At the shopping mall at the centre of the district, Koshino walking and looking at the window displays in the stores inside the building, only coming in to buy if the shop offered any basketball sports' equipment. After he wandered around the mall covering more than half the area of the building with his hands full of his purchases he decided to turn back when suddenly the phone in his pocket beeped. He took it out hurriedly and when he recognised the number on the screen as his boyfriend's he took a deep breath and answered, "Moshi moshi. Chris?"
"Are you out shopping basketball things again?" were Chris's first words.
"So?" Koshino challenged.
"Hiro-kun, you can't go on buying those stuffs everytime you're angry. Those things are not cheap," scolded the man on the other line.
"Yeah, yeah," Koshino sighed as he sat down on a nearby seat in the middle of the mall near a fountain. Taking out his brand new basketball from the shopping bag he let it twirl on his finger as he listened to Chris still nagging at his frivolousness. When the man stopped talking, Koshino began hesitantly, "Ano, Chris. About what we talked earlier..."
"Why are you bringing that up again?" Chris's exasperated tone came from the phone, "Jeez Hiro! I need to work here! How can I work if I'm in a bad mood?!"
The middle-parted haired young man rolled his eyes, "Hai, hai. Gomen ne..."
Chris sighed, "I gotta go. I'm busy."
And then the line went dead. Koshino huffed boredly and stuffed his ball back in the bag before picking the rest of his purchases. Putting his phone back in his pocket he got up from his seat and was about to walk away when he saw a familiar-looking person at the other side of the fountain standing there alone.
Chris? What's he doing here? Koshino wondered when he saw his boyfriend looking towards another young man with a smile on his face.
Must be a client of his...
Koshino's body froze when he saw the stranger tipped his head up to Chris's cheek to give him a quick peck. Quickly hiding his face behind the bags he was holding, the young man shook his head mentally, valiantly denying what he was seeing. Chris has been the most romantic and cute boyfriend any gay man would love to have. Chris said that he loves him and Koshino believed it.
When Chris and the other man walked past him, Koshino burrowed his face deeper behind his bags.
"I love you," Koshino heard Chris say to his companion.
Koshino felt his heart break into two.
~~~~
Koshino walked dazedly back to his apartment where he stayed alone and what he saw in his mailbox were bills and a letter from the realty agent about the other apartment he wanted to buy. They were requesting a copy of his financial statement and he would have to pay the deposit when the lease was signed. If his old apartment building wasn't being pulled down for safety reasons he wouldn't have bothered to look for another apartment.
Koshino groaned when he remembered that he has already quit his job. He wondered if his new boss was a guy who can easily forgive. Koshino sighed when he remembered Mitsui's displeased face.
Maybe not.
Pressing the play button on his messaging machine, Koshino listened to the voices coming out of it as he arranged his new sports gear in his closet.
"Hey, Koshino! It's Hikoichi! Great news! I'm getting married! The banquet's on the 12th of next month! Call me, ne!"
Beep
"Koshino-kun! It's me, Mitsuo! Ran-kun finally proposed! I'm so happy! Call me and I'll tell everything to you!"
Beep
Sighing again with a heavier feeling of one who would like to just quit everything a die, Koshino walked into the bathroom to take a shower.
And maybe clean it later, before going to work on the living room... and the kitchen... and the closet does need a few straightening up...
The next day at the meeting room in the office, Mitsui and his people were going head to head against another department lead by Kishimoto of a fault that has happened among their workers. Akagi sat at the head of the table acting as the mediator.
"I've sent my order 8am. Monday morning," stated Kishimoto firmly.
"You were still asleep," scoffed Mitsui, "How can you say the goods are yours?"
"So you're saying the goods are yours?! That's crap!" growled Kishimoto, "I have the receipt in black and white. I saw my man stamping my order with my own eyes!"
"I don't know what you're trying to pull," said Mitsui lowly before he turned to Akagi, "Think about it Akagi. Is the Taiwanese or the Malaysian client more important?"
Kishimoto leaned forward to demand the scarred-face man, "So I should just drop everything and serve your client? This company has a system, Mitsui."
Akagi nodded, "He's right Mitsui. We have to go by the rules. I'm sorry."
"Akagi..." began Mitsui
"Is that all? Then this meeting has ended," Akagi cut him off firmly and made to stand up when a voice cut in through the murmurs of the workers, "Should we just ignore the "urgent" stamp and the serial number?"
Akagi settled back in his seat slowly and turned to the young man with middle-parted hair sitting at the farthest side of Mitsui's line, "What do you mean?"
Everyone turned to Koshino who was sipping on his sugar-cane drink a little before continuing, "The Sales Department always fought over the goods. Remember the meeting last November? It was agreed that any order to be sent within 48 hours will require an "urgent" stamp."
The rest of the staff suddenly began shifting through their folders as Koshino continued on with his reading from his own organised folder, "But when everyone abused the system it was agreed in another meeting that any order will require computer serial numbers."
With help from his secretary, Mitsui quickly found the memo of the two meetings and a sample of the order of the goods they were fighting for. Triumphantly, Mitsui placed it in front of Akagi on the desk and stated, "My order papers have both."
Turning towards Kishimoto, Mitsui arched his eyebrows in challenge, "Do you have any?"
Kishimoto's face twisted in surpressed anger. Just when everyone thought he would blow his top as he was known to do when things did not go his way, the man stood up angrily and left the room with his department people on tow without waiting for Akagi to dismiss them.
With a respected bow to Akagi, Mitsui and his subordinates followed them out leaving the puzzled Koshino behind.
"Hmph..." Koshino shrugged, closing up his folder as he sipped on his drink, "I guess the procedure's right."
~~~~~
Koshino sat on his desk to start on his work when a pregnant woman walked up to him with 3 ring files in her arms.
"Koshino-kun. Could you help me sort out the Guanzhou client?" pleaded Mari, "The babies are acting up and I think I need to have an X-Ray done."
"Uh, hai," the young man nodded as she placed the files on his desk on top of his own work.
"But remember to finish the Shenzhen case first," the woman reminded her colleague.
"Hai."
As Mari took her seat with a pleased smile on her face, Koshino began working, both not realising that they were being watched by their superior officer.
A few seconds later a young woman with wavy hair rushed up to Koshino and asked, "Did you handle Southeast Asia when you worked for Kurunoe-san?"
"Hai," Koshin answered, picking up a pen as he looked at her.
"A company in Singapore sent an order. Take care of it for me, ne?" she smiled prettily.
"Um, hai," Koshino nodded, taking the blue file from her.
Suddenly a portly man appeared by his desk and casually tossed his file on Koshino's already growing pile of work, "Please give these to me before 5."
"Before five?" Koshino blinked looking through the new file as the portly man walked away. A few moments later, he shrugged and began to delve into 'his' work.
Mitsui watched the young man pick up the weight of his fellow colleagues without batting an eyelid, with new mixed feelings. He admired Koshino for his hardwork and observant skills but at the same time he was annoyed the young man would want to burden himself with work that was not his responsibility.
At that moment a woman with the latest fashion style adorned on her young self walked into the office with a skip in her steps as if she had just came in from a holiday cruise, even if she was 2 hours late for work. Mitsui frowned at her as she nodded her greeting before settling herself down at her own desk to start work.
"Come any later and you can go work in night clubs," Mitsui murmured, clear enough for her to hear.
The woman called Mimi turned around and sulked, "I play mahjong with clients last night and lost money. I meet my monthly quota so what's the big deal?"
Leaning his elbows against Mimi's cubicle wall, Mitsui shrugged as if he didn't care, "Fine. Then from now on no one will have to entertain clients. Starting next month, your entertainment allowance is cancelled."
Mimi's cheeky look fell into a cold mask. The whole office who heard the conversation went quiet, their bodies motionless with dreaded anticipation as they felt the tenseness in the room between the two people. Mitsui rarely scolded them but when he did it made the victim wish he or she had never did what Mitsui thought they did wrong. He was popular with his wit, humour and sex appeal but as a boss he was strict, firm and often callously straight-forward.
"What?" Mitsui said looking at everyone in the room, "Don't you all understand why I'm doing it? Why don't you ask her? She lost money because of entertaining the clients."
Mimi looked down for a moment before she lifted her eyes to meet Mitsui's with a sweet but forced smile, "I'm sorry. I was kidding. I wasn't serious about it."
"I was," Mitsui told her, pushing himself away from her cubicle wall. Turning towards the people around him, Mitsui said out loud, "When I tell you when to come to work and what work to do, I mean what I say. Remember that."
When the scarred-face man disappeared into his room, the three people who asked Koshino to do their work for them, rushed towards the young man's desk to take their files back. When they were gone Koshino was left with only one folder he started with. At least now he would know that he would be able to finish his work before lunch.