マネジャー || Nijiro Murakami

chapter 5

the whole conversation was overwhelming for Mei she felt her face getting red and warm. She didn't want to look directly to her dad's way, she knew he would me mad about it because she'd never lie about that big to her parents and the guilt was choking her in the throat of her.
Chiyo was standing behind her, rubbing her back currently. She knew Mei would get overwhelmed quickly in the situation like this sometimes.

Kenji finally spoke after a minute of silence
"Mei, sit down and calm yourself down first. I think you're over-thinking stuff and also being too dramatic."

"What?" Mei thought to herself. She looked at Chiyo again, and she shrugged in response. whatever Mei expected, this was clearly not it. dramatic? seriously? not something she'd expect to hear from her dad.
she shot her gaze quickly at him and moved out her desk chair near her to sit down, Chiyo sat at edge of the bed after Mei.

"So.. are you mad?" Mei's voice is soft, staring at fingers fidgeting with each other.

"No! oh god, no. why would you think that? I'm not mad at you, I'm just disappointed that you think of me like that, you think that me and your mom will get mad if you tell the truth, I'm so sorry for making you feel like that about us. Mei-chan, we love you, you're our child, and you don't own us anything. You need to know that." Kenji sounded sad with his words, eyes were soft looking at her then at his hands that were sitting on his knees while he sat on a small tool near Mei's desk.

Mei's words hurt her dad she knew that. it felt so bad that she started feeling her ears getting warmer and vision getting a little blurry by all the tears forming in her eyes. she quickly blinked multiple times to let those tears go away. she didn't want to cry, she didn't like crying in front of her parents. Chiyo noticed her tears and ease her she took Mei's palm onto hers, squeezing lightly to calm her nerves.

"I'm so sorry, dad.. I know I don't owe you guys.. b-but I didn't want you guys to feel like.. like I'm useless.." her voice started cracking, and Kenji quickly got up and went to hug her. her head reached below his chest, almost his stomach since Mei was sitting on a chair. He lightly patted her head. "Hey, hey, shh.. it's fine, it's all okay, don't feel bad and you're not useless, you're my brave little girl. your mother and I love you very much, we're so proud of you, okay?" Kenji said, trying to calm her down and looking down at her eyes with a convincing look.
Chiyo was now rubbing her back again and squeezing her hands a bit roughly than before, Chiyo decided not to say anything and stay silent to let the father and daughter have their moment together. her expression became sad as she realized it's something her own father would never do, but quickly shaking her head, throwing off the thoughts and focusing on calming Mei down.

after crying a little, Mei rubbed her eyes to wipe all the tears. Both Mei and her dad were now sitting face to face now, and Chiyo in the middle like a referee does in duo games.
Mei finally made everything clear with her dad. They talked. "Dad, I also thought that you'd take me back to Osaka with you, so I wanna say sorry for that too.." she looked down again, fidgeting her fingers.

"Huh? why would you think that?" Kenji gave a confused frown.

"Yeah, why would you think that?" Chiyo repeated curiously with big eyes.

Mei shot an annoyed look to Chiyo before focusing back on her dad. "I don't know.. I just thought that you won't let me stay here on my own with no job."

"You really overthink everything for no reason, qpqtsk. why would I take you back? i didn't send u here for education to let u work back in Osaka. Make money here, Tokyo money is cooler than the Osaka one."

"Huh??" Mei frowned while Chiyo let out a snort.

he's really weird, Mei thought smiling.

it was Monday morning, and Kenji was going back after spending a wonderful weekend with her daughter. Chiyo drove them to the station. After saying their goodbyes, both Mei and Chiyo were now in the car driving back to Chiyo's place. both were talking about stuff while Chiyo changed the radio for a nice song for a cool, sunny day of October.

"Did you check your email?" Chiyo asked, focused on the road, taking a turn.

"No, why?" she looked outside

"You forgot? the website we filled, the manager application one."

"Oh, yeah, that one. I don't feel like I'll get called tho. I hate this." she palmed her face.

"Just check it out. you might get it this time. I told ya I had the feeling." she glanced at Mei.

Mei pulled out her phone from her back pocket, quickly scrolling through the phone.
she didn't check her emails through the whole weekend. It was a fun one she didn't want to spend it with checking stuff that would tense her mood even more because it was mostly filled with rejection letters from multiple companies.

scrolling through the unopened emails, her eyes got stuck on the one which she assumed to be from that company. she tapped on the message, and her eyes got bigger in realization that it was actually an interview letter.

"Oh my god! Chi!! I got the call!" patting Chiyo shoulder in excitement, her eyes were still focused on the screen reading the message.

Chiyo immediately looked at her and pulled up the car at the sideway parking.

"I told you!! omg! what does it say??" Chiyo peeked at the phone screen excitedly.

"Oh no.." Mei's face quickly turned into an annoyed frown.

"What??"

Mei gave her a blank look. "It says I got selected for the interview, but it's tomorrow.."

"So what?" she said plainly

"What do you mean 'so what?' ? Chiyo, it's tomorrow! I need to prepare stuff, and I have no idea what they are gonna ask me!" Mei jumped.

"You're always stressing for no reason, omg! just calm your ass down!" Chiyo answered in the same energy

Mei let out a groan and sat back, sighing. she thought about things she might get asked, this time Mei would do her very best to get this job even though she'd hate to be someone's personal assistant since it's too stressful as a job. Mei quickly went to the internet search bar to get ideas about what manager interviews were like while Chiyo started the car engine again, driving to her place.

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sorry, a lil short chapter to make up the last one. Also, it's the last update of this month but I'll see you back in June. It's just a month and I know you guys can wait. so wish me luck ig I haven't started studying for my finals yet :/

love ya'll and I hope you enjoyed this chapter ♡♡♡