Backtrack
Yu Kanda
The temperature was tepid; not too cool, but not too warm.
That was good. Hot weather made me regret having to wear a suit, but cold weather made everyone complain and annoy me all the more.
The décor had been tastefully chosen by yours truly, black walls seeming to steal what little light the overhead lamps produced, the room bathed in a dim glow. I could've turned the brightness setting up, had I not despised the light and purposely made it all this way. Too much light was annoying.
If I was being honest, everything was annoying.
A futon sat to my right beside the large bookcase and filing cabinet where I stored all the papers that needed signing, and a giant wall of glass to my left, the morning city view unable to be seen due to the thick black blinds I'd bought to hide myself from the sun and the godforsaken world below.
I was never one to really care all that much for a view that only showed most of what was wrong with this boring world. Besides, I already knew what I'd see: thousands of people milling around wasting their insignificant little lives, smoke crawling up in thin grey tendrils and polluting the already toxic city air, one drab grey building after another, stretching up towards the skies they would never meet.
It was always the same, nothing ever changing. With my head resting on my hand, elbow propped up on the desk, my eyes drifted back to the woman before me.
Her fists were balled and the hatred she felt for me was written across her red face as plain as day. She shook with it, and I was half expecting her to end up throwing something at me. Now that would have been entertaining.
"I've wanted to say this from the moment I met you," she began, voice low, though gradually rising with every few words. "You're a bastard! A cold-hearted sadistic dick!" The woman screeched, face as red as a boiled shrimp, plain brown eyes watery. "I'M AMAZED AS TO HOW YOU'RE EVEN ABLE TO RUN THIS GODDAMN COMPANY, YOU PIECE OF SHIT! I QUIT!"
And with that, my thirty-second PA promptly escorted herself out without the aid of the security men of whom I had yet to call.
"Che." It wasn't my fault that every single one of them so far had all been incompetent imbeciles. They could at least come up with something more original; it wasn't like I hadn't heard all that before.
My first had quit two month in after a dispute we'd had over the quality of his work. He, for some absurd reason, came up with the notion that he was too good for me and deserved better.
My second spilt coffee all over the rug; no way was I letting a klutz like her near my work.
The third had quit; I don't even remember why.
The fourth, too, had quit.
After that, I'd gone out of my way to test them. Unfortunately, the little shits -who should have been able to handle it all considering they were the idiots who applied for the job in the first place- all left before the three-month mark. As of today, the list of potential replacements had practically dwindled down to nothing. I doubted that there were any actually left to even consider the position.
Well, Komui had once told me that he had he had the perfect temp waiting in reserve in case a situation like this were to ever arise. Though, that was nearly a year ago.
I didn't even need a PA, really, but that damned Teidoll insisted, and since this was technically his company, I had no choice but to go along with it.
Why that old man just didn't keel over and die already annoyed me to no end.
And another thing; why Komui of all people knew a good temp remained a mystery. Why would anyone apply to him? He was a Department Head for Christ's sake! Unless they didn't apply, and it was just someone working under Komui…
Great, Komui wanted to shove one of his overworked geeks onto me.
I groaned into my hands, elbows on the desk. "This sucks… Fucking Teidoll… Fucking Komui…"
Now wasn't the time for this, though; definitely not when there was work to be done. So instead of continuing on with my angry mutterings, I retrieved my phone from where it sat on the corner of my desk.
I glared at the bright screen offensively, like this situation was all its fault, scrolling through my -short- list of contacts with a click of my tongue. When I finally found Komui's contact information, I composed a quick two-word message then jabbed at the tiny green 'send' on screen with a touch more force than necessary.
SisterComplex
Today 7:26 am
[ PA quit ]
The phone beeped almost ten seconds later, informing me of the received message. And the fact that the bastard probably wasn't even working, considering how fast he'd replied. Goddamn slacker…
SisterComplex just now
[ I gocha covered 👌👍✌ ]
slide to reply
I rolled my eyes at his childishness and persistent use of emojis, pushing my hair back out of my face from where it had escaped its confines.
More of it fell, and I sighed, more out of exasperation than anything else. With sure hands, I pulled it out completely, letting it fall down my shoulders so I could run my hands through it to disentangle any stray knots. Not that there'd be any.
I tied up my hair in a high ponytail after I'd finished checking for knots -there weren't any- and was now waiting solely for Komui, finger tapping impatiently on the dark hardwood desk. The fool always knew how to test my patience.
That's around when I heard the aforementioned fool's annoyingly cheerful voice. I couldn't hear what was said, though, his words being muffled by the thick door that led to my office.
And then said door opened, some kid ungracefully falling into the room.
A kid who hurriedly straightened himself up, and, at my stare, quickly looked down, very adamant on not meeting my gaze directly.
The sister complex filed in soon after, wearing a stupid grin. No surprise there.
"This is him?" I scoffed, leaning back in my chair. Surely Komui was joking.
Iridescent silver peeked up at me, and then returned back down to the floor. His face was young, looking to belong to someone in high school, maybe a junior, or a senior at most. And he had some kind of weird star-shaped purple/red tattoo that had a connecting line trail down and cut through his eyelid, hooked once, and ended like a tear mark rolling down his left cheek.
And did I mention that his hair was white? Because it was.
Not pale blond, not old-man grey, but shoulder-length, fucking snow-coloured silky strands of obviously dyed hair.
Really, Komui? THIS is the 'perfect temp'?
"Yep!" The purple-haired man wiggled his fingers at me in farewell, leaving with nothing more than a 'have fun you two'.
The kid flinched at the sound of the door clicking shut behind him, indicating that it wasn't likely his decision to be here. The way his eyes kept flicking from my feet to the door supported my theory.
Wanting to get this over with as soon as possible, I stood, snatching a folder from one of the few piles sitting in front of me.
I walked around him, trying to soak in his appearance. Since I'm not normally one to judge another based on their face alone, I've taken to doing this when meeting new people. Not only does it help with checking their clothes and posture of which they present themselves (which tell a lot about a person), but I've also heard that it's a pretty unnerving experience for the other party. Sucks to be him.
He wore a crisp white dress shirt, the fabric soft looking, probably freshly ironed, partnered with deep grey slacks, and a vest of the same colour. A simple red ribbon replaced the tie that most wore; a good call on his part, considering a tie would ruin the semi-innocent look he had going for him. A look that outlandish tattoo was ruining.
The kid was completely still, aside from the occasional twitching of gloved fingers; an obvious nervous tick. His eyes were fixed to the ground, though if it was out of respect or fear, I honestly couldn't have cared less
"Follow."
He obeyed, following me out to where I dropped the folder on his new desk. The thing had been here since I'd being instated as the Vice-chairman of this place and still had yet to have anyone work at it for more than a few months. A complete waste of perfectly good furniture, really.
"You'll work here," I droned, crossing my arms, tired of having to go over all this for the thirty-third time already.
Wanting this over with as soon as possible, I explained his job, keeping everything brief, then left before he even had time to sit down, throwing the door shut behind me. He wouldn't be here for long, so there wasn't any need for me to talk to the little freak longer than necessary.
I paused by my desk, frowning down at my phone. Giving in, I reached for it, quickly pulling up the most recent conversation and adding to it.
SisterComplex
Today 7:49 am
[ What the hell?! ]
After waiting a few minutes, there was no response.
That was unusual.
SisterComplex
Today 7:52 am
[ KOMUI ]
Another short wait. Still nothing.
SisterComplex
Today 7:55 am
[ I know you saw my text! ]
He was ignoring me.
I, Yu Kanda, was being ignored by that infuriating, good-for-nothing slacker of a Sister Complex.
My hand tightened around the phone, strangling the life from it as I ground my teeth, fighting the urge to punch something. Preferably something with glasses and purple hair.
Angrily, I glared at the door.
What was I supposed to do with a child? Komui knew how much a hated the things.
And I didn't even need a PA in the first place! Why was this happening?
The kid would be useless!
He was obviously inexperienced, and that passive nature of his would get him nowhere in life. The way he held himself and moved spoke of a richer family, most likely using contacts just to get himself this far. And that tattoo? Rebellion in his younger years. Well, the dumbass couldn't get rid of it now. Seriously though, what kind of idiot gets something like that tattooed on their face? Not only would it require one to possess copious amounts of stupidity, but that person would have in no way been thinking about their immediate future.
Did he think that appearances didn't matter as long as he had connections? Was that it?
Did Komui have plans for me to haze the rookie or something?
I released a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding, leaning against the desk.
Whatever. It's not like it mattered all that much in the end anyway. As long as the work got done, I couldn't care less.
The stuff I gave him would keep the brat busy for the rest of the day anyway, and with the passwords for the computer being written down beside it, my job of babysitting him was over for the day.
WVW
My eyebrows rose at the sight of a certain little email in my drop box. Clicking on it, I was just about ready to go off at the kid for rushing and giving me some unacceptably shitty table of incomprehensible strings of numbers in some useless attempt to impress me, because there was no way he could have sorted through it all in such a short amount of time, except, a quick scan of the data told me it was all there. A deeper, more thorough read over of the table also told me that there wasn't one mistake. Not one. That should not have been possible.
Useless brats like him shouldn't have been able to do so much in only three hours!
I pushed myself up out of my chair, making a beeline for the door and silently slipping out to confront the boy.
However, unlike his work, the brat wasn't there.
Nope. Instead of the white-haired assistant that had been leant to me, all I found was an empty seat and a dark computer screen.
Where the fuck…?
Then I remembered what I'd told him earlier. Before he'd finished off six hours' worth of work in half the time.
He actually left? There's still hours 'til his shift ends!
"Little shit…"
WVW
Don't we all just love Kanda?
And remember to tell me if you spot any mistakes! Those damn things are embarrassing.