Having noticed that he was watching her, she blew a kiss at the screen, waving from where she lay on the couch. Immediately, Kiriya retook the vows in his head to protect her, resting his head on his hands as he watched her. She was so cute...
"I'm just going out to get my delivery food, okay, Kiriya?" Macee got up slowly from her couch, stretching her arms above her head as she made her way toward the front door.
"Roger that!" His chipper voice surged through the small speaker situated next to the camera as he saluted, unlocking the door's safety mechanisms so she could leave. Only he had control over that.
What a strange arrangement the two of them had. She, by now, had gotten completely used to having someone watch her almost 24/7, and he had gotten to know the girl who had unknowingly set foot in an apartment which no one was meant to access, let alone find.
Her figure entered a screen, then left, appearing again on another as she walked down the steps, up to the front gate and waited. A figure on a bike rode along soon enough, handed her a plastic bag full of containers, then tipped their helmet and rode off.
Several people walked on by in the street, the usual amount of people on a Tuesday afternoon. As she turned to head back in, she stopped a bit. Her mailbox was... full of letters. Reaching out, her long fingers grasped onto the wad of letters and packages, the other hand closing up the hatch before turning on her heel and heading back.
"I'll eat later. These have gotten my attention." She trotted up to the camera positioned by the curtains which led out to the balcony.
"What do you think, Kiriya? Might they be... love letters? For me?" She plopped herself back down on the couch, fanning herself with the multitude of letters and pamphlets, her sharp letter opener in the other hand, giggling as if sensing the slight fuming rage coming through the security cameras. Kiriya hadn't realised he was so easy to read.
"Just kidding, just kidding... or am I? Let's see..." She spread them out like a fan in front of her as she sat on her couch cross-legged. Macee's fingers danced on the openings of each one. Several creamy coloured envelopes overlapped each other, one blue and one magenta envelope sandwiched in between them all.
"Ooh, I like what I'm seeing! Heaps of mail, means heaps of chances to love, right? Right?"
"You're not trying to cheat on me, are you?" He asked in return, looking down at his phone to text his trusted guardian and the head of the Trellis Corporation, Eugene. As his fingers flew across the screen, his mind drifted over to what Macee was saying. Why would she think that? Just because you have heaps of something doesn't mean it directly correlates to getting love. He sighed, resting a hand on his cheek. He loved her, but she loved teasing him more.
The Trellis Corporation was one of the city's centrefold event organisers, bringing together parties, companies and conglomerates from around the country to form networks with each other, as well as encouraging business partnerships and interdependent contracts. It had run up until two years ago, when Eugene's sister, the shared co-founder and organiser of the Trellis Corporation, passed away, and only just recently reactivated when Macee entered their lives.
He sent a text to Eugene: Are letters supposed to be sent to the apartment? You didn't tell me about this.
The apartment. The very one Macee was staying in. Originally, no one was meant to stay here. Not after what happened to Eugene's sister. That was until Kiriya found Macee reaching for the forbidden files on his security cameras and yelled at her to stop with her hands in the air - a bit rash, but it was necessary. In his line of work, robbers, thieves and hackers can come in all sorts of sizes and appearances. She obeyed, thank goodness.
In a shaking tone, she had explained that she had found a phone left on a subway seat, and went around looking for its owner. Before she turned it in, it began to text her. The texter explained themselves as the owner of the phone and was at the airport, about to get onto a flight. They then told her an address and the password to get in - their place. There would be details in the apartment on how to send it to the owner's new address. They then hung up. She had followed their instructions and wandered into the apartment, and that was how Macee met Kiriya.
"I'm going to open these first." She extracted the cream envelopes and began to open them up with her letter opener. Kiriya sat back from his chair, attempting to focus on the work he had in front of him, but his eyes kept flickering back to the screen. It seemed clear Macee didn't get enough love letters in her life... didn't she realise it doesn't have to be a flashy envelope to be a love letter? His eyes scanned each one as she opened it, humming as her fingers pulled out its contents.
Please don't be a love letter... please don't be a love letter... He kept repeating to himself as he watched her. His fingers flew to the side of his mouth and began to nibble. A terrible habit for someone of his career. As overseer of the apartment, information archiver of the Trellis Corporation and hacker for a secret organisation.
Eventually...
"No love letters... Nothing personal either... Just advertisements about how good people and companies are..." She wailed as she sprawled back on the couch, legs in the air, her knee-long dress falling about her waist. Kiriya extracted his gaze to give her privacy.
'Yeah, what did you expect to happen? No one knows you're here except for you, Eugene and I.' He thought, but it was hard for him to hide how relieved he was. He glanced down at his phone again. No response from Eugene. It was hard to believe that no texts would've come in the time that Macee had taken to open up just a few simple letters, each one more excruciatingly slow than the previous one. And every time he'd fallen for watching her in nervous anticipation. His report and codes lay untouched the entire time.
"... Just kidding - I bet you forgot about these, didn't you, Kiriya?" Her arm shot straight up in the air, brandishing the blue and magenta coloured envelopes.
A strange heat pricked at the back of his neck as he saw them - was it jealousy? Nervousness?
"You like the colour blue, right? I'll open that one first, then. Maybe someone else likes the colour blue too, hmm?" She sat up again, energised and set the magenta letter aside to rest against her ankle whilst she worked on the sky blue letter. The blade dug into the paper and glided along the paper fold, leaving in its wake a gash for the paper contents to spill out, revealing itself as several sheets of dark green and spotty paper, from where Kiriya was. She opened up the sheets and began to read, falling silent.
"..."
"... Macee?" Kiriya asked, tentatively, through the microphone on the camera closest to her.
"... It's just the stationary I ordered! Silly me!" She leapt off the couch and ran up to one of the cameras, holding up the paper so he could see it.
"See, see? Isn't this colour pretty? I ordered it to write invitations to the others in the Club."
The Club. After calming down Macee and telling her to not touch those shelves as they were heavily secured, he explained the situation to the other members of the Club, more formally known as the Trellis Corporation. They agreed her to stay in the apartment on the condition that she would help out with sending invitations and emails to potential attendees for the annual gathering, as Eugene's sister did before her. She agreed, and a month later, she has still kept her promise, working hard, and in return, the rest of the Trellis Corporation warmed up to her.
"Yes, it's quite pretty." He switched the mic off and sat back again. He felt more worn out than the time he got attacked by two simultaneous firewalls.
"So that just leaves, this envelope, huh." Macee backed away from the camera, setting the green paper aside as she stooped down to pick up the forlorn magenta package. She flipped it this way and that, tucking loose strands of her warm brown hair behind her ear. Her brown eyes blinked in curiosity; it felt like the atmosphere of the situation had changed.
"There's no address written on this letter, Kiriya. It just has my name on it. See?" The brunette came back over to the camera and showed him.
"I'll just open it and see what it is about. Maybe its the bonus to the stationary?"
"Wait, shouldn't you--?"
Riiip! The blade slashed through the boundaries of the envelope, tearing it open. The end frayed with the amount of force she put into the cut.
"... There's a note." She murmured, putting the letter opener down as she reached in and pulled out a small note.
"'Welcome to... Paradise.'" Her fingers turned the small red piece of letter paper around. On the back was written in small, neat, cursive writing,
"'Thanks.'" She peered back into the envelope, even turning it upside down to shake out whatever else could be laying inside. She expected... more, from such a grandiose-looking package. But Kiriya was on the edge of his seat, eyes straining to see more through the security camera.
"Is that all it says?"
"Yeah. There's nothing on here."
"Nothing else in the envelope?"
"None. Why?"
"Was there any address on the envelope?"
"I already told you, there was only my name- Why, are you panicking?"
No... in fact... that whole ordeal was weird. Macee wasn't meant to get any kinds of letters in this apartment. Or at least, not that many at one go.
Finally, Kiriya's phone buzzed. A text from Eugene.
'No.' Eugene's text read. 'I've organised it that all letters which are meant to go to the apartment come to me. All junk mail is negated immediately. I have organised with Macee to have her stationery delivered to the apartment, which I deposited myself. Why?'