Office Diaries - Chapter 158

“Actually, I talked to both.”

Eh? EH? EEEEEEEH?

Yanee was beyond shock that her jaw slacked.

“Close your mouth. Flies will come in,” Ami teased her as she drank her sugar-free soda. “Why do you look so shocked? You should have known Tohru’s mom and sister talked to me on the phone back at the kimono shop.”

Urgh…

Yanee snapped out of her shock enough to think back. Sure enough, while she was talking to Marian or Mama James, one of them would be at the backroom with the shop manager talking to her sister. She thought they were discussing business at that time.

Evil. They’re so evil. How were they able to plot something so sinister at a short period of time? Yanee wanted to know as she glanced at Tohru who remained quietly watching her at the side.

“Why are you so quiet? Aren’t you going to protest?”Yanee asked her boyfriend whose smile widened upon hearing her words. “What’s so funny?”

“Energy conservation,” Ami answered for him, and when Yanee frowned she also grinned at her evilly. “Is there any merit to protest? Do you think he can say no to his mom and sister?”

“I can’t. I definitely can’t,” Tohru answered comically.

Of course, he didn’t add that aside from that, he was a hundred percent in favor of this idea! Why would he protest?

Unfortunately, Yanee was able to read his mind correctly this time and kicked his foot.

“You…”

“Wa!” Tohru bent over to rub the part of his foot Yanee kicked. “Honey, don’t let it out on me, okay? I’m also an innocent bystander.”

Innocent bystander my ȧss! Yanee pouted but then again realized that he was correct. Tohru also didn’t know what his mother and sister schemed with Ami behind their backs and she felt a bit guilty from kicking him.

“So, are you busy this afternoon?” Ami asked Tohru who shook his head.

“Are you sure? You’ve been to Arcus Headquarters for Papa and haven’t been doing work at Clover Publishing House,” Yanee reminded him.

She was still not used to calling her old office Niji since it was the new name. For her, Niji was the biggest publishing house situated in Shinjuku. Her little office was not relocated so she just called it by its old name.

“It’s fine. I already settled everything that needed to be done before we went to Kyoto. Chummy’s handling the fort there for now which is fine since we have nothing urgent,” he answered simply. Yanee didn’t know that he was extra happy because she called his father Papa.

In the publishing house, there were cycles. The publishing process started with creation, followed by acquisition, then copy editing, production, printing, marketing, and finally distribution. So far the first periods were the mellow ones. It would start getting hectic after the copy editing period which reduced most of the editors into zombies.

“What time will the clothes arrive?”Yanee asked Ami who smirked.

“Is it important to ask? He’ll be hanging out in our apartment anyway,” she commented and Yanee turned so red again.

“Big Sis…”Yanee bit out her warning, though she couldn’t refute.

Since she found out that the potato was not so busy, she already had an idea that he’d hang out at the apartment with her. After all, he still had something to discuss with her. Until now, she still hadn’t guessed which life lesson from Jena’s story he said was for him.

With this, Ami gave them a final laugh and they finished eating. Afterwards, the two accompanied Ami to the cashier to settle the bill for her injured staff and then Tohru drove them back home.

“The kimonos will arrive around three in the afternoon. People from the kimono shop will be here too so they can check the fitting on Tohru,” Ami said as soon as they arrived in the apartment.

“Are you not going to be here to see?”Yanee asked and Ami shook her head.

“I have two events today. Normally I let my people handle them unless it’s a VIP, but today I want to be in one.”

She was talking about the venue where the accident happened. Ami wanted to make sure nothing else untoward popped up. The accident early in the morning was not their fault, but if something else happened connected to them, it’s bad for business. She didn’t want to be tagged unlucky.

With that said, Ami excused herself after telling them to take photos of Tohru in his wedding clothes later and went to her room to prepare. Tohru went out to the balcony to make some phone calls and was talking on the phone when Ami emerged.

Gone was the teen pop looking petite lade from this morning. She now dressed up to the nines in a cream-colored suit pants partnered with killer heels. Her blue hair was tied neatly into an elegant chignon and a beige clutch bag rested in her hand.

“I’ll be off now,” Ami told Yanee. But before she left, she looked at the younger woman thoughtfully. “Yanee, dad and mom will come at the expo. Chummy said you will be working on your book and don’t need to go and report at the office. Do you want to go back to Nagoya with me?”

Yanee looked surprised but didn’t say anything. It’s been two years since she left Nagoya but she’s not really thrilled to go back. On holidays, it was their parents who came to Tokyo to celebrate with them. Her family was aware that the memories of Nagoya still haunted her, but Yanee knew why her sister asked her this now.

If it were a normal day, Ami wouldn’t even suggest this. But she’s together with Tohru now, and Ami was hoping that since she took a great leap to be in a relationship again, she’d also be brave enough to face the demons of the past. After all, she was not the one at fault. Nagoya was still their “hometown” in this foreign country they had been calling their home for many years.

“I���”

“You don’t have to answer now. There are still three days before the event. You can think about it first,” she said and then left.

When Tohru returned from his phone call, he found Yanee spaced out on the sofa.

“Is there something wrong?” he asked her softly, and when Yanee didn’t respond, he repeated his question as he softly shook her and she snapped back to reality.

“Ah— what?” Yanee asked, disoriented. “Sorry, I was thinking about something,” she apologized as Tohru sat next to her.

“What happened? Why did you suddenly space out?” he asked curiously. “Did you argue with Ami?”

“No, of course not,” Yanee answered as she shook her head.

Even with Ami’s strong personality they rarely fought.

“Did you get scolded then?” he changed the question and Yanee finally laughed and leaned back against the sofa where Tohru placed his arm.

“No, she didn’t scold me,” she said and then explained. “She just asked if I want to go back to Nagoya. She heard I don’t have to go to the office as I work on the book so she was thinking if I want to go back there at our parents’ place to do it. I haven’t been back there since I worked at Clover.”

“Well, that can be arranged,”Tohru said. “Nagoya’s environment is better than here. You can be more relaxed.”

Although Nagoya was also a metropolitan like Tokyo, it was more laidback. Plus the Lees live near Nagoya Castle so the scenery was really good for creative writing. Tohru could see a lot of benefits going back there to work on the book.

But then again, he remembered something…

Shimizu Kyo, Yanee’s ex.

One of the reasons why Yanee came to Tokyo to work was to run away from him— from her past. He regretted stating his approval to return suddenly. He didn’t want to force her.

Tohru cleared his throat.

“Well, that’s only if you want. You can stay anyway and even go to Kyoto to work on the book. I will tell them not to bother you and you can have the entire wing where we stayed at for yourself and Chummy.”

Yanee looked thoughtful for a while. Then she glanced at him.

“If I go back to Nagoya, will you come visit me?” she asked him coyly.

Tohru immediately beamed. “Arcus has a branch there. I can work there while you’re there,” he said decisively as if he was so sure that it was possible.

Yanee’s eyes widened, and then she smiled.

“You really are a carefree boss. Your subordinates will complain,” she told him but he didn’t care.

He continued to smile. “I still have a year to be carefree. I’ll work double and seriously afterwards, but now is not the time for me to care about that.”