Women are really a pain, thought Yokozawa as he was heading back to the sales floor after the meeting. It was still this early and he already had a headache. Why did every single meeting have to turn into a heated argument? Damn it all, Yokozawa rubbed his eyes to shake off the weariness, opened his laptop and started working. He's already looked through the sales plan for the next month, and has already finished his share of work, but there was one thing he was not particularly happy about. Marukawa wanted to expand their sales by increasing the number of bookstores their works were sold at. Including a relatively big number of really small towns. Of course, the one who had to talk this over with the stores was Yokozawa. This time his business trip destination was a small town in Fukuoka. He didn't like being separated from Masamune for so long, for it was dangerous, seeing how close they were with Onodera. But there was another annoying thing about the trip that made him lose all the tiny bits of motivation he had – he had to take his new subordinate with him. And what's more, it was a young woman.

Yokozawa unconsciously glanced to the side at the girl. It was a newly appointed assistant of his. She did almost the same work as Henmi, and was somewhat similar to him during the first days of her employment. Seeing that he found Henmi's work satisfying, he agreed to hire the girl. But she turned out to be quite a pain. Compared to Henmi who always obeyed Yokozawa's orders and was rather considerate when Yokozawa was not in the mood, the girl was a disaster. He just couldn't get along with her. All their talks about work turned into an argument. Every time she had any objections, she would say them out loud while looking right into his eyes.

That woman must be a wolf in sheep's clothing, Hanamura Hana, Yokozawa thought. At that moment the woman in question looked him straight in the eyes, startling him. Oi oi, what am I turning away for? I wasn't doing anything bad, was I? Despite being curious if she was still looking at him or not, Yokozawa concentrated on his work, not wanting to be caught again.

Marukawa was one of the biggest publishing companies, and therefore, was very difficult to get into. But having graduated from Kyoto University, Hana had very good references and was favoured when she came for the interview. The interview with Yokozawa-san was the second one out of three, the first one being with the human resource managers and the third being with Yokozawa's boss. Hana has always loved books, but since she couldn't become a writer herself, she figured she might as well try selling them. Yokozawa-san left a good impression on Hana. He seemed to be quite competent, hard-working and very knowledgeable in the sales sphere. Hana didn't think of herself as ambitious, but she knew for sure that she didn't want to remain a mere assistant for her whole life, and Yokozawa-san was probably the one she could learn a lot from.

… But who knew that this grown up big man in a suit would turn out to be such an emotional housewife in reality? It was the worst. She just didn't know how to handle such men at work. Not to mention, she didn't know how to handle such superior men at all. Remembering her first meeting Yokozawa-san took her to, hana looked at him. Her table was positioned very conveniently; she could see both Yokozawa-san and Henmi's profiles as they were sitting in front of her facing each other. Yokozawa-san seemed to be deep in thought over something as he was staring at the screen of his laptop. Hana put her chin on her hand and smiled. Recently, she has caught herself thinking that seeing Yokozawa-san serious and concentrated like that made her feel at ease whenever she felt tense at work. At that moment Yokozawa lifted his eyes from the screen and Hana swiftly looked away. Not good, not good, she thought. Am I a stalker? Hana pretended to be working on her laptop as well. But she wanted to look at him again. Just one quick glance! But when she lifted her eyes, she found him staring at her. Huh? Before she could realize it, Yokozawa turned away and closed his mouth with his hand. W-what was that just now? Hana hid her face in her hands, as it started burning up. N-now, what did I come here for? Right! Work, work! Hana suddenly remembered she had to finish everything by next Wednesday, otherwise she wouldn't be able to go on the business trip with Yokozawa-san. Then wait… what day was it today? Hana cautiously looked at the desk calendar to find out it was only a week away. And she still had to analyze the sales data, write two reports and think of her own ideas that she could suggest to increase the sales (it was her hidden ambition). Hana buried herself in piles of paper with tables and other data and immediately forgot about Yokozawa.