[Shoko POV]

The elevator slowly began its ascent to the 6th floor. I leaned against the wall, clutching my purse as my entire body was trembling. This may very well be the last time I take this elevator up inside of this building.

My grip tightened on my purse as I winced, clicking my tongue.

Why did it have to be this way?

It was only a few minutes before 8:00 a.m. I was a little later than usual. My conscious nagged at me that the dog might come in early today and give his report to Manager or even worse, Human Resources. The last thing I wanted to see was his face this morning or forever for that matter. It was practically the only thing I saw last night anyways.

My head shook violently shuddering those thoughts out of my mind. If I wasn’t so committed to my job and this company, I would have called in sick.

No, the least I can do is go out on my own terms.

I nodded, huffing with renewed assurance as the doors opened. There was nothing but confidence in my stride as I headed towards my desk. I could see Okamoto-san meticulously tapping away at his keyboard. He was so eager to please everyone. I have to take special care of him and not let this job ruin his passion.

While I still can, anyways.

I bit my lip stifling any additional negativity and sat down.

“Good morning, Okamoto-san.”

His head snapped up as if I’d shaken him awake.

“G-Good morning, Abukara-senpai! Did you have a nice evening?”

My nerves cracked freezing me in place.

Why did he have to ask me that?!

I had to deflect. Otherwise, he’ll notice something is off and I won’t stop thinking about it which will detract from my work.

“I-It was fine. How was yours?”

“It was great actually! I hadn’t had time to explore this area of the city so I –“

Okamoto-san’s words began to trail off in my mind. I couldn’t even summon the strength to properly listen at this point. The inevitability of what was to come weighed upon my shoulders. I couldn’t help but imagine my subordinate standing over me with a horrid expression after what I had done has been revealed.

(“A-Abukara-senpai assaulted Mizushima-senpai? Gross… I’m glad she didn’t stay long enough to train or influence me.”)

I pinched my leg to pull me out of that dreaded fantasy and tapped the power button of my work station. As my computer booted up, I logged in and casually nodded while my subordinate continued with his story.

“Even though I never tried it before, it was tastier than I imagined.”

He laughed with a genuinely bright smile as he held the back of his head. I simply smiled and nodded, praying he didn’t ask me any additional questions as I had no idea what he was referring to.

“T-That’s nice Okamoto-san, I’m glad you had a good evening.”

“It was! I’m excited to see what else is lying around here.”

He replied with an eager nod. Suddenly, he started to look a bit flush. Okamoto-san’s posture changed a bit lacking his tradition level of confidence.

“P-Perhaps I could show S-senpai where it is one day…”

“Eh?”

My conscious snapped at that very moment. I had no idea where he was asking me to go! Maybe I should just be polite and agree to it. That’s the very least I could do after spacing out during his heartfelt story.

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“Good luck, Okamoto-kun. Shoko-san isn’t fond of raw horsemeat.”

Haru-san’s tender voice caught me off guard and subsequently sent shivers down my spine. She glided to her desk as always dressed as trendy as ever and greeted us before sitting down.

“Good morning everyone.”

The remnants of a smile were on her lips as she meticulously began tapping away at her phone. I couldn’t tell if it was for business or pleasure but at this point I didn’t care. She had no idea but this wonderful woman had just saved my life.

Thank you Haru-san!

“I-Is that so?”

Okamoto-san sounded a bit dejected. I didn’t like stifling his enthusiasm but it was for the best. Lying to him wouldn’t do either of us any good.

“T-That’s right. I tried it before a couple of years ago while I was still attending university. It wasn’t quite for me.”

My ex-boyfriend from college took me to a place that served it once. He was pretty excited to try it. I didn’t think either way at the time. I was just happy he wanted to include me in something. Little did I know, I was merely going with the flow of things.

I remember telling Haru-san that story a long time ago in passing. I’m surprised she remembered it. She’s much more cunning than I realized. I’ll have to keep my guard up.

“P-Please don’t worry about it, Abukara-senpai!”

We worked in silence for the next hour. I was going through the presentation once more, double-checking some of the facts and statistics I pulled to ensure they had the most up to date information. Haru-san was finding a few samples of popular social media posts that we can emulate for our campaign in the future. Okamoto-san was in the process of acquiring and hiring models for that content.

Typically, companies would work directly with influencers and save us the cost of hiring a professional. However, President Mikihara was adamant about representing our product as a premium. It was vital to our company’s image. And, he was right for doing so.

A professional model was much more pleasing to the general audience than a niche influencer. Besides, over-thirty percent of the most popular influencers are all posting about our products for free anyways in order to stay up to date with the latest trends. Haru-san’s efforts are a direct result of that. Her own personal Insta account has nearly one-hundred thousand followers.

Occasionally I feared that she would one day leave us if she ever made it as an influencer herself but I was reminded by her long ago that this job was so much easier than influencing and she didn’t want to put in the work like some of her colleagues online do.

I moved past that slide and went back to the first few for another pass through. I couldn’t help but feel there was something missing. Something important.

“Oh, Abukara-senpai. Were you able to get a photo of the display stand like you wanted last night? I could touch up the photo if you need me to.”

A violent crack of thunder slammed against my conscious freezing me in my place.

T-The display stand! I left it downstairs and didn’t take a picture of it.

This was bad. I told everyone that I was going to go down there and take care of it but I couldn’t go back there now. Too many horrific memories were etched between those walls.

No doubt Okamoto-san would gladly run down there and take care of it for me but I left it laying in the middle of the supply room. That was going to raise far too many questions that I did not want to answer.

I had to stay calm and confident in order to get through this.

“I-I couldn’t find it so I decided against using it.”

That was a bold move on my part but I couldn’t see any other way out of it. If anyone from my team went down to the basement, I would be done. Fortunately, Haru-san dreaded going down there and would not do so willingly. However, my other subordinate did not share her resentment for the storage room.

Okamoto-san jumped forward.

“Do you want me to look for it?”

I waved my hands forcing the best smile I could muster.

“No, no! That’s okay. Why don’t you go and prep the conference room instead? I’ll get the slide deck printed so the team can take notes.”

“O-Oh! Good idea Abukara-senpai!”

Okamoto-san sprinted off. There were several tasks to fulfill in order to get the room ready for a presentation. It would easily take him an hour even with his abundance of energy so the threat of him going downstairs was all but fully negated.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I stared at my desktop. The other presentation file I had created suddenly caught my eye. As much as I wanted to open it up and continue working on it, my motivation to do so suddenly disappeared.

Not wanting to go out on a bad note, I clicked on the file and dumped it in the recycling bin.

“Hmmm…. Did Shoko-chan suddenly have a change in heart?”

I involuntarily yelped as my body immediately convulsed in an unwanted shiver.

“H-Haru-san?!”

She glanced upon me with her face half hidden by the phone in her hand and leered upon with with a sinister smile.

“I thought you wanted to get rid of the doggy? Have you decided to keep him as a pet instead.”

As a pet….

A horrendously improper thought crossed my mind. Mizushima was on all fours with a collar around his neck wagging his tail as I pulled upon his chain, grinning in delight.

“B-Be serious!”

Why did that thought suddenly appear?!

Haru-san giggled but didn’t appear to let up from her initial inquiry.

It was clear my body was starting to do things that I did not directly order. There was enough on my mind already. Continuing like this was too dangerous. I took a deep breath and summoned my leadership side.

“I thought about it last night and decided against it. The higher ups would need more than a few words and slides to be convinced that the sales department was unnecessary.”

“Eh? You seemed so confident before. I wonder what could have happened that changed your mind.”

I winced internally. She was not letting this go. Before I could even fathom a proper response, Haru-san pounced.

“You’ve gotten sweet on Kyosuke-san, haven’t you?”

Kyosuke-san…

I forgot that Haru-san was fairly friendly with my nemesis as well. How could he use his first name so intimately?

Intimate…

Flashbacks of the evening prior crashed before my very eyes. His strong touch. His powerful grip. His tender lips. My face was beginning to warm up. I had to end this immediately before rumors swelled in her mind.

“B-Be quiet!”

I huffed and took a deep breath.

“As if I could ever care about that dog.”

Saying it out loud helped calm my nerves. Kyosuke Mizushima was my professional rival; nothing more and nothing less. I affirmed that fact over and over again but somehow, the rapid heartbeat in my chest wasn’t convinced.

“Let’s go to the conference room and help Okamoto-san prepare for our meeting.”

I remained firm, closing out a few applications on the computer while carefully glancing at Haru-san out of the corner of my eye.

She peered at me for just a moment before sighing and standing up.

“Sure thing, Shoko-san.”

I was relieved when she agreed to drop the subject but her reference to me at the end called into question whether she would fully let it go.

As we walked to the conference room I checked my watch. It was only nine-thirty and yet, I hadn’t heard a peep out of Oshiro-san from anyone at Human Resources. If he had gone in first thing in the morning to explain what I had done than clearly, I should have been brought in for questioning at the very least.

Another peculiar thought entered my mind.

Wait a second. It’s been one and a half hours. Has Mizushima not said anything?

After our terrible argument last night about my plan to eliminate his job, I thought he would be seeking revenge. He had me dead to rights. There was nothing I could do other than stand up and face the firing squad properly.

What could he possibly be planning then?

I took a deep breath and stepped inside the conference room. Knowing I had to face the dog head on with my future at the company at stake, I couldn’t afford to falter. The only thing I could do was perform my duties to the best of my abilities and pray for the best outcome.