Nowhere With You

Friday Night Filing

CLACKETY-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!

On Friday night, in the sparsely lit offices of Bread Dog Insurance Limited, Irys and Bae found themselves still glued to the creaky swivel chairs of their open-concept cubicles across from each other. Their eyes were glued to the screens of their desktop computers and their fingertips danced on their keyboards. The rest of the office was empty - with two notable exceptions.

One cubicle away from the rat-girl and Nephilim who were totally-just-colleagues, Bae saw the first exception: the dutiful office manager Kaela Kovalskia who had commandeered one of the desktops of the Sales Executives and was typing away too. Her smartphone, no longer logged into Minecraft, was cradled between her jaw and her shoulder on a phone call.

"Yes. Of course. Things like this happen - especially in that industry." Kaela spoke like a bona fide Sales Executive without missing a beat of her typing, "We understand. We're not leaving the office till' we power through the new package for ZoneCord Manufacturing. And the Zoner Group of Companies, of course." She paused and nodded, listening to her client speak, "You want to talk with our CEO? Oh. She's not in the office anymore."

Another pause followed, causing Bae to glance towards Kaela again.

"Who's in charge here?" Kaela repeated her client's query, "I'll call her for you." Kaela covered the mouthpiece of her smartphone and called out, "Mumei! The client wants to talk with you!"

With that, the second exception appeared - emerging from her executive office across the hall.

"Coming...!" Mumei answered. The owl-girl hurried out from her office, took the phone from Kaela and greeted their client, "Oh hi~! Mumei Nanashi speaking. I was on the phone with Boss Sana just now. She told me about your situation. Don't worry - you'll be in good hands!" The owl-girl spun around and faced the small cadre of Bread Dog staff typing away on their computers, "Isn't that right, friends?"

"Wharf, wharf!" Kaela cheered, repeating the tagline of their company mascot.

Irys and Bae, meanwhile, hesitated. Mumei saw this, leaned over the low cubicle walls and cast her shadow over the two and wore a threateningly sweet smile for the two of them.

"Would you kindly do the Bread Dog cheer, friends?" Mumei asked, her brown eyes burning with flames, "Unless you want me to study a different kind of anatomy."

Irys and Bae looked at each other and, with bashfully red faces, followed suit.

"W-wharf, wharf!"

Mumei snorted.

"See?" Mumei insisted to the client, "They're bright as berries. So please sit tight and we'll have everything in order."

With that, Mumei took Kaela's phone with her back to her own office and closed the door behind her. That left Bae, Irys and Kaela to continue their work.

Once Mumei was well out of earshot, Bae slumped into her seat and groaned audibly.

"This was not how I wanted to spend my Friday night." Bae lamented. She winced from the brightness of her screen but her hands continued alternating between the keyboard and her mouse. Her eyes wandered to the executive office down the hall and she frowned, "To be stuck with that madwoman of all people..."

"Ungh..." Irys groaned from across the low cubicle wall, sympathizing with Bae wholeheartedly. The Nephilim's frown was so deep that Bae swore that her devil half had convinced her angel half to abandon hope and despair.

...

"Welcome to your first ever all-nighter, you two." Kaela spoke, pausing her immaculate, goddess-like multitasking to smile at the two Junior Sales Executives before she got right back to work, "Don't worry. You'll be earning overtime for this. Folks are actually discouraged from doing overtime for the work-life-balance thing." Kaela's bright, albeit tired red eyes shone and she gave a thumbs up, "But that hasn't stopped me."