Reiner - Acting Normal


    The door closed behind me with a small thud as my body froze in ce and my face felt numb.


    “Good…morning…” I replied softly after regaining myposure.


    That was all I coulde up with to say to him. Why was Reiner standing here in front of my door?


    “Good morning, Natalia. Are you going to work today?” Reiner asked tly.


    Is that another way of asking me why I wasn’t at work yesterday? I took in a deep breath and stood up


    a little straighter.


    “Yes, of course. Umm…thank you for waiting for me. Shall we?” I said as I tried to act natural.


    I didn’t wait for Reiner to say anything in response before walking past him along the hallway that


    would lead us to the stairs. My mind screamed all the way to the stairs as I wondered why he had to


    appear in front of my bedroom like that. Honestly, I wasn’t nning on avoiding him or anything. I had


    work to do, and I was going to do it.


    Act natural, Natalia.


    I repeated this to myself with every breath that I took until we got into the car together. Needless to say,


    the atmosphere in the car was tense. Reiner obviously wanted to know why I didn’t turn up to work


    yesterday and that question just hung in the air between us throughout the whole ride. He didn’t voice


    the question and even if he did, I wasn’t sure if I could answer it directly and honestly. How does ‘I


    quickly hunted for a ce so that I could move out of your mansion as soon as possible’ sound?


    Unlike the days before, I didn’t bother to make conversation with him in the car. The now-familiar


    scenery on the way to the office past by in front of my eyes in a haze as I stared out the car’s window.


    I’ll talk to him like normal when we get to the office. We’ll talk about work and that would be it.


    We arrived at work, and I quickly got out of the car. Wordlessly, we ascended the elevator together to


    his office. As we stepped out of the elevator together, I was already piecing together what I would say


    to him when we arrived at his office.


    “I left a short list of agents for you to review. Have you seen it?” I asked once we arrived in his personal


    office.


    Reiner sat down behind his table before he nodded at me. He took out what I recognized as the papers


    that I had printed for him.


    “I see. I narrowed down the agent list to those that may have lost a member of their team during a


    mission because of ipatibility issues. Of course, we don’t know that for sure yet. However, I think


    that it’ll be worth your time to talk to them one by one,” I exined.


    “I see. Let’s do that. If you send this to the secretarial department, they can help you schedule


    meetings with these agents,” Reiner replied calmly.


    “Great. I’ll do that today then…” I readily agreed.


    Despite our personal circumstances, it seemed like work was making some progress. I can start


    analyzing more data the same way and maybe I’ll find more insights. Now that I had my work cut out


    for me today, I didn’t have a reason to hang around in his personal office anymore.


    “I’ll be working outside then. If you need anything, you can give me a call,” I said politely before turning


    to leave.


    Try to act normal, Natalia. I repeated to myself again as I felt his eyes on my back. After walking out of


    Reiner’s office, I closed the door softly behind me and breathed a sigh of relief. Hang in there, Natalia.


    Now that I was back at my desk, I felt a lot morefortable. Focusing quickly on the work at hand, I


    went straight to analyzing the data with the hope of finding more trends or any indicators that could


    help us with the problem at hand. For a moment, I wished that I would run into Charles. Maybe he


    would have some wise words of advice for me if I asked him about it. If what other people told me


    about Charles was true, then he’s got to have ample of field experience. He probably knows a thing or


    two about improving the survival rate of a team on a mission.


    On the other hand, I knew absolutely nothing apart from the first level basic insights that the data was


    telling me. I realized then that some expert insights into this will probably be invaluable. Reiner


    probably knew a lot about this topic but the same couldn’t be said about me. This work andpany


    were very unique and I found myself getting more interested in it.


    “Natalia…Natalia…” I heard someone calling my name.


    “Huh? Yes…Yes…Sorry, you were saying?” I quickly replied after snapping out of my bubble.


    Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g


    I looked up to see Reiner leaning over my desk with his face now very close to mine. Being too focused


    on the work on myputer screen, I had somehow lost all track of time and what was going on


    around me. I didn’t even notice when Reiner approached me and I wondered how long he had been


    calling my name. What does he want?


    “Sorry, I was too focused working. Is there something that you need?” I asked, trying to sound polite


    and less flustered than just now.


    “It’s lunchtime,” Reiner stated inly.


    My eyes flickered to the clock on the wall and found out that he was right. Actually, it was already 15


    minutes past lunch time.


    “Right. Do you want me to go buy something for you? What would you like to have for lunch?” I asked


    as I quickly stood up from my seat.


    This is bad. I should have noticed the time and asked him beforehand what he wanted for lunch. Even


    if I headed out now, all the restaurants are probably packed, and it would take a long while before I


    could return with his lunch. Why did I have to get sucked up into my work like that?


    --To be continued…