Chapter 10: Break

Ren was still there, leaning back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, trying not to let anger and frustration take over.

"Calm down, Ren… breathe…", he told himself.

"There are things you can’t control… like the storm."

"Or the damn IT maintenance on the computers!"

His hand clenched tightly, trying to let some of his frustration escape.

He tried to turn his machine on again, but there was no response; the PC simply wouldn’t start.

"Great…"

"This is great, you know?" he said, already raising his voice.

His pulse kept rising and his hands began to tremble slightly.

He searched for the lighter in his pocket and, with the metallic click of opening and closing it, he slowly began to breathe more calmly again, although the shaking in his hand didn’t go away.

"When was the last time I had an energy drink?"

"Is sleep catching up to me?"

"I need to think more clearly."

He got up from his seat, grabbed his wallet, and decided to head to the ninth floor.

The elevator doors were there, wide open, as if inviting him to step in.

When he was about to enter, another faint flicker made the elevator lights go out for a moment.

"I’d better take the stairs… I don’t feel like getting stuck in the elevator."

With this storm, who knows when they would get him out if he got trapped.

He went down the main stairs calmly. The silence was even more disturbing than in his office.

When he arrived, he could see the vending machines stretching across the entire office.

"If I remember right… this is where marketing works," he murmured while looking at the colorful and well-decorated desks.

Unlike his office, which only had a dull improvised Christmas tree, here there was everything… garlands, party horns, stars, gingerbread figures stuck to the walls. Even each desk seemed to have its own Christmas tree.

"These people really take the holidays seriously," he thought as he walked through the room, barely lit by the Christmas lights.

What disturbed him the most about the excessive decoration were the dolls, which seemed to follow his movements with those button eyes…

Finally he reached the vending machines.

He stared at the drinks one; most of them were coffees or teas. The red buttons indicated they were all hot drinks.

"Latte, mocha coffee, espresso, chocolate, green tea… seriously?"

As for the other machines, they were snacks: potato chips, candies, chocolates, among other things.

"Well, I guess I’ll just—" at that moment his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something falling to the floor.

He searched around the room, trying to find the source of the noise.

"Hello? Is someone there?" he asked while walking back toward the center of the office.

Nothing. No answer.

On the floor he saw a Santa doll that seemed to have fallen from the edge of a desk.

"Where are you going, little guy? We still have work to do, you can’t escape your post," he joked while picking up the doll and placing it back in its spot.

His eyes stayed there longer than they should have, staring at the doll, searching deep in his memory, trying to remember a Christmas with family.

Only hours of studying at the university and hours of working at the office came to mind…

Then he took out his lighter again, the one his father had given him.

"Did I ever celebrate Christmas with Dad?"

At that exact moment, a can dropped inside the vending machine and Ren turned abruptly, but there was no one there. Only the vending machines blinking.

Confused, he walked closer to the machine and saw on the panel: Paid, take your product.

He reached in and took out a can; the feeling in his hands was warm.

"Mocha coffee…" he murmured while looking at the label of the man with a pipe.

He opened it and took a calm sip. The taste of coffee mixed with chocolate made his chest feel warm for a moment.

It tasted like… a very distant memory, as if it were melting a layer of ice inside him.

"Fujimoto was right, it has a good taste…" he said while a cloud of steam came out of his mouth.

He leaned for a moment next to the machines, enjoying that coffee. It wasn’t something he was used to, but it gave him a comforting feeling in that cold room.

After a while, he returned to the stairs.

"I need to get energy drinks and something to eat before going back to the office."

"I still have my laptop, so let’s not waste any more time."

he told himself as he walked down toward the eighth floor.

According to what he had seen on the stairway map, the next floor was dedicated to the company’s accounting department. It probably looked even more sober than his office.

He remembered that one day the head of accounting had a meeting with his boss and told jokes that no one would laugh at, accountant jokes… he didn’t understand them, but Mr. Nomura always seemed to laugh out of courtesy.

"Accountants and lawyers… who understands them," he murmured at the bottom of the stairs.

He opened the doors of the eighth floor calmly, but his face filled with doubt in an instant.

He turned his gaze toward the door behind him, because everything felt very familiar.

Above, on the doorframe, it could clearly be seen…

Tenth Floor – Systems Programming Area.

His uncertainty was correct… he was back in his office.

He quickly ran toward his desk when he noticed a light.

His monitor was on, the blue screen blinking, switching between the error screen and his code… now everything highlighted in red.