me. “What’s your name, kid?” She sat down across from me. Her voice was light and musical. “Hodaka Morishima.” “Hodaka?” “Um, it’s written with the characters for sail, like on a ship, and high…” “Oh yeah? Wow, that’s a terrific name.” My heart skipped a beat. That might have been the first time in my life that anybody had called me terrific. “Do you work in the office here, Ms. Natsumi?” “Oh, are you asking about my relationship with Kei?” I remembered that Mr. Suga’s first name was Keisuke. “Um, yes.” “Ha-ha! You’re hilarious!” Huh? Had I said something weird? After Natsumi laughed for a while, her eyes suddenly squinched up in a smile. She peered at me from the shadows beneath her eyelashes. “It’s exactly what you think it is,” Natsumi said in a husky, sexy voice, sticking her pinky straight up. “Huh?!” I stared at her, stunned. …For real? I accidentally let bitter iced coffee dribble out of the corner of my mouth. I’d never seen a mistress before… Just then, we heard the door open. “Hey, you’re here,” said a laid-back voice. I turned around to see Red Shirt—Mr. Suga—padding over to us, a plastic shopping bag dangling from one hand. “It’s been a while, kid… Hmm? Did you lose some weight?” He tossed a can to me. I caught it and realized it was beer. For a moment, I was confused, wondering why the heck he gave this to me, and Natsumi promptly plucked it out of my hand. “Uh, excuse me? Have you been playing pachinko?” Natsumi asked, popping open the pull tab in near-perfect unison with Mr. Suga, and the two of them started chugging down the contents as if this was normal for them. What’s going on? You’re telling me these people start drinking at lunchtime? Mr. Suga dropped down heavily onto the low sofa beside the table. “So, kid, you’re looking for a job, right?” He seemed awfully happy. Pulling a magazine out of the pile below the sofa, he held it up for me to see. “This is what the company’s working on right now: a commission to write articles for a magazine with a long and influential history!” Page 23 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com