Chapter 61: CH 61

Chapter 61: - August 3rd (Monday): When Sasamiya Protects Her.

Today, I was at Zany Co.

The purpose, of course, was to discuss Comiket. We entered a small conference room and immediately began our meeting.

Today’s members included four young employees and Kaedezaka.

Ogai-san, the managing director, wasn’t present here becuase he had some business to attend to.

Since it was the first time for all of us to manage a corporate booth, I was inevitably assigned the role of leader of the group.

“… So the contractor will set up the booth. Our role is to serve customers on the day of Comiket.”

“””YES!!”””

Ah … As expected of Zany, the motivation of its employees was overwhelming.

However, how is it that all the members are so young?

As I was thinking about this, the door to the conference room opened.

“Ahh~~. So tired, So tired. The chief’s speech was so long~~”

A gaudy male employee, who looked to be in his mid-twenties, entered the room, giggling and laughing.

Or rather, Who are you?

I attended the meeting last week, and I didn’t see this guy.

When I looked at the members, I saw that the younger employees, who were full of motivation earlier, had a clouded expression on their faces.

Even Kaedezaka was looking in the other direction.

However, the gaudy male employee showed no trace of concern and approached me who was puzzled.

“Ya! You must be Sasamiya. I’m the chief, Harboshi . I’m the leader of this year’s Comiket team. Nice to meet you!”

“Yo, …, nice to meet you.”

He looked like a shiny man, both in name and attitude.

Moreover, a chief and team leader?

Why haven’t you been attending meetings until now? …...

I had some things on my mind I wanted to ask him, but for now let’s focus on work.

“Let’s have a meeting about Comiket for now. Here are the materials, please look through them.”

But Hariboshi laughed dismissively and tossed the materials he had received onto the desk.

“Hah~n……. An exhibition is just like being a store keeper, right?　You should just do that kind of thing in a casual manner. Leaving that aside~.”

Hariboshi changed direction and headed straight for Kaedezaka.

“Ne~~, Kaedezaka-chan. Wanna have dinner with me on the way home?”

Even though he was on duty right now, Hariboshi began to flirt with Kaedezaka.

Even I was stunned by this.

Kaedezaka, on the other hand, responded as if she had given up her mind.

“I’m serious about making Comiket a success.”

“Don’t say that. Kaedezaka-chan~, you’re only participating in it for fun, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean!!”

Kaedezaka, snapping at the word  “for fun,” stood up.

It was understandable.

Kaedezaka had worked hard to make Comiket a success, including using her day off to do checks.

Hariboshi’s words were a rejection of her earnest efforts.

Immediately, I stepped between the two of them and looked at Hariboshi.

“Hariboshi-san, … Aren’t you a little too relaxed?”

“What? You’re giving me, the leader, an advice? Isn’t that funny~?”

“Kaedezaka takes this job very seriously. We cannot overlook anything that might trample on those feelings.”

I looked straight at Hariboshi, making the expression I used to make when I used to be unsociable.

The pressured Hariboshi gulped and flinched.

He also noticed that the other members were giving him cold stares, and he couldn’t resist shouting.

“What!? What the hell! Comiket is just for fun, right! You’re all acting so serious! Damn it! Do whatever they want!!”

Hariboshi clicked his tongue and left the room.

I defended Kaedezaka promptly, but the person I was dealing with was the boss of the young employees here.

Perhaps I might have caused trouble.

I turned to everyone and bowed my head.

“I’m sorry. He’ s everyone’s boss and yet …”

Then a young employee opened his mouth.

“No, we are rather grateful to Sasamiya-san. Chief Hariboshi skipped work so often that we were all angry with him.”

“…He was that kind of a person?”

At that moment, I heard a knock at the door.

I looked to see who it was this time and saw Ogai-san, the managing director, appear.

“Excuse me. I’m coming in.”

“Ogai-san!?” I exclaimed.

“I’m very proud of you. I didn’t expect you to be so productive right away.”

“I’m sorry. For intruding …” I said.

“No, It is fine. We had problems with his behavior, too. We’re rather grateful.”

“… Did you perhaps know this was going to happen from the beginning?”

“I had faith in you. I knew you would do it.”

A smart way of saying it, however it was quite heartless of him.

It appeared that Ogai-san was trying to use me to improve the integrity of the Comiket team.

I see.

Kaedezaka called him a black hearted man. I need to be more careful.

“Ano…” Kaedezaka said.

I turned around and saw Kaedezaka standing there with her head down.

Her face was flushed, but her expression was somehow different from the one she had when she would try to hold back her embarrassment.

I had never seen this Kaedezaka before.

“Just now… you saved me. Thank you.”

“You would have been fine on your own even without me.”

“No…. Actually… That… … Scared me.”

“Eh?”

Then Kaedezaka suddenly returned to her seat and stopped making eye contact with me.

I tried talking to her after the meeting, but she did not respond at all.

Yikes. …

I wonder if she was mad at me for being so intrusive.

Only four more days until Comiket.

I have to do something. …