Chapter 4

The concept of working nine-to-five didn't exist in the financial industry.

Dean had worked overtime until the wee hours of the morning that day, but he was still expected back at work at 8:30 am the same day to attend a meeting. Of course, Sylvia, Kelvin, and Jared were also expected to be on time for the same meeting too.

When Kelvin got home after midnight, his wife started nagging at him, telling him about some event at the preschool that required both parents to attend. But when Kelvin heard the preschool's name, he thought of Corbyn at once, and it only made him feel even more exasperated than ever.

Kelvin relied on looking down on other people to feed into his own ego, and Corbyn was supposed to be the source of it. However, Kelvin couldn't see him that way now and instead had to treat Corbyn with utmost respect. This made Kelvin feel deeply dissatisfied with it.

To add to that, Kelvin also felt deeply dissatisfied with Dean.

However, upon closer inspection, Kelvin wasn't angry at Dean because he hated Corbyn. Rather, he hated Dean first, which made him also angry at Corbyn for whatever reason.

Kelvin was often stressed out at work. One of his ways of destressing was to look down on other people and turn his nose up at them. This gave him a false sense of accomplishment.

When Dean first joined the company, Kelvin had showed him the ropes. But now, Dean had excelled in his job and even done much better than Kelvin. It made Kelvin feel angry and dissatisfied with the situation.

However, Dean was indeed very good at his job, so Kelvin could only continue pretending to keep the peace between them so they could still stay friends.

It was hard for Kelvin to find any sense of satisfaction from Dean. After all, Dean was close to perfect in everything he did.

Finally, after waiting for so long, Kelvin finally managed to grab hold of Dean's "weakness" and find some sense of satisfaction from it—which was when he learned that Dean was gay.

Moreover, Dean's boyfriend didn't seem like anyone particularly outstanding. Kelvin found solace in the fact that he had a beautiful wife and a healthy son at home. At the very least, Kelvin thought he'd finally managed to one-up Dean in this aspect.

That was the whole reason Kelvin had acted like such a prude when he first met Corbyn. He thought he was finally better than Dean at something, and he'd let that get to his head.

He probably wasn't even aware of his twisted thoughts and emotions. At most, Kelvin would just think that his emotions often surfaced like that simply because he didn't like the other party.

Kelvin joined the meeting in the morning with Jared, Sylvia, and Dean, as usual. Although he often thought he was better than anyone else in the company, he still maintained a friendly facade with the trio.

After all, Jared and Dean were both the top "data maniacs" at the company who excelled in data analysis and modeling. If Kelvin stuck with them, then some of their shine would undoubtedly rub off on him too.

Meanwhile, Sylvia was unanimously known as the prettiest woman at the company who had a close working relationship with Jared and Dean. So, it did Kelvin no harm for him to continue hanging out with her.

Dean slept a little too late last night and woke up later than usual. So, he hadn't managed to properly iron his clothes, and there were a number of creases on the bottom of his otherwise crisp white shirt.

Kelvin noticed the creases and pointed them out at once. After all, Dean had always been impeccable, and today, he was finally showing some "weakness". Of course, he wouldn't openly criticize Dean like how he did toward Corbyn the other night.

"Your shirt is creased!" Then, he added in a joking manner, "Didn't Corey iron your clothes for you?"

Dean was confused. "Why should he iron my clothes for me?"

Kelvin was stunned. He didn't know how to respond. He'd naturally assumed that Corbyn was the "housewife" in their relationship, so he also assumed that Corbyn would be doing all the house chores for Dean.

Sylvia couldn't help smiling as she asked, "Dean, do you iron your clothes yourself?"

"I do," Dean replied. There wasn't anything wrong with him ironing his clothes himself. It was something like tying his own shoelaces. Wasn't it normal for him to do these things by himself?

Kelvin then hinted again, saying, "I meant that it should be quite romantic for a man to have someone iron the clothes for him at home. Don't you think so?"

"Is it so?" Dean thought about it for a while. Then, he decided that he should try ironing clothes for Corbyn for a change.

Dean put his thoughts into action as soon as he got home. He fetched an extremely creased-up white shirt from the walk-in wardrobe and started ironing.

However, what Dean didn't know was that the shirt he'd just picked was made from pure mulberry silk. So, as soon as he tried ironing the shirt as usual, the expensive white shirt immediately burned and turned to yellow splotches.

Dean was very apologetic about it, but Corbyn was extraordinarily touched.

Corbyn even showed Paxton the ruined white shirt and gloated, saying, "Look! Deanie ironed my shirt for me!"

Paxton looked at Corbyn like he was looking at a lunatic. "You seem pretty happy about a ruined shirt that cost tens of thousands of dollars."

Corbyn replied, "It doesn't matter if the shirt cost me ten thousand or a hundred thousand dollars. Nothing compares to Dean actually ironing my shirt for me!"

Paxton was speechless. "A hundred thousand dollars? Corey, did you know that you could have just given that amount to any male escort from the club and they'd even iron your drapes and curtains for you?"

Pausing for a moment, Paxton then said, "A random shirt from your wardrobe costs tens of thousands of dollars. Your living standards are quite high. Are you sure Dean still thinks that you're a poor guy who can't afford rent?"

Corbyn couldn't help continuing to show off when he heard that. "Look at him just using a normal iron on whatever shirt he finds. Do you even think he can tell the difference between an expensive and a cheap shirt?"

Paxton hesitated. After a long while, he asked rather meaningfully, "I'm going to say something you probably won't like to hear. I'm not even talking about just your clothing, but your entire lifestyle as a whole. With how you live your life, it's obvious that you're from an extremely wealthy background.

"If he still can't tell that you're only pretending to be broke, then I'm guessing that he isn't paying as much attention to you as you think he is. He probably doesn't even care about how you live your life."

Corbyn had initially shown Paxton the yellowed shirt in excitement to gloat about Dean. But as soon as he'd heard Paxton's words, Corbyn felt like someone had just dumped a bucket of ice-cold water on his head. His mood immediately shifted, leaving him feeling empty.

When Corbyn got back, he realized something was amiss. It was Dean. Dean's hairstyle had changed.

People usually thought that Dean was someone who liked dressing up and taking care of his appearance. However, that couldn't have been further from the truth.

Dean was just handsome and charismatic, and that was more than enough. Anything and everything was fashionable as long as he was the one wearing it.

Back in his university days, Dean had kept his hair short and neat because it was the easiest hairstyle to maintain.

After entering the workforce, Dean kept his hair slightly longer to abide by the company's dress code. He would then slick his hair to the back, showing off his forehead, because this was also the least time-consuming hairstyle that was allowed.

However, today, Dean's hairstyle looked a little messier than usual, although it had actually taken a longer time to style than usual.

His hair was a little fluffier and more voluminous than usual. The ends also curled up quite nicely in a way that told Corbyn Dean's hair had been meticulously and professionally styled.

Corbyn took a closer look at Dean. He then noticed that Dean even had on a thin layer of makeup and his eyebrows had been trimmed to look neater. Dean now looked ten times more handsome than ever, and Corbyn found himself falling in love with him again as he worshiped his looks.

Nonetheless, he also couldn't help wondering if Dean starting to pay more attention to his looks was some sort of premonition that he was about to be cheated on.

Of course, Corbyn couldn't possibly ask Dean in such a straightforward manner. He just smiled and said, "You look different today."

Dean didn't beat around the bush, either. He answered matter-of-factly, "David told me to be the regular guest on a financial TV program. They were just trying out some styles on me."

David Rothbart was Dean's boss. Dean would usually accept all the jobs that David threw at him.

Corbyn was stunned for a while. "You're going to be on a TV program?"

"Yes," Dean said with a nod. "But I don't really want to go."

Dean wasn't interested in revealing himself to the public on a TV show. He would rather hole himself up with his research and calculations at the office.

However, many companies liked sending a few of their most popular employees to these shows to be small-scale celebrities on their own.

With these people as their company mascot, the companies wouldn't just get free publicity, but also be able to influence the market by controlling what these "celebrity fund managers" and "celebrity financial analysts" said on air.

Not to mention, it would bring about many benefits for the employee chosen to be the company mascot.

David had chosen Dean, who was still considered a newbie, to be the company mascot. This caused many people to be envious of him.

Of course, Kelvin was also one of them. He pretended to be concerned as he told David, "I don't think Dean's personality is suitable for the job."

It was the truth.

David nodded in agreement. He said, "You're right. Dean's personality isn't the most suitable for networking."

Kelvin was delighted, but he didn't let it show. He thought he was able to sway David's decision. However, David then said, "But Dean's very handsome."

"What?" Kelvin was taken aback.

David continued and said, "People as handsome as him don't need much networking skills anyway."

Seeing that Kelvin was still looking rather stupefied, David patted him on the shoulder and said, "Well, you probably won't ever understand it since you're not a good-looking person."

Kelvin felt like he'd just been delivered a huge blow to his ego. He thought he looked fine, so what did David mean by calling him not good-looking?

However, David was still his boss, so Kelvin couldn't do anything about it. He simply replied, "Oh, you're right, sir. You're so smart!"

David was indeed smart. His decision to make Dean the company mascot managed to gain a lot of attention for the company.

Dean only had to sit down in front of the camera, and fans were already starting to pour in. David had then pulled some strings to push the hashtag #mosthandsomefundmanager to the top of the trending list online.

When the people online clicked into the hashtag, they were immediately captivated by Dean's handsome looks. So, that was how Dean and the company found themselves to be an overnight sensation.

There were even some hilarious interactions between fans in the comments section.

April123 commented, "Is there a way I can appoint Dean to be my personal fund manager?"

Benny0 replied, "Mr. Hoffman doesn't fuck with anyone with less than two thousand grand."

April123 commented again, "Oh, so I'm the problem, not him."

Catherine90 commented, "If I change my username to 'twothousandgrand,' do you think Mr. Hoffman will fuck me then?"

Donkeypong then commented, "You've been reported."

…

Thanks to Dean's "celebrity" stint, the company's business had been booming.

David was very pleased with the outcome. He even mentioned in passing that he would be promoting Dean from Fund Manager to Investment Director by the end of the year.

Kelvin was even more jealous when he heard this. He made a heartless decision and posted anonymously online about Dean's homosexuality.

Although their society was less conservative than before, there were still a number of people who looked down on the gay community. Of course, when people learned that Dean was gay, it had caused a huge uproar from homophobes.

Kelvin was absolutely delighted. However, his delight didn't last long.

The reason was that most of the people online weren't as homophobic as he hoped. They didn't feel disgusted by the fact at all.

Meanwhile, the investors didn't seem to care about it. Their thinking was plain and simple. As long as Dean was excellent in trading, they couldn't care less about who he was rolling in the sheets with—a man, a woman, or even an alien—it was none of their business.

But if sleeping with an alien made Dean a better trader, then, by all means, they would be willing to buy him a UFO to make it happen!

However, that didn't mean there weren't any comments directly attacking Dean online. There were bound to be haters, after all.

Luckily, Dean had always been impervious to what other people had to say about him. It was just that he disliked going on the TV program because it was a form of unnecessary overtime work for him. So, he decided to use this opportunity to tell David he didn't want to go on the program anymore.

David had no choice but to agree. He then gave the spot to Sylvia.

Kelvin nearly had an aneurysm when he found out. How could David give the spot to a woman? Shouldn't it be his turn to go on TV?

He couldn't stop himself from questioning David's decision. "Why did you let Sylvia take over the spot?"

David just grinned and said, "Because Sylvia is a very pretty woman!"

Kelvin was rendered completely speechless. What was going on in his boss' head? Why did he only care about people's attractiveness instead of their knowledge?

The consecutive blows to Kelvin were starting to bring out the worst in him. He was going to get his revenge and vent out all of his frustration. But David was his rich and powerful boss, whom Kelvin dared not lash out at, and Dean was a robot whom Kelvin had no way of getting the better of.

He did some thinking and realized that the only person left was Corbyn. To him, Corbyn was nothing but a softie who could be easily taken advantage of. He then calculated his risks and made his decision.

After all, he figured that if he exposed Corbyn's homosexuality, many parents would most certainly not want a gay teacher to be teaching their kids…