Vol 1 Chapter 6 (1/2)

CHAPTER 6

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Under the care of the Kiris.h.i.+ma household, Sorata bounced back such that he was unrecognizable as the same cat from before. Yokozawa had feared at first that he might be nervous in a new house, but he quickly warmed up to both Kiris.h.i.+ma and Hiyori. And while it was nice that Sorata was able to get all the attention he wanted whenever he desired, he seemed now to be even more needy than he had as a kitten.

While Yokozawa honestly regretted involving Kiris.h.i.+ma in all of the ruckus just because of his hasty conclusion, he couldn’t help but be relieved that there really had been nothing wrong with Sorata in the end. If it had been too late to do anything…Yokozawa probably wouldn’t have been able to recover.

Maybe Sorata really had just been lonely. Animals disliked being left all alone any more than humans, after all. Seeing Sorata playing with Hiyori without a care in the world, Yokozawa deeply regretted all the days he’d been late in coming home.

Still—it wasn’t as if he could purposefully reduce his workload, and he was doing his best now to arrive as early and leave as early as possible, even if it was a mere ten minutes either way.

“…Mornings start pretty early around here anyways.”

Wake-up calls were early in a home with a child in it. Hiyori liked to come bursting in and leap onto Yokozawa’s chest before his alarm clock went off, and despite taking heavy damage to his midsection, this was Hiyori, so he could hardly get mad at her, leaving him no choice but to get up without complaining.

While his staying here with Sorata had been an unwilling concession initially, now that a week had pa.s.sed, he found himself growing accustomed to his life here. In the bathroom, set up alongside a child’s-sized toothbrush was a blue toothbrush that Hiyori had picked out for Yokozawa.

After was.h.i.+ng his face, Yokozawa wandered into the living room, where Hiyori pounced upon him holding a hairbrush in one hand. “Oniichan! Do my hair!”

“What’ll it be today?”

“Hmm—we’ve got P.E. today, so put it in a ponytail! Oh—and I wanna wear this, too!” In the palm of her hand, Hiyori held a scrunchie that Yokozawa had bought for her. She appeared to be quite fond of it and had been asking him to put it in her hair every day.

“All right then, sit down.” Yokozawa had started helping her do her hair after seeing Hiyori reading a magazine and fretting over wanting a cute hairstyle like her friends. She’d apparently been trying to do it herself when she couldn’t have her grandmother help, but she’d unfortunately not been very successful.

Yokozawa had always been skilled at delicate operations, and so was able to quite easily give Hiyori the hairstyle she wanted. Since then, he’d been in charge of fixing her hair almost every day. She’d been particularly thrilled the time he’d given her an elaborate braid that had been the envy of all her friends at school.

“You sure are a lot more skilled than you come off.” Kiris.h.i.+ma watched in admiration as Yokozawa attended to Hiyori’s hair, the other freeloader Sorata curled up on his lap.

“You’re just really unskilled is all. Learn to at least do your own daughter’s hair, geez.”

“Hey—I can’t help it. Whenever I try, it always winds up looking like c.r.a.p.”

“Don’t make excuses. If you can typeset a manga, you should have no trouble learning to fix hair with a little practice. Hiyo—it’s not too tight, is it?”

“Nope, just fine!”

He finished the ponytail off with the scrunchie. “All right, then—you’re done. Go check in the mirror.” Yokozawa felt he’d actually gotten quite good at this by now. He was rather fastidious by nature and found he had a knack for accomplis.h.i.+ng these tasks that required dexterity and focus.

“Thanks, Oniichan!” Hiyori turned a bright smile on him and then darted into the bathroom. Watching her flit away with a pleased expression, he poured himself a cup of coffee and took a seat at the table.

“Here—you take milk in yours, right?”

“Yeah.”

Kiris.h.i.+ma pa.s.sed him the milk set out on the table. While Yokozawa preferred his coffee black, he’d taken to enjoying his morning coffee with milk since hurting his stomach once. While it may have been a futile effort, he tried to be as careful as possible, considering that he led a rather alcoholic lifestyle.

Watching Yokozawa sip his cooled cafe au lait, Kiris.h.i.+ma commented idly, “Like this…we’re kinda like a couple of newlyweds, huh?”

Certain he’d misheard, Yokozawa furrowed his brows and returned, “Huh? Did you say something?”

“I said, this reminds me of life as newlyweds. I’m the papa, and you’re the mama.” He pointed back and forth between himself and Yokozawa, face serious.

It was a rather dull joke, and Yokozawa couldn’t bring himself to laugh, instead deepening the furrow between his brows. “Stop saying weird things like that.”

“There you go again, blus.h.i.+ng.”

“I’m not blus.h.i.+ng!” He understood perfectly well that Kiris.h.i.+ma only teased him because he got riled up like this, but he couldn’t let it go. When he failed to keep his emotions in check and moved to turn the tables on Kiris.h.i.+ma, he caught Hiyori’s voice.

“What’s going on?? What’re you talking about?” Apparently she’d gotten curious hearing Kiris.h.i.+ma raise his voice in laughter and poked her head into the living room, her backpack in one hand.

“I was just telling Yokozawa how nice it’d be if he’d be our mama.”

Yokozawa stiffened at Kiris.h.i.+ma’s words. “Oi, don’t say weird things to a kid!” He hadn’t expected the guy to bring that kind of thing up in front of Hiyori of all people.

Hiyori tilted her head, following up with a logical argument: “Eeh?? But—Yokozawa-oniichan’s a boy! If he was going to be anything, he’d be a papa!”

To keep Kiris.h.i.+ma from b.u.t.ting in with any more useless commentary, Yokozawa quickly changed the subject. “Hiyo—forget your dad for now and finish getting ready for school. It’s almost time for you to meet up with the others, right?” At Hiyori’s school, children living in the same area all gathered in the mornings and traveled to school together. If a student was late, they ran the risk of being left behind.

“Really? I’d better hurry! Ah! I haven’t packed my gym clothes yet!!”

“They’re in a bag in the genkan. And—make sure you wear your sneakers today, not the red shoes!” Yokozawa had taken the liberty of preparing her gym clothes the night before after checking her schedule.

“Right~!”

Watching Yokozawa skillfully directing Hiyori, Kiris.h.i.+ma stifled a laugh and muttered, “…Yeah, you’re definitely suited to be a mama. You’re more maternal than most of the mothers around here, even.”

“Zip it!” He could feel himself growing weary from his habit of blurting things out unnecessarily, and he made a sour expression at Kiris.h.i.+ma’s observation.

“Excuse me, Yokozawa-san? I’ve put together the stockpile information for the manga print-run decision meeting at the beginning of next week, so could you please check it?”

Suddenly called out to while he was focusing on his computer screen, Yokozawa snapped back to the present. When he glanced up, he found Henmi standing beside him holding a sheaf of papers. “Sure—I’ll take a look later. Oh, that reminds me: things were pretty rough last month. Does it look like there’ll be any trouble for next month?”

Print-run decision meetings were meetings at which decisions were made regarding how large a print-run to have for a particular t.i.tle. There, the sales and editing departments and the distribution center gathered together to decide how many books to have printed based on an author’s previous works and survey data.

The distribution centers were in charge of stockpiles, and always tended to lowball the figure, whereas the editors, who worked hand in hand with the authors themselves and had helped make the books themselves, threw out jokingly high figures.

“No, I think it should be fine this time! The back issues being ordered are all works that have been shown to sell well, so I don’t foresee any t.i.tles that should cause trouble.”

“That’s good, then. We’ve never had one of these things go smoothly, though. Who the h.e.l.l do they think is out there actually selling the books?”

He personally believed that figures the sales department drew up were the most realistic. They were the ones who had a feel for the stores that distributed their t.i.tles, and all of their suggestions were made upon comparing the figures with past data as well as other parameters. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t understand the feelings of the distribution center—who didn’t want to stockpile too many t.i.tles—or the editing department—who had high hopes for the t.i.tles they’d worked so hard to bring to life—but there was such thing as an ‘appropriate volume’.

Granted that sure, for every t.i.tle that was an explosive hit and wound up selling far better than expected, there was always one that turned in disappointing sales figures, rarely did such a difference come into play.

“That’s true… The distribution center rarely agrees with our suggestions, after all.”

“Well, that’s tough s.h.i.+t for them.”

Henmi gave a bitter smile and rubbed between his brows. “I really wish we could have a nice, quiet meeting for once, though.”

“No such thing with those guys in the meeting.”

“Aah…”

With his concentration broken, Yokozawa decided to take a break, and after saving the file he’d been working on, he put his computer to sleep. Clasping his hands together and stretching, he felt his joints creaking. He’d been sitting at his desk in the same position for so long, he’d gone stiff all over. While this was usually about the time he’d head home for the day, it didn’t look like that would be possible any time soon today.

“Sorry, I’m gonna step out for a bit.”

“Bathroom break?”

“Smoke break.”

Since he’d started living with the Kiris.h.i.+mas, he’d held back on having even a single cigarette after leaving work every day. But for that reason—the number he’d indulged in during the day had spiked.

He stood from his seat, tapping his vest pocket to ensure his cigarettes were there. On their floor, there was a smoking room bounded on all sides by clear walls—in the ever-expanding environment of non-smokers, it was a bit shameful to still be indulging.

“Maybe I should kick the habit myself…” Even as he muttered the words to himself, he knew it was just lip service. He understood full well that this was doing nothing but damage to his body, but he just couldn’t help it. During work, he’d always find himself reaching out for one, and he kept his smoking at home to a minimum out of consideration for Sorata. Cigarettes weren’t just a luxury item for Yokozawa—they were the quickest way to relieve stress.

For now, though, he’d need at least one smoke to help him finish up his quota for the day, so quitting would have to come at another time. Telling himself he’d just keep it to the one cigarette, he stepped into the break area.

“…!”

Yokozawa stopped short when he realized who was already standing in the smoking room. He didn’t even need to see the guy’s face; just by his posture he knew immediately who it was.

“…Masamune…”

It was indeed Takano smoking alone. He probably had some black coffee in the mug on the counter he was leaning against, too. Despite being told time and again that black coffee was bad for his digestion and would leave a sour taste in his mouth, Takano always took it black when Yokozawa wasn’t around, refusing to even sweeten it with milk.

Perhaps he was pulling some overtime as well tonight. Takano may have been a terror to his subordinates, but he was even harder on himself. He’d at first been worried about having subordinates who were older than him, but he’d quickly realized that he had no choice but to do his job as befit someone standing at the top of the ladder, and so he loaded himself down with at least twice as much work as anyone else.

“…He looks exhausted.” Takano would never show his weak side before others, reserving any complaints and worries for Yokozawa’s ears only. The comfort of knowing he was trusted so deeply…may have been one of the reasons he’d never been able to give up on his feelings.

Simply seeing that back facing him, Yokozawa felt the feelings he’d meant to toss aside come welling back up again. He’d loved him—loved him so much, loved him more than he could help. And he’dknown that it was a one-sided love, so he’d kept quiet and simply enjoyed being able to be by his side.

Yokozawa had been the one to ask for time to let everything settle—but he knew that time alone couldn’t resolve this. He’d thought that the wound from being rejected had started to heal…but even now he could feel it throbbing painfully and realized that he still had not been able to give up his lingering affections for Takano.

What had changed from before, though, was that now…there was nohope left. That was the only difference.

Fighting back the urge to just leave, he took a step forward and pushed on the clear door, calling out in a calm voice, “Hey, Masamune. You taking a break, too?”

“Yokozawa…” Takano turned around, eyes wide and gaping like a fish.

Yokozawa had worked hard to keep from having to speak with Takano outside of meetings or work-related projects, so it had truly been a while since they’d been alone like this. He’d been afraid that he’d be a lot less eloquent when it came to this, and he felt relieved that he’d been able to pull it off rather naturally. “Doing okay?”

“More or less, yeah.”

“Eating properly?”

“Of course.”

“………”

“………”

He’d tried to start a conversation, but just like that, it had fallen by the wayside. The reason they couldn’t keep up a conversation like before was likely because they hadn’t really come to any understanding between themselves yet.

“How’s Sorata doing?”

“Energetic as ever. He’s such a fata.s.s, I can’t keep up with him.” It was bad enough that Kiris.h.i.+ma spoiled him, but Sorata was always begging for more treats. Hiyori, on the other hand, was unexpectedly strict in that respect, and kept an eye on them in place of Yokozawa.

“…So you sure seem to be close with Kiris.h.i.+ma-san lately.”

Yokozawa’s heart skipped a beat at the eerie timing that made it seem as if he’d read his mind. “We’re not close; he’s just dragging me around is all.”

Takano’s expression grew suspicious as Yokozawa’s ambiguous response. “Really? Why don’t you just turn him down if you don’t like it, then?”

“It’s not—it’s not like that, it’s just…”

If he spilled the details of how he’d gotten close with Kiris.h.i.+ma, Takano would eventually realize the pitiful state Yokozawa had been in when he’d been rejected that night—and above all else, he definitely did not want that known.

But it was almost as annoying having Takano think he was just merrily flitting about with the guy as well.

Still, when he clamped his mouth shut, unable to come up with an effective excuse, Takano seemed to not care much at all and easily changed the topic. “That reminds me—I tried calling your apartment last night, but I guess you got home really late that evening.”

“Oh—no, I wasn’t home last night. Sorry if it was an emergency.” Given that he’d just professed that he wasn’t close with Kiris.h.i.+ma, there was no way he could reveal that he was staying at the guy’s place. He knew that he wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding his discomfort, but Takano seemed even more oblivious to his feelings than usual today, and so he didn’t call Yokozawa on it.

“It wasn’t urgent or anything, so don’t worry. Were you at your parents’ place or something?”