Chapter 66: The Meeting

The moment she landed in India, her phone chimed with a lot of notifications after the signal came back on her phone. There were a few missed calls too. Every single one whom she met in Korea, sent her a message on her number except Young-Jae. In a way, she was happy that he didn't send her a message. If he would have, she would have gotten a heart attack.

She opened the message and read every one of them after parking her luggage in a corner.

Priyanka – "Inform me as soon as you reach. Everyone will be here waiting for you."

Vidhi – "Why didn't you inform me before going? Why did you leave me here alone? Call me now."

Eun-Kyung – "Why didn't you wake us up? Where are you? When will you reach India? Call me as soon as you land."

Bong-Cha – "How dare you leave the house without telling anyone? The day you come back I will kill you. (angry face emoji)"

Chin-Sun – "Sorry that you had to go to India. Come back soon."

Baek-Hyeon – "Kick ass. Good luck. I am taking care of all the girls. (winky face)"

Hae-Won – "All the best and bring a dress for me. Don't bring it for Chinsuna or Bongie. (naughty face)"

Jong-Woo – "Best of luck. See you soon."

Hei-Ran – "Heard that you went back. Work hard as always."

Young-Soo – "Why didn't you inform your mother before going? She was so stressed. Everyone is stressed. Come back soon."

She smiled at her family's messages and shook her head in disbelief. Even though she left a message for them and explained the issue they still sent her a message scolding her.

She opened the last message, it was from Yong-Sun.

Yong-Sun – "Hi!" her heart leapt out of her chest after reading his 'hi'. She lowered her gaze with shyness, curled her lips and hid her smile as she was in public. Because it was India and everyone knew that she was in Korea and would be returning back, she didn't have her mask on.

She moved towards the taxi stand and hired a taxi. There was a long line of people who wanted to get a taxi. She looked at her watch and then looked in front of her. There were five more people. She looked behind her, almost 12 people were waiting after her. Everyone kept staring at her and murmuring as she was famous. She brought so many film awards for India. She smiled at every one of them.

Suddenly she spotted a man who she knew but from where she couldn't remember. She moved along with the line. Her turn came and she got a taxi. She moved out of the line and looked for that man but he was not in the line. There was no one that she knew. All were strangers. She scrunched her nose and shook away the feeling.

She went outside the airport where a few paparazzi spotted her. They clicked a few photos of her and kept screaming questions at her.

"What do you have to say about the plagiarism issue? What were you doing in Korea? How did you feel when an idol stole your dress? How is your injury? What do you have to say about Paul Baston?" she ignored all the questions and without even smiling at them moved towards the taxi stand.

She went up to her taxi and gave the driver the address to her office. She took a deep breath after sitting in the car. She took out her phone and composed a generic message and group-sent it to her family.

"I reached India safely. I have eaten. Don't worry, I will be back before you know it."

She then informed Priyanka about her arrival and composed special messages for the Man family and Hei-Ran. Lastly, she opened the conversation tab from Yong-Sun. She started typing the message but had no idea what to reply to. She pondered over it for minutes but still couldn't figure it out. So she decided to type a generic message

"I have reached India. Sorry for not informing you. Will talk to you as soon I get back."

She closed her phone and started thinking about her problem. But before she could work on that it suddenly hit her. That man whom she saw in the line was the same man she saw in the hospital. He was that mysterious man who was searching for his loved ones in the hospital. What was he doing in India?

The next moment it dawned on her, "did I see him on the beach that day? No, that cannot be. I was crying, my eyes were blurry. I don't even remember a lot of it. I fought with Yong-Sun with an injured leg. I couldn't even remember my injury how could I be sure that I saw him. Who is he? Why do I keep seeing him? Is that a coincidence? Yes, that must be it."

Thinking about her life in Korea, she reached her office. She got out of the car and went in with her luggage. Priyanka was standing at the entrance to welcome her.

"Welcome! How was your trip?" asked Priyanka and hugged her.

"The worst, but some aspects were good," replied Ashma.

"Where is the dress?" asked Priyanka.

"In transit. If I would have known that I was coming back I would not have couriered it. I would have brought it with me."

"Yeah, sorry about that. But don't worry about that we have a lot of time for that. Let's go to the meeting. Everyone is waiting for you." They both started moving and reached the lift. Priyanka pressed the button. They waited for the lift to arrive.

"Did they find out who leaked the designs?" asked Ashma.

"You are not going to like the answer," replied Priyanka. The lift arrived and they entered in.

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"Oh no!" Ashma immediately understood who the person was.

"Yes," said Priyanka and looked at Ashma. She also pressed the button for the fifth floor. Everyone was waiting for Ashma in the conference room on the fifth floor.

"What kind of idiot is he? First, he sends a dress without my permission and now he leaks our designs. That moron!" shouted Ashma.

"Do you want me to get him?"

No, this time I will call his mother," said Ashma with determination.

"Ohh final weapon," said Priyanka with admiration.

"And tell her that we are sending him to jail," said Ashma.

"Woah! That's harsh."

"I know but I have had enough of his bullshit," said Ashma, angrily.

"Okay, you are the boss, let's go." The lift reached the fifth floor. Ashma ran to her cabin, dropped her luggage and came out. They went to the conference room where the legal team, PR team, marketing team and design team were waiting for her.

Ashma entered and everyone stood up with respect. She went and sat in her seat. The seat next to her was occupied by Priyanka. After everyone was settled, Ashma said, "thank you for coming on such short notice."

"Oh, at least we were in India unlike you. You had to run from Korea," said a person from the legal team.

"What were you doing in Korea? Why did you take the job of designing dresses for a wedding ceremony? You never go for weddings," said a person from the design team.

"Calm down, everyone. We are not here for that, design team. Let's talk about the main issue here," interjected Priyanka.

"She is right. We can discuss it afterwards but first who is Paul Baston? Why have I never heard of him?" asked Ashma.

"He just arrived on the fashion scene. This will be his first show in Milan in the summer. He has completed his fashion degree from a small college whose name no one knows. He is an only child. He has a small following on social media. Other than that, he is not popular anywhere," said a member of the marketing team.

"What is the number of followers he has?" asked Ashma.

"Around 1200," replied Priyanka.

"12 hundred thousand!!" Ashma was shocked.

Immediately Priyanka replied, "No, just 1200."

"Ohh." Ashma relaxed. "How does Paul Baston know Rishabh? How did they contact each other?"

"That we are yet to determine," said the member of the marketing team.

"What are we going to do about it, legal team?"

The head of the legal team, said, "okay, we have formulated a plan. First comes the design team. They will provide us with all the evidence that is time and date-stamped. Then the PR team will post everything showing off to the world that it was our design that they stole without dissing that other company. That will generate a lot of sympathy for us. Then marketing team will send Paul Baston's team a message that they should tell the world what they did. If they don't tell the world about how they stole our designs and not take off the dress from his collection, we will sue them."

"Amount?" asked Ashma.

"Not yet fixed but whatever you say," said the head of the legal team.

"The thing is everyone is with you on this one. Because you just had to deal with a dress fiasco. Your dress was stolen and given to an idol and then she hurt you so people think that it was your design that Paul stole not the other way around. And we are making sure to put out the evidence every day," said the head of the PR team.

"That's good. PR team, you are doing a marvellous job. Thank you so much for your hard work," she expressed gratitude and everyone else clapped for them.

"Our pleasure, Chief," said the head of the PR team, blushing.

"This is good for us, all the publicity. Our spring fashion week will be a hit but I want to do a small change in our model lineup," announced Ashma.

"What? Why? At this last moment," asked Priyanka.

"I learned something recently. Not all influencers are bad. So instead of a model which I prefer, my showstopper will be an influencer."

"What? Who?" everyone shouted in unison.. Ashma couldn't help but smile at her choice.

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