ANTAGONIST

CHAPTER EIGHT

     I slam the coffee pot in the coffee machine so hard the whole machine shakes. Oh, Josh. A good person doesn't deserve what he's going through. Just the thought of Kyan enrages me. Fuck all the past weeks we've been on friendly terms. He's ruined this man's life. Josh's life.

My head hurts from working all day long. I'm overtime right now and it's about twelve in the morning. The office is quiet and the office kitchen slash lounge is dim. I don't think coffee can fix my headache tomorrow.

"What do you have there?" A voice says from behind me.

That and the fact that both me and Kyan are on overtime.

I immediately have the urge to shout at him, but I stick a lid on it. He walks towards me in his light, white button-up to peek at what I'm brewing. He's as tired as I am. After the coffee's done brewing, he grabs the pot and makes a cup for himself first.

I try to keep calm.

I pour myself a cup too as he faces me at where he is sitting, which is on the high chairs for the counter. He seems to pick up on my face and aura.

"Tired?" He asks. I nod silently, afraid if I open my mouth, I might say something I'll regret. He nods back.

I decide to just stand up with my side to him, pretending to look at the decorations on the shelves.

I wonder how Josh must be doing. How I pity him, meanwhile this rat is just living his life with his privileges. It's not fair.

I hear the chair move and hear his footsteps head towards me. He stands beside me, viewing the painting in front of us. A modern art painting in a simple, black frame.

"You know, my cousin painted this." He attempts to strike up a conversation. I remain silent and sip on my cup. He retreats. After a minute of standing and looking at the painting together silently with tension all around us, I finally finish my coffee and I'm about to get a refill. But as I turn, Kyan moves too which causes me to hit his cup and splash his coffee all over him.

He groans as he looks down at his clothes. He shakes his head indicating how hot the coffee is. He fucking deserves it. He looks up and scowls at me as I continue unbothered to refill my coffee at the counter.

"Says a lot about manners, huh?" He says with indignation. "You know, one question: Why do you hate me so much? I know I can be a whole bitch sometimes, but I feel like you hate it for something much more."

That does it.

"Oh? Why do I hate you? You're the one talking about manners?" I scoff. "Come back when you're a decent enough human being to not fire anyone you like." I talk back, glaring at him. My hand turns into a fist. My legs start to shake. And my temples hurt.

There's a relief I feel after saying that.

He looks at me, his expression extremely perplexed and infuriating. I hate how that face enrages me every damn time. I hate how those lips, the words that come out of his mouth, always make me want to kill him.

"Is that why you dislike me?" He says sharply. "Is this about Josh, Rodriguez?"

I look at him intensely. He picks it up.

"Ah. That boyfriend of yours." He spits and rolls his eyes.

"He's not my boyfriend. He's someone that mattered to me. A human being whose life you ruined. You fired him for no reason! Now his family business is going down and his family is starving." I shout.

"How is that my fault? Hm?" He retorts. I gasp.

"Wow. You really don't have any empathy in you or some kind of decency, do you? In fact, I was right about you. You are solely nothing but a wretched, spoiled, little brat who thinks he can do anything he wants. He didn't even get to know why he got fired!"

He looks taken aback when I say the last sentence. He gazes at me like what I've said was unbelievable.

He breathes in sharply. "Oh, I know for a fucking fact I know he knows what he got fired for."

What?

I shake my head. "What do you mean?" I spit indecorously.

"Your favorite little co-worker of yours you title as an angel was one hell of a smart crook." He begins. "Before Minnie, he worked together with the financial accountant to get money from under the table. That bitch was ruining our company in secret! He stole millions of pesos from our company. Not only that, but it turns out he's a maniacal liar. He told you differently, didn't he? He doesn't know why he got fired. That he's the victim here?

"He's only getting karma from the corrupt actions he did here in Dy Publishing." he finally breathes after explaining all of it.

"Why did you never tell me then?" I say. Now I'm the one confused. So confused. My head feels like it's about to burst. I can't process this now.

"Because it was confidential, Theo!" He retors and he takes a step toward me.

I shake my head. What? Had I gotten everything wrong? Josh is the bad one here? Oh, God.

Kyan sighs. We fall silent for a minute before he tells me: "I know you don't have enough capacity inside your head to put all this in. But it's the truth."

I keep silent, staring at the ground.

Jesus, my head hurts.

Kyan slowly comes near me. Enough for me to smell the coffee on his shirt.

"Look at me," He tells me. And I do.

Gosh.

I hate how attractive his face is.

I hate how soft those lips look.

I hate how tempting that mouth is.

I hate how smart he is.

I hate how I misinterpreted him.

I hate how he's taller than me.

I hate how I want to feel his body.

I hate how I kiss him.