A smile in purgatory 火海一笑 (BxB)

He will give up soon

(Timeline: Week 2 Tuesday)

After the long weekend, Hanson returned to work at 6 am on Tuesday.

Wen Kexing also comes to work at 6 am. He has been doing 6 am to 6 pm like Hanson, working 12 h days despite getting paid only 8 h. Hanson made it clear on his first day, that he was not required to do that, but since day 2 of last week, Wen Kexing showed up everyday at 6 am, and stayed every night until 6 pm.

It was the only thing that Hanson admired about him. At least he's hard working. He might not be able to learn much, do much, or be productive in any way, or be helpful in any shape, or be successful in any form, but at least he works all the time, and only stops for his 2 fifteen-minute breaks and his thirty-minute lunch.

When Wen Kexing saw Hanson on Tuesday morning, he said good morning. He does, every morning.

Well, most people do, right?

But as always, Hanson doesn't say anything back. It's nothing personal, he just doesn't initiate or participate in unnecessary chatter. Today was no different.

"Good morning, Hanson" Kexing said.

Hanson just nodded.

"Hanson, why didn't you tell me it was a holiday yesterday? I came here only to find out that nobody was here." Kexing asked.

Hanson was rather surprised. "Nobody told you?" He forgot to use his monotonous voice.

"No."

"You could have called and asked." He said, back to monotony.

"Call who? You never gave me your number, remember? You told me that if I call, I call HR or Brian, not you. So I don't have your number."

"You could have called HR or Brian."

"I didn't know it was a holiday. So what, am I supposed to call everyday to check if tomorrow is a holiday before I come in?"

Hanson frowned at the strange question.

"You could have just told me on Friday before we left work." Kexing continued.

Hanson certainly could have, or should have. But as always, he doesn't do small talk.

"... How do you not know it's a holiday. Everybody knows." Hanson said, monotonously.

"I'm not everybody. My head doesn't work the same way. And different companies celebrate their holidays on different days. I'm new here, I didn't know the company celebrates a Tuesday holiday on a Monday. So I came in."

"The whole world knows! You celebrate Tuesday holidays on Mondays! What's wrong with you!?" Hanson raised his voice. He knows he has anger issues so he covers it by developing a forever monotonous speech. However some people still have the ability to irritate him.

Kexing, on the other hand, lowered his own voice when he saw that he was getting Hanson upset.

" ... you ... could have just told me... I take the train to work every day, it's a 1 hour ride. Then when I got here and saw nobody, I had to wait for the next train. During workdays, they come hourly but during holidays, they do weekend schedule which is every 90 minutes. By the time my train came and I did my 1 h ride back, I lost half a day when I made it home. And I wasted money on the train tickets too."

Hanson did not realize that. Well, if you don't do small talk, how would you know.

"Don't you drive?" He asked, forgetting to flatten his pitch for the second time now.

"I do, but I live in South town, and the traffic is very bad so I take the train. If I drive, it would take me more than an hour anyway to get here. Also my truck is very old, it breaks down several times a week, so I don't drive it if I have the choice."