“How do you expect me… There are three people-” Sure that the voice belongs to Kiran, she stands confused as she isn’t used to hearing her so upset.
“Keep your voice down. I know you may… but I am sure you understood what…” a voice that could only be Asha’s speaks up. “What?” She mouths. Naira’s eyes dart to every direction as she places both hands on the door for better support.
The second both her palms met the door, a creak filled the room. She was sure there was no way they could have both heard such an insignificant noise during such a heated argument.
Naira couldn’t hear their voices anymore, and seconds later, the door flew open. Naira was sitting at her desk hoping they wouldn’t see her heart beating through her chest after moving faster than she believed humanly possible. She tries to look as casual as she can, looking as though she was just scrolling through her phone. Asha glares at Naira with her piercing eyes, frightening her.
Naira pretends to have just caught her boss in her eyesight and looks at her. Asha stands expressionless, and Naira looks past her, to a visibly discomforted Kiran that waits further into the room.
“Hey, Asha,” she lifts her shoulders, “sorry, I shouldn't have been texting.” She purses her lips, and after no response, she speaks again. “Oh, but I did finish all my chores for today. How are you?” she asks kindly.
Asha smiles back, the red in her eyes getting somehow more intense. “You must've woken up pretty early to have already completed all of them. That’s great to hear, sweetheart. Thank you so very much,” Asha smiles warmly and shuts the door gently. Upon hearing the click of the latch, Naira clutches her chest and takes deep breaths trying to calm herself.
She scans the room, as though looking for clues that would help her understand what she’d heard, and why Asha had looked at her with such menacing eyes. It was only for a second, but Naira was sure Asha’s smile never reached her eyes for the entire interaction. In fact, Asha’s eyes always seemed to betray her true intentions. “That was scary as hell, she almost caught me but I'm too fast, too furious!” Naira thinks to herself while making an action-hero face with chopping motions.
After a few more minutes of unintentional eavesdropping, on their muffled conversation, Kiran walks out of Asha’s office, obviously very upset. “He- Hey Kiran,” Naira says hesitantly. Her coworker continues walking as if she wasn't even in the room. As her curiosity sparks up again, she convinces herself it must’ve been something to do with business. “Nah they wouldn’t fire me right? They like me too much… yeah. I gotta stop being so damn paranoid man” She thinks letting out a sigh of relief and begins practicing her lines for her big day.
Hours pass like minutes, and when the clock strikes 4, Naira begins to head downstairs to grab her lunch from the twins. She walks down the hall, her heels clicking against the cold black tiles, the sound echoing all throughout the hall, its silver walls reflecting her vague silhouette. She reaches the elevator and presses the platinum-colored button. The doors open and she is met with piercing purple eyes. It’s Kiran, and she looks more jaded than usual, which seems impossible. Naira steps in and decides to break the tension. “Hey what’s up? Is everything alright?” she asks. Kiran doesn’t avert her gaze and continues looking toward the mirrored elevator doors.
“I’m fine, kid. Just tired, so fucking tired of this shit,” Kiran replies dryly.
“Wait… I thought vampires didn’t get sleepy,” Naira genuinely says with a bewildered expression, until she realizes what Kiran meant, almost facepalming herself. Kiran finally breaks her concentration, and places her hand on Naira's head in what was obviously meant to be a light pat, but hurts a lot more than Naira was sure she intended.
Kiran let out a quiet chuckle. “Not too bright, are we?”
Naira laughs while rubbing her head. As she looks back at Kiran, she catches a red line running down her face. She notices Naira’s uncertainty, and stares at her distorted reflection. “Fuck, sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me today, I’ve gotta fix-” her ramble is interrupted when Naira hugs her as hard as she could. Even though Kiran’s body was hard as a rock, Naira could feel her shake and grow less tense as her towering frame embraced her back. Naira could hear her sniffle and try her best to conceal her whimpers.
Right when Kiran chooses to let herself go, and hug Naira back, the doors to the elevator finally open. Kiran straightens her back and adjusts her leather jacket, wiping the tears from her face forcefully. As Naira walks out, she hears sniffles, and places her foot in the door frame, stopping the elevator doors from shutting.
Kiran looks straight ahead, her stare cold and expressionless as ever.
“You’re fine. I’ll be here if you need to talk,” Naira says with her two thumbs up, assuring Kiran everything would be alright. Naira removes her foot from the door and smiles as it begins to close.
As Kiran nods at Naira, despair, and sadness wash over her face as tears begin to well up in her eyes. The doors shut and Naira continues to the kitchen, feeling like she could’ve done something more.
While in the kitchen, she sees Wayra sitting on one of the counters reading a book and the twins cooking something that smells heavenly. Naira's stomach growls instantly. “Seems like someone’s famished. I hope you've been practicing those lines,” Wayra says while grinning at Naira.
“Yeah, I practiced a ton this morning and the night before. I’ll be practicing again tonight. Don’t worry, I got this,” Naira winks at Wayra while looking at the twins run in and out of the kitchen. The twins run around the room, avoiding Naira while cutting strange-looking vegetables, taking out pots and pans, serving plates, all seemingly in a trance.
“Don’t bother. When they’re like this, there’s nothing on God’s green Earth that could splinter their attention,” Wayra explains.
“I can see that, it's really cool though,” she chuckles. “I think it’s the first time I’ve seen Chae without a smile. It’s kinda weird,” she watches them carefully. “Oh!” she lifts up a finger. “Also, I came to grab my lunch.” Wayra points at four beautiful bento boxes, and Naira runs over to dig in.
A large brown finger taps Naira on the shoulder. Naira turns around with a confused expression, her cheeks filled with food. “Careless with the shaving this morning?” Wayra jokes while handing her a warm cloth. Naira turns to see the blood on the shoulder of her white shirt.
“Nah, I um… I think it’s just from the facemask I put on this morning,” Naira explains while trying to dab the blood out of her shirt. Wayra’s face reveals some suspicion, which Naira notices, but chooses to ignore it as Wayra goes back to reading his book. Naira places the rag down, her shirt still slightly red, but not as it was before.
When she finishes her food and thanks the twins who pay her no mind and starts to walk out of the room, she catches Wayra’s face bathed by intrigue, with a hint of anger. Naira awkwardly smiles and continues toward the elevator.
Upon reaching the office, she settles in and searches for another podcast. The door opens, and Asha walks out, taking a seat on the couch in front of Naira’s desk.
“Are you enjoying the position?” Asha asks while looking at her nails, then back at Naira.
“Yeah, I am! It’s great and you‘re the best boss I’ve ever had. But…” Naira stops and looks away as if thinking of something.
“There's a but now?” Asha asks jokingly.
“I don't know, maybe it’s all that stress from preparing for the show, but it seems like the others have been having a rough few days, especially today. I kinda feel bad, since I’m feeling so good. Weird right?” she exhales. “I wish I could just give some of my good mood to them, you know?”
“I see,” Asha replies inquisitively.
“I mean it’d make sense for it to be the nerves, right?” she taps her forehead. “Yeah that's gotta be it. I remember, when I was a kid, I was in a play at school, and my stomach hurt all week and I wasn’t super nice to everyone until the play was over,” she lifts her hands up in the air as if she’s uncovered the truth. She then drifts off remembering the play and comes back to her senses when she hears Asha chuckle and sees her standing right in front of her desk, tapping her sharp red nail on her chin.
“Hm, I have noticed they haven't been acting themselves, but everyone has off days, right?” Asha reassures as she smiles and tilts her head.
“Yeah, you’re right.” She replies, with a smile of understanding. “I just wish it was a way to cheer ‘em up before I go home. I wanna party like we did the other night. I think that’d help ease the nerves. But they don't seem to be in the partying mood,” Naira looks down dejectedly.
“Do you think that might be it?”
“Huh?”
“They might be saddened they won’t be seeing you for some time.”
“Oh snap” Naira purses her lips and her eyes go wide, this was something she’d never considered.
Asha opens her eyes wide as if an idea has come to her. “Hm, what if you stayed here for the weekend? You wouldn’t have to work until 7 tomorrow, and it’ll give you much more time to explore the grounds. There’s a lot to this house you have yet to see. And, who knows? Maybe you’ll get to party,” she smiles and raises her eyebrow. “I think I might even join in this time. I need to rid myself of these nerves as well,” Asha confesses.
Naira thinks for a while. “That don't sound too bad. You sure you’d wanna party with us?” she replies with a smile.
“Oh, you think an old lady like me can't keep up?” Asha dares while throwing her head back to laugh.
“No, the opposite. What if we can't keep up with you?” Naira asks back while laughing.
Asha moves her palm up and down as if to quiet the laughter. “Sure, sure. We’ll go with that.” Shelaughs softly. “Well, since you're staying on your day off, you’ll be paid. It will be half your usual rate, but you’ll still be getting paid off the clock,” Asha explains as she stands to go back into her office.
“Wait, but I might need to grab some clothes from home,” Naira says.
“Just borrow some from Kiran. Sure she’s taller, but it’ll be a cute look,” Asha replies while closing her door.
***
“No, really, help yourselves! The food and drinks are free, and we have options for all diets, Other and human alike.” Naira recites her script while gesturing wildly with her right hand, and looking at her phone occasionally. “Damn, it’s late!” She exclaims to herself as she catches a glance at the time while looking at her phone. She stands up and pushes her chair against her desk. She walks through the hallway, hoping to get dinner while it’s still hot.
Upon reaching the kitchen she sees that all of the lights are off, all but one light above the large stove that illuminates a tray of food. Naira doesn’t bother to turn any other light on, and charges toward the food practically drooling. She picks the tray up, and a sticky note falls to the floor. Picking it up she sees that it reads “For Naira. From Dean + Chae,” with a crudely drawn heart. Naira smiles and blushes a bit. As she turns back around, she sees a book on the granite island with another sticky note attached to it. “For Naira. From Wayra. I ‘borrowed’ this from Asha and thought you’d really enjoy page 19. P.S. Do not let Asha know you have this, flush this note.” The exquisite handwriting makes it clear that, even if he’d not left his name, it could have only been written by Wayra. “Yeck, homework,” Naira complains to herself while sauntering out of the kitchen.
When she reaches her room, she plops down on her bed and begins eating and watching her favorite K-drama. A couple of minutes pass, and Naira has given almost all of her attention to the show now playing on her phone, her cheeks stuffed with food.
“Addy’s gonna kill me,” she whispers to herself. “I was supposed to wait to watch this with her, she probably knew I’d be a ‘lil stinker and watch this without her,” she continues and giggles. As her show plays, she remembers Addy yelling nonsense at her and shrugs it off. “If it was that important, she would’ve tried again,” she shrugs her shoulders.
She drops her phone onto the duvet, walking to the bathroom. After spending at least an hour under the warm water, she gets out and puts her pajamas on, while listening to music.
She hums along to the music until a faint groan interrupts her. Pausing her music, she begins to listen carefully; it almost sounds human-like, quite distorted. “Not today, Casper,” she says softly as she quickly finishes drying off, flushes Wayras note, heads to the bedroom, and slips into her pink llama onesie. After setting the tray on her desk.
“Just 19 pages, right? That'll be a breeze. Wayra ain't the only fella around here that can read,” she reassuringly tells herself with a cocky grin.
Her own loud snoring wakes her up the next morning. She shakes her head from off the book, her cheek pressed against page 5 of it, the words distorted from her slobber. “ Damn dude, that’s one boring ass book,” Naira says lazily as she yawns. She sluggishly starts her morning routine. After brushing her teeth, she tosses the book on her desk. “Eh, I’ll finish it up tonight,” she tells herself.
She runs down to the kitchen, excited to greet everyone. She exits the elevator and slides into the kitchen standing proudly in her llama onesie, her fist on her hips as if she is a superhero posing for a photoshoot. “Surprise! Surprise. Where da party at? All-you-can-eat buffet? A game of scrabble? How’s about some karaoke?” Naira exclaims before opening her eyes only to be met by shocked and stern expressions. She clears her throat and stands up straight.
Wayra stands leaning against a wall, looking at Naira with an unreadable expression. Kiran has her hand on her forehead while she looks down, in a posture that Naira can only perceive as disappointment. The twins look despondent. Naira sheepishly looks around. “Oh, sorry. Was I too loud? It’s just that I wanted to surpr-”
“I thought you said she got the note, what happened?” Kiran cuts her off with an impatient tone.
“Note? Are you talking about the book? I tried reading it but I kinda… fell asleep,” Naira explains while laughing, somewhat embarrassed. She quietly walks over to the table and sits beside Chae, who is not his normal jovial self. His sharp teeth that usually peek through his warm, boyish smile are hidden behind a face of utter concern. Wayra sets his heavy book down on the table and pulls up a chair. He sits down backward and rests his arms on the back of the chair. He looks into her eyes intently. Naira had never noticed just how cat-like his eyes were until now.
“Naira, you were supposed to skip to page 19. You-” Wayra is interrupted by Naira.
“Wait, look, if it’s that serious, I can go back upstairs and read it now, just gotta grab some breakfast first,” Naira replies nervously.
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