Suddenly, I Am Rich

For the whole day, Gray spent most of his time going and looking through numerous business proposals. It was so bad that even if he stopped looking at them, all he could think of, in his mind, were terms and numbers.

"I am so fucked up," Gray whispered in the air. His face was gloomy, and his head slumped on the desk.

He was really fucked up.

Gray had been sitting on his chair for the past 6 hours. He barely stood up, and when he did, it was just because he wanted to go to the bathroom.

He thought he would be able to finish everything by today. But, oh boy, he was so wrong.

What lay out in front of Gray's eyes as he turned his head to the side was stacks of folders and papers.

He barely made a dent, even if he had read a whole lot of them already.

After a few seconds of silence, Gray let out a long and exhausted sigh.

His eyes were bloodshot. His back ached from hunching over for so long. And his brain… God, his brain felt like it had been wrung out like a towel.

He turned slightly in his chair, glancing at the wall clock.

3:13 p.m.

Without anything to do, he reached for his cold coffee. He took a sip but regretted it immediately. It was bitter and just disgusting. That was when he remembered that the coffee had been made hours ago.

'I guess, I really need an assistant now.' Gray muttered in the air.

In the past, he could do everything by himself because there was not that much work. But now, there

"Well, I still have ten days," Gray muttered.

After a while, he tilted his head back against the chair and stared up at the ceiling. It was as if divine intervention might come from the ceiling if he continued to stare at it for so long.

"This is insane," he muttered. "How the hell do people do this every day?"

He was now starting to understand why some CEOs aged like milk.

Between logistics planning, supply chain strategies, expansion proposals, partnership offers, and everything in between, he was already swimming in more variables than he could process.

And it wasn't even about choosing the best idea anymore.

It was about figuring out which ones wouldn't kill him later.

That was the terrifying part.

Because some of the proposals were too good.

The kind of perfect that made his gut squirm and made him think so hard. He thought that either these people were geniuses… or they were hiding something.

And for Gray, he hated that feeling.

Gray sat still in his chair, eyes blank as they stayed fixed on the ceiling. He wasn't really looking at anything anymore.

"I remember a few names…" His eyes narrowed slightly as names began to float back into his head.

He had a few friends from the past. They were the kind of friends who knew him before any of this ever happened. Back when he was still broke. Back when he was still struggling.

Back when he was still trying to figure out what kind of life he wanted.

There were a few names that came to his mind.

People he hadn't spoken to in a while.

People he used to trust.

He also wanted to give them opportunities.

However, some part of him hesitated just thinking about it.

"Will it be worth it?" Still, the names kept coming.

"Nico…" Gray muttered under his breath, eyes still stuck on the ceiling.

That was the first name that came back to him.

Nico has been his long-time friend since his university days. The guy wasn't flashy. He didn't even talk much unless you asked him something directly. But he was dependable.

Gray closed his eyes.

But did Nico have any experience with business? With managing people? With operations on a larger scale?

He didn't know.

Still… the thought of seeing him again was nice.

Then another name came to his mind.

"Mara."

Gray sat up a bit, his neck a little stiff from leaning back too long. He rubbed his temples slowly.

Mara was impossible to forget.

She had been his best friend back in high school. The girl was a constant presence in a part of his life. When everything else had felt like it was falling apart, Mara was the one person who never seemed to leave him.

She wasn't loud or dramatic, but she was sharp. Too sharp, sometimes. Gray remembered her blunt one-liners during math class, the way she'd pass him notes with sarcastic doodles, and how she always seemed to know when he was pretending to be fine.

They still talked, every now and then.

It wasn't frequent, but they would message each other every few months. They would have late-night voice note when one of them remembered something funny from the past.

That was just how their friendship worked. It was quiet, low-maintenance, and yet weirdly reliable.

The last time he checked, she was still in university. She had stayed in the city, taking up a business degree from a local state school. It hadn't surprised him. Even back then, Mara was the type who carried a planner and color-coded her notes.

She talked about case studies and hypothetical startups the way other girls talked about boys. She always said she wanted to build something on her own one day.

"Still grinding, huh?" Gray muttered under his breath.

He blinked slowly, his lips pressed into a faint line. Compared to the other names swimming through his head, Mara felt familiar the most.

He knew her roots. He knew she wouldn't bullshit him just to get a foot in the door.

And maybe that was why he hesitated too.

He didn't want to drag her into this mess unless he was sure it was worth it. The last thing he wanted was to ruin her dreams..

Gray leaned forward again, elbows resting on his desk. He reached for one of the folders at random. But even as he flipped it open, his thoughts stayed stuck on her name.

"Should I message her?"