With and Without You (AetherxAyaka)

Chapter 30: Lucidly Realistic

A/N: This chapter might start off confusing, but it will make sense later on. It's one of those bamboozled things. Also next chapter is Ayaka's story Quest!)

Click

Clack

Click

Clack

Ganyu kept clicking her pen, pondering why a particular business man didn't sign the the contract. He who came to an agreement with Ningguang, didn't sign the contract.

It's just another one of those situation. She sighed as she set it aside along with a couple other papers. Those to which she would have to track down tomorrow. The stack of papers were gradually growing and it seemed more and more likely that it was business men trying to scam the Tiquian or avoid the laws.

She shook her head.

It matters not what the pretense is. She is a secretary, not an enforcer of the law or an interpreter like Yanfei.

She grabbed a sheet from one of the towering unfinished stacks to her left, reading through the paper before nodding. Seeing the context of the paper and finding satisfaction, she signed on behalf of the Tiquian.

After signing it, she shifted it to a stack on the right side of her desk. Admittedly the finished stack of papers was marginally smaller than that of the towers on her left.

A whole days worth of work, soon turning into burning the midnight oil, would have usually felt more satisfying. Or at the very least she would have felt like she made more progress than she had, but...

...today things seemed to go realitively slow.

Tick

Tock

Tick

Tock

Ganyu listened to the harmonic and persistent swinging of the pendulum within the grand father clock in her office. It felt that it was the only thing making noise in the world at the moment.

The clock felt like it was the liveliest thing in the room. Her work felt bland and the room seemed almost dead.

Nonsense.

She told herself exact that. Forcing herself back to her desk, yet she couldn't shake a growing sense of dread.

As more time grew and more papers were signed, discarded, or set aside. She put off small details until...

She heard children giggling as the ran down the nearby street. Presumably both fairly young still, but their voices were clear as day.

A boy and a girl.

"C'mon sis we're going to miss the best part!"

"Alright, alright! But, slow down mommy said not to go too far ahead of her"

Their voices slowly faded away down the street, leaving Ganyu blankly staring out her office window. It was hard to not get lost in the sea of people migrating towards the center of the city: sure it was slow and they were ahead of schedule, but they all seemed so happy.

All these years and not a single festival has Ganyu attended. It never bothered her if she only heard fireworks or the cheers of children. She never felt the need to see any of these events, for her work was more than enough.

She had an important role and it wasn't about to do itself.

It felt out of place to contribute the abnormal feeling as a result of the festival.