Chapter 14

As soon as the clock showed 6 p.m, I immediately tidy up all the documents that have been done today. I glanced around the room and saw Patricia is currently busy doing her tasks, followed by a new assignment given by Dominik. Meanwhile, Norman and some of my other colleagues, including Shelly, discussed plans for a press conference that our company will hold next month. Some of my colleagues already asked for permission to go home, and the ones in this room seem to be overtime today.

I returned my gaze to my desk and turned off my computer screen. As I grabbed my bag and got ready to leave, I felt my smartphone in my bag vibrate. I took my smartphone from my bag and saw the name of the person who was calling me at this time on the screen.

I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"I'm in the lobby." said Harris.

"Okay. Wait for me." I answered, then hung up my phone and put my smartphone back in my bag.

"Who was that? Dominik?" asked Patricia, my colleague who today officially changed to become my new manager, smiling casually. "You definitely want to go home together."

I shook my head. "No. I will leave now. Thank you for all your hard work." I said, ignoring the questions of some of my colleagues who were still struggling with their jobs.

I immediately ran towards the elevator, which thankfully no one got on the elevator. As soon as the elevator door opened, I immediately went inside and pressed the elevator button to the office lobby. After waiting for a while, finally, the elevator door opened. Then I immediately got out of the elevator to the office lobby, where Harris was waiting for me at this time.

My eyes then caught the figure of the person, who was waiting for me, and immediately ran towards him. "Sorry to make you wait."

Harris shook his head. "Not really. I just got here." he replied, giving his hand to hold, which I immediately refused.

"Why? Afraid because I'm a stranger to you?"

"If so, why? We are strangers, aren't we?" I asked back to him.

He looked disappointed to hear my question earlier for a while before his eyes seemed to find something that caught his attention. Then he pushed me towards him and kissed me, making my body freeze instantly. I tried to release the kiss from me, but he ignored me and kissed me even more as if he didn't want to let me go.

"Leah?"

Dominik's voice who was calling me from a distance made me even more eager to push him away. And finally, I managed to escape from Harris. I then moved back a little to make room for me and I shook my right hand, slapping Harris's left cheek with a voice that echoed throughout the room at this time.

"Why are you kissing me like that?" Without realizing it, I began to feel my tears starting to fall down my cheeks. I turned my face slightly away from him. "You thought I wanted you to kiss me suddenly like that, huh?"

His face now looks shocked at my words earlier. He tried to wipe my tears that still wet my cheeks, but I quickly brushed them off.

"Leah, I don't mean to make you cry. I just…"

"What? You already made me ..."

Before I had time to finish my words, sudden flashbacks appeared that seemed to be part of my past. In that flashback, I was engrossed in chatting with the person who kissed me without my permission in a garden that I had never seen before. We look so happy and hug each other. Then move on to a cinema where hardly anyone else is in it besides the two of us. We enjoyed popcorn and cola drinks on the back of our chairs while kissing occasionally in the middle of a film that I didn't know what the movie we were watching. Then move on to a house that seems like I've seen in a dream. I looked closely at his face that looked worried was carrying my body covered in wounds out of a burning house. And keep repeating itself with a faster-moving tempo.

Seeing those sudden and repeated flashbacks made me feel dizzy at once. I felt my legs starting to feel weak and fell on the floor in a sitting position. I closed my eyes, held my head which started to ache.

"Leah? Are you all right?" asked Harris, looking at me with a worried face. He grabbed my shoulders, which I immediately brushed off.

"Do not touch me!"

"Move! Leah!"

The voice of someone I know approached us. Then I felt someone who had called me now lift my body with one lift. When I tried to open my eyes, I saw Dominik who was carrying me, looking at me with a worried face.

"I'll take you home." Dominik said, carrying me away from the office lobby, followed by shouts of disappointment that I thought came from the female employees who always surrounded him. He completely ignored the screams of the female employees who seemed unable to accept what he was doing right now.

"Dominik?" I asked. He kept silent and then walked until he got to the front of his car, opened the car door, and lowered me into the back seat. He stretched my legs and put the pillow on the backseat so I could lie down and shut the car door, then he walked quickly into the car and started the car, leaving the office building.

When I tried to get up from the chair I was lying on right now, the pain that was getting stronger I felt in my head earlier made me lie back on the chair. My vision started to feel blurry and I could barely see anything at the moment. The flashbacks that had appeared earlier now began to swirl in my head.

"Harris…" I said, holding back the pain in my head. "I ... can't ... don't want to ..."

Before I could finish my words, I felt my consciousness disappear and I don't know what happened after that.

#

I opened my two eyes. The pain that had appeared in my head had now disappeared. Confused, I tried to get up from where I was currently lying, holding my head which was still feeling a little dizzy, and observing my surroundings.

"Are you awake, Leah?"

Dominik's voice made me turn towards him, who immediately ran towards me while holding my shoulders with a worried face.

"Why?" I asked, annoyed by what he was doing now.

"Still feeling dizzy?" he asked.

"A little. Where am I now, anyway?"

"In the hospital." he replied.

I let go of his hand that was holding my shoulders. "Hospital?" I asked with a surprised face. "But I remember really well I was still in the office lobby with Harris."

"The person who kissed you earlier?" he asked irritably.

I nodded my head. "I don't know why he kissed me suddenly. But after that my head hurt so badly. Then I saw you who immediately carried me and I don't remember anymore."

He hugged me tightly for a few moments before he finally let go of his arms and kissed my forehead. "Incidentally, I was just about to go home. Then, when I saw you guys look close, I wanted to approach you and invite you home together. But the man who was standing with you just seemed to notice me and kissed you on purpose." he said, clenching his fists on the mattress I slept with earlier. "Then you fell to the floor and you finally passed out after muttering his name."

So that's the reason he kissed me all of a sudden? Because he saw Dominik and took the opportunity to kiss me to make Dominik feel annoyed. But why did he do it?

I squeezed my hands. Annoyed because remembering what he did to me. And annoyed by flashbacks that put me in a place that I hated so much.

"How long have I been passing out?" I asked Dominik.

He seemed to think for a moment. "If I counted from you faint earlier, then it's already four hours."

I was surprised to hear the answer earlier. "What? Four hours? So it's 10 p.m?"

He nodded. "I managed to take you to my apartment. But you still didn't wake up, even though I called you many times. Worried that you wouldn't wake up either, I took you to the hospital and asked the doctor to do a thorough examination. However ..."

"However?" I asked, asking him to continue his sentence.

He sighed softly while looking straight at me. "However, according to the results of the examination, they did not find any problems with your physical condition. So, they suspect that maybe the cause is a psychological cause."

"Psychological cause, huh?" I asked, repeating the last part he had said earlier.

"Yes. If you don't mind." Dominik said, holding my hands, which still felt weak. "Can you tell me what brought you this way?"