Episode Sixty-Two: I Mean, We Were Dating Back in College, Weren’t We?
The leaves on the street trees had started glowing a vivid green, and big, billowing thunderheads floated in the cobalt-blue sky visible between the buildings.
This year, too, the long-awaited summer had finally arrived.
The office is only a few minutes’ walk from the nearest station, but this time of year, the heavy, skin-sticking humidity of summer means I’m already sweating just from the commute.
Stepping through the automatic doors, cool air brushed my cheek, pleasant.
Let’s do our best at work today, too. I held my employee badge up to the security gate at the entrance and headed for the elevator.
“Good morning, Manager Yamasato.”
“Morning, Aozawa-san.”
At the budget management desk, only Manager Yamasato was in today. Right — Mitsuya-san and Seno-san had both mentioned an overnight training seminar, hadn’t they?
Apparently, since they’re in the same department, they’d ended up assigned to the same room, and Mitsuya-san’s complaint — “I don’t want to share a room with Seno-san” — had stuck firmly in my memory.
Tit for tat, Seno-san had made just as much of a fuss — “there’s no way I can room with a smoker.”
Those two are practically sworn enemies, and I’d quietly worried whether they’d be okay without a buffer between them — but Manager Yamasato, watching them bicker as usual, had just tilted her head, puzzled. “When did you two get so close?”
I have no idea what she could possibly have seen in that exchange to read as “close,” and it made me wonder — maybe Manager Yamasato’s actually a little more oblivious than I’d realized.
*
Remembering all that, I sat down at my desk and booted up my computer. My after-arrival routine is set by now.
First thing: open the intranet, check the bulletin board. Manager Yamasato had told me, right after I was assigned here, that important company information always gets posted there, so check it every day.
So, true to habit, I clicked over to the board today too. One of the newest posts caught my eye immediately, and my hand froze on the mouse.
“An internal posting…?”
Right beside a red “NEW” icon: “Internal Job Posting Notice (President’s Secretary).” I moved the cursor over it and clicked.
At the end of spring, Yui-san had definitely said she planned to bring on a secretary starting this summer. But — I’d just assumed she already had someone in mind. I never imagined she’d actually open it up for internal applications.
The uploaded notice laid out both the background for the opening and the application requirements.
Regardless of tenure, age, or department, applicants needed a recommendation letter from their direct supervisor and a single A4 page stating their motivation, submitted through the application form.
Application window: just two weeks. Selection period: one month. After document screening, individual interviews with candidates, then one person chosen. That, roughly, was the gist of it.
The room should have been perfectly air-conditioned, and yet my palm, gripping the mouse, had gone damp with sweat. I could feel my own heartbeat picking up, steadily, faster.
Honestly, my first thought was — this might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Because I’ve always wanted to be some kind of help to Yui-san.
But unfortunately, I’d only just joined the company, and right now I’m smack in the middle of on-the-job training.
Applying requires a recommendation letter from my direct supervisor. Not something I can decide on my own. And I’m not even fully trained yet… there’s no way I could actually do this.
Locked in a staring match with the notice, stewing over it, I felt a hand tap my shoulder from behind at the same moment a voice said “Aozawa-san,” and I let out a startled little shriek.
“Eek!”
Spinning around in a panic, I found Manager Yamasato standing there. Watching me jump, she laughed, soft.
“I’ve been calling your name this whole time.”
“S-sorry, I didn’t notice…”
“No, it’s fine, it’s fine. I had a task I wanted to ask you about, but… were you looking at that? Surprising, isn’t it. I’ve been at this company over ten years, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen an internal posting.”
Saying that, Manager Yamasato leaned in to peer at my monitor.
“I wonder what kind of person would apply…”
Lucky, whoever it is. If only I’d joined two years — no, even one year — earlier, maybe becoming Yui-san’s secretary could have been a real possibility for me.
“…Aozawa-san, are you maybe a little interested, by any chance?”
“Eh?”
Caught dead center, I straightened up sharp, startled. Still being trained on my current job, there’s no way I could say something as presumptuous as being interested in a different role entirely.
“No, nothing like that, I was just looking…”
I shook my head hard, side to side, and closed the window. Manager Yamasato just said, “is that so?” — but with a meaningfully raised eyebrow, smiling.
It felt, somehow, like she’d seen straight through me. I’d thought Manager Yamasato was oblivious, but maybe she’s actually sharper than she lets on.
*
Frankly, I got absolutely nothing done all morning. And that’s entirely Yui-san’s fault.
She’d said she was bringing on a secretary, sure, but she never once told me it would be an open internal posting.
She probably never imagined, not even slightly, that I might want to be her secretary.
Yui-san doesn’t expect that kind of role from me. I know that. But once the possibility crossed my mind, even briefly, some feeling welled up in me, unstoppable — I didn’t want to hand over that precious position, being right there beside Yui-san, to anyone else.
Come lunchtime, Manager Yamasato, apparently noticing I wasn’t focused at all, sent me off — “Not feeling well? Go ahead and take a longer lunch today” — and I headed out.
Might as well use the extra time to sort my thoughts out, I figured, and wandered to the break area. Sinking into the plush red sofa, I let out a deep sigh and slumped forward.
Yui-san, you idiot. Why an open posting, of all things? If she’d just picked someone from the start, I might have felt jealous, sure, but I never would have thought I wanted the job myself, and I never would have ended up this unsettled.
Turning that over in my head, something suddenly cold pressed against my cheek — and I let out my second shriek of the day.
“Eek!”
“Kanata-chan, long time no see. On break? What are you doing over here?”
A man’s voice, one I recognized from somewhere deep in memory, and I snapped my head up.
The instant I met those eyes — deep black, like a nighttime sea — I froze, startled.
“Y-Yukiya-san!?”
Popping the tab of the cold canned coffee he’d just pressed against my cheek, Yukiya-san handed it to me — “here” — and settled down on the sofa beside me.
“Um… th-thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Saying that, he turned a smile toward me identical to Yui-san’s. Still as handsome as ever. Wearing a dark grey suit with a clean, refreshing air, Yukiya-san really does look like a male version of Yui-san. Siblings, so I suppose that’s only natural.
But why is he here? This building belongs to the Ichinose Group, and Yukiya-san’s supposed to have gone independent, running his own company entirely separate from the group.
“Yukiya-san, why are you here?”
“Huh, did Yui not tell you anything?”
Tell me what? I tilted my head, and Yukiya-san pulled a card case from his jacket’s inner pocket and held one out in front of me.
Reading the title printed on it, I scrambled to sit up straight.
“Yukiya-san, you’re a director here? I’m so sorry, I had no idea, something that important…”
Startled, I studied his face, and Yukiya-san smiled, bright.
“Don’t worry about it. By the way, Kanata-chan, have you eaten lunch yet?”
Eh, lunch? Asked so out of nowhere, I shook my head, side to side.
“Good. I haven’t eaten either. I asked Yui earlier, but she turned me down, said she was busy. Want to join me, if you’re free?”
“Huh?”
Never expecting to be invited to lunch, I froze, startled, still holding the can of coffee.
Peering into my face, Yukiya-san pressed further, teasing — “Don’t want to?”
There’s something a little pushy about this that reminds me of Yui-san too… I couldn’t come up with a single reason to say no, and found myself nodding. “I’d love to join you.”
＊＊＊
“Do you like pasta, Kanata-chan? There’s a good place nearby, want to try it?”
“I like pasta.”
“Good, glad to hear it.”
Walking alongside Yukiya-san, his pace naturally matching mine, it felt, somehow, like walking with Yui-san. They really are alike, the two of them.
We stepped into a stylish, hideaway-style restaurant and were shown to counter seats side by side. Apparently it runs as a lunch spot during the day and turns into a bar at night — no wonder it had that stylish air.
“Order whatever you like. This is thanks, for Yui always being taken care of by you.”
Saying that, Yukiya-san handed me a thick-covered menu.
“Thank you. But I’m the one who’s taken care of, really. I feel bad, letting you treat me…”
Whatever coincidence started it, one way or another, I’m working at Yui-san’s company now, after all.
My throat had gone dry from nerves, and taking a sip of the water set in front of me, I caught a faint hint of lemon.
“Don’t hold back. If you’re Yui’s girlfriend, that basically makes you my little sister too, doesn’t it.”
“Guh!!”
Girlfriend. The word dropped like a bomb, out of nowhere, and I nearly choked on the water still in my mouth, coughing hard.
“You okay?”
He patted my back, worried, and I dabbed at my mouth with a napkin, blurting “sorry” without thinking — no, wait, that’s not it, that’s not what I meant.
“Um, Yukiya-san, why would you say… girlfriend…”
“Huh, was I wrong? Yui mentioned you’d joined the company, so I just assumed you two had gotten back together. I mean, you were dating back in college, weren’t you?”
Yukiya-san said it, easy, unbothered, like it was nothing at all. Which is exactly why I couldn’t hide how rattled I was.
Because — Yui-san never told Yukiya-san she’s gay. …Right?
As if reading straight through my churning emotions, those same deep black eyes as Yui-san’s narrowed, gentle — ah, right, I thought, remembering.
I’d forgotten. Yukiya-san’s just as sharp, just as perceptive, as Yui-san is.
That Yukiya-san had already realized Yui-san was that way — this was something I never saw coming, not at all.