Arash habitually glanced at his smartwatch to observe the time as he sighed with worry.
It was nearly noon, and it was supposed to be lunch break soon, but he felt he had to stay in. Although Arash couldn't exactly see, he could felt that ominous-feelings like someone was staring daggers at him. That must be the department manager that sat a few paces away in a separate clear glass-paned room behind him. This must be the intuition that his wife always referred to as he could practically feel the ominous aura hovering around him from his back, pricking him. It made him sweat more than usual today even when the air conditioner was blowing vigorously.
It did not help when he received a short message this morning, "Will be visiting my pet fish for a few days. Love you, Ayang."
That short message had increased his level of anxiety a few notches upwards.
Did it mean she'll be MIA for a few days again? Will something big happen? Aiyooohhh!
Putting away his anxiousness about his wife's random actions, he tried his best to finish up his current work. After all, it was still working hours, and he shouldn't be distracted. The root of the problem was Arash's immediate boss, Mr. Rama(1), the manager of the Engineering Department of the private company he was working in.
Mr. Rama had been an extremely challenging person to deal with for the longest time and almost impossible to please. Arash didn't know what he did that made the old guy targeted him from a few years back. Somehow, Arash noticed that he had been assigned more work than the rest of his colleagues. However, he always made sure he was punctual and delivered his job on time to prevent himself from being entangled with him. He was just too tired to handle all the office drama, as he felt that spending his precious time at home with his three princesses was the best. Hence, all this while, the guy didn't have anything over him, thankfully. He never told Hana about his difficulties in the office. He knew not to burden her with more worries since the love of his life tends to overthink and worry incessantly about something. To him, this was his way of shielding her from the harsh environment outside. Although he couldn't perform kungfu acts, he hoped to be a gentleman for his dearest beloved.
Everything changed when Hana suddenly disappeared around a month ago.
The disappearance of his wife had impacted him severely in the initial phase, where he had to take a sudden emergency leave from work to rescue his children. That hectic evening, he needed to attend a meeting with a few international VIP clients that flew in specially to meet him face-to-face, rejecting a teleconference setting. He was supposed to be the one who will present the solution of a critical issue occurring within Project Kemsah(2). However, he had passed all his work to his colleague and informed Cheng Ho(3), the Project Manager, to represent him this time due to the emergency situation during the taxi ride back home. He couldn't wait until the meeting finish before rescuing his children! This kind of meeting could easily take half a day!
In a hurry, what he forgot to do was to inform Mr. Rama as he was too distraught and was panicking about the condition of his family.
During the meeting, his no-show had made Mr. Rama panicked and shamed himself in front of all the clients as he was the only one who didn't know what happened. He had tried contacting Arash tens of times, but his calls were ignored repeatedly. Some of them were even being canceled. He felt like he had been slapped hard on the face when everyone looked at him like he was a clown as Arash's work was presented smoothly while receiving praise from everyone else.
After that, well, there's no after that.
Obviously, it was not 'happily ever after.'
The love of his life was still missing, while his current life had been a whirlwind. Although Arash felt extremely suffocated, he tried his best to arrange for everything to fill the large gap being left by Hana. It turned out, all these years, it has been really easy for him as his wife had been handling multiple house management tasks at the same time. There were even some random miscellaneous tasks he wasn't aware of. It took him one whole week to arrange everything and to get back on track.
Then, the provocation began.
Arash had been repeatedly insulted in the company-wide channel on work-related matters a few weeks back, but when it turned out false, no apology was given. The misunderstanding stayed midair, hovering publicly with his forehead being stamped as an incompetent senior engineer. Last week had been the worst as he had been placed at the lower end of the performance assessment, although he did all the extra jobs others neglected for this year's term. The reasons given by Mr. Rama were how his inadequacy in following the timeline and taking unnecessary emergency leave impacted his work.
Which were all bullsh*t.
He had been delivering all his work on time regardless of staying home or at the office.
He even upgraded his modem and WIFI to the maximum level to ensure smooth connectivity when it came to delivering his job on time.
This is so childish! He sighed again while shaking his head bitterly. He had even tried to apologize for the previous occasion, but it seemed that he was not forgiven. So tiring! It was worse than caring for the whims of his own parents and in-laws.
Was it possible for an old guy to have PMS symptoms too? So petty.
Arash didn't know what he should do.
Should he confronted the old guy once more or just let it be?
Arash was someone who always tried his best to avoid conflict. He preferred everyone to be civil and had always taken a step back in arguments. To him, negative emotions will only tire one out. So, why must one invests in negative feelings and burdened oneself? Regretfully, his way of thinking had been misinterpreted by many as someone mild, weak-willed, and lame. (Mr. Mooncat: Yes, the classic 'good guy' syndrome. People will usually called our pitiful uncle as Mr. Goody-two-shoes, haha. Being too nice will only harm yourself when encountering office politics)
The sounds of mouse clicking vigorously, with intermittent sounds of typing, showed that Arash had never stop doing his work, although his mind was partially debating about whether he should confront his boss and had the face-to-face talk they desperately needed to clear out any bad mojo between them. He was finalizing the review of Project Kemsah since it needed to be rolled out by this evening. His work on five other projects around South East Asia was still pending at different levels of completion. It was indeed a hassle when one had to work with so many others, though he couldn't complain since a few of his colleagues were facing the same issues. Working in the Engineering Department had always been like this.
"Arash, let's go for lunch! It's time." Razali from the cube opposite him called over. It was already a quarter past one in the afternoon. Most of the engineers were walking out of the office in twos and threes.
"Er... I think I can't this time around. Where are you going to have your lunch? Could you tapau(4) for me?" Arash's eyes were still glued on his laptop. He felt that he just needed to complete this tiny part, and it needed around half an hour to do so. However, it wasn't nice to let others wait for him.
"Yeah, sure. We're just going to tapau at the Mat Rock food truck(5) nearby. The regular fried turmeric chicken and beef with extra sambal?"
"Yeah. Thanks a bunch, Razali. I owe you one. I'm not sure I could join you guys in the pantry later. If I'm not in my cube, just placed it on my table." Arash immediately transferred RM10 to his colleague.
"Eh, you want some drinks with it?" Razali swiped his phone to check the notification he just received.
"Nahhh. The extra is for treating you for drinks. I'm good with this." Arash showed off his blue water tumbler with a bright grin.
"Haha, alright, bro. You're the best."
Once Razali and a few others walked out of the department, Arash was alone. He doubled his efforts to finish up the last part of his work while intermittently eyeing Mr. Rama. When he saw the old guy eating in his own office, as usual, he felt a gush of relief. He planned to confront Mr. Rama once he submitted the final review after this.
...
A knock resounded over the door to Mr. Rama's office while he was sipping coffee. It was strong, black, and without sugar, his daily dose of caffeine to keep him awake during the hot afternoon. His sugar level was too high for him to add sugar and milk into his coffee. For someone whose sugar level hovered more than ten, he had trouble staying alert, especially during noon, while having multiple discomforts at many parts of his body. He needed to make sure he did not forget injecting insulin before sleeping tonight. He looked up to see the goody-two-shoes appearing before him yet again.
[Such a sight for sore eyes.] He whispered in his heart unhappily.
"Mr. Rama, can I have a word with you?" The fair guy presumptuously entered his room even before he could say yes. He really wanted to say no to this guy, but finally, he just kept mum. What else did he need this time after shaming him publicly before? Of course, he was still extremely offended!
"What else do you need. Have you finish the documentation for Project Kemsah? How about Project Sriraya and Project Temenggong-Cerapan? Still as incompetent as ever." He can't help spouting cynical remarks at this goody-two-shoes. He really couldn't understand why he disliked this guy since the first time he saw him. The worst thing was, his level of dislikes for him only increases as time passed by. Although this guy was competent with his work, anything else about him ticked him off the wrong way; especially his 'blur' face, and how 'slow' he was at responding to his queries.
"Just submitted Project Kemsah's final review in the system. Already send over emails pertaining to the details to all related personnel. The other two projects were still in pending mode. I am still waiting for the others before I could proceed. Most probably in two to three days."
He was speechless! The guy did finish up his work on time again. As he didn't know what to add next, he just dismissed him after a short scrutinizing of the newly received email, "Alright. You can go."
The guy refused to go and make himself comfortable while sitting in front of him. This act alone made his temples beat a little stronger than usual with annoyance.
"What else do you need, Mr. Arash?"
The guy took a deep breath and spoke gently, "I'm here to truly apologize to you, Mr. Rama, for all my wrongdoings. As I said before, I really didn't purposely left you out of the loop. I really think that I need to clear our misunderstanding out. It is truly an emergency situation where my children's life was in jeopardy."
An awkward silence prevailed in the small office room.
"Are we good?" Arash added.
After a few minutes, Mr. Rama replied stoically, "No, definitely no. Did you know what you've put me through?"
Arash shook his head innocently.
"Then, there's nothing I could say more. You can just wait and see what happens next."
That words alone sent a bad premonition to Arash's mind. He knew the old man might have done something to him again behind his back.
...
Again, our uncle sighed deeply as he walked out of the Department Manager's office with a heavy heart. He failed again to ease the tension between him and the old guy. Why was he more stubborn than Tok Silihan? To him, Tok Silihan was like an angel and could be easily pleased with random food and flattery. This one was a tough nut to crack.
As he placed his butt over the ergonomic office chair, he flipped his smartphone to look at the picture of his wife and his children to appease his heart. He really wanted to go back and hug his precious daughters. Only their warm touch could somehow melt all the stress away. He must remember to shave before he went off to fetch them. If not, they will become so resistant to his smooches. He placed his smartphone over his ears to listen to his wife's sultry voice, singing the weird new-age song to calm himself.
Just for one round... He closed his eyes as he imagined his beautiful yet quirky wife, and a small smile bloomed over his lips.
"Excuse me. Mr. Arash, Senior Engineer from the Engineering Department?" A short internal call came through as he was snapped off from his daydreaming session about his wife. The sound of a woman with a formal tone came from the landline as Arash picked the phone up and placed it over his ears.
"Yes?"
"Please proceed to level thirty-five in fifteen minutes for a short meeting with Mr. Alan and Mr. Tze."
Arash nearly loosened his grip over the phone.
...
Authors' Note:
1) Mr. Rama = an Indian-based name. It's a short for many forms. Either Ramachandran, or Ramasamy, or Ramanathan.
2) Project Kemsah = It's a random name. Usually projects were named based on the location. So it means that this work is based in Kemsah.
3) Cheng Ho = a Chinese-based name. Cheng is the family name, Ho is the given name. Nowadays, people give three-character names to their kids rather than two, if two, usually it'll be a western name like 'Samantha Cheng'. Example of 3-character name is 'Cheng Xu Xiong' where 'Xu Xiong' will be the given name (this is just a random no-meaning name, Mrs Mooncat didn't know chinese haha, don't go and google the name). Another thing is, Cheng Ho was also the name of the first Chinese Diplomat who came from China to build diplomatic relationship with Melaka, an olden nation in Malaysia during the 1400s. He is also known as Zheng He, an official of the Ming Dynasty (though in our school's History textbooks, he is only known as Cheng Ho)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He
4) tapau = takeaway
5) Mat Rock foodtruck = foodtrucks selling predominantly plain rice with chunks of turmeric marinated chicken, beef or seafood, stirfried with onions, carrots and long beans, and a mean, mean fiery sambal belacan. They do have their own physical stores too, but normally people tapau from their foodtrucks. It's cheap and no-hassle kind of lunch. Quite delicious too.
"Mat Rock Ayam Goreng Kunyit" could be directly translates to "Mat Rock Chicken Fried Turmeric"
Links to some reviews of the meal and how it looks like:
https://www.rebeccasaw.com/mat-rock-food-truck-nasi-ayam-goreng-kunyit/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkWkxwSuel0
and yeah..it is as oily as it looks since the meat pieces are being deep-fried haha..but it tasted pretty good imho