sugardrop

sweet like sugarcane

If you asked anyone on campus they would have said that Rain won the lottery. He had been the only applicant to be hired for their internship at the God of Architecture's firm. They almost never accepted interns, and almost everyone in their program applied. Everyone wanted to work for Phayu. They heard that the people at his firm were all treated really well. Everyone there was happy to work for Phayu and his family.

If you asked Rain, he would say the complete opposite. When he got accepted he was so excited. It wasn't even his idea to apply, Sky made him do it. He didn't think he would care that much about making it. So when he showed up on his first day, excited and eager to learn, he was brought to reality quickly.

Phayu wasted no time with pushing him to his limit. Every day it was a constant stream of his name being shouted by everybody on the team. Instead of shadowing people and learning more about how to actually design for clients, he became their errand boy. He was constantly running around getting papers printed, grabbing coffee, making sure the lunch orders were correct. Everyday he went home and took a long bath to soothe his aching muscles. He knew it would be hard, he just didn't think it would be like this.

The rumour of Phayu being good to his employees was true, he treated everyone with kindness and often spoiled them with treats or bonuses. However, Rain wasn't his employee. Rain was an intern sent by the university. Phayu almost never smiled at Rain, and every time they interacted it was treated like a huge inconvenience for him. Rain told himself he wouldn't let it get to him, some people just don't get along. It's normal, right?

At night when he would talk about how hard his day had been with his friends they always just brushed him off. There's no way the great God of Architecture was mean. He helped everyone around him, even if he didn't know them. The few other interns that had worked there sang nothing but praises. So why was Rain experiencing something completely different? Was he not good enough? But he made the cut, he had to be good enough. Did he do something to make Phayu dislike him?

It was always Rain's fault, never Phayu's. His friends would just tell him to be nicer, stop acting like a spoiled kid. Phayu would eventually warm up to him. They were never much help. When they complained about their placements they would always say that they wished they were in Rain's position. Eventually Rain just stopped telling them what was really going on. He would just make up a different day in his head that he could tell them. If he couldn't have a good time at his job in reality, he would make it good in his head.

Then it started to seem like things were getting better. People around the office stopped treating Rain like their coffee runner and actually started letting him shadow them. The atmosphere became good. That was until Phayu would enter the room. It didn't matter what they were talking about, the conversation dropped. Phayu would command Rain to do something and then walk away.

While the other people at the firm definitely helped him get through the day, it was becoming hard to want to show up. There's only so much that Rain could take. He was human too. When he tried to confront Phayu about the way he was being treated, he was brushed off. Phayu just said if he couldn't handle it, to leave. He wasn't there to babysit an undergrad. So Rain just dropped it. He was only there temporarily, he would be able to leave and move on. There was no way he could change his placement this early on.

"Rain, I would be careful today. Phayu seems to be in a mood." One of the girls warned right as Rain walked in. He stopped, looking towards the meeting room. Phayu was in there with a few people Rain could only assume were clients, giving a presentation. He seemed to be his normally calm self. If Rain looked for a beat too long, no one noticed. He shook his head, walking over to his desk.

"What mood? He seems fine." Rain looked back at the room another time before pulling out his laptop from his backpack. One of his other coworkers walked over to his desk, leaning against the divider, her eyes trained on the room Phayu was in.