Chapter 6 You're a Maniac, No Need to Explain

"Since when does Pecitra employ pandas, my dear?" Aulia's crisp laughter filled the pantry.

It's all Mr. Malik's fault. After he said those words in my ears, I couldn't sleep, thinking about it all night. As a result, I had dark circles under my eyes, and I didn't know how to get rid of them.

"What made you stay up so late? Look! Besides looking like a panda, you also look like a ghost who loves eating meatballs." Aulia held a small mirror in front of my face. It looked terrifying.

"I was just thinking about when Jin would return from the military." I'm sorry I had to lie.

Mr. Malik's offer kept ringing in my head. It was so tempting it would be a shame to pass it up, but the consequences I had to face weren't as light as cotton wool flying across the horizon.

"Honey, I have something to tell you." I put my glass on the table and squeezed Aulia's hand. It would be better to ask Aulia's opinion first before making a decision.

"About your friend, huh?" She was very excited.

I immediately denied it. "NO!"

When confiding in someone about a personal matter, never say it's about yourself, but about someone else. It's safer to keep your problems private, unless you want your problems to become the subject of gossip.

I lowered my voice so only Aulia could hear. "I heard a rumor. There's a businessman from overseas who asked one of his employees to become a contract wife for a year. Do you know that if the woman agrees?"

I show off five fingers. "She'll get five percent of the businessman's company shares. Does that make sense to you? Do men like that really exist?"

"Yes." Aulia took a sip of her coffee. "In novels and dramas that air on Netplikse."

Aulia's words hit me hard. I had no reason to dispute her opinion, because what this woman said sounded more reasonable than Mr. Malik's offer.

"But if there really is a man in this world who would do that, his motives are suspect," Aulia added.

"Go on!" I opened the cake in the kitchen and handed it to Aulia, my dear.

"First, as an entrepreneur, he has a 'no-lose' instinct. If he easily gave away five percent of the company's shares, he'd be getting something more than what he gave his employees," she said.

Aulia's statement made perfect sense. However, I wondered what Mr. Malik would get? I had nothing to give him in return.

Aulia continued. "Second, there's a possibility the company is experiencing losses so alarming that they can't be saved. He's giving his shares to avoid being chased by debt collectors."

This one was not true. Under Mr. Malik's leadership, Pelisia Citra Ayu had never experienced negative profits. If the subsidiary consistently made a profit, the head company would automatically gain a profit as well.

However, Pelita Lestari Indonesia was not a public company like Pecitra, so its financial reports weren't published. If the company was actually making a loss, Aulia's statement made sense.

"By the way, do you know Pelita Lestari's financial performance?" I asked Aulia.

"About the head company... I don't know," Aulia patted my shoulder. "You're close to Mr. Malik, so just ask him. The boss must have the data."

***

I don't know how many eye masks I've wasted trying to get rid of dark circles. I reapplied them and repeated them over and over again. The result was still the same: the dark circles under my eyes wouldn't go away. All bad karma from staying up late.

"Ha... what should I do?" I sighed, slumping over, worried about my appearance.

Mr. Malik entered my unit silently. "Just come to my house, dinner's ready." His voice startled me, nearly making me flinch.

"How did you get in?" I distinctly remembered not hearing his footsteps. I wondered how he did it.

He plopped down on the sofa in the living room where I was. "I have the key." He held it out, shaking it.

I almost forgot that Mr. Malik was the owner of the house I lived in. It started with an assignment to take care of his personal needs in my third year, when I was still working at PT Pelita Lestari Indonesia, Pecitra's headquarter.

I used to go to work early in the morning and often come home late at night because I had to wait for Mr. Malik to finish his work. It caused me to collapse, requiring several days in the hospital.

Since then, Mr. Malik told me to move to the Mirrorpage Apartments and live next door to his unit. He also never worked overtime anymore so I could get home on time, every day.

However, when we got home, he made me cook for him. Well, that was the same as overtime then. What's worse, it didn't even show up on my paycheck, ugh.

Mr. Malik got up from his position to me, then took the lip balm from my makeup bag and applied it to his own lips.

"Sir! Don't go too far! This is my lip balm." I really wanted to punch my boss in the face with that sentence.

He ignored my words. "So, you're a maniac, huh?" he sneered.

"Why do you call me a maniac?" I folded my arms across my chest.

"Look over there," he pointed to the wall covered in wallpaper with a Jin's face motif all over it. "That wall looks like a place to put sacrificial heads."

This was slander! It's not true!

The picture displayed there was a work of art. The face that adorned this wall was the most handsome man in the universe.

"Do you regret letting me stay here?" I was afraid he would say yes and sue me for damages.

"That's not it," he denied.

"I mean, you should act normally. There's no need to like anything excessively. In fact, excess is not good," he said.

His words sounded like those spoken by a saint. Was he truly a saint?

"I'm not overreacting, Sir." I turned my head away from him.

He leaned in close to me, so close that his lips were almost touching my ear, I could hear his breath.

"Not too much, you say? Look at this pillow." He pointed to a sofa cushion covered in a slipcover with Jin's face on it.

It was the first blood.

"And this." He held up a mug with Jin's face on it.

Well, a double kill.

"Over there." He pointed to the curtains with Jin's face on them.

Oh! Triple kill! Damn it!

"Anything that can be customized will have that Korean singer's face on it. Especially the one over there." Mr. Malik pointed to the door with a photo of Jin the same size as the door.

"No one with common sense would do the same thing as you. There's no doubt about it, you're a maniac," he concluded.

He pointed at me. It was clear on the man's face that he was proud of having successfully made an accusation against me.

Mr. Malik's accusations against me were not true. I'm not a maniac. No... No...

"It's not like that, Sir. I put a picture of Jin on the door as a source of encouragement when I leave the house and to cheer myself up after work," I explained.

Mr. Malik shook his head, his eyes clearly mocking me. "So, you're using him as a male escort?"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" I shrieked.

"Shh... no need to explain." He placed his index finger on my lips, his voice lowering.

"I know that's not true because you don't really need a male escort. Do you know why? Because just meeting me is enough to cheer you up." He sucked my lips with his.

***