111 Her Stressful Pandemic

I knew that she was expecting me to already know what to order, so I continued to play my role as a loyal secretary and asked the barista: "Can I have a medium cup of Latte and a small cup of Mocha please."

"Yes Sir, that'll be $5.50"

Fumiko's expectations were met as she smiled with joy but quickly concealed under her serious guise.

This was the one of the easiest things I had to do which was to memorize any dislikes or specific likes all of my customers have and make sure I am able to put good use of that information.

The barista was suddenly surprised when Fumiko whipped out her wallet to pay for the coffee but those secretive glances at me were always familiar.

My role is only to serve my clients and customers but not necessarily pay for their needs.

Whatever obligations they may feel or wherever they wish to be accompanied, they would be paying for such things but it was very uncommon and would only be done if they were rich.

I don't have a thin enough skin where I would blush at every little inconvenient thing otherwise I would be in poverty while my sister would have to join me but I neither have thick skin to be shameless.

That's why I ordered a small cup of coffee as I would rather have my client save money for my next visit instead of these small things.

Just being truthful… I would rather go to the local coffee shop near my house which roasts their own coffee beans, allowing them to sell for a very cheap price of $1.00. But it would be rude and out of my act if I were to say that.

Fumiko was staring at her phone listlessly with a hollow glow that lacked any enthusiasm while I was waiting to grab the coffee.

Once I placed her Latte in front of her, I made sure to carefully observe the amount of sugar she was going to take.

One bag of sugar usually meant that she was in a good mood and would usually begin to act alike lot more energetic once she talks about her hobby.

Unfortunately… it was two bags of sugar.

What this usually signalled was that she was lacking a lot of energy due to the stress that may have accumulated during work and meant that she was about to calm herself and go on a rant.

However I do like listening to the perspective of another person, it just feels like you're slowly getting closer to a person and understand yet accept them.

But physical contact was the most direct way of getting a person's acceptance

Fumiko took a large sip after she had poured the sugar into the coffee and looked towards my direction with interest while a compelling sadness started to gleam from her eyes: "Hey can you listen for a moment…"

Her stories always began like that whenever she was going to start a story about how difficult her workplace has become.

Most of my clients love to tell their story which was mainly due to multiple reasons.

Females tend to be creatures that were heavily emotional compared to males while there may of course be a few unique outliers that break that statement but that is a fairly generalized view of them.

They usually desire to pour out their emotions like any other human beings when times get rough and hope that the person who's listening is paying attention and able to sympathize or empathize with them.

When married women become clients or customers this can be one of the reasons.

The spark that started their whole relationship was suddenly missing because they couldn't find the original reason for that spark or anymore fuel for that spark to continue.

Although it is rude of me to speak of my customers like this… rather than discussing this with a councillor or sitting down for a moment with your partner to talk about that loss, they instead visit people like me.

I really can't understand what goes through the minds of these people but I guess everyone's got their own experiences and circumstance that I hope would never happen to me.

Fumiko of course started to talk about her problems that varied from subject to subject: "I had to recently promote someone to a new manager. There were so many choices. It was so tough deciding the fresh blood that has been racking up achievements or maybe the elders who have completely been loyal to the company for years."

"Who needs the money more? The one who just wants to work so that he can raise some money for his grandchild's surgery or the freshman who has fell into a mountain of debt from the university system"

"Sometimes those people drop their jobs for circumstances I never know. Was I the one who ruined them? Would I have to live with the fact that each decision I may make will cause the destruction and split of a family"

…

"The workplace just seems like an all out war. Some avoid me because they'll think I'll frame them for problems or cause trouble for them while others keep getting close because they want to take advantage of me"

"And then some of my seniors started to see my success as a nuisance, making my workload a lot more difficult but i'm at least thankful for your assistance, Secretary Kei"

She was certainly stressed with her constant chattering but there's nothing I would or rather could do.

I'm just here to listen and help support her.

But it seems she has begun having a change of heart as she would usually mess up my name with her original secretary but it seems she's getting better at accepting me.

My name is Arisu however giving that personal information to your clients is a no go which is why we come up with stage names, mine is Kei.