Dominate Showbiz: Media Tycoon Discovered My Talent-Chapter 120: Ex-Crush

When consciousness returned to Kaija, the first thing she felt was the comfort of her bed supporting her body from below, and someone’s arm wrapped around her waist.

That person’s breathing was faint but steady, brushing softly against her skin and making her want to snuggle closer into the warmth of their presence.

She shifted slightly closer, and the person’s hand left her waist and slid up to her face, slowly tracing the soft skin of her cheek.

Her eyes fluttered open, and a single name slipped from her parted lips.

"Juho?"

The movement of those wandering fingers stiffened at once.

"What did you just say?" came the person’s voice, thin and trembling with disbelief.

As focus fully returned to Kaija’s vision, she finally noticed that the eyes staring back at her were not green.

They were silver, and right now, that silver was cold and sharp as a knife.

Sweat broke out on her forehead the moment she realized what kind of horrible mistake she had just made.

"Charles..." she mumbled, blue eyes wide with shock. "I... I thought..."

The hand frozen against her cheek immediately slid down her back and pulled her closer.

"Help me understand why you texted me to come here, while you’re muttering that punk’s name in your sleep," Charles demanded, his voice low with suppressed anger.

Kaija’s face stiffened.

Uh-oh. It seemed she had driven Charles mad again.

"Uh... it’s just..." Her eyes darted left and right, scrambling for a way to fix the situation.

Then a weary sigh escaped her as she made up her mind that it was probably best to tell Charles the whole truth about what had happened before she made it back to her flat in one piece.

As she recounted her ordeal, from buying him the boba tea, to being taken to the gentlemen’s club by Max’s men, rejecting his offer, getting drugged, and finally being rescued by Juho and brought back here, Charles’s face went from taut to darker and tighter, until no light remained in his expression, but only pure, burning rage.

"Fucking sick bastard," he muttered under his breath, his whole body trembling faintly with the fury burning inside him.

Kaija couldn’t help but shudder at the heat radiating from him. "Should I... get you something to drink?" she asked nervously. "Maybe it would cool you down a little..."

"No need," he replied curtly, pulling her closer to his chest. "Just keep me here with you, or I might go find my sick bastard brother wherever he is right now and do something I’ll definitely regret later."

Immediately, she wrapped her arms around his back, patting him gently.

"Well, now," she soothed, "I’m still in one piece, aren’t I? I’m more worried about what other dirty tricks your brother might have waiting for you in this brutal fight..."

"No," he murmured, his tone soft despite the anger simmering within him. "You should get something to eat and have a good sleep. Tomorrow will be a very important day for you."

"Tomorrow?" she asked. "What’s happening tomorrow?"

"There will be an official meeting with the press," he replied, "and some of your new fans, if there’s enough space. You’ll be introduced officially as a KE artist, along with information regarding your upcoming debut, and maybe a Q&A session with the journalist, which I’ll have the head of PR brief with you tomorrow before we begin."

Kaija blinked slowly a few times, digesting his words.

As much as the sudden news shocked her, she couldn’t tell whether the injected drug was still in her system, or she her nerves had actually hardened into steel, after everything she had gone through since the moment she arrived at the KE campus till now.

She didn’t even feel the tiniest bit of nervousness anymore.

"Sounds fun to me," she said, burying her face in his chest. "Will you be there as well?"

"What are you even asking?" he replied softly, placing a kiss on her hair. "How could I possibly miss it?"

They lay in each other’s arms for a little while longer before hunger finally called, and Charles ordered food from the campus restaurant to be delivered to her place.

The boba tea was still intact, sitting in the refrigerator in her kitchen, though the plastic bag was badly wrinkled from the ordeal it had gone through to make it here.

"I can’t believe you still managed to get the tea for me after everything you went through this evening," Charles said, accepting the cup from her, now filled with square ice cubes.

"Oh, I was lucky. I thought I lost it at some point," she said, her eyes wandering to the ceiling as she tried to recall how it had even ended up in her fridge.

Her last memory before falling asleep again was Juho’s whisper brushing close to her ear.

"I’ll be going, Kaija. Sleep well," Juho had said. "Enjoy your drink when you wake up, yeah?"

At the mention of the drink, her mind had snapped awake.

"You got that for me?" she asked, her eyelids still heavy as lead.

Her hand shot out without thinking, clutching the fabric of his shirt and stopping Juho before he could rise fully from the bed.

Slowly, he lowered himself back down.

"Yeah, I left it in the fridge," Juho said, running a hand through her hair, as if to assure her he wasn’t leaving just yet.

"Thank you... I thought I left it behind..." she murmured, lips curving up slightly as her heavy eyelids drooped shut again. "Can you, uh... help me send a text?"

"To whom?"

"Charles," she replied. "Can you tell him that I’m back, and his tea is in the fridge? Just tell him to come collect it."

The fingers tangled in her hair stiffened slightly before twitching unbidden.

Ha. So he had been taking care of the drink meant for Charles Kosonen this entire time, thinking it was hers?

He almost wanted to storm into the kitchen and throw the drink straight into the trash.

Biting down on his lip, his voice came again, now trembling with barely restrained anger. "Ha... yeah... of course. I’ll send that damn text for you," he mumbled irritably.

"Thank you, Juho," she said, snuggling into the large hand resting over her head. "His contact is Mister Lion King. My password is XXXX, by the way."

"What sort of contact name is that?" he muttered, his brow drawn tight with displeasure at the girl snuggling so innocently into his palm.

When no answer came from her, a sharp exhale escaped through his nose.

The text was composed and sent, with a few added messages the original sender had never requested, but he felt obliged to include them anyway.

"I’m back. Your tea is in the fridge. Leave right after you collect it. Don’t linger around. I’ll be asleep. I’m very tired. Don’t disturb me."

Then he scrolled through her contacts, searching for his own number, curious what sort of name she might have given him.

His eyes widened the moment he found it.

Above his number, it read: "Ex-Crush."

"Ha..." His face twitched violently. "You must be fucking kidding me..."

He set the phone aside and leaned down closer, his lips brushing faintly against her forehead as he murmured irritably,

"Just wait and see how I’ll make you change that name back to Crush, Kaija Sepala."

The lights to her living room were turned off, the door to her flat closed shut.

If Charles Kosonen had intended to fire him from this label, perhaps it was time he started looking for more gigs beyond this little freelance job.

He must ensure no other amateur photographers out there could ever take any clumsy shot of the girl whose beauty he knew only he could fully capture with a camera.