Episode 2
“Ito-chan and Seri-chan — the dream team-up of our ace and Usui-san’s ace!! This is exciting!! Let’s have this crack pair wrap it up nice and fast and get ourselves a pay rise!!”
The gyaru’s voice bounces off the walls of the small meeting room. It turns out a gyaru can transform even a soulless corporate meeting room into something resembling a karaoke booth. Gyaru — a fearsome force.
From what the two of them explained: the job is to build a web product page to coincide with a new launch. The work itself is straightforward. The catch, presumably owing to it being a major corporation, is that design approval will be exacting.
“The client contact is a bit of a stickler, so that’s the one annoying part — but I think you’ll be fine, Ito-chan.”
“Yes, from what I’ve heard it sounds like a fairly standard brief. I think we’ll be all right.”
The one thing pressing on us is time, if anything. I murmur it under my breath and glance sideways at the person next to me.
Seriha, typing with a focused expression. I look at her screen — everything that had just been explained to us is laid out in clean, organised notes.
“Would you be able to handle client communications and overall coordination, Takemi-san? Ichikawa-san — follow Takemi-san’s lead and step in when she needs a hand. Does that work for you too, Hayama-san?”
“Sounds perfect to me! This’ll be a great chance to watch Ito-chan in action and learn a thing or two. She’s older than you even if she doesn’t look it, Seri-chan!!”
“…I’m below average height, but I’m not that small. And I don’t want a candy.”
She bats away the hand proffering a candy — which one do you want~? — and pouts.
We live in an age of heightened awareness around harassment. Usui-san’s pained smile is, I think, the correct response.
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“I think that covers it. Sorry — Ichikawa-san, would you mind heading back first?”
Approaching the close of the meeting, just under thirty minutes in, Usui-san speaks up as we’re about to rise.
“Of course. I’ll leave you to it, then.”
A voice one register lower than usual — no warmth, no gloss. Seriha bows neatly and leaves the meeting room.
The faint sweet scent that drifted up when she stood made my body tighten involuntarily for just a moment.
“The broad approach is as we discussed. Takemi-san, you’ll be taking the lead.”
“And — sorry to bring this up when you’re already stretched — I’d appreciate it if you could keep an eye on Ichikawa-san. Try not to push her too hard.”
He’s careful to keep his tone gentle and considerate, presumably so that the authority of his position doesn’t come across as pressure.
“You’ll probably know already, but we’ve had quite a few newer staff reach their limit recently… I want Ichikawa-san to keep going strong, so I’d rather she not overdo it.”
More or less what I’d expected. I already knew newer employees leaving had become a visible pattern, and the job was originally something I’d planned to handle alone. Whether my partner turned out to be Seriha or anyone else, I’d never intended to hand over more than the minimum — so this changes nothing.
“Of course. I have no desire to see a junior colleague disappear on me either.”
A smile — and a genuine one, not a performance.
Even if she’s on another team, fewer people means more work spread across everyone else. There’d be plenty of people inconvenienced if she were gone.
“I don’t want to see Ito-chan disappear either~~!!”
I brush this off with a vague mm-hm, bow, and step out of the meeting room.
It’ll get busy, probably — but I think we’ll be fine.
Where work is concerned, at least — probably.