Working Together

Iori never thought of herself to be prejudiced until now. She was completely disarmed and faced with her own preconceived judgment and she truly felt ashamed of herself. To make things worse, the person she who owed her apologies for that is no one other than Jun Kamikoi. And, to top it off, the person who will be smirking at her while saying "I told you so," Is the annoying and whimsical president who had currently entered her black list to remain there for the remainders of her days on this earth.

The truth is that Iori followed that annoying old man's nagging advice that came in the form of several emails, text messages, and enjoyed packages through her editor. She took a copy of one of Jun's books that the president had sent her and she read it. And to her utter surprise and annoyance, the book was a real page-turner...

His book was fun, engaging and his words flowed life the smoothest melody over paper transfixing her and diving with her into a magical word weaved skillfully and beautifully. In other words, his book was a work of beauty and a piece of art.

Iori had confidence in her writing skills. After all, she was making a living out of it. She was beyond the stage of comparing herself to other writers to prove her worth. but this is completely different. After reading Jun's book she had this exciting feeling that they might work out, that they could write this book together after all.

She and Jun essentially fought over nothing and everything, they were polar opposites and couldn't help but clash every tie they meet. It's like this was the only way they knew how to communicate or this was their dynamic of sorts.

But, now that she read his book, she saw him as a true writer for the first time. His books weren't silly nor were they a substitute for women's unattained feelings. They were beautiful stories that were weaved out of the imagination of a talented novelist who clearly loved his job and did it with passion.

As she sat at the Japanese tea house where her editor had instructed her to go, Iori started to wonder whether she had given her the wrong location. There was no need for the president to go so far for them to meet, usually, meetings like this could be held anywhere from a family restaurant to one of the com[any's conference rooms. 

the president never did things halfway, and he was invested in this project more than usual, but, she still didn't feel comfortable with that for some reason.

A few minutes later, Jun came.

"You're finally here, I thought that I was mistaken about the meeting place," She said and Jun gave her a wry smile.

"Sorry to make you wait. I was surprised when my GPS led me here too. It seems like the president is really invested in this project," He responded coming up to sit in front of her.

"Well, when that person puts his mind onto something he always makes sure to see it through. And it's not always pleasant for those around him..."Jun chuckled as he sat in front of her, he turned toward the hostess who was waiting for them gave her a charming smile, and asked Iori.

" Did you order something?"

"No, I was waiting for you," She responded, and he nodded handing her the menu to choose.

Jun Ordered the most expensive snacks he could find on the menu, and Iori knew that he was doing it as payback to the president. Those two seemed to have a close relationship and both of them tended to become slightly childish whenever the other was involved. Not that she was better at handling the eccentric man, but Jun was probably worse than her.

"So why don't we talk about our collaboration?" Jun said snapping her out of her thoughts. Iori was determined to see this talk through, and Jun seems to be more willing to have a normal conversation for a change. Maybe there was a chance, and if there is one, she was going to seize it.

"Yes, before that, I have something to say," Iori said with a serious tone, "I... read your book for the first time yesterday," she confessed looking up at him with a wry smile.

Jun laughed at that then said what she hadn't expected him to say,

" Me too..." he said leaning forward, " And to be honest, I think that we can pull this off after all," 

"I think so too, I was completely doing the one thing no writer should do. I was judging your books by their cover," Iori said gestured toward Jun when she said the word cover,

"well, this cover doesn't really give anyone credit, I must admit." Jun said chuckling at her reference, " I was stereotyping your work too. so I think we were both in the wrong so let's leave it at that."

"True..."

After that, the two of them started talking about their upcoming work. The resident had determined the theme for their new book to be "Healing and Growth". Before they knew it, it was already dark outside, hours passed without them realizing and the room was a mess of papers filled with their Ideas.

"Perhaps it would do us some good to find a permanent workplace," Iori said as they started gathering their paperwork.

"Perhaps the president's suggestion about an apartment wasn't that wrong after all," Jun said teasingly.

"Ugh, I don't even want to think about what he was thinking!" Iori said

"Yeah, the man is definitely out of it if he thought that we would advertise the book for him like that,"

"Anyway, I just hope that he wouldn't do anything funny," Iori said with a deep sigh,

As they started walking out of the tea house he asked, "Did you drive here?"

"No, I took a taxi here," Iori responded

"Then let me give you a ride, I drove here..." He said

Iori wondered if she should refuse but she found no reason to do that so she accepted. He opened the car door for her and he froze when a flash of light beamed at them from afar.

"A car?" Iori said 

"Seems so." Jun responded looking at the car pensively. 

The think that neither of them said and that ended up being true later, was that the flashlight definitely didn't come from a car's headlight...