Rotten Ribbons

Chapter Nine

The next morning, you awoke to the blaring sound of your alarm going off. You groggily reached for your phone and quickly silenced the alarm before getting out of bed. As you rubbed the sleep from your eyes, you noticed a notification on your phone. It was a text from Aizawa, one of your colleagues at work.

"Hey there," the text read, "I apologize for falling asleep last night. It was a tough day."

You felt a twinge of sympathy for Aizawa's busy schedule but also appreciated his effort in reaching out. With a smile on your face, you typed back a response.

"Oh, it's totally fine! Don't worry about it," you replied warmly.

After hitting send, you got ready for work while thinking about Aizawa's message. Despite his exhaustion, he still took the time to check in with you and communicate effectively. This only solidified your respect for him as a colleague and friend.

As you headed out the door to start your day, you made a mental note to thank Aizawa in person for his thoughtfulness. It just goes to show that even amidst our hectic schedules,

Ding! your bagel is done! you quickly grab the jelly and smear it atop the toasted bread, then you grabbed your bag and left the apartment.

once you got to the metro station and paid for your ticket, you got another text from Aizawa.

"is there a way I can make it up to you?" he had sent

"it's really no big deal!" you assured

"but I messed up the whole thing, I should do something to make it up to you" he had insisted

"then let's get lunch during my break, it's at noon if that's alright," you sighed aloud, giving up, before hitting send and getting on the train.

You arrived at the station and got off, before walking the rest of the way to work, taking a deep breath before entering, mentally preparing for the presentation you had today, but the fact you'd see aizawa after made you feel a bit better, he just seemed to care more than anyone else, he really was a nice guy!

you headed to the meeting room and hooked up your computer to the projector as your coworkers filed into the room. once everyone was seated, you began

"Ahem, this is my presentation on why we should use the Sunstone Circuits and titanium instead of the stainless steel and All PCB Circuits." you took a deep breath before continuing "the Sunstone Circuit brand is more expensive yes, but overall is safer for our clients, if we do a surgery with the PCB Circuits, there is a higher chance of failure or even death due to the fact that the coding is weak and the circuits get damaged easily"

you were fidgeting with your hands behind your back as you continued the presentation "the titanium is a harder to find substance and more expensive, yes, but the stainless steel is less durable and harder to get the exact measurements-"

"Yeah, so what?" the CEO interrupted "why should we waste our money on 'better materials.'"

"because our job is to insure safety in the medical field and-" you stated the obvious

"no, our job is to make money" he interjected again "who actually cares about the quality of our equipment, they're still going to buy it, and the quicker it breaks, the quicker they'll buy another one"

this ticked you off, you took a deep breath to prevent yourself from yelling "this company's goal on papers is to be the latest in medical technology and our motto is 'trust us with your safety,' shouldn't we be living up to our goals and motto" you looked at your audience of four who were staring at you with varying degrees of surprise and anger. You paused for a moment and took a few seconds to collect your thoughts "look, you want to improve this company's reputation in the world don't you?"

"yeah, but-"

"well then trust me, and your investors, and all those people who invest their money into this damned company to do your job!" you snapped, before grabbing your computer and storming out of the room, sitting at your desk with a huff.

one of your work friends, Matsui Taro rolled over to you in his wheelchair, his siren tail sitting where the , before asking "what's up with you?"

"I blew that meeting! I got mad and-"

"hey! hey! relax, who knows! maybe you got them to listen with your emotions" he assured, placing his scaley webbed hand on your shoulder reassuringly while giving you a soft fatherly look in his blue irises.

"...thanks, Matsui" you muttered before turning your gaze on the whiteboard that hung above your desk. it had a little doodle of a cat saying "don't give up! good luck on that meeting - signed, Matsui", shame you didn't see it earlier, maybe then you wouldn't have flunked that meeting.

you banged your head on the desk in defeat, mumbling, "how are they going to make a more expensive decision when I didn't even convince them before getting angry. . ."

"look, I'm sure if I talk to them I-"

"No! do not talk to corporate! I don't want you roped into this! I'm probably getting a pay cut for how I talked to them, I don't want anything worse to happen" you quickly Interrupted Matsui

"I'm sure you won't get a pay cut, I don't think that's even legal." he assured, rubbing your back reassuringly

"Ughhhhhh" you whined, before being interrupted by your phone buzzing from a text, it was Aizawa

"hey, I just got on my planning period, where'd you wanna meet up?"

"anywhere is fine with me, I'll go sign out to get on lunch break"

"what if we just get coffee and chat, my classes make me feel exhausted just after one of them anyway"

"yeah, that works!" you put down your phone after hitting send and spoke to Matsui "I'm going on lunch break!"

"oooh~ you got a date?" he teased

"wha- no! I'm just getting lunch with a friend!" you interjected, your face turning a red hue

"sounds like a date to me with the way your blushing~" he continued

"Just- Just fuck off!" you stormed off to sign out for lunch

"tell me about it when you get back!" he chirped, waving as you left