Rating: G
Words: 796
After Iku Kasahara bowed politely and exited the conference room, the recruitment team took a brief recess from their morning of interviewing potential recruits. It was now approaching lunchtime, so somebody had brewed the few officials a fresh pot of tea and set out some light snacks. Dojo stood and stretched, hoping to hide his fraying nerves from his coworkers after that last particularly grueling interview- ironic, considering he wasn't even the one being interviewed. But as usual, where his best friend was involved, he couldn't catch a break, and Komaki and Genda hounded him before he could reach the table with the refreshments on it.
"That was her, wasn't it?" Dojo stifled a groan and kept his back to Komaki as he poured himself a cup of tea.
"Do I have to answer that?" he grumbled, bracing himself for the onslaught of mockery.
"So it was the girl you stuck your neck out for in the bookstore! She was practically singing your praises, and it looked like she had no idea it was you!" Komaki laughed as he put a few snacks on his small paper plate. "How can you like someone so much and not even know when you're right in front of him? Talk about a bad memory for faces!" Dojo rolled his eyes, hoping to extract himself from the conversation and enjoy a break in peace when Genda piped up from Komaki's other side.
"We have to hire her."
"What?!" Dojo snapped his head back to level a shocked glare at Genda. "A girl with such frivolous reasons for wanting the job?! No way, I won't allow it!"
"Good thing it's not your decision," Genda reminded him.
"Wanting to fight against unjust censorship is a "frivolous reason"?" Komaki intoned, delivering the follow-up attack at Dojo's weak and biased argument.
"Not that reason," Dojo spat back, feeling his temper rising steadily.
"What I mean is," Genda waved Kasahara Iku's official application around with the hand not holding a plate piled high with snacks, "she designated the defense force as her first choice. That's crazy rare, especially for a woman. Can you imagine the higher-ups hearing that we turned away a woman gunning for the defense force, of all things, just because one of our officers had a personal problem with her?" Dojo grimaced, knowing he was losing this argument and hating every second of it. He changed tack, turning to face his assailants head on.
"If you do this," he warned, keeping his voice even in an effort to control his temper, "that girl doesn't ever hear a single word of this. Are we understood?" Komaki and Genda exchanged glances, but Komaki, still smiling, raised his right hand loyally.
"I understand." He gave a small mock-salute, but for all his joking Dojo knew he wouldn't betray his trust. He turned his glare on Genda, who brashly muttered "this is silly", but followed suit.
"I'll even make sure she's under your instruction so you can keep an eye on her," Genda added, grinning impishly. Ignoring him, Dojo turned away sharply to give the same ultimatum to the other recruitment officers, who made fun of him slightly less and agreed to keep his secret.
"But what if she figures it out on her own?" Komaki asked as they slowly returned to their seats for the next round of interviews, wanting to prolong the fun of watching Dojo suffer because of Kasahara Iku.
"Then there's nothing we can do about it," Dojo responded shortly, not allowing the discomfort behind that idea to linger. Komaki looked disappointed at his lack of reaction.
"What if I forget, and let it slip?" Genda asked as he sat down, blatantly just messing with Dojo. Dojo didn't say anything, shooting a withering glare at him while Komaki failed to hold in a burst of laughter.
"Okay, okay! Kidding!" Genda threw up his hands placatingly. "For what it's worth, there wasn't even an ounce of recognition on her face. Not even a suspicion," Genda soothed, still making fun of Dojo's sensitivity to the situation. He rubbed his temples in frustration.
"Oh, but what if-"
"Let's go ahead and start the next round," Dojo announced, cutting off Komaki and taking the initiative to move things along (and forcibly change the subject). Everybody else had looked about ready to move on anyway, so the officer closest to the door went to invite the next potential recruit into the room for the interview, and they left the problem of Kasahara Iku behind.
In the end, Dojo only had a brief respite after the disastrous interview to relax before Iku Kasahara was inevitably hired along with a slew of other new recruits, entered the Library Force's training period, and muscled her way into his life forever.