Never Again

Jessica could feel his gaze burning a hole in the back of her head as she hurried to complete the work she'd been a fool not to finish earlier.

The oak door was opened briefly before being shut with a gasp.

More interruptions.

She chose to shake her head at the disturbance, quickly getting back on track. Her neat handwriting was becoming uncharacteristically sloppy as she rushed the paperwork she knew she'd have to redo later.

Jinki chose not to say a word. He knew how angry it would make his coworker.

Coworker. That's the only thing that she found appropriate for him to call her. At the moment, she stubbornly refused to call him by his given name.

“Jessica,” Jinki finally sighed, leaning against the wall across from the blonde who doggedly refused to look at him.

“Yes, Sir?” The 'question' came through clenched teeth.

Sir.

Apparently, I'm a 'Sir'.

Her words were just countless reminders of how hated he was.

“Can you hurry it up? I have a board meeting to attend to.”

The undeniable sound of splintering wood took his attention away from her flawless face and on to the pencil being crushed in her perfectly manicured, trembling hand.

Only then did Jinki realized how rude he had just sounded.

“You can leave, I'll just lock up the office after I'm done.” Jessica stilled her writing arm and after a momentary pause, she continued to write. Instead of hurried, her scrawls sounded angry, enraged even.

“No,” he wouldn't waste this god-given time that could be spent salvaging their torn relationship. “I'll just wait for you.”

After almost a half hour of dead silence, Jinki decided to break the ice, seeing as Jessica seemed to be nearing a finish.

“I can see you're almost done, would you care to grab some coffee or something?”

The noiselessness was nerve-wracking and Jinki could feel his sweat accumulating from the cold glare he was given from his ice princess for the first time since he had stepped in the room.

“I'm sorry,” shaking her tired hand, Jessica stuffed innumerable pages into her file folder, and she sounded anything other than sorry. “You've got your meeting right?”

“I think I can spare a few minutes,” Jinki murmured, fighting the hope blooming in his heart as he pretended to squint at his silver wristwatch.

“I've got to get home, my cat must be dying of hunger...” Before Jinki could retort, she ran out the door. Sparing him no lingering glance.

Psh.

Rubbing his face with an unsteady hand, Jinki grinned, but the sadness was still apparent.

He peeked out the blinds to find a flustered Jessica running through the courtyard. Away from him.

Instead of sobbing like his heart yearned to, he chuckled.

It was no happy chuckle, on the contrary, it was one filled with grief and embarrassment.

“But,” Jinki shook his head, dropping his gaze from his retreating girlfriend. “You don't have a cat.”