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Elle patrolled the headquarters, bored out of her mind. She listened to all the empty room’s silence as her steps were confident. But, she paused for a second when she picked up noises. Almost like cries? It was none of the young agents crying; she could tell from the natural tone of said individual’s voice. Despite her lack of involvement in people’s emotions, she pinpointed which door it was. A door which was slightly creaked open, letting some light from inside the room out. She moved closer to the door and peeked in without making the crying human notice her. Her eyes opened a bit when she saw who it was before her eyes returned the classic glare that Elle usually gives her.
“Dayang,” she firstly said, pushing herself in. Dayang, who was sitting on the bench, looked up at her with her swollen eyes, removing her tears by wiping them away with her glove. She ignored that though, she could not care less about her feelings. “What are you still doing here? Othman kicked you out so exit immediately,” Elle leaned on her cane, watching Dayang burst into tears right in front of her. Elle almost let her shocked expression appear on her face, but she could manage to overpower it with her usual detached expression.
It was very unique to see Dayang lose her composure because she never cried in front of Elle or Amir. The former Tekno leader was always quite rational when it came to her sadness. She only turned something along the lines of angry; never sadness like so. Elle was informed she cried once, but that was because of MATA’s traitor nearly winning over the agents had not it been for Ali. Elle just sighed a disappointed one before she quickly walked over to the bench and sat next to her. Dayang was incapable to react to this as she was busy crying. “What is wrong?! Are you sad you lost your role? Or what is up with you?” She hurriedly asked out of impatience, glancing away a few times at objects to distract herself from Dayang’s overload of sadness.
Dayang finally looked at her again with this annoyed stare despite the tears running down her face, angrily mumbling to her, “You wouldn’t get it. Your family genes make you terrible at understanding other people’s emotions.”
Suddenly, Elle whipped her cane towards inches away from Dayang’s throat. Dayang was shocked for a few moments, unable to do anything but to listen to Elle. After all, one more action and Elle could freeze her. “Your inferiority was the reason why you got demoted. Is it really my fault?” She asked, eventually pulling back the cane. The two women glared at the floor away from each other’s gazes. “Tell me about why you are crying, but not if your reason is not awfully STUPID,” she told the angry Dayang who was unable to look at Elle again.
Dayang launched up onto her feet and Elle followed after. “How do you think it feels when two of your friends die? How do you think it felt when the burden lies on my shoulders? How do you think when everyone blames me?!” Dayang was about to get interrupted by Elle’s hasty mouth, but she stopped her. “Quiet! I’ve been TRYING my hardest to make my inventions work not because I want it for myself, but because this whole of MATA needed it! The Numeros, Cero, Neonimus. Everyone challenged us with their strong approaches. IRIS Neo and SATRIA, how do you think I intentionally screwed up!?”
Elle could tell she learned to rant like this from being exposed to Ali. Typical. Elle knew Ali was a bad influence on her. She fired back with a response, “Your little worthless projects were absurd from the beginning you created them. Do you think doctors can test and test on the patient’s body lying on the operating table and expect the person to miraculously come back to life?! It needs some sort of intelligence and knowledge to proceed with!” She began, “Othman started this city with no mistakes and it worked perfectly because he knew HOW to. You don’t have the necessary requirements to start projects. All of your projects are FLAWED because you do not THINK.”
Dayang angrily grumbled, trying to look Elle in the eyes but she could not so her eyes darted around the room to avoid her gaze. “Doctors then did not have the equipment they have now unless they tested forward...”
“They knew what was required! Not what was unnecessary covering the operating room with dull scalpels that don’t work!” Elle shook her head, already regretting this decision as she glanced at the exit and back at Dayang who still refused to look her in the eyes. “How do you think you’re going to improve if you do this? Suspension was issued not to hurt your feelings but to ensure Cyberaya does not turn into the embodiment of Venus. Being sweet and possessing mistrust issues will you grant you nowhere in life.”
Elle sat down again, looking away again as she gestured with her hand, “Sit down,” she said and surprisingly Dayang listened, “It is obvious you have leg pain from how you always resort to flying or sitting. I use a cane too for a similar purpose. Crying over something that happened will NOT help you in the future, but what matters is you learn from it. It was your fault for getting persuaded by your urges,” she snapped her head back at Dayang once she heard a sniffle and the tears shining in Dayang’s eyes again, “Don’t tell me you’re going to fucking cry again!”
“I’m not!” She retorted, crossing her arms as she looked away, trying to control her tears from not overflowing again. Elle put her hand on Dayang’s shoulder, but it was not of sweet intention, but regardless Dayang was still quite surprised.
“Stop crying!” She yelled, gripping harder onto Dayang’s shoulder. Elle tried to scan her mind for advice; What do people usually do when their colleague is upset. Offer condolences? “If you keep crying like this, I don’t know what to do,” her frustration was very clear to Dayang and Dayang let her tears flow again. Elle hated the thought she had in her head, but she did it regardless. She grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a hug, patting her back. Dayang tried to writhe herself free, but gave up once she realised she could not get out. Dayang started to sob again once in the embrace of someone. “Shut up,” Elle mumbled but the crying woman in her arms just would not.
So, she impatiently sat there while hugging her until Dayang’s sadness eased up. Then, Elle took her out for some ice cream.
Out of their agent suits and in public, Dayang looked at the cone of ice cream she got from the stand, a vanilla scoop on top with raspberry syrup drizzled atop. She then looked at the detached Elle, “Why are you buying me ice cream?” She questioned, slowly licking the ice cream.
“People stop crying when they receive something sweet,” she said as the man behind the stand handed her ice cream cup and she grabbed it with her left. She preferred her ice cream in cups. Her right fingers grabbed the small spoon, scooping up some of the chocolate syrup with a bit of the vanilla ice cream. She placed the spoon in her mouth and licked it clean before she put the spoon back into the cup, “Thank me.”
Dayang looked away for a second, thinking. But, she did do what was requested of her. “Um, thank you,” she muttered.
“You’re welcome.”