It started like any other morning. Coffee. Emails.
And then the office exploded not literally, but close enough.
"Where's the data file?!"
The shout came from Daniel's desk, and within seconds, the entire floor froze.
Ava looked up from her monitor, blinking. "What do you mean, where's the file?"
"I mean it's gone," Daniel said, panic creeping into his usually calm voice. "Everything from the client's project folder. It's not in the shared drive, it's not in the backup, it's just… gone."
Mina gasped dramatically. "Gone as in deleted? Or gone as in sent-to-an-alternate-dimension gone?"
Daniel rubbed his temples. "I'm guessing deleted."
"Oh no," Ava whispered, rushing over. She opened the folder, and sure enough empty. Just like Daniel said.
Evelyn appeared behind them, her perfect manicure gleaming as she crossed her arms. "You're joking, right? That project's due tomorrow."
Mina muttered, "Thank you, Captain Obvious."
Evelyn ignored her. "Mr. Park's going to have a meltdown."
As if summoned, the man himself stormed out of his office, clutching his phone like a weapon.
"Who deleted the client folder?" he demanded.
No one answered.
His glare swept across the room. "I want it restored in two hours. If it's not, I'll have to report it to the regional director."
The collective groan from the team was almost comical. Mina whispered, "Guess who's skipping lunch today."
Ava's stomach twisted. She was the one who'd last accessed that folder.
They tried everything.
File recovery software. Old backups. Cloud archives.
Nothing worked. The folder was truly gone.
"Okay, okay, think," Mina said, pacing like a detective. "Maybe it's on someone's local drive?"
"No," Daniel said. "Everything was centralized. If it's not on the server, it's nowhere."
Ava stared at the empty screen, her palms sweating. "This can't be happening."
Evelyn sighed loudly. "Of course this happens the week you're leading the presentation."
Mina turned sharply. "Not helping, Barbie."
"Just stating facts."
Ava clenched her jaw. "We can rebuild it. We have the raw data sheets, right?"
"Some," Daniel said. "But redoing the visual reports will take days."
"Then we work late," Ava said firmly. "We don't give up."
Mr. Park reappeared, arms crossed. "You'd better not. This project is our main client for the quarter."
"Yes, sir," Ava said, already opening her secondary files.
As soon as he walked away, Mina groaned. "Why does he always show up right when my motivation dies?"
"Because he feeds on it," Daniel muttered.
Despite the chaos, Ava managed a tiny laugh. "Alright, team. We can fix this."
By lunchtime, the office resembled a war zone.
Crumpled paper everywhere, empty coffee cups piling up, and Mina mumbling about "revenge ghosts in the server."
Leah stopped by with snacks again, whispering, "I brought chocolate. Emotional support."
Ava smiled weakly. "You're a saint."
"Or an enabler." Leah winked and slipped away before Mr. Park could catch her.
Mina leaned over her desk. "So, boss lady. You sure you didn't… accidentally delete it?"
Ava froze. "No! At least, I don't think so."
"You don't think so?" Daniel said, eyes widening.
"I was cleaning the folder yesterday," Ava admitted. "But I swear I didn't touch the client subfolder."
Mina made a face. "Oh honey…"
"Don't 'oh honey' me!" Ava groaned. "This is a disaster."
Daniel placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. We'll fix it together."
Evelyn walked by again, perfectly timed. "If we survive long enough."
Mina muttered, "I hope her perfume's flammable."
By the end of the day, everyone was running on caffeine and panic.
Mr. Park came around again, his tone sharp but tired.
"How's progress?"
"We're halfway there," Daniel reported. "We've rebuilt most of the visuals."
"Good. I'll expect the complete deck by tomorrow morning. Don't go home until it's done."
When he left, Mina slumped over her desk. "We're doomed."
"No, we're not," Ava said, even though she didn't believe it.
Her eyes burned from staring at the screen. Every click felt heavier. Every mistake felt fatal.
And somewhere in the back of her mind, she thought of Noir sarcastic, confident, utterly infuriating Noir and wished he could magically fix this mess.
She almost laughed at the thought. What could a talking cat do about deleted data?
Hours later, long after everyone had gone home, Ava stayed behind, still typing furiously.
The office was silent except for the hum of the computers and the occasional creak of the air vents.
Her phone buzzed a text from her dad.
[Don't stay up too late, kiddo. Give that cat of yours some dinner for me.]
She smiled faintly, then sighed, rubbing her eyes.
The silence pressed in on her. The empty cubicles. The flickering lights. The feeling that someone, somewhere, was watching.
When she finally shut down her computer and grabbed her bag, the building felt too big. Too hollow.
By the time she reached her apartment, her whole body ached.
Noir was waiting on the counter, tail swishing, golden eyes gleaming.
"You look like a corpse," he said.
"Thank you for the empathy," she muttered.
He jumped down gracefully. "Rough day?"
"You could say that. I might've just ruined my career."
"Ah." He sat on the table, watching her closely. "Then you need my help."
She groaned, dropping her bag. "You're a cat, Noir. You can't help with spreadsheets."
He smirked slightly. "I've ruled empires, Ava. How hard can human paperwork be?"
Ava stared at him, exhausted and unimpressed. "You've ruled empires, huh? Were they cat kingdoms or actual nations?"
Noir's tail flicked once. "Watch your tone, human. I was a man of great wisdom long before you were even a thought."
"Yeah, well, right now you're a man who sheds on my sofa."
He gave her a dark look, then padded to the laptop she'd left open on the coffee table. "Show me the problem."
Ava blinked. "You can't seriously..."
"Show. Me."
Sighing, she sat down and opened the presentation. "Here. The client folder's gone. The backup's corrupted. I've been trying to rebuild everything from scratch."
Noir studied the glowing screen with a mixture of awe and disdain. "Strange magic," he muttered. "So much power wasted on colored rectangles."
"That's called a bar chart."
He ignored her. "If your knowledge is stored in this… device, perhaps the knowledge itself is not lost. Merely hidden."
"That's… not how computers work."
"I will need to commune with it," he declared solemnly, hopping onto the keyboard.
"NO..."
Too late.
Tiny paws began pressing random keys, windows opening and closing like fireworks.
Ava yelped and lunged forward, trying to grab him, but Noir hissed, eyes gleaming with a weird, ancient focus.
"I can feel it," he murmured. "A presence trapped in the machine…"
"That's the antivirus, Noir!" Ava groaned, pulling him off the keyboard.
The screen flashed.
Then froze.
Then blue screen.
Ava screamed. "No, no, no, no, NO!"
The laptop went dead.
Noir blinked innocently. "Did it work?"
"YOU CRASHED IT!"
He tilted his head. "Ah. So… no?"
Ava buried her face in her hands. "I'm doomed. I'm actually doomed."
Noir sat beside her, tail curling around his paws. "Failure is merely the path to greater understanding."
"Tell that to my boss when I get fired."
"Very well, I shall..."
"Don't you dare show up at my office."
He smirked. "You doubt my disguise skills?"
"Yes! You're a talking cat! There's no disguise for that!"
Ten minutes later, Ava was pacing the living room, muttering to herself.
"I can't believe this. I have to redo everything tonight. I'm going to lose my job, my apartment, my sanity..."
Noir watched her quietly. For a moment, his usual arrogance softened. "You care deeply about this work."
"Of course I do," she said, sitting down heavily. "It's not just a job. It's… my proof that I'm capable of something."
He studied her face. "You seek validation from others, then."
She frowned. "You say that like it's a weakness."
"It is," he replied simply. "I've seen kingdoms rise and fall because their rulers craved approval more than purpose."
"Yeah, well, in your day, rulers didn't have to pay rent."
That made him pause. "Fair point."
She looked up, smiling faintly despite herself. "You're impossible."
"And yet, indispensable," he said with mock grandeur.
"Indispensably annoying," she corrected.
Hours passed. Ava restarted her laptop and began rebuilding everything manually, step by step.
Noir sat nearby, unusually quiet, watching her fingers fly over the keys.
Every so often, he'd offer "advice."
"You should delegate this task to your subordinates."
"I am the subordinate."
"Then seize power."
"By… overthrowing the accounting department?"
"If necessary."
Ava laughed, shaking her head. "You know, for a cursed immortal, you're terrible at practical solutions."
"I'm not accustomed to mortal bureaucracy," Noir said, puffing out his chest. "In my time, if a problem arose, I executed the scribe responsible."
"Tempting," Ava muttered.
By midnight, she was halfway done, eyes burning, back aching.
"You need rest," Noir said. "Your mind falters when weary."
"I can't. Not until this is finished."
He hopped onto the table, blocking her view. "Ava."
She blinked. He rarely used her name like that calm, steady, almost… gentle.
"You will destroy yourself at this pace."
Her throat tightened. "Maybe that's the price of surviving in this world."
Something flickered behind his golden eyes guilt, maybe, or memory.
Then, softly, he said, "You remind me of someone I once knew."
She looked at him, curiosity breaking through her exhaustion. "Who?"
Before he could answer, her phone buzzed.
Mina: OMG I found something. Call me right now!
Ava snatched her phone. "Mina?"
"Girl, listen Daniel realized there's an offline cache on the project folder! If you log into the old workstation from last month, you might still have the original files!"
Ava jumped to her feet. "Wait, really?!"
"YES. But you need the system key from Mr. Park's office. Good luck with that."
The call ended.
Ava turned to Noir, eyes wide. "Okay, I might actually fix this."
He smiled faintly. "Then go. Retrieve your treasure, little thief."
She grabbed her coat. "You stay here. Don't touch anything!"
He gave a dramatic sigh. "As if I would stoop to meddling again."
She shot him a glare. "You would and you did."
The night outside was cold and sharp.
Ava ran through nearly empty streets toward the office, heart pounding.
Inside, the building was quiet. The cleaning crew had already gone home.
She swiped her keycard and slipped inside.
The office looked different at night eerie, almost haunted. Shadows stretched across the desks, and the hum of the servers sounded like a distant whisper.
She hurried to Mr. Park's office, only to find it locked.
Of course it was.
For a long moment, she stood there, biting her lip, weighing her options.
Then, softly, a voice from behind her said, "You hesitate."
Ava froze. "Noir?!"
The cat stepped out from the shadows, tail swaying lazily. "You didn't expect me to obey, did you?"
Her voice rose in panic. "How did you even get here?!"
"I followed," he said simply. "You left the window open."
"You can't just....ugh!" She rubbed her temples. "Okay, whatever. Just don't make things worse."
He padded up to the locked door, inspecting it. "Primitive mechanism."
"Don't even think about"
He lifted a paw and tapped the handle. There was a soft click.
The door creaked open.
Ava gaped. "How… how did you..."
He smirked. "A few lifetimes ago, I learned from a thief. She was quite talented."
Ava shook her head in disbelief. "You're unbelievable."
"I prefer extraordinary."
Ava stood frozen for a full three seconds before whispering, "Okay… that's officially the creepiest thing you've ever done."
Noir's whiskers twitched in amusement. "You mortals make such a fuss over locks."
"It's breaking and entering, Noir! I could get arrested!"
He sauntered inside like he owned the place. "Then you must not get caught."
Ava shut the door behind them, heart pounding. "You're impossible."
"I've been told."
The office was dim, lit only by the soft blue glow of the monitors left in sleep mode. Mr. Park's desk was painfully neat, every pen aligned, every document squared to the millimeter.
Ava found the system key taped under the keyboard. "Got it!"
"Good," Noir said, leaping onto the desk. "Now hurry before your emperor of paperwork returns."
"Emperor of.." she started, then snorted. "That's actually a perfect title for him."
Noir smirked. "I name things well."
Ava hurried to her workstation, plugging in the key. The old workstation whirred to life. For a moment, nothing happened then a folder appeared on the screen.
Her breath caught. "It's here."
"Of course it is," Noir said calmly, as if he'd expected it all along.
Ava opened the folder and scanned through the files. Every single report, chart, and presentation all intact. She almost cried.
"Oh my god… it's really all here."
Noir tilted his head. "You see? The cat's intuition never fails."
She shot him a look. "You literally crashed my computer three hours ago."
"A minor miscalculation."
"Minor?"
He smirked, clearly unbothered.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps echoed down the hall.
Ava froze.
"Someone's here," she whispered.
Noir's ears perked up, eyes narrowing. "Hide."
She quickly minimized the window and ducked behind her desk. Noir leapt onto a shelf, tail flicking silently.
The footsteps grew louder deliberate, measured.
The door opened.
A flashlight beam swept across the room.
It was the night security guard.
Ava's heart pounded in her throat.
The guard muttered something in Korean and walked closer, scanning the cubicles.
Noir's golden eyes glinted in the dark.
"Don't," Ava mouthed silently.
But of course, he moved.
A single paw nudged a paper cup off the shelf.
It fell. Hit the floor. Rolled.
The guard jumped. "Who's there?"
Ava winced. I'm going to kill that cat.
The guard slowly approached the desk, his flashlight trembling slightly.
Noir crouched low, pupils narrowing into slits. Then, with an elegant flick of his tail, he leapt landing right in front of the guard with a loud meow.
The poor man yelped and stumbled backward. "A cat?! What...how"
Noir arched his back dramatically, hissed once for effect, then darted toward the door.
The guard, flustered, muttered, "Damn strays," and went after him.
Ava peeked out from behind her desk, half horrified, half impressed. "He's insane."
The hallway echoed with fading footsteps and the sound of Noir's mischievous meowing.
Ava took the chance, quickly copying all the files to a flash drive. "Come on, come on…"
The progress bar crept painfully slow. Ninety-five percent… ninety-eight…
Then the door creaked again.
"Ava."
She jumped so hard she nearly dropped the flash drive. Noir slipped back in, tail swishing like nothing happened.
"Did you have to terrorize the poor guy?" she hissed.
"Distraction achieved, wasn't it?"
"You're impossible."
"And yet effective."
The files finished copying. Ava yanked out the drive and shut everything down.
They slipped out of the office together, the hallway bathed in the eerie glow of the exit signs.
As they reached the door, Ava finally exhaled. "That was insane. I can't believe we pulled that off."
"I can," Noir said, smug as ever. "I am, after all, quite resourceful."
"You're also a menace."
He gave a mock bow. "I prefer legendary menace."
She laughed quietly despite herself. "You know… for a talking cat, you're not the worst."
"I'll take that as high praise."
Back at the apartment, Ava collapsed onto the couch, flash drive in hand. "All that… for a folder."
"Mortals have waged wars for less," Noir said, curling up beside her.
"Yeah, but none of those wars involved PowerPoint."
He chuckled a low, almost human sound. "True."
For a moment, the room was quiet. The city lights painted faint gold lines across the walls.
Ava turned her head to look at him. "Thanks, by the way."
He blinked slowly. "For what?"
"For… helping. Even if you almost got me caught."
He shrugged, stretching lazily. "I merely ensured you didn't give up."
"That's one way to put it."
His eyes softened, glowing faintly in the dim light. "You have spirit, Ava. Most humans I've known lost that long before your age."
Her voice was soft. "You've known… a lot of humans?"
He hesitated, gaze distant. "Too many. And too few worth remembering."
There was something in his tone a weight she hadn't heard before.
She wanted to ask, Who were they? What happened to you?
But instead, she said gently, "Well… I guess now you've got one more."
Noir looked at her for a long moment. Then, very quietly, he said, "Perhaps I do."
The next morning, Ava presented the restored project to Mr. Park.
The team was stunned even Evelyn's perfect composure cracked when she saw the polished deck on the big screen.
"This is… exceptional," Mr. Park said, clearly impressed. "How did you"
Ava smiled faintly. "Let's just say I had help."
Mina leaned in and whispered, "Was it Daniel?"
"Something like that," Ava replied, her eyes twinkling.
As the team cheered and the tension finally lifted, Ava caught herself glancing at her phone at the background photo of her cat lounging smugly on her pillow.
She couldn't help but smile.
Later that evening, she returned home to find Noir waiting on the counter, grooming a paw with deliberate pride.
"So," he said without looking up, "did your empire survive?"
"It did," she said, tossing her bag aside. "Barely."
He gave a satisfied hum. "Then perhaps next time, you will trust in your feline strategist."
Ava laughed, rolling her eyes. "Next time, you're not touching the keyboard."
He looked offended. "How else am I to assist your endeavors?"
"By not assisting them."
He paused, considering this, then said with a sly grin, "We'll see."