Chapter 1
DAY 1
“Oh my God! Way to start a day” Thea mumbled as she wiped the dust off, of her now-ruined white pants.
One day in her life she decides to wear white for some godforsaken reasons, and that exact day universe decides for it to rain and a random car to speed past, splashing dirt on her pants.
Fantastic.
She takes her phone out from her pocket and types a quick message to Sora.
Thea: Where ru??
The reply was immediate.
Sora: Backgate, cming. Be there in 10 min.
Oh. Sora might reach before her. Their plan was to reach office at the same time, but unsurprisingly she was late.
And the random car guy was to blame.
As if she won’t be late anyway.
It has been almost 2 months and she still hadn’t adjusted to the chaotic weather here.
Fifteen minutes later, she stepped into the office and spotted Sora standing in the lobby and talking to Vex, her other friend. Her hands moved animatedly as she explained something to him and he was nodding at her with a curious expression.
“What’s going on?” Thea asked, approaching them.
Sora turned to her.
“Oh my god! You’re finally here. Lemme tell you what happened!”
“I guess she already knows” Vex turned to face Thea as well.
“What do I know?” Thea mumbled. They were definitely acting suspicious early in the morning.
“About Mikel from your team being detained” Sora said.
“Please” Thea was about to throw hands. “He wasn’t detained. He just got a warning for unknowingly helping his friend forge a document.”
“Oh”
“Oh” they both said in unison.
“But in my team, I heard everyone saying he is detained” Sora said lowering her voice further, as if she was scared that someone was eavesdropping on her.
“Why did he even help this friend?” Vex asked, his gaze shifting to Thea..
“Well, Rumours spread fast and easy” Thea answered looking at Sora and then turned to Vex. “As per your question, Mikel didn’t know that was a forged document until he got a warning. He thought they were working on a legitimate one. His friend was the real culprit”
“Ohh”
“Okay, that makes more sense,” Vex nodded just as his phone rang.
“I’m coming” he picked up the phone and answered, then glanced at Thea, Sora, nodded his head and walked away.
Thea turned to Sora.
“So, what’s up with you guys?”
“Nothing. I saw him when I came to lobby and was asking him if he heard this news” Sora adjusted the bag on her shoulders.
“Not about that”
“Then?” Thea don’t know if Sora didn’t understand or she genuinely doesn’t know.
“Never mind” Thea sighed, as they reached the lift area. “Anyways. I will explain it in lunch. We’re shifting the bay so I need to go and find my seat”
“Oh, is it today??”
“Yupp”
“Okay”
They entered the lift.
As the lift reached second floor, Thea gave a little hand wave to Sora and walked out. Sora’s in third floor.
Thea and Sora joined the company at the same time two months back. Ever since, they were inseparable. Not because they were close and instantly clicked off, but because they were no other options. Honestly.
There were few women on this campus, and Thea wasn’t exactly eager to make new friends at this stage in her life.
She really should put more effort into that, though.
Last week, thirty-three senior employees joined in their Accounts so they shifting to a larger workspace that can accommodate everyone. Their teams were also getting shuffled, which meant she’d likely meet new people today.
There were new faces everywhere as she scanned her ID and entered the bay. The environment was cheerful and every one were busy introducing each other.
No one bothered her, and she waved at Mill, Aran, Mikkel and few other colleagues she was familiar with.
“We got assigned seating” Mill said as he handed a sheet over to her. “Your number’s in there”
“Okay” Thea barely gave him a smile and started searching for her name and seat number.
“That’s the end of bay” Mill smiled at her. She met Mill last week, when they played carrom, but she feels like she knew him all long. Well, because it’s Mill- The extrovert.
“Thanks Mill” she handed the sheet back to him, smiled and went to find her seat. She thought they will sit in the seat of their choice. It doesn’t matter anyways because she knew no one around here to make her want to sit beside them. Any seat is the same.
There was a Y shaped layout at the end. With no partitions??
Seriously?
The setup could seat seven people: three along each arm of the Y with one person in the center—thankfully with a partition.
Her place was along one arm of Y in middle. It meant there’d be two people sitting on either side of her. Without partitions. Fortunately, there was a partition to her front.
“Okay” Thea mumbled to herself as she put her bag on the desk. It was spacious, same as before or even better. This works.
She was logging in her laptop when she heard shuffling and saw a guy pulling the chair beside hers.
God. No.
She looked at him and immediately recognized him.
Arin.
Excellent.
“Hi” The guy addressed her.
Tall. Wavy hair. Straight-face. No smile.
“Hi” she gave him an awkward smile.
He sat in his chair and opened his laptop.
The silence was deafening as she clicked the buttons on her laptop.
She knew Arin.
A total of twelve members joined the company on the day she joined and Arin was one of them. That was not the fact that made him stand out though.
Arin was usually everywhere.
They attended a 2-week mandatory training when they joined the company and Arin was there. She was later assigned to a testing project for a month. He was in that too.
Last week she attended a painting workshop in the office and he was there. And once she a quiz competition and he was there. Again, and again.
The thing was she never spoke to him. And they never acknowledged each other’s presence even when they were in the same space.
Arin had a straight face. Thea never saw him smile. He was cold, only spoke to few people and his only friends were Mill and Mikkel. He was un-approachable and intimidating on a certain level. And they haven’t had any opportunity to talk.
The most peculiar reason why Thea even knew him was, she felt as if Arin disliked her for some reason.
No, it was not just a hunch. She has her reasons.
Exactly one month later, after Thea and Sora joined the company, Sora went home. At that time, everyone was in the same project and same floor so her and Sora had a routine where they took two coffee breaks every day.
On that day, Sora was on leave and Thea was alone in pantry for a cup of coffee.
As she entered the pantry, it was crowded than usual. There are two pantries in her floor and this one served the better coffee. So, of course she was here.
She waved and smiled at Mill as he was just walking out of the pantry.
She cursed in her head as she filled her cup and put sugar in it. There was no seat, obviously. Fuck my life.
There was a long table in the center of pantry with five chairs on each side and other three small tables each with three chairs behind the long table. But every chair was occupied.
Fortunately, a lady stood up from her seat on the long table.
Thea sighed in relief and was about to go, but then she saw this guy, Arin, sitting exactly opposite to the empty chair, on the other end of table sipping his coffee.
She hesitated. They’d be sitting almost face to face. They know each other and obviously wouldn’t acknowledge each other. It’d be awkward.
There was no choice and she ended up sitting there.
She took a sip of her coffee. Sweet.
And then she lifted her head forward and lookedat him. It was a brief eye-contact.
She was about to smile.
But she didn’t.
Because he won’t smile anyway.
Then suddenly, this guy stood up with his cup and went over to stand beside the glass wall and slowly took a sip of his coffee.
Wtf.
Thea was lowkey embarrassed. She couldn’t decipher if him going had something to do with her. But it sure looked like it.
Before this whole incident, Thea didn’t mind him. She knew he existed but that was it.
But after this incident, Arin was suddenly everywhere. It was like a new character unlocked.
Once Mill showed her a video of him dancing at a party, and in the background of that video she saw Arin, smiling and dancing. His whole personality was stiff, except when he was with his friends.
This was not all. Last week in that painting workshop there was a task. Every participant was asked to paint on the theme of, “coming home”, and everyone votes for the best painting.
Thea still remembered. This guy along with other two people were the only people in the whole workshop who haven’t voted for her.
She still voted for his painting.
Dumb.
After this workshop, they had three days free time and no work. So obviously, everyone in their batch played games together, made new friends and enjoyed. Even she spoke to few people, Mill for example. But she didn’t see this guy even talking to one new person.
God. She didn’t care but honestly the first thought in her head was not to get associated with this guy in any situation. Ever.
Two reactive persons never go well together.
Now, as she stared at him from her peripheral vision. She realised one thing.
Never say never.
-------------------------------------------------------
It was too silent in the bay.
As the introductions came to an end, everyone retreated to their seats and started typing off in their laptops.
Thea looked at her wrist to see the time.
Fantastic.
She forgot her watch.
She tapped her phone screen twice.
11: 00 AM
Okay.
“Do you watch one piece?” It was the guy beside her.
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
“Your Wallpaper” he pointed at the grinning image of luffy with his iconic straw hat on her screen.
“Oh. Do you watch it too?” She grinned at him suddenly excited.
He nodded.
“Do you watch anime?” She asked again.
“Yeah”
“What anime did you watch?”
“I watched Naruto, One piece, Attack on Titan, Haikyu….”
So, he can speak sentences just fine.
“That’s quite a lot” Thea mumbled. It was lowkey impressive that he watched most of the famous anime. It’s not as if she doesn’t know people who watch anime. Many of her friends watch it and some even obsessed with it.
“I guess” he pursued his lips. “Do you watch anime?”
Wow. He was asking a question back.
“Not much” Thea stared at his face. She noticed a single pepper-sized mole on his right ear. It lowkey looked like a cult-piercing. “I watched only a few”
“Which?” he sounded curious.
“One piece for starters”
“Really?” he raised his eyebrows. “That was the first anime you watched?”
“Yupp”
“And, Did you like it?”
He’s even making a conversation now.
“Yeah. I loved it” Thea grinned. And just because she has the free will to speak, she continued. “I loved luffy’s character. And Zoro. And Sanji” she was exhilarated now. “What about you? Who’s your favourite character?”
“Zoro”
“Seriously? Not luffy?” Thea pressed her lips together. “Bummer. But Zoro’s fine too”
She saw his lips barely curving into smile as he nodded at her. Barely.
“And what else have you seen?” he still wanted to know.
“I watched Jujutsu kaisen and well, few romance anime” All other anime Thea watched was BL and she wasn’t about to say that to him in the first conversation they were having.
“Yeah? I’ve seen Jujutsu Kaisen too”
“For Gojo right?” Thea laughed. “I watched it for Gojo”
Gojo- love of her life.
He chuckled. Wow.
New Expression unlocked.
“Nope. But I like Gojo”
“Who doesn’t?” Thea leaned back on her chair. “Liking Gojo is a minimum quality for existing. Everyone should like him”
He nodded. “Fair enough”
“If you are wondering whether I am one of those obsessive Gojo fangirls on Instagram and Tiktok. I am”
He laughed shaking his head like it’s a hopeless case and he gets it. Then stared at her with a smile on his face. “Figured”
Then she laughed, putting a hand on her mouth.
Not bad for first conversation.
Thea had a meeting at 12: 00. It was the first meeting with her new team and she wasn’t really excited for this. Arin might also be in her team but she hasn’t really had that conversation with him. He immediately started working on a document after their little chit-chat
Time passed quickly. She attended the meet and Arin was in fact, in her team. He had the same personality that matches his looks. He didn’t speak much in the introduction speech. Just acknowledged everyone on the call and ended it with a polite thanks. Not really a surprise.
“So where are you from?” Thea looked at him.
He halted typing o his laptop. Glanced at her once and started typing again. “XXXXXX”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. It’s in XXXXXX” he gave her a side glance. “You??”
“I’m from XXXXX”
“How far is it from here?” This time he stopped typing and completely turned in his seat to face her.
“10 hours. What about yours?”
“12 hours” Arin answered.
They had a brief conversation about the places they were from. About languages, tourist places in their hometowns, food cuisines, and specialities in their localities.
Suddenly, Thea felt like having a chat with him was not really hard. In fact, it was quite easy.
Maybe too easy.
She definitely didn’t expect him to be someone to actively participate in the conversation. Though he could do better, this is good for starters.
