Hey guys! I know that I usually don't post a chapter this early, but I just finished my last Final Exam yesterday and my brother is coming in town today so I'm in a really good mood! This is it! the moment you all have been waiting for! Here is the next official chapter of SiH AU.
Disclaimer: Princesa Alisakura and I don't own SiH, but this is her story.
Don't like, Don't read!
'That was almost a month ago,' Rika sighed while drinking her lukewarm coffee.
It has been over a month since the young twenty-year-old started working at Marukawa Emerald, a month since she found out that her boss was ex-boyfriend and it's been a month since the encounter at the park.
She placed the cup down, making sure that it was away from the manga drafts, and began to look over them with Kisa.
Ever since that meeting at the park, Masamune continued to leave little toys at the woman's front door for Mika to have.
Recently, he started giving her money.
Child support, he said. Did that even exist in Japan?
'He's so full of himself,' Rika gave her edited version to Kisa for review, 'Of all the things he's been doing. The toys and the money I never use. He's never once come over to see her.'
They lived next door to each other so it wouldn't be much of a hassle for him to come over. So how come Masamune never came over?
He was a stranger, that's why. Both he and Rika knew who Mika's father was, but Mika didn't know. It wouldn't be right for the man to come over and tell that little girl he was her father. Masamune wanted to build a decent relationship with his daughter but he didn't know how.
Today was the start of the period, it was a slow day. A very slow and 'I'm going to drop dead asleep from boredom any second' kind of day.
Until.
"TAKANO!"
All of Emerald Department jolted awake at the sound of the booming voice. Barging in was a tall man in a suit. He had jet black hair and fuming grey eyes.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?" The man demanded all the while throwing a manga book front of Masamune who was calm.
Rika looked on with wide eyes in pure surprise but she immediately recognized the yelling man. It was that rude man from last month. She briefly looked around and saw that Kisa's normally smiling face became a scowl.
She turned her attention back at the man.
"This is the first print run!" He yelled, "And it sold out in one day! Even if we order a second run, it'll take ten days for it to be ready! What the hell are we going to do in the meantime?! Was it your idea to order a smaller print run?!"
Masamune's eye twitched.
"What did you say?!"
The employees of Emerald braced for impact.
Masamune turned towards the man with some rolled documents in his hand and had a face that screamed 'if you say another word, these papers will cause a bruise.'
"Did you conveniently forget?! I told them to make an extra 30,000 copies! Then your boss told me to reduce the amount, because it was "too much!" If you got a problem take it from there." He yelled back.
Just like that the calm atmosphere was gone and a yelling war of insults and defenses broke out, causing the entire department to work in a loud and awkward atmosphere instead.
Rika was just watching the two argue, until some papers were put on her desk by her co-worker Mino.
"Um, Mino-san?" She whispered, trying not bring attention. "Was there some kind of mess up. This is about this month's release right? I heard they sold more than they thought and had to reprint, but isn't that a good thing?" She asked wondering why they were arguing if the book was bigger hit than they thought.
"Yeah, but you lose time between now and reprinting. So really you lose sales during that time." He explained with his usual smile.
Rika finally got it, but Mino wasn't done explaining as he leaned down to her level.
"Actually, the editing team wanted a larger print and the meeting, but the sales team rejected it. Takano fought really hard, but they ended up ignoring him. So when it was time for the release, the print was too small." He explained.
Rika turn her head, briefly, towards the argument that was still going, then turned back to Mino.
"I guess, the editing team can't pick the amount alone. So who it that guy? Productions?" Rika asked.
"Nope. He's Marukawa's Wild Bear. He's the sale's-"But before Mino could finish a shadow loomed over them.
"My name is Yokozawa." He declared.
"Oh, you heard us?" Mino asked the obvious.
Both Rika and Mino turned to Yokozawa. Mino was still smiling despite the imitating look, but Rika couldn't help but feel like she was talking to a friend in class and was caught by the scariest teacher in school.
"Who are you?" He asked Rika.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I never did introduced myself. I got hired about a month ago. My name is Onodera Rika. I'm sure I have a lot to learn from you and I look forward to getting to know you." Rika gave a quick bow as she finished her introduction.
"Onodera? Ah, Onodera's publishing only child, right? So you're the one riding her daddy's coattails?" Now Rika was feeling the irritation of the conversation.
"Hey that's pretty rude! Weren't you guy who was rude to me last month too?" Rika commented, but it fell on deaf ears as he walked away from her.
"Anyway, Takano, just try avoid a similar mistake in the future." Then he walked off.
"You better make sure you boss isn't so incompetent first." Takano fired back.
Rika didn't know what happened. They had just formally met and yet he already humiliated her in front of the department.
"Onodera, ignore him." Masamune brought her out her thoughts. "So what you got a little help. Lots of people would love to be in your position."
"He's right." Hatori joined in. "There is nothing wrong with having a good background."
"That's right. You can always try one-top your father and make it big yourself." Then Kisa.
"Yeah. People need to get every advantage they can." Now Mino.
Rika couldn't help, but feel touched. Everyone was showing her support.
"T-thanks guys. I…"
"Well…" Masamune continued.
"But if you mess up, then you are nothing, but a failure." The whole team said at the same time. Rika felt another burn and couldn't help, but feel like they rehearsed and just waited for the right moment to tell her. Right now she felt a little bit closer to leaving the department.
Kisa was giving a small giggle after that. Rika quickly grabbed the thirty-year-old's ear and gave it a good pull.
"Ow! Ow! Rika-chan?!" Kisa tried to pull her wrist to get away, he turned to her and immediately felt scared. Rika seemed calm, but you could practically see the dark menacing aura around her. Everyone could see it too, putting a brand new awkward and scary atmosphere in the department, but right now Rika couldn't care.
"What was that…Kisa-san?" Rika asked.
"Nothing! I said nothing." Kisa replied quickly.
"That's what I thought." She said as she let go of Kisa's ear. Sometimes being a single mother had it's perks. You knew exactly how to handle brats.
Kisa was sitting at his desk nursing his ear. He had no idea that Rika could be so scary. Maybe giving her a tea-cake would calm her down.
As the day continued Rika continued to avoid her boss, but she couldn't be more obvious. Even though they were going five years ago and had a kid together, Rika thought that Masamune was just playing with her and with her the only one truly serious about the relationship. That was until recently, when her ex-boyfriend told her that he was serious about her just as much she was to him.
Now she was just confused. He promised that he would "make her fall in love again."
'No, no, no, not happening! "I'll make you say I love you again."? Who does he think he is?! Just think about work and Mika, just think about those two things.' She thought.
"Takano-san, Yokozawa just called and asked if you wanted go out drinking." Hatori said as he held the receiver.
"Tell him no."
"Please, tell him yourself. If you don't it will be my fault." Hatori tried to reason with Masamune to tell Yokozawa "No" himself, but he wouldn't take it.
'Yokozawa was that rude guy from earlier. They were going to bite each other's heads off and yet their drinking buddies? No! It has nothing to do with me.'
At the end of the day Rika finally was able to go home.
As she made her way around the corner to the exit, when she saw Masamune and Yokozawa at a small smoking station talking away. From what she heard it was about how to feed cats. Weird.
'Why do they have to be at the only exit?' She thought as they were talking. Then she saw something she never thought was possible.
Masamune was laughing.
She was so shocked as he never smiled, she couldn't even remember if there was a time when they were together that he smiled. But what really caught her attention was the way he smiled. It looked so familiar, so much like…
'Mika.'
'No it has nothing to do with me.' Rika thought as she finally went towards the door.
"Oi, is that anyway to leave, without greeting your superiors." Masamune stopped her just as she was about to walk out the building.
"I will see you tomorrow." And Rika left.
"I'm heading out." Masamune put out his cigarette. He wanted to catch up to Rika so they could take the same train. That way she would have nowhere to run.
"Hey, when will you go out with me?" Yokozawa asked.
"I got all these punk authors to deal with. I'll keep it in mind when proofs are done." And he headed toward the door.
"You liar, you never kept a promise like that."
"I kept it once." He fired back. He really wanted to end the conversation and catch up with Rika, he really wanted to catch up to the mother of his daughter, to the girl he loved for five years.
Rika could hear a conversation from the guys down the street. Something about Yokozawa going over to the apartment, but Masamune said no, but she wasn't paying much attention.
'What with them, one minute they were at each other and now they are acting like friends.'
Her thoughts were broken by Yokozawa's voice.
"You got that? Masamune?" That caused her to stop in her tracks.
'What?'