Yan discreetly passes PS and me a Chewy granola bar each over the cubicle separator, her eyes darting furtively towards Kuri from time to time. Kuri barely notices, focused on his computer screen.
Sitting down on the extra chair next to me, Yan whispers, “Is it really ok?” She looks at the granola bars clutched in our hands meaningfully, careful to keep it out of Kuri’s sight.
“Yeah he’s all right.” I whisper back. “He understands.”
Naomi comes by a few minutes later and goes straight to the cabinet in front of my desk, where she keeps her stash of snacks during Ramadan. She takes out a few packets of Mamee to share with the rest of us in full view, fasting Kuri or not. Yan stares at her in disbelief.
“What? It’s the only place in the whole office we can possibly eat without offending anyone!” Naomi defenses herself as she pops open her Mamee noisily. “Sorry though, Kuri.” She adds as an afterthought.
Kuri grunts obligingly, slumped in his seat and looking the worst I’ve seen him since… last year’s Ramadan month.
So we proceed to munching and chatting even though they cancelled the break time for the whole Ramadan month.
Finally Kuri stands up abruptly, and peers over the separator to check out what we were eating. He swallows hard. “You guys are evil.” And he walks off.
Sorry, Kuri. ^_^;;
Note: Kuri is short for Syukri in Japanese.
