Melted: A MaxTul AU story

Chapter Twenty-six: Pretty

The Day Before

Tul hadn't exactly lied to his father about being busy at work. He not only had to deal with the repercussions of what SPI Securities had found, but he also had meet with Ann and Sukrit. After he had been updated by Chakrit concerning the extent of the access someone else had to the office computer networks, he was pretty sure how the other team had gotten its hands on Sukrit's project.

Thus, he had spent the afternoon going over Chakrit's report and the SPI Security leader's suggested responses for his team. Chakrit had changed from the day before. When they had first met, Chakrit was clearly looking at this job as any other job. But now, he seemed to be on a mission to secure Tul's area as if he was taking all the spyware he found personally. And in some way he was.

Chakrit felt that Plustor Pakorn had almost gotten him involved in something very shady, which would have ruined him and seriously hurt the company's reputation. The more things his team found, the more he felt as though he had just missed stepping off a cliff at the last moment. 

His gut had told him that something was off about Plustor's requests, but he had thought he was overreacting since he didn't have any proof. He had went against his instinct, even chiding himself about being suspicious of someone who was seen as an upstanding citizen in the community and from a well-established and respected family. He should have paid attention to his mentor's advice about the importance of trusting one's gut instincts.

Chakrit knew that Tul was going to talk to his family about what had happened because Tul had mentioned that he would out of concern for what might be found in other areas, but Chakrit felt the need to make it very clear that the attack on Tul's department had to have been instigated internally. He had no desire to be caught up in a Pakorn family war, but he also knew what side he was on now not just because of his long professional relationship with Tor but because of the way Plustor had treated him. He might be working with all of the offices in Shilapath eventually, but no other department was going to get the type of treatment he intended to give Development Team 2.

Both Tul and Prin were thankful to him for that, and his actions reminded Tul of something Max had said to him when he had gotten back from Japan:

"By dragging others into his personal vendetta against you, Plustor is just giving you more and more opportunities to make allies without him even realizing it." (Chapter Twenty: Dinner With Friends)

Tul wondered how many other people Plustor was going to piss off in his arrogance and who else he would get as an ally. He knew he was going to need all the help he could get because Plustor was always going to have more resources.

Tul worked through the rest of that day with Prin putting a rush order in for everything that Chakrit recommended. He ordered laptops for everyone, and he had Chakrit's team prioritize securing the conference room, so they would be ready for the security training first thing the next day. He even worked on restructuring the office responsibilities in case Sukrit requested a transfer. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but he couldn't say that if he had a wife and two kids at home with only a small savings to protect him that he wouldn't take the safest, smoothest job option.

Tul sighed thinking what it would be like to have a life at home rather than work being your life. He thought of Pongpat's focus on leaving as much money as he could for his family or Ann working through her frustrations and scandal not just for herself but so she could be a role model for her ten year old niece (whom she had officially adopted when her sister died). He closed his eyes for a minute, knowing that he would have to leave soon to get to his parents' house for dinner. But as soon as he closed them and his body relaxed a bit, his mind went to the picture of Max in his kitchen when came back from Japan.