The Case Of Yokozawa Takafumi Vol 6

Chapter 2

As the week started, Yokozawa found himself with fewer and fewer opportunities to interact directly with Kirishima, until several days had passed without them speaking face to face at all. They texted and e-mailed, sure, but they hadn't actually spoken in days.

Hiyori was spending the week with her grandparents, or on some evenings, Kirishima's mother came to spend the night at their place, apparently. As such, Yokozawa couldn't exactly pop in like usual, so he hadn't been able to see Hiyori or Sorata of late either.

However, this was hardly unusual; even Kirishima, who made every effort to leave work on time each day, was swamped with work at the end of every month's cycle. With the upcoming fair to worry about on top of everything, Yokozawa hadn't a moment to breathe either.

"...Huh?"

He struggled to grasp what his boss had just told him—but the cogs in his mind had ground to a halt. He'd been called into his superior's office under pretense of needing to 'chat'.

Ignoring Yokozawa's gaping confusion, the man continued: "This is all still under the table, you understand—nothing's quite set in stone yet, but we're confident you're the man for the job. We'd like you to put those skills you've honed working in the Comics Division to better use elsewhere. So, that being the case, you should probably prepare yourself."

"I...see..."

"Though of course, nothing's going to be happening until at least after this fair's over, so you shouldn't worry too much over it for the foreseeable future. Just focus on what's on your plate for now."

"...Yes, sir..." he responded dully, leaving the office in a daze.

His mind was utterly blank—this had come completely out of left field. Pathetically enough, he still hadn't quite managed to wrap his head around what had just happened.

As his boss put it, they were thinking of changing up the division he was assigned to; he'd be moved from Comics, where he worked now, to the Literature division. Even if it wasn't set in stone just yet, the fact that they'd brought up the suggestion to him meant it was fairly close to being settled now.

And it wasn't exactly a strange idea; quite the opposite, in fact—it was stranger still that he'd only ever worked in Comics since joining the company.

"Literature, huh..."

He wasn't complaining about the position he'd be filling, by any means. It was only...he'd been involved in Comics for so long, so he couldn't shake the feeling that it'd be tough saying goodbye to the job.

There was nothing to think about; he only had one option. As an employee working for a company, he had no choice but to comply with its policies. He wouldn't always have the luxury of doing exactly the work he wanted to be doing. His salary was earned by doing his job as an employee of this company, so if Human Resources decided that he ought to be working somewhere else, he had a duty to do as ordered. Even if it wasn't a decision he was happy with.

On the bright side, at least he wasn't being transferred out of Sales altogether; as he saw it, Sales and Marketing were his calling. He could never have cut it in the Editing or Graphics divisions, which required some measure of creative talent, nor did he think himself fit doing deskwork in the production departments. A job that called for some legwork was definitely the best fit for someone who really threw himself into his work, like Yokozawa.

"Oh, welcome back, Yokozawa-san! What did the boss want?"

Yokozawa froze for a moment at Henmi's innocent question. "Huh? Oh, uh—just wanted to know how the fair preparations are going." They'd discussed the fair, after all, so it wasn't lie—but it was probably best not to bring up the prospect of changing divisions with Henmi until things were settled.