The quietness of the Library Annex had changed.
It was no longer, as of the study zone, the contrary silence, but a tense silence filled with the tension between two radically opposing forces seeking a meeting point with each other. Koyuki swallowed once, with an awareness that the Winter Prince was actually considering her petition.
"Is a compromise possible?" Koyuki repeated cautiously. What sort of compromise would ever permit an academic symposium, seven days long, to co exist with a huge and grandiose Christmas Gala?
Yuu Shirogane removed his hand off the holographic Gantt chart and the light projection disappeared. His silver eyes gazed deep into her jade green eyes, cutting, critical, and too fierce.
Two things I need, Himekawa,san, and neither will I part with, upon the success of my Symposium, Yuu said, tapping the points on his fingers a human gesture, unusually human, but which just a little broke through his frozen front.
First: My studies require the access to the latest campus wide network infrastructure updates. The main server rack, with the real time data processing when making presentations, is located in the secure staging room of the Great Hall. My team needs guaranteed access of that room 24 hours every day between the 8 th of December and 14 th of December.
Koyuki's heart sank. The staging room was exactly where she had intended to keep all the decorations small and large scale cutouts of the anime characters, all the light rigging, and the large tree topper that was in the form of a star. Our storage and staging area, that room, she protested.
It is also the climate controlled center of fastest fiber lines of the university, Yuu stated flatly. I shall have to carry special cables in the hall. In case you have decorations that are blocking the space, then my network team cannot work. We need that room, a minimal intrusion as we are going to be.
"And the second item?" Koyuki said, fearing the explanation which was coming.
Yuu stopped, his silver eyes brushing past Koyuki and the pink hair and the brightly colored binder by her side. The second one is the resource efficiency. I have seen how manpower and organization were a problem in your team. My symposium extensively depends on volunteer work in terms of registration, orientation of international speakers and data entry. I have five committed and trustworthy student volunteers because of an internal scheduling mistake that happened recently.
He leaned over a little and she instinctively drew her breath. My tradeoff is as follows: I will give your committee the Great Hall at 7:00 on December 13 th, and you may have two full days to set up, on the condition that you will take upon yourself a force of five persons including yourself to volunteer three days of my Symposium (December 8 th, 9 th and 10 th).
Koyuki was in the frozen amazement. The two days she must have were being conferred on her at a high price. Working for Yuu Shirogane? Exchanging Christmas cheer spreadsheet and the silence of the academics? It appeared that it was a way of selling her academic soul to the Winter Devil.
You can volunteer me, you see?
"Yes. You, Himekawa san, are certainly very well organized, dynamic, and interested in campus life, but somehow misdirected in your goals, Yuu thought to himself, flashing an amusement at it. You will make the flow of my speakers smooth, logistics, and the zero distraction policy. Take it as a high, high impact course in corporate event management.
But my team has to plan the Gala! she said.
Four days they will have to get ready as you take care of my logistics, Yuu replied, checking his tablet. That is the best I can do, two days of my conference, in place of three days of your hard work. You have your critising set up time; I have needed, trustworthy man power.
Koyuki sat back in her chair a little. The words were frosty, business like, and made up their minds. It was a reciprocation of leverage. She won her date, but he won her, her vitality, her concentration, her power to put her rogue peers in their places. Further, she would have an internal perspective of the mechanism that was so well organized and which Yuu Shirogane lived her life in, in a way that she had never imagined.
And in the event that I accept, Koyuki challenged, looking right at him, what assurance of it have I that you and your network team will not undermine our decorations in staging room after number 13?
There was a real, although mild, smile on the corner of the lips of Yuu the first time Koyuki had seen him not in a neutral position. Himekawa san, my Symposium will be a success even before your Gala is held. Educational honesty is the most important. I give you my word. I need the room and not your loss.
Koyuki stretched out her hand, pink against pale white over the study table.
Deal, Shirogane senpai, said she. But in case there be any objection to lukewarm cocoa, on the three days of that objection, the contract will be voided.