Business Persona

When dealing with dangerous animals, people always say not to prod them. This was and continued to be the way that Benjiro tried to live his life for many years. In recent months, he observed that he had pointedly been ignoring that rule. He supposed that supposed breakthrough he had with Akiko had probably given him some kind of ego boost. 'Hello there, I'm Dr. Fix-It-All, the man who can take any crisis and life and give you not only the answers to solve it, but the confidence to make it look like you got there yourself.' Of course, it wasn't total success. While his petite neighbor did seem to be closer than before, she certainly hadn't lost her bite. Whenever Haruoka turned up, conflict was inevitable. And for the life of him, he just couldn't figure out why they hated each other so badly.

'Do you think that maybe some of Haruoka's punk friends gave her a hard time in the past', suggested Inei.

'That would explain the hostility, but at the same time, Haruoka seems to be equally as mean towards Higaki', Benjiro reasoned, 'And I don't mean in her usual, cold and impersonal way. She seems to genuinely not like her as a person.'

Speaking of which, a curious little letter had arrived in his mailbox the other day. When he opened it, inside there was an invitation to Hiromi's birthday party which was coming up in about a week. He knew he was invited but it was still a curious occasion to actually receive one, as if this were a wedding or something. In any case, on the invite, it said that he could bring a plus one. It gave him plenty to ruminate over on his way to school.

'Who are you thinking about bringing', Inei teased, 'Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum?'

'I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear you say that. And for the sake of my own health, I'm not even going to ask which of them we consider which.'

Without much more thought, he simply literally and figuratively filed that information away for later while Inei evilly cackled in the background. When lunchtime came, Daitan was nowhere to be seen, which immensely pleased Akiko, who happily produced her homemade lunch. As he ate, she would look at Benjiro with those deep, brown eyes of hers, so he would offer as best a compliment he could before his head exploded.

When the end of the day, on his way to Language Arts class, he noticed someone who hadn't been on his mind recently. Casually walking in front of him was Yamanaka. The two of them had had scant conversation in recent weeks. They'd wave to each other in the hallways and sometimes offer pleasantries when they got a moment, but Benjiro had been so busy for a while that he felt he'd almost forgotten her.

After class ended, he nervously approached her, "H-Hey, Yaman-naka. How are y-you doing."

She looked at him with that thousand watt smile of hers, "Just peachy, friend. Been grinding all kinds of gears to get stuff done. What about you? I hear you've been gettin' kind of cozy with a certain little actress."

Benjiro's face turned red, "N-No, nothing l-like that. We've b-been eating l-lunch together and somet-times w-walking home, b-but no."

Yamanaka giggled and clapped him on the arm, "I'm just ribbing you. No need to get all flustered. Unless I'm onto something."

Various banter was traded as they walked through the hallways until they came to the door of the music room. The smiley girl was about to say goodbye before the lanky boy asked, "W-Would you m-mind sticking around. I w-was going to do s-some games with Haruoka today b-but another person could be h-handy."

Yamanaka checked her phone for the time and nodded, "Sure, the library will be open for a while anyway, so it shouldn't hurt."

In truth, he was mostly scared of what was lying behind the door. He realized that he might have made a mistake in almost interrogating his pupil and was sure appreciation was the last thing on her mind. Opening the door, the room was completely empty. There were a few instruments including Benjiro's guitar, but no Daitan. There was also no implication that she had been there recently either. No school bag, no trash, nothing. Today wasn't one of the days that the tomboy was supposed to have soccer practice, but Benjiro supposed she had promptly ignored their schedule today. He couldn't exactly blame her for that though.

"Where's Haru", Yamanaka curiously asked.

"I th-think she skipped out on our lesson to g-go to soccer practice", he replied bluntly.

The energetic girl pursed her lips in consideration, "Do you want to come with me to the library then? If *she* of all people said 'Screw it', I doubt there's anyone who can convince her otherwise."

It was true that going home sounded nice, but if there was anywhere else he could get his homework finished with minimal distraction, the library would be it. He agreed and the pair made their way downtown. During their walk, little conversation was made, which Benjiro was perfectly fine with for most of the walk. But, halfway through, he looked at Yamanaka's face and noticed that not only was she not smiling, she looked to be almost depressed. His recent blunder with Daitan was flashing danger signals in his head, but a less scared part of him reasoned that this was Yamanaka: A much more levelheaded and easygoing girl than anyone else he knew.

When he asked her if everything was alright, at first she didn't answer. He thought maybe she just didn't want to talk about it. Considering how she constantly danced around the issue when they were at school, it wasn't unreasonable.

"Dad got moved to the hospital about three week ago", she plainly stated.

Benjiro wanted to just bite his tongue off but that wouldn't help at this point. He just decided to not grin and bear it.

"That's h-horrible, what h-happened?"

"He's just been going downhill more and more. He was having increasing trouble remembering day to day stuff like where he keeps his keys, his meds and other stuff that he used to just know instinctively", The more she talked, the more choked and raw her voice became, "Then, last week he actually went for a walk in the afternoon like he always does and he forgot where he was and how to get home", tears were threatening to form in the corner of her eyes, "Somebody tried to help him, but he became scared and angry and he-he"

Yamanaka stopped where she was and put a hand up to her face to hide her sobs. Benjiro had to bite his tongue since could hear people walking by whispering about how they wondered what he had done to her. He flailed his hands about, unsure of what was the proper thing to do at a time like this. Sure, he considered this girl a friend, but he didn't know her situation well enough to reassure her. It didn't help that he wasn't comfortable enough with human contact to give her a hug either. Settling for a middle ground, Benjiro gently took her wrist, "C-Come on, l-let's g-get to the library. W-We won't be disturbed th-there."

Through her tears, Yamanaka simply nodded mutely. The remaining trip to the library took an agonizing ten minutes where the lanky boy hadn't quite felt so panicky in a long time. He had no idea how to approach any of this. When an idea came up, it was quickly shot down for how unhelpful it could be. Once they got inside, and sat their things down at her usual perch, Yamanaka's serious side came out. Gone was the cheery and energetic comedian and enter the serious and focused scholar. It was clear that she was still highly shaken up, most likely from not having anyone she trusted enough to tell.

Nonetheless, she put personal feeling aside and got down to business. Whatever she needed from her impromptu assistant, he got for her.

'Wait, since when did I become a gofer', Benjiro wondered as he ran as fast as he could without getting yelled at to retrieve the reference books that Yamanaka had outlined. Although, aside from that particular task, there wasn't much else to do. Serious Yama had already prepared everything else she needed. There were her notebooks with notes on every inch, blue pens, pencils and highlighters of every sort, a laptop, a stress ball, a thermos that he could smell chamomile tea and even a few bars of dark chocolate.

Taking a gander at some of her notebooks, he saw that despite their chaotic appearance, they were highly organized by whatever topic. That, and the quality of the notes he saw were beyond what even straight A students like Hiromi could accomplish. Noting some of the sources, she had even gone so far as to read from college level textbooks that made the poor boy's head spin just by looking. If there was any research that he could've contributed, Benjiro felt that it most likely would be superfluous.

To say that Yamanaka's dedication was impressive would be a grave understatement. But looking at her supplies, a thought crossed Benjiro's mind.

"Y-Yamanaka, how l-long have you been researching?"

Without even looking away from her monitor, "Eh, I'd say about two and a half years, why do you ask?"

"It's j-just", he hesitated to find the right words, "Has this b-been what y-you've been doing for that whole t-time? M-Maybe not the wh-whole time but close to it?"

Saori paused her typing for a moment to think, "Yeah, close to that I'd say."

Benjiro was unsure of what he found worse, the fact that this girl was suffering so much seeing her Dad suffer, the fact that this was what motivated her, or that she had essentially admitted to having a one track goal since middle school graduation. Looking closer, now that she wasn't smiling, it was easier to tell just how much she had been worn down. Her eyes had slight bags underneath, her posture was slumped from constantly looking down, her eyes dull from looking at stark medial texts so much and the overall air of melancholy she carried with her. It pained Benjiro's heart to see someone so devoted to something that was ultimately tearing them apart.

His recent experience with Daitan once again flashed in his mind, but he felt this was a more appropriate situation, "Y-Yamanaka, if y-you need, I m-might not be m-much help b-but you can call m-me and I'll help with w-whatever you need."

Finally, she paused from her work long enough to look at the boy, almost as if she had forgotten that he had tagged along, "You can only work so many miracles, Nojiri."

"M-Miracles are for h-holy men. I'm just a r-regular idiot stumbling th-through life."

Saori made an amused grunt, "Well, I'm not sure how, but I will most likely take you up on that offer soon."

Another one of his crazy ideas just had to pop in, "What about right now", he questioned as the studious girl raised one eyebrow, "I g-got invited to H-Hiromi D-Domon's birthday. D-Do you want t-to be my plus one?"