"We have arrived." Sato-sama turns off the engine and places both hands on the steering wheel.

"The trip was very short," I say sadly.

"This is not our last meeting, and not our last trip together." She looks at me. "Don't forget your tablet and bag."

"I won't forget."

"Are you feeling sad?"

"I'm sad to part today. It feels like our meeting is just another fantasy of mine, and when I turn away from you, you will disappear, and I will turn back into a simple assistant to the brand manager secretly watching Sato-sama's successes."

"Don't say that, please. I am real, and I won't disappear anywhere."

My house stands in the night silence and darkness. Dad, of course, is delayed at work, and mom with my brother and sister is already asleep. Mom won't even notice that I was driven home; she believes I'm still at the office. At the gates of our old house, an elegant magnolia grows. Grandpa and grandma planted it when my father was born.

"Hope you don't mind if I smoke. I hope you don't have allergies."

"I don't mind."

I'm glad I can spend a little more time with her. In the velvet of the night, her lighter glows as if a princess is conjuring the flame. For a few minutes, we stand in silence under the magnolia. Sato-sama exhales smoke rings. The moon shines so brightly that the leaves of the magnolia cast shadows on our faces, creating whimsical lines on our skin.

"In the 'Dragon's Den,' you talked about not being completely honest with me. Now that we'll be communicating more often, I would like you to be completely honest with me."

"I hoped you wouldn't remember that, Sato-sama. I'm afraid to tell you because you might change your opinion about me."

Sato-sama extinguishes the cigarette on an iron fence. She looks at me with tension.

"Sato-sama, I wasn't just observing you from the sidelines. Perhaps you don't remember my first day at work in your company. Back then, I came in as a silly eighteen-year-old girl who had just finished high school. Matsui-san gave me a bunch of tasks, and I couldn't handle it. I was so scared that they would fire me on the first day. I had a panic attack. I needed to get out of the office urgently. I didn't hide in the wc because there are usually many people there. Instead, I ran out to the emergency fire escape landing. You were there, Sato-sama. I didn't notice that you were there too, and I started crying, thinking I was alone. You came up to me and calmed me down. You said..."

"... I said you were wonderful and everything would work out for you."

"So you remember." I am genuinely surprised. There are many employees in the company, including interns and people from outsourcing, and she still remembers me. Although not every employee cries on a dark staircase.

"It was a wonderful conversation. I remember it whenever I feel sad."

"I was a bad conversationalist; practically I kept on sniffing and just nodding in response. I never asked you, Sato-sama, why you were on that emergency staircase too."

Sato-sama thoughtfully twirls the long-extinguished cigarette in her hands, not knowing where to put it, and eventually puts the butt in the car in an empty coffee cup. She deliberately takes her time, avoiding answering.

"Do you want to know why I was on the fire escape? It's very simple; I also had a panic attack. A lot piled up, and I just wanted to quit and run away. I left the meeting room where representatives of shopping centers interested in the location of my cosmetic boutiques were sitting. I pretended I had an urgent call and left. If it weren't for you, I would have simply used the fire escape and gone wherever my eyes took me."

"It can't be true!" I exclaim in surprise.

"I'm not lying to you, Suzuka-sensei. You have been my anchor and my lighthouse all these years. Every time I felt lonely or bad because of work and stress, when I wanted to quit everything, I watched you work tirelessly, and it inspired me to keep working too."

"It's strange to exist side by side with a person and not know that our presence, our work, our choices affect another person's life. It's so poetic to be secret lighthouses for each other," I philosophically remark.

❣️❣️❣️

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