【Story progression: -50%】
For the next few months Zana worked under Jun as he showed her how to be a secretary.
Although she was a fast learner she was still a clutz and made mistakes.
Whenever that would happen Jun would heavily reprimand her until she cried, but even then he didn't go easy on her. This wasn't some shoujo story (as far as he knew) where he'd fall for her tears, she was working in a multi billion dollar corporation, if she couldn't take the heat then she should either get it together or quit.
He deeply hoped for the latter.
He hated her very presence and made sure Sage was aware of it. He acted like a filial husband who didn't want to be mistaken cheating.
Sage also noticed Zana's mistakes increasing as time went on.
In the original story, Zana always had the male lead backing her, but now that she was pushed into secretary position without the male lead, she was useless.
Although she had been able to handle moderate tasks until then, her female lead halo was wearing thin since Rey wasn't by her side.
Sage had believed it would be ok though, she thought that Jun would soon fall in love with her and help her out.
Unfortunately it seemed like the opposite occurred.
Instead, Jun made her life a living nightmare as he never showed any good will towards Zana.
He never smiled or showed concern for her like he did when with Sage.
She had tried seducing the man but he wouldn't change and instead became even more disgusted as his dark eyes always glared at her while his voice was cold and harsh as he was forced to instruct her.
Even her tears never worked on the 'cold' man. She wanted to quit but somewhere deep inside she believed that it was her destiny to rule at the head of a company.
Thinking this, Zana's heart slightly darkened as she wondered what methods would work to achieve such a position.
【Story progression: -60%】
Sage was surprised upon hearing the notification, she hadn't done anything major for the time being so she was surprised to receive a notification.
Just as she thought this Jun walked in with lunch.
He always happily prepared it the night before, then brought it to work the next day for Sage and him both to enjoy.
Jun loved this time of day because he was always allowed to sit close to Sage and watch her eat.
Walking in he lightly smiled setting some of the food down on the desk, his eyes gently looking at Sage.
"I'll be right back, just let me get the rest." Jun gently spoke as he walked out of the room.
For the past few days Sage hadn't eaten the food he prepared since she was busy fixing mistakes Zana made, this only increased his hatred for the girl who dared to waste his boss's precious time with her needless mistakes.
He asked Sage to fire the incompetent girl but Sage had so far refused such requests. He could only continue to work on, as his hatred intensified.
Just as he was about to fetch the rest of the food for lunch, Jun spotted Zana trying to take a bite of it. His once gentle eyes instantly blackened as his last ounce of patience snapped.
Zana tried to look cutesy as she tried to explain to Jun why she was attempting to eat the food. "Oh, umm I forgot my lunch and since you had so much food I thought you wouldn't mind if I took a b-"
Before Zana could even finish her sentence Jun slapped the bite of food out of her hand.
"Wha-"
"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO EACH SUCH FOOD!" Jun finally snapped, his eyes deeply swirling.
"I will never let your filthy mouth eat this carefully prepared food! The only one who can ever eat my cooking is Sage! If you ever try to again then I might as well cut off your tong-"
"Ah, what's going on?" Sage indifferently strided in upon hearing yelling.
Looking at the scene she could immediately understand what had transpired. Zana's eyes looked full of tears as she looked at Sage.
"H-HE WAS BULLYING ME!" Zana cried, pools of tears running down her face.
Seeing this, Sage's eyes couldn't help but give an evil twinkle.
If she was a normal soul she would probably pity Zana and fall right into the the female lead's trap but unfortunately for Zana, Sage had seen such scenes far too many times to feel anything like pity.
After all such scenes were common for the FL usually right before she, the villain, was blamed for something or killed off....
Seeing the teary eyes only had the opposite effect on Sage as it pulled up bitter memories...
"And how did he bully you? Would you not consider stealing food a crime hmmm...?" Sage's aura slightly escaped as her emotionless voice echoed throughout the room with a sense of intensity, it instantly mesmerized Jun and frightening the Female Lead.
"In some places in the world you would be beheaded for stealing... Yet, you have the audacity to say Jun's at fault for stopping you from eating stolen goods hmm? Moreover, why should you get a lunch break when you have been making nothing but mistakes recently. If your boss can't eat because she has to fix your mistakes, then why should you get to eat...?" Sage's eyes coldly narrowed towards the FL making Zana truly shiver.
"I guess now would be as good a time as any to say you're fired. Pack up your things and be out by the end of the day, if not I will have security show you the door out."
Zana looked confused upon hearing Sage's words, she had expected to get sympathy since her boss had always been charmed by her, or at least that's what she had thought.
So when Sage declared her fired, she could only look up stunned not completely processing the words just spoken.
Meanwhile Sage walked back into her office, closely followed by Jun who looked happier than ever.
Sage hadn't meant to fire Zana this early on.
After all, it could result in Zana being hired at Sinergy-tech and meeting the male lead where the two would fall in love. That would in turn ruin all of Sage's progress in trying to ruin the story.
But after the continued mistakes and Zana and Jun's relationship not progressing at all Sage finally chose to fire her.
Yes, it was because of all the mistakes Zana made and the female lead's whining. It's not like she did it out of slight anger because the female lead tried to eat her food or anything like that...
No, after all, she was the emotionless Villain...
At the same time Zana still sat on the floor. Silently she clenched her fists in anger.
【Story progression: -65%】
"Haha, firing me... ME!? Just because I'm poor you think you can stomp all over me!" Zana thought as she started to twist the truth in her mind.
【Story progression: -70%】
"I HATE YOU JUN! Yes it's all his fault, he ruined everything for me, if he hadn't embarrassed me in front of the boss then I wouldn't have been fired! If he had been charmed by me then I wouldn't have made all those mistakes! If he didn't work here I could have become the number one secretary and later even become boss! Yes, EVERYTHING is his fault! I'll make him regret EVERYTHING!"
【Story progression: -80%】
Thinking this, Zana's heart completely blackened. She got up with a smile and walked out of V-tech.
*Desert Note: In both this Arc and the last Arc I tried to make it so that the FL and ML don't start out evil, just flawed, (that doesn't mean I tried to make them likable thou) I wanted to show a slow blackening. I feel like it makes it more realistic since they are meant to start out "good" or "pure" as main characters. It would have been easier to just make them straight evil but in stories like this I always think that feels forced. Idk if I did a good job in how I presented the characters (￢ε ლ) but still, I tried... and as always hope you enjoyed! ＼(^ o ^)／