Chapter 3: Heels & Hierarchy
The office became a runway overnight. My azure dress hung unworn in the closet as I donned Maki's curated armor - blush-pink Chanel knockoff with knife-pleat precision. Shangguan's glasses flashed when I entered, his "Morning" laced with yesterday's unspoken recognition of our accidental Roppongi encounter.
Corporate warfare erupted at 10:03AM.
When the senior partner's call came through, I watched Shangguan's smile harden into legal steel. "Bring the Nakamura merger files," he ordered, transforming from pretty-boy lawyer to battlefield general mid-stride. The conference room swallowed us whole, its glass walls reflecting every micro-expression as billion-yen acquisition terms rained down like shrapnel.
Mid-notes, the universe played its joke.
"Yū?" The name escaped involuntarily when the new paralegal arrived - my college mentee Erena, now rebranded as "Ms. Nakai" under her father's dynastic demands. Her trembling fingers on the document box betrayed more than first-day jitters.
Lunch brought temporary ceasefire.
In the fire escape stairwell where secretaries smoke, Erena and I split tupperware of braised pork ribs. "They're making me redo your spreadsheets," she confessed, soy sauce staining deposition notes. Before I could react, Shangguan's shadow fractured our refuge.
"Ms. Lin," his Oxfords echoed on concrete, "We need to discuss your conflict of interest."
The real conflict emerged at 8:47PM in Shibuya's neon glow.
"Blue Hawaii for the lady." The bartender slid over radioactive-hued dessert masquerading as cocktail. Through smoke haze, I traced the drink's origin to Shangguan's booth - his arm casually draped behind Ms. Nakai's heiress cousin while dissecting some loophole in antitrust law. Erena's nervous giggle carried across the room as my phone buzzed with his message: *Need revised exhibits by 6AM.*
I crunched ice crystals, tasting Tokyo's particular blend of betrayal and ambition. The azure dress would finally debut tomorrow - not for him, but for every woman sharpening stilettos into weapons in this glass-and-steel coliseum.