There's just 30 minutes left before 9pm, the gallery's closing time.
The last visitors are still roaming around the exhibition hall, admiring the ceramic works on display either in silence, or in private conversations.
From afar, Tifa's listlessly observing them.
Whenever her eyes drift to a nearby standing clock, she grows restless.
She's already thinking about soaking in the bathtub, exfoliating her face, massaging her aching feet and drinking cold beer on the couch while the 77th episode of 'Gift of the Goddess' (her current favourite ongoing drama series) is playing on TV.
But duty's keeping her here, doing overtime. She can't leave without helping her team close the gallery. She also needs to thank them for a very successful first day and nag them about maintaining the same energy for the next 6 days.
"Go home, Tifa," tells Sonon, her personal assistant, as he joins in her people watching. "I can take it from here."
"And keep Madam M waiting?"
Sonon grins. "You know that Turtle Paradise doesn't close before 12am."
"Like that ever stopped you from fucking her during office hours."
He shrugs, neither mortified nor in denial about her accusation.
He never hides about his affair with the stunning but short-fused Madam M. Tifa knows for sure that he's in fact proud that everyone knows she chooses him over her middle-aged husband Sam – at least on days and nights when Sam's off to manage a chocobo farm outside of the city. So when he disappears from the studio while they're in the middle of work, she knows exactly where he's headed to.
Well, considering her own current sex life, she has no business passing criticisms on him.
"Seriously, Tifa. Just go. I'll handle it from here," he insists. "Besides, you've been distracted the whole day."
She gives him a look, and he quickly adds, "Everyone else's saying the same shit."
And they're all correct. She's distracted – has been for 3 days now since discovering the box. She has thought about asking Cloud but can't seem to find the courage to do so.
She's not even sure what she's afraid of finding out.
"Just promise me you'll lock the door on your way out," she says, itching to go away before Sonon starts pressing her for an explanation. "The manager will be on my case if you don't."
"Roger, ma'am."
After a few waves of goodbye and see you tomorrows, she's out of the gallery in her trench coat and a file full of order forms for new requests under one of her arms.
She's making her way home, passing by lines of people who're also heading to wherever they need to be.
At the only scramble crossing in the city, she stops and waits for the traffic lights to turn red. She fixes her eyes onto the countdown timer, hoping to drown whatever noises that are coming from a couple nearby who're arguing.
But they're too close she can't help but hear them yelling about their dirty laundry.
"Why are you following me?"
"Because if I don't, I have a feeling that we're never going to see each other again!"
"That's the whole fucking point. I don't want to see you again. My wife found out about us, okay? I can't see you again!"
"You fucking liar! It's that slut, isn't it? You don't want to see me again because you're seeing her, aren't you?"
The traffic lights finally turn red and Tifa, along with everyone else around her, moves to cross the streets.
The arguing man strides ahead of her, desperately trying to flee from the arguing woman who's chasing after him. She almost wants to laugh because it's like watching Jerry running away from Tom.
"What the fuck! Get away from me!"
The woman starts tugging at his arm. Tifa swears she hears the sound of a cloth tearing, most probably the man's jacket.
"Please please please don't leave me, baby!"
The man spins around, one arm high up in the air. A sharp whack echoes as he smacks the woman on her face. The slap must have been hard because she immediately falls onto the ground after the hit.
"I'll fucking kill you if you come after me again," he threatens, before spitting at her and walking away.
The traffic lights are green again but the woman sits frozen on the crossing. Car drivers are rolling their windows down, honking and screaming at her to go away.
Tifa just wants to go home. She wants to ignore whoever it is that's sitting on that crossing, and go home and relax and not think about her own problems.
But that woman's still sitting there, not moving and no one's helping her.
Tifa returns to the crossing, ushers the woman to get up, and then pulls her back to the walkways.
"That was dangerous!"
She knows that the last thing the woman needs is more telling-off, especially from a stranger but she's too pissed to care about being considerate.
"You should've just let me die there," the woman hisses.
That line strikes a nerve with her. She heard it so many times before and she hates it.
She's about to say some comeback but the woman lifts her head up, revealing her full facial profile… and Tifa has to cup a hand around her mouth to hold down a loud gasp.
Her hands are shaking and it feels like the air in her lungs is rapidly sucked away.
Those red eyes, and the beauty mark near the right one.
There's no mistaking it.
"Mama…?"
"Here you go. One apple juice, and one orange juice."
Not even the presence of the waitress can cut the tension that's wafting between Tifa and her mama Thea. The waitress must have sensed it too because she's removing herself from the table faster than a bolting squirrel.
Thea scoffs, linking her arms against her chest. "We haven't seen each other for many years and you're only treating me to orange juice?"
"Where have you been?"
"Ha?"
The curtness of her question obviously irritates Thea.
"Where have you been?" Tifa repeats, still looking down at her hands.
"You know where I've been. I left Nibelheim and came here."
"Why?"
"Look kid… I'm not interested in talking about-"
"Why did you leave us?"
Me. She wanted to say me. She wants to know why her mama would just up and leave her. No 8 year old deserves to be abandoned like that.
When she looks up, she finds her mom's derision staring back at her.
The same fucking look she got as a kid when she's trying to talk with her mama who just had a fight or had split with a boyfriend.
"Why did I leave you and your dad? Because I fucking wanted to, kid. Why the fuck would I stay in a shithole, with a fucking prick and a kid I never ever wanted in the first place?"
Those words fall out of her mama's mouth and invade her like she's cleaning ear canals with a cactus.
She almost wants the time to rewind, so she can cut her ears off and not hear her mama speak those words.
Thea takes out a packet of cigarettes from the breast pocket of her coat and lights one up. She draws on it, then a pensive look takes over her face.
"If it weren't for you, I would've made a name as an actress. I almost did, you know! But that fucking town… and their fucking morals-"
"I've missed… you," Tifa intrudes.
Those words flit out of her mouth without her even thinking about it.
"I've searched for you," she continues, as if this is going to give some more weight to what she said earlier on.
She hates that in the face of her mama's insults and open disgust of her, she's still expecting something.
That 8-year-old Tifa that she thought she buried a long time ago? She has never really grown from seeking and wanting her mama's validation.
But what her mama says in return does nothing but hurt her even more.
"And? What do you want me to do about it?"
She sees no love from her mama's eyes – the love she always thought she would still have if they meet again.
"Stop trying to make me feel sorry for you," Thea says, rising from her seat. "You always preferred that fucking dad of yours anyway."
She drains her glass of orange juice and wipes her mouth with a napkin. "You're going to pay for that juice, right?"
When Tifa doesn't reply, she clicks her tongue.
She starts walking away, only turning around for one last time to warn, "Don't go looking for me again. I can't have my man knowing that I have a kid."
Tifa can't hear her because her brain's long disconnected from whatever shitty situation she just puts herself in.
A/N: Do not slander Mrs. Thea Lockhart from the actual FFVII universe 🔪