After practice, Alexander went to his company, ready for a boardroom meeting and a stack of paperwork. Suddenly, his ring reacted violently. He took it off, wincing as the crystal changed to a pink hue. At that moment, Heather appeared in his office.

“Hey, Alex! You busy?” she asked.

“Ah… kinda. What’s up?”

“Well… I was wondering if I could have a part-time job at your company.”

“And what could the famous actress Heather want to do here?” Alexander teased.

“I don’t know. We didn’t get a chance to talk earlier,” she admitted.

“You could work with Rachel and the other new girls in our group,” Alexander said, realizing too late what he’d implied. He noticed Heather’s sharp gaze toward Rachel—he knew his old high-school friend could be possessive. “Or… you could hang out with Evelyn. Pretty sure she missed you.”

“Yeah, I should probably check on her,” Heather said, leaving to find Evelyn. Once she was gone, Alexander muttered to himself, Could it be…?

A few days later, Emily offered Rachel and Cassandra a chance to gain work experience at Evelyn’s father’s company. The company provided free internships for students. Rachel eagerly agreed—it could help her writing and portfolio, despite her already busy schedule with comics and book deadlines. Cassandra hesitated but eventually joined.

At a desk, Rachel began entering data. Alexander passed by.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Trying something new, while Emily and Cassandra handle other tasks,” she replied.

“Well… in that case,” Alexander smirked, handing her a pile of paperwork, “you can also enter this data. And no saying no—I’m CEO and co-partner with Uncle Michael’s company.”

Rachel glared but didn’t argue. After finishing the data entry, she doodled and practiced graphic design for fun—a way to add to her portfolio and potentially get freelance work.

“Hey, Rachel, want to try that new restaurant nearby?” Cassandra asked.

“Ah! Sure! But… I’d rather leave my iPad here. I don’t want to carry all my stuff around,” Rachel replied.

“No worries. Nothing will be stolen; there are cameras,” Emily assured her. The girls left for lunch.

While walking by, Michael Bennett saw Rachel’s iPad. Curious, he picked it up and looked through her sessions and doodles.

“What’s something from the design department doing here?” he asked.

“Oh, that’s Rachel’s. She’s helping with mock clients for her portfolio as a freelancer,” Victor explained.

“How do you know that?” Alexander asked.

“Well, we’ve shared interests and talk about things—unlike you, who tends to get on each other’s nerves,” Victor said defensively. “She’s managing her writing, comics, digital projects, and freelancing—while also handling her magic,” Alexander thought. “She even helped me with graphics for the company a while ago.”

“I want to meet this ‘Rachel’ you speak so highly of, Victor,” Michael ordered.

Before Rachel knew it, she was in a boardroom with Evelyn, Alexander, Victor, Michael Bennett, and his right-hand man—the head of the design department.

“Am I in trouble?” Rachel asked nervously.

“No, no,” Michael said. “I don’t have the energy to deal with Brad if you did something without his approval. I want to know more about the branding work you did.”

“O-oh… I was just exploring the graphic design world on my own. My background is in fashion design, which doesn’t really guide me online. So I was exploring how graphic design works—it’s a bit closer to comic design in some ways,” Rachel said nervously. The head of design frowned.

“Ok… I was expecting a professional designer, but she isn’t even formally trained. Did she even know what she was doing?” he muttered.

“Seriously? You’re focusing on a degree? She has skills—and she’s developing them!” Victor defended her.

“Victor’s right. In design, portfolios matter more than degrees,” Alexander added.

“I know you two are bosses, but my colleague has a point. Without a degree, how can we be sure she knows what she’s doing? She’s still young,” the design head argued.

“Alright, I’ve heard enough,” Michael said, silencing everyone.

“It’s okay… it was just some random doodling anyway,” Rachel said, unaware that the Creation Crystal was reacting to her negative emotions. A strange pink haze began spreading through the building, and screams echoed.

“Rachel! What is this?!” Alexander shouted just before everyone collapsed to the floor.