Episode Fifty-Seven: Then… Can I Look Forward to Saturday Night Too?
“Good morning, President.”
The morning office. A greeting like that reached me from the entrance, and I gently lifted my eyes from the monitor. Calling out “good morning” to employee after employee, Yui-san appeared, striding in briskly, a drink cup from the milk tea shop near the station in her hand.
My desk sits right along the path to the president’s office.
Every morning, I watch Yui-san’s face as she passes by, and say “good morning” to her.
“Yeah, morning.”
Looking me in the eye, giving me that soft, gentle smile, watching her disappear into the president’s office — that’s how my day begins.
*
Nearly three weeks now since I joined the company. The intensive week of onboarding training wrapped up without a hitch, and since last week, Mitsuya-san, assigned to the same department, has already been handed more and more work thanks to her innate skill, transforming almost overnight into a fully functioning contributor.
Meanwhile, since I’m only in my second year out of college, I entered a six-month on-the-job training period starting last week. Right now I’m working closely under Yamasato-manager, who oversees the budget management section within the management department I’m part of.
She’s around her late thirties, a working mother in the thick of raising kids. Gentle, easygoing, working shortened hours from nine to four. Apparently just back from a full year of parental leave, about six months ago now — her desk has photos of her husband and an adorable baby displayed on it.
Besides me and Mitsuya-san, there’s one more person on the budget management team. Seno-san, seated diagonally in front of me, light brown hair loosely tied back.
Full, plush lips and round, wide eyes make a strong impression — same age as Mitsuya-san and Yui-san, twenty-six this year.
Despite a face that reads almost childlike, her figure fills out in all the right places, carrying real allure. The impression she gives off — a little calculated, maybe, a bit too aware of her own effect.
Apparently very popular with the male employees… but she and Mitsuya-san don’t get along at all.
With our arrival, apparently, the two employees who’d been bumped out of this department got promoted and moved elsewhere.
As for why only Seno-san stayed behind without moving up, Mitsuya-san dismissed it flatly: “Well, obviously — she’s got zero motivation and she’s slow at her job.”
*
Three weeks in, what’s struck me most is how genuinely easy this company is to work at. Taking a short break once an hour is actively encouraged, and stepping away from your desk briefly never draws so much as a raised eyebrow. Just generally, freely relaxed. Mitsuya-san, a smoker, has been thrilled about it.
Non-smokers benefit too, of course. The break room’s open anytime, and there’s a cup-style vending machine where coffee costs just ten yen a cup. Hold up your employee badge and it’s automatically deducted from your paycheck, so there’s no need to carry cash around at all.
Yamasato-manager told me all of this had been introduced once the president changed, specifically to improve work efficiency.
Apparently the previous president had been the type still dragging around old Showa-era attitudes, a scary man. Performance had kept declining under him too, and the office atmosphere had always been tense.
At first, apparently, there’d been mixed opinions about someone as young as Yui-san taking over as president — but now, everyone seems to agree, unanimously: “things got so much better once the president changed.”
Every corner of this company is packed, edge to edge, with the effort Yui-san must have poured in during the years we were apart. I want to learn the job as fast as I possibly can, so I can become a real help to her too. That’s what I found myself thinking.
*
“You must be getting tired by now. Go take a little breather,” Yamasato-manager said, so I picked up my now-empty teacup and a somewhat large pouch and headed for the break kitchen.
Since everyone else uses the vending machine in the break room, the little kitchen area’s always empty. Makes sense, I suppose — ten yen and one button gets you coffee, so obviously that’s the easier option.
I pulled a small single-serving tea set out of my pouch. There’s a water dispenser back here too. If hot water’s available, tea over coffee, every time, no question.
I pressed the red button on the dispenser and poured hot water into the teapot to warm it. Just as I opened the tin of tea leaves I’d brought, I heard a sound behind me and turned.
“Oh, Kanata?”
Running straight into Yui-san, mug in hand, my heart lurched, startled. Catching my eye, Yui-san smiled, soft, clearly pleased.
“Tea time already?”
Settling in beside me, Yui-san set her mug down and peered into my face while tearing open a tea bag wrapper.
“You’re the one having tea, Yui-san…? I thought you liked coffee better.”
You could just go to the break room and get coffee easily. Back in college, I remember Yui-san leaning coffee over tea. She’d loved the beans from my old part-time job.
Actually — I’d noticed something felt off this morning too. What Yui-san had been carrying wasn’t coffee, but milk tea.
Dropping the tea bag into her mug, Yui-san pressed the dispenser’s red button and poured in hot water.
“Ah, yeah. That’s true, but… you left a bunch of tea behind at the house, didn’t you. Didn’t want to waste it, so I started drinking it, and somewhere along the way I just got into it.”
Hearing that, a hazy memory of four years ago surfaced. I’d always kept a stock of tea in Yui-san’s kitchen, for enjoying afternoon tea.
The tea I’d left behind, and she’d actually been drinking it — happiness welled up at that, but at the same time, imagining Yui-san alone in that house, brewing the tea I’d left, something in my chest gave a small, sharp ache too.
“…Earl Grey?”
The scent of bergamot rising off her mug. When I pointed it out, Yui-san laughed. “Wow, you can tell just from the smell? Impressive.”
“Yui-san, where’s the lid…?”
I asked, dumping out the water I’d used to warm my own pot and adding the tea leaves in.
“Lid?”
“For the mug. It steeps better with a lid on.”
More than that, honestly, it’s better brewed in a proper teapot. After pouring in the water, I gently closed the pot’s lid and hit the timer.
Yui-san blinked, puzzled, and murmured, “huh, didn’t know that.” Honestly. Something as simple as how to brew tea properly, she could’ve just looked it up.
But it made me a little happy too. That something I love, because of my influence, you’ve come to love too. If that’s true, I want you to be able to enjoy it properly, at its best.
Ordinary store-bought tea’s good enough, sure, but there are shops that carry even better leaves.
“If you’ve actually come to like tea, Yui-san… I know a good tea shop I’d recommend. Want to go together sometime…?”
I asked it casually, and Yui-san’s face lit up instantly. Sharp and cool while working, but when it’s just the two of us, she smiles the exact same way she did back when we were students, and something in my chest clenched, tight.
“Really? Wait, let me check my schedule.”
Yui-san immediately pulled her phone out of her pocket. Come to think of it, a question occurred to me.
“Yui-san, do you handle your own schedule?”
A company this size, it wouldn’t be strange at all to have a secretary or two.
“Yeah. Starting to think I’m hitting my limit managing it myself, honestly… Ah, this Saturday’s open. What about you, Kanata?”
Not after work on a weekday — a whole day off. That means we’d get to spend a long stretch of time together. Fighting to keep my happiness from showing too plainly on my face, I answered, “I’m free,” and Yui-san smiled, pleased, all over again.
“…It’s been a while since I’ve gone on a date with you.”
“D-date?”
Yui-san’s the type to say things like that easily, without even meaning anything serious by it, so I can never tell if she’s being genuine or just joking.
Just as I scrambled to deny it — that’s not what I meant — the timer beeped, and I grabbed the pot, glad for the distraction.
“Ah… Yui-san, you’d better take your tea bag out soon too, or it’ll go bitter.”
“Oh right, forgot.”
I poured the tea into my cup. Yui-san pinched the string of her tea bag and pulled it out of her mug too. One glance at the color told me — that’s definitely going to be bitter.
I should teach her how to brew it properly too, next time we go buy tea leaves together. I thought that, quietly.
“Kanata. Try not to drink too much at Friday’s welcome party, okay? Don’t want it interfering with our date.”
Friday, a welcome gathering was scheduled at our own company’s hotel, for us former Web Production Division employees. Apparently a standing buffet-style party, with alcohol available too. We’d been told we could wrap up work at four, so I’d been looking forward to it, a little, myself.
“I’ll be fine, I can actually hold my alcohol a bit now…”
“Really?”
A little stronger than back then, I suppose. Though I still seem weaker than most people. Whether she noticed my bravado or not, Yui-san laughed and brought her lips close to my ear.
A crisp, citrus scent of perfume reached me.
“Then… can I look forward to Saturday night too?”
Whispered like that, I scrambled back, putting distance between us in a panic. Look forward to — to what? I have a record, when it comes to alcohol.
The very first night Yui-san and I came together — I haven’t forgotten. That I was the one who pushed for it, drunk.
Face going red, unmistakably, Yui-san burst out laughing at me. Only then did I realize — I’d been teased — and shoved her shoulder with everything I had.
“Seriously… Yui-san, you haven’t changed one single bit, have you!”
“Just kidding. I just meant, let’s drink together. No deeper meaning to it.”
Annoyed, but honestly, I think that part really is true. I’d noticed since we reconnected — unlike back in college, Yui-san doesn’t keep her nails short and neat anymore. Which means, I understand, she’s not currently involved with any women.
That makes me happy, but there’s one more thing, different from the Yui-san of back then, that’s been nagging at me.
“Um, Yui-san, come to think of it…”
“Hm?”
Bringing her mug to her lips, taking a sip of tea, she looked at me.
“…You changed your perfume, didn’t you. Why?”
Different from back in college. It bothers me, endlessly, that it’s not that same scent anymore.
“Perfume? Ah, yeah. I’m wearing something different than before.”
“Why?”
Looking straight up into those black eyes, Yui-san’s face went faintly troubled. Why, huh — her expression seemed to say, unsure how to answer.
“Kanata, do you dislike this scent?”
“I don’t dislike it, but… it’s like you’re a different person.”
“Was the old one better?”
Honestly, I nodded. I’d never say it out loud, but during all that time apart, missing Yui-san unbearably, I’d gotten through so many lonely nights with that very perfume. And now, reunited, you’re wearing a completely different scent. It’s not fair.
“…I told you I didn’t want you to change it.”
I think it was right around when I’d been agonizing over what to get her for her birthday. Yui-san had mentioned switching perfumes, and I’d stopped her. I definitely said, back then, that I didn’t want it to change.
I’m the one who left, and now, even during the time we were apart, I’m asking her to have kept things the same for me — I know how selfish, how unreasonable that sounds, even to myself.
Yui-san just laughed at that and gently stroked my cheek.
“Sorry, sorry. …If that’s what you want, Kanata, maybe I’ll switch back.”
I could almost let myself misread it. Wondering if those eyes, gazing at me so fondly, haven’t actually changed at all, since back then. Wondering if she’d felt exactly the same as I have, this whole time.
Reluctantly, that hand pulled away, and she picked her mug back up.
“…Well, guess I should head back. Looking forward to Saturday.”
Saying that, smiling bright, Yui-san left.
I let out a small sigh and took a sip of my tea, gone slightly cold by now.
Today’s still only Monday. This week’s shaping up to be a long, long one.
And before Saturday comes, I need to go buy some new clothes somewhere. Thinking that, I left the break kitchen too.