Chapter 62:

Interviews and Therapy

"I'm a great team player—"

Seto interrupted the young man on the other end of the video call. "Thank you for your time, I'll have someone get back to you."

He ended the call right there and let out a groan. He'd been interviewing nonstop since Monday. It was the end of Wednesday, and he was ready to hit someone. I'm going to lose my mind. His phone rang. The ID was Hacking Genius.

He picked up. "I'm pretty sure I blocked your number."

"Please, like that will stop me." Chimon chuckled on the other end.

"I swear, if you only called to piss me off, I'll hunt you down and drag you out of the room you've barricaded yourself in." Seto wasn't making empty threats.

Chimon sighed. "Calm down, dip shit. I called you to help you out with your current problem."

"Which one?" Seto wondered if Chimon knew anything about the will and the deal he'd made with Dai.

"You need a new assistant, right?" The guy cleared his throat.

"I will not hire some shut in that—"

"Whoa, slow your horses. I don't want to ever work for a prick like you. It's… my girlfriend. She needs a job, and I saw your assistant position was open." He explained.

Seto laughed loudly at this. "A shut in like you has a girlfriend?"

"That's rich coming from a megalomaniac narcissist. I'm honestly surprised you managed to put your ego aside long enough to even think about someone else, let alone date them." Chimon growled at him over the phone. "I've had a girlfriend for five years, so don't say anything to me, you little fledgling that doesn't even understand his own feelings."

"What? What the frick' does that mean? I understand my feelings just fine." Seto felt like strangling him.

"Sure, you do. Anyway, she's on the way to your apartment. Meet with her for ten minutes and then I'll owe you a favor. Ok, bye." He hung up quickly.

Seto pulled his phone down and glared at it. That annoying little—a knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. Getting up, he went over and opened it. A young woman who looked to be in her early 30s stood at his door in a simple two-piece gray suit. She had black hair tied in a tight bun, and the sharpest black eyes he'd ever seen. She stood there glaring at him through her purple rimmed glasses.

"Let's get this over with." She shoved past him, not even giving him time to ask who she was. The woman strode over to the coffee table and kneeled in the spot Ana normally sat. Seto could feel the heat rising under his collar. She looked back at him and frowned. "Well, hurry up."

Seto slammed the door and sat down across from her. "I'm guessing your Chimon's girlfriend."

She actually ticked her tongue at him when he said this. "My name is Fukushima Ahki, not Chimon's girlfriend. And to clear things up I didn't ask him to set this up."

Seto paused at her name. Doesn't Ahki mean malice and Fukushima mean Fortune? Someone basically named her as an evil fortune. What poor taste. I bet she was teased a lot in school. He pushed that thought aside and focused on the interview instead.

"Great, if you didn't ask him, why are you here?" Seto's smile was tight and not at all polite.

"I have to pay bills." She wrinkled her nose at the thought.

He rolled his eyes. "Excellent. Have you ever worked as an assistant before?"

"Fifty-two times." She didn't smile and kept glaring at him.

He paused and could feel his eye twitching. "Why so many?"

"They would fire me after a few weeks." She seemed apathetic about the whole thing.

"Why?" His patience was wearing thin. This interview was wasting his time.

"I told them I don't do presentations or meetings with clients, and they put me in them, anyway." She looked at the ground and glared at nothing. "After, they'd always fire me even though I warned them."

"Right… What did you do in the presentations?"

She looked up at him and narrowed her eyes even further, if that was possible. "I just spoke the truth and I don't smile just to appease people."

Well, I agree with the smiling part. It's dumb, but sometimes necessary to disarm your opponents. "Can you smile at all?"

Her mouth twitched, and she gave him the evilest death glare smile he'd ever seen. He clapped at how impressive it was.

"That was terrifying. Never do that again." He frowned. "So, if you're a crappy assistant—"

"I am an excellent assistant. I just don't do people. I don't do fake nice, and I don't work in groups." She snapped at him.

"I have another assistant. You'd have to work with him." Seto glanced over at the clock. I've given her three minutes. She has seven more before I kick her out.

"As long as he doesn't expect me to make nice and is a competent person, then I can work with him." She looked extremely agitated.

"Wonderful. So, what makes you special? Why should I hire you?" Seto glanced over at the clock. Six minutes left.

"I have a perfect memory and never mess up."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Is that so? That's a bold claim."

"It's the truth." She ticked her tongue against her teeth again, obviously annoyed that he was questioning her.

Seto stood up and walked over to a book he had on his shelf. It was a legal book full of ridiculously hard jargon. He'd memorized it because it was useful when taking over other companies. He sat back down and passed the book over to her.

He smiled maliciously. "Then memorize this book in two minutes."

She didn't squirm like he expected. Instead, she seemed exasperated and picked the book up. Flipping thru it at rapid speed, her eyes zipped behind her glasses at a sickening pace. After a minute in a half, she closed the book and looked up at him.

"Page 54 line 8." He stated.

"It's illegal to clone yourself or any others. If you are found experimenting with cloning or having created a clone, you will be sentenced to 10 years in prison or fined ten million yen." She stated the law from the book verbatim.

Seto paused and said, "Page 192. Line 2."

"Article 78 of the Postal Law protects all postal property against damage. As such, putting ice cream in mailboxes will result in imprisonment up to five years or a fine of five hundred thousand yen."

"Oh?" Seto listed off other page numbers and she did indeed have it memorized. Just in case she somehow memorized the book beforehand, he picked another random book off his shelf, this time about dual monsters. She regurgitated that one as well. Hmm, if used right, she could be very useful, but it's not all about memorization. Next, he pulled out an old sheet that someone had turned in to him. He'd fired that person on the spot because the mistake was going to lose them millions of dollars. Since then, he'd used the sheet as a test of sorts. He handed her the sheet and told her to fix it but didn't explain what to fix.

She barely glanced over it before handing it back. "There is a major miscalculation error on line seven that will net a fifty million five hundred and eighty-seven and seventy-two cents loss."

He smiled at that. Inu had also identified the problem, but he'd not calculated it so quickly or so accurately. "Correct. Alright, you're hired."

"I need Wednesdays off." She stated so bluntly that he paused.

"Huh?" He felt his mouth tighten at her bold demand.

"I will not compromise on that." She slid the paper back over to him.

"Why?"

"That is personal and none of your business. I will work Saturdays instead, but I need Wednesdays off."

He wanted to tell her right there that her request was ridiculous, but he was so tired of interviewing. "Fine. We'll try it for a time. If I find that your schedule doesn't work for the company's needs, I'll look to employ someone else."

"That's satisfactory. Now then, I need to catch a flight." Fukushima stood up.

"A flight?"

"To Domino City. I'm assuming I'll start training Monday and I need to get an apartment settled before then." She stated matter-of-factly.

"And you already had the flight booked?" Seto raised an eyebrow.

She nodded. "Of course."

He sat there stunned as she saw herself out. She was so confident that she'd get the job that she went a head and booked a flight. Should I be impressed with her confidence or annoyed by her ego? Just then, Chimon called him back.

"What?" Seto snapped.

"Did she pass?"

"Yes." He growled.

"Great, I owe you one!" Click.

Seto chucked his phone against the wall, and it bounced to the ground. Ugh! That little prick! Beyond tired and worn out, he went to bed after he quickly sent Inu an email about the new assistant. With the email sent off, he lay down and groaned before he passed out.

Thankfully, the next day occurred normally, until time for him to leave school. He headed to his appointment. Before he left, he tried to see Ana home first, but she shoved him in the opposite direction, saying she was fine, and headed home alone. He still insisted she message him when she got home, which she did. Seto took a taxi to the therapist's office downtown. When he entered, he found a reception office decorated in a Japanese garden like theme. The décor was green with wooden accents and simple. He assumed to give off a calm air. The receptionist looked up at him as he entered and gave him a polite smile.

"How can I help you?"

"I have an appointment."

"Name?"

He felt his eye twitch. Shouldn't they know who I am? "Kaiba Seto."

"Right on time, Kaiba-san." The receptionist stood up and led him to a small room with a coffee table and two comfortable looking chairs on either side. He picked the chair that would let him see the door when someone opened it. The receptionist left him alone. This room was also full of green and browns. The bamboo coffee table blended in perfectly with the plants lining the wall. Am I in the jungle or a therapist's office? The door opened and a middle-aged man with a kind face walked in.

"Hello, Kaiba-san. I'm Takahashi Moriko."

Seto stood up and shook the man's hand before they both sat back down.

"So, can you tell me why you're here today?" Takahashi asked in a very calm voice.

Seto felt annoyed at the question. I guess I can't expect him to just know why I'm here. "I want you to help me understand normal people, so I don't screw up my relationship with my girlfriend."

Takahashi looked surprised and then frowned deeply. "You're looking for relationship advice?"

Seto glared at the man. "What? Do you have a problem with that?"

The man seemed concerned before answering, "Kaiba-san, I'm a child phycologist that specializes in trauma. I don't think I'm the right fit as a therapist for you. There is a therapist in this office that I think would be better for you that is an on-sight therapist. Would you be willing to talk with someone else?"

Well, it probably would be a pain to keep flying this guy in. "Fine."

Takahashi stood and returned with a woman. Seto tensed at her entrance.

"This is Namura Kairi. I think she'll be a better fit for you." He left them alone.

She bowed to him before taking the seat a crossed from him.

"Hello, I'm Namura Kairi." The woman introduced herself.

Seto's eyes narrowed as he took her in. She looked relatively young, maybe in her late twenties. Her bright orange hair was short and choppy. The color paired well with her nearly copper colored eyes. She had a round face and a confident air about her. I know I agreed to talk with someone else, but he didn't say it was a woman... Maybe that's a good thing though since Ana's a girl.

Finished with his inspection, he introduced himself. "Kaiba Seto."

"Great. So, why are you here today, Kaiba-san?" Namura asked.

This annoyed him. "I already answered that. Didn't he tell you?"

"Nope. We pride ourselves on confidentiality. He only told me that I might be a better fit for your sessions, but didn't tell me why. That way if you're not comfortable with me then I can call him back in." She wasn't the least bit perturbed by the harshness in his voice.

Well, I guess that makes sense. I don't want them gossiping about this among themselves. He repeated what he said earlier. "I want to know how to read normal people, so that I don't screw up my relationship with my girlfriend."

"You're in a relationship?" She smiled at him.

"Yes." His eyes narrowed at her question.

"Congrats." She sounded genuine, and it took him by surprise.

"Thanks?"

"Now, I have a question. What do you mean, normal?" She probed him. "Can you define your version of it for me?"

Seto mulled over the question, then answered, "There's a guy in my class who can tell what people are feeling and thinking. He's good a controlling the room and mood. I guess something like that."

Namura clapped her hands together. "That's amazing and not the least bit normal."

"What?" Seto's eyes widened. "It's not?"

"Not at all. In fact, that sounds like he's extremely sensitive to mood and very observant of people. That's something that's produced through self-preservation or an intense desire to connect with people. That's not a skill people just have. It takes years to hone that type of skill. It's not the norm at all."

So, Arata is weird. "What is normal, then?"

"You mean when it comes to understanding people?"

He nodded.

"I'd say the most common is flailing about awkwardly and tiptoeing around the other person, so as not to upset them."

Seto growled. "I do not tiptoe around anyone."

She let out a small chuckle. "Tell me, Kaiba-san. What made you think of seeing a therapist? Most people don't think about taking such a drastic step, let alone someone your age. What thought possessed you to make you think you need therapy?"

He hesitated. "She was flirting with me pretty openly and I didn't know how to respond or feel. Then this conversation we had about consent made me even more confused."

"You had a conversation about consent? How old are both of you?"

"Seventeen, though in a couple months we'll be eighteen." Oh yeah. Ana's birthday is in November. Should I get her a present?

"That's pretty incredible and very mature for people your age. Why did the conversation confuse you? Can you tell me what was said?"

He paused for a moment. Why am I telling her all this so easily? Well, I did come to figure this crap out. Why don't I feel weird telling her, though? Seto explained what they'd said.

"Ah, I see where that can be confusing. Basically, she told you that she would tell you to stop if she didn't like something, correct?" Namura looked thoughtful.

"Yes."

"But what her actual boundaries are weren't stated."

Oh. No, I guess they weren't clearly defined. Namura smiled at his realization.

"Before we talk a bit more about that, you said that you didn't know how to feel when she flirted with you. Has she not done so before?" Namura cycled back to his previous statement.

"Huh? Well, I guess, so it just... I don't know." He wasn't sure why he'd suddenly felt unsure how to act. Was it because I shared my scars with her? "I guess it's because I've avoided situations where people flirted with me, so I didn't know how to react to her suddenly being super open about flirting."

Namura seemed to straighten a little. "Why did you avoid these situations?"

He sneered. "Because creepy ass older women tried flirting with me."

"That would be very uncomfortable, and I can understand why it would turn you off. Do you feel turned off when your girlfriend flirts with you?"

Seto paused. No. I might have if that had been the start of our relationship, but Ana approached me neutrally and without giving a damn at first.

"No. I don't." He frowned a little. I usually just feel a little flustered and out of control. Lately, there's been something else nagging at me, but I can't figure out what.

"Let me ask you a very blunt and direct question." Seto tensed at this. "How far do you want to go with your girlfriend?"

"Huh? How far? Like traveling wise?" Seto frowned at her.

Namura's smile didn't falter, but her eyes seemed to question him. "I see. I'll need to be very blunt with you. Is your girlfriend a forward person?"

Seto found the question odd. "Sometimes. The other times I don't know what she's thinking."

"I see. I suppose that's good. Let me try this again. Do you want to have sex with your girlfriend?"

Seto blinked, then his whole face flushed at the question. "Wha-what? Why are you asking me that?"

Namura just kept smiling. "You said you were confused about how to feel about her flirting and about the conversation over consent. Have you even thought about how intimate you want to be with her? What are you comfortable with? How far do you want to take it? Do you want to go all the way and have sex?"

"Why are you asking me this?" Seto snapped, feeling beyond embarrassed.

"I'm asking because it doesn't seem you've thought about it in depth since you've found flirting creepy up until now. Am I wrong?" She tilted her head slightly. Seto couldn't find the words to answer, but she wasn't wrong. Namura continued. "If you don't even know what your boundaries are with intimacy or haven't even thought about how far you're willing to go, then of course you're confused."

"Is this something you normally talk about with your clients?" He glared at her.

"You're avoiding the question. I understand that talking about sex isn't the most comfortable thing, but open communication about physical intimacy in a relationship will help. If you knew both yours and her set boundaries, wouldn't you feel more comfortable and less confused about what you can do with her?"

Seto frowned. He did think it would help clear up a lot of his confusion if there were set boundaries or if Ana just told him more specifically what she was comfortable with. What do I want to do? What am I comfortable with? He knew he wanted to kiss her more, and he suspected that he wanted to do more with her, but he wasn't fully sure what. Namura stood up and walked over to her bookshelf. She took one off and handed it to him.

"I'm going to give you an assignment. Read over that book and think about how intimate you want to get with your girlfriend."

Seto flushed when he saw that the book was about sex positions. He looked up at her and glared.

"It's not an explicit book, it's all vague figures and there is more than sex positions in it. Since you haven't thought much about it, I'm giving you the book to help you as a basis." Namura explained.

"What am I supposed to do after I complete your assignment?" Seto hissed.

"Well, hopefully you're less confused, but we can discuss that next time. The end goal though would be to understand what you're comfortable with and have an open discussion with your girlfriend, so that you two can set some defined boundaries. That's where your conversation of consent comes in handy. Even after you've defined boundaries, you might find that either one of you thought they were comfortable with something, but will change their mind last minute. If she or you agree to something, but you find that you're not as ready as you thought and either one of you voice that you want to stop, then you need to back off and wait until you're both ready."

Seto sat listening to her. Suddenly the conversation about consent made more since. Yeah, if Ana had told me her boundaries, then I would feel better. I don't think after I decided on doing something though that I'd back off on it. What do I want to do, though? He frowned at the book but set it to the side. As much as he found it awkward, he was going to look at it later.

"Let's go back to your earlier statement about wanting to understand normal people." Namura seemed to think he'd figured something out, and it was ok to change subjects. "Why do you want to understand them?"

"What? I don't. I just want to understand my girlfriend." He grumbled.

She smiled. "I hate to break it to you, but there's no special trick to understanding a person immediately. You gradually learn about a person over time. You'll learn things about them just by experiencing different settings, doing different things together, and simply by spending time together. It takes time to understand someone. Are you having issues communicating with your girlfriend?"

"I… sometimes we're not on the same page."

"What do you do when you don't understand her?"

Seto thought this over. "If I'm really annoyed, I just tell her that I can't read minds and demand for her to explain further. Though mostly she seems to understand when I'm confused and explains. Other times, she stays quiet and leaves me in the dark. Those times bother me because I can't figure out if she wants me to ask or not. Sometimes I'll piss her off and don't understand why."

Namura smiled. "That is actually very normal for someone in a new relationship. You're slowly learning about her and how she communicates."

Really? That's normal? "It's normal to piss her off?"

"Miscommunication or misunderstandings occur often in new relationships. What is important is that you try to keep the line of communication open. What does she do when she doesn't understand you?"

"She asks in a way I guess, but that doesn't happen very often."

Namura nodded slowly. "You do seem like the type of person to voice their opinion loudly. That can be helpful in communicating so long as your voice isn't drowning out the other person in the process."

Seto felt a twinge of guilt. I do overwhelm business deals sometimes like that. I hope I'm not doing it to Ana.

"My suggestion is that the next time you find yourself confused is to ask her very openly and directly what's bothering her. You won't be able to simply 'read' her emotions for a while since you've only started dating. Even when you've been together for years, there are still going to be communication issues."

I couldn't even tell she was angry the other day until she let out that wild scream. She told her friend she wasn't, so I assumed she wasn't.

"What if she says she's not mad, but is actually mad?" Seto wondered what he should do then.

"Don't accuse her of being mad. Simply offer an ear if she needs to vent. Listen when she does and give her your full attention. If she doesn't want to tell you, then leave it be. Sometimes people need time to calm down and organize their thoughts before voicing them. Everyone processes things at different rates. Just knowing that you're there for her even if she doesn't want to share shows that you're open to communication and you're supporting her."

Ugh, that sounds kind of hard. I basically have to be fine with being in the dark.

Namura looked up at the time. "We have about five minutes left. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"No…" Seto felt a little less confused, but until he tried out the advice she'd given him, he didn't know if it would be effective.

"Then I'll see you here same time next week."

Seto frowned at her. "What makes you think I need to come back?"

Her eyes crinkled, and she smiled, amused. "If so, that's great, but I get the feeling you'll have more questions."

He didn't like her assumptions. Snatching up the book she'd given him, he left without a word. When he got back to his apartment, he stared down at the book. I'm most definitely going to have more questions. Frick'. I hate it when someone else is right.