The Core (3)

"Why are we getting called?" Randell innocently whispered while they are obediently sitting at the HR department lobby.

"First time?" Nida asked since he looks like an honored student that had been called at guidance office for the first time.

"Yes." he answered while nodding. "I don't think we did anything wrong though?"

'Dude, reformatting someone's phone is a great crime'

She said internally.

Nida expected this after Randell deleted everything on Aileen's phone. She probably has important files related to work that have been deleted too.

'Well, even if she doesn't have anything important on her phone, I am sure she will make sure we will be punished for whatever reason'

"Aileen is an HR assistant, you messed up her phone. That is why." She replied briefly since she couldn't take the innocent look of Randell.

Every time she sees him acting like this, she wants to hit him or throw something at him.

'How dare he act weak and innocent when he has a monster inside.'

"Here, write your explanation here." a stoic guy gives them an incident report form for them to fill out. He then focused his indifferent gaze on Nida. " Ms. Mildea, please note that you'll get suspended if you cause another problem."

"Okay, thanks." Nida smiled at him, but he just turned around and left them alone again.

"What kind of nonsense is this!" Randell shouted as he read the incident description, indicating on the form that they needed to explain.

It says:

Incident date: November 11, 2021

Incident time: 12:23 pm

Individuals involved in the incident:

A. Nida Mildea — Assailant 

B. Randell Lobo — Assailant 

C. Aileen Mutya — Victim

Possible reason for incident: Conflict with co-workers 

Nature of Incident:

1. Destruction of Property 

2. Verbal Harrassment

Describe Incident details:

(fill up here)

....

"Haha! Ms. Mutya is pretty amazing." she commented after she was done reading the paper.

"This is not funny at all. How the hell did she flip everything like this? " he said indignantly. 

"Just write what you feel and describe what really happened in the papers. There's nothing we could do if Ms. Mutya is too inventive."

"If only I knew that she would do this, then I would have crashed her phone instead of reformatting it. Tsk!" Randell grumbled as he started to scribble on the incident report form.

"Being suspended will be great too." she commented. 

"Huh?" he looked surprise for a moment but later he realized. "Ah, right, this job isn't important to you."

"Why? Is it for you?"

"Hmn. sort of. I feel comfortable working here. I don't particularly have someone close to me, but everyone is kind to me. Except for that, Aileen! How could she pass as HR staff if she has an attitude problem."

"Good for you, you've got a nice image."

"It's not about image!" he began to grumble again. "You don't have to let that HR affect you. She's just insecure. I bet she's threatened by your beauty. It's true that you didn't look attractive before. She just doesn't know that you're too lazy at the time to take care of your skin. It's nice that you have finally learned how to properly care for your skin. But seriously, that photo was not bad either. How could she reveal it as if it was your worst nightmare? Your smile is beautiful."

He excitedly talked as he reminisced about his sweetest past with Nida.

"Ten years have passed and you have become talkative?" She asked without looking at him. He was looking down the low center table as she filled up the form. She is getting annoyed by the warmth that Randell is sending off.

It is true that their past relationship was sweet and lovely, but she believes that all of that was a lie. A lie from a monster.

The two finished their business at the HR office. Randell was given a verbal warning, while Nida was given a memo, which she carelessly crumpled and tossed in the hallway trash can.

"Finally! The two of you are back!" Ms. Sue said as she waved the document in her hand.

"Ms. Sue, it appears you frequent our department, huh?" she remarked jokingly.

After they worked together at the trailer truck accident, the two of them became slightly casual with each other.

"Haha, I wouldn't be here if the trucking department wasn't in trouble."

"Why? Is there an accident again? "

"No." She handed the papers to Nida and half of them to Randell. "Different case, Pilfirage." she pointed to the documents that Nida is holding. "And theft," she said, then pointed to Randell's documents on hand.

"Isn't that the same?" Randell asked, but before Ms. Sue could answer, Nida interjected. 

"Wait, wait. Is this assigned to us? I didn't hear that we would be on the field today?" she asked since she has so many other documents to process and going out in the field is too exhausting, especially with the current temperature. 

"I actually came here and all the logistics assistants here were gone, so I waited for you. Why? You don't want to work with me?" she said while pouting. 

'Damn it!' she cursed internally. 

'I bet they all ran away after they saw a legal assistant walking in'

Working in the field is such a hassle that everyone doesn't want to do it.

'What an unlucky day'

"Of course I do, Come here, let's drink tea while we talk." 

Nida's professional smile came back while she walked the two in their lobby to drink tea.

She was about to prepare the tea set, but Randell took it from her and volunteered to do it instead.

She just let him be and came back to sit close to Ms. Sue.

"Anyway, is the legal department lacking staff now? Why are you taking care of two cases?" she asked to start their conversation regarding her second field work.

"No. We have enough staff, but since these two cases were at the same location, it's better not to waste manpower. "

"Aw, really. But the two of us will take one case each. I don't have the power that you have." She stated that the job would be split between her and Randell.

"So what's the problem again, ma'am?" Randell asked as he placed the tea cups in front of them, while he was not done making his coffee yet.

"Theft and pilferage were happening at the transshipment hub."

"Aren't theft and pilfirage the same?" Nida repeated the question Randell asked first.

"No, my dear, pilfirage is the act of stealing items or items of minor value...Employees stealing mostly connotes small thefts carried out repeatedly over a long period of time. We need to investigate the loaders' methods for how they took some of our loads piece. They will only take one or two pieces, but it becomes too frequent that it ends up getting noticed by our customer. What we need to do on site today is to look for ways to prevent pilferages."

"How about the theft? I suppose it should be reported to the police if it is happening." Nida said.

"The theft case was already solved. The thieves were already caught, and the people involved were fired. The same with the Pilfirage case, logistics assistants need to find a way to prevent this thing from happening again."

Nida suddenly squinted her eyes. "Does this mean your job was done here."

"You caught me. Haha. Goodluck with your field work. " Ms. Sue took a final sip of her tea and stood up to leave.

"You just came here to hand me taaaaassskkk" she lean on the couch as if she was about to lay as she complained for additional work.

"Haha sorry! I need to go, bye." Ms. Sue left her with Randell, who was sipping his black coffee.

"When are we leaving?" he asked.

"When do you think? Of course now. "

She forced herself to stand up and convince herself that her field work would not exhaust her too much. 

//////

Moments later at the transshipment hub...

"C-core?" She stuttered as she saw the inside of the loads being transferred at their transshipment hub.

When the two arrived at the hub to inspect, she discovered that there was more to the hub than just the thief.