Child of Fire

Shattered Hope

Zee's mornings start at 6 a.m. He drinks two glasses of water, relieves himself and brushes his teeth. Immediately he pushes himself to go through his 30-minute workout. He makes and drinks a protein shake in the kitchen then showers and dresses himself for the office. He visits his mother's room and tells her and his sister good morning and kisses them goodbye. Then he goes to his father's room and tells him about the meetings he'll be in for that day. He nods at his father's caregiver before he leaves the room.

He comes back in the evening around 9 p.m., his mother is already asleep while his sister relaxes in her room. His father is still awake, waiting for Zee to give him a report. Most of the time, his father frowns and tells Zee to do better. Zee doesn't argue. He takes the criticisms his father dishes out in a quarter of the volume he used to speak. His father is not as intimidating as he used to be, not with a ventilator covering his nose, but his choice of words are virulent as always. Zee has long since learned to ignore them. In one ear and out in the other. Zee no longer cares. His only goal is not to be the cause of his father's death.

But sometimes, these nightly reports to his father leaves a bad taste in his mouth that he foregoes dinner altogether and just goes directly to sleep, surrendering to exhaustion.

This has been his routine since he graduated. 

The office of WP Construction Company is located in Bangkok's Ratchada district, where it is less crowded and the rent is reasonable. The company has around 30 office personnel and 20 field engineers. When Zee moved the company's headquarters to Ratchada, he received fierce opposition from most of the staff, especially the senior members. Eventually, he was able to change their minds by fighting their egotistical tirades with cold hard numbers. It was fiscally responsible to transfer locations.

It was lonely working on his own so he recruited his friends to join and help him. Nate and Tommy were easy to talk to and didn't even need convincing. They were just happy to be able to work together in the same company. Zee didn't worry because he knew both guys can be professional when the situation calls for it. Yihwa refused him at first. She wanted to venture a different path but she was always passed over for some less competent male applicant. In her 6th interview, she couldn't handle the condescending attitude of the HR person that she blew her top and growled, "Suck my dick!" before walking out of that HR person's office.

She made Zee promise to treat her like an ordinary employee. Yihwa was determined to work her way to the top. Zee didn't keep his promise though. Instead he purposely gave a lot of challenges and problems for Yihwa to solve just so she can prove herself as fast as possible. Of course, there was no need for Yihwa to prove herself to Zee.  Zee just needed other people, specifically the senior management, to see Yihwa's capabilities. That's why within six years at the company, nobody could utter a single complaint when Zee appoint Yihwa as his chief operating officer. Zee badly needed someone he could trust right at his side. 

Zee tried to restructure the company's management to bring in young and innovative thinkers but there remains a handful of remnants from his father's old circle. They are the kind of people who still use underhanded tactics to close contracts. Zee hated them. The feeling was mutual.  There was one time that they caused a huge problem for the company when word got out they bribed some people who were in-charge of a bidding process. Zee almost worked himself to death to make sure the information didn't get leaked to the media, talking to all the parties involved, smoothing their feathers and making forced concessions. He landed in the hospital for abdominal pains because of his erratic eating habits.

His 3-day hospital stay turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it made most of the staff who had been indifferent to him more sympathetic and at the same time thankful for his efforts. Zee gained more respect and support after that. But that didn't stop people from gossiping about him.