CH 17

17 Pretty is Right! The Most Beautiful Public Relations Manager

After returning from lunch, I was assigned to a meeting with a team of sales and designers to work on a project. My job was to create a survey page and quickly tally the results.

The designer, Ms. Harakawa, is a beautiful woman in her twenties. She has a strong personality, but she is one of the top five beauties in the company.

She asks, [Fujishiro, can I ask you to do some coding for me?]

Coding is honestly a designer’s job. We have a dedicated coder, but he seems to have his hands full at the moment and the work has come back to Ms Harakawa.

With her long, brown, strait hair, Ms Harakawa-san glared at me like a puma.

This person is not angry. Maybe she’s just not a very good talker.

[Well, I might ask a bit of questions, but I’ll do it.]

[Okay. Okay, I’ll give you the design when it’s done.]

[Yes, sir.]

Mr. Harakawa headed for the concentration area at the back of the company. That concentration area is always occupied by Ms. Harakawa, and almost no one else can use it. Well, she is one of the oldest people in the company.

Thanks for the meeting.]

Back at my desk, as usual? Mamiya-san smiles at me from the seat next to mine. I feel like I’ve got my own secretary, which is a great feeling. Not really, though.

[While Fujishiro san was at a meeting, I went to a new lemonade shop nearby. I bought two kinds of lemonade for Cameragram.]

The lemonade shop that was recently introduced on TV was presented in front of me with a lemonade. It has tapioca in it. It’s low in calories, but it’s supposedly popular among university girls because it fills you up.

I’m not going to post it because it doesn’t suit my page…..But Yeah. Surprisingly tasty.

[ Fujishiro-san?]

[Yes?]

Mamiya-san is holding out her hands cutely toward me in a “give me something” pose. What is it?

Maybe you want to hold hands ……? No, it’s not.

[It’s 450 yen.]

Oh, right….

I wanted to punch myself for expecting too much, so I took out 500 yen from my wallet and put it in Mamiya’s small, thin palm. Mamiya turned to her desk and sipped her lemonade, smiling as she said, “I’ll give your change.”

Chewing a tapioca, I turned to my computer. I wondered if I had to fix a bug in the accounting department’s system or a problem with the sales girl’s computer. I’ll have the sales girl take it directly to the general affairs department. Maybe it’s just a bug in the system.

[Fujishiro-kun, are your tasks completed?]

When Director Mishima calls on me directly like this, it’s when she wants to assign tasks to me. To be honest, I have quite a lot of tasks piled up, but I have no choice but to listen to …….

[I’m fine, but is there something wrong?]

[Yeah, can you get the MTG room for me?]

She looked more serious than ever. I silently reserved the MTG room.

[It will be in 10 minutes, please.]

When I entered the MTG room, Director Mishima looked relaxed, opened his computer, and started talking to me, “Oh no, sorry, sorry. I’m sorry.” Thank God, it wasn’t about my evaluation or whether I was smoking too many cigarettes or not.

[I just got a call from HR. Recently, some girls in the marketing section of the sales department have been talking about the terrible battles they’ve been having on social networking sites. They want me to compile a list and, as usual, take a bunch of photos, even if it’s in secret.]

Oh, that kind of thing. That’s why you wanted to talk in the MTG room, where the sound wouldn’t leak.

[I understand. But when you say battle?]

[Yeah, would you look at this?]

It was a screenshot of a locked camegra day post. There is an image of the messaging app MINE on it. Apparently several people are bad-mouthing one employee ……? Complicated.

[Sorry, what is this.?]

[It’s hard to understand, isn’t it? a girl named Kiuchi from the Marke Section is being bullied. A photo of …… group MINE with her bad mouth written on it has been leaked by a mysterious account. And from the names, it looks like several of the people who are writing bad things about her are employees of our marketing department.]

So that’s what this means.

So someone in the Marketing Department or someone in the bullying group MINE is trying to accuse Ms. Kiuchi of bullying and is posting the information on social networking sites.

[My job is to find the accuser, right?]

Director Mishima nodded. The marketing department, hm. I remember it was a department full of women in the sales department. Kiuchi-san was my classmate, I believe. She’s just a normal, quiet girl.

***

Director Mishima, or HR, briefly summarises the request and I go back to my desk. There’s a pretty heavy case load going on. Internal bullying or If you’re going to be a bully in a pack, it’s smarter to be a lone wolf like Harakawa-san and just do your job well.

[Fujishiro san!]

Oh another lone wolf here. Mamiya-san ran up to me with a smile on her face as usual and pushed me behind her back, urging me to hurry up and take a seat. Cute.

[Look, Look at this!]

[What?]

Right in front of me! A smartphone held out to me. The screen of a Camergram. ‘It’s cute!’ Next to the comment, [507 other comments].

–507 comments?

[The post I just redid has 5,000 likes, and with all the comments, my followers have increased to 10,000!]