About Love: Chapter 14

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The next morning, Asaka arrived at work at eleven. As soon as he sat at his desk, he scanned the wedding schedule pinned in front of him and cross-checked it with his planner. He went over each detail meticulously—was anything missing from his timeline? Were the print order dates correct? Had he overlooked any delivery schedules?

Right now, he was responsible for nearly thirty upcoming weddings. Some were set for next week, others not until next March. Managing multiple weddings at once meant keeping track of countless moving parts. If he slipped up, he could easily forget to place an order for invitations and seating cards. Or worse, a shipment of wedding favors might not arrive on time.

It had happened before.

A senior planner once placed an order for wedding gifts through their system, only for the supplier to never receive it. In the end, Asaka had to drive two hours out of town after work to pick them up from the factory himself. Since the packaging company wouldn’t have time to wrap them, the entire office had pitched in to get it done overnight. They had barely managed to avoid disaster. But if things had gone just a little differently, it could have been a huge blow to the company’s reputation.

Asaka double-checked the November wedding schedules and realized he hadn’t received a final decision from one couple about their invitation design. The bride had originally wanted to make them by hand, but with her busy work schedule, she might have changed her mind. Either way, they needed to decide soon before it was too late.

Since both the bride and groom worked full-time, an email would be less intrusive than a phone call. He reached for his phone, ready to send a message—

And saw a new email notification. The sender’s name made his heart jolt.

Sasagawa Yoshirou.

"Understood. Then, tonight at eight, at Ruri-iro."

Finally, they would meet. Finally, he would get to see Sasagawa’s face and talk to him properly. Asaka let out a deep sigh of relief.

It had taken Sasagawa ten whole days to come to terms with that night. After Asaka had pushed him away at such an intimate moment, Sasagawa had only sent one reply before completely cutting off contact for two full days.

No answers to calls—neither on his cell nor his home phone.

No replies to emails, when he normally responded right away.

Given how Asaka had led him on, invited him over, only to reject him at the last second, it wouldn’t have been surprising if even the ever-gentle Sasagawa had been angry enough to never want to see him again.

Cut off so decisively, with no chance to explain, Asaka had grown more and more anxious as the hours passed.

Work was the only thing that kept his mind off it. But the moment he had any spare time, his thoughts would spiral back to Sasagawa.

Would it be better to go see him in person?

Would he even agree to meet?

What if he said something like, “I think we should break up over this”…?

The worry gnawed at his stomach until it ached. By the third day, he couldn’t take it anymore.

"That’s it. I’m going to his place."

Just as he made up his mind, a message from Sasagawa finally arrived.

"I got sent on an unexpected business trip and forgot my phone, so I wasn’t able to reach out. Sorry about that."

A business trip?

On a Saturday?

That sounded more like an excuse for not contacting him. But even if it was a blatant lie, Asaka had no right to call him out on it.

"I spent the last two days thinking things over and trying to clear my head. I’m finally feeling more settled, but… I still don’t have the courage to talk face-to-face yet. Would it be alright if we just kept in touch over email for now?"

The fact that Sasagawa still wanted to communicate at all was a relief. Asaka made a point to avoid mentioning that night entirely and instead wrote about the new junior employee he was training, along with random, trivial things.

He ended up sending seven or eight emails a day. If they were younger, maybe that wouldn’t have been so strange. But for two working adults in a relationship, it was definitely too much—and Asaka knew it.

Yet, every time he had a spare moment, he couldn’t resist messaging Sasagawa. And Sasagawa, ever diligent, always replied. At some point, Asaka realized why he was doing it.

Before, on nights they didn’t see each other, they always talked on the phone. About everything—their day, the little things that made them happy, the things that had irritated them.

Sasagawa had always been an excellent listener. No matter how ridiculous the conversation, he would take it seriously. If Asaka asked for advice, he would give thoughtful, precise answers.

That was why Asaka had always felt so comfortable sharing anything with him. But now, it had been five days of only emailing back and forth.

So that evening, Asaka finally asked:

"Can I call you?"

For the first time, Sasagawa replied:

"Okay."

The last two times Asaka had asked, the response had been, "Please wait a little longer."

So this time, when he got approval, he was so happy that he called immediately. Before that night, they had been able to chat easily for one, even two hours at a time. But now, Sasagawa had been tense at first—extremely so.

Still, after about ten minutes, he had started to sound like his usual self again. And that had been enough to make Asaka feel almost giddy.

That morning, on the train to work, he had finally sent an invitation.

"Would you like to go out for drinks tonight?"

"Oh my, Asaka, alone today? Where’s your shadow?"

Asaka, lost in thought with his phone in hand, snapped to attention. He turned around in a hurry.

The voice belonged to Kouran, a colleague two years his senior. Tall and elegant, the very image of a Kyoto beauty—but a second-degree black belt in karate. And despite her graceful appearance, her sharp tongue was infamous. At least, within the office and among close colleagues.

"There’s training at the guesthouse until 2 PM today."

At the office, the rookie Koenji was often referred to as Asaka’s “shadow”—just not in his presence. Koenji’s desk was diagonally across from Asaka’s, but today, he had casually settled into the empty chair next to him.

"Must be tough handling the ‘most troublesome rookie’ Enoki dumped on you, huh?"

"Not that much..."

"The president said, ‘Watching Asaka, I always feel like he’s one step away from snapping. It’s nerve-wracking.’"

Hearing that only worsened Asaka’s already growing unease. He was well aware of how short his patience had been with Koenji lately.

The rookie Enoki had handed off to him was far more challenging than he had anticipated. No matter what task he was given, he struggled to grasp it—and he was forgetful on top of that.

During his first month, Enoki had drilled him thoroughly on greetings and customer service, yet he still couldn’t do it properly.

Frustrated, Asaka had asked, “Didn’t Enoki train you in handling customers?”

Without a hint of remorse, Koenji had simply replied, “It was all a blur at first. I was so nervous that the training ended before I even knew what was happening.”

Not only did he not see his incompetence as a problem, but he also lacked the initiative to practice on his own or seek help from others.

A bridal coordinator’s job begins and ends with customer service. That was the most important skill, yet Koenji didn’t seem to grasp that. Three months into the job, and now Asaka fully understood why Enoki had only assigned him menial tasks.

"If you ever need to talk about Koenji, I’m happy to listen."

Asaka forced a strained smile.

"It’s only been a month since I took over. I’ll be fine. If I run into real trouble, I’ll come to you then."

Kohara had entrusted him with this responsibility, and Asaka wasn’t about to admit that he was struggling to handle it.

Training rookies was part of the job, and if he was going to do it, he wanted to do it properly. For now, he wasn’t ready to rely on anyone else.

A dull pain throbbed in the pit of his stomach. His stomach had endured countless unreasonable demands from clients before—but between Sasagawa and Koenji, the stress was starting to take its toll.

Koenji was one thing. But with Sasagawa…

Tonight, they could finally put everything behind them.

Pressing a hand against his stomach, Asaka thought to himself:

"I can’t wait to see him..."

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