Chapter 37

[Hello, my name is Sasaki.

Right now, there is someone I hate with all my heart. It is the section chief of the company I was working at until very recently.

The man’s name is Kengo Kadokura.

Despite having a wife and family, Kadokura persistently invited me out for dinner at every opportunity.

Since he was my direct supervisor, it was difficult to turn him down, and I reluctantly went to meals alone with him many times.

However, just the other day, Kadokura’s wife burst into the company and, the moment she laid eyes on me, lunged forward shouting, “You little home-wrecker!”

A male employee stepped in between us to stop her, but the office was in an uproar for a while.

There was talk of calling the police, but the company management hesitated, and the matter was settled by me agreeing to forgive Kadokura’s wife.

After Kadokura’s wife left, Kadokura and I were called into the department manager’s office to be questioned, and Kadokura began explaining first.

Then, Kadokura shifted all the blame onto me.

Naturally, I argued back.

I told them that it was Kadokura-san who persistently kept inviting me out.

Yet the department manager didn’t believe a single word I said and swallowed Kadokura’s version whole.

Because the department manager had a close relationship with Kadokura, I think he took Kadokura’s side instead of a regular employee like me.

A few days later, I was transferred to a dead-end department.

Looked at with curiosity by everyone around me, I do my work every day in a department with no prospect of promotion and no friends, while harboring deep resentment toward Kadokura.

…I feel like I’m losing my mind already.

Please lend me your strength. I’m begging you.]

A long email, which looked as though it couldn’t possibly have been typed just now, had been sent to my smartphone.

“A request actually came in…”

I read through the email again in astonishment.

Yet, just reading this text didn’t make it clear what the client named Sasaki wanted me to do.

“What should I do about this…”

I probably should have ignored an email like this and promptly changed my email address.

Even as I thought that, a burning sense of anger toward a man named Kadokura was quietly welling up in a corner of my mind.

“…Hmm…”

After pondering for a minute while staring at my smartphone, my finger naturally drifted over to the reply button.

After exchanging emails two or three times, it turned out—for better or for worse—that Sasaki lived surprisingly close by, so we decided to meet face-to-face at a coffee shop.

Wearing a mask, a hat, and a light disguise, I left my apartment.

At first, I had also worn sunglasses, but when Misa-chan happened to run into me right outside the apartment building and looked at me suspiciously, asking, “Onitsuka-san, that outfit, is something wrong…?”, I left the sunglasses back in my room.

When I entered the coffee shop, the person who looked like Sasaki hadn’t arrived yet.

So I took a seat at a table in the back of the shop, ordered a hot coffee, and waited.

A short while later, just as I blew softly on the hot coffee that had been brought over and took a sip,

Clang-clang.

A woman walked into the shop looking flustered.

She was a beauty striking enough to make me do a double take.

Catching her breath, the woman checked her watch and scanned the tables.

Thinking she might be the one, I cleared my throat in an obvious “Ahem.”

Sure enough, the woman turned out to be Sasaki. She hurried over to where I was and bowed deeply.

“I’m so sorry to keep you waiting!”

Was it the scent of shampoo? After her long hair swayed, a pleasant fragrance of roses tickled my nostrils.

“No, it’s not time for our meeting yet. I just got here early.”

And it was true; there were still fifteen minutes to spare before the meeting time.

Perhaps due to nervousness, both of us had arrived too early.

“I’m Kumiko Sasaki. You’re Onitsuka-san, right?”

“Yes. Um, please have a seat first. Standing out like this draws attention.”

“Ah, I’m sorry!”

Sasaki hurriedly sat down across from me.

“Allow me to introduce myself again, I’m Onitsuka.”

“I’m Kumiko Sasaki. Thank you so much for listening to my story and even agreeing to meet me today.”

“Not at all.”

Right then, a staff member came over to take our order.

Sasaki asked the staff member for a hot cocoa.

“More importantly, you didn’t go into details in your email. To be frank, what do you want me to do for you, Sasaki-san?”

When I asked, Sasaki waited until the staff member retreated into the back kitchen before looking straight into my eyes and saying:

“Please eliminate Kengo Kadokura.”