Sara Sasaki.

Sara struggled out of bed that morning, something that was sadly getting all too common these days. She’d always been an early riser, so the fact that it was 5:30 AM was not the issue in the slightest, and it wasn’t like she had a wild Friday night to merit a tussle with her bed sheets. Regardless of the reason, though, she had to go to work. She got up, took her shower with lukewarm water, got dressed in a hurry and headed out. Her house was ten minutes away from the beach, so she didn’t even need to use a bike. The sun was already out, and spring and summer in Noroi Island were always warm, even in the mornings. On the opposite end, fall and winter were stupid cold, and she much preferred the warm weather.

The building for the Sasaki family fishery was in sight, but that was not all. The part-timer, Leonardo-kun, was already outside and parking the bike she had lent him.

“Sasaki-san. Good morning,” he greeted with a smile. A smile that somehow made her do a double take as her heart skipped a beat. Leonardo looked… different. Had he done something with his hair? His face? Sara couldn’t tell, but she knew that there was definitely something different about him. He looked… more handsome than usual, and his smile carried even more of his charming kindness, too. Oh god, she was staring, wasn’t she?

“G-Good morning, Leonardo-kun,” She greeted quickly. Her heart was suddenly racing, and she chided herself for it. This wasn’t appropriate behavior for a boss, right? To start with, a boss shouldn’t be arriving after her employees, nor getting flustered because of their looks! She kind of wanted to compliment him on his appearance, but decided it would be inappropriate. Hastily, she took her hand to her pocket and took out her keys to open the main building, then handed them to Leonardo. “Would you mind opening the storage house for me?”

“Not at all,” he said amicably and went to do as asked.

Sara let out a sigh of relief and watched him go. That was weird! Very, very weird! She’d always thought he was handsome and cute, but… It had never made her heart race like that. She shook her head, and her attention fell on the bike he’d arrived on. She’d lent him the bike because it wasn’t seeing any use, and as such, it wasn’t in the best condition, with a bit of rust from the sea breeze on it. But you’d never guess it was old if you looked at it now. The bike looked in great shape. There were still spots in the tubes where the original paint was gone, but said spots had been cleaned off the rust along with the spokes. The chain had been thoroughly oiled, as well, and the worn out tires were changed for new ones. Leonardo hadn’t asked for a single extra yen, so she had to imagine it had all come from his own pocket. Sara pursed her lips and went into her office. Seriously, that boy…

She had to pull herself together. This wasn’t the time to be feeling like this, and a single look at her desk was enough to remind her of that. On it were the documents detailing last month’s expenses and earnings. Every passing month it was harder and harder to break even. The fishermen still working here had been with the company for years and kept assuring her that they wouldn’t leave, but paying them their proper salaries was becoming more and more difficult. Sara had to take several cuts to her own salary to pay the fishermen without owing them a single yen. Her family’s company was in decline, and though she wanted to put the blame on the bigger companies in the mainland, Sara couldn’t help but believe it was her own inexperience when taking over the business that had led to this. Several of the fishermen had already left after getting offers from those companies. Sara didn't know what she could offer to have them stay. Now with less people, they were catching fewer and fewer fish, forcing them to sell at a higher price to make a profit, and that was on top of competing with other companies both at sea and in the market. Things weren’t looking good.

Sara winced as her stomach twisted again. A sharp pain from the nerves and stress that came every once in a while. She didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t a marketing genius or anything. She graduated high school and immediately started working with her father on the family business. All Sara knew was how to sail and the best spots to fish. She hadn’t learned how to manage a business before… before her father passed away. But she couldn’t wallow in self-pity. Not when there were people still willing to work with her, people with families to feed. Even if she didn’t know how to do it, she’d just have to learn and somehow turn things around.

She took a deep breath, sat at her desk and got ready to work. But before she could start checking this week’s inventory, a knock on the door interrupted her. “Yes?” she asked, letting her guest in. Leonardo-kun opened the door and entered with a shy smile.

“Sorry to bother you, Sasaki-san, but I wanted to give you this before I forgot,” he said, placing on her desk a jar of… marmalade? “I made some strawberry jam the other day, and you’ve been great to me, so… this is just a little thank you.”

Sara blinked. Not just because she was stunned by the gesture, but because she had to push the sudden tears away. Boy, what was with her today? Her lips curled into a smile, and for the life of her she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. Yes, he was handsome, but he was also hard worker and thoughtful. He was doing more work than she paid him for, and he did it all with a smile. It was only because she was staring at him that she noticed. He was looking at her as well, but when his eyes went down to the two undone buttons of her shirt, she woke up from her thoughts.

“T-Thank you, Leonardo-kun!” she said quickly, holding up the jar and looking at it to avoid eye-contact with him. Her face was burning. “You didn’t have to, but I’ll be sure to try it out!”

“I-It’s no problem, haha…” he laughed awkwardly. “I hope it’s good. Well, I’ll go clean the storehouse now. Give me a shout if you need anything.”

“Yes, yes. Of course.”

Leonardo-kun turned and left, leaving Sara to think of trivial stuff again.

“Well… He’s at that age, I suppose.” She chuckled. She couldn’t help herself and opened the jar, trying out a bit of the jam with her finger. “Oh!”

It tasted incredible.

Author's Note: Chapters 106 to 109 available at my Patreon.