Midst of Summer: True Happiness

COUGH COUGH!

"..."

"Yo! Long time no see!"

"Awh, it's really been a long time." 

"I missed you so much Kobayashi-kun!"

SIGH.

It looks like they heard me alright. 

Tanaka and Yamamoto mocked and impersonated my reunion with Sato-san at the head manager's office. Tanaka impersonated my greetings while Yamamoto went the extra mile to impersonate Sato-san with an ever-so-rough feminine voice and even added an extra line. 

The feeling of embarrassment for me was over the room, 

"..."

GIGGLES.

A feminine giggle. 

And it wasn't Yamamoto.

The giggle had come from behind. 

It was Sato-san giggling. 

Something that I did not expect, but she seemed to be enjoying the situation in front of her. 

I turned around towards Sato-san in confusion, but as our eyes met, she pouted and turned her head to the side. 

Sato-san still seemed to be angry, and it was definitely directed towards me. 

SIGH.

"Hey, hey, Kobayashi! Who have you brought in today? Hmmm. What's your name young miss?"

 Tanaka questioned the new arrival Sato-san. 

"Tanaka, you aren't that old..."

"Well, you guys are kiddo to me, Mister Kobayashi!"

"It's Sato, Sato Emi. I hope we can get along. I am looking forward to working with you."

"Likewise, Miss Sato! I am Tanaka Akihito, and that guy over there is Yamamoto Hiroshi."

"Peace."

Tanaka and Yamamoto introduced themselves. Their introduction certainly seems a lot better than mine for sure. 

"Nice to meet you Tanaka-kun, Yamamoto-kun."

"You can drop the honorifics if you like, Miss Sato!"

"Hehe, thank you."

"And of course, the young man over there is an office legend which we will always remember him by today's incredible scene, Mister Kobayashi Hayate!"

"Stop it Tanaka, you killing me..."

GIGGLES.

Sato-san giggled away while I drowned in embarrassment. 

But, it's a sacrifice I am willing to make.

It created a warm atmosphere for Sato-san to easily get along with the team. This couldn't have been any better start other than Sato-san being angry with me. 

I hope her anger subsides soon. 

"So, Miss Sato, what's the story behind you and Kobayashi? Is there anything special between the two of you?"

Speaking of the devil, Tanaka went straight ahead with a fastball. 

"Ex-lovers... Normies..."

Another fastball!

Yamamoto whispered in the background. 

His guess wouldn't have been far off if I had accepted Sato-san's confession back then but sadly this wasn't the case. But now I found myself at the edge of a knife, it was only a matter of seconds before Sato-san transforms into Kali bursting out her emotion. 

I had to pull off a lifeline, whatever it takes. 

"Well, we were-."

"Just schoolmates!"

"Just schoolmates right...?"

"Kobayashi-kun...?"

Before I could finish my sentence, Sato-san interrupted. It was too late, she had trampled over me on the floor already. Her gaze was viciously locked onto my eyes, her squinting eyes and heavy tone told me there was no other way to pacify her anger than to agree with her. 

Her aura levels were over 9000!

"Yes ma'am!"

"Just schoolmates!"

"Good."

I never thought I would see such a side of Sato-san, but here I am like a pet who was scolded by his owner for his mischief. 

PHWEEEE.

"Guess, we will go with that."

Tanaka whistled as he moved on to the next subject. 

"Yandere archetype, be careful comrade..."

Yamamoto whispered from behind his desk. 

Are you trying to kill me here Yamamoto!?!

"Uhm, shall we get things started, Sato-san?"

I attempted to change the topic back to work. 

"Yes."

"Please show me."

"Kobayashi..."

"Kun..."

This was definitely not going to be an easy day.

"Good luck partner!"

Tanaka cheered me on.

I guided Sato-san towards her workspace as she began setting up her workspace. After a while, I taught her all the systems and made her aware of the upcoming projects that she would be working on. Her anger was pacified eventually and she got to work without any problems. 

A prodigy!

After all, when you have work/duties to do, your mind does not go spiralling everywhere. 

It may sound controversial, but doing one's duty is extremely important. 

It occupies you and helps the Self have control over the mind. 

You can see nowadays all around the world, people are slaves to their minds and then their intellect fails to discriminate what is right or wrong. This breeds degenerative behaviours and lots of psychological/mental issues. 

It is not entirely the person's fault, living in modern society is not easy and controlling the mind isn't either.

Everywhere a person turns their heads to, are materialistic and sensual pleasures. 

Especially thanks to the catalyst, technology. 

From manipulative information in social media to easily accessible pornography sites. People, especially kids, corrupt their minds. They let their minds and senses do the talking and the Self fails to overcome it. 

They believe happiness lies in materialistic and sensual pleasures. 

They always feel like they are missing something, no matter what they acquire or have.

But why do they or shall we say, we, feel this way?

Where exactly lies true happiness? 

Well, without an open mind, it's hard to accept the following passage. 

We feel this way because the Self knows that true happiness does not exist in this world. 

Our deluded mind fails to recognise this. 

True happiness exists in the universal creator or someone who you call God. 

Who is...

Eternal. 

An infinite ocean full of bliss and happiness. 

Given the Self (Soul) is eternal itself it craves that eternal happiness. 

Hence no happiness in this world will satisfy you, the Self.

At best, it will only temporarily satisfy your mind and senses. 

Then you are back to square one. 

Until people realise this, they repeat the cycles of misery and suffering that we continue to see day by day. 

In summary, the answer to controlling the mind and finding true happiness is God and doing your duties. 

A simple formula that most of the world will never realise for innumerable lifetimes. 

During the summers after University term had ended, I would procrastinate daily and follow the pleasure of my senses by sleeping, eating, scrolling through useless things and always feeling empty. 

But once I hit the workforce and started seeking the purpose of my life, I, the Self, slowly regained control of my mind and senses. 

After all, life is a journey of finding out who you are and why you are here as many Greek philosophers had questioned themselves. 

Many people identify themselves as the body, and that, this is them. But the body is just a piece of clothes for the Self, which perishes at death, while the Self is eternal and simply changes its clothes to a new one. 

People often call this rebirth or reincarnation. 

This changing of clothes continues until one realises who they are and why they are here. 

Hence the topic of past lives is quite hot all around the world. People may think of it as just one or two past lives but really the count is innumerable. 

Not every Self is fortunate enough to be human, there are also other living creatures you need to consider.

That's almost 8.4 million types of living forms, just imagine how many past lives you, the Self, have gone through, yet you still haven't realised who you are and why you are here. 

This is nothing until you really realise how old the universe really is and how many new cycles the universe has gone through. 

Countless amounts of 'Big Bang' that scientists perceive as how the universe began.

Well, that's for another day. 

"..."

SIGH.

"Kobayashi-kun?"

"Hello. Kobayashi-kun?"

"Kobayashi-kun!"

It was Sato-san, calling my name. 

"Hey Hey, Kobayashi, daydreaming are we?"

It seems I went into a deep thought. 

"Sorry, Sato-san, how can I help you?"

"Could you please help me with this? I cannot understand what it's saying?"

"Sure. Which one is it?"

I helped Sato-san with her work and just like that it was lunchtime, which meant all the colleagues were ready to storm to our workspaces to meet the one and only...

Sato-san!