Bullet's ears perk up. Something's wrong. Something's very wrong. He rushed out of Elise's window to her surprise. "Woah! Bullet!?" But he didn't slow down, not a hint of hesitation. He ran through the streets, sustaining speeds that only a magical cat can without running out of breath until he got to Zack's apartment. "This is bad." He thought to himself. "It's the worst it's ever gotten. I thought he was happy!?" He hopped up the balconies, reaching heights that only a magical cat can, and finally reached his window. There Zack was, sat frozen on his bed. His eyes were wide open, but no tear flowed from them. His mouth was agape, but there wasn't a sound. He didn't even notice the cat that had just jumped through his window.
Bullet pushed his way onto his lap and purred, but almost jumped off it in recoil. He couldn't handle that level of grief for longer than a second, but it was just about enough to snap Zack out of that frozen state. "God it hurts, God help. God I'm so sorry. I failed." He scrambled for his phone and spammed the chat group with Jian and Dymo. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, pain pain pain pain pain" he didn't know what else to type, he doesn't know how to process this. "Guys I'm so sorry, let me know if I'm annoying but now it hurts so much oh god I'm not rational!"
It took a few minutes, but eventually Jian and Dymo couldn't help but check out the buzzing in their phones. "Are you okay?" Dymo asks. "Where are you? Did you get into an accident?"
"Did you break up?" Jian asks.
"Jian what the fuck!" Dymo rebukes.
"I broke up!"
"Jian what the fuck!" Dymo exclaims.
"Holy fuck guys... Pain! Pain pain pain pain. I don't know what to do!"
Jian and Dymo who had both gone through this before knew all too well the overwhelming grief that comes with ending your very first relationship. But they didn't dare say they understood Zack because they know he approached dating very differently than they did.
"Okay, let it out, let it all out lad..." Dymo said.
"Yeah, spam the group only, it's ok." Jian adds.
"When you're ready to talk it out, we'll be here okay? Do you wanna call?"
"No, not right now, maybe tmr or something, I need to... I don't know man."
"It's ok, it's ok. Take your time."
Grief levels had finally lowered to manageable levels, so Bullet could use some of his powers again, but not much as it was still terribly uncomfortable for him. "I need to know what happened." He thought, so when Zack finally dozed off, he worked his magic. "I'm sorry." He silently apologizes, and made him relive the past week in his dreams.
...
Elise opened her eyes. Bullet was laying right on her stomach after replaying what he had seen in Zack's memories for her. He purred and rubbed his face against hers, asking for an answer. "I don't know what to do or say." She gets up at puts the magical cat to the side. "Don't look at me like that! Trying to help this guy find a girlfriend was your idea, I have no relationship with him, and no reason to care. I got involved only because you asked me to!"
She gets up from her bed and head towards her desk, turning away from him. But Bullet hopped on and sat on her keyboard. "Bullet, don't make me close my window from now on..." She warns. But he nudges his head under her hand and her eyes softens. You're right, Ashley is my friend, I have to ask her how she's doing as well. But it'll be suspicious if I do it now, I need to give it a week."
...
While his relationship with colleagues didn't start off the best in this company, he did enjoy designing. Over the months he was there, he had helped DMX win projects, which gained the trust of his colleagues, and even before Ashley joined, he was able to hang out with them more and more, including joining a group of them for badminton after work every Wednesday. Unfortunately, Khai was included in that badminton group, and suddenly, he didn't feel like joining them anymore. In fact he didn't feel like going to work, he dreaded it for the first time since his internship. Little did he know that it was about to get worse.
Ashley and Khai had taken their laptops, left their desks to sit next to each other in the pantry, so every time Zack went to get water from the dispenser, he could see them. It felt like the 4th gut punch after the absolute beating he already got last Friday. Khai had now replaced him in his usual lunch group, and they eat at the cafe he used to eat alone at, so he would just get takeaway instead and ate alone at the pantry, otherwise he'd be subjecting himself to more gut punches, and his emotional gut really can't take much more of this. They would spend up to half an hour after lunch time alone in the 3D printing room, which Zack would actively avoid, unless there was work to be done, which is often the case because he's a product designer, so he would awkwardly walk in, do work while they sat in silence waiting for him to leave.
After work, they would always leave together, holding each others hand. Khai had a car, a 2015 Nissan Almera to be exact. Zack had his Proton Saga, but it's no where as cool as a Nissan, nor did he normally drive to work as it was so much cheaper to take the bus and train, and taking public transport is seen as much less... well, you're seen as a poorer person in general, at least that's what he thinks.
Throughout the week, spikes of pain would flare up, and Zack would spam "Pain pain pain pain pain" in IJD group as he struggles to get over his feelings. This was all his fault, if he hadn't had brought her in, he wouldn't have been subjected to this torture. A couple of weeks ago, that was his girlfriend, her affection was his, and now, another guy had it all. He was deemed inferior. He is inferior, a superior man was chosen over him. And yet, he couldn't get himself to regret what he did. Her previous job paid less, was less interesting, and had no benefits. He couldn't bring himself to admit that after watching her smile and laugh with her new friends, he'd take it away if he could. He doesn't love her in that way anymore, and he is very hurt by her actions. But he rationalizes, that if what she told him about her ex is true, hurt people just hurts people.
"God I... I don't know what to pray..." He had his hands together, he's knelt in front of his bed. He had to survive another day of work the next day. At least it'll be Friday. The last 4 days felt like hell. Nothings going to change for the foreseeable future. Part of him wanted to pray for God to remove her, to get her out of the office, disallow her to pass her probation, but he didn't. He couldn't bring himself to. "Just... Make it less painful I guess..."
Bullet hopped on the bed and snuggled next to him. It was the most reliable way to help him fight insomnia. Once he'd dozed off, his emotional exhaustion keeps him asleep until his watch vibrates. Bullet then hops out of bed, out of his apartment, and heads back to Elise's place. "Asleep already?" She asks as he jumps into her window. He nods, joining her on the bed next to her and noticing that she's texting Ashley. "I bet you wanna hear the tea from the other side."
Bullet then nods eagerly, and Elise shows him the chat. "She told me Zack was negligent, and she's only close to this Khai fella, not dating." Bullet squints his eyes and looks at her. "Yeah I don't buy it either. From the memories you showed me, none of it looked like negligence." She puts away the phone and sighs. "Pairing them together was my idea, I should take some responsibility I suppose." She and Bullet glanced at each other, the cat gave her a slow blink. "But I don't know what to do. I'm not gonna pity date him." Bullet then snuggles right up to her, she expected him to use his powers to say something, but he doesn't, he just purrs like a normal cat. "But I can be his friend."
...
Monday morning, Zack got an unexpected text at work, it was from Wendy, Ashley's manager. He was scared to open the text. Who knows what have Ashley told her. "Hey, are you okay, you've been quieter lately." It was a pleasant surprise, Wendy was only in the other room, operations is right next to creative. He didn't think she'd ever notice him.
"No, I'm going through something private right now, thanks for asking though, means a lot." He replied. Of course he can't say anything. They're all colleagues. Ashley and Khai are in her team, the last thing he'd want to do is cause drama in the workplace.
"I know what happened, well maybe not completely, but the office isn't stupid, we can see things." Uh oh, what has he done? He had already caused drama in the office. "You're not alone Zack, Ashley just made herself look cheap. Chin up, you'll come back stronger."
It kind of makes sense that it wouldn't look good on her that she came in as his girlfriend and started dating another guy shortly after. But they don't know what she said to him, they can never know. He hopes that their colleagues impressions won't affect how they work with her. The last thing he wants is for the company to be negatively affected by him, or for him to get her out of a toxic remote job into a toxic office job. Then he'd not done any good at all. "Thanks Wendy, it really means a lot. It really does, I feel a little less alone now."
Zack focused on keeping his head down and doing work. If he let his mind wander too much, he'll just feel pain and affect his creativity. He already felt shame, especially looking at his friends like Jian, Dymo, and Yusarin. They have relationships that last years. 2 months is a joke. And even so, he lost to a better guy in 2 weeks. To ensure that he isn't more useless than he already is, he needs to keep delivering on designs, 3D models, mockups. He needs to prove to himself that he can compartmentalize his private and professional lives. So imagine his anxiety when a week later, the creative director called him to his office for a one on one.
"I'm gonna be straight with you." Mr. Azam, the creative director said. "How are things between you and the girl?"
Zack knows he's talking about Ashley. "We broke up."
"Yeah, that's obvious. But..." Azam pauses, trying to find the correct question to ask. He notices Zack's very nervous body language. "I'm not angry with you, I just want to know how are you, you are my team, so your mental is also my responsibility."
His words didn't help, this could be some sort of test. The alarm bells started ringing in Zack's head, telling him to be careful of what to say. "I'm okay sir, I promise I try not to let my private life affect my work performance."
Azam sighs. "Your performance never dropped. Actually I'm happy that you don't let this affect your work. It's just that... Don't tell anyone this okay?" He walks over to the door to ensure it was locked. "Ashley and Khai have been warned by the HR because they'd been reported twice by someone. There are a lot of rumors going around in operations but you still stay quiet. It's very professional, but I don't want to build a pure professional culture in my studio, so if you feel like you need to talk to someone, you can talk to me. Rumors can spread very fast, and I want to protect my team."
"Oh uhh... Thanks boss. I appreciate it, I really do, it's just... I don't wanna say anything that would make it hard for her, I mean..." Oh shit, he just implied negative connotations about Ashley didn't he?
Azam walked over to Zack, put his hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry, everybody already knows, even my wife knows! And everybody on your side."
"My side? Oh no! I didn't want people in the office to be taking sides. This is what I was trying to avoid in the first place!"
"Don't worry about that, it's not your fault. You cannot control, this is human mind."
"But it is my responsibility, I passed her resume to HR, and anything negative that comes out of this is because of me. All I can do now is apologize and make sure that I never refer anyone again unless I'm completely sure of them."
Azam looked at him and smiled one more time but doesn't say anything. "Do you still want to talk more?" Zack shakes his head, he shouldn't be taking up company time to cry. "Remember me, your senior Helmut, most of the creative is very good at listening if you ever need anyone to talk to."