Chapter-16
"What?! No.. wait!" Konomi said flabbergasted.
"You don't want breakfast?" Yuki asked innocently.
"No.. that's not it… I… the job.." Konomi said, still unable to comprehend a proper sentence.
"You want breakfast then? How about your usual blueberry pancakes with whipped cream and mixed-berry shake?" Yuki asked as he motioned for the waiter to come and take their order.
"What? How do you .. What? No wait…." Konomi was now even more confused as to how Yuki knew her favourite order?
"Hi. Can we please have blueberry pancakes with whipped cream and 1 egg and bacon breakfast meal with mixed-berry shake and black coffee?" Yuki said to the waiter.
"Yes of course." The waiter noted the order, repeated it and left.
"Listen to me. I did not mean that 'yes' just now. I need to think more about this." Konomi said.
"What is there to think about? What exactly is the offer that Satoh has made to you?" Yuki asked.
"That is none of your business." Konomi replied.
"Okay. Agreed. However if you work with him you cannot date him. You do realise that right? Otherwise you will forever be the girl who slept with the boss to get her job." Yuki said matter-of-factly.
"Date him? I don't want to date him! And anyway it is none of your business! I am leaving!" Konomi said just as the waiter brought their order.
Konomi couldn't get up as the waiter was putting down their order.
"Hey Konomi look here." Yuki said and just as Konomi looked up snapped a picture of them together with the food on the table.
"To old friendships" Yuki said and smiled at Konomi.
"We are not friends, Irie Yuki-san and I am not going to work for you." Konomi said but Yuki wasn't listening to her and instead was looking at his phone.
"Listen to me!" Konomi said out of frustration for Yuki's lack of attention to their conversation.
"I'm all ears Konomi. I'm all ears here on out." Yuki said and for what seemed like the millionth time, smiled mischievously.
Just then Konomi's phone rang. It was Tohru-san. The timing and Yuki's smile was so strange.
She picked up her phone looking confused.
"Hello? This is Sagawa Konomi." Konomi answered.
"Ah Yes Konomi-san. Where are you right now?" Satoh sounded out of breath.
"I am …." Konomi contemplated whether to tell Satoh the truth about her current company or not.
Yuki then took a sip of his cappuccino.
"You should tell him the truth. He knows you're with me." Yuki said at the same time that Satoh said on call, "I know you're with Yuki. Just tell me where." Satoh said.
"Cafe near the bus stop near my house." Konomi replied.
"Got it. Be there in 10." Satoh replied and hung up.
"What? No.. you don't need to…" Konomi said into her phone but Satoh had already hung up.
"You might as well just eat your breakfast in the meantime you know." Yuki motioned to the plate of pancakes in front of her.
Konomi chose to instead give Yuki a death glare.
"What did you do?" Konomi asked.
"Oh nothing. I just shared our good memory just now with my old friend Satoh. Why? I can't do that? From what I know, he has become close to you too recently. So he is a friend for you and me." Yuki replied.
"What? You what?" Konomi could not believe that Yuki was acting so childish and so unlike himself.
"People do that these days you know. Social media and all." Yuki said innocently.
"People upload the picture online for all of their friends to see. Not share it in personal messages." Konomi said.
"Satoh is the only friend I thought was okay to see the picture." Yuki replied. "But if you insist, I can upload it on my social media account for the world to see. You know how it is. Being young, single and chairman of such a company. People are unnecessarily invested and interested in my life." Yuki said and started again on his phone.
"No no wait! That's not what I meant and you know it." Konomi replied.
Konomi's phone buzzed and it was a message from an unknown number. Konomi opened the message and saw the picture Yuki had taken. In the picture Yuki was smiling while Konomi seemed surprised, making the picture give off that cute feeling of breakfast dates.
Breakfast date?! What?!
"That's my personal number. Save it. The picture came out well, didn't it? It looks like we're on a breakfast date." Yuki said.
"Except we are not." Konomi said.
"You never did tell me about the job offer from Satoh." Yuki said as he took a bite of eggs.
"No I did not. And like I said it is none of your business." Konomi replied.
"Are you planning to act hostile towards me for the rest of our lives?" Yuki asked.
"That depends on whether you are going to continue to act like this for the rest of our lives. And I don't think we will see each other for that long." Konomi replied.
"Nothing is set in stone Konomi. We never know what life has in store for us." Yuki replied.
"Life turns out the way we work out for it too." Konomi replied.
"Didn't think you'd turn out this way. Where did the bright and sunny Konomi go?" Yuki asked.
"She came to her senses when she got her heart broken by a man no good for her time." Konomi replied.
"I broke your heart that day. Is that it?" Yuki asked.
"Is that it?! What? You think it is a small matter? And anyway I do not want to talk about this." Konomi said and mindlessly started cutting into her pancakes.
"The day at the reunion… why did you kiss Satoh?" Yuki asked.
Konomi dropped her knife in shock. "What? I never kissed Tohru-kun!" Konomi replied.
"Well. We can improve that soon enough." Satoh replied.
Both Yuki and Konomi looked up to see Satoh taking the seat beside Konomi.
"I can see we are having a hearty breakfast. Well I should order some too." Satoh said and motioned for the waiter.
"I'll have what she's having." Satoh gave the order and then turned to Yuki.
"Never thought I would receive such a photo from Yuki. I wonder whatever made you do that?" Satoh asked Yuki point-blank.
"Oh nothing. I wanted to give you a good reason to come out here at this time." Yuki replied.
"I'm here now. Tell me." Satoh said.
"According to Irie Yuki-san, I should work for him as his secretary as I cannot work for you and date you cause then I will be the girl who slept with the boss." Konomi summarised.
"Sleeping with the boss. I doubt we'll do it just once." Satoh replied and immediately Konomi started resembling the colour of her bright pink mixed-berry shake.
"So that means, if she works for you, she can date me without any worries, right?" Satoh asked Yuki.
"If she wants to. My company has no rules deciding the personal lives of the employees." Yuki replied.
"How about it Konomi-san? What do you think?" Satoh asked Konomi.
"I don't know." Konomi replied honestly.
"I'm sure what Yuki has offered you is considerably better than what I offered you. Think of those two job offers as just that - job offers. Nothing more nothing less, separate from me and Yuki. And I assure you, regardless of your decision, I would like to date you with marriage in mind Konomi-san." Satoh declared.
"What? Tohru-san that's…" Konomi could not believe her ears.
"Are you sure about that Satoh? What about your 4 year old child?" Yuki said.
As soon as the words were out of Yuki's mouth, colour drained from Satoh's face and Konomi was utterly shocked.
"You are married?" Konomi asked Satoh and quickly got up to leave.
"No that's not it. Wait." Satoh said to Konomi but Konomi had already gotten up.
"It's okay. Like you said I will consider the two job offers as just two job offers, separate from the two of you. I will leave now and will let you both know by tomorrow evening. I am leaving. Please don't follow me out." Konomi said and left.
Satoh got up anyway to follow Konomi. Yuki held Satoh's shoulder to stop him.
"Let me tell you something about Konomi. She is straightforward about her feelings. She means what she says and doesn't play those games of saying something but meaning something else. She said not to follow her and I think we should do just that." Yuki said.
And with that, Konomi left the cafe.
