Caged Slave (MewGulf AU)

🌻Chapter 12

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The first five days passed in a dizzy blur. Gulf worked by himself at a desk set up near Mew's office on the 11th floor. Although the Sales Division were close by, his desk was separated from it by a partition, which meant that he wasn't anywhere near AA.

"Please, Manager AA," Gulf said into the telephone. "It doesn't matter how long it takes, but I really need those numbers today."

Gulf was thoroughly annoyed as he hung the phone up. He had lost count of how many times he asked AA, the head of Sales Division Three to submit the papers he needed. He glanced at his wristswatch.

"6:00 pm already?"

Mew spent his days out with the heads of the five Sales Divisons, and visiting with and greeting clients. He was scheduled to return in about 30-minutes. At 7:30 pm, Mew and President Ookawa would have a dinner meeting with the head of one of Dai Tech's member banks. In the 15-minutes between, Gulf had to fill Mew in on the happenings of the day, explain his schedule for next week, and provide him with the necessary paperwork.

"Well, I'm probably not going to be able to give him the papers until next week..." Gulf sighed, staring at the wreckage that was his desk. Over and over, he was besieged by requests for cancellations and changes. Everything on his schedule was pending, and he was surrounded by a flood of memo-tagged papers.

There weren't currently any major problems but Gulf wasn't able to carry out his job of collecting paperwork as efficiently as he had hoped. And the Executive Director of Sales was a new position that President Ookawa had created, so he had no precedence to draw on to tell him what to do. Back when he had worked on the president's Secretarial Division, he had been busy, but had never imagined how hard it would be to do a job without any bosses to instruct him or peers to consult with.

He could deal with not receiving any guidance if it weren't for dealing with the Sales Divisions, who totally refused to cooperate. Even if he came in on the weekends, he didn't think he'd be able to finish up. No matter how many times he requested data, the Sales Divisions didn't respond. Gulf knew he wasn't being taken seriously. Although they jumped to obey requests from the Presidential Office, they were doing everything they could to make Gulf's job difficult.

Having lost his status as secretary to the president, Gulf was yet again a powerless rookie who only had three years of experience. So when he asked the Sales Division to expend a little effort, they didn't exactly jump at his command.

The worst of them all was Mr. AA, the manager of Division Three. While everyone else in the Division made up excuses and reasons for delay, AA didn't even make any effort to hide the fact that he didn't like Gulf. And thanks to him, Gulf's work was always late.

'I guess there's nothing I can do,' he thought. He realized that he had been blessed to have the Presidential Office supporting him, and that he was really lucky to be able to work like this again. He didn't intend to let his new job be spoiled. If everything had gone smoothly, these five days would have been wonderful.

Except, of course, for the biggest problem of all: Mew Suppasit.

'He's back,' Gulf noticed. Mew had just arrived with the manager of Sales Division One. Without intending to, Gulf stood up, his heart thudding wildly.

Since becoming Mew's employee five days ago, he hadn't been able to decide how he should act. And, understandably, Mew hadn't said a single word about their three months of secret rendezvous. Gulf was thankful that he hadn't brought the subject up at work, yet his feelings toward Mew were all jumbled up. He had learned the name he wanted so badly to know, but he couldn't do anything about it.

For better of for worst, they hardly interacted at work---Mew's week had been stuffed with meetings with each internal division head and going out to meet clients, so they spent only about 20 or 30 minutes in the afternoon or evening together.

For Gulf, the most important pending matter he had to deal with was Mew Suppasit's very existence.

"Good work today," Gulf greeted Mew with a blank face, his insides churning. At times like these, his cool facade took over, and he became nothing but a competent, beautiful secretary. No one noticed that beneath his attractive visage seethed a torrent of passion.

"Your meeting with the head of Touzai Bank is, as planned, at 7:30 pm. The Secretarial Division says that you are to ride in the company car together, so please make sure you're at the underground parking garage in 10-minutes. As for next week's schedule..." The words tumbled out of his mouth quickly as he took the day's crop of business cards from Mew.

While listening to Gulf's announcements, Mew made a quick check of his mail and his inbox, confirming what matters were srill pending.

"There's really nothing urgernt, is here?" he asked.

"Umm...no," Gulf replied.

There was not enough time before Mew left to go to the parking garage for Gulf to aplologize for not submitting his paperwork in time. In any case, even if he had turned them in, Mew probably wouldn't get to look at them until next week anyway.

'Today is Friday already,' Gulf thought. Inwardly, he breathed a sigh of relief.

It was the first Friday since he had learned that his mystery man and Mew Suppasit were the same person.

'I can't believe it's only been a week,' he thought, astonished. He could no longer put off thinking about what he had tried so studiously to ignore the past five days. And he couldn't not wonder whether tonight might be the end of it all.

'What should I do?' He was suddenly scared. Now that Gulf Kanawut and Mew Suppasit knew each other in the real world, what would happen? He had an awful premonition that it couldn't end well.

Mew had focused on his work and acted like nothing was amiss, so he had probably lost interest in Gulf now that he knew more about him. Gulf hadn't broken the rules, but because of outside circumstances, the game was most likely over. Even if they met again, like they had been doing, reality had irrevocably intruded.

'If I went there tonight,' Gulf thought, 'and the room was empty.'

Fear froze his limbs in place. He couldn't just think of it as waking from a dream. Maybe to Mew their relationship was nothing but a game, but Gulf had fallen in love even before he had learned Mew's name. He didn't want to entertain the thought that he had been dumped just like before.

'No...I don't want to know...'

Gulf was so agitated that he could barely organize Mew's business card.

TBC