Chapter Text
If you’d ask Rumi how she saw the rest of her year go, then she’d give you an answer of how it’d most likely go by her routine for the rest of the months. Because that’s how Rumi loved to live her life, going by the same routine she’s stuck to ever since she’s moved out of her parents’ place and live for herself. And Rumi had no problem with that at all. In fact, she had pride herself in having a routine she followed down to a T every single day without skipping a beat—maybe on some days she’d add something that’d throw her routine off in the mix, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Which was why the next words that Rumi had uttered had surprised both her and the turtle-obsessed woman sitting in front of her.
“Yes?” Zoey repeats, eyes twinkling in response. To say Zoey was surprised was an understatement, she hadn’t really expected her deskmate to say yes or to even entertain the idea of going out with her. But had that been the case then it would’ve made things between them awkward, really awkward. The computer screens in front of them barely provided a barrier between them so an interaction between them throughout the day was inevitable.
Painted lips curl upward into a smile as Rumi nods. Only had she remembered about the melting sorbet in her hand when she starts feeling the cold feel of the ice cream drip onto her fingers. “O-oh” She quickly laps up at the ice cream, flashing Zoey an awkward smile right after. Zoey just giggles in response.
And that was how it started for Rumi’s routine to get derailed and thrown off the tracks just like that. Suddenly the routine she had carefully built and meticulously put together had started crumbling down and with the help of Zoey, a new routine had been formed.
It started off small with Rumi waiting on Zoey to finish packing her stuff so they’d walk out together, then it escalated to her driving Zoey home every time after work. Then one thing led to another and suddenly their nightly hangouts become a lot more frequent. Sometimes it’d be them playing a game, and sometimes it’d be just them on a call as they talked about anything that came to mind.
“Y’know there’s a new movie”
Rumi stops in her movements, eyes that were once glued to the screen now peers behind it as she looks for the familiar space buns behind the other screen. “Yes?” Her head tilted slightly so she gets to see her deskmate’s face.
“Like” Zoey scoots over to the side, swiveling slightly in her chair. “It’s about this girl that gets into this love triangle”
Rumi rests her elbow onto the desk, her cheek pressed up against her palm as she continues listening to her deskmate ramble on. “Thought you weren’t into romcom flicks” She teases.
“I’m not!” Zoey giggles, her eyes darting around the office when she realizes her voice gets raised slightly, and when she notices everyone’s too busy cooped up in their work to even notice the two co-workers tucked by the corner raving on about a movie, she continues by adding, “it’s not a romcom”
“It’s not?” Rumi asks, her lips curled up into a lazy smile as she cheek remains pressed up against her palm.
“No” Zoey shakes her head. “So it feels like a love story, right? But then it hits you with the horror aspect and suddenly boom it’s no longer a romcom and now it’s just a horror story where the three of them try to survive”
Rumi watches in admiration as she sees Zoey go on and on about the story, her hands doing subtle gestures as her eyes twinkle with fascination for a flick that Rumi hadn’t even had the slightest clue or idea about.
“We should go watch it tomorrow”
Zoey stops in her rambles as she looks at Rumi, beaming up at her as she’s almost jumping on her seat. “Really? You don’t mind like going out on a Saturday?”
“With you? No” Rumi grins. She hadn’t exactly known when but somehow as the days passed ever since she’s said yes to her deskmate’s question, she’d gotten a bit bolder with her moves, not that her deskmate seemed to mind, often joking about where Rumi had went and what had she done to her.
Zoey giggles as her cheeks flare up into a bright red color. “Cool” Her giggles becoming a soft melodic tune that Rumi loved to hear. “So tomorrow, 3?”
“Yeah I’ll pick you up” She winks as she sits upright, eyes still trained and focused on Zoey.
Then just when she’s about to come up with another punch line or another witty remark to hit on her, she gets interrupted when stacks of paper are dropped onto the desk in front of her. Stacks on stacks of paper that her vision of her deskmate gets blocked and all she can make out now is the familiar space buns of Zoey’s hair that she loves to sport.
Rumi heaves out a sigh as she swivels in her desk chair, ready to face whoever dropped the stacks of paperwork in front of her.
“Jinu” Her voice tired and flat as she faces her team leader. Her eyes sending daggers to the raven-haired man standing in front of her. It’s not like the hate came unwarranted—he was a man notoriously known for handing out work towards the rest of their team, unequally dividing the work between them with the rest of them, especially Rumi, getting the shorter end of the stick. “Here to feed me again to the shark?” A heavy sigh leaving her lips again.
Jinu smiles at her, one of his famous pitiful smiles as his eyebrows knit together. “I’m sorry” He pouts.
You’re not really, are you? Rumi wants to say but instead she just bites back on her tongue as she nods, grabbing the stack of paperwork in front of her. It’s so thick that when she takes a hold of it and pushes it off the desk and onto her lap, her restricted view of Zoey gets replaced with a full view of her face. The latter had been looking at her with a pitiful face as well, but unlike Jinu, it’s filed with sincerity and genuineness.
“Good luck” Zoey mouths out, her lips still in a form of a grimace as she watches her deskmate get up.
“Anything else you want to hand or say to the HR?” Rumi’s voice a bit more irritated than usual, annoyance visible in her voice.
“Oh the papers from last week haven’t been signed yet. Can you tell her to have them signed and send it to me? Thanks” He flashes her one of his infamous smiles, throwing a thumbs up at her before waltzing away.
Rumi feels her eye twitch as she watches their team leader retreat into his office by the other corner of the room. But she just closes her eyes, pressing them tightly together as she inhales a sharp breath, before opening them again and making her way to the elevator.
And for once, Rumi’s actually thankful the elevator doors open in almost an instant. The last thing she needed was to wait for an eternity for the elevators to reach one of the top floors whilst holding a large stack of papers.
Her feet dragging her through the familiar path to the office by the far end of the floor. Squeaks filled the practically empty floor as Rumi languidly made her way to the office. Despite her routine being torn to shreds and thrown apart by Zoey, she hadn’t actually ever gotten used to having this be part of her routine. But she may as well be since it seemed like Jinu’s sick way of tormenting Rumi came with forcing her to make the trip up and face the one person everyone in the office seemed to either despise or be deathly terrified of.
“You’re here again” The assistant points out, her voice portraying shock rather than annoyance. Eyes wide as she examines the papers in the employee’s arms.
“Unfortunately” Rumi answers as she momentarily stops by her desk. “Is she in?”
“Yes” She replies as she gets up and opens the door for her.
Rumi mutters a small ‘thank you’ before she walks inside, not disregarding the whisper that she hears when she walks past the assistant. “Good luck”
It had only been Rumi’s second time at her office, save for the only other time where she had been her for a brief second to bring her her spare glasses. But since then, it had only been two separate occasions where Rumi had to bring up the papers from their floor and in those two occasions, she gets hit with the same words by the assistant everytime she walks past her. Had their HR really been that terrifying?
Rumi just shook away the thought as she slowly makes her way to the dividers, hoping it’d be a quick trip into her office. Just drop the papers onto her desk and then go back down and finish work until 5. She thinks as she’s nearing the dividers.
But the noise on the other end of the divider is effective in having Rumi halt in her steps. It seemed like an argument ensuing and Rumi knows it’s the worst time to get caught in. She could just make the trip back down and come back at a better time, after all, it was only 3 in the afternoon.
She’s quick on her heels as she turns around and starts practically bolting back to the door that lead to the safe place of their office—anywhere but inside her office. And Rumi’s finally sensing now why she had been wished good luck, perhaps she needed it after all. But of course, things never really went Rumi’s way the way she wanted them to.
A loud squeak echoes throughout the small office, and Rumi just knows she’s doomed for. Her eyes shut tightly as she heard her sneakers colliding with the freshly mopped marble floors of Mira’s office, standing hopelessly as she hears it emit a loud squeak.
The argument on the other end of the divider stops and instead, there’s clacking of heels that stop just right by the divider.
“Come inside.” Voice sharp and portraying authority so well with just two simple words that Rumi turns around—no, she felt compelled to.
It’s like her legs had other thoughts while all that was in her mind was just wanting to turn back around and start booking it out of there at the speed of light like some cartoon character. An awkward smile forming on her lips as she holds the stack of papers in her arms tightly, sweat profusely forming on her forehead despite the whole office being cold—as cold as a vampire’s den, because she may as very well be one.
Her eyes staring into Rumi’s, and if looks could burn then Rumi would’ve been incinerated that nothing would be left in her wake.
Rumi swallows the lump in her throat as she walks towards the divider, watching as the HR officer pushes herself off the wall of the divider. Her eyes staring into Rumi’s one last time before gingerly making her way back to her desk.
And Rumi, now that she’s past the divider, realizes the noise she’d been hearing had been coming directly from Mira’s computer and not from actual people being in the office. The noise now a bit deafened and toned down.
“Sit”
Rumi’s behind instantly finding the seat as she falls back down, taking temporary residence on one of two chairs Mira had set up in front of her desk. It felt dehumanizing having being treated like a dog—one word and suddenly Rumi knows how to bark and follow orders as if she were a mutt.
The weight of the stack of papers in her arms practically becoming nonexistent as she holds onto it dearly.
And just when she thought she hadn’t reached a new low, she watches as Mira drags her finger, eyes trained on the fingernails painted red. Her finger pointing straight down onto her desk, on the empty spot that’s right in front of Rumi.
No words were exchanged but Rumi knew what she had meant. She followed her HR’s lead as she places the papers down by the empty space on the desk. If being told one word and having her follow it almost instantly was dehumanizing, now this felt a lot worse than that. How was it that Mira had held and exuded power so effortlessly that anything she did felt scary. She understood now why the office held its silence whenever she’s inside or whenever she’d even walk past it.
Rumi, now with her arms free, fiddles with her fingers as her eyes dart to her lap. She had no idea why she had even stayed. She had dropped the papers, now she was free to leave. So she takes a few seconds to herself to muster up the courage to ask her boss a seemingly normal question of ‘can I leave and return back to the office?’, but she feels her throat become parched and dry and suddenly it’s like she’s in kindergarten again trying to muster up the courage to ask her teacher if she can go potty. Well, it definitely felt like that—Mira, from all angles, was terrifying, especially when you’d be sitting in front of her, subject to her intense gaze.
Rumi closes her eyes for a brief moment before looking up and finally having the courage to open up to Mira. But the pink-haired woman instead holds her finger up. Again, no words were exchanged and yet it felt like Rumi was a well-trained dog obeying her master.
“In a meeting” Her voice surprisingly holding softness yet somehow holding command at the same time. “Just a moment”
Rumi nods in response as she shifts back into her seat, fingers fiddling with each other as her eyes dart everywhere but on her. Rumi doesn’t know why but it felt intimidating to even have your eyes dart to her even just for a brief second. She’s not medusa, y’know. She thinks, but her eyes thinks otherwise as they continue to roam the small office’s interior, watching the plaques and certifications hung on the wall in celebration of the HR. Things were a lot better when she hadn’t had the slightest clue who Mira was, then she could’ve lived a life of pure obliviousness to their boss, freely interacting with her as if she wasn’t the most terrifying person in their company.
The volume had been toned down now with Rumi’s presence, but she can hear it faintly in the background. She can’t make out the words to what the other person’s been saying, but she can clearly hear the angry exchange happening on the other end of the meeting.
Rumi feels like her soul had left her body the moment her eyes finally land back on Mira. The redhead had been staring right back at her, sharp eyes boring into Rumi’s brown orbs. Mira’s not doing or saying anything and instead is just staring at her. But she feels like her voice had been stripped out of her throat as she feels her gaze burning into her soul.
Rumi doesn’t know how long it was until angry noises on the other end of the call subside and then suddenly the office went silent, but she was glad it did. It was only then that Mira pries her eyes away from the purple-haired girl in front of her and back to the screen by the side of her desk. She taps away at her keyboard for a few seconds before turning back to Rumi.
“What’s this?” Mira asks, her voice definitely softer than the last time she spoke up. Her fingers dragging along the side of the paper before she picks it up, holding it close to her face.
“The reports for this week” Rumi replies instantly as if she’s a private being asked by her commander to report back to her.
Mira hums intelligently as she sets the paper back down on the stacks. “Okay” She replies, her gaze fixed again on Rumi.
“Anything else, Miss Ryu?”
“N-nope—I mean, nothing, Miss Jeong” She silently curses herself for letting her words casually slip. “I’ll get going now”
Mira doesn’t reply and instead just subtly nods. She leans in closer on her desk, hands clasped together and resting on top of her desk.
Rumi gets up and bows, eyes meeting Mira’s for a brief second as she gets up. She quickly turns on her heels and starts quickening in her pace as she walks out of the office. She hears the assistant say something as she leaves the doors to Mira’s office but Rumi doesn’t look back and instead walks straight of the elevator.
She doesn’t dare look back until the elevator doors finally close, as if there’s some superstition behind it that if she catches a glimpse of what’s behind her before the doors finally close on her, then she’d see Mira in front of her. A chill runs through Rumi’s spine as the though runs through her mind.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
“How was the walk up?” Zoey asks as they walk out the office side by side. It was four past five in the afternoon which meant that it was time for them to go home.
Rumi shudders at the memory of the past hour replaying in her mind. “Terrible. She’s terrifying”
Zoey giggles in response, hand slapping Rumi’s arm as it stays there. “Yeah, she is scary” Her hand now softly grabbing Rumi’s arm as they both make their way into the parking lot.
“I knooow” Rumi drawls out, walking over to the passenger side. “Like I swear she has this voice that’s so intimidating” She opens the passenger side door for her deskmate.
“Right!” Zoey happily agrees as she makes her way inside. “It’s kind of hot though”
Rumi feels flustered but she shakes her head as she closes the door and jogs over to the driver side and gets inside. “You find it hot?” Rumi asks as she starts the car, eyebrow raised as she faces Zoey.
“Well” Zoey’s voice now in a higher pitch than usual and Rumi knows what that’s code for, it’s code for, “yes, but I’m too embarrassed to admit it” which is something she learned over those times where they’d have their nightly calls.
“It’s alright, Zoe” Rumi teases.
“H-hey it’s not like I have the hots for her” She pouts, crossing her arms.
“And I’m saying if you would, I wouldn’t judge you” She winks at the short girl in her passenger side. “She is scary, but also hot. Kind of like scary hot” She says, following it by chuckling right after. They pull out of the half-empty parking lot and into the highway.
Zoey laughs with her as she lightly smacks Rumi’s arm. “You’re right, but I can’t be crushing on you both—that’s like twenty-seven HR violations right there!” She jokes, fits of giggles erupting after.