Sweet CEO’s First Love - Chapter 62

Ring stared out the window of his vehicle as it drove away. His eyes focused on Tone. Watching him get into his car, but before he could see what Tone would do, the van had passed the point of the visibility of the front of his apartment building. He leaned back into the leather with a heavy sigh.

“You don’t seem to be in a good mood.”

Ring looked up at Jennie.

“Ah, no, it’s okay, P’Jennie.” Ring lied to his new manager. She had been with them for a full month and a half now, but he still didn’t feel comfortable letting anyone know about his eternal rival or his walled-off feelings.

‘Tone, you are the bane of my existence, an utter nuisance. Any time we run into each other, it is like fire meeting gasoline.’

‘But still… What right do I have to be mad? I owe you more than words can ever repay. I owe you everything, yet have given nothing in return.’

‘Are we made to burn each other to the ground? Is that our only choice? Since the moment I laid eyes on you a year and one month ago, I felt like that was our only option. Ruin the world or ruin each other.’

I guess it doesn’t matter anymore, since I already destroyed your world.’

‘I wish I could stop seeing you. I wish it so badly, but I don’t know why you have been appearing everywhere. I thought it was over, that I could finally move on from my mistake. That I could try to live a normal life. The nightmares had even stopped.’

‘I was doing really well…’

‘You were doing really well.’

‘But we are the inevitable, can’t have one without the other, I suppose.’

‘Seeing you every day has been my undoing, but I need to focus, to be there for my group. I have to be. It’s my responsibility, Tone.’

‘So why do I have to see you every day, everywhere, it takes my head out of the game Tone, I am not used to seeing you all the time.’

Well, except…

Recently it was like they had gotten their life strings tangled because he seemed to see Tone everywhere, like a parasite that would never leave him alone.

He would see him at least once a day, since that day at the bar almost a month ago when they got shoved into each other. Ever since that moment, he found that he was standing in front of Tone wondering how the heck, and why the heck they kept bumping into each other.

The car jolted, jarring Ring out of his thoughts, his body flung hard against the seatbelt pinning him in place.

“Ahhhh!!! What the hell!” he snapped.

“Sorry, a car swerved out into our lane cutting us off.” Jennie apologized sweetly to Ring, then turned and started shouting out a bunch of curse words out the window at the other car.

Ring glared at his manager P’Jennie, sourly, but ignored her crude behavior. She stuck her head back in, flicking her bangs out of the way. Her eyes glared with all the fires of doom into the mirror.

“Oi! Some men are just assholes.” She snapped angrily, her eyes never wavering from Ring.

Ring scoffed. ‘Is that a hint? Well, sorry, I don’t care. I don’t care if I offend you or not. You haven’t proven to me you will stay. Or that you are even someone I should trust. You may just be another P’Bear, and I don’t like getting attached to anyone unless necessary.’

‘So not really sorry, but I am not apologizing.’

“Can we try to get me to practice alive today?” He scowled through his teeth.

Jennie looked annoyed, but didn’t say anything. Instead, she turned her attention fully to the road and the slight traffic jam in front of them.

Ring ignored her since he was already in a foul mood.

P’Jennie sucked in her lips and turned back to look at him for a moment, rolling her eyes.

“You know. I love being a manager to H.M>L, it’s so much better than working at the front desk at the hotel. But sometimes you boys can be too much in the morning.” Jennie said, then turned back around to look at the road. Someone honked.

Jennie stuck her head out the window and screamed.

“I’m moving! Crazy”

Ring shook his head with disdain, but opened his phone and ignored her.

His text messages from the phone showed the bright little blue box stating the number one in white.

Ring’s finger hovered over it carefully. No one ever messaged him on the phone. They all used Line and Wechat. There was only one person who used the actual service provider for the phone.

His mother.

Ring thought better about opening it for one moment, already knowing what it would say. But he clicked on it, anyway.

The little messaging screen popped up.

A scandal? Right now, of all times? I told you to focus on this debut. You know how much this debut means; you know exactly what kind of profit we can make off of it. Don’t be making splashes like this in the media before a big event Ring. If you lose profit over something so stupid. It is coming out of your allowance.

Ring growled.

I know you own six percent of the stocks for GATV, I can never do anything to jeopardize the company’s image or my own.

Good.

Remember that, before you go walking around like a horny college kid. Other kids can be normal, but you don’t get that ever, it’s not your fate.

You better sort this out before the launch tonight. Don’t be late this weekend for the wedding either. You know I expect you to show up. I already put out the invite to all the reporters.

Ring scoffed and closed the phone, clicking it off, then threw it onto the empty seat beside him with disdain. He rubbed his pursed lips in thought while looking out the window.

The world around him seemed dull. Maybe because he was lethargic to it all.

‘You want me to clean up my mess? What mess? The one you created by saying I was dating someone I wasn’t in the first place. Who said you should meet up with her all the time to spur those rumors.’

‘I barely know the girl, but you have to go around making it seem like we are about to get married. Now, this is my fault?’

Ring leaned over, grabbed the phone with a growl, and angrily smashed out his message on the screen.

‘Yes, I will make sure to clean everything up all nice and neat before the launch party. I can’t have anything reflecting back on our good family name. Not with your upcoming seventh marriage and all.’

He laughed at his cheeky retort and spun his phone in between his fingers. The car pulled up outside GATV’s studio, and Jennie parked.

“Are you going to go into practice… Or sit here all day?”

“Depends, are you going to ask if the photos were mine?”

“Were they…?”

“No.”

She rolled her eyes. “Do you wanna tell me where they came from?”

“I have never sent Gigi anything like that before… I know my body really well…”

“You know intimately.” quipped Ring.

He smirked, raising an eyebrow, eyes flashing naughtily, implying things and utterly amused by Jennie’s expressive reaction to his forthcoming words.

“I don’t know whose body it was, but mine is much better.” He chided her.

“Oi! You are always too much to handle, Ring.” Jennie responded playfully.

“Don’t contact Gigi for a while, she may be a beautiful model, but she is trouble.”

Ring pulled the door open and jumped out of the van, ignoring the last thing because it didn’t deserve to be acknowledged.

He walked proudly towards the building he used to hide his face or put on glasses, but he never did now. It didn’t fit his image, and frankly, he didn’t care if he was recognized anymore. His life had been a series of publicity pieces. If he wasn’t used to the spotlight by now, then he really would have to be bad at his job. And while people called him an arrogant ass, they never ever complained about his work ethic. But that never stopped people from trying to find something wrong with him.

Jennie had parked at the back entrance to GATV Entertainment, so he was able to easily avoid all the press hanging outside, waiting for the Scandal boy to appear. He nodded at the guard and went inside the door that opened to the back stairway and started up them. Back way meant no elevator. He shoved his hands in his pockets and thought about how he had ended up this way.

There was always a story on Ring, so many that he ignored everything in the entertainment news, all the time. Rumors had run rampant over the past two years since H.M>L had been announced along with the news of him joining the group. He had supposedly been engaged, caught dating two girls at the same time, become gay, and also had a twin brother that lived in the states. His favorite one was that he had secretly been kicked out of the group sometime last month, and no one wanted to admit why because I was so scandalous I had slept with all the members, which had, in turn, led to the breakup of the couple favorite KitTen. This was frankly hilarious since those two were so happy they likely didn’t see another human being in the world when they were together.

It was all ridiculous.

The very thought of what he had to put up with made him supremely annoyed. ‘A regular person wouldn’t have to walk around on eggshells like this all the time.’

Trash articles, everywhere.

That’s what they were.

And this latest one, the photos of him nude, masturbating, supposedly taken for his on-again, off-again girlfriend of a year, mega-celebrity actress Gigi Cross.

It didn’t matter that he and Gigi had never even dated. Or the fact that they had spoken less than five words to each other even when they were together for publicity reasons.

To the delulu’s, anything could be misconstrued.

And it had hit an all-time high of annoying the closer it got to H.M>L’s debut.

Some people clearly didn’t want him to join the group.