Completely unexpectedly, I am sitting behind Mr. Kirk, the owner of the company. Khun Sam, the boss, is also in the car. On the way, I fidget frantically. I’m actually more comfortable taking a bus home than I am in this expensive car, but at least it has air conditioning.

“Your home is so far away. How do you come to work? At what time do you wake up?”

Mr. Kirk asked me after using Google Maps to get the itinary. Khun Sam is looking quizzically in the rearview mirror awaiting my response, but she chooses to stay quiet.

“I have to wake up at 4 am to shower and get dressed, then I leave the house at 5 am. I arrive near work at 7 am and I get something to eat.”

“Oh my God. How troublesome. It's like a survival game. It’s so far away, why not look for a job closer to home?”

Because close to home, there is no Khun Sam. But I’ve changed my mind now.

“I am thinking about it.”

The silence is deafening between us. Khun Sam looks at me and says something.

“If you think like that, why did you even apply for a job at the company? It makes other people miss the opportunity to work here.”

She said it coldly and with a sarcastic tone.

“Sorry.”

“Why are you apologising?”

“It looks like I upset you again.” I say with a shaking voice and Iook back at my hands in my lap.

“I wasn’t upset.”

But your voice doesn’t lie. Mr. Kirk saw the situation escalate, so he coughed to interrupt us.

“Sam wasn’t mad at you. If she was mad, she wouldn’t be in the car with me to drive you home. Normally, she would finish work and go back to her house right away.”

Khun Sam glares at her boyfriend. Mr. Kirk is trying to improve the situation, but it’s not helping.

About an hour and a half after we hit the road, the car pulls up in front of my house. Khun Sam and Mr. Kirk look at my fence.

“In a capital city like Bangkok, how can there still be such cute wooden houses like in dramas?”

“It’s quite old, not cute.”

“Scary!” Khun Sam looked at my house and muttered under her breath. "There must be creaking noise at night as if someone is walking around. And there must be something crawling under beds, coming all the way down from the basement."

“Sam, this is someone's house.” Mr. Kirk interjected as the sweet faced woman was taking things too far with her imagination. “Mon lives here. If you're saying that this house is scary, how would that make her feel?”

“Is there a hole under your bed? Watch out for anything crawling out of it.”

“There isn't any hole.”

“Good, because it’s scary. If you ever are in bed and happen to fall, there will be a long hand in the hole waiting to drag you down in under.”

“Sam, this is Mon's house, not mine.”

I look at her for a moment and think how cute she is. But I am disappointed again when I remember what she said about me taking away an opportunity for someone else to work at her company.

“I better get inside now. Thank you both so much for bringing me here.”

I raise my hand and greet both of them before I get out of the car. Nop, who was waiting in front of my house, makes a surprised face after he sees me get out of the luxury car and runs to my side.

“How come you got home in this expensive car?”

“My bosses brought me home.”

“They are so kind. Good evening.” Nop greets them. Mr. Kirk rolls down the window. “Thanks for bringing Mon home.”

“It was nothing. We had to make up with her because of this person here.” Mr. Kirk smiles and looks at Khun Sam. “She doesn’t know how to reconcile so I had to do it for her.”

“You talk too much. Can we go back now?”

Mr. Kirk smiles and winks before leaving. Nop looks at me confused since he doesn’t know what Mr. Kirk meant.

“To reconcile?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then why did you come home with them?”

“I don’t really know why. It was not even comfortable in that car.” I take a deep breath. “I’ll probably just quit that job.”

“Why? You said it was not easy to get that job. Plus, Khun Sam is there.”

“She is the reason why I will quit that job.”

“Huh?”

“I need to go.”

“Why, are you mad at me?”

I answer him with silence. I feel like I’m not being nice to him, despite the fact that he was worried about me and was waiting for me. But I’m not in a good mood right now, even though I was in the same car as Khun Sam.

This weird thing between Khun Sam and me is not over. At night, I still receive stickers from her on Line, always around 1 am. Tonight, I don’t put my phone on silent mode since I want to know whether Khun Sam will continue doing it.

Why would I think a cruel woman like her would send me stickers? But she actually does.

I just look at her stickers, I don’t answer. Just to make the messages appear as seen for fun. And yes, Khun Sam keeps sending one again every minute.

Boss: Why haven’t you gone to sleep yet?

This is the first sentence she writes after sending dozens of stickers. I read and wonder if I should reply or not.

Doraemon: Someone sent me stickers, so I can't sleep.

My reply leaves the chat silent for three minutes before I finally get a reply from her.

Boss: Why did you answer me?

Is she for real? I look at the message and do not reply right away. What are we doing? Psychological warfare via messaging app?

Doraemon: I was afraid you would feel abandoned if I left you talking to yourself.

Boss: Watch out for anything crawling out of the hole under your bed.

I smile at the phone and think, 'We've been talking a lot lately', even though we rarely look at each other or talk in the office. Also today, she came at my desk with several drinks.

Doraemon: Something crawling under the bed is less scary than something crawling on the ceiling.

She read it and went silent for a long time, now I’m worried about her.

Doraemon: Do you sleep on a double bed?

Boss: Yes.

Doraemon: When you turn to the other side, be careful not to see a stranger sleeping next to you… Have a good night.

Laughing, I put my smartphone aside. I can see that she is typing something. But I don’t read. I wanted to scare this lonely woman after she brought me down all day.

And it works. The next morning, when I see Khun Sam, she looks like she hasn’t slept at all. Even with makeup on, I can see that she’s tired. When she enters the office, she narrows her evil eyes while glaring at me and walks towards me with spite.

“Didn’t you read my messages last night?”

I smirk without any expression on my face.

“I was so tired and my house is so far away from here, I needed to sleep.”

“Then why did you respond and talk to me?”

“You talked to me first, right?

“Then why did you have to mention there was a ghost lying next to me?”

“You did it first. You said there was a monster under my bed.”

We’re staring at each other like we’re fighting. She puffs her cheek out and then turns around.

“Today I will definitely have a headache because I didn’t sleep.”

After saying that, she immediately goes to her office and changes the walls mode to frosted to maintain privacy. Now, one thing I know better than the magazines is that she’s afraid of ghosts. And from what I saw this morning, she didn’t sleep at all last night. She will definitely get sick today.

No… I won’t worry. She will blame me for trying to get close to her.

However today, boss M.L. is quieter than usual. Even on lunch break she doesn’t come out to eat. As everyone leaves at the end of the shift, I continue to pretend to be busy with my work and wait for everyone to be gone. When there’s no one else in the office, I secretly go see Khun Sam in her office to see how she is doing.

Knock knock knock.

No reply. First, I think about going back to my desk, but then I take a moment to muster up all my courage to open the door, just a crack. I see Khun Sam lying on the sofa, she has her hand over her forehead to hide her eyes from the light.

Headache from lack of sleep...

“Come in if you like.” She takes her hand off her forehead. "Don't stare like a psychopath."

“Can’t sleep?”

“My head hurts too much to sleep. I wonder who caused this?”

I walk in her office and look at her laying there with a headache, I feel guilty but I pretend not to feel anything.

“Yes, who could have caused this?”

“Why did you come here?” When asked, I stay silent. As I search for an answer, she stops me. “Are you worried about me?”

“I'm not.”

“Who said that if I were dying in front of them, they wouldn't care? What should I think?”

“Then… I better go.”

I look at her angrily. And when I’m leaving, Khun Sam, who is so hard to understand, whispers something into the air.

And the air is me.

“I’m hungry.”

“…”

“I want to eat fried chicken noodles from Nong Ann in Plubplachai* or chicken and rice at Watergate.”

*TL Note: Plubplachai is an area close to Bangkok.

“…”

“I’m hungry.”

I take a deep breath and look back at her scrunched up face, but she’s adorable at the same time.

“Call a delivery service. They can bring the food to you here in the office.”

"Right now, I only want to lie down and relax. Nong Ann’s fried chicken noodle restaurant opens later tonight.”

“Okay, I take note that it opens at night.’

“Dining alone is not cool.”

Is this an invitation? I roll my eyes and wait, I have no idea what's going on.

“If I eat and take medicine, I will feel better and my headache will go away. Until then, it's not a good idea to take the car and drive”

“Indeed.”

“It is delicious.”

“I bet.”

"It's delicious."

"..."

“It’s really really good. Not just the fried chicken noodle, it also has crispy wonton, dumplings, and if you don’t like these, there’s also dry suki…”

“Are you inviting me to eat with you?”

I asked her honestly, no need to turn around in circles and make heads spin. She goes silent for a moment.

“No, I’m not. Just giving you a food review.”

“That's a very good review. It's been a long time since I last had something to eat…”

“Or the red noodles near Sao Chingcha are delicious too."

“Can I go eat there with you?”

I ask her to end our conversation out of annoyance. Shame is all I have. I'm not feeling shy anymore, it’s gone now after Khun Sam was trying to act like a food blog admin.

“See. You want to come with me. It's not me not asking you to come. I'll meet you at the parking lot later tonight. Oh! When you go out, please grab something for me to eat at the 7-Eleven. I need to take medicine.”

Khun Sam puts her hand on her forehead again after finishing the conversation and continues to rest, leaving me with my mouth open, confused as to how things came to this.

There are people like that in this world?