Harsh Reminder


    That was when I gasped in shock as I started to see people standing up from their seat. A moment


    I had ever heard in my life, and I couldn’t believe it at first that they were apuding our work.


    If there was such a thing as a ‘dreame true’ moment, then I was pretty sure that that was it.


    I had to admit that I was extremely worried if themercial that we had made would be able to


    connect emotionally with the audiences. As my eyes adjusted a little to the bright light that now lit up


    the entire auditorium, I could tell from the faces of the audience that there was nothing for me to worry


    about anymore on that front.


    We did it. We’ve connected it.


    The story and the emotions that we wanted to portray, I believed that the audiences understood it and


    that they felt exactly what we wanted them to feel. The change that came about as time changes


    things. The bond between man and man’s best friend throughout their various stages of life. I felt tears


    sting the back of my eyes and I had to sniff a little to hold my tears back. My emotions threatened to


    overwhelm me, and I had to struggle to hold them all back. To say that I was proud of myself and what


    everyone had managed to achieve would be an utter understatement. So many emotions flooded my


    chest that I found it hard to breathe.


    The rounds of apud wouldn’t stop. Although we have justunched themercial and we had no


    idea if we would be victorious in thepetition or not, I was already satisfied with this first reaction


    that our work had received. Everyone only settled down again and sat down in their seats when Ace


    came up onto the stage again. He waved like a celebrity and smiled at everyone before he headed to


    the same ce behind the podium.


    This was going to be the most challenging part of theunch event and we had to ce our trust in Ace


    to get through this. After watching themercial, now was the audiences’ chance to ask Ace


    whatever question that they had. I was certain that Ace had anticipated their questions already and he


    must have prepared some answers. Either that, or he could be trusted toe up with some


    eptable answer on the spot. With that thought in mind, I was very surprised at the first question that


    was hurled at him from the crowd.


    “At your birthday party, you mentioned that you would be stepping down from your position as CEO,


    are you still nning to do that?” a middle-aged man asked loud and clear.


    I gasped as my hand flew to cover my mouth to prevent unnecessary noises from escaping from my


    lips. It seemed like the press had other curiosities in mind that had nothing to do with theunch of our


    response. Ace didn’t seem shocked by the question at all and that probably meant that he had


    anticipated something like this to happen. He did mention that he would quit after the end of this


    “Thank you for your question. That is correct. I did say that I would be stepping down from my position


    as CEO and I still intend to keep my word. There has not been a change in ns,” Ace replied calmly


    before he smiled politely at the crowd.


    His straightforward answer sent the crowd into another kind of uproar that felt very different from their


    excitement earlier over themercial. It was like the dam had broken as members of the press stood


    up from their seats and started shouting out questions at Ace about his retirement from thepany.


    Everything was suddenly so chaotic that I started to fear for Ace’s safety for a moment. Thankfully, it


    didn’t take long for the security team to form a line in front of the audience seat to stop the reporters


    Content property of N?velDra/ma.Org.


    from approaching the stage and getting close to Ace.


    It took a long while before they all calmed down again and began asking their questions in an orderly


    manner. There were many questions about Ace’s sudden retirement, most of which he answered by


    smartly dodging the question. In other words, he didn’t really answer to their question at all besides


    confirming that he still intended to quit his job when the Ashfordpetition came to an end.


    Even though I already knew what Ace intended to do, it still made my heart sink to hear him repeat it


    again. It was probably because I didn’t want to believe it that I found it so hard to ept that soon he


    would no longer be the CEO of thispany. Even if he did say that nothing would change between


    us, I doubt that that would really be the case. If I tried my best to be optimistic about it, then perhaps


    there would be many positive changes that woulde about for us based on the decision that he’d


    made. However, no one really knew what the future would hold.


    Other members of the CEO’s Office must have felt the same way as I did about Ace leaving the


    heavier as Ace continued to deal with the questions hurled at him from the crowd of reporters. I was


    certain that everyone else on the team was just as shocked as I was to hear his announcement about


    this and now that they were being reminded of it again, they were probably just as depressed about it.


    Hang in there, Rina….


    I spoke to myself inside my head as my hands clenched together tightly on myp.


    --To be continued…