Episode 3: The Secret Deal I Strike With Hanamori
At the morning meeting, it was announced that Hanamori and I would be paired up for outside sales rounds as part of her OJT.
After the meeting, Hanamori’s eyes were completely dead.
Light gone from her gaze, staring off into the distance. Like a corpse. Even after the meeting ended, she didn’t move for a while.
“…Hanamori-san?”
“…”
“Hey? We need to have a planning meeting.”
“…My life is over.”
“That’s a bit dramatic.”
“It’s over. Completely.”
Hanamori’s shoulders slumped.
Following her line of sight, I found Tamura-senpai and Sasaki-kun, the second-year male employee, having a discussion.
Ah. That’s what this is about.
Hanamori had apparently pinned everything on getting paired with the good-looking Tamura for this rotation, hoping to deepen their bond in one shot.
Well, thinking about it, the assignment made sense. Pairing a female employee with obvious ulterior motives with the exact man she has her sights on is nothing but a liability for a manager.
If something improper happened, or some romantic entanglement turned into a harassment complaint, that would become a real problem for the company.
“Why… why do I have to be paired with Asami-san for sales…”
“That’s my line.”
“This is the worst. My motivation’s completely gone.”
I sighed beside her, and Hanamori let out a small “ugh…” groan.
Her expression was steeped in despair, like she’d witnessed the actual end of the world.
Honestly, it was a little funny.
Just as the morning meeting ended and everyone was heading back to their seats—
An air of sophistication, oddly out of place, drifted onto the sales floor.
“Excuse me.”
A few heads turned at the voice.
It was Asakura-san.
Asakura Misaki, from the design department.
A pale beige blouse, tapered trousers. Simple, yet styled with the kind of effortlessness that looked plucked straight from a magazine.
Her elegantly curled chestnut hair swayed lightly with every step. Refined features, a soft smile.
Light makeup, which if anything only made her natural clarity stand out more.
A designer with a reputation as the office beauty.
“Asami-san, do you have a moment?”
“Ah, yes.”
Asakura-san approached my desk.
A faint scent of citrus perfume drifted over.
“About the request from the other day.”
“Ah, the pamphlet, right.”
“That’s the one. I tried this design.”
Asakura-san pulled out her tablet and showed me the screen.
The distance between us was subtly close.
Leaning down toward my desk, she pointed at the screen.
“For this layout, I tried placing the product photo a bit larger.”
“I see… then, if we cut the text here—”
“Right. But from a sales angle, you wouldn’t want to lose this tagline, would you?”
“Yeah, that’s an important point.”
“Right? So I came up with this alternative too.”
Asakura-san swiped the screen.
Even the motion of her finger was oddly graceful.
“Wow, this is nice, it looks great.”
“Right? I made it imagining how you’d pitch it, Asami-san.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. You always push logically, don’t you? So I tried to make it visually persuasive too, something that convinces through reasoning.”
Asakura-san smiled.
I found myself briefly captivated by that saintly smile.
“…Thank you.”
“Not at all. Let’s refine it a bit more from here.”
“Yes, please.”
Asakura-san stood, gave a light wave, and walked off.
I found myself watching her retreating figure.
A slender build. A natural way of walking that still somehow looked like something out of a picture.
I couldn’t look away until she disappeared down the hallway.
“…”
I suddenly felt a gaze on me.
I turned to find Hanamori staring intently in my direction.
Her supposedly dead eyes were oddly sharp now.
Like a bird of prey sizing up its target.
“…What?”
“Nothing, really.”
Hanamori thought for a moment, then smirked.
It was a smile that promised nothing good.
Afternoon.
We got into the company car.
Me in the driver’s seat, Hanamori in the passenger seat.
Even after I started the engine, Hanamori didn’t say a word.
She occasionally stared blankly out the window while fiddling with her phone.
Her profile remained, as ever, sullen.
“…Haah.”
A sigh.
“…Haaah.”
Another sigh.
“…This is seriously the worst.”
I heard her muttering under her breath.
“What is.”
“What is? Everything. This pairing’s the worst, and I haven’t gotten to talk to Tamura-san at all today.”
“That again? You should just give up already.”
I said it with a sigh.
The car stopped at a red light.
Hanamori, still looking at her phone, spoke up out of nowhere.
“…Hey, Asami-san.”
“What?”
“What do you think of Asakura-san?”
—Huh?
My grip on the wheel tightened involuntarily.
“Wh—! Wha—! W-w-what, why!? What do I— what do you mean, what do I think!?”
“Heh, so easy to read.”
Hanamori looked over at me, clearly flustered and red in the face, and snorted.
Her eyes were completely, unmistakably appraising me.
“I knew it. When you were talking to Asakura-san earlier, your eyes were kind of sleazy, Asami-san. You had an agenda.”
“…Wha! Sleazy? I don’t have an agenda.”
“No, you did. Completely. Totally see-through. Like, you weren’t even trying to hide it.”
“I don’t want to hear that from you,” I tried to fire back, but the words wouldn’t come out.
Damn it. Dead on target.
…No, that’s not it. It’s not some agenda, it’s just—
Asakura-san is beautiful. And kind.
Good at her job, and has great taste too.
Just being near her makes me tense, and when she smiles at me, my heart skips.
Whether this counts as romantic feelings, I don’t know.
But I definitely admire her. I want to be like her, and I want to get closer to her.
Having that feeling dismissed with a single word like “agenda” felt, somehow, unfair.
“…Whatever.”
“It’s not whatever. You’re way too easy to read.”
Hanamori leaned against the passenger door, propping her chin on her hand.
Her expression had turned oddly smug.
“But, well, there was also what happened yesterday, right?”
“Yesterday?”
“You know, when I got drunk and you took me home.”
Ah. That.
“That’s how I figured it out. You’re surprisingly kind, aren’t you, Asami-san.”
“…Surprisingly. …And?”
“So. I’ll help you out.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll help you get closer to Asakura-san.”
Hanamori beamed.
Her smile was calculating to the core.
“Plus…”
Hanamori continued.
“Asakura-san’s got something going on with Tamura-san, I feel like.”
“…Huh?”
“Woman’s intuition. So if Asakura-san ends up with you, Asami-san, then I can naturally get closer to Tamura-san, right?”
—Ah.
So that’s what this was.
Of course this is exactly what she was after. Hanamori really is Hanamori.
“So you’re saying you’ll use me?”
“‘Use’ makes it sound so ugly.”
Hanamori laughed breezily.
“It’s a win-win situation. You get closer to Asakura-san, I get closer to Tamura-san. Perfect, right?”
Beside my wry smile, Hanamori fiddled with her phone, smirking.
“…But we don’t even know if Asakura-san’s interested in women.”
“How would we know that?”
Hanamori said it plainly.
“You won’t know unless you try. Nothing starts if you give up before you even begin.”
“…”
“You’d never make any progress on your own anyway, Asami-san.”
“…”
“I’ll help. Let’s have a strategy meeting.”
“…No, that’s not necessary.”
“Let’s do it. We can definitely pull this off.”
She declared it with total confidence.
Her overflowing self-assurance was, somehow, infuriating.
The light turned green, and I pressed the accelerator.
Hanamori, gazing out the window, murmured quietly.
“Well. Let’s both do our best, huh.”
I had nothing to say back.
All I could do was grip the wheel and keep my eyes on the road ahead.
The story had forced itself into motion.
And I’d gained, in the person of Hanamori Chisa, a troublesome accomplice.