Overworked; Underpaid, Comedy; Duo?
Your eyes fought off the tempting lull of sleep that slowly attempted to pull you in. Your fingers working carefully over the keys that sat in front of you, neatly marked with characters of the alphabet. The bright screen that displayed words that seemed too blur together into one big blob of unrecognizable mush. Papers scattered across your desk marked with prices, deadlines, and research you couldn’t even begin to comprehend right now.
Pressing your fingers to your eyes, you rubbed them with a defeated sigh. A frown sat on your features, and your eyes tempted you to sleep. Looking out the large glass windows; your tired eyes gazed at the bright lights of Osaka. Even within the night, they remained bright and lively. Small droplets of rain fell from the sky, wetting the streets and allowing the lights to reflect off of them.
Reluctantly, you turned your gaze back to your computer screen. Your fingers got back to work, typing up the last few sentences of a document that was due by midnight. Upon finishing said document, you instantly stood from your chair and gave yourself a long deserved stretch.
Looking around, you had unsurprisingly been the last one in your office block. This of course meant everybody already turned off the lights and you stood there in the dark, the only light being the soft glow of your computer screen.
Gathering the papers that were scattered across your desk into a neat pile, you signed out and shut down your computer. Placing your empty coffee cup that’s had plenty of time to dry into your bag, you took out your phone. Checking the battery you mentally thanked yourself for plugging it in this morning as you turned on the flash.
Walking through the almost dead quiet building made you feel eerily on edge. Not the mention the fact that you’d have to walk home alone in the rain. The only sounds that reached your ears being that of the soft taps of your shoes along the tiles, and the ruffling of your clothing. The soft hum of an air conditioning sounded from somewhere far away down the hall.
Reaching the front doors of your building, you turned off your flash and put your phone in your bag. Pushing open the glass door and stepping out of the building, you walked to the edge of the overhang. Looking up at the sky you grimaced at the pouring rain. Leaning against one of the pillars you stared at the ground, your mind thinking about how awful a situation you were in.
“Y’know, if I was a bad guy, you’d be in quite the dreary position right now.”
Letting out a startled gasp, you whipped around, clutching your bag strap for dear life. Your eyes found a pair of closed ones, that ever familiar smile and ombre-green hair.
“Sasara!” You yelled. “You can’t just sneak up on me like that!”
“Ahh, sorry sorry!” He apologized. “Didn’t mean to rain on your parade or anything.”
You narrowed your eyes with a sigh. “It’s been two seconds and you’ve already got a clever pun for me.”
“That’s my job as Tragic Comedy No.1!”
Suddenly, your eyes widened. Remembering the time and the condition of the weather you tilted your head to the side. “Why are you here, anyways?”
“I was waitin’ for ya, obviously.”
You gazed at him with surprise written all over your face. Taking out your phone again you looked at the time and gave him a concerned look. “Sasara, it’s midnight! You’re crazy staying out this late, and in the rain no less..”
“That’s a little hypocritical, Y/N.” He responded with a shake of his head. “Anyways, no use thinking about the time, come over here.”
He grabbed your arm and led you back towards the building. Your eyes catching on a bench that sat against the wall. Two bottles of melon soda, a book, and a serving of food splayed across it.
“I thought you’d be hungry after working so long, don’t worry I already ate.” He spoke once more. “I was gonna wait for ya, but ya took longer than I expected.”
Your eyes nearly sparkled with joy. Sitting down at the bench you grabbed the bottle of melon soda that wasn’t open and took a long drink from it. After swallowing it all you let out a sigh of content.
“Thank you Sasara, really.” You said.
“Ain’t no big deal, that’s what I’m here for.” He responded in his usually calm tone. “But you really gotta stop working yourself to the bone all the time, you should be having fun instead.”
“I would love to actually be able to do that Sasara.. But I need to pay bills.” You huffed out, your eyes scanning over his figure.
It was quiet for a mere second before he spoke again. “You should quit.”
You looked at him with surprise. “Quit? I.. I can’t just quit. I don’t have anything to fall back on.”
“Come be my plus one and we’ll do comedy shows! It’s sure to be quite an egg-cellent time.” He suggested, tapping the tip of his finger on the lid of the food container.
Raising a brow you looked down at the food, seeing a now cold egg on top of a bed of also cold noodles. You looked at him for a second before shaking your head and smiling. “You know crowds aren’t my thing.”
“And rain isn’t necessarily my forte either.”
“I know, I know.” You responded. “Seems we both have our reasons then.”
Feeling the conversation seemingly coming to an end, you looked down at the book once more before picking it up. Opening it to a random page, you read the text. A small smile made its way to your face.
“Y’know Sasara, according to this book it seems like you’re just the way I like my soda.”
He tilted his head in your direction.
You saw a rare, genuine smile come to his lips. “Oh really now? That’s funny, cause I think you are soda cutest.”
Your eyes widened as you felt a warm heat come to your cheeks. Covering your face with the book you shook your head. “I can never win when it comes to you.”
“Aw, tragic really, but you know what they say..” He paused, as you stared at him quizzically.
“What do they say..?” You asked, not sure if you really wanted to know the answer.
“Nothing ventured, nothing rained!”
You instantly stood up to hide the smile that was beginning to overtake your features. “I can’t do this anymore.”
Beginning to walk away you felt a pair of arms snake themselves around your waist. Letting out a small laugh you felt a genuine smile slip out from your supposedly annoyed facade.
“There’s that laugh I love so much.” Sasara spoke. He was so close you could feel his breath fan over your ear.
“I don’t understand you sometimes.” You smiled.
His arms released you and instead spun you around to face him. You saw his face get closer to yours before he rested his forehead against yours. “You don’t have to, as long as you’re happy, that’s all I care about.”
“Hm, if you keep acting like this, maybe I’ll consider becoming your plus one after all.”
“Really!?” He responded happily, placing his hands on your shoulders and standing up straight.
You let out a small ‘hm’ noise before playfully pushing his hands off. “Probably not.”
You watched him slouch over in disappointment.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” You said quickly, a laugh at the tail end of your response.
He crossed his arms. “Not cool.”
Smiling, you looked back out at the sky. The rain had come to a stop by now and you could see multiple people coming out of their temporary shelters within shops and restaurants.
“Look, Sasara, the rain stopped.” You commented.
He turned his head to gaze at the sky as well. “I’d say this is a good thing because now I can actually get some sleep. But..”
Upon his untimely pausing you looked over at him with curiosity. “But?”
“...Oh nothing nothing, don’t worry about it!” He responded, reaching over and ruffling your hair.
Tilting your head, you shrugged, following him over towards the bench to gather your things. Turning back around you fell into step beside him as you both ventured off toward your homes together.
Perhaps today wasn’t so bad after all..
-------- Today, 2:20am --------
I turned in my two weeks notice,
hope you were serious about this
