Chapter Text
The printer displays another error message.
Lena clenches her jaw, her manicured nails drumming in a choppy rhythm against the machine's cheap plastic casing. Her silk blouse clings to her back, slightly damp with sweat.
The print room is also the company's document archive, which in turn is the office supply storage and the place where discarded advertising posters lay forgotten in the darkest corner of the room. It's small, poorly ventilated and the smell of toner and coffee permeates the air.
The machine beeps again this time saying "Tray 2 jammed." Tray 2 is empty.
Lena curses, gripping the edge of the printer with her fingers.
"Oh, please" Lena says, staring at the small screen. Her frustration overflows and the tip of her heel taps against the side of the printer.
"Wow, what would P'Kao say if she saw you ruining the office equipment?" Miu leans against the doorframe, arms crossed.
Lena doesn't have to turn around to notice Miu's wide grin; her tone gives her away. "It's jammed" Lena says, as if that explains everything.
Miu approaches casually "So your solution is to attack it? Should I call HR?. P'Lena has finally lost her temper.”
Lena exhales through her nose, a slow, deliberate breath she reserves for those who test her patience "I'm working on it."
“I’m pretty sure that’s not in the manual” Miu says, tapping the side of the printer mockingly.
Lena finally turns to face Miu “You know, most people would offer to help instead of just standing there.”
Miu gasps and clutches her chest. “Me? Help? Are you seriously asking me for a favor? What should I ask for in return?” Miu frowns, her fingers drumming dramatically on her chin. “I heard that position is still available. It’s never too late to take the plunge and finally leave this office, Ms. Schuett.”
“Are you going to be helpful or not?”
Miu rolls her eyes and pushes Lena aside with her hip. “Move aside, let someone who knows about technology handle this.”
Before Lena can protest, Miu takes her place, studying the printer screen for a few seconds. The error message is still flashing. Miu murmurs to herself, not saying anything Lena can understand but the younger woman seems focused and surprisingly professional.
"Aha" Miu's fingers tap a few buttons. "That makes sense."
"What?" Lena asks.
"Yep, that's definitely it."
Lena is confused, since when did Miu become a technician? Last she heard, Miu was responsible for the ink explosion last month and almost setting off the smoke detector when she tried to clean the printer. Come to think of it, the real question is: how does that antique still work after passing through Miu's clumsy hands?
Although, maybe she learned from her mistakes and became the first person to read the user manual abandoned under Jane's desk.
It's worth noting that Miu's professional act doesn't last long, one second she's all knowledge and solutions and the next her hands are aggressively shaking the paper tray. Lena doesn't have time to intervene, it all happens so fast, the plastic creaks, some papers fly out and Miu's fingers finally manage to reach the jammed paper, which she pulls hard until she manages to rip the crumpled paper out.
Miu's smile is triumphant. "See? Easy."
Lena raises an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah, brute force. I never would have thought of that."
Miu throws the crumpled paper into the bin. "You're welcome, A 'thank you' wouldn't hurt."
Lena rolls up the sleeves of her blouse. "Thanks for reminding me why I don't let you near my things."
Miu gasps. "Excuse me? I fixed it."
"By attacking it" Lena says. "Which, coincidentally, was my strategy and you copied it." She touches the printer screen. "And now it's flashing a different error, which is your fault."
"You're impossible" Miu rolls her eyes. "Get out of my way. I have important things to print." She nudges Lena again, almost shoving her and waves a flash drive in her face.
"I'm not finished with what I was doing yet."
Miu steps forward and plugs in the flash drive before Lena can get close. "It's not my fault P’Kao is stingy and doesn't want to buy another printer."
Lena is about to contradict her but instead indifferently points to the coffee cup sitting on a pile of papers a few steps away from Miu. "If I have to wait, at least give me back my coffee."
Miu narrows her eyes, It's never that easy with Lena, it usually takes more yelling before she gives in. Still, she cautiously approaches and grabs the cup.
Miu can't help but grimace at the sight of the faded coffee stain dampening the pages "You know we have coasters in the kitchen, right?"
Lena hums and Miu is too busy trying not to touch the nasty mess Lena's cup left, so much so that she doesn't notice when Lena discreetly sneaks up behind her and touches the printer screen. It buzzes to life and slowly begins printing pages.
"What…?" Miu lunges at the screen. "200 copies? Are you kidding me? This antique takes a good 10 minutes to print two pages."
The corner of Lena's mouth curls up. "Huh? Did I press the wrong button?" Lena leans in next to Miu to look at the screen. "How clumsy of me."
Miu's jaw drops. "What the—"
"Manners!" Lena exclaims in her characteristically husky, calm voice. “I'd cancel it but-" She points to the now-frozen screen "It seems to have frozen again."
Miu points a finger at Lena's chest. "You're evil."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Nonsense!" Miu hisses. "Just, Aaaaaaagh." She turns sharply to the printer and shakes it like a broken vending machine. "Why does it say it's printing but nothing comes out?"
"I don't know, you're the expert, aren't you?"
Miu is ready to confront Lena but the door bursts open. They both freeze as Kao enters, arms laden with folders. "Lena, I was looking for you. Did you make the copies? The board meeting starts in half an hour."
Lena's lips curl into a smile that borders on dangerous. “Oh” she says in her characteristically warm, subtly raspy voice, “I was trying but a small problem came up.” Lena’s eyes deliberately shift to Miu.
Kao blinks, looking at Miu. She doesn’t seem surprised, more resigned. “Did you break the printer again?”
Miu’s eyes widen. “Me?” her voice cracks. “She was the one who ordered two hun—”
Kao sighs, rubbing her temples which quickly silences Miu. “Should I call the technician?” Kao asks, pulling out her phone. By now, she knows the technical support number by heart.
Miu waves her hands toward the printer. “P’Kao-”
“Miu kindly offered to fix it” Lena interrupts gently, adjusting her blouse sleeve. “Since she broke it again herself.” She emphasizes the last words. “She even offered to take the documents to the meeting room. Right?”
Kao looks at them, a little puzzled, but shrugs without much interest. "Okay, just... fix it before the meeting and Lena since you're free, I need you to check something for me."
The door closes behind Kao with a click., Miu's mouth is still hanging open when Lena turns on her heels and winks at her. "Good luck" she says before leaving.
Miu freezes for five seconds before reacting. "P'Lena!" she hisses toward the empty door, but the only response is the distant echo of Lena's heels resonating down the hall.
The printer emits another buzz.
Error 404: Port not found
"I'm going to kill you."
Across the office, a shiver runs down Lena's spine.
— — —
Her legs tremble, her ironed shirt is now wrinkled, sweat trickles down her forehead, she can feel her foundation slowly dripping down her face. Despite living in Thailand her whole life, she can never tolerate the heat. Miu is the type who sleeps with two blankets and the AC on, and now, because of that wicked woman, she was forced to wander under the scorching sun without a hat or umbrella for protection.
When the elevator doors open, Miu rushes out, carrying precariously stacked papers. Every second counts and if it's not the ticking clock reminding her that she's ten minutes late, it's the constant messages Lena sends her.
In the hallway, on her way to the conference room, Ginny barely has time to say anything before Miu stumbles upon her. Luckily, she has good balance and manages to regain her footing but her colleague isn't so lucky, Miu falls with a loud thud that echoes through the room, documents scattering across the floor. At another time, Miu might have made a bigger scene but now she simply gets up unceremoniously, gathers the papers, and is ready to get on with her career.
"Watch out!" Ginny grabs Miu's elbow before she crashes into the water dispenser. "I was texting you! We had plans for lunch: you, Jane, Junji, and the new intern, Peerakrit."
Miu can barely process her friend's words. "Ginny, please, I'm in hell" she gasps, clutching the papers. "P'Kao needed this but someone" she pronounces the last word as if it were poison "decided to murder the printer and blame me."
"Murder?"
"Lena! She... ugh, she's actually…" Miu can't find the right words to describe the anger rising in her chest. "Ugh, I hate her."
Ginny opens her mouth, but Miu continues without stopping, gesturing frantically while waving a folder and tries to explain "So I had to run to this shady print shop and the guy charged me extra because the document wasn't in the right format. What's the right format supposed to be? It was a Word document!" Miu trails off mid-rant. "You know what the worst part is?"
"Miu, I don't mean to interrupt, but—" Ginny points to Miu's phone ringing in her pocket.
Miu sighs and manages to pull her phone out, unsurprised by the caller ID: Lena.
"Is everything okay?"
Miu wants to throw her phone out the window. Instead, she hurriedly smooths down her pants and runs her fingers through her hair in a pathetic attempt to make it look presentable. "I have to hand this in before P'Kao fills out my termination form."
"Wait, fix your shirt" she tries to approach but Miu backs away.
"There's no time, I have to run."
Ginny's hand was still outstretched but Miu was already disappearing down the hallway.
If there was a summons to HR at the end of the day, Miu would personally wipe the smug look off Lena's face.
When Miu finally arrives at the conference room door, she's not surprised to see Lena already there, waiting for her. The woman looks completely fresh and elegant, unlike Miu, who is panting like a dog and could barely maintain her professional facade.
Lena didn't offer to help her, she adjusts the watch on her wrist, checks the time, shook her head as if she were unimpressed and Lena smooths the lapels of her ironed blazer before finally getting up and approaching Miu.
“I’m impressed. I thought I’d have to save you from P’Kao if you finally lost your temper and destroyed the printer” Lena says, grabbing a loose sheet of paper from the stack Miu was clutching tightly.
Miu tries to snatch the paper away but Lena kept it out of her reach. “Give it back. P’Kao needs—”
“This?” Lena waves the sheet of paper dismissively. “I already handed it in. Ten minutes ago, Kao needed to check something.”
Lena's smile is too sweet, too wide and enthusiastic. Perhaps someone else would fall for her charms but Miu knows that Lena isn't trying to be sweet or attentive. While Miu prefers to attack directly, Lena, it seems, opts for a sweet and false kindness that Miu is sure Lena discovered long ago how much it can drive her crazy.
“You… fixed the damn printer but couldn’t get a jammed piece of paper out?”
Actually, it was Jane who finally fixed the problem but Lena didn't feel the need to mention it.
"You fixed the printer" she repeats slowly. "And then... what? Did you forget to tell me right before I ran halfway across Bangkok in this sauna-like city?"
Lena tilts her head with an innocent expression. "I tried calling and texting you but you didn't answer. I assumed you were busy." She vaguely points to Miu's disheveled appearance.
Miu's eye twitches.
Lena leans in, close enough for Miu to see the golden glints in her eyes. "You're welcome, by the way."
"You're a wolf in sheep's clothing"
"I'm just being helpful."
"Helpful" Miu says, her voice expressionless. "Like when you 'helpfully' sent 200 copies to the printer?"
"An accidental click."
Miu's eye twitches again. "An accidental click?"
"Miu, have you considered that maybe it was good for you to go outside for some fresh air? You've been working so much lately, it can't be good for you."
"Get some fresh air?" No matter how genuine Lena seems at that moment, Miu isn't fooled, not when Miu's shirt is soaked with sweat and Lena, as fresh as ever, looks like a model ready to walk the runway. “It looks like I was dragged halfway here."
Lena's gaze slowly travels over her, lingering on how the collar of Miu's shirt clings to her collarbone as a blush rises in her throat. "I don't know, I think that look suits you."
Miu's eyes narrow, her brow furrows, her lips press together barely containing the torrent of words that struggle to escape.
For a moment, Lena's expression softens, something indecipherable glimmers in her eyes. "You're..." she begins, then pauses as if reconsidering. "You're kind of adorable when you're this angry, you know?"
The words hit Miu like a bucket of cold water, a blush rising to her cheeks different from the one the Bangkok sun had brought. "Stop teasing me for fun."
Lena chuckles. "Sure, because obviously I woke up today thinking 'How can I make Miu's life harder?' "
"You're always thinking that" Miu exclaims, snatching the paper away.
"Only once in a while" Lena leans in close enough for Miu to catch a whiff of the jasmine scent of her perfume. "And like I told you, it's only because you look a little adorable."
Miu's brain short-circuits for a second, the cutting remark catches in her throat. Lena watches her, patiently awaiting her response, her warm eyes sparkling, a sign that she's enjoying this interaction a little too much.
"Uh" Jane arrives with a tray laden with coffee and snacks, stopping in front of the conference room, blinking as if she had walked into a crime scene. She alternates her gaze between Miu's crumpled papers and Lena's impeccable composure. "Am I interrupting something?"
Miu steps back. "No" she says too quickly. "Nothing."
Lena straightens her blazer and turns to Jane. "I was just talking to Miu, nothing important."
Miu's already short temper ran out long ago. She doesn't care about honorifics or formalities; she just wants to shut Lena up once and for all because, for someone so introverted, she must be talking a lot. "I swear, you can go to hell."
"Ah!" Lena presses a finger against Miu's lips, the bold gesture freezing Miu mid-sentence. "Watch your language." Her finger lingers a moment longer, warm against Miu's mouth before withdrawing.
"Okay" Jane says walking toward the conference room. "I'll be going...you guys carry on with whatever this is."
"Actually" Lena says "Kao asked me to attend the meeting, I'm going with you."
As Lena disappears into the conference room, Miu exhales sharply.
"I hate her."
— — —
Miu slumps into her chair, her fingers still trembling from the lingering urge to strangle someone, preferably Lena with her elegantly patterned silk scarf.
Ginny moves her chair closer and brushes Miu's ankle with the toe of her loafer to get her attention. "Were you able to give the documents to P'Kao?"
Miu leans her forehead against the surface of her desk. "She fixed the printer" she hisses, her voice muffled by the wood. "And she still let me run around like a headless chicken."
Lingling, who's at the desk across from Miu, clarifies "Jane fixed the printer."
"Of course she did" Miu says, impatiently pounding the keyboard. A key jams mid-type and she lets out a sound that's more like a groan
"Are you still fantasizing about Lena's premature death?" Ginny asks, handing Miu what's left of her iced coffee. "Drink it. You sound like a rabid raccoon."
Miu grabs the cup and gulps it down, the ice cubes clattering against her teeth. "I hate her" she announces for the fourteenth time that hour, slamming the cup on the table so hard that Lingling jumps.
“I don’t get it. How come everyone likes her? She’s literally a demon in a pencil skirt.”
Ginny doesn’t take her eyes off her monitor. “Objectively” she says “Lena is a good person, she’s reliable, competent, kind, and chivalrous.”As if it were an afterthought, she adds “And she remembers everyone’s coffee orders.”
“Objectively? Are you kidding me?” Miu points down the hallway. “She ruined my morning, lied to me and had the nerve to look at me like…”
Miu can’t get the words out but Ling comes to her rescue with the answer.
“A smug cat?” Ling repeats the nickname that Miu has used time and time again (when she’s a little tipsy) to refer to Lena.
“Yes!” Miu exclaims. “Exactly.”
“And yet you’re the only one who seems to have a problem with her. Think about it.” Ling doesn’t bother to hide how tired she is of having this conversation over and over again.
Miu frowns. “That’s not true.”
Ling raises an eyebrow. “Name one other person in this office who dislikes Lena.”
Miu is silent for a moment before huffing, crossing her arms. “That’s irrelevant. She makes my life miserable and she’s annoying.”
“Annoying like when you ‘accidentally’ rearranged her entire filing system last month because you thought it was yours.”
Miu’s cheeks flush.
“Or when you ‘forgot’ to tell her about the meeting room change last week” Ginny adds.
Miu’s fingers drum on the desk. “She started it.” Miu points vehemently at Lena’s empty desk.
Ling laughs softly. “Define ‘starts’ ”
“It’s just that she’s subtle about it.”
Ling raises an eyebrow. “And what are you? Shamelessly annoying?”
“You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I am.” Ling twirls a pen between her fingers. “I don’t even remember how you two became this but just get over it already.”
“Get over it?” Miu grips the edge of the desk like it’s the only thing stopping her from bolting across the office. “She’s waiting for me to give up first so she can win.”
“Win what?” Ginny asks.
“The thing.” Miu waves her hand vaguely in the air. “The rivalry.”
Ling rolls her eyes so hard Miu almost expects them to stick. “The rivalry” she says in a monotone voice. “The one where Lena brings you coffee even though you accidentally spill it at least twice a week.”
“She brings coffee to everyone. She hates me but she has an image to maintain. I’m telling you, Lena Schuett is a demon in disguise.
"Oh, yes. The demonic act of opening doors for you and taking away the extra paperwork when you're overwhelmed" Ginny says.
"She volunteered to take those files last week because she knew she'd look incompetent if she missed the deadline."
"Or maybe she's a decent person who noticed a colleague was overwhelmed?" Ling says.
Ginny can't help but laugh. "Face it, Miu. The only person Lena torments is you, and even then, she probably only does it because you lash out too."
"That's exactly what she wants you to think. She's brainwashed the entire office." Miu gestures vehemently to her colleagues who were deliberately ignoring the conversation. "Look at them, they're terrified of her."
Ginny, who doesn't consider herself close to Lena, looks at her colleagues, engrossed in their work. "Afraid Lena will offer to pay the lunch bill?"
Ling flicks a fluorescent sticky note onto Miu's desk with a quick flick of her wrist. "Seriously, you two are worse than interns fighting over a promotion. Grow up. Especially you, Miu, you look like you're about to faint or punch a hole in the wall. Neither is good."
"Anyway" Ginny interrupts loudly seeing that Mui wasn't going to forget the subject. "I think we've finished discussing P’Lena's alleged crimes" she gives Miu a sharp look "Can we drop this and focus on getting the job done? I want to leave early" Ginny holds up a thick folder labeled "urgent" in red marker.
"It's not over" Miu says, deliberately glancing at Ling and then focusing on Ginny's request. "These idiots sent us the wrong contracts again. They left the old prices." She points to a page where someone has crossed out a number with a pen. "Look at this. Is it a four or a nine? Because there's a difference of fifty million baht."
Lingsnatches the page from her hands. “I think it’s a nine?”
Ginny sighs. “Yeah, they’ve been a disaster since P’Som left. The new director keeps forgetting to copy us on emails.”
Miu’s groan echoes through the office. “What’s the point of having a branch in Chiang Mai if they can’t even sort this out themselves? They’re useless.”
“Weren't you one of the most excited about Chiang Mai expansion?”
Miu doesn’t even bother to look up. “Don’t you have any executives to bother?”
Lena's heels click on the floor as she circles Miu's desk, her shadow falling across the scattered contracts. She picks up the contract Ling and Miu had been holding and examines it with an expert eye. "This is number four, not nine." She traces the number with her fingertip. "See the straight line? There's no curve."
Miu snatches the paper back. "Thank you for your invaluable contribution" she snaps glaring at Lena's exasperatingly serene expression.
Lena adjusts the strap of her purse. "You're welcome."
To Miu's dismay, Lena sits down at the desk next to her. As if having to endure listening to Lena for six to eight hours a day wasn't enough, she also has to see her face all day long because someone thought it was a good idea for them to sit next to each other.
Lena, for her part, ignores Miu's words, she has a half-smile but as soon as her back hits the chair, she stiffens. The lumbar support is nonexistent; there's only a hard, flat surface where her custom-made orthopedic cushion should be.
Beside her, Miu is hunched over the keyboard, her fingers flying across the keys with unnatural concentration, her lips pressed into a thin line that trembles at the corners, making her shoulders move slightly from stifled laughter.
Lena doesn't need to turn her head to know that Miu's cheeks were puffing out like a balloon. She sighs and leans forward to inspect the base of the chair. Indeed, there was a distinctive mark that shouldn't have been there.
Lena slowly turns to face Miu, who immediately coughs into her fist, staring at the ceiling.
"Something funny, Miu?" Lena asks.
Miu shakes her head quickly, avoiding Lena's gaze. "No, just doing my job" she gestures vaguely to the screen.
Lena raises an eyebrow. "Oh, right. The performance report." Lena's fingers tap the armrest for a few seconds, letting the silence linger.
Miu remains unusually quiet, which is certainly not like her.
Lena exhales resignedly, straightens her back, ignoring the pain and elegantly clasps her hands on the desk. "And you wouldn't happen to know where my chair is, would you?"
Miu wipes her eyes, her shoulders still trembling. "What? Your chair?" She looks at Lena with exaggerated innocence. "You mean the office chair that belongs to the company?"
"My chair with the lumbar support and the sticker with the letter 'L' "
Miu looks at Lena, out of the corner of her eye, saw neither a outburst nor a reprimand, only that exasperating and unwavering calm.
"You know" Miu says, dragging out the words and turning her chair to face Lena, "if you're so attached to the chair, maybe you should have tied a ribbon to it, left a note, something."
Lena's expression softens, she remains the same as always, calm and kind. "Mmm."
"Hmm?"
"Hmm" Lena says. "You're right, I should have." For a second, her gaze shifts to the chair Miu is sitting in, the one with the sticker and the lumbar cushion and then she goes back to focusing on her work.
Ginny and Ling, who witness the exchange, shake their heads. Miu, for her part couldn't be more pleased. Perhaps to her friends, Lena was behaving like the angel she is but over the months, Miu has learned that Lena's anger doesn't come with fireworks, slamming doors, or shouting. No, Lena's irritation is silent, subtle, if you're not paying attention you completely miss it.
So now Miu is able to notice how Lena tightens her grip on her pen with almost imperceptible force before carefully setting it down. Her breathing is slow, too regular as if she's mentally counting to ten. She glances back at Miu's chair then looks away as if she's decided it's not worth the effort.
Lena smooths out a nonexistent wrinkle on her blouse, the air around her is cool, controlled like the calm before a storm that refuses to begin.
Miu, meanwhile, sinks deeper into the stolen chair, her toes curling with contentment, her arms stretched above her head with a theatrical yawn.
"Ahhh" she sighs, loud enough to make her workmates turn and look at her.
Who would have thought that acquiring an ergonomic cushion could be so pleasurable?