Unique Camaraderie

"Did he ask you something else, Zannie? I think that man has connections behind his back that's why he had the guts to flaunt his authoritative power.”

Zannie shook her head and paused for a while. Two of them decided to clean the other barracks while their other colleagues are away and still serving in the evacuation center. 

“Just don't mention him. It makes me annoyed again, especially with him! He's really a monkey!"

“Okay okay. I won't mention it. By the way, can you teach me how to quickly remove the dust under the bed?”

"I'll teach you how, I will show you how", Zannie said and this time, she came closer to Howard but she could feel his nervousness and fear. 

“Why are you trembling? Are you afraid of the dark?” Zannie asked, she's a bit concerned.

Howard nodded timidly and distanced himself away from the bed.

“I'm a bit scaredy cat and people tell me that it wasn't obvious. When I was younger, I used to have fear of being under the bed because of some horror movies that I watched together with my cousins,” Howard recalled.

“Is that the reason why you became a terror boss just to scare others and prove them that you're not a scaredy cat?” Zannie asked, laughing. 

“Maybe you guessed right. Anyway, let's just clean this barracks for a while.”

"Now, you'll learn how to clean up a lot of clutter here, it's really hard at first. You really have to get rid of the dirt you think about, it's as dirty as this area," said Zannie and now Howard felt that he was very embarrassed for an unknown reason. 

"Okay, let's start cleaning this!" Howard shouted and then took the broom to the side but Zannie stopped him by holding his arm.

"Just a moment, Howard. I'm thankful because you're here and helping me and I'm really amused on how you defended me in front of that greedy officer", Zannie was sincere and Howard was even more touched by her sincerity. 

"Everything is worth it, Zannie. I owe you a lot too, because you gave me good remarks in my evaluation sheet. I want to show how thankful I am. If you're only going to allow me,” Howard gulped. 

"Do you still remember how I showed that I was happy the other day?"

"Yes, you hug me."

"Give me a hug again, please?" Howard pleaded.

Then, Zannie hugged Howard tightly for a moment and then… 

"Do you also remember how I thanked you?" Zannie asked.

"Yeah" Howard replied sparingly, Zannie's kiss suddenly entered his mind, that was her way of saying ‘thank you.’

Howard just bowed. Then Zannie approached him, and she almost kissed him again. 

But in reality, Howard wondered why Zannie closed her eyes.

“Hey, is there any dirt in your eyes that made you feel irritated?” he questioned the lady.

Zannie almost slapped herself out of embarrassment. She really dreamed that she was about to kiss Howard as she was tempted by looking in his lips while he's talking.

“Yeah. Because of the dust. Anyway, nevermind. Focus on cleaning the other part of the room since you're afraid under the bed,” she timidly suggested.

Howard nodded and did what Zannie asked him to do. 

***

After cleaning, Zannie went to another room, it was raining at that time and she was nervous because even though she was inside, hse could still hear the heavy raindrops with a little lightning. Even though that's what he was afraid of, she just kept herself busy cleaning. Suddenly there was a flash of strength and then she hid in the corner while covering her ears.

While Howard was about to change his clothes, only a towel was covering his body and he thought of getting dressed in a room where Zannie wasn't there, but what he didn't know was that Zannie was in that room at the moment and hiding in a corner because of her sudden fear of lightning.

There was darkness in that room when Howard entered it so he couldn't notice that there were other people besides him in that place. He immediately removed the towel and then put on his boxer shorts. He was extremely unaware that Zannie had already seen his beautiful body. Even though it was dark, it was clear to Zannie's eyes and she couldn't do anything but stare at it and in fact, she was comforted because of that. 

The lightning flashed again, then Zannie was taken aback by the surprise so Howard was confused, which means he was not the only person there and Zannie had just seen what she shouldn't have seen.

Howard immediately approached the scared woman even though he was only wearing boxer shorts. 

"Zannie? What are you doing here?" he straightforwardly asked.

Zannie closed her eyes and gently pushed Howard away from her. “I'm sorry. I'm cleaning this other room and I haven't told you because you're not around. It never crossed my mind that you're about to change your clothes here. I'm very sorry. I just hid her because the sound of lightning strikes too many times. I assumed that there would be another power interruption in our area that's why I tried to look for another flashlight. I really didn't mean to be here.”

“Okay, okay. You don't have to apologize like that. I'm not going to scold you like what the medical officer did to you. But please, can you go out here for a while? I'm gonna get dressed,” Howard asked and smiled.

“Of course. That's what I'm about to do before you enter this room.” Zannie looked away and shook her head until she finally got out of the spare room.

‘My Goodness, gracious. I underestimated him. I never thought that he had such a good body built. I only thought that a CEO like him doesn't like body workouts,’ Zannie gasped. The image of Howard would remain permanently in her mind. She will never forget this night.

“He must not assume that I'm stalking him. It was really unintentional,” she added while holding her chest.