Eternity likes to rear its ugly little head whenever the end of one’s workday begins to draw close.
Even when the morning and afternoon portions of the workday set a good example by passing by quickly and quietly like gentlemen, the evening always seems to drag its feet along, as though it just couldn’t let you leave until it had its fun.
And its fun is never actually fun. Nothing interesting ever happens in the evening of the workday. You’ve already eaten, your coworkers are already too exhausted and sick of each other to engage in conversation, your tasks have already been completed and leaving before the scheduled end of the shift is not allowed.
Ryuna in particular had a hatred for the evening of the workday. While she generally liked her non-canon job at the non-canon ULTRA CORP, wherein employees toiled away in a nondescript office doing vague white collar work for some nebulous capital purpose, once lunch was over and done with, so was she.
What made today even worse was that it was the middle of the week — too late to use the reserves of energy harvested over the previous weekend and too early to begin anticipating the next.
And so she found herself in her cubicle, feet kicked up onto her desk, head leaning over the armrest of her swivel chair, doing nothing other than staring at the ceiling and throwing in the occasional groan of displeasure.
After several minutes of this, she lazily pushed against her desk with her feet, propelling her chair out of her cubicle and into the space around it, in search of some source of stimulation.
Unfortunately for her, there was little to be found. This part of the office was practically empty, with only three employees assigned to it; those being herself, Kiria, and their senior employee, Sariah Knight.
Both of the other women were seated at their computers, typing and clicking away with the same efficiency they had displayed at the beginning of their shifts. They were cut from the same cloth; diligent, quiet, independent workaholics.
Ryuna let out a highly exaggerated sigh. “You guys got any plans after work?”
When no answer came, she narrowed her eyes in their direction. If there was anything Ryuna hated more than the evening portion of the workday, it was people treating her as if she weren’t worthy of their attention.
This time, she kicked off of the wall of her cubicle, blazing across the floor like a racecar, until she came to a screeching stop directly beside Kiria’s desk. The slightly younger woman kept her eyes on the monitor, punching in numbers into a spreadsheet or whatever the hell she was doing.
“Yo, Kiria,” she said. “Wanna come over to my place after work and get smashed?”
The younger girl sighed. “That’s inappropriate.”
“I didn’t mean that kinda smashed, I meant, like, drunk,” Ryuna replied with a laugh.
Kiria shook her head. “I’m underaged.”
“So? I won’t snitch.”
Sariah’s stern voice came flying in like a bullet, making Ryuna jump in place. “Get back to work, Ryuna.”
Groaning, Ryuna leaned back in her chair again, throwing it into a multi-rotational spin. “Ugh, I can’t! My brain’s freaking fried from starin’ at that computer all day. The hell are we even doing again?”
It was Kiria who answered. “We have to log the 100,000.”
“The 100,000 what?”
Only silence followed, even from Sariah. After all, it was a question that could not truly be answered, as the answer, whatever it was, was completely and utterly pointless.
In the midst of the silence, Sariah looked over at her junior coworkers. Kiria was, as usual, a model employee. She worked uncomplainingly, and required no supervision whatsoever. Present her with the task and she would carry it out, no questions asked. Further, even when the workday came to a close, if there was still more to be done, she would remain at her computer, typing away.
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She was the spitting image of Sariah herself, really, and it was a big reason why management had assigned Kiria to Sariah’s department in the first place. Naturally, Sariah quite liked the girl.
Ryuna, on the other hand, was almost the exact opposite. She was loud and talkative, and constantly took breaks away from her computer. She couldn’t wait to leave and head home for the day, either, and would never be caught dead working overtime.
“I’m not giving you any more of my time than you deserve,” she told management after they had told her to stay late to complete an assignment. “Time’s what life is made of, and I’m not wasting mine. Go waste your own if it’s such a big deal to you. My shift is over, and I’m going home to eat cheesecake, bitches. You can’t stop me.”
While one might assume Ryuna was a slacker who should be on the chopping block of unemployment, Sariah would disagree, and defend the girl almost as much as she would Kiria. While Ryuna definitely did not possess the most ideal temperament, her actual talent and skill was undeniable.
When she was actually at her computer doing actual work, she was practically untouchable. Her fingers danced across the keyboard like lightning, her documents were devoid of any and all mistakes, her assignments were delivered in bafflingly quick times; hell, it even seemed like her computer and Wi-Fi worked way faster than everyone else’s during these bouts of productivity. Like they were trying so very hard to keep up with her pace and performance.
With a quiet smirk to herself, Sariah said, “Fine. If you don’t want to work, then you can sit quietly by yourself. Don’t bother Kiria, though; she’s our star employee.”
Ryuna’s brow furrowed. “Star employee, huh? Psh! She ain’t better than me.”
She kicked off yet again, her chair gliding back to her own cubicle. And, as the sounds of keys clacking away like machine gun fire began to echo around the office, Kiria looked over her cubicle wall, where her eyes met Sariah’s. She mouthed “Thank you,” to her supervisor, who simply nodded in response.
Hours later, when the day finally came to a close, Ryuna pushed away from her desk, jumped to her feet, and stretched her muscled arms high above her head. “Finally! Holy hell, it’s like I’m getting out of a lifelong prison sentence.”
She strolled back around to Kiria’s cubicle, leaning over the wall. “How many did you log, Little Miss Star Employee? Betcha I had more.”
“Maybe,” Kiria replied, clearly unbothered by the competitive tone in Ryuna’s words. “But we’re not finished yet.”
“Ugh, I am,” said Ryuna, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “Are you guys really staying late again?”
Kiria nodded. Sariah didn’t offer a response, but judging by her continuous toiling away at her computer, she didn’t have to.
“Don’t you guys have, like, boyfriends or something?” Ryuna asked next as a yawn began to bubble up from within. “Or anyone else to go back home to and hang out with?”
“No boyfriend here,” Kiria responded. “And my roommates are home fairly often, so I see them plenty, even if I stay late at work.”
“Oh, right, you live with that elf girl and the cute little chameleon one, right?” When Kiria nodded once more, Ryuna instead turned her attention to Sariah. “What about you, Sariah? You got a man at home?”
“Nope.”
That yawn finally escaped from Ryuna’s jaws, and it even came equipped with a little bit of tears in the eyes. “Really? That’s pretty surprising.”
“What makes you say that?”
Ryuna shrugged. “I dunno. You’re in your thirties and you seem to have your life all figured out. Just figured you’d be married and have a kid or something.”
“I don’t do relationships,” Sariah said. “Mainly because of work.”
“No wonder you two are so uptight….” Ryuna muttered. When neither seemed to hear (although both very much did), she patted her hand against the top of the cubical wall before making her way to the exit with a wave. “Night, girls!”
“Have a nice night,” Kiria said.
Sariah responded to the wave with a nod of her head. “Good work today, Ryuna.”
Not long after Ryuna left, Sariah got to her feet and walked over to Ryuna’s cubicle. The young woman had left her computer on, so Sariah set out to shut it down for her.
However, right before she did, she took a look over Ryuna’s work, and smiled.
On her way back to her desk, she stopped beside Kiria’s cubicle. “That girl’s a hell of a performer when she puts some effort into it.”
Kiria couldn’t help but smile, just a teensy bit. Goading Ryuna with the “Star Employee” thing had been a very obvious ploy, but it had certainly paid off. She’d always found Ryuna’s competitive edge a bit cute; it reminded her a bit of Reina.
From this point of view, Sariah was able to see Kiria’s own workstation. With a grin, she then said, “Wow, she actually passed you. By quite a lot, even. Careful, or she might actually take that Star Employee title of yours.”
“H-huh?”
But Sariah did not elaborate any further. She merely gave Kiria a pat on the shoulder and returned to her own desk. When the sound of sped-up typing reached her ears, she smirked.
Around the ULTRA CORP office, Sariah’s department was always known as the most productive. No matter who had been assigned to her, and no matter how daunting the workload they were given was, her department was always the top performing.
She did feel a small tinge of guilt when she glanced over and at an ever-so-slightly panicked Kiria trying to outperform her coworker, but she didn’t let the feeling linger. She just got right back to work.