Chapter 34
"Are you okay? You look pale. Did your anemia come back? Are you staying late again, and not eating enough green leafy vegetables, just like you used to in the past?" Lisha is interrogating Hiraya, like she is from the police station, asking countless and repeating questions.
"I think so. I always felt dizzy and sleepy since I spent my company leave. I don't get any proper sleep for many months now, as well."
The waiter came back and served them service water.
"Ma'ams, your orders will take eight-nine minutes to prepare. I am sorry for this, but please be understanding, we are a newly-opened shop. For now, this is your free service water. That is thoroughly distilled, so you do not have to worry about amoebiasis or what. Quench your thirst first with this." The waiter smiled shyly as he poured water into two glasses.
"Thank you. We forgot to drink water after our lunch break. Some hideous creature appeared before us so we have to hu
Chapter 35 Lisha keeps blabbering useless and nonsensical things that Hiraya almost memorized her best friend's words. "I know you are heartbroken; I heard about the catfight you had in the washroom. I know from the very start that that girl, Ms. Kate, was up to no good. She has a higher salary than us, but it is us who makes most of the work. Why? Because she has the endless favors of the male executives. Maybe, she pays those old men with her body. Who knows where she goes after our afternoon shift? She goes out very early but does not finish anything concerning our work. She is like a prostitute. She dresses like one." Lisha started to get some portions of Hiraya's milk tea. It is indeed a miracle that Hiraya is not stopping Lisha from badmouthing other people. Usually, Lisha is often corrected and reprimanded by Hiraya due to her bad manners. But this time, Hiraya is not doing it and is staying silent, so Lisha continued talking, like an unstoppab
Chapter 36 My head is throbbing. Maybe because I am always sleeping too much in this foreign place. I wish all these hours of sleeping will sweep all my hurts away, but I cannot forget it all. I still hear the loving voice of my father and mother. The cheerful yells of my brothers and sisters are music to my ears, even if most of the time, I am irritated by their playfulness. I am hopeless. Why am I still living? I should have died with them back in that hell of a place. People are passing by me, ignoring me. I looked at myself, sitting in the cold cobblestones, observing people from all walks of life; but a certain group caught my attention: children and babies accompanied by their parents. Mothers held their babies in their arms tight to avoid them from falling, and toddlers held by their fathers to avoid them being lost. My family. They died an agonizing death. In an unimaginable way. I am alone now. Why would
Chapter 37 I wear shabby clothes. I smell awful. My eyelids are drooping. I want some sleep, but the ground is too cold. It is snowing. I used to love snow season, but now, I hate it. I am trembling, and all alone. Maybe I will die on this road. It is a good idea to die now. My parents, brothers, and sisters are already dead, after all. What is the use of living my life anyway, when you got no one by your side? My first day in this foreign place. I am eating boiled sweet potatoes, but it tastes bad. I think it is spoiled. I got it from a garbage site, scattered nearby. Who cares if I got poisoned by eating a single bite of boiled sweet potatoes? My family had it the hardest. Even God has forsaken me. I have prayed numerous times to Him, for Him to guide me and my family, every night since I was little. Even if I did it half-heartedly, at least, I prayed, I had done it, not like other people. My parents thought us how to pray. Pray for
Chapter 38 "Hiraya!" What the hell. "Hiraya!" Shut up. "Hiraya! Our break time is almost up! Wake up! Let's go!" I am familiar with that ear-shattering voice, but I still am not used to it. It irritates me to the core. That cheerful high-pitched voice that I always hear every day, whether be it in the office, or at home. Lisha's voice can be comparable to the birds' chirping-feels delightful to the senses but sometimes makes some people who had a bad day pissed off even more. Lisha is both for me: she makes me feel things more deeply, even if most of the words she is saying make not a single sense, or her emotions are pretty petty in general. She is a petty person but is genuine. I cannot find any faults in her. Well, I found some faults, but are not that fatal. She is like an open book, reading her persona is easy-pea
Chapter 39She is sitting in her office chair, wanting to play with the buttons in it.But it is forbidden to play with the automatic office chair buttons unnecessarily."I feel empty. I do not know what should I do." Lisha looked at her palms.They are still wet from sweat due to them running the wide stretch of streets to reach the company at the exact time of their shift. She sweats easily, and the dry air from the air conditioner is making her throat dry and itchy.Lisha got her water tumbler from her office desk and gulped a good amount of warm water from it.She can feel her tongue, still filled with a tinge of sweetness, eating the dessert from the milk tea shop.Some small bits of the dessert is still completely unchewed, stuck in the corners of the insides of her mouth.Lisha unwillingly met the brown eyes of her ex-boyfriend in the office, and they are both surprised by the encounter. He is walking i
Chapter 40"Why did you not tell me that you know who I am when you already know it?"Her male workmates did not answer her."Why? Why did you not tell me that you already knew me and my family background?""We want to talk to you, at all times. You are a good friend, a down-to-earth person. You are a good person even if you are rich, and you are not looking down at us, even our families belonging to the middle and poorest classes.""Then what is the problem? Why did you all act like you do not know anything?"No one is still answering her.She turned to face the direction of her cubicle and took her first step to go back to it.She had the resolve to do what was right. Loitering during office hours, wasting the electricity, and adding to the internet bills without doing something worthwhile for the company is forbidden, and may result in suspension and some penalties. She will call the higher-ups to tell them what her wo
Chapter 41There is a profound silence in the room. No one dared to speak a word-only the dripping of water from the bathroom across the department can be heard.It is now clear in their minds that Miss Lisha is now pissed off."Speak, now." Lisha came back to her monobloc chair and tried to listen to their explanations, but Aaron seemed to be the only one who had the guts to speak to Lisha, whose head is twirling with different emotions."We knew who you are when we saw you the first time. All of us are interns here before the company hired us, right? It is more of what we have observed when we saw you, not totally gut instinct, as I remember." Aaron stated.Lisha pondered for a second, rubbing her chin, thinking things deeply."Okay, then, what are you trying to say, Aaron? Get straight to the point, this discussion is being lengthy. Just answer my single question, and this issue is all done." Lisha grumbled, like a lion out of patie
Chapter 42She walked towards the second bedside table located nearer the VIP room door, opening a huge basket containing a bunch of flowers and a big vase. She opened her handbag and got some tissue wipes from it, and wiped the vase with tissue wipes to clean off some remaining dust from it.An elegant woman, in her middle fifties, graced the plain room of Tanashiri. She began taking out some meals from the meal basket she left at the entrance door and opened the meal containers. She also has some fragrant flowers packed into bouquets."You brought this all by yourself? Why did you not call someone to help you with all these errands?""I heard these flowers I bought are good for comatose patients. Experts say that the smell of the pollens of these flowers stimulates the nervous system of comatose patients that helps them regain their consciousness easily. I will visit our son every day to bring him newly-harvested flowers of this kind."