"And what you want, what you really need,
Are two different things, wouldn't you say?
The line is thin between fun and sin,
And we're all clockin' in for the day."
Holiday in My Head by Smash Mouth
V
Seto heard nothing from Kisara all weekend which, in a way, made sense. He realized almost immediately that he hadn't given her his phone number so there was no way for her to contact him and let him know if she accepted his offer. Despite this realization, he tried keeping Kisara out of his thoughts for the majority of the long weekend and tried focusing on other things.
Seto and Mokuba never spoke again of the Kisara matter, which made focusing on other things much easier. So much so that when Monday did roll around, Seto had almost forgotten his proposal completely, even up until he had finished sitting through his English class, thinking only about how boring the lecture was that day as he stared blankly at his textbook in front of him and nothing else. The Mondays after a long weekend always seemed longer, but at least the day was halfway over already.
As Seto was getting ready to leave the classroom and organizing his text books in his briefcase, he hadn't noticed Kisara was the last one in the classroom, sitting in front of him. "I've thought about your offer and I accept," was all Kisara said to him and that was when Seto finally remembered what he had nearly forgotten thinking about all weekend. Seto stopped rummaging through his backpack and looked up.
Kisara had already looked away, now she was the one gathering things from her backpack and placing them into her backpack. "Alright then," Seto said, "I expect to see you in my office today at four o'clock. Got it?" Kisara zipped up her backpack and got up from her desk.
"I'll see you then." Kisara turned away and walked out of the classroom. Seto couldn't hide his grin as he clicked his briefcase close and walked out of the classroom a few moments later. She had no questions for him? She wasn't curious about anything? Seto was beginning to believe that she thought this job was going to be easy. Little did Kisara know that Seto had a history with assistants… over the course of his career, he had gone through several assistants before deciding Isono would be the best man for the job. Working at Kaiba Corp. was already a stressful place to work, but working directly under the CEO of the company? It was no easy task.
Seto felt Kisara would understand exactly what she had gotten herself into later that day when she came into the office. The mere thought of showing her how hard it was to work at his company brought him joy; for there was nothing that brought Seto more joy than proving someone wrong. The day flew by after English class and before he knew it, school had ended and Seto was off to pick up his brother from school.
"Hey kiddo, how was school today?" Seto asked when Mokuba got into the car. Mokuba sighed.
"Long, hard… I don't want to talk about it. Can we go home today?"
"Sorry Mokuba, we have to go to the office today. Kisara is starting her first day at Kaiba Corp." Mokuba eyes widened, for he had forgotten Seto's proposal over the weekend as well. This must've meant Kisara had taken Seto up on his offer. He was still having a hard time figuring out whether this assistant thing was a good idea or a bad one, but he had high hopes for Seto and Kisara nonetheless.
"That should be fun," Mokuba said with a grin.
"It's business, Mokuba, and business isn't about fun. It's about work." And Seto was planning to work that day… making Kisara work even harder. That was where the real fun would begin as he would proceed in watching her break under all the pressure. It would be a delight indeed.
Seto walked into his office, blank of expression, and without giving Kisara even a glance. "Good afternoon," Kisara began to say, right before she was cut off by Seto as he sat into his seat and turned on his laptop.
"I need you to e-mail a memo to all Kaiba Corp. employees, try to write up a legible list of all the appointments I have today in order from this appointment book, and sort through all of my e-mails. Delete everything that isn't important," Seto said coolly before looking up and adding, "Oh, and I need all these things to be done within the next hour or you're fired. I don't have an office for you or anything but just set up over there and keep quiet." Seto handed Kisara a tiny laptop with a huge stack of papers on top along with an appointment book somewhere in the middle of the pile. Kisara didn't look the least bit concerned.
"I'm on it." Mokuba watched Kisara rush over to the other side of the room; there was a small table and chair there where she could work. Mokuba watched as she eagerly began to set up her work area by placing the laptop on the table and laying out all the papers on the floor. He shrugged and got up when he realized Seto and Kisara probably wouldn't be doing anything except working for the next couple hours which was the least entertaining thing to watch.
"Well, I'm going to go watch some T.V. in the lobby. I'll catch up with you guys later," Mokuba said before leaving the room. Seto took a split second to ponder whether being in the same room as Kisara, alone, would make things awkward but then he realized that there would be no reason for them to talk to each other if they were both busy working. Seto quickly ignored his previous thought and logged onto his computer.
Just then, a soft and calming music began to originate from Kisara's computer as she scanned the appointment book and began making notes on another sheet of paper. Seto turned away from his computer and glared at her.
"What is that?" Kisara looked up.
"Huh? What is what? Are you talking about the music?" Seto continued to glare at her. Kisara was taken back by this response, "I find that listening to classical music helps me concentrate. Do you not enjoy Mozart?"
"Shut it off." Kisara clicked the space bar and the music ceased.
"Sorry, I didn't know you hated classical music."
"For the record, I hate all music." Kisara said nothing in response and was quiet as she continued to do the tasks Seto assigned her to do. Forty-five minutes later, she had completed all of them.
"Here you go," Kisara said, handing back the appointment book as well as two sheets of paper with appointments and times written on them, "I also organized all of your e-mails and sent out the memo that you wanted me to." Seto snatched away the sheets of paper with the appointments written on it first.
"Well, congratulations, you're competent enough to do work at a reasonable pace. Good for you," Seto stated in the most unconcerned manner before looking down at the sheets of paper in his hand. His eyes went wide. "Why didn't you get this to me sooner?"
The smile on Kisara's face was suddenly wiped clean, "Wait, what? You just said a second ago that I did a good job…" Seto rose from his seat.
"I have a meeting with our biggest potential client in less than twenty minutes and I haven't prepared myself at all to meet with him. You should've showed me this sooner!" Kisara took a step back, absolutely astonished at her lapse of common sense.
"I… I… I didn't…"
"Just shut it and sit down. I can't concentrate with you standing near me right now," Seto barked as he frantically began straightening his desk and putting it in order. Kisara folded her arms, unsure what to do with herself. She couldn't help but feel ashamed as she watched Seto tidy up his desk. Kisara returned to her desk and flipped open the laptop, hoping to discover something useful to do.
Meanwhile, Seto was losing time. In five minutes he had managed to clean up his desk but he couldn't, for the life of him, find the papers he needed and he was feeling less than energetic that afternoon. He began cursing under his breath at himself for being so dumb as to set up an important meeting after being in school all day… and without having a cup of coffee.
"Coffee?" Kisara got up from her desk, "I'll get you coffee. Do you need coffee?" Seto shot a glare at Kisara.
"For future reference, I always need coffee. Now hurry up, I don't have much time."
"You got it." Kisara didn't bother asking where she could find coffee; she only knew she had to get it fast before Seto considered firing her over this. Just as she was about to walk out of the door, a man stood in her way.
"My apologies madam, but is this the office of a Mr. Seto Kaiba?" Kisara's eyes widened. She opened her mouth to speak, but Seto was the one to say the appropriate response first.
"Mr. Kazuko… welcome," Kisara moved away so that Seto could shake Mr. Kazuko's hand, "I'm terribly sorry I was ill-prepared for our meeting this afternoon. Was it difficult finding my office?"
"Yes, actually," Mr. Kazuko walked past the two of them and made himself comfortable on the couch in Seto's office, "I was surprised there wasn't anyone in the lobby to greet me. Was she the one you were going to send down?" Mr. Kazuko asked, eyeing Kisara. Kisara looked down, feeling utterly ashamed for herself.
"Yes… yes she was. I'm afraid we got caught up in other affairs… but no need for further explanation, let's talk business." Seto gestured Kisara to return to her post in the corner and Kisara silently obeyed. Seto, on the other hand, sat down on the second couch in his office, opposite to Mr. Kazuko.
"I agree. Let's talk business and why I don't want to do business with your company."
"I'm curious to know why that is."
"I'm just not convinced. Why do business with you when I can invest my money in Industrial Illusions?" Seto withheld shuddering in disgust.
"Because unlike Industrial Illusions, we produce items to go along with the card games we promote. We've enhanced the way people play duel monsters that's never been done before with our duel disk technology."
"If I recall, it was Pegasus who first came up with holographic dueling arenas."
"But I made them portable!" Seto stated loudly. Mr. Kazuko shook his head.
"By taking the technology of someone else and making it into something you can wear on your arm maybe good for money, Mr. Kaiba, but it's not the only thing I'm interested in. Quite frankly, it's not only your lack of ideas that disinterest me, but it's not like you hold the greatest report with the public. Pegasus is very well-received in comparison to what they of you… which is a stuck up jerk."
"He wouldn't be well-received if the public knew he was a kidnapper!" In that moment, Seto realized he had made a mistake. He couldn't help himself… he had such a headache at the moment! What little patience he had was deteriorating in a matter of seconds and for this client… he was going to need what little patience he possessed. It was then that he realized he needed coffee. That would cure him of his head pain and put him back on track. "Could you excuse me for a moment? I need to take a short break before continuing with our meeting."
Seto got up from the couch and quickly left the room. The moment he was gone, Kisara rose from her chair and walked over to Mr. Kazuko. "I think you should reconsider investing in Kaiba Corp. Seto Kaiba may not seem like the kindest fellow but it's really only because he's blunt and to the point. It's because of that that you always know what point he's trying to make and he never strives for anything less than perfect in his work. His work is reflected in the stock market. Kaiba Corp. produces quality you can't get anywhere else in the world and that's because Seto Kaiba care more about his clients and making them happy than anything else."
Mr. Kazuko eyed Kisara. She was a woman less than half his age and telling him what to do. Mr. Kazuko didn't know whether to be offended or impressed. He smiled and leaned forward.
"You've got quite a lot to say for merely an assistant. What makes you so sure you know these things for a fact?"
"I know this for a fact because… working at Kaiba Corp. has always been my dream for a long time even I'm just an assistant. I've researched and watched Kaiba Corp. grow from what it was to what it is today. This company stands for something, it means something. It's not just about good business! And I believe in what it stands for and I think you should too because this gaming company has more than just heart, it has class." Mr. Kazuko was extremely quiet and his facial expression hadn't changed the entire time Kisara had been speaking. Kisara could feel the shame creeping up on her again… she could do nothing except assume the worst; that she had ruined whatever chance Seto had of gaining this client completely. Kisara's last word lingered in her mind just as she saw Seto standing in the doorway, nearly about his coffee in shock. Mr. Kazuko turned around in his seat.
"Oh Mr. Kaiba, you've returned to us."
"Yes… and what seems to be going on here?"
"Oh… Mr. Kazuko and I were just talking about…"
"Go back to your desk where you belong." Kisara quickly returned to her desk and said nothing before catching sight of the glare Seto was shooting her way. The minute she sat down, Mr. Kazuko stood up.
"Mr. Kaiba, can you and I speak somewhere private?" Seto nodded, leading Mr. Kazuko out of his office and down the hall to an empty conference room. Seto shut the door behind him and prepared for the worst. He had already prepared an explanation speech in the ten seconds it had taken them to get to the conference room.
"Mr. Kazuko, I'm going to tell you right now that I hadn't intended—"
"You've got yourself a deal, Mr. Kaiba," Mr. Kazuko held out his hand towards Seto. Seto was stopped mid-sentence as he looked down at the hand held in front of him… then his eyes wandered back up to Mr. Kazuko's face as he shook the man's hand.
"Um… thank you, Sir. It'll be a pleasure to do business with you and your company."
"The pleasure belongs to that assistant of yours. She's the one who convinced me to do business with you. The girl has got some spunk in her… I suggest you give that one a raise before someone else spots her potential," Mr. Kazuko stated, "Good day to you, Mr. Kaiba. I'm sure we'll be speaking again soon." When Mr. Kazuko left the room that was when it had all hit Seto. He had done it. He had gotten the deal! No… he soon realized, it hadn't been him, it was Kisara who had done it. Seto had to take an extra second to think about that before returning to his office.
Kisara immediately rose from her desk when he entered. "Seto, I'm so sorry about what happened… I was only trying to help, I swear."
"We got the deal."
"Wait… we did?" Kisara sighed with relief and disbelief. She was sure she was as good as fired only a few moments earlier.
"Yes, we did… but I have to know for myself, what did you tell him that convinced him to do business with us?" Kisara shrugged and then smiled.
"I guess I just sold him on the idea," Kisara noted that Seto's cup of coffee was nearly empty, "Here, let me get you some more coffee." Kisara left the room, leaving Seto thoroughly impressed with her skills but also confused. A question came to his mind… If Kisara was his enemy, why would she help him? Somehow, without saying anything, Seto knew the answer. Could it be that deep down he knew she wasn't an enemy all along to him and that's why he had given her the job in the first place? If that was the case, if he knew she wasn't an enemy… then what was she to him?
Seto didn't want to think about it. There was no reason to think about it. He had gotten the deal and he was happy. For the time being, Kisara was his assistant and he was satisfied with that.
A/N: Hello all! Here I am, just over a month later, updating despite my saying I was going to update a little more often. I suppose I didn't realize how much more I had to chew this semester. My life has gotten a little more complicated over the years so you may have to forgive me for giving you false hope. I don't even think I realize how busy I've become since the semester began! Anyhow, it's a great thing I love numerology, because I love today's numbers and that's one of the reasons I forced myself to try and finish this chapter all day. Hahaha, hopefully I'll get back into the groove of writing soon. I miss it so much. Anyway, thanks for reading (and for reviewing)! It was great to hear from you all. Your reviews put a big smile on my face. You're all wonderful!