Can I Please Help You?

Morning arrived with almost pained eagerness for Noriko, like it was on Maiko’s side as well. She really could have done with a sick day or just a looping day. Though on second thought, if she had a looping day she’d have to see Hiroyuki every day and not know what he said to her.

How sad was it that even she realized that repeating the day a hundred times wouldn’t make her anymore used to his face. And it would grant her no clarity.

Either way, nothing stopped the march of time as disappointing as it was. None of Noriko's fantasies could save her. She could only walk into the office and pray. It was still early, especially for her. She woke herself half an hour sooner than normal and sacrificed the extra sleep from an already late gaming night. Her body wasn’t pleased, but she could deal with that than the emotional yo-yo currently going on in her heart bouncing up and down to her brain.

But the planned benefit of her sacrifice worked out. Get to work early enough, Hiroyuki wouldn’t be present yet and she could get lost in work. A perfect plan in her mind.

One that willfully ignored the threat of her friend, Maiko.

She greeted those in the office with a proper welcome. That part was unavoidable, but she made it to her desk without issue. A check on her meetings kept her free for most of the day. She could focus on work and let the day progress naturally. She hoped.

Though it wasn’t long before she had a visitor. There was a bit of panic fearing that Hiroyuki came for a reply, but thankfully it was only Arata Hirano. He was a new hire to the company and had plenty of questions. Though normally, he would go to his mentor. Not that she hadn’t answered a question for him before. “Miss Shirane, can you help me?”

She saved where she left off on debugging to look up. Greeting him warmly, she saw how nervous he looked. Hopefully he hadn’t broken anything. The first week he joined he mistakenly submitted an old change overwriting the current version. Poor guy nearly turned himself into flan that day. “Of course, what’s your question?”

“Well…you see…” It took a little more encouragement from Arata for her to get a picture of the situation. The way he made it sound was definitely worse than she pictured. The code he tried to run was looping until it crashed. And the debugger wasn’t given him enough to understand his mistake. It was probably just something he overlooked and panic was making him not think straight.

Noriko stood up, locking her PC. “Why don’t you show me? We’ll step through it together and help you find where it’s having trouble.” It was probably what he sought from her rather than just a broad answer. And she could sympathize with his panic. She remembered her first industry job. It was a month of one disaster after another, as her memory recalled it. It taught her a lot, but definitely lost a year or two from her life as well.

Walking through the aisle, she noticed the office started to get a little more filled. It was almost the proper starting time. Any late runners would be coming in soon. But Arata’s desk put him away from the elevator. So they would have some peace.

At his desk, she pulled over a spare chair to sit down with him. He started running through the steps he made to walk her through the problem. Everything seemed fine on the surface as he stepped through the code. But then she caught the bit sneaking under his nose. “Stop and go back to line 283. There’s your problem.”

“You’re right, Miss Shirane. I’m so sorry for wasting your time.”

“It’s fine. You’re still getting comfortable with the company and things. You’ve got a lot on your mind. Just remember to take a breath and relax. But it is also why it’s good to have a second pair of eyes. Sometimes staring at the same thing all day makes you blind to the obvious. You’re doing fine.”

“But I’m still making basic mistakes like this.”

“You’re three weeks on the job, Arata. You’re putting too much stress on yourself. You need to relax a little. Come out with lunch with some of us. It’ll be good to get some air and away from all the crazies.” He gave her an awkward smile. “We need more normal people on the floor.”

A long shadow stretched over her almost like they were waiting for a dramatic cue. “Are ya feeling lucky? Eh, punk?”

Noriko sighed and looked up knowing already who it was that stood over her. “Speaking of one of them…” She found herself staring down the barrel of a gun as a very Japanese man with a roughly shaved five-o’clock shadow trying to squint in the most menacing way possible that a nerdy Japanese salaryman office worker could manage.

“I know whacha thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five?”

“Higashiyama, you’re quoting it backwards…”

And then maybe to prove a point, he fired off the gun three times. Poor Arata jumped from the sudden sounds, not remembering it was plastic. But Noriko deftly evaded each at point blank range and stood up. The rookie watched in awe seeing her reveal all three Styrofoam darts caught in between her fingers.

A quick flick of her wrist flung the three foam bullets back to stick their suction cup tips to his forehead. “Fast on the draw as always, Shirane!” He spun around the plastic gun painstakingly painted to look as real as could be for having its proportions completely wrong.

It was also Japan.

Noriko moved out around the chair she had been sitting in and slid it over to him. In a way she sort of brought it on by borrowing his chair. But she at least knew how to deal with him. “Go in peace?”

“Agreed, till we meet again, Shirane!”

She turned back toward Arata feeling bad that he had to share sides with him. Though Higashiyama probably wasn’t the worst on the floor. So maybe he remained lucky. “How are you feeling now?”

“I haven’t seen anyone do that.”

“Oh Higashiyama? He’s got the worst aim, I could stand still and he still wouldn’t hit me. Work here long enough you get a sense of him.”

“Right…” He turned to look back at his screen, reminded that the compiling didn’t take very long. “Thank you again, Miss Shirane!”

“Happy to help. You can grab me if you’re lost again, don’t worry about it. And think about lunch, it’ll be a good chance to meet more of the team.” She started to walk away, with him giving her an overly gracious bow. She just smiled and let him have his moment before returning.

Though the warmth didn’t last long as she saw Maiko poking up from her desk on the other side of the floor. She hadn’t been talking loud, but she must have heard her speaking with Arata. The look was enough even at this distance for Noriko to know that she was scheming. If Noriko didn’t act she would.

Would she really need to face Hiroyuki?