The Underdog's Triumph

Chapter Two

“Good morning.”

This will be the sixth time Henry will be saying the same words to six different workers of the company. He get that is how it is going to be for him hence on, greeting the people He is supposed to be working with respectfully while they all reply to him with their noses as if they've got no mouth.

“It’s going to get better.”

He does the thing he do best, reassure himself that everything will be miraculously okay when he knows deep down within himself that they are just his wishful thinking.

He is broken out of his self-pity session when a beautiful-looking Black Mercedes car stops just outside the gate, honking impatiently for him to open the gate as if the car didn't just arrive about a second ago.

He doesn’t need the genius to tell him who that is, for some reason, he already know who exactly can own that kind of car in such a company.

He opens the gate hurriedly, running over to the side of the gate in order not to be crushed by the angry driver of the car, but he is stopped in his tracks when he feel a cold liquid right on his  back as if someone just dumped a bottle of water on me.

Instinctively, he look back to see what is going on only to see that his guess was right all along, the driver is holding a bottle of water that is now halfway empty, while giving him the most sinister expression he has ever seen on his face.

“This is why I hate employing morons out of pity. They just mess your day up.”

Mr. George says disgustedly as he drives off into the parking garage, while Henry on the other hand stands where he is, trying to decipher what just happened.

"Am I really that insignificant here? Is this what I signed up for? Is it a norm for him to bully anyone whenever he feels like it? Isn't the embarrassment he gave him yesterday enough?"

Many thoughts fill his mind as he try to fathom the level of wickedness of his employer, but he just comes up blank with confusion.

If you haven't already guessed, Mr. George is the CEO of ABI Conglomerate, and he was also the one who interviewed him yesterday, raining all sorts of insults on him. And seeing the kind of official environment he breeds, Henry is not surprised that all of his employees are just as rotten as him. None of them is moral enough to reply to his greetings since he got to the company. They just walk past him and give him the best dirty look they can muster.

“I am really regretting employing you right now! You are just an idiot.”

Mr. George says again after parking his car, shocking Henry the more with his level of commitment to bullying me. I mean, did he have to walk back to the gate post just because he wanted to rain insults on me when the parking lot was a lot closer to the elevator that would take him to his office?

"What now? Are you dumb? Can't you reply when someone is speaking to you? Do I look like someone you can ignore? I am feeding you, young man!"

Mr. George says again when he didn't get a reply from Henry earlier, I guess his ego is finally hurt a little. Just the thought that Henry finally did something that hurt his boss’ ego makes him feel like his day will not be as bad as he imagined it to be, although he don't know how he expected him to reply to his insults.

“Am I supposed to say ‘thank you for insulting me’?”

“I am sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to ignore you.” Henry finally reply when he feel his fierce eyeballs piercing a hole into his  skull.

“Why do I even bother with you? You are just a useless nobody.”

At this point, Henry has decided to block out his insults. He is not going to let a vulgar man's insult affect the way he think about himself. Obviously, he is just bitter, and he needs someone to take it out on. So rather than giving him a pained expression, he look at him with a bright smile he wasn't expecting as he give him the only reply he can.

“I am sorry, sir.”

“Whatever!” He says again, but as he turns to leave, he stops in his tracks and turns back to look at him with one of his famous sinister smiles.

“What now?”

“Just so you know, I am not only paying you to open this goddamn gate, you need to earn your pay. You are also in charge of picking up the garbage around and emptying the trash cans. Did I make myself clear?” He says with a wicked smirk.

“Why am I not shocked any longer?”

“I will keep that in mind, sir” Henry reply curtly.

"You better do. Your certificate is irrelevant here. As long as your assignment in this office is to close and open the gate, you will run errands for me and everyone in this building. And for your information, I will not hesitate to get rid of you if you fail in any of those duties. This is not just a gateman's work, there are other assignments attached to it. The former gateman's employment was terminated because he couldn't keep up with the work."

Mr. George gives him all the dos and don’ts of his little job in the office, while Henry does his best nod to every one of his words in order not to get on his bad side again.

“That is even if he has a good side to himself.”

“Oh, I hope you’re as lazy as the formal man in your position. And I hope you come late to work also. Getting rid of the likes of you always makes my day."

Mr. George says lastly as he finally walks away from him, while Henry is left to wonder why he employs ‘the likes of him’ in the first place if he hates their guts.

“You just need the likes of me to do your dirty jobs like opening the gate, right?”

He sigh frustrated as he slumps on the couch in the little office he is given at the gate post. He doesn’t want anything to ruin his day this early, although a part of his boss’ words resonates with him.

"I need to do something about my accommodation if I don't want to lose this job."

The place he lives in with David is so far away from the office, and he need to act fast on relocating before things go south for him because of it. He really can’t afford to lose his job.

And for some reason, he really want to see the depth of Mr. George's wickedness. He is beginning to interest him, and he is eager to see how far he can go with his wickedness, especially when they don't affect him any longer.

“Let’s see how far he can really go!”