2. A. K. Media

"I didn't know that A. K. Media is a part of Knight Enterprises." Victory mused.

Her pink lips pursed and her small head had unconsciously tilted to the side as she thought about the company that she's about to join. Her right hand was cupping the bottom of her chin while an index finger was tapping thoughtfully at the side of her smooth flawless cheeks. 

"I thought all your companies must have the name Knight, or something," said Victory, looking perplexed.

Her gaze was unfocused as she stared towards the back of the dining room. If you were to look closely, you can see her thoughts churning rapidly behind the irises of her eyes.

She continued speaking, "And besides, there is some mystery surrounding the founder of A. K. Media. He only goes by his initials and he has never entertained the press for any interview. There is very little written about him."

Looking up, she turned her head to look at Aaron, who was seated to her right, "From what I've read, he's a recluse who prefers to avoid the public eye, despite being in the media industry." 

"A. K. Media is not part of the family business, Vic. It's Arthur's," Aaron patiently explained to her, his deep voice sounding like he's talking to a small petulant child. 

The idea for A. K. Media first came about from Arthur's university project. He was in his final year at Stanford University and had enrolled in an elective course on social media advertising. In that course, the professor had tasked each student with creating one social media account. The students are given the freedom to choose any social media platform for their account be it YouTube, F******k, Twitter, I*******m, Snapchat, TikTok and many others.

They were instructed to put out a post every single day for the whole semester. Throughout the duration of the semester, they were taught to try out different hashtags and keywords in relation to each post and analyse the algorithms adopted by the social media website. They were even instructed to put out their posts at different times - early in the morning, noon, late in the afternoon and even during the wee hours of the morning to see which timing would create the highest engagement with followers. Besides that, they also had to test the impact of colours and imagery on several of their posts.

By the end of the semester, each student had to do an analytics report for each of their posts and present a timeline of how their social media account had evolved from the beginning to the end of the semester.  

Not wanting to expose himself as the person behind the social media account, Arthur had chosen to use his initials and added the word media, calling his social media profile AKMedia. He first started doing reviews of the various events that were taking place at the university. As his familiarity with social media grew, he decided to include other events which were happening outside the university, but still within Palo Alto and San Francisco.

His witty style of writing, combined with quirky sharp images had attracted numerous followers to his social media account. By the time the semester had ended, AKMedia already had more than 100,000 followers to his account.

"He established the firm four years ago after graduating from Stanford University and it has now grown into one of the well-known media and advertising firms in New York," he elaborated.

"A. K. stands for Arthur Knight, by the way," Aaron replied, sounding totally bored because the topic did not revolve around him.

As the world's biggest narcissist, Aaron loved nothing more than to talk about himself. And right now, the spotlight is on his reclusive and mysterious brother.

Though he is proud of his brother's accomplishments, he would never acknowledge it to his face. For Aaron, it is much more entertaining to tease Arthur on his faults rather than to gush and dote at him.

After all, his stuffy older brother works too hard. He needs to lighten up and enjoy life a little and Aaron has made it his life's mission to inject colour into Arthur's life.

Understanding finally dawned on Victory's face as she took in the new information presented to her.

Placing a friendly smile on her face, she turned to Arthur. With a twinkle in her eye and a teasing tone, she said, "It's nice to meet you, Boss."

She then took out her slender hand to shake his in polite greeting. Reluctantly, Arthur covered her hand in his, giving it a firm shake.

"And I look forward to working with you," Victory continued warmly.

"Word on the street is that you eat children for breakfast and breathe fire to anyone who dares to mention your name, thus solidifying your status as an unknown recluse. Having sat next to you this past hour, I find my flesh to be of room temperature and you appear to enjoy eating chicken and pudding instead of small children." Victory teased him in her soft musical voice, her green eyes twinkling in merriment and her pink lips were upturned in a wide smile.

"Perhaps there is hope for humanity," she then dramatically declared while thumping her glass, mimicking Thor from the Marvel movie. 

Arthur's eyebrows shot up in surprise, looking at her in amusement as laughter filled the dining room. "I assure you, the thought of eating children have never crossed my mind," he retorted.

"But unfortunately for you, I do breathe fire. Be very careful when you step inside my office on Monday. You might very well get burnt."

Although Arthur's lips were upturned into a smile, his eyes were dead serious. 

"Very well, then," Victory sighed, her long lashes waving up and down as her eyes blinked dramatically. She pulled her lips back into a straight line and tried to look resigned to her doomed fate.

"I'll make a note to get myself a fire extinguisher this weekend and bring it with me to work on Monday. Thank you for the head's up, Boss."

She glanced sideways at Arthur, her green eyes taunting his, daring him to respond to her words. Mischief was reflected from behind her eyes and her pink lips were now grinning broadly, clearly enjoying their verbal exchange.

Arthur looked at her, taking in her cheeky facial expression and saying nothing in return.

Unlike Aaron, who has a boisterous personality, Arthur is quite reserved and used to saying very little to others. He speaks only when he has to, using words that convey what is needed to be said. His lack of interest at parading himself to the public had earned him the nickname of reclusive CEO.

There is no need for him to respond to Victory's teasing, for she would know his personality soon enough, he thought to himself. And she will find him to be the fire-breathing dragon as everyone have claimed. 

Victory left soon after dinner because she had to go home to her own family.

To be honest, she didn't plan on staying for dinner with the Knights. Having been peppered with raw eggs by Aaron, her plans of getting home got delayed because she needed a proper shower and fresh change of clothes.

Fortunately, she didn't live too far away, her family's home is only a ten minutes drive from the Knights' mansion. They had moved into the area eight years ago when she was sixteen. Being the same age as Aaron, they both went to the same school, becoming fast friends because they were so alike.

Hanging out with Aaron so often, her family viewed him as an extension of her and his family seems to do the same.

It weirded her out that she has never met Arthur before. But he had already left for Stanford University when Victory moved in to the area.

When he came back to New York after graduation, both she and Aaron were already studying in NYU. Most of the time, he stayed at his apartment in the middle of the city centre and rarely came back to the Knight's family mansion in the suburbs.

To her, Arthur seemed like a figment of the imagination, she's heard of him so many times but have never met him, until today. 

The weekend passed by quickly and being the cheeky person that she is, she went and bought a small, red fire extinguisher, something that she plans to bring to the office on Monday. And if Arthur truly did breathe fire, she would not hesitate to spray it to his handsome face.

Sorry Arthur, if you insist on being a fire hazard, I will do whatever it takes to protect myself from getting burnt by you, she thought to herself gleefully.

**********

Monday rolled in and she arrived at Knight Towers ten minutes before the appointed time. 

Victory wanted to make a good impression, so she chose one of her favourite outfits to work. She also wore a Tiffany's rose gold, charm bracelet which was gifted to her by her grandmother on her sixteenth birthday. The bracelet always gave her a boost of courage and today it made her feel like an independent career woman.

Covering herself in a yellow jacket which she hoped would mirror her outgoing personality, Victory strolled confidently into the building. 

The building was twenty stories tall and housed almost all of Knight Enterprises businesses. As a conglomerate, the company have numerous vested interests in real estate, construction, transportation, pharmaceutical, medical equipment and many others different industries.

A friendly blonde girl sat behind the reception counter and gave her directions to the human resources office.

A. K. Media occupied two floors in Knight Towers, the human resources office was located on the sixth floor while the CEO's office was on the seventh floor.

About an hour later, Victory had already signed her employment contract and been briefed on her responsibilities. She left the human resources office and went up the elevator to the CEO's office. As his assistant, she will be working closely with Arthur, accompanying him to meetings and events and complete any other tasks that the CEO requires her to do.

Feeling slightly daunted, she paused and gathered her courage in front of the door to the CEO's office. She took in a few deep breaths before readying herself to be reacquainted with the dragon himself.

She patted her handbag softly, reassured that she did not forget to bring the small fire extinguisher and proceeded to give the door a firm knock. 

"Come in," a strong and deep voice called from inside. 

She pushed the double doors slowly and peeked cautiously inside.

The CEO's chamber consisted of a large corner office and a personal toilet that was partially hidden at a corner in the room. Sunlight was streaming in from partially opened blinds that covered the wall to ceiling windows. The walls were painted in white and neutral leather furniture and a black coffee table littered the room. At the far end of the room stood a large desk and two white Eames chairs were facing the occupant who was seated firmly behind the desk.

Arthur's hands were resting on the table, his posture looking open and broad shoulders relaxed. However, his blue eyes were alert and studying her quietly as she stepped into the office. 

If she wasn't so nervous, she would have taken out the bright, palm-sized fire extinguisher and made a dramatic entrance mimicking the tomb raider, Lara Croft and trying to slay (or in her case spray) a dangerously handsome fire-breathing dragon.