The morning sun hadn't even fully cleared the horizon, but inside Alexander's study room, Jack was already experiencing a full-scale spiritual collapse.
He was slumped over a desk, his head resting on a stack of color-coded folders that Huan had spent the last hour explaining.
"Please just kill me, Huan," Jack wailed, his voice muffled by the paperwork. He looked up, his eyes wide and roaming with dramatic despair. "I'm serious. Take your pistol and shoot me right now. I can't survive a single day alone with him! Oh my God..."
Huan didn't even pause his task of filing. He placed a final tab on a folder with a perfectionist gesture.
"You can, Jack. And you will. You've survived an ambush in a shipyard and three days in a jungle. You do good work."
"No!" Jack sat up, clutching a stapler as if it were a lifebuoy. "I can survive a war, Huan! I can survive a bullet! Maybe... But I cannot survive Alexander!"
