The thin line [Complete]

Chapter 2

Kong's POV

Wait for it. Wait....for....it. And there it is.

I heard the loud sneeze from all the way across the room only a few minutes after his butt hit the seat, and I could have won an Oscar with the act of not breaking out in a grin as all of us saw the papers fly right off the table. And that was just the beginning as his sneezes kept coming on almost non-stop for the rest of the hour. I think we are up to count 23 and very much still going strong.

"What's wrong Arthit? Are you sick?"

"Ummm.....no. I thought I was feeling fine today morning."

"Then why are you making a rainstorm with your sneezes."

"Uh...I am not sure. My nose just feels itchy. Maybe it got really dusty in here."

I had to bite down hard on my inner cheek to not break out in a smile at his itchy nose. The sneezes were surprisingly simple to achieve. This one tiny trick I had picked up through my bullying days in college. 

Pepper.

Pepper everywhere! 

And not dumping a large chunk in one place which would make it super obvious to the potential victim. A thin layer on the desk, between papers, on the edges of all drawers, nicely covered areas on the chair. Which means his every move, every action, every sneeze just increases the itchiness in his nose some more. But let's not forget the secret ingredient. A healthy amount in the automatic air fresher right next to his desk, where exactly every 18 minutes a fresh dose was delivered right under his nose in the form of a very pleasant smelling aerosol.

Hence, nearly all day the entire staff kept a very safe distance away from him, in fact as soon as people would see him walk up they would make a very obvious about turn to speedily walk away. And for the first time in over three months I got intense pleasure in watching his entire department basically shun him all day. And my glee kept rising all day as did his ire when finally he reached his threshold, which naturally overflowed into taking out his frustration on me.

"Kongpob!"

"What?"

"Run an errand for me."

"Why?"

"Cause I am saying so."

"I am not an errand boy."

"You are whatever I say you are as long as you are in my department. I need you to hand-deliver these documents today."

"Why me? Isn't there anyone else who can go? I need to finish these estimates today."

"If you hadn't been wasting your time flirting away today you would have already been done with your work. Do you need me to teach you better time management skills?"

"What? I haven't spoken a word to anyone else today. I even took a working lunch."

"And yet not done with the estimates?"

"Ugghh...fine. Where do I need to go?"

"Here is the address. Report to me when it's done. Then come back and finish the estimates before you head home."

I snatched the paper from his hand and marched towards my bike, mumbling under the breath. We had over a dozen errand boys running around for exactly this purpose. There was no conceivable reason why I needed to be the one to hand-deliver anything at all. And I nearly balked when my phone showed me the address being over 75 minutes away. Is he fucking kidding me? It's going to take me hours just to drive back and forth and I still need to finish my actual work.

And it did. It took me forever to finally find the factory in some remote area where it honestly looked like no human soul had wandered in ages. It was already well past sunset but he had assured me that they would wait for me until I reached so hopefully my long trip was not wasted. Except when I finally arrived at the factory, it was completely abandoned, with vines growing out the gates and on the sides of the buildings. I don't think anybody except drifters or druggies have crossed this threshold in years. I walked around the perimeter to make sure if I was even at the right address. Calling him before I was absolutely sure was simply arming him to mock me in the future about my mess up. Yeah, I was definitely at the correct address, except it wasn't anything close to what I was expecting. But before I could even contemplate what my next immediate action should be, my phone beeped to indicate a message.

"Gave you the wrong address. Oops!"

"You should really learn to call and check before making such long trips in the future."

"Good thing I can teach you such valuable lessons."

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

I can't believe I fell for his stupid trick. I really, really should have checked myself before I trusted anything that came out of his mouth. How can I be this stupid? I should have just guessed he must be up to something. I kicked the stone near my foot extra hard to relieve some frustration. The pepper was just way too mild for what he deserved. I seriously needed to step up my game. He was obviously not above being extremely petty with me, and I think it's high time someone returned the favor to him. I think he will find out that I am a bottomless pit of evil myself when I choose to be. And he definitely deserves my wrath. But while I was still cursing him with all my might I got another message.

"Too bad you had to drive so far for absolutely nothing. Hopefully, you didn't run out of fuel or anything."

Oh no, no, no, no!

Fuck! I was almost close to empty on my fuel tank. In fact, I don't think I would have enough to even reach the gas station, which was god knows how far back on this deserted road. I had just refilled my tank two days ago. There is absolutely no way I was out of fuel already. I can't freaking believe he actually engineered me to come all the way out here and miraculously be out of gas at the right moment. I am so going to kill someone as soon as I get back.

But I wouldn't get anywhere with my revenge plot without finding my way back home. So I began practicing the brand new words in Russian I had learned over the weekend while I slowly started making my way to the gas station, which very quickly turned into me having to push my bike instead of riding it. At least, this gave me enough time to come up with a payback plan. And although it was going to take a little time to set up the background perfectly, this time it was going to be glorious. And I had just about managed to improve my mood after the disastrous day when it turns out he might have one more thing up his sleeve. I didn't even doubt the ridiculousness of my reasoning when I was convinced that he had sold his soul to the Gods of Weather, cause out of nowhere the clouds thundered and unleashed the most unexpected rainstorm of the year.

So here I stand, soaking to my bone, out of gas in my bike, stuck in the middle of the road. 

P'Arthit you had better be very, very worried what is coming your way.