With the papers in hand, the blond man turned to walk back into the meeting room he just came out from.

There was only one other person in the meeting room. The man wearing a dark suit sat in at the head of the meeting table, papers scattered in front of him. Concentrating on the papers before him, the man ran his fingers through his jet-black hair. He had a stern look on his face, but it only made him look all the more attractive.

The blond man sighed. He knew he was pretty good-looking himself, but his features paled next to his boss’s handsome face.

Noticing his presence, the seated man looked up from the papers, his dark gaze settling on the blond man’s smiling face.

“Felix,” the man tapped his finger on the table impatiently, “Where’s the food?”

Felix chuckled, unperturbed by his boss’s cold tone. He’s known this man for years, so he’s long gotten used to this ice-cold personality.

“Hey, hey,” he leaned over to tease his superior, “Don’t be such a drag, I just got hit on so I came back to brag about it.”

A look of annoyance flashed through the man’s handsome face; his brows knitted into a frown.

“I got something interesting out of it though,” Felix placed the documents on the table, “It’s probably worth having lunch a little late, Claude.”

His superior shot him another murderous look before flipping through the papers on his table. Claude lived systematically – his day was always well-planned, his meals were always well-prepared and he didn’t like it when things went off course, even if it’s just having lunch a little late.

For Felix to say that this pile of papers is worth messing up his schedule… he gave them a little more attention.

“This… where did you get this from,” a thoughtful expression crossed the man’s face, the frown finally disappearing.

“Lilia Winsor,” Felix answered, an amused expression on his face, “She told me that it was part of the information the team forgot to bring, and we should discuss it in the meeting later.”

“Lilia Winsor?”

“Yeah, Luke’s little sister, Albert’s daughter. Do you know her? Of course, an anti-social like you wouldn’t. It’s the first time I’ve seen her too!” Felix started blabbering, it's a bad habit of his.

“She’s actually really pretty! She looks a lot like Luke, but her hair is light blue. You know how there’s a ton of rumours about her because she never attends any of the social gatherings? People have been saying that she’s so ugly her family doesn’t want to bring her out, but hell, it’s probably cause she’s so pretty they want to protect her!”

The seated man tapped his finger on the table again, about to tell Felix to shut up when his attention was caught by a single phrase, “Light-blue hair?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” the blond man tilted his head, rather startled that his ice-cold boss would be interested in the girl, “It’s pretty unique right? I’ve never seen anyone else with light-blue hair. I think they said that Lilia’s mother had a similar hair colour.”

“It’s rare?” the dark-haired man lowered his gaze to the papers before him, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

A girl with light-blue hair giving him a bright smile, her outstretched hand holding a white handkerchief…

[“You should quickly dry yourself before you catch a cold.”

“This is my apology for accidentally overhearing the conversation. Have a good day!”]

The words rang in his head.

Right, he met a girl with light-blue hair the other day. She gave him her handkerchief… the white handkerchief he kept in his desk, in his study. He didn’t mean to accept the handkerchief, but for some reason, in that moment, he did. Before he gained his senses to reject her help, the girl ran off. He wasn’t in a good condition to go after her that day... his head throbbed as he remembered how pathetic he looked, drenched in water. 

Even though he didn’t really need help at that point, it was undeniable that he took the handkerchief. So, he should return it and repay her favour – he doesn’t like the feeling of owing someone a debt.

But, was it the same person? Just because they both had light-blue hair doesn’t mean the girl he met was Albert’s daughter. 

It would be easy for him to get someone to find out the identity of that girl, but he's been so occupied with work that it slipped his mind.

Before he could ponder on it further, Felix’s astonished voice broke into his thoughts.

“Hey, are you interested? I’ve never heard you ask about another person like this, much less a lady!”

The blond man’s teasing snapped Claude out of his thoughts, “No. Shut up.”

“Aw man,” Felix shrugged. The likelihood of his workaholic boss being interested in a girl… it’s z-e-r-o. He’s never seen his boss intimate with anyone, even though there were way too many people trying to fling themselves onto him. Understandable though - his friend was rich, tall and handsome. Doesn't matter that he has a personality cold as ice and only thinks about profits. Nope, that doesn't matter at all.

“Anyway, I skimmed through the information and if it’s real, it’s actually going to affect our plans of expansion,” Felix brought his attention back to the serious topic at hand.

“Yeah,” Claude agreed, surprised at the quality information. Rather than a pile of scattered information, the documents were more like an opinion piece, supported by a mountain of evidence. The summary written was in a business proposal style, concise and to the point, highlighting the important bits and well-referenced.

Putting aside the fact of whether the information was helpful or not, Claude appreciated the way the information was presented – very easy to digest. Whoever this was, he’d be happy to hire them in his team, even just as a secretary to organize information.

“Get our lunch. I’ll verify this information myself and we’ll discuss it further with Albert and his team later,” Claude gave an order after a few moments of looking through the documents. He reached for his laptop, starting to look up the important points.

“Aye, aye, captain!” Felix strode out of the room, sighing at the possibility of more work. If the information Lilia brought them was verified to be true, there would be a hell lot of changes to make to the current expansion plan…

--

After eating their late lunch, Claude and Felix spent some time looking through the information given. His request to push back the afternoon meeting was accepted with no resistance from the other parties. After all, this project was a joint-expansion between his firm and Albert’s firm, so he had the most say, equal to Albert’s influence in the project.

“Yes, yes, please look that up as soon as possible… okay… thank you,” Felix finally put down the phone.

“The rest of the information that we can’t find now, I’ve asked the team to look through.” The blond man sighed.

“Yes,” Claude frowned, “But at this rate, it seems that this information is 90% true. This is going to lead to a large impact on our expansion plan.”

“We’re pretty lucky that Albert got people from his side to look through this huh,” Felix started organizing the scattered papers into a pile, “Who would have thought such a minor factor would cause such a huge problem in our plan.”

“Yes, I’m surprised as well. The political scene isn’t Albert’s expertise, so I’m guessing he hired someone to do this research. The style of presentation isn’t the usual one from his firm either,” Claude tapped his finger on the table, thinking out loud.

“It’s good that he did!” Felix nodded, “Let’s go over to the other room, the meeting will be starting soon.”

Claude stood up, patting down his clothes to make sure he looked presentable. The thoughtful look on his face was gone, replaced by a chilling expression – the usual one he wore.

-----

A/N: Albert is Lilia’s dad if that’s not obvious!!