Those Among Teyvat

LIYUE | Continuation

"A friend..." He hummed, in short thought before nodding. To her surprise, Zhongli stood up, turning to face her with a small, but noticeable smile on his face.

"I thank you again, miss [name]. I think I'll take you up on your suggestion."

Again, the way he said her name put her in a momentary trance that she could only move once he had begun to turn to leave and quickly gasped out a, "wait!" in return. She knew this man's name on paper, but for some reason, she had to hear it herself.

"May I have your name before you go?" It was a simple request, but when [name] spoke it aloud, it all seemed so childish. Just for a man who had a nice voice!

"You may call me Zhongli."

And with that, Zhongli turned and left, disappearing into the new crowd of Liyue's busy streets.

CHILDE

The moment [name] entered the Northland Bank she knew that something was wrong. With the employees going eerily quiet the second she walked in and was noticed--it was obviously suspicious. She did the morally right thing and ignored it though the curiosity was killing her.

Though it would nestle itself in the back of her mind she had to push through it and get to her desk. Her desk...that was already filled by someone else. Now she was sure that this was a mistake. Like how a child could find someone in their seat at school by accident but the other woman turned at the feeling of eyes staring at the back of her head, her eyes shrunk in surprise.

"Oh! [name]...what are you doing here?" She asked as if nothing was wrong. [name] stared at her for a brief second more as if questioning the silence around them.

"I'm not quite sure if you had a brief lapse in memory but if my memory serves me correctly that's my desk." She pointed. The sitting figure looked around and then made an 'o' shape with her mouth.

"Apologies! I suppose they didn't inform you quite yet," she stood up, "you've been moved." Luckily even after that shock the woman waited for the other to recompose herself before escorting her to her new office. That's right, she had her own office. With the door plastered with small letters of her name. Her belongings were already moved and thankfully they didn't reorganize the files she kept.

As the woman was getting used to the environment there was a knock at the door. She didn't utter a word and the door opened. On the other side was the familiar redhead with the red scarf.

"Oho, hello comrade! Seems like you're settling in well!" He hummed, planting a gloved hand on his hip. He seemed a bit too prideful.

"Did you do this?" She motioned to the room, and his smile only grew.

"I don't know what you mean..."

Then there was silence. She stared at him but he wasn't about to simply back down and answer her questions.

"Alright, then I suppose I'll guess. Not to flatter myself but you saw that argument and saw that I was much more capable than the other lady and decided to either fire her or demote her and bring me to her place. Am I right?" He began a mock imitation of clapping, once...twice, and then stopped.

"My, my! It looks like I can't fool you. That is partially correct. I just sent that woman back to Snezhnaya since she needs to relearn how important her job is."

"So her 'important' job is now my job. What makes you believe I'm qualified; Harbinger Tartagalia?" If he didn't see that argument he would have never met [name]. She would just be another employee and nothing more if not for her stupid mouth that seemed to not give up when something was unfair.