The Journal (6)

Five minutes didn't pass before Kyro received a call. "What did she say? Did you get her off my back?"

"At the cost of my own image. What exactly did you promise to infuriate her so?"

There was silence for a moment. "Thanks, I owe you one. Seriously."

This wasn't normal Gale, but Kyro didn't ask anything. If his friend wanted to say something, he'd say it. "Are you off site today?"

"Yeah, I'll take care of the meeting."

"That leaves me with the interns… Or are you coming back?"

"Nah, I'll take the flight to Italy at 4 o'clock. It's about that deal we considered a month ago. I'll take a look at their production and if it's satisfactory, listen to what they have to say to my face."

'We refused that deal because we saw their faculties were unfitting based on even their photoshopped photos. At least come up with a better lie if you're trying to fool anyone.'

"Let your secretary know you're taking a vacation and I'll cover for you. If it's longer than a week, though, you're fired."

There was indignation in Gale's voice when he answered, a little bit of spirit he'd been lacking. "You can't fire me! I own half the company!"

"That's what you think, I was told today that I've been using you all long," Kyro told him, leaning back in his chair with a smile. "So you better be careful."

Gale snorted. "Sure. Go ahead. I promise to look surprised when I receive the news of being deposed."

"Will do. Take care."

"Thanks, you too."

The smile on Kyro's face slowly drifted away. Gale was an airhead, but he wasn't usually running a world away after sleeping with the wrong woman. There was probably more to the story than the two let on, but it wasn't Kyro's business.

He was more irritated by the fact that he couldn't push away the intern thing to Gale. This was going to be such a waste of time. All those young, eager graduates expecting to make it big just because they finished a prestigious school, exactly the same one as him. They would all expect him to be impressed, feel a kinship because of their roots.

'God, it's going to be a long day.'

In the meantime, the exact same thought flitted through the mind of a fennec fox. She was lying by the window, staring at a journal. Her curiosity pulled at her, pushing her toward the old book, but her mind was in adamant refusal.

That journal was dangerous. She had skimmed just through a fraction of it, and her mind had already been dirtied to the point of no return. A certain scene kept popping into her mind whenever she let herself relax, and she'd be unable to escape it even with closing her eyes.

Yet there was nothing to do here... All the possibly interesting books were out of her reach, with only the business fundamentals being at her level. However, she wasn't going to read those. Not in a million years.

Sleep might have been an option if she hadn't checked out the journal, but she was too riled up for that now. The counting of ornaments on the curtains didn't manage to keep her attention either.

There was only one option, and she knew she was going to give in sooner or later. If that was going to happen anyway, was there reason to resist? She had seen some before, but her curiosity had eroded it by now.

Carefully, like a thief, Iris sneaked back to the journal and swiftly turned a page, away from the portrait. To her relief, there were no more drawings, and doodles of hearts didn't make an appearance.

However, the boring schedule returned. Same things every day, with scattered meetings with Jane. Wait, weren't they increasing? It had been once a week before, but now they were meeting twice, or once even thrice a week! Iris would've been certain Kyro had confessed, but the meeting notes always signified which subject they were going to study.

What was up with that? Did he lie even to his journal? Or were they really just friends? It was a puzzling sort of interaction. Iris couldn't imagine any girl studying alone with a guy for half a year and not expecting something to happen. It was hard to believe that in such a situation neither side would develop feelings. Besides, this situation should have started because one side had feelings but no courage to voice them and had come up with this kind of plan to get closer.

Her confusion rose with every page she turned. There were a couple drawings scattered about, a tree here, a cafeteria there, but they didn't interest her. These didn't tell her much besides the fact that Kyro could draw pretty well. What was up with his relations?

A Chris she hadn't seen mentioned since January entry popped up again, but it was once again just something about calling him. Was he some relative? An old friend? It was hard for Iris to tell. There was so little information here!

The next page seemed to have heard her silent cries. Instead of denoting some meeting or deadline, Kyro had listed down a bunch of items with question marks beside them.

'Plush toy? Cliche

Flowers? Will look weird going through the city

Letter? No, that's middle school level

Just say it? Where then? Our study meetings'

This was something juicy. The guy was about to confess. 'Why can't I be there, see and hear what he's going to say,' Iris lamented, rolling on her side in disappointment. This schedule-only thing was diminishing most of the fun of spying on a person. Without Kyro's thoughts and descriptions, she could only rely on her own imagination, and the likeliness of it hitting the truth was minimal.

'Ah, who cares!' She rolled back on her feet and turned the next page. 'Maybe he drew something again, or wrote some commentary.' She didn't think that he'd be cruel enough not to mention anything here. If he was, she was going to bite him when he returned!