"How is your stomach? You said you were hospitalized, so how did you get here so quickly?" Yoshi asked in a completely level voice, showing no signs of concern whatsoever. It was obvious he knew she had been faking it.

"Ah, well, it's because I have a boss who knew I was in the hospital and still called me over for an urgent meeting." Kira tried her best to hold back, but for some reason, she couldn't manage to fake a single polite word. One of Yoshi's eyebrows twitched. Was he about to snap at her?

"You don't seem all that sorry. Do you even realize the mess you've made?"

"Yes, I'm really sorry. I stayed up too late last night and sent the wrong file by mistake." Kira looked down to avoid Yoshi's eyes, but she still caught a glimpse of his tightly clenched hands resting on the table. She began to count down in her head.

"The team and I hadn't even looked it over yet, so what on earth made you think it was okay to cc the client?"

"I..." Kira trailed off. There was nothing else she could say.

"Kira. I know you just moved from America, so you're still adjusting and dealing with culture shock. But your issue isn't just about culture; it's your professional attitude. You do market analysis, yet you haven't made any effort to understand Japanese culture. That is exactly why I wanted you to thoroughly study the market reports and consumer habits of the target customer. I wasn't just making you sort beans for no reason. And I never asked you to pull an all-nighter to finish it, either. What matters is working efficiently, not forcing yourself to stay up late and wake up early like this."

"But the report is due for Monday's meeting. You handed me the assignment on Friday afternoon, Yoshi-san. Isn't it implicitly expected that I work over the weekend?"

Yoshi said nothing. Should she just take this chance to lay all her cards on the table? She was getting fired anyway. Kira gathered every ounce of courage she had and pressed on.

"If we hadn't wasted four hours sitting in that meeting, I could have finished the revisions yesterday. The problem is we spend way too much time in meetings. The company has them almost every single day. Shouldn't we just touch on the key points, share progress updates online, and give everyone more time to actually focus on their own work?"

"Kira. We've been going back and forth for hours, and you still don't get it. How do you expect us to sort out a project just over email? Your product booklet is actually quite solid on the financial projections. But dropping an American-style discount campaign and design straight into the Japanese market is a massive misstep. Kitchens in Tokyo are tiny; people simply don't have the freezer space for a five-hundred-milliliter tub of ice cream like they do in the States. On top of that, Japanese consumers prefer subtle, refined sweetness, and they live for seasonal flavors, like cherry blossoms in the spring. You can't just expect them to eat a cloyingly sweet tub of caramel day in and day out."

Not this lecture again. Kira was completely sick of hearing it.

"Yes, I understand that," she pushed back, refusing to back down. "But the Japanese ice cream market is already dominated by major giants. And they are doing the exact same thing. If we just follow the beaten path, the client might as well copy their competitors' playbooks. Why would they even need us?"

Yoshi was about to continue his lecture when his phone rang. Kira snuck a glance at the screen. It was Mr. Yamamoto, the Japan Marketing Director for Glacier. Yoshi gestured for her to stay quiet and picked up the call, both of them bracing themselves to apologize. Instead, Kira could clearly hear an ecstatic voice booming from the other end.

"Akino-san! That file attached to your agency's three AM email is pure genius! That SWOT matrix on 'Boss Evaluation and Rationale for Quitting'—oh my god, it's hilarious and so relatable! Japanese youth are completely drowning in workplace stress, and if we use those exact sarcastic remarks as Glacier's launch message, the campaign is bound to go viral! This upfront, rebellious attitude is exactly what America is all about! Who came up with this crazy idea?"

Kira only understood about half of the Japanese in that conversation. It didn't sound like he was getting scolded at all. Yet, she had never seen Yoshi look so completely shaken. He just kept nodding and promising they would make the adjustments. Finally, he hung up and turned to look at her.

"How did it go?" Kira asked, dying of curiosity, having no idea what had just happened.

Yoshi cleared his throat, his voice much softer than before. "The client thinks your rant about me this morning is a brilliant marketing concept. However, we need to adjust the size and packaging design, and they are going to introduce some unique new flavors. They want to meet the person behind the idea this Monday afternoon to discuss it further."

"So... um... am I fired?" Kira bit her lip. She might as well ask directly so she could start hunting for a new job tomorrow.

Yoshi frowned at her. "You have a client meeting this Monday. We will deal with your situation after that. As for you... from now on, be careful with your work. You need to start adapting to the Japanese working culture. And try to bond with your colleagues instead of leaving early and keeping to yourself all the time."

"And are you close with any of our colleagues, Yoshi-san?" Kira knew she shouldn't ask, but the question came out anyway.

Yoshi’s cheeks instantly flushed. The man clearly didn't have a single friend in the office, yet here he was, acting all high and mighty, lecturing her on how to behave.

"To be honest, I think you are the most disliked person in the company, Yoshi-san, not me." Since she was already winning this round anyway, a few more words wouldn't hurt, right?

"Kira, is that how you talk to your boss?"

"Well, it's the weekend, and we aren't at the office. So, technically, we are just two friends hanging out. Didn't you just say that I need to make friends at the office?" Kira looked at Yoshi, who was desperately trying to hide his face with his hands. Was he actually embarrassed? This was getting incredibly entertaining.

"Yoshi-san, if you want to laugh, just laugh. You don't have to force yourself to hold it in. Holding in your laughter actually shortens your lifespan, you know." Kira had no intention of letting him off that easily, but her stomach began to protest. Her dinner last night had been terrible, and after waking up late this morning, she had been stuck dealing with him until now.

"Can I go now? I haven't eaten anything since this morning, so I'm really hungry."

Yoshi's expression shifted as soon as she finished speaking, looking apologetic. "Oh, is that so? I'm sorry. By the way, let's just eat here. I haven't eaten anything either. This meal is on me."

Finally, he said something that actually warmed her heart.

"No, thank you. I don't really want to eat here." Yoshi looked surprised when she declined. The food here looked quite boring. It was the weekend, yet the restaurant was completely empty. She wanted to go out to the spring flower festival. By some miracle, Yoshi ended up tagging along with her.

The large lawn in the central field was filled with food trucks and stalls. She had seen this scene many times in anime, but this was the first time she was actually strolling through a real spring flower festival like this. The atmosphere around her was so lively. Even from a distance, Kira could already smell the sweet sauce and the mouth-watering scent of grilled squid wafting through the air.

Kira was instantly drawn to a stall packed with colorful, chocolate-covered bananas on sticks. She eagerly pointed at them and spoke to the vendor in her half-American, half-Japanese accent: "Kore onegaishimasu!" (This one, please!)

Holding her treat, Kira turned to Yoshi and asked, "What is this called in Japanese, Yoshi?"

Yoshi coughed lightly into his fist as if to hide a smile, then replied, "Choco Banana."

"Wait, they just use straight English like that?"

"Yeah. Japanese has a lot of loanwords from foreign languages."

"What about that grilled squid over there?"

"Ika-yaki. Ika means squid, and yaki means grilled. It is grilled whole squid brushed with sweet soy sauce," Yoshi explained, looking at the grill. "The scent you smelled earlier was probably from this stall."

He turned to the bearded man grilling the squid and spoke in Japanese. A moment later, each of them was holding a fragrant skewer of grilled squid.

They sat on a stone bench beneath a weeping cherry blossom tree. Finally, she was experiencing a proper hanami weekend, except for one thing. She was with her strict boss.

Kira turned to look at Yoshi, noting that even his way of eating was delicate and meticulous, just like a cat. Come to think of it, how old was Yoshi anyway? He seemed about four years older than her, yet he spoke like a grumpy old man.

"Yoshi-san, do you come to this park for walks often?"

Yoshi paused for a moment, finishing the bite of squid in his mouth before replying, "Almost every day. After work."

"Every single day? It takes a whole forty minutes to get here from the office."

"Well, I like large parks, so I chose to rent a place nearby."

No way. Kira had always assumed he would be a pragmatic, city-type person who went out drinking after office hours. No wonder he didn't have any friends at the company.

"What about you?"

"Hi.mi.tsu.” (It's a secret.)

"What?"

There was no way she was letting him know where she lived. If she ever woke up late and ran late for work again, she still needed to be able to make up an excuse.

"By the way, did you study Japanese anywhere before coming here?" Yoshi suddenly asked, catching Kira completely off guard for a solid five seconds.

"I just learned it on my own."

"No wonder..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You should probably take some classes at a language center."

"Are you saying my Japanese is trash?"

"It's a total blank slate."

What a jerk. Her Japanese wasn't even that bad.

"You just completely crushed my spirit, you know."

"But it's the truth. If you're going to live in Japan, you need to learn it properly. You have to pass the proficiency tests if you want to move up in your career." Yoshi's voice shifted back into his usual serious tone. If Kira didn't do something, he was definitely going to lecture her for the rest of the afternoon. Even though Yoshi wasn't wrong, his timing was awful. She had zero mental energy to think about studying. Just working eight hours and squeezing onto those packed trains every day was already enough to leave her completely wiped out.

"Can we talk about this some other time? Right now, I just want to enjoy the flowers." Kira wrinkled her nose. "If you keep talking like that, I'm going to pass out right here."

After that, they spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the park. Kira got her fill of cherry blossoms and walked until her feet were sore, completely forgetting about what happened that morning. Yoshi walked beside her just like it was his usual daily stroll, occasionally correcting her Japanese. Aside from the work talk and his tendency to preach, Yoshi wasn't half bad.

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