Much better than expected!

Two hours later, and Shuichi was in the boardroom of the building setting up his presentation to finally be shown. It was scheduled to start in 15 minutes but, as usual, Kirumi had shown up before anyone else.

“It’s okay, Shuichi,” Kirumi said as Shuichi paced in front of the boardroom projection screen. “This will go fine. You have nothing to worry about.”

“You keep saying that, but… you know I don’t have experience with this kind of thing! Plus, it’ll be in front of the whole board!” Shuichi replied, his voice shaking a little. “One wrong move and they could tear me to shreds.”

“It’s a board meeting, that’s all. You’re not going to be on trial; chances are most of them won’t even pay that close attention,” said Kirumi. “Plus, I would not have chosen you for this if I was not confident that you’d succeed.”

“I… I think you probably should have picked someone else,” said Shuichi. “Maybe I should have worked on it more… maybe it’s not too late to can-”

Shuichi was silenced by Kirumi suddenly pulling him into a kiss, her tongue exploring his mouth for a few seconds before breaking the kiss and leaving him panting.

“W-what was that?’ Shuichi asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Kirumi said, casually sitting down. “Edith just told me earlier that she made you breakfast, and I wanted to taste to see if her cooking skills were still up to snuff. And as far as I can tell, her spice choice is still excellent.” She wiped her mouth and prepared the papers in front of her to take notes. “Now, are you ready? The board and Togami will be here any moment.”

“Eh? Er, right, of course!” Having been surprised out of his worries, Shuichi loaded up his presentation and waited for everyone to arrive.

Buyakuya Togami was first to arrive, going through the door precisely on time, as if she didn’t have even a moment to waste coming here. Her brown suit was finely pressed and spotless, and her skirt and her shoes both shining brighter than her glasses. The board members followed shortly afterwards, but, aside from Vice President Annie Scholten, he did not recognize any of them–nor did he try to. His focus was solely on Ms. Togami, and the way she was trying to burn a hole through his skull using only her eyes.

“Ahem.” Shuichi cleared his throat and started his slide presentation. “Good day, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Shuichi Saihara, and as I’m sure you all know I’m one of the internal auditors here and I’ll be going over…” Shuichi paused to adjust his collar, his throat dry as the desert outside as his body suddenly felt like it was burning up. “... the current financial state of the company.”

The board said nothing and just kept staring as Shuichi moved onto the next slide.

“As you can see, our profits remain consistent over the past year, with few financial penalties from regulators and a low dissatisfaction among our consumer base,” Shuichi continued. “In fact, we have yet to have a single contract fail or produce a loss in 13 months.”

“Pft; is that your measure of success?” Buyakuya scoffed, speaking up for the first time. “By that measure, a mom-and-pop owned dollar store could be called ‘successful’ as long as they keep making enough money to keep their doors open.”

“Yes, but one only needs to look at the news to know how unnecessary risks can ruin previously successful companies,” Shuichi replied, choosing his words carefully so as to not insult or push directly back against Ms. Togami. “Innovation is good, yes, but staying the same does not mean being left behind.”

“Spoken like a true fossil,” said Buyakuya. “There are ways to mitigate risk, you know. If you’re worried about a project failing or affecting the reputation of the company, you just have to create a new LLC and have them handle it; that way, the worst that can happen is the LLC goes down in flames.”

“Yes, that’s… possible, but doing that would be a significant cash investment,” Shuichi said, not enjoying how this was derailing his presentation.

“Yes… and wherever could this company get enough liquidity for special projects like that?” Buyakuya struck a smug pose as the rest of the board whispered among themselves.

“Well… not everything is about money, Ms. Togami,” Shuichi countered.

“... excuse me?” The smug look dropped from Buyakuya’s face. “I’m sorry, but am I not in a meeting about capital? Or did I wander into a child’s storytime?”

“But I am talking about capital, Ms. Togami; human capital.” Shuichi switched to the next slide in his presentation, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves.. “Our employees have some of the highest job satisfaction ratings in the area. This is both confirmed in interviews and in surveys, but you don’t need to take my word for it; take a look at our employee retention rates compared to our closest competitor.” He switched to a graph he had made to illustrate this point. “Because of this we’ve built up a wealth of knowledge, experience, and talent that will keep us at the top of our game for years to come.”

“Oh, I have no doubt of their talent, but just because someone is good at their job doesn’t mean they’re necessary,” Buyakuya replied confidently. “All you need is someone with the right eye and you can have over half a workplace walking to the unemployment office by the end of the day, while the company carries on like nothing even happened.”

Buyukya smirked smugly to herself until she realized that not only was she the only person in the room smiling, but that many of the board members looked quite shocked at such callousness. “Uh, theoretically, of course. Anyways, you may continue.”

Shuichi held back a sigh of relief and continued his presentation, getting more into the nitty-gritty of the presentation, showcasing his knowledge of the company like how the engineering division was currently driving the most profit while the sales department was struggling to find ways to reach new customers, and how including the sanitation budget along with the expense budget has sometimes saved money but also delayed the replacement of equipment on more than one occasion.

In the end, it turned out that Kirumi was right in her assumption that most of the board members weren’t paying too much attention, but none of them felt like it was a waste of time, which was a victory in both Shuichi and Kirumi’s eyes.

The meeting then drew to a close and almost everyone left the room, save for Shuichi himself, Shuichi, Buyakuya, and Annie.

“Thank you so much for attending our presentation, Ms. Togami,” Kirumi said with a polite bow. “I do hope that it was as enlightening as you hoped it would be.”

“Oh, it was. I learned quite a bit about your company’s business model, the ins and outs… who owns the stock… it was a very enlightening experience.” Buyakuya adjusted her glasses and turned toward Shuichi. “I must say, you managed to really surprise me today, though only because my expectations were so low that merely avoiding vomiting in front of us would have impressed me.”

“Uh… thank you?” Shuichi replied, unsure how to properly respond to such a backhanded compliment.

“I am quite curious about something, though. Do you mean what you said during the presentation? That not everything is about the money?”

“Uh… of course I did,” Shuichi replied. “Money is important, of course, but we always need to remember that the world is made of living, breathing people, not machines that exist just to turn a profit.”

“I see… well, we’ll see about that I suppose.” Buyakuya gathered up her things and headed toward the door. “So long for now. I suspect we’ll meet again soon.”

“I still do not understand why you oppose a merger so much, Ms. Tojo,” Vice President Scholten said as she gathered up her own things. “I know that even you can be scared of change, but if you don’t want Togami changing something in particular, that’s what merger contract negotiations are for. To oppose a merger outright is downright foolish, especially considering the good they could do for the company.”

“I understand that, Ms. Scholten, but my duty is to act in the best interest of all stakeholders in the company–and until I feel otherwise, I will continue to oppose our merging,” her superior replied.

“With all due respect, Ms. CEO, that decision will ultimately be the board’s, not yours,” said Annie. “And they won’t be on your side forever.”

With that ominous comment still hanging in the air, she left the room and Shuichi immediately collapsed into the nearest chair.

“Augh… thank god that’s over,” Shuichi sighed. “I was so stressed out about this that I was having nightmares. It feels like a weight has just been taken off my back.”

“Congratulations, my dear,” said Kirumi. “You did an excellent job for your first presentation of this type. Perhaps with time, you’ll be able to give these kinds of updates regularly.”

“Uh… thanks for the offer, but I’m not sure if my heart would be able to take that,” Shuichi replied. “Though… if it meant I’d get to keep my job…”

“Do not worry, that was just theoretical. For now, you’ve earned the chance to relax.” Kirumi sat in a chair next to Shuichi and scooted next to him at the conference table. She then removed one of her gloves and said, “In fact, I’d say you did well enough to earn a reward.”

“A reward? What are you suggest- ah!?” Shuichi gasped as Kirumi unzipped his pants with her gloved hand and, with its gloveless partner, began to stroke his soft cock. “K-Kirumi! What are you doing? We’re at work, and anyone could walk in on us!”

“Which is why I am not doing anything more than this,” Kirumi said, her thumb gently circling over his tip and smothering it in precum. “If anyone comes in, I will simply say that we were reviewing my notes on your presentation. For now, just sit back and relax, and enjoy yourself.”

While the handjob was anything but relaxing, Shuichi couldn’t help but admit to himself that it felt pretty good. Her fingers were just as skilled as they ever were, knowing right when to stroke, when to slow down, and when to focus on the shaft. And of course, her gloved hand lovingly massaged his balls to keep his arousal up.

After a few minutes of continued stroking, Shuichi felt himself starting to get close. Still anxious at the possibility of getting caught, Shuichi did not hold himself back at all, and it wasn’t until the first wad was about to spray from his tip that he realized that he was about to spray all over the underside of the conference table.

Kirumi was one step ahead of him, though, and used the glove that she had taken off to catch the semen inside so it didn’t create a mess. Shuichi just kept going and going, though, surprising even Kirumi with the sheer volume of semen until the inside of the glove almost flowed over.

“Oh my. It seems that you were more pent up than I realized,” Kirumi said, marveling over the glove. “Did your new servant not take care of you last night?”

“N-no, she did,” he replied. “That’s just… a pretty average load for me lately.”

“I see… quite impressive.” Kirumi stared at the glove for a few moments before standing up to leave the room.

“Hold on a second; what exactly are you going to do with all that?” asked Shuichi.

“Would it excite you if I told you that I was going to put this glove back on and wear it for the rest of the day?” asked Kirumi. And, indeed, Shuichi’s cock twitched at the thought. “As fun as that would be, I’ll be disposing of the semen discreetly in the toilet, and then have my assistant dry-clean the glove later. But if you want to do anything more, I’m afraid that will have to wait for another day, as we both have work to get back to.”

“Er, right, of course.” Shuichi hurriedly zipped himself up and gathered up his things. “Until next time, Ms. Tojo.”

Shuichi made his way to the nearest elevator and took it down to his office’s floor. As the elevator stopped and slid open, he was greeted by the smiling face of Kaito at a nearby water cooler, who was apparently waiting for him.

“Hey, hey! There’s my man!” He walked up to Shluichi and slapped him on the shoulder. “So, how’d it go?”

“Well, I think I did well enough to keep my job for now, so… that’s something right?” Shuichi said, genuinely trying to sound optimistic.

“Ha! You totally knocked their socks off, didn’t you?” Kaito smiled and gave Shuichi one of his patented thumbs-up. “I knew you had it in you! You always were the perfect guy for your job, after all.”

“Thanks… hearing that does mean a lot to me, but to be honest, I feel like I might pass out,” Shuichi admitted. “That was the first time I’d ever done a presentation in front of strangers like that, and I ended up forgetting a lot of my practiced lines. So much of the presentation was just… winging it.”

“Hey, come on; half of life is just winging it! And that’s hardly stopped most of us from living!” Kaito laughed before taking on a more serious tone. “Seriously, though; for all your worrying, have things ever turned out nearly as bad as you thought they would?”

“Well… most of the time, no, but–”

“Up! I don’t want to hear it!” Kaito silenced Shuichi by putting his hand over Shuichi’s mouth. “You just focus on unwinding after that presentation, okay? Go on and reward yourself for stepping out of your comfort zone like that. Maybe even stop tonight and see a lady of the night, if you know what I mean?”

“I, uh, will consider it…” Shuichi replied, not wanting to tell Kaito that he had already gotten his rocks off that day. Though, even if he was inclined to visit the RLD, he wouldn’t have the cash to actually indulge himself. “I’ll go get my things and meet you and the others at the World Famous in a few minutes, okay?”

“Sure; I’ll save a seat for you!” Kaito winked and turned toward the elevators. “See you there, Shuichi!”

Lunch with his friends and ‘Dahlia’ went pretty well, though he did wind up using some of his dwindling cash reserves to buy something for lunch, lest the others get suspicious or insist on buying him something. As he did, Peko eyed him curiously, but ultimately didn’t say anything. As far as she was concerned, it was up to her master to decide how to spend his money, after all.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful, much to Shuichi’s eternal gratitude. People didn’t even mention his presentation, or the possibility of a merger, or even that someone as powerful as Byakuya had been in the building again. Instead he just got to focus entirely on his regular work, all his troubles disappearing from his mind like dust in the wind.

However, as the day went on, Shuichi felt himself glancing at his digital clock more often than usual. Not to check the time, but to check the date, as if staring at it would somehow move that number forward any faster.

“Just a few more days until my next paycheck… just a few more days…” Shuichi mumbled to himself as he headed toward the front entrance with his friends.

“Man, I can’t believe it took this long to get to the weekend,” Kazuichi whined as he stretched his arms. “Feels like it should have been Saturday already, not just Friday.”

“I know, it’s sorta strange… but what can you do?” Makoto said with a shrug. “At least it’s over.”

“For now, anyways,” said Margaret as they exited the tall building and met the setting sun. “Until next time, everyone.”

“Of course; catch you on the flipside.” Kaito saluted his comrades goodbye before they all parted ways, Shuichi leaving with Peko in his convertible. On the way back to his house, he felt the urge to look at his fuel gauge, since he’d owned the car for more than long enough to know when it was getting low using pure instinct. He knew that filling his tank up even half way would take more money than he had in his pocket, though, so he just assured himself that it was probably fine. All he had to do was drive efficiently and take the right shortcuts, and surely he’d make it to his next paycheck.

Of course, he wasn’t totally blind in his denial - and he knew the consequences of what might happen if he did run out at the wrong time, but when he got home and found Edith had already prepared dinner for himself and Peko he felt even more **** to ask anyone for help.

“Two wonderful, willing servants, great friends, a good car… what would it say about me if I lived like this and begged for money?” he thought to himself as he dug into the stir fry that Edith had made. “I just have to make it a few more days, and everything will be okay.”

“Ah, that was lovely, Edith.” Peko wiped her mouth, stood up from her seat, and bowed. “Thank you once again for making such a delicious meal.”

“Of course! Any time~” Edith winked. “Well, when I’m not working anyway. Oh, speaking of; I have a shift tonight at the Paramour, so if you need anything else from me just make a list and I’ll get to it when I wake up sometime tomorrow morning, okay?”

“Not to worry, you’ve done more than enough already,” Shuichi assured her. “You go focus on your actual job and we’ll be just fine, I promise.”

“Heh, considering what the ‘Ultimate John’ seems to get up to on a daily basis, I doubt that,” she teased as she finished packing her bag for the evening. “But I’ll help pick up the pieces regardless! See you both tomorrow!”