The Secret Between the President and Me in Our Office for Two
Rui Takane, a sharp and ambitious executive, has just been appointed the new president of a special division at the giant talent agency 'Hololive.' Her first order of business is hiring a personal secretary, and she chooses the most unlikely candidate: Kakeru Aoi, a timid and seemingly incompetent young man.
'You. You're my secretary from today.'
With that single, high-handed declaration, Kakeru's quiet life is thrown into utter chaos. Rui runs the office like a typhoon, scattering documents,
The Secret Between the President and Me in Our Office for Two - My First Sales Job and the Looming Threat of Being Poached
Morning.
In the kitchenette on the seventh floor of Hololive Central, Aoi Kakeru was secretly pressing a hand against his stomach.
In his hand was the box of over-the-counter stomach medicine Rui had left on his desk the day before.
*(I'm really happy she gave it to me, but...)*
When he opened the box, small pink tablets were lined up inside.
Kakeru took one out and swallowed it without water. It was a little bitter. But somehow, taking it made the pain ease just a little.
"What are you doing there?"
Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.
Kakeru's heart nearly leaped out of his chest, and he spun around in a panic.
Rui was standing at the entrance to the kitchenette.
Her black, straight hair, falling to her shoulders, swayed gently in the breeze from the hallway. She was wearing her silver-rimmed fashion glasses, in work mode today as always, and her narrow, dark brown eyes were fixed intently on Kakeru.
"Uh, um, well... I was just getting some hot water..."
He lied. There was no way he could say he'd been taking stomach medicine.
Rui glanced at his hands. The box of stomach medicine was sitting out on the counter.
*(Crap...!)*
But Rui said nothing.
She simply pushed up the bridge of her glasses with a nudge and spoke in her usual cold voice.
"Today, I'm entrusting you with your first solo sales pitch. You'll be promoting one of our new talents to a major advertising agency called Den'oudou."
Rui held out a single document to Kakeru.
With trembling hands, he took it.
On the cover, it read: *New Talent Profile: Saegusa Aoi.*
Twenty years old. A girl who had just been scouted on the street last year. She'd only ever appeared in minor TV roles.
"M-Me... alone?"
Kakeru's voice cracked pathetically.
Den'oudou. The largest advertising agency in the industry, said to handle sixty percent of all TV commercials.
For a green secretary like him to go to a place like that, alone...
"Of course. You're a secretary."
There was no hesitation whatsoever in Rui's voice.
"Arrange the materials in an order that conveys the talent's appeal. And absolutely do not mention my name. Understood?"
Kakeru nodded desperately.
Around his stomach, the sharp, grinding pain began again.
"...Sales Division 3 at Den'oudou. The contact is a man named Osaki. A veteran in his forties. The meeting is at ten o'clock. Don't be late."
With just those words, Rui turned on her heel and returned to the president's office.
Kakeru clutched the documents tightly to his chest.
*(Osaki-san... I wonder what kind of person he is.)*
He couldn't get any breakfast down at all.
---
Den'oudou's headquarters was in a prime location in Shimbashi, Minato Ward.
A massive thirty-story building with a fully glass facade. In the lobby, marble floors and potted plants reaching up to the ceiling were arranged.
*(I don't belong here...)*
Kakeru looked down at his own suit.
A cheap one, 3,980 yen. His necktie was, in the end, a little crooked again today.
When he gave his name at reception, his voice trembled with nerves.
"H-Hello, I'm Aoi from Hololive. I have a ten o'clock appointment with Mr. Osaki of Sales Division 3..."
The receptionist smiled and directed him, "Please go to the reception room on the tenth floor."
As the elevator doors closed, Kakeru stared at his reflection in the mirror, alone.
*(It's fine. I made the documents properly. I practiced explaining Saegusa Aoi's appeal, too.)*
The elevator stopped.
A light *ding*.
The hallway on the tenth floor was utterly silent.
Kakeru stood before the designated reception room, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door three times.
"Excuse me! I'm Aoi from Hololive."
He opened the door.
On the sofa in the reception room, a single man was sitting with an arrogant sprawl.
Mid-forties. A slovenly protruding gut. His thinning hair was forcibly combed over from the side.
His necktie was loose, and the collar of his dress shirt bore old sweat stains.
——Osaki.
The man glanced at Kakeru's business card, then immediately tossed it onto the table.
"Huh. So you're Takane Rui's underling."
In that instant, a chill ran down Kakeru's spine.
"So that woman still hasn't quit."
Osaki's voice was laden with blatant scorn.
Kakeru tried desperately to form a smile.
But the muscles in his face wouldn't cooperate.
"Uh, um... Today, I'm here to introduce our new talent, Saegusa Aoi..."
With trembling hands, Kakeru held out the documents.
Osaki took them and flipped through the pages with a rustling sound.
Three seconds.
In just three seconds, Osaki closed the documents.
"A newbie like this is useless."
As if throwing away trash, he tossed the documents onto the table.
Kakeru's breath stopped.
"Rui's eye for talent has finally clouded over, huh. Well, sending a greenhorn like you here in the first place shows the company's finished anyway."
Osaki recrossed his legs and continued.
"You got any work experience? That shabby suit. Your tie's crooked too. This is Hololive's secretary? Don't make me laugh."
Kakeru couldn't say anything back.
He could only stare at his hands trembling on his knees.
*(No. That's not true.)*
*(President Rui's eye for talent isn't clouded at all.)*
In his mind, the scene from late night two days ago resurfaced.
Rui, alone in the empty president's office, fixing his mistake-ridden documents.
On a small sticky note, in rounded handwriting, she'd written: *Your handwriting is neat, so hold your head high.*
She wasn't the kind of person who deserved to be badmouthed by a man like this.
But.
His voice wouldn't come out.
"So? What about you? Can you do the job? You can't, right? That trembling attitude of yours is answer enough. Hah, what a joke."
Osaki's words stabbed into Kakeru's chest like knives.
*(I knew it. I'm no good.)*
*(Being President Rui's secretary was impossible for me after all.)*
Kakeru felt his vision blurring.
But——even so.
*(If I run away here, I won't be able to face her.)*
Kakeru gathered strength in his trembling legs and stood up.
And then, he bowed his head, deeply, deeply.
"...P-Please. Just one more chance."
His voice was shaking. He desperately held back the tears that threatened to spill.
For a moment, Osaki looked slightly surprised.
But immediately, a smirk spread across his face.
"You're funny."
Osaki stood up and slowly picked up the documents from the table.
And then.
He dropped them, just like that, into the trash can at his feet.
A soft *plop* echoed in the quiet reception room.
"Go home. Don't come back."
Kakeru, his head still bowed, couldn't move.
How long had he stood there like that?
When he came to, Kakeru was standing still in front of the Den'oudou building.
The sky was blue. Not a single cloud in the sky—perfectly clear.
And yet, Kakeru's heart was heavily overcast.
*(I couldn't do anything.)*
Kakeru pressed hard against his stomach.
It hurt. But more than that, his chest ached even more.
*(How am I supposed to report this to President Rui...)*
Dragging his heavy feet, Kakeru headed back to Hololive Central.
---
Afternoon.
Hololive Central, seventh floor.
Kakeru had been standing still in front of the president's office door for a full five minutes.
He would start to knock, then pull his hand back.
*(I have to say it. I have to report properly.)*
But how was he supposed to say it?
*'The documents were thrown in the trash.'*
*'I was told never to come back.'*
*'President Rui was badmouthed, and I couldn't say anything back.'*
*(...This is the worst.)*
Resigning himself, Kakeru knocked on the door.
"Excuse me..."
Rui was, as always, grappling with a mountain of documents.
When she saw Kakeru's face, she stopped her hands and removed her glasses.
"How was Den'oudou?"
Kakeru began to recount the events, forcing the words out.
His voice trembled pathetically.
He stumbled over his words many times along the way.
The documents being thrown in the trash. Rui being badmouthed.
"...I'm sorry. I'm a failure as a secretary."
Kakeru bowed his head deeply.
"I'll submit my resignation."
That was when it happened.
"Stop."
Rui's voice cut off Kakeru's words.
When he looked up, Rui was gazing out the window.
The afternoon sunlight streamed in through the large south-facing window.
"That man, Osaki, has always been particularly harsh only towards me. It's because of a contract dispute two years ago, when I saw through his misconduct and terminated the deal. So, you just got caught in the backlash against me."
Rui's voice was a little quieter than usual.
"But you didn't run away. You bowed your head to the very end. That's enough."
Rui didn't turn back towards Kakeru.
She just spoke while looking outside the window.
"...You did well."
Was it just his imagination that those words sounded so terribly gentle?
Kakeru felt a warmth spreading deep in his chest.
*(This person...)*
——She had known.
From the very beginning, that if he went to Den'oudou, he would be verbally abused by Osaki.
And even so, she had sent him.
*(I see. This person, knowing all of that...)*
But now, Rui's profile seemed somehow apologetic.
It looked as if she regretted that Kakeru had been insulted because of her.
*(No. It's not your fault. That's wrong.)*
Kakeru thought strongly in his heart as he gazed at Rui's profile.
*(I want to protect this person more.)*
Something stirred clearly deep in his chest.
It wasn't respect, or gratitude.
It was a much, much stronger, nameless emotion.
---
Evening.
Kakeru was making coffee in the kitchenette.
A Brazilian Chocolatey, at fifty-eight degrees, to serve to Rui.
Watching the thermometer, he carefully added milk.
*(I want to protect this person more, huh...)*
What he had thought earlier kept repeating in his head.
But what could someone like him possibly protect?
"Did you hear? Apparently, Stella Glow is making moves again."
Suddenly, he heard voices from the hallway.
Kakeru stopped his hands and held his breath.
"This time it's Tachibana Kanna, that super big-shot with 800 million in annual sales. Isn't that bad?"
"If it turns into another Triple Switch situation, the business division might collapse..."
Kakeru's heart thumped hard.
Tachibana Kanna. A super-popular talent that Hololive boasted of.
He had heard before that it was time for her contract renewal.
*(Poaching...?)*
The Triple Switch incident two years ago.
What had Rui felt back then?
Before he knew it, Kakeru had dashed out of the kitchenette and called out to the two female employees.
"E-Excuse me! Is it true about Tachibana Kanna being poached!?"
The two of them looked at Kakeru's face and made openly disgusted expressions.
"It's got nothing to do with you, right?"
With just that, the two of them hurried away.
Kakeru stood there, rooted to the spot.
"Nothing to do with me, huh..."
——Right. He was just a secretary.
He wasn't in a position to meddle in matters concerning the company's management.
But.
*(Does President Rui know about it?)*
"Hey, Aoi-kun."
Suddenly, a voice called out from behind him.
Turning around, one of the veteran employees was standing there. A man from the sales department, in his late forties.
"Did you hear that conversation just now?"
Kakeru nodded silently.
The veteran employee opened his mouth, looking slightly awkward.
"During the Triple Switch two years ago... President Rui was crying all night on this floor. Though she came to work the next day as if nothing had happened."
Kakeru couldn't speak.
"That person, she always shoulders everything alone. Can't rely on anyone. Well, we couldn't do anything either, but..."
The veteran employee said that and walked away.
Kakeru leaned against the wall of the kitchenette.
*(She was crying...?)*
*(President Rui was...?)*
He couldn't even imagine it.
That person, who was always cold, perfect, and never showed weakness to anyone.
*(But, I see.)*
He remembered her figure, fixing documents alone in the office late at night.
*(That p
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