Friday, May 22
Woo! Friday already. Time sure does fly.
You've got nothing major on the calendar for today, so you can simply take it easy.
There's somebody else that should be taking it easy, too.
"...Are you okay, Matsui-san?" you ask, "You seem to be falling apart."
Matsui smiles, "I'm fine, just another late night yesterday. A date, of sorts."
You wiggle your eyebrows suggestively, "Late night date, was it?" you say with a grin.
Matsui presses her lips together, then exhales through her nose, "Didn't go there, luckily."
"No spark then?" you say.
Girl-talk like this is a lot of fun.
Honestly, you don't get to do this often enough.
"The only spark I wanted is the one I'd use to burn his house down," replies Matsui.
There goes girl talk.
You give Matsui a reassuring pat on the shoulder, you understand her pain.
"Hang in there, I'm sure you'll meet somebody," you say, "Coffee?"
"Thanks...?" says Matsui somewhat uncertain, "But, yes to the coffee."
You nod and depart for the breakroom.
Maybe you should ask Matsui for dating advice.
No, you can't ask your own assistant about that!
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You get to the coffee machine just before the lunch-time rush.
A few button presses on the machine has it pouring that familiar, awful office coffee.
But, hey. It's better than nothing right. Right?
You just have to keep telling yourself that.
"Oh, lookie here~" says a voice, "Hello, Miho~ How's the face?"
You turn to find Kitabayashi there, "Oh, Yui. Hello, hello," you say, placing Matsui's coffee cup on the counter while you take a sip of your own, "Face's almost back to normal."
"Hmm," says Kitabayashi, gently holding your chin and turning your face from side-to-side, "You're right, if I didn't know where to look then I wouldn't even know."
There's a yelp in the distance as somebody spills their cup of coffee.
You glance briefly towards the commotion whilst taking a pull of your coffee when Kitabayashi speaks up.
"So, Miho," she says, "Can I talk to you about something? In private?"
"Eh?" you say, "Sure. Now?"
"If you wouldn't mind," answers Kitabayashi.
You finish off your own coffee and exchange your empty cup for Matsui's coffee standing beside the coffee machine, then hand it to Kitabayashi.
"I'll get Matsui a fresh one later," you say, "Might go cold otherwise and you came for coffee, right?"
"That I did!" says Kitabayashi as she accepts the cup gratefully, "If you'll follow me..."
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After making the short trip to Kitabayashi's office, she lounges against a desk and takes a sip from her coffee before placing it down, "So, Miho," she says, "It's about Aoi."
"What about her?" you say, likewise leaning against a table.
You don't manage to make it seem as cool as Kitabayashi does.
"She's been very uncertain lately and I want to help her, but I don't wanna push her," says Kitabayashi, "I was wondering if it was okay if I took her to a safe place so she can confirm her feelings. Like a lesbian bar, a maid cafe, muscle girl bar, or a hostess club. Something along those lines."
"Eh..." you say, "That's a little..."
"Kaiba's replacing herself with you in her fantasies, we talked about this before and I'm sure you noticed it, too," says Kitabayashi, "It's not healthy. She needs to confront her feelings and decide it."
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"I'm not sure, Yui-chan. It sounds a little extreme... won't it work itself out over time?" you reply.
"I know it sounds extreme, but I'm certain it'll help her," says Kitabayashi, "You still owe me a favour, right? I'm willing to use it here."
"I don't know, Yui," you say.
"You can come along if you like," says Kitabayashi, "But you made it pretty clear that your interests are elsewhere, so I don't wanna force you. I'll let you know how it went afterwards, anyway."
There's a chance that Kaiba may restrain herself if her boss comes along.
You could trust that Kitabayashi handles things, come along anyway, or just have her call it off.
"No drinking, right?" you say carefully.
"Obviously," replies Kitabayashi.
> Decision
> >1 - Let Kitabayashi take Kaiba to a lesbian bar.
> >2 - Let Kitabayashi take Kaiba to a maid cafe.
> >3 - Let Kitabayashi take Kaiba to a muscle girl bar.
> >4 - Let Kitabayashi take Kaiba to a hostess club.
> >5 - No. This is just a bad idea, Yui-chan. Don't.
>
> Nagata Decision
> >1 - Nagata comes along.
> >2 - Nagata stays home (Receive a third-person summary)
"Out of all of those, the maid café seems the most innocent," you say, "That should be fine."
Kitabayashi smiles, "Thank you!" she says, "I didn't want to drag your idol somewhere weird without your go-ahead, y'know."
"I'm not her mom, Yui," you say.
"You're a little bit her mom," says Kitabayashi.
"The both of you can go wherever you like," you say, stepping over the comment, "I assume that as a former idol you have some places in mind that'd be safe to go without drawing too much attention to yourself."
"For sure," says Kitabayashi, "So... are you coming with?"
You shake your head, "No, it'll just be weird if I do. Not my kind of place to begin with. Doctor told me to rest anyway, so I'll just stick home for now."
"We can also watch a movie at your house..." says Kitabayashi, ever trying to make everyone feel included.
"It's fine, go to the maid café and hopefully Kaiba will be busy wondering about herself rather than me," you say hopefully.
"Yay!" exclaims Kitabayashi, throwing her arms wide for a hug.
You come in for the hug, which you make last just a few extra seconds too long.
She's warm and smells nice. You shouldn't be doing this, but still.
"...A girl might start getting ideas, y'know," says Kitabayashi teasingly.
"Sorry," you reply, face pressed into Kitabayashi's shoulder, "I ...actually really needed a hug."
Maybe being lonely isn't so bad as long as you have friends.
"Oh, well, why didn't you say so!" says Kitabayashi with a playful grin, squeezing you harder.
"Gah!" you squeak.
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Meanwhile at the breakroom
A girl who had been checking her phone at a nearby booth looks up and watches Nagata and the green-haired woman leave.
Despite her best attempt with paper towels, the table in the booth is still sticky with the dried remnants of the coffee she spilled.
There's nobody else around, but there'll be many soon.
She should probably get back to work before the lunch-time rush comes in.
But first, a coffee to go.
The girl walks over and presses a few buttons on the coffee machine.
Her lazy gaze slides to the left where she spots something, causing her to freeze up.
Ever so faint.
Traces of lip gloss on the paper cup's rim.
A brightly coloured, oily smudge.
Her breathing's heavy, a single drop of sweat beading near her temple.
"Nagata-san's cup..." she whispers, brushing her own lips with two fingers.
Check left. Check right. Clear.
She picks up the cup uses it as her own.
Taking sips of her coffee from a specific spot.
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The remainder of the Friday passes in a blur.
In fact, you get your work done so quickly then you can afford to spend some time watching Kaiba's comeback stream.
They've done things far more professionally now and most of the work has been taken off your hands.
In fact, they created an entirely new department within the company to oversee streams like these.
Marketing, design, content creation, and collabs between idols -- all handled within.
Despite being the first to put livestreams to proper use within the company, you don't own the idea.
Aside from Kaiba, some other idols have started making preparations for doing livestreams.
One even had their debut already. Daigo Naomi's Demon World is doing quite well.
She only had one viewer at first, that one fan that seems to follow her everywhere, but she's gradually increasing her viewers.
She's nowhere near Kaiba at her peak though.
Kaiba's comeback stream averages about half the viewers she had at her highest.
The first ten minutes actually had almost double the previous peak, but a lot of those were people just checking in or slinging insults at Kaiba for having the gal to return.
Your phone buzzes, the 5 PM alarm.
With a little noise, you stretch out.
It was a pity that you couldn't meet up with Handa Ako and her manager today, but she's far too busy for a short-notice meeting.
Luckily there was a spot open in her schedule according to the calendar software: Tuesday 1 PM.
Time to head home.
"I hope Yui-chan knows what she's doing..." you announce to the empty office.
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The maid's lips are barely an inch from Kaiba's own, a predatory grin on her face.
Kaiba's heart is pounding in her chest, both her hands are far overhead, held against the wall by a single of the maid's one.
The black-haired maid whispers something small, causing Kaiba to shiver and her breathing to quicken.
A finger topped with a manicured, black nail runs down the side of Kaiba's neck, the soft touch of skin trailed by the light sting of the nail scraping across her skin.
A small breath accidentally leaves as a light moan, causing Kaiba's face to flare bright red.
The sound only encourages the sadistic maid further, closely observing Kaiba.
Deep and prolonged eye contact between them both, unbroken since this all began.
The maid's grip on Kaiba grows more intense.
More possessive.
[https://assets.legendkeeper.com/cc7fcaad-42f3-4318-94b8-20e0549e348e.jpg]