9 I Know

"I didn't—" Keagan would cry, but someone ran behind her to grab her mouth. She would scream, but the doors opened behind her. Everyone quickly got back to work, and Elijah's huffing voice resounded: "Why are you guys so noisy in the morning?"

The person let go of Keagan and chuckled as if he was not caught touching the boss's girlfriend. "Keagan and Fiona are arguing over the printer, Boss! Did something happen? Why are you out of breath?"

Elijah glanced at everyone, seeing nothing out of the ordinary aside from Keagan standing in front of the printer, eyes teary. He frowned at her and then at the printer chucking out paper after paper. It soon stopped, and someone called out from afar: "Keagan, it's done!"

The female voice broke Keagan from her trance. Her pounding heart hadn't subsided just yet, but she still worked on collecting the papers with shaking hands. She couldn't possibly tell Elijah what happened. He would either do nothing about it or criticize her for arguing with someone in the office. It was better for her to just swallow it down and staple papers.

"…Fiona, you go use the printer now." Elijah glanced at the other woman nearby, but he noticed something else as well. "Refill the ink first. It's running low."

"Y-Yes, sir!" Fiona wanted to smile and ask about the meeting, but Elijah walked off as soon as Keagan did. She even had to refill the ink and get her manicured hands dirty.

Elijah walked Keagan to the vacant desk and watched what she had to do in the meantime. Seeing that it would take a while, he just spoke, "Forget about that for now. Place orders for me. Make sure you get the list correctly. Get them to deliver it here within the hour."

He gave a piece of paper to her, and Keagan quickly stopped sorting and grabbed the phone to her right. Elijah then walked around the office, stopping at some cubicles and whispering to whoever was there. When Keagan glanced at what was happening, the employees seemed to be clearing unnecessary clutter on their desks.

"Boss, what's going on? Are we getting a surprise drug raid? Or is it the police?" The one closest to Elijah chuckled as if dispelling the curious and tense aura Elijah brought to the room. The boss wasn't even yelling at anyone, which was a normal thing he did.

"Worse," the boss answered in a soft voice as he walked off from one cubicle. "Everyone, what happened at the party is still fresh, so I need everyone to be on their best behavior. Just continue working. I'll be back again in a bit. Keagan, I need that order on my desk when I get back."

After a clean sweep of every cubicle, Elijah left the office again. Instead of chattering, everyone just looked at one another in confusion. Something wrong seemed to be happening.

…

Click. Keagan just finished putting the food order inside the director's inner office. She wanted to move back to her desk, only to catch the three men crowding around it. Instead of walking close to see what they were doing, she just stood from the corner and watched them. When someone noticed her, they followed her gaze.

The supposed leader of the office called out as if he were on Keagan's side, "What are you guys doing over there? Go back to your stations!"

"…we're just taking a look at what Keagan was watching." One of them laughed and called the person over. Because of this, a few more people came to see what they were looking at.

"But I'm not watching anything…" Keagan murmured. She didn't even plug in the computer. At the faces they made toward her, she didn't even want to get close anymore.

"Hey, this is extremely NSFW!" The leader covered his mouth to hide his laughter. He even eyed Keagan strangely. "If Elijah caught you watching something like this, he would surely get mad at you. How are you going to explain this?"

One of the original people at the desk called Keagan with hand gestures. "Come here, come here. Explain what's going through your mind. We won't tell Elijah if you explain it to us."

Keagan only stood there, wary of everyone. She didn't want to be in a space where they could just grab and subdue her. It was just that she couldn't stand there all day. Neither would they surely keep their mouths shut about this.

The door soon opened, and Elijah walked in again. In excitement and scorn toward Keagan, the man caught harassing Keagan earlier called out, "Hey, Boss! Come here! Keagan's watching porn in the office! It's that horse chick—oh, shit!"

"You have a rather energetic bunch under you." A cold and low female voice came with the closing of the door. When Keagan turned to see who Elijah arrived with, her eyes grew wider… as Wren walked past the frozen boss of the office.

The employees scuffled away from the vacant desk like a disturbed gathering of pigeons in a park. The sounds of the porn video grew amplified in their silence, and Elijah couldn't even move from his spot. Even Keagan refused to make herself apparent. 

Soon enough, Wren entered the cubicle where the porn video was playing. She looked around for a bit before reaching out to close the video and the computer itself. The company's CEO gazed over the heads she could see before settling her eyes on Elijah, who covered his face with a hand. She then walked back to where he was, not minding his humiliation.

"Director Jenkins, we did have something to discuss in your office, didn't we?" Wren spoke, and Elijah dropped his expression. However, his empty eyes were already a sign that he knew what was going to happen to him after this meeting.

"This way please, Madam Chastain." Elijah gave up and ignored everyone peeking from their cubicles. He didn't even glance at Keagan, who stepped back to make way for them.

Wren noticed Keagan, but she didn't make an obvious look at her. She just stopped in front of Keagan before turning her head to meet Keagan's gaze. "You shouldn't leave your things unattended. You should also unplug the computer if you're not going to use it."

Keagan stared at her briefly before saying, "I wasn't watching that…"

"I know." Wren smiled.

"Madam?" Elijah realized Wren was not following him even if he already opened the door for her. It was just that he caught the madam speaking to Keagan again. That smile didn't escape him, but he had bigger problems than that troublesome girlfriend.

Wren dropped her smile and walked inside the office, Elijah closing the door behind him. Within that sudden silence, Keagan felt like heat crept up to her cheeks. She just held her face with both hands and stared at the ground.

She murmured to herself, trying not to squeal and attract attention, "She's so beautiful…! Why doesn't she smile often? Wait, the computer…"