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Rei slumped down in her chair as the final shrine visitor of the day disappeared down the stairs. She sighed and pushed back her hair. All that was left was to clean up, then–
“You’ve gotta loosen up, fireball.”
“Shut it, Mina.”
Minako merely leaned into Rei’s shoulder. “If you want to close on time, close on time. Then you wouldn’t have to be so late for the important things.”
“I’m not late for important things.” There was a long stretch of silence. Rei wondered if that had dipped towards cruel. “What I mean is, you understand. Things like the shrine, or business meetings, they’re unmovable.”
“They’re not though! Mina squared and faced Rei soldier to soldier. “You are Rei fucking Hino, and you reshape how the world works when you don’t like it.”
“You just don’t understand, Mina–”
“I don’t understand? You just said I did, which is it?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Of course it is!” Mina threw up her hands. “If you wanted to be with me, you’d make time instead of excuses.”
“I’m not making excuses, I’m just telling you how it is!”
“And I’m telling you it’s not good enough.” She turned, hair whipping behind her in a cinematic fashion, and huffed her way down the stairs.
—–
“She’s not wrong, you know,” Michiru said, taking a sip of wine later that night.
“Michiru!”
She gave her particular wry Michiru smile. “You always give such direct honesty, I’m only returning the favor.” She swirled her glass. “Do you think Haruka would still be with me if I let anything keep me away so often?”
“We have very different circumstances.”
“Oh? Are we not both young business executives with extensive side projects and deeply affectionate partners?”
“You were born into your business, Michiru. You have far more leeway than me.”
“No, I merely know where the limits truly are.”
Rei glared at her over their wine glasses. “If you had to work as hard as I do, you’d understand.”
“But you don’t have to work as hard as you do.”
“Why is everyone like this?” Rei pressed her toes hard against the floor beneath the table. “I don’t do all this for fun. I do it because it needs doing. If I had your position and status, I could be lax and cushy too.”
“I would hardly say I’m lax. The key is management, Rei. Of your time and of your people.” She hummed thoughtfully as she took a sip. “Why don’t I show you?”
“Show me?”
“Let me do your job for a few days. A week, let’s say.”
“You can’t just do that.”
“Of course I can. You’ll hire me as a business consultant. Companies do it all the time. I’ll even do it pro-bono.” Michiru smiled, knowing Rei could never turn down an opportunity to save money.
Rei huffed. “If I hire you, you have to hire me. I’ll show you how much more gets done my way.”
“Hm.” Michiru paused. “I don’t have any performances coming up. We’ll fully switch for a week, and you’ll see how much better things can be managed.”
“Or you’ll see I’m right.”
Michiru smiled. “I suppose the game is set.”
—-
There were whispers as Michiru walked through the office. “I hear Ms. Hino and Ms. Kaioh hired each other as consultants.” “Is she here to fire us?” “Ms. Hino didn’t seem happy about the whole thing, so–”
It simply would not do. No one could accuse Rei of being too soft, but she clearly had not brought her employees to heel. “There will be a meeting at 9:15,” Michiru said to a baffled group of cubicle workers. “Anything you have to say can be said there.”
The conference room was too small for the entire crew, but Michiru gave no acknowledgement to those who had to crowd along the wall rather than sit. She’d have to tell Rei she needed more space.
“Now, who can tell me our numbers from last week?”
Silence. Michiru frowned.
“Which of you ran the report? I will not tolerate slacking off.”
Another long silence, and then a mousy woman with oversized glasses raised a shaking hand. “Um, Ms. Hino usually runs the report herself. She has me make copies of it sometimes.”
It was all Michiru could do not to put her face in her hands. “Then you go do it.”
“I– I’m just a secretary, I don’t…”
“Do you have access to the databases?”
“I have a login, but–”
“Then I trust you will bring me a report before this meeting ends.”
She scurried off, and another woman slipped away from the back of the room to help her. Michiru took note of her. She was either too willing to do someone else’s job, or else cunning enough to appear kind while getting credit for what got done. Rei would be well-served by the latter as she transitioned to doing less. The former always burnt out too soon.
“While we wait on our numbers, let’s talk about why I am here.” Michiru faced the room with her shoulders squared and chin up. For all they’d dealt with volatile Rei Hino, all the workers in the room shivered. “I have no intention of having any of you fired–” A collective sigh– “So long as you do your job.” And the room froze again. “It seems there are many inefficiencies in the day-to-day business practices here. Each of you will have the opportunity to step up to solve them.”
A man who Michiru, perhaps unkindly, thought looked like he belonged in IT with his wiry frame and an open button down that flaunted dress code the slightest bit because he felt irreplacable, rose a hand. “What about departments that are already efficient?”
“Hmm…” Michiru smiled. “And your department is?”
“IT.”
“Thank you for volunteering for first audit. I will walk back with you once we are done here.”
He slunk down in his chair slightly.
Michiru walked along the front of the conference table. “Complacency is never an asset. The drive to improve should come from each and every one of you.” She stopped. “I would like each department to present something they would like to do better in tomorrow morning’s meeting. Throughout the week I will work with you to plan how to bring it to fruition.”
The tension dropped. It surely seemed easy enough to them. But Michiru was not finished.
“I will be focusing on the bigger, structural inefficiencies. As they are identified, some of you will take on greater responsibilities.”
With timing that could not be better had Michiru planned it, the secretary and other woman returned, reports in hand. “You,” Michiru said to the woman. “What is your name?”
“Nagisa.”
“And what do you do here?”
“Data analysis.”
“Good. Every morning you will run the report and deliver it to Ms. Hino’s office. By the end of the week, I expect to start seeing notations on key points.”
“Understood.”
Michiru smiled. This wouldn’t be hard at all.
—-
Rei collapsed into Michiru’s office chair. She hadn’t thought about how big the place would be. No wonder Michiru outsourced most of the work. Just finding her office took half the morning.
“Good morning, Ms. Hino.” A woman Rei assumed was Michiru’s secretary, dressed primly in a navy skirt suit. “Would you like coffee or tea? Mrs. Kaioh did not tell me your preferences, I apologize.”
Rei waved her off. “I’m fine, I can get my own.” Probably, so long as she could find the break room– or one of them, a place this big had to have several.
“Very well. I am right outside should you need anything. The earnings report for last week is on your desk, as well as stock prices and our projected goals.”
“Thank you.” Rei leaned in to look at them as the secretary left the room. Earnings… Rei sat back again. There was a difference, of course, between a diversified company your family built over generations and a small printing firm you bought when it was on the brink of failure and brought back to life, but to see it so plainly in numbers… Rei looked a second time. And that was only last week.
She scanned over the goals. The only thing to do was to push beyond the numbers here, show Michiru that her way was better.
Someone knocked on the office door. A large man in a suit entered, looking like a perfect caricature of a businessman. “Ms. Hino. Mrs. Kaioh said you may want to meet with me after your arrival.”
She motioned for him to sit. He introduced himself and began explaining the structure of the company and workforce.
“Wait, she lets who run payroll?”
“No, I should be in that meeting, let me write that down.”
“What does she do all day? I have to do that too.”
After a while, the man stopped, looking slightly pained. “We do ave departments for a reason, Ms. Hino…”
“Yes,” Rei said, filling in Michiru’s desk calendar with red pen, “and as CEO and owner Michiru is the head of every department and should act accordingly.”
The man sighed. “Mrs, Kaioh did say…” He shook his head. “I’m on extension 265 should you need anything.”
Rei nodded and let him leave as she surveyed her new schedule. She certainly had her work cut out for her.
—–
There was a wave of uncomfortable surprise as Rei strode in to the conference room. Every man adjusted his tie or cufflinks and looked to the man to the side of him to confirm she was really there. And they were all men– Rei would certainly have to talk to Michiru about that.
“Ms. Hino,” one of them started, voice layered with condensation thick as honey, “there is no need for you to be in this meeting.”
“I have been hired as a business consultant, and I intend to do my job. That means I must observe you doing yours.”
“Very well.” He sat back as though it was nothing, but she saw his color rise slightly.
Rei took a chair and pulled it to the wall at the back, away from the table. She’d made a folder detailing everyone in the meeting—it was nearly every major department head. Not a single ground-level employee was involved in any meeting that was on her radar. It was due to sheer size, perhaps, but it bothered her.
The men began talking. She let them go for a while. It seemed to her to hardly be a business meeting at all. They congratulated each other on themselves on their production and stock performance, agreeing that the outlook for the coming quarter was excellent.
“But what did you do?” Rei asked finally.
They all looked at her as though it was an absurd question. She singled out the man who’d questioned her.
“The company did well. Your department did well. What did you do to make that happen?”
He took on the particular smile of oh, you don’t understand business. “I run—“
“I don’t need your job description. I have it here.”
“Then I don’t understand your question.”
“I’ll ask something else then. You cut…” she scanned the document. “Over thirty jobs in the past two months. Who took on those responsibilities?”
“Those jobs were redundant. Cutting them will save—“
“That is not what I asked.” She looked him in the eyes. “Who took on the tasks and responsibilities that belonged to those former employees?”
His face twisted as though he might like to hit her if only it wouldn’t muss up his suit. “Other employees at the appropriate levels absorbed their tasks. Now if you look at the numbers, you’ll see production—“
“I see the numbers quite fine.” Rei closed her folder forcefully. “I want a breakdown report of all eliminated jobs in the past six months, what they did and who’s taken on what tasks. Tomorrow we will restructure to take on some of the extra work ourselves.”
A few of the men laughed as though they honestly thought it was a joke. The rest looked around to not meet her eyes.
“That’s not how business works, Ms. Hino.”
Rei stood. “You’re going to learn it can be.”
—–
As Michiru had expected, it did not take long to start seeing progress. By the fourth day, she stopped hearing that things were Rei’s job. They simply got done, as they should have all along. She now could simply walk into her office each morning and read over the company’s performance as she took her tea. Soon Rei would see production rise, marveling as Michiru’s efforts cut the time she spent in the office while rising her profits to previously unimagined heights.
It was as she took her tea on this fourth morning that the mousy secretary popped into the door frame, hands aflutter as she tried to speak.
“M-m-mrs. Kaioh?”
“Yes?” Rei should replace the poor thing, it would do them both good.
“There’s a problem.”
“I trust you will fix it, or call someone who can.” She took another sip of tea, but the secretary did not leave.
She rocked back and forth on her heels. “Do you know how we might reach Ms. Hino?”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“She’s the only—“
“Fine.” Michiru set her tea cup on the desk with just enough force to make the secretary jump. “What is the problem?”
“There’s a woman on the direct line, she says she says Ms. Hino herself promised she’d get her delivery by the end of the day yesterday, and—“
“When did she place her order?”
“Saturday.”
“We do not operate on Saturdays.”
The secretary bit her lip. “Yes but Ms. Hino often comes in, she likes to take orders whenever she can.”
Michiru sighed. “Well tell the woman her order was taken by mistake—“
“I don’t think I should.”
“Why?”
“She orders from us a lot.” She shakily approached and pointed to a large subsection of production. “Almost all orders on laminated matte 120 pound card stock come directly from her.”
“Then why has no one completed her order?” But she knew the answer. Rei did this woman’s orders. It was the blessing and curse of a small company—customers knew and trusted specific people. The woman would settle for nothing less than the company’s best, which Rei had made a point of making herself.
But Michiru would not throw in the towel. She was right, and this was merely an oversight that she should have delegated correctly. “Tell her she’ll have her order by noon.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Michiru turned to Rei’s computer, which she’d barely touched in her time there. As she opened the file, she realized she had another problem. Two, if she couldn’t remember the secretary’s name. She pondered for a moment. “Keiko?” she called.
The secretary reappeared. “Yes?”
“Call someone who can show me how to do this order.”
“Yes ma’am.” She turned, but then paused. “Also, um. It’s Rika.”
Michiru was not sure which of them should be more embarrassed. But soon someone was showing her how to get the order done, and she had no time to think about it.
It was 11:52 when she finally pulled in front of the delivery address—rarely had she ever been so aware of the time. She was so focused, in fact, that she didn’t realize where she was until she was almost to the door.
“You gave Rei’s poor secretary quite a scare,” she said with a laugh as she pushed through the door of Makoto’s flower shop. “If she had said it was you I wouldn’t had worried.”
Mako didn’t smile. “She told me what’s going on.”
“I have your order here.” She held the large envelope out.
Mako took it and began replacing handwritten labels with the printed ones. “I had a shipment of specialty flowers in this morning.”
“I’m sorry.”
Mako stopped to look at her sternly. “I get what you’re trying to do. Rei’s not great at balance. But she and I are different than you. There are things we have to do ourselves, because we are our business. I own this place, it’s my name on the sign. I can have other people water the flowers, or handle the cash, but I have to know they’re doing it right, and sometimes, the only way to do that is doing it myself. And for bigger things, that’s almost always true. I design the special occasion bouquets. I deliver the wedding flowers. And Rei has to do her own version of that. She does too much, I won’t argue, but she always does what’s necessary.” She frowned. “If I hadn’t been a friend, you might have lost Rei business today.”
Michiru felt shame color her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”
Mako softened. “On the bright side, I’m sure Rei’s doing much worse to your company.”
—-
Rei knew that they all knew she could have done much worse. She’d designed a trickle up—adjusting tasks onto higher levels rather than laterally, so that each level of management took on a little of what they were managing, up and on to the department heads. They complained, but overall, Rei thought it was going smoothly. The lower levels were less stressed, and Michiru would have to be pleased with their increased output, which would surely begin showing in barely any time at all.
There was just the small problem of what Rei had allotted herself, and Michiru when she left.
She’d said as CEO she was the true head of every department, and she’d followed through on it—she’d taken on at least one task from each department head to allow them to take on their additional tasks.
They were relatively small tasks, but there were so many departments.
For a day, she’d handled it well. But it had been a long day, and today was proving longer. An angry text from Mina lit up her phone.
Don’t bother coming home if you love work that much appeared below the big “7:14pm.”
Another – Only you could make a cushy job this long and hard.
Then, Mina of course not being able to resist being Mina—I guess that’s why it brings you so much pleasure, huh? It was followed by an eggplant emoji.
Rei sighed and put her chin in her hands. She missed her old work, and not just because she suspected she might have overshot and made a mess here—but it was different to work for a team that believed in her. They hadn’t at first, granted, but even at the start it hadn’t been this hard.
She put the paperwork to the side. The problem had been in front of her all along. She didn’t love this company, and Michiru didn’t either. It was the difference beyond the size.
Against her pride, she picked up her phone. “Let’s call it off a day early.”
“Thank god.”
—-
“You know,” Michiru said over wine on Saturday, when it had already begun to feel distant, “I quite like making the department heads work more. I’m keeping that. But they’re doing everything you gave me.”
Rei snorted. “Surprise surprise.” She paused. “And you know, maybe not all your changes were bad ideas.”
Michiru smiled. “I don’t suppose we have to go as far as to say we were both wrong. We were merely both right.”
“I like that outlook.” Rei raised her glass in appreciation. Her phone buzzed, and she downed what remained of her drink. “Looks I’ve gotta run.”
“Oh?” Michiru raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe—I’m not saying for sure, but maybe—you had a point about Mina too.”
“Oh dear, I’ll never forgive myself if I’ve made her life better.”
Rei rolled her eyes. “Guess you should have let me be.”
“Never.”