Chapter Text
Working outside of school was worse, somehow. He’d grown too used to the comfort of regular meals and his scholarship stipend. He’d need to rectify that, in time. It didn’t help that—by and large—he was one of the more skilled coders in the office. It meant that—when the others got stuck, or hit a wall, in their own projects—he was usually the first one they went to for help.
At least he still had dinners at the eatery to look forward to, he thought to himself, exhaustedly stumbling out of work for the day.
Hao Mei was nowhere to be seen—probably busy in the kitchen—when he placed his order at the counter, so KO picked out a table close to the street and settled down to wait.
*
“I didn’t order this,” he said, holding out the plate of fish slices.
The waiter on duty for the night had brought over his order not even five minutes ago; rice, braised tofu, and stir-fried kailan, all of which he had ordered, and stir-fried fish slices with ginger and scallions, which he hadn’t.
“I know,” said Hao Mei. “But you look like you need it. You look like you’re going to fall over any minute now.”
He had to admit that he had a point, albeit begrudgingly.
“I can’t afford that.”
“It’s on the house, jeez,” Hao Mei frowned. “I keep telling you, you need protein to keep your strength up, tofu’s not good enough. Fish is good for the brain you know.”
The part of him that still clung to his foolhardy pride bristled—he was no charity case, never mind what people thought of him or how little money he had—but common sense and practicality won out.
“Then eat with me,” he said, relenting. “It’s too much.”
The cook turned to glance at the other tables—the eatery was empty, most of the usual customers having gone home for the night—and acquiesced, pulling out a chair to join him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “That’s a gloomy face, even for you.”
“I’m just tired,” said KO. He poked at his rice.
“‘Just tired’,” muttered Hao Mei. “Just tired doesn’t begin to cover the giant eye bags on your face.”
KO made a point of not acknowledging his statement. That would mean letting him win.
*
Somewhere between opening another bottle of beer (KO had lost count of how many he’d actually had) and putting it to his lips, time blurred together. The next he was aware of, he was laying on his back and tucked into a bed, staring at the poorly-painted ceiling of the eatery.
“Feeling better?” Hao Mei asked.
KO blinked up at him, wondering fuzzily if he had been sitting by his side the entire time. “Where am I?”
“Inside the eatery,” said Hao Mei. “This is where I sleep when I’m not working. You passed out before you could tell me where you stay.”
Oh. Well. That was embarrassing.
“Thank you for letting me stay,” he said, pushing himself up into a sitting position, “but I need to go. I have work tomorrow—”
“Oh no you don’t,” Hao Mei frowned. “You’re already overworked, never mind the killer hangover you’re going to have in the morning. Go home and get some rest, okay? Call in and take the day off if you need to.”
“I can’t—”
“I’m already concerned about the fact that you’re drinking on a weekday night when you’re the type of goody-two-shoes who would never do something so irresponsible—do you not get paid when you’re off sick? Is that what’s happening here?”
“No,” KO protested, scrounging up enough loyalty to feel offended on Xiao Nai’s behalf, “our benefits scheme is pretty good for a start-up company.”
“Then why don’t you use it?” Hao Mei asked, frustrated.
Because I’m afraid, he didn’t say. I’m afraid if I'm not there they’ll realise how inconsequential I am.
“People need my help,” was what he said instead. “If I’m not there—”
“Then they can learn to do their own work,” the cook scoffed. “You need to stand up to them, KO. You can’t let them walk all over you like that.”
“They’re not taking advantage of me—”
“Damn it, KO!” Hao Mei yelled. “Can’t you see how exhausted you are?”
Startled, KO blinked up at him. He had never heard Hao Mei raise his voice before.
“I don’t like this. I don’t like seeing how sick you are every time you drop by for dinner. And I hate knowing that you’re this tired because some assholes aren’t pulling their weight. When was the last time you got a proper night’s sleep?”
KO didn’t answer.
“I’ll walk you home,” Hao Mei insisted. “And I’ll see you get into bed and stay there with my own two eyes, so don’t you even dare think about any funny business.”
“But—”
“I mean it,” he scowled. “Come on, get up. I don’t open the shop in the morning, but I need to lock up for the night.”
“But don’t you work at the cafeteria in the day?” KO remembered.
“Oh, I quit,” said Hao Mei, carelessly ushering him out the door. “My favourite customer wasn’t going to be there anymore. There wasn’t much of a point in staying.”
*
It was a quiet Thursday morning at the office when Yonghou asked, quite out of the blue, “Laosan, who’s Hao Mei?”
“Who?”
Bewildered, Yonghou handed over his laptop to Xiao Nai, who immediately began to scrutinise the contents of its battered, four-year-old screen. “His name is on the payroll, under the programming team. Did you hire someone without telling us?”
“No,” he said at last. “I don’t know anyone by that name.”
It was shaping up to be a truly strange day. Just that morning, KO had called in sick for the first time in the four years he’d known him, citing a migraine as the reason. He had offered to come in after the headache subsided, workaholic that he was, but Xiao Nai had asked him to stay home. (If the pain was bad enough that KO of all people was taking medical leave….) And now they had a mysterious new colleague, who would apparently be reporting to their office—
“Tomorrow,” Banshan read off the screen, disbelief colouring his tone. “At midnight? So that’s like, today?”
“Why would you report to work at midnight, and do they actually expect us to be here? Is this spam or something? Did someone actually get past our firewall?”
“This is bad,” Banshan groaned, running a hand through his hair. “Houzi, get some of the others and go over the security system, see if you guys can find the backdoor and patch it. I’ll get the rest of Team B to check for viruses and see if any of our files have been compromised. Laosan, what do you think?”
Xiao Nai hummed. Then, at last, he sat up with a smile.
“I think,” he said at length, “we should prepare to greet our new colleague.”