Office Diaries - Chapter 151

“Hey…”

“Hey, yourself,” Yanee teased upon hearing Tohru’s voice.

“Interviews over?” he asked, and Yanee smiled as she settled on the bed.

She lay contentedly on the pillow as she listened to his voice.

“What do you think?” she countered his question with another one.

Yanee couldn’t understand but she was feeling playful at the moment. Surely, it hadn’t been long since that time she thought she truly disliked him. She had thought that even if he’s attractive, he’s totally canceled as an object of her affection. But there they were, in a relationship that came out of the blue. Even if hadn’t been long since they got together, she felt more and more familiar with him.

It must be due to the big sisters talking about him as if he were a little child. She had learned a lot about Tohru’s personality based on the ladies’ stories and anecdotes of him.

“Of course you’ve finished your work easily,” he answered his own question confidently that made the smile on Yanee’s face widen.

“Not easily, but it’s comfortable. The big sisters took good care of me as usual. I had an interesting day,” she said and then remembered something. “Oh, right, why do you call Ria and Ashley big sisters when Alex and Michael are your classmates?”

“Because they’re older than me. I skipped grades so I was two years younger than my classmates,” Tohru answered and Yanee finally understood the confusing parts.

“I see,” she murmured in understanding. “Oh, by the way, since I have nothing to do, I will be interviewing Jisoo Sis tomorrow.”

“Oh? Will you be okay? You’re not too tired?” he asked in concern and Yanee smiled softly.

It’s not that it made her happy to make him worry about her. But the fact that he was concerned about her wellbeing felt warm. The warmth he sent her heart felt more than comfortable and she felt happy.

“I’m okay. The interviews I did were not tiring anyway. Big Sis Jena’s and Nixie’s stories were not as long as the others,” Yanee ȧssured him, and then she remembered another thing and shifted on the bed to roll on the other side. “By the way, why did you let me discuss life lessons with Big Sis Nixie and not with Big Sis Jena?”

Yanee already knew the answer to Nixie’s story, but she was curious as to why he didn’t want her to discuss the lesson from Jena’s story with her as she did with the others. Jena said it’s because Tohru told her that he didn’t want her to be so tired. But Yanee knew that it couldn’t really be the reason— at least there were other reasons aside from that.

“Hmmm…”

Tohru James hummed on the other end and Yanee’s lips twitched. Bingo! It seemed she was correct and there was really some other reason. She didn’t pester him to hurry up and answer his question, though. She waited patiently for him to speak even if he fell into silence for several seconds before he spoke again.

“Big Sis Nixie’s lesson was a message from me to you,” he said softly, and Yanee’s heart fluttered like excited buŧŧerflies.

Oh! The potato just threw a saccharine-sweet bomb and she was not prepared. His words simply told her “I like you for who you are. You are beautiful” and it took a lot of energy for her not to squeal.

KYAAAAAAAAAAA!

Alright, at least not audibly; although she squealed a lot in her mind just now.

“Ahuh,” she murmured instead, but her face was still stretched into a smile.

Yanee was a hundred percent sure that if Ami saw her right now, she’d be teased from Earth to Jupiter or even Neptune. Her sister loved her but she’s a legit sadist.

“And Jena’s story?” she prompted as she shook the thoughts from her head.

Tohru was silent again for a while before he cleared his throat and answered.

“It’s a lesson for me,” he said softly and Yanee paused.

Huh? Did she hear him correctly?

“For you?” she clarified, wondering if it really was what she heard.

“Yes. It’s for me,” Tohru repeated, this time with more conviction. “It’s a lesson for me, so when you return, I’d like to talk about it with you,” he added enigmatically and her mind raced as she tried to figure out the connection.

But she didn’t have time to analyze it as Tohru talked about the office and the work arrangements for when she returned to Japan the day after tomorrow. After several more minutes, Yanee found herself drifting to sleep and was responding less which Tohru noticed of course. He laughingly told her to go to sleep and that they’d just talk again tomorrow.

“Good night, honey,” he murmured before ending the call.

Yanee placed her phone on the bedside table before staring at the ceiling. She had lost the opportunity to ask Tohru again about Jena’s life lesson that was for him. She tried to remember her story but she really was already very sleepy to do so and decided to just give up. After all, she would be returning to Tokyo after tomorrow and Tohru would be picking her up at the airport.

The next day, Yanee had nothing to do in the morning except taking down notes from her interviews the day before. She ordered room service for breakfast and immediately worked on her notes after eating.

As she listened to Jena’s voice, she wrote in her notebook and paused from time to time as she also thought. She remembered Tohru’s words last night and her curiosity surfaced again, making her excited. But alas, after finishing Jena’s recording, instead of finding answers, she just found herself with more questions as she listed the lessons learned from Jena’s story.

Trust. It was the same as the others’ stories, although, in Jena’s case, it was more on giving trust to the wrong people and paying the price.

What else?

Karma. People who were rotten to the core would meet their just desserts. The people who had drugged and caused Jena to experience something horrible got what they deserved in the end.

Yanee poked her cheek with her pen as she tried to think of other lessons she could get from this. Well…

Peer pressure was real. For young people, it was a fact that they thirst for a place to belong— to be a part of a group. Sadly, naiveté and misplaced trust were a bad mix and could cause more harm than good.

“Well, that’s still connected to trust, right?” she murmured audibly as she pouted at her notes.

With all these things listed down, she wondered which one was for Tohru. But hours passed and she still couldn’t figure it out. She gave up and prepared to meet with Jisoo. Her big sis would be arriving for lunch and so she took a bath and dressed and prepared the recorder for the interview later.

Around noon, the bell to her door rang and Yanee opened it and happily let Jisoo inside. Always the bubbly lady, Jisoo chatted nonstop about her morning as soon as she arrived before ringing for room service to order for lunch. As soon as their meal was served, the two of them ate without rushing. Both of them were free for the rest of the day so they didn’t have to do the interview while eating.

After their meal and the dishes were taken away, Yanee and Jisoo sat at the living space in the suite comfortably as they digested their meal.

“Ah that was good,” Yanee murmured in appreciation making Jisoo laugh.

“I know, right? It’s why I only ate what my nutritionist and dietician prepared for me at home.”

For Jisoo, “home” was the other Grand Blue Hotel in Seoul, the place where Yanee first met them at the party. Since Yushin was always busy, the couple decided to convert the topmost floor as their family home. The two of them didn’t have children yet so it was a very convenient set up for now.

“I can imagine getting fat if I have access to this kind of food every day,” Yanee confessed, making Jisoo laugh.

“Live with Big Sis then, I’ll be happy to make you fat. Little Brother doesn’t mind if you get bigger anyway. He loves you even if you bounce around like a ball,” Jisoo teased making Yanee laugh and shake her head.

“No way. I promised my sister I’ll help her at the expo. I need to be in shape,” she said and Jisoo’s eyes rounded in interest.

“You’re modeling the wedding gowns for her this year?” Jisoo asked excitedly and Yanee nodded.

“Kimonos actually. Ami will be exhibiting Shinto wedding theme this year,” she informed her and Jisoo smiled enigmatically all of a sudden making Yanee’s eyes widen in return as she realized something.

“You already knew! You’ve seen my photos!”

Jisoo laughed. “Well, Tohru looked so happy showing off his honey to us so we couldn’t help but see the photos, no?”

Yanee ġrȯȧnėd and she was subjected to more teasing although she was not really mad. She was already half-expecting for this to happen since the one who took the pictures was Marian.

Soon, the two of them shifted into the purpose of the visit. But to Yanee’s surprise, Jisoo informed her matter-of-factly that her story before the wedding was not really interesting.

“There’s nothing to say, really. Yushin and I grew up together. We fell in love as kids, I followed him around and even became his secretary so I could be close to him all the time, then we got married when we came of age,” Jisoo said blandly with a shrug and Yanee was stumped.

Er… So why was she a part of the interview then?

Seeing the question in Yanee’s eyes, Jisoo laughed again. “Actually, my story is not about before we got married— it’s after.”

Huh?

“Why do you look surprised? Do you believe that happy ever after exists?” Jisoo asked her with a teasing look. When she didn’t say anything, Jisoo grinned. “Yanee, people’s love stories don’t end when they get married. Marriage is just the beginning actually. The real challenge to ever after is how to maintain happiness and stay together…”