Chapter 26 - Complaint

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“Holy sh*t!”

“Mr. Miller, what have you done?!”

Everyone screamed in shock as they stared at Chase, visibly expressing disbelief.

Josh opened his eyes wide in surprise and quickly moved his gaze downward. However, Henry was already buried in the gathering crowd and nowhere to be seen.

“What are you doing? Go,” spat Chase. Josh turned toward him in bewilderment. However, Chase remained shameless. “Close the door and fly.”

There was no choice. Chase, however, didn’t even give the slightest room for hesitation.

“All right,” said Chase, his cigarette still wedged between his lips. “I’ll get off.”

“What?” Everyone, not to mention the secretary, turned toward him in shock.

But Chase wasn’t joking at all. “Wait for him and get him onto the helicopter. I’ll get off.”

“What kind of nonsense—” Josh shouted before he could catch himself. Chase huffed out a short bout of smoke and tossed his cigarette out the open helicopter door. The crowd clamored to catch the flying cigarette butt.

“Goodbye,” said Chase.

“Mr. Miller!” Everyone was stunned as they watched him get into position to jump off the helicopter. The fans screeched at the top of their voices, and everyone in the helicopter rushed to stop him.

“Go, Josh! Now!” Mark finally shouted, and Josh hastily drove the helicopter onto course. Behind him, the team was busy shutting the door and calming down Chase. When the commotion had somewhat settled down, everyone was a wreck.

“Hahh…” It was a rare occurrence for Seth to sigh audibly. Everyone else felt the same, but nobody could bring themselves to show it.

‘Is there anyone in this world who has a sh*ttier personality than him?’ Josh wondered profoundly, watching the setting sun in the far distance as he sat in the pilot’s seat.

* * *

“I quit.”

It was the first thing that Henry said after finally coming back a few hours later, deep into the night, having driven back in the car that had been left behind. Everyone had somewhat expected it, so nobody was particularly surprised. 

The secretary, who had been waiting past her work hours, offered Henry a new term right away as if she had been expecting his announcement. “I’m so sorry about what happened today, Henry. I… can’t guarantee that something like this won’t happen again, but we will most certainly compensate you for all your hard work. We can sign an additional contract—”

“I quit,” Henry spat, gritting his teeth. “Do I look like a beggar to you? You think money makes everything okay? Thinking about all the sh*t I went through today because of that motherf*cker, even the entire United States wouldn’t be enough. And you say what, compensation? How much f*cking compensation, huh? All you b*tches must be insane—”

“Calm down, Henry,” Isaac stepped up and stopped Henry, whose emotions got out of hand as he began to uncontrollably spew out curses. In any case, the secretary was innocent; she was only here in place of Chase.

Even so, Henry’s anger was relatable to all. His well-kept face was scratched all over, bruises big and small were tinting his entire body red, and his hair was unkempt, looking like it had been pulled in all directions. Not only his tie but his blazer was also nowhere to be seen, and his shirt had been shredded into rags as it hung shabbily over his body. Even his oxfords—thank God they hadn’t been lost—were trampled on and creased; they would likely end up miserably abandoned sometime soon.

He was truly a mess.

Even a homeless man on a beach after a hurricane would look less pathetic than him. Everyone who laid eyes on Henry couldn’t hide their sympathy. Stumped, the secretary turned toward Mark, but it wasn’t like Mark could do anything, either.

Of all people that could have gotten left behind, it was Henry.

He had the worst temper out of all the team members, so none of the team members dared cross him. Constantly swearing aside, he would rush in and bite like a dog whenever poked even just a little. During the few years in which they worked together, everybody avoided going against his mood as much as possible. Chase had truly just stepped on a landmine.

“Please calculate my pay by the end of today. I’ll be going back to Boston immediately tomorrow. If you don’t make my returning plane ticket first class, I’ll sue y’all.” Henry gritted his teeth thunderously, turned around, and stormed right out of the living room. The secretary awkwardly glanced at everyone one by one.

“This isn’t going to work.” Isaac was the first to speak up. “We all know that Mr. Miller doesn’t think much of us, but we’re doing our best. And yet, he ditched Henry because he couldn’t wait just a few seconds. It wasn’t like he didn’t know what was going to happen. Moreover, we would have been able to bring Henry onboard at the end, and Mr. Miller just went through the trouble of kicking him down. It’s no surprise that Henry is so angry.”

Isaac’s complaint was calm, but completely reasonable. The secretary blushed and averted her gaze. “I understand, of course, but it couldn’t be helped at the time. You know it, too. If we hadn’t left right away, Mr. Miller would actually have jumped off the helicopter.”

Since it was their job to protect Chase, that was the one thing that had to be prevented. Ultimately, Chase had been threatening them. The fact that it worked and that they had to abandon Henry in the end was what made them feel most bitter.

“To be honest, I feel like I should have ignored him and not cared whether or not he got caught by the fans and became ground into a powder,” agreed Seth, who had been silent until now.