New Employee Training
I lay in the bathtub with my eyes closed and reached for the phone beside me. This future setting was set years after the time of my possession, so the latest smartphones had advanced to the point where they were fully waterproof. You could use them while submerged in the bath without worry.
They were rated for depths of up to two hundred meters. All this over-engineering was probably why flagship phones from the big conglomerates still cost around 150,000 yen.
“Huh? A Line message.”
It must have come while I was undressing. I checked and saw it was from Aris. She had recently returned from Milan to Japan. Even after coming back she was swamped with modeling work. The Milan trip had actually made her busier—several famous designers had noticed her, and her reputation had grown even more.
The photos Aris sent showed two completely different vibes from the same day. One was a youthful look in a Japanese school uniform for a domestic magazine, the other a more mature, sophisticated style for an overseas publication. She was still stunning.
It was fascinating how different the atmosphere could be from shots taken on the same day. She really was a professional model.
Aris was still using those adorable kaomoji. It felt completely different from Han Yugyeong, who almost never used them. I watched a little YouTube, then stood up, soaped myself down, and washed. After draining the tub, I dried my hair in the changing area before heading into the bathroom proper. While running the dryer through my hair, something caught my eye.
“Hm?”
The laundry basket was empty. The housekeeper should have already left for the day… Had Taira Yukiko cleaned it up ahead of time? I set the small question aside, finished drying my hair, put on the clothes I’d brought, and stepped out. The living room was empty; it looked like Taira Yukiko had already retreated to her room.
I lay down and opened my brokerage app to check on Health Miracle, the penny stock I’d gone all-in on. It was still April, so the price remained flat. I had started with the ten million yen my mother gave me, but a week ago Grandfather Taira Danzo handed me fifty million yen as allowance, so I was steadily accumulating more shares. At this rate, when Health Miracle eventually exploded, money would be the least of my worries. I had originally planned to dump my entire salary into it too, but I decided my paycheck should be for personal spending.
I bought another batch of Health Miracle shares at a reasonable price and closed out the day.
###
Today I mixed cereal with milk, added a banana, and headed to the office. When I entered the room, most of the team was already seated except for a few people.
“Good morning.”
“Junior!”
Mimata Chieri spotted me and patted the seat next to her enthusiastically. I greeted her with “Good morning, Senior,” and sat down.
“Senior, did you hear a new assistant team leader is coming?”
“Really? That’s great news. We’ve been so overloaded. Where did you hear it?”
Mimata Chieri looked delighted with the information. Being the second-youngest meant she carried the heaviest burden, and I often saw others dumping work on her.
Some of the male team members would catch my silent stare, realize what they were doing, and quickly take their tasks back. The female team members, however, showed no such restraint and kept piling work onto her.
Maybe because she was pretty, the other women didn’t seem to like Mimata Chieri much. The fact that she only ate with me when I had no outside schedules said it all.
“I go to the gym, right? I overheard someone from another department talking about it then.”
In Japan, saying you “go to health” usually meant fashion health—an adult service without penetration, basically a handjob parlor. That’s why people normally called actual fitness centers “gyms.”
In the past, many Japanese people would be shocked when Koreans said they went to “health.” These days most understood it was just how Koreans referred to the gym.
Mimata Chieri let out an understanding “Ah~!” and asked if I had heard anything else.
“The name I caught was… Suzuki Chisami, I think.”
“Ah… I see…”
At the name Suzuki Chisami, Mimata Chieri’s face darkened instantly. So they knew each other.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes… Suzuki Chisami was my old boss. We didn’t get along. I can’t believe I’m running into her here again.”
“I see…”
It seemed Suzuki Chisami had also come from the Taira Donation Foundation, just like Mimata Chieri. The foundation had been created to secure tax benefits for the Taira Group through charitable giving, but it was also used secretly to create slush funds.
Although it was a lower-tier subsidiary, employees there were frequently transferred elsewhere—usually upward. People in the know who couldn’t enter higher subsidiaries directly actually wanted to start at the foundation. The group used the transfers as hush money: “Keep quiet and we’ll move you somewhere better.” Mimata Chieri and Suzuki Chisami had probably both been in that situation.
“Well, you can’t expect to only work with people you like. We just have to do our best!”
Mimata Chieri clenched her fist in a fighting pose, then returned to her tasks with renewed focus. I needed to focus too. My current job was turning several training documents into small booklets. I should contact the publisher today…
“Good morning, everyone.”
Shinone Misano greeted us with a warm smile. The rest of the team chorused back, “Good morning, Team Leader.” Aside from her rather obvious interest in my cock, she was an excellent leader, so she was respected by nearly everyone.
“The assistant team leader position that’s been vacant will be filled this afternoon.”
“Finally!”
“Workload might actually ease up a bit.”
Everyone except me and Mimata Chieri seemed thrilled by Shinone Misano’s announcement. I felt neutral, but Mimata Chieri’s face had clearly stiffened. She was usually so bright, yet this time she couldn’t hide her tension.
According to what Kawaji Emiko had told me, Suzuki Chisami had a very strict personality, so she probably wouldn’t mesh well with the cheerful, laid-back Mimata Chieri.
Still, as the youngest member there wasn’t much I could do. The best I could manage was comforting Mimata Chieri when she struggled.
After the morning’s work ended, I went to lunch with Mimata Chieri. Whatever dark mood she had been in earlier had vanished; she ate with her usual good cheer. She chose tonkotsu ramen while I ordered the pork steak. The lunch ladies now gave me portions that went well beyond the large size without me saying a word.
“Wow! Junior, you’ve become a celebrity here! I’ve never seen them serve this much before.”
“Looks like the ladies know I’m a big eater.”
I transferred some of the pork steak onto a small plate for her. Mimata Chieri also scooped some noodles and broth for me.
“Enjoy your meal.”
“You too, Junior!”
It was delicious again today. The pork was so tender it hardly seemed like pork. The tonkotsu ramen was decent as well.
“The meat tastes better than the ramen today.”
Mimata Chieri laughed, patting her stomach. I completely agreed. I kept marveling at how unbelievably tender the pork steak was, while the ramen tasted like something from a chain restaurant.
After we finished eating, we relaxed at the company café with coffee and returned to the office just before lunch ended. Perhaps because everyone was curious about the new assistant team leader, all the employees except Shinone Misano were already seated. The moment we sat down, the door opened and Shinone Misano entered with the woman who had to be the new assistant team leader.
She had slightly dark skin, shoulder-length hair tied back, a white shirt, and an H-line skirt that fell below her knees. She was strikingly beautiful. Our team’s average attractiveness—which had barely held steady thanks to Shinone Misano and Mimata Chieri—rose sharply with her arrival.
She didn’t look particularly strict at first glance. The woman scanned the office, her eyes briefly meeting mine. She seemed slightly startled by my appearance, then glanced at Mimata Chieri beside me and frowned so subtly that most people would have missed it.
“This is our new assistant team leader, Suzuki Chisami. Everyone, please welcome her with a round of applause.”
“Waa~!”
Clap, clap, clap!
The men welcomed her especially enthusiastically. When a beauty arrived, it couldn’t be helped. The women seemed to welcome her too—probably because everyone was drowning in work lately. Otherwise they would already be whispering complaints behind her back.
“As the team leader said, I’m Suzuki Chisami. I look forward to working with all of you.”