Chapter 152: There’s plan B

"What a way to start the morning..." Tom’s nose scrunched in irritation.

He glared back at the soaked singlets and boxers as if they were to be blamed for the mess and for a second, he could only glare, not knowing what to do exactly.

He looked back at the other men, they looked far too composed, no shock, no confusion and that made it worse.

Before he could say anything, one of the men, Nat reached out and pressed the button on the wall.

Tom wondered what that was for. He didn’t have to wonder longer though, because a moment later, the wardrobe manager walked in.

The wardrobe manager, Sophie, was a young woman in her late twenties, with fine shape that she carried in a firm walk. Her eyes went around the cubicle, then dropped to the stained clothes and the mess on Tom’s hands.

"What is going on here?" she asked.

Nat tipped his head toward Tom. "The new recruit is making a mess of his training kit."

Sophie’s face changed at once. She stepped closer, saw the full damage, and gasped. "This is really bad." Her eyes snapped up to Tom. "Do you realize what you just did?"

Tom opened his mouth.

She did not give him room to talk at all. Her frown deepened. "How can you be this careless? What were you even doing with soy sauce in here in the first place? Soy sauce of all things?"

From the side, the other men muttered just loud enough to be heard.

"Maybe the new guy just loves food too much."

"Hear the saying; the right person for the right place?"

"He shouldn’t be here."

They exchanged small looks of satisfaction, then walked out of the changing room together. They were already dressed for the training so their work in the cubicle was done.

Tom exhaled slowly.

Sophie turned on him fully now that the others were gone. "Why are you not talking?" she snapped. "Standing there will not clean this up. Do you know what ruined training kits mean on record?"

Her voice was sharp, public even in the empty changing room, and full of the assumption that he was the problem. In her eyes, he was already the careless new recruit who had spilled sauce over company property on his first official training day.

Tom decided quickly. He had Charm and Lust to use on her... He activated both and looked straight at her.

The shift did not slam into Sophie all at once. It touched her first in the middle of her anger. Her next breath came a little less smoothly. The words she had been ready to throw lost a fraction of their edge before she even understood why.

Tom’s voice came out lower, steadier, nothing like a man scrambling to defend himself.

"I was wondering what your voice sounded like when you weren’t shouting."

Sophie blinked.

The line landed in the exact place her anger had been occupying. For a second she only stared at him, caught between the scolding she still thought she should give and the sudden awareness of how close he was standing, how calmly he was looking at her, and how differently his voice sat in the air.

Her throat moved.

"A-are you saying I have a sweet voice?" she asked, softer than before.

Tom nodded once. "Yeah, and i’m also saying I want to know what you can do to help this messy situation."

Color rose into Sophie’s face. The stern wardrobe-manager posture did not disappear completely, but it weakened. Her eyes flicked down to the ruined kit, then back up to his face, and the heat in her expression was no longer only annoyance.

"What happened to your training kit is a mess indeed," she said, and this time the words came out less like an accusation and more like a problem she was already getting pulled into.

"I have no idea how it happened," Tom replied gently. "So how can you help?"

Sophie hesitated. The practical part of her still tried to surface. "You won’t be able to train because of that, there’s a rule."

Tom held her eyes. "I know. That’s why I need you to help me." His voice remained quiet, controlled,. I’ll compensate you greatly if you do."

That made her blink again. "Compensate me with what?" she asked.

"Whatever you want." he replied gently.

Sophie’s lips parted. "Whatever?"

Tom nodded. "You know, I can’t be seen as incompetent or irresponsible on my first day of official training."

The last of her hard resistance slipped. Whether it was the charm, the lust, the way he looked at her, or all of it together, Sophie’s decision formed on her face before she fully dressed it in words. She nodded, a little too quickly.

"I’ll say I was the one who spilled the soy sauce," she said. "I’ll take responsibility for it." She reached for the ruined kit with both hands. "Give me a moment."

Tom watched her gather the stained clothes. "Thanks."

Sophie did not answer. Her ears were still faintly red as she turned and hurried out of the changing room with the ruined set in her arms.

~~~~~~~~~~

A short while later, Sophie was standing under the sharp voice of the resource officer in charge of model affairs and training kits.

The man did not hold back. He called the spill unprofessional, careless, and below the standard expected from wardrobe staff. Sophie took the scolding with her head slightly lowered, still holding to the story that the fault was hers. In the end, the man said she would be punished later for the mistake, then approved a replacement kit.

That was enough.

Tom received the new set, changed quickly, and walked out toward the runway area.

Nat and the other three were already there. The moment they saw him step out clean, dressed, and ready, their expressions broke into angry disbelief. They had left him with ruined clothes and a wardrobe manager ready to blame him. They had not expected him to reappear as if the sabotage had failed completely.

In L×L, mishandling a training kit on purpose could stain more than material. It could affect a contract. That was why the framing had mattered. And that was why Tom standing there in a fresh kit felt like a direct slap.

Nat’s eyes darkened. He glanced at the other three and gave a short nod.

"Plan B," he muttered.

The four of them already had a mission for the day. Tom was not supposed to participate in the runway.

And they would ensure that... By all means.