Chapter one: all's well that starts well

It was never really a struggle for Haida to adapt to office life. Moving straight from college into the workforce definitely gave him an edge over some of his college mates who disappeared to foreign countries for months at a time the second they escaped school life. For Haida there was no down time, no soul-searching trip through India and no tours of the west. The "out of the oven and into the frying pan" mentality had paid its dues.

Now he wasn't surprised when he realised work sucks just as much as college.

As he leant back in his chair, pulling his attention away from his spreadsheet he thought back on the optimistic conversations his classmates would have about post college life.

"No more late-night study sessions," they would say. "And no more shitty professors." While that statement was technically accurate, replacing a few key words got you right back to where the conversation began.

Haida glanced first at the stack of payment forms to be processed on his desk, then to the clock on the wall. Five o'clock had already elapsed and the office was still mostly full, bar a few key management roles of course.

However, full as it was it was almost dead quiet excluding the normal office white noise. People had family and friends to attend to and as such were focused on getting the work done before it got too late.

Haida on the other hand had no plans for a Thursday night. To say his life was quiet these days would be an understatement. His life had tumbled into a miasma of eat, sleep and repeat for most days, with the occasional work drinks or college meetup to break the monotony. He didn't hate this per se, rather he felt like each day that passed he became more of a blank canvas.

A corporate slave…in a way.

Haida's mind was brought away from his depressing line of thought by an irritating, repetitive tapping noise. His eyes darted across the office, looking for the sound that had brought him out of a perfectly good session of self-loathing.

His eyes finally fixated on a pair of black shoes, tapping away on the polished tile floor of the office. As his eyes traced up though, his irritated expression softened as he realised who the source of his sudden vexation was.

As the office slowly began to wind down and people began closing their laptops and ledgers Haida sat, staring curiously.

She had an amazingly expressive face. A smile that could stretch from ear to ear if given the right reason and eyes that could convey a sea of emotions within the space of a blink. Her upbeat and almost endingly positive outlook on life could bring the most self-doubting person into a place of confidence and calmness. Sure, she could have her moments of sadness, and when those moments hit, they hit like a freight train. But Retsuko's resting facial expression was almost always one that left Haida feeling positive.

And this afternoon was no different. With her eyes locked to her laptop screen and a content grin on her face she typed away all Haida's negative thoughts. He smiled as he realised she had been tapping her feet along to the music she was listening to, her white earbuds buried deep in her ears. He pondered on what song she would have been listening to, but he furrowed his brow. Her feet were tapping far too fast for it to be any kind of pop music, and too sporadic for it to be electronic. His curiosity grew even more as she began to mouth out the words to the mystery tune. Haida focused, trying desperately to remember how to read lips.

His concentration was instantly severed by the startling buzzing of his phone, making his heart skip a beat for a moment. He recollected himself and unlocked his phone.

"You're staring again," the message read from Fenneko. Haida pulled his phone underneath the table as if to shield it from view.

"I wasn't staring," Haida typed back, feeling a little attacked.

"Forty five seconds is a new record for you," Fenneko's next message read. "I was worried that if I didn't distract you, you might start drooling."

Haida shot a quick glance at his co-worker sitting opposite him, but her gaze was set on her computer, leading him to believe she was sending the messages from the computer. If Retsuko had the power to fill Haida with confidence, then Fenneko was the polar opposite. She had the innate ability to zero in on a situation or person and find any and all flaws. Especially Haida's.

"You must be working hard," Haida typed ironically. "Haven't you got better things to do with your time?" He threw in a smug emoji for good measure.

"I'm done," was her simple response. "Besides, time spent watching you suffer is time well spent in my regards."

"I wasn't staring!" Haida typed furiously on his phone screen.

"You seem tense. Drinks?" she replied.

"Now?"

"Why not?"

Haida pondered this question briefly before composing his response on his phone. "Depends on who with." He stared at his phone as he watched the message typing symbol bounce up and down, disappearing a few times as fenneko restructured her answer.

"What answer is going to get you to come out?" She finally replied. He shot a quick stare across the room at her. She didn't look away from her screen, but he knew she had noticed.

"Let's just go you and me," he typed. "Like the good old days."

Without missing a beat, Fenneko turned her head away from her screen and to Retsuko who sat in the seat next to her.

"Hey Retsuko," she spoke loud enough for Retsuko to hear over her music. Retsuko looked startled for a moment as she quickly ripped her headphones from her ears and pushed them into her lap under the desk.

"W-what's up?" Retsuko nervously replied like she had been caught in the act of committing a crime.

"Haida was just saying we should all get a drink together tonight," Fenneko emotionlessly spoke.

Haida jumped slightly out of his seat, his chair wheeling back slightly.

"T-that's not…" He let his sentence trail off, hoping someone might fill in the blank space for him.

"Sorry guys," Retsuko picked the conversation up delicately. She closed her laptop and stood up from her desk. "Cant tonight…maybe tomorrow if you are still up for it?"

Haida let the air escape from his lungs before sinking back down into his seat, a mixture of relief and disappointment washing over him.

"Y-yeah," he smiled. "Tomorrow…sure."

"Sounds like a plan then," Retsuko smiled as she picked up her handbag. "Same time tomorrow?"

"Same time tomorrow," Fenneko replied with a lilt of emotion.

Haida and Fenneko quietly watched as Retsuko walked out of the office, her shoes once again tapping repetitively on the tiled floor. The moment Retsuko rounded the corner out of sight Haida Darted his view back to Fenneko, leaning across the desk slightly.

"Why do I even hang out with you?" He spoke in aggressive yet hushed tones.

"We're still on for drinks though, right?" she smiled and Haida simply sighed. Retsuko's polar opposite was a very apt description.

Shibuya district was a vibrant and bustling part of Tokyo. Known for its bars and nightclubs, it was a hotspot for after work drinks, and a Thursday night was no different. While it didn't quite draw the crowd of a Friday or a weekend, there was still a happy hour and as such the bars were still crowded.

Haida and Fenneko had made their way to a favourite of theirs, The Public stand. It was a small, upstairs bar across the road from Shibuya station. It was a nice blend of traditional and western design, keeping the booths but changing it up with more modern architecture.

The best part however was that it remained, for the most part relatively quiet until the ten pm nightclubbing crowd shuffled in.

"Cheers!" Haida and Fenneko announced loudly as they clinked their glasses together in the comfort of their semicircular booth. Haida took a large swig from his beer while Fenneko opted to take a small sip of her wine before swirling the glass around in her hand.

Haida took a moment to enjoy his first drink of the day as well as his surroundings. The bar wasn't crowded, nor was it empty. About three or four small parties of two to four were scattered around the bar, all smiling and laughing at their own inside jokes and conversations.

It was clear to him that most of the groups were also having after work drinks as suit jackets lined the backs of many chairs. No time was wasted between office and bar it seemed, not that he could talk as he looked down at his own clothes. He took a moment to take his tie off, making him feel slightly better about his haste in getting to the bar.

Fenneko on the other hand had found time to change to her more casual attire before leaving the office. She had an efficiency about her that sometimes boggled the mind. There were few obstacles she could either overcome, or at least break down with her dark and cynical logic. Haida often described her as calculative, but she had her moments when emotion would take control and she would lose her unbreakable deadpan smile.

This, however, was not one of those times. She sat wordlessly, swirling her drink and staring at him. Her wry smile didn't leave her face and her eyes didn't move. It was like she was staring into his soul.

"Who's staring now?" Haida spoke condescendingly, leaning back in his set and taking another mouthful of beer. Fenneko remained unmoving, creating a very awkward silence between the two of them. Haidas eyes shifted from left to right as he waited to see if she was going to speak, but it was like she was frozen.

"Ok, now you're starting to freak me out."

"So?" Fenneko finally spoke.

Haida paused for a moment. "So…what?" He asked.

"You know what," she jeered.

He placed is beer back on the table and leaned in slightly. "I clearly don't know what what you are talking about, so…"

Fenneko chuckled lightly. "Cleary you do, otherwise you wouldn't get so defensive."

"I'm not-" Haida caught his tongue before his voice rose too high. He could see a pair of women at the bar glancing back to them through the corner of his eye. He took a breath and leaned back in his chair before taking a larger than average sip from his drink.

He absolutely knew what she was asking.

"Look," he sighed. "I think we should just enjoy our drinks."

"Oh shit!" she exclaimed. "Something happened between you two"

"No!" Again, Haida bit his tongue before his voice got too loud. "Nothing Happened…exactly."

Fenneko rolled her eyes before finishing her wine. She took a gasp of air as she almost slammed her glass back on the table. She then turned to look across the room at the bar. "Kaito," she yelled to the bartender while waving two fingers in the air. The man at the bar looked over and nodded before moving to the beer tap.

Fenneko refocused her attention back to her phone sitting on the table, briefly tapping out a message before looking back to Haida.

"Finish your drink then start from the top," she said with a gesture to his half-finished beer.

Haida looked at his friend with a puzzled gaze but finished his drink none the less. And with perfect timing that can only come from someone with precision drinking skills, a new beer was placed in front of him before his empty glass could even land back on the table.

Haida looked at the bartender who gave a quick polite bow before then turning to Fenneko who was holding her new wine glass up to the light as if she were checking it for imperfections.

"Please miss," the bartender spoke as he bowed politely. "I have started a tab for your table, if you would please pay before you leave tonight."

"Thank you Kaito," Fenneko politely nodded in return, dismissing the bartender. She took a sip of her drink as she watched Kaito the bartender return to his post. Once she was sure he was out of ear shot she turned back to look at Haida.

"Word for word," she remarked, her trademark grin back on her face. "Don't leave any details out."

Hours passed and so had drinks. The bar had begun to slowly fill to the point that there weren't any seats or booths left unoccupied. What had started out as quiet after work drinks had quickly spiralled out of control, and as such Haida was now comfortably numb. He had lost count of exactly how many drinks he had consumed. It was somewhere around the five or six mark. He wasn't drunk by any means; however his inhibitions had certainly gone out the window.

He understood that Fenneko was trying to get him drunk to make the conversation flow a bit easier, but he did appreciate having someone to talk to.

"So, let me make sure I've got this straight," Fenneko spoke with a lilt to her voice, having to raise her volume to be heard over the growing crowd. "Secretary Washimi and Director Gori approached you to assist in the kidnapping of a multimillion dollar CEO in order to reveal his intentions with Retsuko?"

"I know its wild, but you are correct so far," Haida replied.

"However, Retsuko intervened and took all of you to…a karaoke bar?"

"I don't know what the significance of the karaoke bar is," Haida quickly added as he sipped his beverage. "And I stayed outside with the car."

"Maybe they met in a karaoke bar," Fenneko pondered. "Although I cant imagine a guy as loaded as Tadano hanging around a place like that."

"Can we stay on topic please," Haida Grumbled.

"Details are important Haida," Fenneko almost whipped her drink for her hands. "What happened when they came out?"

Haida let out a frustrated sigh, feeling his friend had missed his point completely. He continued none the less.

"Tadano came out first. He seemed upset but not angry," Haida scratched his chin as he thought back to that night. "I asked if he was okay and he gave me a smile before he took the limo and left."

"And Retsuko?"

"She came out with Washimi and Gori maybe twenty minutes later…it was clear she had been crying."

Fenneko suddenly threw her hands up in frustration and sunk back into her seat.

"I still don't know who broke up with who," She grumbled.

Haida felt his frustration peak and he decided at that moment to finish his drink before standing up from his seat.

"You know what," Haida began with a roll of his eyes. "It's clear you only care about the gossip and not what I have to say."

"Oh, sit back down you big baby," Fenneko whined "I listened to your dumb little problems."

"It's not a dumb little problem!" Haida snapped back. "That just shows to me that you aren't listening."

"You're upset because three months ago Retsuko told you she wasn't looking for a relationship at the time," Fenneko spoke in a suddenly serious tone of voice. "So, you gave her some space like the gentleman you are. Next thing you know she goes off and finds some other guy."

Haida was taken aback by Fenneko's sudden Change in demeaner, and as such slowly took his seat once more.

"You feel indignant about this because in your mind you did everything right, but it didn't matter," Fenneko continued. "However, what your dumb man brain seems uncapable of understanding is that three months blew past and you didn't show a single sign that you were still interested in her in a romantic way."

Haida felt his chest sink as Fenneko broke down every flaw in his argument one by one.

"Did you honestly think if you just sat back and waited her emotions would flick over like a switch?" She probed, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "You can't just take a back seat for three months and not expect someone else to swoop in and take her heart from underneath your feet."

Fenneko took a deep breath as she finished her tirade and a silence fell over the pair. Haida hated it, but Fenneko was right. After his confession at the hospital he thought the best course of action was to give her space. But he couldn't deny Fenneko's point. He gave her the space she needed, then he did nothing. Sure, there were times he asked her to join him for after work drinks. But every instance he included friends into the equation, too shy to ask her out directly.

Haida sheepishly waved down the bartender for another drink.

"That got pretty real pretty quickly," Haida mumbled.

"Sorry," Fenneko responded in a much softer tone of voice. "But I think it needed to be said."

A fresh beer was placed in front of Haida and he quickly downed his sorrows in a refreshing gulp. With a sigh he placed his glass back down on the table and looked across to his friend.

"You're right," He admitted. "I messed up."

"Its not the end of the world," Fenneko spoke as she finished the last of the wine sitting in her glass. "In fact, this might be a blessing in disguise."

"How so?" Haida scratched his head.

"Everything is back to square one now," She explained. "Not to mention we know a little more about her life outside of work."

Haida felt himself chuckle. "I suppose you are right in a way. Who would have guessed she had been hanging out with people like secretary Washimi?"

"I Know!" Fenneko exclaimed as she waved down the bartender for another drink. "How did they even meet? I've never seen them talk while in the office."

"Maybe they are Karaoke buddies," Haida laughed.

"Can you imagine Director Gori singing?" Fenneko giggled "I'm sure the Karaoke bar was a random choice for privacy of the breakup."

Kaito the bartender placed a fresh glass of red wine in front of Fenneko and she thanked him before leaning over in her seat and reaching into her handbag. Haida assumed she was reaching for her phone, being the social media addict that she was. However, his brow furrowed as she pulled a small notepad and pen from the bag and placed it on the table.

"Hoping to play some naught's and crosses?" Haida Joked as he sipped his beer. Fenneko just rolled her eyes as she clicked her pen open.

"I'm writing down the plan."

"The…plan?" Haida was confused.

"Well, since you seem completely incapable of any form of follow through on your own, I figured we would actually have a plan this time."

Haida sat silent for a moment, trying to process the insult she had just laid on him. He decided not to react.

"And what exactly does this plan entail?" Haida asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"That's what we are going to workout right now," She responded without looking up from what she had begun to write on the paper. "This is a team effort and all I have is the title at the moment."

"The title?" Haida was lost.

"The title is…" Fenneko held the paper up to read what she had written as though she were reading from an ancient scroll. "Mission impossible: A full proof plan to get Haida a girlfriend and cement a new member into our exclusive friendship club."

Haida Rolled his eyes. "Ignoring the obvious insult, can we really call it an 'exclusive friendship club' when it is just you and I?"

"What's more exclusive than that?"

Haida sighed and collapsed deeper into his seat. He reached to the table and grabbed his drink, bringing it to rest on his chest to be easily leaned into his mouth. Haida had known Fenneko for long enough to know when she had made a decision about something. The moment she was certain of something she no longer felt the need to ask permission to proceed.

It was Clear to Haida that wheels had just been set in motion and he was along for the ride.

"Alright," he sighed. "What did you have in mind?"