THE FORGOTTEN MEMORIES

"For what it's worth, let's reconsider about doing this deal Chairman Irie" Takanori, the company's legal department's H.O.D and Irie Yuki's most trusted person advised Yuki.

Takanori was earnestly looking at the 6 foot 2 inches tall man, who was sitting in front of him. It wasn't official hours and yet they were discussing about work. Even though Yuki didn't like doing so, he never really had a choice in the matter. Running a company demands your time and attention 24X7. No short - cuts.

Ever since he was young he knew what he was going to do in the future and where he will be. Then one day, when Yuki was still very young, his elder brother Naoki and his father had had disagreements about Naoki's choice of career. At that point of time in life, Yuki's future plans had become ever more crystal clear. And right now, he was living the exact kind of life he had thought then, that he would be living. No difference.

"Takanori-san, why do you keep insisting that we reconsider buying this company?" Yuki asked.

"Why do you keep insisting that we should go ahead with it? It might turn out be the biggest loss of the company! The company is already in huge loss. How do you plan on its revival?" Takanori argued.

"Exactly! It might. And then it also might not! As for its revival, the company had good reputation and profit when suddenly that last CEO passed away and in came the new one. And as we can see, he hasn't exactly made the right decisions for the company. Hence, all we need to do is make the right decision for the company again. And that profit will be ours to keep." Yuki tried to reason.

Yuki just knew that buying this company was right. He just knew it. He couldn't exactly explain why. Just that he never had a gut feeling this strong about something. Buying this company is going to turn out to be very profitable.

At this Takanori just let out a deep sigh and looked at Yuki. "Are you sure about this? Absolutely sure?" he asked.

Yuki simply said, "Yes".

Takanori didn't argue further. He knew that reasoning with Yuki when he was showing his hereditary stubbornness was pointless. After seeing his father and elder brother in action in the company, he knew better than to argue further.

Driving back home, all Yuki could think of was another day is over. Another usual day. Home, office, home office or some official dinner or lunch or party. The usual the usual. An unusual thought suddenly crept up inside him. It was never the usual with Sagawa Konomi. There was always some kind of excitement. Yuki even looked forward to what the annoying stupid girl from F class would do next. It was interesting to see the new excuses she would use to come near him, show her fondness towards him. She had made his days fun. But she wasn't there in his life anymore. She had given up on him and had left without a backward glance. The girl apparently had finally found her pride. It's not like he didn't see her after rejecting and humiliating her so bluntly in front of his mother and Kotoko. He saw her in school at times. But they never talked. Many a times she wouldn't even bother to turn to look his way. Sagawa Konomi had changed. A lot.

Changed she had. By a lot too. Her life had changed too since then. She got over her stupid puppy crush on the class A Irie Yuki. She had moved on. She had resumed her low grades in her class owing to not getting tutored anymore, but that was okay. She had shortened her hair, and gone out with the guy from that day who had approached her with his friend. It turned out he was nice as his friend had claimed. Somehow she graduated high school and got into college. But things back home turned ugly after her parents' divorce. And suddenly she was the breadwinner of the house that included her and her father who only preferred to drink his sorrows away. Her mother had left her father for another man after all.

She had somehow got by doing part-time jobs, secondhand things and simple cheap meals. The occasional borrowing was there too. And when she finally graduated college she started working in a company. She had kept that job till now. It was a good pay, the job was good, the office was nearby her place too. But now all that was in danger. She was going to lose that job pretty soon. The company was going to be bought out. And she wasn't a qualified company assistant. She had the basic of the basic educational qualification. The new boss wasn't going to tolerate under qualified people under his roof. And so her life was this close to becoming a chaos again. But she wouldn't have it! She wouldn't let other people or sudden circumstances govern her life. She wasn't that girl anymore. And so she was obsessed with classifieds column these days. The only problem being, she was either over age or under qualified. But she would do it! She would find a job no matter what! But so far she hadn't had any luck.

She opened up her mail to check for any replies for the jobs she had applied to, and to apply to other jobs. She had a couple of mails. Spam, shopping sites offers etc. She was deleting them one by one, when an interesting email came. It was from her high school. A high school reunion. Huh. It was this Saturday. That's two days away. Should she go? Or should she just reply back and make some excuse for not going?

By Friday night, Konomi was all ready with the dress, the trip to the salon, and all other necessary things. So she was going to the reunion after all.

-X-X-

Yuki settled the laptop on his lap after shifting a bit on his bed. He was going through reports, data, news and emails. He read the email about the high school reunion during morning tea on Saturday.

The first thought that had crept up in his mind as soon as he had read the email was, will Konomi come? He hadn't seen her in so long. How had she been doing? Where was she? Does she have a boyfriend? She wouldn't have gotten married, would she have? Right?

He thought he should catch up with his old friends a bit. Something a little new in his schedule. A little change would be nice, right?