Love at Twenty-Five

The Single Manager's Revenge

Episode 3

When their lunch boxes were empty, the break also ended. The two cleaned up and returned to their unfinished mountain of work. Just like that, a busy afternoon passed by. As the evening shadows gradually fell, they once again walked side by side on their familiar route home from work.

While walking, Nana suddenly clasped her hands behind her back, leaned forward to look at him, and blinked her eyes mischievously: "So... are you going to let me sleep over tonight?"

Tap!

Sora lightly tapped her forehead, not knowing whether to laugh or cry: "You're really stubborn, I already told you yesterday that it's a no."

Nana brought both hands up to cover her forehead, pouting and taking a step back: "If it's a no then it's a no, why did you have to hit me like that! This is a serious crime, you know. The punishment for daring to hit me is... you have to let me sleep over at your place!"

After saying that, without giving Sora a chance to react, she giggled and lunged forward to hug him tightly. Sora blushed red, struggling to push her away for a good while before Nana finally agreed to let go.

"Come on, hold on a second." Sora hurriedly cleared his throat to change the subject. "By the way, listen to this: tomorrow, let's both take a day off to go for job interviews."

"Interviews?" Nana froze, blinking in confusion.

"That's right, interviews," Sora nodded.

Nana asked curiously, "So where are you planning to apply?"

"I saw online that there are places hiring for directors and department heads. If not, a manager position would be fine too."

Hearing this, Nana's eyes widened: "But... we only have experience as lowly office workers, right? We don't have a single ounce of management experience!"

Sora smirked, his face full of calculation: "Just make it up! Just bluff that we have a few years of experience as a director or manager, something like that. And while we're at it, let's inflate our salary expectations super high to see what they're willing to accept. Besides, we still have nearly a month before we officially quit this place, so let's just scatter our resumes and shoot for the moon with our salary demands."

He winked, enthusiastically outlining the "battle plan" for both of them: "Here's the deal: I'll try applying for the director role, and Nana, you apply for the department head position. If we both get hired, that's fantastic. But if you fail and I get the director job, I'll use my power to pull strings and get you the department head seat. Conversely, if I fail but you manage to snag the department head job, then you pull strings to make me the deputy head. That's the safest fallback plan. So, what do you think? Is my script okay?"

After listening to her boyfriend's grandiose plan, not only did Nana not object, but her eyes lit up brightly. She gave a smug thumbs-up: "Sounds good! Approved!"

However, things didn't go as smoothly as they had planned. When Sora and Nana walked into the manager's office holding their leave request forms, the manager merely glanced at the two pieces of paper, then tapped his finger on the desk with a deep scowl.

"You guys doing this is making it very difficult for me," the manager sighed, pretending to be incredibly busy. "I'm already drowning in work; I can't just play along with your sudden leave requests whenever you feel like it. I mean, you young folks are in love and want to stick together, I get that..."

Saying that, he rolled his eyes and stared at the two of them. Ironically, even though his mouth said he "got it," inside his head he was screaming: You dare g**g up to ask for time off to go on a date? Take that, you eyesores in love, don't even dream of me approving your leave together!

Sora and Nana secretly exchanged glances. He leaned in slightly, whispering right next to Nana's ear: "Hey Nana, I bet he's thinking we're asking for time off to go on a date."

Nana also tilted her head slightly to reply, her voice full of resentment: "Just look at his face, the words 'don't even dream of me approving your leave' are practically written in bold across his forehead. But we have annual leave; we're entitled to take it according to labor laws! Let me reason with him."

Sora nodded encouragingly: "Okay, go ahead."

Nana immediately cleared her throat, stood up straight, and spoke clearly: "But manager, we still have annual leave days left, and we are legally allowed to take them."

The manager nodded: "What you're saying isn't wrong. But being a manager means I can't just let employees take time off at the same time and mess up the schedule like this. If both of you take off at once, who's going to do the work? Tell you what, to resolve this perfectly for everyone, today I'll approve little Nanako's leave first. Then tomorrow it'll be your turn, Sora."

On the surface, he acted completely reasonable and understanding, but in his gut, the old boss was sneering with smug satisfaction: Laws, what laws? You try to threaten me with the law, and I'll show you how to exploit the loopholes. I'll let you take off, but not together. Let's see how you manage to date now. How dare you provoke a single guy!

His intention was glaringly obvious: the petty revenge of a long-time bachelor. Sora understood this perfectly well. But the catch was that the man was still their boss, and his reasoning regarding personnel arrangement was too logical to argue against. Having no other choice, he had to compromise.

"That works too," Sora nodded. "Then please sign to approve my leave for the following day right now."

"Fine, fine, I'll sign it."

And so, the old boss smugly put pen to paper, successfully splitting the lovebirds into two staggered days off.

The moment the manager's office door closed behind them, Nana immediately unleashed her frustration. She stomped her feet on the hallway floor, grumbling and cursing under her breath: "That bald old geezer, always throwing his weight around! We're quitting soon anyway, couldn't he just do us a favor and save some face? Honestly, I can't stand him. Look at the sneaky way he refused us, it's as clear as day!"

Sora found his girlfriend's bristling demeanor hilarious. He reached out and patted the top of her head to coax her: "Well, everyone knows that. It's because he's hopelessly single, so he's developed a sickness of hating couples."

Hearing Sora hit the nail on the head regarding their boss's dark secret, Nana giggled: "You're totally right! That bachelor boss deserves it! Oh my god, it's so funny, it's exactly because of his ugly personality that he's been left to rot as a single guy until now!"

But little did the two of them know, right behind the door, the manager was pressing his ear against the window c***k behind the curtains to eavesdrop. Hearing the part about being "left to rot as a single guy," his face turned bright red, and he muttered a low growl: Very well... You dare call this old man a forever-alone? Fine, let's see if I bother approving it the next time you two come crawling for permission! Don't even dream that this bachelor will let you off easy! I'll cure you of your dating habits! How dare you mess with me, you little brats!

Right at that moment, the corner of Sora's eye caught a round, dark shadow lurking and peeking behind the curtain. He blinked, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

"Hey, Nana..." Sora called out softly. "I have good news and bad news."

Nana was still innocently giggling as she asked: "So what's the good news?"

"Congratulations, your passionate cursing just now was broadcasted straight into the listener's ear."

Nana's jaw dropped: "Huh?!... Then what's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that the listener... is the manager himself. Look, he's hiding behind the curtain over there."

"We're doomed..." Nana froze stiff. But just a second later, she lifted her chin, her stubbornness flaring up again. "Oh whatever! We're quitting for good soon anyway, who the hell needs to save face anymore!"

Saying that, the girl rolled up her sleeves, intending to charge back in and curse him out some more to vent her anger, but Sora quickly clamped his hand over her mouth and frantically dragged her all the way back to their workspace.

Before she could even settle at her desk, the junior colleague—the department's "loudspeaker"—immediately popped out of nowhere, jumping up and whispering excitedly: "Hey, hey, senpai! It seems like someone just did something to piss off the manager! His face has been gloomy and sullen all morning; he looks like he wants to scream in everyone's face!"

"Really?" Nana feigned surprise.

"Really! I'm absolutely sure, I just saw it! He was even muttering something like 'anyone who dates, I'll fire them all'!" The junior nodded vigorously, then darted her eyes to stare suspiciously at her senior. "Could it be... does this have anything to do with you?"

Nana blinked, denying it vehemently: "What would I know? It's just that old geezer acting up and throwing a fit. I went in to ask for annual leave and he wouldn't let me."

The junior colleague furrowed her brows, analyzing the situation: "But there was an announcement in the group chat that you're taking annual leave tomorrow, right? Oh... You mean he didn't let Sora-senpai take annual leave with you, right? Confess, you two were planning to go on a private date, weren't you?"

Nana's face flushed bright red as she stammered in defense: "It wasn't a private date... but, well, um... something close to that. Just shut up and get back to work already!"

But instead of returning to her seat, the junior immediately spun around and ran off, excitedly shouting at the top of her lungs as she went: "Everyone! We've figured out why the old boss went crazy! Breaking news! Senpai was planning to go on a private date with her boyfriend, but the boss wouldn't let her!"

"Oh my god, this brat!" Nana clutched her forehead and groaned in frustration, completely helpless against the girl's excessive mischievousness.

However, watching the office burst into a chaotic buzz and laughter, she suddenly felt relieved. In any case, her busy working days in this place were soon coming to an end. She might as well treat the old boss's pettiness and her junior's boisterous antics as a memorable souvenir before the two of them officially left to embark on a new journey together.