Donnie's text was simple. 'Call me.'

But I knew the urgency in the phrase and so I stepped out of the simple house in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam district. The scene was another gorgeous one, displaying the wealth and affluence in the area.

The night's air was crisp with the promise of fall. The weather was splendid and didn't warrant the for a sweater yet. Our stay did extend a little into the colder seasons now that I thought about it.

Donnie picked up on the third ring.

'David, Keziah isn't in the room is she?'

'No.' Keziah was in her room still getting settled into our new residence. I knew before and this call would be urgent but it sounded worse. My first thought went immediatley to Anne, after all why else would Donnie be calling.

'Is Anne alright?'

'Yes, she is. We're fine, that's not why I'm calling, bro.'

I kept quiet and waited patiently for him to continue.

'I heard a rumor... and before you rant about how you hate them just listen.'

It was Don so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him tell me what he heard. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

'That is absurd.' That was all I could say or even think. The heat in my chest flared up before I could detect or control it. 'Don't call my number if you have decided to become a gossipmonger as well.'

'Why are you mad at me for?'

Then another thought hit me causing my stomach to sink even lower: it was possible.

'I hope you haven't said anything to Anne.'

'No, I'm not stupid.'

I could take the small offering of relief knowing that Don had been smart enough not to involve his girlfriend.

'Don, you shouldn't have told me.'

Now, what was I supposed to do with this knowledge, true or untrue.

'I had to. I knew you would know what to do.'

I wanted to laugh at that since I'd never felt so unsure in my life. Still, a slither of wisdom managed to slip through the cracks.

'Get to the bottom of this, even if you have to hear it from the horse's mouth directly.'

Yes, That was what Don had to do. Go to the person directly and end the rumors before they reached the wrong persons.

'You sure I should...'

'Yes, That's the best way to get to the bottom of this before it becomes a mess.'

I took a few moments to breathe.

'Are you okay, David? I didn't know the news would affect you like this.'

Damn it. Don knew me too well.

'I have to go. And I meant what I said. Don't call me unless you have the actual truth.'

I got off the call before he said anything more that would hit closer to home leading to a discovery f another hidden secret that, for my sake, needed to remain hidden.

My phone rang a while later and I cringed at the caller ID in bold Ms. Archer. I pressed the silencer button and slipped the phone in my pocket. We had nothing to discuss.

The next day brought its own problems. I felt that I was being dealt a variety of blows in every direction.

'Our team were already working on a strategy for the outreach and pr. event in Gangnam, but because Mr. Chul was so impressed with your performance he asked you to come here.'

'We would be willing to work alongside your team.' Keziah spoke. I'm not sure if she was uncertain or if she couldn't read the vibes coming off the two men who I was certain were the team leaders of this group Manager Kim was referring to.

They did not want to work with us.

'Working together is a great idea, and hopefully, that could be done another time, instead Mr. CHul would like is for you to be separate teams who will pitch the ideas to the Gangnam office board. The winning team gets the bonus package and the privilege of attending the Icheon conference while the other team returns to their desk or their country.'

Of course. Their attitude made sense now. I would have felt the same way if I suddenly faced the possibility of losing a very nice bonus package which came with preparing another successful public marketing stunt.

'I see.' Keziah sat back in her chair and looked at me briefly.

I could read everything in her glance, we had the worst end of the stick in this little arrangement.

'Is there a reason we were not made aware of this stipulation before we made our plans to stay?'

Manager Kim was unsure how to return the smile on my face. 'Like I said, Mr. Chul loved the turnout and believed you could do even better. Your Higher-ups felt the same way.'

There was no point really to my question, knowing or not knowing wouldn't have changed my decision at all. The only problem now was that there was additional pressure nicely layered on my recently wearing shoulders.

'And we will not disappoint them or you.' I said with a bow.

He seemed pleased with my answer.

I checked my watch the third time that second. Where in heaven's name was she?

'Miss Mills.' I called out. A short while after, she came skipping out the door in a tan slim-cut blouse and a plaid skirt with her hair nicely slicked in a long extension of a ponytail.

'Would you stop yelling, the whole neighborhood can hear you, sir.'

'I wouldn't have to raise my voice if you were early.' I impatiently opened the door for her and motioned her in.

'It's not my fault that you suddenly wanted us to wake up an hour early.'

'Quick, we need to beat the traffic and we have to be on or best game.'

'I know, that's why I had to take extra care with presentation.' she gestured at her appearance.

'As if you ever have to worry about the way you look, you are beautiful.' I scoffed. She could be wearing a box and she'd rock the hell out of it.

I unconsciously looked her way and found her gawking at me as if I'd grown an interesting head. Her expression was so funny I wanted to take a picture, I'm sure he had no clue how she was looking. I took my phone out before she stopped and took it.

'Do you know what you look like?'

'Did you even hear yourself?' she returned.

I did. Then I paused and I'm sure I had a look on my face.

The rest of the way we both pretended that part of the morning never happened. I was getting really good at this side-stepping matters.

I opened the door for her. She suddenly blocked my path before I could reach the door.

'What's wrong?' Great, the growing nervousness in my throat didn't show, that was a relief. Oh, Keziah this was not the time to talk about the comment.

'We need to put our heads together and show a united front in there. They will not like us because we are the outsiders who have come to take what they believe is theirs. We would need to be extra nice and extra polite. Most of all we need to be partners.' She spoke as if she was giving a speech.

Her adorability knew no bound. I had to suppress the first words that jumped to the tip of my tongue. My traitorous brain was doing a very poor job of filtering the words that were coming out of my mouth I could attribute it to a bad night of sleep.

'We must put our uneasiness for each other here at the door and leave out here. In there we are the best of friends.'

I had no problem with that. I was happy with the friendzone.

'Do you understand?"

Do I understand? I had to ask myself twice and audit my response before replying.

'Yes, Ma'am.'

'After this, we can go back to how we used to be.'

I hoped not.

We walked in with smiles on our faces and greeted everyone we came in contact with in Korean obviously. In the elevators, in the hallways, we even walked into open offices to make quick greetings. All of which was Keziah's idea which I followed because she knew what she was doing I hope.

We were promptly shown to our makeshift office. It was bigger than than the one we had in Busan. Instead of the opaque walls, our office had glass windows which showed the busy street below.

This wasn't the time to be people gazing.

We quickly set up and got right down to the planning phase. Location, trends, etc. We left no nook uncovered. We also looked at what Lee Chul liked about the Busan event and what we could replicate.

'I should get us some coffee, this is going to be a long day.' I sighed looking at the long list of things that needed to be done and researched.

'I hope you don't expect me to get it.'

'No,' I said feeling a little attacked by her tone.

'I owe you coffee remember?"

'Oh. I'm sorry.' She managed.

I picked up the drinks myself since no one liked us yet.

'I needed that.' she sighed after a long drink of her caramel macchiato.

'They should have been here by now.' she opened her email to double-check the time our team members should have been here. It had been an hour already, this kind of lateness was unacceptable.

'Maybe something came up. I'll go and check.'

She returned a while later wearing a frown.

'Two of them transferred to the other team.'

I exhaled. 'And the other two?'

She shrugged unknowingly.

'So I went to Jang Kyun-pyo and Go Woo-shin to ask for manpower since they obviously have extras.'

This was the point she lost her cool. She hissed so the walls wouldn't carry the words she spoke next. Her anger was contagious because I was sharing in it.

'They ignored me and pretended I wasn't talking to them. I obviously tried not to make a scene right ...' she added reading my mind. 'It would have made you proud. So I went to Go Woo-Shin so be finally acknowledges me, and then he looked me in the eye...'
In the eye!
'He told me his hands are tied and there's nothing he could do. Then he went back to ignoring me.'

The nerve of the man.
'We need to do something about it.'

'We will report them.'

'I don't want them to lose their jobs.'

Oh Keziah.

'I doubt they would lose their jobs, try probably have a solid story ready to go worst case, they'll ask them to return to our team and we don't want that.'

'We don't? We need help.'

'We will find the help. These people have already shown us where their loyalties lie, we can't trust that they wouldn't try to sabotage us by leaking information.'

She nodded along seeing things my way.

'So it's really going to be just the two of us. I think we can do it.'
She didn't look as confident as she sounded but it was a start.
'We don't have to do it in our own. We have friends we can call.'

By the end of the day, I was satisfied with the progress we'd made.
I gathered our files and met Keziah who was waiting by the elevators.
'Are you leaving? So early.' Kyon-pyo looking down on Keziah's petite height. Woo-Shin hovered over caging Keziah in an intimidating stance.

'Wow, look at this girl. First she ignored her superiors and now she's leaving before they do. Do you think this is easy work?'

I slowly closed the door as I reminded myself not to provoke these men. I despised starting drama or provoking hostilities in a professional setting. It was unethical and unwise.

Keziah apologized over and over again trying to step aside but they kept following.

'Don't you have more work to be doing?'

'Yes we do.' I replied once I reached their side. I positioned my stance behind Keziah and booked down at the two or three inch differences between me and the two men. My hands found Keziah's and I pulled her away from the men.
At the sight of me, they straightened and lightened the expressions on their faces, the clowns.
'Can we try to maintain a professional relationship? Let's not do this.' I gestured at the space between us speaking with regards to their previous display with Keziah.
The whole time I kept a smile in place one they decided to ignore.

'What were we doing? We were only talking to our colleague.'

'But you see I didn't appreciate the way you went about it. Please be nicer.'

'Is he flaunting his white privilege nonsense right now.'
They were being ridiculous it was getting on a particularly raw nerve.

'You need to talk to us more politely.'

That was what I was doing I believe.

'We are not wrong for wanting to teach our little sister here what is right and wrong.'

My hand swiped his before they touched Keziah.
'Please don't touch her. That's sexual misconduct.'

'Wow this guy is really pushing it.'
He poked me several times.

'You have o right to tell us what to do.' He reached for Keziah again and she swatted away his hand before I could but that was the final straw on my patience.

'Okay, listen you exsanguinated sea turtles. I have condoned you're bs for too long it seems. Look at my partner the wrong way or say the wrong thing to her and simultaneously teach you two a lesson. And it'll be my privilege to hand your yellow chopstick wielding asses on a greasy ash tray.'
I was sorry that I used such racist slurs but only to the people who were not these two imbeciles. Thankfully no one else was present so that was the extent of my apology.
I took out my precious kerchief and threw it at the first guy,
'wipe the moron off you face and catch his drool before it falls to the floor, we don't want the stupid spreading apparently it's contagious.'

In retrospect, I may have overreacted and I regretted only a little of my action. But I wasn't party to the entirety of the blame. I looked at her from the corner of my eyes and found her battling a smile and then she looked at me when she thought she'd succeeded.
'Don't say anything. I know that was very against what I preach.'

She shook her head. I felt her eyes still on me.
'I thought you were very cool.'

Just like that, I regretted nothing. I was ready to slay dragons and throttle armies all because of the one phrase.

My phone vibrated with a text from Don. I'd move away and make the call and find a dragon far within my reach.