Chapter 29: Love Or family - what's worth more?

"Wh_why are you asking?" Kiara said while looking at him carefully.

"What do you mean why? I'm just curious." Ali said nonchalantly, but a sly grin formed on his face as he observed her expression. "Wait, you're not thinking I'd fall for you, right?"

"What??" Kiara exclaimed, caught off guard by the unexpected turn in the conversation.

"I'll tell you before I have high standards. So do not get your hopes up," Ignoring her shock, Ali continued, feigning arrogance. "I don't like dumb ones."

"Wait, just _ just wait." Kiara said as she raised her hands and waved them in the air trying to stop this invisible train of absurdity assaulting her ears. "What did you say again?"

"Le, you didn't even listen." Ali sighed in response.

"No, I heard perfectly. Me, get an idea about you? Just what kind of narcissistic soup did you drink this morning?" She said in a serious tone. "And why're you keep calling me dumb, I'm still smarter than you, okay."

"You know I can have you kicked out of this company for saying that." Ali joked, but Kiara took it seriously and added. "Ohh yeah, well, I can leave this company who can't even pay for their maintenance. Who knows, maybe your young boss would take everyone's salary and run off to Thailand or something."

"Thailand, hell no." Ali said in a disgusted tone, recalling a viral clip he saw on social media recently, which can only be described as KLPD or an honest man's worst nightmare.

Following this banter there was another two minutes of silence between the two before the pretty girl finally got her head straight again and looked at Ali slowly. "Can you really get me kicked out?" she asked, her tone a lot softer now.

"Yupp." Ali said, holding back his chuckle, as he observed her downcast look and lost expression.

"Will you do it?" she muttered, her head bent even lower.

"Hmm I'm thinking about it." he said, enjoying the playful tension.

"Don't." She said and raised her head to explain a little of her family situation when she met his eyes shining in amusement and a teasing smile, and she lost her composure again.

"You_ you're joking again." She said holding back the urge to beat this guy who's making her angry and annoyed.

"Fine, I won't get you kicked out, okay, promise." Ali said, placing his hand on his neck in swearing motion with a seemingly sincere expression. "How about a promotion though." He added while picking her id card from the ground. "You said you finished your studies in the marketing field, right. But I see you're currently working as an 'what's this job title again'."

"SA staff, support assistant." Kiara said and pulled her id card from his hands. "Every model at the star corp. has one manager, one assistant and two support assistants under them. We're basically just trainees, trying to learn and adapt to the field before moving up the ladders if we're lucky and persistent."

"So like an assistant's assistant's assistant?" he said doubtfully to which she nodded her head in response.

"Basically, yeah."

"Wow, I didn't even know these posts existed." he joked, eliciting a chuckle from Kiara too.

"Though I am serious, you should get a promotion, or atleast a transfer in the field you specialize in." Ali suggested, bringing the topic back to his previous discussion. "Didn't Nat check your resume or something before assigning you a job."

"You mean, miss Natasha?" Kiara asked, "Why would she check resumes? Or care about someone so down to the ground? She has to run the whole company, you know. I doubt she even has time to breathe a little."

"I also heard she has a little daughter at home, whom she leaves alone at daycare or kindergarten, cause she's so busy at work all day." Kiara said with some thoughts, causing Ali's mind to run wild as he never really cared about it before.

'Now that I think about it, Nat really is working hard. She's been taking care of her and mine work all these years. I should get her a raise and a holiday sometime.' He thought in his heart, until his thoughts got shattered by the sweet insults that landed on his ears.

"You know what, it's all that rich CEO's fault. If he does his job and doesn't play around, the company would be much better." Kiara said and not noticing the black face Ali made hearing it, continued her onslaught "But he's out spending his daddy's money on doing God knows what."

"Hmmm hmmm" Ali finally couldn't take it anymore as he coughed and interrupted her curses before she goes on and start over the issue of lift and her low salary again. "What's your issue with the rich guys anyway? Maybe he's not that bad, you know? He might be a sweet, handsome and honest man, who's busy with something else important."

"Tsk hhahha please, handsome, honest hahaha" Hearing his words of praise Kiara burst out laughing as she remembered the rumors she heard and compared them both. "Everyone in the company knows what he's doing, so don't try to defend him, okay."

"And what is he doing? Huh, he just loved someone and wanted to win her heart, that's all. Was that so bad?" Ali said in a little anger and a serious tone.

His sudden shift in personality caught Kiara off guard for a second, as she couldn't understand why he was getting hyper, the whole city knew their boss's reputation.

"Why're you silent now, tell me, what did he do wrong? That you're giving all this big lecture going on about his stupidity, when you haven't even met him once." Ali finished his words and sighed as he realized he lost his cool.

Taking a deep breath to calm down, he looked at Kiara who was looking at him with sharp eyes. He wanted to apologize for his outburst, when she stopped him first.

She who lost her parents and her relatives one after another, for one reason or next, really couldn't understand why someone would love someone enough to lose or ignore their family. Isn't familial love enough in life.

"You're right, I don't know him at all. Never met him, never seen him, so I shouldn't judge him." She said "But you know what else is right, his negligence and irresponsible behavior."

"His parents spent their hard earned money and gave him this company to start his future, and what does he do with it? Nothing. He just hired a girl, and threw all his work on her shoulders and that's it."

"I'm not saying that him loving someone is wrong or choosing to follow that girl to get her is wrong, what's wrong is, that in search for that one girl, he's ignoring everything else in his life. His career, his family and their trust and efforts. Is it really all worth it?" she finished her words and stayed silent, while Ali just kept staring at her as her words kept echoing in his mind again and again.

'Is it really worth it? Was his love really worth it? Was she_ worth it…' he thought and burst out laughing as his soul felt much lighter now than ever before. "Hahahh hahaha aahaha you're right, he's such an idiot. Why couldn't he understand such a simple thing, that's been in front of him all his life. Ahahahha what an idiot."

Kiara, who after her long speech over love and family thought she overdid it or stepped over her boundaries, wanted to apologize for her blunder, when she heard a broken chuckle and looked up to see him burst out in laughter, as a few tears slipped through his eyes inadvertently.

She didn't know why but watching him so genuinely smile, a small smile came to her lips too.

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