Jens had learned what “kuuki” means in his school. It was a word for the atmosphere, but his teacher was trying to say it was much more than that. Reading air was meant to be so much more important. He thought he kind of got it - it was this one of those untranslatable things, like his lovely hygge, which meant so much more than other languages made it to be. So he just made his peace that he probably never will understand it fully and he moved on.

And now, in the last few days, he understood it fully. Kuuki is the stuff you don’t breathe, but that suffocates you all the same. It’s not the air itself, but the thick invisible fog of expectation that everyone pretends isn’t there while simultaneously rearranging their entire lives around it. Japanese people were experts at kuuki the way fish were experts at water: they didn't really notice it, unless someone made a splash.

And apparently it took two broken chairs to make one. 

Jens’s plan was to break some chairs; then make a proposal to change all the chairs in the department. From what he learned about the people and corporate culture here, only some select people above a certain level of senior or managerial positions were allowed to stand up above the people lower in the hierarchy; or maybe it was even expected from them. Results were similar - nice offices for some, and grey open spaces with windowless break-rooms for the rest. But after the note he had received, he put his plan on hold - he was sure somebody had noticed.

But this did not stop the chairs from breaking. Basically every day, someone’s chair broke. First it was Aoi, next day - Saito, and some other senior colleague, who Jens did not talk with much, but who he saw going with Minato on their smoke breaks quite often. People started to come to work and do everything with more energy, more zest, but Jens could not tell if it was positive zest or nervousness about if their chair will be next. Every time something broke, Haruka glanced at him. Some people started to joke about Jens that when he looks at a chair, he curses it. With every day, there were less and less chairs in the meeting room, where people took spares from. Of course, they put them back if there was a meeting for the whole team. But, if the meetings didn’t require a full team, but 3 or 4 people, they didn’t take the chairs back - they just did the meeting standing. So meetings started to get shorter and shorter, but their results were the same.

He felt uncertainty and, for him, it was fine.

At some point, Haruka, when no one was watching, caught him in the corridor like she was a policeman catching a criminal. 

“Jens-san”, the “san” she added, was somehow much quieter than his name. “Don’t you think you did enough to get your point?”

“You mean the chairs,” he loosened his tie - having his back against the wall he felt a sudden need to do something with his hands.

She looked at him, not moving by an inch, letting silence grow to attack him. 

First, she saw the chairs as a silly act of rebellion. But now, from her point of view, Jens has started to inconvenience everyone. But the thing is, she was not used to being direct. She was not used to addressing a problem head on. So when she looked at Jens's bright and honest face, she somehow felt almost confused. She was used to nudging people to go in the right direction, she did it many times with the Prime Minister and she failed only once. But this? This was new.

“I only did break two, and I’m looking for a way to replace them”, Jens could not take her gaze and looked away. “I was hoping you could review it.”

“Review… it?”

“I’m writing a proposal for chair replacement in the whole department. I’m basing it on the documents  I saw on the intranet.”

“Ah. I see. Let’s go see it then?”

She was sure he was lying and at this point she was ready to confront him.

Jens took her to his laptop, and opened a file.

“Please, it would be a great help” he smiled with relief.

She frowned and started to read it. Some of it was in English, some of it in Japanese. He even put notes in the file with the company values and comments like “From Tanaka-san: tone should be proud but not prideful(???) at the same time the tone should be polite, yet confident”.

“You’ve put in some work.” she noticed. “Tanaka-san, Mr CEO's secretary?”

“I wrote to her when the team's communicator started to work for me.” Jens shrugged.

“It’s… Not good enough. But it’s a good start.”

“So you will help me?”

“Just stop breaking chairs”. There. She said it. Clear and direct.

Jens throwed her a confused look.

“I told you, and you saw it, I broke just two of them.”

She shook her head.

He took his backpack, and gave her the note. She read it.

“I found it on my desk this Tuesday. It was too risky to do anything more. It’s not me.”

Haruka looked at his big eyes, looking at her pleadingly and she was torn. She had a choice. She could believe him. She could take it with all of the consequences - that maybe someone was trying to frame him, for whatever reason, even if he made friends wherever he went in this company. Or she could believe this was part of his plan to make her believe him.

And then she remembered how he crashed through the roof. And the talk in the hospital afterwards. And the first day of work this week when he could not tie his tie correctly, and even now has his tie in disarray. And she made her decision.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” 

He shook his head.

“Why would I?”

It stung Haruka. She was teaching him all week how to survive in this corporate environment and somehow she was not trustworthy enough? 

“I will help you with your proposal. But tell me about things like that”, she gave him back the note.

After a few hours, both of them got from their chairs with utmost care, so as not to offend them. Jens stretched his whole body, while Haruka looked like sitting on those hellish chairs for a few hours had not the slightest effect on her.

“Jens-san, Tanikawa-san, we’re going!”, someone shouted to them.

Jens packed his things, carefully checking if he saved everything.

Haruka imperceptibly fixed her hair and checked her makeup. She was battle ready.

“Brace yourself. The nomikai is coming.”