Unfamiliar Life

Yumi didn’t believe that she found the personality so soon. But she couldn’t rule it out either. Sumiko was discovered pretty quickly, though the situation was unique in that there was no real way it could have gone. So she still remained cautious about this Miki, but if Masao gave her a clue at least, that was something. It was her first step.

She would have liked to have tried to find the woman after their lunch, but there were too many other issues that she couldn’t risk at the moment. It was painful waiting, but their situation worked to her benefit. Miki was employed like she was at the same company, as long as she didn’t get fired or leave before she had time, finding time to meet her wouldn’t be difficult.

Pulling one last sushi plate from the belt, she ate it quickly next to Shigeki. The boy shook like a leaf nearly after all the undo attention that she dumped on him. It was no wonder that he wanted to not invite anyone else. She honestly didn’t know if he was part of her trial or not, but she was going to be working with him so it felt like he was about to become a project. Not that she really knew how to help someone overcome their fear of women. Especially since she didn’t know the story if it was trouble.

Rumors didn’t help and were more often blown out of proportion to what actually happened. Yumi wanted to ask him directly, but sensed that he would just clam up rather than tell her anything. Given that she had been there before, she understood how that felt. Pressure only made you close up tighter rather than open up. It took a special someone or a lot of time to develop a bond to really invite into their life. ‘I really don’t know if I have that sort of time. I’m going to have to judge things. Maybe after meeting Miki I’ll know better, regardless if she’s the one or not. I do have to work with him…’

Chapter 556 - Unfamiliar Life

Returning to the office, Yumi had about as many questions still churning about in her head as when she left. The positive side was that IT worked out the way she hoped and she got access to her PC. ‘This will open up plenty for me. Though I’m not looking forward to all the emails I’m going to have to read.’

Just looking at the work mail, she found that she was at least very organized. There were folders for different clients and projects. Active projects had folders while she had archived or moved completed work into a single location. Most of the mails were already read, but that didn’t matter for her since she needed to sift through hundreds or thousands. Even though it was supposed to be herself, it felt a little like invading someone's privacy of someone. But she pushed through that little awkwardness and started reading.

An hour later, she had gone through hundreds of emails of varying degrees of importance. She was able to figure out the closeness of some of her relationships with people that she worked with and confirm some of the vague clues she got about her work.

Expanding on what she learned from lunch, her team was a sort of special group considered the best at delivering results on tight deadlines. That she was supposed to be an important person in the company troubled her some. She didn’t like having been given a reputation rather than being able to earn it. Which also made it difficult for her to keep that going. ‘I’m not sure how well this is going to go. I don’t want to imagine that they gave me a no win situation, it’s felt like it in the past, but I found ways. So there must be a way through this as well. I wonder what it has to do with what I desire though. I still have to figure that out, but it’s only day one…’

She was getting ahead of herself.

Currently, her team had three clients that they were working for. The meeting that she canceled today was one for a beverage from a mid-size company, but they had connections to someone in the upper management and it got pushed through onto her team. The second client she wasn’t directly working on apparently, that was what Shigeki was doing along with one other of their team. And the third client they hadn’t even met yet, it was scheduled for later in the week, an author from their publishing division. The book was late to being finished, but the release was already set and almost none of the art had come back from their artist. It sounded like exactly the sort of job they put on their team.

Which got her down to the team itself and the interesting notes that she found there. It was a team of four with Shigeki and herself. The other two she met once they came back from lunch. Two more men, a Sho Kasuse and Rokuro Ogura, each split with Sho helping her and Rokuro working with Shigeki. She had little time to know them beyond the emails that she read, which weren’t necessarily the best indication of their personalities. Both seemed capable and confident workers, a strange polarization from Shigeki.

She also learned that she was the newest to the team having only been with them for about a year since a transfer from the music division, where she apparently worked closely with the PR and social media for idols and singers. The success she had with elevating talent earned her the promotion to the team. Shigeki curiously enough was the longest with the team, though she couldn’t find any specifics, just that the others were already more recent additions, though still beating her. Which meant he technically had the seniority of the team, but didn’t actually do anything with it.

In fact, from what she could see the team seemed mostly to organize itself and there really wasn’t someone that was in charge. They all just discussed the work and picked based on personal preference or availability. More interesting to Yumi was who they all reported to, Miki Tomori, the woman she wanted to see. It worked out in her favor. She might have even seen her in the meeting had she known who to look for. With luck, she would see her tomorrow during the presentation and hopefully get a read on the woman before actually meeting her.

Ending her personal search, she began digging through all the work that she could find on the presentation that she was supposed to be giving. Being a well organized individual, she figured it would be pretty easy to find it. Which turned out to be accurate, though she didn’t get to go through all of it before an unexpected interruption came.

Behind her, she heard her name being called and turned around to find a light blonde almost platinum haired woman in a business suit and skirt. Sitting down, the woman looked tall and had a figure and style that reminded her of a model. If sYumi was being honest, she felt out of place. She cared a lot about her looks from the carefully done make up and heavily styled hair. But there was no denying who it was, she had found a picture of her in the company directory. ‘Miki Tomori…’

“Miss Tomori, did you need something?” she asked, already having a good guess to what she wanted.

Miki drew her finger back to push back a curl of her lengthy hair out of her face as she looked down at Yumi. “I was concerned about your health. I wanted to make sure you weren’t pushing yourself too hard. We can have Mr. Kasuse stand in for you tomorrow.”

Smiling politely, Yumi motioned with her hand to deny it. “No, I’m feeling better. I just had a little lightheadedness from skipping my breakfast today. I’ll be good for tomorrow.”

Miki Tomori, a manager for the department and fairly remarkable history with the company. She had already been promoted three times only having worked for the company five years. She earned notice for her leadership quickly after starting at the company and advanced unusually fast. Yumi found that she had a number of important clients that she worked with before becoming a manager, but nothing more specific. Building a history for her was going to be difficult. But she certainly fit the criteria so far for being a talented individual.

Watching the woman, she tried to get a deeper read on her person through body language and vocabulary, anything that would be useful in understanding her and knowing what would work to get closer if needed. The way she held herself, she had a strong air about her, not like Aya who was prideful and domineering, rather Miki had this soft presence that shined in a way that just made you give her attention.

And attention she grabbed, Yumi noticed more than a couple stares from the males in the office that made attempts to hide their leers. So far at least surface level, the woman was polite and looked a little bit airheaded, so she didn’t know if Miki noticed. Though it could also be a game that she played. ‘I really wish I could get her in a room for an hour and I’d learn a lot more than just a polite check up on me. This isn’t very useful…’ Aya taught her to always be watching everyone as you never know who was hiding something deeper.

“I’m glad to hear that. Don’t overwork yourself.”

“I’ll be careful.”

Miki turned away and walked a step before stopping and looking back. “Oh, I finally got them to agree to a meeting for the Soseki job. You should have mail and a meeting already sent to you.”

“Have you been able to get any more pressure applied to the artist? It’s going to be hard for us to do anything with nothing but placeholder work.”

“Sadly no, I’m yelling at them, but they overbooked the artist. They did send you the rough at least, right?”

“Yes, it’s at least something. We’re going to be meeting later to brainstorm for the meeting.”

“A lifesaver as always, Miss Mizuno.”

“That’s what we’re here for. We won’t disappoint.”

Miki paused and looked at Yumi with a different sort of stare. It revealed more about her than she probably noticed, though she didn’t try to hide anything. For Yumi, it gave her a better read that there was more depth to this woman than outside impressions gave. “Are you sure you’re feeling good?”

“What do you mean?”

“You seem different today. I don’t remember seeing you look so confident before, you’re normally fairly reserved.”

‘I can’t help that. Aya beat confidence into me. That’s not going away and honestly, in this sort of environment it probably does well. I’m going to need to convince clients.’ All Yumi could do was try to motion and down play it. “I guess I’m just feeling more energized after that lunch.”

“Whatever it is, keep it up. The ones that advance are the ones that believe in themselves and what they’re selling.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”

“I’ll let you get back to work.”

With her departure, Yumi returned to her monitor to see the meeting that was mentioned. ‘I acted confident, but I was lying completely. I don’t even know how well I’ll do tomorrow. I need to finish looking over all of my notes.’ She looked casually over her cubicle to try to see Shigeki, but the equipment and half wall partition got in her way. If he acted anything like he did around her at lunch, he must have been a bucket of pudding with Miki nearby.

Yumi didn’t know what to do with him.

Evening finally came and she left work with the rest of the team. They considered going out together for drinks, but with the book job coming up they all had their work cut out for them. So they agreed to go home and they would likely end up working more then. Their work ethic was impressive if not a little worrying. She wondered if that was because they were the team sent rush jobs. It couldn’t be a healthy lifestyle even if it might be rewarding in pay.

It took a little bit to find her way to her apartment, but luckily she had the internet, bills and email that she used to backtrack an address. She had a fairly impressive apartment compared to what she was used to living in with her mother and Yori. It had to be at least the same size or maybe a little larger for a single person. She felt like it was too much, especially since she didn’t seem to use most of the space.

Boxes that remained closed from moving still lined parts of the hall and her bedroom literally just had a simple futon. She could afford more, but either did not care or lacked the time to be able to do so. If she worked as hard as the others, it seemed more like the latter than the former. That thought worried her more given that she still needed to find time to answer if Miki was the one and solve whatever mystery that she had.

A simple dinner later, she sat on the couch looking over more notes on the presentation for the morning. Most of it she already memorized, but it was about understanding it now. Yumi tried to use this as a means to understand what she would need to achieve in her job. ‘I hope I have some sort of talent for this or else things are going to be really bad…’ It was a saving grace at least that she had a team.

Thinking about them, Yumi stood up to lean against the window. Her mind went to her friends and where they might be. ‘Simple searches came up with nothing on them. I don’t know where they could be. Hopefully in the city, but I have a feeling I’m not that lucky. Travel is probably going to be required...but I don’t have that sort of freedom.’

She looked out into the city, finding it comfortable as something she understood in this world. ‘It’s strange and troublesome that as an adult in this world I have less freedom than in any of the other worlds. I’m tied to things that prevent me from doing whatever I want. It would almost be better if I was a kid as I could just go off on my own. I guess I do get days off, but that’s not going to be the same as just taking a week to go searching for Yuki and the others.’ She didn’t like considering that she would have to play a waiting game.

The more that she thought about it, the more problematic it became in her mind. They were all likely adults and had jobs that would tie them down equally or more. ‘I might be on my own for this one. Is that why she said this was going to be the hardest?’

For all the answers she found today, she still kept finding new questions to ask herself. But she forgave herself, it was only the first day. Hopefully the first in forty years, but she could not know how things would go.

“One day at a time and the first problem that I can actually solve.” She thought back to earlier, of Miki. There was a woman with a special presence that made her stand out. It felt like a really good pick. She was just surprised to have found them already if that was right. ‘I did make a mistake with Moriko, so I could be wrong. But I need to watch her and learn more. Only way to rule her out is to learn more. I need to know who Miki is…’