[Fic] Scandalous Opponent - Win or Lose! : Chapter 1
Title: Scandalous Opponent - Win or Lose!
Pairing: Pikame (Yamashita Tomohisa/ Kamenashi Kazuya)
Additional Character: Akanishi Jin, Nishikido Ryo, Shirota Yu [Pi’s Mabudachi]
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance, Drama
Synopsis: It all started with a downfall stage of a successful young executive as he finally makes at the top of his game but later in its final stages, the project is dropped by a powerful man from the client company. Thus, the lives of a hardworking executive and the president’s son converge as the revenge takes place.
Chapter 1
The sky was grazed into few tones of colours; there were grey, orange and white cloud shades as he mindlessly stared outside the glass window. He found his own body lying against the soft cushion chair, a very comfortable place to relax nothing more to tell. His body seemed to get more tired these days but Kame guessed it was fitting, considering his own ‘workaholic’ addiction. Many felt that this work overload is an unfortunate side effect of success, and one that cannot be avoided but no one could beat how Kame worked throughout 24/7 when his mind and body were set on his desired goals. After the celebration party held last week, with a satisfying result on the current project progress he was determined that his hard-earned dream was just a mere away. The project progress was following exactly on their time schedule though who knew risks might occur in the near future but that won’t be a huge problem for Kame. Whatever it was… an experienced smart man like him won’t give up easily on his game although there was an obstacle on the battlefield coming by.
There was a loud knock on his desk, made him swaying his chair towards the person standing impatiently when he didn’t realized after she have been calling him five times in the past few minutes.
His gaze remained intact but his thoughts flying caught him unaware of the conversation. “Kamenashi-san...” The secretary muttered his name again.
Looking like it was funny but actually it didn’t, he made a guilty grin, rubbing his tired eyes aggressively twice. Head down, he smilingly said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you out. What do you have with you?” The secretary seemed to understand the busy schedule made the young man tired and formed a quick smile before the conversation turned to be serious.
“This is the outstanding projects list and team profiles you asked a few days ago… and-”Kame read through the enclosed files as the secretary began to explain about the document and project history. His vision was focused still until the answering machine started to create beeping sound for pickup calls and he called for one minute break. As his attention was directed more into the received documents, the secretary continued her brief explanation further once he finished his calls.
“Where are the other pages?” He cut her short in the middle of her explanation.
Kame looked up to see her troubled face when she gave a long pause probably worried that she didn’t get her job done as what others said that her boss was a hard to please in his works. To her, he wasn’t a wicked man who chased around at everyone’s fault but more a professional serious worker with high determination towards his goals. She has been working with him directly for the past two years, and she found it extremely difficult at first but with patience and less attentive towards the matter, she began to understand her young boss’s work style.
“-some of the pages went missing because the document was shared by many departments and the copy they had was only a hard copy. I hope this will do.” She carefully added. A sigh of disappointment expressed his face because he needed extra files to collect more information before agreed to create a new team for new aimed projects, the Lacrosse Sports advertisement set for next year.
“Never mind. Thanks, Yukie.” As the discussion ended, Kame put on his coat and packed up several important documents from the shelf. Before heading out, the secretary reminded him about the interview, which left him 45 minutes to get ready. He then moved to his desk and after clicking a couple of buttons read an email that popped on his laptop’s screen. It wasn’t long before he heard a "knock" again on his office door.
This time it was a middle-aged man merely stepped in, marked a serious look on his face hinting probably something terrible was up as Kame took a glimpse at the spotted person standing by the door.
“Boss.” He noticed.
“Kame, come to Asahi Breweries with me.” The tone sounded commanding but the latter only shook his head because he had another important meeting to attend.
“Sorry boss. I’ve got journalist waiting.” He reasoned while busy packing up his things. The old man looked at him, taking time to spoke the reason he came might actually got to do with the thing he will be interviewed.
“I don’t think so. Asahi Beer project was cancelled. And so does the interview.” The old man exclaimed. It startled him just to hear those words; blankness overpowered him with his forehead creasing further, trying to understand the situation that he didn’t know where to begin at.
Daze and disoriented, he warily stared his boss’s eyes as if he could find the answer there; unfortunately it was nothing but blankness. “What?” he asked unbelievably yet his voice started to shake when he spoke. He grabbed his office case, leaving the collected document on the desk and hurriedly followed his boss. To the client’s place he supposed.
“What do you mean?” he asked, wanting a second confirmation. The information was too little for him to understand the overall story.
“I just got the news thirty minutes ago. They want to cancel off everything.”
“That’s impossible!” came a spontaneous defensive response. How could he not be. Their project schedule was on the right track, they achieved each task and were done completely based on the agreed requirements and what could possibly drag someone to drop the project if everything was in a good shape. Absolutely that would be a ridiculous decision. More questions kept on bubbling in his head; it seemed he was dissatisfying with the answer provided.
The old man just sighed at the judgement though everything the young executive exclaimed was true and definitely agreeable. But any decision made by the other party was the client’s absolute right, therefore they couldn’t go against the decision if the issue had been finalized. “It was a sudden decision. Our clients are pulling out and now they want to tell us why.”
“Who decided this?”
“Aoki Yajima, their new vice president. He’s the president’s eldest son. He did great things for Asahi in the Chinese market a few years back. Thus, he’s the ultimate decision-maker that brings Asahi to the top. I hear he’s very shrewd.” The old man told the person biography in brief. They kept on discussing the matter until they reached Asahi Breweries main office.
Kame did a little thinking. Maybe there was no one could challenge or beat Aoki Yajima when it came to engage good business but no one could stand the way of business which was arranged in such manner after half of the project progress was done. And Kame was definitely going to bring out the issue during the meeting. He couldn’t accept it too well. Running a business was like a game of being smarter than other people. It’s just like a strategy game, but more complex and in real life. It’s either the matter of winning or losing, and so he chose to be a winner because he already had his mind set. Today, he was going to debate his opinions no matter what it took.
+.+.+.+.+.+
His finger rapidly dialled the number on the screen, then waiting the other party to response his call again. As the matter of fact, this was the third time he tried calling the number. An unknown ringtone was played as usual but it seemed like the other party was hesitated to pick up the call in time.
“Yo dad, what’s up!” The phone was picked abruptly.
“Don’t “Yo” me! Why didn’t you tell us that you’re already in Tokyo for five days? Where are you staying?” The vice president asked, concerning about his only son.
“Ugh that,” he shrugged, “I was about to tell you but something came up.”
“Come home at once! Your mother and I are worried about you.” The 40-year old man commanded.
“Really?” He whispered a mocking tone, averting his eyes to the corner.
The line fell silent for several seconds. The young man mindlessly paced around before taking the call at where he left.
"Yamapi?"
“I will but soon. Oh no!” looking at the watch, the image of his friend waiting at the cafe nearby registered in his head, “Ugh dad, I got to go now. Urgent matter.”
“What is so urgent that you can’t even talk to your own father for a few minutes? You know, I’ve been working for my whole life to feed our family. You just know to play around since you finished your overseas study, acting so spoiled but you never come and help me at the office even once! Where was the deal that we agreed in those days?”
“I don’t have time for this. I’ll go and visit grandpa later too. Bye, dad!” The young man ended the call.
“Spare my patience, this son is racking my nerves! Come home and meet your mother at least!” He angrily yelled but it turned out the line was already dead.
Leaning back to his seat, he slid the phone back inside his pocket and murmured a thousand sigh. If he had another son, surely his burden would be took care less now. At least there was someone who was interested to inherit the family’s business. He was so concerned that his only son would follow the way his ancestor did to protect the business but nothing came at all. Out of all the reasons given was no challenging part enthusiast him to work under a father’s possession. His young son was a bit playful and cunning but also a strong minded and hard to control. And so he thought, he needed something that created the young one’s obsession. Certainly, making it a fascinating “game” and made it tolerable for his only heir to be throned next.
He began to drawl his cigarette from the drawer and then came one of his staffs stepped inside the room, humbly bowing at his presence before proceeding.
“Aoki-san.” The staff began, handing him several documents on his desk which he immediately took out his glass and started to read the documents in his hand.
“The meeting is already started. Do you wish to attend it?” The staff informed, standing in front of his desk.
The vice president paused, giving a thought about it. “No need to inform them. I’ll go now.” He nonchalantly said while stood up before turning his heel to leave.
-tbc @ chapter 2-