ON THE SURFACE

City A, Inside Phantom Ent. Company.

Key held his jacket closer to his body as he felt chills running down his spine. He didn't dare to look forward or at anyone present today. His eyes mainly stayed trained on the windows.

It was mid-afternoon in City A. The weather was extremely hot this time of the year, and most people were seen sitting inside cafes or enjoying their time shopping in malls rather than walking on the streets.

But for him, looking at the situation he was in, he wished he could go outside and walk underneath the sun, maybe even melt. Anything was better than being stuck in this type of situation.

Key wasn't sure if the A/C was put on blast, or if the atmosphere itself was down a hundred degrees. In his brain, he was pretty sure it was the latter. He regretted his decision of entering such a business.

The only thing he gained was muscle pain and headaches. Not to mention that his blood pressure kept rising because of troubles and problems he didn't even cause or had any hand in.

See, his wife was absolutely correct. She had warned him that he would regret his choice. He should've definitely listened to her.

A stern voice reached his ears, "Where is your artist, Key?" Key swallowed thickly, holding onto the last bits of his courage and looked straight at the person who was sitting at the head of the meeting table.

The man in question had razors gray eyes, piercing deeply into Key's bones, reminding Key that his job was at the tips of his hand. He had one hand placed on his mouth and his other one rested comfortably on his lap. His shoulders were wide as he relaxed his back onto the seat and he kept observing the scene.

He was in total control. That was the only way Key could describe Axel at that moment. The man was ten years his senior, almost in his fifties. The only proof of that was the few wrinkles on his temple and the experienced glint in his eyes. Oh, and the millions of dollars he had in his bank account and his connections and-

"I asked you a question Key," Axel reminded, breaking Key out of his zone. Key cleared his throat embarrassingly and straightened up his posture.

"I will call him again, sir." He stood up, picking up his phone from the table and was ready to bolt out of the door for a chance of a breather.

"No, no," he was stopped in place by Axel, who extended his hand and motioned him to sit back down. "Contact him here, I want to hear this conversation." The faint smile that Axel offered assured Key of nothing.

He let out a trembling breath and nodded silently, before searching in his contacts list for Lucas' number shakingly and pressing call. He didn't know whether he wanted him to answer or not. If he did, his answer would likely make matter worse, but if he didn't, then Key would have to bear all the blame.

The ringing noise continued for what seemed like forever, and Key unconsciously started tapping his foot. He stared at his phone so intently that it was a surprise it didn't blow up.

In the end, Lucas didn't pick up the phone, and the silence again presented itself in the meeting room. Key, once again, cleared his throat and looked at the businessmen and women who were sitting around the table.

All of them were trying to avoid making eye contact with either Axel or Key as if that alone would determine their fate.

"How professional of your artist to not answer his manager's phone call." The tone that Axel used might have been light, but it didn't match with his expression at all.

"He has a tour soon, so he has been pract-"

Axel interrupted him, striking his hand onto the table. All the calm and collected demeanor he had a few minutes ago had vanished. "What tour? He has a program to take care of!"

Key shrank back in his seat, wishing that the leather could suddenly extend around him and swallow him whole. He didn't dare to reply back. He only watched as Axel inhaled and exhaled before fixing his suit and sitting upright again.

"Let's begin the meeting." His eyes zoomed in again at Key. "We won't be waiting for your artist, and I have given him enough space already. There are rules and regulations to follow in this company, so you better remind him of those." He then gestured for the man to begin his presentation.

For the rest of the meeting, Key had been counting the seconds and minutes to leave. His mind kept wandering to ways he could convince Lucas with. The last thing he wanted was for Lucas and Axel to bump heads again and fight.

He didn't want dark history to repeat itself. It would cause a major loss for the company and Key himself.

"The program itself will have a few pilot episodes to help us analyze the citizens' reactions and from there we will try to expand the show,

"In these five episodes, we will introduce the characters and let them travel to various countries to experience each culture and become more independent. It will have a variety of stars that might want to spread their name worldwide,

"Jone, Dev, and Luna have gotten back to us that they want in. What left is…," The man trailed off as his eyes glanced up at Key, making Key look away unsure.

Axel nodded silently, assessing the graphs in the powerpoint. "That won't be enough,"

Everyone shared looks around the table, fully confused. Anyone who had read the premises and seen the cast could tell that this show would be a hit. Especially with the coming trend of traveling and sharing experiences.

A woman sitting near Axel nodded her head respectively, "I agree with Mr. Axel. Jone, Dev, and Luna are all mediocre at most, which means that Lucas would be carrying the whole show onto his shoulders, and that would undoubtedly bring in a lot of attention,

"But, it will merely work for so long. After all, Lucas isn't known to be social and would mostly ignore the rest of the three, which might cause an issue and drama. While that is fun to watch by itself, we can't let the show survive only on it." The one who spoke was the chairman's right hand. Between her fingers laid the intended 'script'.

Hearing what she said, everyone's eyes lit up. Suddenly a few started writing information on papers and other flipping through the pages.

It was true. These three idols — they weren't even artists — were all mostly known from single hits or scandals. None of them had enough fans or content to be compared to Lucas. In fact, they were selected mainly because of how diverse their personalities and likings were.

The two managers who were responsible for these three idols held their words back, but both of them had a dark look on their faces. The speaker had mentioned lightly that they 'wanted in' in the project, but in reality, they had begged Phantom Entertainment to let them in this project since their idols' fame was staggering.

They could only grit their teeth at their luck. Someone like Lucas got to throw away such an opportunity without even looking back or pondering, but for them, they had to beg for this.

There was no way they were able to agree or disagree with what she had said. So, they stayed silent.

In contrast to their expression, Axel had a slight smirk on his face. "Exactly what Rose has said. We need to introduce a new factor. In fact a fresh one. Someone or something that will be able to connect those four." He intertwined his fingers together and leaned onto the table, looking directly at Key.

Key knew exactly what that expression on Axel's face meant. After all, he had worked with him for the past ten years. The slight narrow of his eyes, the slight rise in the corner of his mouth and especially the way he was looking down at Key, all of this told him that Axel had a profound plan that he knew how to implement.

And whether that plan was to bring down Key or Lucas, he wouldn't know.

"Because of how critical this part is, I would like to assign this role to Key. After all, he was able to bring talent such as Lucas' to us. I don't think that such a task would be impossible for him." Those words had sealed Key's life.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

As everyone stood up and walked out, Axel was the last one to remain seated. Near him was Rose collecting and organizing the files around the table.

"You need to bring it down a notch, you know," she finally said after everyone had left the room. Her lovely green eyes kept looking at the files in a relaxed manner. A perfectly manicured hand lifted each file and placed it right where it supposed to be in the pile. Her leisure movements released a sense of peacefulness and elegance.

Axel, who was watching the sun slowly go down, carelessly replied, "what are you talking about?" those words did nothing to stop Rose from smiling gently. Her hands stopped moving when she placed the last file where she wanted, and she moved from her place to where Axel sat, leaning slowly onto the table and placing her hand on his shoulder, touching the luxurious fabric of his suit.

This move alone had brought Axel's attention to Rose. His expression was still stone cold. She leaned in and smiled gently, letting her soft perfume tickle his nose. "Your hatred toward Lucas."