“You understand your public association with Chairman Ishikawa creates perception issue.”
“Yes.”
“How should we handle?”
“Judge me by same criteria.”
“What if others assume favoritism anyway?”
“I cannot manage every assumption.”
Good answer.
She received fellowship.
One-year placement split between Tokyo and New York.
The salary was better than restaurant.
Not absurd.
Real.
She hesitated.
Her mother was healthier.
Malcolm lived nearby.
Allison told her:
“If you stay because you feel guilty leaving us, I will fire you.”
Naomi laughed.
“You can’t threaten me with promotion.”
“Watch.”
Ana hugged her.
“Go.”
“You’ll come back and forget us.”
“No.”
“You’ll become terrifying executive.”
“Maybe.”
“Send money.”
Naomi left restaurant two months later.
Her final shift was quiet.
Allison deliberately banned speeches.
Chef made cake anyway.
It said in icing:
NO BETS.
Naomi laughed until she cried.
Chairman Ishikawa did not attend.
Good.
Not every ending needs symbolic guest.
Her first months in Tokyo were humbling.
Fluent Japanese did not mean corporate compliance vocabulary came naturally.
She made mistakes.
Once mistranslated a procurement phrase in a draft and had it corrected by a twenty-three-year-old analyst.
She thanked him.
The internet version of Naomi Carter knew every language and humiliated billionaires.
The real Naomi sometimes had to look up terms.
She loved that.
Competence became ordinary again.
Keiko Mori became mentor gradually.
Not because dinner.
Because Naomi worked.
Keiko was demanding.
She returned reports with entire pages marked.
One evening Naomi complained:
“You use red ink like revenge.”
Keiko said:
“It is cheaper than embarrassment.”
Naomi laughed.
Chairman Ishikawa met her occasionally.
Mostly formal.
After six months, he invited several fellows to lunch.
Someone asked about his English surprise.
He sighed.
“This story will never die.”
Naomi smiled.
“You could have spoken earlier.”
“Yes.”
“Do you regret not?”
The chairman thought.
“A little.”
Naomi waited.
He continued.
“I learned something afterward.”
“What?”
“I was pleased by reversal.”
“That Charles had underestimated you.”
“I enjoyed his discomfort.”
Naomi stared.
He smiled sadly.
“That made me less wise than people think.”
“It turned your humiliation into my test result.”
Naomi appreciated the honesty.
Chairman continued.
“Power can make even decent people treat someone else’s difficulty as useful evidence.”
“Would you do it differently?”
“Yes.”
“I would stop bet sooner.”
“Still might ask you in Japanese?”