Tell Me Again, My Love

"I"m on the way home. Why?" Mika asked. She chewed her lower lip nervously. She was actually lying to Jeremy. She was on the way to Ella"s house with Jason. They finally managed to trace the person who started the rumour. Jason had a deal with the culprit and now they were going to face Ella to settle this thing once and for all.

"Go to Ryn"s Instagram account and unfollow that boy," Jeremy ordered.

"What? Excuse me?" Mika was stunned by the sudden order and she swore Jeremy"s voice was dripping with jealousy. Why was her brother jealous again?

"Go to Ryn"s Instagram account using her pa.s.sword and I want you to unfollow that Harry Si. I don"t want to see Ryn following that boy. I don"t want her to get near that boy," Jeremy muttered full of anger.

"Big brother," Mika sighed heavily, "You do remember Harry is her senior in university and her junior in modelling agency? They even share the same manager, Mei Li."

"I don"t care."

"She"s not making you wearing a green hat. There was nothing between those two," Mika tried to explain to her bull-headed brother but Jeremy refused to listen.

"I don"t care."

"What if Ryn asks?" Mika asked with a heavy sigh. She knew she could not change Jeremy"s mind. But, on the other hand, she did not want to create a problem for herself when Ryn realized what she did (unfollow Harry). She was stuck in the middle of these two stubborn people and she was sick of having to choose. Of course, if someone asked her who she would choose, she would not use too much time, in fact, no time at all, and quickly chose Ryn. No question asked.

"Just tell her anything but don"t mention my name," of course Jeremy did not want Ryn to know and blame him. He should look innocent in her eyes.

"Big brother! Stupid brother!" Mika cried unhappily. She knew he would not take responsibility if anything happened.

"Do it," he ordered, ignoring her cry.

"I won"t. You should ask Ryn with it first," Mika replied stubbornly.

"Mika Long," he called her name rather slowly, full of warning.

"I… I will tell grandma you"re bullying me," Mika cried and quickly ended the call. She refused to be warned by Jeremy.

Jeremy narrowed his eyes at the phone. He could not believe his own little sister would go against him.

"Hey, stop growling at the phone. They"re almost done," Greg tapped Jeremy"s shoulder, trying to pull him back to the office.

Jeremy glared but was replied with a chuckle and a shake of Greg"s head.

"Put on your artist mask, J. We"re not alone," Greg reminded.

Jeremy closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. When he opened back his eyes, he was already in his "artist" persona; a very friendly and happy-go-lucky man. An innocent man. The image Jeremy carried when he first started as an artist.

But he failed to hide his charismatic leader vibe from his body. For two years he had been working hard building his company with Mika without any help from their family, he was so used with being a boss and a leader.

Greg twitched his lips in amused but he did not say a word. Jeremy did it unconsciously so it was not his fault.

Jeremy and Greg returned back to the table where the others were. Jeremy took back his seat with Greg sitting beside him. The boss was talking with the others seriously. He was trying not to look frustrated but of course, he was still unwilling to do this. Jeremy was such a good musician. A talented songwriter and lyricist too.

It was such a waste to lose him.

"Well, is my calculation corrected?" Greg asked with a smile.

The financial manager and his a.s.sistant looked at the boss while the attorney was busy checking the doc.u.ment Greg brought, just in case.

"Yes," the boss replied weakly.

Jeremy smiled. He pulled the doc.u.ment and put down his signature. He made sure those he needed to sign were signed, including their copy. He did not want anything came out afterwards.

The boss did not put his signature that easily. He kept pulling the tie from "straggling" his neck. He also sipped his coffee.

Other looked at him, waiting for his next move.

"Sir?" Jeremy asked.

With a heavy sigh, the boss reached his phone in the pocket of his coat and put down his signature on every single s.p.a.ce with his name. He was supposed to hand the doc.u.ment to his attorney but he kept it tight. He refused to make it into reality even though theoretically Jeremy was no longer an artist in his company.

"Sir?" his attorney reminded him about the doc.u.ment.

The boss looked at Jeremy who was giving him a warm smile. With a heavy sigh, he pushed the doc.u.ment to his lawyer. He tapped his fingers on the wooden table unhappily. He did not like this at all.

Greg nodded at Jeremy after he checked the doc.u.ments. Everything was complete.

"Thank you, sir, for everything. I will still complete all the commitments I have promised, so don"t worry," Jeremy said as he offered his hand for a shake with the boss.

The boss shook Jeremy"s hand. Then, he watched as his ex-artist and the lawyer shook hand with the others before they left the office.

"Are you alright?" Greg asked Jeremy as they headed toward the elevator.

"Hmm… I feel free now," Jeremy replied. He put on his sungla.s.ses even though they were still in the building.

"Jeremy, wait up," his manager came running just before they reached the elevator.

"Hey," Jeremy greeted casually.

"I heard… I heard you came here to dissolve the contract."

"Hmm…"

"Was it because of me? You didn"t like my arrangement? Was I treating you unfairly? Why did you want to cancel the contract?"

Jeremy sighed and pulled his manager, Eric, to an empty room to discuss. He did not want others to know. He preferred to have as little people to know as possible. Just the boss, the attorney, the financial manager and the manager from the company. Until he announced it after the concert, he wanted to keep this quiet first.

Greg did not follow them into the room. He just waited outside the room, leaning his back against the wall cheerfully. He took out his phone and checked his media social.

"Tell me the truth. Was it me? You don"t like the way I manage you?" his manager asked.

"No, Eric. It"s not you," Jeremy said firmly.

He felt sorry seeing his manager looking so fl.u.s.tered but he knew he could not wait until Jennifer"s next plan to ruin Ryn and him. And he did not want to feel guilty for making the company choosing between the two of them. Besides, when he was no longer in the same company as Jennifer, it was easier for him to take action. Of course, the one that made him more determined to break from the company when he was called by the company after the lawsuit against Jennifer. He could not believe they tried to force him to retrieve the lawsuit. Of course, he did not comply. He used his ident.i.ty as a Long, not as Jeremy, the artist, and the company could not do anything about it. But that experience really taught him how the company would react if he took another action against Jennifer.

"Was it because I ask you to work with Jennifer? Not to take any action against her again?" his now ex-manager asked sadly.

Jeremy just smiled grimly, refused to answer. He did not agree nor disagree with him.

But it was enough for the other man to understand. He gripped his fists as he looked down on the floor to control his emotion. In short, he and the company pushed Jeremy to take this drastic action.

He regretted it. He should not make the phone call that day. When Jeremy refused to obey the company"s "order" that first time, they should just realize that they could not control Jeremy. He was not an innocent and naïve young man just like when he first signed as an artist. When he signed the contract for the second time, due to the comeback, he saw there was a lot of different layers in Jeremy. He even brought his own lawyer to carefully read the contract. There were a few times they had to rewrite the contract to Jeremy"s satisfaction so when Jeremy finally signed the contract, they had a huge welcome party for him and the others.

The car was already waiting at the entrance when both Jeremy and Greg reached the ground floor. Of course, Jeremy was stopped several times by those who recognized him. He even spent fifteen minutes with his ex-manager.

Once Jeremy sat in the car, he took off his sungla.s.ses and let out a heavy sigh. He felt so tired just for breaking the contract. And he was so optimistic the day before that he could finish this whole thing in half an hour but ended up spending more than two hours in the building.