A blank-faced bodyguard opened the door. Jess left first, unfolding herself gracefully from the spacious confines of the limousine. Hailey followed, the soles of her flats an inch above the ground, unable to resist the urge to show off her quirk a little. They proceeded into the lobby and passed through the gantry. Hailey tapped in using the keycard that she had been given specifically for this occasion and filed into the lift after her sister.
"Now," Jess said, once they were alone (aside from the two bodyguards at the back of the lift), "what are you going to do later?"
Hailey rolled her eyes. "I'm going to keep quiet and not say anything stupid," she recited.
"And if your mother's at the meeting?"
"I'll talk to her after the meeting."
"If she decides to hang around after the meeting," Jess corrected.
Hailey nodded. Her mother was a busy woman. "Will Josh be at the meeting?"
Jess chuckled. "Goodness, no. You're only here because I need to keep an eye on you." Her mirth cut off abruptly. "So you'd better not say or do anything stupid. Okay? This isn't Shiketsu. If you insult any of the directors or interrupt Dad, it's going to reflect badly on me. Personally."
"Message received," Hailey mumbled. "Jeez."
"You still have one month left with me," Jess said, a parting shot, and glided out of the lift. Hailey trotted after her, seething. As she passed someone's office, she caught a glimpse at herself in a faintly reflective surface and realized that her dress was the same color as Jess's. That explained why her sister had been so interested in her choice of attire for today's meeting. She opened her mouth to complain, but they were already in the boardroom.
There must have been a dozen people in there, most of them middle-aged or elderly. Hailey put her attitude away and followed Jess in greeting her aunts and uncles. Her mother used to bribe her with sweets if she remembered her older relatives' names, but she could buy her own sweets, now, if she wanted. What she really wanted, though, was to be out of this stuffy boardroom and away from these doddering old fogies; to be back in Kyoto, back with Hifumi, back at Shiketsu.
But you can't always get what you want.
"Ah, Soomin," one of her uncles exclaimed, one large paw landing heavily on her shoulder. Hailey sent a pulse of telekinetic pressure at him, and he let go instinctively. "Oh, is that your quirk? Quite powerful."
"Thank you, 삼촌."
"Soomin's at Shiketsu," Jess said. "She's interning under me for the next few weeks."
"Shiketsu," another uncle hummed. "Isn't that a Japanese school?"
"Yes, it's in Kyoto."
"Seoul's too good for you, eh, girl?"
Hailey's smile hardened. Jess shot her a warning look, but was cut off by her father's entrance, which immediately sucked all the air out of the room. Her uncles turned their attention automatically to the Chang patriarch, their heads moving almost in sync. Hailey took advantage of their distraction to make a strategic withdrawal to one of the chairs near the back. Jess mouthed stay put, then marched off in the opposite direction, heels stabbing into the carpet.
Hailey adjusted the height of her seat downwards and looked for her mother. When she found her, she saw that she'd been drawn into a hushed conversation with Anthony, whom she'd said hi to earlier. He'd seemed preoccupied. Mark, too, seemed preoccupied, toying with his pen, dismantling and reassembling it as he flexed his quirk. He tended to do that when he was nervous. What was that about? Jessica had told her that this would be a normal board meeting. Something routine. Something boring.
Please let it be boring, Hailey thought.
YOU ARE NOW ON A SECURE NETWORK.
DESIGNATE: ~ Made by Drone! <3 ~
sugrjangz: so uh
sugrjangz: not to alarm
sugrjangz: but if anyone u know is holding astute stock
sugrjangz: now might b a gd time to sell
fides1104: ooooo is it the bord mtg
spookyscaryskeletons: omg tea
not_ur_power_bank: what's going on
sugrjangz: bros tryna oust dad
THUNDERDOME: which bros
THUNDERDOME: actly dont tell me
THUNDERDOME: almost forgot idgaf abt ur family drama
sugrjangz: excuse u.
sugrjangz: astute contributed 2% to krs gdp last yr
sugrjangz: lmao my dad j fired half the board
sugrjangz: image.png
not_ur_power_bank: ru even allowed to take pictures
sugrjangz: sure i m. im a jang
sugrjangz: i can do whatever i want
"... here that we anticipate projected customer lifetime value to increase by approximately ..."
Faith stifled a yawn and glanced out the window. Not for the first time, her gaze skipped over the handful of abstract art installations down in the square below and wandered over the neighboring skyscrapers, meandering toward the Han river and the subway station just beside it. Her eyes narrowed as they picked up on a distant tremor.
"... value? Mind, I'm not questioning the accuracy of your model. It's just ..."
An immense, hulking figure hauled itself out of the river, its skin a hideous, mottled green, and bellowed incoherently at the sky. Faith winced, as did some other people in the meeting room. A few heads turned.
Junmyeon leaned over, and Faith quickly turned her attention back to the speaker. Quietly, he murmured, "Lesson number thirty-four: don't drift off in the middle of a meeting. Especially not an interdepartmental meeting."
"... escalating promotional expenses in Amazonia. Our preliminary forecasts, as you can see ..."
"There's a villain down there," Faith hissed.
Junmyeon shrugged fatalistically. "We're on the fifteenth floor. If this building ends up in the blast radius, we're not going to make it down in time anyway." He checked his watch. "Anyway, we're insured against this sort of thing."
"... digital-only releases. It's a high-risk, high-reward strategy, but ..."
"If it worries you so much, make a game of it," Junmyeon suggested mildly. He was pretty observant. Faith shouldn't have been surprised; he was her elder sister's age and had been at the company for less than a year, so he wasn't really even an adult yet. "Count to a hundred before looking out the window again. The more distracted you are, the less likely you are to be promoted. Especially if you drift off in the middle of an interdepartmental meeting."
"I'm an intern, Mr Park. I don't need a promotion." Faith shifted, accidentally made eye-contact with one of the senior managers at the head of the table, and sat up straight. "Are you even supposed to be talking to me?"
"I'm preventing a young, inexperienced intern from going astray. I get a pass."
"... industry benchmarks due to cost escalations in non-core operations ..."
Unable to resist, Faith looked out the window again. The beast was being driven back into the water by a collection of radiant silhouettes, their armored costumes glittering in the sunlight. While it was humanoid, it didn't seem to be wearing any clothing aside from what looked like a fraying purple(?) Speedo.
YOU ARE NOW ON A SECURE NETWORK.
DESIGNATE: ~ Made by Drone! <3 ~
THUNDERDOME: yea ok wtv
THUNDERDOME: ur life sux etc
sugrjangz: hello were u even listening to a single word i said
sugrjangz: THE STOCK IS DOWN 10%
spookyscaryskeletons: but it dont even matter 2 u
spookyscaryskeletons: u got like. an allowance
spookyscaryskeletons: rite
spookyscaryskeletons: or does it move w the stock
sugrjangz: its fixed. mthly basis
sugrjangz: i cldnt spend it all even if i tried
sugrjangz: BUT THATS NOT THE POINT
fides1104: im too young n pretty to die
sugrjangz: what
THUNDERDOME: what
spookyscaryskeletons: what
not_ur_power_bank: is this abt the fight
spookyscaryskeletons: wat fight
sugrjangz: theres a villain down by haneul park
THUNDERDOME: o shit
fides1104: i just got my first taste of young love
fides1104: its not sposed t oend like this...
not_ur_power_bank: aren't u in a meeting
not_ur_power_bank: stop looking at ur phone