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     "Romeo..."

     I blinked and realized that I've been staring out the window of the car for a long time now. I cleared my throat then looked at the rearview mirror and saw Johnson staring at me.

      "We're here", he tells me as soon as our eyes met. 

      I cleared my throat again and answered, "O-Of course...let's go"

      Edrick – my secretary – goes out of the car and opens the door for me. The moment I went out, employees quickly aligned near the entrance to greet me properly like how they were trained to do.

     "Good morning chairman Val", everyone greeted in unison.

     "Good morning", I greeted back with an expressionless face.

     I went inside the building, my secretary quickly following behind me while holding all my things.

     I walked towards the elevator. Everyone who was lining up quickly went to the side to give me way.

     When the elevator arrived, I went inside, my secretary alone following behind me, leaving all the employees who were waiting first, to wait again.

     "Julien Choi", I quickly tell Edrick as soon as the elevator door closes, making him look at me confusingly.

     "J-Julien...Choi?" he clarified to me again.

     I nodded my head and further explained, "In our employee list, look for the name Julien Choi."

     My secretary quickly nods his head and takes out his tablet. He turns it on and looks through the list of names of hundreds of my employees in the main building.

     I was staring at the floor number increasing, but my secretary still hasn't given me anything yet.

     "What's taking so long?" I asked impatiently as Edrick continued to search for Julien's name on the list.

     But before he could even answer my initial question, we arrived at the 20th floor.

     The elevator door opens, and I went out without even waiting for him to follow me.

     He quickly runs pass me to put his things on the somewhat "reception area" that was just outside my office.

     As he puts his things down, he runs towards the door to open it for me. I went inside and went straight to my desk to sit down. Edrick on the other hand neatly placed my things on the table; afterwards he stood in front of me with his eyes still glued to the screen of his tablet.

     "Julien Choi-" he repeats to himself. Seconds later, his panicked expression changed into relief as he said, "I found it sir. Julien Choi, 28 years old. Korean Nationality but American Citizen. He worked at the Valentino Company that was handled by President King for a few months before being transferred here. Now he's in the Marketing department."

     "Send the data to me."

     "Right away sir."

     I opened my drawer and took out my stress ball.

     After that night, all I could think about was that man's face. I was thinking of him too much that I wasn't even able to sleep properly.

     So while I was at the car a few minutes ago, I got the perfect idea.

     For me to stop thinking about him, I'll just make him stay close to me. If I always see him, then I won't be stupidly thinking about him like an idiot.

     It's fucking genius!

     I squeezed my stress ball as I finally made my decision, "I'm transferring you to the Production Department. Fire the current head and replace him, tell that person that you were directly ordered by the chairman himself", I tell Edrick, making him widen his eyes from shock.

     He even dropped his tablet because of the sudden news.

     "S-sorry sir", he says.

     He quickly picked his tablet up and looked back at me, "Sir this is too sudden. Don't get me wrong, I'm very honored but-"

     I quickly cut him off and said, "That Julien Choi guy..."

     I paused, finally making him realize where this conversation was going to end.

     "He's my new secretary." I finally told him.

     Edrick just stood there, staring at me with confusion and shock.

     When it was clear that he lost his words, I raised my right eyebrow and continued, "What the hell are you still doing here? Go to the Production Department and do what you were instructed to do. And while you're at it, call for Mr. Choi as well, but don't say anything about his new position, just tell him I want him in my office immediately."

     He flinched and quickly nodded his head, "Yes, of course. Thank you so much chairman Val. I am very happy to have been your secretary."

     Without waiting for my response, he leaves my office.

     Edrick has been my secretary for four years but we weren't really close, nor did we have a friends-type of relationship. So him leaving my side won't really be a big deal.

     I don't really like being attached to people, especially to my employees. Bryson just so happened to be my friend because we shared our twenties-years together, but other than that, the only person I'm still very close to is Johnson, no one else.

     Strangers have a lot of motives on why they suddenly want to be close to you, it can be good, or bad. But either way, it's going to benefit them in the end.

     "You are a fool to think he was on your side", a sudden memory suddenly flashed in front of me, immediately making me let go of the stress ball. I didn't even notice that I was squeezing it too much, causing my hand to turn red.

      "What the hell was that?" I asked myself as I tried to calm myself down.

     I took a deep breath and aligned the already aligned items on top of my desk.

     I was bouncing my legs up and down again that I quickly had to stand up to make it stop.

     "Why the fuck am I suddenly feeling this way?" I asked myself as I walked towards the glass window to stare at the view of the city instead.

     "One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand-" I continuously tell myself as I put my hands inside my pockets.

     "Watch this dirty little thing stain your perfectly clean mind Mr. Ego", I suddenly remembered, making me stop counting.

     "Rome...watch me cum for you, okay?" I remembered further, making me aggressively scratch my head, causing my perfectly waxed hair to be ruined.

     "Why the hell am I thinking of a man who's not even significant to me?!" I angrily asked myself.

      I stared at my reflection on the window and saw how messy my hair has become, making me even more furious.

     "Great..." I annoyingly say as I walked my way towards the restroom to fix my hair. And at the most convenient time, someone knocks on my door three times.

     "You gotta be fucking kidding me", I muttered to myself as I hear the door slowly open.

     "Chairman Val?" I heard a voice say. It was so familiar that I suddenly panicked like an idiot.

     I quickly went out of the restroom with my hair not even waxed properly.

     And as expected, Julien Choi was standing near the door, wearing his usual attire that covered every inch of his body except his face.

     He looked a little surprised when he saw me, maybe because of how my hair looked. But he might have brushed the thought away as he looked back at me seriously.

     "You called for me sir?" he asked me with a serious expression.

      Him not even being fazed after what happened last night makes me even more stressed out.

     "Sit down", I commanded him as I quickly went back to the restroom to change my gloves since the other one was covered is wax.

     I went out of the restroom again and saw Julien sitting on the sofa in front of my desk. I took a deep breath and fixed my coat before going back to my seat.

     I don't say anything and just stared at him.

     He concealed the tattoo on his face again, and compared to last night, he looked a lot cleaner.

     Staring at him was suddenly making my face feel hotter.

      "I'm sorry chairman Val but...what do you want from me?" he suddenly asked me, making me snap back to my senses.

      I grabbed my stress ball again and started explaining, "I'll send you the address to my house. Every morning you need to be there at exactly 7 AM, no more, no less. My day-off is always on Sunday, you don't have to go to me but there will be times where I have to call you for meetings and other important matters. You walk behind me at all times, but you have to be able to open the doors for me because I avoid touching doorknobs as much as I can. At the car, you sit beside the driver. And when we arrive at the office, you have to immediately buy me black coffee at the coffee shop just in front of the building, only one employee can prepare it, but just tell them it's for me and they'll immediately know what to do. Knock three times, always, as I already instructed you. And the most important rule..."

     I paused and squeezed my stress ball even harder, "You can NEVER touch me. Questions?"

     Julien stared at me, but he didn't even look shocked or confused about what I just elaborately told him.

     "You're making me your personal assistant", he says with an expressionless face.

      I released my grip on the stress ball and looked straight back at him, "Good, he's not as stupid as Edrick", I thought to myself as I answered him, "I'll label you as my secretary since Johnson is already my personal assistant. Labels are very important to me so I can't label you as a personal assistant too."

     "I'm not an item for you to label. But since you're the boss...I don't have a choice do I?" he bravely asks me, making me feel annoyed at how he's acting.

     "Not an item...but at night you're labeled as a toy for men to continuously play with. That's kind of confusing, don't you think?" I tell him with a grin.

     I thought he was going to be offended by what I just said, but his expression still hasn't even changed.

     "What I am at night...is very different as to what I am during the day", Julien answered, and it honestly made me chuckle.

     "Then can you please tell me what you are during the day?" I asked.

     Julien looks at me seriously, "During the day I'm trying to be as clean as I can for the sake of my CEO who can't even touch the fucking doorknob", he suddenly answered, quickly changing my expression into an angry one.

     "Do you really want me to fire you?" I asked him, trying to make him feel a little intimidated at least.

     "No...But you can't though", he suddenly confidently tells me, honestly making me shocked.

     Before I could even say anything, he continued, "If you wanted to fire me you could have done it last night...but you didn't. And to top it all off, you made me your secretary. Don't you think it's a little too obvious?"

     Julien then crosses his legs and smirks, "Has my dirt already stained you...Mr. Ego?" he suddenly asks, making me quickly stand up from my seat.

     I wanted to grab him by the collar, and say something that would make him look scared at least. But I couldn't, and it made me angrier.

     "Touch me", he suddenly says, startling me.

     He then stands up and slowly walks closer to where I was, "All you could think about was me...am I right?" he asked.

     When it was obvious that I wasn't going to answer him, he continued, "I told you that I find you interesting. There's something about you...that I desperately want to break. But somehow, just by looking at your intense glare...it seems like you're the one who wants to break me."

     His statement suddenly made me gulp.

     Was he seeing things about me that I didn't even realize myself?

     "Shut up", I quickly say, but Julien ignores me.

     "I don't know why our way of crossing paths was like this, but I'm very curious on how it's going to end. So tell me...Chairman Val...what do you really want me to do?" he asks me.

     I was already breathing heavily for some reason.

     How he was acting was making me furious, but at the same time, I couldn't even show it to him.

     I've fired so many employees before. Some were even just an eyesore to me that's why I fired them. But him...this mysterious man named Julien Choi...this dirty man who isn't even afraid to talk like this towards his own boss...

     I can't even deny, let alone try to lie to everything he has been telling me so far.

     But this is enough.

     "So this is how you want to play", I tell myself as I gathered all my will power to take a step closer to him until our faces were only inches away from each other.

     Finally, after acting so tough, Julien was taken aback.

     He might have thought that he could use my OCD to play with me, but little does he know...I like challenges, and I specially like winning them.

     I'm still a CEO of a company that people would die to have, so I will not let a mere employee who's as disgusting as him, to talk to me like I'm nothing.

     "You wanna know what I really want you to do?" I asked him, my gray eyes deeply staring back at him.

     Julien gulps, slowly moving away from me. Shocked on how I was suddenly acting towards him.

     I was a few inches taller than him, but I never felt dominant towards him ever since last night.

     But now, I was finally feeling it...and I fucking loved the feeling.

     "I have a lot of things that I want you to do for me", I say as I lifted my hand, inches away from actually touching his chin.

      I wasn't touching him, but he was slowly lifting his head, like I was pulling it myself.

     It was my turn to smirk as I say, "I want this dirty little mouth to shut up as soon as I tell him to."

      Julien doesn't say anything so I continued, "I want you to stop messing with me. I want you to treat me like a fucking chairman..."

     I finally put down my hand as I finished, "And I want you to stay close to me always, do you understand?"

     "Why?" he finally asked.

     "Because you're supposed to be insignificant to me. But after your little show last night, I can't seem to focus on anything. And I HATE losing focus on things that are more significant to me, do you understand?" I coldly answered him.

     Julien slowly nods his head and finally takes a step back from me.

     I thought he was going to say something else about what I just said, but instead, he answers me this, "Black coffee at the shop in front of the building. Just tell them it's for you and they'd automatically know what to do, am I correct?"

     I blinked and went back to my normal self. I then took a deep breath and nodded my head, "Correct."

     "What happened last night..." he suddenly says, looking back at me again.

      And I thought we were never going to talk about that again.

     "If it's making you feel that way then pretend it never happened. I hope you know that I did that last night because that was my job. So I'm sorry to have disrespected you in any way today because my job here...is to be a good employee to you", he suddenly says, then he deeply bows in front of me, surprising me.

     Is he seriously expecting me to say something after that?

     "Then I'll be back as soon as I can", Julien says as he quickly bows again before leaving the room.

     The door finally closes, and all I could do was slowly turn around and look out the window.

     "One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand-" I continuously tell myself as I put my hands inside my pockets.

     Romeo Valentino, the richest bachelor in the country, is suddenly acting like this...because of a man named fucking Julien.

     The worst part is...

     I was inches away from touching him.

     And I didn't even mind.

- END -