Empire of Vendetta

Important lessons from the IT genius

For some reason, Summer was well aware of Lilith's predicament the moment she walked inside her apartment that night. 

"Why are you home so early?" Summer asked her with narrowed eyes. She looked almost flabbergasted at seeing Lilith home. 

"My shift at the firm ended so I was told to go home." 

Summer literally face palmed herself upon hearing that. She looked towards Lilith one more time and then groaned before she all but ran towards her and pushed her on to the sofa. 

"Have you ever had friends before?" she asked with a frown on her face and crossed arms. 

Had she had friends? Lilith thought about it for a second. She couldn't say she had friends since the only contact she had in her phone was Summer's, however, she also couldn't say she was a total loner. She was Fen Luo's only female student so she was very popular amongst the boys. It wasn't like she needed much from others, but whenever she did, the boys helped her without a second thought. In fact, she was very close to her senior brother Alan. They even stayed back to talk after their lessons sometimes. But despite that, Lilith had a feeling that her definition of "friend" was different to Lilith's. 

"I'm going to assume your silence is a no," Summer said with a sigh. "Ok, well I may not have been the most popular person at school, but I have exceptional EQ and I'm a total human person. So you're in good hands!" 

For some reason, Lilith had a feeling that things were going to go very wrong if she actually listened to Summer's advice but she decided to humour the hyperactive girl anyway.

"Perfect," she sarcastically mumbled, although Summer seemed to have completely missed the sarcasm. She grinned before she got into full professor mode. 

"Now tell me," she began, "how many times a week do you see Valerio?" 

"Five..."

"From nine to five only, correct?" 

Lilith nodded once again.

"Where do you eat lunch?" 

It had just occurred to Lilith that she did not have lunch that day. In fact, neither did Valerio. To Lilith, it was fine since she could go days without lunch but she was sure that normal people eat multiple times a day. Lunch was even considered one of the more important meals of the day. 

"In the cafeteria with the rest of staff," she assumed out loud. Since it was her first day, she was not sure what lunch breaks were like but she assumed everyone besides those that had their own offices had lunch in the cafeteria on the lowest level of the firm. 

"Not with Valerio, correct?"

"Why would I eat lunch with the boss?" 

Summer rolled her eyes before she said, "So you see Valerio from nine to five on work days only and you don't have any private time with him that does not involve working. Correct?"

Lilith rolled her eyes but did not answer. Summer already knew the answer to that question so there was no point in answering. 

"So when and how exactly are you planning to succeed in this mission?" 

Once again, Lilith did not answer. Only this time it was because Lilith herself did not know how to answer. 

"I thought so," Summer said, with a proud look on her face. "So let me tell you how you'll do it." 

Lilith pressed her lips together and leaned back on the sofa. She had a feeling this was going to take a while. 

"Since you don't talk and since Valerio most probably isn't the talkative type, our best option is to change you." 

"Change me?" Lilith scoffed. "I'm already a completely new person."

"Yes, but you are a completely new person in theory only. We need to turn your personality into Lilith Winters. You may know everything about her but you're not her until you start to mimic her actions."

"I bought coffee for everyone this morning," Lilith defended herself. 

"Because I told you to. And that's the thing, you need to start doing things on your own accord. You need to behave like the naive, sweet and extraverted Lilith. Buying coffee for your colleagues should be something you think to do yourself." 

Lilith wanted to argue with Summer, but she gave her no room to do so. 

"Look, either you listen to me or this entire mission goes to s**t. Your choice," she said, with a smug look on her face. Lilith wanted to slap the look off but she remembered that the girl was on her team so she swallowed down her pride and agreed.

"Fine, what do I have to do?" 

Summer squealed before she jumped on the seat beside Lilith and turned the television on. A powerpoint began to play, making Lilith realise that Summer had this all planned out all along. 

She turned to Summer with a raised brow, making her shrug in response. 

"What? I knew you wouldn't be able to survive this mission on your own so I prepared the whole day."

"Nerd move," Lilith muttered under her breath causing Summer to roll her eyes in response. 

"So," she said before she turned her face back to the screen. "Believe it or not, sweet does not mean submissive. Your character is a sweet and naive girl who is also very confident in her skills. If someone says s**t to you, you can say s**t right back at them." 

There was finally something Lilith liked about her character. 

"You listen to the rules and do your work, but you're also down to Earth and friendly. People don't hate you no matter how much of a buzz kill you can be."

"My character isn't a buzz kill..."

"Anyone who rejects offers to party because they have too much work to do is a buzz kill according to society's rules," Summer quickly responded, before she continued on with her lesson. "Buying coffee for all of your colleagues is sweet, helping your colleagues out with their work is sweet, smiling at others is sweet. But all of these have exceptions."

"Exceptions? Like what?"

"Buying coffee for your colleagues daily is expensive and if done all the time, turns into an expectation. It's best to save those for special days only. For example, a birthday, an achievement or your first day of work. Similar concept with helping them out with their work. If you do it consistently, they may either think that you think they don't know how to do their work, or it may turn into an expectation. Only do it when they look like they're actually struggling and need help."

"Smiling at others?"

"That has no exception. Smiling at others is always a mood booster," Summer said before she remembered something. "Unless the person just got in trouble. If someone just got fired or told off by someone in a higher position, don't smile at them. They'll think you're mocking them."

"Noted," Lilith said, really noting all that. Had it been her, she really would have smiled since she would have assumed that would have boosted their mood. 

"Sometimes sweet actions may not always be considered sweet to others, by the way."

"What do you mean?"

"Say for example, you made lunch for a particular colleague that you are close friends with daily. That would be sweet right?"

"I... think so...?"

"It would be. You're close friends so there's nothing weird about that."

"So why would it not be a sweet action for everyone?"

"Now, let's say that that friend of yours has a jealous partner who does not like that you're making lunch every day for your friend. Your friend is now feeling pressured from home to tell you to stop but they may also feel too guilty to say something like that to you because you're doing it out of nice intentions. In this case, this is effecting your friend's relationship. So you need to know boundaries." 

"But why would she feel jealous if I'm doing it out of good intentions?" Lilith asked, feeling confused. It wasn't as if she was trying to take her partner away, she was just making lunch for him while she made her own. She couldn't understand the rationale behind feeling jealous over something that small.

"Everyone has different personalities. They may simply be a jealous human. Anything is possible." 

Lilith opened her mouth to respond but Summer continued to speak, making her shut her mouth closed once again. 

"As for naive, act ignorant but only if the situation permits. For example, if drama starts in the office and you're asked to give your recount on everything that happened, what do you do?"

"Give my recount."

"Wrong!" Summer pressed a button on her phone and a buzzer sound played. "You act ignorant. You pretend you do not know anything. If you get involved, you'll be forced to take sides and if you take sides, you'll never have everyone's favour. No matter what happens, you did not see or hear anything. Understood?" 

Lilith nodded. She was good at keeping her mouth shut so that didn't seem like an issue for her at all. 

"You always need to know when to speak and when to keep your mouth shut." 

"Noted."

"And don't ever get mixed up between naiveness and ignorance. Acting naive can give you many enemies. It's just something a lot of people find annoying. But if you use it to your advantage, it also will make everyone want to protect you. Being naive means lack of experience. Being ignorant means having no knowledge. Don't get confused and act dumb all the time, capisce?" 

Lilith nodded once again. It seemed all she could do was nod. The final slide finally showed up on screen making Lilith sigh in relief. 

"Finally," Summer began, "Lilith Winters is confident but confidence can either make or break you. If you act too confident, you may seem cocky. People will talk behind your back and no one would want to be close to you. However, when you play your cards right, people will trust you and the work you do. It'll bring you closer to your colleagues. So don't act like you know everything. Just do your work well and bring in the results. Now, what were the golden rules you need to abide by?"

"Golden rules?" Lilith had no idea what she was talking about.

"Yes, I gave you important rules at the end of each lesson. What were they?"

Lilith raked her brain until she finally remembered what they were.

"Oh right," she said before she began to list them all. "Know boundaries, know when to speak and don't act cocky."

"Perfect!" Summer grinned. 

"Thanks for the lesson," Lilith said in a monotone voice, "may I leave now?"

"What? Of course not! We just started!" Summer said, looking appalled that Lilith had even thought of such a thing. "We still have a load of videos to watch. You need to mimic everything you see from these girls."

Lilith groaned as a random, smiling girl popped up on screen. 

If only she had ignored Summer, this would not have been happening to her. 

"Well f**k," she sighed as Summer pressed the play button. 

"Lilith Winters does not swear!" Summer reprimanded her. 

It was going to be a very long night for Lilith and she was dreading every second of it.