Of course not

Shuichi had been at his desk for about two hours, typing away at his computer and letting the monotony of his work calm him down. Sure, it wasn’t exactly relaxing, especially with the big financial presentation still looming over his head like the sword of Damocles, but anything that could help get his mind off his own bad financials and the events of the previous night was more than welcome. And, for the most part, it seemed to be working - only Makoto had so far noticed the extra jitteriness in Shuichi’s movements that day.

“Aaaand… send.” Shuichi pressed the enter key on his keyboard and pushed himself back to wipe the sweat off his forehead. “Phew… alright, I’m already ahead of schedule today, but there’s still a lot to get through. Don’t let yourself slow down, Shuichi.”

“Perhaps some extra coffee could help you keep your work ethic up?” someone said behind Shuichi as they handed him a warm, fresh cup of java.

“Ah, thanks, Peko; that’s exactly what I needed.” Shuichi took a nice, long sip of the delicious liquid, only to **** on it mere seconds later as he realized what he had just said. “Peko!?”

Shuichi spun around in his office chair and, sure enough, Peko Pekoyama, his ex-assassin, and current bodyguard, was standing directly behind him wearing a clean white business suit, complete with a finely-pressed white shirt, red tie, and professional black skirt with matching heels and black stockings underneath.

“Is something wrong, Mr. Saihara?” Peko asked innocently as Shuichi gasped for breath. “Was there not enough sweetener? Or perhaps you prefer your coffee chilled?”

“P-Peko!? What are you doing here!?” Shuichi half-shouted, half-whispered. “You’re not supposed to be here!”

“No need to act surprised, senpai. You knew that you were getting a new assistant today to help you with your high workload, did you not?” Peko replied, making sure her voice was loud enough for others to hear. “Or did you possibly forget about that email?”

“Assistant!?” Shuichi gasped much more loudly this time, unable to fully process what the silver-haired woman had just told him.

“Woah, assistant? That’s so cool!” Makoto poked his head over the wall separating his cubicle from Shuichi’s and smiled. “I have to admit, I’m a little jealous. I guess that’s one benefit of taking on extra work, eh, Shuichi?”

“I, um, er, she’s not, I mean she is, uh…” Shuichi stammered, trying desperately to think of some reasonable excuse to get out of this insane situation.

“Of course,” Peko cut in. “Given his workload, I hope to do everything I can to assist him.”

“R-right, that’s very appreciated…” Shuichi followed along. “Speaking of which, most of these reports are confidential, so I can’t really talk too much about it with my coworkers, I’m afraid.”

“Oh! Oh yeah, that makes sense,” Makoto said sheepishly as he scratched his chin. “I wouldn’t want to overhear anything I shouldn’t. We will still see you at lunch though, right!? Or are you going to be eating here?”

“Uhh…” He glanced nervously over at Peko, then to the documents he was working on, then back to Makoto. “M-maybe? I’ll have to get back to you on that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to discuss these documents with my new… assistant privately.”

“Sweet! Have fun you two!” Makoto smiled and sat back down in his cubicle. And as soon as he was gone, Shuichi pulled Peko close to him and began furiously whispering at her.

“Peko, what do you think you’re doing!? I could get in so much trouble if people found out that you’re not only trespassing on company property, but impersonating an employee!” Shuichi pointed out. “And didn’t I order you to stay at my place?”

“Yes, you did. And I did stay in your apartment, making sure that everything was in perfect working order before I left.” Peko straightened her glasses so she could look Shuichi directly in the eye. “But you said nothing about Dahlia Pekoyama, and she is here now to act as your tool to help you through your day.”

“I’m flattered that you want to help, really, but… you do realize that people are going to figure out that you don’t belong pretty quickly, right?” Shuichi asked. “You’re not on the payroll, after all.”

“That didn’t stop me from convincing the nice woman at Human Resources from giving me a badge anyway.” Peko reached into her shirt and pulled out an official C.O. name badge with her photo on it from the inside of her shirt. “Besides, it is not as if anyone here has a chance of recognizing me as a former Yakuza member. As long as we both pick our words carefully, there will be nothing to worry about.”

“I mean… I guess that could work theoretically, but… the risks are still really high. I could get fired if we get caught,” Shuichi pointed out. “Plus, even if you were to stay and help me, it would get pretty cramped at my desk here, wouldn’t it?”

“Do not worry; I promise that if worse comes to worse, I will take full responsibility. I will even pretend to be a madwoman, escaped from an asylum, if it means that you get off scot-free,” she assured him. “And besides; your coworker did say that you have a lot of extra work that needed doing, did he not?”

Shuichi turned pale for a moment as he thought back to the mountain of work he still had left to do, which was likely getting larger by the second, and how his job likely depended on the outcome of his presentation to Togami and the board of directors.

“... fine. You can help out if it will really make you feel better.” Shuichi scooted his chair over to the side to give Peko more room. “But remember; if anyone asks, we never met, okay?”

“Thank you, Master. I promise not to let you down.” Peko bowed her head respectfully before taking out a laptop from her bag to log into the company’s system and begin grinding through the essential audits while Shuichi worked on his project. Shuichi did his best to remain focused on his screen and pretend that everything was normal, but it was still hard to get over the fact that the woman who tried to kill him the previous day was now working for him.

Plus, whenever he glanced her way, it was pretty hard not to reminisce about the shower they had taken that morning.

“Ah! Focus, Shuichi, focus!” Shuichi whispered as he slapped himself in the face. “So she’s helping out a little, there’s no reason to freak out… just got to keep calm…”

To Shuichi’s relief and endless annoyance, Peko turned out to be just as good at filing audit reports as he was, despite having zero training or experience. As a result, he made lots of good progress on the financial summary presentation, which almost made up for the gnawing feeling in his stomach that he got when he saw just how replaceable he truly was.

During this time, Shuichi’s coworkers would occasionally stop by his cubicles to gawk at him, either out of shock that he got an assistant or simply because they found the silver-haired Peko that striking. Though, the ones who stared for too long were always scared off by a stern glare.

It was around lunchtime that the moment that Shuichi had been dreading finally happened, though; Kaito finally stopped by to see him.

“Hey, there, bucko! Good to see you again!” He said, boisterously announcing his presence as he walked into the cubicle. “So, the rumors are true! You actually got yourself an underling! Can’t say this was expected, but it couldn’t have happened to a better guy, as far as I’m concerned!”

“Well, uh, I’m just as surprised as you are, honestly,” Shuichi said with a nervous laugh as he turned around and picked up his briefcase. “She’s not really my underling, though. She’s, uh… I’m just helping train her, is all!”

“Right, right… Say, is there any way you think I can get the higher-ups to let me ‘train’ Kazuichi too? He could use some ‘refreshers’ if you ask me, and I could use a bit less work.” Kaito winked at Shuichi.

“Hey, I heard that!” Kazuichi shouted somewhere in the distance.

“Anyways, I’m sorry that I didn’t get the chance to introduce myself earlier, but I just wanted to say that it’s nice to have you on the team, trainee or not!” Kaito gave one of his trademark smiles and extended a hand towards Peko. “The name’s Kaito, Engineer! It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms…?”

“Dahlia Pekoyama; but you can call me Peko.” She shook the man’s hand and bowed her head respectfully. “I thank you for your welcome, but there is no need to feel guilty about not approaching me earlier. I do not wish to cause any disruption in your daily lives. Please, continue on as if nothing has changed.”

“Hey, come on! It’s not like you’re a new office chair, or a new set of wallpaper!” said Kaito. “Say, do you happen to have any plans for lunch?”

“Not particularly - I was just going to see what was available from the local restaurants,” Peko admitted half honestly. She was actually planning on simply shadowing Shuichi so she could serve or protect him if needed.

“Well then, why don’t you hang with us? It’ll give you the chance to get to know your new ‘boss’ a little bit better!” Kaito laughed and slapped Shuichi on the back. “I’ll pay for it too - consider it a welcome present from me on behalf of the company!”

“Eh? You’re inviting her to come with us?” Makoto said as he walked up behind Kaito. “I mean, I guess we’re all colleagues, so it’s not too unusual, but… I don’t think we’ve ever had a woman sit with us before.”

“H-hey, don’t tell her that! You’ll make it seem like we’re a bunch of… lose…ers…” Kazuichi trailed off a little as he approached the group and finally got a good look at the woman they were all crowding around. Within moments of seeing Peko, sparkles filled the engineer’s vision as he fell in love with every part of her body; her glasses, her professional clothes, and even the professional black heels she was wearing. But, most of all, he fell in love with her well-braided silver hair and her red eyes, which gave her an irresistible, mysterious air.

“I… ah… um…” Kazuichi stammered with a goofy smile on his face for a few moments. “What were we just talking about again?”

“Uh, we were talking about how we normally don’t have girls eat with us when we go to lunch?” Makoto answered innocently.

“Oh! Right, right! That’s totally not because girls don’t want to sit with us, it’s just, you know… there are all sorts of different cliques here in the office, and none of the girls ever happened to fall into ours.” Kazuichi rubbed the back of his head nervously. “O-outside of lunch, though, I have to beat the girls off with a kendo stick! You should see how much they like me! But, I’m, uh, holding out for the right one, if you catch my drift.”

“I see… then I would not mind accompanying you to wherever it is you eat.” Peko bowed, silently grateful for the free excuse to remain with Shuichi. “Please, lead the way.”

“Augh, just my luck… for once, I wish my friends weren’t such good people…” Shuichi quietly complained as he followed behind the others.