The Forgotten Bond

GO

His hand rested motionless on the computer mouse. His dead stare pierced through the computer screen and beyond into empty space. The ticking of the clock chopped time into small pieces and the incessant hum of the computer filled the room. His office was merely a small room at the corner of the hallway. Not the fancy corner offices executive employees would have in big firms. his office only had two windows instead of a whole wall full of them. One was opening a view onto the small shopping alley, their office was located at and the other showed the hallway. His desk was clean and organized. All the files were sorted into categories and within those categories cascading in alphabetical order. For him his office was a sacred place. The sofa in the corner was chosen with great care and effort, with ergonomy and color taken in consideration. On his second day he had changed all the light bulbs from cold light to warm light except the one in his desk lamp because he felt like warm light at the desk would have a negative effect on his productivity.

He leaned back and looked at his phone. Usually he wouldn't even take it out of his bag but since he and Song were officially dating he would check for a new message every 15 minutes which for him came close to obsessive behavior. He put down his glasses as he saw there was no message and sighed.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and without waiting for an answer, Oren entered. In Go's eyes, this was an obnoxious quality of his. Why would anyone knock if they didn't care about the response anyway? Why would he bother? In addition, the interiors of all offices were visible through the corridor window anyway. So you didn't even have to knock to find out if the colleague in question was busy. You just had to look through the window.

Go looked up and regarded the lanky man wordlessly.

"Are you done?" Oren asked with a cheerful expression.

Go blinked. "Please?"

His boss sighed. "I asked you earlier if you wanted to go to BARbara with me. Listen, if you don't show up there anymore, Marie will start to resent you."

Go nodded and stood up. "Maybe you are right." He turned off the screen and put the laptop in his bag. Then he followed Oren out of the office and locked the door behind him. It was a habit he had only picked up after working at Panoma. While he was on par with Johnny and Ezra, his actual work and paperwork was his, June's, and Oren's sole business. Not that the others were all that interested in accounts and such. so he locked the door just in case.

They walked down the hall to the elevator. While they waited, Oren continued, "Marie has asked me about you twice already. I don't know what happened between you two, but I think you should see her again. You don't have to sleep with her right away if you don't want to."

Go nodded silently. He wasn't sure whether Oren knew it or not, but Marie was not romantically interested in him the slightest and neither was Go interested in her. One could say they had some kind of friendship going. Marie's story was a rather tragic one and he had always respected her for the moral standard she held herself up to. In the office, he was generally not very talkative. So it was only natural that no one knew about his relationship with Song. Which pretty much included Marie. In Panoma, relationships weren't exactly welcomed but tolerated. In essence it was up to each employee how they lived their private lives. June and Oren trusted that everyone could appreciate the dangers they regularly faced and the risk it posed to their loved ones. Go knew that he would have to tell her about the content of his work eventually but he wanted to give the matter some time and thought first.

Lost in thought, Go almost didn't notice that Oren was saying something, but he wasn't really listening. Lately he'd often found himself completely lost in thought. About his and Song's first date and the night that followed. Why it was this night specifically that he thought about so much was a mystery to him because that night nothing had happened. Go had to admit that he had gotten his hopes up when she asked him to walk her home, but they ended up falling asleep next to each other, quite decently. In fact, she was so exhausted that she fell asleep on the bedspread with her makeup and clothes on. Go had no choice but to take off her shoes and place her on the bed in a way that would fit him as well. The following morning he woke up early and left her apartment. Of course he had left her a note and also sent a message. After all, he wanted to see her again.