Work Text:
May had been standing outside SPR's office door for a minute, hesitant to enter, a feeling familiar to anyone who goes to work and has an insufferable boss ready to quarter her for the slightest transgression.
She might not go to work today, writing it off as a trip to school, where she went today after a week's absence, but she might hear something like, "I see you don't need the money" - and be fired.
But you can't find a high-paying job like that, no matter how hard you try.
Gathering her courage and deciding not to give Naru the slightest reason to win their uneasy relationship, she opened the door and entered the reception area, where, naturally, there was no one there - Lin and Naru spent most of their time in their offices, attending to matters known only to them.
"Good evening," Mai said hello, it was exactly six p.m. on the clock, which meant she was on time and wouldn't be verbally reprimanded.
Lin stepped out of his office for a moment - "Good evening, Taniyama-san" - and disappeared into the library.
Mai took off her backpack and coat and hung them up, looking around the desk: a mountain of papers ready to collapse at any moment and a note in plain English awaited her.
There's a couple papers piled up here, I hope you can deal with them in a couple hours.
"Not much work? He thinks that by dumping this work on me he's going to punish me," the note made her even angrier, and she couldn't stand it anymore, she grabbed it and squeezed it in her hand, turning it into a small round ball. "Besides, you've already spent too much time in this country and it's high time you learned how to write Japanese, if you don't know how, hire a teacher," she tossed the piece of paper into the trash can without hitting it.
She flopped down in her chair and spun around in it, but what surprised her most was the lack of any harsh response to her complaints or the banal "Mai, make tea" she snorted at.
At first she wanted to knock on her boss's door, but quickly changed her mind - their fight last night had been very strong to be resolved so easily today - and headed for the door leading to the library. Inside, a tall, dark-haired man flipped through another book and handed it back, finding nothing in it.
"Lin-san, do you have any idea where Naru might be?" - Mai realized that she had asked Lin-san the stupidest question possible, because if he was in his office, she would definitely make herself look bad.
"He's away on business, maybe you have something urgent?" - Linh asked, as if he hadn't witnessed yesterday's scene.
"No, I'm just curious," she replied and returned to her seat.
Suppressing the urge to take half of the papers and put them on Naru's desk, she began to organize them into folders.
There were still a few papers left, but they wouldn't fit into the folders already stapled together, they just needed to be spread out into other folders and arranged on their respective shelves.
She stood up to stretch as her body was a little stiff from sitting for so long. It was already twenty past ten on the clock, which meant it was late enough that she could go back alone and Mr. Ling would probably have to drive her home, plus there were no customers today, which made it easier.
She felt her stomach rumble, letting her know that lunch was long over and it was time for refreshment.
"I think Mommy Ayako left me some bento in the fridge yesterday," Mai remembered and headed for the kitchen.
In the last investigation, they didn't call in the experts because they didn't find anything supernatural and it was just the machinations of someone harboring a strong grudge. Ayako-san could have questioned longer about the details of the case, but one young man was against it, and his sullen aura stood out even more, so she soon left, wishing the girl good luck - she could use it with a boss like that.
Luckily, the bento was still in the fridge and she put it in the microwave to warm it up at least a little. Soon she was sitting there, happily devouring the food she had prepared for her.
Finished with her work, she cleaned herself up and sat down at her desk again to go over the remaining papers.
As she was attaching the last paper to her briefcase, her phone vibrated and she opened a message from her middle school teacher asking if she was coming in soon.
Exit: I think I'm going to stay another half hour. I think I can get a coworker to give me a ride.
- send.
And closed the phone. She got up to put the files in the closet and go home, since it was getting late.
As she sorted out her business for the day, she noticed that the reception area had gotten noisy: Yasuharu-san had stopped by for a moment, and Naru walked in with him.
"Mai, look who I caught and brought right to you," Yasuharu-san said, pointing at Naru.
"Next time be careful what you bring in here, this isn't a shelter, it's an elite paranormal investigation bureau," Mai adopted an important look.
"What a nice way to greet me. And if I were your client, what would you do?"
The girl made the most innocent expression on her face, "I can't help it, our boss is so horrible and strict, I'm sometimes afraid he might curse me." Mai got so into character that she even let a tear fall.
Ice arrows flew in her direction, but she didn't back down, instead she made an even more innocent expression and smiled sweetly in a way that made Naru's facial muscles tense up.
"Single-digit score in Mai's favor," Yasuharu-san proclaimed like a judge.
"Did you do well with the task I assigned you?" - Naru got straight to the point and pretended as if he hadn't lost the argument.
"Sure, I was just about to leave," Mai pointed to an empty table in case Naru hadn't noticed.
"You need to stay a little longer."
"But I already promised my guardian to come early!"
"Just send a message that you'll be late, or is that complicated?"
"Don't you think you're overstepping your bounds?"
"In what exactly?" - He answered the question with a question and crossed his arms.
"Don't you think? You're giving me a lot of work, keeping me late, how can you explain all this?"
"Not a full-time job," Naru replied nonchalantly.
Yasuharu-san who was watching decided that this was a chance he couldn't pass up, "Maybe he wants to spend more time with the girl who caught his attention?"
"Your humor is misplaced, Yasuharu-san," Naru said, giving him the same look he usually gave Mai after another blunder.
"Yeah, well, I'd believe you if you said Naru locked himself in his office and asked the mirror if he was the most handsome man in the world."
"I don't need that."
"And why is that?"
"Isn't the answer obvious? My beauty is incomparable to anything."
Perhaps it was just imagination, but you can see how it sent May into a knockout.
"Now they have an even score," Yasuharu-san continued to count.
While Mai recovered from the blow, Naru returned to his office.
Yasuharu-san decided to cheer Mai up: "A reward, as a token that you snatched one victory from the big boss," he held out a bar of chocolate to her.
"Where did you get the chocolate from, it's not Valentine's Day, is it?" - Mai looked at the young man puzzled.
"Today is February fourteenth. When did you look at the calendar?" - the young man was somewhat surprised
"I don't remember, all this made me forget what date it is today," she whispered under her breath and took a bite out of the chocolate bar some girl had made.
Naru's demanding voice continued to come from his office, but she ignored it completely.
When she ignored the request for tea for the fourth time, a head appeared from the office, "Didn't you hear me address you?"
"I suppose you are quite capable of making your own tea."
"But that's your job."
"Let me make you some tea," Yasuharu-san said and disappeared into the kitchen.
And then Naru saw Mai eating the chocolate, guessed who it was from, and something in him snapped.
"If you think chocolate will make you smarter, I'll disappoint you, the most you'll get is a couple grams on the side," the young man smiled with extreme annoyance, he didn't understand why, but he didn't like the girl eating another young man's chocolate.
"My grams are the last thing you should be worried about, besides you can't see anything but your paranormal manifestations," she muttered the last word.
"What?" - Naru looked surprised for some reason, and that seemed to stun him for a second.
"Nothing," she looked at him sadly, "except that right now I want to be home and get some rest.
"Naru, should I take the tea to the study or will you drink it here?" Yasuharu-san came out of the kitchen carrying a tray, "So no one's blood has been spilled yet."
"Naturally, into the study," Naru said, but hesitated for a moment as Yasuharu walked past him into the study.
"Lin," he called out to his second assistant.
"Yes, Naru," Lin came out of the office with headphones in his hands.
"Can you take Mai home?".
He looked first at Mai, then at Naru, "Yes, I'm almost done editing."
"Good," he looked at Yasuharu-san, "since Mai is going home, could you help me a little in her place?".
"Sure," the man replied energetically, "but he'll regret it later."
Mai completely forgot about the chocolate, packed her things in a minute, and walked out of the office - anywhere but within a three tatami radius of her boss, not today.