The Stuff of Dreams

Stockholm Syndrome

Po finished up the last batch of papers that Viper and another co-worker gave him, and he decided to go on a water break. The department's hall wasn't really noisy or crowded, but most of the offices had their doors open so the supervisor could come in and see them. As the panda went down the hall and to the right, he ended up at the office lounge where the water fountain was. "Can you believe it, though? He really did ask me out."

"Why? He knows you're interested in Nicholas. Why don't you just tell him no."

"Aw, come on girl. I can't do that. It would hurt him."

"Better to be hurt from the truth than to die from the lie. By the way, could I get some antacid from you? I'm getting some acid reflux." Two women had been talking behind Po as he drank. When he heard the whole thing, he nearly choked on the water before swallowing properly. He ran back to his office and jotted down the idea in his head. The faster he wrote the more he could feel his own heart thumping harder and faster until he finally finished what the idea was.

"Whoa," was all he could say. He even took a snapshot of it to make sure it was secured. Just then, Viper came in. "Oh! Do you have some more papers for me?"

"No, I actually need a small favor from you," Viper smiled kindly, "I need to get something from my car, but Mr. Wang wanted these papers delivered to his office on the top floor. Could you perhaps give them to him? If he asks, just tell him they're the documents he asked from me."

Po frowned, "Are you sure that's a good idea? I've never met him."

"Well, no time like the present," Viper replied, giving him the papers and slithering off. Po mumbled under his breath. Never was the best time sometimes. Picking up the stack of papers, Po walked out of the office and went out of his department. As he went to the elevator, Tigress came his way.

"Oh! Hello, Mrs. Fang," Po smiled.

"Po, I've told you. Tigress is fine," The feline warmly smiled. "Going up?"

"Top floor," Po said. The door closed. The panda started looking through the papers. The pile had industrial requests, business proposals, and management issues; a few coming from the store he worked at. "Huh."  He didn't think the issues would actually make it to the administration; the big boss. Po narrowed his eyes. There were several complaints about Boqin's actions to the employees... from the customers! "What?"

"Hmm?"

"Oh! Nothing, nothing, I'm just looking over some documents to make sure Viper didn't make any mistakes," Po replied to Tigress. "But... some of these are from the store."

"Really? What's wrong?"

"Well," Po paused and shook his head. "It's nothing. Just the same old complaints about... 92-seed bread." It wasn't a total lie. "They're supposed to be going to Mr. Wang." Tigress nodded. "What is he like?"

"Nothing like his son," Tigress slightly scoffed. "Much kinder, mostly to a fault."

"What do you mean?"

"Where his son is aggressive, he's passive. You'll see when you meet him," Tigress said as the elevator door opened up. The top floor was a sea of cubicle offices with ringing going off here and there like pop goes the weasel. The left and right walls were large clean windows, and on the opposite end of the large square room stood a big glass door with Mr. Wang's title on it. As Po got off, he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Just be... careful with his secretary."

"Why?"

"She's...just don't mention Boqin."

"Who?" Po chuckled. Tigress slyly smiled and walked down to one of the cubicles. Po walked across the cubicles and finally opened the glass door for Mr. Wang. Behind it stood a second door–equally large but made of wood–and in the space in between both entryways was a small desk. Behind the desk was a busily typing Asian Golden cat in a pale green blouse. She had cute green eyes that dully stared at the computer on her desk, but her small frame and fast-paced typing made Po think she was hiding a more sporadic personality. Maybe she was? "H-Hello?"