#63: Knock Out
The recruit suit Mikoto had not worn in years felt a little tight, despite the fact that she had finished growing up long ago. She knew exactly why. Daily trips to antiqua, combined with her lack of exercise during the current stay-at-home period. Once she no longer even had to commute, her entire body had begun to slacken.
Her abdominal muscles, for instance.
“Ugh.”
Standing before the full-length mirror in her room, Mikoto let out an indescribable groan at the sight of the little roll of flesh just beginning to spill over the tight skirt. From the gap in the door, a pair of amber eyes peered in.
“Fufu. The weight of happiness, I see.”
Late April, with Golden Week just around the corner.
For Mikoto, a joyless stretch of idle holidays was fast approaching. The current situation was bad enough without adding the stress of looking for a job. All she could think about was finding new employment before the holiday began, and the urgency was eating away at her.
“So you’ve put on the recruit suit you haven’t worn since job hunting.”
“Meiji Stationery had a casual dress code. When I went to clients, it was just casual-formal…”
The zip that refused to come all the way to the top told the unmistakable story of the difference between her figure five years ago and now. She wanted to believe that the clothes had shrunk, but the result spoke for itself.
“Shall I lend you one of my suits?”
“It wouldn’t fit.”
“Quite right. Fufu.”
And then mischievous Shandy poked her head through the doorway.
The difference in their builds was obvious. Mikoto was five centimetres taller, but when it came to leg length, Shandy, with her high waist, won hands down. To make matters worse, she was even more slender than Kotone, who worked as an actress. The moment Mikoto squeezed herself into Shandy’s suit sleeves or trouser legs, the resulting sense of defeat would be obvious to anyone.
“Which should take priority, having the suit tailored or going on a diet?”
“I don’t have time for that. I’ve got an interview right now. Online, though.”
“Oh my. How times have changed.”
Perhaps it was simply the times we were living in, but almost every company had shifted towards online interviews, whether for new graduates or career changers. All thanks to the progress of video-call apps that were free or virtually free to use.
“What sort of company is it?”
“Kirara Water. One of my seniors from university works there. We got back in touch recently after ages, and when I mentioned that I was looking for a job, things just happened to lead to her offering me an interview.”
Kirara Water.
It was a company that rented water dispensers and sold replacement bottles. Its head office apparently dealt in a wide range of things besides water, but Mikoto’s senior worked in water sales. There was barely any connection whatsoever to the planning and PR work Mikoto had been doing.
“Is this senior a man?”
“She’s a woman, so it’s fine… No, I suppose that doesn’t actually make a difference. The only woman I love is you, Shandy.”
“Then surely I may sit in on the interview?”
She said something so utterly nonsensical with such a straight face that Mikoto buried her head in her hands.
“Who brings their live-in partner to a job interview…?”
“Why not? If she’s your senior, you’ll invite her to the wedding eventually, won’t you? We’ll be meeting her sooner or later.”
Shandy looked as though she were about to ask, Is there some problem?
It made sense when Mikoto thought about it. Shandy was a former employee of Hotel Maverick. She must have seen countless couples hold lavish ceremonies in that enormous Grand Reception Hall. If that was her standard of weddings…
“Wait. You were planning on having that huge a wedding!?”
“Is that a problem?”
Mikoto realised she had proposed to a truly extraordinary woman, but naturally, she had no regrets. If anything, it only made her want to become worthy of her.
“Then I really must work, mustn’t I? I want to swear eternity to you as soon as possible, when you’re standing there in a beautiful wedding dress.”
“My, what an ambitious dream. Just be careful not to overextend yourself.”
“I’m not overextending myself. Although… my finances are perhaps a little precarious.”
Holding a wedding at the Maverick would cost far more than a little.
That meant money. Which meant a job.
And so the association game arrived at its conclusion: first, the interview at Kirara Water. She had to get her senior to put in a good word for her.
What Mikoto needed now was to become independent without relying on Shandy, secure a stable life, and find peace of mind.
The salary to underpin all three.
Mikoto tapped the URL she had been sent on her phone and, for the first time since university, came face-to-face with the senior who was two years ahead of her.
“It’s been a long time, Haruka-senpai.”
“It has, Kurosu-san. …And who’s that?”
“Pay me no mind.”
Shandy smiled pleasantly with a quiet “fufu”, while the woman on the other side of the screen was rendered utterly speechless.
Hasekura Haruka, sales representative at Kirara Water.
She and Mikoto had belonged to the same university basketball club and were in the same faculty, so Haruka had lent her old exam papers more times than she could count. For Mikoto, whose academic abilities had been practically nonexistent, she was the senior who had helped her most.
Judging by what Mikoto could see behind Haruka, she too was probably working remotely. A poster of Hifumi Saikawa on the wall caught her eye.
Apparently Haruka had a taste for younger artists.
“Even if you tell me not to mind her…”
Explaining Shandy would only derail the conversation. For now, Mikoto decided to mention the good news Haruka had contacted her to share.
“More importantly, Haruka-senpai, congratulations on getting married! I was surprised when you suddenly got in touch.”
“Ah, well… yes. Thank you. We’ve only registered the marriage so far, though.”
“When should I send your wedding gift?”
“No, no, you don’t have to. I appreciate the thought, but things are pretty difficult for you right now, aren’t they, Kurosu-san?”
Haruka smoothly brushed aside the matter of Shandy and successfully redirected the conversation.
All that remained was to get through the interview.
Except that wasn’t going to be quite so easy.
“Is that person your live-in partner…? No, sorry, your housemate?”
“Er, yes. This is my friend—”
“I am Mikoto’s fiancée, Charlotte Gabriel.”
Mikoto and Haruka froze.
It was only natural. This was hardly the sort of thing one expected someone to announce out of nowhere.
“Sh-Shandy-san!?”
“There’s no problem. Since she assumed we were living together, I imagine the two are more or less the same thing.”
“You’re dating quite the woman, Kurosu-san…”
Haruka fanned her face with one hand, muttering as though completely overwhelmed.
Then another woman, apparently in her early twenties and still carrying a touch of youthful innocence, leaned into view beside her.
“Careless as ever, stupid Haru.”
“Don’t say that…”
Matching rings glittered on the tips of their fingers.
At last, Mikoto began to understand what was going on.
It was probably the same arrangement as Sanae and Toko.
“Ah, er… congratulations on your marriage…”
“Thank you…”
The silence that followed was almost impossible to navigate.
The young woman waved and disappeared from the edge of the screen.
Mikoto later confirmed with Haruka that her wife’s name was Murase Shiori. She was apparently a fourth-year university student.
“A-anyway. Shall we start the interview for now?”
“Please…”
Amid the discovery of this unexpected side of the senior she had contacted for the first time in years, the interview somehow began.
Calling it an interview was generous. They already knew each other, so it was mostly a chat about how they had been doing, with only a few things actually established: the job at Kirara Water was sales, and it was not the planning and PR work Mikoto had been hoping for.
“We’re short-staffed, so we’d certainly be happy to have you…”
But Haruka hesitated.
She glanced at the CV Mikoto had sent in advance, then closed her eyes before continuing.
“…Kurosu-san, are you really sure you want to work here?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well… even if it was technically a secondment, you were doing planning at Hibiya Trading, weren’t you? If that’s the case, I think you should look for somewhere that can actually make use of those skills rather than coming here…”
Haruka was indirectly pointing out Mikoto’s track record.
It was true that projects were moving forward at Hibiya. The second project had been cancelled, but that too had been progressing under Sanae’s direction.
The problem was that both projects had been the accidental products of Mikoto being pushed beyond her limits. She couldn’t imagine herself being capable of producing ideas on a consistent basis.
“I don’t seem to have any real talent for planning.”
“If you didn’t have that talent, I don’t think Hibiya would have taken you on secondment in the first place.”
“There was another reason for that. It’s… difficult to explain where to begin.”
In truth, the reason those two projects were moving forward at Hibiya had less to do with their contents than with the circumstances behind them.
The projects and Mikoto’s secondment had come about because of an apology for the Kosugi incident, combined with a fortunate chain of coincidences.
It hardly seemed fair to call that talent.
“Then can I ask you something? And please don’t take this the wrong way.”
“Yes.”
“Is there any particular reason you want to work here?”
“I…”
The words would not come.
There was no reason it had to be Kirara Water, the company where Haruka worked.
What mattered most to Mikoto was the salary. In other words, she simply wanted a job, and the title that came with it.
If she had a job, she could escape her current unstable situation.
If she had a title, she could become Shandy’s equal.
That was all she had believed.
“I don’t think there is a reason, is there? You’ve never worked in sales, have you, Kurosu-san?”
“I haven’t, but I’ll do my best.”
“Sales isn’t exactly a skill you can take anywhere, you know? In some ways, it’s the final refuge of the working adult. Customers can hurl heartless things at you, and you’ll be pushed around by incompetent bosses and subordinates. It’s a workplace where you might not have anyone on your side.”
“No, even so, I…”
“No, no. This isn’t that sort of interview. I’m not talking to you as a company employee, but as your senior… well, as your friend. So you don’t have to cling to this opportunity. Just tell me honestly how you feel.”
Haruka continued.
“You’re trying to compromise by settling for us, aren’t you, Kurosu-san?”
She had hit the mark.
All Mikoto wanted was a job and a title, as quickly as possible.
But if she admitted that, this opportunity would surely disappear.
“Compromise? Of course not…”
“And what does your fiancée sitting next to you think?”
Shandy, who had been listening quietly to the exchange, finally spoke.
“You are quite right. I apologise to your company, Hasekura-sama, but Mikoto is selling herself short.”
“Wow. She really is being rude, this woman…”
Shiori’s voice came from somewhere off-screen.
She too was looking for a job, so apparently she had been listening in on the interview.
“I had thought she was giving the matter somewhat more serious consideration, but it seems she still has quite a way to go. I’m terribly sorry for troubling you.”
“Mm…”
Mikoto was irritated by the way Shandy spoke.
Did she even understand who Mikoto was trying to find a job for?
“I’m sorry. I really had hoped we might work out, but from what you’ve told me, I can’t recommend you for the position. You’d be wasted here. There must be somewhere you can shine much more brightly.”
“…Thank you, Haruka-senpai.”
“Well, take care. Don’t catch a cold, all right? And you too, fiancée-san.”
“Thank you for your concern. Once the stay-at-home period is over, please come visit our establishment as well. With your wife.”
They exchanged a few final words, and the video call ended.
“Don’t sulk. You’re not a child.”
Right now, Mikoto didn’t even want to look at Shandy.
She had just lost a job she had finally managed to get a foot in the door for, thanks to Shandy twisting the knife. It had been a rare workplace willing to welcome someone with no sales experience.
“…Who do you think I’m looking for a job for?”
“For whom?”
Shandy’s voice, soft as bells, only irritated her further.
Did she really need Mikoto to spell out something so obvious?
Mikoto glared at her.
“For the sake of our life together. For your dreams. You want to have a wedding, don’t you? We need money for that, don’t we? Don’t you understand?”
“Please don’t underestimate me so. I could pay the wedding expenses in cash right now if I wished. Besides, wedding costs are practically reimbursed in full by the gifts from the guests.”
“Then why are you doing things that get in my way!? Are you really going this far because you want to… keep me!? I told you I want to work!”
“Why do you want to work?”
“Don’t say things just to test me…! You said you trusted me, didn’t you!? Do you really hate the idea of me working that much!? Do you want me to become a housewife like Toko-san!?”
“I do have my doubts as to whether that woman is truly a housewife. Wherever Sanae-san goes, Toko-san seems to follow.”
“Oh, come on…!”
That household was far too unusual to use as a point of reference.
Just when Mikoto thought Shandy had suddenly become far more forward lately, here she was again, wrapped in her usual air of mystery.
Mikoto had absolutely no idea what she intended to test now.
“What do you think working actually means, Mikoto?”
And now she was asking something that sounded like a Zen koan or a philosophical question.
There was no way Mikoto could come up with an answer, and she certainly had no time to sit around pondering it.
She needed to become Shandy’s equal immediately.
She might never earn as much as Shandy, but she had to avoid becoming completely dependent on her. She didn’t want to place any further financial burden on Shandy.
“Thinking about that isn’t going to get me a job!”
“It isn’t a question you should neglect. You have time now, after all. Why not think about it properly?”
“You’re only saying that because you don’t want me to work, aren’t you!?”
“Yes. I want you to stay home with me forever, Mikoto. That is what I truly want.”
“I told you I don’t want that! I want to earn my own money! I want us to be equals!”
“That still doesn’t mean you have a reason to compromise when looking for work. Besides, if you decide whether we’re equals based on income, then you will never be my equal. Do you have any idea how much our establishment turns over in a month?”
“That’s not what I mean!”
“No, it is the same thing. Right now, you are simply panicking because you don’t have a job. When you were fighting with your work, you were certainly anxious, but you were shining. Have you really forgotten?”
Mikoto remembered when she had first started going to antiqua.
The first strawberry cocktail she had ever drunk, Leonardo, had embodied both the carrot and the stick. At the time, she had thought nothing but bad luck had landed her with the next core product development project, but gradually, she had become more and more invested in it.
By the time they were making the mock-up, she had been positively absorbed.
Then came the incident with Kosugi.
That was when Mikoto had come to love the project itself as though it were her own child.
For the first time since joining Meiji Stationery, she had put both pride and soul into her work.
“Then what am I supposed to do…?”
“That is what this Moratorium Game is for. If you find something, you win. If you fail to find it, I win.”
The Game again.
Mikoto lowered her head.
She had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to find. And even if she did find it, she couldn’t imagine how that would make her Shandy’s equal.
“…Fine. I won’t ask you for advice anymore.”
“Very well. Think it through yourself. Whatever happens, I intend to love you with all that I am, so you may as well bear that in mind.”
Shandy smiled meaningfully with a soft “fufu”.
Mikoto turned away and collapsed face-first onto the floor of her room.
Her suit would wrinkle, and if she buried her face in the carpet while still wearing make-up, it would rub off.
She didn’t have enough room in her head to care about any of that.
“…Shandy-san, you idiot.”