Chapter 21 - 21 - Post- Birthday Blues

Fang played with a model car in an absent-minded manner. It was one of the seventeen gifts from Ren. It was an exceptionally well-made miniature model of a sports car from a leading car company of Lake Country, but Fang hadn't seen this particular type before. He had even looked it up on the internet, but in vain.

He wondered idly if he should ask Ren. Would Ren think that he was being rude...?

"Fang, are you ready yet?" Ren's voice broke into his thoughts.

Fang put down the model car hurriedly and moved to the door.

"So, you like the car model?" Ren asked cheerfully, wheeling himself in.

Fang nodded.

"It's a prototype," Ren told him. "It'll be out next year."

Fang froze.

Ren laughed at his expression. "What? Did you think I would give you just a toy car? You'll get one of the first units when it's released next year. Keep that model safely; it's the token for the actual car. We'll collect it after your eighteenth birthday as soon as you get your driving license."

Fang suddenly understood how Wade ended up being such a spoilt brat. CEO Ren's affection came with limitless pampering! Simply too unreal! This kind of man would pluck the moon for you before you even asked for it!

Did that mean Ren himself wanted to be pampered...? Fang decided then and there that he'd spend the rest of his life doting on Ren. He must make himself into a capable man quickly and pamper Ren!

"Come on, then," Ren said, oblivious to Fang's thoughts. "Pax will scold me if we're late."

"You can blame me," Fang offered.

Ren shook his head ruefully. "Even if I could bear to, no one would believe me. Everyone around me thinks you're the earthly incarnation of some great heavenly being."

Fang giggled. "Of course not."

"It's true!" Ren swore. "They're writing sonnets in your glory these days! I'm jealous!"

"Shall I write one for you, then?" Fang asked teasingly.

Ren pouted childishly. "I don't want a sonnet, I want a full-fledged epic!"

"As you wish, Your Majesty," Fang replied. "Thy lowly minstrel shall obey!"

"You're not my minstrel, you're this emperor's favourite consort!" Ren retorted haughtily.

Fang narrowed his eyes. "Favourite consort? You have more?"

Ren smirked. "Not yet, my dear, but who knows what will happen in the future?"

"If you dare to cheat on me, Ren, I'll... I'll..." Fang burst out in a rage, but then stopped. Who was he to demand anything of Ren? Someone like Ren, so outstanding, so wonderful...isn't he a public heartthrob? Wouldn't he have countless women and men throwing themselves at him? And...at some point... wouldn't he want to have a child...?

Ren took Fang's hand and kissed his knuckles, laughing gently. "So you do get jealous, too, eh? I was wondering if I'm the only one..."

"Of course I wouldn't dare to cheat on you! Where would I have the time when I'm worrying and trying to prevent people from stealing you away from me?" Ren continued to rant.

Fang glared at him. "Nobody is stealing me away from you."

"Oh, you have no idea!" Ren complained. "I was batting away all sorts of pests last evening at the party! So many of them were mooning over you!"

Fang huffed. "They weren't mooning over me, they were trying to get close to you, the bigshot CEO Ren!"

"No, it was you!"

"It was you!"

"What the hell are you two arguing about this early in the morning?" A disgruntled Pax appeared at the door. "We're getting late."

"Pax!" Ren cried. "You saw what happened last evening! Weren't there all those people trying to cling on to my Fang? He doesn't believe me! I'm jealous and upset!"

Pax rolled his eyes.

"I'm telling you, no one's after me, they were all trying to woo you," Fang shot back. "Tell him, Pax!"

"Of all the bloody idiotic things to create a ruckus about in the morning!" Pax thundered. "Do you need me to smack some sense into both of you?!"

"I'm injured!" Ren said quickly and wheeled himself back.

Fang and Pax exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.

"All right, enough fooling around," Pax said finally. "It doesn't look good if the CEO himself is late for a meeting he called."

Half an hour later, the three of them were sitting in a meeting room at Sirocco's office with the marketing and advertising team members.

"We haven't found a perfectly suitable model yet," the advertising head told Ren, wringing his hands anxiously. "We have shortlisted five candidates... we're thinking we should hold another round of auditions."

"No need," Ren said. "Let's see the recordings."

All of them watched the shortlisted models' performances on the projector screen.

Ren frowned heavily. "This quality is too abysmal," he muttered. "Fang, what do you think?"

"I don't know the technical things," Fang replied. "But it feels wrong."

Ren leaned forward, interested. "How would you present it? Remember, this is an ad celebrating five years of Sirocco. We want a five seconds ad that'll grab the attention of a global audience."

Fang drummed his fingers on the table for a few moments. "What if we showcased five milestones of Sirocco? Five years. Five seconds. Five things. We could show a story - five years ago, a young boy of fifteen set out to achieve something...five years later, this is is where we stand with no end in sight..."

Fang spoke for several minutes, explaining his idea clearly and effectively, and then acted it out. It was quite easy for him to do so - because he was familiar with Ren and he could easily put himself in Ren's shoes and think about how things would work out. To everyone else, however, it appeared to be a miracle!

There was pindrop silence in the room for several moments when he finished.

Then the marketing and advertising teams leapt to their feet and applauded loudly.

"Bravo!" Ren said, clapping daintily.

Pax simply handed a ready contract to a flushed Fang to sign.