pschyo01

[pschyo01]

CHAPTER 9

“What’s up with your friends Sora and Vex?” Mill asked, curiously.

Thea turned to face him.

“What about them?” Thea asked back,  shrugging  her shoulders.

“I don’t know. Are they dating or something?” She could see Arin glancing at them from her peripheral vision.

“No, Vex has a girlfriend!” Thea exclaimed. She couldn’t believe it, but it was what it was.

Honestly, she had thought Sora and Vex were dating too. It wasn’t just her, everyone seemed to think so. But then, during a random conversation, one of Vex’s friends accidentally let it slip that Vex had a girlfriend. A girlfriend of five years, no less. She hadn’t known what to say. Shock was an understatement. Was Vex cheating? But then again, neither Sora nor Vex ever confirmed they were together. Sure, they acted like a couple.

To make it clear, she confronted Vex and asked about his girlfriend. He downright denied it so she didn’t know whom to believe anymore.

Whatever.

“Really?”

“Really?”

Both Arin and Mill echoed the word in unison, their eyes wide with disbelief.

“What? Are you eavesdropping?” she raised her eyebrows at Arin.

“You are literally 2 meters away from me” he said, staring at her as if she was ridiculous.

“Still” she mumbled, turning away from him.

They both dragged their chairs in front of her, so she was now facing both of them. This is what Thea meant when she said everyone here were interested in drama a little too much.

“So?” Mill prodded.

“Yeah, it’s true” Thea confirmed, leaning back in her chair.

“But I thought they were a couple!” Mill frowned, as if it’s somehow her fault that they weren’t dating.

“Me too” Arin added.

No one asked his opinion anyway.

She kept that thought to herself.

“Why are you both so invested in this?” She asked Mill, since he was the one who brought this up in the first place.

“I usually see them hanging out together all the time. So, I was just curious” Mill explained, shrugging. “I think they are dating. You just don’t know”

“Please. She’d definitely tell me” Thea replied, confident. As if.

“Why are you so sure?” Arin asked, his tone just mocking enough to be annoying. He was annoying. Period.

“And why are you asking me this?” she turned to Arin again, narrowing her eyes.

His hair was different today. It was unusually curly, with one stray curl falling across his forehead. It was unintentionally diverting. As if his annoying face wasn’t distracting enough.

“Because I agree with Mill” he said.

“Are you guys experts now?” she rolled her eyes.

“I think they aren’t telling you. They are obviously dating. You wanna bet on it?” Mill poked her arm, that was resting on chair’s handrest.

She swatted his hand away. Mill didn’t care but she could see Arin’s eyes following the movement.

“I don’t care what they do. I just don’t want to be involved in any drama. Leave me out of it” Thea said, clearly done with the topic.

Mill and Arin weren’t the only ones who had brought up that question to her. There were around 7 people, she counted in her head, who asked her the same exact question before. And every time, it felt increasingly strange to keep explaining that she didn’t know anything. She didn’t particularly like talking about it. It felt like betraying Sora for whatsoever reason.

“You are so dumb” Arin said, staring at her with a strange expression.

“Must be contagious. From you” she pressed her lips together.

Mill burst into laughter, shaking his head.

“Still, it affected you way more than me” Arin deadpanned with his straight-face.

This guy.

He was always ready for an argument. In fact, sometimes she felt like he was getting paid to rile her up and not to do the actual job.

She could still hear Mill’s laughter as she ignored them and turned back to her laptop.

Althea-1 Arin-1.

--------

Thea bumped into Rose in the cafeteria, while leaving the office.

“Hey” Rose greeted her with a warm smile.

“Hi!” Thea said, grinning back at her.

They engaged in a short conversation of how their projects were going.

“Leaving early today?” Rose said, checking the time on her phone.

“Yeah,” Thea nodded. “Looks like it might rain, and I’m heading home today. I need to catch a train at 10 pm.”

“Oh! When are you coming back? Rose asked.

“After 2 weeks” Thea replied.

“Work from home?”

“Yupp” Thea smiled.

Rose brushed her hair away from her face and Thea’s eyes flitted to the red hairband in her hair. She suddenly remembered how popular Rose was, among her friends.

“Do you know anyone else from my project?” Thea asked casually, trying not to sound too interested. Masa seemed like he was genuinely crushing on Rose, so she could be of help if it’s possible.

“Yeah. I know Luca” Rose replied.

“And?”

“I spoke to Aran and Masa once. But that’s just one time” Rose smiled. She was clearly an outgoing person, so it made sense she was already acquaintances with everyone.

“What about you?” Rose questioned back.

Thea gave a small, awkward smile. “I don’t really know anyone from your project. Well, except you”

“Oh” Rose said, still smiling. She didn’t seem to mind the sudden awkwardness.

“That’s okay. You’ll get to know more people eventually” Rose said, trying to sound optimistic.

“Hopefully” Thea muttered.

Rose laughed at Thea’s words, shrugging her shoulders.

“So-“ Rose began.

Thea’s phone rung, cutting her off.

“It’s okay” Rose nodded at her, and gave her one last smile. “We’ll talk later”

“After two weeks, I guess” Thea said, giving her a half-smile.

Rose laughed, waving her hand and walking away.

Thea answered the call. It was Luca.

“Hello?”

“Hey Thea” Luca’s voice sounded tired, and there was a lot of background, she couldn’t hear him clearly.

“Yeah!”

“Be there at station by 9:30 pm!” he screamed into the phone.

Luca was from her hometown so both of them were taking the same train today.

“Okay. I know that” Thea said, her voice a pitch higher than usual. She adjusted the bag on her shoulder and opened the cap of her bottle to fill it.

“Is your packing over?” Luca asked.

“Yeah. Yours?” she questioned back, pressing the cool water button on the filter.

“I am still packing. It’s really hard, bro. I feel like I’ll end up leaving things that are important and take things that I actually have no use off” Luca groaned, sounding frustrated.

Thea laughed a little. She could relate to it.

Her bottle was filled half-way when her bag started to slip off her shoulder. She wedged her phone in between her ear and shoulder and adjusted it on her shoulders.

“Just don’t forget your laptop” she said, turning her head to the side as someone stepped up beside her.

Then it happened in a split second, she couldn’t even process.

Her phone slipped off her shoulder.

Thea cursed.

Shit-

She was about to drop her phone, her bag or her bottle. Maybe all three.

God.

But, a hand caught her phone mid-fall and gently pressed it back to her ear. She lifted her eyes and saw Arin, who was staring back at her with amused eyes.

What-

Her mind was still processing.

“I know” she heard Luca’s voice faintly from the phone. But Thea had genuinely forgotten what they were even talking about, completely derailed by the jump scare that happened.

She didn’t say anything to either Arin or Luca. She turned back her eyes to the almost filled water bottle.

Arin was standing close, still holding the phone up against her ear. Though his hand remained away her face, she could feel the proximity of his fingers and his steady eyes pinned to her face. This was getting awkward.

She grabbed her bottle back which wasn’t filled to the brim yet and screwed the cap on, in quick movements. Enough water. She’d survive with it.

“Just don’t be late!” Luca screamed one last time into the phone and hung up before waiting for reply.

Thea turned to Arin, a little embarrassed, taking the phone from his hand and shoving it into her jeans pockets.

“Thanks” she muttered to him. He looked like he was stifling a laugh for whatever reason. She fought the urge to glare at him. She was better than this.

“I thought you left 10 minutes back” he said, sounding curious.

“I was talking to someone” his gaze briefly dropped to her mouth as she spoke.

“Who?” he looked away, grabbing a glass from the stand beside and filling up water.

“Rose” she answered.

“Who is she?”

“She’s from different project. I met her when you went home” she said, her eyes moving to his neck as he gulped the water.

She quickly looked away.

“Anyways, I’ll be going now. Bye!!” she said, grinning at him and waving her hand. Let’s forget what just happened.

“Byee” His lips curved up, barely.

“See you” she added quietly, walking past him, fighting the urge to bump into his shoulders intentionally. She heard him chuckling before placing the glass back on the stand.

Psycho..

-----

[pschyo01]

CHAPTER 8

Mill was so talkative, she almost missed him today. He was working from home for next two days so she had only Arin to talk to today.

Last week had been hectic, and she hadn’t found time to laze around in office. But Mill was always beside her cracking jokes about situations, asking how her work was going and calling for tea breaks every evening.

Arin was there too. Obviously. And she feels like she knew him a lot now. They were partners on a demo project they had to code and present together, so they spent a lot of time together. Their conversations often drifted off-topic, and they’d end up speaking about non sensical things. But it was always fun. With him. He watched the same movies and series as her. He got all her meme references from social media. And vice versa.  They both had broken humour.

She couldn’t explain it but Arin seemed different today. He was smiling at her more often, asking questions like how her day was, what she’d eaten for lunch, things he never bothered with before. She asked him back, of course, but she felt strange telling him about her day. She didn’t mind it.

“Oh, you wanna join this jam session?” Thea said, waving a hand in front of his face to get his attention.

“What is it?” Arin said, moving his chair closer to look at her laptop.

It was an email about a jam session in the office.

He squinted his eyes at the screen. “Nope”

“Why not?” Thea asked him, moving her chair a little back. He moved his chair back to his original spot.

“Are you going?” he countered.

This guy really liked to answer a question with another question.

“I ain’t. I never participated in jam sessions” she answered, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.

“Really? you didn’t have those in college?” Arin looked at her bewildered.

“We had, but I didn’t go” she stared at him, her eyes flitting back and forth between his two eyes and the mole on his ear.

“How’s that possible? We had so many, weekly jam sessions in college and it was mandatory for everyone to participate” Thea’s eyes dropped to his mouth before she turned away to stare at a blank spot on the wall away from them.

“I used to escape from those sessions. I hate speaking in front of crowds” she shrugged, as if it made sense.

Arin stared back at her with a flat expression. His classic resting straight-faced expression.

“Let’s do one now” Thea grinned at him suddenly, excited.

“Do what?” he said, frowning at her.

“A jam session!” she fisted her hands in enthusiasm.

“Seriously?” he laughed at her suddenly as if she was joking.

“Yeah”

“Okay, let’s do it!” It was like a switch flipped and he was suddenly as excited as her.

“I won’t speak” Thea said, squinting her eyes at him. Better tell him now before he thinks she was going to do the speaking part. She will be the audience.

“Give me a topic then” he didn’t mind it.

“Let me think” Thea made an exaggerated thinking face, placing a hand under chin and leaning on the desk.

Arin imitated her stance. “Good morning, everyone. Respected Althea” he glanced at her. “Respected Mill” he glanced at Mill’s seat which was empty. “Today’s topic is..” he trailed off once Thea started laughing.

“Don’t” she leaned on her hands and giggled.

Arin laughed with her.

“It’s so funny when you looked at Mill’s place and said respected” she said, still laughing.

“It was not funny” he denied it, but he was trying hard to stop himself from laughing.

“And why are you using my full name?” she said, smiling, tilting her head a little.

“Simply and it’s been two years since you said you’d give me a topic” he deadpanned.

It wasn’t even two minutes.

She started laughing again, covering her mouth with her hand to not make any sound. His mouth curved a little as he stared at her.

“Let me search. I can’t think of anything right now” Still laughing, she opened her phone and searched for “Interesting Jam topics”. There were so many links and she clicked on one.

She scrolled past the usual topics: Environment, Natural disasters, Love, Current Affairs, Life, People and so on.

Everything looked normal and easy until she scrolled further and went into the topic “People”.

Why are people attached to some more than others?

Wow.

She pointed to the screen and he looked at it.

“Is this, ok?”

He nodded at her.

“Let’s start, then”

She turned her chair and faced him and he did that as well. His eyes were on hers as he began speaking with his straight-face.

“Good morning, everyone. Respected Althea and Respected Mill”, Thea suppressed her laugh, but still ended up grinning. He was smiling when he spoke again. “So, today’s topic is ‘Why are people attached to some more than others?’ Let’s begin by understanding what attachment is. You, from the audience,” he pointed his hand towards her. Thea laughed again.

This guy was acting unintentionally funny.

“Yeah” she muttered, her laughs softening into a wide smile. He was trying to stop himself from smiling.

“How do you define attachment?” he stared at her blankly now.

Chameleon.

“Attachment means” Thea began, narrowing her eyes at him in mock seriousness. “being dependent on a person. Wanting to be in the person’s presence and craving their attention”

“You are absolutely right” he clapped his hands in appreciation as if a real speaker would do in a real presentation. Both of them started laughing again.

“You’re good at this” Thea muttered to him, between their laughs.

“So, let’s continue” he was back to being serious.

“Attachment is emotional investment like Thea said. But it’s a lot more than craving attention. Some people believe attachment is love” Arin continued.

“No” Thea cut in, waving her hand. “Both are absolutely different”

“No, I think they are the same” Arin said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

“Love is a different thing. Attachment has constraints but love doesn’t” she said, looking at him in a challenging way.

“Love begins as attachment. And when people get more attached, they rename the attachment to love. It’s all one and the same” Arin stared back at her, with narrowed eyes. “And what constraints are we talking about here?”

“Time, for one. Attachment has certain time and period. It’s a phase but love isn’t” she retorted.

“So, you say love lasts forever?” he questioned.

“Yes!” she nodded firmly.

“Then what about people who break up because they fall out of love?”

Fair point.

“They weren’t exactly in love then”

“Then what was it?”

Thea, paused, thinking. The right word was attachment but saying it felt like conceding.

“That’s attachment” he said softly. He didn’t look like he was over with it.

“It is” she admitted, then quickly added, “Wait, but we ain’t just talking about romantic love here. Let’s generalise to all types of love. Friendship, family everything”

“Alright, but people fall out in any relationship. Are you saying they never truly loved each other then?” Arin said, looking straight into her.

“No, People can love each other but circumstances might still break them apart” She argued back.

“But that contradicts your statement that love lasts forever”

“This isn’t about whether love lasts forever. We are speaking about love and attachment”

“Convenient,” Arin muttered, leaning back further into the chair.

Thea gave him a look. “Don’t make that face.”

“What face?” he raised his eyebrows, feigning innocence.

“Forget it,” she narrowed her eyes at him, annoyed.

“Okay,” Arin said, tapping his fingers on the desk. “Let’s take friendship, since you brought it up. Let’s say I have a best friend. We talk every day, hang out, tell each other everything. But then, I move to a new city, get busy with life, and we stop talking. Slowly. It just… fades.”

“Yes. It happens” Thea nodded slowly.

“In this scenario, I say I was attached to that friend. What do you say?” Arin said, looking at her with a curious gaze.

“It depends”

“On what?”

“Time. If you are friends with that person for a long time. It’s love. The bond won’t fade away. But if it’s only a brief period of a time. It’s attachment. It might fade away”

“That’s what I am saying. It’s all about degree of attachment which is measured by time. There is no concept of love”

“No” she disagreed, sucking in a breath.

There were so many words swirling and jumbling over in her mind, but she couldn’t line them up fast enough into words. So many scenarios, explanations and examples that will prove her point.

“So, let’s say you have a best friend you have known for years. You love them. Platonically of course” Thea said, and Arin nodded at her. “When you move away to a new city, the bond won’t fade away cause it’s love. You will still want to talk to that friend occasionally and when you go back to your hometown you will meet them and spend time with them. It’s because of love and not attachment. Love takes you back to that person.”

She exhaled a long breathe and stared at him to gauge his reaction, waiting. He stared back at her for a few seconds, seemingly impressed but trying to conceal it.

“Do you agree?”  she leaned forward, smiling just a little.

He turned his face away mumbling a barely audible ‘yes’. He sounded annoyed, but his eyes told a different story.

“But I still believe love and attachment are the same” he added, glancing back at her. He seemed like he agreed to whatever she said and it made sense. But he still wasn’t ready to admit that she was right.

“You can just say you don’t want to accept I’m right” Thea teased, laughing at him.

“Whatever” he muttered, biting a part of his lower lip.

She laughed again. Men and their typical egos.

She didn’t really feel like she accomplished anything. But she was glad she had this conversation with him. He was calm and listened to her opinions patiently, without interrupting unlike most of the people she knew. He gave her time to put her thoughts into words and form sentences and lowkey accepted that she was correct at last.

She liked it. A lot.

Anyways.  She updated her imaginary but important scoreboard.

Althea-1 Arin-0.

--------

[pschyo01]

CHAPTER 7

“Its @arinn19. Yeah, that one.”

They had just shared their Instagram IDs and were now sending friend requests to each other. Thea, however, was low-key panicking and was shit scared that his name might pop up in her recent search list when she opened her insta search bar.

She might or might not have stalked him yesterday. For research purposes. Of course.

Fortunately, her search history was clean and she genuinely was proud of her own stalking skills. Imagine getting caught. Oh my God. She’d have to change companies if it gets to that.

"So, you drew this??" She asked, turning to him, astonished.

"Yeah" Arin nodded.

"It's good" she said, scrolling through his posts with keen interest. As if she wasn’t doing it the night before.

Thea didn’t have any posts on her Instagram so they were scrolling through Arin’s profile. He mentioned he liked to do digital art back when he was in Engineering two years ago, and he posted some of those. Interesting.

They looked really good and one particularly caught her eye. It was the image of a boy, head thrown backwards and the wind ruffling his hair. His eyes were closed and there was a background music to the picture. She saw it yesterday and heard the music too. It was a haunting melody but in a language she couldn’t understand.

“It’s Arabic” Arin answered the unspoken question in her mind.

“Seriously, you know Arabic too?” Thea gasped, turning to him in disbelief. He already knew five languages. Five.  And ‘shocked’ wasn’t enough to describe how she felt looking at him.

“I can understand” he nodded his head as if it’s normal.

She still stared at him like a dumb person. The Audacity.

“It’s amazing. You already know five languages,” she repeated, still trying to wrap her head around it.

“Everyone in my hometown knows them” he shrugged.

The nonchalance. She wanted to hit him.

She couldn’t even comprehend how knowing six languages felt in someone’s head.

She sighed, turning back to the post. “Is it a song?”

“Not exactly”

“Then?”

She turned to look at him. He, too, lifted his eyes from the phone to her face.

“It’s a poem” he replied.

“What does it mean?”

He hesitated for a moment but still answered. “It means something along the lines ‘Love is a disease. Love is a cure. Love is Destiny’ “

Thea was surprised, but her face remained neutral. She had mastered the expression.

She pressed her lips together, thought for a second and asked him. “Do you believe it?”

He looks like he doesn’t. She waited for his answer.

“I used to” he said, his eyes drifting away from her to his blank laptop screen. She decided not to push it, though her mind was screaming with curiosity.

She didn’t really want to judge someone based on their appearance but he doesn’t look like someone who gives a flying fuck about things, especially things like love. So, his answer surprised her.

She turned back her attention to the phone, scrolled through rest of the posts.

“Is this like your hidden talent or something?” she said, turning to him.

“Kind of” his said, his lips curving into a smile. Not Ugly at all.

“Tell me, do you have any hidden talents?” he asked her back.

Thea grinned. “I don’t have any” she made a thinking face.

“I don’t know dance. My singing could kill people. Let’s not talk about my cooking skills.” she said. She could draw. But she didn’t feel like telling him that now. Not after seeing his art and she doesn’t really have any proof that she can draw. So it’d look a lot like bluffing.

He stared at her for two seconds and she thought he was about to ask something.

“It’s still hidden then”

Bye.

She laughed and she didn’t know to find it funny or be embarrassed.

Embarrassment is a choice anyway.

[pschyo01]

CHAPTER 6

1 week later

By the time she was in office, Arin and Mill were already back from home.

“Hi” Mill said, waving at her enthusiastically. He was smiling brightly early in the morning.

“Hi, Mill”

Then she turned to Arin.

“Hi” Arin said, smiling at her.

Progress. But still could do better.

“How was your trip?” Thea asked both of them at once.

Mill started speaking. He said about the things he did at home for whole week, home-made foods he ate, friends he met, beaches he visited and how good the weather in his place was compared to here.

They rolled their chairs, so Arin and Mill are now in front of her facing her.

“What about you?” Thea looked at him. He was wearing a light shade of blue shirt today.

“It was good” he replied, staring back at her with nonchalance.

Please.

Thea internally rolled her eyes at the difference between Mill and him. Polar Opposites.

“You’re going home next week, right? When are you coming back?” Arin asked.

“On 12th August. That means I’ll be home for two weeks” Thea said, smiling in excitement. She was going home almost after two months.

“When are you guys coming back again?”

“Aug 6th“

“Okay”

Luca pinged Mill for whatever reason and Mill had to leave the conversation.

“So, what did you do at home?” Thea turned to face Arin completely, and her foot brushed his as she moved her chair.

“Oh, sorry” she moved back a little to create more space for their legs.

“Nothing, I watched some movies. By the way I completed ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ “, he said, leaning back on his chair.

“How was it?” Thea asked, though she had absolutely 0 plans to read the book.

“It was good”

She knew he’d say that. So, she already had the next question in her mind. “What’s it about?”

Then, he let out a sigh and started narrating the story. She stared at him nodding her head time to time and she could see his eyes flitting all over her face.

“Do you plan to read it?” he asked, once he completed the story.

“Nope” Thea nodded her head, staring at his eyes.

He pressed his lips and nodded his head.

It was suddenly awkward for no reason. “Okay” she muttered under breath, and they both turned back their chairs, retreating to their laptops.

What was that?

-------

[pschyo01]

CHAPTER 5

DAY 5

The next day, Thea reached the office early. There was an offline meeting scheduled for 11 a.m., and around thirty members were expected to join. Being a fresher, she wouldn’t get much attention.

She went into the meeting room and chose a seat in the far corner. As the room slowly filled, she spotted a few familiar faces, though she didn’t really know anyone, besides some guys from her hometown, Luca and Mark. They joined the company the same day as her.

She waved when they caught her eye, and they smiled back in acknowledgment. She suddenly remembered that Arin and Mill weren’t going to be here for this week.

Then someone came and sat next to her. A girl about her age.

“Hey” she smiled at Thea brightly.

“Hi” Thea smiled back, although a little awkward.

“I am Rose. You?”

“Thea”

They both smiled at each other before Rose leaned in and asked. “Are you in the same project as Luca?”

“Yeah. How do you know?” Thea said, staring at her curiously.

“Luca mentioned it” Rose replied with a shrug. She was a good foot shorter than Thea and looked like she came out of a 90’s rom-com. There was a bright red hairband in her hair that perfectly matched her top.

They engaged in a casual talk about their projects and managers before the meeting commenced.

When the meet ended, Thea headed to pantry for coffee. There she saw a group of boys discussing and laughing about something. Typical. Luca, Mark, Mikel, Aran, Masa were there. They all trained together, so Thea was familiar with them.

“Hey”

“Hey” They all greeted her in unison when she walked past them.

“Hi” She smiled at all of them. They looked cheerful early in the morning. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Luca has a crush on Rose!” Aran blurted a little too loudly, earning a few amused glances from others in the pantry.

“Bro, hushh!!” Masa muttered, glaring at Aran.

“Please, it’s Masa and Aran who are crushing on her, not me” Luca protested, scrunching his face in mock annoyance.

Thea honestly didn’t know who to believe. Luca did have a reputation for always being surrounded by girls.

“She looks beautiful bro”, Masa grinned.

“I agree. You should totally say that to her right now” Aran chimed in.

“How am I supposed to say? I don’t even know her and I’d be the creepy guy if I go and do that”

At least Masa had brains.

Suddenly Masa turned to her. “Hey Thea, you should help me. She’s your friend right?”

“What do you mean?” Thea blinked at them, dumbfounded.

“I saw you talking with her in meeting room” Luca said, eyeing her.

“We just met before the meeting. That was our first ever conversation.” Thea replied, amused. Seriously?

“Huh!” Masa frowned dramatically.

They were all being so exaggerated, tossing around half-truths and teasing each other, that Thea couldn’t even tell if they were being genuine or just messing around.

At least it was entertaining to her. She ended up offering a few suggestions on how to talk to a girl without coming off too intense, and surprisingly, they listened, especially Masa and Aran.

She couldn’t quite figure out why Aran was getting so into it, considering she knew he had a girlfriend. But Masa seemed genuinely interested.

Then she waved them bye, and told them to update what happens before leaving.

That was how the whole week passed, same work, horrible meetings as it’s the first week in this project for her, random conversations and so much drama.

[pschyo01]

CHAPTER 4

DAY 4:

"How’s work? And the new bay? I heard it’s huge compared to your old workspace" Sora said, sipping her coffee.

They were having breakfast in the cafeteria. Sora wore an orange kurta paired with some white pants today and it looked really good on her. Thea was waiting for the drama to unfold once Vex showed up.

"No heavy work. We're fixing some bugs and doing documentation for now" Thea sipped her coffee. "Oh, So, you know Arin right? That straight-faced guy from our initial training?"

"Yeah" Sora nodded.

"Guess what? He is my desk mate now. Him and Mill, actually" Thea said.

"What?? What do you mean?" Sora asked, suddenly interested.

"I ain't making this up" she gave Sora a flat smile.

"So, Arin in the sense, the Arin- who stood up because you were in his eyesight and the Arin- who didn't vote for your painting? The Arin- who probably might not like you?"

"Wow, you seriously remembered all of that" Thea looked at her, surprised. Not that Sora had a bad memory or anything, but still—people here really did enjoy drama a little too much.

"I remember everything and more" Sora said, scrunching her eyebrows together.

"Good and yeah. That Arin is my desk mate" Thea said, finishing the last sip of her coffee. "Honestly, he doesn’t seem as bad."

Sora stared at her for a second and made a face that screamed curiosity.

"And that's it?" Sora asked.

"Yeah. And where's Vex?" Thea quickly changed the topic.

"Idk. He said he’s on the way" Sora said, standing up from her chair.

"What? You are leaving too? I am also going. I have a meeting in 10 mins. It's better if I go and login now. Just inform Vex that we'll see him later"

Or whatever.

She knew they both were going to hang out without her anyway. She didn’t really mind it at this point.

"Okay" Sora smiled, yanking the bag on her shoulder.

---

"When do you usually come to the office?" Thea asked, putting her bag on the desk and taking the laptop out.

The thing with Arin was, this guy speaks just fine when she starts a conversation. But he wasn’t really interested in starting one.

Not that she gave him any opportunities. She starts speaking as soon as she arrives every day.

“Depends. Today I came at 10 AM” he replied.

“Okay” Thea muttered and started the day’s work.

About an hour passed and her work for the day was over. It was a simple bug fix and thankfully, she found the issue quickly. She updated it to her manager and turned to Arin.

He was scrolling through his phone.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

She could’ve just kept her mouth shut and minded her own damn business. But no.

“News” he said, glancing at her.

She leaned forward to get a look at his phone. The brightness was too low.

“Can you turn up the brightness?” she mumbled.

He stopped scrolling and adjusted it.

As she moved her chair closer to his, her foot skimmed past something. It was his leg.

“Sorry” she mumbled.

Embarrassing.

“Is it business related?” Thea questioned.

“Kind of”

“Are you into politics?” she asked again, moving closer and opening an article related to some place she didn’t recognize.

“Not really” he answered, his eyes flitting over the article casually.

“What do you do when you are free. I mean, what are your hobbies?” she asked, her eyes moving to his face from the phone.

He stared back at her. “I watch movies” he cleared his throat. “And sometimes I read”

“Really?”

And suddenly Thea was interested. She had just been making casual conversation because they both weren’t working. But now she heard the “read” word, she was into the conversation.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Elena🫶🏻 (@helenatheman)

“Yeah, and what do you do when you are free?” he questioned back, but she still wasn’t satisfied with his answer so she ignored his question.

“Do you read novels?” she questioned back.

“I’ve read a few”

“Tell me the last book you read”

“’Verity’ and, Now I’m reading ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’”

“Really? You read Verity”

“Yeah, and today, you said ‘really?’ an awful number of times today already” he mimicked the word ‘really’ in her voice.

“Please” Thea started laughing. It sounded way too funny when he said it like that.

“Then what? I read Verity” his tone was light but he was staring at her with a flat expression.

“I mean, I never met a guy who read Verity. So, I was just surprised. Did you like it?”

“Yeah, I liked it. Hey, did you read it? Also, you didn’t answer my question of what do you do in free time?”

Oh my God. He sounded genuinely curious that Thea was a caught off guard by his tone.

Thea shrugged her shoulders. “I read too. I watch movies, series, dramas. But I read mostly. And yeah, I read Verity”

“Yeah?” he said, smiling a little. “Did you like it?”

“Yupp. And you?”

It was how the conversation went for about one hour. They talked about books, movies, series, and Thea realised they had a lot in common. Actually, a lot.

Then Mill showed up.

“Hey. Thea” Mill’s voice was excited as he greeted her.

“Heyy” she smiled broadly, greeting him.

“Hey bro, did you book the tickets?” Mill asked, turning to Arin.

“Yeah, you?” Arin replied.

“Yeah, I booked” Mill said, nodding.

“What tickets?” Thea asked, looking back and forth between them.

“We’re going home” Mill answered for both of them.

She turned to Arin, and he nodded his head in ‘yes’.

“When are you coming back?” she asked Arin.

“After one week. Aren’t you going home?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

“I’m going after two weeks” she replied.

“Oh, I heard everyone is going for Christmas after two weeks. You too?” She turned to face Mill at the question.

“Yeah, I already booked my tickets” she nodded at Mill.

Mill smiled. “We’ll be going then also. Me and him” he added, gesturing at Arin. “We usually take the same train.”

“Oh, okay” Thea nodded as if everything made sense. She glanced at Arin again, and he was already out of the conversation, typing on his laptop.

“So, where do you live around here?” Mill asked.

Thea knew that Mill was a talkative guy from their initial training days when he interacted with everyone freely, colleagues and even trainers. But she hadn’t expected him to be this talkative. He asks a lot of random questions and always have new topics to talk about. She wasn't complaining exactly — but it was a little strange, having so many conversations with someone she had barely known until recently.

---

[pschyo01]

Seating arrangement. Red color is partitions.

[pschyo01]

CHAPTER 2

DAY 2:

Thea zipped up her bag after double checking everything was in there. Last week, she had forgotten her mouse and she wasn’t about to make that mistake again.

As usual she was in the office at exact 11 ‘O clock.

She stepped into the bay, and the first thing she noticed was Mill sitting at the desk beside hers, different from his previous spot.

“Hi” she waved her hand as Arin looked at her.

“Hi” he replied, pressing his lips together.

Mill turned to her from his new seat. He was smiling.

“Hey, Thea”

“Hey” she smiled back.

“I changed seats. Hope you don’t mind?” he asked her, tilting his head slightly.

“Nope” Thea laughed a little. “It’s good that I’ll have company on either sides” she was genuinely elated, as Mill is a cheerful guy.

“Can’t argue on that” Mill laughed with her.

“So, what’s with the change?” Thea asked as she settled into her seat and opened her laptop.

“There was someone else in my seat. Seats got mixed up”

“Ohh. Really?”

“Yeah. They said it happens every time in this workspace because of few ambiguous seat numbers in the middle of bay” Mill explained.

“Okay okay” she nodded, giving a casual thumbs up.

“By the way. Where are you from? I wanted to ask this before but never got the chance”

And just like that she was having the same conversation about where she is from.

“Oh? So you and him live in same apartment complex?” Thea pointed her head to Arin.

“Yeah. But on different floors” Mill replied.

Arin was quiet the whole time, briefly glancing at them when his name would come up in the conversation and it came quite a lot of times. He was in the conversation but he wasn’t just contributing.

Thea also learned that Arin and Mill worked together at their previous company which meant they’d been friends for almost a year. Explains why they are close.

CHAPTER 3

Day 3:

“Do you know anyone else around here?” Thea asked Arin. They both were editing the same file so they both moved their chairs closer to make it easier to talk.

“Yeah, a few” Arin replied, his voice flat.

“Who?”

“Mill and Mikel?” Arin replied. He stared at her as if it’s her mistake that he only knew those two people or for even coming up with a stupid question like this, she didn’t know.

“You know Mill because he is your old friend, and you know Mikel because you are gym partners” she said, leaning back in the chair and folding her arms. Her shoulder brushed his, and she moved back a tad bit at the contact.

He paused typing and then turned to her.

“So?” he prompted.

“So?”

Wtf do you mean, so? She wanted to snap. But god gave her ample patience for these kinds of situations.

“So?” he repeated, raised his eyebrows.

“I meant do you know anyone apart from Mill and Mikel?” Thea asked again, sighing.

He didn’t respond.

“Well, do you know anyone around here?” he questioned back, folding his arms on his chest imitating her.

He was wearing a dark blue shirt today. Definitely his color.

“I know Sora and Vex” she muttered.

“I meant besides them” he countered, eyes narrowing with mock curiosity.

“I know”

“Who? Tell me” He leaned forward a little and tilted his head, as he stared at her.

Thea paused, trying to think. No one came to mind. Honestly, she really should socialize more.

“Well…” she fake-coughed. “..does Mill count?”

“No”

“I.. I don’t know, okay” she looked away from his gaze. “I know few people but not well enough to consider them my friends”

“Yeah. I get it,” he murmured, turning back to his laptop.

She wanted to say something just to spite him, but just then a notification popped up on her screen.

------

[pschyo01]

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.

Sorrrr: 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.