19 Flashback
Letting go of the hug, Lina walked around in the clothing store.
It was massive. Almost twice the size of NEO.
The place was sectioned into two halves, one for men's and one for the women's clothing.
She had a great eye for fashion but all her creativity was only in jewelry. She was a total noob at designing clothes.
She had tried multiple times, but all she could design was mediocre gowns which did not have the flare that she wanted in her clothes. So she just stuck to the thing that she did best, jewelry.
Lina moved around the store and smiled.
'This sense of accomplishment is so warm and nice.' She thought.
"Your dream of doing something on your own has brought a smile on so many people's faces." Said Wade while rubbing her arm.
"It did the same to me as well." She looked like she was about to burst into tears.
Tears of joy and excitement, of course!
Obsidia was her baby. The baby that she created from scratch, only using her part time job's salary and her allowance as the initial investment.
She worked hard to establish herself in the jewelry industry back in America.
Her parents never interfered in her business matters to let her experience life on her own.
Hence a young seventeen year old girl made headlines for starting her own company *Obsidia Designs* and for the beautiful jewelry she designed.
The popularity of Obsidia was causing problems with her studies in college, so her parents suppressed all news connecting Lina to Obsidia.
Till now no one knows that Lina Yang, the heiress of the Yang family is the President of Obsidia designs.
She was also the lead designer of Obsidia, the mysterious LY, whose designs were to die for!
The only people with this top secret information were her family members. Not a soul outside the family had any idea about this.
"You even sent me back here to manage the China division in your place. I spent two years attending boring meetings thanks to you. If I knew this was going to happen, I would not have run away from Luo industries to follow you." Wade complained.
He had left his finance manager post at Luo industries and ran away to have fun with Lina.
He just wanted a carefree life and hanging out with the then high school going Lina was the answer to his problems.
He followed Lina all through college, he even took up a job at the library just to earn a little cash while he willed away his time.
He was Lina's mentor at times and she was Wade's babysitter at times. Despite the difference of six years between them, they were still very close.
She remembered when she broke down and wanted to quit designing when her company hit a rough patch. He was the one who guided and supported her through it.
"Thank you, for everything!" She was utterly grateful to this man.
'Though he hates working, he still spent two years to make Obsidia a big brand here.' She smiled through her tears.
"Enough with the sad eyes! Let's go check out the store." Not wanting her to cry, he dragged her along to see the store.
"Do people know you here?" She asked, lowering her voice.
He looked around and found nothing out of the ordinary.
"I've never been here before. My assistant is the one who comes here often to check on the place. Why?" He too lowered his voice and whispered.
"For the first time ever, I'm happy that you are so lazy to not even move your ass out of the office." She made fun of him.
"Hey! Don't forget that you are just like me, a lazy ass. But why were you asking if people know me here?"
"I wanted to check if the employees here are like those from the Talia's store. This is now an undercover operation!" She looked hyped to play secret agent.
---
Two people whispering as they hid behind the mannequin attracted the manager's attention who had just entered the store.
'Thieves? Not in my store!' He then walked straight to the suspicious pair.
"May I help you?" He asked the same question as the manager from Talia's. But this voice had no arrogance in it, only vigilance and suspicion.
The two straightened up and turned towards the manager.
"I'm the manager of this store, manager Lin. How may I help you today?" He repeated, pointing at his name tag.
"We are here to check out the place." Blurted out Wade, to which he got a slap on his chest by Lina.
'Does he mean to scope out the place to rob it?' The expression of horror was clearly visible on manager Lin's face.
'He's clearly misunderstood something here.' Lina facepalmed internally, looking at the man in his fifties getting scared.
"Sir, we are here to check out some suits for my brother. Can you help us out?"
Manager Lin almost had tears in his eyes listening to Lina's respectful tone.
'When was the last time a customer asked for help rather than demanding it?' In his daze, he led them to the suits section.
He stood by as Lina placed several suits in front of Wade to see how it would look on him.
Deciding on a black, a grey and an indigo suit, she asked the in-house tailor to take his measurements for alterations.
The manager was surprised to see her so well versed in how they work in the store.
After all she was the one who had come up with this method for her stores.
An in-house tailor for the men and a seamstress for the women. They would help in making the clothes look like they were made for that particular customer. Like a custom made dress for their shape and size.
No one walked out of Obsidia with ill fitting clothes, that would drop the glamour of the designs and her brand.
That was one of the charms of her brand.
Manager Lin by now had come to the conclusion that he had misunderstood them earlier and he was friendlier with them.
The staff was respectful but not overly subservient to them.
She hated when salespeople overly flattered the customer just to make a sale and was happy that it did not happen here.
Manager took down Yang Manor's address and promised to send the altered clothes before the day ends.
Walking out the door she waved goodbye to Manager Lin who was surprised at first but later happily waved back.
'This young lady is so sweet and nice. I hope I get to see her back at the store soon.' He prayed.
His prayers would soon be answered as Lina had plans of coming back here in the near future.
---
Lina stood facing the jewelry store which was right next to the clothing store.
"The placement of the stores is amazing, Wade! How did you manage to get such a good location?" She inquired.
Thinking of the things that he had to do, to make his friend agree to give him the store location caused Wade to shiver.
"I would rather not say. Please respect my privacy." He spoke in a mechanical tone.
