It might be the fact that the air conditioner was on full blast that day, or may be because all the people in the room just decided to all together STOP talking - but no matter what the reason is, they felt the cold tension roaming around. Daiki looked around and saw men and women wearing suits, looking at the man sitting next to him. All he heard was silence, and even himself, admits that this awkwardness makes him a bit uncomfortable. 

 “But Sir— “, at last, after a few moments of painful silence, one of his colleagues spoke out. You can sense that he was having second thoughts of answering back to the bossy man beside him. Well, that bossy man is none other than his own best friend – Yamada Ryosuke, the current CEO of Yamada Financial Group. 

“I’ll do it my way”, Ryosuke answered. His tone was professional, but at the same time, firm. “I know my father believed I should marry into a wealthy family when he entrusted me this company, but I disagree. I therefore will not go through this arrange marriage no matter how this Board of Directors feel strongly against it”. And with that, the meeting ended, leaving the company’s directors left speechless and dumbfounded by the young man’s decision. 

--

“Yamada Ryosuke and his iron fist! I like it!”, Daiki mocked before seeing his best friend slump down his bottom half on his office chair. The latter placed one hand on his forehead, before resting his nape on the backrest of his seat. 

“Pft, are you here to support me or are you here to see Amu-chan?”, Ryosuke backfired, referring to his assistant, Amu Kitagawa to whom his best friend has a huge crush on. Daiki tried his best to hide his embarrassed face, but low key looked around for any signs of the said girl. 

“I’m here to do both, actually. But more on seeing Amu-chan”, Daiki replied, enough to make Ryosuke’s eyes roll in derision. He repositioned himself on his chair and focused with the issue at hand, hoping to get useful advice from his older friend. However, half of him is thinking it’ll be useless to seek wisdom from someone like Daiki. 

-

“At this day and age, those guys are pushing me to get married to someone I barely know. No disrespect to Ms Satoko, but I want to choose my future wife. We went on a few dates but I felt nothing”, he complained. 

“I’m just amused on how you tackled those old geezers in that meeting. I literally saw Mr Takamura and Mr Watanabe grinding their teeth at you. They made all the arrangements for this wedding and you basically ruined their plan just like that. They think they’ll gain more shares since they’re close with Satoko-san’s parents”, Daiki pointed out, noticing the politics around the company. 

“Did you notice how hard Yamamoto was opposing as well?”, Ryosuke pulled his head up, his eyes twitched as he reminisced the earlier meeting, “I’m just thankful Kim-chan is not here, or else, she’ll whack me on how stubborn I acted earlier”, an exhausted sigh escaped him. His relief was cut short when the same girl he was thinking of came through the set of double doors leading to his office. The two boys turned around to the source and saw Kim walking towards Ryosuke’s desk, and behind her was Amu. 

--

“Mou, Amu-chan… I thought we agreed not to let my crazy cousin into my office without giving me a chance to run away?”, Ryosuke uttered jokingly, making sure that Kim heard every single one of his insults. Daiki chuckled at this as he knows that the two will start their usual banters again. 

“I’m sorry, Yama-chan. I can’t really oppose Kim-chan. She’s like my older sister”, Amu smiled sweetly, not noticing Daiki almost in the brink of melting on the spot. 

“You may be the boss in here, but I’m the boss of you!”, Kim replied for Amu. 

“Seems like ’bossiness’ runs in the family ne?”, Daiki whispered, but enough for all the people in the room hear. Amu chuckled at this and continued to listen to Ryosuke and Kim’s quips against each other. 

“I heard you made a man twice your age cry in the meeting today. What’s up with that, little couz? Do you want me to straighten you out again?”, she threatened the boy, making him pout childishly. “I know you’re not too keen on this arrange marriage thing but at least be nice to the people who works for you. They might turn against you, one day. I don’t trust those old geezers. I feel like they’re always plotting something evil”, Kim warned as she felt chills travel up her spine, remembering the unfriendly faces of people that works for Ryosuke. See, Kim is Ryosuke’s cousin and is now his official guardian when his parents died two years ago in a car accident. Ryosuke was left in-charge of the company despite his young age. Being responsible of Ryosuke’s wellbeing, Kim comes by the office every now and then to sort out her cousin’s stubborn behaviour, even if it turns into violence. 

--

Yamada was not given the chance to argue back when Amu interjected. “Gomen ne, nee-chan. Yama-chan has an offsite meeting at 2pm today so he really needs to go now if he wants to make it”. Being a perfectionist and a highly organised assistant, it’s not a surprise that she’s on top of Ryosuke’s never-ending meetings and conferences. 

“Thank Amu-chan for saving your ”, Kim rolled her eyes at Ryosuke as the boy quickly skipped towards Amu to escape the older one’s strict maternal lectures. 

“Amu-chan, let’s go before the devil grills me alive!”, he childishly grabbed Amu’s sleeve and led her outside. The two waved t