Contract With My Boss [Touken Story]

4

Upon hearing the happy news, the brown-haired co-worker—Hinami—squealed in happiness. "I'm so happy that you got the job!"

"Thank you, Miss Fueguchi."

"You can call me just Hinami. I am younger than you after all." Her face then turned into a worried one. "But are you sure? There are rumors around the office that the boss fired his personal assistant 1 month after she started work! They say he's demanding and doesn't care about your health or commitments as long as you get the job done. He's heartless!"

Touka frowned. While he does give off a not-very-friendly impression, she didn't believe that he would be that heartless. "I wouldn't know. I'll have to try working for him first. Thank you for your concern."

"You're welcome! You can talk to me whenever you have a problem." Hinami chirped before going back to doing her work.

—

"What's my schedule for today?" Kaneki asked.

Touka flipped through her notebook and looked at the long list of things he had to do. "You have a meeting with Mr Jones of La Arc at 10am, then you have a lunch appointment with Ms Yuin at..."

After reading everything on the list, she closed the book and stared at him. What Hinami mentioned yesterday about him intrigued her, but she decided that not asking him was the best way for her to keep her job. Heartless man or not, it was rude to ask the person himself about the rumors. Even more so because they are about him.

"Why are you staring at me like that? Is there something you would like to ask me?"

Her heart raced and her jaw dropped for a split second before she quickly regained her composure. "Nothing. May I go back to my desk now?"

"No. Tell me what you were thinking about. You're acting suspiciously."

She ended up telling him about the rumors she heard and was careful to not mention any names of whom she heard it from. At the end of it, Kaneki remained silent for a few seconds and sighed heavily. "So that's it."

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have—"

"No. Don't apologize. I'll tell you what really happened since you're my PA. A week after she joined the company, I realized that some documents went missing for a certain period of time. They were about a very important product that was about to be released to the market. But for some reason, our competitor released the exact same product a week before the time we were supposed to. So I concluded that we had a mole or someone spilling info from the inside. I found out it was her who gave the data to her boyfriend who was from the competitor's company and fired her immediately. So if the rumors around the office are not those, then they are false. Understood?"

Touka smiled at his answer. She was right about how he wasn't that heartless of a person. He was someone who does things for a reason and was sure that he gave her a trial for a week was because of what happened with his previous PA. "Yes, Boss."

"Okay, stop laughing. You look stupid."

She was appalled at his rudeness though. It seemed that his rudeness was the one thing that he no doubt had. "Hey! I don't look stupid when I laugh!"

Kaneki let out a small chuckle and quickly covered it up with a cough. "Whatever. You can go now."

Somehow, he doesn't seem as bad as the rumors make him out to be. She tried telling Hinami about this and she found it really hard to believe since Touka was only one who heard the full story from him and saw him laugh.

"But if that's what you say, then I believe it's true! Who knew the boss was capable of laughing and being a nice person? That's really good to hear."

"Was he always like this or did something happen?" Touka asked.

"I heard from the older employees that he used to be a very happy and energetic boss. He often chatted with his employees, empathized with them and maintained a friendly relationship with them. But one day, he suddenly stopped and turned into a very cold and distant person he is today. No one knows what happened to make him this way."

After hearing that, the blue-haired lady frowned. She wondered what happened in the past.