Vomited on the Way to Work
Yuma sighed as he gripped the handle of his briefcase tight in one hand and the handrail of the train carriage with the other.
Kyoto. The last place he thought he would return to. Especially after working his way up to a senior business analyst role at Canyon IT’s CEO Executive office in Tokyo.
Yet here he was, crammed into the morning rush train from his apartment in Takeda. Headed for his new Canyon IT office at the heart of Kyoto’s CBD. A high-rise building that was a fraction of the size compared to his old office at Hachiman Square.
Somehow, Kyoto never felt ‘city’ enough for him; that was one of the reasons why he had left the place ten years ago.
In a climate of pending recession and social media activism, he counted his blessings that he still had a job. Although his apartment was only possible because of his generous rebate from his parents, who owned the building complex. Being under his parents’ roof again was an inconvenience.
“Kyoto City. Kyoto City. The doors will open on the left.” The train carriage’s announcer broke him out of his pensive thoughts and mood.
He mindlessly ambled out of the sardine-packed mob and squirmed when he felt something wet and heavy on his back.
“Hell!” He cursed when his back was whacked to make him stumble to the ground on all fours.
When he managed to scramble to his feet, he saw a pregnant woman in a pink work overcoat. It was opened to reveal her conservative suit dress in a corporation’s blue and white colors. The woman was unconscious near his feet.
Crap! He had no idea what to do.
“Miki! Miki, don’t die on me! You still need to hand over my Yarichin Bitch Club specials!” Another woman hurried to the fallen woman’s side, wearing the same overcoat and corporation uniform.
“Don’t stand there! Get water!” The woman snapped Yuma into motion.
He hurriedly procured a bottle and cup from the vending machine nearby.
The pregnant woman was coming around by the time he had returned to offer the water.
“Thank you, sir.” The woman called Miki weakly thanked him as she took a sip and wobbled to her feet with his aid.
Yuma frowned at the sight of her feet in heels. Wouldn’t walking in those be dangerous in her condition?
“Thank you,” the other woman said with a sigh of relief.
“Do you need me to call you a taxi?” he offered the women.
“No, no, but, um, you might want to do something about your jacket.” The other woman screwed up her button nose at the sight of his back.
Yuma squirmed when he smelled vomit.
“Oh. I’ll pay for the dry cleaning!” Miki apologetically bowed.
Just his luck to be vomited on for his first day at work.
“Don’t worry about it,” he reassured the expectant mother.
“Look. I’m going to have to clean up somehow when I get into work. It’s better I take a taxi. You can share it with me?” He offered again. This time the women agreed.
It was just their luck (or Yuma’s bad luck) that all three of them were headed to the same destination. Although, unlucky for the poor cab driver, who politely accepted their patronage whilst scrunching up his nose at the unpleasant smell that lingered around the handsome man.
When the cab driver was given the story, he jumped to the conclusion that Miki and Yuma were newly wed.
Neither had the heart to correct the man, especially when he was giving them a generous discount on the cab fare with blessings.
Yuma had learned that Miki was Miki Tanaka. She was the secretary of the Sales Department’s general manager. And a woman, still slender in figure despite her bump. His impression of her was wholesome, delicate, and amicable. Although her snort and giggle, when the other woman cracked a few one-liner jokes, were unexpected.
The other woman was Sei Mikorin, who held common features, had her hair up in a conservative ponytail, and wore her uniform at the bare minimum of regulations. It seemed she was part of the same team as Miki. Another secretary, but for the support team’s general manager.
“Oh, you’re starting as a personal assistant for Furuya-sama.” Miki rephrased his new role with an awkward pause.
“Is that wrong?” Yuma frowned, perplexed.
Both women shared pensive glances before they had unconvincingly brushed off his question as nothing of concern. Before he could question further, they had reached their destination.
Yuma thanked Sei for her instructions on the ground-level showers and restrooms.
Not wanting to give a bad impression to his boss on his first day, he hurried to a shower room to freshen up. Doing his best to clean and air-dry his jacket under a toilet hand dryer.
When he felt certain he was an ideal image and smelled fresh, he confidently stepped out and was slammed to the ground in the crudest way.
He fell with his legs in the air to show his perky butt to oncoming (soon to be) fellow employees.
“What the hell?!” He inadvertently cursed aloud when he managed to scramble to his feet.
“Oh no! I’m very sorry!” A mousy voice apologized to him over and over.
Yuma glared at the unassuming man wearing thin-framed glasses balanced on his fine nose to accentuate his doe-like dark eyes and effeminate and stunning features.
A beauty to rival those pretty-boy models his old department had hired for promotion campaigns. He wore a conservative blue suit, an elegant butterfly collar shirt, and a rainbow tie; slender legs in navy slacks; and expensive loafers.
He frowned when he saw slight watermark stains all about his ankles, and the links of his silver watch were slightly mangled, evidence of snagging.
The pretty man was on all fours before him, scooping up strewn stray papers.
Yuma appreciated the man’s crisp scent of lemons with a heavenly sigh. It was a nice change from the vomit smell he had to cope with until his arrival in the office.
He sighed and dropped his anger, bent down, and helped the man scoop them up.
“Thank you!” The man heaved a sigh of relief when their eyes met.
“Oh, Saito-san! Great to see you. Follow me.” His voice changed to a chirpier tone when he recognized Yuma.
“You know me?” Yuma asked as he hurried after the man, who was a fast walker.
“Of course! I’ve been expecting you.” The man stopped to face him. He awkwardly laughed when his papers fell to the floor again.
“I’m Furuya, Kou. Your new boss.” He cheerfully introduced himself after he had scooped up his papers for the second time.
Yuma gulped when his eyes met Kou’s, feeling like his gaze was being enchanted. He cursed the mad flutters he felt from his heart. The man definitely held a charm that screamed, ‘protect this maiden!’
“Okay.” It was all Yuma could say.
“Have you signed in?” Kou cordially asked.
“Not yet,” Yuma replied; his mind was still transfixed on Kou’s face for some weird reason. Dormant feelings were triggered, those he had thought would never resurface.
“Okay, follow me!” He cheerfully ordered him and led the way back to Reception.
Yuma managed to sign in and reach the elevators with him without further incident.
Kou happily filled him in on the history of the company and the department he would be spending most of his hours slaving away in.
“Your team is on Level 11. You’ll need to swipe your pass here, then press the [11] button to reach our level.” He showed him the rectangular gray box that was set just below the level and emergency call buttons of the elevator panel.
Yuma nervously scratched his head when he watched the papers slide to the floor when Kou went to swipe his employee pass on the box and then press the level button for number [10].
“Oh, wrong button. Have to try it again.” He awkwardly noted, repeating the process and pressing the [11] button.
Meanwhile, the elevator was going up, stopping to let in and out other passengers; going down, letting in more passengers; and going up and down again.
They rode the elevator more than once until they eventually reached Level 11. However, the doors wouldn’t open.
They stood in uncomfortable silence as they waited. A few minutes ticked by.
The doors stayed shut.
The level button’s light switched off. The elevator began moving downwards to the ground level again.
“This is strange," Kou frowned.
His fingers trembled nervously as he pulled out Yuma’s badge from his pocket and frantically continued to swipe and tap it on the security box.
He frantically kept pressing the number [11] button.
“Um, Furuya-san, you probably don’t want to keep doing that.” Yuma gingerly approached Kou’s button-pressing attempts.
They both yelped when the elevator jerked to a sudden stop with a few bounces.
“Oh, dear,” Kou gulped nervously.
Wanting to assume the lead and save face, he pressed the elevator’s red button to call for help.
Suddenly, the elevator lights changed to a warning red color and flickered infrequently.
An annoying bell resounded throughout the compact space, making their ears ring.
Yuma intervened with Kou’s button-pushing.
He pried open the panel that covered the handset for the PSTN line to the building’s security and pressed a set of number buttons as noted on the label above them.
“God. Tell me this isn’t some Hidden Doors game.” He groaned at the thought.
A voice crackled in his ear. “Don’t worry, sir, we see the problem.”
Yuma frowned at the casualness of the man’s voice from the other end of the receiver. His expression soured when the voice added. “We’ll get you out, but you might wanna take out extra life insurance working with our president.”
The line went dead before he could come back with his questions.
“Are they coming?” Kou gingerly asked behind him.
Yuma relaxed his tension with some slow breathing and faced him with a reassuring smile.
“Not long.”
Kou heaved out a sigh of relief and yelped when the elevator jerked into an upward motion. The motion made him stumble into Yuma’s arms.
The sounds of their heavy heartbeats racing simultaneously made them both hastily pull away with awkward blushes.
Yuma wondered how much a life insurance policy would cost him.
