Fragile Happiness (MxM)

Work As Usual (1)

Chapter 4: Work As Usual (1)

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The following days at work I continued wearing my gloves but from time to time I’d try taking them off… Yes, I said ‘tried’ I was utterly unsuccessful I’m afraid…

I don’t know why I managed to touch that coffee cup but I can’t touch anything else… Hm… Oh?

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even notice how one of my co-workers approached me. “Do you need anything, Kevin?” I asked as I turned to look at the man. He was towering over me with an angry expression.

“Have you seen… Jenna Mayday?” He asked as he continued to furrow his brow. I instantly understood why he was so angry and I’m thankful that his anger isn’t directed towards me…

“I haven’t heard anything from her since the last manuscript she came in to deliver…” I answered as I checked my calendar to try and give him an exact date that I last spoke with the woman. Jenna Mayday is one of our female authors, she is very popular, however never gets anything done on time. She is possibly one of the slowest workers on this planet, not to mention that on top of all that, she has the habit of running away when work gets difficult. Maybe it’s because she’s just twenty-three and still young, so she hasn’t learned to be responsible yet…

“Please tell me if you hear from her… She’s run away again and I need to discuss a movie paged on her novel…” Kevin looked utterly angry and exhausted at the same time. Not that I can blame him. He has his hands full with someone like that.

“I’ll be sure to call you.” I answered as I turned back to my work. Kevin left soon after to go and talk to the other editors in hopes of getting some clues about his author. The editing department is a complete mess right now. Even though we managed to hand in our manuscripts and we should be resting right now, instead we have extra work to prepare for next month.

The reason being that next month we have a special issue that will include a total of eight extra authors’ chapters and interviews. Which means that we have to quickly contact all our authors and organize ourselves to be able to make everything work. As I checked my schedule I noticed I have a single day off that won’t really be a day off because I’ll probably be bothered with office calls all day at home anyway…

Ah… honestly I just want to sit in home and relax for a bit… Why do I have to work overtime now of all times? Well, even though I’m complaining like this in my head, I still do my work diligently.

A half assed job is absolutely no good and I won’t allow it…

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I spend the entire day working out the schedule and I’m exhausted…

Dominic Laventon has to complete another three chapters before he takes a three day break to be with his wife. Before that he also has to work with several animation studios that want to animate his works this year. There also promotions for his latest work and it’s a tough schedule to be in. I managed to fit the interview that he has to do in all that. And I have no doubt he will be able to work properly…

My other author Takano Masamune however… Even though his schedule is a bit more free, I’m worried about the artist Lucas doing his work properly. If the character and cover designs aren’t done on time by Lucas, then we will have to get someone else to do them instead. But knowing how sensitive the man is to these kind of things, I doubt he’ll take it well to find out he’s no longer needed. Why did I get mixed in with there children…

As I continue to think about my bad luck I go on my lunch break and still focus on work. I usually skip on meals because I don’t like store bought food and I don’t have time to cook either. So in the end I just don’t eat much during the day…

I was sitting at my desk as I usually do during lunch break when Kane came over and asked me. “Do you want to have lunch with me?”

Of course my answer to that was a polite. “No, thank you.” After which I turned back to the paperwork that was so thoughtfully left on my desk by my fellow editors. Those little shits, leaving all the work they don’t want to deal with on me…

“Are you sure you’re not hungry? I hear people are more productive on a full stomach.” Kane insisted that we go out and eat together. I’m not the type to easily lose my tempter so I simply replied. “Yes, I really am not so-” but unfortunately before I could manage to say anything my stomach grumbled.

Why did my stomach decide to be like this right now of all times?! I’m so embarrassed I have no idea if I can look Kane in the eyes.

“It’s settled then, let’s go eat!” Kane seemed to take my growling stomach as an okay and gestured to me to move after him. This time at least he didn’t try to grab me.

I followed him even though I didn’t really want to…

I mean is it really fine for a man from the Financial Department to get all buddy-buddy with the Editing Department? Aren’t we like mortal enemies?

Ah… you probably have no idea what I mean… Well whenever a new comic or book is going to be published, what we do is gather all the department heads to decide how much books we should make. It might sound like an easy job but it’s the most difficult one yet…

Since each department has different understanding about the subject. Of course we all have the goal to sell more books, but…

The Financial Department also has the goal of cutting down costs for the company. That’s where issues arise…

As Editors of the books, we all have a clear understanding of the author’s abilities and the readers that are going to buy their works. So we have a better idea of how many copies of a book need to be in stock because of the time we’ve spent working with the author and researching the market. The sales we’ve made are proof of how well we do our job…

While in the Financial Department there are constantly new people with a ‘can-do’ attitude and think they know better. This causes us to be at each other’s throats each month since we can never be of the same opinion.

This might have not been the best explanation, but just wait till next month and you’ll understand what I mean…

I got side tracked however… Right now I’m out with Kane and he’s still acting like we are friends…

“Did you manage to touch anything else these past few days?” he asked me in a calm voice as he chose his food in the cafeteria.

“Not really…” I answered in a low murmur, I didn’t really need to be reminded of that fact!

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Kane asked me as he pointed to the food.

“No, I don’t like things cooked by others…” I said while turning my head away from the food that was displayed at the cafeteria. What I disliked was that I had no idea who and how they prepared the meals. Not to mention that some of the lunch staff don’t wear hair nets! Wear them for crying out loud! Is it so difficult?

And I don’t even want to get started on the way they use the same food tong to pick up multiple items! Use different ones dammit! The company is wealthy enough to afford at least several more!

As I was lost in my internal rant Kane turned to me and said something I wouldn’t have expected him to say before…