The Bastard and the Butterfly

Chapter 2

After a few hours of doing nothing but filling papers with the exact same information over and over again, Kondraki noticed that he should probably start heading to the meeting room. Now the actual meeting didn't start for another 20 minutes, but Kondraki liked to be early.
He packed up the things he needed and left his office, with a cloud of butterflies still floating behind him. Kondraki was about to start walking, when he saw Bright coming towards him.
"Hey! Draki!" Bright called.
"What's up, Jack?" Kondraki said in an irritable tone.
"Have you seen Clef around? I wanted to see if-"
"Last I saw of Clef was the break room, and I haven't thought about or seen him since," Kondraki interrupted.
"You really hate him that much?"
"Yes. He's cocky, ignorant, annoying, and an overall asshole,"
"Don't you think you're being a little melodramatic?"
"Melodramatic?" His voice rose a little. "I can show you what melodramatic looks like-" Kondraki looked over at Bright and saw that he had crossed a line.
"Sorry, Jack..." he muttered.
"It's fine. I just... I just think that you guys should get over your differences and get along. You aren't the only ones affected by each other,"
"What do you mean? Who else gets affected by us?"
"Everyone! You constantly argue and fight and it gets old. I mean, if you refuse to get along, just stop interacting,"
That comment had taken Kondraki by surprise. He hadn't realized that his fights with Clef acknowledged by other people. Well, maybe he had realized, but never cared.
"I'm sorry, Bright,"
He didn't say anything. They walked the rest of the way in silence.

Kondraki sat down at the large round table where they usually held smaller meetings. There was a totally different room for when they had to do presentations for the whole site, but most people found those inconvenient, so most of the time people just used the loudspeakers.
As the butterfly king straightened out his notepad and pen, he noticed someone sitting beside him.
"Hello, Konny," Clef said, smiling the insanely annoying smile he always had on his face.
"Wasn't this morning enough torment? Can't you just leave me alone?"
"Where's the fun in that? Besides, it's not my fault you let everything get under your skin,"
Clef had a point. Maybe. I mean, how could Kondraki help it if everything Clef did was irritating?
Kondraki sighed. "Fine. But bother me after the meeting. I'd rather not be in a bad mood while we have to listen to Gears or an O5 or whatever drone on about something that probably isn't even relevant,"
"Whatever you say, Konny dear. But I can't make any promises,"