Chapter 2

First impression of Okuda Manami: invisible.

He has been staring at the seat in front of him for 10 minutes now and he still couldn't see her. Interestingly her medical records fail to mention that she has the invisibility syndrome.

He taps his fingers impatiently on the glossy oak table with each passing moment he has wasted waiting.

Everyone knows Asano Gakushuu doesn't like to wait.

He almost decides to fire her.

However, judging from her resume and her historical performances, he must admit that she seems like a sufficiently remarkable employee. So he decides that he has to meet her at least once to objectively judge.

And it's not looking very good for her case.

He didn't plan to have his first day here like this. Hell he didn't even want to be here in the first place.

He fully understands the reason his father assigns him here. The business in this subsidiary has reached its maturity stages and will probably be axed or sold off in a couple of years. But honestly, he's a born hunter and not a castle defender. So he'd rather be out and about to seek for new business opportunities than stay in one place trying to develop an already developed business.

And yet, Gakushuu is not one to back off from a challenge, let alone one from his father. After all he has sworn that he'll seize the throne for himself one day. He could easily take the other path and join the other conglomerates and defeat his father that way, but then again he'd much rather see his father's face when Gakushuu manages to overthrow him from his own throne.

The sudden knocks on the door disturb his trail of thoughts.

This had better be Okuda Manami.

"Come in."

The door opens and a dark-haired meek female walks in.

"S-Sorry I'm late, Asano-san."

Gakushuu just lifts his eyebrow and stares at her. There it goes, just because Asano is a part of his name, it doesn't mean he likes to be called with it.

With him simply staring at her, he could guess that she thought he was waiting for an explanation because she is clearly fidgeting and seems to be thinking hard on the excuse she could use to convince her new boss.

The sadist side of him is very tempted to stay silent and watch her as she melts in panic under his stare.

"Asano-san…um I-"

But the rational side of him suggests otherwise though, not wanting to waste any more time. He has other more important things to tend to. So he simply lifts his hand to stop her from giving excuses.

"…I'm really sorry, Asano-san." The girl in front of him bows deeply and apologetically in embarrassment.

That earns Gakushuu a twitch of annoyance. That name reminds him too much of a certain pain in the ass. He typically doesn't really care when others address him as such, but in the span of 3 minutes she has already addressed him with 'Asano-san' three times. Furthermore, he realizes that he's going to deal with this girl closely, so he'd rather not.

"Pardon me, Okuda-san, but I'll appreciate it if you could call me Gakushuu."

Manami is taken aback by this. How can she call someone whose father is as powerful as Asano Gakuhou by his first name? So she fearfully denies, "I-I'm sorry, Asano-san, I'm afraid that'd be too disrespectful of me to address you by your first name."

That's the fourth 'Asano-san' coming out from her mouth in the past 3 and a half minute.

Gakushuu is not used to having his orders denied. He tilts his head and sighs in annoyance as he tries to remind himself that it's not good to lose his cool over something as menial as this.

"Then how about this, I'll address you with your first name too." He pauses to squint at her name badge, "…Manami-san. Will that be fair enough for you?" he speaks with sarcasm thickly laced into the last two words.

Manami might be dense back then, but over the time she has learnt to pick up on the subtle demeanor and quickly realized that she had better agree with whatever he says. So under his annoyed glare she chokes out, "Y-Y-Yes sir!"

Not commenting on the subject further, he shifts his gaze back to the proposal currently held on his hand and starts skimming through it.

"Now tell me about your proposal."

There's a glint in Manami's eyes as she starts to enthusiastically introduce the ideas and research that her team and her had done.

After she finished her short yet concise 5 minutes of introduction, the nervousness starts kicking in and Manami waits anxiously for her new boss' reaction.

"I could see why you're proposing for this, Manami-san." He leans forward and rests his elbows on the desk, resting his chin on the knuckles of his laced fingers, "But explain to me this: How is this going to profit the company? The materials you listed in your proposal aren't cheap at all. How much do you reckon we could sell the product for?"

She knows that she's working for a company and not a non-profit organization so this is to be expected. And yet, she still can't get used to this kind of profit-driven view. Surely there's more to life than valuing things monetarily.

"Not only that, if we were to launch this product, have you decided the target market?"

Manami feels annoyed. The man in front of her might not have said it out loud but she can sense that he is looking down at her. He doesn't believe in her.

"With all due respect, Gakushuu-san, my team worked hard on this. We had spent hours and hours on market research and we believed that this field is barely touched on yet which alone would mean there'll be minimal competition. After taking into considerations of many variables, we had also come up with what we believe to be the most efficient procedure of this project, cost-wisely speaking as well. Not only that, we had done multiple rechecking to ensure the calculations are as accurate as possible to minimise the margin of error therefore decreasing the possibilities of wasting resources. I would appreciate it if you would reconsider our proposal."

Gakushuu is an opportunist. Objectively, he's very good at seeing talent in people, and even better at allocating said talent in the right places. This girl definitely has the talent. And passion. Which is always the best kind of fuel.

Satisfied with her defensive argument, he leans back on his chair and says, "Alright. I will give you a chance."

Manami could barely hold herself back from jumping up and down in excitement after hearing that.

"I want your team to start by preparing a more detailed budgeting and timeline schedule. And then submit it to the finance department and have them work out on projections. I want it to be done by the end of this week."

"Yes Asa- I mean Gakushuu-san! Thank you! I will not disappoint you!"

Gakushuu just hummed in response, "Okay, you may leave now."

Manami gets up clumsily in excitement, almost knocking down her chair in the process. She quickly excuses herself before she actually bursts out in excitement in front of her boss.

Many years ago, Manami had believed that she didn't need to articulate her thoughts and let the numbers and results of her work do the talking. However, one teacher changed her way of thinking and taught her the importance of expressing herself through words. She is forever thankful for that teacher. Now she can even make her point go through her boss!

As she walks merrily back to her own department, her phone starts to vibrate. She takes it out of her pocket and answers it.

"Hello mom? I have good news! My boss accepted my proposal!"

A soft laughter resonates through her phone, "You kids nowadays sure act fast don't you? Accepting a marriage proposal on your first meeting? That's refreshing!"

"Mom..."

"Alright, alright I'll stop. Your father and I are glad that you're doing well at your job, but we'll be thrilled if you have someone who could be with you through the ups and downs, you know?"

Manami knows that her parents are just looking out for her, "I know..."

Her mother heaves a soft sigh on the other line before continuing, "Anyway, don't forget about our family dinner this Sunday, alright?"

"I won't. I'll be there, mom."

"Good. Are you eating well nowadays?"

"Yes I am, mom. Don't worry about me." Not realising it, she has reached her office. "Mom, I've got to go now. I'll see you this Sunday."

With that she ends her phonecall. Manami lets out her sigh and starts rummaging through her bag. After a short while, she pulls out a business card and starts dialling the number on the card.

Three rings later, the opposite party picks up.

"Hello, is this Akabane Karma-san? This is Okuda Manami, the one from the cafe earlier. I'm wondering if we could meet tonight?"

A/N: Sorry that I have to be vague about Manami's work because I have limited access on the information of the job and google research could only net me this much information... Thanks for all the feedback! (Psst...I made a minor revision on 1st chapter, give it a re-read if you'd like to!)