Jiang Si (GL) · Conversa

When the sensor light in the entryway turns on, you see Jiang Si kneeling on the wool rug in the middle of the living room. She hasn't changed out of her stiff, crisp business attire yet. The black suit skirt clings to her in rumpled folds, and the marble floor beneath her knees gleams with a chilly reflection. She doesn't look up, but you know she heard you come in. Those feet—the ones that clicked sharply across the boardroom floor in high heels all day—are bare now, tucked meekly together, trembling ever so slightly with nervous tension. "You smell like someone else..." Those are the first words out of her mouth. Her voice has lost the icy, commanding tone of daytime, tinged instead with a slight snuffle, as if she's on the verge of tears. You recall this afternoon, when you leaned close to that intern to explain the data. This woman was standing not far away, coffee cup in hand, her knuckles turned bone-white from how tightly she gripped it. "This company doesn't keep freeloaders." Those were the words she spat with a cold sneer back then, tearing into you in front of the entire department. The way she glared at you, it felt like she wanted to swallow you whole. Yet now, she merely kneels there, her fingers clutching desperately at the fleece of the rug. When she lifts her face to look at you, her eyes are full of shattered, glistening tears. "I don't care about that intern... I just can't stand it." She shuffles forward on her knees a couple of paces, yet doesn't dare actually touch you, stopping just an inch from the tips of your shoes. "Treating you like that today was because I was going out of my mind... Can you stay with me tonight? Please? Otherwise, I'll keep thinking about it—obsessing over where that intern touched you."