My Krung Krung Bae

Chapter 4: The Drawing

MY KRUNG KRUNG BAE – Chapter 4

The Drawing

JC Pacheco

The weirdest thing just happened to me and I have a crazy little family. That speaks a lot. I met someone and for some reason, he looked as if he was from another world. He seemed lost and utterly strange. I mean, who slaps someone the first they meet? And who takes someone to the hospital over a slap?

I shook my head.

He was cute though.

Cute?!

Heavens! My sister has finally got to my head. Many times she and my mother would say the word like it was their daily bread.

Well, my mother has this sideline when she’s not writing and she’s hanging out with their best friend—Ms. Mary Chris. She owns an apartment building not far from our house. And boy do they love to gossip. And that’s where my sister got the same habit.

“Some new idea rattling in your brain, Pacheco?”

I was startled when I heard a familiar voice. He doesn’t often come to my office but here he is. Mr. Jonathan Lee. He’s the current owner of the printing business that I have been supervising and running for the past year.

Mr. Lee is a retired military man. After he left, he inherited this company from his father who inherited it from his grandfather. So, it is a sort of his calling he didn’t think to pursue. He wanted to serve the country in his own way so he joined the army. When he was losing his father to kidney failure, he came home to take the business over. He was not going to let it be taken over by some unknown man, a man who would buy it and integrate the company into their corporate one. It is family business after all.

I found myself twirling a pencil so I put it down and cleared my throat. I politely asked my boss to take a seat in front of my desk. He wore his usual white polo shirt, tucked in his brown corduroy pants. He removed his tan newsboys hat and smiled at me thinly. He sat down and scanned my room, adjusting his glasses when he saw the paper on my desk.

“You were drawing?” He asked me. I was almost embarrassed for him to see it. Drawing is one of the things I love to do when I have time. So, a hobby, I guess. I studied business management. On my free time, I studied graphic designing.

Aside from my mother and my boss, no one else knows I love traditional drawing.

My face felt like it was burning when I realized what I had drawn. I tried to hide it but Mr. Lee had already gotten hold of it. He adjusted his glasses one more time as he looked at the paper closely.

“You’ve drawn it well,” he said.

“It’s not finished yet—”

“Is it new model for one of our clients?” he asked. Some of our clients sometimes request a drawn photo of someone for their ads. We use real people as models and they almost always love the outcome. A company even asked us to collaborate with a studio to give life to the art and put them into animation.

“Ah, no.” I took the paper from him when he handed it to me. Mr. Lee gave me a raised brow and chuckled to himself.

“Did you finally found a special someone?” he asked me with a teasing tone I am so familiar with. My mother has the same one.

I paused and blinked for a second at the question. Why was there hesitation in my answer, who knows? What he asked me just made me think. I thought I always have the same answer? And that is “no”.

My throat felt as if it was clogged so I cleared it one more time. “It’s just an imaginary character I came up with,” I said, lying about it obviously. I knew that if I said yes, this will be an additional topic we’ll talk about when he visits. I don’t like to talk about my personal life to my boss. Work is work for me.

He hummed as he nodded at me. “I came to actually ask you a favor.”

That’s a first. Mr. Lee never comes here to say these words to me. I guess I have not worked with that long for me to finally hear these words. He rarely comes here in the first place.

“There’s this conference for the local businesses in the city,” he continued. “And I’m not very good at socializing.”

And so am I.

“Anyway I need you to come in my stead. You can bring someone along if you want,” he said and that tone of his that echoed that of my mother’s came back. “It’s not just a conference. It’s also a party. It would be good for you. Or you know… your plus one.”

 I wanted to decline but it was work-related. “It would be good for networking for the company. Would it not be best for you to come?”

He shook his head right away. “I’m social wallflower. Is that what they call it? You’re the supervisor and you know all of our clients. You’re good at your job so go for me. Go for the company.”

I scratched my forehead and nodded unwillingly. “Okay. I’ll go.”

“Thank you,” he said before he abruptly got off his seat. “That’s all I came here for. And I’m glad you didn’t ask your secretary to get me coffee this time.”

Lucky for me, I forgot. Since I started working here, it became my mantra to try and be welcoming to anyone coming to my office especially when it comes to clients. I asked my assistant once or twice to bring Mr. Lee a cup of coffee during his visits. The first time, he did not drink it at all. The second time, he told me he did not lie coffee.

“Ah,” I said as I stood up myself. “Since you’re here, Mr. Lee, would you like to see the current status of all our projects for the week?”

“No,” he said dismissively, waving his hand that was holding his hat. “I have to get to my next appointment. Can’t miss it,” he said with a wink at me.

Well, it had nothing to do with me so I walked to the door and opened it for him. “Thank you for coming then,” I said to him.

As he stepped and stood by the doorway, he tapped my shoulder. “Let me know how it works out, yeah?”

“Of course, Mr. Lee,” I answered.

“And the conference, too,” he added.

My mouth fell open for a question that didn’t leave my lips. “W-Wha—”

“He’s a good looking young man. Introduce me next time,” he said before he left. I heard my assistant cheerfully bade him goodbye. My eyes followed my boss through the hallway while my head wandered to the boy I saw yesterday. I felt my face burn again.

I closed the door and rubbed my cheeks. “Silly,” I told myself. My eyes landed on the paper on my desk. My pencil was placed on top of it. Walking towards my desk, my eyes feasted on those pair of eyes and lips.

Something was bothering my stomach as I stared longer.

Oh boy…

_______________ chapter 4 ends.