Work Text:
Sodachi spent the whole day scowling. It was a miserable day at work, so that was to be expected. Really, the whole week had been bad, but this day was the worst. Everything was too busy. She wasn’t able to get through her work before more got piled up on her desk. If the city was willing to hire more employees, this wouldn’t be an issue, but her department’s budget had been stagnant since the year she started the job.
By the time she left work, it was far too late. She tried to be responsible about overtime, but sometimes it was unavoidable. If she had left work when she was supposed to, then all that work would have been left over for tomorrow. Since tomorrow would bring its own piles of work as well, if she slacked off today, that would make tomorrow worse. It was a devil’s bargain.
Because she was leaving late, she had to deal with the late night bus schedule. Rather than appearing every five minutes like it was supposed to, Sodachi would need to wait a half hour for the next bus. The punchline was that she had missed the bus by only a couple minutes when she left work.
It was the kind of day that made Sodachi wish she drank.
She had skipped dinner, but she was too tired to make herself something. The best she could do was shove a handful of dried fruit and crackers into her mouth before collapsing in bed.
By the time her head hit the pillow, it was midnight.
She groaned. She was still wearing half of her work clothes, but that would have to do. At least she had taken the time to take off her shoes this time. She wouldn’t sleep well, but she would at least be able to sleep. She was ready for this shit day to be over.
She closed her eyes and prepared for sleep to take her. However, before she could pass out, she got a text. Quickly after that, it was another one, then another one, and another one. Her phone was practically blowing up.
Oh right, she thought. It was her birthday.
Some fucking start to the next year of her life that was.
She glanced at her phone. The texts had all been clustered around midnight, so after a couple minutes, they stopped. She appreciated the names she saw, but she could respond in the morning. Even if it was now her birthday, she needed to recover.
It was a good thing that Sodachi had so many friends. That should have been the takeaway. Too many birthday messages to respond to was a good problem to have.
Still, the residual frustration from the previous night wasn’t going away. As the Romans might say, she woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
She wasn’t sure her bed had a right side. If it did, she hadn’t found it yet.
It took some faking of entheusiasm, but she was able to get through all the messages. It warmed her heart, it really did, but the fact that she had to go to work after all that didn’t help things.
Her plans weren’t until later, but that didn’t provide much solace. Sodachi wasn’t a party girl. She didn’t love large groups of people. She was happiest with a small group of close friends. Thus, she would be having dinner with some friends tonight. Work be damned, she would be leaving the minute she could.
That’s part of why she had pushed herself the day before. She wanted as small a backlog of work as she could manage. There would always be more forms to review. There would always be more things that needed her signature. Work was nothing but being busy forever.
Sodachi was on good terms with her coworkers, so she did at least get birthday greets from everyone. She didn’t ask for it, and she didn’t particularly care while she was at work, but still, she appreciated it. She hadn’t even mentioned that it was her birthday, but news had spread quickly. Someone in HR or one of the other departments with access to personal information must have leaked it.
Whatever the case, it wasn’t too much of a bother. It just meant she had coworkers stopping by her desk all day. Sometimes, they brought her snacks as a present. Sometimes, it was even things she would eat.
Of course, she was polite about it, but in her mind, she was already separating the snacks she cared about and the snacks that would get fed to her friends after work.
Lunch brought with it many offerings of cake. Still, lunch passed without incident. Once that was done, Sodachi was in the final stretch of the day.
Thankfully, today was far less busy than the day before it. She was able to deal with assignments as they came. Nothing piled up too absurdly.
Thus, when she was done with work, she was really done. She could leve guilt-free and enjoy her day without worry.
Her friends would be arriving in small waves. A few people at a time would be showing up. It depended on their work schedules and travel time. Still, Sodachi preferred it that way to everyone showing up all at once. It was easier to manage things that way.
Once they started filtering in, things would get exciting. Despite trying to keep the party small, it may have gotten out of hand. Still, if that became a problem, then they could spill outside, onto her balcony.
It wasn't a bad problem to have. It would be a busy night, but a fun one. All in all, Sodachi was glad that this was how she was spending her new year.