As dawn broke, Yui concluded her peaceful morning ritual of yoga on the balcony, focusing her energy on not overthinking how her inbox would look in 24 hours. A free day had been ordered by the CEO himself, and while she dreaded the concept with all her being, she could not rebel against it. So, she did her Yoga and went back inside to sit cross legged and mentally map how to rearrange her schedule to cover the time lost with the ridiculous vacation day concept. It was right when she attained perfect clarity of her visualized calendar that a vibrant array of Romanian curses from next door broke Yui’s focus. She would lie if she claimed that the symphony sparked by the pre-dawn alarm she'd set on the engineer’s calendar was not a melodious start to her day.

While Yui might not have mastered Romanian, the language of expletives is universal. It was clear her neighbor was engaged in a full-blown feud with his unwelcome digital wake-up call.

Relishing the aftermath of her prank, Yui was jolted by an unexpected knock. Not at the door, but from the balcony. As she lifted her eyes, she doubled in shock.

Adam was standing on her balcony, looking rather irritated. His usually messy hair was even more disheveled that morning, and his eyes carried an ominous glare. Despite the balconies being close, a conventional person would simply stroll through the hallway for a friendly morning visit. But apparently nothing was ever conventional with mister Stroe around.

"How the heck did you make my alarm go off?" he asked, frustration clear in his tone. "What kind of corporate voodoo is this?"

More than a little startled, Yui jumped out of her bed, pressing against the wall where she found some cover. "Go away, I am not decent," she retorted, although it was half a lie. She was comfortably cocooned in her yellow pajamas. 

Ignoring her protests, Adam continued to knock until, realizing he was not going anywhere, she had to finally step out from her makeshift hideout and open the balcony door.

"You could have canceled it if you'd bothered to read your emails. It’s just a Google calendar thing," she informed him, sounding braver than she felt.

"I do not read emails," he retorted back. He had wild bed hair and an intense gaze that made it hard for Yui to focus on defense.

"Well, you should, Mister Stroe," she shot back, trying to hold her ground against his dark aura.

"You’d better have a very good reason for waking me up at this ungodly hour. I was up on the beach until sunrise," he grumbled, towering over her.

"Nobody made you watch the sunrise on the beach."

He advanced on her, slamming his hand against the wall. In her daze, Yui was reminded of a scene straight out of Mina's clichéd shoujo manga. "You love control, don't you? It's a free day, Miss Ishida. I got the memo and I’m sure you did too. So why is it any of your concern what time I wake up at?"

"I don't need to control anything, I set the reminder before we knew it was a free day, Mister Stroe," she held her ground, stiffening her back just to make her innocent lie more believable. 

Adam growled something in Romanian, causing her smartwatch to translate his words into: "You can shove your reminders up that fine ass, too bad you have the personality of a communist old lady." His smile was far from friendly, his teeth looked almost menacing in the morning light.

"Well, I will have you know I don’t have a single communist bone in me. Japan was never a communist country and my ancestors…”

"Walking around with Google Translate turned on?” he interrupted her, still so close she felt completely distracted by his scent. He smelled so good, like wind and sand and vacation.  “Live a little. Do you ever do anything not planned beforehand?" he challenged.

"Yes, I do..." she countered, feeling like a miniature standing before a giant. "Now, would you kindly refrain from jumping over balconies? We can't afford to have you injured," she requested in an attempt to regain some dignity.

He laughed in her face, making no effort to play nice. "Me, get injured? Jumping a 20 cm gap between balconies? I grew up in the mountains, I'm more likely to get injured falling out of bed because your damn alarm startled me," he mocked.

Rolling her eyes, she stepped aside, gesturing towards the door. "Please use the door like a normal human being, Mister Stroe," she chided.

"Please stay out of my hair, like a normal human being, Miss Ishida," he shot back, clearly annoyed. 

Without throwing her a second look, he walked past Yui and stormed out of the room, via the actual door this time.