My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As Expected

Page 599

As if to voice an objection to this hypocritical stage play, the hand that is raised straight up is Yukino Yukinoshita's.

Ye Gang asked:

"Miss Yukinoshita, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Actually, I also came up with a slogan. I'm a little embarrassed to put it after 'Sumo Lady,' but may I share it?"

Sumo raised an eyebrow.

"That's wonderful. Please go ahead."

"Thanks."

Yukinoshita stood up, staring intently at the sumo wrestler. Since the sumo wrestler was also staring at her, they ended up staring at each other. A suffocating silence filled the meeting room.

"Look closely, half of the person is in the customer service center where people are cooling off."

The world is frozen.

No one uttered a sound. Sumo wrestlers and Yagami just stood there, stunned, and so did I. Yumahama's mouth was so wide open that his jaw almost dislocated.

"...Could you please explain?"

Hayama finally spoke.

Yukinoshita calmly said:

"We often say that the word 'human' is two people relying on each other—but in reality, it's one person relying on the other. Tolerating the sacrifices of others. Yes, for example, dumping troublesome tasks on colleagues while using improper means to improve performance and attempt to get promoted alone. I think this slogan is very suitable for a workplace where this kind of person is rampant."

Ye Gang's face fell.

"Did you really come up with that slogan, Ms. Yukinoshita?"

"No. It was my—high school classmate's idea."

Her gaze suddenly softened, as if she were reminiscing about the distant past.

The next moment, that gentleness vanished.

The inspector's cold gaze pierced through the sumo wrestlers.

"Ms. Sumo Katsumi, you know what I'm referring to, right?"

"what?"

A sharp sound came from the sumo wrestler's thin lips.

She then said to Hayama in a sweet voice:

"I don't understand what she's saying. This person has misunderstood."

"It's my turn to speak. Turn this way."

Yukinoshita said sternly.

"Miss Sumo, you have engaged in improper conduct at work."

"So? What behavior?"

"The secret to your top performance."

A commotion erupted in the meeting room. Everyone was astonished by the bombshell dropped by Xuexia, their eyes wide. I was surprised too. I was confident I was the most surprised person there.

Did she find out?

A "magical" mechanism?

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Yukinoshita took a thick stack of folders out of her briefcase. They were the kind of ordinary folders you could find in any stationery store. The blue plastic covers were completely blank.

"This is a list of customers you've called to collect payments from over the past six months."

Yukino's offhand remark caused another stir in the meeting room.

We make over a hundred calls a day. That's the legal threshold. Did she pull up six months' worth of data? Even with duplicate customers, the number wouldn't be just ten or twenty thousand. And did she investigate all that data on her own?

"I've looked at this list carefully and noticed something. Nearly half of the customers who successfully got their loans back met a certain condition. The number is so large that it can't be explained by coincidence—you know that in your heart, right?"

"That's enough!"

Sumo wrestlers screamed.

"What conditions? Conditions for getting the loan back? There's no such thing! Everyone who works here knows that, right? There's no such magic!"

No. Yes.

Yukinoshita said.

She gazed at me quietly.

"Unfortunately, this wasn't something I came up with on my own. Without the advice of Matsutani SV, who has extensive work experience, I probably wouldn't have been able to come up with this answer."

All eyes were on me.

But I have no clue. I gave her advice? What advice?

"He told me, 'Borrowing money is shameful, and I don't want others to know.' Leaving aside customers who didn't have the money to repay or had no intention of repaying, the customers in this initial follow-up group were mostly those with milder circumstances—people who 'had the money to repay, but wanted to use it for living expenses.' In other words, they could repay as long as they had the will. But what if we added the reason 'I absolutely don't want others to know'? Even if it's a bit reluctant, wouldn't the customer be willing to repay?"

That makes a lot of sense.

Ye Gang said.

"But what kind of loans do you absolutely not want others to know about? We mainly handle shopping loans, with amounts ranging from a few hundred thousand to a million yen at most. Even if family or colleagues find out about this amount, there won't be any serious consequences."

"But other people will always ask, won't they? 'What did you buy? Why did you borrow money?' Right, Ms. Sumo?"

Sumo wrestlers glared at Yukinoshita as if she were an enemy.

Ye Gang asked anxiously:

"I'm not getting to the point. What did you buy that you wouldn't want anyone to know? What 'condition' are you referring to?"

The answer is—

The snow speaks.

Give the decisive answer.

"Phimosis."

All sound immediately disappeared from the conference room.

In stark contrast to the silence just moments before, everyone stared at Yukinoshita with expressions as if they had been slapped in the face.

What did this guy just say?

Bag, bag...

What word did the daughter of a certain congressman, one of the elite employees at this store, utter? "Bag, bag..."

Yukinoshita continued speaking. She felt no embarrassment whatsoever, openly letting her voice carry throughout the surroundings.

"The most common procedures are circumcision, followed by cosmetic surgery, then breast augmentation, penis enlargement, and so on. The sumo wrestler somehow obtained a list of customers who paid for these services using your company's credit cards. Regular employees wouldn't have the authority to access this information, but it would be a piece of cake for someone in a higher position. That's right—like the head of the audit department."

The sumo wrestler's shoulder trembled.

She lowered her mascara-covered eyelashes, refusing to look up.

"These surgeries are quite expensive, some seemingly costing millions. Paying in full upfront is difficult, so many people use credit cards. The proportion of these people among the sumo wrestlers chasing back loans is unusually high. For example, on the 20th of last month, you called fifty customers who had undergone circumcisions to collect payments. Is that a coincidence?"

The sumo wrestlers remained silent.

However, her face was so red that even her heavy makeup couldn't hide it.

"It's all a coincidence—that's impossible, isn't it? We don't usually only call customers who've had circumcisions, or do you have clairvoyance? How can you tell if a man has had a circumcision just by looking at his name?"

"Shut up!"

The sumo wrestler couldn't help but roar.

"You keep saying 'phimosis' to everyone else, it's so noisy! Don't you have any shame? Don't our elites feel embarrassed talking like this?!"

No, it won't.

Straighten your back under the snow.

Like a rose, she blooms in this hellish workplace.

"I won't get any thanks for my work. Nobody's happy to see a bank send someone to inspect it, and it's a job that nobody will thank me for."

At that moment, she glanced at me.

"However, this is my job. To inspect the workplace, identify problems, and contribute to creating a better workplace. I believe that in the end, it will be reflected in everyone's happiness. Who would feel ashamed? This is my job, my pride."

The sumo wrestler opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"We'll probably start investigating where the sumo wrestler got that list from—that's all I have to say."

After saying this, Yukino sat back down in her chair.

The outcome is decided.

An awkward silence lingered for a while; no one spoke, and the atmosphere was so tense that even a sigh was unthinkable. Yumahama stared worriedly at the devastated sumo wrestler, while the others didn't even glance at her.

"Ah—that…uh…"

Ye Gang cleared his throat several times.

"I'll handle this first. Please wait a moment and come to the section chief's office."

This concludes the meeting.

Alas, Yukinoshita's working methods can only be described as astonishing.

I never expected her to reveal the secrets of sumo in this way.

She actually managed to find all the customer information that sumo wrestlers had contacted; who else could do that? Moreover, she discovered a peculiar commonality among them—she's practically superhuman.

but--

Did Yukinoshita notice anything at all?

No one and nothing has been redeemed.

The next day, sumo wrestler Katsumi didn't come to work.

He was directly absent from his post.

If she needed to take a day off due to illness or other reasons, she would notify SV first. However, even after the company's designated start time of 9:00 AM, there was still no word from Sumo. She had never been late or taken a day off before. Logically, it should have been a minor incident, but the workplace was filled with an atmosphere of "as expected."

How could anyone possibly come to work after being criticized like that in front of everyone?

I called Sumo, but her phone was off. She probably doesn't want to talk to anyone at the company right now. I wanted to ask Yumie, but she wasn't scheduled to work today.

Sumo will probably take this opportunity to resign.

Many employees disappear like this. One day they suddenly become absent, and after several days they tell me they want to quit. There have even been cases where the employee suffered from depression and couldn't come in person, so a family member came to the company on their behalf. This is the kind of workplace we see here.

Sumo wrestler's absence from duty quickly implicated others.

After all, we're short-staffed; just one person missing would cause problems. And today, right after payday at the end of the month, is the busiest day for payment-related calls. Unsurprisingly, the phone rang non-stop from early morning. Even employees from other departments came to help, but we couldn't handle the volume. The number of "abandoned" (phones not answered, customers hanging up immediately) reached fifty-eight this morning alone. This is my worst performance since becoming a SV.

During lunch break, most of the staff had dry throats. My voice also became hoarse, and the last customer I served asked me, "Do you have a cold?" I used a throat spray in the break room. I had no appetite. I'll probably just have throat lozenges and honey water for lunch.

I slumped on the sofa, sensing someone approaching. The gleaming tips of black high heels caught my eye, and the shadow of a woman with long hair swayed on the carpet.

Are you satisfied now?

I said, with my head down.

"You indulged your pride, and this is the result. Sumo resigns, and there's no more misconduct in the workplace. That's fine for you. You can go back to the main store with your achievements. But what are we left with? We've lost this sumo employee, and that's it. And the impact of this has spread to us. Even after you return to the great giant bank, we'll still have to work in this hell."

The figure remained silent.

"Your actions won't save anyone. Nothing will change. All you've done is eliminate one person. Even a child could do that. The workplace is losing its fighting force, and Yumishima is losing her colleagues. Why do you only resort to such methods? Huh? Speak up—Yukinoshita!"

I looked up.

He met Yukino's gaze.

Yumihama Yuri stood behind her, looking confused.

And next to Yumihama—

"what?"

Sumo wrestler Katsumi was standing there.

Her expression was like that of a scolded child; she awkwardly looked away and muttered: