Chapter 3 – Trial of Fire
Previously: Tsukushi was promoted temporarily to be a personal assistant to a new director. In the midst of obtaining boxes for the purpose of moving to her new "station", she bumped into Ray who helped her with the boxes … …
"What's this with you and bumping into gorgeous men?" Yuki squealed with excitement after Tsukushi recounted the recent events. "I'm so jealous!"
"Hey, but I come across as a klutz each time," she protested as she cradled the phone and shifted uncomfortably on her sofa set. "I actually spilled the cupboard boxes over him and then practically salivated over him." Her cheeks warmed at the memory.
"My dear, I wouldn't have just salivated over him, I would have been all over him!"
Tsukushi groaned, "it's all that new director's fault for demanding a personal assistant on such short notice. I wouldn't have been in such a rush to hunt for boxes to pack my stuff otherwise."
"Nor would you have met this dreamboat either," Yuki retorted.
"Touché," Tsukushi conceded.
"So what's his name? What does he do? Is he married? Does he have kids … …"
"Whoa, slow down," Tsukushi interrupted Yuki's barrage of questions exasperatedly. "I have no idea. We barely spoke to each other at all."
"So that's the end of it all? No following up?"
"Nope," Tsukushi felt a sharp pang of disappointment at her own conclusion. As she fell silent, she heard a voice speaking to Yuki in the background.
"Hey, I gotta go. Miranda's bringing us to a new club. Her cousin owns it. And I heard they've got fantastic music for dancing. That'll cheer you up, want to come?"
"Would love to, but I can't tonight," Tsukushi said regretfully. "I need to get my beauty sleep to be ready to tackle my new responsibilities tomorrow."
"'kay, let's have lunch tomorrow then, if you can." They hung up after saying their goodbyes.
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Tsukushi was in the office by 8.30am. She surveyed her surroundings again. The thick, lush carpet, expensive and tasteful furniture, impressive décor and the beautiful view afforded by the huge windows were just as impressive as she remembered from last night. However, this was not surprising seeing that the entire level was only occupied by the directors and their assistants. There was a huge boardroom, two smaller but equally impressive meeting rooms, and six huge offices for the directors with a smaller room attached to each office for the personal assistant(s).
Having unpacked the day before, Tsukushi was all set for the day and decided to visit the pantry cum lounge to familarise herself with the facilities and beverage making equipment. Looking at the sophisticated coffee machine, the different types of the finest coffee beans, the most expensive brands of tea and other beverages, she let out a low whistle. She turned to the fridge and cupboards, shaking her head in amazement when she noticed how well-stocked they were. Geez, this place was better equipped than a café.
Quickly fixing herself a cup of tea after hunting high and low for a box of relatively cheap tea bags, she returned to her table and noticed that light was seeping out from under the director's door. Obviously, her boss had arrived during her short jaunt to the pantry. Tsukushi glanced at her watch and was relieved to see that it was only ten to nine. Deciding that it was better to be early than late, she knocked on the door.
"Come in!" The harsh bark made her jump. More than a little jittery, Tsukushi entered the room shutting the door behind her quietly and immediately bowed deeply.
"Good morning Mr Doumyouji, I'm your new personal assistant Makino … …" She said as she straightened, her body freezing in mid-movement when her eyes met a strangely familiar face. "You," she gasped, feeling blood draining from her face when she found herself staring at the man whom she had bulldozed into and subsequently yelled at a couple of weeks ago. The dark eyes widened for a moment and then narrowed as the lips thinned.
"Do you know how to tell time?" Tsukasa growled as she gaped at him wordlessly. "Answer me!"
Her shock instantly dissolved into anger as she clenched her hands into fists, "yes."
"What time is it then? And I'm sir to you," Tsukasa snapped. Tsukushi glanced at her watch.
"Eight fifty-one, sir," she said managed through gritted teeth.
"So you can tell the time!" He exclaimed sarcastically as he threw his hands into the air. Then the thick eyebrows were drawn in a straight line as he frowned darkly at her. "You were told to report here at 9am. Not a minute earlier and not a minute later. You have wasted enough of my time and distracted me from my work. Now get the hell out of this room and come back at 9am sharp." He bent over his papers again, totally ignoring her. Tsukushi crept of the room, shaking with suppressed anger. Just before she closed the behind her, his voice rang out again.
"When you come in at 9am, bring me a cup of coffee, two creams and one sugar." Fighting against the temptation to slam the door, Tsukushi managed to shut it quietly before stomping all the way to the pantry, cursing him fluently all the way.
"Extremely colourful language for a young lady," an amused voice said. Tsukushi turned around and blinked a couple of times before blushing bright red. Yet another gorgeous man was standing in front of her, dressed in a suit.
"You must be Tsukasa's new personal assistant," he said, chuckling when he saw Tsukushi's shocked expression. "I'm not psychic, it's just that I didn't see you around yesterday and I know that Tsukasa's new assistant was coming today. Also, your reaction is pretty much the same as all his other employees' whenever they have had to deal with him on one of his bad days."
He winked at her and grinned boyishly as he extended his hand, "by the way I'm Nishikado Soujirou. And your name, pretty lady is?" Tsukushi turned an even darker red as he flirted with her.
"Ma … Makino Tsukushi," she said, hating herself for the initial stutter.
"He likes to put his new employees through hell," Soujirou confided as Tsukushi turned pale with horror. "Kind of an initiation thing. If you can withstand the first week, you'd be fine." Soujirou helped himself to a cup, his action stirring Tsukushi into action as she suddenly recalled her boss's last command.
"Oh no, I've only got five minutes left to get him his coffee!" She wailed in dismay as she hurriedly grabbed the cup she had found and rushed to the coffee machine.
"Hey, his favourite type of coffee is the latte from Brusy's Café. Good luck, I'll get out of your way."
"Thanks," Tsukushi said as she busied herself in getting the coffee ready. Latte, did Soujirou say? Well Mr Doumyouji, boy are you in for a shock! Within the limited time she managed to whip up a cup of latte, more than grateful that she had taken up the job at Starbucks during the summer vacations in her high school years. This time, she kept her eyes on the clock and knocked on the door at precisely 10 seconds to 9am. She entered the room almost before the usual gruff "come in" was yelled.
Tsukasa frowned when his secretary walked in at 9am sharp, holding a cup of coffee. Not being able to chew her out for being late, he grumpily took a sip of the coffee, hoping to find fault with it somehow. However, his eyes widened slightly in surprise as he quickly took a second taste of the best coffee he had ever drunk before in his life. He glanced at Tsukushi and caught her looking at him with a smug expression on her face. He quickly put down the coffee cup.
"Makino right?" he asked in a brusque tone.
"Yes, sir. Is the coffee to your taste?" She replied in a sickeningly sweet tone.
"It's adequate," her eyebrows almost vanished under her fringe, "which is more than what I can say for your behaviour this morning." He continued without a pause as her eyebrows descended into a huge frown before she managed to get her emotions under control again. "I do not allow any slovenly behaviour amongst my staff, do you understand?"
"Is coming in for work early a sign of slovenly behaviour?" She asked in disbelief.
"You are never to interrupt me when I am working except for scheduled meetings and emergencies. Do you understand me?" His dark eyes narrowed.
"Loud and clear, sir," she ground out through clenched teeth. His frown darkened.
"Okay, here are your duties. Listen carefully for I will only repeat them once." He proceeded to list her duties in a succinct and precise manner. "Any questions? Good, now I need a few letters sent no later than 4pm. Sit down on that chair and start taking notes."
After two hours, Tsukushi left the room with a notepad that was filled with her messy short hand and a migraine. Tsukasa had dictated about fifteen different extremely complex letters to her and her head was aching from the intense concentration required in order to record accurately every single word he said.
After slumping down in her chair, Tsukushi picked up the phone on her table and dialed a number, "Yuki? I can't go to lunch with you. I have fifteen letters to type and send out by 4pm. Bye." She rubbed her temple as she sat up, clipped her notes onto the little stand next to her computer screen and started typing furiously.
"Thank goodness for the wonders of modern technology," she uttered with a groan as she stretched her aching body, waiting for the printer to spew out all fifteen letters. She had checked through all of them and made minor amendments where necessary. She had also prepared all fifteen envelops, having a strong feeling that Tsukasa would want to go over them to ensure that they would be sent to the correct addresses.
He looked up when she placed the stack of letters with the corresponding envelops on his table.
"Come back in 5 minutes time," he mumbled, already half-way through the first letter before she reached the door. When she returned promptly on the dot, the letters had already been signed.
"There were no mistakes, not too bad," he grudgingly admitted. "Now make sure you get them posted before 4pm." She gritted her teeth and left the room … …
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"Do you know this is the first time we are having lunch together in 2 weeks?" Yuki asked looking at her friend carefully. "You seem to have developed permanent dark circles under your eyes."
Tsukushi groaned, "blame it on that inhuman asshole. He's worse that a slave driver."
For once, Yuki was rather sympathetic, "isn't he letting up? After all, you haven't made any mistakes yet."
"Apparently, his coffee was too cold last Wednesday. On Thursday, I accidentally put through one of his fan's call by mistake because she claimed to be his girlfriend. I almost got my head bitten off by him for not properly screening his calls and causing disruption to his work." She snorted. "On Friday, I made my first typo which he caught, unfortunately. This Tuesday, I was apparently two minutes late for our meeting because I had a stomachache and he refused to entertain my 'feeble excuses'. Then yesterday I had to work overtime to finish typing all his letters because he dictated thirty. THIRTY! He was not very happy that they weren't done in time for the post. I'm so glad tomorrow's Friday again … …"
"Look, at least he is finding less fault with you with time." Yuki comforted.
"I know, but it's so stressful … …" She sighed before brightening up again. "Want to go to a club this Saturday?"
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"Ray … …" He tilted his head down to look at the woman who was sprawled across his chest, her finger tips lightly running up and down his glistening skin.
"I need to attend a ball this Friday, I'll like you to escort me there. Will you, please?" She asked coyly.
"Sure, I'll put it down in my diary." He replied easily with a charming smile that did not quite reach his eyes. Ray knew an order when he heard one, no matter how politely or nicely framed. After all, he had signed a contract with her last month. Two more months to go … …
"Thank you!" His thoughts were disrupted when she lifted her head and kissed him. The kiss lingered as he felt her wrapping her arms around his neck and her naked body pressing against him. Already? This woman was insatiable. However, almost automatically, he reversed their positions and deepened the kiss as his skilful hands and talented tongue worked their usual magic. Within moments, she was a writhing, quivering mess under him, crying out his name between moans and gasps … …
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AN: Late again, I'm so sorry !!! Things have been very busy and somehow I haven't had much inspiration … … I meant to be updating once a week. Ah, that's good intensions for you … … sorry again … … However, look for the new chapter in a week's time because I already have the plot of that in mind and have started writing a bit of it!
Nancy: Thanks so much for reading and commenting !!! Yes, somehow in my stories Rui is always a troubled soul. In Façade more of his problems were psychological in nature, in this story they are primarily caused by his environment instead. It starts getting a bit tedious if he's always got psychological problems wouldn't you think ;)? Tuskasa getting his way – well, I actually have the answer at the moment, but I hope you won't mind me keeping it a secret for the moment because otherwise the plot will be revealed!
angel310: Good to see you again too!!!! It's heartwarming to see so many familiar names. Ah, by now you would have read the story, so I can safely say that yes, you hit the nail on the head. Tsukasa did indeed have something to do with Tsukushi's promotion. The extent of his involvement will be revealed in the next chapter! Yes, I must apologise for the conventional and kinda of repetitive meeting of Rui and Tsukushi. Thanks for the constructive criticism. Really helps! Next time, I might decide to write something totally different. I actually had a couple of meetings in mind, but I selected this in the end for two reasons: (i) I wanted to draw a parallel between her meetings with Tsukasa and Rui to highlight how different they were in terms of similar actions resulting in totally different impressions and invoked emotions on the part of Tsukushi, and (ii) damn my wacky sense of humour ;)! I thought it was funny and kind of ironical for poor Tsukushi that every time she would "meet" a cute guy who would play a more prominent role in her life or have a stronger effect on her by bumping into them each time ;)! Thanks so much for reading!!!
.:: Stacey ::. ) : And I thought you were asking because you loved Shizuka lol! Yes, I think your question has been answered by this chapter and indeed I would say that Tsukushi well deserves your sympathy ne? Sorry this chapter is rather slow, the next chapter should be faster! Thanks so much for your kind comments!
lovedoves: Hey, I'm really glad you like it! Thanks so much for reading! I can see that you are both a T&T and a T&R fan? That's quite unusual actually, coz usually it seems (from what I read at least) that pple are either staunch T&T fans or T&R fans !!
frozen yogurt ): Wow … …. Thank you so much for your generous comments !!! I must to be compared with JK Rowling totally speechless Have to confess I am a Harry Potter fan as well, I own all the Harry Potter books and have the intention of buying the complete serious and I haven't missed a single one of the films either! Sure, I will read you story when you post it !!! Please just let me know when that happens because I am (unfortunately) rather unobservant and have this tendency to miss seeing things right under my nose !!!
Pure Innocence: Ah, a total Rui fan !!! I have to admit that when I was watching the manga, I wasn't quite a Rui fan because of the way his interaction with Tsukushi was portrayed (except in the first few episodes). However, strangely enough when I write fanfics, Rui's character appears to be rather peerless ? Thanks so much for reading this story !!
Soleil666: A new reader? Welcome !! I'm glad you find this role of Rui as a gigolo refreshing. I had been contemplating whether to put Soujirou as Rui's colleague and Akira as Tsukasa's friend but in the end, I thought the characters I decided upon were more appropriate taking into account what I have planned for them ;) I'm so sorry for the late update, again I apologise. Next week, will indeed be faster. Currently, I'm not committing to T&T or T&R because I have a few plots in mind and I slowly let the story write out itself. Sorry that I can't give you a definite answer now and thanks for reading !!!
Lian: Hi, thanks for reading and commenting !!! And I'm so glad that you like that part when T&R met. Hope things are going well at home with the children :)
Kensingtonkid: I am soooooooooooo sorry it took so long … … I'll try my best not to let it become a habit. This is probably one of the more uneventful chapters and my motivation was really quite low :) The next chapter should be out sometime towards later next week definitely !!!! Thanks so much for your encouraging comments and your constant support, it's reviewers like you that keep me writing even at my lowest ebb when the "creative" juices refuse to flow !!! MMmm, Tsukasa does appear to be attracted to our Tsukushi doesn't he? There will be more interaction between both of them next chapter, as well as R&T !!!!
just a teen: Ah, another familiar name! Sorry, it's been taking a bit long because this period has been unusually hectic, but my plan was originally to update once a week – the same as previously. Next chapter will definitely be up sometime next week. I'm definitely not mad at all! I love constructive criticism especially when it helps me to write better. Thanks so much for your kind comments i.e. you like it even though admitted the meeting was really cliché! Coz angel310 had exactly the same comment, I'll paste my response to her here as well! "I actually had a couple of meetings in mind, but I selected this in the end for two reasons: (i) I wanted to draw a parallel between her meetings with Tsukasa and Rui to highlight how different they were in terms of similar actions resulting in totally different impressions and invoked emotions on the part of Tsukushi, and (ii) damn my wacky sense of humour ;)! I thought it was funny and kind of ironical for poor Tsukushi that every time she would "meet" a cute guy who would play a more prominent role in her life or have a stronger effect on her by bumping into them each time ;)!" Or did my "joke" fall flat?