Theft at work

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The ceiling fan in the room blew air faster and louder than usual, or maybe it was just in her head. Dupe laid on the bed in her call room, her hand trembling as she watched the video again. It was recorded that morning, by her, coincidentally while she was trying to make a TikTok video. A random patient relative picked the phone that Jane was blamed for.

Jane was harassed by her junior colleagues and other outsiders earlier that morning. “A bad experience,” her colleagues called it. But Dupe knew better. The video replayed over and over again. The ending part before she stopped recording the video kept replaying in her mind: “I didn’t steal it.”

The video really haunted her. She and Jane has been good co-workers ever since the start of their one year internship program at the general state hospital. She is older than Jane but they speak casually to each other. Other than work-related topics, they discuss trending songs, k-drama and new food recipes. They seem very close to each other and Jane follows her almost everywhere, regarding her as “senior colleague.” Well that is because Dupe had to repeat 200 level in the university and that made her automatically become Jane’s colleague but she wouldn’t stop respecting her. They’d sometimes meet at the bus stop and go to work together and/or leave together after closing hours.

But a few weeks back, there was a shift in their relationship, Jane started being rude. She started testing boundaries since Dupe’s work crush asked her out instead; She grew more shoulder pads and rubbed the issue on Dupe’s face.

That morning when the theft happened, she’d had an argument with Jane. She asked her to hold her phone so that she can film her TikTok video but she refused bluntly claiming to be on a call with her new admirer.
She honestly didn’t want to argue with her but Jane said it to her face that she couldn’t even get a man to like her so Dupe bursted out, as if freed from bondage, she rained insults on Jane and vice versa.

When the argument calmed down a bit, she picked her phone by herself and filmed the TikTok video, the one that coincidentally caught a random patient relative stealing another patient’s phone. And Jane who ran across the scene at the time was held responsible for the loss. “I didn’t steal.” That was the last thing caught on camera that Jane said before she was surrounded and silenced by the students around and outsiders present.

About thirty minutes later, Dupe entered into the call room of her department to have lunch and while she was editing the TikTok video, she realized that she unknowingly caught the actual thief on camera. Her mind flashed back to how the student talked down on Jane and how hard she was trying to defend herself to no avail. She then thought to herself “I’d pretend I didn’t see anything, she’s actually been rude to me lately” but then a part of her genuinely love Jane and wanted to clear the hair.

Although she could still hear people talk about the theft at the reception and Jane had been summoned to the director’s office, she eventually came to the conclusion that she wouldn’t speak up about the issue. She ate her food and slept on the spot.

The ceiling fan kept blowing faster and “I didn’t steal,” kept echoing in her head. “Wait for me.” “Let’s go home together.” These words added to the echoes in her head and Jane’s loud and sarcastic laugh echoed fast and faded in her head as well. She was reminded of how sweet Jane used to be before she started having serious conversations with Michael.

The video played again and again. This time, her right hand started shaking and the phone dropped from her hand. “Thub” was the sound of her phone hitting the brown foot mat beside the bed. She woke up and started panting. Wiped her face with her left hand, she was sweating profusely, the ceiling fan was blowing averagely and her right hand wasn’t shaking.

She picked her phone up and quickly went through her recently deleted files to recover the video clip that she had previously discarded. She ran out of the call room and dialed Jane’s contact. She could hear her ringtone sounding from the reception area. As she walked closer to the large desk where the receptionists sat, one of them said “Don’t you know that she’s still with the director?”
“Oh!”
She looked at her phone and realized that she had just slept for seven minutes.
She didn’t steal, I know who did,” She said quietly but no one really heard her.

“Jane did not steal that phone, that man did,” she said as loud as she could and pointed to one of the patient's relatives that sat across the table, waiting for their hospital bill to be totaled.

Everyone’s attention drew to the man and Jane raised her phone playing the TikTok video that she had filmed earlier, starting from the part where the man picked the phone and placed it in his backpack. Two of the receptionists walked up to her to confirm that they saw the video clearly.

The man in question turned his backpack forwards, put on his face cap and walked quietly towards the main door. Little did he know that the students who eavesdropped the moment had called on other students and waited for him outside the door.

The bag was hijacked from him and the content displayed on the floor at exactly where Jane was accused.

“Thief, you’re the thief” all the students gathered around him and he was not able to speak for himself.

About five minutes later while he was being questioned, Jane was spotted walking through the long lane from the director’s office to the block beside the reception.

Dupe stood at the end of the hallway, tears dropped from her eyes as Jane walked closer to her.

“I’m sorry.. I’m sorry,” she kept repeating that until Jane met her.

“It’s okay, senior colleague, I didn’t say anything until the director received a call that the real thief had been caught.”
“I was only taken aback when everyone decided to call me a thief as if they saw me pick it,” she added.

“Still, I’m sorry, I should have spoken earlier.”

“I’m glad you did eventually.” “ Just imagine you didn’t..they’d have suspended me and you’re going to miss me so much.”

Dupe chuckled and they both laughed it off. They hugged themselves and very softly, Jane said into Dupe’s left ear “ I’m so sorry about earlier, I really like Michael and I thought you wouldn’t support our relationship because he’s your crush.”

“Oh Jane, I dare not, you’re my friend and you two look so great together!”

At the end of the day’s work, a short meeting was held and an apology was rendered to Jane by the students, the patient whose phone was missing, the relatives and the other colleagues. The phone was recovered from the thief and given back to the owner.

“I’m so glad I didn’t delete that video permanently,” Dupe said to herself as she walked into the call room to carry her handbag. She felt what she hasn’t felt in a long time and also the peace that comes with being kind.

Thank you for reading.