"You two took long," Wajishu clicks her tongue, spinning in Tae's chair.

"Off now," Tae pushes her off. Wajishu chuckles and crosses her arms, looking back at Manager.

He rolls his neck and sits down. "What?"

She shrugs, walking off. Both Manager and Tae glance at each other. Shaking his head and groaning, Tae leans against his chair.

"Who does she think she is..." he sulks, "she bullies me, dude. She's always bullying me and she's younger than me, too..."

Manager shrugs, copying Wajishu's shrug.

Tae rolls his eyes at him and groans, "how was the Monday morning clients?"

"Hmm, it was fine."

"Really?" Tae chuckles and fires up his computer. "You seem stressed out every Monday morning and I'm surprised you didn't complain at lunch."

Manager leaned against his chair, grabbing his pen and spinning it. Each time the pen hit the nail of his, Manager grew slightly quieter. His breathing, his movement, and his eyes.

Tae exhales and looks away. "Well, I'll be working now," he states, knowing Manager's everyday behavior. He wanted to be left alone.

As soon as he stopped his pen, he looked back at Tae who was focused on his work. Manager clicks the power button on his computer. The fan began to power up and the lights glowed.

Manager looked to his left, noticing Manager Noel on a phone call with a client. Noel was smiling and had his finger close to the end call button.

"Yes...no, that's not what - haha, sure, sure. Okay, I get it. No - ah, well, if you want to."

Manager turned to his right, the construction of the Creator's Workshop office was almost complete. Manager sighs, looking back at his computer screen and clicking on his email notifications.

A few from his clients for tomorrow morning's comic update. Answering each email from Canada, China, and so. His eyes fall lazy as he stares directly at the cleared up email inbox. Exhaling again, he looked over his desk to Tae.

"Hi, may I speak with Sai? I am her manager, Tae Young at the OCU, Original Comic Universe, and I have been wondering how her condition is now. No, I have not gotten any of her email responses so I was wondering if there was a problem with the hospital's wifi connection."

That's right...Tae's client had recently gotten into a car accident and had to take a break for almost two weeks now.

Manager's eyes flew right back down to his hands. Laying on the keyboard, he cracks his knuckles. He looked over back at Noel.

"Agh..." he sighs and laid his head down. Noel had recently started as a manager of the OCU.

"Mr. Noel," Manager called, "did something happen again?"

Noel quickly looked at Manager, bowing down quickly and nervously. "N-No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to - AT ALL - to complain and cause such racket."

Manager gestures Noel to sit up straight. "If you haven't noticed, I sigh a lot in the office. It's fine to complain sometime..." he spoke softly, "anyways, what happened to your client this time?"

"This time..." Noel couldn't look at Manager, "I...I don't know, he has not been able to pick what he wants for his next step for his story plot. It's difficult because of every idea I give to him, he doubts it."

"They'll figure it out," Manager leaned his head against his chair, "don't expect so much out of your clients. They're not always going to do what you think it's best for the next episode."

Noel shyly looks up at him, "...what do you mean?"

Manager sighs longingly, "well...one of my clients was able to draw without backgrounds with a year until I noticed every panel being colored pink or green. It hurts the eyes, Noel."

"Ah..." Noel nods and sighs too.

"Don't worry," he reassures him again, "it won't be like this for long."

Chuckling, he smiles at Manager. "Thank you."

Manager nodded in response and turned back to his computer. Nothing. Again.

He looked at Tae who was still on the phone call. Back at Noel who was now relaxed and replying back to his emails.

He looked back at the clock on the computer.

2:14 PM, it's only 2:14.

Manager grabs his mouse, clicking and opens up a brand new doc. His hands hesitate at the keyboard, he stares back at the clock.

2:14 PM

He leans his head to the side, tapping his index finger the keys and stares blankly against the doc.

He exhales and begins typing.

.

.

.

7:48 PM

Hidemi sets down the chopstick on the right side of the table. As she walks to the other side to set another one at the right, her ears could the plates setting down in the kitchen counter by Shishi.

"Hidemi," he called out, "are you two finished setting up the table?"

Her eyes flew where Shisha had his hands on his phone, playing video games in the booth beside her. She turned back to call out, "yep!!"

Shisha smiles at her response and continued to play to finish up his level before his older brother came in with the plates.

"So," Shisha spoke as his eyes were still focused on the game, "you haven't told Hidemo about the comic artist gig?"

"It's not a gig, Shisha..." Hidemi rolled her eyes at him and finishes setting down another pair of chopsticks. "And I'm not going to tell him, there's no point to tell him any good news anymore."

Shisha exhales and blows a raspberry. "What really happened, Hidemi?" he asked, finally closing his phone and scooting to table. "You're hiding and I should know about this..."

"You don't have to know about everything," Hidemi pulls up a chair and sat across from him at the table. She takes the chopstick at her right and practices.

Shisha eyes the kitchen, hearing the wooden spoon scraping the pan and tapping against it. His older brother was almost done.

He crosses his arms and leaned against the booth, "I am only worried about you and I don't want Hidemo to continue using you. Shishi knows this too."

Her eyes stayed at the chopsticks in her hand. No words came out of her mouth as well as her body language.

"Hidemi," Shisha whispered, "is it because of that girl he's dating?"

Her eyes lifted from the point of the chopsticks and looked at Shisha. Exhaling, she sets down her chopsticks down and shifted her body to her left.

"About two weeks ago, I invited him and our hallway neighbor to have alcohol and to play games."

Unnoticed to Shisha, his mouth was hanging. "You were drinking? Hidemo too?! Hidemi, you two are underage...!"

"Would you shut up?" Hidemi kicked his leg.

"Ow!" he covered his mouth. "That was uncalled for..."

Hidemi shakes her head and points back at the kitchen. Shisha nods, rolling his eyes.

"Hidemo didn't want to come unless there was alcohol involved so I asked the neighbor to get alcohol," she leans against the table and sighs, "I was going to tell him about it, but..."

Shisha leans against the table and whispers, "...but...?"

"Shisha!! Help me bring the other dish out there!!"

Shisha groans and stands up. "Yes! I'm coming!" he shouts back and turns to Hidemi. "We're not finished with this."

"Yeah, yeah..." Hidemi gestures him to the kitchen.

...

"Thank you for the food!"

Hidemi and Shisha eyes each other then back at Shishi. As he eats, Hidemi looks away and starts to eat her gyudon. Shishi looks at the two.

"What's wrong? Is it bad?" he asks and places his bow down.

Shisha smiles, "uh-uh. It's yummy~!"

Hidemi nods, "this is your first time making gyudon, right?"

Shishi side-eyes the two and picked up his bowl. He begins eating again.

"So, how did your date go?" Shisha asks and picks up his fried fish.

Shishi swallows and covers his mouth. "It was nice, she was very sweet until you two showed up at the festival."

Hidemi chuckles, "she dressed up for you!"

"Right!!" Shisha chuckles along, "are you thinking about a second date with her, Shishi?"

Shishi shrugs, "I don't know, I'm going to be busy the next few weeks."

"Eh?" the two stopped midway while putting food in their mouths.

"Well," Shishi explains, "I'm going to be traveling down south to visit a few friends who are willing to help me find more ingredients for our upcoming dishes. Remember Shisha?"

"Ah..." Shisha sighs in a smile, "I forgot you'll be gone for four days..."

"Of this week?" Hidemi questioned.

Shishi nods, "yes, so I'll be leaving on Wednesday. You can take a full shift that day, right?"

Hidemi shakes her head, "no...I can't. I can't work when the store hour closes mid-day. I have to go meet my Manager for a meeting..."

The twins looked at each other. Shishi sighs and kicks his younger brother's foot.

"Ah - Hidemi, it's okay!" Shisha smiles, "I can handle it prepping."

She stared at her bowl and picks up a piece of beef. "Are you sure?" she puts it in her mouth and chews it slowly.

Shisha nods, "yep. Maybe I can get Hidemo to work that day with me."

Shishi sighs louder and shakes his head. "I doubt he will, right, Hidemi?"

She shrugs and avoids answering. Shisha kicks Shishi's foot, "idiot."

"Ow..." Shishi glares at his younger brother.

Hidemi puts her bowl down and the two looked at her. She sighs and leans on her hand.

"...his girlfriend is gonna force him to go on a date with him or something. Or she's gonna follow him."

"What?" Shishi's brows knitted together.

Hidemi looked at the twins and slouched against her chair. "So...two weeks ago, I invited Hidemo and the hallway neighbor. Hidemo didn't want to come if there weren't any alcohol so I asked the neighbor."

"...when did Hidemo start drinking?" Shishi's voice was becoming stern.

"Calm down," Shisha pats his brother's back, "go on..."

Hidemi sighs, "well...he came. They drank, I lied and said I was on my period so I didn't feel like drinking. We were having fun up until...his girlfriend came knocking on the door and she said Hidemo invited her."

"Huh?? What? What?!" Shisha's eyes widen and pull his hair back, "don't tell me..."

"Yeah," Hidemi growls to herself, "apparently Hidemo told his girlfriend that he was hanging with us and she wanted to come. So she self-invited herself."

"What a bitch," Shishi stuffed his mouth with rice.

Hidemi nods and groans, "and you know what the fucked part was? She kept thinking the neighbor and I was a thing. She kept...giving me the fucking side-eye and kept saying petty shit to my face. I looked at Hidemo and to think that he would...you know, stand up for me..."

Shisha shakes his head and laughs, "see, this is why I dumped my last girlfriend. She was that crazy."

"I would think Hidemo would've understood from your experience but you know, he's not the empathic type."

"It won't matter if he's empathic, Hidemi," Shishi says, "he's stupid."

She looked up at the twins and with guilt in her eyes, they knew what was next.

"I told her off that she was never invited and I didn't understand why Hidemo invited her because it was just friends hanging out. I was getting so pissed and she kept giving me this...fucking snobby look at me. The neighbor had to take me outside and calm me down..." Hidemi covers her face, "...and ever since that happened, he doesn't even answer my texts and the only time I see him is when it's 6 AM in the morning just before his girlfriend comes at 7."

Shishi reaches over and rubs her shoulder. "I'll get you more gyudon," he takes her bowl and goes into the kitchen.

Shisha sighs at the thought of his own ex-girlfriend he had to dump. Knowing his own cousin, Hidemo was a stubborn guy.

He softly spoke to Hidemi, "I'm sorry..."

"For what?"

"I was pressuring you to tell me...and I'm sorry for making you relive that again. I'm sorry."

She chuckles, slowly fading back into the anxiety she had in her spine. "I'm literally losing my best friend. I get that he's in a relationship, but seriously, it's...it's stupid."

"What's her name again?" Shishi walks back in, setting down her bowl in front of her. "Eat."

Hidemi exhales and takes the bowl and chopsticks in her hands. "Her name is Muki. At first, you know how we all met her right? I thought she had such a cute name...but the way she acted was so fake..."

Shishi nods, "I agree."

Shisha shrugs, "I couldn't tell."

"Well, that's not even the worse part that happened last night. I found out weeks ago that she was the one spreading rumors that I was a stalking Hidemo and following him to his apartment." Hidemi shoves down food in her cheeks. "A lot of my classmates asked me about it since they know me so well and even Hidemo."

"Hey, hey, chew your food and drink some water..." Shishi pats her back and looks at Shisha.

Shisha catches his look and smiles sadly, "I'm sorry that she's doing that to you, but I don't know why you're still covering Hidemo. He's not even treating you well neither is his girlfriend."

Hidemi shrugs, swallowing her food and drinks her cup of water. Her eyes were teary.

Maybe she was on her period, the twins thought.

"Hidemi," Shisha spoke softly, "we were thinking about firing Hidemo..."

She stops, setting down her cup on the table. "...what?"