"And this is the main research workshop, where prototyping begins."

Asami Sato was all smiles as she guided the newcomer through the workshop. Hyung and the other engineers on the floor tried not to blatantly stare at the cheery heiress and the young man that followed after her. While it wasn't uncommon for Asami to lead investors and people of some influence in guided tours of the Yasuki Sato Building, this was the first time Hyung had ever seen her genuinely animated, and with a young man to boot.

And Hyung has been in Future Industries for long enough to watch the exuberant girl grow up to know how much she treated such tours as a chore. Most of the other engineers knew it too.

Usually the brilliant inventor would be going through the motions and doing her level best to ignore or deflect any attention from men her age - usually industrial scions trying to woo her. But there was none of that bland politeness here. She conversed with her sharply dressed counterpart, who looked less like an ambitious fool from a wealthy family trying to impress her and more like…an auditor? A dangerous auditor?...in more than short sentences and monosyllables, wearing a warm smile.

They were even headed down to the work floor for a look, instead of breezing straight to the exit.

Maybe it was because the man in question wasn't leering at her, and keeping his attention fully focused on her words. Whoever he was, he seemed to be equally engaged in the conversation with Asami. The stranger's expression was fixed to a polite, almost placid smile, but Hyung had to face enough shareholders and tourists to know that Asami's guest was far from inattentive.

Glances were shared among the engineers as Asami led the man over to them, and with a sigh Hyung put his tools down and dusted the worst of the debris off himself before doing his job and walking over to meet them. Asami gave him a nod in greeting before offering introductions.

"Ah, Hyung! This is Xing, he'll be working with us. Xing, this is Hyung, the chief engineer of our research division, and the ruler of this floor and the two floors below it."

Xing offered a stiff nod, though some warmth seeped into his smile as he offered his hand in greeting. "I am pleased to meet you, Chief Engineer Hyung."

It wasn't the polite act that Hyung had expected. The young man didn't seem to mind at all the engineer's greasy and metal-flecked grip. No involuntary wince, no flash of discomfort in his amber eyes, nothing. So either this Xing was an engineer as well, or he was well acquainted with similar dirty work.

Not a typical auditor then.

"The pleasure's mine," Hyung greeted back with a courtesy wasn't used to. "As Miss Asami said, I'm in charge of Future Industries' research, though I mostly handle the more practical stuff like prototyping."

Xing gave another nod before glancing over to the heap of metal the Hyung and his subordinates had been working on. "That's an…engine?"

"An idea of one," Hyung answered with a shrug before flashing Asami a look. The heiress replied with a slight tilt of her head, making the chief engineer feel the urge to sigh. Well, the stuff here was all relatively public knowledge… Any work truly classified was done in the other, more discrete labs outside of Republic City. "We're always dabbling in new ideas."

"That makes sense." Xing's attention flashed back to the incomplete, tubular prototype again. "It looks like it'd be noisy once it starts."

The chief engineer grunted out an affirmative. "Yeh. We're expecting a lot of rattling and booming…"

"And a lot of heat… Is that the cooling system?"

Hyung blinked in a split-second of silence before shaking his head. "It's part of the fuel-injection. We'll be figuring out heat after the prototype is built." While it was a lousy guess, it was a good consideration to raise for a civilian.

"Anyway, what department are you in again?"

It was Asami who answered with a cheery smile. "Oh, Xing will be my personal assistant."

The clang of a dropped tool rang out, and Hyung was sure that the entire team was joining him in varying degrees of disbelief at hearing the words.

Asami Sato did not do 'personal assistants'.

She was an inventor and steward of Future Industries who had to take sudden meetings to secure investments and deals, or locked down a workshop for days when she came up with critical breakthroughs. Whether despite or because of the lack of any proper scheduling, she hopped from project to meeting effortlessly without missing a beat.

Hiroshi Sato had given up on trying to get his daughter to have a more organized work life after successive resignations from supposedly talented assistants. The last person who tried scheduling Asami's life wound up resigning barely a month in after she couldn't keep up or contain her employer's impulsive lifestyle. And that was just Asami going about her day as usual instead of trying to be spiteful, as far as Hyung knew.

And now, after constant independence, Asami had actually hired a personal assistant on her own volition?

Hyung couldn't help but give the confused Xing a frown. Then he fixed it on the mildly bemused heiress. And then Hyung had to bite down a sigh. It wasn't the boy seducing the girl, it was the other way around.

Xing offered a wan smile at the engineers and then Asami. "I take it…I'll have my work cut out for me?"

"They're just being overdramatic," Asami said with a roll of her eyes. "I promise you I'm not that unbearable."

"As you say," Xing replied with an uncharacteristic glint of mischief in his eyes. "Hopefully I won't have to offer too many apologies to affronted locals or negotiate compensation for damages wrought?"

Asami huffed with clearly feigned offense. "We do our testing in controlled environments, and I'm not going around vandalizing property or hitting people."

The stoic pose from Xing cracked as he finally smirked. "You did run me over with your moped…"

"A fault I'm still offering to make up for," she quickly cut in, and this time Hyung raised an eyebrow at her. "It was an accident…" she muttered sheepishly.

"And a fortunate one at that," her new PA added with a gracious nod, though Asami was already starting to lead him away. Hyung pretended to ignore the pleading look she gave as she left. Whatever trouble Asami had just gotten into, she'll have to properly brief him before he can make a decision on whether to keep it from her father or not.

Once the two youths were gone, the chief engineer turned around to share looks with the others, and it seemed that everyone came to the same worrying conclusion: Either pity poor Xing for disappointing Asami in trying to keep up with her hectic lifestyle, or pity poor Xing if he is truly competent and sticks around for long enough for her protective father to take notice of him.

Or worse, he draws the attention of the small army of Asami's suitors.

*****

"So, what do you think?" Asami eagerly asked as she finished the orientation in her office. Her official, proper office near the very top of the Yasuki Sato Building, not the improvised workstation down in the labs where she tinkered the nights away.

"I have a lot to learn," came Xing's answer with cautious confidence. "Hopefully it'll take me less than a week to get a hang of things."

"I'm glad you're sticking around," she honestly said. "You don't have to rush yourself, I'm aware that I can be…hectic in how I work."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Her dashing new PA nodded. "Thank you, Asami. I hope I'm not holding you up on too much work."

"It's a slow enough day… Actually, the next couple of days are light on meetings as well, so it'll be perfect for you to get the hang of things." If she tried looking at it in a particular way, it was as if the spirits wanted Xing to work here.

"Then I'll make sure to use the time wisely," Xing replied with a slight bow. "Perhaps to start, do you have a basic schedule you adhere to?"

Asami fought the urge to scratch the back of her head. "Uh…I sorta don't have one really? Honestly, if it's not meetings with investors and customers, it's meetings with the engineers…"

"I understand," her PA said without so much as a flinch. "You need to seize the initiative when opportunity strikes. I'm guessing you don't keep to a consistent sleep schedule?"

"It…depends…?"

Xing chuckled. "It's alright, I assure you that I can keep up. Ideally, you should be sticking to a proper sleep schedule for your health, but I understand how inspiration can strike."

Well, inspiration and the fact that she needed her recreational driving, even if the only available time for it was some hours before dawn. But Xing didn't need to know that just yet.

"Anyway, should I start researching the people you regularly meet with, or would you prefer if I begin by organizing your paperwork?" he asked while directing a pointed look at piles of paper on her desk and in one corner. "Or would there be other tasks you'd have me work on first?"

Asami had an idea of how he could start, but she kept that little thought to herself.

"The paperwork can wait…most of it's meant for the burn pile anyway. I suppose we can talk about people and companies of interest over lunch?"

"Of course," Xing started to say, but Asami raised an open palm at him.

"Don't get formal with me, Xing, please?" She offered a weak smile. "I…it doesn't suit you. And I'm forced to put up with that sort of thing most of the time already."

There was a pause before he nodded. "I understand Asami. Off to lunch then?" Asami had to blink a few times to figure out how he was already at the door.

"Right, how are you with dim sum?" she asked breezily as she exited the office and headed for the elevator.

"So long as it doesn't add too many digits to my existing deficit-"

"Xing…"

He smirked at her disapproval as the door closed behind him. "It would be unseemly for you if it looked like I was feeding off your good graces."

"But you don't have any money!" Asami protested. "I can't just let you starve!"

"You don't have to splurge on me either," came Xing's even reply. "You can offer me a basic allowance until my first salary, and it should make you seem more than generous enough. Overdoing it might foster a more frivolous reputation."

What did she care about reputation, she didn't say, because she admitted that she knew its worth. "Fine," she exhaled. "We can-"

"You should keep to your dim sum, Asami. I can eat elsewhere, as my station requires."

Asami almost glared at Xing, who easily shrugged it off. "Until I prove my worth, that I'm not some lucky hanger on-"

"You're not-!"

Xing slowly raised a hand to calmly interrupt her. "I know, but to everyone else it would seem that way. So you should not appear to be too gracious to me. I am merely your assistant, at the end of the day. And recently hired too. Keeping some aloofness with me would show that you're here to give me a reasonably fair crack at this job."

As much as she wanted to object, Asami ended up folding her arms and frowning. "Hmph. It makes sense, but I don't like it… It's just a meal…"

"You've been more than generous enough in dragging me up to this point," Xing pointed out in the same calming tone. "Meal or not, I'd like to prove that I'm not just a spur-of-the-moment charity case." Before she could say something about that perception, Xing broke into a grin.

"Besides, I need to prove some legitimacy to show that I'm worthy of your attention, don't I?"

Asami couldn't help the warmth on her cheeks as she caught Xing's rather unsubtle meaning. "Well…" And then an idea struck her, and she gave Xing a triumphant, wide-eyed stare.

"Xing."

"Yes, Asami?"

"I'm in the mood for dim sum, but I don't feel like eating out."

There was only a fraction of a second's pause from him before he nodded in understanding. "Is there any particular restaurant you'd like me to get your food from?"

"Yes, the Rearing Mantishawk. I'll give you the directions. And the list of what I want." Of course the order would be far larger than what she could eat by herself. Hm… She should probably add on a bit more, for Xing's two young friends… Would kids their age like kai lan or cabbages more?

*****

Qi Song watched as the new hire returned, half surprised that he came back at all considering that he was apparently Miss Asami's new PA (and boy was that position cursed), and half amazed that he managed to balance a tower of steaming dim sum containers with seeming ease. At first Qi Song and the others had thought him to be another rich guy's son trying to woo her, though Miss Asami's smile wasn't the most insincere, Qi Song personally thought. Then news spread from the guys on the research floors, that apparently Miss Asami actually hired the guy because of some near-fatal accident she and him were involved in.

He opened the gate to let the man who was too sharply dressed to be a dim sum delivery man in, envying his surefootedness despite having most of his view blocked by the containers.

"The poor fuck," Xu remarked as he joined Qi Song in watching the back of the man. "Miss Asami clearly doesn't eat that much…"

Another guard joined in the discussion with a pitying chuckle. "I didn't see him leave with any paper… Wanna bet she made him memorize some crazy long list?"

"Miss Asami isn't that petty," Qi Song defended half-heartedly. "Though she might not care to remind the poor guy if he forgot to write her order down…"

The security guards all watched in eager silence as the new hire left again, about an hour later, this time carrying about half the bamboo containers that were still steaming.

Xu cackled. "Looks like the poor fuck had gotten the order wrong…"

"Or Miss Asami is done with her meal and she's having him dispose of it," Qi Song speculated. Probably by giving the leftovers to one of the charity soup kitchens…on the other end of the city. If the poor guy was lucky, it'd only be one particular location instead of having to distribute it across various stalls just so she could maximize her time away from a hire she doesn't want around.

He came back not long after, with more than enough of the afternoon left. Then in the evening the security guards were left baffled as the heiress of Future Industries left with the new hire on her tail, with both of them wearing smiles.

When was the last time that had happened? Either Miss Asami was smiling vindictively and her PA was dejected, or she'd be grumbling while her minder was being obliviously smug.

"I have a feeling we'll see him around for more than a couple of months…"