1 The handsome man is the Devil

"Ho Mizuki. You incompetent moron, can you do anything right?"

Dark eyes wide with anger dug into my soul. His babyface now cloaked with his usually gelled-back ink-black hair, swayed with each gesture he made.

My manager's right hand whizzed past his face and smacked into his other palm as he accentuated "Urgency" and "Mockery." It made me want to laugh (spit flying and all) in his stupid, self-absorbed face.

Good thing I accidentally spilt my morning coffee on him. Because my manager's usually pristine white button-up was now brown and blotchy from the grainy coffee served at the "fetid and plain hotel." His words, not mine. With his stained shirt, dishevelled suit jacket and ungelled hair, he assumed his authentic appearance. An escaped asylum patient, which was how I and the rest of his subordinates viewed him as.

He ends his barrage of insults with "The flight was for 8:45 AM not 9:15 AM, get your damn eyes checked" and with that, he rolls up his sleeves, whisks his briefcase off the ground and strides off. I hope off a very, very high cliff.

I turn back to the lady at the airline ticket stand, who's expression flashes between pity and fear. Yes, miss you better be scared, because if you tell me that we have to wait till tomorrow to get a flight, he will make a stew with both our bones.

She looks up at me, tears building up, and it seems like the barrage of insults has only just begun.

With my head hung. I returned back to my manager to tell him the bad news, already contemplating the new sentences he would string up to mock my intellect. Let the downpour of insults and undecipherable swearing begin.

To unwind this predicament let's go back to two weeks ago when the Managers at Sunnies Reach were told by the HR department to set up a team-building trip.

On second thought, let us go even further. Let's go much further into the past. To the very first day, I knew Park Daisuke was nothing other than the spitting image of the devil.

THREE MONTHS AGO

The room was packed full, I couldn't believe I was actually here, in this very room. I was chosen, we were all chosen. Granted, thirty other new employees didn't make me feel that special, but still, I was between these very walls. I was now an employee at Sunnies Reach, the biggest and fastest-growing Marketing tech company in all of Korea. They focused on implementing cultured AI that could predict months ahead, products that would sell out. It was honestly witchcraft.

The CEO was said to have started working on the code alone in university and launched his idea while graduating. He then became a billionaire in merely 5 years. Granted, nobody has actually met the man. The public doesn't know who he is or what he looks like, so he could just be a hoax, and it could actually be ten or more talented programmers.

They say he reveals himself at the annual company gathering, but the only people allowed at these parties are the managers, international department heads, stakeholders and shareholders even paparazzi and celebrities aren't invited. It seems the only way to meet him is to climb your way up the corporate ladder and be in a position of power. And I was determined to meet the genius behind Sunnies Reach's AI.

I applied for the UI and UX design position at Sunnies Reach and went through a series of design assignments and rigorous interviews. The CEO is said to only want the best. No one is accepted based on their connections, status, wealth or appearance, but by who they are what they can offer. How do I know? Because I'm in this very room.

I am not wealthy, I have no connections, no status and I'm a dime a dozen when it comes to looks. And yet I am here, about to be briefed by my manager about the workings of our department. I am happy to be a part of Sunnies Reach. They want individuals who are ready to work, not people who want to brag about their parent's wealth or sleep in the bathroom fretting over their looks.

Ever since the company was publicized and everyone was talking about them, I knew this was the place I wanted to work. I changed my major from Engineering to Information Technology and followed my heart because of Sunnies Reach. Though I would have had a better life as an engineer, I would have been miserable. Being a designer has always been my dream. These are the exact same words I told my interviewer when she asked: "Why do you want to work at Sunnies Reach?"

A man wearing a dark beige suit enters the room. His hair was clipped and trimmed. His watch sparkled, and his shoes glittered. He walked past the podium and stood to its left. I was sure from his swag that he was the manager, I guess not. A lady strutted soon after with another woman, both had their hairs in a bun, red bottom heels and tight skirts on, pristine white blouses and perfect makeup. Are we having two managers? But they too stopped as they got to the podium and stood by its side. I guess not.

The door swung open again, and a man with gelled black hair popped out. A nice fragrance filled the room as his shoes clacked while he strode on the smooth floor. Phone pressed to his face, a light smile revealed two soft dimples at the sides of his cheeks. He had the softest expression I had ever seen, he had a babyface. He looked kind, likewise strong, and I was sure I could trust him with my life. Not to mention those dimples were making all the girls in the room swoon, talk about handsome, even I was getting red-cheeked.

He settled at the podium and turned off his phone. The light smile on his face faded and his brows hardened as he stared at us.

"I'm the manager of the UI and UX design department at Sunnies Reach, I'm Park Daisuke, and these are my right-hand men and women" he points at the three individuals that walked in prior to him.

"The rest of you are trash" My eyes fluttered. Exqueeeeese me. I could hear the people behind me shuffle, I guess everyone was just as stunned as I was.

"Who said you could sit?" His voice boomed as he rolled his eyes at us. "Just because you passed the interviews doesn't mean jack shit to me"

"So what was the point?" the man behind me got up, his face was now red and you could visibly see his annoyance.

"The point was to pick the recyclables from what is burnable." he smiled, as he rested his folded arms on the podium. Am I just recyclable trash? Did I walk into the wrong building? Is this really Sunnies Reach?

"I will be thoroughly testing your usefulness as a designer, you can think of yourselves as temporary employees and if you so much as breathe wrong" he points at the door. The man who stood up picks up a binder and stomps to the door.

"I don't have to put up with this, who do you think you are to treat us like this?" he points while shouting.

Park Daisuke walks off the podium towards the annoyed man. Looking down at him, because he towered well over the angry employee. "I'm the man who is going to write your paycheck. So if I tell you to jump, you say?"

"How high?" the man and the two women who stood by Park Daisuke's side, respond.