“What are those two up to?”
The company president, apparently having wrapped up his conversation with a nearby executive, was slowly making his way to my desk.
I had an idea of why Hashimoto and Yoshida might have left, but it wasn’t something I could tell the president. I tilted my head to the side in a show of confusion.
“Good question… Well, it was clearly something urgent. They didn’t look sick at all.”
“They sure didn’t,” he responded in his usual carefree tone, bobbing his head. He didn’t seem angry, but he rarely showed his emotions. I had no idea how what just happened had affected his opinion of the two of them.
“They’re usually such hard workers, so they must have been in a real fix. I’ll be sure to talk to them about it lat—”
The president raised a hand and stopped me there.
“Oh no… No need for that. It’s fine,” he said, his tone still casual. “I know how incredibly skilled they are. I’d hate to give them a hard time and wind up losing them. If there’s something in their lives more important than work, then we’ve got to let them take care of it. We still have a lot of work for them to do in the future.”
“…That’s true.”
I nodded, and a smile came to my face.
This man was probably the reason a company like ours, with relatively young employees, had been able to grow so big. Whenever I told people outside the company that I was a senior managing director, they were often surprised that a woman my age could even hold such a title.
“All right, I’m going to head out in a bit. Make sure you do, too, Ms. Gotou.”
“I will. Thank you, sir.”
After we said our good-byes, the boss made his way back to his office. I watched him until he was out of sight, then started getting ready to leave.
To make Yoshida so distressed right at the end of the workday, something must have happened with Sayu. Depending on the situation, I might be able to help, so I made up my mind to contact him once I left the office.
“Good work, everyone!”
A few minutes after the hour, I said good-bye to my colleagues and headed out the door.
I checked my phone in case Yoshida had sent me a message, but he hadn’t.
I hoped that meant he’d solved the problem, but if he hadn’t, there might still be a chance for me to help.
I figured getting in touch with him would be a good start, so once I’d left the building, I took out my phone to call him.
But just then, I caught sight of something unexpected.
A familiar girl was standing in front of the building’s entrance.
It was Sayu, wearing her school uniform.
“Oh, Ms. Gotou…”
“Sayu?”
I looked at my phone, then back at Sayu. I decided to put my phone back in my bag for the time being and walked over to her.
“What are you doing here?”
“Uhhh… Is Mr. Yoshida still at work?”
“…I guess you didn’t see him, then. It’s just like I thought.”
“What do you mean?”
She looked even more confused than I was.
“Did you tell Yoshida you were coming here?”
“I tried to call him during his lunch break, but he didn’t answer… I figured I could see him if I went to his office, so I came all the way here without a second thought. But…my phone battery died while I was on the train.”
This was enough to give me the gist of what had happened. I sighed.
“First, let me give Yoshida a call,” I said. “He left work more than an hour ago looking really upset. He was probably panicking because he couldn’t reach you.”
“Huh?!” Sayu yelped, and a small chuckle escaped my lips.
“Wait here just a moment.”
I took a few steps away and called Yoshida.
“Hello, this is Yoshida. I’m so sorry about earli—”
“Yoshida, I found Sayu.”
“Huh?!”
I instinctively pulled the phone away from my ear. It was kind of amusing how the two of them expressed their surprise in exactly the same way.
“In front of the office building. You must have just missed each other.”
“What in the world is she doing there…?”
I was a little curious about that myself.
“Anyway, I don’t want to make her wait here, so I’ll take her back to my place for a bit. It’s too chilly to stand around outside.”
“Okay, that’s fine. Sorry for the trouble… Wait, what?! Did you say…you’re taking her back to your place?!”
I held the phone away from my ear once again. I could hear Hashimoto laughing on the other end. It sounded like they were still together.
“I live near the office. I’ll send you my address later, so come and pick her up from there.”
“O-oh… Okay, thank you very much.”
I couldn’t help but smile at how stupefied he sounded. He must have been so relieved.
“Besides, I bet you didn’t even change clothes before you went out looking for her. You should make a stop at your apartment, take a breather, put on something comfy, and then come and get her.”
“…You’re right. Thanks for being so thoughtful.”
“See you later.”
I hung up, then turned back to Sayu.
“Okay, then. Let’s go back to my place and wait for Yoshida to come collect you.”
“Huh? I don’t want to cause any troub—”
“You both say the exact same things,” I interrupted, unable to stifle a laugh. “It’s fine. We’re friends, aren’t we?”
I squeezed her hand to reassure her, and an indescribable expression crossed her face. She gave a single nod.
“What? You’re going back to Hokkaido tomorrow?” said Ms. Gotou.
I’d gone to meet Mr. Yoshida at his office but somehow managed to miss him on the way. Then I ran into Ms. Gotou, and before I knew it, she’d invited me over to her place.
Once there, she’d asked me a vague question about how things were going with Mr. Yoshida. Since we were on good enough terms to have swapped contact information, I felt obliged to tell her about my return home and explained my current situation.
“…That’s the plan. Considering the timing, it’s no wonder Mr. Yoshida panicked when he thought I disappeared…”
“Hey, come on. You can forget about that now. Well…it wouldn’t hurt to apologize to him. He was pretty stressed out.”