“Did any of you see my iPod?” asked Corrine.

Nobody responded as none of them had seen it, all of them except Jaycee. She should have seen it as she was the one who had hidden it. It was one of her ways to get back at Corrine by inconveniencing her in whatever she could, whenever she had the opportunity. She had been busy ‘misplacing’ Corrine’s stuff. One day it would be her iPod, another day it would be her PDA. She was careful not to make the ‘lost’ so obvious that it would arouse Corrine’s suspicion. At the end of the day, she would make sure one of the others would find her lost items. Though only in her mid-twenties, Corrine was not surprised by her absent-mindedness which she felt was caused by work-related stress. Jaycee was having so much fun seeing how distress Corrine would become whenever her things went missing that she was considering upping the stake to something more hurting.

She had noticed that Corrine was particularly fond of her personalised phone strap. It had sparkling sliver letterings that spelt ‘Corrine ♥ Danica’ fastened to it and she had always bragged about her lover whom she claimed was the most understanding and passionate man. Whenever business was slow, she would share saucy details of her love life. She would boast of the things that he would do for her and the extent to which he would go to please her. Jaycee used to envy her when she talked about her romantic experience. But ever since the humiliating episode, Jaycee wouldn’t even go near her to listen to her snobbish talk.

It was one of those weekend peak periods and the shop was a hive of activity. Jaycee was on her way to get a size for a customer when she spotted Corrine’s cell lying on top of a stack of clothes. It was her chance to get hold of her phone and to remove her precious strap. In one quick motion, Jaycee detached the strap and hid it in a pile of clothes on a high shelf in another part of the room. She then put the phone back to where it was at the lower shelf and hurried back to serve her customer.

Corrine, who had been busy at the cashier, only realised that she didn’t have her phone with her during a momentary break in the influx of customers. She tried hard to recall where she had left it and went searching frantically for it. And when she finally found it, she became more hysterical. Holding her cell in her hand, she couldn’t believe that the strap had become unbound and was nowhere to be found. She asked the others to help to look for it. Jaycee pretended to scan around for it while trying hard to contain her elation from another successful sabotage. Soon, the crowd started to throng the place and the search had to be called off. By the end of the day, everybody was too exhausted to stay back to help Corrine with the search. Though Jaycee kind of felt sorry for her, she figured that it won’t hurt her much more to ‘recover’ the strap the next day.

The next morning, they were told that Corrine had called in sick. It seemed that she had stayed up the whole night ransacking the whole shop looking in vain for her precious strap. Jaycee went to the storeroom and was relieved to find the strap still hidden among the clothes. Feeling that she had punished Corrine enough, she decided to hand it back to her when she returned to work. Corrine eventually returned to work a couple of days later. But she was not the usual Corrine, the pretentious and cocky Corrine was nowhere in sight. Instead, standing in front of them was an expressionless and haggard Corrine.

Thinking that she must have been traumatised by the loss of her strap, Jaycee decided to return the strap to its rightful owner. Expecting Corrine’s lifeless face to light up when she saw the strap, Jaycee was taken aback when she said coldly, “It’s ok. It means nothing to me now. Danica has already ditched me.”