Our company has two president's offices, one for receiving guests and one for working. Today, after morning greeting from our president, Naomi Tsuda, is working in the office room that employees call the "secret room." She was a friend of mine in the computer research lab at university, and that's how we met. We both got jobs at different companies. After she got a job, she married Andy, whom she met during a short-term exchange program in the States at the age of 27, and gave birth to her daughter, Emily, not long after. Then, she started her own business in her early 30s when her daughter was still young. As for me, I was hired here after being laid off from my previous job at a another tech company a little over 10 years ago. By the way, I've been single for 40 years. During that time, I met her regularly at offline meetings and we would have tea and sweets just the two of us. When I had time, I would comfort Emily and play with her. Something sad happened after that, so I don't really want to remember it...

Then, one day, I happened to have a chance to enter that room. Suddenly, Director Tanabe came in front of me and said,

"Excuse me, ma'am? Could you please get in touch with the president? It is in a hurry to respond with approval, I should be changed the flight and hotel reservation for her is going on a business trip tomorrow to Seattle, but the flight has been canceled and the departure will be the next day, but no matter how many times I uploaded it to the groupware or emailed him, she still hasn't replied after two hours."

"What? Why me?"

"Miyahara-san, you've finished work and are the one who her trusts, right?"

She shoved contact and her decision of her my way because she somehow knew that I was a close friend of her in private. She forced me to take some documents and took me to the "secret room" with Sugimoto, who is the president's secretary. I was supposed to never hint at our relationship for coworkers because I would be jealous if someone found out about it. I'm not good at bookkeeping, so I didn't want become a secretary.

When Sugimoto unlocked the door and opened it, she was asleep with her head on the desk. She had been busy at work for the past few days and hadn't been coming out much, but that was still the case. I managed to wake her up. I handed her the documents that Director Tanabe for her. She replied,

"I'm sorry,"

and she quickly wrote "OK" on a piece of paper. I took a picture of it on my smartphone, and emailed it to Tanabe, and uploaded it to the groupware. I was relieved to be about to leave the room when I looked to the side and saw a large acrylic case and inside it, a girl wearing a school uniform-style blazer was sitting quietly in a chair. She still had a bit of a childlike innocence about her and was looking towards me with her head slightly bowed.

"Maybe, she was Emily-san who died in a traffic accident three years ago..."

"Yes... she's always watching over me while I work."

After Naomi finished saying this to me with a face that looked like she was about to burst into tears,

"Emily, thank you for being with me. Today, Mana-san is here, which is unusual."

She muttered and gently stroked the corner of the case. Then, feeling sorry for Naomi for having reminded me of such a painful experience, I waved to Emily-san, who seemed to have stopped in time since then.

At the time, I attended her funeral, but the deadline for the project I was in charge of was approaching, so after it was over, I tearfully returned to the our company at that time and worked, and she also didn't dare to say anything about it, so I didn't know what happened to her until today. Since then, I have been strongly hoping that I don't want to be a helper for projects on the verge of collapse again but someone expect for me about it someday and I will be caught up in it again while I work this industry. By the way, I think it was a miracle that I was able to meet Emily-san again. She said,

"Sorry, but I'm a bit busy today, so I'll talk to you at a coffee shop when I get back from my business trip and tell you a trip story."

So I decided to hear the details another day. As I was leaving the room, I said to her in the case,

"Emi-chan, it's been a while. Have you been good? I'll come again soon."

She listened quietly without answered anything. After talking to her, I left the "secret room."