Bullet hopped into Elise's window one morning. It was her semester break, and she's getting her results today. She should be excited to see what kind of grades she got after being tutored by Zack all sem. But on the windowsill, he sees her lie face down on her bed and sensed her anxiety. So he loafed on her back and started to purr. "Oh, hello Bullet!" She sleepily says before face planting again.
"Are you okay? You shouldn't worry about your results. You've been doing good all semester!" Bullet says.
"No, I'm not worried about that." She turns over, grabbed Bullet and hugged him tightly on top of herself. He struggled at first but settled down once he found a comfortable position. "I just realized how silly I been acting."
Bullet tilts his head. "When?"
"The past few months! Especially with Zack, like when he was trying to teach me physics and I kept shouting SOH CAH TOA! Or when I kept telling him 'Patrick, I know something funnier than 24' every time I see the number 24. Or when we play Overcooked 2 on the PS5, I shout and yelp and make so many weird noises." She then puts him to the side and buried her face into her pillow again.
Bullet nuzzles her. "That just sounds like you normally."
"Yes! But with my sister and my friends. Not with a boy!"
Bullet tilts his head. "Is Zack not your friend?"
"No!" She gets up from bed. "I'm only hanging out with him because I felt bad-..." She pauses, before slumping back down. "Yeah I suppose he's my friend..."
"So why do you care so much about what he thinks?"
"I don't! I... Do I? I don't know l just don't feel so good." Her phone notification dings, the sound of a bird chirp. She grabs it off the end table and checks it. It was her results. She felt like she improved all sem, but it's time to see if it actually did. "4! 4 flat! I never 4 flatted anything before it my life! Oh my god!"
"You feeling better yet?"
"Mom guess what!" She runs out of her room before turning back sharply. "Oh shit where are my shorts?" She puts on some pants and runs out of her room again. "Mom! Mom!"
...
When he was still grieving, Zack kept his head down and worked. Determined not to let anything affect his performance. But when he gradually started to feel better, he slowly, figuratively, lifted his head back up. And what he found was that the way his colleagues are treating him now is a far cry from the cold first few weeks here. He no longer ate alone at lunch, he was invited to join the girls at the pantry. The fellow creatives bantered and joked with him more, and even his bosses been buying coffee for him every now and then. He's never felt so loved in this company before. If anything, people were now isolating Ashley and Khai.
"Why don't you hang out with them anymore? They're part of your team after all." Zack asks Wendy, the account manager that reaches out to him.
"Nah, I don't feel comfortable around them anymore."
"Really? I don't mean to... I don't wanna take any friends from her."
"You're not taking any friends from her. People are not stupid Zack. They saw what happened, and they saw how you acted too. I guess you won a lot of people's respect. Even the bosses know about this."
Speak of the devil, their CEO and founder walked into the pantry and put her hand behind both Wendy and Zack's backs. "You 2! Can you come into a meeting later today at 3? It's something very important." The both of them nodded, afraid at first, but she was smiling, so it shouldn't be something bad right?
Later in the meeting, there was a mix of representatives from other departments, including Wendy and Zack's associate creative director. The big boss greeted everyone, talked about their recent struggles with losing projects, and presented her findings that she and the management team got from their meetings. "We want to expand. But our current image means that we're struggling to break out of that mould of design agency that makes GWPs." She then points to Zack, catching him off guard. "So Zack, how do we solve this?"
"I uhhh... Um, rebrand?"
"Good try, but rebranding might mean we lose report with our already established clients. How do we get a fresh new image to add to what we already have?"
Zack looks around and realizes that only he was expected the answer. Anxiety is through the roof, he's the most junior there, a fresh graduate. "Uhhh... Launch a new brand? Like a sub brand?"
"Subsidiary! Correct!"
Zack breathes a heavy sigh of relief. He has no idea how that worked.
"We'll still be sourcing, designing, manufacturing, and delivering goods, all the things we been doing, but now, we'll also offer marketing consultations, matchmaking of IP licenses. We're..." She points at Zack again.
Wait, why me? Zack thinks to himself. "Uhhh, expanding?" She shakes her head. "Uhhh, taking it to the next level?"
"Yes! We're elevating ourselves to the next level! And Zack will be the lead!"
"Wait WHAT?"
The others in the meeting clapped formally, before the boss quieted them down and continued with her presentation. The rest of the meeting was assigning tasks for the people involved to do. Of course the big boss would know how to launch a sub brand, this would be DMX's second subsidiary, but she needs hands, as well as a capable head above those hands, to execute it for her. After everyone left the meeting room, Zack stayed back to ask "Why me?"
She looked up at him with a smile that implies that she expected this question. And just then, Azam the creative director walked into the room. "It was a decision that the entire management team made together." She said. "We think you're very capable."
Azam took out his iPad and brought up his online portfolio, which up until this point was still filled with sketches of his fantasy car designs for his fantasy car brand. "Remember how you got the internship spot with us?"
"Yeah, I always found it odd, no interview, I just sent in my resume and portfolio and got an offer letter a few days later. Are all interns like that?"
Azam shook his head. "No. Interns usually get interviewed." He puts his iPad down, displaying his portfolio. "Number one, I know your lecturers, a lot of them same batch as me, they talked about you before." Zack smiles nervously, lecturers get hundreds of students, he must have stood out quite a lot, for better or for worse. "Number 2, when we hire people, the management team is consulted, they saw your portfolio and was impressed."
"But why? I mean, sketches like these are nothing compared to Helmuts renders."
Big boss smiles and shakes her head. "There's so much more we can learn from your portfolio than just how nicely you could sketch. You know what we saw? We saw the level of detail in each and every one of these designs, including which sector of the market each of your models target. Down to the materials you use for your cars and all your nerdy specs. I love them! You might think it's silly but we read how your fictional company have subsidiaries, collaborates with existing companies, and even how you pretend to acquire other companies."
"You guys read all my stupid captions? Those are just a bit of fun..."
"Those are your visions Zack! You build a little world in your head, and then you draw from it and it drives you! It's so rare to find someone that thinks like this. That's why when I saw this, I told Azam to hire you immediately."
"Wait... You guys hired me because of my pretend company? That means..."
"....she memang wanted to let you lead the launching of this subsidiary. But we let you finish your internship and work a few months first to see your attitude." Azam completes his sentence.
Zack was speechless, and frankly, very intimidated. "Boss I... I'm just a fresh graduate, I don't know if I can-"
"You can. Zack. You can. Don't worry, I will guide you, and you will learn. And you're so young, your mind, fresh ideas, is exactly what we need. I'm too old already. My ideas are outdated."
Azam puts his hand on his shoulder. "But if you don't want, we won't force you. You still have a choice."
It dawned upon Zack that if he takes this on. It would be a long term project, and he won't be able to just leave to design body kits for Mr. Roland. But how many opportunities like this will he get? "Okay, I'll try."
"Don't say try, say I will!"
"I will try!"
His bosses laugh, which barely alleviated any of his nervousness.