Chapter 20: CH20: The new intern
"The only thing I like better than talking about food is eating!"
- John Walters
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The sky was dark with large clouds moving forward, blotting out the soft orange colour of the sun. There were soft tapping sounds against the windows of the Kang Company, where it then became a soft platter on the ground.
Outside on the streets, many people ran for cover with umbrellas opened wide for protection. Puddles began to formed around on the ground as the rainfall became heavier.
Delilah had just arrived at the office, her clothes and hair wet from the rain. Luckily, she was wearing a dark blue sweater and a black bootcut pants.
She was shaking off the excess water from her umbrella, outside the office building, before going in. However, she stopped just in front of the lobby again, this time, shaking her pants to get rid of more excess water. She smiled in apology at the custodian, who was rushing over with a pail of water and a mop.
"I'm sorry for making such a mess, Mr. Cameron," Delilah apologised with a sheepish smile.
Mr. Cameron waved her apology away with a hand and said, "No worries there, Ms. Delilah. It sure is raining cats and dogs out there, huh?"
Delilah nodded. "Sure is. Got to go now. Sorry again, Mr. Cameron."
Mr. Cameron began to mop at the puddle left by Delilah and then he waved goodbye at her. "Alright now. Have a nice day!"
Delilah rushed over to the elevator and said loudly over her shoulder at Mr. Cameron, "You too!"
A few minutes later, she finally arrived at her cubicle. She quickly opened her desk drawer to grab her small towel.
The cubicle on her left was still empty, meaning that Firah has not arrived yet. On her right, the cubicle was also empty. It has been empty for a couple of months since the last intern had left. The cubicle was usually reserved for an intern that they had selected from a pool of would-be graduates at a local university.
Every six months, the local university would send over their students from their Business and Finance faculty to intern at their company. This was to prepare the students before they enter the working environment. Once they have done with their 6 months internship, they would graduate.
Usually, Aubree was chosen as the head supervisor for the interns. However, Aubree had been busy for the past few weeks so Delilah had been chosen as the head supervisor. Hence, Delilah will have an intern who will follow her around for a month before Delilah sent them to another department. Most interns will undergo a job rotation at the Kang Company where they will experienced working in five departments of the company.
After Delilah had done settling in, she was just about to start on her work when the phone beside her rang.
"Hello, Delilah speaking."
"Good morning, D! Your intern has arrived. Shall I bring him up?"
Delilah's eyebrows raised up in surprise. Him? So, the intern this time is a guy, huh?
"Wait a minute. Tell him to wait for awhile. I'll be right down in a few minutes," Delilah said, her hand already reaching for a file on her desk.
"Okie!"
They both hung up.
Delilah quickly browsed through her files on her table, looking for the intern's CV. Delilah had completely forgotten that an intern will be starting work today. She found his CV and quickly skimmed through it.
She then placed the file back and stood up.
On her way down, she met up with Firah, who had just arrived. She was holding an umbrella, as well as wearing a raincoat.
Firah stifled a laugh when she saw Delilah's appearance. "All wet, aren't you?"
Delilah stopped and looked down at her clothes. "Do I look like a drowned rat?"
Firah laughed. "Nah! Still acceptable."
"Seriously?" Delilah asked, grabbing Firah's arm.
"Yeah, yeah! What's wrong?"
"Well, the intern had just arrived. I'm worried that I would be giving him a bad first impression, looking like a mess," Delilah frowned.
Firah patted her on the shoulder. "Nah, you still look okay." Then she swept an arm over her body. "But I'm still better than you. Thanks to this jacket," she said smugly.
Firah was wearing a light grey rain jacket with a detachable hood over her black jumpsuit. She had tied her dark brown hair in a messy chignon, making her look sleek and classy.
Delilah narrowed her eyes at her in suspicion. "Why are you dressing up so nicely today?"
Firah just smiled smugly at Delilah and walked away.
"I'm still going to nag at you until you give me an answer, woman!" Delilah shouted.
Delilah harrumphed as she continued walking to the elevator.
When Delilah arrived at the lobby, she saw a tall and young man standing nearby the receptionist desk. He was wearing a light blue striped button-ups shirt with a red tie. His hands tucked in the pockets of his dressy slacks as he looked around the lobby with great curiosity. He was also carrying a backpack on his back. His hair styled in an Ivy League hairstyle, making him looked classy and elegant.
Looking closer at his face, he looked a bit mature than what Delilah had expected. He had a square face with a prominent chin and strong jawline. He also has a beauty mark, just at the corner of his lips, similar to Cindy Crawford's.
Delilah walked over to him.
Bella, who was typing on her computer, looked up and saw Delilah approaching. She immediately stopped what she was doing and called the young man over.
The young man stopped his curiosity and saw Delilah walking over, as well. He followed behind Bella, who was walking towards Delilah.
Bella stopped in front of Delilah and turned to wait for the young man to stand beside her. Once he had stood beside her, Bella immediately turned back to Delilah and began her introductions.
"Delilah, this is Deegan. An intern from the Sultanate University."
Delilah nodded and hold out her hand towards Deegan. "Hello, Deegan. Welcome to Kang Company. I'm Delilah and I will be your head supervisor. Let's go upstairs to the office and make you settle in."
She then let out a small laugh. "Deegan. Delilah. We are the Double D's," she joked.
Deegan just smiled and accepted her handshake.
Both Delilah and Bella coughed at the awkwardness. Delilah just gave out a sheepish 'heh' while Bella gave her a facepalm behind Deegan's back.
"So, anyway...." Delilah said slowly, trying to stop the awkwardness. "Let's go to the office and I'll show you around after you have settled in."
Deegan nodded.
Delilah turned to Bella and gave her her thanks.
Delilah then led Deegan up to their office where she showed him his cubicle, which was next to her.
While Deegan was settling in his cubicle, removing his personal items out of his backpack, Delilah grabbed his CV once more to read it again.
She was surprised to see that Deegan was a couple of years younger than her. Apparently, he was a final year student, who will be graduating once he was done with his internship here. He had entered the university late because, although he had studied for his bachelor's degree before overseas, the university he had attended was not recognized by the Ministry of Education. Hence, he had wasted three years of studying and had to do his bachelor's degree once more here.
Delilah had given him a few minutes to settle in before she brought him around to introduce him to the people in the company. She first introduced him to the HR department, before moving on to the Marketing department and Logistics department, which was on the third floor. She then brought him over to the rest of the departments.
Along the way, she had asked him whether his university had given him some work to do during his internship. He had answered yes, they had given him some work. He need to submit a report about what he had done and learned during his internship.
Delilah nodded and told him to ask her for help if he needs one.
Deegan said thank you to Delilah, appreciating her kindness.
After the tour was done, they went back to their floor, where Delilah told him to relax for a couple of days. She did not want to overwhelm him by giving him some work immediately.
She wanted him to be comfortable first before giving him his first task.
Hence, he began to do his own thing, where he read some articles over the Internet. Delilah was pleased that he did not take the advantage of the free time to watch some YouTube videos or play some games during office hours. Not that Delilah mind, anyway. She did all that too, but let's not tell Aubree and Howard about it, alright?
It was finally time for lunch. Most of the people in the office have left for their lunch. Deegan said his goodbye to Delilah before going out for lunch as well.
Delilah was waiting at the lobby, looking at her watch every now and then, when she heard her name being called.
She looked up and saw Fawkes waving at her from his car. He was parking in front of the office, apparently waiting for Delilah.
Fawkes had been busy recently, with his training in Singapore. He was sent there a few weeks ago, where he was trained under Sheila. He had spent nearly a month in Singapore and had just returned back to the country yesterday. He had been craving for some Japanese ramen so he had invited Delilah for lunch. It was not that Singapore does not have ramen. But the foods there were expensive. Especially Japanese foods. So Fawkes had been enduring his craving for some time now.
Delilah quickly walked over to Fawkes' car and climbed in. He then drove them to his favourite Japanese restaurant.
Once they have arrived, Fawkes parked his car at the nearby parking lot and went inside the restaurant.
The interior of the restaurant was designed with a Japanese concept, where the walls were filled with Japanese calligraphies and paintings. There were some akachōchin, which was the red Japanese paper lanterns, hung at both sides of the entrance door. A tall andon lamp stood on side of the cashier counter in front.
A hostess welcomed them inside and led them to their table.
Both Delilah and Fawkes settled in their seats comfortably before looking at the menu.
Shortly after, a waitress came to their table and asked whether they were ready to order. Delilah answered yes and had ordered ramen for herself and Fawkes. Fawkes added a tuna temaki to his order.
Once they were done ordering, Fawkes began to shot her some questions.
"Hey, hey! I heard that you have a little intern with you!" Fawkes said, smirking.
Delilah nodded as she took a sip of her green tea. Earlier on, the waitress had placed two cups of green tea for them to enjoy, while waiting for their foods.
"How was him or her?" he pressed.
"It's a he. And he is fine. At least, for now. It's still his first day, anyway." Delilah shrugged.
The two of them continued to talk, with Fawkes mostly shooting Delilah with more questions. Especially questions of what had been going on while he was gone.
A few minutes later, their foods have arrived. Delilah could smell the strong pungent ramen odor from her seat. Once the waitress had placed their ramens in front of them, Delilah took a moment to gaze at her ramen and grabbed some chopsticks and soup spoon.
She scooped up the broth of the ramen and took a slurp. The broth tasted rich and thick. Since she had ordered a chicken ramen, the flavour of chicken was very strong and it has a milky consistency, which made it a hearty broth. As she slurped, there was a glistening shine on her lips, making her look as if she had worn a lip gloss.
After tasting the broth, she used her chopsticks to eat the noodles. The noodles used were freshly made, which made it more DEE-licious. The noodles clinged to each other as she used her chopsticks to lift them up. As she slurped on the noodles, it brought along the broth with it, delivering an ample chicken flavor with each slurp.
The two of them ate their ramen in silence both too engrossed and hungry. It was until Fawkes' temaki had arrived that Fawkes broke the silence.
"Deng! This is so good," he exclaimed. "I totally miss eating this!"
Delilah laughed. "Poor you," she teased.
Fawkes gave her a mock glare. "Just you wait. Karma will be coming for you in a form of an intern."
Delilah scoffed. "Yeah, whatever."
Fawkes narrowed his eyes at her, frowning.
Delilah frowned back and pointed at his ramen with her finger. "If you're done talking, go finish your food. It's better to eat than you yapping about."
Fawkes pouted and continued eating.
Little did Delilah know that Fawkes' words will come true sooner or later.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
TheTalkingCupcake
TheTalkingCupcake I've never made any ramen... unless you count Instant Ramen noodles. But seriously, I love ramen. I mean, I do say I love this and that but yeah, still. Ramen is one of the perfect foods to eat when you want to keep warm.
Anyway, so, here is the recipe for chicken ramen.
https://www.theflavorbender.com/easy-homemade-chicken-ramen/
Don't forget to leave a review if you haven't done one. Would love to read your feedbacks and thoughts about this.
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