Nary A Shadow

All's well that ends well. The people involved were not petty enough to destroy a good relationship over a small matter, although, it allowed their stance to show up.

Yue was finally free to focus on her designing.

She went back to work and had been busy for the past couple of weeks now.

"They sent the wrong materials again!" Ker grunted. His brother's people are getting incompetent. This was not the first time this has happened over the past few days.

"Relax boss, let me handle all the materials from now on" Yue volunteered herself. She's also getting annoyed by it. A small incident can be excused but a repeated one is too much. Even a small fly can bring inconvenience, how much more for their case.

"Go ahead" Ker also thought it would be better that way.

It was the first time Yue went down to other department. She had been staying in the studio ever since she started working and is not really familiar around the place. But she took her time familiarizing herself with the departments, carefully memorizing their names and locations. She was not used to asking for directions unless she's at the dead end.

Yue found the department for fabrics and accessories. She tried to knock but no one answered the door, fortunately it was open.

She was greeted with busy but organized scene. This brought frown to her face. They didn't seem like the type to make mistakes, it seems to be that someone was targeting them, or Null specifically.

"He finally came out?" Kemara was immediately informed that someone from the top studio went to complain.

"No Miss, it was his apprentice who came" the assistant regrettably informed.

Kemara snorted, "Boring, did Null think he can forever hide from me? We'll see if he still refused to come out after we make things hard for his apprentice"

"Miss I don't think it's a good idea. What if President Kiro got angry instead?" the assistant shuddered at the thought.

"I've yet to settle my accounts with Kiro. That man really infuriates me to the bones" Kemara motioned punching her other hand.

"Then why is Miss still staying in this company. A La Mode is willing to triple your salary to be their chief designer or you can also set up your studio" didn't know where the assistant got the courage to mention this matter.

"It's not for you to know, you're so nosy. Just do what I asked you to do" Kemara was irritated and dismissed her assistant.

Kemara sighed as she watched her assistant disappear from the door.

She is the Chief Designer of Alcane, needless to say, she personally handles the preparation for the Fashion Fest every year but not this year. All of a sudden, Null came into picture and took away the role from her. She had heard about this mysterious designer and knew how capable he is, but after several years away from the scene, would he manage to keep up with the trend?

Kemara also has her own pride, she knew she's a genius in this field, and not asking for much, all she wanted was a fair competition. But Kiro's decision was firm. She anticipated seeing Null to personally compete with him but nary a shadow showed up.

She knew she was being petty with causing trouble for Null but she just wanted to vent a little, it was not really to the point that she wanted to sabotage their work. As for the reason she continued to stay despite suffering from the injustice…

"I told you we never make this kind of mistake. There is only one set of this kind of material and we made sure to send it to your studio"

"I'm sure you're an expert in this area and I truly appreciate that, but you can't also deny the fact that the materials that we received is of lower quality compared to the one we requested. It may not be you, but someone must have changed it in the middle. As for the one responsible, we'll definitely get to the bottom of it, but if I discovered that you have something to do with" Yue didn't continue but her threat was implied. She saw the woman was flustered for a second. That further confirmed her suspicion.

Yue didn't usually come out strongly but the woman she approached just snapped at the first moment. Instead of assisting her, she kept denying their fault and even tried to throw the dirty water at her. She couldn't take it lying down.

"What is the commotion about?" Kemara's assistant entered the scene.

"Assistant Sha, good thing you came. This woman just barged in and accused us of exchanging their material into an inferior one. You know we wouldn't do that" Chika, the one that got entangled with Yue, didn't miss the chance to retaliate and even create an ally.

"You must be new here, but I can vouch that Chika and others wouldn't do such a thing" Assistant Sha was like a kind elder mediating between juniors, unfortunately, her real motive was to make Yue look like an unreasonable person.

"And who might you be?" Yue felt the brewing conspiracy between the two. She decided to nip it at the bud before they could make things worse.

"As I said she is Assistant Sha. She works for Chief Designer Kemara. You should show respect to your superior" Chika gloatingly said.

"I didn't have to answer for anyone except for Null and President Kiro, so I don't care even if I'm facing the chief designer, more so just an assistant" Yue looked sharp. The face of Assistant Sha paled from embarrassment and anger.

"Look, I don't want to find trouble with you really. I just needed you to do your job well and avoid inconveniencing the company. I'm sure you're aware about the limited time we had to prepare for the Fashion Fest and the possible consequences for any delay. The glory of the company is yours as well so help out. Here is the list of the materials we needed and its specifications, follow it to the dot and deliver it at our studio within the hour" Yue maybe wearing plain clothes and far from the image of a respectable individual but at this moment, her dominance was apparent, disallowing any disobedience.

"Yes ma'am" Assistant Sha and Chika unconsciously affirmed. By the time they realized what happened, Yue was already out of their sight.