Étude of Humanity

Chapter Twenty

My heart, my mind, and my body stalled at the sight of this mere figure that stood distance away from me just as I was about to distance myself from this world, with only my feet a distance away from falling from this ledge.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Maybe you need to think twice before doing this. You'll regret wasting your precious life."

His voice was soulless and apathetic, flat and emotionless. It wasn't too deep like Enterprise's or too high somewhat like Chihiro's, but just averagely enough.

It was a rather average boy that might look pessimistic with a face so blank and difficult. Heck, Sayre can't tell if he's worried or angry.

He was none other than the boy who sat at the eighth cubicle at the HR Division.

"Cubicle 08th..."

He sighed, his hand at his hips. "Don't you have a better name to call me?"

Sayre chuckled halfheartedly. "Akko, was it?"

Akko, the mysterious Cubicle 08th person.

Just like Enterprise, Sayre had trouble deducing if his name is a hidden identity, an alias, or a given name judging by how it's just one word.

However, what's even difficult for me is for some reason, it's mind-boggling cracking down on who this person is. If by, for example, knowing Mark head-to-toe was a piece of cake, Akko is like someone you only knew by face. Speaking of face, he'd always speak with a blank face all the time, so if you were any more average, you'd had a hard time deducing his tone in conversation.

He's a person who's very average at best—average clothing, face, expressions, relationships, performance at work, you name it! It may as well be that everything's just right for him.

At first he may sound all that boring, but what thumped in my heart about him is that we clicked instantly the moment we first met in his cubicle like a pair of enthusiastic children. That was about the last time Sayre had fun, or the last time Sayre was genuinely happy. That spark has been long gone since,

Until now.

"Hm. You sound and feel different compared to last time. You aren't the same," he said.

"Haha, what are you talking about? Everyone else says otherwise."

"Well when you helped me out with my query the first time we met, you sound so enigmatic and full of yourself like what, a maniac? No that sounds bad. Maybe a hypermaniac person? Or a person full of mania?"

"All of the above, maybe the third one sounds the best out of the three."

"Well yeah, you sounded so nifty, cool, and outgoing back then. Now... now you sound monotonous—almost the opposite to the same person that was two years ago."

There's just one con with him though, it's that Akko's pessimistic and doesn't take things on the bright side, rather he takes it on a realistic and rational basis. Maybe he has a knack for pointing things out?

Sayre laughed, "You know that saying that doesn't make me feel any better, don't chu think?"

"Here's a better question: do you know what the hell are you doing?"

"Mhm! I'm going to redeem myself."

"No way that's redeeming oneself... That's taking oneself, damn it." He realizes his emotions and tries to compose himself. "Anyway whatever you do, don't jump off the ledge."

"Eh?" Sayre fully faces her body towards him and away from the ledge, "Can you happen to guess why I'm doing such a thing? Or! Hmm... Let me make this easy for you so you won't think of me that hardly. Why do you think such a person commits such a thing? Everything happens for a reason. Maybe you can sympathize with me when you can deduce what I'm going through all this time?"