"Fire whoever ignored my orders and didn't decline this proposal, right away!" Seto Kaiba, CEO of the largest company in Domino city, ordered one of his most faithful assistants to do in his place. You, being one of those very trusted assistants yourself, were standing at Kaiba's desk next to Roland when the events dramatically unfolded.

"Mr. Kaiba, you can't just fire anyone who makes small mistakes like these! We'll end up understaffed!" You countered, shocking Roland and all other workers currently in the same room, causing them all to stiffen their postures and sink even lower behind their computer screens as if they were taking shelter from the storm that was about to approach.

Perhaps 'shock' wasn't the correct word to describe what you had made them feel. Simply put, you were and had always been the only one who even dared to argue with your boss this way. Not to mention the fact that you had done it many times before, too, and for some reason you had never gotten fired because of it. Not that you would like to try it out by testing the limits of Kaiba's nerves or anything.

"Small mistakes you say? It must be nice, making small mistakes such as conveniently forgetting that I explicitly said NOT to even consider accepting any marriage proposals!" Kaiba stated with his usual sarcastic and pissed-off tone, not forgetting to throw in one or two fancy words to make him sound stricter and like an authentic pain-in-the-rear boss.

You had to agree with him on the fact that he had mentioned it countless of times already, and that those marriage proposals had to be annoying since he didn't seem to be interested in that sort of thing in the slightest, but still... You felt bad for the people who actually lost a job due to their boss being extremely perfectionistic and short-tempered — because that was really all that Kaiba was. Or at least what he appeared to be at first glance.

"I know you must feel displeased, but please don't fire anyone. I will see to it myself that the meeting doesn't take place." You sighed, avoiding eye contact with the still angry CEO who by then had his arms crossed above his chest. He had really been having the urge to kick someone out after the marriage proposal fiasco, but after getting 'amused' by your sincerity, he decided to spare this one lower-rank worker who had carelessly accepted the rendezvous. "Is that so? Well then, see that you do."

And with that, Roland and you were dismissed, free to return to your desks. "[Name], you can't always cover for everyone's mistakes like this! You already have enough on your hands." Roland said in a more silent voice since your desks were in the same room as Kaiba's, and the brunet would have consequentially overheard your conversation.

Roland was right and you knew it. You had been working on a difficult and time-consuming project for a while now, so accepting to negotiate with the people who suggested the marriage meeting was a rather foolish thing to do.

"I know... I just can't help it." You groaned, slowly regretting having volunteered for the task in the first place, but it wasn't like you could be blamed for having second thoughts. At one point or another, you could already smell the caffeine being your only support that would keep your eyelids separated from each other for the upcoming overtime.

Seating yourself at your desk, you sighed and continued your work at the computer. "My shift just ended, so I could help you, if you want." Roland offered, but you had to politely decline. "It's alright. You have someone waiting for you at home, don't you?"

"You're really too considerate for your own good!" Roland exclaimed, and if you were to have been in an anime right about then, you would have been seeing tears of happiness streaming down his cheeks. You thanked the man for complimenting you and wished him a good evening before returning to to your work just as he had made his wait out of the office.

The project you were currently dedicating yourself to included trying to improve the quality of the holograms projected during Duels. The task itself wasn't too difficult since you also happened to actually like the job a lot, but it required quite a lot of patience which you were slowly but surely running out of.

You looked across the room and over to Kaiba who was doing his own work apparently. The brunet noticed your staring at him and raised his gaze, meeting yours along the way. "What's this? Regretting it already?" Kaiba smirked, you rolling your eyes at his remark as if to let them speak in the stead of your mouth.

He could be so annoying at times, and his sadistic personality didn't help at all. "No. I was just about to ask if you could send me the contact information and details about the person who approached us for the marriage meeting." You replied, doing your best at suppressing your negativity by forcing one of the creepiest smiles you had worn all week.

Your boss did as you requested and sent you the data per email, rendering your job as well as life a small amount easier. You then proceeded to scribble down the phone number and mail address of the person who requested a marriage interview with Kaiba on a post-it sticky note in case you were to need it again at a later date before reaching for your headset and placing it on your head accordingly.

You dialled the woman's number and waited for her to pick up while letting your eyes dart around the room just to kill time. It was already pretty late, so you began to doubt that anyone would even answer you at this point, but your insecurities had soon been dismissed as unnecessary by a slightly shrill voice. "Hello?"

"Good evening, this is [Name] from Kaiba Corporation speaking. I'm Seto Kaiba's secretary." You firstly stated your name and the one of the company you worked for, assuming that the client would get a rough idea of what this was going to be about.

"I've called you to discuss the marriage meeting proposal." Waiting for the woman on the other line to reply or even react at all, you played with the pen you had been holding in your dominant hand. "Ohh that's right! I haven't received a date yet!"

"I'm really sorry to say this at this point, but the meeting will not be taking place." You sighed, trying to take care of things without having to reveal too many details — in other words, to deal with it simply and swiftly. But that wasn't going to be easy of course.

Women who even suggested things such as marriage never approached Kaiba for his personality — which in a way was understandable — but for his wealth and high social status. So naturally, women with interests like those wouldn't just give up without a fight and be silenced by a mere apology. "What do you mean 'the meeting won't be taking place'?! I talked with one of your employees today, and they gave me a positive response!"

"I am aware of that and very mortified, but that employee is still a rookie and mixed up a few... things." You needed to make up a part of the story, since the worker who had messed up wasn't actually a newbie. You knew that this wasn't excuse enough, but it was worth a try before you had to switch modes and attempt to approach the situation with a more complicated pretext. "Your employee being a rookie has nothing to do with me, it's not my problem!"

"How dare you cancel the marriage after I've already bought my wedding dress and organized everything! Do you know how expensive that all was?!" The woman exclaimed angrily, almost making your eardrums burst.

You bet half of Kaiba Corporation's fortune that the woman didn't plan anything ahead yet, especially since the phone call with that certain employee had taken place earlier this afternoon.

Her real objective was most likely to get a compensation out of you. "Ma'am, I know you must be upset, but it is partially your fault for arranging everything in advance. I am more than certain that our employee gave the OK to the preparation meeting only, not the marriage itself. You would have discussed those matters with Mr. Kaiba himself."

"If money is the only problem, we can pay all the fees since it was our mistake to begin with." You added after not having heard any smart responses coming from the woman on the other line, rolling your eyes. But if you weren't mistaking, this would most likely be the point where the woman would finally give up, take the money and leave you alone, so you could at least look forward to the possibility of this call coming to an end sooner rather than later.

You could see Kaiba getting up from his seat as the consequence of having shot a glance in his direction, you still playing with your pen even then. You didn't pay him much attention though. "Oh! i-is that so? Then yes, I guess that's fine too."

"Actually no, I want you to pay double the expenses!" The woman quickly added, a deep sigh escaping your lips. You knew this wasn't the way one should treat their customers over the phone, but this woman was provocatively asking for it.

You couldn't just tell her yes, or else you would have to call her again at a later point in time and pretty much hold the same conversation all over again by saying that such a thing would be impossible. "That is not my call to make, so please allow me to discuss this with my boss first—"

Just before you could complete your sentence, you heard a 'beep' sound that repeated itself a few times, and when you looked for the cause of that noise, your eyes landed on none other than Kaiba. More explicitly, his index finger that pressed a button on your corded telephone. He had just ended your call. This spoiled, grown man dared to end a call you were making to get him out of a crappy situation as if it were the most natural thing to do. "W-Wha—"

"Kaiba! I-I mean, Sir! How could you just do that?!" You cut yourself off a few times to avoid lashing out at the brunet too disrespectfully, but you had a hard time in keeping your vocabulary under control. Kaiba only stared down at you with his signature sadistic smirk plastered on his face. "You should be thanking me, I just made things easier for you."

"Oh yes of course, thank you so very much, my dear boss. Thanks to your kindness, I can now call that hag again and explain everything another time." You retorted sarcastically, rolling your eyes as you started dialing the number again. "Don't even bother. Money's what she wants right? We'll have it sent over to her."

"We can't just throw money around as if we were feeding bread to pigeons! That's exactly what I was trying to avoid!" You complained, face-palming quite loudly. For a moment you were afraid you had left a too visible red mark on your forehead. "But that's all she wants, isn't it? I said it's fine, so get back to work before I reconsider."

"Fine! Ugh... unbelievable..." You gave up reasoning with the taller male and removed your headset from its prior resting spot on your head. There was no way you could win against the Seto Kaiba anyway. Not in a Duel and not in an argument. And so, you ended up returning to your prior task as your boss also made his way back to his own desk.

----------------------------------------------------

My note to you:
I'm practically saying the same thing over and over in my Yu-Gi-Oh! short stories, and I'll do it once more: This as well was supposed to be a oneshot — I think its total length was something along 17'000 words.^^

In any case, I hope you enjoy! :3

Thank You for Reading!