Chapter 3 – Strange Behaviour

It was around 10 PM when CEO Rex sent out the text message to all six men to assemble at midnight at his office. It was about half an hour later that he had a chat with his Executive Assistant Ao.

"Thanks, Ao," he said. "You've been a great help. Without you, I'm afraid I'd not have made it for all these years."

Ao shot him a strange look. "What on earth are you talking about?" he demanded. "Haven't I been looking after you since you were born? By now, it comes to me as naturally as picking up a toothbrush and brushing my teeth."

Rex chuckled. "I remember, not so long ago, the example you gave involved toilet paper instead of a toothbrush…" he teased.

Ao promptly threw a crumpled sheet of paper at his boss.

"Reverse harassment!" Rex cried. "You're subverting the office culture!"

Ao simply raised an eyebrow in response, feeling that Rex was behaving rather strangely today. Ao's father always said that Ao had the natural talents required for a top butler…in fact, Ao was supposed to have been trained as a butler to serve Rex just like his father served Rex's grandfather. It had been a twelve-year-old Rex who had somehow discovered that Ao dreamed of studying business management and working in a company, but never spoke up because had always grown up with the idea that he would be Rex's caretaker. Rex had fought with his grandfather as well as Ao's father, telling them that it didn't make sense to waste Ao's passion and talent, and that he would need someone reliable by his side when he took over Zephyr. The arguments lasted for several weeks until Rex's grandfather and Ao's father threw in their towels and finally, Ao was happily able to attend the business school of his dreams. That had also been when Ao had decided that no matter what happened in his life, he would always support Rex and help him achieve whatever he desired.

Rex pouted when Ao didn't take the bait. "All right, you can go home now," he said dismissively.

Ao frowned. "You're not going home yet?" he asked.

Rex shook his head. "I called all of them here at midnight," he admitted easily. "I want to wrap up this matter today."

"I'll wait for you," Ao said immediately.

Rex waved his hand casually. "No need, really. It's not like any of them are going to harm me," he said.

Speaking of harm…Ao's face darkened as he recalled the matter of Rex's sole romantic experience during his college education overseas. It had been horrible and rather traumatic. Despite his high IQ and extraordinary business acumen, Rex was still naïve and innocent when it came to personal relationships. When one of his classmates had approached him and asked him out for a date, Rex had gone ahead. The other boy had been very attentive and caring, and Rex had soon fallen in love. Gradually, however, the other boy had started becoming abusive, and often demanded expensive things and cash from Rex. Initially, if Rex refused, a torrent of verbal abuse would be unleashed at him. Later, it escalated to a slaps and shoves, which left Rex rather confused. Finally, it got to a point where Rex collapsed in class and was rushed to a hospital. Ao, who had just finished his own college education in another country, flew halfway across the world the very same day and found a bruised and battered Ren lying on the hospital bed, the golden glow completely gone from his eyes.

"What did I do wrong, Ao?" he asked in a small, dead voice. "Is it because…because I refused too many things? I wasn't comfortable…so I refused to sleep with him…and I thought he was being excessive…so I refused to give him money or let him take my things after a while…was that wrong of me? Should I just have…given these to him…?"

Ao clenched his fists hard enough to draw blood. "You did nothing wrong, Rexy," he murmured, somehow managing to speak in a soothing tone and using his childhood nickname. He sat in the hospital and consoled and cajoled the teenager all night. Rex finally fell asleep in the early hours of the morning.

After that, Ao had dragged the despicable boyfriend out, beaten him half to death and thrown him into a prison with hardened criminals. When the boy's parents had tried to stir up trouble, hoping to get the boy out and claim some monetary compensation, Ao had systematically driven them to insolvency and they landed in jail, too. The boy had died in prison within a year. Rex hadn't found out about everything Ao had done until several years later, when he finally took over as the CEO of the Zephyr Business Group.

But no matter whether Ao had adequately avenged Rex or not, no matter whether the abusive, manipulative guy was appropriately punished or not – the fact remained that Rex had been badly hurt, and it had taken him a long, long time to get back to normal. His grandfather had taken him to a number of psychiatrists and therapists, but Rex was clever enough to fake normalcy and hide away the scars on his heart. Ao still worried about it, and this was one of the major reasons why he was against the old man giving Rex an ultimatum like this. Especially since the ultimatum involved Zephyr, which Rex had treated as his raison d'etre for a number of years now.

The only saving grace was that the six men chosen by Rex all truly cared for him. Ao could see that Rex cared for all of them as well…but it was very difficult to gauge who was the most favoured one.

At least the old man was in a very good mood these last few months, praising Rex for finding such outstanding suitors for himself and repeatedly urging him to finalise one.

Coming back to the present, Ao fixed his clear blue eyes on the younger man. He couldn't pinpoint it, but his instincts were going haywire, telling him that there was something wrong with the entire thing, that there was something strange about Rex today. And Ao had relied on his instincts too many times in his life to completely ignore the alarm bells going off in his head – especially when it concerned the young man in front of him.

"Rex," he said quietly. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Regardless of what your grandfather says, he will give in and withdraw the ultimatum if you speak to him seriously. I don't think he wants to corner you – he was probably just worried about you not having any interest in choosing a spouse. You can take this slowly – I'll speak to him again, all right? Don't rush."

"No!" Rex cried sharply. "I forbid you from speaking to him about this matter again!"

In fact, noticing Rex's panic as the date of the ultimatum drew nearer, Ao had already tried to suggest to the old man that since Rex had proper suitors now, he should withdraw the ultimatum, but the old man had flown into a rage and thrown an ashtray at Ao's head.

Ao had been too astonished to move – it was the first time Rex's grandfather had done such a thing! The heavy metal ashtray had hit Ao's temple, and when Rex entered the room, he found Ao standing by the wall with blood dripping down his face, and his grandfather looking extremely contrite and remorseful. Without a word, Rex had grabbed Ao's hand and taken him to a hospital. Fortunately, the injury was not serious.

This had happened three weeks ago, and Rex had not spoken to his grandfather since then. The old man had been apologising desperately to both young men, and Ao had tried to intervene on his behalf several times, but Rex simply said he would speak to his grandfather once he had made a decision regarding his suitors and the ultimatum issued by his grandfather.