It was a simple day at the office, but there was clearly tension in the air, and it had all started with a simple accusation
The new hire was a woman who seemed average looking at best, a bit chubby but nothing too crazy. While she got a nice reception from others, jij felt she was a troublemaker, someone who caused drama. He was proven right later on when after a week of her being hired, she claimed jij had sexually assaulted her. Naturally jij knew he was innocent. He had barely interacted with her, but the others saw him in a different light now. After enduring a week of the alienation sparked by the rumors, jij refused to take any more of it. He went to HR, who had already heard of the rumor, and demanded that they find the truth of this matter as there were literally dozens of cameras around. Naturally the cameras showed she was never assaulted by jij at all. If anything, she had only interacted with jij twice during that whole first week. At first, HR was just going to send a message that jij was cleared but that wasn't enough. He demanded that the woman who accused him faced a fitting punishment. At first the woman refused, but then jij threatened that he was giving two choices: either the woman tells the entire office that she lied and jij never once assaulted her, or jij would sue her and the office for character assassination and false accusations. Naturally HR forced her to tell the truth, leading to the office realizing they had just condemned an innocent guy over nothing.
Fast forward to now, jij is simply doing the usual work. Some of the others in the office did try to chat with him, but he gave short answers. The female coworkers he treated with the same polite distancing of a business client, refusing to even use the break room for lunch and sticking to his cubicle. The others did try to get him to act like his usual self, but nothing was working. Even HR and the boss couldn't do much, as jij was still doing his work.
As jij typed away, David showed up. "You know, the others are sorry, right?"
