The Heart Does Go On

“K-Kaiba” I stuttered, afraid of his reaction that I saw him the way he is.

“Yes Ella?” Kaiba asked, not moving from his position.

“Um, you wanted to see me?” I asked.

Kaiba remained silent for a while. I didn’t know whether to leave or not, but he soon lifted his head from his hands and his gaze fixed upon me.

“So you did your work? Good. You can go now.” He replied flatly, dropping his head back into his hands.

I was debating with myself whether to go or not. It seemed he really wanted to be by himself and mope, but the crush I had on him made me stay. I should really try to help him, it may sound cheesy but it actually hurt me a little to see him this way.

“What demands are the strikers making?” I asked him.

“Not what you’d think. They actually stated they are happy with their pay.” Kaiba replied.

“What the hell do they want then?” I asked, pulling up a chair from the side of the room to the opposite of Kaiba’s desk.

He said nothing as he handed me a sheet of paper. I read it thoroughly.

“So they want you to change your corporate culture pretty much? Hm. That is a big change, and I know you hold too much pride to let that happen.” I commented.

“It’s not just that. These fools don’t get how it was when Gozaburo owned the company. He was ten times harsher than I am. The conservative way of running a business is the most efficient.” Kaiba growled, going from moping to angry.

“For the youngest CEO in the world, you’re quite aged. My father tells me of times where corporations were the most abusive between employers and employees, but he told me it was the best way to run. Everyone got everything off their chest and more work was able to be done, instead of bitchy comments made behind people’s backs.” I said to Kaiba.

“Your father is a wise man and a good worker.” Kaiba replied.

“I did come up here when they were all making their requests. It seems that the mostly younger generation are complaining, while the older generations, as well as the ones from Gozaburo’s time are content with the way you run things.” I commented.

“What would you do if you were in my position, Ella?” Kaiba asked me.

“Well, do you know what consumer sovereignty is?” I asked him.

“Yes, an economics term used in a competitive market. The consumers have the ability to direct or allocate resources, because if the supplies ignore what the consumers want, the products won’t be bought, and the supplier will go out of business.” Kaiba replied.

“This relates back to your labour resources – your employees. If they’re unhappy, they make the decision to stay or go. Maybe it’s not ‘employee sovereignty’ because you also have the decision to make employees stay or go, but like the consumers in the economy, they have a lot of power over decisions made by you as well. “ I explained to him.

“So are you saying I should listen to their claims? Change my corporate culture because a bunch of whiny brats are whining about the way I conduct my business?” Kaiba asked, getting angry.

“Well, there would be costs involved in hiring 200 more employees, and production would go down for a while whilst the new employees get retrained and settle into Kaiba Corp. If I were you, I think it would be wise to try and meet them halfway at least, but I guess I’m not you, and I’m not so pride filled as you.” I shrugged, leaning back on my chair.

He stayed silent, deep in thought.

“Haven’t you consulted Human Resources about this?” I asked him.

“Half of HR is involved in the strike.” He replied bitterly.

“Oh, ouch.” I replied, looking away fresh run out of ideas.

It was impossible to tell him to listen to the strikers, because it went against everything he believed in, so instead the problem would go unsolved.

“I don’t know why I’m doing this, but Ella, I need your help. I need you to research the wants of the soon to be strikers, and send out a mass email dealing with these requests.” Kaiba asked me.

I got to work straight away, Kaiba gave me a company laptop to do my findings on, and I sat on the opposite side of his desk. Soon after, Emma left, and the building started emptying out. Not that I noticed, I was busily typing on a word document solutions to the requests of the strikers.

Occasionally I’d come up with a solution, and I showed it to Kaiba to see if he’d agree with it. He agreed to most, so I only had to make a few adjustments to some of the solutions I created.

5 hours later, and a few boxes of noodles discarded on the floor later, Kaiba and I were typing the mass email to the strikers up now.

The basic gist of the solutions we had created was that monthly meetings were going to be created between each department and Kaiba, and the ‘abuse’ would stick to those meetings, so everything could be lifted from everyone’s chests. Of course ‘abuse’ wasn’t the word we used in the email though...

Other solutions were that we were going to let the employees elect a leader to represent their rights and have instant communication to Kaiba if someone went wrong (Sort of like a union leader, however no one in Kaiba Corp belonged to a union) and over the next few weeks meetings with each department were going to be held with HR to see what the employees feel need to be changed in Kaiba Corp.

I was typing the email, and Kaiba was standing up over my shoulder, reading the email and giving his input every now and then.

“That should fix all the problems the strikers are having with the company, should I hit send?” I asked Kaiba, as his eyes scanned over the last of the words I had written.

“Yes.” Kaiba replied, shortly and I clicked send and exited out of the email client.

“Ella, you’re a genius. You’ve solved the problem without me having to fall to my knees in political correctness and sell out my beliefs and pride.” Kaiba said, praising me.

“Well, it was pretty easy.” I said, trying to stay modest as I turned around to face him.

What I didn’t expect to happen though, was him roughly pushing me down into my chair as his lips crashed onto mine.

I pushed him away, but I quickly got up from my chair so I could fall into his arms and deepen the kiss.

We kissed like this for a few minutes, but then we broke apart and Kaiba held me in his arms.

“Ella, I have a proposal to make.” Kaiba started, kissing the top of my head.

“Yes?” I asked him.

“Well, it’s pretty late. My mansion is closer to here than your house is, and your father already said he didn’t expect you home tonight, would you like to spend the night with me?” Kaiba asked me.

“I’d love to.” I replied, without really thinking.

‘Spending the night’ with Seto Kaiba, he asks. It could be one of the most innocent things, but it could also mean the way it sounds. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.