Fall and Rise

. . .

Somewhere in the city, an office worker sat in front of his PC, ready to receive some spotlight.

"This is what it is," he said to himself after reading all the messed up articles he wrote against the three CEOs. The last time he checked, he was still a journalist, but now... a fictional writer.

"You should have been more careful not to spark rumors," he comforted his conscience for the last time.

Then and there, the call he was waiting for arrived. He was finally being summoned by the higher ups for his scoop.

"Promotion..."

Going back to that beach...

Even after a series of gentle slaps from Zeirenne, Jin was still unable to grab hold of his full consciousness. At that exact moment, the villagers came with flashlights in pursuit of his missing figure. They all spotted Zeirenne waving her hand—with Jin rolling off her shoulders. Their cramped position drew an apparent concern from the faces of everyone; so the villagers hurried on their steps to help.

Zeirenne spotted Andrei, who was walking far behind. His unusually cold aura could freeze the entire sea.

She met his wandering eyes with urgency, and he strode faster after getting the message.

"You have to read this." She told him, handing her phone to let him read the news. "What the hell?!"

Zeirenne bobbed her head in an assuring nod.

"Don't worry, a helicopter is already on its way here."

As if on cue, they both examined the passed out Jin, sighing at the same time. Without even talking, they knew what was needed to be done. Andrei found himself carrying Jin on his back. It was a "never" in his wildest dreams, but he didn't have a choice.

"I'm sorry Mang Jose, I'll be back again after fixing some minor conflicts in the company." Zeirenne explained, concern still visible in everyone's face.

"How are you going to get home?"

"A helicopter is on its way here."

Mang Jose nodded his head.

Everyone bade their farewells and the copter arrived at the beach in no time. They all boarded inside, placing Jin first before buckling in their seats. They placed their mufflers and the copter went on its way.

"What were you two doing?" She asked Andrei while the pilots clicked some buttons on the cockpit, talking about their ascent on a walkie-talkie.

"I don't really know?"

Zeirenne was about to ask another question but the red-faced Jin butted in.

"Stop talking! Don't talk to him!" he said, enough to let even the pilots hear his voice.

"What's wrong with you--"

"Pay me some attention instead..." He slowly said before leaning his head on the headrest again.

It was dead silence from that moment on.

Andrei tried breaking the ice only to realize later how much of a bad idea it would be.

"We should have just ridden this helicopter, earlier" he said, drawing her eyebrows into a very intimidating curve that screamed BAD MOVE.

"Really? Do I have to ride in a helicopter every time I want to go somewhere? When in fact I can save more money and fuel if I use public transportation instead. Do your carbon footprints mean nothing to you?" she asked rhetorically, obviously not receiving answers, "Besides, the last thing I want to do, is scare off the villagers. They surely wouldn't feel at ease seeing an unknown aircraft landing on their mountain."

It was this moment that he decided on zipping his mouth whenever he's with her.

"Just how many things does this girl advocate for?" he thought to himself, "Proper waste segregation, No-fur movement, and now carbon footprints? Talk about some old school principles."

"And..." Zeirenne added in between his thoughts, still not finished with her arguments, "I don't even remember asking you to come. Did I?"

He raised both his hands up in surrender. When he finally set them down, he almost leaped out of his seat when Jin reached out for his right hand.

"What the?!" he immediately shoved it off.

Zeirenne, who was fast enough to open her phone's camera to snap this incident, was stiffling her laughter.

It was an even more awkward flight from that moment on. Fortunately, after an hour, they landed on ZA's helipad. Their assistants and secretaries already waiting for them on the platform.

"Sorry to keep you all up this late." She said as they went down at exactly eleven o'clock.

"It's okay miss Lin." Assistant Colton replied. He was in the middle of a secret mission when he received a call from Miss Jones. Aside from them, another person was present.

"Good Evening, Mr. Argenti," Assistant Perry greeted his boss.

They headed to Miss Lin's office in no time. With Assistant Colton carrying his boss on his back.

Everything was already set up, the presentation, the statistics, everything has been laid out perfectly.

As they all sat on the couch, their assistants took their turns in presenting the data for each company.

"The stock prices went into an absolute fall and rise within a matter of one hour." Dorothy started.

"For the first hour, many of our stockholders found this shocking; and so there was a drastic drop on the stock prices. Since most of them were your suitors- I mean uhm... anyways... one of the stockholders was able to bring everything up."

Assistant Colton had to clear his throat before taking over. He almost choked on his own after hearing Miss Dorothy's slip of tongue. Who wouldn't?

"For our company, we also experienced a drastic drop. Most of our investors pulled out their investments. For some reason, even our company representatives, including the models; backed out-"

Colton was interrupted. Everyone watched as Mr. Young, who was sleeping on the couch, stood up to snuggle himself in the one-seat couch with Miss Lin.

"Ouch--we can't fit in here--what are you?-" She surrendered before scooting over. They both fit on the couch as she let everything be.

"You may continue, Mr. Colton." She said, ignoring the stares their assistants were giving.

"So yeah uhm... Eventually the stock prices are still dropping and our PR departments are doing their best job on handling this matter. Everyone seeked for you three, but we couldn't tell them you were all together to avoid further conflict."

"That's perfect..." Zeirenne mumbled as her train of thoughts branched into different routes. She didn't even notice Jin leaning his head on her shoulder. Or the fact that their assistants were about the die from the absolute confusion.

"Call for a conference..." Jin mumbled and Zeirenne tilted her head closer to hear him better. "Huh? What?"

"Call for a conference..." He mumbled again and she nodded, her hand rubbing her chin. "That's a good idea but what should we tell them?"

The other people inside the room felt absolutely out of place as both Miss Lin and Mr. Young whispered too close to each other.

Assistant Colton cleared his throat and he was able to grab Miss Lin's attention. "Anyways, what should we do now, Miss Lin and... Mr. Argenti?"

"We should wait before doing anything, we'll let this go for today and form our measures.

If everything goes out of hand then we can always act."

Everyone nodded. "That should be all for this evening right?" Mr. Argenti stood up, directly heading for the door without the formalities. His assistant had to bow to everyone as he followed his boss out.

"I think... we should make our exit now too," Assistant Colton suggested, and the two secretaries nodded their heads with furrowed eyebrows.

The three of them bowed before the two, exiting the room with thoughts enough to rack their brains for a whole year.

Zeirenne was still formulating a plan inside her head, with Jin knocked out on her shoulders.

"What am I supposed to do with this mess?"

She sighed helplessly. Being the female lead in a messed up controversy was never her dream.

Opening her laptop, she started wandering around the internet. She visited different news sites, and found her jaw gaping at hundreds of comments. Hate comments.

. . .