Shutter ➳ CITRUS

Two - Duty Before Pleasure

Mei's POV

I told them I don't want to do it. Fucking no. But again, no one listened to me on how a complete disaster this would turn out. That's where the good stories come from they say, people doing silly things. This would be a hell of a good story then.

My friends Suzuran and Himeko are getting married. I'm very happy for them of course, after three years of being together they've finally decided to seal the deal. But that's not what I'm protesting about. The problem is they asked me to sing at their fucking wedding. No, scratch that, more like demanded while threatening to fire me from my job if I didn't. Have I told you how I fucking hate injustice?

It all started when I got the job at Examiner. It's a news magazine that goes out fortnightly. I was skeptical about taking on the job at first because my father's already working for them. Old Sho's the Editor in Chief. But the Examiner was a decent magazine, they are known for delivering the news in very unconventional ways; marking their spot in the readers' minds. The news staff has a young age group, probably the reason they don't settle on what's in the books, they formulate their own styles; they're adventurous. Almost all of them are in their twenties, with just a few exceptions of the editors.

But Examiner's on the crossfire of how the staff is a bunch of young writers given the liberty to write on a posy magazine. Most of their critiques are old-school publications so the judgment is actually biased.

Truth be told, Examiner's competitions are actually afraid because it's showing how boring and bland their magazines compare to it. I ended up grabbing the opportunity of working for them because it possesses the things I wanted for a job; liberal, idealistic, non-conformist, unique. Not like those magazines that run stories only their sponsors wanted to run, therefore defeating the purpose of public service.

Suzuran happened to be the daughter of the publisher so technically, she's my boss too and she's got the liberty to fire me if she wanted to. I know she won't do it, but you never know: desperate women do desperate things. Himeko's one of the writers like me, she got in four months after I did. At that time, people are still doubtful of my competence because my dad's their boss. Himeko never took that fact to question my talent for writing. She gave me the respect I found lacking from others. We found ourselves always getting coffee together and passing tips to each other. We became the other's best friend, but there's nothing else there.

We have the same principles in life, Himeko and I. We both agree that gender's just a body, but love is love. She's been with a couple of boys and girls before and I have a history with them too when I was in university. But all Himeko's thoughts of boy romance vanished when she met Suzuran.

Five weeks after Himeko got the job, the publisher's daughter visited our office. She's probably trying to get a hang of the business because she'll be taking over her father's job soon. Himeko and I were sipping coffee over her cubicle when Ms. Shiraho walked in the office doors. She took one look at Himeko and I swear I could hear her little girl heart double in size at the sight of her.

Himeko ignored her for a good two weeks before agreeing to go out with her. After that, Himeko seemed to be as loved up as Suzuran does. I miss a bit of her but Suzuran isn't hard to like. She actually knows her way around the business, not like those people whose only reason they got the job is a family connection.

In Himeko's absence, another person crept up on me. Ryuu's one of the four sportswriters of the magazine; he's been a staff a year earlier than I am and he's a good mate of Suzuran. He likes to stop by my cubicle once in a while constantly making dirty jokes and trying to get me to his bed but once you see past that, he's actually not that bad.