05. Kick Her Out

Fuck, fuck, fuck and add one more fuck to that.

He knew that he shouldn't have opened that door. He knew he shouldn't have walked towards that abyss. But he did and now it was a done deal. She was stuck in his mind, practically embedded in it like a sea parasite. That's right. He thought she was a virus. He didn't need her in his mind right now when he had other important priorities to sort out. But she didn't work like that. She has always worked in strange ways ever since he has ever come to know of her existence. And what she was doing to him right now without even ever knowing that she is doing this to him, heck she could even be in bed with another man.

Great, Taeho groaned, having half the urge to throw his laptop across the room. He just had to go there. But this was not the past. He was not that stupid dumb kid anymore and he wouldn't let his mistakes take over his life again. To even begin with, he didn't even deserve her in the first place. It was a good thing that he ran away before things got too dirty. He has made far too many mistakes and he didn't need a reminder of that life he left behind. He didn't need it. He didn't need it.

Now he only has to repeat this a hundred more times before it gets ingrained in his brain.

"...here we see a linear incline of exchange value by the end of March. We are focusing on recreating the same effect this month and the month after. Hopefully, we will get there soon as last month's records are not far off the charts, just slightly lower than anticipated."

Taeho frowned as he squinted down on his tablet, the numbers seemed to be hazy and they looked like they were about to start flying around him anytime soon. He loved numbers and anything to do with data but at the moment, he felt like he might throw if he continued to sit his ass there. But there wasn't exactly a choice to leave either, this was the board meeting. He can't really damage his reputation anymore than what the tabloid is doing to him. And how can the CEO and the president of the company ditch a board meeting. He didn't climb so high to be knocked off so easily.

But the fact that his past, well a fragment of it, was out for the whole country to see. It must be by some great form of luck that Giseok managed to leave the name of his highschool in the pictures. Everything that he did to start his life over would be in vain.

"..ee, President Lee, President Lee."

Taeho snapped his head up, adjusting himself on his chair. He cleared his throat as he took a look around the large table and at the bar graph projected on the broad white board. The board members stared at him expectantly as though they were waiting for him to say something important.

He cleared his throat and looked down to his tablet, then at the bar graph. Shit, even before he could get a proper grip of his surroundings, his mind began to drift. Hammering yourself with a million won scotch the night before and then having to deal with an internet scandal was not something good for the brain. He remembered that he went on a wild romp with Haeson right after as well. He barely squeezed in two hours of sleep.

"Well, it's not…" He looked around, analyzing their faces, "something to beat yourself up about. We don't always hit the right sales number and turnover every month but uh, it's not something to linger on. There's always next month and we will try to put in twice the effort we think of putting in. It always pays off in the end. Something to live by."

The men looked away, nodding thoughtfully. Taeho let out a silent sigh because he thought that he had royally fucked up with his little speech there. He promised that he would not do something that would pull him down but he has been zoning out the entire meeting.

"Um," The official standing beside the board began, gulping, "I was talking about the sudden hit in sales due to the issue from this morning, President Lee's scandal."

"Oh," Taeho nodded, and stared at the young woman.

"Well," She began to explain as Taeho was simply staring at her blankly, "the sudden surge in sales will affect the production values as we are already running way beyond stock. Any more sales would mean that we would have to rush production for next month and then the month after."

"Okay," Taeho thoughtfully tapped his chin. He needed to act like he was thinking deeply before he delivered the most artful solution to the company's problem. Unfortunately, the official mistook it as confusion and continued explaining,

"This would mean drastic revision for every production stats and—"

"Yes, yes, I got it. Thank you, miss uh…miss Seo."

Taeho stared at the board members and they stared right back at him, as equally blank as he was.

"Well…"

Fuck, his mind was completely blank and all that was popping up was the blurry image of her from memory. He could barely remember her face but she made sure to find her way into his mind. Taeho sat there for a good solid ten minutes with his mouth open before Miss Seo went on with her presentation after clearly seeing that he wasn't going to say anything anytime soon.

Taeho walked out of the meeting room with the grumpiest mood he could ever come up with. His brain was fucking pounding as though it was the one that should be producing blood, not his heart. Even more so than her blurry, her voice was starting to fill his head and he didn't care if he was hungover, he needed alcohol. Stat. He needed it to appear before him like a genie granted his wish.

Another set of steps fell beside him and he glanced at Mirae, with her stoic composure and astute walk.

"Give me some good news."

"Well, we are unable to buy the rights to the story. It seems photos that go viral are under a blurry state of law."

"Mirae, i said good news."

"SS Corps' President is requesting a meeting ASAP, there has also been a notice for the stockholders to hold a meeting in regards to how this affects the company and you're going viral for being a womanizer now."

Taeho groaned, first thing he was going to slam his head on the wall when he entered his office.

Partly out of frustration, partly to kick her out of his mind.