“I. Hate. Work.”

I ended up muttering as my fingers were dancing on the keyboard. With no intention of bragging, I can probably write at least a hundred and fifty words a minute.

“Click, click, click!”

My fingers continue to hit the keyboard’s buttons. My relationship with this keyboard is quite peculiar, to be honest.
If I were to describe it, then it’ll be like two middle aged married couple, trying out a new play at their bed to spice things up. It’s just unpleasant for the two of us, both me and the keyboard.

“Hey~ If I remember correctly, didn’t you say that being an editor is your dream job?”

Oh, great.
My dear childhood friend –and also my only friend– Jack, said to me.

“It used to be my dream job. Ugh, how ignorant I was…”

“Click, click, click!”

Nonetheless, my fingers never stopped moving.

“Ehh~ You even forced me to join ya, and now you’re telling me that you regret everything?! Did you know that I even had to face off against our supervisor in order to get a desk right across of you!”

“I didn’t force you into anything!”

That lying piece of crap! He followed me through college and even forced his way into my interview, just to take the same job as I did!

“But I thought you’ll be pretty lonely without me…”

“Yeah, yeah, we were just lucky that the interviewer took your ‘endeavor’ to be quite courageous!”

Jack brushed his long, light brown hair aside as he pouted.

“But didn’t we both get the job~!”

“Yes, I have to agree with that. Who would have thought that ‘friendship’ would shine this much, eh? We were really lucky, that we were the only ones who applied for this job, eh?”

Jack’s brown eyes shone, “Yes! That! See, if it wasn’t for me, then you would’ve been all alone, maybe they wouldn’t have accepted you at all either! It’s as you have said, they accepted us due to our dazzling friendship!”

I rolled my eyes in response. He doesn’t get sarcasm at all, does he?
I should’ve sensed something in that darn interview a couple of months ago. Why no one wanted to take up a job at this publication firm, is something that I only realized after I was accepted. My dream was shattered, my hopes for the future were obliterated…and more importantly…

“…How come Jack could be married way before I even got my first girlfriend…?!”

“Click, click, click, click!”

My fingers dashed from one button right into the other, at an even faster speed. This…I might be breaking my record…

“Hahaha~! No worries, no worries! No need to feel jelly, y’know~ No one can replace you, even if it’s my little, cute pumpkin, Emily~”

“Is that so.”

That annoying guy met his witch–We just hate each other’s guts–back in college. She took the same classes we did, and we ended up going to a few parties together…

“That witch is draining your life, I tell you.”

“Hahaha~ It’s really funny! Emily said the same thing about you, the other day~ How you were an ‘imp’ that was haunting me~”

“I see.”

“Click, click, click, click, click!”

Looking at the word count at the very bottom of my screen, I see that in the course of our conversation, I’ve already finished writing two thousands words.

“This should do for this week’s report…”

“Woah, that was fast!”

“Unlike you, I actually work. The sooner I finish this, the sooner I can get back home and sleep.”

I quickly opened up my email, attached the report and sent it over to our supervisor.

I stood up, fixed my clothes and then said, “Now then, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be heading outside for my lunch break.”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Jack stood up almost at the same time as I did.

“So energetic…”

“Let’s go~!!”

“Hell no. You still need to finish your own report, then dream about taking a break.”

“I can do that later!”

I can only sigh at Jack’s sparkling eyes.

“Seriously… That isn’t even laziness! Being lazy is finishing your work as soon as possible, not flat out ignore it! I’ll be leaving, alone!”

“That’s unfair!” Jack shouted as hard as he could.

“This idiot…” I muttered. I then turned around to greet the only other person on this floor, and bowed to him slightly in apology for the ruckus this moron is doing. The slightly older man–I heard that he was in his late forties–smiled in response and waved his hand.

I returned to facing Jack, and barked, “Just calm down, will you? I’ll wait for you to finish writing your report, then let’s go have lunch together…”

“Yay~!”

And with that being said, we both returned to our seats. I decide to edit an article that isn’t really that long, just enough to pass my time by until Jack finishes with his own report.
Truly, the only good thing about this job is that we could take breaks anytime we want…we simply had to hand in our work at the end of the day–or in this case, the end of the month–all well and done. However, because that is the case, most employees of this editing department don’t even come into the office, and simply work from home. Still, what’s really intriguing is the workload of this irritating job…

Our company holds most of the big names in magazines, both online and offline. Be it for scientific papers being published, to models showing off their figure with the latest of the fashion’s world, to the average gamer’s news outlet up to even the latest trends within the internet. Our company is supreme in the publishing world, dominating most households toilet pastimes.

The company holds so much prestige, yet the upper echelons don’t want to spend a darn dime; they end up overworking their employees, those who fall for their ‘complete freedom of work and utmost importance to our workers’ facade–such as I–will sign a contract that is simply mind boggling. Even the devil would gape in response to their contracts, and how heavy they are.

I still wonder why–nay, how was I deceived into signing the contract without looking it over? Was it that I completely trusted the company that had entertained me ever since I was a child, or rather was it because I was too excited to even give the contract a good read before immediately signing it? Of course, Jack ended up signing the contract as well without looking it over, since I also did the same.

“Done!”

“Sigh…”

“Why are you sighing, now that I was finally over?!”

“Woah!”

My mind kicked back into motion as I have noticed at the corner of the screen, that twenty minutes had already passed. Taking an even closer look at the monitor as a whole…and I’ve done zero work.
Ugh, now I got to work extra…

“Hey~”

I raised my head to look at Jack, “I was stuck in my head for a bit…”

“ ‘Contemplating life’ was it?”

“Yup.”

Jake stood up and I followed suit. “Shall we, m’lord?”

“You happy go lucky arse-hat.”

Oops, that escaped me.
Jake simply smiled and walked in front of me. “I wonder…should we go for Chinese or Italian?”

“Who cares.”

I can eat anything anyways. I pressed the button for the elevator while saying, “On second thoughts, I really need to return quickly, so let’s go with somewhere close.”

“Ding!”

The elevator’s door opened. “Hmm, then Italian it is!”

We both walked into the elevator. Inside the elevator, weirdly enough, was a man. Hmm… No, no, he should be called a child. A 14 years old teen, so to say. The little child was wearing a blue sweater–even though we’re stuck in the middle of summer–and blue shorts, which really struck me as odd. Why a sweater and shorts? Why, to start with, a sweater in the middle of this hot season? Doesn’t he realize that we’re in the midst of global warming, meaning that summer is even hotter than usual? Is this craziness?

I quickly averted my eyes away from the child. This doesn’t have anything to do with me, and it’s rude to just blankly stare at people. To start with, do I even have a right to judge this child? After all, I’m wearing a hot suit in the middle of summer myself… Even Jack has come to work in casual clothes, “Since it’s more comfortable” he says. Even more so, is my baggy eyes. Yes, I’m a bit on the deprived of sleep side, since I like to play some video games before going to bed…and watch animations too.

Unexpectedly–or as expected, I guess–Jack opened his chatter box that he calls a mouth.

“Hee~ Little guy, aren’t you hot in that?”

“You… learn restraint!” I whispered into Jack’s ears.

I then turned to face the little child, and apologized lightly.

“No worries, no worries~ You see, this sweater is something special to me… So in order to not get hot, I counter it with these!” And then the child pointed at his shorts.

Jack clapped both of his hands in understanding as I looked over all of this in sheer bewilderment.

“I see! That makes sense~”

“Makes sense my arse!” Is what I wanted to go with, but restrained myself–unlike that guy–and just nodded.

The elevator’s doors closed at last, and then alongside them, I finally remembered to take a peek at the buttons to make sure that the ‘Ground floor’ button was pressed.
And indeed, the button was pressed, undoubtedly by the little child. After all, Jack is too moronic to even harbor the idea of pressing a button in order to move.
…Now if only I said that out loud… I trembled in excitement with the mere thought of that!
Taking a side glance, I noticed that Jack and the little child seem to have hit it off rather well. The little child’s short, deep blue hair was fluttering as he continuously nodded in agreement with Jack.
What they were talking about was honestly beyond me. So much so, that none of it even registered in my ears.

“Ding!”

We finally arrived at the ground floor, and the elevator’s doors opened.

“Now then, here’s my number…”

I heard Jack’s laughter next to me, as I turned over to take a look at those two. They both took out their cellphones, and seemed to have exchanged their contact information.

“I look forward to the continuation of our conversation! Hehe, I’ll make sure to convince you that happiness can be also granted, and not just achieved!” The little child then ran off.

I walked outside the elevator as well, then turned to look at Jack.

“That’s a seriously heavy subject to be discussed in a matter of a couple dozens of seconds…More so when the other party is nothing but a child.”

Jack mysteriously smiled. “Oh? That guy isn’t just a little kid~”

He is though. Oh well, who cares.

“Let’s hurry up, shall we? I really need to get back quickly, so I can finish up work and return home…”

I don’t really like working from home.

“Ehh~ You’re still hung up over ‘Work should be done in the office, while relaxation should be done at home’ thing? It’s totally normal to work from home, you know.”

“Is that so. Why do you care anyways?”

Jack shrugged. “I just think that you’re making things more complicated than they should be. Oh well, I’m pretty hungry myself~! Let’s march on~”

“Yes.”

We exited the company’s automatic doors and went out. What greeted us was nothing out of the usual. The horns of cars being stuck in traffic, strangers arguing on the phone and plain out lovers holding hands.

“Ugh, I feel tired already…”

“Now now, it’s all fine and lovely, seeing you getting jealous! Don’t worry, I’m here for you~”

Bright! Too bright! Jack’s smile is simply too bright!!
Well then, let’s tough up. I’m the one who suggested that we should go out for lunch, and I’m really hungry too. Alright! Let’s do it! I can do this! I’m the man!
We took our first step outside. We turned to the right, and took four more steps.

“Welcome! Is it a table for two?”

I nodded, while Jack shouted, “Yup, yup!”

“Since I already nodded, there’s no need for you to shout…” I whispered to Jack.

Jack just spared a side glance and smirked.
The cute, purple haired waitress smiled in response to both of our answers. Well, it’s probably her usual business smile. Still, her smile is pretty cute. With that being said, she guided us deep into the restaurant, to the furthest corner, and then gave us the menus after we took our seats within this four-chaired table.

“Please take your time~”

With that, the waitress walked away. Probably to go serve another table.
I took a quick look at the menu, and then let it rest on the table. I already know what I’m going to order anyways.
I lifted my head to look at Jack, who was deeply staring at his menu.

“So, I’m interested. What were you two talking about earlier?”

“Jealous again, are we~?”

“No.”

Why would I be jealous anyways?

“Anyone would be intrigued when a child parts ways with an adult while shouting ‘I’ll convince you that happiness can be granted!’”

I imitated the child’s pitch while repeating what he said earlier. Hehe, I should get an award. That’s how good my voice acting is!
Unfortunately…

“Pfft…!”

The waitress just arrived at our table to pass us two glasses of water.
I bet that at this moment, my face is bright red. Nay, my whole body is red! That’s how embarrassed I am! Kill me! Please do it! I’m sorry that I was curious! No wonder curiosity killed the cat!!! Ughhh I regret everything!!!

“Hahahaha!”

Jack flat out started laughing. The waitress, seeing this, no longer contended with ‘Pfft’ and simply followed Jack’s example…

“So rude…”

“Hahaha…” Jack quickly moved to remove a tear from the corner of his eyes, “It’s all your fault for showing off your talents!”

…Grrr…Jack…! What are you making fun of me for?! Stop laughing! Please! And that waitress…Have some respect for your customers! Though I really can’t say all of this out loud due to my embarrassment…

“Do I really sound like that?”

“Woah!”

Where did that voice come from?!
I turned to my right–Which was originally empty–and found the blue haired child from earlier sitting on the seat, drinking from a glass filled with water.

“Azure!” I heard Jack’s voice loudly exclaim. So he, too, didn’t realize that this child was sitting here? Even though Jack was sitting right across from me?
To start with, having my left face the hallway and my back to facing the wall, how could this child sit on this seat without me noticing a thing?

“Eek!” The waitress woke up from her laughter, as she finally noticed that one of the glasses she was holding disappeared.

“Amazing!” She quickly recovered though. I’m impressed at her speed with recovering her cool. Truly, a waitress to heart. “How did he do that?!”
That’s what I want to know! Can it be that he did all of that while they were laughing, and I was too busy being embarrassed?
No no, I don’t think that’s possible though…
Unless he took the glass, went under the table and then climbed up to the chair while holding the glass. That’s too much work in my opinion. And I think I would have noticed it even while being embarrassed too…

“So,” I took a look at the child, “Where did you come from?”

Of course, what I meant by that was ‘How did you get into the chair without us noticing?’
But the answer he gave me while carefreely smiling utterly surprised me. No, frightened me even.

“From beyond that wall.”

He then pointed out the window that’s a few ways away in front of us, behind Jack.  There, stood an entity that could simply be called the work of celestial bodies as it aimed for the heavens while exhaling its majestic aura. Boasting the height of 900 meters made of pure metal not only gave its enemies pressure, but it also excluded an equal amount of reinsurance toward the ones it’s protecting. With 300 meters in pure thickness, it could be said to be impact resilient, fire resistant and simply indestructible.

No one knows who built this divine wall that has protected us for centuries. However, what we do know, is its purpose. Yes, its purpose is to protect us. Protect us from what? From the outside.

“See? I told you that he wasn’t just a kid~” Jack smiled. Oh, so eerily.

Next chapter~