than the other cigarettes though, but it's affordable enough for teenagers if they're willing to pay such a price. If we get investors, I'll be able to mass-produce it," Cj explains, still leaving Max in awe.

    DISCLAIMER: Smoke responsively, and try to avoid it if you're underage. Literally don't use Max as an example.

     "You're seriously too good to be working for your father Cj. Thank god you decided to leave," Max says, making Cj laugh.

     Max then looks at the phone that Mr. Jeff is holding and sees that almost everyone is commenting on the cigarette. Everyone was starting to ask what it was.

     "Yo Axel, you're cigarettes getting so much attention that they've forgotten about us," Roman jokes, making the rest of the members laugh.

     Axel puts the cigarette stick away and casually pulls out the pack. "I apologize. A friend of mine recommended this brand to me and I've been smoking it ever since. Anyway, let's listen to the next song."

     As Axel puts the pack back in his pocket, the live continues, and everything else went smoothly.

     "Still can't believe how you did it. What flavor is it anyway?" Max asks.

     Cj, who's still watching his underlings, doesn't even look at Max as he answers, "Strawberry."

     "Strawberry? Why use strawberry for the king flavor?"

     Cj pauses for a second. And within that second, Max thought his expression changed. An expression that almost looked sad and regretful; an expression that Cj has not shown to anyone in a very long time.

     "It's Viktor's favorite. It's the last thing we shared together before things went down to ashes."

- END -