When she heard her colleagues gathering around, talking about Vice Group Leader Yamada’s sudden resignation with tones of shock and gossip, Aina Saiten’s first reaction was the same as most of her coworkers—Yamada had most likely found a better offer and jumped ship.
After all, in the fiercely competitive Tokyo workplace, unless one had a clear destination, who would so abruptly and without warning hand in their resignation?
She subconsciously took a bite of her rice ball, her gaze drifting toward the hazy gray sky outside the window.
In truth, just yesterday afternoon, when the alert sounded from her work email and Aina Saiten opened the message emblazoned with the Quansheng Group’s official logo, her heart skipped a beat.
The email clearly required her to attend an interview at 10 a.m. the day after tomorrow at Quansheng Group’s headquarters in the Central District.
This company extending an olive branch to her was a giant in the restaurant industry, renowned throughout all of Neon City for its scale and reputation, called “Quansheng.”
Back when Aina Saiten was sending out resumes on various major job sites, it was exactly for the “Deputy Chief Accountant” position this company had posted that she had applied.
Although the position of “Deputy Chief Accountant” was already considered middle management in a large enterprise—and logically, the requirements for work experience, professional ability, and overall competence would be extremely strict, with a highly selective process—
But Aina Saiten herself was an outstanding graduate of The University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Economics, and after graduation, she worked for several years at a prestigious, top-tier financial company in Neon City.
So, objectively speaking, Aina Saiten’s resume wasn’t lacking at all—in fact, it was rather competitive.
Thus, after evaluation by the Quansheng Group’s human resources department, their willingness to give her this interview opportunity to learn more about a potential candidate wasn’t completely inexplicable.
However, despite such rational analysis, when she actually received that black-and-white interview invitation, Aina Saiten couldn’t suppress the surge of excitement and anticipation in her heart, as if finally seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel.
She almost immediately began preparing for this crucial interview with all her energy, simulating tricky questions that might come up…
She desperately wanted to seize this chance, hoping that with this high-paying, respectable job, she could finally break through the vague, cold war-like tension that had recently hung over her and her boyfriend, Kaoru Hoshitani.
The reason she called it a “half-cold war” was because this stalemate had been completely initiated by Kaoru Hoshitani alone.
These days, he had been deliberately aloof and indifferent toward her, his usual gentle, smiling eyes often cast down, avoiding her gaze.
Even when she tried to start a conversation, he only responded with short “mm” or “oh,” as if an invisible, icy wall had sprung up between them.
Aina Saiten felt completely helpless and baffled by her boyfriend’s unpredictable, moody little temper.
She couldn’t help but sigh inwardly—sometimes, a man’s heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea, so delicate, so difficult to fathom.
All she could do was guess: perhaps it was because at the department party a few days ago, she really did drink too much, ended up dead drunk, and it was only thanks to Kaoru half-carrying and half-dragging her—this “big trouble”—home, giving him a huge headache.
On top of that, lately, both of them had been so busy with work, leaving early and returning late, that there was almost no time left to really spend together or talk things over.
For someone as sensitive as Kaoru, this must have made him feel neglected, even abandoned, and so he resorted to this silent protest to express his dissatisfaction and grievance.
[Just hold on a bit longer. Once I pass this interview and get Quansheng’s offer and land this stable, high-paying job, the financial pressure will ease up a lot.]
[Then, I’ll have a good talk with Kaoru and ask him to stop working so hard at that Izakaya—I can cover most of the expenses now.
[He’ll have more time to rest, and I can spend more time with him too, making up for how much I’ve neglected him lately…]
Aina Saiten worked through these plans in her heart, trying to use her hopes for a brighter future to dilute the bitterness in their relationship right now.
She took a deep breath, finished the last bite of her bento, and brought her attention back to the interview materials she needed to prepare.
———
Meanwhile, in a different area of the city, inside a detached villa.
This was one of the usual gathering spots for Rika Kawasaki and her so-called “Junior Members.”
The interior was decorated with a rugged industrial style, the leather sofa somewhat worn, the air filled with a faint mixture of tobacco and leather.
“Leader, you can rest absolutely assured when we handle things.”
A junior member in a black fitted tank top, tattooed arms exposed, said ingratiatingly, a fawning smile on her face.
“That’s right, Leader,”
Another junior member with short hair quickly chimed in—she was one of the two called by Rika Kawasaki to the Izakaya to handle Yamada that day,
“The woman you told us to ‘handle properly’—afterward, we dragged her into a back alley and gave her a serious lesson, aiming for the painful spots that wouldn’t leave obvious marks.”
“We also warned her loud and clear—if we ever see her disgusting face again on the streets of Tokyo, her fate will be ten times worse than this time!”
“Ha ha,”
The tank-top junior member laughed smugly, adding,
“After all that, I bet she’s so scared she doesn’t even dare stay in Tokyo anymore, huh?”
……
The two junior members took turns reporting their “results” enthusiastically to Rika Kawasaki, who lounged on the wide sofa.
In truth, that night, the two of them had followed orders, stuffing the bruised, bloodied, half-conscious Yamada into a car and taking her to a dim, remote alley far from the city center.
There, as Yamada regained consciousness in terror, they beat and kicked her again—an “extra lesson”—using the harshest words to threaten her until Yamada, in tears, promised to disappear at once.
Only then did they swagger off, leaving Yamada shivering alone in the icy alley.
Actually, Yamada’s worst injuries had come from Rika Kawasaki’s earlier ruthless punches, which caused a minor concussion and a fractured nose.
The junior members’ handiwork afterward was mostly just surface bruises—painful but not lasting, the kind that would heal with a bit of rest.
But what truly terrified Yamada was not the physical pain, but the psychological intimidation.
Moreover, after regaining her senses, Yamada realized that her attempted sexual assault in the Izakaya restroom might have been caught on the establishment’s security cameras, or perhaps someone had witnessed it.
With a guilty conscience, she didn’t dare go to the police, fearing she’d walk right into a trap herself.