Author's Notes: I would like to hear what you think of each chapter, so I can improve on my writing. That's why detailed reviews are much, much appreciated. Thank you very much!
Echoes Of The Past
Miscalculated Impression
Blinking as if to awake from a dream, Kaede found herself standing with her palm on the glass window, looking out at nothing in particular. It was almost too strange to be digging up her buried past. But she has her reasons for remembering.
Kaede remembers that day exactly as it has been, up to the insignificant details...as though a single day has not passed. Slowly, the images shifted together, each piece of puzzle linking onto another until they completed the memory in her head. She took a deep breath, focused, and the replay began.
It was another busy morning for the president of the Nagasaki Holdings and Company. Papers mounted on her desk, eyes quickly scanning the lines and pen scribbling furiously. There was a light knock on her door before her secretary's head poked in, her eyes blinking uncertainly. "Ma'am?" she asked, her eyes blinking rapidly behind her big frames, knowing full well that she was going to be in scalding hot water. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but—"
"I already told you to cancel any meetings I had for the afternoon, didn't I? Can't you see I'm busy?" she asked rhetorically, gesturing at the mountainous piles of paperwork neatly stacked on her desk and glaring at the petite woman who seemed to have shrunk another few inches smaller over the last few seconds.
"But there's a man outside who--" The secretary was unable to complete the sentence.
Kaede was about to say "deal with it" when the door flew open, revealing a tall, curly-haired man dressed in a crisp black suit standing behind her secretary who suddenly looked like she was going to faint.
Kaede's eyes locked with the man's intense ones. For what seemed like minutes but were actually a fraction of a second, they remained in contact, eyes that tried to read each other, until Kaede broke the stare, looking up once again only with the same hard, impassive mask she always wore. She had felt her heart flutter, like she wanted to dissolve under his stare and yet she stopped all the thoughts that filled her head even before she could dwell on them. She had been well-trained over the years.
"You have no right to burst in here just like this," she said in an icy tone that intimidated most of the people and sent them scampering for dear life.
But the man wasn't like most of the people.
He merely smiled at her, his eyes like black opals twinkled before her; the scowl on his face just moments ago vanished into thin air.
"If you are not going to leave, I will have to call security," she said rather quickly, looking down to hide the faint blush that was creeping up her face. The man's dazzling smile had left her totally at a lost for a sharp remark and she had found herself suddenly confused and uncertain.
But before she could finish punching in the numbers of the security personnel, a hand wrapped around hers, surprising her. She looked up only to find herself face to face with the man. (He was one of the most gorgeous men she had ever laid eyes on.) Apparently, the secretary, in order to avoid the impending crossfire, had darted off as soon as she could, leaving only the two of them behind.
How dare he... She was about to blow a fuse. No one dared stop her before, and he was on her territory. Damn it, she thought, hastily pulling away her hand from under his. When she had composed herself, hiding the reactions he had invoked in her, she looked up only to find him smiling at her.
It was a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin.
She felt insulted. What was so darn funny? "What are you laughing at?"
"You." He simply stated. He sat across her, crossing his leg and leaning back comfortably.
Fine, she thought. If you want to play, I'm game. She wasn't about to let him gain the upper hand. If he had no plans of leaving, then she decided to entertain him. She took on a much calmer expression.
"So, what actually brings you to my office?" she asked nonchalantly with hands clasped together, looking like an subservient receptionist, completely ignoring the man's eyebrow that suddenly shot up.
She was on familiar grounds now.
She wanted to cackle loudly, but had to content herself in laughing inside.
She wasn't going to let him get away for making fun of her.
One afternoon was all it took. She thought she had him like a stringed puppet under her skilled manipulative hands. But once again, she had underestimated him. If anyone had the guts and the talent to contest hers, it was he. She had met her match.
It turned out he was already working as a business analyst for the corporations for the last two years and have greatly contributed to the increases in their sales. But he was tired of being pushed around doing all the work and receiving minimal credit for his brilliant ideas. He decided to talk to the big boss herself. Hence, their untimely meeting...that turned out to be in perfect timing after all.
"Well, you see what difference it makes even with just a slight change in outdoor operations? Every little cent wasted is a loss for the company..." He had been speaking for the last hour, explaining new concepts in marketing strategies. On the other hand, she had been listening intently, amused, surprisingly interested and slightly impressed at his intelligence, which was to say already a big thing since she hardly ever got impressed anymore. And she probably need not mention that his exceptionally good looks had made her feel like an infatuated teenager again. But she had no intention of letting him know just that.
"What about manpower then? If, if I had agreed to opening another branch like you suggest, wouldn't it just be another accretion to my expenditures, not to mention the risk it involves?" She challenged his ideas, interrupting every once in a while, wondering how he would retaliate. She loved stumping other people and watching them lose all confidence and squirm in her presence.
"Ah, but that's something that the adminstration had overlooked," he said with a sparkle in his deep eyes. "If only we place the operators in key positions thus minimizing the need for manpower, we could at least come out with more or less a surplus of sixty men. These men shall then be reassigned to outdoor operations. For this reason, you now have a new branch and yet maintain the same number of people on the paylist." He smiled one-sidedly.
Smart Ass.
It was now her turn to squirm.
She didn't know if it was the remarkably smart answer or his commanding presence. He was approximately just six inches from her. Had she felt him coming closer, she would've moved or done something, but now it's too late. He had both hands on her desk and his face boring down fixedly on her. She was cornered...trapped, in her own game. She didn't know what to say.
Unbelievable.
Now, she could say she really was impressed.
"So what about continuing our discussion over a steaming cup of coffee?"
What started out as a heated argument ended in an afternoon coffee break...somewhere far, far away from the non-stop bustle of the office.
"Mr. Doumyouji, I don't usually do this..." Kaede started.
"Hisaki, please. You mean, date your employees?" he insinuated. (AN: Did I mention he was a smart ass?)
"Damn it. Will you let me finish?" She said crankily, trying to hide the crimson blush creeping up her face and failing miserably.
He nodded, stifling a chuckle at how fidgety she looked at that moment. Here was a woman totally different from the stiff, indomitable President Nagasaki he had met just hours ago. This just proves that first impressions aren't always right.
"I was going to say, before I was rudely interrupted, is that I don't usually do promotions just after one meeting. But I have to admit that you've caught my interest with your creative ideas and so tomorrow, you are the newest junior executive in the Nagasaki Holdings and Co." There. He fell silent at last.
"I, I...don't know what to say," Hisaki had breathed out after a few seconds.
"A simple 'I accept it' would be a good way to go," she said, sipping her cup of tea delicately. She was trying hard not to shake under his watchful eye. She hadn't been this "friendly" with anyone before. Definitely not with a man, or a very handsome gentleman at that. If truth was told, she was scaring even herself.
One thing led to another. (No, not what you're thinking. Not yet anyway.)
Soon enough, Hisaki had climbed up the corporate ladder and was second only to Kaede herself. His beat-up convertible had been traded in for the latest BMW. His cramped little apartment abandoned for a high-class condominium. Hisaki had become "The Marketing Genius." His handsome face had been plastered in all the business magazines and frequented the business section of newspapers. In other words, he was RICH and FAMOUS.
Vice President Doumyouji. New Title. New car. New home. New image. New life.
New...wife?