Chapter Text
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEE-
Click
Groaning and fluttering her eyes open after blindly reaching for her alarm clock, Teto wakes at 6 AM for her first day at her new corporate job, she has to make a good impression after all.
Stretching her arms out and yawning, she gets out of bed to get ready, brushing her teeth, making breakfast and getting changed just before it turns 7:25 AM, She takes the free time to wander in her own thoughts for a while, of course with some dumb internet videos playing in the background.
She thinks about the possibilities of this new job as a Office Assistant, maybe she'll climb the corporate ladder someday,— maybe she'll experience some of that office romance she reads in her spare time— suffice she's excited for her new job.
It seems she's too exicted, it's almost 8:20 AM, She finalizes her preparation for the day, Keys? Check, Phone? Check, Wallet? Check, She makes sure she looks decent in the mirror, a clean white dress shirt, black pants and a red tie, Good enough, she thinks before adjusting her glasses and leaving her apartment all alone with the dust bunnies.
—
My Boss is going to KILL me!!!, she shrieks at herself, she's gotten stuck in seemingly a long traffic jam, it's 8:42 AM, shit. shit. shit. shit! what do I do?? I'm supposed to arrive at 9 AM!!!, she considers possibly abandoning her car and running there, immediately shutting that thought away, she gives up thinking of an escape and resides to her fate of being late on the first. damn. day!
—
Teto FINALLY gets to the parking lot of the office building, she, stupidly so, rushes parking accidentally scraping her own car against a pole, "FUCK!", she finds herself yelling to no one in particular, leaving that problem for now, she has bigger things to attend to.
She sprints to the entrance of the building, which quickly turns into jogging, which quickly turns into walking, I have to work on cardio, she mentally notes to herself, huffing and puffing all the way to the door, the sun makes her skin glistening with sweat.
Finally reaching the door, she walks into the building, immediately trying to remember where she's supposed to work again, how could I forget??? I was just here 2 weeks ago!, she eventually needs to ask someone nearby in the lobby.
Stepping over to a woman in green hair, she looks like one of those coworkers she saw when she arrived for the interview here, her face clings in shadows, the only thing Teto can make out aside from the hair is her eyes and lips.
Teto breathes in, still recovering from her pathetic attempt at running, "h-Hey, Miss, do you know where the sales department is l-located..?", She has to look up due to the slight height difference between Teto and the woman in front of her, It makes her feel small and anxious.
"Hm, wait..." She glares down at Teto and squints, "You're that rookie who applied 2 weeks ago...", She scoffs, Teto immediately feels a tad bit smaller, "Can't believe they let you on the team." Just before teto can ask "what does THAT mean?", she coughs in her hand to fight back a grin, "it's- ahem- it's on the 3rd floor to the left"
"t-Thank you! I- uh- My name's Kasane Teto!" She brings her hand towards the strange woman.
She tilts her head, seemingly amused by what Teto's doing, she brings her own hand towards teto's, both you and her palm meet for a handshake.
"I'm Gumi Megpoid, Happy to have you here on the team, Newbie." She says she shakes Teto's hand, her hand feels tiny in comparison to Gumi's hand which it too is clung by shadows for some reason, Teto can swear that Gumi was about to apply pressure to the handshake, more than needed, but she lets go, turning around towards the direction of the elevator, looking back at gumi and waving a hand to which Gumi grins, almost like wolf all while waving back, unnerving Teto.
What an odd woman...
—
DING!
She arrives at the 3rd floor, take a left...or was it right?, Teto gets no time to ponder cause the moment she leaves the elevator someone walks into her, somehow with enough force to make Teto stumble and fall on her ass.
"Ow! Watch where you're goi-" Teto cuts herself off when she looks up, from where she's sat, she feels infinitely small, a person with the same shadows clinging to their face and long yellow hair, glares at her, they don't say anything but their glare is enough to make her feel fear.
"i-I'm sorry- That was my bad-" Teto apologize as she gets back up and brushes her outfit to get any dust off of it, the stranger doesn't reply, they only continue to glare, Teto looks at anything other than their eyes, her eyes fall onto a nametag on their uniform, "Akita Neru, Head of IT Department", Before Teto can ask anymore questions, Neru heads into the elevator, leaving Teto to be confused, She blurts out, "i-I am Kasane Teto, It's nice to meet yo-" Her greeting is cut off by the elevator.
Does climbing the corporate ladder make you like this???
—
When she applied to the job she expected to do menial tasks, like making copies of documents, informing coworkers of meetings, project changes, just simply being an assistant!
What she didn't expect was to run around handing coffees to everyone around the office like a madman, I hate the smell of coffee!, everytime she stops at a cubicle to deliver another cup she can't help but introduce herself to her coworkers and everytime they all reply in some strange way scoffing, rolling their eyes, making some weird remark—"Nice to meet me too, I know~" "Not for long~"—this routine repeats for the next hour and a half, These people are caffeine addicts, I HATE it!!!
For perhaps the... Teto's not quite sure, she lost count of how much coffee she had to deliver, she brings a cup of coffee to a cubicle, this time the interaction goes differently, the coworker is a man with dark blue hair, even with the shadows clinging to his face, he radiates the manners of an extreme workaholic.
Setting the cup right next to his desk, she once again repeats her greeting, "Hi, I'm Kasa-"
"I don't need to know who you are, newbie," He interrupts not turning away from his computer, making Teto flinch just from his tone alone, "Cause that's what you will always be," Teto attempts to mumble out "I'm sorry-" just to get interrupted again, "Your entire purpose in this company is to be a little errand girl," She tries again, she feels the burn of tears threatening to spill and her throat develope a lump, he once again interrputs her, not caring enough to even look her in the eyes, "Now get the fuck out of my cubicle, I don't want to hear you talk ever, work slave."
Silence, No witty comment, No attempt to defend herself, just pathetic, cowardly, weak silence.
Teto is reduced to a small, pathetic, dog, staring down at the floor, not finding the ability to bite back, let alone reply, she mumbles out a "sorry" which is almost interrupted once more but she decides to leave before another scalding remark burns her already burnt mental state.
Why did I ever apply to this job?, Was that man right about me?, Am I that useless?, nothing but an errand girl?, her thoughts don't help her already sad state, she runs to the nearest bathroom, finds an empty stall and just lets her tears flow freely.
—
She sees the new girl skamper towards the direction of the bathroom and decides now is the time to make her presence known.
"Kaito, you really shouldn't have blew up on that newbie...You know I could report you to HR for it." She rest a shoulder on the cubicle walls, giving Kaito the most smug-look ever.
"Why do you care so much!?" Kaito yells out, "I did it to newbies before," He recalls, "with way more potential than that pathetic girl and yet you NEVER threatened me like this, Why now, huh?" He points an accusatory finger at the smug woman, "Is she some sort of special new toy for you?!" Even without the woman replying to him, he knows that he messed up, big time.
Everyone from all across the department has fully brought their attention onto them, She walks close to Kaito, getting all up in face, leaning towards his face and maintaining eye contact like a predator would a prey.
"You'll hear from the boss in...", She places her chin in-between her thumb and index finger in a mock-thinking experession, "Hmm...2 days.", She's now grinning from ear to ear.
"h-Hey- wait a minute- I'm sor-", He gets interrupted "bahbahbahbah!", She makes a zipping gesture, "No way out of this, Kaito."
She walks away, leaving Kaito in a state much like how he left the poor newbie in.
—
After her crying fit, Teto picks herself up by her bootstraps, leaving the bathroom she notices how everyone is focused on that awful man and a woman with cyan, turquoise hair, She looks so smug and...he looks...sad? scared?, She ignores him, he doesn't deserve the time of day!
The rest of her day goes relatively the same, asshole coworkers,—One of them poured a damn cup of coffee on my head cause it 'didn't have enough sugar'???—Strange comments,—What did that ginger haired girl mean by 'You look like a sad puppy from where I stand.' in the most monotone, dead, flat, way ever???—and a sickening amount of coffee.
Clocking out, Teto notes how that same turquoise haired woman from earlier, heads to the elevator and goes up instead of down into the lobby, Weird., Teto waits for everyone else to leave before getting in the elevator, she doesn't want to get teased and bullied while being cramed in an elevator by people who weirdly enough are all taller than her!
—
She presses the button that heads to the floor where the boss is located, grinning to herself, Finally a good time to use my reputation to take care of that disgruntled man and to acquire a very cute assistant all for me!
Knocking on the door to the boss' office, she waits for an answer,"Come in!" a muffled way too excited voice comes from the other end.
"Miss Miku! It's good to see you, Come sit down!", Una beams seeing miku her favorite employee, she gestures to one of the chairs in front of her desk, her desk itself is clean, a stack of already signed papers near the edge, a holder for pens all of which are design with an animal cap, a closed laptop in the middle and a nameplate with 'Otomachi Una'.
"Hello, Boss," She says as she walks over to take a seat, "I've come for a... let's say favor for me.", Una despite the shadows clinging to her face, raises an eyebrow and tilts her head, "Go on...", Miku clears her throat, "Now before I begin, I know I should've taken this to HR first but I need this to be dealt with, immediately," She breathes in, "Mr Kaito on more than one occasion snapped, insulted and emotionally hurt a new coworker, today he did it to the new girl," She recalls every nasty, cruel thing he said to every new blood, it almost makes her mad, almost, "Everytime I let it go due to the fact that he's one of the most hardworking ones in the sales department," She takes another breath in, "Today has been the final straw and frankly he said some mean things and now I want him gone."
Una takes a couple minutes to think of a response eventually saying in the most happy go lucky tone, "Sure! He'll get his two week notice and he'll be out of here." She reaffirms that Kaito is a goner by taking Miku's hand and shaking it vigorously.
After their frankly sudden handshake Una continues, "But... surely this can't be the only thing you came in person to ask for, was it?" Una grins already jumping up and down in her seat for what her favorite employee could ever be so desperate to ask for.
Miku smiles, slightly matching Una's cheerful one, "Yes, in fact I do have a more important request," She recalls the new girl's name from her endless greetings around the office, somehow she never got to Miku so she can greet her, that'll change tho~, "I want the new girl, Kasane Teto, to be my own personal assistant.".
Upon processing what Miku just asked for, Una squeaks in utter joy, "Eek!!! Awww does our Miku like the new girl that much?~" Una is smiling ear to ear, giggling to herself, Miku's entire character is broken in a moment of rare embarrasment, "Wh- No! This is simply forrrr...her own good!" She goes back into her usual self, "I'm only trying to get her accustomed to workplace instead of being kicked around by lions."
Una's antics do not cease, in fact they only double over in intensity and volume, "Yeah yeah, Sure thing, I believe you, Miku!" She does not, Una coughs in her hand to control herself, "Ahem! So...I think, taking in your near perfect behavior, and hard work, I think I owe you this one, Consider Miss..." Una blanks on the new hire's name.
"Kasane Teto," She fills in the blank, "Her name's Kasane Teto." Una finds something very amusing about how she reminded her of the newbies name.
"Mhm, Consider Miss Teto, all yours!"
—
Finally, arriving to her apartment door, her eyes are achingly tired, her legs are almost giving out beneath her, turning in the key to the door, she walks in, setting her bag on the table and getting ready for bed.
during her end of day routine she thinks back to the events of today, the weird coworkers, that mean awful man, the endless back and forth for damned coffee, her dislike for coffee has doubled over for simply the first day, Should I simply just quit? How am I going to find another job? This was the only one that hired me after countless attempts!, Teto decides to endure the overwhelming work environment for hope that maybe she'll get a higher position or even the environment itself would change.
"Your entire purpose in this company is to be a little errand girl"
His words flashback to her, making her frown to no one in particule, she vigorously shakes her head clear of that thought process.
Ugh, I'll just go to bed, tomorrow is another day.
crashing her body flat into her bed, she closes her eyes and drifts off to tomorrow.