The Room Where It happens

Praise the engineers for inventing the lift.

Meeting rooms were a couple floors higher than the working spaces. It's not that she couldn't use the stairs, but it takes much longer. Meetings rarely lasted longer than an hour and were divided into two sections: presentation and questions and answer. Deliver the high impact insights, quickly, while the old and experienced decide on the best course of action in the ever-changing market.

The meeting rooms all looked the same. Monochrome, glass walls giving view from and to the hall, spacious enough to fit a big round table, chairs set at a slight angle to give the listeners good view of both the big display screen taking up most of the wall and the other listeners. Hanako was usually the first to arrive, stares through the walls weren't pleasant. Then room started filling with low ranking executives, shareholders, and other people who would make your life harder if you do something they don't like. Her teammates always handled the actual presentation, they were better at it. She would do a quick introduction of what the presentation is about, but would directly follow up by: "Please go ahead" said in the direction of whoever they decided would start. If there were any questions about data or whether a certain aspect was taken into the consideration during the analysis, then she would take over. Even then, she needed to look out and not take too long answering.

***

"And that would be all from us, thank you for listening!"

The way audience was both intently listening, nodding and following along with their heads, and yet at the same time judging them was something that Hanako couldn't get used to.
Appearances sure are important.

A discussion emerged about how to respond to presented trends. One person in particular was not convinced the trends presented are reliable and was claiming they were at most an anomaly to observe, and maybe even ignore. Vice President Takamura. Any risky investments would affect his pockets most directly so he always finds something to contest and not use company funds.

"Don't you think so too, miss Tanaka?"

"..."

A direct call out. It's true she hasn't given much of her opinion during the discussion. Her focus shifted to the screen with her presentation on it. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. From their perspective, it probably seemed as if Hanako was taking her time to digest the question and summon an answer from the depths of her mind that wouldn't disrespect her superior. In reality, she was just rehearsing what she'll say.

They're not interested in correlation analysis... It is something quite recent though. Threshold is a fancy word, maybe they'll like it. Scratch that. Let's just nod and finish this meeting.

Hanako swiftly pointed her cane towards the relevant part of her slide, barely not damaging the screen. Most if not all eyes went wide open, and were definitely focused on her.

"As we can see the correlation threshold has been reached thanks to the last half of the second quarter. If we ignore this outlier, nothing definite can be said. Still, even though the correlation is getting stronger, not weaker, it could be this is just a passing fad."

Hanako glanced into the crowd to gauge the reactions. It seems not many people were on her and Takamura's side. They see something that if ignored, would leave a lot of potential profit on the table. But nobody is going to speak up, especially now that the analyst team supported Vice President's remark.

Stop looking at me like that. If you have something to say then speak up! I don't care what you guys decide just let me go home already.

***

Meeting left everyone with a sour taste in their mouths. Well, almost everyone. As they started leaving Hanako stayed behind and pretended she was preparing the TV for the next team. If she was to leave with people still in the meeting room she would cause a slow down. People passing her still hurt her somewhat. She knows they don't do it because they can't stand looking at her or try to avoid her, only to save time. Still, she'd rather not put her in such a situation if she can afford it.

As she walked out of the room, the sound of her cane hitting the floor was echoing back from the glass walls. As she entered the elevator an unexpected sound emerged out of her cellphone.

*Bzz, bzz, bzz*

What?! Huh!? I'm getting a call? No, wait...

She was wrong about why her phone was buzzing, and she was wrong about the worst thing she would read today. She's set a reminder on her phone to go off when she'd be leaving work. Exactly once a year. On Kenta's birthday.

It's been a year already?

On her way home she stopped by at a flower shop next to the dog park and bought chrysanthemums. Sadly, she wouldn't be going through there on her way home today. The cemetery was in a different direction.

***

"Tanaka" is a rather common last name, so if you didn't know where to look, you probably wouldn't find the grave you're looking for. Hanako looked at the graves of her brother and father "Tanaka Kenta" and "Tanaka Yuki". Her dad died when she was young, shortly after her brother was born. Her brother died when she was around 15 at only 5 years of age. The graves looked like someone has already visited as old, probably withered flowers have been replaced by ones.

Mom must have come here in the morning. At least you shouldn't pass me by, especially on a day like this...

It's been 10 years since Kenta passed away. It was a very trying moment for Hanako and her mom, and they haven't passed that test. She remarried when Hanako went to college, and haven't spoken much ever since.

Hanako put the flowers on the graves and return home to plan out the birthday party for her little brother.