Hello! My name is Ishida Tamayo! And I work for a very interesting company called Divine Reincarnation HR Ltd.! Here, I am a technician and I work in an IT-department. There is…
Ishida's hand froze over the next line.
Sigh
C-raaa-ack!
Another list of paper was torn from the notebook, crumpled and thrown away. Wad felt at the pile near the trash bin, signaling that it was already full.
"It is just… no go."
Tamayo sighed once more, throwing the pen on the table and leaning back on the chair. How much time has she already spent on the first page? That is ridiculous — she can't even start. Every time it seems imperfect or just foolish. Why is it so difficult to write down your own thoughts?
Tamayo looked at the notebook and leaned back to the table.
"Once more, once more, once more"
Why did she decide to do it in the first place? The answer was simple — She had nothing to do. Tamayo returned from work, turned on the computer, sat down and… found out she was bored by all of this. Worst of all, it isn't something that started recently. Maybe… since that day in the café?
…
"Tamayo?" — a voice took her back to the earth.
The three of them were at the cafeteria. Tachibana looked at Ishida with a slightly worried face. Fujiwara next to her also slowly moved her eyes to the technician.
"Is everything alright?" — Tachibana placed her cup of coffee down, — "If something bothers you…"
"Nah… it is nothing" — Tamayo raised her palm — "I just daydreamed for a moment."
"Sure. The word 'nothing' was written on your face." — Fujiwara shrugged her shoulders.
"Is there any problem?"
Tachibana gave Fujiwara a look, then looked at Tamayo. A drop of sweat appeared on her forehead.
"N-No! Everything is alright! Just… just…"
"She wants to say, it is uncommon to see you in such a state." — Fujiwara said it clearly without any hesitation.
"Ehe…" — Tachibana laughed.
Tamayo looked at her friends. However, instead of being angry at their imagination, she also shrugged her shoulders.
"I was asleep, that's all!"
"You are drinking coffee…"
"I dreamt about something!"
Then she looked to the side.
"Here! We have a cafeteria!"
Suddenly, she heard someone's familiar voice. She tried to notice his owner and… Tamayo saw him right at the entrance. Akashi Masaru stood there facing someone else. The boy next to him looked strangely at her.
Tamayo took a sip of the coffee and looked somewhere else. Does not bother. However…
"Fujiwara? Tachibana? Ishida? Glad to see you here!" — Masaru went straight to them. He was moving like it was a goal of his visit here. His companion was left behind and looked at Akashi with a slightly confused face. However, he followed his tour guide.
"Ms. Fujiwara? How are you today?" — Masaru looked at Yukiko with a smile.
She gave him a look, however did not bother herself with an answer.
…
Well, Ishida finally wrote the introduction. What happened today? It was the next wall she had to face. Did she wake up and go to work? Does she have to write down such a routine?
"Nah…"
She placed down the pen again and looked at the window. The cup of coffee that was standing on the table had already cooled down. The biscuits she took suddenly did not seem interesting enough. The music on the headphones didn't even catch a string in her soul.
What can she write about today? She met someone…
***
"Lemme introduce Nakamura Inumaru to you! He is a new guy in our office!"
The boy next to him smiled and made a polite bow to the girls.
"Nice to meet you!
"Hello! Nice to meet you. My name is Tachibana Kasumi." — Tachibana kindly smiled at him. She placed her hand onto her chest. Then looked at her friends, — "This is Fujiwara Yukiko and…
"Ishida Tamayo" — technician looked at the novice. She straightened on the chair, drinking coffee, but continuing to give a sight to Nakamura. — "Do not dare to mess with your office computer"
Hiiek!
Both guys jumped, scared by her look. Well, it was a necessary warning. As she already had the chance to deal with them.
"Y-yes, I-I'll do everything!"
"Y-yes, mam!"
Masaru, why are you swearing? You have already done it, before.
"E-eh… everything alright, guys!" — Tachibana waved her hands across Tamayo, trying to calm down Akashi and Inumaru, — "Tamayo simply is not in a good mood t-today…!".
"He~"
Instead of surprise, Tamayo could only make a sound. She looked down at the table.
Suddenly, the lips of Fujiwara moved.
"So, you are the one Sir Yamazaki told about…"
Someone, please give Saru a glass of water. Tamayo was surprised that he could show such shock and disbelief at the same time. Inumaru behind his back smiled in awkwardness.
Fujiwara slowly looked at Akashi. Then sighed.
"We often meet each other in the smoking room".
"Do you really…?"
Fujiwara gave him a weak smile.
"Yes. We have such lovely discussions there."
Masaru also started to smile awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. Why does he always look like a monkey while doing it?
"S-s-so… I understood. B-by the way, Ms Fujiwara, what cigarettes do you smoke?"
"Masaru!" — Tachibana suddenly stood up, — "Do not dare! You are not so old!"
"Well, it is not s…"
"We have to reduce the number of smokers, not to increase them? Right, Tamayo?"
"U-hum"
"And!" — suddenly Tachibana placed hand over her belly, — "As I know, Fujiwara, what did you tell?"
Yukiko sighed. Why did Tamayo hear some kind of disappointment in her voice?
"It is funny to speak while smoking, but I would not like to have a smoking boyfriend."
"You see!" — Tachibana pinpointed with a finger at Saru, — "Even Fujiwara, despite the fact she herself smokes, would not prefer dating a smoker!"
Another strange sigh from Fujiwara.
***
"Argh…"
Tamayo clasped her head in her hand, facing the table. Why did she say this? Why did she not think about this twice or thrice? Now, there is another person who fears Tamayo because of it. She said to Kazuya that she is no longer angry. However, at that moment, she just thought it was the best idea. And now the technician felt nothing, but regret and sorrow. She will be pleased if they don't do anything against the purest office workers. However, why does she continually try to scare others with her strength?
"Silly Hothead! Silly Redhead!"
"…"
She looked at the page. Something was already written here. However, it was not the end of the day.
Ishida took the pen once more. What happened next? Hm… maybe it was the most interesting part.
***
"I wanna take one more cup."
Tamayo stood up.
Fujiwara looked at her, but said nothing. Tachibana and others, who were already seated around the table, simply nodded.
Looking at her knees, Tamayo went to the coffee machine. But there already was someone.
Ogawa stood there, looking at the cup in his hands with a quite puzzled face.
"That's disgusting…"
She heard his mumbling. Furuya adjusted his glasses, took another sip and again looked at his cup at the full length of his hand.
"That's not even coffee anymore…"
Tamayo's eyebrows raised from such an intriguing view.
"What are you doing?" — Tamayo made a step closer.
Ogawa turned around and looked at her.
"Ah… that's you."
Suddenly, he gave her his cup.
"What does it taste like?"
Tamayo looked down. Then she slowly took it and made a sip.
"Fhew! What did you do with coffee?!"
"You see!" — Ogawa made a step closer to her, — "It had to taste the same way! However, it does not taste like something you can drink anymore! I went across all floors, tested different types of milk. In the end, they are… haaah…"
Totally discouraged by the situation, he took a step back and leaned on the wall.
Tamayo looked again at the write-brown liquid in the cup she was holding.
Slightly shaking her arm, Ishida tried to understand what was inside of it.
"Ogawa…"
"Hm? What?"
He looked at her.
Tok!
Ishida raised her hand and hit his forehead lightly with the edge of her hand.
"What in the world were you doing?!"
Ogawa adjusted his glasses with both hands and looked at the angry Tamayo.
"There was a philosophical question! Would coffee taste the same way if I poured milk instead of hot water at the beginning?!"
"And?! If you pour cold milk instead of hot water, it prevents the coffee from dissolving! That's a chemical, not a philosophical question!"
Ogawa raised his eyebrows. It seemed like he didn't think about it.
"So, what will happen if we pour hot milk instead of the cold in the beginning?" — he asked.
Tamayo crossed her hands across her chest.
"Theoretically, it will lead to the dissolving of coffee. Water is still better as it does not contain something else. However, it also may work."
"But in practice?" — Ogawa looked at her eyes.
Tamayo blinked twice.
"And how are you going to do that?"
"With…huh?" — Ogawa pointed at a place where the microwave normally stands, but there was no trace of it — "huh? What? Where is it?"
"The microwave?" — the technician lifted her head and thought for a moment – "right, it is still waiting for its service in our storage…"
"Tsk, I thought you love fixing stuff, huh?" — said Ogawa with annoyance.
"I-I do" – Ishida looked away while scratching her head – "but, we got a lot of stuff to fix, you know?"
Behind their backs, they heard a strange mumbling. They turned their heads and saw Nakamura, thinking about something.
"Oi, brat, since when are you here?"
Nakamura distracted himself from thinking for a moment and answered – "since the beginning" – and then continued mumbling.
Tamayo and Furuya tried to hear out what he was mumbling – "what would senior Kazuya do, what would senior Kazuya do."
Then he suddenly hit his palm with his right fist, his childish attitude changed, became serious.
"Why don't you go to the kitchen on the other half of the building" – said Kazuya… Inuamru with a poker face. After saying the phrase, he became the office puppy again. Ogawa covered his face with his palm, like if he were exhausted.
"What? Too lazy to take a small walk?" — smirked Ishida.
"No… it's just…" — Ogawa put down his palm and adjusted his glasses – "if Kazuya is the second Yamazaki, and Inumaru is the second Kazuya, does it mean that we have three Yamazakis?"
"And what's wrong with that?" — she asked, confused.
Furuya looked at her.
"Ah, you don't know? Whatever."
Finally, they went to the second kitchen, put a cup of milk in the microwave and waited until it was hot enough to pour it into the coffee.
Five minutes later, they stood before the cups. Steam was rising from them. The strong scent of coffee spread in the air.
"Let's give it a try?"
"Sure."
Ogawa and Ishida took their cups. Then, both of them made a sip.
After the first sip, Ishida looked at the cup confused. First, it didn't look like a usual coffee, rather a hot chocolate from cacao powder which had too much milk.
"Strange" – these words came out of Ishida's mouth. Ogawa nodded. It probably was not what he expected to get.
Furuya then gave the cup to Nakamura, who looked like a puppy that waited excited about his master to throw a stick.
He took a sip and made a disappointed face. An awkward silence took control over the place. In an attempt to change this situation, Tamayo asked Nakamura.
"Boy, what would Kazuya say if he were here?"
Nakamura closed his eyes, thought for a moment, and then finally said.
"Just make it the way everyone does."
An uncontrollable laugh took control over Tamayo's body, Ogawa smirked as well.
"That's sure a thing he would say."
And why only did I care about all of this?
…
Tamayo threw a pen one last time at the desk and looked at the ceiling. At such a late hour, it was covered in darkness. The only source of light was from the computer's display.
"Mhaaa~!"
Something fun happened today. As she recalls it, it makes her smile. She stood up, and stretched her back. At the moment, she was not sure, will she try the same torture tomorrow? Writing a diary appeared to be much harder than she thought. Maybe it was the reason she never bothered herself with such nonsense earlier? It always seemed to her… so much "girlish". Nobody of her friends has ever done anything like this.
Ishida closed her notebook, but looked at it for a moment. Well, as she started…
She went to her bed and stuck the diary under the pillow. That's how it is necessary to deal with it? At least, when she asked Tachibana about the concept itself, she said that in childhood she always kept it under her head.
Tamayo looked at the dark ceiling again and closed her eyes. Tomorrow is another day. So she can call it today.