—Hey, Inami.

—Yes?

—We’re a long way from the train station, are you sure your next business meeting is this way?

We must have been walking for about five minutes. I looked around and didn’t see any buildings that looked like a company or office. Instead, we had entered a residential area lined with houses.

Disaster prevention loudspeakers, placed in a small park, play a tune urging the children to go home, prompting my desire to go straight home.

Inami pulls her phone out of her pocket and opens a map app.

—According to this, we should be very close.

While saying that, Inami continued to walk restlessly for a while.

—Ah. There it is! — She exclaimed while pointing to a certain building.

At first glance, it looks like an ordinary house. Which isn’t very inviting even though it’s a work office.

On the second-floor balcony hangs a rusty sign that reads “Houjo Constructions S.A” and an old light truck is parked in the garage.

I’ve heard that the term “limited company” can’t be used since 2006, so it sounds like a pretty old construction company.

It’s been five years since I’ve been a corporate employee, but this is the first time I’ve visited an office like this for a construction company. I can’t help but be suspicious of the whole thing.

—Hey, Inami, are you sure we’re in the right place?

Inami nodded her head.

—The name of the company is Houjo constructions, and yes, I’m sure there’s no mistake.

This company doesn’t seem to be interested in advertising online with Internet ads. Rather, they look like the kind of company that still uses paper flyers and hands them out to people on the street.

—Don’t be worried, maybe it’s a company that wants to try new things.

Inami has a valid point, I guess I have no choice but to give the meeting that may come out of here a chance.

I looked at my watch and saw that it was almost 5pm.

—Well, it’s already getting a little late, so let’s hurry up.

—Yes!

We approached the house and stopped right in front of the door. Inami took a deep breath once or twice after seeing how she looked in her hand mirror.

As soon as she felt ready, she stood in front of the intercom and pressed the button.

The prolonged ringing of the doorbell could be heard throughout the building, and even from the outside.

We waited for about 20 seconds and no one came out of the house. It was unheard of.

—…Hmm, Inami?

—Let’s keep waiting, maybe she is busy and hasn’t been able to get out.

We continued waiting for 20 more seconds and no one came out of the place. So Inami raised her index finger again and pressed the intercom button, the same sound repeating again all over the place.

And as expected, the result was still the same. We thought it might be an error in the address, so Inami opened her notebook and checked her schedule.

—Hmmm… I don’t think I made a mistake with the schedule.

—How about trying another way to get in touch?

—Understood.

Inami pulls out her phone and tries to contact the person she scheduled the meeting with. To my surprise, after a few seconds someone picked up the call and started having a conversation with Inami.

During all this time she could have called the person in question and preferred to wait for a long while for someone to answer the intercom… I’m speechless.

—Ready, here she comes.

The front door opens carefully, and the person who greeted us was the one I would have least expected. This person is… An employee of this company?

Being a construction company, the first thing that comes to mind are strong men who are always dirty, or in other cases, a bearded old man who runs the company.

But unlike those superficial images in my brain. The girl I was witnessing right now was very pretty.

In terms of height, she is much smaller than Inami, and her appearance hints that she is perhaps about five or six years old. Her hair is pulled back in two pigtails, and is brightly dyed.

I doubt this girl is a high school student.

But that’s not the most surprising thing of all. It’s the fact that she’s wearing a construction jacket.



And for some reason, her lower body was wearing shorts and sandals, exposing all of her legs.

Maybe this is a new boom among girl workers…?

—Hmm? Who are you? — asked the girl as she cocked her head to one side.

That’s a question I should ask.

The girl ushered us into the house and took us to what appeared to be her room.

—What would you like to drink? Monster Energy or Red Bull?

Usually in a business meeting, tea or coffee is offered. But energy drinks? This is very different from what I’m used to.

—Um, a Red Bull.

—Oh, um. I’ll have the same, please.

—Okay, I’ll give it to you.

The girl nonchalantly walks over to the mini fridge and pulls out two cans and then sets them in front of the table where we were sitting.

Next, she pulls out a bag of potato chips and takes a couple with her little hands and then places the bag on the table. What is this, some kind of welcome party or something?

I’m in uncharted territory, it doesn’t look anything like the business meetings I’ve been to before. Or is this how young people usually negotiate with companies now? I guess I’m getting too old for this.

On the other hand, Inami and the girl seem to have good communication, as they are both celebrating us having this meeting as if it were a small party among friends.

Seeing that quaint and childish situation, I had no choice but to sigh and take the can of redbull. I’m just a spectator in all this, so we’ll see what happens. Although if there’s trouble, I’ll try to interfere… That is, if Inami allows me to.

—Sorry, I forgot my grandfather is at work and ignored the intercom.

—Eh… So, shouldn’t we reschedule?

—That’s fine. I’m in charge of this kind of thing at Houjo.

—Houjo?

At Inami’s question, the girl starts touching her body, especially in the area of her breasts.

—Hueeh? What are you…?

—Oh, so here it is! — Expressed the girl after getting what she was looking for.

What she got was a business card case. Of course, this is a common thing to do when in a business meeting, so we went through the ritual of exchanging cards.

Thereupon, I read the business card that was stained with fried leftovers aloud.

—Houjo Sakurako, Public Relations Manager, Houjo Constructions?

—Public relations manager…? Does that mean you’re an employee?!

—That’s right! — replied the girl with great eagerness. — My grandfather is the president of this company, and he has allowed me to work here so that I can gain experience. This room is my workplace.

Boy, that old man sure loves his granddaughter….

—Excuse me, but how old are you, Houjo-san?

—I’m 20 years old. And I’m a professional college graduate!

—Eh? Really? But you don’t look it.

—Exactly, it’s because I’m what people call; Legal-loli! — said Houjo, smiling.

Well… I guess I’ll have to settle for that answer.

—Houjo-san, if you’re the public relations manager, does that mean you studied accounting in college or have an architecture career?

—Not at all! I enrolled in the Esports department!

You are a very modern young lady. Although I’m not at all surprised that she chose that career, everywhere I looked, her workplace reflects what she likes.

She has an L-shaped desk, and underneath it is a PC with a ridiculously large cabinet that, as expected, was glowing with all the colors of the rainbow.

It’s hard to deduce from here what components her PC has. But it’s likely well over 500,000 yen, as it bears the famous alien logo.

—It’s amazing that the computer you use for work has gaming specs?

—Hahahaha! Exactly! You should see me look things up on the internet, everything is so fast. Excel and Word open in the blink of an eye, and Gmail emails are sent at explosive speed!

This girl… She’s wasting a monstrosity like that on banal things. Someone take that PC away from her and give her a second-hand computer worth no more than 72,592 yen right now.

Houjo looks at the business card she received from us, then tilts her head with a puzzled look on her face.

—So, what are Kazama and Nagisa doing in our company?

—Um… Don’t you remember your phone call with me on Monday this week?

—Hmm~~~~ ……. I don’t remember something like that.

—Is that… so?

It seems that the feeling of guilt is starting to kick in, as Houjo sat down on the chair in front of Inami, and clasped her hands with hers.

—Sorry. I was probably playing around and randomly answered your call. It happens most of the time, so I tend to forget a lot of things.

I like this girl’s honesty, on the other hand… If you’re at work, THEN DON’T PLAY VIDEO GAMES!

Although I find it admirable that Inami didn’t lose her composure in the face of this. Instead, she proceeded to explain to Houjo her intentions.

—Well, the reason we’re here is because of a tentative advertising service we want to offer your company.

—Service?

Since this girl is a video game lover and is constantly consuming things online, it shouldn’t be complicated to explain to her what our work is about.

—I guess you’ve seen the typical ads that appear on Youtube or Twitch. Well, our company is in charge of creating and managing those kinds of ads for our clients’ companies, this way they can reach more of an audience and increase their sales.

—Ooh~, those kinds of ads! Yes! I’ve seen them many times… They totally ruin my experience when I’m watching videos on the internet.

—Uuh… Yeah… Something like that.

—Masato-senpai? Leave it to me.

I’ve had about 30 minutes interacting with Houjo, and that’s enough for me. I want to go home already.

I just sipped my Red Bull as I watched the sun go down through the window.

—Okay. In that case, I want to count on your service.

Did I hear right? Wasn’t that an auditory hallucination? Inami seems to have had the same question as we both exchanged glances.

—Do you really want to sign a contract?

—Huh? What do you mean?

—……..

—…….

Inami and I exchanged glances again, I really have serious doubts about whether it’s a good idea to go through with this.

—Ah, I get it, do we have to make a contract first? Good! In that case, do you want my signature, or is one allele more than enough? I’ll go to Grandpa’s room—…

—Nononono!

Controversial situation, right? We are here to make a contract with a client, and instead of proceeding with it, we are avoiding it.

You don’t have to be a genius to realize that this girl doesn’t know the necessary and fundamental procedures to follow when entering into a million-dollar contract. Morally it would not be right for us to take advantage of her.

—What is the problem? If we make the contract, our construction company will prosper, right? What are we waiting for?

—Are you really that confident in us?

—Fufu, let’s say yes. You just proved to me that you are good people, because if you wanted to take advantage of my naivety, you wouldn’t have tried to stop me from signing your contract.

No no, that logic makes no sense at all, what makes you think that we are not pretending to make you fall into a trap?

—So, what do you say? Shall we make a contract?

—Well, if you agree to it… We have no reason to refuse?

—It’s settled! I’m looking forward to working with you, Kazama and Nagisa.

So, the contract was closed in the blink of an eye. But this didn’t mean that I was happy about the deal we just made, I have a feeling that the future that awaits me from this moment will be filled with a lot of stress…

—Let’s make Houjo Constructions the best company in Japan!

I just hope her grandfather doesn’t get mad at her for the contract she just made…

—Was it really good that you made a contract with that girl? — Inami muttered to herself.

We were on our way to the train station, and Inami’s mood was not the best. Usually, she would say something like going out to celebrate or having a few drinks because of the contract we made. But maybe her conscience is playing against her.

The sky was dark, the smell of curry wafting through the air around the houses comforted my tired soul a bit after a hard day’s work. How I wish I was eating a delicious home-cooked dinner right about now…

—I don’t know… I don’t think it was right. It’s clear that the girl was not very experienced in business, and I feel we did something wrong…

—That’s business Inami, besides, the girl trusts your goodwill, you don’t have to feel that way.

The feeling of guilt starts to eat away at her little by little. She doesn’t have the experience to deal with these issues on an emotional level. But I can’t just let her sink into misery either.

—Come on, don’t feel like that, cheer up, you signed your first contract — I said while patting her on her shoulder — Besides, there is a possibility that grandpa will back out, so don’t feel guilty.

—Hey, Masato-senpai, I thought you were going to cheer me up, not make me depressed again.

—Ha ha ha ha! I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

In that case, I’ll pray that it doesn’t happen.

As I looked up at the night sky, I thought about inviting her to celebrate with me today, but I remembered I had unfinished business and bit my tongue. Better to wait to have a drink after the contract is secured.