A different view on the proceedings within Marukawa Shoten...

Recently Sasaki Cate started working for Marukawa publishing. She was assigned to work amongst the different departments for seven days each and write reports of the teams' working atmospheres...

This week it's the Emerald department's turn...

Disclaimer: The characters belongs fully to Nakamura Shungiku, the rightful owner of SIH (except for Cate, she's a product of my own imagination ;) )

Also please excuse any mistakes if found, as I am not a native speaker.

But now, let's start.

Day 1

Why on earth did I agree on that?! Now I'm already starting to imagine stuff! It's still another week! How will I get through this?

Okay, calm down Cate! Introductions first: Hi, I'm Sasaki Cate. A 26 year-old accountants employee of Marukawa Shoten's sales department. I have a nice (and sometimes even calm) job -if the editors don't mess up- since I joined the publishing enterprise two months ago. Lucky me, to get a job so quickly after my move from America back to Japan.

Well ... not exactly.

It's been now precisely one week, since that fateful morning when Isaka-san, the still quite young director of Marukawa, had barged into my department. In hindsight, I probably should've just stuck my head under the table and pretended to be invisible. As you can guess, it wouldn't've worked anyways.

Isaka-san had hastily begun to explain his problem to my superior.

He needed someone to write reports of the working atmospheres within the single departments. The person evaluating should just blend in and work one week with the departments and then file their report.

Problem was, due to their enormous workload none of the HR people had had time and he couldn't just have the editors evaluate themselves, could he?

So there he'd stood, practically begging my grumpy looking boss if he couldn't spare anyone?

At first Yokozawa-san had glared at him with a look that clearly said: The hell do you think you're doing?! Go ask someone else, we're busy!

But he hadn't said any of it aloud, he still valued his job after all. Instead he'd let his gaze sweep the room to see if any of his subordinates seemed fit for the task. He'd quickly considered Henmi, but as the guy had been about to reach for a folder in the top shelf and managed to let nearly all of the shelf's contents fall on top of him, Yokozawa had sighted and decided it was best not to burden the other departments with Henmi's clumsiness.

Then his bluish-grey colored eyes had locked onto me ... the newbie, who once in fact had worked for a HR department and now still had the lowest workload because she hadn't started to supervise any projects yet. Perfect.

No, wait, forget what I said before. That should've been the right to moment to dive under the table!

But I didn't. Sadly.

And that's why now I leaned against the vending machine thinking about how I ever could've thought that the whole cycle thing was just a myth. Oh no, that shit is very real! And exhausting as hell.

On top of it, my first department had been the Sapphire, Marukawa's BL division...

After editing BL novels for one week, besides filing my report, I've got the uneasy feeling it started rubbing off on me...

Only moments ago, I could've sworn I've just seen my grumpy boss getting pinned against the wall (!) by one of the editors-in-chief, whatshisname, the brown haired one with blond streaks from Japun.

Dammit, I edited too much of Yayoi-sensei's works! How does Aikawa-san manage?!

Well, my next department was the shoujo manga division. Probably a lot safer terrain than the Sapphire...

I've had picked up on the fact that the Emerald had been quite a run-down magazine before it'd been taken over by a new head editor. Argh, I'm horrible with names! He was said to be one of the best in his line of work. I only met him once at a conference where he and Yokozawa-san were practically at each other's throats because of some volume of print editions. Fifteen minutes later they acted like they were best friends. Sometimes I wonder what's going on in this building...

Wow, didn't expect that!

When stepping into the department, everything in front of my eyes went pink. Pink and sparkling. Five gorgeous figures simultaneously looked up at me.

"Konichiwa." I smiled friendly and bowed my head. " I'm Sasaki Cate, I'm here because-"

"Oh, you're Yokozawa's pet, the one with the evaluation thing. I already heard." The one to speak was a black haired man in his late twenties. Takano-san, the editor-in-chief I remembered, he sounded bored.

"Yokozawa's WHAT?" I spat. I was pissed of enough to even drop the honorific. Forget me ever using the word gorgeous!

"Pet," he kindly repeated. Bastard. I know I'm merely one meter fifty tall, no need to rub it in and compare me with a pet.

"Takano-san! That's not nice!" The man nearest to me spoke up and glared at his boss. He had interestingly green eyes and seemed around my age. „Please ignore him Sasaki-san. I'm Onodera Ritsu, we heard about your assignment. Welcomed to the Emerald." At least one of them seems normal.

"Thanks, I'm looking forward to work with you," I answered, when I felt a tug at a strand of my long black hair. Who the-?

"Kawaii!" The guy from the desk next to Onodera-san had gotten up and seemed to enjoy patting my head like a grade-schooler's. Damn, he looked like he came straight out of high-school but yet I was smaller than him! Life's just unfair.

"You look just like one of the characters of the manga I'm editing right now!" His face with the brown eyes was all smiles. Great. Now I was getting compared to shoujo manga characters...

Before I could open my mouth and give prove of the fact that my appearance and character weren't exactly the same thing, Onodera spoke again.

"Oh, sorry, let me introduce the others. This is Kisa Shouta-," he pointed at the boyish looking man next to me.

"Oi, Onodera! Shouldn't you introduce me first? I'm your superior."

"Sorry." Onodera's tone sounded quite sarcastic. "And that's our great boss Takano Masamune-san." Takano leaned back in his chair, seeming strangely satisfied with himself.

Onodera continued, wasting no attention at him.

"These two are Mino Kanade-san-" a guy with a goofy smile that was on the edge of becoming creepy "-and Hatori Yoshiyuki-san." The only one that wore a suit. He nodded at me with an expression that made me wonder if the guy was even able to smile.

"Sasaki, you know how to edit a manga?" Takano's gaze fixated on me.

"Hai! I just worked at Sapphire for a week, they also had some manga to edit." For a split of a second, I thought I'd seen a mischievous glint in his amber eyes. Probably a trick of the lights.

(Little had I known that this specific editor-in-chief had just gotten a few perfect ideas to mess with "Yokozawa's pet" and "his" Onodera at the same time...)

"Good." He stood up, grabbed a stash of storyboards and placed them on the next free desk. "These need editing. And the rest if you, if you got time to stare, then you got time to work!"

Oh, Cate, what have you gotten yourself into this time...

By the end of the day, they turned out to be not too bad as coworkers... though admittedly, they were a bit weird.

At noon, after a call from one of his authors came in, Yoshikawa-sensei if I understood correctly, Hatori-san literally dropped everything and stormed out of the office. And around the evening Kisa-san (that guy was actually older than me!) announced he had some very important errand at a bookstore to run and excused himself as well. This left only Onodera, Takano and me back at the office. I don't know when but at some point Mino had been ... just gone. (Honestly, he kinda freaks me out, I think I haven't once seen his eyes.)

Anyways, after it was only the three of us, something clicked inside the chief editor.

His mood switched.

Completely.

He started to saunter around Onodera at frequent intervals, making his subordinate become jumpier by the minute.

I glanced up between the both of them.

Okay... What. Was. Going. On?

Random touches at the shoulders, suggestively whispered comments like "I'll stop by later to check on the storyboard."

If I didn't know better, I'd say Takano was ... teasing Onodera?

Good lord, Cate! Get a grip, will you? You're not at Sapphire anymore! There's nothing going on... is there?

"I'm gonna go get myself a coffee," I announced. Maybe that'd help to get my mind back on track.

"Oi, Sasaki. Mind bringing me one along?" Takano asked as he flipped a coin at me when I got up.

"Sure. No problem."

Onodera kind of didn't look too happy at the prospect of being alone with his boss. Like he expected the raven haired head editor to jump at him, the moment I left the room.

Geez, that stupid BL department really'd wrecked me.

A few minutes later I stepped out of the elevator with two steaming paper cups of black coffee.

"Takano-san, I've got your coff-"

What the-? The papers on Onodera's desk were even more scattered than before and his formerly neatly smoothed hair stood up in tousled strands. Beside him stood Takano with a suspiciously smug grin on his face...

Onodera started blushing at my confused look but Takano just casually strolled over to me and plucked the cup from my hands.

"I believe that's mine."

I didn't know what to respond - and me being speechless isn't exactly an everyday occurrence.

Okay, this is it. I'm calling it a day. Obviously my mind is pushing the emergency button by making me jump to the most ludicrous assumptions.

Though somehow my assumptions didn't seem too far-fetched...

I tried my best to concentrate on my own, now starting to turn cold, coffee but it didn't work.

"I think, ... I'll call it a day, " I said. "Oyasumi." They both nodded.

When I gathered my belongings, I just couldn't stop myself from adding: "Enjoy whatever you were doing."

As I shouldered my bag and went for the door, I saw Onodera again blushing fiercely and Takano swiftly winking at me.

Yep, this is going to be an interesting week...

Hi, hope you enjoyed it too :)

My second fic ever to be posted!

It was planned to be just some one-shot thingy (that I wrote while I was supposed to be studying...) but I guess since Cate is staying one week, there should be a few more chapters...

Well, that depends on my time and your feedback ;)