Actually, There’s Someone at Your Workplace Who Likes You ~ I’m Being Transferred to a Sales Office Filled With Only Beautiful Women!?

Shochou suddenly asked me, “Are you drinking?”

“Ah, yes. I am drinking.”

“Good!”

With that, Shochou gulped down her chuhai in one go. This didn’t look good. She seemed to have entered full-on drunk mode.

“Excuse me! Another chuhai please!”

—Oh, no. Shochou was clearly not doing well at all. She was drinking too much.

“Shochou. Don’t you think you should stop drinking now?”

Shochou popped some kalbi into her mouth, chewed thoroughly, and then gave me a slightly annoyed look before responding with a question.

“Why?”

What was I supposed to say to that…

“Hey, Hayabashi. No… Rinta!”

“Yes?!”

I thought she was calling me without honorifics, but now she was using my first name? Shochou was definitely more drunk than she was at the welcome party.

“You, too, think I’m weak with alcohol because I’m a woman, don’t you?”

“Ah, no…”

It’s not because she was a woman, but because she was Jinguji-shochou. That was the truth.

“You’re secretly looking down on me because I’m a woman, aren’t you?”

“What? I don’t think that at all!”

I really didn’t think that way at all.

But still… “you too”? Maybe she was thinking about the executive director from Kagaya Manufacturing?

“Hey Rinta-chi. Tell me the truth.”

—Now she was calling me Rinta-chi…

“It is the truth. Or Shochou, have I said or done something to make you think that way?”

If something I did made Shochou feel that way, I was sorry. I needed to reflect on it.

“Hmm…”

Shochou put her index finger on her chin, looking at my face with half-closed eyes, deep in thought.

“…Nothing!”

—What was that all about!?

I almost fell over in surprise. So there was nothing at all.

Then why did Shochou say those things?

“Well, Rinta-chi doesn’t seem like the type to think that way. I’m sorryyy.”

Shochou bowed her head with a flushed face. Her tone and movements were completely those of a drunk person… What should I do?

“But you know, Rinta-chi. I’ve been surrounded by men like that before…”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. I went to an all-girls school from junior high through high school, so I didn’t feel it then. But it was a super academic school, so all of us, including me, were just bookworms with zero interest in boys, ahaha.”

I see. I never would have guessed that such a stylish beauty was once a bookworm with no interest in boys… what a shocking revelation! —That’s how it felt.

“And then. I worked hard to get into Tokyo University, but…”

“S-shochou, you went to Tokyo University?!”

“Yeah, that’s right. The men I met there, maybe it was just coincidence, but… they would openly flatter women while behind our backs saying things like ‘women who come to Tokyo University are no good’, that’s the kind of guys they were.”

Shochou’s casual “Yeah, that’s right” response to my “You went to Tokyo University?!” question was so shocking that I barely processed what she said afterward.

“I thought gender shouldn’t matter, you know. But the boyfriend I dated in university, who went to the same school, also had this mindset that ‘women can’t compete with men’.”

—So Shochou did have a boyfriend.

For such a beautiful woman, having a boyfriend wasn’t surprising… Actually, the shock of learning she was a Tokyo University graduate was so overwhelming that the boyfriend revelation barely registered.

“And that guy was truly a genius, excelling at both studies and sports, so I really felt like I couldn’t compete.”

What kind of man could make such a beautiful and brilliant woman feel that way…

“But that guy had an incredibly high pride, no common sense, and a terrible personality. We broke up after about a month, ahaha.”

I see. So even such an amazing guy got dumped because of his bad personality. Human relationships were certainly complicated.

“That’s why after entering the workforce, I wanted to prove that I could be just as good as men. I worked insanely hard. You understand, Rinta-chi?”

Shochou crossed her arms and tilted her head slightly. Her white blouse emphasized her chest as it rested on her arms. Hmm… this was not good for me to look at.

I hurriedly shifted my gaze from Shochou’s chest back to her beautiful face.

“Ah, yes.”

Shochou was unusually talkative today. It was almost as if she was trying to let out something she’d been holding inside.

“But you know… even when I achieve results, there are people who say it’s because of my looks, or that I must be sleeping my way up, talking behind my back… especially male salespeople who are competing with me for results.”

Shochou said this with a somewhat sad look in her eyes.

Now I finally understood what she’d meant earlier when she asked, “You too, are you looking down on me because I’m a woman?”

“I see…”

“That’s right. If I were a man, nobody would say such things… That’s why I decided I would never lose to men when it comes to ability, and that’s how I’ve lived. …Oh, do you understand, Rintacchi-kun?”

Her speech was completely incoherent now. But… even Jinguji-shochou, who appeared confident and excellent, had her struggles and inner conflicts…

“I understand, Shochou. Let’s ignore those people who refuse to see your true dedicated and passionate self.”

“But you know, Rinta-chi. Despite thinking that way, I… I was about to accept the executive director’s invitation for a moment to secure business. Literally sleeping my way up. I’m the worst.”

“Ah, no, Shochou. In the end, you didn’t accept the invitation and still got the recruitment request, right?”

“That’s whyyyy I’m saying it was thanks to youuu.”

—Oh, so that’s what this was about.

Shochou looked like she might cry, her eyes appearing a bit moist. She seemed very frustrated about almost accepting the executive director’s invitation.

“But Shochou. You weren’t considering accepting his invitation for your own benefit. You said you were doing it to protect us, your subordinates.”

“That’s right.”

“Then I think there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Rinta-chi… Thank you. For telling me to refuse the executive director’s invitation, for saying you’d protect me, for somehow making the arrangement with President Kagaya happen… thank you for everything.”

Shochou… that touched my heart.

“It’s nothing, Shochou. I’ve been helped by you too, learned a lot from you, and I’m sure I’ll continue to cause trouble and need your help in the future. But helping each other is what makes a team, isn’t it?”

“Rinta-chi… you… really… thank… you…”

Shochou said this in a broken voice, then suddenly collapsed face-down on the table.

W-wait… Was she dead?! W-what should I do?!

“Shochou! Are you okay?! What’s wrong?!”

“I’m… sleepy…”

—Huh?! Sleepy?!

That’s because you drank too much, Shochou~!