Are you single?

"Nothing." Kiara said as she sat down in front of Ali, her breathing was a little heavy and throat a little dry after shouting her lungs out and getting no response.

For whatever reason the lift simply stopped working and it looked like the camera too.

"Maybe you didn't try enough. Why don't you try banging the elevator door with your hands or something." Ali said in a teasing tone, looking at the funny girl with a smile.

"Yeah, why don't you do it then? You've been sitting there with a stupid smile all this time, while I'm trying to get both of us out." she said with a little annoyance.

"Well, if you didn't bump into my injury and got me hurt, I would've already climbed my way out of this lift through the roof or something." Ali said, raising his bloodied hand at her.

"How does one even get hurt in the chest like that anyway?" Having nothing to do, Kiara asked what she's been curious about for a while now.

Like the chest is literally the last place anyone can get an injury normally.

"Did you pick a fight and lose? Or did someone try to _ you know_ off you?" Kiara said.

"Off me?" Ali said and chuckled, "Yeah, that's what happened."

"Wait, seriously? I was just joking."

"Someone tried to kill me with a knife, came quite close too." Ali said honestly, though skipping the detail where the attacker was her brother.

"Why? When?" She couldn't help but ask curiously, but then stopped and changed the question. "You don't have to tell me."

"I wasn't planning to." Ali said honestly. He had no wish to do a crying show of pity to woo a girl.

"Does it hurt?"

"A little. It looks worse than it is, so don't worry about it." Ali said and changed the topic to something else, other than his injuries. "So, how's your phone, still not working?"

"You're the one who broke it." Kiara said with some angry look, holding an old model of mobile in her hand.

"I broke it? I just flipped your purse, and your phone fell down and turned off, that's it." Ali said, shrugging the blame.

"That_ it just has a battery problem." Kiara said, a little embarrassed. Not sure how to explain her phone which went from 90% to 1% once it was switched back on before turning completely off by itself. It really was a battery issue.

"Battery problem, tell me one person besides you, who's still using these phones nowadays anyway. It came out like what 15 years ago, or was it 20." Ali said looking at that old model whose name got buried in history.

It was like one of those phones which were a big thing when you were five, but now when you take it out, you learn even the company who made that phone had stopped their production and closed off years ago.

"Well sorry mister wise man, but not everyone's a rich kid like you." Kiara joked and continued "Some of us have to look out for ourselves and their families, so we can't spend money like idiots." She said pointing at Ali's iPhone which was thrown to the other end of the lift.

"And you're blaming me for having an old phone, when you forgot to even charge the new one you have,"

Hearing her, Ali remembered he could've charged his phone in his car earlier, but he forgot. But with the mentality of 'How can a man take a blame.' he shrugged it off, and spoke a perfect excuse seriously. "I was busy."

"Humphhh" Kiara just scoffed, hearing his lousy excuse, and didn't pursue the matter.

"So how long do you think we'll be stuck here?" She asked.

"You're asking me, who should I ask?" Ali said genuinely "You're the one who works here daily, shouldn't you know better?"

"Wait, so you don't work here?" Kiara asked, surprised.

"Well, I do _ but I don't need to come here for it." Ali said, thinking for some time.

"So you're in sales."

"No, I'm…"

"That explains the professional looking suit." Kiara spoke up in realization, interrupting Ali who wanted to say something. "Where'd you buy it anyway? Is it expensive, cause it looks expensive? Ohh and does it drain color, I feel like it should."

"Yes it's expensive, and no, it does not fade in color. It's branded you know." Ali said, showing her the logo at the helm of his black suit.

"Nah, those guys at the fraud market copy paste these kinds of logos everywhere. Sell Reebok as Reedok Or Nike as Nice - they're normal things." Kiara explained, telling him about the only market she goes to for shopping since she can bargain there and things are cheaper.

While Ali who heard her explanations had the urge to facepalm himself, if only his hands weren't covered in blood.

"You're working at star corp, how come you can't even judge a brand that's basically every model's wearing these days." Ali asked genuinely surprised how someone so… . so … (can't think of a word) can get a job at a company that's basically getting paid to fix up others' public images.

Her idiocy, if an author calls it simplicity, was just astounding to look at, he almost had the urge to laugh out loud, but held back thinking that might just increase his bleeding.

"Are you laughing at me?" Kiara, who seemed to notice his expression, asked seriously.

"Who_ me, no, definitely no_ why would I _ hummh hehe ahhaha look at your face." Ali tried to deny the accusations, but failed miserably as he watched her frowning her face and flinching her eyes. She looked exactly like those angry acting cats from one of the videos he watched on Instagram a few days back. Maybe a little cuter but yeah, definitely similar.

"Now I know why someone would want you dead?" Kiara said and folded her hands over her chest with a puffing expression.

After five minutes of complete silence

"Okay, sorry. I won't laugh again, or joke anymore. Is that okay?" Ali gave up as it was really boring to sit straight with nothing to do.

"Hmm." Kiara nodded her head, and continued talking about their previous topic. "According to what I saw these past few days, the shift for most people should be over in two hours or so, so someone should notice a closed off lift by that time."

"Hmm weren't you in a hurry to come to work on the road before, would it cause any problem?" Ali asked and Kiara sighed hearing him.

"Well, the star I'm assigned to forgot her passport at the hotel, so I was sent to bring it. But it doesn't matter, it's not my fault right? It's the office lift that caused me the delay." Kiara said, finishing the sentence in a slower tone as if trying to calm herself.

The silly her probably knew that nothing she said would matter if her employer was angry, cause then all her truths will just be excuses for them. So she could just pray and try to calm her heart till then.

"Well, if anyone troubles you, just tell them my name. Should scare them away." Ali said seriously but this time it was Kiara who burst out laughing.

"You_your name_tsumph hahaha you said you wouldn't joke."

"I wasn't." Ali said, but didn't clarify it. "Anyway it shouldn't take that much time, I have a meeting and if I'm not there on time, Natasha should start looking for me. So maybe give or take an hour."

"How long has it been since we're stuck here anyway?" Kiara asked.

"Twenty minutes." Ali said and both of them ended up sighing audibly, guessing it's gonna take a while.

"This company is so big and famous, can't they even maintain something as simple as a lift? I heard the CEO is a guy who doesn't even care about this place, as he got a lot of other money at home." Kiara said with some annoyance, while Ali who heard her insulting him could just cough to hide his embarrassment.

'It's not me who's at fault, it's probably your damn brother using his goldfinger.' Ali said in his heart already aware why something so unexpected suddenly happened to him.

"Can it get any more worse?" Kiara muttered, finally giving up on her efforts to fix her phone somehow.

"Well, at least you aren't alone, it's not complete darkness inside the lift and there's enough air inside too. And I'm not a serial killer, trying to kill you. So yeah, it could've been worse." Ali said, trying to cheer her up.

"Well that's one way to look at it." Kiara said with a light smile as all of those possibilities sounded more scary than this one.

"Well seeing that we'll be stuck here for a while, why don't we just start some small talk, you know to pass time, and get to know each other." Ali suggested, and after thinking and hesitating for a few seconds Kiara nodded her head too.

"So let's start simple, tell me about yourself, what do you do around here?" he asked.

"Well, I've studied marketing, though for now I'm doing whatever I can to get by. This job here is something I just got through luck." Kiara answered and then said "My turn, same question."

"Well, I'm just here for a meeting with an old friend. As for work, well I don't need to do anything, I'm more of a handsoff shopkeeper kinda guy." Ali said, trying to explain himself again, until she cut him off.

"Ahh so you're the lazy one, knew it." Kiara said with a smile.

Shaking his head to ponder on it, Ali just moved onto something else. "You said you have a brother who got into a fight earlier, is he okay?" Ali asked, feigning curiosity and concern.

"Oh, no he's fine." Kiara said and smiled. "I'm not boasting or anything, but he beat down 7 guys at our colony alone without getting even a single punch." her tone was a little softer and face a little brighter as she genuinely cared for Kevin and her expressions alone showed it.

"7 guys huh, he's not some big champion or something right? Or a martial artist perhaps?"

"What? No _ he's normal." Kiara replied, but got silenced over what Ali said next.

"Normal people don't just beat 7 people without even getting hit once. Even trained fighters would have problems facing a crowd of more than five."

"That..."

Ali ignored her hesitation and moved onto the next question. "Anyway, forget your brother, tell me, are you single?"

"Wha… … … tttttt?"

"Are you single? You know, like do you got a boyfriend, or a fiance, or something. You know like someone special in your heart." Ali clarified again, like he just said something complex that this airhead couldn't understand. "Do you?"

#####Author note - I know 90% of you got various ALT accounts on webnovel. So what I want from you is that you open them and use them to drop a review for this book.. (I don't have to tell you that it should be 5*)

If you can give power stones daily from all those accounts, that's nice tooo. But please for the love of God, MC or me, the author - drop those praising reviews and tons of comments.