Big thanks to the four reviews of the first chapter…I really appreciate it. I'm glad I managed to stay patient in my writing and my layout. Hope I write the rest just as well…
Note: Author's error - Sasuke is the executive editor, not senior editor. My bad :)
Note: The country 'Volania' is a fictional region of land taken from Russia by foreigners, which has declared war on Britain. I use this country so as not to draw offence from any nationality as being pro-war.
Chapter 2
Often on her walks in the central town park Hinata would stop walking and daydream. She would think about her family back home. She would think about school days, and she would wonder what would become of her in the future. She was quiet. She was shy. And she had always thought that was fine. She never felt like she had missed anything, but now she felt a little nervous and wondered if she would miss something soon. She felt she would, anyway. That worried her.
Now she walked along the path framed with designer shops and chic cafes with a co-worker - and as far as she wondered, a possible new friend - something she had never done before. She had always gone out alone, wanting to focus on her thoughts, on her plans and dreams. Ino seemed very friendly and sweet. She wanted to know everything about Hinata and was bent on introducing her to her friends.
"You'd like them so much," she said as they walked.
"I would?" Hinata asked. "What are they like?"
Ino bit her lip as she searched for a description. "Oh, I can't say. They're too abstract. Too obnoxious."
Hinata found humour in Ino's words. She was learning that Ino was the only person who would say something like that about her friends. Because that's just what she was.
"Where are we going?" Hinata finally asked. Ino grinned.
"We're going to my favourite café in the world."
Ino led Hinata a few steps more before turning her into a glamorous cake shop with cream walls and brown carpet. Hinata stared in awe. The café was huge. It extended wide and far into the back, where the register and counter were.
"Let's sit over there," Ino pointed to a table near the back.
"Wow," Hinata breathed as she followed Ino. The girl laughed quietly.
"Like it, don't you?"
The place had beautiful landscape paintings on one wall. On another were framed mementos and celebrity-signed objects, and celebrity portraits. The other had a dark chocolate-coloured curtain over it, and the last one was the wall behind the counter. Beautiful cookbook-esque cakes and other delicacies were displayed in the counter windows.
"It's beautiful," she said. Ino giggled. Hinata turned in confusion.
"What?"
"I want to show you something…funny. Come."
Ino stood and walked over to the celebrity-studded wall. She pointed to a signed portrait. Hinata gasped.
"It's…it's him!"
"Sasuke. Yep."
"He's that famous?"
"You bet. Our magazine's income jumped off the scale when he started writing for us. Suddenly we had fangirls who hated politics and world news reading our magazine just because he soon became executive editor and wrote the main articles and lots of cover stories." Ino and Hinata both giggled.
"That's extreme."
"Yeah, and we got quite a number of new employees, too. Female, mind you."
They laughed quietly as they walked back to their table.
"So, Hinata, what made you decide to become a journalist and work for us?" Ino asked after they ordered.
Hinata let out a little sigh. "Well, I've always loved writing, I suppose. And I always found it much easier to communicate my feelings and opinions on paper than in speech." Ino nodded as she listened intently. "As you know, I'm an extremely shy person. I don't talk much. But I have many interests, especially in the world. So I came here to New York, and pursued journalism."
"I think you made quite a good choice."
The waiter places their coffees before them and left. Hinata chuckled as she took a sip. "I hope so. And? What about you?"
Ino smiled. "Well, I didn't know what I wanted to do until I was twenty, believe it or not."
"How old are you now?" Hinata asked.
"Can you guess?"
Hinata shook her head. "No, no. Don't make me guess."
"Come on."
Hinata sighed. "Twenty-two."
Ino grinned. "Twenty-six."
"No."
"Yes! Now you tell me how old you are."
"No. You have to guess."
Ino laughed. "OK. Twenty-one."
Hinata blinked and Ino laughed again. "I was right?"
"Yeah," she giggled. "Now, come on, continue your story."
Ino cleared her throat. "OK, then. Well, anyway, I was good at sport, but that didn't appeal to me as a career path. I was also good at writing poems and prose, and I loved to criticise newspaper writers on their articles. Still I was never really sure about what I wanted to do, and only when I actually thought about it I remembered I had an aunt living here who did journalism, and I had visited her office a few times. So I threw out an application and started working at Global Hour on a bright Monday morning."
Hinata smiled. "I've read some of your stuff."
"Really?"
"What, you think I just came to work for Global Hour without doing my homework?"
Ino giggled. "Did you like it?"
"Yes, it inspired me, actually." Hinata paused and grinned. "I always knew which was yours. You always wrote with this intense sarcasm." Ino laughed, and Hinata joined her. The waiter came to shush them.
"I hardly think you're that quiet, Hinata."
Hinata blinked as they stood to leave. "Seriously?"
"Yeah. I'm glad we talked and got to know each other better. I'd love to do this often."
She wondered exactly what Ino thought of her personality. Sure, she used to be shier than this, but had she really opened up more with Ino? Had the girl already become a good friend and reached out beyond Hinata's shyness? Or was Hinata taking more of a chance and reaching out beyond her own shyness?
Hinata gripped the edge of her desk with her fingers and pulled her chair in. There was silence as executive editor Sasuke stood halfway down the aisle between the work cubicles, a metre in front of Hinata's desk. He was waiting for someone. Hinata looked around to see who was missing. Then came a tock-tock-tock down the tiled corridor. Sasuke tapped his foot expectantly, staring at the door to the corridor, at the back of the room. Hinata turned as the door swung open and Sakura strutted in quickly, holding another mug of coffee and making no effort to silence the loud sound her stiletto boots made. Sasuke kept tapping and Sakura ducked into her cubicle and glanced quickly at Hinata before switching her attention back to the executive and gave her best smile. "Sorry boss," she purred. It didn't seem to change Sasuke's stance.
"You're late."
"I know. I didn't me-"
"You know I demand punctuality of all employees. You are not an exception, Sakura."
"I wasn't intending to be an exception, I-"
"Enough," Sasuke said, waving his hand in the air to dismiss the debate. "I will not be argued with. We have more important things to attend to." He walked closer to Sakura and Hinata's row and turned to Sakura. "I will not tolerate attitude. Don't let this happen again." Sakura nodded sheepishly.
He turned and his gaze landed briefly on Hinata and her breath stopped. He dresses so simply, yet looks so sophisticated, Hinata thought. He wore an untucked cream shirt with vertical, thin brown and blue lines on it, and blue jeans that covered his runners. His hair was styled perfectly, spiked up at the back, but with two tufts of hair down, framing his face. It was gelled to stay in place, but it wasn't that greasy-haired look. It looked newly-washed and natural. His eyes were a dark, electric blue, and his mouth was neutral and still, as if he had never smiled once in his life.
He handed out sheets of paper assigning stories for each writer to cover. He continued back to the front of the room and the office looked over their cubicle walls to watch him. From his desk he picked and held up a glossy sheet of paper up for everyone to see. It was blank, except for the magazine name printed on the top and Exclusive along the bottom. Hinata felt Sakura's eyes land on her and she glanced sideways to see her give an excited smile before focusing on Sasuke again.
"You all know what month it is," he said. "What does December mean?" Hinata looked at the calendar on her screen. It was the first of December, and she hadn't even noticed.
"New Year exclusive issue," the office said in chorus.
"And…?"
"The issue must be ready by the 31st."
"Thank you. Now, Naruto, tell me something." Hinata saw someone with spiky blond hair stand enthusiastically. "What is Annual Weekly doing for their exclusive?"
The young blond shuffled through his papers and stood up completely straight as he read, his imitation of a soldier amusing most of the office. "From what I've gathered, they plan to do a feature article focusing on the two main candidates for presidency, Talian and Geoffrey."
Hinata couldn't believe the magazine could find out what other international news magazines were writing before it was published. Sasuke was rubbing his chin in thought. "Presidency…"
"Yes. We're pretty sure they're going to do a 'head-to-head' type thing, outlining in statistical style the profiles of each, and then writing a detailed account of their past and present accomplishments. It will most likely include an attached interview of each, as well."
"Have they started?"
"Yes."
Naruto sat back down and Sasuke paced the room and then looked at each column of cubicles. "Any ideas to challenge this plan?"
Several writers stood to give their ideas and opinions, Ino among them. Hinata cringed at the idea of doing a presidency feature article, when they all knew very well their rival magazine was covering it. She felt an urge to stand up and speak. She fought against herself. Stand up. Say it. Stay seated. Don't get yourself fired. She tried to restrain herself, but the next suggestion for the presidency article made Hinata take a stand. "That won't work." She almost covered her mouth and ran out, but her arms were paralysed and her feet felt super glued to the floor. Sasuke and the rest of the office turned to stare at her. The blond had his mouth open wide in disbelief and interest. Sakura had her mouth open only in shock. Sasuke stared blankly.
"What do you mean?"
Hinata cleared her throat quietly and took a deep breath. "You can't do the same article as they are. At least not for the feature. That wouldn't be guaranteeing your success over Annual Weekly. You need something individual and unique…" Hinata couldn't believe she was saying all this, especially as a new employee with hardly any knowledge of the way Global Hour operated in regards to free speech. She realised the irony of such a thought and would've laughed at herself, had she not been standing up in the midst of silence. "…and of some relevance."
"Are you saying the presidency isn't relevant to write about?" and amused voice said. Hinata looked ahead to see it was the blond who had spoken.
"Yes, in the circumstance that the rivalry has been written about a thousand times and the only thing to write about is the promises they give with no intention to keep." Hinata was shocked that Sasuke seemed to consider. She was expecting him to explode and scold her, like he had done to Sakura but instead he prodded the discussion on.
"So, what do you think we should write about?" he asked.
Hinata played with the question in her mind. What did she want the feature article to be about?
"The war," she said. Sasuke stared and the office whispered to each other.
"Quiet. The war?"
Hinata nodded. "Think about it. The world's main concern is the war between Britain and Volania. I doubt they'd be so interested in American politics when there's a war raging in Europe. If we made it creative and appealed to emotion, it could be bigger than the presidency article Annual's doing."
The office mumbled in agreement and Sasuke hushed them. Hinata sat down and everyone sat still, waiting for Sasuke's opinion. He exhaled and looked around. "Well, all in favour?" Slowly all the writers raised their hands, with the exception of a few. "OK, then. Britain versus Volania it is."
The office chuckled and spoke in excitement, some calling to Hinata to congratulate, some opposition glaring. Ino gave her a thumbs-up from her cubicle before standing up.
"Yes," Sasuke said to her.
"Who will you choose to write the article with you, sir?" she asked.
"I think that's self explanatory," he stated bluntly. He looked at Hinata. "Miss?" Hinata felt speechless, but she managed to give her name. "Hinata," he repeated. "You're working on the article with me."
There were gasps and talking all around. Sasuke shouted for quiet and ordered everyone to start brainstorming ideas for their article. He beckoned to Hinata to follow him to his office. She felt Sakura's glare on her as she walked into the aisle and followed the executive editor.