Okay, so this is only a short chapter but has some elements which are necessary for the plot. I'll make sure next time I'll write a longer one.
She
"Thank goodness I'm not screwed!" said Mikan she released the breath she was holding. She just finished using the markers and was certain she wouldn't become a mother anytime soon. She finished up and went to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water "Hotaru really was exaggerating, she worries too much nowadays. Quite unlike her actually" said Mikan while pondering about Hotaru's excessive worrying. Amidst her thoughts she heard her phone ring. She placed the glass on the table and went to answer the phone call.
"Hello?" answered Mikan as she brought the phone to her ear.
"Mikan, are you at home right now?" came the voice of her boss Misaki Hirada.
"Misaki? Yeah I am, is there anything you need?" asked Mikan.
"I'm sorry to call you while you were relaxing but I need you back here in the office asap" said Misaki in an urgent tone.
"Oh no, it's fine. Is there something wrong?" asked Mikan again.
"A big client is coming and our paper work is in a bit of a mess" answered Misaki.
"I got it, I'll go there right away" Mikan hung up her phone and grabbed her purse and coat while storming out of her apartment room.
She
"Thank you coming all the way here personally. We should have some coffee sometime" said a middle aged man with a friendly tone shaking hands with Natsume.
"Ah yes, I would be delighted" said Natsume giving out his professional business smile.
"We are glad to be able to work with you" said Rumiko flashing her fake smile.
"Of course I would have a wonderful time with such an excellent sophisticated young woman" the middle aged man laughed "You have such an amazing fiancé Mr. Hyuuga, the both of you make a great couple!"
"Oh chairman, you make me blush!" giggled Rumiko, Natsume secretly rolled his eyes.
"Oh! This reminds me, I should introduce you to my staff they are very nice hard working people" said the chairman, he led them to another floor which was quite busy. The employees noticed the chairman and stood up to greet them.
"Good morning chairman!" greeted Nonoko cheerfully.
"Ogasawara, this is Mr. Hyuuga and Ms. Rumiko. I would like to introduce them to Hirada-san" said the chairman, Nonoko bowed to the other two.
"She's in her office right now" answered Nonoko, the chairman looked around the room like he was looking for someone.
"How about Sakura?" asked the chairman, Natsume's ears perked up a little.
"She's with Misaki-san" replied Nonoko.
"Perfect! I would like to visit them for awhile" said the chairman, Nonoko nodded and headed towards Misaki's office for a quick pop in and came back.
"They will be coming out shortly; they just had some paperwork to fix" explained Nonoko, Misaki came out of the office followed by Mikan then both Mikan and Natsume had a look of surprise on their faces. Rumiko glanced back and forth between the two then slowly wrapped her hands around Natsume's arm. Natsume tried to shake her off discreetly but Rumiko kept her hands clawed to his arm.
"Ah Harada-san, Sakura-san, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Hyuuga and Ms. Rumiko" said the chairman as he gestured towards Natsume and Rumiko.
"Hello" greeted Misaki with a smile; Mikan just gave a slight bow without saying anything.
"Harada-san here runs the publication section of our company; her great leadership ability has helped make our magazine a success" continued the chairman.
"I'm only doing my best chairman" smiled Misaki.
"And Sakura-san here is one of the most talented professionals here" boasted the chairman "I believe she will be reassigned somewhere else where her talents are needed even more"
"It's not certain yet chairman" said Mikan forcing a small smile.
"Well I just want to assure you that our company won't let you down with the help of these two" said the chairman. Mikan's cell phone started to ring; she excused herself and answered the call.
"Hello?" answered Mikan.
"Sakura-san, it's Karashima" replied the voice from the other line.
"Oh hello Karashima-san!" said Mikan delightfully, she glanced at Natsume who was looking at her. Mikan instantly turned her head back and walked away further from Natsume's earshot.
"I wonder who she's talking to" wondered Natsume as he ignored the conversation going on with the others.
"I'm not bothering you am I?" asked Karashima on the other line.
"Oh no, you have great timing actually. I just finished with some work" said Mikan.
"I feel bad for cancelling last time so I wanted to make it up to you" said Karashima referring to the incident where he got a sudden call from the clinic in the middle of hanging out with Mikan.
"Its fine, you don't need to feel bad" said Mikan.
"But I insist. I finished early today so I thought I would come by and see you" said Karashima, Mikan had a sudden thought.
"You're not by any chance here are you?" she asked.
"I'm in the lobby right now" said Karashima, she smiled.
"Okay, I'll come down in a minute" she said and hung up the phone. She went towards her work space to get her coat and purse and noticed it was only the chairman, Misaki and Natsume who were talking. Rumiko was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm sorry, I had a sudden call. Where's Ms. Rumiko?" asked Mikan trying to contain the sarcasm in her sentence.
"She said she had to go the bathroom or something" answered Misaki, Mikan nodded in response.
"Well, I'm going to take off now" Mikan bowed while Misaki and the chairman nodded in acknowledgement, she bowed to Natsume last without a word and walked right past him.
"I wonder if I can still catch her" thought Natsume since he was busy with the chairman.
She
Mikan was on her way to the lobby when she accidentally tripped and dropped her purse which spilled out the contents. She cursed her clumsiness and bent over to fix them when she overheard some voices.
"This is isn't like you, I know you don't want this" said a familiar male voice, Mikan thought it sounded like Karashima.
"Shut up! You don't know what I want!" yelled another familiar female voice, it sounded like Rumiko.
"I've known you since we were kids; you never wanted anything to do with the company since you didn't want to be treated like a puppet" Mikan finished fixing up her things and slowly went around the corner only to see it really was Karashima and Rumiko who were having the conversation.
"Oh Sakura!" said Karashima a bit shocked by Mikan's sudden appearance. Rumiko turned around and glared at her the moment she laid her eyes on Mikan's face. She glanced back at Karashima and quickly walked past Mikan, intentionally bumping into her shoulder. Mikan rubbed her shoulder and focused her attention back to Karashima.
"You two know each other?" she asked while Karashima had a hesitant look on his face.
"We're…old acquaintances" he finally answered "Did you just got here right now?" he said changing the topic.
"Ah yeah, I just arrived" she lied not wanting Karashima to know she overheard their conversation.
"Then let's go" said Karashima going back to his easy going face, Mikan smiled and went with him.
"But just exactly was that I heard? They've known each other since they were kids? It seems there so much I don't know about them" thought Mikan as she glanced at Karashima who seemed to be in deep thoughts.
She
Sorry, I have to end it here. I'm going on a weeklong trip later in the evening and I won't be able to update for awhile, but after my trip I will resume writing again so no worries.
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For twitter birds twitter(dot)com(forward slash)mapledumplings
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Thank you for reading!