41 Chapter 41: Lipstick

Jin woke up the next morning slightly earlier than how he used to.

The noise from the next room woke him up as the housekeeping auntie he hired to keep his house clean and to cook breakfast for him was whining with a doting hint in her voice.

Jin remembered how he adopted two kittens from his sister's apartment complex area because the security guard there attempted to catch them and put them somewhere only God knows.

Jin does not have any obligation to take the strays in, but seeing how Amy Shen pleaded with the guard moved his heart. It was just stray kittens, so Jin thought that it would be nothing for him to adopt those fur babies.

Jin decided to lie down for a bit. The voice of the housekeeping auntie was reasonably loud, and he could hear almost everything said by her.

"Aiya, don't fight over food. White one eats this side; the orange one eats that side."

A smile crept into Jin's lips. The auntie was probably trying to feed the kittens. His thought wandered to a certain someone who used to say the same things. Jin stood up and walked towards the room next door.

"You're awake early, young master? Sorry I am loud." The housekeeping auntie said she was sorry, but there was no trace of being apologetic in her eyes. Her eyes kept on darting towards the kittens.

"Where did you get such cuties? I am so surprised to see them when I enter the room. Oh, right. Here." The auntie took out something from her pocket. "I found it here. The orange one keeps on playing with it. This must belong to your guest."

The auntie held out her hand, and, on her palm, there was a pink tube.

Jin did not take the tube; he was looking at it like it was something contagious.

The housekeeping auntie saw her boss's puzzled look. "It's lipstick. Maybe your girlfriend's lipstick."

The auntie knew that her young master must have dated someone. It was quite impossible for her boss not to date someone since he looked so handsome. Not to mention, rich as well.

Jin took the lipstick and checked it.

Dusty pink.

Cleo never used pink lipstick. She always uses red. Usually, Cleo will use different shades of red lipstick, but never pink. Also, he never took Cleo to this house before, so it would be impossible for her lipstick to lay around his house.

"Young master, what are the names of these cuties?" The housekeeping auntie asked, not realizing that her boss was in deep thinking about who was the owner of the lipstick.

Right at that instance, Jin thinks of Amy Shen. She was the only girl, other than Qiao An, to ever come into his house. His sister did not wear pink as Qiao An used nude colours lipstick. So the lipstick could only belong to Amy Shen.

Jin tried to think of Amy Shen's lips; he never really paid attention to her lips. But after this, maybe he should.

"Amy Shen…" Jin mumbled incoherently, but still, the housekeeping auntie heard him.

"Amy Shen?" The auntie looked at the kittens. "Which one is Amy, and which one is Shen?"

The auntie looked back towards Jin, waiting for confirmation of which one of the kitten is Amy and which one is Shen.

Jin smiled at the auntie's silliness. He never thinks of a name for the cat, but someone else already did.

"The white kitten is Snowy, and the tabby cat is Orange. Please bath them and feed them on time while I am away for work."

The housekeeping auntie nodded in understanding, and Jin returned to his room with a lipstick in his hand. He took a picture of the lipstick and about to send it to Amy Shen, but he stopped himself.

Would Amy Shen find it weird if he suddenly sends her this? Would it be better if he called her straight away?

With all those things on his mind, for the first time in history since he opened his studio, Jin was late to work.

When Jin reached his office, he was half an hour late. They were supposed to have a staff meeting that morning, but since Jin showed up late, his staff were already waiting for him in the meeting room.

All of them were curious as to why their boss was late. Even if they have a lot to ask, they did not bring it up.

The meeting was about the characters' development of their next project – a hero battle game. Jin was absentminded through the meeting until one of the staff who was responsible for the game characters' design presented the rough-coloured sketches of the heroes and heroines.

All of the female avatars presented were having red lips or dark lips—no variety at all. Jin looked at the staff in front of him; most of them could be called 'otakus' for some reason. He sighed inside his heart and lamented how these guys did not understand women at all, unlike him.

"This is almost the same as what we did in our previous project last year. Can't you all bring some differences towards the characters, especially the female avatars? How are we going to attract girls to play our games if all the characters look fierce?"

Jin intercepted the presentation as he could not stand it anymore. All the members in the meeting room turned to face Jin thinking that, of course, the characters need to be fierce-looking – this is a hero battle game after all.

"You see? All of them wear red or dark lipstick. Didn't you know we have more than hundreds of lipstick shades out there? This is why you all can't get a girlfriend."

Most of the men felt attacked. Why would their boss talk about lipstick all of a sudden?

"But boss, red is bold and powerful. Red symbolizes power and bravery. Dark lipstick is mysterious and indicates the dark side. The other colours do not go along out theme for this game."

Someone was brave enough to refute Jin. That perked Jin's attention.

"Really? So, lipstick colour has meaning? How about pink then?"

The men were staring at each other. Just why were they discussing lipstick colours instead of continuing the meeting anyway?

"Hot pink is adventurous. While pale pink usually associates with being cute and adorable -like when someone is using it, that person screams 'I love animals and cute things' or something like that. So, boss, that does not fit into our project now, right?" Someone answered Jin.

"Hurm, adorable and cute indeed. Then proceed with the initial plan." Jin stood up. "Meeting adjourned."

The men in the meeting room were confused. Their boss said 'adorable and cute' but who is that refers to?

Jin decided to take out the lipstick from his pocket that was there all along since he could not figure out what to do with it.

He searched for the picture he took earlier that morning and sent it to Amy Shen with a message.

Tang Jin: Yours?

Jin did not expect Amy Shen to reply to his message just after a few minutes. He was not ready for it.

Amy Shen: Ah, yes, yes, yes. That's mine. I keep on looking for it, I thought I dropped it somewhere. Please hold on to it first; I'll get it from you when I see you. Thanks.

At the end of the message, Amy Shen put an emoji of smiling face and smiling eyes.

Jin read the message and put down his phone.

Indeed, she is adorable. Even her choice of emoji is cute.

Tang Jin: So how about today? Are we alone for dinner today too?

Jin checked his message, and when he was sure that his message was not strange, he pressed send.

Amy Shen: You are! I'm not. I have something to do today. I'll see you next time when we are both alone.

Jin read the message and felt disappointed. He guessed that he had to find someone else to eat dinner with him.