My Former Boss Is Now My Subordinate?
Was this what it felt like when adrenaline started pumping?
Coming home from grocery shopping with the kids, a person was supposed to want a little rest. Instead, energy surged through me.
Rather than sit down even for a moment, I stacked and sorted everything we had bought into the cupboards and the fridge.
From here on out, I was going to be busy.
I planned to make everything—the salmon steak and Caesar salad Cassandra loved, the French fries and hamburgers Charlie liked, and even the chocolate cake I had once promised him.
When I worked in the kitchen I usually let the kids play in the living room, though I always kept one eye on them. In the blink of an eye they could invent some spectacular disaster. Right now, though, I doubted I would have the mental bandwidth for that, so I sat them temporarily in their own dining chairs.
“Are we eating again?”
“No, not that. Just watch Daddy get the food ready with me, okay?”
“Okayyy!”
While I rapidly prepped every base ingredient, I kept up a constant stream of chatter—this is this, that is that—holding their attention. If they got bored and started crying to be let down from the chairs, all my work would be for nothing.
“Daddy, what’s that?”
“Ah, this is food coloring. Put it in and the food looks prettier.”
“Why is pretty color good? Whyyy?”
At some point Reni’s “why” assault began, and my mind started to swim. In the end I handed Reni the star-shaped mango jelly I had made earlier as a snack, and gave Luca a clear gelatin jelly with nothing mixed in. Both were good for sensory play and safe even if a child put them in his mouth. Cleanup was just a wipe-down.
That way, after a little over twenty minutes, I finished the busiest stretch of work. I lifted the two children—who had waited so calmly without crying—out of their chairs and said,
“All right, time for water play!”
“Yay, water play!”
Mid-August was already slipping past, so the days we could still use the baby pool were numbered. I wanted them to play in the water as often as possible…
And after water play, if I timed their nap just right, I could cook in peace with the burners going.
While the cool water filled, I made them do a wild dance first, then wet their bodies and gave them the pre-entry lesson, easing them in feet-first. Before, I had simply done it for them, but with Reni I figured if I explained the reason he would handle it himself next time.
When I told him why we wet the body first, Reni’s already big eyes grew even bigger.
“My heart gets surprised? How does it get surprised?”
“If the temperature changes all of a sudden, your heart jumps and starts beating fast. If your heart beats too fast, Reni might feel sick, so we have to be careful.”
Reni thought hard, then nodded with firm resolve.
“Okay!”
I always wondered what thoughts ran through a child’s head when he made that face. It wasn’t anything grand enough to deserve such a serious expression…
Anyway, the real water play began.
Of course, “real” water play just meant floating around in a life vest in a bit more water than bath time.
“Kyaaah…!”
“Heehee.”
But hearing Luca’s joyful dolphin squeals, I had to admit they were having an absolute blast. Reni squeezed his eyes shut and started splashing too. When I dropped a ball into the pool, the boys happily passed it back and forth the way they did on the mat.
“Aigogo.”
I stood up for a second, stretched my lower back, and arched. Luca called me urgently.
“Daddy! Dadda!”
“Yeah, Daddy’s not going anywhere. Just a second.”
I stretched a little longer than before, then crouched back down beside them and watched the two play. Whenever the ball came my way, simply sending it back to them was role enough.
While I was at it I brought shampoo and soap, finished their bath right there, changed them into comfortable clothes, and dried their hair with lukewarm air. Both pairs of eyes began to droop.
Reni rested his head on my knee, smiled drowsily, and asked,
“Daddyyy, why do we get sleepy after water play?”
“Moving around in the water takes more energy than usual. And after you’ve been cool, warm air makes you sleepy.”
“……Mmm, I see.”
It was the sort of answer that could easily have invited another “But why is that?”, yet no follow-up came, so he must have been properly sleepy. The fact that he could selectively satisfy his curiosity told me Reni was, without a doubt, a clever child.
I gave a small laugh and smoothed the fine golden curls that spiraled at the ends. Luca, who had already fallen asleep with his head on my other knee, twitched and opened his eyes. He must have dozed off without realizing it. His eyes went round as he stared at his older brother right in front of him, then he looked at me and smiled. I scooped him up and hugged him tight.
I laid the half-asleep boys on the living-room floor, covered each with a light blanket, and checked the clock.
A little over an hour left.
Plenty of time.
“Cheers!”
Since each of us still had children to look after, Cassandra and I raised our non-alcoholic drinks in a toast. Even without alcohol we were more than merry enough; I felt no regret at all.
“But what’s the good news?”
Charlie, riding his mother’s excitement, had no idea exactly what was happening. Cassandra had deliberately never told him the channel name, worried he might go around saying he knew a famous YouTuber and draw unwanted attention.
“Because the pottery’s selling really well!”
So Cassandra offered a white lie. Charlie, who already believed we simply ran a pottery YouTube channel, didn’t seem especially interested. He was just happy his mom’s work was going well and celebrated along with us.
Having finished eating first, Charlie chose playing with the kids over joining the adults’ conversation. He apparently meant to teach Reni and Luca the dance he had learned for his school “buddy” class with a younger classmate. He pulled up a video on the tablet he had brought and demonstrated the moves, and the children…
“Whoa! Aaaah!”
…went wild.
Luca couldn’t jump around like the older boys, but he still swung his arms with gusto and joined in with all his heart. Reni, facing a brand-new challenge, even broke a sweat from pure effort.
…I would have to bathe them again later, but the sight was heartwarming. I could already picture what an enthusiastic kindergartener he would become.
I watched the kids fondly, then set dessert and coffee in front of Cassandra. We dove straight into work talk.
“I liked the letter video.”
Before coming over she had simply added an intro, outro, and subtitles and sent me the edited version. I scrolled through the footage, couldn’t stand the secondhand embarrassment, and set the phone down.
“I don’t think I can watch it again. It’s torture. Will people even like this?”
“Yes. Of course it would be even better if we could upload more often, right? Including letter-style videos like this, we should start thinking about core membership content.”
“Ah, about that.”
Only then did I bring up the idea Evan had suggested.
“They want to pay us every month to promote books, right? Copyrights handled, money coming in, intellectual image boosted—three birds with one stone. Oh, and I already uploaded the letter video just now.”
“Eek.”
“Comments are already starting to roll in.”
“Check them later, Cassandra…”
But the membership numbers exploded so fast we couldn’t put off checking forever. People who had drifted over after watching Reni’s “It’s My Knee!” lesson video seemed to be joining the membership in droves as well. Their fondness for the kids was transferring to me. Realizing that made me both endlessly grateful to Reni and, at the same time, a little guilty.
“In the end we’re just riding the kids’ popularity.”
“What are you talking about? You’re the one who raised those kids this well. People aren’t stupid—they can see that.”
“That’s true, but… I never planned to put the kids in membership videos. Is it okay?”
Plenty of people had surely joined expecting more of the children’s footage rather than mine.
“This was your channel to begin with, not the kids’. If it isn’t what they expected, they’ll just cancel or stop coming. You don’t need to worry about that in advance.”
Cassandra checked the comment section once more, then grinned and added,
“But we should still put even that worry into the video. Overall the reaction’s good.”
I rubbed the back of my stiffening neck and gave a vague nod. Why did this feel so awkward and embarrassing?
I scrambled for something else to say and suddenly remembered the bonus.
“Honestly, without Cassandra’s editing we might not have gotten this much impact. So when the money comes in this time, a bonus…”
Cassandra cut me off flat.
“Bonus, nothing! An employee working hard is only natural. Of course I feel fantastic. I’ll take the thought.”
“But…”
“Save the money you’d give me as a bonus and put it toward opening our studio. Rent alone, plus all the new equipment we’ll need—that won’t be cheap.”
After a moment’s thought I had no choice but to nod.
“You’re right. I wasn’t thinking far enough ahead. Better to grow the scale quickly, hire more staff, and give you a proper work environment and a higher position.”
“Exactly.”
Cassandra laughed with satisfaction, heh-heh.
Just this morning, opening a studio and hiring employees had still felt like a distant dream. Now, half a day later, that moment suddenly seemed much closer.
“Jun. Anyone around you who might invest, or who could work on this with us?”
“Well… not really…”
Finding someone who, like Cassandra, would treat my work as “ours” and throw themselves into it was naturally never going to be easy.
“Hmm. We can post job listings later, but we still need a studio before we can actually work. Getting the space comes first. When that time comes we’ll also need someone to handle the accounting side.”
“I can cover that for a while. It’s what I used to do, after all.”
“True. By that logic I could do it too. But division of labor is the point. The star should focus on filming like a star, the marketer on marketing. I wonder if there’s anyone trustworthy…”
“Greg’s out of the question, right? I think he’s quitting the company soon.”
“I’d rather do the charts myself from scratch than clean up the mess Greg makes of them.”
“……Same here.”
Sorry, buddy. But you really are bad at the work, aren’t you?
“Anyway, Rachel used to call him in and scold him over that stuff every time. Who would’ve thought those two would end up together?”
“Haha, right?”
Who would have thought those two would… I started to say, then something clicked and I frowned without meaning to. Then I clapped my hands.
“Ah—Rachel!”
“Jeez, you startled me. What about Rachel?”
“Greg said Rachel’s looking for a new job. Apparently the atmosphere at the company these days is a total dumpster fire.”