BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Ryo jerked upright, gasping, hands grabbing at air. The office vanished. The cabin, the desk, Ayane's perfume, the warmth of her mouth—all gone.
He blinked at the ceiling of his tiny apartment, heart hammering, chest heaving. The alarm on his phone screamed from the nightstand, the screen flashing 07:38 in unforgiving white digits.
For a second he lay there, stunned, the ghost of the kiss tingling on his lips.
Then the next line on the screen registered.
First day – DON'T BE LATE.
"Oh, crap."
He flung himself out of bed, nearly tripping over his own feet as he scrambled for his clothes. The report he'd been dreaming about didn't exist yet. Neither did the cabin scene. Ayane Fujimoto had not kissed him. He hadn't even met her.
It had all been a fantasy—one his brain had cooked up before he'd even set foot in the company.
As he yanked on his shirt and tried to tame his hair in the mirror, his cheeks still burned.
"Idiot," he muttered at his reflection. "You're already dreaming about your boss and you don't even know what she looks like."
His pulse refused to calm down.
On the train a little later, crammed between half-asleep salarymen and students, the memory of that almost-real kiss kept replaying against his will: the way she'd said Come here, the feel of a hand fisting in his tie, the warmth—
He shook his head hard enough that the woman beside him gave him a weird look.
Get a grip. It was just a dream.
But as the train pulled into the station nearest his new office, Ryo couldn't help glancing at his phone again. The company address glowed back at him along with the department name.
Sales Planning. Manager: Fujimoto Ayane.
His mouth went dry.
What if she's actually nothing like that?
What if she's exactly like that?
The automatic doors opened with a chime. Ryo stepped out into the morning rush, heart pounding for reasons he absolutely did not want to explain to anyone.
Either way, there was no backing out now.
Today, he would meet the real Ayane Fujimoto.