Chapter Text
“Are you sure about this?” your boss asks, raising an eyebrow. You respond with a nod.
“Yes sir. I’ve only come to you after serious and thorough consideration.”
He sighs, and signs your resignation letter. You feel a sense of relief when he doesn’t press you to reveal the details of your unexpected resignation. After working in your corporate office for the past 5 years, you decided to call it quits and start living your life the way you wanted.
“Well then, I guess that wraps it up. Please conclude any projects that you might have pending and inform your colleagues. You’ll receive an e-mail of confirmation once your resignation has been processed by the company.”
You give a nod to your boss, getting up to excuse yourself out of his office. He calls out your name, causing you to look back, waiting for him to continue.
“You were a great employee, we will truly miss your presence and work you’ve done here,” he says, a genuine smile forming on his face. You give him a bright smile back.
“I’m gonna miss working here with everyone. This place has really helped me grow these past few years.” He smiles and dismisses you, leaving you to return to your desk. You sighed as you slumped back into your swivel chair.
Despite the resignation letter being turned in, you still had to close up your remaining projects and other loose ends. You think back on the last 5 years at the company, it really had been fun. You met tons of clients from different backgrounds, made friendships that you cherished till this day and experienced new things. Though you had equally bad experiences as well, the good ones outweighed them. Leaving you with a bittersweet feeling at the thought of these days coming to an end.
“Hey”
You look up to see the smiling face of your best friend, Mori.
“Wanna head out for lunch? I gotta pick up some papers on the way back though.”
“Sure, I wanted to talk about something anyways” you say, grabbing your phone and bag as you follow her out of the office. Hopefully she would take the news of your resignation well.
----
“Wait, so it's in a month? That’s so little time!” she exclaims, causing heads to swivel in the direction of your table. You smile apologetically at the neighboring tables as you shush Mori. The little cafe you both were regulars at, could only be described as cozy and ‘home-like’. You sat in your usual corner table that was surrounded by the L-shaped bookshelf, the smell of freshly baked pastries diffusing through the air.
“Well I just wanted to do it before I got assigned to a new project. Plus I saved up enough to live comfortably, so why not?” you unconsciously pick at the remnants of your food, your mind wandering a mile a minute with an array of thoughts and plans on what to do. The uncertainty of your future excited you in a way you’ve never felt since your teenage days.
“Well I’m happy for you, you can finally go to all those places you’ve dreamed of,” she smiles whimsically, as if she could already imagine you adventuring out in the jungle or some sort of crazy exotic place. You’re just about to answer when the door to the small cafe rings and you see your co-worker Nanami Kento step in. He notices you and Mori and gives an acknowledging nod before going on to order his food. Mori smirks in your direction as she watches you get silent and flustered.
“But leaving the company means you won’t be able to ogle at your long-term crush all day” she whispers, in a teasing tone. You blush and glare at her.
“Shut up, he’s gonna hear you!” you yell back in a whisper.
“Yeah right, he’s in his own world. Man only knows work, bread, and clocking out on time. I doubt he’d care if he finds out we’re talking about him. Plus we’re pretty far away from the counter, so stop worrying” She waves a hand dismissively. You drown out her words as you discreetly watch him take out his book as he waits for his order at the table in the back. ‘Cute’, you think to yourself, trying to suppress the growing lovesick smile appearing on your face.
You hear the snickering of your friend, and you turn back and see her growing smirk. Countless times, she had caught you losing all focus and turning into a blushing teenage girl whenever the blond man was involved. You sigh, as you realize that she was right, resigning would mean you didn’t get to see the older man every day. During the last 26 years of life, this had been the longest crush you harbored.
What started out as admiration for his work ethics and straightforward nature developed into a love for his subtle and unseen kindness, his dedication to whatever he set his mind to, and his gentlemanly nature. You would be lying if you said you only liked his personality. Nanami Kento had the face that you could see yourself painting every day on every surface, for the rest of your life. Unfortunately for you, you weren’t quite gifted with the brush, so that idea was shot down.
The sudden clattering of utensils and a gasp brings you to the present, as you stare at Mori, with confusion written all over your face.
“You should ask him out” she whispers excitedly, with wide eyes and a semi-deranged smile lighting up her face.
“And have him shoot me down like all the others? Are you insane?” You ask, bewildered.
“Well then woo him a bit before you actually ask him out! Duh”
“No, that would be so unprofessional. You know how quiet and reserved he is. How would I even talk to him?”
“What do you have to lose anyway? You leave in a month. Worst case scenario, he rejects you Best case scenario, he agrees to date you and you guys can still date after you leave the company” she explains as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.
“But I don’t know if it’ll work out Mori, it seems very unlikely,” you say, slumping into a bitter resignation of your fate. Mori grabs your face and squishes it with her hands, as you pout.
“Get a grip woman, don’t call it quits before you even try! This could either end up being a funny story of rejection that you tell when you have friends over for dinner in the future or it could end up being the story of how you two met, that you tell your children on Christmas eve” she whispers harshly. You feel your resolve slowly crumble. She had a point, what did you have to lose anyway? Even if he rejected you, it’s not like you’d see him after you left the company right?
“ But how would I even ‘woo’ him, Mori? He seems so unattainable” you whine, as you subtly stare at him from your peripheral vision. Looks like he’d be leaving soon.
“Talk to him obviously! Find out if he has any common interests and start it with that.” You pondered over this, you suppose you both had a shared interest in reading.
“We like reading, I guess?” Though you doubt if he also reads shoujo manga and fantasy novels in his free time.
“There you have it! Just work with that and start a conversation.”
“But how would I even start? We’ve barely said more than 10 sentences to each other in the past 5 years, it’d be weird if I approached him out of nowhere. Plus I need some time to prepare myself mentally,” you reasoned. She rolls her eyes and mumbles something along the lines of ‘month gone by the time you do’
“Nanami-san?” the voice of the cashier calls out. Your head swiveled in the direction of the front, as you noticed him slowly getting up and grabbing his stuff and making his way to the door. When you turn back to your friend, you notice a scheming grin on her face. Without a word, she quickly tosses the change in the bill presenter and grabs your hand. You make a sound of confusion as you stumble behind her, while she drags you outside. You had a bad feeling in your gut about this.
“Nanami-san!” she cries out, causing the man to pause in front of his car. He looks back confused. The two of you catch up to him and you can already feel your usual confident composure slowly begin to crack.
“I need to go pick up some documents for a project on the other side of town and can’t drop my friend off back to the office, do you mind helping me out this one time?” Mori asks, her face masked with a facade of embarrassed guilt. You butt in, elbowing Mori as you nervously exclaim, “Mori it’s fine, I can get a cab or Uber. Why trouble Nanami-san?”
Your mind was short-circuiting as you realized he was staring at you. You smile at him and begin to apologize, “Ignore her Nanami-san, I’ll be fine so-”
“Sure, I can give a lift.” This catches both you and Mori off guard. You didn’t think he’d agree so easily.
“But I wouldn't wanna trouble you.”
“It’s no trouble if I’m heading there myself.” You consider it for a moment before you agree. Maybe Mori was right, the opportunity was right in front of you. All you had to do was take it.
“Well then, I’ll have to thank you for your help.”
“Thank you so much Nanami-san, I owe you big time” Mori exclaims, before saying bye to you and rushing off. Nanami opens your door and motions for you to get in the car. You offer a smile before taking your seat. As he shuts the door and goes to take his own seat, you look out the window and see Mori in the distance, giving you a thumbs up as she mouths ‘Good Luck’. You check quickly to make sure Nanami didn’t notice before giving her a grin and waving.