I decided to stay in the office late way after everyone had gone home, after, carrying a stack of manga. My new boss was irritated and snippy the rest of the day, but he seemed about as harmless as a kitten. I sat the mangas down at my new desk, taking a seat and opening the first one up.
If I gave up and turned tail then it would just give Onodera the right to say his first impression of me was spot on, and my pride couldn't allow that. If I did my damnedest and still failed, then it was my own fault. But if I don't try and I'm considered useless...I couldn't allow that.
I didn't end up going home until well into the night and even then it took me some extra time to fall asleep. Needless to say, come morning time I was exhausted. I didn't bother to hide my rather sour mood as I made my way to the office.
"Good morning." I greeted, eyes half closed with exhaustion.
"Good morning, Takano-kun." Came the energetic reply.
Ignoring my little eye twitch of irritation, I realized I must have walked into the wrong office. What was once a battlefield was now a pink, cotton-candy glitter fest that my exhausted form wasn't ready to absorb.
"I'm sorry, my mistake, Emerald-" I started as I began to turn around, but a very young looking editor was quick to snatch my arm.
"What are you talking about? We're right here!" He said cheerfully. "Sorry about yesterday, but we managed to get the manuscript in before the deadline so it's all good again! We're back at the beginning of our cycle." He explained.
I looked at him a bit skeptically, but I did vaguely recognize him as one of the passed out editors from yesterday.
"Cycle?" I questioned. I remembered it being briefly mentioned yesterday, but not explained.
The quieter, more stone-faced editor looked to Onodera. "Did you not explain the cycle to him?" He asked and Onodera scowled.
"From the way he was acting yesterday he seemed like he already had it all figured out, so why should I have to explain it to him?" My 'superior' (god, really?) replied.
"We make books in twenty day cycles." The stoic editor started, realizing Onodera was not going to start explaining anytime soon. "So, towards the end of the cycle things get crammed and extremely stressful, resulting in the conditions you saw yesterday."
"But now we're good to go! And we'll totally teach you all the ropes, Masa-chan!" The baby faced editor said almost too excitedly-and wait. Masa-chan? What the hell? "I'm Kisa, over there is Hatori, and this is Mino." He introduced each of them and I merely gave a slightly stunned nod. My sleep deprivation was not helping me come to terms with this pink and sparkly energy that was suddenly all around so I took my seat and deep breath. This was going to take some getting used to.
"So, you've seriously never worked with manga?" Kisa asked, head tilted slightly to the side in what I guessed was an attempt to look cute.
"No, I haven't. But, last night I read a bunch to try to sort of familiarize myself with it and I plan to read the rest of the mangas Emerald has published."
"Haaaa? Seriously? I could never do that! That would take so much time!" Kisa said, wincing at the mere thought. I smirked the tiniest bit in amusement.
"I used to do stuff like that in high school all the time. I was constantly in our schools library, so reading that much material in a small amount of time isn't anything new to me." I explained to him.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Onodera tense up before turning to look at me in...shock?
"What?" I asked before he quickly shook his head.
"N-nothing," he stuttered in reply and...was he blushing?
I shrugged the odd interaction off. Whatever that reaction of his meant didn't matter. I wasn't going to let him think I was useless.
