When Haruka marched into the open office the next day, the first thing that she saw was, irritatingly, Jens yawning wide enough to give seagulls ideas. She had a nice evening yesterday, with her favourite comfort movie “A Short Film About Love”, a short walk through a park close to her home watching cherry trees in full bloom, and even a full eight hours of sleep. A rare treat for her. 

And it was all (indirectly) because of this tall Dane. 

“Mornin’,” he said without taking his eyes off his laptop. 

“Good morning”, she replied. “You’re quite early” she noticed out loud so the rest of the team could hear. They both had official positions of consultants, even if Haruka were more like an assistant, or a fixer. It would help her to let him have a better opinion in the team.

“Yes, Since 7:30”, said pleasantly surprised Jens. He did not expect Haruka to make small talk first thing in the morning. “I prefer to come early and go early, if I can”.

“We will see about that”, said Haruka. She needed to explain to him how things work here. She glanced at what was on his screen. She expected some videos, maybe social media. And then she started staring, mid-thought.

“First thing in the morning and you just… read the intranet?”

“I’m trying, at best”, chuckled Jens. “I’m learning a lot of new kanji.” 

“Tell me if you need help with any of them”, offered Haruka. She didn’t know if it was the full eight hours of sleep or her habit of not wanting to feel indebted to anyone. 

“Will do”, said Jens.

“We have another meeting together, after lunch”, she said to him.

“Thank you, I’ll remember”, said Jens. He still was looking at the screen, with such intensity she would not be surprised if his screen started to sweat under such pressure.

Haruka took Jens to lunch. Not like in a romantic way, more like in the I’ll-show-you-were-is-staff-lunch way. She was expecting more enthusiasm or at least some surprise look from Jens in response to the menu. But he just said matter-of-factly:

“Yes, it’s katsudon today, it’s nice”.

“How do you know that?”

“I read it on the intranet”, he responded calmly. They took their two lunches, and when they were looking where they wanted to sit, someone half subtly waved at them. It was Minato-san - a regular employee in their team, who was getting close to a senior position. Haruka knew who he was, and remembered his face - she did it with all of their team’s employees before she even started working here. It was Minato-san and he had this kind of honest and good-natured disposition from head to toe you would expect from some farmer or lumberjack promoting good life in the countryside; This kind of face that said if he saw his hen is not laying eggs, he would say to her with his whole face that he’s a little disappointed in her, and hearing that, she would lay three. Immediately.

“Hello, how are you?” Minato-san asked Jens, when they came over. He also said his greetings to Haruka, but it was clear he was more interested in Jens. “We did not have the opportunity to talk much before, did we?” he smiled wide.

“I don’t think we did”, said Jens, smiling back at him.

“So, how did you land a job in Japan?” asked Minato-san.

Jens bursted out laughing.

“Landed" is such a nice way to say it. More like crashed into” - he smiled at Haruka. Her expression was neutral, as she was really focused on her katsudon. “Oh, I just was… recruited for a one year project.” Jens tried to put it nicely, but he started to panic a little. What was he supposed to say? He wanted to nudge Haruka, but she was too busy with her bowl.

But somehow it was enough for Minato because he nodded twice. “Recruited, here? And from ministry? That’s quite impressive”

“Oh, I assure you, I’m not that as impressive as you’re making me out to be”

“But you’ve made quite an impression on your first day as you broke that one chair, right?” Minato bursted into honest laughter and patted Jens friendly on the shoulder.

Jens chuckled with him.

“But” Minato san leaned over to Jens, checking if no one was listening to them “there was quite a story a few years ago, with those chairs, do you want to know?”

Jens nodded as he took another bite of katsudon.

“So, there was this rumor, which is quite possible to be true”, Minato started to whisper, “That the vendor who the company bought the chairs from was playing golf with some department manager”

Jens’s eyes widened. “No way!” he blurted out, loudest he could while whispering.

“Yes! Yes! And word goes around, it was actually our manager!” he whispered with a dramatic pause at the end, checking the reaction.

“Unbelievable!” said Jens, with the most shocked expression he could make, while having his face stuffed with katsudon. Minato nodded a few times, satisfied by Jens' reactions.

“You couldn't tell, could you?”

“I have not met him personally yet,” said Jens.

“Oh he will be on the nomikai, you will talk to him then for sure.” and he quickly changed the topic “Tell me Jens, can you drink?”

Jens could swear he heard some kind of a snort from Haruka's side, but he shot one glance at her, and she was just sitting there with a blank expression, finishing her meal, stoic as always.

“I could use some help with snack recommendations,” said Jens.

“Oooh, don’t worry, I’ll show you the best ones this Friday”, said Minato. “I have to run now, if I want to get some cig time. Jens, do you maybe smoke?”

“No, sorry”, he smiled apologetically.

“No worries. See you later!” He took his tray with dishes and rushed away, almost tripping on the way.

“Quite a… friendly fellow, wouldn't you say?” Jens turned to Haruka.

“Careful, he is close to a promotion, he may try to find out whether it is worthwhile to be on good terms with you”

Jens looked at her.

“Is it in your culture that everybody is always scheming, or is it your way of seeing the world, Tanikawa-san?”

Haruka shrugged.

“You do with that info what you want.”

Jens was finishing a meeting with Haruka, where she taught him the basics of work-related phrases used in company. He decided it was a good time for another one. Just as he remembered, he put his hand on the char’s knob to loosen it. Then, he pushed the lever just slightly, almost unnoticeably. After that, he tried to stand up, but in that motion he put pressure with his back on the backrest of the chair. He heard a big CRACK sound and prepared to meet the ground.

Haruka looked at him, while he was saying all the “sorry, sorry” while getting up from the floor. She squinted at him. 

“Chairs become suspiciously fragile in your presence”

Jens spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness.

“What can I say, I’m a big european guy, sorry for your trouble” he bowed to her, took his laptop under his arm, and the chair, now in two parts, one in each hand.

He came out of the meeting room, left the chair wreck in place where they left the first one, and he heard some whispers behind him. He smiled brightly, with an apologetic and a little awkward vibe, and he heard some laughs, somebody shouted to him “another victim?”. Some women were also giggling to themselves. As he was packing, he noticed some folded paper on his desk he was sure he did not leave there. He opened it, and read the note written in English, in slightly crooked block letters:

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID