Midst of Summer: Desires

A stampede.

"..."

"Excuses me, Sato-san was it?

"Yes, that's my name. Nice to meet you."

"Oh great, I'm-."

"Sato-san, do you have anything you like?"

"Oh, you are so beautiful. What products do you use?"

"Sato-san, do you have any pets?"

"Do you dislike anything?"

"..."

All our colleagues raided Sato-san with plenty of questions, they were eager to find out everything they could about Sato-san. 

Our workplace was fully surrounded with no room for an exit. 

"Hai, Hai, Sato-san, do you have a boyfriend?"

Of course.

There had to be that one colleague who asks this question. 

To be fair, I want to know as well. 

A beauty like her, I am sure she found someone at high school. 

I wonder what her answer will be.

"Uhm..."

"I do not have a boyfriend."

"Have you had a boyfriend before?"

"No, I haven't..."

Sato-san laughed and smiled uncomfortably. 

That caught me by surprise. 

"..."

Maybe she is looking for someone who can match her level.

"I'm single too!"

"Then, do you wanna go ou-."

Before that male colleague could finish his sentence, older-looking colleagues surrounded him.

Almost like a yakuza. 

"Stop it you sly rascal, can't you see she is uncomfortable?"

An older male colleague interrupted and whacked the male colleague in the head with documents.

"Honestly, kids these days..."

An older female colleague sighed.

"Are you okay dear? Do not mind them, they are not bad, they just excited you are here."

Another older female colleague warmly assured Sato-san. 

"I am Furukawa Hanako, nice to me you. You can call me Oba-san okay? Just let this old lady know if you have any problems."

Name: Furukawa Hanako

Age: 54

Appearance: Short Black Hair, Average Build, Blue Cardigans.

Likes: Taking care of Office, Family and Cat.

Dislikes: UNKNOWN.

Everyone loves Oba-san, Furukawa Hanako. She feels like a loving mother at the workplace. She is always kind and caring, especially when we get shouted at by the head managers and seniors, she always comforts us by offering a sweet candy. It honestly feels like you become a kid all over again, even the head manager cannot resist when he faces Oba-san. 

"Yes, will do Oba-san, thank you very much." 

Sato-san face lightened up with Oba-san's warmth. 

I guess Oba-san reminds Sato-san of her own grandmother who she had claimed I had helped one time back in middle school. 

I hope she is still well.

"Right you rascal, go back to your workplace. The behaviour you displayed, is not the way of a man! Next time I see you doing this again, I might have to show you the way myself... You hear me!"

The old male colleague cracked his knuckles. Like a guard warding off his enemies from the princess, Sato-san.

"Eeek!!!"

The male colleague who had made Sato-san uncomfortable cried in terror and dashed back to his workplace.

If I was in his position, I would too. 

That old man was not someone you could mess with, he used to be part of the Japanese Military and even worked alongside missions with JSDF. He is an advocate of chivalry and discipline, he sometimes comes to our workspaces and teaches us how to be a better man. And to be fair, it certainly does inspire us, I call him Shishou. He also likes to brag about his daughter in the office while expressing his overprotective dad side stating that he will kill any wolves that prey on his daughter. 

Sato-san must have reminded him of his own daughter who recently just entered university.

Well, all the best Daughter-san.

Name: Fujiwara Atsuhiro

Age: 50

Appearance: Short Crew Cut Hair, Big Muscular Build, Military Tatoo. 

Likes: Chivalry, Gym, His Daughter.

Dislikes: Anything that is Cowardice. 

"Anyone else? Don't even bother trying. Else I will have HR speak to you next. I have my eyes on you kids"

The other older female colleague pointed her fingers towards a group of male colleagues. The group of male colleagues headed back towards their workspaces with heads down in disappointment. They had no other choice but to listen, as this lady was someone with power in the HR department. 

Name: Fujiko Hikari

Age: 42

Appearance: Brown Ponytail, Average Build, Glasses, Blue Waist Coat.

Likes: Cakes, Tea, Designer Clothes.

Dislikes: Fish, Impolite Behaviour. 

Fujiko-san really loves her designer clothes and wears something new every week. From Rouis Button to Phannel, people always wonder where she gets all this money from. 

And recently, I found out how from Oba-san. 

Fujiko-san's husband was an executive at Shibuya Marco Department Store, and that place is huge with full of luxury stores. I heard he also owns a few mansions across Japan. 

Imagine how loaded that guy must be. 

In theory, Fujiko-san landed herself a jackpot. 

And most people dream to live a life like that and wonder how amazing life would be. 

But the truth is, no matter what you get, you will never be satisfied in this world. 

A person may be eating their food at a fancy restaurant and on their phone they see a celebrity eating a $10,000 steak covered in gold. They wonder how amazing it must be to eat an expensive steak and live a rich life while not even being aware of how fortunate they themselves are already to be able to eat at a fancy restaurant. Not only that, they also fail to comprehend the real reason behind the celebrity eating an expensive steak. 

And the reason is not that the celebrity has a lot of money and that they get the urge to spend.

The real reason is that the celebrity is desperately searching for something to satisfy their desire like a thirsty person in a desert seeking a drop of water. 

Regular food fails to satisfy that desire, so the celebrity continues to seek something more. And each time they do that they are only adding fuel to the fire which makes the flame grow. The fuel is the money and the growing flame is the celebrity's desire. 

As all this happens, there might be another person outside the fancy restaurant eating WcDonalds's burger and wondering how amazing it must be to eat at a fancy restaurant. While they don't realise that there is also a beggar on the floor with a growling stomach who is wondering how lucky the person is to eat food in general. 

No matter what the person has whether it's food, money or objects, they are just never satisfied and always look for something even higher. 

This is what we call greed.

There are always two outcomes with desires, one is greed as explained before. 

While the other outcome is, anger. 

When a person does not get what they want, they resort to anger, and sometimes they go by whatever means to acquire it. This explains why all sinful activities occur throughout the globe It starts off from a simple annoyance all the way up to assault, crimes and war. But most of all, all these desires are materialistic and they never satisfy anyone no matter how much they get. Sure, there may be temporary satisfaction but once it's gone, the loop begins. 

But is there a way to satisfy these desires?

Short answer no, but there is something.

These desires are materialistic and they can never be completely satisfied. 

If we seek desires that are beyond the materialistic planes, only then we can truly be satisfied.

That is the desire for the Universal Creator, God. 

It is only the desire for Him that could help us overcome these materialistic desires and end this loop once in for all. Not many people will realise this instantly in one life but rather many innumerable lives. 

We can never satisfy our materialistic desires but we can overcome them with a divine desire. 

Fujiko-san, despite all the wealth, decided to stay with us, working in this small company. She even had an opportunity to work with her husband which she turned down. It was almost like a blessing in disguise, working here has kept her sane and not too thirsty for materialistic desires.  

But for how long?

"..."

Looks like everything is sorted, Sato-san was smiling again, and everyone headed back to their workspaces ready for lunch. 

All ends well.

Or so I thought.

"And you, Kobayashi!" 

"You should be taking care of Sato-chan as a senior. Did all my teachings not bear fruit? Kobayashi! Young Man! Tell me!"

"No Fujiwara-dono, I mean Shishou!" 

"I will do my best to take care of her!"

"I won't let you down Shishou!"

I exclaimed back at Shishou Fujiwara. 

"Good lad! Don't let those wolves reach anywhere close to her, you hear me?"

"Yes, Shishou!"

My conversation with Shishou Fujiwara always feels like I am in some sort of military camp. 

But he speaks the truth. 

Maybe I should have pulled Sato-san out of such an uncomfortable situation. 

I have already failed as her Senpai...

"Hehe."

Sato-san giggled in happiness, I guess she enjoyed the show. 

"Good lad, I'll see you then. Take care Sato-chan!"

"See you Sato-san, if they try doing anything weird report it to HR okay?"

"Thank you very much, will do."

"Alright then, Sato dear, go have your lunch."

"See you Kobayashi-kun, make sure you take care of her okay?"

"Will do Oba-san."

"Thank you very much Oba-san."

Sato-san and I paid our respects as Oba-san, Shishou Fujiwara and Fujiko-san exited our workspace. 

They really came in clutch. 

They are revered as the Big 3. 

Oba-san of the front desk. 

Shishou Fujiwara of Management.

And.

Fujiko-san of HR. 

All have respectably huge power over this company. If you ever get in the wrong shoes of them, then you are incredibly in huge trouble. I have heard Fujiko-san had fired over 100 people due to misconduct and inappropriate behaviours. While Oba-san just has that age factor, that hidden power to make anyone bow down to her. While Shishou Fujiwara does not need to be explained.

And I...

Monkey D. L-...

Ok!

Cut that last bit.

Now that everyone had returned to their workspaces we could finally begin our lunch.

"It's lunchtime, shall we take a break and eat, Sato-san?"

"Oh, right. Yes. That will be great, let's eat lunch, Kobayashi-kun."