With half an hour left before quitting time, Elise, Evelyn, and Jakob sat idly in the conference room, discussing the creation of background music for the game.
"See here? The Re and La have a sharp symbol—that # means they're sharp notes, so you'll play the black keys on the piano," Jakob explained, pointing to the sheet music spread out on the table and jotting lyrics under the notes.
Elise looked at him in surprise, exclaiming, "Jakob, I had no idea you could write songs!"
"Yeah, I studied piano," Jakob explained, making corrections on the sheet music with white-out. "But with Hannah here, I don't usually work on the music."
"The stars fill the sky, just like your captivating, sparkling eyes," Evelyn sang a line from the lyrics. "Maybe you should switch to the music department and give Hannah some competition."
Jakob chuckled, "Then Zayne would have to handle game production all on his own."
"That'd keep Zayne too busy to play matchmaker," Elise quipped, suddenly remembering Hannah from the music department.
She'd heard rumors that Hannah had feelings for Jakob and was even pursuing him, but she wasn't sure if it was true.
Elise took a closer look at Jakob, who was focused intently on revising his music, seemingly oblivious to her gaze.
Evelyn nodded in agreement. "Otherwise, he's always talking about starting a matchmaking agency. I've never seen anyone in game development have time for that."
Jakob looked up from his sheet music, responding plainly, "Because he's Zayne."
Evelyn rested her chin in her hands. "True enough."
Jakob tidied up the sheet music and turned to Elise. "By the way, two weeks from now, Love's Shining Moment is scheduled for maintenance. We need to switch it over to the Thanksgiving event before Christmas. Have you finished the script?"
"Yes, let me check." Elise patted her pants pocket, finding it empty.
In disbelief, she checked her jacket pockets, finding them just as empty. Her expression shifted, and her eyes widened.
Jakob noticed her sudden panic and asked with concern, "What's wrong?"
Elise smiled sheepishly. "I think I left my USB drive at my desk. I'll go grab it."
"No worries, just send the file over to Madisyn later. It's almost time to clock out anyway," Jakob smiled faintly, tucking the sheet music back into his folder as he walked to the conference room door. "You both should punch out and head home soon."
"Hmm..." Elise nodded. "Alright, I'll send it to Madisyn then."
"Come on, let's go!" Evelyn grabbed Elise and led her out of the conference room.
They walked side by side back to the office, and as soon as Elise spotted the flash drive on her desk, a weight lifted off her shoulders. Without a word, she slipped it into her bag.
She had thought she'd accidentally lost the flash drive. It was just sitting on her desk, but the data inside was so valuable that losing it would've been a nightmare.
Evelyn noticed her tension and asked curiously, "What's on your mind?"
Elise pointed at herself. "Me?"
"Of course. Who else would I be talking to here?" Evelyn chuckled, half-joking that Elise might be seeing things in another dimension.
Elise paused, looking around before catching on. "No, I thought I lost the flash drive! Thank goodness I didn't. I almost gave myself a heart attack!"
"The company's anniversary flash drive is pretty cute though. It'd be a shame to lose it."
"True that."
When they reached the ground floor, Evelyn and Elise parted ways as usual.
Ruth, who had parked near the office building, was playing chauffeur and happily snacking on pudding in the driver's seat.
The moment she saw Elise, Ruth set her pudding cup down, jumped out, and opened the passenger door for her.
"Your chivalrous knight has arrived," Ruth announced, lifting her arm to shield Elise's head.
"Chivalrous knight, huh?" Elise laughed, getting into the passenger seat, closing the door, and buckling up. "Is pudding your dinner?"
Ruth slid back into the driver's seat. "This is just a pre-dinner snack. I was starving."
"Too much pudding might upset your stomach," Elise said, eyeing the pudding cup like a concerned mom.
"Oh wow, ever since you became Mrs. Howe, you've started nagging just like my brother!" Ruth teased, finishing her pudding and tossing the cup into her bag.
Elise chuckled. "It's for your own good!"
Ruth pouted, narrowing her eyes mischievously. "Then I'll tell you a secret, but you can't tell anyone."
Elise agreed, "Alright."
"This is actually my second pudding cup," Ruth confessed, placing a finger to her lips. "Don't tell my brother."
Elise reclined her seat, settling into a comfortable position, smiling without saying a word.
"You wouldn't actually spill the beans, would you?" Ruth read her expression perfectly.
"Of course not!" Elise promised repeatedly, almost swearing to it.
After a short drive, they finally made it back to Elise's house, where Ruth excitedly opened the fridge and pulled out her third pudding cup.
Elise gaped, "Aren't you sick of eating so many sweets?"
As much as she loved strawberry cake or strawberry-flavored desserts, she could never eat as much as Ruth did in one go.
"Isn't there a saying that one stomach is reserved just for dessert? Well, mine is for pudding," Ruth declared confidently.
"You're eating all that pudding before dinner? Watch out, or you'll end up with acid reflux," Elise warned as she powered on her laptop to access her USB files.
"What time is it?" Ruth glanced up at the clock and gasped, "It's already eight! I almost forgot!"
"Forgot what?" Elise looked up from her laptop at her.
"My drama!" Ruth said with a smug smile. "It's a brand-new series—guaranteed to be amazing!"
"Go ahead and watch it, then fill me in on the storyline after," Elise gestured at her laptop. "I've got to check over my script."
"Sure thing, I'll catch you up once you're done," Ruth settled onto the sofa with her pudding tub, absorbed in her drama.
Elise moved her mouse to open the USB drive, only to find an empty folder, not a single file in sight.
She focused on the lower right corner of her screen, verifying that she had accessed the USB successfully. But somehow, all her saved files were missing.
She ejected and reinserted the USB, but her laptop responded just the same—the files were as if they had vanished into thin air.
Elise gripped the USB, examining it closely, and it slowly dawned on her that this didn't seem to be her USB drive.
Although everyone in the company had the same model, hers had a tiny scuff mark from being dropped before, a mark that was missing on this one.
"This isn't mine…" Elise murmured in surprise, answering herself, "Then where did mine go?"
Ruth, drawn by her muttering, glanced her way. "What do you mean 'yours'?"
"I brought my USB home to check some work files, but there's nothing on it. I just realized this one might not be mine."
"Not yours?"
Elise nodded, slightly worried. "Yeah, it's not mine..."
"Could someone have picked up the wrong USB and taken yours?" Ruth turned down the volume with the remote. "What will you do? Do you have backups?"
"Yeah, I saved it to the cloud. I just prefer using my USB. Maybe someone did grab the wrong one." Elise slipped the USB into her bag, deciding to check at work tomorrow to see if anyone was missing theirs.
Ruth thought for a moment. "Where did you leave your USB originally?"
Elise recalled carefully, "At the office, on my desk."
Ruth furrowed her brow, finally concluding, "If it was on your desk, there's no way someone could accidentally grab it… Getting stolen sounds more likely."
Elise was stunned. It hadn't even crossed her mind that someone might have taken her things.
But who did it, and why would they do such a thing?
