Be With Me

Chapter 17

The man who approached Kelvin looked confident and authoritative.

His suit, the expensive looking watch and the shiny and well polished shoes all screamed that he was quite a rich man compared to the men Kelvin saw inside this bar so far.

Most of the men on the second level were also wearing suits but there was something about this man that stood out from the crowd.

Maybe it was the perfect cut of his jacket or the expensive diamond cufflinks by his wrists or his perfect hairstyle which looked like a whole tub of gel had been used to hold it in place. Or maybe it was the confident, arrogant air about him which seemed to be something that rich, entitled men naturally gave out.

His observation was proven true when the man gave him a business card and he saw the words CEO written on it.

Taking Kelvin's acceptance of his business card as a positive sign, he sat down on the seat next to him and started a generic but polite conversation with him.

Kelvin studied him carefully. His eyes weren't cold as ice, unlike Cris Yoon's. When he smiled, it looked like it reached his eyes; he didn't smile wickedly at him, unlike Cris. His words were polite and well mannered; and he didn't threaten him, unlike Cris Yoon.

But really, why was he even thinking of that guy right now?! Why was he comparing this man to him? That was quite unfair to this man in front of him.

Kelvin then smiled back at this smiling CEO before him and made polite conversation. This was what he came here for after all, right? To be less ignorant about things and to get more experience? He looked harmless enough, even nice, so why did he feel completely different from how he felt when Kelvin was with Cris Yoon?

He spoke politely but for some reason, Kelvin felt a little uncomfortable. Then all of a sudden hairs on the back of his neck stood up as if it sensed danger. Kelvin shivered, but not from the cold, and when he tried to touch his hand, he couldn't help but want to pull his hand away from him.

There was something in the way he looked at him, like he had some hidden agenda that wasn't quite right, that even though he tried to act pleasant and interested every act he's doing seems fake... unlike Cris Yoon.

Kelvin quietly sighed as that man's name popped in his head once again, he took another sip of his bitter drink and winced from the terrible taste.

Kelvin thought he was probably overthinking things because of how things ended up last night. So he persevered and pushed all thought of Cris Yoon to the back of his mind along with the strange feeling he had. Kelvin looked up at the man again, as he pretended to have heard the words he just said.

It seemed that the man noticed that he seemed to wince everytime he took a sip of his drink so he suggested that Kelvin try a different one. A waiter instantly hovered near them the moment the man clicked his fingers, showing him the difference in how people treated the extremely rich compared to the normal people in this place. He was also probably a regular customer and the owner looked like he made sure this man was kept happy by giving his own personal waiter when he entered the premises.

He said something to the waiter and the waiter immediately left to do his bidding. A few minutes later, Kelvin saw the waiter walk back towards their table with 4 different drinks in fancy shaped glasses and he carefully set these down on the table. The man beside him then gave the waiter a generous tip to make him promptly go away.

"Here, try these. They taste much better than that drink you've got there," he said, persuasively. "This is a mojito, a cosmopolitan, an apple martini and a long island iced tea." He first pointed to the drink that had lime and mint in it, then to the pinky red one, then the green one and then the one that looked like its name, the tea.

Kelvin was hesitant at first, but he decided to try it out, because this was exactly what he came here for, to gather experience, and this fitted with his goal. Kelvin took a sip of the pinky red one because it looked pretty and, surprisingly, the man was right.

Compared to the drink that he thought Leslie had bought for him, this drink was much better! Curious to find out what the others tasted like, he also took a sip of each of them and found that they all tasted as good as each other, but he liked the pinky red one the best.

So Kelvin took that drink and started sipping through it as the conversation went on. He had now gained some knowledge of some girly drinks that were on offer at bars and not all of them were disgusting like the first drink he had.

Kelvin seemed to relax slightly after finishing the first cocktail and then he moved to the next. The man smirked as he saw his reaction to the first drink he just finished. Kelvin's face was flushed and his eyes were starting to glaze over.

He also seemed to be having some trouble forming his thoughts and his words were becoming a little slurred.

'He's quite a lightweight! This is going just as planned,' was the thought that came with that smirk.

As Kelvin sipped his second cocktail, the apple martini, a thought popped into the slightly drunk Kelvin's head. 'I have to tell Leslie about these drinks! These are so good! She needs to try them, too!'

As his friend's name rang through his head, Kelvin looked up, his eyes zoomed at where Leslie had stood a while ago but to his surprise, he couldn't see his best friend anymore. Kelvin frowned as he looked around.

Where on Earth had Leslie gone off to?

Meanwhile, at the other end of the bar, Leslie had been ambushed by a gentleman, also wearing an expensive suit.

She didn't know that they were actually that CEO's men and they approached her to distract her and keep her away from Kelvin.

She had been standing in the line to the bar, waiting for her turn and checking on Kelvin every now and again, when she saw this man cut the line in front of her.

"Hey! We've all been waiting our turn here, so get to the back of the line!" She was fired up. How dare this man just cut the line and then act as if he didn't do anything wrong!

Her fists were opening and closing, as if itching to hit something. "Hey, buddy, you should move now before your nose gets broken." She threatened when the man just ignored her, as if he didn't hear anything at all.

Leslie's anger was starting to kick in.

She really wanted to teach this man a lesson!

"Oho, what a brave little miss we have here," the man said and Leslie rolled her eyes. She didn't want to be angry in this place, she didn't want to rage at this moment, solely because her Kelvin was here and she couldn't possibly create trouble here when her little angel was watching.

If she was by herself, she would easily be able to sneak away even if the bar turned into a battlefield but her Kelvin was here! There was no way she would let her see this reality on her very first outing!

Leslie breathed deeply, trying her best to calm herself. It was really hard for her to do it but the thought of Kelvin miraculously helped her lower her skyrocketing blood pressure.

She was about to glance at her Kelvin again to check on her when suddenly, another bastard appeared before her. This bastard purposely spilled his drink on her! She knew he did because he had an annoying smirk on his face instead of an apologetic one. Leslie finally snapped! Why was there no end to the amount of bastards lurking around this place tonight?

The anger she was trying so hard to keep at bay burst out like an erupting volcano and she immediately grabbed the bastard's collar with such force that the man's eyes widened in surprise. She looked at him with furious eyes and if looks could kill, he would have already dropped dead on the ground.

Another man came and surrounded her as she pulled the man's necktie, trying to choke him. It seemed these guys were the bastard's friends.

"What a brave and strong, little girl. Can you choke me too, baby girl?" another one asked and all other thought, except to beat these guys until they begged her for mercy, was pushed aside as Leslie lost it. 'Bastards! I'll choke you all to death!!'

"Sure... how about we go outside?" Leslie smiled like a little demoness as she dragged the one she was choking, out behind her. She was consumed with her anger. She knew that she was past the point of being able to calm herself down anymore, unless she beat these damned bastards to a bloody pulp.

The men were laughing as they followed behind her, looking at each other like this was going to be a piece of cake. There were three of them, including the one she dragged by the neck tie.

Once they were outside, Leslie pushed the necktie man away from her and looked at each of the men who now had her surrounded. There was necktie man, long hair man and denim jacket man. From the bunch of them, long hair man and necktie man seemed to be the fittest looking ones, so she faced towards these two, her back on denim jacket man, and waited for someone to make the first move.

As expected, denim jacket man was the first to pounce, thinking that he had the advantage as she had her back to him, but he was sorely mistaken. A quick but strong back kick to his stomach sent him flying backwards and spurred the other two into action.

Necktie man from her left was the first to get to her, throwing a punch towards her head. She caught his wrist with her left hand as she dodged to the right and she then threw a small uppercut which landed on his stomach. Her right hand grabbed his punching arm and she used his momentum to flip him onto his back. The man landed with a heavy thud on the ground and she threw a few quick punches to his face for good measure.

She turned to her right and put both arms up in front of her to protect her head as a punch landed on her arm. She didn't feel anything. Her anger combined with adrenalin did a great job in numbing the pain.

Unfortunately for long hair man, he left himself open after hitting her and she took advantage of it. She leapt up from her half squatting position and threw a series of punches to his stomach and face, making him stagger backwards from her onslaught. He tried to defend himself but she didn't let him. In the end, she knocked him out with a right hook.

She turned around and saw demin jacket man coming at her and she ducked, avoiding the sloppy punch that he threw her way. Leslie quickly straightened up and threw a hard kick into the man's groin area and when it connected, he toppled over in pain. She then went and gave him the same 'loving' treatment as his buddies until her arms started to get heavy.

Leslie stopped, looked around and was satisfied.

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A man in a black leather jacket stood in the shadows of the dark alley and silently watched the show. He was amused and impressed as he watched her. He had seen her leave the bar with those three trained bodyguards and he thought that he could at least act like a hero saving the damsel in distress. But the result only made him laugh.

This girl was fierce and he absolutely liked that....

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