Vol 1 Chapter 4 (1/2)

CHAPTER 4

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Being shoved onto the platform from the completely packed train car that had just arrived really pressed home the fact that a new week was starting in Yokozawa’s mind. Gazing at the wave of humanity rus.h.i.+ng off to their respective offices, all wearing the same suits, Yokozawa flushed himself into the crowd.

Monday mornings were always depressing. It wasn’t that he hated his job or anything, but taking a two-day break really made it difficult to force yourself to get back to work. And on top of it all, the beginning of the workweek tended to be packed with meetings, which made him feel even more lethargic.

Everyone had to share their information and trade opinions back and forth, together, but for the impatient Yokozawa, all of that was just a pain in the a.s.s.

It wasn’t as if they were all working with the same motivation, after all, so it made sense that they all worked at different paces. For every instance that they were able to time their pace and work towards a common goal, there were also times when they all managed to undermine each other. It p.i.s.sed Yokozawa off to no end when he thought about how it would’ve been more profitable in the long run for him to just visit another bookshop or two in the time he wasted in meetings.

He did feel, however, that Marukawa Shoten was a company with a relatively high ration of independent thinkers; if it weren’t, a brash persona like himself would’ve been kicked out long ago.

With age, he’d started to be able to look at himself from an objective point of view. While his elders would probably still call him green, he felt he’d rounded out considerably. His teenage self probably never would’ve imagined he’d be able to paste on a sales smile the way he could now.

He picked up breakfast from a convenience store and started up the now familiar hill he traversed every day. He pa.s.sed a group of women strolling at a gentle pace and stepped into the main building through the automatic doors.

Two women with perfectly made up faces and not a hair out of place sat smiling at the reception desk greeting those who entered, be they employee or guest. But—today, their smiles seemed to be hiding something.

“Ah, Yokozawa-san! Good morning!”

“Good morning!”

The women continued to stare at him with a gaze that looked as if they wanted to say something, and Yokozawa just glared back suspiciously. He had the strange feeling he’d encountered this sort of snickering somewhere before, rather recently, but he couldn’t recall where.

“Morning… Do I have something on my face?” He couldn’t help wondering where that Ah! from earlier had come from. When curiosity moved him to ask the reason, the women attempted to placate him and pasted on their usual smiles.

“N-no! It’s nothing!”

“?”

Feeling a strange unease reminiscent of having the small bones of a fish stuck in his throat, he reminded himself it wasn’t worth pressing the matter and left the reception area behind with no further questions.

Taking a place standing behind a few editors waiting to board the elevator, he grew bored in the idle time and pulled out his cell phone, checking the texts he’d just received. And that was when the editors’ conversation happened to float into his ears.

“Man, I just cannot get over that picture Kiris.h.i.+ma-san showed us.”

“It totally threw me for a loop! I was wiped out from working overtime, but that snapped me right out of it!”

“It was kinda like getting to see Yokozawa-san’s unexpected true self, you know?”

Yokozawa had initially tuned out their conversation, thinking it nothing more than idle gossip, but his brows furrowed when his own name entered the mix. They had definitely just mentioned a photo.

On wracking his mind to remember the photos Yokozawa was aware that Kiris.h.i.+ma had of himself, all he could come up with were thosephotos—the ones that Kiris.h.i.+ma had taken of him that night and subsequently used as blackmail material. While it was hard to imagine that Kiris.h.i.+ma would show those to just anyone without reason, he couldn’t very well let this pa.s.s.

“Oi, what’s this about me?”

“Uwah! Yokozawa-san?!”

When he called out to them from behind, they glanced back with shocked expressions. One turned pale, and the other looked as if he were about to bolt at any moment.

“So what pictures did you see, exactly?”

“No-nothing!”

“If it’s nothing, then why do you look like that?”

“That’s…that’s just—”

“Spit it out!” he growled in a low voice, and the pair flinched in fright. When he fixed them both under a harsh glare, they began to speak in an attempt to explain themselves.

“W-we didn’t ask to see, understand? Just—Kiris.h.i.+ma-san was showing it off last week! Saying that you were waiting at home with dinner for him…”

“Huh?!”

“And—then he showed us a picture of you that his daughter had sent him in a text message… Where you were cooking in a red ap.r.o.n…”

He trailed off, but Yokozawa didn’t need to hear another word to know exactly where that picture had come from—mostly because the only other person who’d been in that kitchen with him had been Hiyori. He couldn’t fathom what had been going through her mind when she’d sent it, but given that he knew she hadn’t meant anything by it, he couldn’t bring himself to be mad at her. What was harder to forgive was the one who’d pa.s.sed around the photo in the first place.

This must’ve been why Kiris.h.i.+ma had been in such remarkably high spirits on returning home Friday night. With that sickly simpering smile and putting on airs…it all made sense now.

He’d been a colossal idiot to think of Kiris.h.i.+ma as a good father so easily; knowing now that he’d been making fun of Yokozawa behind his back, he felt his anger boiling over.

“I—it wasn’t our fault! You…understand that, right?”

“Forget it. Right now.” He turned a harsh glare on the pair who’d been hesitantly trying to test the waters around him and ordered them to clear their minds of the image in a gravelly voice.

“But—even if you tell us to, we can’t…”

“Stop your b.i.t.c.hing—if you can’t do it on your own, then I’ll helpyou!”

When he made a fist and raised it to face-level, they grew much more obliging. “N-no, we can do it just fine!”

“And spread the word, too! If anyone breathes a word about this, I’ll make it so they never sell another book again!”

“R-right!!” Just as they straightened up, the elevator reached the first floor, and the doors slowly opened. Despite the fact that they’d been waiting first, the pair obediently stepped to either side to let Yokozawa pa.s.s. “Please, go ahead!”

“Aren’t you going to get on?”

“Oh uh—I forgot to drop by the conbini, so—I’m stepping out for a bit!”

“Oh me too! I didn’t buy lunch yet, so I guess I’ll go, too!” They then fled the building, leaving Yokozawa to board the elevator alone.

He tsked softly. “Geez…” The women at reception had probably been snickering because they’d seen that picture of Yokozawa in an ap.r.o.n, too.

Given the time, Kiris.h.i.+ma should already be here in the office. Planning to give the guy a piece of his mind, Yokozawa pushed not the b.u.t.ton for the sales department on the 3rd floor, but the 5th instead.

Most of the editors with flexible enough schedules weren’t here at this time of morning. Some of them might not even arrive until well into the afternoon. Yokozawa exited the elevator and stepped onto the completely empty shounen manga floor, headed towards the Editor-in-Chief’s desk located near the back.

At the beginning of the week just after finis.h.i.+ng a cycle, the only person on the whole floor right now was Kiris.h.i.+ma. “Morning. You’re here early.”

Rather than returning the greeting, Yokozawa let his emotions get the better of him. “What the h.e.l.l were you thinking?!” His loud shouting echoed around the floor—and while most everyone else would’ve cowered in fear at that voice, Kiris.h.i.+ma was cool as a cuc.u.mber.

“You sure are energetic this morning. But careful—raising your voice like that will send all the blood straight to your head.”

“And just whose fault do you think that is?! I can’t believe you’d just go flas.h.i.+ng around other people’s pictures without their permission, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”

“Oh, that. Well it was just so cute I couldn’t help myself. I thought I’d show you off, and when I let Katou see it, everyone else just gathered around, see.”

“Don’t give me that just couldn’t help myself s.h.i.+t! You even went and showed it to the receptionists!”

“Oh yeah—I was bragging about you earlier, too. Hiyo went out of her way to send me a text message, after all. Going on about how I should work hard because she and Yokozawa-oniichan were makingnikujaga for dinner~”

“But that doesn’t mean—”

“Look, I even made it my wallpaper.” Kiris.h.i.+ma flipped open his phone and turned the screen to face Yokozawa. There, for all to see, was Yokozawa cutting up vegetables while wearing a red ap.r.o.n with white polkadots.

“Cut it out! What the h.e.l.l is your problem?!” In the picture, he had a knife in his hands and was peeling a potato, looking as if he’d been doing it for years. Yokozawa’s head throbbed in pain when he thought about all his coworkers who’d seen this picture.

“It’s just an innocent hobby of mine is all. Come on, it’s fine—you look adorable. This got me through the end of the cycle, you know.”

“Like I care about that! That’s not the issue here—” Sensing the presence of others, he cut himself off. Who knew what rumors would pop up next if people caught him arguing with Kiris.h.i.+ma like this.

“Good morning, Kiris.h.i.+ma-san!” Two female editors a.s.signed to the anime news magazine entered, carrying their breakfast in their hands. On catching sight of Yokozawa, they started chattering away.

“Yokozawa-san, we saw it!”

“We thought it was strange when Kiris.h.i.+ma-san was smiling like that while staring at his cell phone on Friday night, but to have it be over a picture of Yokozawa-san—! That really was quite a shock! That red ap.r.o.n really suited you—it was so cute!”

“Cu…” At their innocently spoken words, he felt a sense of vertigo wash over him. By now, he was used to hearing it from Kiris.h.i.+ma, but this had to be the first time a woman had ever called him cute.

He tossed a glance to the man standing at his side, staring off into s.p.a.ce and feigning innocence.

“…Oi. Just how many people did you show that picture to?”

“Hm? Oh, I don’t really remember… Before I knew it there was a huge crowd standing behind me, soooo…I guess most everyone who was still around?”

“You…!” When he unthinkingly raised his voice, he heard snickering voices.

“You sure are close with Kiris.h.i.+ma-san, huh!”

“How’d you get to be such friends? I never noticed you two hanging out together before.”

“We’re not close!” His brows drew together at the untruth. They probably couldn’t imagine how he’d been taken advantage of in a weakened state and was being blackmailed now. They didn’t seem to mind this response, though, and instead started their own private conversation.

“But—we saw him cooking dinner with Kiris.h.i.+ma-san’s daughter at his home! You don’t suppose he’s after her, do you?”

“Of course not! Do you even realize how old she is? I don’t have aLolita complex!” He caught Kiris.h.i.+ma grinning wildly at his unfortunate state. He could practically hear the guy thinking in his mind Yeah, cause you’re gay.

“But I never even realized you could cook~ Quite unexpected, I must say! And you even know how to wield a knife—are you good at housework like that?”

“That reminds me! A bunch of us were thinking of taking a cooking cla.s.s soon—would you care to join us? Supposedly it includes tips on how to work a bit of simple French cooking into—”

“Like h.e.l.l.” His angered voice, which could usually make anyone quake in their boots, was now laced with a streak of humiliation, and he knew that it lacked impact. Rather than quailing before the irritated Yokozawa, the women instead continued speaking as they pleased.

“…I feel like I can relate to him more now! Knowing that even Yokozawa-san has a domestic side to him…”

“Oh yes! He’s definitely more approachable now!”

“………”

Yokozawa’s head started throbbing painfully, and he couldn’t even bring himself to grouse at the gossiping women. He’d never been good at talking with women in the first place; they always burst into tears at the slightest harsh word—and if they didn’t, then instead they were always griping at him.

If he said any more than this, he was just going to be digging his own grave. Deciding he’d be better off changing targets, he turned back to Kiris.h.i.+ma. “Anyways—get rid of that picture. Right now.”

“What’s it matter if I keep it for myself so long as I don’t show it to anyone else? Hiyori went out of her way to send it to me, after all.”

Yokozawa rolled his eyes at Kiris.h.i.+ma’s pouting face. He felt bad for Hiyori, but if he let this guy keep hold of the data, there was no telling where or when he’d show it to someone. It was bad enough for him to keep the data on his phone, but to let him keep it as hiswallpaper was out of the question.