4 Chapter 4

Through the major misunderstanding that lead to the marriage meeting between the unsuspecting Joshua Lore and Henry Reyes, there came an unlikely friendship between the two primary PA's of the companies.

From the Lore family was Hanna's live-in assistant Haerin Park, a young woman who had been interning for the Lore's since her middle school days, slowly rising through the ranks. Archer had brought her to his mother's attention when he returned from university and joined the company, for once not interested in a girl's beauty but her hard work and capabilities within the secretarial sector. Once Hanna saw the girl's commitment and work ethic, she was invited to work within her personal team during the summer before her final year of school. This ultimately ended in Haerin receiving a sponsorship for her 2-year secretarial studies degree as well as a full time job following her graduation, including a room in the Lore's family home. She was now on her third year since graduation.

Caroline's personal assistant was not as blessed as the girl who had essentially become part of her employers' family, if she would allow it. Ramy Kapoor was a couple years younger than Haerin, however he had been working full time within the Reyes' secretarial department of since just before he turned 16. Unlike the girl who had started working early to support herself, Ramy's situation had forced him to drop out in his first year of high school to support the rest of his family. While not educated nor having opted for a GED, he had steadily risen through the ranks until he had found himself in a senior management position from sheer experience.

The head of department had eventually informed Caroline of how they could no longer promote the young man due to his lack of official education and after a few discussions, he became the youngest assistant for a president at the age of 18 in the history of the company. This had all happened just 18 months ago, and in that time both presidents agreed he had really flourished in his job.

Of course there were a good number of similarities between the two young people in regards to work ethic and capability, however that was not what had led to their unlikely friendship. It was the pure insanity both their employers had shown recently, the same insanity that had caused the unfortunate pairing of the two second sons, the very same insanity that had led to them checking the locations of which the marriage meeting was occurring.

Neither would ever say it out loud, in fact they couldn't deny that Joshua and Henry the assumption that they could be gay, but they thought their employers had completely lost the plot. Similar to Joshua's initial notion, all they could think about was what sort of bad romance plot this was. Were rich people just strange? Of course neither could ever even dream of being in a situation where something like a marriage could cement the death of something as vast as the Q Group, it was simply too out of scope for regular people. But that did not mean they could not tell the whole situation was ridiculous.

These two had come so close that they exchanged personal contact information to discuss how weird this merger was at its core. There was plain logic too it yet what really triggered it was two sets of parents deciding their respective sons were gay. The thing neither could quite fathom on top of everything is that there was no conversation at all. Today was the day that the two were meeting for their marriage meeting and it had never once been confirmed that the possibility was fact.

Of course it was impossible for that to have occurred seeing as it was simply not true.

These two had noticed the flaw in their own argument, they had both seen a picture before agreeing. However this just drew them onto another topic: why on earth would they decide to use paparazzi pictures? Especially pictures that barely showed the others features. Joshua's picture was from half a mile away on full zoom with a horrible camera, yes you could tell he was a looker, but nothing more than that. Joshua's was even worse, he was just a floating head in some bushes.

However the thoughts of two PA's were not relevant in the business they had to conduct. This didn't stop Haerin and Ramy from texting their continuous disbelief to each other as they took Joshua and Henry respectively to the café where they were to initially meet, but they kept the utmost professionalism in the presence of their employers' sons.

Henry was sat in the car with Ramy, both by the windows and leaving the middle seat vacant. He knew the assistant was messaging someone, probably of importance with the speed of replies, however he would have never guessed who, let alone why. It was the speed of everything that was truly playing on his mind. On Wednesday he had accepted the marriage interview, and now on Saturday he was going to meet whatever beauty the Lore family had sent. Henry would preferably have asked his parents for more information to his marriage meeting partner, however he was out of luck. That very night, during dinner, his family received an urgent call saying the online security system had crashed there was a virus attempting to corrupt and leak sensitive information, including confidential customer information. Caroline and Henry promptly rushed over seeing as they were more than competent with computers, in fact Henry's mother was the one who developed the first version of the data. With all that madness and the media hounding them on the cyber-attack, it had been far too hectic the last two days for Henry to even bring it up.

He had slowly come to terms in the last two days that his intentions behind agreeing were not as pure as they could have been. His parents had asked this of him for the sake of the company, and he was aware that they would never set him up for something they didn't think could make him happy, but the reason behind this marriage meeting was the merger. In fact, that was the only reason he did not change his mind last minute while overthinking the situation in the shower this morning. The merger was important not just for his family, but also for the Lore's as well as everyone under the Q Groups oppression. For him to cancel on this meeting because his intentions were impure was too selfish.

Henry was yet to admit to himself that the main reason he was having second thoughts was because the Lore family's girl was more than off limits, no matter how much of a beauty she was, and that made this whole agreement fruitless for him.

Even if the second Reyes' son was in not seeing any use in this, he was by no means sabotaging this ordeal. The merger was fathomlessly important and that fact stands. Both family's live under a microscope and if things go sideways the timing of everything will be out of their hands, and so most likely in the control of the Q Group – the worst possible outcome. Henry would much rather be disowned than cause the fall of the only two families that have a fighting chance at sinking the Q Group. And so he still put effort into today.

As to not attract too much attention, Joshua and Henry were to initially meet at a café and talk for an hour. Afterwards the two would walk together towards a restaurant for a late lunch with both families. Due to the lowkey locations, Henry had decided a more casual style was appropriate than his usual, high-end business suit, opting for a plain white t-shirt – just fitted enough to show his broad chest but not so tight one could see every, defined muscle – paired with wine-red chinos and a bottle green bomber jacket. Surprisingly, this outfit cost far more than his usual work clothes; even more surprisingly, this total was nothing compared to his pristine, white sneakers. Looking at him, you would not know Henry was rich, however if you looked at the labels it would be another story. In contrast to his youthful, boyish outfit, he had swept his hair to the side so it was out of his face, giving the overall look a more mature aura.

Henry was not to the only one to make an effort. His partner for this ill-fated meeting also had no intention in ruining things. Joshua had long given up on his silver of hope that this cliché meeting could end with anything more than a new friend, if even that. However, he would never be like Archer and not put in effort because he would gain nothing from it. He was sensible enough to know that this meeting was far bigger than him. In his eyes, his family was certifiably insane for thinking this was the immediate way to go, and the fact they came immediately to him, not even asking the heir of the company. It was the one thing Joshua could not make sense of, surely it would make more sense if it was the heir of Lore Inc. to cause a merger with a relationship, but for some reason they asked him. It just did not fit in the logic of things.

Instead of dwelling on this, however, he had presented himself well – coming to a similar conclusion as Henry and dressing in more casual attire – wearing a black, boxy jumper over flimsy cotton shirt which stuck out at the bottom. With his lightly distressed, blue jeans and combat boots, he looked younger than he usually did. This did not mean he looked like he was in his late teens, Joshua still had a rather adult aura around him, that was undeniable as well as impossible to mask. It was just that in his usual settings, he was wearing formal attire, exercising his responsibilities as a senior manager of the financial department or presenting proposals for further development in various projects; he still had the authoritative, mature feel to him, one that would be impossible to separate from him.

Joshua decided to take this day he had free for the marriage meeting as a chance to have a proper day off, something he rarely got within months of entering the family business. Just as there were perks to quickly rising to high positions, there were also setbacks. Of course he had time where he would meet friends from his school days, but it rarely happened considering he had studied abroad since the age of 16. Most of Joshua's friends were scattered around the world. Due to this, he had made his schedule too tight for even regular free time, it was mostly restricted to the couple hours between returning from the office and dinner.

In fact, it was the main reason he had decided to live at home despite his age, he would have gone insane trying to juggle housework and making time for his family on top of his other responsibilities. It wasn't a fact he liked to admit to himself, but he was not the sort of person who could live on their own, Joshua had no sense of priority when it came to himself. However, he was also not as shameless as his older brother, who still lived at home purely to laze about more, still having their household staff do everything for them. Until Joshua could find someone to live with or earn enough money for staff of his own, moving was out of the question.

In this sense of independence, Henry was quite the opposite. Once he had returned to the country after graduating, he quickly had come to the decision that, after three years alone, he would lose his head having everything handed to him, quickly moving out. His principles were also different from Joshua, when he first moved, he accepted a flat his parents would pay the rent for, and their extra spending money as well as a bi-weekly cleaner. Until the young man knew he could stand on his own feet, he happily took advantage of the assistance offered.

As of a year ago, however, he had become accustomed to the life of a working adult, now paying for and doing everything himself – although he still accepts money that his parent's give him, otherwise he would have no money to spend on his clothes. Henry had fallen into a routine where he now spends a night or two a week at his family home, the rest of his free time put to socialising with various groups of friends and colleagues.

As it approached two o'clock, the Reyes' car pulled up some distance away from the agreed café. Ramy finally looked up from his phone, finding the timing quite tremendous. "It is the café with the yellow peonies all over it," he informed the second son. Henry just nodded, easily finding the quaint but modern looking café.

"Well, I will head out then. You can go back to my parents."

"I was told to make sure you meet you partner."

"You mean my mother wants to hear my reaction? As if, that would have been a personal request. Just go." Henry was not usually so rude but the PA could see through his unnatural behaviour. The idea of his parents snooping embarrassed him, especially considering this was a marriage meeting.

Humouring his embarrassment, once Henry had exited the vehicle, he instructed the driver to leave without waiting. While the temptation to tease Henry existed, he was far too professional for that, he would never jeopardise a project for his own amusement, especially something as big as this merger. Of course that didn't stop a slight laugh dance on his lips.

Almost simultaneously, Joshua was dismissing Haerin, far more blunt about how he did not want her watching over him like he was some incapable child. She just nodded, smiling, more when she saw a glimpse of Ramy's most recent text regarding the Reyes family's second son. With a shallow bow, she left her position at Joshua's side, leaving him to approach the café himself.

He had taken out the photo he had been shown when his parents had first proposed the idea to him in order to identify the girl in the picture.

Henry had done the same as Joshua as he walked, finding himself absorbed into the beauty in the picture. He still thought she was a little too flat, but captivating no less – well, perhaps a little less.

Joshua was also too focused on the picture.

So focused he didn't realise his increased pace until he bumped into someone right outside the café.

Henry fell forward at the sudden mass going much faster than his slow, dazed walk.

Both pictures fell to the ground as they came to terms with the collision.

Joshua immediately widened his eyes, an apology flying out of his mouth. "Sorry, this is my fault. I should have looked where I was going. Are you hurt?" Henry shook his head, looked down at his lightly scraped hands and hoping his knee hadn't been grazed – he had a surprisingly delicate body. "No, I was at fault too, walking while distracted. We'll just take equal blame." Scratching the back of his neck, he finally stood up and turned to look at who the voice belonged too, almost surprised to see such a pretty man having acted so clumsily. Joshua was yet to pay attention since the fallen photos had caught his eye just as Henry turned. "Ah, your photo." He crouched down and picked them both up, dusting them clean before holding out the other party's his.

That is when both of them realised that one of the two photos were of themselves.

Henry's mind immediately went a thousand miles an hour. Was the man tailing him? Press? Enemy of the company? Someone hired by the Q Group? Was the marriage meeting exposed? Perhaps someone heard, or was made to talk, you couldn't put that past the Q Group.

But the man didn't look like he was front he media, nor like someone who the Q Group would hire to watch or chase him, he stood out far too much with his superior looks. In fact, looking at the clothes, he looked to be extremely rich.

It was then he realised the similarities between the picture he had previously been holding and the one holding it now.

Joshua had a completely different train of thought, somewhat due to his near-photographic memory however mostly down to his romantic heart and all the novels he had read. He immediately recognised Henry as the subject of the other picture, making his brain go haywire.

This was clearly a man, of course he can't be the real partner for this marriage meeting. Did the Reyes send the wrong picture? Or perhaps the family member looked much like him and couldn't come today. Or maybe he had been turned down and this good-looking man who just happened to look alike with the picture was here to send the message.

It was only once they both looked at each other properly did they realise that there had been no mistake nor foul play.

The two men were both here to meet each other.

Their parents had set up two very beautiful, even more so straight men with another man.