Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Fenneko found herself in front of her office desk at Charayman, feeling the most unimaginable sensation that she had to share in her life.

Her life was going freaking amazingly, thank you very much. She started dating Seiji 4 days from the sudden confession Seiji did to her when she went out to check on him, and Fenneko was kinda processing that back at home, seeing as she never felt so alleviated before, because the way she was feeling, it was like butterflies were flying around in Fenneko’s stomach… or whatever expression romantic lingo was used to describe being totally in love.

But on the other hand of the spectrum called love?

Oh, that mess was doing terribly. The whole process of her slowly getting Jiro and Yuki to get together? Well, that was out of the window, seeing as Jiro kind of went into a cave, and wasn’t answering her messages, or anyone that was in the little group getting the two together.

This. Is. Why. She. Didn’t. Invite. Haida. TO THIS!

It was such a crying shame that Haida had the grand idea to go to the bar that he went to cope with his unrequited love all these years, like he went on a reminiscing tour and see, ‘wow, I was really a big loser! Look at me!...’

It’s all just… Ugh….

Just a week ago, Jiro could have been convinced to get Yuki as soon as the bull called it quits with the fake Jiro, as much as that man could fit a whole generation’s worth of internalised homophobia, because boy, was that guy insecure, but actually good at hiding, unlike his less cooler big brother. On the other spectrum, Yuki was currently seeing the guy, and as much as Fenneko would have preferred it if he for crying out loud started dating Jiro, the poor hyena that the bull was seeing at least should have been bidden adieu.

But that stupid, pathetic loser man she was babying for half a decade messed it up by actually not being dense enough to realise, that oh, his little brother and his best friend are being awkward around each other, and had Jiro fess up of everything that Fenneko and everyone else was working to keep the guy uninformed until it was a good time to tell him that he had some lecherous and somewhat cheesy thoughts about his best friend.

And seeing that Jiro has left her messages on read, and everyone else’s messages on read… besides one certain person that Fenneko is now putting all her eggs into saving this goddamn relationship she’s been wingmanning for a month, it was absolutely required of them that they proceed with caution.

Whoever Sakiyo’s best friend was that got into some accident that made the cow miss out the celebration party, Fenneko would kiss the gall or guy on the cheeks for being a saint, because since Jiro didn’t see her at the bar, he didn’t feel ashamed talking to her.

What a freaking beginning to the week.

First off, she’s now dating Seiji, and everyone at work knows about it. She feared that Tsunoda might get extra pissy about it and would have dropped extra work on the horse’s office, but surprisingly, she’s been really… understanding? Honestly, Fenneko thinks her getting together with Seiji might have fixed whatever was wrong with Tsunoda, because as per her last Instacop snooping, it looks like Tsunoda got herself busy with dating another random man from wherever she gets them off.

It can’t be… did Tsunoda mastermind this whole thing about getting Fenneko and Seiji together?! If she didn’t go scooping up about the man’s past, she personally would have never gone to his apartment to check how he was doing, and Seiji would have never confessed to her…

Did she underestimate the influence of the Love Ref?... Was her being worried for Fenneko all a ploy to veil her intentions?

Maybe she gives Tsunoda less credit than she deserves, because besides being ominous, it does seem like she actually does great work when she puts effort into it, usually when she doesn’t feel obligated to peeve someone else to do her work so she can do whatever while ripping the benefits of her monthly pay rate.

Looks can be deceiving, and Tsunoda might be the biggest example of it that Fenneko ever was given to look at.

Second off, Haida now knows that his ‘innocent brother’ does in fact can get intimate when he wants to, which was a surprise to both hyenas. How Haida never came to the conclusion that if his brother never had romantic feelings for any woman in his life, there was a likelihood that he preferred his partner to be the same sex as him?

And the fact that Haida had the audacity to get mad at them from hiding something like this from him… because they now had to live with the consequences of Jiro ghosting everyone, and per her own investigation, he didn’t return back to his penthouse since Monday, which meant that Jiro was slaving himself off at work for two days straight.

If Jiro didn’t remember the events that transpired on Monday, she would be biting into Haida less so pissed off, but as circumstances stood right now, she could throw the book at Haida’s face as much as she could.

Unlike her other friends, it seemed like Fenneko was an expert on relationship handling, but as soon as someone went out of hand in her plan, the whole thing was like a big highway accident that Fenneko had the displeasure to gaze at.

However, besides that atrociously bad info, Yuki manned up and called it quits with whoever he was seeing, and seemed motivated (from what Shikabane has been telling her anyway) to actually confess to Jiro so that he could get rejected and get on with his life to find a partner, but much to his surprise which he wasn’t aware of, Jiro was very much into him, and had to wait until Jiro actually reported back to them in any meaningful way.

It’s like a big reversal that happened between the two lovebirds, with Jiro now being unavailable, while Yuki was now the one that Shikabane was bossing around to make a move.

Why is Jiro even working in such an ungodly temperature? The heatwaves are so bad, that she saw Ton drop to the ground twice this week, and the AC was doing as much work as it could to help the people in the accounting department to suffer less, but Fenneko was convinced that at least half of them would be suffering under some kind of heatstroke this coming summer. To think this month of Summer was officially called the raining season of Japan...

To think she called Haida a masochist, when his brother was way more tortuous in his attempts of running away from love duties…

Speaking about her job, third off, Shikabane was now working at Charayman?!

She has no idea when, how or why her sister-in-arms in getting their idiot best friends together was doing here. Yes, Jiro was now officially her best friend, seeing as he had excellent taste in wine.

As much as she secretly likes Haida as a friend, even though she had to put up with him a lot of times, Fenneko had to admit that she had more fun and intrigue when conversing with the younger hyena. Oh, and he had way more trust in her than Haida did, which meant that if Jiro wasn’t knowledgeable about something, he wouldn’t dare question Fenneko’s intention.

The fact that she convinced Jiro to buy himself a cat-eared headphones was still the biggest funniest shit she managed to do, and oh she rues the fact that Haida recommended something else for him with better quality, with the missing cat-ears being an eyesore.

And it seems like Jiro was also the one who helped Shikabane land a position at Charayman. With what, she doesn’t know, but she feels Jiro did some illegal activity, because as Fenneko remembers, Shikabane did tell she was missing legal documents to actually apply at permanent jobs. How come Jiro broke the law for her, while all he does with her is complain about his work and about his feelings about his best friend? Freaking bestfriend-that-is-gonna-be-his-boyfriend roommate privileges, man…

She knows that the Katsumi Matoba name is fake, and Fenneko really wonders if Shikabane was actually called ‘Shikabane’. Man, to think she almost slipped on her tongue and called her by that in front of Ton, because she wasn’t going to explain to the old guy why she called the new hire a corpse.

All and all, life’s being woosy, with her doing her usual accounting job, with lunch just on the horizon.

As much as she would spend it on talking with her new boyfriend, since he knew about the situation that she was involved in, she could get him, Retsuko and Shikabane together at the lunch table, and get knacking on what they should do to battle whatever kind of predicament Jiro was in, and to fish him out from the governmental office he surely was locking himself in these two days ago.

Well, just a few more minutes until lunch break…

And just a few minutes after, she was sitting in the lunch room with Seiji, Shikabane and Retsuko, with the other two women approaching them and asking if they could sit with them, with the other two naturally obliging. It didn’t seem weird enough for Kabae to notice, and the last thing Fenneko needs to worry about is one babble mouth of a hippo spreading the mess story that Jiro and Yuki were in, and oh, that would surely cause a scandal for Jiro, seeing as everyone around Japan thought he was seeing that Yoshie person that supposedly tried imitating her to get on Jiro’s good mood.

To think that lustrous bird tried mimicking her, because her laughter was very much trademarked, thank you!

“So you’re that Seiji guy Fenneko has been talking about all this time ago.” The skunk mentioned, carelessly typing away on her smartphone.

“Seiji guy?... Wait, do you and Fenneko know each other?” Seiji of course questioned, looking perplexed that the new hire was so familiar with Fenneko.

“Yes. It’s either Fenneko talking about you in great detail, or Jiro having the preamble of stopping Fenneko on going on a grand explanation that no one asked for. Too bad Jiro has temporarily departed from our party, because I can see our gaming nights being more frustrating with him gone.”

“Gaming nights?...”

“Well… me, Retsuko and…. Katsumi knew each other for a couple months now, with Haida and a few other guys gaming with us. I’m just as surprised to see her here as you are, Seiji.” Fenneko replied, as he really looked confused by what Fenneko was telling him.

“Wait… you mean Jiro, that politician guy, is not only your wine-buddy, but also games with you?... Don’t tell me you guys play that game I’m thinking about…”

“League of Legends? Yes, we do in fact play that together. Fenneko mostly spectates with me, Tadano, Haida, Jiro and Yuki.” Shikabane shortly replied, with Fenneko seeing Retsuko turn her head around in irritation. That game does get the toxicity out of Haida, as much as it does with Jiro and Yuki, with Tadano and Shikabane being the only two people who don’t seem to get angered by the game. Fenneko might have a little bit of suspicion on why she was less than enlightened to hear the game during work.

Seiji seemed to have been…. Taking the news slowly, with his surprised face telling everything that she needed to see. To be honest, if she got a partner a year earlier, and they told her that she was friends with two influential people like Jiro and Tadano while they were an usual workbee in society, Fenneko would have big question marks on how they were able to get in contact with them.

“....Wait, so that thing I saw on a forum about supposedly Jiro absolutely decapitating a random guy in the voice chat for how useless he was was actually real?... Huh… it’s weird to imagine people like them having such mundane hobbies like playing video games…” Seiji eventually answered, pressing his hand on the side of his neck, as Shikabane only told him:

“To be fair, the guy deserved it. His KDA was atrocious, and I bet he was deranking from the way he was pretending to play.”

Fenneko had to agree with her. She was still playing during that time, and boy, was that guy not good at contributing much to the game… but besides that, she should probably get the three up to speed on what she wants to converse with them.

“Yeah yeah, enough LOL talk, unless we want to have Retsuko pull an ulcer from it…” Fenneko began, as she wondered where she would even start with this brief mindstorming session that she was dragging everyone into. “But enough about that, so… how about we talk about Haida’s brother's failing love life?”

“W-What? We can’t just-” Retsuko immediately spoke up, not knowing about the fact that Seiji was in the known, as Seiji spoke up, saying:

“I already know about that. I’m pretty sure Fenneko here made me change my entire worldview about that Jiro guy. Man, and to think I had issues…”

“...Oh…” Retsuko gasped, as Fenneko continued onward:

“So, as I was beginning to tell before I was unceremoniously cut off… we kinda had a sudden development dawn on our plan Seiji…. And it isn’t a welcomed kind of development.”

“Oh boy…” The horse only muttered, seemingly already preparing himself for whatever was gonna get told to him, as he bit on his lunch like it was popcorn, as much as meat wasn’t near where close to corn.

“I should probably start explaining what happened on Monday and Tuesday, because boy, I’ve never felt like I was speeding through life any quicker than I was previously… so, on Monday, when… Katsumi joined our department, we-” Fenneko blabbed, as she retold Seiji everything that transpired on the disaster day known as June 14th, and how Haida was at the wrong place at the wrong time and at the wrong state for his younger brother to be, and how the guy Fenneko and all the others were working hard was finally on the edge of going up to Jiro and just outright asking him out, not expecting Jiro to accept his proposal, and how all of this was just a big disaster in their plans.

When Seiji was finally up to speed, he seemed more bedazzled by everything, looking straight into Fenneko’s eyes to question if she was serious, and she was indeed serious about this.

She saw one of the Haida’s pining over one of their crushes for 5 years straight, and she was not rerunning that shit again, unless she wanted to get an aneurysm.

“Why does this sound like something Retsuko would get entangled in as the main attraction? It’s kind of weird to have two guys replacing her job from the stories you’ve related to me…” Seiji muttered, as Retsuko seemed slight of offended by that remark, as the red panda only rolled her eyes toward him, and pouted back:

“Well, I don’t always have to be the main protagonist in stories like this! These last two years already made my hair grayer than they need to be!... But I do hope we can resolve this soon, because as soon as Ichiro was able to calm down… it’s like he’s seeing ghosts whenever I’m next to him!”

“I bet Haida is realising how much a dumbass he is for the mess we found ourselves in.” Fenneko commented, but it seems like Retsuko didn’t agree with her, because…

“No… I don’t think that’s the case… it’s like… he already experimented this before and it’s all terrific to him… but I don’t really know why he’s terrified…”

“So he’s getting PTSD from Jiro’s reaction?” Shikabane mumbled, as Retsuko seemed… awkward on her choice of words, as Fenneko leaned over to Retsuko, grabbing her by her work uniform, and desperately saying:

“Wait, you two have been living together for who knows how long, and you don’t even know how Haida’s family life has been? Retsuko, don’t tell me I know more about the wreckage that Jiro and Haida have than you do!”

“I… uh, Ichiro has only told me brief stories about it. Most of them are about Jiro, and some of them are about his friends, but…”

“...But?”

“...I don’t know, it feels like he’s… ashamed of his childhood, and I always feel bad whenever he makes that glance at me where he doesn’t wanna talk to me about it..”

Retsuko replied, as the other three people seemed curious, especially Seiji, who seemed to be treating this more like an in-real-life sitcom.

“Hmm… even though I specifically said we shouldn’t bring Haida into this while we’re busy getting the two gay men together with each other, if Haida already experienced Jiro going into a total withdrawal like this one, he might be able to tell us something that we could use to lure Jiro out, and then everything can go as planned, because Yuki can go tell his feelings for Jiro, expecting a rejection, but instead, our dear bull friend will get rewarded with a million yes’s from our 4 eyed friend. Fin.” Fenneko strategized, already feeling as if this crucial information that Retsuko could get about Haida is the piece of information they need to finally make the hermit hiding in a governmental office step foot from whatever desk and computer he was typing on this very minute…

“...Are we really sure Jiro would accept the guy’s proposal?... You did stress to me that Jiro is very much coming into terms with liking men, what with the things he said that you told me…” But Seiji responded with this, which could have been a good argument as to why Fenneko’s plan wasn’t as pristine as she thought it be, but she knew Jiro for months now, and she did know him from top to bottom, which is why she answered confidently:

“Babe-” Shikabane recoiled in disgust from the pet name, Fenneko will ask her in the future when they get Yuki and Jiro together to ask about hearing pet names on the regular. “, as much as Jiro has numerous internalised homophobia in him, the worst case scenario that is going to happen is that he’s gonna come to the conclusion that he couldn’t date him with the position they were in, but he does want to genuinely date him, which is why he’s going to do the weird play of saying that he’ll consider it. If he realises that he can just hide his relationship with Yuki from his father and from news outlets, then he would answer in a heartbeat with a resounding ‘yes’.”

“...Should I be concerned that you personally can predict a politician’s thought process like this without much thinking time?...”

“Nah, I’m just really perceptive, that’s all.” She responded to Seiji, who seemed pretty shaken by Fenneko’s accurate set of actions that Jiro would do, as Fenneko realised that she didn’t have anything else to inform the group of their group’s next move, besides having Sakiyo meet up with Jiro to see how the hyena was doing, and to have Retsuko grip some juicy information out of Haida on how they should handle Jiro in this state. She should also probably invite Seiji to the group chat where every person involved in this matchmaking, from spectating to actually pulling the string behind the two guy’s back, and have the other guys get to know her boyfriend.

“If nobody has any questions, we could start talking about other stuff. Was the annular solar eclipse 4 days ago not cool?”

Nobody had any questions that they wanted to bring forth, which meant that the rest of their lunch was spent on talking about little things and it was generally small talk, but she does feel like Shikabane has gotten a bad impression of Seiji by the way Jiro has compared him to Seiya, and how she was using him as a coping mechanism on not being able to date the unicorn… but she way past that money-grubbing whore of a man!

Sure, he was cute and attractive, but he always felt untouchable, no matter how close the VR made it like it wasn’t the case… but with Seiji, the guy was actually here, not ethereal like made from a couple of zeroes and ones, and he certainly was no Hatsune Miku!

And to think Shikabane mentioned to Seiji that she thought Fenneko was only dating him because he reminded him of Seiya… how stupid of an observation…

As much as Seiji appeared irritated as the unicorn’s name was uttered, already being made victim of being compared to the unicorn many a times before, Fenneko was able to get the situation under control by telling she actually pawned off the game to somewhere else, as much as she laments on not being able to get her money back on everything that she purchased, which was thankfully a lot less than when Retsuko was seeking refuge in VR for a lovelife, but it seemed like it soured Seiji’s mood immensely…

Well, she just has to tell Shikabane after work that she shouldn’t mention that cursed unicorn’s name in front of him, and all of it should go A-OKAY.

Compared to whatever shit Jiro and Yuki are going through, her lovelife is very much going swimmingly, and she doesn’t want that to change any way soon!

If Sakiyo had to describe the situation she returned to after getting one of her best friends to the nearest hospital, the word would be… a pickle.

From what she gathered as soon as she had contact with her smartphone again, is that something went terribly awry on that celebratory party that Tadano has hosted, because surprisingly, Ichiro was now informed of the matter of their ploy that they have pulling behind his brother’s back and her own big brother’s.

They informed her of everything that happened in the bar they went to, and how Ichiro suddenly dropped himself into the bar, and how with a little bit of questioning on his side, he finally figured out that his brother and her brother were secretly fancying each other.

It was quite shocking to see Ichiro being as if he was taken into a woop with the information presented to him in such a different perspective, but she does question Ichiro’s mental processing on not being to put two and two together… However, it’s not like she wasn’t oblivious to her brother’s pining whatsoever.

In some way, she and Ichiro were kind of sharing the same predicament of them only realising both of their brother’s intentions after so many years with their respective brothers…

Maybe, after all the fog is lifted between Jiro and Yuki, she and Ichiro could look back on this time when their conspiracy put their brothers together in a more opportune and positive manner, if all of this would succeed as Fenneko has promised them.

And so, she was now playing the most crucial part of their scheme, as she convinced Jiro to come over to Q-Pot Café to have a… friendly conversation between each other.

Everyone was putting in their best wishes on her shoulders on getting through Jiro, and she wouldn’t dare disappoint them, seeing as she was doing this for her brother.

For this occasion, she was sitting alone at Q-Pot Café, waiting for Jiro to arrive, while she was haggling around in her chair in a pinkish and black punk lolita costume.

She had to think a lot on how she wanted her punk dress to look, because layering was key to doing punk lolita costumes like this one. It’s a complicated matter, because it wasn’t a simple matter of putting something on her costume, and then it was punk. She couldn’t just put a studded belt or a plaid fabric on her costume and call it a day.

With a few frills and a bow on her head, and some deconstructed fabrics and fishnets on her costume, she thinks she did a good job on getting that ‘punk’ aesthetic right.

Maybe she should have consulted Ichiro about this before she invited Jiro here, seeing as he was the king of punk, and it’s not like her own research compared to the vast amount of knowledge that the older hyena possessed.

As much as Jiro doesn’t show it, but he does favour and likes punk like his brother does, so she’s hoping her costume can alleviate the hyena and sort of calm his nerves down.

And speaking of him, Sakiyo heard the doorbell ring, catching the cow’s attention, as she saw a man enter the establishment with a face-mask, with the all familiar glasses and navy-blue suit, as Sakiyo prepared herself for the confrontation that was soon to arrive.

The hyena, which was just Jiro spotting a face-mask, soon noticed her, and…

Oh goodness… just what happened to Jiro to look so downtrodden during these two days?!

Even though there was a bit of distance between them, she could see that Jiro was looking terribly awful in the face, even with the face-mask masking a great portion of his front, and if she didn’t know that Jiro absolutely detested having make-up put on his face, she was the one who made him and herself realise to that fact, she would have mistaken that big dark eye-bags under his eyes to be some sort of shade, but if she knew Jiro correctly, that surely must be a by-product of neglecting speed.

Just what has Jiro been doing all this time… all alone?

The slow blinks that Jiro threw her ways wasn’t something she missed, as the man slowly walked towards her table, announcing his visit to her, as he took a seat opposite to Sakiyo.

On a closer inspection… she would have grimaced if she was allowed the opportunity, because the man in front of him… looked smacked, wrecked and guilt-ridden. He wouldn’t pass it on if Jiro was acting on auto-pilot at this very moment.

When their discussion was done, would he return back to work? The time was pointing to 8 P.M, which was no time for someone to continue work without having some break prior beforehand.

He wouldn’t subject himself to such tortuous and exhausting work, all because he was trying his best to avoid the people closest to him, was he?

“Jiro… I know it isn’t the most prudent to point this out to you… but even if you posses much panache in your work, all of it would go down the drain if you’re as fatigued as you look right now… speak plainly with me, how much did you even sleep this week alone?” Sakiyo stated, looking worried for the hyena, as the man looked beyond exhausted to even make the appropriate gesture he wanted to throw at her.

And it seemed like Jiro wasn’t intent on answering the question that was thrown at him, because he remained quiet.

“None, I take it… well, how about that face mask of yours?... Don’t tell me you’re actually endeavouring through whatever work you’ve been treading while not in the most perfect health?” She tried another approach, which seemed effective on getting something out of Jiro, because he responded:

“....No, I’m just hiding my identity… The last thing I need in my hands at the moment is some crazy gossip community to take a picture for us, and then I will have to… handle whatever crap our fathers would throw my way, and surely your way as well…”

“...Jiro, I know you’re smart and all… but don’t you think donning a face mask while wearing your signature while wearing your iconic work attire?”

“...Huh? You don’t mean?” Jiro muttered, as he took a glance down at his suit, surely being too tired to even gesture a nonce of surprise, as he continued onward. “...Strange, I thought I had changed myself in my office… ugh, how tiresome…”

Sakiyo didn’t need to express the hyena’s tired expression, because it was crystal clear how tired the man was if his memory was dodgy like this. Maybe she should ask… what’s causing Jiro so much grief, even though Sakiyo knew what the root cause was.

“Jiro, I hope work hasn’t been breathing down your neck, now that my brother is busy over in South Korea for work related business, and he no doubt pushed some of the work on your shoulders…”

“Well… you aren’t wrong about that, but I assure you, as much as he’s an eyesore when it comes to him being a person, he’s too prideful of a man to simply have someone else take his work he deems inferior…. Which is pretty much everyone if I had to be honest… I personally took his work after a rough hour of convincing to do so…” Jiro muttered, as Sakiyo was legit surprised to hear Jiro do something like that when it was clear that the hyena personally hated her oldest brother’s gut for all the things he put Yuki through.

“But it’s really nothing you should be concerned about… I don’t mind taking over some of my co-workers' work… since if I go through it with my own hands, there’s no way for any error to suddenly sponge itself to suddenly spring out of it…”

OK, she is fearing the worst from the way how unbothered Jiro sounds making an observation like that, so she should probably ask him about the current weight he’s carrying at the moment…

“And how many people’s work are you currently covering, if I may be obliged to know about?”

With that question put forth on the hyena, it really looked like he was skimming through his brain from everything that he was covering back at his base, as he muttered down like reading from a list in front of him:

“Well… there’s Genta’s work, then Morimoto’s, Kuse’s, Koda’s, Asano’s, Sunada’s-”

“Hold your horses there Jiro!… don’t tell me you actually volunteered to take on so many people’s work… because I don’t think it’s humanly possible to take on so many things without overexerting oneselves limits to the brink… what if people at your office take advantage of this state you’re in, and work you to death?! You do know that there’s a literal term that we Japanese people coined to describe people like you, right?” Sakiyo blurted into Jiro’s list, as she was now terrified of Jiro overworking himself to cope with everything that happened on Monday.

“Taking advantage?... They wouldn’t dare do that… they’re either too scared about my title or my demeanour to do anything rash like that…”

“Regardless, you’re doing too much work! Can’t you just like, go back to your apartment to rest up, and then return back to work with a little bit of clarity in your head? It’s not like you can’t return back to your home, right?” Sakiyo voiced, trying to ease up Jiro’s burdens with a logical explanation, but it seems like Jiro didn’t seem content with the idea, as he took his eyes somewhere else from Sakiyo’s general area.

Oh for goodness sake… that depressed look was everything Sakiyo needed to know why Jiro didn’t want to go back.

“Jiro… is there some issue I’m not aware of?” She questioned, as she was replied back with three ellipsis. She’s not getting anywhere this way…

Maybe she should conceitedly get on Jiro’s feelings, without outright calling out Yuki’s name? Maybe she should talk about her roommate’s, Azumi’s, experience?

“Since you don’t seem willing to talk about your issues, I might as well talk about a friend of mine. The reason why I wasn’t at your celebratory party that Tadano hosted was because one of her friends broke her hips, goddess knows how and why, and I was the closest person that Azumi can get a hold on to escort her to the infirmary. She’s one wild goose, let me tell you…” She began foretelling, as she tried shortening all the stories that gall went through, because there were a lot of things to account for in her life, and to think the goose was a doctor in the making.

“Ah, ‘zumi, where do I even begin with her…” Sakiyo mumbled, as she finally took a sip from the tea that was surely going cold from being unattended for so long.

“I don’t know if you still regain information about girl groups, but she is not-so-fanatically taken a-hold by one of the girls in OTM girls, has already seen at least numeral carcasses in order to get more information about human anatomy as a doctor, actually eats figs raw, and is somewhere at a Pride parade, if I do remember what she told me this morning.”

“...Why are you telling me this?” Jiro cut in, as he must have realised where Sakiyo was getting with this.

“Well, you’re not telling me about my issues, so I’m talking about the issues my lesbian roommate has been going through. I did invite you for a chat, and most of the time, it’s either me and my friends either moaning about problems, gossip about people at our university or in the media, or both of them combined…. So, unless you want to finally open up to me, which I doubt you’re going to do, I’ll just continue onward about telling you about my BFF.” Sakiyo stated, with Jiro only wincing. She knows she’s making this difficult for him, but she needs to navigate him out of that hell he dug himself as a hiding place.

“And speaking of issues… oh, how it’s lamentable how much discrimination ‘zumi went through because she wasn’t afraid to let other people know about her identity. Whether it’s guys trying to convince her that she should try giving them a chance, or other girls thinking of the worst as soon as they learn that she likes women. It’s such a frivolous and maddening thing, sure, but sometimes, I do question why some people act like this… don’t you think so?

“...Prejudice is one cloudy and steamy distraction, yes…” Jiro simply commented, as Sakiyo really feared Jiro was going to shut down from how his eyes were trying to be kept open.

“It’s so silly in retrospect… why should someone’s sexuality, nationality, and so on act as a gauging matter, when it’s really the events of a human’s that should be judged, and not something they were born with, something that they didn’t choose to do. It’s so… disheartening to know that most of the time, all of those traits were used to make a person with those traits be a scapegoat…”

“....”

“There’s so many people with remarkable talents who share traits as I described before, and people that did as many bad things as my parents and your father. It’s so hard to imagine why people like ‘zumi, my other brother, you, and-”

“...Pardon? Me?!” Jiro suddenly said, as if he had just woken up, as Sakiyo realised the grievous mistake she made.

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!

“Uh… I think you may have misheard, I actually said-”

“Don’t try to play coy with me, Sakiyo! You just referred to me! Why did I not think you wouldn’t know about it?!” He declared, as he stood up from his seat. If the place wasn’t as deserted as it was right now, surely everyone in the establishment would spot their eyes on him right now.

“Jiro… don’t run away from me, like you did to everyone else from our friends and family alike! If you do so, then there’s no one else who can get in contact with you, because-” She began to bring forth her last gambit on getting Jiro to stay, but it seems like Jiro didn’t want any of it, because he said:

“Spare me your lectures, Ushijima. Fenneko must have surely told you about my… intentions with your brother. I don’t want any of you to get in contact with me, and if I dropped dead at work for it… then it’s just what I was destined to do.” Jiro spoke, as Sakiyo felt the venom in his voice from how he switched to her surname.

“Jiro, you think I only caught wind of you fancying my brother because Fenneko told me so? I have to say, unlike your oblivious older brother, I’m pretty certain I may be the very first person who caught wind of something going on between you which best friends don’t usually share.” Sakiyo told, as it seemed to grab Jiro’s whole attention away from going away from this café, which is why Sakiyo honed onto that, saying:

“*Sigh*, if we’re being transparent, then I might as well speak plainly with you, and since nobody is here besides the workers here at this café, I hope at least you’re willing to hear me out. You’re currently a sinking vassal, and you think I want you to sink down below the watery deep?”

“Why do you care so much? What are you getting out of this, or are you just trying to reconnect me with my brother and everyone else?” Jiro stated, glaring, as Sakiyo was now shocked to hear something like this from Jiro.

“Jiro… for crying out loud, it’s what friends do! Do you know how everyone is worried about you, especially your brother? Why do you think so much less of yourself to banish yourself from your friends, and because you drunkenly confessed your feelings about my brother? Give me a good reason why.”

Jiro glared daggers at Sakiyo, but she was standing steadyfast on this front, now that her plan was going in the opposite direction.

“Don’t you think of me with ill intentions? Someone to detest for my nature? Do you even know what I said at that bar?” Jiro blurted, as Sakiyo now fully lost her temper, because this is the exact same thing she imagined Yuki saying to her while she was younger, fearing that he would hate himself for something that he wasn’t faulty for.

“Did my words fall on deaf ears? And if you’re speaking about the horn comments about my brother, let me tell you, I’ve heard worse things. I need you to look in the mirror for once, and question why you feel so ashamed of yourself.”

Jiro, upon hearing those words, quite literally growled at Sakiyo, and she knew he made that because he couldn’t come up with any excuses.

“I was there alongside you two when we were children, you know? The two inseparable boys that I was privy to have known… and I would be ashamed to tell you that in some way, I did loathe your relationship that you two had for selfish reasons, because I genuinely did like you in that way, Jiro. I was always the one who was intruding in your business with what you had with Yukiharu, and I always found it troubling that you two seemed so attached to their hips, until I realised why that was the case. I don’t really like the wording I’m gonna use for this, but he deserves you way more than I did.” Sakiyo confessed, as that look Jiro gave her was not something she wanted ever directed her way, but she was simply too mad at the moment to care about that.

“What do you hope to achieve to reminisce and concede your past crush on me? Why do you want me to burden your brother who’s been treated like garbage nearly all of his life to be together with someone like me, when he could be with that hyen-”

“Could you please shut up about your self-deprecating comments and open your ears for this one, okay?! I’m going to blurt it out in a slow, and precise manner so that even you can understand it. My brother, still, likes you, you damned buffoon!” Sakiyo interrupted, as Jiro’s face looked downright fanatical. He must be thinking that this was all a big, fat lie.

“Like me?... Haha…. Hahahahahahaha…. Saki- No, Ushijima, if I had more foresight, I would have said you shouldn’t make me laugh, but it looks like your claim was just too bizarre for me to process! Just stupid do you think I am to be convinced that your brother likes me when he’s dating someone el-”

“Sorry to jump into your rambling, but surely you’re not obtuse enough to not realise how closely he resembles you in looks?... Wait, do you even know what their relationship is like at the moment? You don't even have a speck of knowledge that the two broke up, do you?”

And just like that, as if Jiro got slapped in the face, Jiro’s entire demeanour changed from asinine laughter to looking downright horrified.

“...What? But wh-”

“Because Yuki realised he was simply using Yoshio as a means of distraction from his true feelings, and now knows that the one man that has his heart wrapped in the moment is none other than you. Jiro, if you’d just simply did a single thing for yourself in your life, you could drive over to where Yuki is living, go confess to him, and he would accept without any questions! Why are you being a wuss, when you simply could have the man that your heart wants, who’s so easily attainable to you at the moment? What’s stopping you from all this?!” Sakiyo blurted, hoping that the workers here, who were her friends at the moment, were deliberately keeping their ears shut from this discussion… as she glanced at Jiro just standing there, staring at nothing in front of him, all hollow-like… looking as if he was all empty inside…

“...You’re still childish… don’t you know why I’m doing all this, even now that you personally told me that he’s broken up with that stupid hyena? Do you?!” Jiro questioned to Sakiyo, as she could only see a broken expression in the hyena’s eyes, but she wouldn’t get discouraged to spit some truth in his head, which is why she answered:

“Because you’re still affected by what your father has said to you, that you’re some ineffective, ab-”

“As I thought… you think you had me figured out… but that is not the reason why I’m denying myself from Yuki.” Jiro stated, as Sakiyo really questioned in her mind whether she should knock Jiro dead and drive him to Yuki’s apartment to show him that her brother does actually love him… but… “If you maybe put your eyes in the future, and thought what your brother’s future would have been like if he was with someone like me, then you would have realised that all you’re doing right now is self-indulging your want on us, without questioning how much danger I would put Yuki through! You know how adamant my father has been in pushing me to get a wife, to produce an heir, and how much he would go to extreme lengths to ensure that everything went to by his design, could you please… enlighten me what he would do if he found out I was dating Yuki… hmm?”

And then’s when Sakiyo finally realised Jiro’s true motive from staying radio silent with all his friends. He must have realised what they were doing with him and Yuki… and he’s trying to protect Yuki from whatever kind of imagination he’s envisioning in the future!... But…

“If that’s the case, then why are you cutting contact with all of us, besides me, who wasn’t at the party! It doesn’t make sense for me to indulge you in conversations like this, while you deny everyone else in our friend group that privilege! You surely must have seen the mountain range of comments that everyone has sent you, but you only responded to me. You think you have yourself figured out, Jiro, but I’m afraid as a spectator, I have more evidence on the bay to think that you’re not only making yourselves into a governmental office hermit due to my brother’s safety… but also because you’re still confused about loving my brother, don’t you? Could you *enlighten* ME why is that the case, hmm???”

But she knew that reason already, knew that his motive wasn’t as simple as trying to keep her brother safe from his feelings, but also because underneath all of that lies he convinced himself, he didn’t see that he was doing this to himself… because he hates himself, because his father’s words are still being echoed in his ears, because he was too confused at the moment, and was acting like a coward because of it!

“..I.. well-” Jiro only yammered, as it really looked like he was about to take refuge by retreating, which is why Sakiyo knew this was gonna be the last sentence that she would tell Jiro, which is why she put on her biggest glove that she had in her arsenal, and tried aiming at Jiro’s face:

“Fine, go retreat in your office, and see what good that does to you mentally and physically, and all your friends and family alike. I would be lying if I said I didn’t care about you in the slightest, but know that if my brother’s heart breaks because you were too much of a coward to actually do something with your messy feelings, then know I will never, EVER, forgive you for it, you understand?! We all know what the most logical thing is for you to do, but if you’re so rigid to decide for yourself, then I suppose there’s no saving you. I just hope it isn’t going to take another decade for you to wake up from the invisible clutches that your father still has on you, as much as you think yourself liberated from him.”

With that piece said to him, Sakiyo kind of regretted the ruthlessness in her words, because it seemed like Jiro was just a few steps away from breaking down and there, but he thankfully had enough energy still to hastily leave this establishment, as she now wondered if her feelings didn’t get the best of her.

She hopes she got through to Jiro in some way… but she should first tell the workers here, or her friends, that they should keep all of this a secret, and then inform everyone of their new development.

She sincerely hopes that’s the thing Jiro needed to hear to get a grip on himself… because otherwise, she’s not quite sure she could face Ichiro again, if she’s responsible for blowing all of their chances in the air.

When Haida read this message, all alarms were activated, surging him to DO something for his brother, because this can’t happen again! Not again, like that time when…

But thankfully, before his mind could spiral into that morbid time of his life, he could feel his hand suddenly being touched by a certain red panda sitting at their dining table, also reading the notification on her phone…

“Ichiro… we shouldn’t panic yet! Let’s just wait what the rest of the week has for us, and we can wet our pants about it!...” Retsuko tried reassuring him, as he could himself be grounded to the earth.

He had to admit, if Retsuko wasn’t with him at this very moment, and all of his other friends who were in the known about Jiro’s and Yuki’s mutual pining, he might have taken a week off to actually process the mindblowing information he learnt from his younger’s brother own words, and then their friend’s own mouth that he interrogated on his own, and he had to admit, after a good round of explanation from Fenneko and from Retsuko specifically, he now understood why he was kept in the dark.

If the mess he found himself wasn’t a big tell, he was kind of a kingmaker in the two man’s relationship, and now that Jiro knows that Haida knew about his liking to Yuki, he must have been thinking that he thought him to be some kind of freak, like their father described people who didn’t conform to the norm.

Dammit, that old log of a man was still affecting his life and Jiro’s… Stupid, freaking bastard…

“Yeah… I guess so, but this is all happening again like last time, but instead of Jiro hating me… it’s him thinking that it’s the reverse now…” Haida mentioned to Retsuko, as she nodded worryingly at him.

“...Ichiro… I know you don’t like talking about your past that much… but what is this last time you’re speaking of? Did he ghost you in the past before?”

Retsuko replied, as Haida wondered… if he should really tell the experience Ichiro had to go through when all went to shit in his life, where he quite literally lost his drive in his future… when Jiro could only look at him in that seething, disappointing anger.

He doesn’t like thinking about it… but if he's not gonna tell his own wife about it, or his friends, then they couldn’t come up with any counterplans they could do to reach out to Jiro. If everyone was involved in rescuing Jiro from whatever metaphorical castle he was hiding himself in, then there was a higher likelihood of them succeeding than him being the sole knight rescuing his brother and escorting him to his bull-horned lover.

“Well… to be truthful, yeah. You do remember the big fuck up I did on his 13th birthday, right?”

“...Yeah… I know why you did that, but I really don’t blame Jiro for blowing up on you… but you never told me what happened afterwards… what happened afterwards, Ichiro?”

Retsuko questioned, as Haida decided that he should oblige Retsuko on those painful 2 years, the years he was keeping locked all this time to himself, the reason why he always urged people to use his surname when referring to him, because those 2 years…

Solidified his hatred for the name that was given to him…

10 to 12 years ago, while Ichiro was still living at the Haida residence.

It was Jiro’s 14th birthday.

He tried everything in his power to make it as exciting as he could for Jiro… but when he tried to invite Yukiharu to his birthday party, his mother only responded that he was currently unavailable to come to his birthday party.

Ever since Ichiro started going to Senior High School, he couldn’t get in contact with the bull, and by the way he didn’t come to their estate anymore, it was quite obvious to Ichiro that Jiro was suffering from Ichiro’s massive mess-up. No wonder his younger brother now hates him, because Jiro might as well have been taken prisoner by his father, from the way he’s taken him off junior high-school to privately home-school him, and as much as Jiro is trying to appear unbothered by it…

Ichiro knows he doesn’t like it, he HATES it.

All of this because Shishido decided to include some edgy rhymes about the current political sphere, and it just happened that a few clips from ZooTube emerged right around election day, which thankfully still secured his father’s position, albeit with a tight vote difference between him and the opposition party, but he knows that his father wouldn’t forgive him for smudging the Haida’s family reputation like that…

He bought things that Ichiro knew Jiro really wanted, like this old manuscript speaking of many Japanese historical records, and he hoped… maybe Jiro would look at him in that same glance he always looked at him, with admiration… and not resentment.

He still hated him. Why did he think giving him a good old book would make him forgive him for landing him in such a position.

He was thinking he was mocking him when he had the book in his hands, and even though Ichiro tried his best to explain that it was a gift and nothing else, Jiro wasn’t listening.

He made up his mind, and their father was all the more happier to see Jiro reacting like he wanted him to.

Their dad… Ichiro was gonna make sure he would rip off that smirk he spotted, and make Jiro hate him instead!

He heard Jiro’s dream talking when Ichiro was back in the estate a bit after midnight, and the things he’s been saying… was he…?

Ichiro really couldn’t ignore him, which is why he decided to snoop into his room… to hear him… crying.

Just how long has he been crying along in this room…?

‘Dad… I don’t want to do this… please….’

Ichiro froze up. He kept his hands on the sliding door, not daring to move any further.

‘I don’t wanna do this…. Someone… please help me…

He needs to move. He doesn’t need to overhear what he’s expecting his younger brother to do. Move. Move. Move. MOVE.

‘Where’s… Yuki?... He always protected me… Unlike… Him…’

He doesn’t even speak fondly of Ichiro even in his dreams. He was done with him. His younger brother… hating him?

‘Yuki… please… save me… from this hell… I’ll be normal… I promise… I won’t be a failure like hi-”

He couldn’t listen to this anymore. He hated Ichiro. He hated Ichiro. He hated the person who he admired most. He stopped admiring his older brother. Maybe… he IS a failure…

How could he get Jiro to hate him…?

Haida was leaving his home. He was going to college, and only his mother was seeing him get driven to an apartment near the school. They were at the entrance of their mansion, and Haida might as well have lost all passion inside of him.

If everything, it would be a miracle if he was even gonna pass through the first year studying there.

Jiro was already making more progress in his knowledge than Haida was doing, and he was only 15 years old.

A 15 year old who probably hated their life more than Haida did. That sad, despoted face of his… still haunts Haida, whenever he has to look at him…

And to think Jiro gave so many excuses for him back in the past… no wonder he was the most disappointed with him in the whole wide family of theirs…

Maybe, if Haida was just a good, disciplined boy, and did everything that his father said him, would Jiro be standing outside, with his father and mother in tow, waving goodbye in a successful career of him being a politician, while he still was still best buddies with Yuki, who now wasn’t one with the ghosts, and was actually there with Jiro, instead of wondering where his best friend has disappeared to, probably being teased about it at the highschool that Ichiro once attended…

Jiro would be happy, Mom would be happy, Dad would be happy, Yuki would be happy, he would be happy…

But Ichiro messed it all up, and it’s because he was a stupid fool.

He truly hated Ichiro. That stupid jerk is why he’s only seeing his mother wave at him somberly, while Jiro must be getting screamed at to learn, learn, learn…

He hated himself…

He hated Ichiro…

Haida finished recounting everything to Retsuko, as he felt… tears building up in his eyes.

Damn… was he… actually wailing?

And he was doing this in front of Retsuko… man, he was a total failure of a ma-

“Ichiro… if you want to cry… then you don’t have to hide it… because I… I’m already crying.. About it… *sob*” Retsuko suddenly grasped onto Haida’s shoulder, as Haida looked down to see Retsuko… looking teary-eyed at him.

“Retsuko… but it’s… all my fault that Jiro’s suffering… while I’m all useless like… and being happily wed to you… why do I deserve this-”

Before Haida could finish his explanation, Retsuko pinched him on his cheek, making Haida stop in his tracks, as the red-panda before him was now sobbing madly at him, yelling at him him:

“It isn’t your fault, Ichiro!... None of this was your fault! It was all of your stupid’s father’s fault for making Jiro into this! You’re way better than that jerk, chubby dickhead!”

“But…”

“You didn’t ruin Jiro’s lovelife either! We can still get the two together!” Retsuko replied in kind, which was the exact thing Haida was going to ask.

These words being told to him… it was… hitting him in all the spots unexpectedly…

God, why does it feel like… he needed to hear those words… of not being the reason why something was going amiss in someone’s life… That everything still could be fixed…

Maybe he failed a decade ago… but he’s better now, and he wasn’t going to mess up this relationship that he finally regained with his brother!

He was going to help his brother out, whether he wanted to have him there or not, and he now had Retsuko, and everyone’s help in supporting him got together with his best friend!

Yoshie has been quiet for some time now, and Touma doesn’t know if he should be worried about it or not.

His daughter wasn’t the most chatterboxest of people he knew about, but he knew something was up with her. If anything, it’s about Juzo’s son that she has to deal with right now. Why Juzo had the bright idea to home school him when Jiro was doing absolutely fine at highschool was something he will never see eye to eye with the hyena.

He had the time to talk with Jiro privately, which he used to have a fruitful conversation with the hyena about the future steps the hyena might take and how it would affect his fossil fuel company in the future.

He was also privy to some information regarding the Old Age Extermination Bill, and he really wonders how Jiro was able to convince the old loafs in the big house to be convinced so much that he had to endure Juzo’s rage by telephone.

Maybe if he didn’t put so much pressure on that poor boy’s back, Jiro wouldn’t have retaliated in such a manner that Touma could tell was practically targeted against people like him. He messed with the wrong man, and is now paying dearly for it.

“So, Jiro has passed the Old Age Extermination Bill through most of the people in office. What do you say to that, my dear?” Touma said, as he took a gulp from the honeyed cuisine they were having for dinner.

“It’s what I expected of him to do… but I do have to comment that I find it weird that he went radio silent on me.”

His daughter replied, forking the food on her plate, looking disappointed with herself, if Touma could still see properly.

“Radio silent? I’m pretty sure Jiro’s father has informed me that Jiro locked himself in his office, and asked me precisely if it’s something that you might have done. But I assume you don’t know why he’s doing this, right?” Touma spoke, as he found it strange why the hyena was working himself to the bones when it was about time for him to relax more after doing something as grand as getting his bill positively rated at the big house. If he was his son, he would have dragged the boy out of that office and negotiated a week off for the boy to enjoy.

“Father, even you don’t know why Jiro’s been doing an ungodly amount of work?... That is… indeed strange…” Yoshie pondered, as Touma now was relatively sure that whatever motive Jiro had for staying in his office for 2 days straight, it wasn’t work related.

“I don’t… I had a meeting with him on the weekend, as you know, and he seemed fine to me, so it’s possible we have to wait for him to get himself out of whatever work he’s busying himself at the moment.” Touma voiced, making his daughter put a glance at him for a bit, until she eventually returned her attention to her dish.

Maybe she didn’t want to burden her father on how stressed she’s feeling about this, but he could practically tell that she was on edge from Jiro making such an unpredictable action, delaying a date that they would have had on Tuesday.

In her mind, everything was going more smoothly in their dinner dates, and this abrupt change of Jiro must surely have alarmed his daughter with the most worst-case scenario events in her head, like how that fennec fox of a friend that Jiro had at some firm company broke up with Jiro and how he kept it a secret or such some gibberish that woman like her daughter would entertain themselves.

He doesn’t know what Jiro’s reasons are for slaving himself away in his office, but he could definitely tell it wasn’t due to him harbouring a secret relationship with another woman that Juzo surely would disapprove of, but something more… personal, if he had to hazard a guess. Maybe it had something to do with Jiro’s older brother, perhaps?

The two of them continue eating their sweet and nutritious dinner, as Touma wondered if he had enough energy to go to play mahjong at his favourite bar, which was an assured no, as he took a big yawn. He cursed within himself this waning flesh of his, and how he missed his youthful body of his.

“The dinner was delicious. If you don’t need any help getting up, then I shall take my leave.” Yoshie announced to him, as the old bear glanced at her, deciding whether he wanted to discipline her for making fun of his age in such a subtle way, or accept her help, since try as he might, it felt ridiculously awkward for him to get up from his chair.

“You don’t have to, my dear. I’ll just holler at our servants, and they will transport me to my bed!” He replied, as Yoshie took this as a cue to take her leave.

He really wonders if his dear little daughter was doing as sweetly as she’s trying to make herself appear as, because he just knew Yoshie must have lost sleep from the way she had to play around Jiro and his stoicness.

Maybe him joking that Jiro was in fact in love with his work wasn’t so much of an overstatement, because boy, was that man obtuse when it came to romance with the ladies. When he made a joke about how he would impress his daughter in the future, he took the whole meaning literally.

No reason Yoshie was stressing herself, trying to get Jiro to like her back and take her hand in marriage, because as he saw it, it was possibly impossible for her to do so.

Jiro was a lovely individual… but if he had to be honest, there definitely was better choices for his daughter to fall in love with, and as much as she tried convincing him that he was the perfect candidate for herself to marry, Touma knew there must have been somewhere out there who was way better for her than Jiro, and how he wished he could help his daughter see that… but as per their agreement with Juzo, she was now trying her hardest on getting the young hyena to like her back.

Maybe he could try convincing Juzo to break up their agreement? He was sure Yoshie would be devastated by the news… but he couldn’t just turn a blind eye on how this has been affecting his daughter, and how depressed she has been for quite some time on not succeeding on what was expected of her to do.

His little princess didn’t deserve to have such a bouldering responsibility on her shoulders, when she should be enjoying her life more while she’s still so young…

About two decades ago…

Touma has successfully adopted Yoshie into his household, even though it took some hoops to be jumped through to get the 4-year old girl into his home, really wondering why they needed for him to have a wife that was alive at the moment to make him eligible to even adopt, as he wondered if the Yoshie that he would have had would have ended up acting as shy as the canary, who he was supervising take a look around her new room.

For her wife to… perish like that, while she carried the child the two of them would have had was still hurting Touma, even after he had 4 years of retrospection on the matter.

Oh, he wished she would still be here… but he had to accept reality, and look after this young girl who he was gonna take care of like she was his own flesh and blood, and make her as happy as he would have done for his own daughter.

He was leaning on the doorframe, gauging the young girl’s reaction to this enormous room that she had for herself, who seemed still shocked to have this big of a room to herself, compared to whatever kind of sleeping room the orphanage had for her, as she now took a gander at the toys he bought for her.

“...Mr…. Is this… for me?” The young canary questioned, raising the doll to the bear, as he giggled from how awestruck the girl was still, even though he held her hands while showing her through her new house.

“Yes, it’s all yours, Yoshie… but dear, could you please call me… Papa? It’s what I am now to you!” He asked of the young canary, as it took some seconds for her to grasp what he wanted to hear from the young girl, as she said:

“...Papa?”

Oh, so this is how it felt to be a father… to be a parent… Sukekiyo was quite accurate to describe it as having this warm and giddy feeling of having something as small to provide for…

“Yes!... and you’re my little princess of a daughter who I will undoubtedly gonna spoil in no time!... So, how do you find your new bedroom, Yoshie?”

“...It’s big… and pretty… is it really all mine, Papa?” The girl asked, as the bear gave him a positive nod.

“Do you wanna take your time getting used to it, or do you want me to continue our tour in your new home?” He asked, as it seemed like his words fell onto the garbage bin, because Yoshie now busied herself looking through the big box that had all of her new toys, and looking more excited the more she grabbed out of it.

Touma smirked to himself, wondering if Rie was able to see him, and how even though it might not be the daughter that combined their genes, he was going to take care of this girl as much as he could, even if she wasn’t able to be there for them.

Touma returned from the memory dive he had, as he noticed that it was about 20 years ago since he adopted Yoshie, and how he was able to watch her grow up all healthy, big and successful, and even though Yoshie was living comfortably… he still wants to spoil her a little bit more, which is why he decided at this very moment to message Jiro for another talk this weekend, and try gauging whether Jiro was ever gonna invest himself in this relationship, or if he would wanted to drop the deal between him and Yoshie altogether.

Jiro should probably be free on the weekend, because not even the people there would have allowed the guy to be at the office, because there must have been some kind of rule in the JISHA guidebook whether Jiro was allowed to be working so much in a single week, right?

And if Jiro was able to find a loophole in it, then he would go there personally, and personally drag him out.

He just hopes he doesn’t have to resort to that, and the hyena finally pulls himself together for whatever mess he’s in for wanting to work himself to the bones at such an alarming rate…

She didn’t expect Tadano to fly them over to Hokkaido again, even though they should be more concerned for Yuki’s and Jiro’s relationship at the moment, but yet, here she was, in the same ramen restaurant as before, slurping on her ramen like the donkey was next to her.

She should probably question why he was spending so much time with her, even though they could have done this on their phones, but she had to admit… It felt nice having so much attention on her that didn’t come from Yuki for once, but by a friend that just so happens to be loaded in cash. Really made herself feel more special, even though she knew it was kind of cringe to think of it like that.

If anything, having Yuki and Tadano put so much attention on her surely must mean a bad omen would await the two, because the previous person who had Shikabane in front and centre in their whole life… they…

No… the two of them weren’t anything like him… they would be fine…

“Hmm… this hits the spot… right, Shikabane?” Tadano suddenly mumbled, snapping Shikabane out of thinking of that man, as the skunk lazily rose her eyes at the man, simply shrugging, and saying:

“Yeah… it tastes like heaven compared to Yuki’s cooking. It is a big cooking diff if I had to describe it.”

“And what a difference it is! Just how do you survive on that crap he’s cooking for you? I’m still reeling whenever I have to think about that god awful picture you sent me of when he tried cooking simple eggs for you two!” Tadano smirked, as Shikabane gave the man the most apt description on how she was still alive:

“I adapt like when we play LOL. Sometimes I suffer through it. It makes me feel more alive when I have a stomach cramp.”

“...You two are gonna end up in a hospital soon if Yuki continues to play chef… you know that, right?” Tadano advised, as she just gave a ‘whatever’ shrug at him.

She knows she could theoretically cook better than him, but she never had fun doing chores like that… and because she wasn’t able to, even if she was forced to do so. Her hands… always shakes and trembles when she’s in the kitchen and whenever she wants to cook something for herself… even boiling water made her hands uneasy.

“...Maybe you could try cooking for you guys? I don’t know if you can do that, but I bet everyone can cook better than the bull you’re living with.”

“...But then you would have no reason to invite me here… and I don’t want that.” Shikabane responded, as she didn’t want to tell Tadano *why* she didn’t wanna cook, as the donkey gave her a small smile.

“Well… I guess so, but it’s not like you have to cook every time. Maybe I could come over and do it in place for him? I might not show it, but I know a few recipes that I can make by myself!”

“...You won’t install some kind of robot in our kitchen if I accept, would you?” Shikabane retorted, as Tadano only giggled from the slight jab she made, soon replying back:

“No installation fee, since I don’t need any kind of AI help for it. I can do stuff on my own without having a bunch of programs assist me, you know?”

“Hmmm…”

After that ping-pong of a conversation, Shikabane and Tadano eat their ramen in peace, as the skunk tried memorising the taste of eating such a good meal for once for dinner, because it was a rare moment for her to eat takeouts, because Yuki was very strict on trying to not get her addicted on eating that ‘crap’ when they could get it cheaper by cooking it themselves.

Still… she has to worry why he tried telling her that, because when he tried baking a pizza for them… yeah, it’s too traumatising to think what he presented to her, because it looked like a smudge monster when she had it on her plate.

However, the taste was kind of… OK… so she’s still conflicted on how she should judge that thing Yuki baked for them…

It’s like he was a character from a manga who’s cooking was different every time he cooked, because sometimes, she gets the privilege of eating the most delicious thing she’s ever eaten, but most of the time… it was rat poison. Maybe all he needs is some kind of supervisor who can enforce the bull to actually follow the cookbook without improvising or replacing an ingredient with something else to ‘experiment how the flavour would come out as’.

Maybe it was divine punishment as to why he was getting ghosted from Jiro at the moment, who was practically ghosting everyone else too. And it seems like it wasn’t changing anytime soon, because it seems like Jiro even refused Sakiyo’s words at the moment, which is what she wrote to them all in the group chat.

“I wonder if Jiro is going to get out of his prison he’s in, and start responding to Navi’s messages soon. As much as it is funny that he was the one getting no replies from a hyena, he’s been getting on my nerves from how gloom and doom he’s being about it…” Shikabane muttered, munching on her ramen, as the donkey next to her waited until he ate whatever he had in his mouth, and said:

“Well, we just have to hope that Sakiyo’s words were enough to make a dent on him. We’re like… a few steps away from having the two meet up and have them finally confess to each other, and then everything will return back to normal. It’s sort of dragging on, don’t you think so?”

“Yeah… even though Navi is still pretty much being a wuss on actually going through with it… as soon as he does it, he can finally calm down a bit, and then I’ll have inner peace for all eternity until I die.”

“...Let’s hope that’s the case, and we didn’t somehow jinx it. Haida kinda has been sloppy at work and I bet as soon as his brother is hitched, he’ll be sure to improve himself from whatever worries he had for his younger bro.”

The two conversed, as she now tried to imagine what her life would be like if they managed to get the hyena and bull together. Maybe she should pressure Yuki to live with Jiro and then she would have an apartment all to herself… but Yuki would surely take her with him, and it would be nice living at a nice penthouse like Jiro’s… and living alone sounded kind of… lonely, now that she thinks about it.

Maybe living in a party at Jiro’s penthouse didn’t sound too bad… even though she could imagine Yuki trying to get bold with Jiro in some way that would surely make Shikabane’s stomach swirl, and it wouldn’t be ‘cause of his cooking this time around.

“...Me too. The two losers deserve each other.” She replied, as she knew that even though she referred to Jiro as a loser, he very much was just a little level on the level scale, unlike his older brother and best friend. It would have taken real talent for someone to outdo Yuki’s loser’s tendencies, and she was convinced nobody was going to outperform whatever Haida was doing.

And just like that, the two continued eating their steamy ramen. It’s not like they had much to talk about, because she wasn’t invested whatever Tadano was working at, and she knows talking about her work wasn’t as exciting, because would Tadano really like if she told him that the pink hippo who was currently her master is being very motherly to her… and how weirded out she is by that? It’s so strange, because she never thought someone like Kabae actually existed, and all of that junk she read and watched on the internet was all lies. Mothers surely didn’t act so caringly… did they?

Oh, maybe she could ask Tadano about something else… like…

“Tadano… I’m kind of curious… but why do you spend so much time with me? It’s sort of weird that you like hanging around with me, even though most guys are kind of weirded out by how I use gamer lingo.” She asked sincerely, because even though she knew Tadano wasn’t like those guys who went all cringe on her just because they learnt that she was a girl, she was wondering what made the billionaire prefer her to everybody else. Even though Haida was his friend, he didn’t invite him as much as he did with her.

Tadano took a moment to dissect that, clearing his throat, turning his head to her, as he simply stated:

“Well, I just like hanging around with you. You are brutally honest, and let me tell you, it is kind of funny whenever you refer to something in a non-ordinary manner.”

“If you like hanging around brutally honest people, why don’t you hang around with Jiro more? I know, or hope at least, that you’re not into me, but I think being around a guy instead of a girl would be better.” She responded, as Tadano seemed surprised by what she exclaimed to him.

“Oh, Jiro kind of dislikes me, and for pretty good reasons, and I really don’t mind that you’re a girl!”

Shikabane only nodded, as Jiro’s dislike wasn’t something the hyena was hiding, and she didn’t know that was because he was Haida’s boss, or because he disagreed with the donkey’s ideals. She’s pretty sure it’s due to both, but it could be something else entirely.

“Even though I met Jiro for a good 6 months now, it seems like he thinks my dream is still stupid, which kind of makes sense, since he’s always doing things the most rational way… and I had to admit, by vision is pretty far out of there by how the world is structured at the moment. However, you on the other hand… you don’t give a flying crap about what I have in store in the future, do you?”

Tadano questioned, as Shikabane came to the conclusion that he was stating facts with that, because even if her job got replaced by some robot, she could always go job hunting with her new ID that Jiro generously provided for her, and having everything automated sounded kind of epic, now that she thinks about it. The technology for that was still… new, because whenever she thinks of AI, she has a flashback to all the clownery that the tech bros make around social media. Maybe with a few regulations here and then, those breeds of man would die out, and then she doesn’t have to pretend they don’t exist whenever she goes scrolling through her feed on Twitter.

“Guess so.”

“See! Jiro on the other hand always comes up with a thesis amount of research on how my dream is all unrealistic like, and I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I always felt degraded by him, even though he doesn’t mean it like that. Sometimes, I wonder if he specifically learned about this specific law or specific this or that to spite me, because I’m pretty sure I learnt more about policies and politics than I did when I asked ENI-O about it. That hyena could beat a machine when it came to overdumping information.”

Tadano replied, as she wondered just how much time of their conversations where Tadano had to awkwardly stand there, while Jiro must have used thousands of bullet-points to argue with the donkey. She hopes that she never gets involved in an argument with the hyena, because only masochists like Yuki enjoyed getting screamed at by him.

“...Oh, and I guess he’s kind of never let go of the fact that I bought a whole internet café for myself, and how I basically threw a bunch of homeless people into the streets…” Tadano suddenly said, as Shikabane wondered why he felt so ashamed when he said that.

“...I could see why he would get upset about it… is it where Retsuko’s political HQ was when she went against Jiro in the election?”

“...Yeah, at Anagura… so now that we’re talking about it, could I-”

“Yeah, no. You don’t have to apologise for that. I wasn’t at Anagura when you bought it for yourself, and it’s not like I would have cared if I was still there. I would have bounced to another café. It’s not like you were the first guy that bought a whole internet café for themselves. Be it for their own amusement or some events, you know?” Shikabane stopped the donkey in his tracks from throwing an apology party, as the donkey seemed beyond surprised at how neutral Shikabane was to this. Maybe it really was inhumane how much she didn’t give a crap to this, huh?

“But… I still kicked people out of where they lived, didn’t I?... You surely wouldn’t just brush it off like that?...” He responded, as Shikabane just shook her head, telling him:

“The guys living in internet café’s could always go to another one, it’s mostly an inconvenience to them. It’s like watching an unskippable 20 minute cutscene that you already saw in a video game.”

When the donkey didn’t respond to her as soon as she said this, Shikabane motioned her head to look at him, whose jaw was wide open.

“Oh… I didn’t expect you to be so… impartial to all of this…”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Shikabane questioned, as Tadano took a few seconds to really formulate what he wanted to say to her, or so she thinks, as he said to her:

“Because, you know… It’s kind of awful that people like your past self had to rely on internet café’s to have a roof over their heads… many people have a place they call their home… and I shudder to think how most of those people would react if some guy just rented their home for a whole month, and now they had to look somewhere else to sleep…”

“Some peeps are just less lucky than most people. It’s really not your fault for why they exist.” Shikabane reassures Tadano, because she can already see him making it his own mission to help people like her out.

“Well, I might as well try changing that with the help of Jiro, now that I have to repay a debt for my own selfishness, you know!”

Damn, was this guy predictable.

“...Thanks for that. Guess the people down in the slums can count on you two to make their lives better.” She commented, as the donkey gave him a cheeky smile. She liked him being like this more than whatever sad expression Tadano was doing moments ago, that’s for sure.

“But I gotta wish you both much luck, because it’s going to be a difficult quest to complete with what we have now in Japanese society and all.”

“...Yeah, you’re not exactly wrong about that…”

The two said, as both of them, or it simply being Tadano throwing out ideas on how he could improve the lives of internet café surfers and less fortunate people like him with the help of Shikabane, as she just shrugged off the idea and or said it might be helpful.

Even though Tadano was a bit out of tune with people like herself and others, the donkey had his heart in it on trying to help the small people like herself.

Maybe if Tadano was in charge years ago… maybe he wouldn’t have…

No, she shouldn’t worry about him anymore… he’s already gone, and no mourning would bring him back into Shikabane’s life.

Yuki stood in the kitchen, glaring at the brown-coloured miso soup that he wanted to surprise Shikabane as soon as she returned back from her trip with Tadano…

From the looks of it, it didn’t look edible… but he thought slightly letting the soup run on the heat would bring out a more acquired taste… and not whatever messy hot dog water he just made…

He should maybe try to taste whether this could be eaten by them… because if it was… they shouldn’t throw edible food out in the garbage…

Yuki took a spoon out of the kitchen, as he wondered if he had written his last testament and will, and if he had any kind of inheritance he wanted to hand over Shikabane… as he took a sample of this brown-liquid soup, and took it down like a champ!

….

It was edible… but not by much…

Well, he hoped this wasn’t going to ruin whatever dinner Shikabane had with Tadano, who might or might not be her boyfriend, as he took out two plates for the two, filling it with this… weird tasting soup that he cooked for them.
He prays Shikabane doesn’t make any more of that ‘who let you cook?’ comments that he knows are some kind of meme around the internet, because he was already tired by how much the skunk has overused it.

“Navi, if you’re delivering me poison, I don’t want it. I’m not hungry.” Shikabane suddenly stated to him, who was making his way into the living room, while she was playing another visual novel that seemed to be a sequel to that game with the extremely horny rhino detective with the dreamscape investigation as its catching point.

“Can’t even complain to you as we share the same fate… so much of being roommates.” Yuki sighed, as he delivered said poison on top of the table, as Shikabane seemed to recoil as soon as she spotted her eyes on it, as he began grumpily feasting on his soup.

At least the soup didn’t hurt as much as Jiro not responding to his messages about the two meeting up so he could confess to him and get on with his life after Jiro rejects him.

“I’m only a prisoner to you, seeing as you deliver prison food like this to me on the daily.” Shikabane responded, as Yuki smickered from the accurate description she gave the soup. Now that he thinks about it… this could serve as good prison food…

While he was… battling getting the soup down his system, he watched Shikabane play the game, with her currently being in some kind of VR reenactment of a crime scene, as the skunk suddenly commented:

“How does it feel being ghosted by Jiro, after you ghosted Yoshie for a good week or so before you eventually dumped him?”

He nearly spit out the soup in his mouth when he heard this, because Jiro wasn’t ghosting him! If anything… Maybe he was too busy with work, and there were some times when Jiro didn’t message them for some days because he was busy with work. And also, he was ghosting everyone else, even his older brother!

After taking a moment to get this soup in his system, coughing a bit from the taste and by the sudden shock the skunk gave him, as he responded:

“He isn’t ghosting me, Shikabane! He’s busy, and I hate it that now’s the time for it, when I want to confess to him.” He pouted, hoping Shikabane didn’t see that he was expecting rejection… because he knew Jiro had no reason to like him back in that way. Who would even want to date someone like him, who was willingly eating poison like this soup he made himself and Shikabane… there were no redeeming qualities in him, now that he thinks about it.

Shikabane took a bit to respond to him, seeing as she was concentrating on the investigation on the game, saying:

“Good to know that you grew a pair and realised that you should have done that in the first place before you installed Tinder… You have it uninstalled from your phone, right?” She questioned, as he still found it weird why Shikabane wanted to make sure he didn’t have that on his phone, even though he was probably gonna use it as soon as Jiro gave him the magic word of ‘No’.

“Yes. Gone and eradicated… For now. Why did you even want me to delete it from my phone?... Don’t tell me you knew Jiro would get busy around this time…?”

“Well, it’s not like you’re gonna need it in the future, so I did a favour for you. Your phone’s inventory didn’t need it.” Shikabane said, as Yuki wondered why she thought he wasn’t gonna need it. He IS going to get rejected, so did she think he was going to try his luck at some gay bar to get a guy, or what?

Seeing as he didn’t want to press Shikabane on what she meant by those words, he continued eating his soup in peace while watching Shikabane play her game in peace… well, until he wanted to speak with her again, saying:

“...I wonder what Jiro’s busy with this time around… He did tell me that he was going to deliver that Old Age Extermination Bill or whatever to the big guys in Parliament, so maybe he’s doing that all week?... But he still could have responded to us…”

“....Besides Sakiyo…. For some reason.” He added, his sister already telling him that she met the hyena at a dinner… and even though he felt unrivalled jealousy for his sister, he knew they weren’t seeing each other, because Jiro wasn’t into his sister. Well, that’s what he got when he went to Fukouka with Yoshio to check on them… because Jiro didn’t seem invested with her, seeing as he was more concerned about what Yoshio and him were doing over there with them…

Why did he even think Jiro was into his sister?...

“Wow. Wonder why that could be the case.” Shikabane muttered, as Yuki couldn’t help but groan in the way she made it sound like there was something more behind it, because he knew there was none. Just a friendly talk with her. They were the youngest siblings of their family, so there were some things that they knew about that he, his brother or anyone else could talk about.

“If you plan to make me jealous Shikabane, don’t bother. I know Jiro more than you do.” Yuki scoffed, as he grumpily continued eating his soup.

Even though Sakiyo was kind of clingy to them when they were little, and he had a slight suspicion that she had a crush on Jiro… Jiro didn’t return those feelings back to her.

The Haidas were at his home again, and Yuki was beyond excited to have Jiro over at their place again, because he was his only friend that he had for several months now!

Their parents were busy talking stuff that Yuki couldn’t be bothered to learn about, and even though Yuki didn’t like Ichiro and how Yuki sometimes wanted to spend more time with him than with Yuki himself, he never wanted the older hyena to be subjected to hanging out with Genta, because he would make it all about himself, and he knew his older brother and Jiro’s clashed heavily in opinions.

Which left him, Jiro…. And Sakiyo in Yuki’s room. He was showing the both of them, Jiro more specifically, the new game console, a Wii, he got from his parents after acing several exams, and man was Jiro really invested, showing him the controller and the few games he had on it, making Jiro pick what game the three of them would be playing.

Naturally, as what Yuki expected him to pick, he picked Guitar Hero World Tour, a rhythm game. Even though he didn’t have a guitar for it, Jiro still had way too much fun pressing the buttons that appeared on the screen at the right time, and he had to agree that he was doing a pretty good job cleaning the levels that were thrown at him.

“Wow, you’re so good at this, Jiro!” Sakiyo complimented Jiro, as Yuki noticed how she tried to shimmy her way next to him, which he tried to discourage by looking angrily at his sister, but it looks like Jiro subconsciously moved the same direction as Sakiyo, inching away from her, only replying with a ‘uh-huh’.

He took this as a victory in his book against his bratty sister that he had, as they watched Jiro get through the level without dropping the combo he built up, and as soon as he completed the level…

“Yuki, look! I did it flawlessly!... If only playing the guitar was as easy as just pressing buttons…” Jiro spoke in a celebratory tone, as he felt extra cheeky that he was the first person that he looked over to, instead of his sister, taking this as another victory in his book against his sister for trying to get Jiro’s attention, which he had her pretty much beat, as he simply laughed at Jiro and told him:

“You don’t need to learn to play the guitar… your brother did say that you have a pretty good singing voice, did he not?”

“Yeah… you do have a pretty voice…” Sakiyo blushed while saying this, as Yuki couldn’t help but feel absolutely shocked to hear his sister telling this infront of him, and before he could grimace to his sister to what the heck she was planning at from trying to steal his best friend from him…

“Ichiro did say that… but his band already has Shishido for the vocals… so it’s not like they would want me, since I’m still a kid…” Jiro replied, as he decided to play a different song in the game.

“Are you kidding? Even though we’re still like 10, you can change your voice way better than that stupid hog! You’re a natural compared to him!” Yuki cheered him up, and before his nosey sister could add something to his comment, Jiro seemed surprised by the compliment, as he rolled his head towards him, and said:

“You think so?...Do you think I’m really that better than him…?”

The look the hyena gave him made Yuki… miss a beat there… for some reason, as bull just smirked and told him:

“Of course! I like it when you’re the one performing the songs your brother bands do! Maybe you could perform a song that you know to me?”

“And to me!” Sakiyo butted in, as Yuki nearly forget she was there, as Jiro seemed to have gotten red in the face from how they were pressuring him to sing at the moment, as he soon said:

“...Well, if you want me to, Yuki, then I should probably try remembering the last song they performed… Hmm……” Jiro then took a minute, stopping the song he just selected in the video game, as he then happily moved nearer to Yuki, with Sakiyo also inching closer, stating. “OK, I think I remember the lyrics now… Here I go!”

Jiro then began singing some kind of an English punk song, seeing as he knew what kind of songs Ichiro used to play in that band of his, and even though Jiro seemed to be nervous the whole time… Yuki couldn’t help but think how cool and cute Jiro while he might as well have been performing the song only for hi-

Wait, what did he just describe Jiro…?

Wouldn’t… Sakiyo describe him like this, who had a crush on him…?

Wait… did he? But he was… his best friend…?

Yuki continued eating his soup in a sour mood, as he now wondered if he only found out about his feelings for Jiro was because Sakiyo caught feelings for him first.

Even if Sakiyo was still trying to get on Jiro’s good grades so that she could get lucky with him, Yuki knew she was doomed, because he knew Jiro shared no feelings for her.

“Yet, you look like you’re gonna mald and cry about it.” Shikabane responded, as Yuki only rolled his eyes, and said:

“I know better, so you’re not gonna change my opinion about Jiro not having feelings for my sister… it’s not like she knew him as much as I do.”

Shikabane seemed to finally take the hint, as she shrugged and continued playing.

He took a few more spoonful of this brown-soup into his stomach, feeling thankful that it wasn’t that awful that he needed to go to the toilet for it, as Shikabane, who never was the person between them to start a conversation, said:

“Yuki, what’s gonna happen when you confess to Jiro, and he ultimately accepts? I know you think you’re going to get rejected, but don’t you think you should also account for if he accepts it?”

Jiro… accepting his confession?... That’s some food for thought, now that Yuki thinks about it. Well… he…

“*Sigh*, even if that was the case, well… we… hmm…” He muttered, as he couldn’t really put it out on the things he would want to do together with Jiro…

Would he begin praising Jiro for everything he liked about him… drop his whole feelings on him, if he would… and maybe he wouldn’t try anything touchy with him yet, since Jiro didn’t seem so experienced like he was, even though Yuki had many spots that he wanted to touch that his best friend possessed, like his hands, that jaw… man, it was downright illegal for the jawline that Jiro had on him… his cheeks…

“...We would take it nice and slow… since the both of us don’t have the best experience with dating other people.” Yuki eventually added, as Shikabane seemed to have found something wrong, as she replied:

“I’m not sure if you could tell the dating experiences that Jiro had was that, when it was arranged for him and he never participated in it. Kinda makes me pity the Yoshie girl he’s seeing, since he has zero interest in him.”

Wait… was Shikabane implying if Jiro did accept his proposal… it would be his genuinely first date with someone?

He would be… his first?

His heart bumped and accelerated, as he now realised if Jiro did in fact accept him, then he…

But before he could finish that train of process, he glanced towards his plate, seeing there was no more soup in the plate, while there was plenty still in Shikabane’s, as he sighed and said:

“Whatever… it’s not like he’s gonna accept, I’m not delusional enough to imagine Jiro saying yes to me when he’s currently seeing someone and when he’s clearly not into me.”

He stood up, as he walked back with an empty plate in hand, ignoring whatever kind of gag she was telling him, as he hoped Jiro was gonna get finished with this bill of his, because he needed to tell his best friend how he was feeling…

And get a rejection from him, because if he wasn’t given one, then all his future love endeavours will end up like his relationship with Yoshio…

He just needed Jiro to respond back to him…

Chapter Text

Why were men such complicated creatures?

This was Fenneko’s thought process, as she leisurely worked on her desktop, sorting and inputting data on the spreadsheets assigned to her.

Unlike the two blokes who were fraying her nerves a big empty hole on an unprecedented amount, data compressions and calculations were a drop in the bucket compared to whatever kind of quantum physics she was attempting with getting the two guys together with too many people at the moment.

She prayed that Haida possibly had a clue on how they should proceed with Jiro’s inhumane way of slaving himself away at work, but she was delivered an unsatisfactory answer of Haida not knowing any better via text messages in the wingmanning group, and boy, did she never felt so disappointed with the hyena before.

Didn’t he live with him for 17 years? Yet, Fenneko didn’t need no more than half a year's worth of time to pin down how the guy reacts…

Simply unbelievable… there was a fine line between airheadedness, and downright forgetfulness, and Fenneko had a slight suspicion that the hyena was more on the latter part than the formal.

If she gets the bull and the hyena together, she was gonna fight for her life to convince Jiro to accept her as her best man for their wedding, and not whatever kind of biassed bullshit he would pull to dub his older brother the best man. Maybe she should prepare a PowerPoint presentation already to convince Jiro down the line, because even though Jiro’s attachment to his brother was unnatural, if she made a plethora of convincing points in favour of her while in disfavour of his brother, perhaps she could coax the hyena to bend over the title of best man…

Or he does the lame move of installing more than one of a best man like his brother…

But she shouldn’t ponder about this while the two’s relationship is still in the air, and she should really reinforce her mind on her work and trying to be alive in this sweltering weather, because if she lets her mind run rampant, she will drop dead in her chair, like the smoked bacon on the manager’s desk.

It made Ton a lot more quieter, even if he’s basically groaning out in utter torment, calling for Komiya to bring him something that could quench his thirst, anything at all, while he sat there, in utter distress.

Well, wasn’t she under duress like the pig man, if she wasn’t exactly showing it as prudent as her boss.

Fucking summer, man…

Season cursing beside, the other co-workers at Charayman were quietly working along, with nearly everyone writhing in their own way from the weather, besides maybe Kabae and Shikabane, who were still working on incorporating Shikabane more into the company, which Fenneko still has troubles rearing her head around.

And from her spying, it looks like Shikabane quote on quote has been speedrunning the process with the help of the pink hippo, with her being able to now quiz the skunk on work related issues and getting back a satisfactory answer from her.

All in all, life was proceeding normally, if Fenneko ignored the fact that she landed herself in a new relationship, Tsunoda might have masterminded the whole concept of Fenneko and Seiji being together, seeing as she too returned to normalcy, and whatever crap happening with the wingmanning for Haida’s brother was going up in flames, and she’s not sure if Haida is having a breakdown over from not realising how dense he was for all the years he sat foot on this planet, and don’t get her started on what kind of thoughts Jiro was probably manifesting.

And seeing Sakiyo’s attempt went awry, Fenneko did the courteous thing of planning some cameras around Jiro’s penthouse, which she was personally gawking on her computer in a small window, keeping her eyes spotted on it a little bit like a hawk, while she worked on her job.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and if that four-eyed hyena finally returned back to his penthouse, she will alarm everyone in their wingmanning group of the hyena’s return back to his house, which should pressure Haida enough to run over to his brother’s penthouse and try to convince Jiro on denying himself what his heart desired.

As much as the guy is an idiot, he was Jiro’s beloved idiot of a brother, and maybe, if Haida told some smack into him, he could calm him down from this hermit lifestyle he decided to live.

Well, that all depends on whether Jiro was ever gonna return back to his penthouse, which he should eventually do. It’s an inevitable fate, really.

Fenneko silently hoped that Jiro, her favourite wine-drinking partner as of late, was finally spurned out of his office, so that she could help the guy out on his love life, and boy, does she hope this is the last one she has to do in her entire career.

Bless her poor, generous heart of hers for all the problems she went through on getting those hyena men love in their lives.

Maybe this is why she’s together with Seiji now, as if he received the horse as some kind of a consolidation price from some higher power above for her services and determination.

Speaking of him… she should spend some time with him when the wind blows over with the Jiro and Yuki issue, and actually try… dating him for real, because she didn’t expect her first date with a guy to be for wingmanning two idiots.

Yeah, as soon as she gets those two guys to smooch, she could use the time to prepare on what she wants to do with Seiji in the future, like going on a date together at an amusement park and all the other scenarios that would happen between a couple.

But first… she has to make sure that she’s prepared to do their daily meet-up at lunch, and inform the guys on everything they should be wary about for the following days, now that Sakiyo’s gambit ended up being less successful than they hoped.

Fenneko, Seiji, Shikabane and Retsuko were yet again sitting at the same table where they sat yesterday, and everyone besides Shikabane, which was to be expected from her, were looking at each other with utmost worry.

They already got debriefed on what happened between Sakiyo and Jiro, and how it seems like that the cow was now also being treated the same way as they were, as in Jiro only reading the messages that were sent his way, and not formulating any kind of response to it. He was ignoring the cow as well…

And personally, Fenneko would have done the same, because when Sakiyo showed the messages she sent to him, it seemed like Sakiyo was berating him to grow a pair. She never knew such a gracious girl like her could be so vicious with her words…

Checking her phone again, she read the exact words that she sent him, which were:

Yeah, she thinks Sakiyo was scaring Jiro more than motivating him, because that smile she wrote exceeds an ominous aura that sent chills down Fenneko’s spine. Honestly, with the previous messages beforehand, she could have seen these messages as some kind of a death threat.

“Well… everyone is informed about the events that transpired yesterday, I assume?” Fenneko questioned, looking up to see the reactions of the others at the table.

“Yeah… I don’t envy Jiro’s position.” Retsuko said, looking a bit intimidated from remembering the comments.

“I just hope I never anger Yuki’s sister when I’m eventually gonna meet her this evening like Jiro did… because that smile is still giving me the jeepies…” Seiji added, with him and the other two women being informed already that Fenneko summoned everyone in the Wingmanning group to a restaurant that could fit the whole group to strategize once more on what they should do.

“To be honest I think Jiro deserved some of the comments. I’m the one who lives with Yuki while all of this is happening, and let me tell you, he is becoming more pathetic and pitiable by the minute so much so that it personally deals physic damage to me. We need to solve their relationship ASAP.” Shikabane voiced, playing unbothered on her phone.

And speaking of Yuki, they really were just mere an inch away from getting those two together, because he personally wanted to meet with Jiro to go cut his gut out to him, and then expect a refusal from Jiro, so as soon as they convince Jiro to embrace his feelings, all of it should fall on itself.

Shikabane and Sakiyo both said that Yuki would have no reason to deny him or come up with any excuses as to why he wouldn’t want to be together with Jiro, so it really was them trying to drag Jiro out from whatever cave he hid himself, and then just throwing him at his best friend.

In all honesty, there was nothing to discuss at this table, besides reminding everyone that they had to patiently wait for Jiro to move out of the office, and then ambush him as soon as he returned home… if that was the case, and try convincing him with a hyena of their own to go chase his dreams and whatever his heart desired from his best friend.

It really was that simple to get the two lovebirds together… she just hoped Haida was gonna be good enough of a debater against Jiro to make whatever kind of preconceived notions fall flat in his younger brother’s brain.

“We should probably continue our plan in the evening when we’re off-work. We don’t have much to discuss, and I’m not seeing any kind of movement at Jiro’s penthouse, so we should probably just wait and see what’s gonna happen.” Fenneko told, keeping a trained eye on her smartphone, which was multiple angles around Jiro’s penthouse.

“...Wait, what movements-”

“Anyway, let’s talk about something else, shall we?” She interrupted Retsuko’s question, as she really wondered what else they could talk about…

Oh, they could talk about Tsunoda and that actor she was going on a date with? From what she looked up to the guy, he isn’t really that well-known, who was basically a C-list celebrity who played on some movies and some junk, but she had to admit, the guy looked the part of an actor.

“...How about Tsunoda and that guy she showed us in the changing room? I could tell you guys all about the guy she’s seeing, starting from-” And before Fenneko could have went on a rampage on all the information she dug up about Ichikawa Orochi, Shikabane interrupted her, saying:

“Oh, is this what Haida and Retsuko have been telling me about? Where Fenneko goes crazy in detail about Tsunoda? Like how many times she posts a food fic or a thigh pic?”

“....Uh, what?” Seiji told, seemingly appearing off-guard from what Shikabane just announced to the whole table, and curse her luck, before she could have made up a good enough response to her boyfriend, Retsuko shortly said:

“Yeah… It’s like she’s using her skills in accounting to analyse Tsunoda’s engagement on social media. Kinda nifty, right?”

Well… at least it sounded kind of positive, when you ignore the fact that she spends a good amount of time checking Tsunoda’s Instagram page like a hawk, wondering whatever the next post was going to be a food pic or a selfie, and most of all, dreading whether she would be desperate enough to send covert thigh pics…

But… even though both Haida and Retsuko once said that this all sounded unhealthy for Fenneko, she couldn’t care less from the critics given to her by people who don’t know how much she was doing for the whole lot of people using social media apps, because if she didn’t check on them to try to analyse and call people like Tsunoda out before they eventually jump the ship between being an attention-seeker to being a thot, the whole app would be run down with people like them!

And it just so happens that Tsunoda was the closest to becoming someone like that, so she kept most of her attention on her, and whatever hideous ways she would use the technology provided in her smartphone to keep horny guys entertained.

She was already annoying as it is, so she doesn’t think she could have handled the gazelle becoming more than just a simple nuisance…

“That doesn’t matter right now, Katsumi. What matters now is all the drama our dear little Orochi went through, and to see how Tsunoda managed to get in contact with a guy like him… which is why I’m proposing that-”

Fenneko began explaining, as she spend the rest of their lunch together pinning together conclusions she came to, how she managed to get in contact with the man (through one of her brothers), how she possibly convinced the man to a date (through pandering to him), and what this would mean for Tsunoda’s future engagement (it should sent some views on her page for going on a date with a C-list actor).

She was pretty excited to finally return to talking crap about Tsunoda, but she had that unnerving feeling in her that Seiji wasn’t that interested in this topic of hers, because he looked more neutral than anything.

Just why was he so disinterested in her talking about Tsunoda and this man of hers that she was seeing…

She was completely done with the guy she was seeing.

Just what was she thinking, hanging onto an useless and a boring man like Orochi, when she could have spent her time more wisely, like helping the debacle that Fenneko and the other three were doing on getting Jiro together with that bull whom she personally helped trying to get together, until they went with the idea that Retsuko mentioned, which most have worked, seeing as Fenneko and Retsuko didn’t call her for any kind relationship kindling issues any further.

They DO know that she’s called a Love Ref, right? Even though she personally admitted that her knowledge on same-sex relationship between men isn’t her strongest subject, compared to men and women relationship, surely they don’t think that she’s as clueless to this whole matter as they think she is?

If she had to be honest, man on man romantic relationships are the most simple, because as per Ookami’s own words, men just had to be smacked in the face when they’re getting fancied after, and then everything should solve itself. But to Fenneko’s credit, it seems like she’s working with a guy that has some issues with him, which didn’t surprise Tsunoda one bit.

He was Haida’s younger brother, which meant that he didn’t fall that far away from the ditch Haida fell, until he eventually got himself liberated from that mud pill called being a clinker.

And speaking of clinkers, this man sitting opposite to him was very apt of the definition, because besides the tasty meal that he personally bought for himself and Tsunoda, she was absolutely disinterested from whatever kind of topics he’s talking about, which is why she’s currently swimming around in her mind on thinking of a different relationship than the one she should be trying to build with this serpent.

“And here’s the whole punch behind the story! When I tried to ask where the prompt was hidden, the filming director just stared at me like I’m some kind of a lunatic! I surmise you know where I’m getting at… right?” She heard the man of honour recite some kind of a story from his previous experiences working as an actor, definitely appearing more engaged than the gazelle herself.

“Hmmm?... Oh!... I don’t know! Why don’t you tell me, you cheeky chap!” She addressed him, putting her bimbo-headed persona of hers on, hoping that it would be enough for the guy next to her to just get to the point and explain the story in full, without it having it be some kind of a listening exam that she’s done way back in elementary school.

And of course, that wasn’t the case, because Orochi was more than exigent on trying to have Tsunoda quiz on what happened with this prompt, because as far as Tsunoda could tell, he probably had it on him and he didn’t realise it.

What a chowderhead…

“C’mon… I already alleged that my head felt bigger than it felt after that crapulence of a night with the executives, it’s really not that difficult to put together… Heh” Orochi awkwardly tittered, and she didn’t know whether he felt actually embarrassed, or was subtly expressing his anger on not comprehending whatever kind of joke he wanted to regale Tsunoda about like it’s the funniest thing she’s heard in her whole life.

First off, nothing’s beating the experience of her once drunk marathon watching the office on a weekend, that is the funniest crap that she fondly still remembers after she joined Charayman and resigned herself to this lifestyle of hers until she eventually got matched with a guy from their family’s selection, and second off, she might not have been listening to this serpent’s conversation for roughly 90%, spending half the time on her phone or half the time daydreaming, but it was so obvious that the jack’o lantern was hanged on the guy’s head! She’s only acting inane, for god sake, it’s not like she’s actually dumb!

If she was what people assumed her to be, she’d be working at some retail work, and not some accounting work in a trading firm in Otemachi!

Just why was she so getting worked up on her image, anyhow? She wanted to be perceived as a push-over, to be underestimated, because if people think you’re weak, they would never require aid from you. Never needing to be relied on was a blessing in disguise, because when you are being relied upon, it utterly obliterates the person providing their assistance, their worth…

Just like Retsuko, Haida’s brother, and her own two big brothers…

She personally witnessed and lent an ear to all the confessions her brothers told about the pressure on their shoulders… on succeeding, and how much they’re afraid of disappointing their parents.

“‘Ey, you listening?” Orochi suddenly voiced, making the… scary thoughts vanish for a moment to comprehend what the ‘hot’ man next to him was grimacing about.

She should probably entertain him and just say the answer to him, and then she can waste her time warping her mind back in her thoughts again.

“Oh, indubitably so, ‘Rochi! You had that jack’o on your head, and due to your longishly long neck, you didn’t notice how some of your friends tried to make you all ghoulish like! You are one big, silly blue eyed basilisk!”

And there it is. The simple answer that he wanted to hear from Tsunoda, to make him feel appreciated and feel more engaged with her, when Tsunoda couldn’t be out of touch with the snake.

“Yeah! I still try to wrap my… jack’o less head around on how I was able to be as oblivious… and speaking of oblivious, there was this story in Shukugawara around Miyabae Ward, where-” And so, the man began regaling a story of his again with his friends that Tsunoda couldn’t give any more crap about it, as she grabbed her phone again and tried surfing on Instagram on anything that her besties might post about.

And of course she wouldn’t be luckier in this department as hers, because one of her soul sisters in college was on a date like Tsunoda herself, and she personally tagged her from the selfie she took about a good half an hour ago, and she didn’t know whether she should be impressed on wasting half an hour of her life on whatever mess this way, or the fact that Hana was doing the same thing as her, but extremely disillusioned.

Scroll……

And this one was a family photo from her other soul sister that just hitched with some classmate of theirs that Fenneko couldn’t remember from how unremarkable, who was oh so lucky to find a man that liked her back on such a disgusting level, that Tsunoda only resented for something that she would unrealistically never have.

He’s supposedly quite a catch, and per girl language ‘a total hottie’.

However, she couldn’t see what her soul sister was seeing, because in her eyes, it was just the usual joe who just happens to not have any kind of pimples or rashes on their head.

Just what made him attractive that Tsunoda didn’t comprehend?

In a weird way, she never quite grasped attraction her whole life. Supposedly, as what she learned in school, there were different kinds of attraction ranging from sexual to emotional ones, and trying as hard as she could, she could never quite grasp the concept in theory.

She never desired man carnally, sexually, intimately, physically… If anything, what she desired from them would be the fame and money they would provide for her, while she didn’t lay a finger of hardwork on her own for it.

It’s why she never did as something as deep as bringing a man to bed, or really saying the ‘love’ word to any men, because why bother doing that when her honeyed words were enough to keep her occupied, bringing in transaction on her Instagram page and for the current man that she was seeing being the one to pay nearly for every purchases she did while being with them.

Wasn’t it quite silly? The Love Ref could guide her pupils to love, but she personally didn’t understand or felt it, ever.

Haida’s pining over Retsuko? Incomprehensible.

Kabae’s dreamy description of the fairytale she seems to live with her husband? A cryptic story.

Fenneko’s and Seiji’s current relationship? Perplexing. Thought provoking.

She thought of Fenneko to be like herself, unfeeling and amiable on this struggle that Tsunoda shared… but it seemed like she was quite wrong on that one, because not only did Fenneko portray affection to this virtual songstress that Tsunoda doesn’t get the appeal of, but also of the horse that plagued her department.

But much to her dismay, it was all just a persona of hers, because in actuality, it was quite easy to get Fenneko to like you, as long as you’re kind and someway attractive to her, because whenever Tsunoda rethinks the memories where she dragged Retsuko and Fenneko along to a mixer from guys in the sales department, and if her memory doesn’t fail her, that middle guy that Fenneko was sitting opposite to just said she was a spitfire, and bam, he got her hook, lined and sinkered!

Is there something she’s missing from getting complicated like that? She’s always the one who compliments others, and she’s positive she doesn’t get complimented back in return. And even if she does get complimented, all of it feels… hollow, somewhat. From other men, at least.

If anything, if she had to add anything to Fenneko’s and Seiji’s relationship, it’s that she’s all weirded out by how strange she’s feeling of the two being together, because whenever she was seeing other guys, Fenneko took it as some unfortunate guy being used for Tsunoda’s own amusement.

Maybe that is why she felt so bothered by the two inching closer, until they eventually became a couple? Did she think Seiji was using Fenneko for her own amusement, like Fenneko speculated she was doing all this time, when in truth, she was using it for fame and for people to see how well she’s doing on the love front.

Why’d she even feel so worried about Fenneko, when most of the times, it was clear they were mincing their words with each other, throwing a blind eye to their distaste to each other, on how Fenneko never wanted to make herself remarkable when she had the talent for it, while Fenneko thought she was too ominous and advantageous on her kissing up men’s butt.

The reason she even does that is…

Well, it should be obvious, should it not?

Money is something she liked, even though she wasn’t really broke from her family ties, and second, everything went smoothly when there is someone who paid attention and reined down man like Ton from being too overbearing, and nobody really enjoyed doing that, which meant that she had to step up the occasion for it.

It’s what she remembers her parents jackhammering into her brain, anyway. Having fame and money is what she should strive for in life, and the easiest way she could achieve this is by latching onto a man of a higher calibre, and have him do all the hard work. She knows that her parents are going to find a suitable man with a ridiculous amount of yearly pay, which she will eventually settle down, and if she’s right, that’s about 1 or 2 years from now.

She spent the last years of her working in the real world to find some fun in it until she gets chained down to whatever responsibility she would be sharing with that man of hers in the future. Mingling around, flirting around…

She really wondered if her love life was going to be as exciting as Haida’s and Retsuko, Kabae’s and her husband’s, Seiji and Fenneko’s, because if she had to be honest, she can’t imagine her life being that exciting.

If her countless dates with men yielded no attraction, nothing beyond wanting fame or money, then how will she fare in an arranged relationship, which she couldn’t just simply run out without shouldering a huge leap of worry on her parents?

Surprisingly, the most emotional she felt connected to, besides her family, was Fenneko, and she doesn’t know if that’s something she should be proud about. She was her Instagram analyst, which she was doing without any pay roll. And she was her bestie as well, even though Fenneko doesn’t think the same way as she does, not wanting to be associated with the vibes Tsunoda gave off.

The reason for her attachment might be due to the connection she has with her on helping Haida and Retsuko together and she does sometimes get on her nerves on how over the top she gets on analysing a simple desert pic of hers, and how it all meant that she must have been on a prowl, when she just thought it was a cute dessert, and she just wanted to share it with people!

It’s like saying that with loving and hating people and how it's a simple thread that can be crossed all simple like or junk. Sure, she hated Fenneko sometimes, but she also admired the judgement and how she doesn’t fear calling out something she deems wrong, like her butt kissing pastimes.

Fenneko is an anomaly inside Tsunoda’s life that kept a good balance between the two, and somehow, the only one she could remember that she felt so emotional about in her friend group.

She definitely feels like she’s missing something here… but just what exactly? How come she cares so much about a random co-workers, who really became a treasured friend in her attempts at fixing two relationships, one romantic, and the other platonic, which surely was turning romantic from her understanding.

What, it’s not like she liked like Fenneko, so for what…

“And that’s where the Popo’s came out of nowhere, and arrested the guy, urging us to retreat to safety! All that for some good booze…” The man explained, as Tsunoda was just barely able to grasp what he was just talking about…

“Oooooh, that’s soooo dangerous! Haha!” She absentmindedly raved about the story being told to her, as she just wondered how Fenneko was doing, because from what she overheard, she really wasn’t going on any dates with Seiji, but was focusing her attention on helping Haida’s brother get some game in his love life.

She hoped that she at least wasn’t as conflicted and bored about all this as she was…

If she had to describe how cramped their table was, she would compare it to the time when Kabae has taken too much work one time, and the monstrous mountain of files and sheets that embraced the hippo’s desk. She was quite literally building a wall around herself, and how Retsuko managed to keep her calm when that wall of sheets eventually crumbled on her.

She already made a roll call when everyone got to the marked restaurant where they would hold their update on the whole Jiro and Yuki situation, and with the new additions that were added on Monday and Tuesday, besides her, Haida, Retsuko, Shikabane, Tadano, Sakiyo, Manaka, Seiji, Gori and Washimi were all sitting at a restaurant at a steakhouse, and there was just one table among the restaurant that they could use so that everyone could comfortably be at the roundtable conference of what the fuck they should do next about the governmental hermit.

Everyone looked stern, besides maybe Manaka, who seemed to be enjoying this commotion like a tv show. Shikabane herself looked serious in the face for once, which meant that even she was now concerned about the recent development that happened at the start of the week.

“Alright everyone, if any one of you has any ideas on what we should do for our next step, then it’s about time you share it with the lot of us!” Fennneko declared, abandoning her general attitude that she always did.

“What? No general roleplay for this occasion, Fenneko?” Tadano teased her, obviously, but he soon shut his mouth when Fenneko was able to drag out the pointing stick that she always had on her for occasions like this to make sure everyone recognized her as the leader of this whole wingmanning group.

“Well, we have no time for leisurely games like acting, because we’re at the cusp of greatness!” Fenneko commented, looking angrily at the donkey sitting a bit to the left of her, two people separate from her, as she then added. “And that small gap is getting our hyena friend out from the clouds he’s using to avoid his feelings, you hear me!”

Besides the chuckle that Manaka let out, everyone else seemed to have taken the order from Fenneko quite seriously, besides maybe one other person, which would be the horse sitting next to her, because he questionaly asked Fenneko:

“I… have so many questions, and I don’t know where to start with all of this…”

“If it’s the general persona thing that Tadano muttered about, it’s something the guys here supposedly did when they tried bringing Jiro and Yuki together when they had a terrible argument with each other, and it sounds as funny as you think it is. Even Shikabane joined the act, from what Sakiyo told me, and no offence girl, but you do not emote that well!”

“No offence taken, Manaka.” Shikabane responded to the chinchilla, as the most charming horse in the whole wide world finally seemed to have structured a kind of question, which was:

“Beyond everything I’m going to ask… WHAT IS TADANO FROM FREERIDE DOING HERE? COULD I PLEASE HAVE YOU SIGN… UHH…” Seiji quite literally exclaimed loudly, as he rummaged around his pockets until he brought a small journey of some, handing it over to Tadano with a pen, as he formally requested from the donkey: “IN ONE OF THE PAGES PLEASE?... And if you could, an empty page would be preferable!”

Everyone on the table seemed to have… gotten surprised by sudden request that Seiji asked of the technerd, with the donkey wasting no time to meander to pick up the pen and write his autograph, as Haida had the audacity to speak up and say:

“Well, it looks like your boyfriend has at least some taste when it comes to who he should admire… Isn’t that right, horsey boy?”

However, Seiji didn’t give Haida any kind of response until Tadano was able to return the small journal back to him, as he then casually told the Tadano fanboy who was quite literally his right hand:

“Admire? No I don’t. I just wanted an autograph from him because it’s quite useful to have famous people’s own autographs. Do you KNOW how much those sell on bidding websites? I can already see all the dough that I will generate from the poor guy who’s desperate enough to have the guy’s autograph…” Seiji dreamfully sighed, as Fenneko turned to Haida, who looked shocked to hear for what reason the horse actually wanted to get an autograph from his boss, as she smugfully voiced:

“Yes, he DOES have some taste, Haida… and now that I think about it, it does sound smartsie to sell someone’s autograph for some quick bucks…” Which is why Fenneko looked around for anything that she could use for Tadano to write onto, as she grabbed out an used tissue from her pockets, and implored Tadano. “So… if you would, Tadano…”

“You damned weasel… let’s not give Fenneko the satisfaction of earning some money from you by using you, Tadano, and-” Oh, but Haida was too late to give his boss any kind of warnings, because he already had the pen that he used before in his hand, and wrote the autograph down on the issue, as Fenneko giddly took back, as she whispered to Seiji on what kind of site she should sell her tissue to. “-Oh…”

“So much for dignity… even I wouldn’t be baller enough to give out my autograph on some used tissue…” Manaka commented, as Tadano seemed to have taken the whole thing less seriously than how Haida was taking it, as he told everyone:

“Well, I couldn’t just simply refuse a simple autograph, now could I?”

“Let’s just hope Fenneko and her boyfriend aren’t going to use your kindness for their own greed.” Washimi said, as Fenneko was more distracted on the website that Seiji had on his smartphone and what she should do to get her tissue sold, and how she should price her Tadano approved autograph on an old and crusty tissue of hers.

“Enough of these frivolous activities. Aren’t we forgetting why we came here in the first place, everyone?” Sakiyo suddenly decreed, pulling Fenneko’s attention back to their issue at hand, as Fenneko now tried to bury her soon to be quick guide to riches plan back in her mind.

“Yeah… about the thing with Jiro, I don’t even have to say about his current status on being at work right now, right?” Fenneko quizzed, and everyone else nodded, as Sakiyo just said:

“He’s currently avoiding this whole thing of being with us after the events that transpired on Monday so much so, that he even decided to put on the mantle of doing everyone else’s jobs for them, so that he can keep hiding himself away from reality…”

“Which we owe thanks to Haida here…” Shikabane whispered, which didn’t go unnoticed by Haida or Retsuko, with the two of them equally as upset by the comment, as Retsuko just told her:

“Hey!... It’s just bad luck that we find ourselves in this problem…”

“Yeah, that is not a good excuse, Retsuko.” The gamer responded, but before anything could be added to this conversation, Sakiyo halted them, as she quite annoyingly told the group:

“It doesn’t matter how or why we came to the situation that we found ourselves in, but how we should move forward to get Jiro comfortable with whatever crisis he’s going through, and have him and my brother finally have the talk that the both of them desperately need at the moment.”

“So true! Haida’s little bro is going through hell right now, and I can personally say it’s a whole agonising process, because I also used the same idea that he’s having right now of working off his confusion at the office!” Gori exclaimed, too eager to finally have something to contribute at the roundtable, as Retsuko asked:

“What for?”

“If my memory serves me correctly, it was when she ended a long-standing relationship with some bogus of a man.” Washimi came in with the reason, as she seemed to regret the fact immensely, because the gorilla next to her needed just a few seconds for the words to hit her, before her neutral expression changed into tearing her eyes out, with the secretary being the one taking the front.

“BUT I LOVED HIM SO MUCH-”

“UGH, SHUT UP, STOP CRYING!” Sakiyo suddenly yelled, making the gorilla stop in her tracks of her sob story, as the cow now looked beyond aggravated.

“Am I the only one here who’s worrying about Jiro’s mental health?! For goodness sake people, we need to get our act together and devise some plans, because if we keep bickering amongst each other like school children, we’ll get nothing done!” She added for good measure, as the sobbing mess of a woman seemed to have stopped her whining for a bit.

“It would be a blessing to have something to plan, but as we are standing right now, it’s not like we can just barge into Jiro’s office without asking some kind of a meeting with the man beforehand, and I think it would take ages for us to get in contact with him that way…” Washimi told everyone else seemingly agreeing with her.

“Exactly, which is why we’re currently waiting for him to return home, and per my own investigation, it should take about a week or so max for him to get kicked out of the office for the unlawful and copious amount of overtime work he’s doing… and as soon he sets foot to his penthouse, I will personally drag him to Yuki’s and Shikabane’s apartment to finally be done with this game the two are playing.” Sakiyo explained, as her face screamed utter determination.

“And what if he goes to a hotel instead of his house?” Tadano questioned, and before Fenneko herself could explain why that wasn’t any problem, Sakiyo was quicker to answer.

“Fenneko has Jiro’s location marked. Even if he’s somewhere else from his penthouse, then I’ll go to whatever place he’s hiding himself, and drag him screaming to my brother’s place.”

“Yeah… don’t question how I did that, but I can tell where Jiro is, and from what I’m seeing on my phone, he’s still in the same place that he was all these time ago besides that one occasion where he went out to go talk with Sakiyo.” Fenneko added for good measure, hoping Seiji didn’t find it creepy how well she got the hyena supervised, but thankfully, it seemed like he was more impressed by Fenneko’s capabilities than he was terrified of them.

“I see… but do you think it is wise to be so drastic on the measures you’re taking with him? I would personally advise on giving Jiro more time to think about his… standing in life” Washimi questioned, as Gori next to her nodded her head exceedingly.

“I agree with Washimi… is it really that smart to meddle in his affairs… it’s technically not our responsibility to do so if he doesn’t ask for help.” Tadano added, as soon afterwards Seiji told:

“Yeah… having this many people just squirm their way into my struggles isn’t really something I would be fond of…”

“Ah, leave the man who’s utterly confused at the moment about himself, and not help him through the process of accepting himself, so much prudence and sapience I’m hearing at the moment!” Sakiyo sarcastically told to hide her displeasure with the answers that she was hearing, as Shikabane followed it up by saying:

“...I also want to interfere in Jiro’s problems if we can, because unlike you guys, I’m sharing a base with one of the guys who is cringe at the moment, and I don’t think I’m able to stand it any longer hearing Yuki being all depressed like.”

“Oh, I’m not really in favour of this hasty decision of Sakiyo, but I made a promise myself that I would get Jiro and Yuki together this month to make fun of Haida when I tell him that it only took a month for me to get the two together, unlike him with Retsuko, so yeah, I think we should break into his home if we can.” Fenneko claimed, and unfortunately for her, it seemed like that didn’t earn a reaction from Haida, because it seemed like he was considering what they should do at the moment.

“...Ichiro told me his brother thinks logically… so if maybe Sakiyo makes some convincing arguments, we could get Jiro to realise how it’s really not that problematic of him being together with Sakiyo’s brother?” Retsuko surprisingly added.

“I trust in Sakiyo’s judgement, and I don’t think that guy’s door is able to protect him from Sakiyo’s soured mood.” Manaka said, which is when Fenneko realised…

They were quite literally split down the middle, with Sakiyo, Shikabane, herself, Manaka and Retsuko being on the opinion that they should intrude into Jiro’s personal space as soon as they’re able to, while Seiji, Tadano, Washimi and Gori were on the decision that they should wait it out, which meant that the only person who’d be the dealbreaker in this poll was Haida.

Which is why everyone was now staring at him for him to call his vote, as she started mumbling:

“I… I think we should wait and see for a bit… it’s not like Jiro’s going out anytime soon…”

Oh god this can’t be happening. Why???? Why’d you say that, you dumb hyena?!

“...And now we’re split… great.” Fenneko annoyingly said, which meant that at this rate, they’re not going to get down with anything in this restaurant.

However, there was one certain woman around the roundtable who was more angered by Haida’s response, and it was from a cow in a lolita dress, as she just commented:

“Wow, aren’t you the big brother of the year? Have your brother drop dead from overwork, will ya?”

“Ooooh, things are gonna get exciting…” Manaka mumbled under her breath, as Sakiyo threw an irritated smile at Haida, while the neurotic hyena cringed away from the stare the cow was throwing at him.

“Sakiyo… that-”

“You don’t get any say in this matter, Retsuko. As much as I adore you for your idol work, this is not your battlefield to fight. Ichiro, I’m speaking to you.” Sakiyo cut into Retsuko’s excuses before she could finish them, as the sudden tension around the table was felt by literally everyone, with mixed reactions.

“....”

And of course Haida had nothing to say, which was the false answer according to the bull, because the words that soon followed afterwards…

“Of course. Ever the avoidant guy. And here I thought you would be smart enough to realise how much you can contribute to getting through with Jiro, but it seems like I was mistaken. No wonders you were demoted from your job of being the family heir.”

Oh… she wasn’t pulling any punches, because she kept a calm expression as she was explaining all of this.

Haida on the other hand was looking pitiful to look at, and man, did it hurt seeing him like this.

“Do you have any trace or clue on how much torment Jiro is going through, and you’re being an absolute dweeb at the moment when he needs help from you? Do you even have a sniff of knowledge about how terrible he must be feeling inside, and how much he’s hurting at the moment? I only saw him for a brief minute or so, but I was able to perceive how utterly depressed he was. Do you want me to spoon-fed to you the things he said about himself, or do you want to avoid it, as usual?”

“Sakiyo… we shoul-” Tadano tried to interfere this time, but it looks like Manaka had Sakiyo’s back, because the chinchilla was proud to tell the donkey:

“Nah, let her speak. When it comes to things like that, she’s an expert… Sakiyo, if you would?”

“Thank you, Manaka… As I was saying, do you want me to impart the things he said about himself, or not?” The cow asked the hyena, as Haida was finally able to tell something to the woman who was thinly hiding her wrath against the hyena, saying:

“...W-What did he.. Say?”

“Oh, the usual! ‘I should just drop dead at work, it’s my destiny anyway!’, ‘I would be only endangering and burdening Yuki if I was together with him!’, ‘Why don’t you detest me for my nature’, such things, you know? It’s the practical self-deprecating and loathing comments that most people make about themselves if they get raised in a society where some people shun and hate on people idiotically who belong to a minority group.” Sakiyo responded, and it seemed like Haida winced from every new comments she added, while she continued onward:

“As you just heard, Jiro’s not doing that fine, and it’s pretty easy to see that he hates himself at the moment… which is why I’m so disappointed with you Ichiro.”

“...Huh?” The hyena replied, with Fenneko and everyone else also equally curious on why Sakiyo was disappointed with the hyena, as she began explaining her reasons for it.

“Ichiro, you know how much he looks up to you, adores you, loves you, and I bet he would basically slaughter half of the population on earth if it meant sacrificing you or the people he slaughtered, and here you are, not having the courage to go help your brother in his woes of just… telling him that he’s fine as it is! You’re being like my oldest brother, you know?!”

Haida remained silent for some time, with everyone being utterly shocked by how Sakiyo didn’t care how direct she was with her words, until he eventually mumbled:

“I’m not like him…”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but you’re being exactly like Genta right now! It’s always about yourself, even if it comes at the expense of your brother’s happiness! Isn’t it time for you to finally come clean with this act of you being a caring brother, when underneath it all, when Jiro needs your help the most, it’s always an inconvenience for you to go help him. You don’t even care about him, do you?”

And this was the moment which seemed like was too much for Haida to handle, because he suddenly shoot himself up from his seat, looking absolutely pissed off in the face, as he scornfully looked at Sakiyo and said:

“I DO care for him, you… you damn cow! Just where do you think you’re getting all this fro-” However, it seemed like Sakiyo spared him no time to explain, because she angrily butted in, quite distressingly so.

“Where? From where?! You do know that I still had contact with Jiro for a bit until he was jailed at his home when you messed up with that video of yours that your dumbass of a friend uploaded? He quite literally told me you WERE ignoring him, looking the other way, thinking you were hating him. And before you try to come up with excuses, I know you’re lying, because Yuki and I were there on all the times he sobbed his eyes out because you were a fucking trashheap of a human being!”

Oh, things were going horribly… She didn’t sign up for another round of Haida family trauma, when she thought she’d be deciding what they should do next! Nearly everyone was wincing away from the domineering anger from the Ushijima, while Haida seemed to have lost all the backbone in his body, because he remained silent.

And boy was that the wrong action for Haida to take, because Sakiyo honed onto his silence, saying:

“Oh? Did I hit a nerve? Is the past catching up to you? Does it hurt getting informed how much of an asshole you are? I know it isn’t a hidden secret how Yuki dislikes you, but do you want me to inform you how I feel about you?... Too bad, I’m not waiting for any responses, I hate you, from the bottom of my heart. If I wasn’t trained on withholding my emotions, I would be screaming your head off from how much in description I could go on you not deserving the devotion Jiro gives you.” Sakiyo said in a calm manner. Fenneko felt too terrified from the Ushijima’s speech, like everyone else, besides one person…

“...You hate me?” Haida said in a shocked manner, as Sakiyo didn’t seem to make any kind of reaction on her face, as she opened up her mouth…

“Why wouldn’t Yuki and I hate you? You were always going on your father’s nerves, which was quite literally playing with fire. You were a goddamn womaniser, and it always fell on Jiro’s laps on either keeping your girlfriend a secret, convincing your dad that she wasn't some girl trying to get together with you for the money, and everything in between! You are a self-centred prick of a man who never appreciated how much Jiro supported you in the past, and even though I have to agree that Jiro was enabling your behaviour, it does not excuse how much of a dick you were! And just like last time, when Jiro needed support from you, you turn the other way, and do not give a damn grain of care for your brother’s wellbeing!”

Sakiyo took a moment to catch her breath, her neutral expression being on the brink of breaking, as she continued as soon as she took a moment to have a break in her explanation.

“Ichiro, he quite literally NEEDS you at the moment, to have you aid him through this process, but here you are, being a coward, because you’re being a goddamned loser! Sincerely, fuck you and all the people like you, who take advantage of people like Jiro, tossing them aside like they’re tools.” Sakiyo calmly stated, as she stood up from her seat, urging the people who were next to her to let her through, as Retsuko said:

“...Sakiyo… where are you going?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going somewhere else from here with Manaka. I want to be somewhere where I do not have to be forced to look at your husband. If I personally could have afforded it, I would have commanded Ichiro to get out of my sight from here and have a deep thought on what he should do to support Jiro. Fenneko, contact me if Jiro makes any moves away from his office, alright?” She stated, as Manaka stood up and went with her, while Fenneko herself just nodded, earning a smile from the cow.

Before she and Manaka galloped somewhere else entirely, she turned towards Haida one last time, who looked absolutely defeated with himself, as she said her parting words:

“Even though you might not make any moves on helping Jiro, I will be your substitute. It always fell on me to take care of things that men like you leave behind after you go up and scorch things up. If you do not care about your brother enough to help him, then I will. If you want to prove me wrong, then I hope you’re up to the task. Now… Manaka.”

“Yeah, let us go. I didn’t wanna eat steak anyway… How about some ice cream?” The chinchilla asked, looking more happy and entertained from all of this drama than everyone else at the table, as the two women left the restaurant.

She didn’t… expect to have something like this come up in their group…

Everyone at the table was quite figuratively awestruck and dumbfounded from how Sakiyo decided to drill into Haida, as Fenneko turned around to see how Haida was taking all of this in.

He… looked beyond depressed and squeamish in the face, and his eye was twitching a considerate amount. Well, he had a lot to think about at that moment…

Jiro was currently on his way up the elevator to his penthouse, having worked through quite a troublesome week through work.

There was so many complications this week, Jiro just had to question who even was in charge of his schedule, because when his time could have been used on more important things than acting as some kind of a bellboy for companies being funded from his political party, but alas, it’s at least better than doing nothing at work.

As the elevator doors separated, he made a nosedive to the wardrobe to drop off his shoes, as he brought out his keys, and opened his door to go inside his home.

“I’m home!” He announced, just in case Yuki was at home already, but his fears were alleviated soon, because he heard a voice shut back at him.

“Welcome back!... Hope you like Nikujaga for dinner!” The bull responded back to him, as Jiro felt his stomach grumble. He planned to go deposit his work stuff back from where he hoards them, but he didn’t want to torment his stomach from taking a glimpse on what they’ll be feasting on soon, and using it as an excuse to be near his husband.

Yuki… as his husband?

Right, he confessed his feelings after six years of dating outside of the Haida estate with the amazing garten that his Father cultivated, with his family and Yuki’s family being supportive and excited for the two, saying that the of them were technically married for nearly a decade now.

Their family… supporting them on their relationship?

Yeah, they did in fact do that. Jiro still remembers the moment when he was at the altar, with his mother and Ichiro crying their eyes out, while his father was smirking all the same, trying to hide how affected he was on finally letting his second son get married off and leaving the family nest, because he had a soft spot for Jiro.

His father… would do that?

Yeah, he needed to take some time to understand Jiro when he first got… diagnosed, but he tried as hard as he could to make it easy for Jiro as much as he could, having private coaches come up and help him understand to socialise with other people, and he feels indebted for him for that… but if he was indebted for everything, it would be that his father was the reason as to why he even met his wonderful husband in the first place.

Jiro stalked himself nearer into the kitchen, already smelling the meal and wanting more of it, as he felt proud that Yuki was able to master cooking. Originally, his cooking was a hit and miss, seeing as always felt curious what would happen if he did something like sprinkling A instead of B, or adding that instead of this, but with the help of Jiro’s mother, he was able to… tune down that experimental part of his brain that activates whenever he cooks.

Don’t get him wrong, he doesn’t mind if Yuki is like that, and Jiro would eat whatever he would cook him, even though it would lend him into a hospital bed from food poisoning, but he had to admit eating good food was preferable.

He soon was behind his husband, glaring at the beef he was currently stirring and cooking in the oven, as he quite literally almost started fuming in the mouth. God, he wants to take a bite out of that meat…

“It’s going to be complete soon, and then we three are going to go ham on this cooked piece of meat. I hope you can bear it out for me for a few minutes, Jiro.” Yuki mumbled, as he turned around his head, spotting a smirk on his face.

Man, he couldn’t wait until he, Yuki and Tsukiko, and he could quiz their daughter…

Their daughter… but weren’t they both…?

Until he could quiz their daughter how it was going to elementary school. It was her first year going there, and he felt prideful knowing that she was doing amazingly well, already having gotten good grades and being good friends with a few classmates of hers… probably inherited from his other father.

If he had to analyse her daughter, it was pretty much clear that she was Yuki’s kid, with his father making some kind of a joke that he won the genetics war between the two, and if Jiro had to be honest about himself, he was glad that was the case.

He wouldn’t wish for his daughter to be as abnormal as him.

“I don’t mind waiting, you know just how much patience I have. Your sister called me a saint for being the only guy who would even dare play along with her games, after all.” Jiro stated, as that was enough to earn a chuckle from the bull, as Jiro was staring lovingly at how beautiful Yuki was when he laughed.

Goodness, maybe that comment that his brother made about how he gave lovey-dovey eyes at Yuki wasn’t that far off the mark, as he then remembered Shikabane telling him that he was a simp. And honestly, maybe he was. Why wouldn’t he, when Yuki was as amazing and perfect as a man could be, and he just had to make himself all the more better by also sharing the same feeling that Jiro had for Yuki.

It still amazes Jiro that he has all this, everything that he wanted in his life. His brother did warn him that he should prepare himself from having a mid-life crisis after having everything that someone might want in life, but he wasn’t that worried about that, because how could he grow tired, now that there wasn’t only cattle in the household.

As Jiro reeled himself back into the living world, he also felt something else rile up in himself, which was a byproduct of him loving Yuki on such a high level, as he stared further onto his husband’s jugular which was spotless at the moment. Which is when his greedy part of his mind took control of his body, leaping forward a bit and grabbing onto the bull’s hips, and having his mouth make a good mark on his husband’s neck.

It surprised Yuki, before he eventually cackled and let out a few quiet whines that Jiro absolutely loved hearing his husband making, as Jiro finally let go of his neck, feeling giddy that Yuki’s co-workers are gonna be able to see the hickey, favourably multiple if Yuki allows it, and note to themselves that he was taken and not shareable, and that he belonged to Jiro, as much as he belonged to Yuki.

“...But I bet we both know how terrible I’m at restraining myself from wanting you all to myself.” Jiro voiced, knowing how degenerate he must have sounded with this one, but he loved telling his most loved person in the world just how much he wanted him, required him, and he also knew that Yuki loved it as much as him, and how it drove him insane all the times the two of them touched each other like this, being this close together that it almost felt like they combined, as if they were two halves of a whole.

“I know plenty, alright…. If only Sakiyo could see how much of a pervert you are right now, so that she could stop painting me as the pervert between us two, when we both know that it’s a shared trait between us.” Yuki spoke, as Jiro just went closer to his husband’s ripped back, planting his awakened crotch just behind the bull’s ass. If he wasn’t preoccupied with being drunk on his husband’s face, he would be staring at just how sinfully close their private areas were next to each other.

The action took Yuki less off-guard than the neck-biting and waist grabbing from Jiro, as Yuki let out a groan of annoyance, as he just told:

“See? She would have had a stroke right now if she just saw what you have done, and dare I say, you are quite a pest for deigning ignorance when we talk about it to her.”

However, Jiro, the ever greedy man that he was, decided to let go one of his hands that was on his husband’s waist at the moment, as he went lower and lower on his husband’s body… until he could grope that bouncy buttcheek of Yuki’s, planning to wreck it if Yuki felt compelled to do so, as he teasingly asked Yuki:

“How would she react if she saw this?”

“Funeral.” Yuki replied in a heartbeat, as Jiro just continued groping and pressing his crotch closer on his husband’s buttcheeks, hoping their daughter was busy in her room at the moment, just so that he and Yuki don’t have to explain what their two daddies were up to in the kitchen. She nearly caught them once getting risque in their bedroom once, and he does not want to get spooked in such a way ever again.

“May she rest in peace, then… but I’ll be continuing to grope these sinful ass of yours, if you don’t mind?”

“Oh, you would know how I feel about it if you spent your hands on entertaining my own neglected dick of mine… just a suggestion, though.” Yuki chuckled, which Jiro took to immediately abandoning his groping to see how active his husband’s penis was, ever wanting to please him as much as he wanted, as Jiro was beyond relieved to see that it was bulging and twitching as soon as he had his palm on it. He was quite lucky to have Yuki have such a big length that he spotted, because he had some dirty thoughts on what he wanted to do with this bad boy of Yuki’s.

“It’s big…” Jiro only muttered, currently focused on trying to not have a sensory overload from how good it was being this close to Yuki, and touching him in such a manner, which is when Yuki used it as a moment to make a crude joke about it, saying:

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you felt envious about it.”

“Tch, don’t be ridiculous. I’m only a few inches shorter than you when we’re both erect, and you don’t see me complaining when I take all of it inside me. Aren’t you the jealous one for not being able to experience how much deeper you can go in me, compared to how deep I can go in you?”

“Goddamn, you must have been fantasising about me all the way back from work if you’re spewing such nasty comments like this one, weren’t you?” Yuki laughed, and if he pulled a bullseye on that theory, because Jiro was already thinking about whether he wanted to ravage Yuki, or be ravaged by Yuki. As it stood right now, he would be ravaging Yuki, and he wasn’t complaining about that.

However, before he could question why Yuki suddenly turned the heat on the oven down to zero when it was clear that he still had some cooking to do on the beef in the pot, he suddenly turned around, circling one of his hand around Jiro’s abdomen area and the other behind Jiro’s head, as he took him for a twirl… until he smashed Jiro’s back in front of the refrigerator.

Before Jiro could tease, question or do anything like touch him, it was Yuki’s turn to get his sharp teeth implanted on Jiro’s neck, as it was Jiro’s to let out a moan from the sudden way Yuki was making sure to plant a visual feedback from their adventure in the kitchen, as he squeamishly asked Yuki:

“A…Ah… Yuki, but what if Tsukiko sees us!...”

It took a bit for Yuki to make any kind of verbal response, with Jiro just groaning and letting some of the pleasure run out of his mouth in a quiet way, until he finally reeled his head back, smiling devilishly whilst staring at the obvious mark that he must have left on Jiro’s neck, as he soon looked into Jiro’s eyes, and told:

“You can see her coming from here, can you not? We can also use our ears, so it’s not like we’ll get a rerun from last time when I was about to destroy that thigh hole of yours, yeah?”

God, he couldn’t get any happier when Yuki was done sweet-talking to him and just turned into a wild animal from how much dirtier she spoke. Even though the both of them switched their positions on the daily, Jiro had a preference when it came to a position in their make-outs or love making, and it was when Yuki was the one pounding the life out of him and with him talking diabolically.

Seeing as it was hard to say no to Yuki, even though he could easily have done it if he wanted to, and with him being full onboard with the idea of his husbands, he abandoned any kind of braincells that might have been against the idea, which really was none, as he embraced the bull in front of him, with his legs soon leaving the ground to go encircle the bull’s waist, with his husband taking this as his cue to press their lips together.

“..- ‘id-?”

Yes, yes, this felt so right! He liked everything that they were doing right now, from the closeness, from the familial love between them, from the way he was his best friend, from the way he was also his husband, the way they had a loving family, with him probably soon going to take out some time for the two to negotiate if they wanted another kid, and from the way how Yuki was quote on quote making Jiro wet with how extremely well he was taking him in this kiss.

He wanted more, more and more of this! When it was like this between the two of them, everything else was inconsequential and dust, with him and only Yuki being the only thing that was registered in Jiro’s brain to be actually there. As much as he loathed how he couldn’t close his eyes at the moment, he still enjoyed just how rowdy Yuki has gotten with their lips, with him being sure that Yuki was some kind of a psychic, because when Yuki retreated his arms from protecting Jiro’s head from the refrigerator door, he soon guided those same arms down to go get busy on groping Jiro’s cheeks, and if his mouth wasn’t personally in Yuki’s at the moment, he would be sure the moan he would have let out at that moment would have probably alerted Tsukiko’s from her room.

“M-. -aid-?”

Fuck, just when did he get so lucky in life to have all this? He was called a saint a few times at work, from Sakiyo, Fenneko and Shikabane for supposedly putting up with Yuki’s mishaps, but what did those women know about Yuki, when Jiro just couldn’t see anything wrong with Yuki.

Yukiharu. His Yukiharu. His. All his. And he was his, all of him was his as well.

This is when Jiro realised just how tears were forming on his eyelids, and Jiro cursed himself from how emotional he gets when he gets busy with Yuki, but before he could take himself down a notch, Yuki seemed to have noticed how sensitive he must have gotten, taking an arm back to go clean the tears that would have traversed down his face, halting their make out for a bit, resting his head on Jiro’s shoulder, as he peacefully comforted Jiro by telling him:

“Shh… it’s alright. You’re beautiful when you’re like this… You’re… my everything…”

“-iro Hai-?”

Jiro’s heart beating fastened, as he now wondered whether their horny make-out session and subsequent love-making was going to turn to an emotional make-out session instead, as before he could apologise for ruining the mood, it seemed like this man that god must have sent specifically for Jiro whispered into his ears.

“Don’t apologise… You’ve never done anything wrong… No wonder I fell in love with you at lightning speed… You’re… perfect”

Fuck, he really needed to hear those words, to bring him clarity from his mind, and how Yuki must have been correct in his assertion, because he really did nothing wrong, There was nothing wrong that he chose or wanted, so why would he think about it like he did something he shouldn’t, something that was forbidden for him to do?

‘Hell- ? Ca- -ou hea- -m?”

And just like that, Jiro returned to his senses, which also meant that he now had his previous idea in his head before he began building some tears in his eyes, and it was getting himself and Yuki rid of these annoying clothes.

Jiro urged Yuki to raise his head by bumping his shoulder a bit, as he quickly took a hand and took the bull’s chin in his own hand, taking it closer to him until their heads bumped against each other, their noses and eyes just a few inches away from each other, as Jiro implored Yuki the very thing he wanted him to do to the hyena at the moment.

“Fuck me here, Yukiharu.”

Yuki’s breath seemed to have halted for a second, until he realised what Jiro was getting at, as he questionably looked at Jiro for a bit, until he said:

“What?”

“-key -wak- ! Hel-!”

“Screw, sex, intercourse, swive, mate, coitus, bang, grind, nail and everything between that, do that to me!” Jiro said in an irritated tone, having had enough foreplay between him and his husband, hoping he wasn’t looking that pathetic in front of Yuki, as the bull questioned yet again:

“...You sure can't wait until we ate dinner?”

Jiro, unhappy with that answer, drove Yuki’s body closer to him with the legs around the bull’s waist, as he out of breath confessed to Yuki that:

“I need you to make me see stars at this very moment. I can’t wait any longer, I wanna… make love with you, and even though I thought I’d be in the opposite position today… God, I need you to just put it in me already! We have already had sex in the kitchen numerous times already, so why not add more to the count?”

“Jir-? Wak- up!”

His husband, his whole, frosty world, seemed to have been considering the offer that Jiro was offering, and when he let out a sigh, and took his arms onto his pants, Jiro had the most grinful face that he could muster, as he realised how badly Yuki was in the department of saying no to Jiro like the hyena man himself, as he said to him:

“You sly dog… You make me so crazy, you make me abandon all kinds of logic in my head… you sure you can keep your volume low enough to not alarm our kid?”

“I’ll try, but even if the music that you’re gonna play out of me is gonna be loud enough to alarm the whole neighbourhood around us, we’ll just say that Papa was just messaging Daddy again. It always worked on her, and it will do so for some time, until she’s mature enough for her to realise how just embarrassing we two are.”

As Jiro was explaining all that, his eyes sure did not miss out on how the pants around Yuki was covering less and less of the bull’s legs, until it went off of him, leaving him in his undergarments, as he now dug one finger in it, and slowly unchained that girthful part of his that was gonna breach Jiro any moment now, as Jiro got busy freeing the body part that was going to be needed in this exercise between the two, digging his undergarments and trousers down just enough to grant passage for that thing that was currently responsible for why Jiro’s mouth was watering at the moment, as Yuki now took that long thing in his hand, and slowly aimed it at where he needed to put it.

However, just before sparks could go flying inside Jiro’s mind, Yuki stopped at such a level where Jiro’s buttcheeks were quite literally resting on that longful, and Jiro now felt absolutely tortured from being so close to what he wanted.

“-aybe I sho- tr- -ouchi- hi- so h- cou- wak- u-?”

“Last warning, you really want this before I go into town with your ass?” Yuki asked, and even though Jiro sometimes liked when Yuki was so protective over him and making sure Jiro was as well treated like the bull, but most of the times, it annoyed him how most of the times, it was a blockage from the pleasure that the both of them would have, as Jiro rolled his head backwards in utter annoyance, and sighed:

“If you don’t fuck me this very moment, I’m gonna file for a divorce.”

“Princess, we all know you wouldn’t do that. We’re too spellbound to each other for you to do that.” Yuki responded, which is when Jiro raised his head from that terrible pet name he was given, and stared daggers into his husband’s eyes, until he figured out what wrong he committed, soon correcting himself. “Prince! I meant prince… May I now fill you up in earnest, your high-”

“Enough talk for now, just fuck me, for fuck sake Yuki… I can’t believe I married a dummy like you…”

“You sure do love me when I’m being a dummy, as I last recalled…” Yuki responded, as Jiro couldn’t help but chuckle at him, stating back:

“You’re the smartest dummy that I had the luck of having… now, if you would…” The hyena said, urging Yuki to get on with it, as the man just awkwardly blushed up, earning a small groan out from Jiro from how beautifully well the pink contrasted on the bull’s whole white face, nearly mesmerising Jiro in the process, as he only said:

“Uh… yeah! Tell me if you’re uncomfortable… and hope you’re gonna be able to stand after I knock you up real good, because I ain’t gonna be merciful with you, you hear?”

Fucking finally, Jiro thought to himself, as he just imagined the scenario of him being so thoroughly finished after this love-making session, that he has to call in to work that he’s doing home office, because his bull of a husband went on a bit of a rampage in the kitchen with him.

Would they get the innuendo, if Jiro said he was stuffed fully from his husband’s cooking?

Work could bite him in the ass, metaphorically of course, because at the moment, his ass was being used elsewhere, and oh how we waited for this.

Yuki was now aligning himself to finally do the deed, but before he was finally given what he wanted from his husband, he heard that weird sound that kept reappearing in his ears growing more louder and louder, suddenly hearing:

“Mr. Haida, wake up, please!”

“Mr. Haida, wake up, please!”

A voice made itself clear in Jiro’s ears, as he only saw nothing but the vast, black sea of nothingness, as he slowly stirred into consciousness, as with his limited brain capacity, he realised…

He fell asleep… and he was dreaming about… about…

Fuck… why was he still so sick at the moment, of him imagining things like their families being supportive of them, when they would surely estrange themselves from the two, of them having an… imaginative sex-life, how Yuki was about to… put it in Jiro, in all places, when he could do it with someone better… and how… and how the two had a legitimate daughter between them…

Why was he… dreaming of something that he could never possess?

Their families would never support them… only Sakiyo would be the one to do that, and Ichiro… he surely was thinking how… weird, abnormal he must be for his younger brother to be latching onto him all this time, probably ending on the wrong conclusions, and how Jiro was the one who messed it up again, because of his condition…

And Yuki would never… have such a big sex drive as Jiro now seemingly has out of nowhere, now that he realised he did in fact like a gender, which turned out to be the same-sex as his.

And the most laughable and silliest wish of his? An heir, that was produced by them two, made from love, and not by obligation, when it was biologically impossible to do so for the two of them to do.

Why is he wishing for normality, when he’s an anomalous man? He doesn’t deserve it, he’s not normal for it.

He’s abnormal. Abnormal, abnormal, abnormal, abnormal, abnormal, abnormal, abnormal, abnormal, abnormal, abnormal, abnormal, abn-

“Uhm… can you hear me, Mr. Haida?” That voice was ringing in Jiro’s ears again, as he now realised that he was caught sleeping on the job, waking the man up in an instant, trying to get as much energy as he could, before he eventually opened his eyes, blinking a few times to get used to the light intruding into his eyes.

Soon after, he raised his head, hoping he didn’t look that worn down, ready to apologise to whoever this person was for doing something as lowly as dozing off at work.

However, he did not want to see that certain hyena working as a secretary around in the office, who was staring brazenly at him, making Jiro wish he could just go back to his dream than waste time socialising with him.

Wait, no, not even that… he should have just continued working still…

“I… apologise that you had to see me like this… it seems like I wasn’t up to standard…” Jiro apologised to Yoshio, as he took his left palm on his forehead, clearly trying his best to appear alive in front of him until he could chase him out of his office, and then continue working on… on that business meeting tomorrow while supervising the changes from company K, and then…

While he was thinking that out, he stole a glance towards his monitor, which fortunately was now locked from being not used for some time, and saw that the time hit 8 P.M.

If that’s right… then that meant he must have been sleeping… and dreaming for two hours now, which would explain why nobody visited him in that timezone, seeing as nearly everyone would be away from work, besides the service workers cleaning up the place, and Jiro already made it clear that nobody should enter his office without Jiro’s say-so.

If that’s the case, then he must have used the amount of times he was dreaming for work… until it came down to the part of him… getting sexual and domestic with Yuki.

When he thinks about it, he can’t feel but feel embarrassed about it, in a good way… when that wasn’t the thing he should be feeling at the moment!

Why did it feel so right, when it’s supposed to be all wrong?

“Uhm.. it’s alright if I call Jiro, or do you want me to refer to you in honorifics?” Yoshio soon made his presence known again, as Jiro dragged his beyond tired and sore neck to look at him, which seemed to surprise the more silver-haired hyena, as Jiro just exhaustedly told him:

“Jiro’s fine…”

“Alright… before I begin why I’m even here… you look red in the eyes… and I don’t think that’s supposed to be something healthy folks spot on their face.” Yoshio explained, as Jiro took his smartphone that was in his pockets to check out his face… internally cringing at himself at how messy he looked.

Good thing he locked himself up in his office, because he surely would have killed a girl by how atrocious he looked.

“Guess so… I wasn’t able to catch that much sleep this week… because…” Jiro tried to explain, as he then realised that he couldn’t just talk about his problems to a stranger like some secretary, which is why he came up with an excuse, it being. “...there’s too much to do at the moment.”

Even with that said, the hyena still threw that pitiful look at at Jiro, which he did not want to get from the guy that was currently… or was seeing Yuki at the moment, until he eventually took a sigh, like he was gathering his courage from something that would set off Jiro, as he told him with great worry that:

“Well, I guess that is solved, because the administration hereby dismisses you for the remainder of the week to come here, and also demands that you please don’t rack onto more overwork until the next month. I’m going to be honest here, but you’re basically digging your grave right here, and I bet your friends, and especially Yukiharu, are missing you… considering that you just got a notification on your phone right now.”

The hyena in the grey suit said, taking a few steps backwards like he was preparing to flee at any moment, as Jiro’s attention got taken from the notification that he got… which just happened to be from Yuki, which read:

That same message about talking to Yuki in person… he has been sending a message each day ever since Tuesday afternoon, and Jiro is curious what the bull wanted to impart to him… but with Jiro being in this state… of him imagining scenarios with him and Yuki together, he couldn’t face the real man and have his dream shattered like that, when he eventually realises just how far the real Yuki was from his Yuki that was currently living in his mind at the moment…

The real Yuki didn’t love him… no matter how his younger sister was saying the opposite thing, because why would he like Jiro? It made sense when Yuki hated him, or when they were just best friends, but as lovers?... It didn’t make sense for them to consent to such a relationship.

And he didn’t want to hurt Yuki being together with the hyena, of how he would only disappoint him, fearing that even though the two of them had a chance together, he’d would… he’d would turn out exactly like his father, only busy with himself and work, while his mother, Yuki in this case, was silently taking it while irrationally loving him nonetheless.

He didn’t wanna chain him to himself, he deserves someone better than whatever kind of freak Jiro was…

And speaking of Yuki, that comment that Yoshio just made… he couldn’t help but be offended by it, as he angrily just let out a tick from his mouth, making the hyena standing opposite to him tense up in an instant, as he scornfully questioned him about the dismissal:

“You surely are jesting?... There’s no good reason to dismiss me from work when I’m still knee deep with work… and also, are you poking fun at me with that Yuki comment?!”

“Uh, uhm… I wasn’t… I was just worried how Yukiharu might have taken your silence from being here all the time, and I have to be honest… you don’t peg me as a…” Yoshio explained in a distress tone, taking a gulp in between his conversation, as he soon followed it by saying. “...Guy who responds when he’s solely focused with work, and I sincerely, fully, without-a-doubt didn’t intend for my words to be like that, Jiro!... It’s not like I even talk to him anymore, now that we’ve broken up… wait, do you even know that we two have broken up?”

The guy said, with Jiro being too tired to even come up with a reply, clearly saying that the man didn’t mean offence from how his eyes were trying their hardest on not acting like some pinball in a pinball machine.

“...I take it you already know, seeing that you aren’t surprised by it… but on a second thought, you always look judg- uh I mean ambivalent, so….”

“...I already knew you two aren’t a thing anymore… His sister told me already…” Jiro expressed, as Yoshio seemed a bit more relaxed after knowing that Jiro was in the known about it, but still not that much for Jiro to not see how the hyena was ready to retreat at moment’s notice, as the hyena just cackled and said:

“Oh… that’s a good thing, it seems like you did spend some time not working… but regardless, I still need you sir to follow the protocols, and return home to earn some well-earned rest in somewhere where you can rest your head on things besides your office desk… So if you would be so kind… Could you perhaps wrap up your… stuff and return them to the people actually responsible to them?”

“...Am I forced to take these undeserved days-off?” Jiro questioned, still begging to see if he could be here, because he sure as hell wouldn’t step a foot outside from here, because he’s pretty much certain Fenneko has his location bugged, because he found a little micro-device that he looked up to be some tracking device in his suit, and the only one who’d do such a thing was only his father, or Fenneko, and since his father wasn’t that wise in using modern technology… it had to be the woman who must have planted all of his clothes somewhere when she was drunk out of her mind that one time in his penthouse. He knew he shouldn’t have trusted the fennec fox to go to the bathroom on her own, and now he was praying heavily for it, which is why he’s gonna sweep through the whole place to make sure there wasn’t anything else planned in his home. She was sure to notify Yuki that Jiro was at home, and then he would have no choice but face him… or worse, send his older brother to him…

“...Yes, it’s an absolute must that you do…” Yoshio responded, as Jiro now tried to haggle for a way to be here, as he said:

“... Can’t you just tell them off that I’m at home, and have me stay in the office for a bit longer… I’ll be sure to commend some good words to your boss if you want me to…”

Jiro told, finding it appalling that he was willing so far to basically beg in front of this… man that Yuki was once seeing, in order to be away from said bull, as the man standing opposite to him dropped his jaw to the floor, until he eventually regained his more than shaky gesture, and said:

“...Uh, as much as that would be easier for me… I really don’t wanna take such a risky decision, and not to mention… The cleaners should come in about an hour or so to clean this place, so it’s not like I can try making some impromptu excuse to the cleaning lady that you’re actually still working….and not to mention…”

“Ugh… can’t you really just make any excuses?... Something about my office being locked up or the like…” Jiro groaned, already feeling unhappy that the hyena was being insisted on getting him kicked out of his safe haven, until he grabbed something from his suitcase that he was holding in his left hand, taking a deep sigh, and showing Jiro some kind of a… will?

“I thought you’d relent… which is why I took a copy from the official dismissal paper, just to make sure… the party is being serious with you taking the following three days off, for your own and the party's own image.” The hyena said, looking like he actually thought that Jiro would do something like this, as Jiro now frowned his eyebrows to see what was written on the paper, and through a quick skim through of it, it was an official dismissal from the Liberal Manifest Party, that he had 18-20 June free, and that for the rest of the month, he should clock out as soon as he had 8 hours on a day, with him feeling furious as soon as he noticed the sigil on the lower-right part of the paper, making it pretty much a legitimate warning for Jiro to go home, without any butts or ifs.

Jiro understood in some way why the party decided to do it, because if people investigated and found out that the party allowed Jiro to work so much, they would get fined with breaking a few labour laws, and he knew how corporations eked at the mention of being sued and having their cash shortened, especially if it came down to something that could have been prevented easily, but he couldn’t help but whine how he didn’t want to leave from here.

After letting out a beyond furious tick, Yoshio must have realised that Jiro now read through the copy, taking it back into his suitcase and closing it, as he then mumbled to Jiro:

“Well… I need to go home now, my girlfriend is waiting for me, and I hope that was enough to convince you to… take some time off and take a nice nap, because you desperately need it, Jiro. Uhm… if you would excuse me… can I be dismissed?”

“....You’re dismissed.” Jiro nodded, making the grey suited hyena practically bolt to the door from whence he came from, with Jiro being surprised by how quick the hyena was to leave him, as Jiro now closed his eyes and reeled himself back in his office chair, having his neck hurt from how his head was placed on the desk, as he let out a sigh, until he eventually opened his eyes again, and steeled himself for the coming events.

He knew he couldn’t avoid Yuki forever, and he needed to make sure his… unneeded feelings weren't going to flow out of him when meeting the bull head-on…

Why was he… like this? Just why couldn’t he play the role he was supposed to do, and have everything go normally in his life?...

He doesn’t remember much from when he was… in his father’s whole control, it acting like some mental lock in his brain, but in a way, it sure felt compelling at the moment… to just lose his consciousness for the moment, and be a doll… because he wasn’t strong enough to live with all these pent-up and ugly emotions inside of him…

He should… he should just make everything grey in his mind, make everything look the same, to hide all of his imaginations somewhere he couldn’t see it, to interact with it… to not get hurt by all of it… because when he didn’t think… then he wouldn’t feel so hurt… so… disappointed with the human refuse that he is…

………

But then….

Why did he have this feeling… of wanting to be saved?

No!... He doesn’t require… He doesn’t need it… He didn’t have it when he was imprisoned back at home by his father… So why would anyone care about him?

He didn’t deserve it… He didn’t need it…

….

Haida was enclosed. He and Retsuko just returned home, and had dinner already, but he felt too ashamed of himself to even talk to his wife, who was trying her hardest to cheer him up at the moment.

It felt… horrifying, having the truth smacked into his face by Sakiyo, of how much of a fuck-up Ichiro was, and how much he failed Jiro on so many levels, that it felt strange why Jiro decided to just avoid him, like he should have done all those times ago when he bumped into Fenneko on a random December day.

He failed him, and he was hurting… and what was this punk guy doing to help aid his brother, who must be so scared at the moment?

Oh, right! He was staring at the wall, like some mentally gone man in some mental hospital! It didn’t take long for him to have his eyes wander to the photo that Retsuko’s father has taken of him sitting together with Retsuko’s side of the family, with him slowly imagining Jiro’s body… appearing in the background, and if he didn’t see that documentation about karoshi, he wouldn’t figured out that Jiro was dead in that picture, his cause of death being neglecting his needs due to overworking himself to the brink.

He sacrificed Jiro, just so that he could have a happy, peaceful life with the woman he loved dearly.

Soon afterwards, staring more at the picture, he saw the whole frame change locations from Retsuko’s parents house… to a funeral, with him seeing all of his friends and family, standing over a white casket, housing the deceased body of his younger brother.

He can… he can already imagine… and feel all of the directed anger and sadness from everyone gathered there…

“If you only did as I commanded you, all of this wouldn’t have happened, you garbage of a human being! Cretins like you should be purged from our country!” His father yelled at him, suddenly agreeing with him.

“Jiro… my boy… why… why did it come to this?...” His mother cried her heart out, having so much regret in her voice, that Jiro felt like he should have been punished for not doing anything all these times ago.

“Ichiro… I… I thought you were better than this…” Retsuko mourned while staring blankly at the casket, with him feeling how Retsuko also felt like it was her fault for having Jiro end up like this… but he knew better than that, knowing it was him again that messed it up again.

Everyone else, with his friends like Fenneko, Shikabane and Tadano, were just standing there in solitude, with him feeling the ever judgemental stares that they were giving him, and with a few others who were crying as much as his mother, like Sakiyo and Gori, were devastated to hear the news of how Jiro died, with no one being there to save him when he most required it.

However, soon all of them disappeared one by one, until he saw a beyond devastated bull with a bouquet of white and yellow chrysanthemums and lilies in his hand, slowly going up to the casket of his deceased lover… or would-be lover, as he placed the bouquet on top of his coffin, standing there motionlessly, with him putting one hand on the casket, saying his final farewells to him, as he then turned around to face Haida in the face, the one who murdered his beloved best-friend, the one who took all his happiness away.

Haida… Ichiro gulped.

Yuki didn’t left the casket, as he had a chain come out from where his heart was located at, as he just blankly stared at Ichiro, and stated:

“I loved him…”

He knew… he knew too late… all because he was too preoccupied with himself to realise just how close his brother and Yuki were… and Shishido was able to figure it out, and he was the dumbest person alive… or was it him that deserved that title?

“I loved him… and you took him away from him…”

The bull repeated, with Ichiro trying his hardest to break eye-contact with him…

But it was all for naught, because the demeaning blick of the younger man pierced his mind still, as he continued on:

“You… sacrificed him, you took our happiness away… all because you’re a selfish bastard like your father…”

The bull spoke with such venom in his voice, that Ichiro couldn’t help but feel as if he was personally cushioned with over 1000 blades going through his body, feeling absolutely tortured by it all, as the man in front of him continued…

“Jiro didn’t deserve it… he shouldn’t be in this casket right now…”

The younger man mumbled, with him finally being spent on feeling angry with blaming Ichiro at the moment, until he finished his sentence.

“If anybody deserves to be in something like this… it shouldn’t have been him… but…”

“Me…” Ichiro finished the bull’s sentence, knowing full well that Yuki was absolutely right in his statement. Jiro didn’t deserve it, HE did.

His little brother, who was so eager on wanting to talk about his niche interest of ghosts, folklore, myths, to him personally, while he did nothing but try listening to him for a good minute or so, until he eventually got bored from it, leaving him there pouty for being a party-pooper. His little brother, who adored him so much, that he had to pay for his life for it.

Why…? Just why… did he fail Jiro at every expectable angle, like he was personally doing it on purpose, of him being the lamest oldest brother in the whole wide world, who couldn’t even protect or help Jiro when he needed it. Maybe his father was right… he was a fail-

“Ichiro… are you OK?” A voice cracked and quite figuratively brought him pulling back from the dreamscape that he found himself projecting on the family photo, as Haida realised… that Jiro’s body wasn’t there in the background, and that he was just imagining it all…

The person responsible soon made themselves clear in Haida’s rear sight, as he saw the red panda that he lived with throw him a worried expression, making him feel tethered to the real world, realising just how irregularly he was breathing at the moment.

“Retsuko…” Haida only muttered, as the woman in question soon grasped onto his hands, feeling her warm hands put a comfortable bonfire around him, as he felt himself relax further into being normal, as he tried his best not to cry from how devastated he was with himself.

“Oh, Ichiro…” She cooed, as Haida now couldn’t hide how much pain he was feeling at the moment, and how much Jiro must have been going through himself, without someone like Retsuko at his side, who Yuki could have been all this time, if he didn’t go up and decide to make it into a pile of quandaries, wondering if he should really just wait it out for Jiro to response to him… when maybe, it should be time for him to be activate, instead of simply reacting to his situation around him.

And as if a higher power was personally earjacking on his thoughts and mind, his phone rang that was on the table in front of him, noticing that the caller was Fenneko.

*RIIIING RIIIING*

Wasting no time, not wanting Retsuko to do the simple act of picking up the phone for him, he took up the phone, staring at the name that was calling him, and thinking…

Is it time? Did Jiro finally return back to his penthouse?

“...I wonder why Fenneko is calling…” Retsuko questioned, as Ichiro accepted the call, and put his phone on speaker to have Retsuko listen on to whatever Fenneko was about to inform them…

“JIRO IS DRIVING BACK HOME, I REPEAT, THE HYENA HAS LEFT HIS OFFICE CAVE!” Fenneko basically shouted at them, having him and Retsuko reel their heads back from the impact of their friend’s voice, as she soon followed it up by adding. “I TOLD EVERYONE ALREADY, AND IT LOOKS LIKE SAKIYO IS GOING TO BEAT ME RACING GOING OVER TO JIRO’S HOME, AND-”

Fenneko quite literally was yelling, with the two hearing the sound of a few grumbles that didn’t sound anything like Fenneko, as Retsuko told Fenneko…

“Wait, are you calling inside a train cabin?! Are you insane, woman?!”

“RETSUKO, I DON’T HAVE TIME TO BE NORMAL AT THE MOMENT, IT’S EITHER GO INSANE OR GO BROKE, IT’S NOT LIKE THE GUYS HERE ARE MAKING ANY COMPLAINTS ABOUT IT!” Fenneko soon followed, with the two people listening on hearing a few disgruntled complaints in the background, which Fenneko was speaking over.

That is when Haida decided that he shouldn’t hesitate any longer, as he dropped the blank expression he was spotting on himself, as he now had his most stern expression that he had his whole life, as he revolved his head to look at Retsuko, asking her:

“Retsuko, we need to go too.”

It took a few moments for his wife to have those words drain into her consciousness, as he soon heard Fenneko scream:

“YES! HAIDA, WE NEED YOU TO COME WITH US ON THE DOUBLE AT YOUR BROTHER’S PLACE, BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CHANCE OF CONVINCING YOUR BROTHER TO GET OUT OF THAT SHELL OF HIS. I CAN’T LOSE MY WINE BUDDY, YOU HEAR ME?!”

“I heard you, Fenneko… Wait for us.” Haida said with resolve, glaring over to Retsuko, who seemed all surprised by the courage her husband must have been showing at the moment, until she nodded at him, standing up from the carpet she was sitting on, with Haida doing the same.

While Retsuko was busy searching for a route to his brother’s penthouse, he walked over to the black leather jacket that he wore on a daily basis, as he made a personal vow to himself.

Ichiro in the past wasn’t there for Jiro in the past… but this time…

Ichiro would be there, and he IS going to help his brother this time around!

About 45 minutes later, at a certain hyena’s penthouse…

“Ichiro… huff… I can’t run as fast as you…!” Retsuko whined, as Ichiro was running in hand with her, looking at the direction that his phone was giving him, as he noted that it should take about a minute and a half for them to arrive at Jiro’s location, hoping he didn’t arrive late before Sakiyo and Fenneko broke into his brother’s penthouse.

“Babe, we’re almost there!... Just bear it for a few more minutes!” Ichiro requested from his wife, who could have stayed home, but she did the unexpected, and went with him to support Ichiro in convincing his brother through the confusion he must be handling at the moment. He should really cook her favourite meals for a week straight next week, and reward her for putting up with Ichiro’s mishaps.

The two continued running, with them nearly clashing into an elderly couple, which was number 7 of people they nearly crashed into if they didn’t think fast, with them hearing the couple spouting something over young people and their carelessness, but they weren’t important at the moment, because as soon as they turned to the left, the penthouse which was kind of excluded from the other buildings near the streets appeared in their view, which is when Ichiro sped up more, hoping Retsuko wasn’t going to chew him out personally for putting her legs through a world of hurt.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the entrance, entering the lobby area that Jiro’s penthouse kind of had without any people working there, as the two of them spotted Fenneko and Sakiyo, with the latter smashing her fist against the elevator door that separated the two woman from Jiro, which was the area where Jiro accepted people guests coming over.

Fenneko definitely noticed the two of them entering the reception area, waving over to them to come over, which the two of them did as followed, making their last leaps of running, before they eventually heard the fennec fox saying in a composed manner:

“See, the boy blunder and his wife were going to come! He might be an idiot, but he isn’t that heartless to neglect his brother when he is hurting!”

She was probably addressing Sakiyo, who was comfortably smashing her fists against the elevator door, as she soon shouted in the intel-com, which Jiro must have been using at the moment, yelling:

“OPEN THE DOOR, COWARD. YOU CAN’T KEEP DENYING YOURSELF ANY FURTHER, UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO STOMP MY LEGS INTO YOUR ELEVATOR DOOR, AND LET ME TELL, MY KICKS ARE LETHAL!”

Damn… did Sakiyo looked beyond aggravated at the moment, probably having sharpened her hones in preparation for all of this, because it shines more brightly at the moment, and seeing that she had some kind of a normal outfit on her, he knew Sakiyo must have been serious, if she didn’t have time to decide what kind of dress she wanted to have to confront Jiro, as she turned out, making Retsuko jump in panic from how scary Sakiyo looked in the face… until she eventually seemed more relaxed in the face, quite literally whispering:

“...I think I owe you an apology as soon as we’re done here… but right now…”

He knew instantly what she was alluding to. They needed him at the moment to get Jiro out of there, and at the moment…

He knew he was the right man for the job.

He walked over to the intelcom, turning around to see Retsuko, Fenneko and Sakiyo place all of their faith in him on helping Jiro, as he prepared himself, before he pressed the intelcom button, which looked like was pretty abused from Sakiyo, and braced himself to hear what Jiro was going to tell him…

Well, he didn’t expect Jiro to come out swinging, because as soon as he accepted the intel-com message that Ichiro was transmitting over to him…

“FOR FUCK SAKE WOMAN, CAN YOU LET ME SLEEP?! STOP PESTERING ME YOU GODDAMN ANNOYANCE, LEST YOU WANT ME TO CALL THE AUTHORITIES TO TAKE YOU AWAY?! NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY, I’M NOT GOING TO CO-”

“Jiro.”

And just like that, Jiro’s whole pissed off attitude seemed to vanish in the air, and before he could have dropped the intel-com message…

“Jiro, please don’t drop the call… Listen to me.”

“...Brother? Why…?” Jiro spouted, having Ichiro feel how exhausted he was from his tone of voice, as he questioned how much sleep Jiro even had this whole week.

“Jiro… I wanna talk to you… could you please come out… and come with us, to the karaoke bar in Otemachi?” Ichiro requested, not mentioning that he also wanted to say that he was there to save him, to be there for him this time around, as the next few seconds was nothing but the buzzer of the intel-com being the only thing he was hearing, until…

“...I understand… I’ll… go out.”

A quick trip over to the karaoke bar near Chararyman, time hitting 10 P.M…..

Here they were again, with Ichiro sitting on a sitting place while Jiro was on the other one, with the both of them hunching forward. He was staring at Jiro, while his brother was staring at the abyss known as the floor, not willing to look at him in the face.

Jiro drove him and the other three women to the karaoke bar where Retsuko came on a daily basis back in the past, with the three of them sitting outside, only praying for Ichiro to succeed in getting through to his brother. He sure was not going to let them down, or disappoint his brother again.

He was not leaving this cabinet until Jiro was able to accept himself, and it sounded nearly impossible, now that he hears himself… but it’s time for him to challenge fate itself!

“Why…” Jiro muttered, making Ichiro tense up and listen in an instant. “Why… are we here?”

Ichiro smirked, as he wondered how Jiro wasn’t able to grasp what they were doing here, as he answered him:

“I’m here to hammer you with some sense… and people do get bolder during karaoke, which is why we’re here.”

He prayed that was enough for him to understand where he was going with this, but…

“Don’t… mince your words, if that’s the case…”

Jiro blabbed like he was guilty of something, which is why Ichiro corrected him on their reason for being here, saying:

“Jiro, I’m not here to lecture you. You didn’t do anything wrong, I’m here… to have you accept yourself.”

“...What?...”

“You heard me. I only know a mere stain of what you’re going through, of how it’s like being you, but Jiro… let me aid you on how you are totally fine as it i-”

“No! Stop! I’m not normal! Stop insisting that I am!” Jiro suddenly cut into Ichiro’s explanation, putting his hands on his tufts, blocking his eyes from how his hands arms were in the way, as Ichiro just told him:

“Jiro… I don’t think that you are.” He confessed, but before he could add into it, Jiro was quicker to speak, looking up to Ichiro, and retreating his hands back onto his legs, as he exclaimed:

“See! You finally agree to it! I was never normal, and never will! It’s like what Father said, I’m abnormal, and no matter what anyone does to me, I’ll always be this oddity, this freak who clinks onto you like some stalker! Please… just leave me alone…”

When Jiro told all of this Ichiro… and how tired… and defeated he looked, it hurt Ichiro just how bad stuff he was saying about himself, when none of it was true in the slightest.

“No. Hear me out, because Jiro… you need to hear what I have to tell you… I already left you alone once in the past… and I think that’s the biggest thing I regret in my whole life.” Ichiro demanded, as Jiro looked shocked to the brim, using this opportunity to tell what he wanted to say to him before his brother was personally punching himself in the guts, telling him:

“Jiro, our father is nothing but an idiot outside of earning riches and fame. Nobody is normal… and everyone is abnormal in their own ways. Some people are geniuses, like Tadano. Some people only have a pensive face, like Shikabane. Some people dress only in lolita fashion, like Sakiyo. Some people have a death voice which personally scares me to the bones, like Retsuko. Some people are so internet savvy, that they are able to doxx you from a single pixel on a picture you post online, like Fenneko. Some people personally cook up the most hideous meal that I’ve had the displeasure of looking at, like Yukiharu. Some people dress up all punk like to act edgy, even though they’re probably the human definition of a coward, like me… And some people hide their faces in a way that doesn’t show their true emotions, but underneath it all, they’re the most kind and patience person that I know in my life, like yo-”

“No! I’m not kind! Stop sugarcoating all of th-”

“Jiro, you ARE kind! You literally illegally made new personal documents for Shikabane, who didn’t have any, just because she asked you too! You did it because a friend needed help from you, and you delivered on it! You care for me unconditionally, worry your head off from whatever dumb situation I get myself into, and you are not even sick of me yet! Sure, there was a time when you snapped at me, but I was literally ignoring you for a whole year, and then missed your birthday, and let me tell you, I would have cracked a month in if you did that to me. That is what a kind person does, Jiro!” Ichiro butted in, making his brother look at him in an awestruck manner again, as he then… added in Yuki, saying:

“And not to mention… the kindest people hurt themselves the most, because you only deny yourself from Yuki, because you-”

“Shut up, SHUT UP! Don’t say his name! Why can’t you just leave me alone!?”

“It’s because I-” And before Ichiro could have said anything, Jiro interrupted him, his voice clearly being shaky, as he told him…

“Fine, you want me to tell it to you while I’m all sober?! OK, so here you go! I love Yukiharu Ushijima! I love him so much that I want to whisk him away from the apartment he’s living in, keep him all to myself, make love with him, and I can’t believe I’m saying this… but I wanna raise a family with him! I only realised I had these feelings when I went to Inunaki and I know you aren’t going to believe this, but the lingering ghost of a burn victim possessed me, and wanted me to burn everyone their in the tunnel, besides Sakiyo, and instead of fleeing like a rational person would, he ran up to me, damned be the torpedoes and the dangers he would be in, and knocked the ghost out of me! He freaking then had me in his arms, and that worried face… that stupid, worried face of heroism made it all click in me what these bubbling feelings were all these times ago! Whenever I tried imagining a family which I did get from my own hands, it always had Yukiharu in it! Fuck… during a random masturbation session which I used for sleeping purposes, he suddenly popped up in my vision, and he always invades my mind when I do it now!” Jiro said in a shaky tone, and the longer he explained, the more Ichiro noticed how he was slowly starting to cry, as he now looked Ichiro in the face again, and quite literally screamed at him:

“Brother, I’m sick! I’m crazy! It’s like for me to be obsessed with people! Why can’t I be like you, when you do everything that I do tenfold better?... I hate this… I hate being myself… I always complicate everything… Brother… why… why am I like this?...”

Ichiro heard enough from his brother. He leaned forward and grabbed the music box thingy to pick out a song, just randomly picking any punk song that he spots, while he only heard Jiro weakly mumble to him:

“I see… you now see how much of a monster I am… please… I’ll do better… I promise… I’m… I’m… sor-”

“Don’t apologise for something that you aren’t guilty of, Jiro. I’m… kind of relieved to have you say all of these feelings you have for your best-friend, your crush… which is why I need you to please listen to me, ok?” Ichiro told, as he selected a song out of the device, inputting the code so that the TV could play the song, grabbing onto the microphone that sat there besides the device as soon as he put it back, taking in a deep breath, closing his eyes, and letting the power of punk weave through his spirit, as he wished this song will be enough to open Jiro’s eyes from all that sadness he’s in.

No, it will be enough!

Finishing his song, Jiro was all but certainly tearing up, clenching his fists together.

“...I… I… but…”

Ichiro, realising that Jiro just needed a bit more push in the right direction, a slight vote of confidence in him to grasp what he truly desired, grabbed onto his brother’s shoulder, as he told him, cleaning the water droplets under his eyes with his remaining hand, that:

“Even though I know what you want for yourself is going to be dangerous… I’ll always be there to protect you, and save you when you need me. I may be the stupidest big brother in the world, but they’ll have to go through me if your enemies think they can hurt you. Jiro, you don’t have to be afraid… because I’ll be always in your corner, forever… Pinky promise?”

And as promised, he put a pinky finger out for Jiro. His younger brother gazed at the vow that was presented to him, of Ichiro always being there when he needed him, and man, strike him dead if he ever broke this promise, as he too reached out a pinky promise silently, and used their pinky fingers together to seal the deal between them, as Jiro now seemed more compelled to continue further…

“..I… I love Yukiharu… and… And…” Jiro mumbled, the sleepless days and the sobbing making it hard for him to get across what he wanted, until it seemed like Ichiro succeeded on getting through Jiro, on finally embracing himself, making Ichiro start ugly crying… as much as he didn’t want his edgy image be ruined in front of his younger brother, as he said:

“...And…I think… no.. I… I definitely.. I want Yukiharu! I want him… to love me as much as I love him!... I want us to be together… no matter what the world says to us! Ichiro… I want Yuki… I want him to be my lover!...”

He finally said it. His heart was finally free from all that darkness he was in.

It was of no surprise to Ichiro that he soon got embraced by Jiro, finally letting his emotions run rampant on the outside for once, as he noted how Jiro liked hugging people. It was always the go-to when he was distressed, making him all happy of how Jiro was still there, even though their father tried his hardest on making him into something that he wasn’t.

He persevered, and Ichiro was going to make sure that that’s going to be the case, until he was sure their father couldn’t threaten Jiro anymore. He’ll be his big hero again, and that won’t be changing for a very, very long time!

He waited for Jiro to calm down a bit, also making himself calm down a bit, because he realised that he was probably crying as much as his younger brother, no punk persona was gonna save him from it, as he tried getting his brother’s attention with knocking on his shoulder, and as soon he looked at him, he proudly told him:

“If that’s what you really want… then let’s go over to his place!”

Upon hearing those words, Jiro donned the most determined face that he ever saw his brother make in their whole life together, as he finally moved that smile up, and nodded to him, not before cleaning his wet eye-duct.

However, he knew from his brother’s gaze alone that he was ready for whatever, and how in an hour or so…

His younger brother is gotta be the happiest guy in the world soon, when he realises just how much his feelings were reciprocated on the other end as well.

Chapter Text

It really felt like a blink from how fast Haida was able to get Jiro out of his penthouse, to getting him into the karaoke bar to bat some acuity into his brother’s skull, to the racing and blazing vehicle they were in like as if they were personally running towards saving the world, while the 5 of them in the car were the main characters in a story, and Fenneko was so envious of the fact that Sakiyo was in the middle between herself and Retsuko in the backseat, while the Haida brothers were in the passenger’s seat and driving seat, with the clarified lovebird being the reason why they were basically quickening in motion each passing second.

She would be enjoying this car ride from hell to Yuki’s and Shikabane’s apartment, weren’t it for the fact that not only were Sakiyo and Retsuko screaming like their life depended on it, but also because whenever Jiro took a sharp turn to the left…

*THUMP*

“Owwwwww that nearly dislocated my elbow!” She cried in pain, as said hyena took a turn to the aforementioned direction that would have Fenneko end up with a cow being shoved into her sides, having her chin basically splattered on the window. “Can’t Haida or Retsuko take the wheel from this maniac?!”

“Fenneko you literally encouraged my brother to drive, you dug your own grave with this one!” Haida spit back at her, who was more stable in his passenger seat, as he then added: “But Jiro, you don’t need to literally motor this thing like you’re trying to collide with something! We can take a stop somewhere and have your bro take over the whe-”

“I am too sleep deprived to hear anything! I can’t hear you!” Jiro retorted, who was absolutely radiating with excitement, which is when he leaned down and shifted the gear stick upward, as everyone felt the vehicle accelerate more with speed, as all of them, besides the man who was going to be behind a vehicle manslaughter soon if he keeps up the extreme speed they were going in, have panic overtake their bodies.

“Ichiro, this is going to be all of our graves if you don’t do something! I don’t wannnnaaaa die yet!!! I still haven’t gotten marrieeed yet!!!” Retsuko whined in terror, as the fennec fox saw with the limited vision she had from the position she was in to see the blunder boy shaking, probably thinking of a way to convince his brother that they don’t have to die over the fact that he wanted to go confess to his best friend!

“Jiro, please! The coppers will be on us, and I don’t wanna spend our time at an investigation block!” That pitiful excuse wasn’t enough, because Jiro just scoffed it off, and told his brother in the rear mirror.

“Oh, the most I’ll probably get ‘s a red ticket, which I’ll simply ignore with the power of my influence! I love being a corrupt politi- Oh shit!” Jiro stated happily, which is when they just barely passed a jaywalker, who did not think that a sport car would just come out of nowhere and nearly hit ‘em like pins in a bowling lane, as everyone in the car shouted from the near hit ‘n’ run Jiro would have done if he was any slower, as the maniac behind the wheel just laughed it off. “Oh man, that was close!... Wait, I spot a police car in the distance… dangit…”

As if the gods interfered just in time before she would get plummeted with those sharp and pierceful horns of the cow sitting next to her, who looked like she was about to give out the ghost from that near accident they found themselves in, Jiro finally slowed down the vehicle to a respectable amount, as everyone took a moment to catch their breath, as Haida shifted the gear down to make sure Jiro couldn’t speed up suddenly, and had his hands stoned on it.

Oh, they weren’t going to crash into a random pedestrian, after all!

“I never felt SO thankful for a cop enacting their civil influence on somebody like this before… I’ll make sure I’ll never break any kind of laws in the future!” Retsuko might as well cried when she said this, as the white cattle just rotated her head towards the red panda, appearing a bit irritated by that comment, as she told her:

“You should always follow the decree and laws wherever you are, Retsuko! Without it, there’ll be no order in the world, and we would have a thousandfold of drivers like Jiro here!”

Oh, she was an attorney or a lawyer… no wonder she went on to rectify Retsuko’s point!

The car then suddenly turned silent, as the four-eyed hyena was sulking through the fact that his illegal driving was halted, but he remained on cloud nine from his expression like when he came out of that karaoke cabinet, which is like good for him, but did he have to enact the 4 of them through his brutal driving? If they were driving somewhere else, preferably not in downtown, loitered with people and other vehicles, Fenneko would have probably enjoyed Jiro’s ride, but that near miss on that grey-wolf was not something she wants to repeat again.

Hmm… she might as well kill the time by conversing with everyone, and probably informing Jiro just how much worry the hyena gave the fox since a month ago.

“Since we’re driving normally again, I might as well rub it in Haida’s face that it took me one month to get his brother together with his crush. Good thing your brother actually has some balls in him.” She stated neutrally, earning a tch from the older hyena while the younger one seemed to have been surprised by the fact that she was wingmanning for him.

“Fenneko, first off, you were way more proactive with Jiro’s relationship than you were with mine, and second, Jiro and Yuki had crushes on each other for years! What the eff?!” The offended man grumbled, appearing all pissy like from being outed a big loser to everyone in this car, which is when Jiro finally acknowledged the comment Fenneko gave, saying:

“Wait… just how long were you supporting me in the background… is that why Yuki appeared with Yoshio in Inunaki with us?! Did you personally send the two after us?!”

“Not exactly. Remember when you proposed to me the idea of… going to those creepy tunnels, in that restaurant?... Well, we kind of planned en masse with 4 people at the time to have Yuki overheard our conversations, and have him get jealous over me. Thank goodness all of this wasn’t in vain, because I still feel creeped whenever I think about the day, because I have that uncanny feeling that we did in fact make contact with a ghost…” Sakiyo answered, who looked like her skin just got turned to ice from thinking of that incident.

“... Wait, is that why Yoshio looked suspiciously close to my appearance, because he was lying about getting over his crush on me?!”

“Aren’t ya smart, nepotism baby? You couldn’t be any more right with that. You should hear Shikabane complain to us, who was living with Yuki while he was going through a crisis of grasping that he still loved you.” Fenneko stated, as Retsuko whined, remembering all the contents that Shikabane messaged them of how done she was with Yuki’s quote on quote “cringe”.

“I’m pretty sure she threatened to lynch herself several times from all the times she complained to Yuki to us… I really thought she would do it, if I’m honest.”

“There’s no need for her to do that, now that Jiro is going to soon date my brother.” Sakiyo added, being very happy about that, as Jiro seemed to have gotten more giddy at the motion of dating Yuki, clutching onto his brother’s left shoulder, while he proudly told him:

“Oh my goodness gracious! I had Yuki in my hands all this time, but I was too stunted to realise how I felt about him in return! Brother, I’m gonna date Yukiharu soon! Is this what they mean when people talk about soulmates and their perfect ones?!”

“Jiro, did you not think that things like were fairy tales and junk?! Also please return your hand from my shoulders to the steering wheel!” Haida called over to his brother, as the maniac placed his hand back to the steering wheel, and then saying:

“I did not, but if he’s the only person that I ever felt romantically attracted to, isn’t that evidence backing up this love phenomena that people talk about? It’s like… he’s making everything inside of me warm and excited, as much as the first kanji in his name means snow, like he finally melted down my frozen heart… Hahahaha! Is this what you feel about Retsuko as well?” He giddly explained, turning his head over to look at Haida, as the man being looked at sheepishly said:

“Yes I did too, but Jiro please return your gaze into the streets we are going to hit another jaywalker if you aren’t careful!”

And thankfully, that was enough for Jiro to return his glance to where he should have been looking at all this, making the backseat passengers tense down a bit.

Fenneko then noticed the nav in the car’s system alarming Jiro that they were roughly 5 minutes away from Yuki’s and Shikabane’s apartment. They really were a few steps away from reuniting these two damn men together, and damn, did it eat up her Thursday night. At least she’s gonna be able to finally spend some time together with Seiji when she’s done, and this meant that Fenneko finally threw in the towel for wingmanning for the Haida brothers for life.

“So…” Fenneko questioned, her attention now being on the hyena behind the steering wheel who was blinking frequently, making Fenneko worry on how much adrenaline Jiro must be on right now to keep himself floating at the moment, as she pressed Jiro for one exact purpose. “..Since I’m primarily the main reason as to why I got your ass together with Yuki soon, can I be your official best-friend and winebuddy? Your taste in wine is simply chic, my man.”

It looked like that question took in Jiro for quite a twirl, because he seemed disoriented for a bit, until he replied:

“Uh…. yeah? Yuki can still be my bestest friend if he’s my lover, right?”

“Yeah, man.” Haida simply nodded.

“Then yeah… guess I do owe you for being here at the moment, for reuniting me with my brother and Yuki… Wine buddies for life?” Jiro stated with such a grateful expression, she couldn’t help but poke fun at him, telling him:

“Ah… aren’t you being sappy towards the wrong person, Jiro?”

“Oh… thank you for reminding me that I still sometimes get irritated with you…”

Haida and Retsuko giggled as soon as they heard how Jiro seemed to have reacted the praise he gave her way, which is when Sakiyo must have felt compelled to speak up as well, saying:

“If we’re starting to owe people, then I shall properly address my request for forgiveness to Ichiro, and the things I might have said in my rashful state… Can you forgive me, Ichiro?”

“Request of… huh?” Jiro muttered, throwing a blink in the rear mirror to stare directly at Sakiyo, who just looked the other way to ignore the younger hyena’s fierce blick, because even though he was psyched as hell to go meet his potential lover, it seemed like he still took no crap from people badmouthing his brother, as much as he deserves most of those comments. She never knew the true definition of a white knight, until she saw Jiro in the flesh, which is why she suddenly had the thought that if Jiro was also as unbelievably biassed in favour of Yuki as he is towards his own big brother, was he dickriding the bull in this case?

Maybe that’s why there’s two versions of the same expressions, for this exact reason…

“Oh, that’s all water under the bridge now! It might have put me through a spiral or some crap, but I think it was a necessity for me to get screamed on to man up, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have come over to help Jiro in his times of woe!” The older hyena cackled, making his younger brother ever more confused, but it seemed like he decided to keep sleeping dogs lie, as he must have realised something while driving, which was:

“I think I just finally remembered this… but I’m personally dismissed from office until next week… what do I even do on Friday…”

“Uh, spend it with Yuki, duh?” Fenneko gasped at Jiro, but it seems like he had this in memory, because he replied:

“But isn’t he working tomorrow?”

“....Oh, that’s a problem.”

“How do you guys spend your days-off on a weekday, even?” Jiro questioned, and like the chorus the 4 of them were, all 4 of them answered with the same answer, saying:

“Sleeping until the afternoon.”

“...That sounds godly, now that I think about it… god, I miss my bed…” Jiro muttered, as Fenneko decided to glance at the time on her smartphone, which was currently showing 11 P.M.

Well, sleep did sound favourable at the moment, but that could wait until she got home all safe, because she had to be there for Jiro to get accepted by Yuki, as if she was personally guiding Jiro down the aisle, until she handed him over to Yuki. She kind of was holding his hand through this whole process, and wasn’t she damned if she didn’t feel emotional about this!

“You’re nearly at your destination.”

The nav soon spoke to Jiro, making everyone privy to the information that they were just hundreds of metres away from the parking place from the apartment housing Shikabane and Yuki, and that it’s about time for Jiro to go confront Yuki about his feelings for the bull, and vice versa.

This was it, her fruit of labour, about to be rewarded in kind, and it’s just a few minutes away in the future! If she had to compare her excitement at the moment, she would compare it to the time when she went to the Miku Exhibition with Shikabane, Yuki and Jiro, and how she was able to personally see Miku life for the first time, like as if she saw a goddess descend upon this coiled planet.

“We’re here…” Retsuko muttered, as Jiro was now turtle moving over in the parking lot, which was the most slowest that Fenneko experienced Jiro driving, as the man slowly parked himself in the few open slots in the parking zone, until he was able to finally stop the vehicle, and shutting down the car down for good. The beast has finally gone to sleep…

“It’s so serendipitous to think that all of this is happening… we need to sally forth, everyone!” Sakiyo urged them, as the cow might as well have jumped out of the car as soon as Fenneko opened up the car door, and if she wasn’t enough, she might as well have been turned into Fenneko paste.

The women in the backseat were out of the vehicle, with Sakiyo quite literally being too excited at the moment to stand still, as the two Haida brothers soon rose themselves out of the sports mobile as well.

Unlike Haida, Jiro stood there for a bit, staring at the apartment where Shikabane and Yuki were living at, as the older hyena just whisked himself towards his brother, clutching onto his brother’s shoulder, looking at the apartment as well, as he probed him:

“You ready to barge in there and declare your love to your best friend of old?”

Jiro’s back was the only thing visible to Fenneko, and all the other women’s vision, but she just knew that the hyena probably had the most fiercest and determined face on him, as he replied.

“I am. Just watch me effortlessly sway Yuki over, compared to whatever stuff you had to do with your wi- Yeouch!” The man replied, as the older hyena just punched his brother in the arm, as he teasingly said to him:

“I don’t know if you’re more bolder due to being in love or due to being sleep deprived, but let’s not talk about me this time, this is all you, Jiro. Go get ‘em.”

Fenneko had to agree with Haida on this one. This time, they didn’t need their siblings' help to progress their relationship further. Now, it all depended on Jiro, and for Yuki to accept their feelings to one another, and have them finally come together, finally marking her wingmanning job as complete.

There were quite literally zero paths for failure, meaning success was surely waiting for them to embolden everyone, and they just had to wait for it.

To think she only needed 1 month for this, and kept herself to the promise that she would be putting the two man together to this month, which meant that they still had time to celebrate pride if they wanted to, which she doubts they’re going to do, since Jiro doesn't seem like the type of guy to celebrate in such a vast place like the small parades around Tokyo.

Yuki can’t believe he’s actually working so late in the evening, as much as he personally prohibited himself from working when he’s home.

He’s currently looking over the infrastructure plans for a company they got commissioned, making sure the IT infrastructure was safe and sound, and that they had all the equipment that the customer was wishing for.

Honestly, it was kind of a drag to be working on this, but Yuki knew that the deadline was inching nearer, and he quite literally was the most capable man on this project, because either his co-workers were on holidays or were firmly put literally useless.

He’s been working on this project for two hours and so, and if he had to admit to it, he was eagerly waiting for someone to either knock at his door or his phone, that was laying besides him on his desk, to make a notification, to take away his attention from work and have him socialise with someone.

And the one person he was looking forward to and fearing to tread along with at the moment was Jiro, who has been completely ghosting him at this point, and it absolutely sucked.

Was it just inconvenient timing that Jiro had to immerse himself in his work, when he wanted to meet up with his best friend, and get a rejection from him? He knew getting Jiro was unachievable, and that he knew knew that, but for some reason… his heart doesn’t want to move on, his little, stubborn heart was still lingering on that small amount of faith that maybe, just maybe, Jiro liked him back…

No, he didn’t have any good motivations for why Jiro would have returned those feelings to him…

Jiro was attractive, smart, loyal, promising, caring, out of his league… and most of all, straight…

It really was oblivious, because even though most of the women he was together with was just a ploy by his father to find a woman to chain him down, Jiro never showed any interest for the same sex, which meant that Jiro could have only gone for women, meaning that he had zero change with Jiro.

He was a hapless nincompoop… and he was listening to his stupid heart, until it got rejected and crushed into tiny, mingled pieces, just for him to grasp that he needs to move on.

He knows the rejection will hurt like hell, he knows it will, but he needs to go through it, unless he wants to stay with this love starved fool act, whom he has gotten tired of being.

*Diiiiiiiing Dooooooong*

Oh thank god, his saviour of whoever was insane enough to come visit them at 11 in the evening, as he blitzed off from his stool, and wandered off to go see who was in front of their door, because Shikabane was either in her room, playing on her computer, with her headphones playing some kind of a EDM music or she was in the main living door, playing on her switch and quite literally ignoring the door, hoping he was awake to go open the door himself.

He kind of was in his boxers though, which meant that he might as well grab some random t-shirt on, because if Shikabane was in fact outside and playing on the switch, he shouldn’t surprise her with his nudity, nor whoever was awaiting him outside.

Going over to his drawer, he literally skimmed through for the first t-shirt he got in his hands, which was a black deer skull on the front on a pale white shirt. Eh, it’s better than nothing.

He wonders who’d be coming over at such an hour? It was too late for the usual preachers and door-to-door vendors to make business, so they probably came over specifically for them. He doesn’t remember him doing something to get the attention from the police or the governmental secret agents, and even if it was the second case, Jiro would probably have prevented them from getting to him. And Shikabane? Yeah, the only crimes she commits are in the fictional world. She unironically thinks that jaywalking counts as going out of bounds on the pedestrian path, so she was basically a civil citizen, unless it came to her personal documents, because god forbid he learn what Shikabane’s true name is. He knows she’s legally called ‘Katsumi’ now... but it’s like a second persona of hers. Privately, she’s still old Shikabane, while in public, she’ll be referred to as Katsumi.

So, with hope that it wasn’t the usual poachers like usual, as he went outside… and saw Shikabane in the main living room, playing on her switch and playing that same detective mystery game, but this time, she’s playing as the blue haired rabbit protagonist instead of the black dragon.

So, it was case 2 after all, of Shikabane putting the ‘open-the-door’ responsibilities to him. He silently groaned to himself about how much he may be spoiling Shikabane by the things she’s letting her get away with.

“Hey! Shikabane! Can you hear me!” Yuki yelled over to Shikabane, who was pretty invested in playing that video game of hers, while the door bell was still being used as a punching dummy from whoever was outside, seeing as Yuki was now getting irritated by the noise it was producing.

“Huh?” She responded, making Yuki a little bit agitated that she was in fact ignoring all of this noise, probably so that it could get on Yuki’s brain.

“Don’t you ‘huh?’ me! Can’t you hear the freaking alarm being rung like it's WWII again?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why did you wait until I came outside to deal with the noise issue?! Is it not distracting you from playing the game?!” Yuki cursed, trying to keep up his appearances that he was not bothered at all, when he was in fact bothered- can they freaking stop pressing that button already?!

“It does, it’s just that I knew whoever is outside didn’t come because of me.” Shikabane calmly responded, simply ignoring the sound permeated through the whole apartment.

“So you mean you know who’s outside, and that they’re here for me?”

“Yep.”

“Can’t you just tell me who it is? It’s not a chameleon woman dressed in black, is she?” Yuki insisted, as he thought of that… director who he met while he was still young, and how he desperately wishes he never has to see that scoundrel’s face again, even though she’s probably as agile as a snail.

“Negative. Also no, cope about it.”

OK, it looks like it’s a surprise, but why’d they come at 11 in the evening for it? Did Sakiyo personally decide to surprise her with those tea parties she held in the past while he was still living with her… but even Sakiyo would be rational enough to maybe think that coming over at 11 in the evening on a weekday wasn’t something Yuki just didn’t get annoyed by it, as much as he was wishing for something to take away his attention from doing work which he shouldn’t be doing in the first place.

Well, he wasn’t gonna find out who was abusing that door bell if he never went to the entrance door and opened it to their adversary.

Walking over to the entrance door, he shouted to them that he was coming for god sake, as he soon found himself in front of the entrance door, unlocking the door and mumbling to himself, until he finally opened the door to see…

Jiro, Ichiro, his wife, Fenneko and his sister… surprising in no lolita dressing for tonight, as he felt his jaw drop from the whiplash from seeing the phantom spirit of Jiro… wait, no, the actual Jiro standing there, looking like he was on 26th cup of coffee today, but seeing as Jiro doesn’t drink coffee… he must have been awake far longer than he should have be.

“Jiro?! Sis?! What are you guys doing here at this time of hour?... Also, Jiro, you look like absolute shit.” He voiced, only peaking out his head, feeling a lot more embarrassed that he had his boxers on and the thigh shirt he was wearing. He didn’t mind being naked around people, but he had to admit, whenever he thinks about it Jiro perceiving him while he has barely any clothes on him… it does get him excited, as much as it shouldn’t…

“...Thanks for the compliment… I didn’t get much sleep this week, so that’s the reason why I look less favourable in the face than in most cases…” Jiro said, his lack of energy already being clear by how much less spunk he seems to possess than usual, as Fenneko next to her added:

“Yeah, and you personally got dismissed from work due to it. Even sweatshops drop a sweat when they look at the amount of work you’ve done this month alone, and that is a big achievement itself, you know?”

“Dismissed…? For how long?” Yuki questioned, now being extremely worried about how much Jiro’s father has been pushing on him to do, as Sakiyo answered him:

“Until this week ends. I beg to differ from the length of it all, and I personally would have amended an extra week if I was the one issuing the dismissal!”

Well, that would kind of explain that Jiro must have been working non-stop through this whole week, which is why he didn’t respond to his messages of meeting up…

“Uhm… I see… but what are you guys doing… at Shikabane’s and I’s apartment? We didn’t plan any kind of gaming nights at our place, or this week at all… so is this a surprise party for me…” Yuki muttered, being unsure why the 5 of them would be here, because there was no reason for all 5 of them to be here.

“You… wanted to tell me something, and now that I’m free, you could finally indulge me about it, perhaps?” Jiro stated, making the bull clench up as soon as Jiro answered him, and before he could ask why the other 4 people were here, the fennec fox yet again added onto Jiro’s comment, telling him:

“Shikabane kind of told us the whole gist about you wanting to speak to Jiro privately, which is why we dragged Jiro out of his penthouse as soon as he was home, so that we could get it over with.”

Oh, for heaven’s sake, just how hard was it to keep a secret hidden, which was as miniscule as just keeping a meet-up between two people veiled to their friends?!

Yuki rotated his head in a fit of rage, as he angrily yelled over to Shikabane:

“Why did you tell everyone else about it?!”

“Because I felt like it.” She responded, unbelievably, as Yuki couldn’t do much on scolding her at the moment, as he shakily returned his head to look at the outsiders out of the apartment, as Jiro was quick to then get straight to the point between them, as he requested of him:

“Is it fine… if we hold it here, if we can? I’m already losing much time on my… downtime from work, so it would be preferable if you could tell us if you’re comfortable with it, Yuki.”

Oh. As much as he appreciated that they were here to get him out of a bind from work, it didn’t have to end up to another uncomfortable situation, with him finally getting his feeling across the field, as Jiro then denies it, as he should, and everything will become normal between them again, of them just being best friends, and nothing more…

He didn’t want to confess his feelings to a literal sport studio of people if he can afford it, which is why Yuki quickly came to the idea of:

“Sure… Uh, you can come into my bedroom then, and then have the other guys watch Shikabane play the game she’s watching and get comfy. I can’t share it with anyone else, besides you, Jiro, so I hope you guys understand…”

From the reaction of his guests, they seemed onboard on the idea of them familiarising themselves with his and Shikabane’s apartment, whilst he took Jiro to his bedroom and had the courage to put his feelings on the table, but it felt like… Ichiro was judgmentally staring at him, for some reason…

He didn’t say anything wrong, so why’d Ichiro react like this?... Eh, why bother thinking about how that guy worked, there were more important things in the matter, on a different hyena, with it being the case.

“Sure, let’s go there… Let’s hope it’s not going to be dragged out in there, whatever you’re wanting to tell me, that is.” Jiro commented, as Yuki’s heartbeats accelerated. Shit, he was really doing this.

“...Yeah, I hope so…” He claimed, as he took in every ounce of courage to let in the people waiting outside, finally opening the door wide for them to go through, hoping Jiro wasn’t specifically going to gaze at his choice of clothes… which he unfortunately did, his eyes quite literally looking him up from top to bottom. Alright, front tail, do not wag or get excited! Under no circumstances should it be obvious that his front tail was excited, lest he wanted to make excuses as to why that was the case…

He’s just going to invite Jiro to his bedroom… he was already there once with him alone… and it’s going to be the place where his heart is going to break for him, and he was personally taking him there…

*Thud thud*

His heart beat in a low tone, realising that this is going to be one of the momentous events of his life. Keep it calm, Yuki, keep yourself calm…

Jiro was in his room now, as was he, as he made a quick visit to his working computer to lock it, because he didn’t need the worksheets to be a witness of him getting utterly rejected by his life-long crush, of the boy who loved telling him myths, folklore, and everything in between, how Jiro was so impressed of his game consoles gadgets he had when he was still living with his parents.

Jiro always seemed like a reserved boy, but his eyes shined with so much glimmer when they were talking about things that interested him, how nice he was to him… how he was the only friend who didn’t eventually leave him, who remained with him, as much as there’s plenty enough reasons for Jiro to distance himself from the bull… Of course his stupid heart had to fall in love with him, even though he knew he couldn’t be his lover…

Life could be so harsh… and if he had to pinpoint the most hurtful thing that was nagging him his whole life, it would be his feelings for Jiro. Maybe, in another life, either he or Jiro were of the opposite sex, and they are happily married to each other in that timeline… but in this timeline, they were doomed to be just… best friends, nothing more.

Fuck, take your attention off from these what-ifs, he’s supposed to be fishing a rejection out of him, so that he can be liberated from these unneeded feelings he has for Jiro…

“Gotta be honest, I was working at an unreasonable time as well… but it’s not the time for it… guess we’re two peas in a pod, huh?” Yuki laughed half-heartedly, trying to mince some of the hurt that he’s going to experience shortly, and that it won't hurt forever… but it will hurt exceptionally much tonight.

However, Jiro remained oddly quiet in the room, with him hearing the man’s breathing, which maddened Yuki the further he listened to him. He was… just breathing, so why was he getting more nervous the more he heard his crush… his best friend let out air?

Would it be cowardice for him to try to close his eyes? Act like Jiro wasn’t in the room to begin with?

No… he needs to get himself together, he can’t just keep hiding forever, could he?

“So… I’m kind of curious, and you don’t have to answer me if you think I’m prying into business I shouldn’t know about… but why were you taking over so much work from other people when you really didn’t have any good reason for it?” Yuki questioned, trying to avoid his situation just a little bit, until it got time for him to get roasted.

He wasn’t sure how Jiro was reacting, because he still had his eyes glued onto his locked computer, but he knew he sounded… odd again, not acting like his stoic-self… as he sort of spoke in a more peppy way than usual:

“Well, you could say there were some interesting developments in my life recently, and per Fenneko’s words, I must have used it as a coping mechanism. Good thing they bailed me out, or else, I’d probably drop dead from overwork… because I was very deep in my work. And the results speak for themselves. It’s silly to think that I’ve worked myself to the bone so much that I’m prohibited working overtime. Isn’t it kind of crazy, now that you hear it?"

Yuki honestly doesn’t know what was happening, but was Jiro acting more… positively? Why does it feel like Jiro was actually glad to have received that dismissal, when Yuki knows Jiro would be more than infuriated if he was suddenly kicked out from work like that, as the workaholic that he was. Was he missing something here, or is this maybe just a side-effect from his sleep deprivation? Hell, he’d feel absolutely alleviated as well if he was let go from work while he wanted to just go to sleep.

“Mmkay… that’s good, yeah, that’s good. You really should take better care of yourself, dude, because you made me real worried like for not responding to my messages.” Yuki told, with him now looking at Jiro and also rubbing the back of his neck.

“You don’t have to worry about that, I’ll try to change that as much as possible.” Jiro stated with vigour.

The happy expression kind of irked him out, as much as he usually loved seeing him smile. Jiro’s actually relieved, and he’s really about to sour it all down for the exact purpose of why he led him here. So much for being a good friend to him.

“Uhm… we got sidetracked from our original conversations, seeing as I brought you here to… discuss something privately between us.” Yuki muttered, his nerves basically firing off at every direction, his heart rate bumping more and more, understanding just how close he was from telling it all to Jiro, on how all these feelings a decade ago was still true to this day, and how he wished he could have done it sooner with him, but he knew that whatever this was going to head, it wasn’t going to end in a high note.

Jiro nodded, quizzically grabbing onto his chin like he wasn’t sure where Yuki was getting at this, making the bull think whether Jiro expressing this much emotion at the moment was preferable to the normally stone-edged face of Jiro’s.

OK, the time has come. He needs to get this over with, get rejected, start over, and do something with his love life. He can’t get Jiro, and he needs to hear Jiro personally saying he can’t have him to understand finally that no matter what Yuki might have been thinking, Jiro was… unavailable, and always was.

Well, here goes nothing…

“...I know this is going to sound idiotic… and you can do whatever about it… hehe.. Do you still remember the time when I mentioned having a past crush on you when your brother locked us into a karaoke booth?” Yuki mumbled to himself, not believing that he was truly fessing up, as he saw the hyena nod, wondering if he was actually listening with the amount of energy he must be working with.

“I told you that I didn’t have any feelings towards you… which is why I started dating other men, convinced to myself that you were only my best friend… and I know this is going to sound dumb… but…” Yuki mumbled further on his words, with him probably being absolutely red in the face by how he’s slowly progressing on the very thing he wanted to tell Yuki all this ago, which is why he took a deep breath, closed his eyes to be wholly focused, as he finally told him the truth:

“But… I still have a crush on you, and I know this is probably a bit uncomfortable for you, seeing as you aren’t into me… but my dumb heart is just too adamant to be told sense, which is why I need you to… reject my confession, because I-”

“I love you too, Yukiharu.”

……

What.

D-did he hear that right? Did… No, his mind must be playing a trick on him!... Jiro wouldn’t like him back! It’s simply improbable!

“..Hu- Huh?” Yuki mouthed, as he tried to blink a few times to see if he was not actually dreaming on his desk… but this felt like real life… so did Jiro? Wait, Jiro was sleep deprived, wasn’t he? Sleep deprivation can cause hallucinations, so maybe…

“Y-you must be joking, right?... Why would you’d love m-”

“Because I want you, Yuki. I feel like I’m about to drop dead from exhaustion any moment now, but I know that my feelings are telling me that I need you.”

Jiro responded, as Yuki now felt that something was truly amiss. Was he in a coma, in a dreamscape, or in a different world? Why would Jiro answer like this, when he knew how he would react? He wouldn’t… just choose him, knowing what Jiro is like. He was a disowned, estranged son from a wealthy family, and Jiro was a popular politician, with women swooning all over him left and right, evident by all the magazines with him he sees on the news and gossip websites… Is he not seeing something?

Yuki’s breathing accelerated, as well as his own heart beating.

*Thud thud thud thud thud*

“No- that’s not what you’d-” Yuki tried making up an excuse, anything to get Jiro back to he should be, but Jiro was quicker to answer, as he… threw an exhausted smile at him, telling him:

“That’s not what I should date, Yuki? Is that what you wanted to tell me?” Jiro questioned, as Yuki just gave him a quick nod, with Yuki all the flabbergasted by how… out-of-character Jiro is being, like actually saying he was in love with him.

“Yuki, I don’t give a rat’s ass on who I should be dating. Whenever we’re talking about that, it’s always gotta be something with my father arranging me to some woman to go and breed an heir out of her, but I simply don’t want that, can’t imagine that in my life. I’ve dreamt of having a family, of me being a father, but now that I think about it, I might as well have been influenced a bit on my father there specifically to spite him, raising offsprings that actually like their fathers, unlike my brother and I and our current status with him. Having a child sounds great, but it’s not a prerequisite in my life, a need. I can keep going on life without having a child of my own, and if my father would go seething in hell for it, then all the better.” Jiro stated, with him suddenly turning a bit into the same stoney-faced Jiro that he loved and knew.

“I… uhm I see… but then why…” Yuki stumbled on his words, not grasping just what the hell was going on, because he didn’t foresee any of this, as Jiro answered whatever kind of question he was forming, which stated:

“But then why did I choose you? I’m… not confident on what I like in a partner, since I was… stunted, in some way, where I didn’t build any kind of romantic relationship with anyone… or that’s what I would have said a month ago or so, but I’m pretty confident why that is the case… it’s because I didn’t know I had a crush on you, like you did on me all these decades ago. I didn’t feel any kind of semblance of romantic love, because when I buried my memories of you deep inside of me… I became a husk, and forgot how to love, I became like a machine… who only labours, and does not express any emotions.”

No, he didn’t believe this. Why? Why now? Why tell him all of this? Why…?

*Thud thud thud thud thud*

Yuki was barely cognizant of his breathing, his thoughts being a literal definition of a snowstorm, because… this all sounded.. So good… of Jiro having a crush on him…

“Why do you look so blue in the face, Yuki? Is it really that shocking to hear that I like you?” The hyena basically laughed, with a smirk. Why did he find this to be something to laugh about?

“...Why me? Of all the people you could have, why specifically me? Even if you liked guys, there are surely better ones than me-” Yuki tried to insist, panicking at the motion that someone like him was good enough for Jiro, because he really wasn’t, because compared to him, he was just a bean poll…

“Yuki, I am convinced there’s no better fit for me to be with than you. And you know, even if statically, there would be better men for me to love, can they really compare to you, when I add in the fact that you’re the first friend in my life, who actually listens to me when I go on a tangent about my likes, acted as my shield and sword against those bullies who pestered me? Can those men really compare to you, when I laid out all the attributes you have over them?” Jiro soon cut into Yuki’s comment again, feeling as if Jiro was in principle doing that because Yuki was denying and thinking of someone better in Jiro’s life, like the Yoshie woman he’s currently seeing at the moment. Even though she’s not the direct heiress of the CEO of their family’s fossil company, it has been heralded that she’s a competent and fierce businesswoman. Even though Yuki was of direct blood with his parents, Yoshie seemed like more of a determined person than Yuki, who was more than happy to just have a roof over his head and live a less-than-boring life, and not to mention, even though they were of the opposite gender, but she had him beat in appearance as well. It might be true that Yuki doesn’t put much focus on his appearance, only doing the bare minimum, so it was no wonder why he thought Yoshie was more qualified on appearance.

“And sure, the one thing you could say they have over you is the fact that their faces are prettier to look at, but does it look like I care about that? You know how frequently I get obliged to visit high-class parties where you could see an ocean of people like those? And to be honest, in my humble opinion at least, do you just know how attractive you are?” Jiro weaved in the comment to his previous one, as he found himself in a twirl that Jiro somehow found him attractive?! Huh?!

“Precluding your personality, which I find nothing faulty about, like it’s perfect, like I’m captivated about it from your strengths and weaknesses… but besides that, your appearance… Do you know how hard it is to not take a gander at your body? It’s something I found out when we and my brother went out to train at the gym we frequent, and to be honest, as much as I wanted to omit this from our conversation… did you really have to pick out such a shirt to wear at your home, because my brain is going through the constant battle of forcing my eyes to look into your face, when I could use it to just gawk at your… muscular body as if they’re antiques in a museum. I’m pretty sure I didn’t see such good formed pecs and clear-cut abs like yours, and I even looked up pornographic stuff when Fenneko insisted I do to find out if I was homosexual, and damn, those actors in it look like twigs. Wait… on a second note, was it weird for me to say this?” Jiro soon mumbled, as he felt his own cheeks grow redder and redder the more Jiro seemed to have blessed his looks, like he was worshipping it, and as much as he knew this would be a side-benefit from his works out… he didn’t expect Jiro to be one of those guys who would compliment him on his body like this!

“So… if I’m getting this right… you found me attractive?” Yuki questioned, still gaping in surprise that he actually said this, as Jiro instantly followed it up by saying:

“The most attractive. If you decided to put a little more effort in your appearances, I would have personally bled in the nose like those characters in anime.”

“...And you find my personality… great, somehow?” Yuki followed it up, as Jiro was also quick to answer it:

“You’re kind enough, never seem discouraged from failure like I am, quick on your feet when the situation calls for it, and even your less favourable traits are attractive to me. So yes, it IS great.”

As much as Yuki seemed to have faded out of that stupor of his from the initial reaction that Jiro said the l word to him, he now could clearly feel how flustered he felt, and all the words the hyena he liked so much say to him, which is now he mustered all the strength in him to ask:

“And you wanna… date me?”

“God, please, yes! I never wanted to have something so much like having you as my lover… but do you want me?”

Did Yuki want Jiro? Was the hyena teasing him?! Of course he wanted to!

“Yes… but wouldn’t it complicate our… relationship? Doesn’t the media think you’re hand in hand with that majestic canary in the mines?” Yuki stated, pulling back the rope against the opponent of his brain that was desperately wanting Yuki to just shut down his brain and just affirm his feelings and get together, because Jiro wasn’t kidding about his feelings, but…

“Then I simply just break up with her and keep our new relationship a secret minus a certain few people like our friends.” Jiro answered, but Yuki knew that it wasn’t that easy, because…

“What about your father? Wouldn’t he just pressure you into a new relationship with a girl, as soon as you sever yourself with her?”

“Yuki, he’s quite literally on his last sea legs of influence, since most of his sway in power has been passed down to me, which is quite comical to think about, and the only reason I’ve been doing it is because I wouldn’t have him complain to me to my ears whenever I have to call him, and I do think I can handle that patriarch’s irritating swearing for our love. Yuki, there’s no obstacle in our way to date… you just have to say to me, to say that you want me, Yuki, because… I really want to have you.” Jiro uttered, as he felt himself… quite convinced by Jiro’s words, and most of the time, Jiro was right… So in actuality, it would be no trouble for them to just… be boyfriends, as long as they don’t make themselves that obvious to all of Japan that they were together, and he did prefer them being a private couple, like nearly everyone else in this country as well.

He wanted to get rejected by Jiro, to swipe the slate clean again for whom he wanted to love in his life, but if Jiro really, truly wanted Yuki as much as the bull wanted him, and there really wasn’t any difficulties that would arise in their relationship if they would be together, then he…

Then he didn’t want to get rejected by him after all! Fuck, he would be stupid if he rejected him now!

“Then I… holy shit, yes, let’s be together! You love me, I love you… which means… we’re boyfriends now!... Haha… Hahahahahaha! I can’t believe… that this is actually happening, what the heck?!” Yuki admitted, having his more rational part of his brain running over to his part of the brain that wanted to be together with Jiro, holding their miniscule hands together and jumping in a circle in celebration. He thought only bad would come out of this talk between the two… but them coming out of it together as boyfriends was not something he wanted to change! He waited his entire life for this to be actually real, to be tangible, and man, is he going to do his best to convince Jiro to be with him, so that he never gets bored with him… as much as he knew Jiro wasn’t that type of guy to get sick of a long relationship, because how he was able to still stand his brother after all the things that happened between them is something to behold. He can’t believe he’s using Jiro’s admiration to his lame older brother to acknowledge that his relationship between Jiro is going to be romantic for a very long time!

“Then you better believe it, you dumb bull! Just as a precaution, you better be ready on how strongly I’m gonna be with you until the end of times, because I want to be with you forever.” Jiro admitted, his cheeks also now being slightly red in the face, but Yuki was sure to have him beat in whoever was more flustered, because when his best friend… boyfriend made that comment, he felt himself nearly get lightheaded from the way how he described their future… love endeavours, as Yuki just nervously voiced:

“Uh!... Ohm…! I hope so!... But you’re really making this sound like you’re proposing to me for my hand in marriage…”

“...Oh!... I’m not doing that… since we can’t marry here anyway, lest we eloped to a country which allows same-sex marriages… probably in the future if the laws around here don’t change soon…” Jiro mumbled in embarrassment as well, with Yuki nearly falling off his feet when Jiro insinuated that he wanted to get married in the future, because imagining them as a married couple… that sounded mindblowing…

The two men stood there in vacant silence, as Yuki felt his face getting hotter. They were now a bonafined couple, which meant their entire dynamic changed from just being childhood bestfriends… to childhood bestfriends turned boyfriends, which meant that the two of them now could do stuff together which he didn’t dare think of when they were still uncertain of what their relationship was at the moment.

He could personally ask Jiro to sweet talk to him in that ticked-off demeanour of his that Yuki quite literally busts a nut whenever he has the chance and luck to listen to, without it seeming weird, and boy, was he personally going to abuse this privilege between them! It also meant that they… probably would get touchier with each other from now on, because from Jiro’s statement, the hyena REALLY liked his muscles, and he could practically tell that Jiro really wanted to feel them in person, and well, he will oblige him on that matter, as much as he would with Jiro’s body…

But he shouldn’t probably wander his brain to any sexual interaction between the two, but first boggle his mind of what their romantic endeavours would look like…

Like, watching a movie together, go out on dates together, prepare dinner for him when Jiro is over or vice versa, smoulder each other with compliments and kisses, calling each other more frequently, surprising each other with gifts… and so much more that he can’t wrap his head around at the moment… because he really was going to experience that with the person he wanted to all those years ago!

“...Since we’re together now… and do correct me if I’m imprudent about this, but… what now?” Jiro soon spoke up, flusteredly questioning Yuki, as the bull felt a bit… confused about what his boyfriend (he really can’t believe he’s calling him like this at the moment!) said.

“Jiro… buddy, this isn’t like some progression level game, and even if it was, marriage would be the next step, but since we’re still too early to… think about that. Also, didn’t you go on numerous dates with those matchmaking chicks your father barked at you to do?”

“True… but it’s not like I ever took it seriously, since I took it as a distraction in my work, and only pretended to be engaged with my other partner at the time, so I wasn’t technically dating the other women, so that makes me none the wiser on how actual dating goes… which is why I’m asking you what the two of us should do now?” Jiro replied, which was true enough, because Yuki knew how it felt seeing each other when his heart wasn’t in it truly, citing his attempts with Yoshio as an example.

However, when Jiro asked him in that nervous tone what they could do at the moment… Well, they could do a lot together in this room, but he should probably ask Jiro what he wanted to do at the moment, because whatever he was gonna mention was going to be ten-times better than whatever Yuki had in his mind.

“I don’t know… what do you want to do with me this instant? As long as it’s reasonable, I’m sure I’ll play along with you!” He replied, passing off the responsibility stick over to Jiro, as he saw his now boyfriend look bedazzled, until he eventually seemed more assured of himself, and told him a request…

“Well… I never… kissed anyone yet in my life… and now that I have you as my lover who probably has more experience than I do… Could you teach me how to kiss?”

Oh, all that was holy at the moment, was that a good starting point on what they should be doing right now! But… he found something curious from what Jiro said, as he asked him:

“You never… wait, am I going to be your… first?” Yuki gestured with his hands loosely while he told this, as Jiro just gave him a short hum as a reply, which is when Yuki felt his mind literally do backflips, because… holy shit, he was going to be the very first experience Jiro was going to have when it comes to mouth to mouth confrontation! He dreamt of the days when he was going to kiss Jiro, and now it’s going to be a real thing! Shit, he probably should be making fun of his past self who thought he must be delusional for wool-gathering about it, because jokes on him, he was going to get his kiss now!

“Yeah.. yeah, we could do that!... I can show the ropes to you!...” Yuki stated, red in the face, as he now slowly took a foot forward, making him pull closer to Jiro, as he thought just how beautiful Jiro was… and how he had all of this beauty of man to himself in such ways, that people would give him the mean eyes from the resentment they would give him from their envy.

He could get lost in those black eyes of his, like a black hole from the way he was being pulled closer and closer to him, with the threats of him just eating him up, and don’t get him started from how he wanted to get a hold of his jaw, and let his hand make a mark on it, hell, he would probably get drunk from just staring at his face, because as Yuki just found out at the moment… Jiro does look cuter when he looks a bit red in the face. Him becoming shy happened less, now that he matured, but it still made him look cute, as much as Jiro grew in size.

Since he was going to initiate the kiss between the two, he was acting as an instructor… on how someone should kiss, he landed his two hands on either side of Jiro’s shoulder, with the hyena tilting his head a bit to look straight into his eyes, while he in return tilted his downward, taking a gulp, as he soon started with the basics.

“You should… wet your lips a bit, because it’s not that pleasant to kiss a hard plucker and uh… have our lips just touch each other, and we don’t have to get our tongue’s involved, and I need you to take this to heart… but try not to get inside your head and just be in the moment when we kiss, because it can ruin the whole mood when your other partner isn’t there in person…” He mumbled, doing the things he was just describing at the moment, as Jiro was quick to follow his instructor’s advice, doing the same thing, as Jiro glared back at him excitedly.

Fuck, he could leer at him for hours this way.

“And don’t think our hands do nothing in the air while we kiss… because as much as our lips meeting is enough for a kiss, it’s easier to rile up someone when you explore their face while making contact with your palm… but tell me if touching you makes you uncomfortable, because being consensual is very sexy.”

“Hmm… you can touch me wherever, Yuki…” Jiro shyly replied, as Yuki let his left hand take a good hold of the other’s man’s chin, probably catching the hyena off-guard a little from how his eyes reacted, but he soon matched his face to show how much pressure he was deriving from having Yuki hold him like this, and before Yuki could finally descend on those inviting lips of his boyfriend (still crazy to him that he’s calling him like this!), Jiro muttered:

“...Is it gonna be a problem if I leave hickeys on your body?... Since I was dismissed from work, I don’t have to worry about it, but you have work tomorrow… right?”

Oh, he wasn’t expecting Jiro to already think that they were going to get rough with each other so soon, so he asked him:

“I mean, the guys at work won’t really care either way, besides getting the obvious disapproving glare from my supervisor… but you want to make-out with me?”

Jiro’s glare seemed to have taken a different direction from staring at the bull, as he looked nervously elsewhere, waiting for him to response, as the love of his life soon retorted:

“If you allow me… because I really… would love to do it with you, since…” Jiro muttered, as his eyes soon returned back into Yuki’s direction, gawking at the midsection of the bull’s body, as he now put two and two together, smirking to himself from just how dirty minded Jiro was, which he was so relieved to hear about, as he coyly tilted the hyena’s head back to him, and said to him:

“Jiro… of course I’d allow you to nibble on my body if you wanted to, heck, you can do it now if you wanted to… Also, did you dream about marking me on my tits and abs?... Because that’d be so hot if you did in fact do that…”

“..Am I that obvious?... But can you blame me?! Your tits, or more correctly known as your pecs, and your abs are just… I don’t know, look biteable to me!”

Aaaand just like that, he’s pretty sure he felt his length literally activate as soon as Jiro admitted his guilt about his intentions, and he’s gonna make sure he’s gonna keep forcing Jiro to look up to him with the hand having control on the hyena’s chin, because the thing Jiro doesn’t need to look at the moment is him knowing that he got so easily seduced as just as acknowledging about his intentions like this one, because not only because he felt fluttered about it, but because he knew Jiro was going to use it to his advantage.

“And you wanna grope them too, I suppose? You don’t mind if I do it later down the line as well?” Yuki shameless admitted, realising that Jiro might have been as sexually interested as Yuki, making the hyena rattle more, as he responded:

“..You bold ass… Yes, Yes to both… Fuck, I just know Shikabane is going to hate us if we’re going to be so touchy to each other like we are envisioning right now… but enough about lecherous thoughts at the moment, that’s something we’ll… deal in a little while, because you owe me a lesson on making my lips make contact with yours…”

Damn, oh freaking damn. Jiro being as equally as perverted as the bull sounded like an humungous win in Yuki’s books, because the two of them were going to enjoy themselves when they had time like this one all to themselves, and boy, was Jiro accurate with that comment on Shikabane getting sick of them, because he sure wasn’t going to hide his moans whenever Jiro was going to take a taste of his body.

But as per his boyfriend’s request, he decided that he should do the due courtesy of showing him how to kiss a guy like him, as he gestured that he was now going in for the kiss, with the hyena gesturing on his own that he was letting him in.

In less than a second, their lips ultimately were at it, as he felt the instant rush of absolutely being up in the heavens, finally having a hold on his crush’s lips while massaging Jiro’s chin with his thumb, and if his boner wasn’t enough of a tell, he was relishing from the experience he was feeling.

While he couldn’t exactly tell how Jiro was feeling, the hyena’s eyes quite literally shot up like fireworks, as he then shut off his eyes, and forced him forward… as he then laid out his tongue gently on his own lips, and damn, he should have probably discussed that there doesn’t need to be tongue action in kissing, but it looks like Jiro was talented enough to not thrust in his tongue like hell, as he firmly made contact with Yuki’s lips with that wet tongue of his, and fuck, he might be a prodigy at this!

As Yuki felt his inner feelings demanding more contact and ravaging of Jiro’s lips, he soon departed their lips from each other, the other man quite visibly being quite irritated by the fact how he opened his eyes and had a disapproving glare with that half-lidded eye of his that Yuki was sure was making him more turned on by the moment, as he then said:

“Damn, you’re kind of great at this… I am going to abuse this in the future…”

“That’s good to hear… but can you either give me some feedback on that as well or shut up and kiss me again, because I want more of it, now!” Jiro replied, pouting in his hands, as Yuki let go of his chain and just giggled how seriously Jiro was taking this whole affair, as he just told him:

“Jiro, there’s no need for feedback, you’ll do good as long as you let yourself go wild… and since you’ve been doing so good at kissing…” Yuki winked, as he got himself rid of his plain t-shirt, making his boyfriend (STILL CRAZY THAT HE CAN SAY THAT!) gasp as if he just saw an airplane explode in the vast blue sky. “...I thought you should get a reward.”

Jiro was quite of staring dramatically at his now body, letting him stare as much as his heart desired, as he then moved up his head, and asked him:

“You.. want us to do it?”

He kind of asked vaguely, but since he just had his shirt off, which he did in the first placed to incentivise Jiro that he was now prepared to make-out with him in earnest, putting his hands on his waist, as he confidently just told him:

“I mean, it’d be a hindrance if you didn’t have a good approach on getting to my midsection with that mouth of yours.”

He was now kind of awaiting Jiro to confirm if he wanted to get-on with the soon-to-be makeout session between them, which Yuki was just foaming in his mind about it, so it kind of was a rude surprise for him to see Jiro reach down to his trousers… and pull down the whole thing altogether to reveal Jiro’s own boxer and the more than aroused thing he was hiding there, as Yuki felt the blood shoot up to his head, as before Jiro’s arms could have went to the man’s suit, he hastily declared to him:

“Ey, ey! We’re just gonna make-out with each other, not have sex with each other!”

It was enough to get Jiro to stop unbuttoning his suit, as he lazily wandered his gaze over to Yuki, who stood there ghastly just how wrongly Jiro took the cue from Yuki, as he mouthed:

“....Oh… Uhm… I thought you meant you wanted us to have… sex… Well… didn’t this turn awkward all of a sudden…”

“Look, sex is good and all, especially with you, I reckon, but it would be too soon for us to be doing that… and not to men-”

“Why would it be too soon?” Jiro butted in, blinking in confusion, as Yuki now grasped how genuine Jiro was when he mentioned he had no real dating experience, because he now decided to come up with a reasonable enough answer for him, moving a bit back from Jiro from how embarrassed he got from him, as he then said:

“Well… it’s very common for guys to lose interest in people as soon as they sleep with them, and it’s been said that withholding sex between couples can be good when they start off, because the anticipation is supposed to make it sweeter and stuff, and to make sure we don’t do the deed while we’re… in this honeymoon phase of ours of us being too emotionally excited to think any better, before we eventually get excited down from each other a couple of weeks later… you know, for reasons like that…”

“...But do you wanna do it with me right now?” Jiro questioned as Yuki found himself quite how utterly shameless Jiro admitted to that, as it took a bit of ‘uuh’ming from Yuki to properly respond back to him, retorting:

“I mean… totally? I’m a guy after all, and you are pretty attra-”

“So why don’t we fuck, if we want to have sex with each other?” Jiro questioned, as Yuki nearly felt himself receive a whiplash from how strangely curiously Jiro was looking at him, with really no amount of lecherous or shyness depicted on his face, as he told him:

“..I may have underestimated how energy-deprived you are… but let’s not do it on our first time being together as partners, and wait a few days or weeks before we do it… and also because I really don’t have any kind of protection with me in my apartment… so…”

“...I have so many questions… but I can already foresee how long it would take for you to explain it all, so…. Can we resume making out with each other?” Jiro admitted, and as much as he would love to answer any and all questions Jiro would have about intercourse, even though he thought Jiro was educated on that matter, but seeing as he never had a reason to get busy with other people before, he might as well decided that it wasn’t important at the moment, and left it at that.

This time, however, instead of Yuki approaching on Jiro, he made a gesture for Jiro to come closer to him with his head, which the hyena understood within seconds, as before he could even spell out supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Jiro was back again in front of him, taking the bull’s mouth back to his, as Yuki let out laugh from how greedily Jiro took Yuki’s face in hand, but he sure didn’t expect him to retreat those firm hands of his and plant it on the bull’s hips, letting out a satisfied groan out of him, which alarmed Jiro, because he soon took his mouth and arms away from him, which he really shouldn’t have, because that dummy needs to get those lips and hands back where they were at the moment, be-

“Um.. my apologies… you probabl-” However, he didn’t want Jiro to go apologise for something he didn’t do, which is why he took the hyena’s hands back to his waist, and his mouth back to his lips, as he now also did something useful with his hands, with his left hand laying on his boyfriend’s face, while the other one had a good grip on the other man’s blue tie, forcibly pulling him closer, which the man still clothed absolutely seemed to like from the shiver he gave out and the noises he was making, as the two meandered slowly around Yuki’s room, not looking at where Yuki was guiding Jiro, as the two kept making music between each other.

Fuck, he’s really making out with Jiro Haida, his childhood crush, of all people, and damned he be if he wasn’t absolutely feeling invigorated and happy at the moment, and it was the tip of the iceberg that was his feelings concerned about Jiro, because the more hurried their kissing developed into, the more his mind was shouting in total cheer like some crazed baseball fan on how great it felt, how absolutely wicked it felt touching Jiro so intimately, while also simultaneously leading him backwards, using the tie as a pseudo-leash on him to get him to be inches apart from each other, and god, did it reel him up just how pleasurable the moment felt.

A few seconds later, as they were making a little bit distance from whence they started making-out, Yuki pulled Jiro close enough for their lengths underneath to make contact through the fabric of their own undergarment, and that accidental meeting between the two caused Jiro to abandon the grip he was holding on one side of the bull’s hip, as he decided to take the two pent-up dicks in his hand and have him firmly rub their lengths, making Yuki nearly scream from how good it felt being touched there, as the hyena soon departed his lips from the bulls lips, as before he could ponder more about how Jiro was for good purposes pleasuring him down there, and god forbid was Yuki trying his hardest not to get swayed by Jiro’s actions to just not ravish off Jiro from where he was standing and just throw him on his bed, Jiro responded:

“Even though we aren’t having intercourse with each other quite yet… I hope you find it a suitable distraction that we do to pass the time until we’re finally able to… do it.” He told with such mischief, finding it humorous that Jiro was able to act undignified to him of all people, as he spotted back a mischievous face of his own, saying:

“Aren’t you just being a sly, naughty boy, Jiro? As much as I- aah, enjoy you playing with our private parts, I can’t let you just get away without any kind of retribution on my parts, so bare your teeth for me, you imp…”

He declared to him, and before Jiro could quiz the bull on what kind retribution he was talking about, he soon was privy to that as he stopped Jiro from moving elsewhere in the room, holding him tighter on that make-believe leash that the hyena had on him, as he made an ambush attempt on the man’s neck, surprising him greatly, and growingly make the hyena feel more pleasure by the fact that he heard him let out the most gratifying moan which he will commit to his memories, as he kept his numbing and sucking onto that barren neck of his boyfriend, as he heard him make more salacious noise that Yuki absolutely adored at the moment from having Jiro eat his own medicine on enacting such a rowdy action, basically making him freeze in place, as the only things he could muster were those delightful groans of his, and:

“Fuck… that feels good… so good… don’t stop, Yuki…” The man grumbled, his dominant hold on their private parts loosening, and eventually losing his grip entirely on it, making Yuki wince from the loss of contact, as he soon decided to see the results of what his mouth did on the man’s neck, and he was able to spot the coloured mush of a hickey on Jiro.

“Hmm.. Are-” And before he could as much as let out a witty comment, Jiro was quick to tie him back into a passionate kiss, as the hyena now was pushing him behind whatever he had behind his back, not caring at the moment on where they’d collide, as he just had his two hands transfixed on Jiro’s cheeks while Jiro had his hands under his armpits to guide him more easily, and that went on for a while until he felt his legs, and before he could do much as react to it…

He fell backwards, as Jiro was quick to pounce on him, his back making contact yet again with his bed, as Jiro now changed his hands locations to hook his shoulder down on the bed, whilst using his knees to keep down the bull’s legs, and before he could think of how gleeful he felt for Jiro… having him in such a position, Jiro departed his mouth, his eyes shimmering with so much shine in them, that he could hardly recognize that Jiro was probably working on his last fumes of hardly sleeping the whole week, as he requested out of Yuki:

“Please, can I ravage your chest, and your abdomen? I’ve never felt more alive before, and it’s so… oppressive in all the good ways interacting with you… I can’t get enough of you, and I think I’m downright addicted to what you’ve shown me… God, I love you so much, so freaking much…”

“Maybe the word salad can wait after we’re done making out? My guy, I still have a lot to talk to you when we’re over, but right now, we should chase our highs and our serotonin output as much as we can at the moment, and right now, you should put that pretty tongue and mouth of yours to good use… so my whole body… besides my lower part is yours for the taking!” Yuki responded, reaching out his left hand while just being absolutely enamoured by Jiro’s whole face as a whole, as Jiro was just analysing his chest, like as if he was deciding where he wanted to start with on his plate personally known as Yuki’s whole chest area, as he seen Jiro’s face lit up and zone to a particular spot on his body, as the hyena dived into action, abandoning putting Yuki down on the bad with his arm strength, and instead using his fingers to play with the bull’s nipples, making the bull let out a hiss from how sensitive they felt being touched like that.

Damn, when he called for a distraction at 11 in the evening from his work, he didn’t expect him to end up 10 minutes later in the bed, pinned down by Jiro of all people, touching his nipples and being absolutely engaged as much as his tiredful expression could muster, as the hyena was quick to get bored of simply touching that sensitive area of the bull’s, as he now moved his whole arm on the whole area of his chest, squeezing it tightly, his boyfriend’s eye being absolutely mesmerised and his face just screaming pleasure in the most effective term possibly, as he quietly murmured to himself:

“This is all mine… mine… you, your body, my love to you… all by my own choice… I’m so happy…”

He didn’t peg Jiro to be as obsessive in a relationship, of him thinking that as soon as Yuki went missing, Jiro would probably go search around the whole globe to have him back, but holy shit on a stick, it felt so good being wanted… and by Jiro, of all people, and maybe he’ll enable some of that obsessive behaviour of his, as he smiled to him and said:

“All yours, Jiro… and you’re all mine as well…” He told, as he guided his arms to get a hold on Jiro’s body, moving through the suit, but as soon as Jiro thought he meant he wanted him undressed in his boxers, like Yuki was at the moment, he soon grabbed the man’s hand and returned it to have him squeeze his chest again, as he said: “Don’t need to undress yourself… you’re already beautiful like this…”

Jiro was able to get distracted with the intention of playing around with his chest a bit, as Yuki was thankful he didn’t need to disclose to Jiro that he might have lost all of his senses if Jiro was standing over him in only his boxers, and seeing as Yuki might have been was congenial enough to just get persuaded enough from Jiro’s body enough to have the hyena just fuck him right there, the hyena traversed further down his chest to where his 6 squared boxes of muscle lay, but instead of Jiro only using his hands to play with Jiro’s midsection, his lover leaned down with his whole spine, just enough to make contact with his chest area with his chin, as his half-lidded eye shortly looked up to the bull, teasing the bull by the looks he was giving him, feeling really questionable whether Jiro was really a virgin or not, as he then let out his tongue and went to lick his chest like he was personally licking clean a plate of food that Jiro loved.

God, what did he deserve to have all of this happening to him… could it be the karmic sub-total of bad luck he gathered the last decade or so accumulating to him earning Jiro’s whole devotion and love? It’d be a real shame if he started crying now, when Jiro was busy giving him a second shower.

“...You smell really great… did you get a premonition that I would be all over your chest like this, and wanted me to enjoy your smell while I was all over your chest, huh?” Jiro teased, taking his glance towards Yuki, as he soon returned that wet tongue back into his mouth, and decided that it was his turn to leave marks behind Yuki’s body, grabbing a good bite on his left pec, as Yuki truthfully admitted..

“..Nngh, I just shower at around 10 P.M each night… it’s just a miracle that you appeared in front of my apartment with all the others.”

However, it seemed like that was the wrong set of words to use, because Jiro soon left his chest, and seemed absolutely shaken to the core, as he stood on his knees, and horrifically murmured:

“...Wait, what if my brother and everyone else heard me moan when you bit onto me… how the hell do I leave the room, without them poking some fun at m-”

“Jiro, your moan wasn’t loud enough to wake up a grandma in a nap, so unless your brother was spying on us at this moment, which I don’t think he’ll do, because jokes on him, I’m personally feeling his little brother up to high heavens, no one was able to hear us… Now you wanna leave this chest of mine unscathed, or not?” Yuki soon hushed Jiro from whatever his thoughts were running with the imaginations Jiro imagined to himself, bringing him back to only thinking about themselves at the moment, as he circled the spot where Jiro left his mark at, quite literally waving a red flag over it to get Jiro’s attention like he was a bull, which was fruitful, to say the least, because the hyena continued onward on ruining that spotless chest of his.

At the mercy of Jiro, he soon found himself empty with two hands, laying on the wayside, and as much as playing with his meat would be the most preferable action that he could undertake at the moment, but at the fear of losing his composure and dirtying his boxers, he decided to take on the lesser lustful route, which was rubbing his boyfriend’s back while he personally bit into the bull’s chest on all cylinders, keeping his groans of pressure chaste but with enough oomf in them to show Jiro just how amazingly he was pleasuring him, and at about the 5th love bite, per his count, Jiro moved backwards to have his mouth at his chest area, as his arm continued downward as well, grabbing onto the bull’s boxer, feeling it taken down with him…

“Gosh, you are absolutely irresistible! No touching there yet! I know you want me to have sex with you, and even if that’s all you want from me, I-” Yuki replied in a faux irritated tone, and before he could as much as finish his warning to Jiro, he soon got corrected on his intention the hyena had with him, as he told him:

“No, I don’t only want your body for intercourse… I do want all of you that come with you… I admit that it’s… terribly hard to control myself from that curious hyena brain of mine who wants to see your thing down there… Fuck, I’m probably losing control of my mental capabilities… Can’t I really see you all undone like this?”

“As much as it pains me to say it, no chance, my guy. I’d love for your own dick to be knee deep in my ass and make a mess in there, but you already know why we can’t do that yet. Let’s save the sex later down the line of our relationship, when we’re more clear in the head.” Yuki responded, making the hyena pout yet again like before, as he just pensively told:

“I’d call it love making… sex is too crude of a moniker from how I want you to feel when the time is nigh… but I’m a patient man, after all… so…”

And just like that, his boyfriend regained having his tongue feel all over the meat-grinder that was his abdomen, as he kept carefully massaging the hyena’s back as usual.

It continued on for a few moments or so, until Jiro deemed his tongue to have had enough of bull six-pack, as he perked up his head a bit, and leered closer to the bull, and instead of enacting revenge on the bull’s neck, the hyena yet again returned to kiss him again, as the two spent a good reasonable of time wetting their lips again, with Yuki rolling Jiro to be on the bed this time, as he carefully continued to make it a soothing experience between the two.

The two of them enjoying to the fullest, with Yuki feeling on top of the world that he was… he was actually allowed by Jiro to have him perform all these delicate touches on him and for him to allow the same for Jiro, as much as he had to deny a few attempts of Jiro being more hornier as him, even though he was the guy with the horns between the two, as Jiro’s eyes seemed to have gotten more and more shut, and the movement of his lips fading out of breath, as before he knew it… he felt Jiro not make any kind of resistance in their kiss anymore, alarming Yuki to make his back straight and look at a bird’s angle on how Jiro was looking at the moment…

Oh, he fell asleep. He actually fell asleep from how much he felt relaxed with Yuki.

Jiro always complained that it took hours for him to fall asleep, so it’s highly probable that Jiro just gave the ghost to him for being up all week straight, but he will personally believe that he kissed him so well that it sent Jiro into a deep slumber!...

Upon relenting back, and staring at the sleeping prince of beauty on his bed, he felt everything in brain just comprehend in a single notion of everything that happened, as his exhausted eyes of his turned wide awake at, that yes, he just passionately made out with his best friend of all people on his bed, and yes, they were by all purposes lovers now, and Jiro threatened him two times with a good time, and if that was due to his brain not having enough energy in it to have his thoughts get ahead of his without having precaution behind it, or he desperately wanted to bone him more than Yuki wanted to do with Jiro, it will remain unclear still Jiro woke up.

Holy fuck. What the actual fuck? Fuck-fantastical hell did just happen?

The heck, he wanted a rejection from him… and not a romantical bond between them at first… but fuck, did he not have any regrets now from not chickening out, because Jiro loved him, he loved him all this time, and he didn’t need to fear all this time how Jiro would react upon hearing his confession in real-time… because he secretly pined over Yuki seemingly as much as he pined over from Jiro, because the urgency for intimacy was miles stronger than the one he had with Jiro…

To dumping Yoshio on a Tuesday, to having Jiro in his bed on a Thursday night… this might be his most turbulent… and happiest week of his entire life…

It didn’t take long for him to laugh to himself, that this was all real, as he meticulously touched Jiro’s cheeks while he was sleeping, and pondered how much he was going to see him defenceless like this, trusting Yuki so much, that he laid in a bed that he didn’t once sleep at, because it was his.

Fuck… he might be the happiest man in the current moment…

During all of this process, behind the enclosed room that laid in the apartment…

“So… you’re playing as the adoptive kid of the last protagonist, who has seemingly gone missing 6 years ago during a confrontation with the mastermind behind the serial killings in this game?” Retsuko muttered, having Shikabane explain everything up to his wife and Fenneko in the main living room, which Ichiro couldn’t care about, as he was leaning onto the door to carefully listen to the conversation between his brother and Yuki with Sakiyo, who was as excited to listen onto their brother’s soon to be love confession.

“Yo, Haida, Sakiyo, could you perhaps not act like creeps gawking through the door hole, and just watch Shikabane play through a peak game?” Fenneko opined, Ichiro quite literally ignoring while keeping his ears open between the conversation the two men were having in the room, and from what he could tell, they were talking about work.

“I’m literally witnessing my brother go through his first romantic partner, who just happens to be his best friend of old, so do excuse me if I feel obliged wanting to see if Jiro is able to sway Yuki off his feet!” Ichiro answered, as Sakiyo was also quick to follow up on that comment, saying:

“Mon dieu, and Yuki is my brother, and this might be the most jubilant moment of his life. It’s also possible he’s gonna play chicken, which is when I’m gonna get called in for service and slap Yuki on the cheeks with some clarity!”

“Praying on your downfalls you two. Hope the aficionado and the bull let out the most loud moans when they get their mouths on some action.” Fenneko jested, as Ichiro thought she was so off the mark. Jiro didn’t like much physical touch, and the most he would probably do with Yuki is give him a kiss and a hug, it’s not like his brother was a corndog, hell, he’s kind of the antithesis of those guys!

Ichiro and Sakiyo continued listening onto the conversation between their brothers, their breaths being as tense as it could be, as it seemed like Yuki was finally getting onto the conversation of supposedly confessing to him, relaying to him that he still had feelings for his baby brother, as Jiro was quick to unceremoniously break into Yuki’s words when he was requesting a rejection with an affirmation of his feelings for his best friend, as the two people outside the room were hoping but the two of them quietly let out a groan when Yuki seemed to have been making excuses on just saying yes to Jiro, with his sister saying:

“Oh for goodness sake Yukiharu… you literally have Jiro in front of you presented to you in a gift box, and you’re making cover stories for yourself… I’m glad Jiro’s able to shut down every point he’s been making at the moment, and I may have underestimated how much Jiro seems to be infatuated with my brother…”

“And to think Fenneko had the gall to call me a simp when my brother might be the literal definition of it…” Ichiro smirked under his breath, as he was currently hearing his brother showering the bull with praises, as Fenneko just slurred back:

“He’s more graceful about being a simp than you, at least. Only needs one, the number after 0, talking to go confess to his crush at the moment, and not a dozens of late-evening booze dinners where you wail yourself to sleep. I give Jiro a 5 out of 5 stars from the experience given to me as the wingmanner, while you chump deserve a 0.1 out of 5.”

“Jiro’s kind of better in almost everything I do, due to his high standard brain, so give me a pass, will ya? I kind of was depressed before I even had the opportunity of meeting Retsuko as co-workers, you know?” Ichiro replied back, as the 5 people in the living room and standing outside of Yuki’s room, as the two people outside the bull’s room heard the bull’s defence get less firm and firm, as he questioned that everything that Jiro was telling was true, and boy, when Yuki finally agreed to Jiro’s confession, of him calling him and Jiro boyfriends, Ichiro and Sakiyo couldn’t help give each other a high five to each other, which Fenneko saw and told the other two, as he saw Shikabane roll her head back from the couch, and letting out the most tired sigh from her body, whispering something of being ‘free from Yuki’s cringiness at last’, or something, as Ichiro and Sakiyo were now curious what their brothers are gonna do now, now that they were together?

He really wanted to just break down the door and go up to his brother and give him a good push on the back of his brother for a job well done finding himself a boyfriend, which he wanted from his own, free volition, but he knew he’d probably just get angry that his older brother was listening on outside their room, as much as it would be hypocritical of him to say, when he’s sure Jiro overheard at least 80% of times when he tried confessing to a girl in their earlier days, so he listened and stayed on the sidelines, just to make sure Jiro wouldn’t get convinced to do… something frisky with Yuki. He knew Jiro wasn’t a people-pleaser like Retsuko, but damn, was he more than one when it came to his close confidants, so it was probable that Jiro was more influential at the moment.

The last thing he wanted to know on the day when Jiro found love is that he got defiled on the same day, and he will personally go beat the hell out of the bull with his own fists!

The two continued listening, and Sakiyo personally gasped at the mention that Jiro never seemed to kiss anyone yet, and he sure wasn’t stupefied with that revelation. Jiro felt uncomfortable whenever the two of them went over to a relative on their mother’s side of the family, who always greeted them with a kiss on the cheeks, and boy, did Jiro not like when their aunt did as much as lean onto his cheeks.

They listened to Yuki giving some advice on the matter, and Ichiro could feel himself reel backwards when Jiro mentioned leaving hickey?! His baby brother, doing that?! Huh?!

“Goodness gracious! Ichiro, your brother is more scandalous than I first imagined! Maybe your eros is hereditary… Egads, I think I’m imposing now…” She said, as she hastily twirled herself towards the living room to watch Shikabane play that video game that Fenneko seems to praise to no end, as Fenneko just smugly told:

“It’s always the quiet guys with the most lewd thoughts. Haida, could you tell us how your brother wants to violate his best friend’s body?”

“Fenneko you goddamn troll! It’s just simple love bite marks on Yuki’s body, he isn’t as perverted as you think he is!”

“Aight, brother of the man who revolutionised the way you could use a bull’s horns. Just get a good grip on it and move up and down…”

“Keep, your, goddamn, mouth SHUT!” Ichiro insisted, as the fennec fox let out her signature monotone laugh of hers, as Ichiro endeavoured further on hoping his brother and his… best friend turned boyfriend, which is when something must have happened to earn Yuki to act all surprised, after supposedly throwing his t-shirt to the ground, which is when he heard…

We’re just gonna make-out with each other, not have sex with each other!

Wait, hold up, hold the fuck up! Just what the heck were those boys doing in the room?

He listened along, as he progressively felt his sanity sap away from his mind that he was hearing Jiro talk of absolute debauchery, as Ichiro was contemplating… Was he really listening to Jiro talk filth, like convincing Yuki to have sex with him?

Jiro, what the fuck?! He didn’t know how sex worked between two guys, but surely they should wear protection, at least, right?! He’s thankful that Yuki seems to have some withdrawal to all of this, hoping the silence between them that they were backing off from each other…

But he didn’t expect Yuki to just let out a moan which he didn’t need to hear, which is when Ichiro decided that it was enough spying on his brother getting some, hoping Yuki would be strong enough to keep his brother in check, as he trembled into the main living room, downcasted, and horrified of what he just heard on the other side, as he took a seat next to Retsuko, who seemed concerned for him.

“From the depression and horror in your eyes, I assume you just heard your brother let out the most guttural moan of his life, and let me tell you, it’s your due punishment from being too interested in your brother’s love life.” Fenneko sneered, as Ichiro just stared at the screen which was displaying Shikabane playing some kind… of an insane round in Kitchen’s hell, and before he could ask her how she went from doing detective duty to challenging a big man in a cooking battle in his dream, as he soon amended Fenneko, telling her:

“...It was Yuki… but thanks for asking, Fenneko…”

“Always knew he’d be the one to bottom out if they were together.” Shikabane scoffed, inputting combinations of commands on her controller, which is when Retsuko with sweat on her forehead replied:

“How about we talk about Shikabane’s game, while the boys are being boys with their newfound love of theirs! Letting some of that testosterone roam out of their bodies and putting it to good use!”

“That’s easy for you to say. You’re not the one who will be put up with these in the future. Maybe I should write out my last testament and will…” The skunk replied in her neurotic tone as ever, which is when Sakiyo was more than happy to speak up, saying:

“If you need help on writing one, I could help with the process! Lawyers do get frequented a lot in this kind of stuff, so I’m already familiarised with the whole process.”

The skunk let out a hum, as the lot of them continued watching Shikabane playthrough the game from watching the big, burly man lose to the translucent and pale skinned assistant whom the cube-headed referred to as Super-Chef A, as they saw Shikabane go through some of the trauma, until the woman who acted as a minor side character in the first game cheered him up, and made the guy aware that even though some people do not appreciate him, there were a quite select amount of people who were able to see the beauty in him, which eventually led him to reveal the clue with the word ‘HOST’ on it, something that the protagonist was hunting for that the mastermind left behind as a clue.

And as Shikabane was returning from the dream of the burly man’s, everyone heard Yuki’s door open up suddenly, alarming basically everyone besides Shikabane, and took a look at Yuki, who thankfully had his shirt on, and didn’t seem to have been pecked by Yuki’s mouth, which meant that Ichiro could imagine where those marks were at.

Ignorance was bliss, and he did not grasp the meaning of it until now. As much as he didn’t defile his baby brother… quite yet, he can't help but be overprotective at the moment. He needs to take him to a private corner and throw some precaution in the winds for him.

Yuki only staggered himself to the living room, and he seemed like he was just barely comprehending what was just happening at the moment, while seemingly spotting a weak smile of his, as he just stood there in the room, staring at the screen like everyone else, until Fenneko decided to open up her mouth:

“So, did you end up popping Jiro’s cherry, or what?”

And naturally, nearly everyone, besides Shikabane, as always, reacted in prone shock, making the bull’s cheeks turn red from the comment, as Ichiro just waved off Fenneko’s teasing comment, and said:

“Anyway… besides Fenneko’s improper commentary, how did it go in your room? Where’s Jiro, by the way?”

“Uh… sleeping on my bed, he’s out like a log… and I guess… Jiro and I are… lovers?”

Just like that, he, Sakiyo and Retsuko jumped in celebration, as the bull quite literally got tackled by his sister, nearly sweeping him off his feet, as she happily congratulated him:

“This is such a joyous occasion, brother! I am so relieved that you two are together now, and you should probably thank Fenneko and Ichiro personally for pushing Jiro the right way to have the courage to ask you out!”

“...Huh, they did wh-”

“No thanks needed, by the way. You can have as much fun as you can with him, but don’t let me hear him complain about you during our visits to a bar unless it’s him simping about you.” Fenneko responded, as Ichiro decided that he might as well drag this bull out for a little talk between them, as he stood up, gaining the attention from nearly everyone, as he just pointed to him, and queried from him:

“Since you and my bro are boyfriends… I think I need to take you away for a moment… and have a talk with each other, capiche?”

“Man, getting shovel talked by Haida? Yuki, you need to prepare yourself from how much you’re gonna quake in your boots from the fear he’s gonna instil in your heart.” Fenneko teased, making him roll his eyes at her, as he gazed back at Yuki, who appeared less than impressed by the fennec fox’s joke.

“...Sure, whatever you say, Ichiro.” The bull said impassively, as he turned around, presumably somewhere to take him for a private discussion.

And that place seemed to be the balcony, as he felt himself shiver up a bit from the midnight air, the bull appearing less fazed by it. Now that he remembers, Jiro used to pellet the bull’s face with snowballs, his little brother being nearly inhumanely accurate when it came to snowball fighting, and Yuki never seemed to get a cold out of it. Maybe the bull was cold resistant…?

“...Before you ask me, I didn’t fuck your brother, as much as he was adamant about it. Wasn’t it your job to explain to him the need for protection, since you were a literal philanderer in the early years?” Yuki stated, nearly falling off the balcony itself from starting their conversation like that, as even though he knew… Jiro made those comments himself, did he really have to tell in front of his brother’s libido?

“-I, what? And what do you mean it was my responsibility?! You think I was banging the girls I was seeing in high schools?!”

“Yeah. It’s not like it would be surprising if that was the case, because you’re one self-” Yuki pronounced, which is when Ichiro decided to be just frank with Yuki, saying:

“Look, I know you hate me, but know that even if I wanted to go have fun when I was a teenager, one, Jiro was quite literally a cockblock in my relationships prior to Retsuko, and two, you think I’d be fooling around, when I was the key inheritor of our father’s throne?”

“And last I recall, you aren’t that guy anymore, mister legacy passer.” Yuki responded, clearly putting some punch into his words. Boy, did he not think Yuki wanted to pick out a fight with him, when he just wanted to friendly threaten the bull that if he broke his brother’s heart, he would burn down his village and everything that he loved and yadda yadda.

“Yuki, could you please hold off with your passive aggressive comments for this day, and let me just congratulate you for dating Jiro and warn you if you break his heart?”

“Why? It’s not like you’d give me any good advice, seeing as you broke his heart first and foremost.” He stated, looking ambivalently… and with a slight smirk?

“I- Look, I wasn’t the best brother to him when he needed me, but I’m better now, so could you at least give me the chance to redeem myself for my negligence those past years ago, and give a mean shovel talk to you, like the older overprotective brother that I should be?”

“Fine, but I’m doing this for Jiro’s sake. Even though he basically has Einstein’s brain, he still holds you on a pedestal, if I’m honest… It’s kind of irritating, if you ask me…” Yuki stated… but was he shitting himself at the moment, or did he notice a slight hint of envy in the bull’s voice…? Wait…

“...Oooooooooh, now I get it…. Why you were always giving me the meanest looks in the world when Jiro wasn't looking at us… you were green-eyed!” Ichiro laughed, as he realised that even though Sakiyo told them that she and her brother hated him because of his actions a decade ago, Yuki was jealous of him as well. Did he think of Ichiro as some kind of wall between him and Jiro, all these times ago? That would explain so much, now that he thinks about it!... Damn, just how much self-control did Yuki have to not punch him all these times ago, because if he was in the bull’s shoes, he would have delivered himself a mean upperfist that would have knocked some teeth of himself!

“...I still hate you, for all reasons and purposes, though. Just don’t think because I’m closer to Jiro, that I nilly-willy will forget your past deeds.”

“You’re late to the party, your sister already told me about it, man, and I don’t blame you guys for it. I just hope you’re able to forgive me in due time.” Ichiro voiced, as the bull gave him an unimpressed glace, and muttered ‘sure’ under his breath.

Well, he now was holding a promise now, and even though he’s sure he’s not going to break it, it will be heaven when the time comes when Yuki ceases the slight hostility that he shares with him, and have them bond with each other over their shared connection with Jiro.

“...Oh yeah, I did bring you out for a purpose…” Ichiro said, as he reached out to put his hand on Yuki’s shoulder, barely budging the bull. “Break my brother’s heart and I will personally dehorn you.”

“Ichiro, for that, you’d need to overpower me, and do you think your twig arms are gonna beat mine arms?” Yuki said casually, as he grabbed onto Ichiro’s arm and- Ouch, fuck, he was basically breaking his bones with the fierce grip he had on him as he relented the hyena’s arm backwards. “And you’d think I'd give up Jiro, now that I have him?”

“Ow!... I sure hope you do- OW OW OW OW, ok you probab- YEOUCH OW OK I HEARD YOU CLEAR AS DAY, YUKI, NOW LET GO OFF MY ARM!” Ichiro cried out, as the bull led go of the grip he had with his left hand, as Ichiro just shook his arm and caressed it with his other hand which was luckily not grabbed by the bull, as he winced around in place, planning that if he ever had to take Yuki on in a fight, he should just retreat or bring a weapon next time.

“You guys should probably go home right now, unless you want to stay for a bit longer and watch Shikabane play through that mystery game… everyone besides Jiro has work tomorrow, I assume?” Yuki gestured, using the time where Ichiro was flinching with pain to go back into the apartment, as Ichiro kindly asked him:

“Speaking of Jiro… you really gonna let him sleep on your bed, the first time you two are official? Listen, I know it isn’t my duty to mix myself into your guy’s relationship, but you should probably keep your hand off of him until Jiro is well rested.”

“..I’m not a creep, Ichiro… I’ll just sleep on the couch when Shikabane calls it a day, I suppose. Kind of rough to lay on, but better than having Jiro suddenly wake up when he looked peaceful for once in his life.”

“Damn, can’t believe Jiro demoted you to the couch on your first day being together! It took Retsuko two weeks for me to get that same punishment, you know?” Ichiro teased, which earned a tick out of the bull’s mouth, as Ichiro noted that the ladies in the main living room have stopped watching and playing the game Shikabane was doing, as he saw Retsuko, Sakiyo and Fenneko lounge around, while Shikabane was probably in her bedroom, if her being missing wasn’t a clear indication of it, as Yuki replied back to him:

“He didn’t… and it’s not like he ever will. I’m gonna be the best partner in his life, and I hope I’m gonna be able to smirch it in your face when I’m gonna be the only thing he’s gonna talk about.”

“Well, good luck with that. I’m still his special person, you know?”

“Whatever, I'm still gonna influence him soon to have him only talk about me, and then we’ll know who the victor will be.” The two chatted, as the two men reconvened with the three ladies, as they told Ichiro and Yuki of the taxi they called. Yuki soon guided them out of their apartment, as Sakiyo gave one bone-crushing hug to the bull, happily telling her all the best in his and Jiro’s new blossoming relationships which she saw build up for a decade now, as Yuki just pet her on the shoulder and told her that she better not try replacing the love novel she reads by replacing the characters with the two, as Sakiyo just laughed it off.

With a good few goodbyes to the bull, the 4 of them soon found themselves outside of Yuki’s and Shikabane’s apartment, as Ichiro did a fist-pump on a mission well done, wishing…

Wishing that Yuki is gonna treat his brother right, and hope Jiro is going to be happy, now that he found the person whom he loved with all of his heart. He sure hopes Yuki doesn’t get overwhelmed from Jiro’s intense feeling, which might be a good reason as to why his sleepy-headed Jiro was mumbling like that, his intense wanting and emotions probably having had a good chunk of control over him while he was confessing to Yuki.

Oh, how he’d wish he could be able to spoil his victory over his father, on how the two of them were able to find happiness on their own terms, while he must have been a sad slack of a miserable shit, wasting away in whatever chair he was bound to for his health.

Maybe when he’s on his deathbed, he could have him or Jiro tell him the good news, and watch him squirm, but that’s still a good while ago, which is why at the moment… he’ll focus himself on the warm hand that were in his palm, that of his betrothed, and how in a few months or so, they’ll host the most amazing weddings of all time!

Chapter Text

Yuki soon found himself stir up from his slumber, hearing a very obnoxious alarm clock that he got familiarised all these years ago on the streets, wincing when the morning sky met his irises, the light scourging it’s way in, as Yuki used the same sane actions any other guy would have done in this scenario, and just closed his eyes to have him see total darkness.

Damn, he really hated seeing the sun. His eyes being flashed is something he always disliked, which his older brother never seemed to care much about, as the older bull used whatever kind of superpower he had in him to make himself radiant, and it’s only through sheer luck that Yuki isn’t wearing glasses from having his eyes damaged.

Forgetting his older brother in the equation, Yuki grimaced and tried to sit up outright, but it proved to be more difficult, as he felt his back basically shout at him to halt himself before he broke himself, as he realised just how unfit the coach was for sleeping, as he made a future note to his older self that if he ever slept outside his room again, taking the floor with a cushion would help him steer himself away from chiropractors.

He tried again opening his eyes, with this time his eyes being less sensitive than before, as he blinked a few times for him to get used to the light he was gaining, as he now, with slight confidence, wondered if his break was more amiable to Yuki than before, pulled himself upwards, which thankfully he was able to do, but not without groaning through the process, as Yuki let out a tiresome yawn, and stretched his hands, as he grabbed his phone that laid besides him, and acted as the annoying alarm clock of his, and stole a glance at the time.

7 in the morning. June 18th, 2021. Just a day after he got together with Jiro.

Yuki sat in silence, his impermeable blank look soon turning into a low smile, as he mumbled inside his brain:

‘Jiro is his boyfriend. They confessed their feelings towards each other last night, and now Jiro was sleeping on his bed, albeit without him. And the things they’ve done…’

And just like that, as if Yuki was just charged with a huge amount of voltage all of a sudden, he sprang out of the back-destroying coach, as he decided that he should probably start with getting a quick shower and cleaning, while the two lie-abed had some extra time to themselves.

Without much fuss, he took everything that was classified as rubbish from the main living room, mostly snacks that Shikabane was too lazy, or more aptly, let there on purpose for Yuki to clean up, as he let it be dropped in the ever hole that was the garbage bag in the kitchen. The sack is kind of getting big now, so he should probably wander off with the rubbish around a local garbage bin and change the bags.

The kitchen looked relatively speckless to Yuki’s morning eyes, as he wondered what he should cook for himself, since Shikabane is currently addicted to that cereal that the skunk has been urging him to buy ever since the two went to a supermarket and Shikabane felt curious on how it would taste, which is most weeks, he gets sidequests from Shikabane on buying that thing, and Yuki always cried in the inside whenever he had to do it. She had cheaper alternatives… but she had to pick the cereal that cost 800 yen…they were losing out on so much yen this way…

But wait, he wasn’t cooking for himself, since he wasn’t the only one besides Shikabane who were at their apartment! Even though he mostly departed himself from ever something grand for breakfast, he knew that he should cook something special for Jiro, now that they were boyfriends…

He opened the fridge, and surveyed the huge excess of ingredients he still had for grabs to use, which is when Yuki wanted to pad the back of his past self for being a conservative when it came to his spending and eating, because from his own deduction, he could probably cook a whole array of meals to him if he wanted to.

Now the big question made itself clearer to Yuki, and that question was what the heck would he cook for himself and Yuki? If he had to be honest with himself, he could probably dish out a tray of rice for the two of them with no toppings, and the two of them would happily eat it, since Jiro literally eats anything, besides cauliflowers and broccolis, and Yuki would be happy to save as much of the ingredients as he could, but that wouldn’t be the day today, because he needed to show his love to Jiro with some labour.

And just like that, Yuki came to a good dish that he could eat with Jiro, whilst also making Shikabane envious in the process… which meant that he was going to make some okonomiyaki!

It usually took an hour for okonomiyaki to be made, and he should also wake up Jiro for it, because as much as the pancake was edible while cold, eating it while it was warm was preferable, and he knew Jiro was the type to think screw it and put the pancake into the microwave to heat it up, which is not something he’s gonna allow his boyfriend to do!

Eating food made with consideration was always going to beat out the pricey junk food that you can get from the nearby konbini, and he hopes he can convince Jiro to tone it down with those instant ramen he hoards in his penthouse, because he’s still trying to reel his head around the fact that even though Jiro looked hot as fuck, the man did not curate his food to make himself look more appetizing to others. He was naturally beautiful, which he inherited from his mom, because Yuki can see a great resemblance of Mrs. Haida when he tries imagining her next to Jiro. Just how was she, anyway?

Yeah, he’ll cook okonomiyaki, as soon as he got himself refreshed from the bathroom, which is why he turned around and had a quick shower, all the while trying not to image how it would have felt like if Jiro would be able to gaze at him, or better, be with him in the shower…

Yeah, precisely to say, he failed miserably in not imagining himself in some lewdful activities with Jiro. Maybe he can take courage in the fact that maybe Jiro was equally as perverted as he was, or for the best, more, and that Jiro probably would have thought the exact same thing as Yuki did right now.

Upon getting out of the shower, he soon noticed upon the mirror in the walls while he was cleaning himself with the towels that his chest and abdomen area… were quite bruised, and had several, obvious bite marks blasted all over his body. Him standing there, frozen, while he eyed up all those delicate marks of him, of how Jiro was the one that inflicted them all, was pretty understandable.

However, he soon woke himself from his statue-like activities, as he went through each bruise and bite on his bodies with his fingers, feeling alleviated all the while he was on his scrub on getting himself clean. He soon then put on his boxer, returning back into the kitchen, while he uncharacteristically decided to listen to the recipe he was reading from his phone, while not making any shortcuts or replacing ingredients that he didn’t have on hand, as before he could even comprehend what was happening, he stood there with an apron and with his boxer, while he had 4 servings of some hot okonomiyaki, ready for the plunging.

It looked… and smelled good! He’s sure to impress Jiro with his meal, which is why he put the 4 servings of pancakes under a cloth to discourage Shikabane from getting her hands on it, hoping she wouldn’t pick up on the smell when she came over to her bedroom and woke her up from the outside.

Checking the time again, it was 8 a.m, which meant that in about forty minutes from now, he and Shikabane would have to leave for work, as long as they wanted to reach their respective trains in time, and he sure wasn’t going to budge Jiro on driving them their, because not only was Yuki barely able to ride a train without his motion sickness acting up on him, he could wish his okonomiyaki goodbye from his stomach, because if Jiro drove him, he would surely break up in the hyena’s car.

Deciding that it was time to wake up the two sleepyheads in his and Shikabane’s respective bedrooms, he wandered over to the skunk’s place first, banging on her door, as he yelled to her:

“Rise and shine, punkshine! You’ve got work to do today!”

Like that, he heard the woman scream back at her in a less than amused way, a direct signal that she was awake, as Yuki was now moving on to his own bedroom, and instead of screaming at him like he did with Shikabane to get her shit together and descend herself into the mortal realm, he quietly opened the door, as he batted an eye towards the blue suited hyena, sleeping silently.

He quite literally tip-toed towards him, as he soon found himself beside his bed, having a great look at his boyfriend, and beyond the clearly missing trousers of him that was in the room and scuffed suit and glasses of the hyena, the man looked bewitching to look at. He heard that some people stare at their loved ones when they are sleeping, which would be the reason why he felt so at peace with himself, the further he kept glancing at his boyfriend, wanting to get a hold of those squishy faces of the hyenas.

And through the process of watching Jiro as a hawk, he soon found himself cognizant of the purplish spot on the hyena’s neck, as he felt a great sense of accomplishment surge through him.

‘You did that’ He spoke to himself. ‘You’re the crazy sonuva bitch who was able to get a good bite out of that jugular, and Jiro allowed it. He’s intimate enough with you to get dirty with him, and he truly and ruly loves you. You’re so goddamn lucky for having him.’

As he was admiring Jiro, it seemed like Jiro himself got awoken by Yuki’s presence, as the hyena made miniscule movement, as the man just grumbled sleepfully, which eventually turned to him making a pout.

Fuck, how is he becoming cuter the more he gets to get more animated?

He tried to reach out with his hand to rub him on the cheeks, but decided that it would surely scare the hyena if he suddenly felt something rubbing on his cheeks, as Yuki watched the man slowly open up his eyes, watching Jiro hitch up on his breath, as he stared directly at Yuki, which the bull used as his cue to get a hold on the man’s cheeks, as he lazily said to him:

“Good morning, my prince…”

While Yuki continued onto feeling the man’s cheeks, quite literally poking at it, instead of getting a good morning back like he expected, his boyfriend, who appeared awestruck, now that he had good look on him, replied:

“Am I in heaven?”

Now that was one way for Yuki to suddenly stop the wholesome act he was putting on, holding in the laugh he desperately wanted to let out, as Jiro must have realised that Yuki’s place was far off from the cloudy realms up-high, as he said:

“...No, this is your room… wait, what did you just call me?”

“My prince…?” Yuki answered, as Jiro seemed to have been contemplating the pet name he just got, as the hyena threw a neutral glance towards him, saying:

“I didn’t know you were a knight, Yuki. And here I thought chivalry was dead…”

“What, doth thee wanteth to receiveth ref'rr'd as a princess instead?” Yuki joked, which seemed to annoy Jiro more, as the man turned around the opposite direction, making Yuki jumpish, as he implored of him:

“H-hey! You want me to use a different nickname to you? I was only teasing you with that, I promise!”

“...Jiro’s fine. You don’t need to put a nickname when we could just use our unadulterated names instead.”

“As you wish, master.” Yuki replied, hoping Jiro understood it was a joke, the hyena soon turned back to face him, as he told him:

“...Fuck, maybe you can call me that when it’s only us…”

Oh, now that was useful information. Very useful information, if he quite says so…

“Noted… but let’s get you out of here, I prepared breakfast for us, and I have a slight feeling that you’re gonna love it!” The bull said, readjusting his lover’s glasses and his suit, as Jiro coyly told him:

“...Can’t breakfast wait? I just want to make love with you at the moment…”

“...Jiro..” Yuki gasped, as he soon changed his tone from being sweet to blank. “...it can’t wait, and we’re not gonna have sex yet, you brazen horndog.” He smirked, as he hit the hyena’s forehead with his finger, finding it amusing and at the same time, exhilarating, that Jiro seemed to be as sexual in nature when he was well rested. To think he was the only one who saw this side of his…

“Ow… at least it was worth a try…” Jiro mumbled, as the hit delivered on the hyena’s forehead was enough incentive to get Jiro moving out of the bed, as Yuki moved away to throw him his trousers back at him, as Yuki took out another shirt from his drawer, seeing as much as he liked how Jiro would be ogling his chest, he didn’t need Shikabane to learn that he and Jiro kind of went places with his chest. Also, he’s quite sure Shikabane would vomit, and he was not in the mood for him to clean that up.

Donning a black t-shirt, he soon rallied himself, Jiro and Shikabane to the main living room, with the skunk already having gotten some cereal in her hands, which meant that she must be none the wiser on the absolute delicacy he cooked for Jiro!

Excusing himself to prepare two trays of okonomiyaki for him and Jiro, he returned back with said pancake, dropping right next to Jiro on the couch where he slept just an hour ago, as he proudly claimed to him:

“Guess who’s going to eat okonomiyaki for breakfast!”

“...Wait, why does this look edible? Shikabane, I’m not turning blind, am I?”

“Nah, that doesn’t look like rotten food to me. Must have been witchcraft.” Shikabane and Jiro murked to each other, with Jiro showing the tray, as Yuki tried to not feel offended that even Jiro was dubious against his cooking, as he tearfully admitted:

“It’s a-always edible! Just look at me…” He told, finally taking a bite out of his pancake… which was really fucking delicious! “Hmmmmh, see, delicious!” He spoke with his mouth full, as Jiro now took a curious eye towards his pancake, took a bite out of it and…

“Hmm…. Ah!-... Oh, on Indra’s name!... This is really good!” Jiro complimented him, as Yuki glanced over to see how Shikabane was taking the news that he can in fact cook something delicious that looked normal and decently tasty… as long as he played by the rules of the recipe, which he did not do, until this very moment in his life!

Much to his expectations, Shikabane didn’t react much to it, instead spending her time on eating some cereals and playing on her smartphone, which the other two lovers eventually did as well while munching on their pancakes, until Jiro’s phone started to ring, and by the sigh he let out, he know it was someone he dreaded, which would mean they would be…

“Father’s calling… so much for a happy breakfast for me.” He muttered, shaking his head, as he turned his head to Shikabane and Yuki, asking them. “Do you guys want me to accept the call here or should I go into Yuki’s room?”

“Eh, you can stay, not like we’re unfamiliar with your father’s nagging by now!”

“Uhu.” The two responded, as Jiro took this as his cue to accept the phone call, as his ears were quite literally blown the other way, as the demeaning words of Jiro’s father was heard booming from Jiro’s phone:

“JIRO, JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’VE BEEN DOING ALL WEEK, IGNORING ALL MY CALLS, AND WHAT IS THIS WITH GETTING KICKED OUT OF YOUR OFFICE TODAY?! YOU BETTER START EXPLAINING, THIS INSTANT!”

Damn, they didn’t even need Jiro to have the phone in speaker for Yuki and Shikabane to understand him, as Jiro, quite calmly, responded:

“Father, if you’d be so kind, could you perhaps dial down your authoritative voice a bit?”

“I’d be damn calm as soon as you explain to me what this ass pull of yours was?! Jiro, I know you’re not normal, but when did I screw you in the head to work 3 whole days without any kind of stopping?! Be grateful that you’re talented enough to leave barely any mistakes in your work, because if you continued onward like this, you’d be less than useless if you’re sick like me!” Jiro’s father spoke and scolded Jiro, with Yuki thinking it sounded as if Juzo… was treating him more like a tool than a human being.

“I’d apologise for that, sir. I swear, it won’t happen again.” Jiro retorted, as Yuki was quite sure he would personally get the hyena out of there if Jiro drove himself into a work spiral like this one, and not to mention, he’d have no reason to stay overtime if Yuki was waiting for him to respond after work, right? Workaholic Jiro might be, he still prioritised his closer bonds when they needed him, because apparently, Jiro snuck out of work to supposedly act like Ichiro to swindle the con-made key that Ichiro’s mother-in-law made, and also inform them on what they should prepare themselves for the wedding. Oh right, Ichiro’s wedding was like… a few months ago, if he remembers correctly? Somewhere around Fall.

“Tch, just don’t mess up again like this. You’d be only putting our party in jeopardy if we got fined due to your inhumane work condition…” The older hyena muttered, with Yuki being more than glad that he didn’t know the reason for Jiro’s dismissal from office… was because of him, and damn, he had some inhumane power of his own if he was able to whisk Jiro out of office like that.

“And since you were too busy with pushing your head into paperwork, you don’t have to tell me that you don’t even know about your evening activity with that Yoshie chick, I assume?” He said, as Yuki and Shikabane winced at the mention of the canary. Wait, wasn’t Jiro kind of dating Yoshie at the moment, as much as Jiro wasn’t interested nor was it organic…

“Oh, thank you for alluding to that conversation, Father, I have some gleeful news to tell you.” Jiro suddenly chirred up, as the man next to him turned his head to face the bull head on, giving him one hell of a mischievous smile, as Jiro’s father seemed to have interpreted that in the wrong way, as he jollied up in a laugh, and spoke relieved:

“Haha, I know that one day, you were going to find a woman who’d fit your calibre! Your mom told me that I should first ask if you want to keep your relationship with the Yoshie girl strictly only dating for now, but do tell me if you want to have her hand in marriage.”

Oh, this poor guy is going to get his expectations ruined in the most devastating ways, and it’s all thanks to him! Trolling bigots is surprisingly fun… No wonder Fenneko does it on a weekly basis.

“No, I’m breaking up with her. Don’t expect me to come tête-à-tête with her for it. Cancel the meeting that I have with her, or I’ll do it myself.” Jiro calmly stated, as the sudden silence in the phone was staggering.

But then…

“JIRO, ARE YOU BEING AN ASININE PIECE OF-” And Jiro just ended the call on him, shutting down his phone and pocketed it back into his trousers, putting his hands back to the tray of pancakes that he put on the table while he was talking with his father. Damn, was he cool.

Jiro and Shikabane continued eating on their food like nothing happened, as if they didn’t just personally listen to Jiro say phone to phone to his father that he isn’t putting up with his matchmaking situations again.

“Holy, what a way to be a freaking badass. You shut his bullshit down!” Yuki exclaimed, as he too now munched on his food again, as Shikabane amended:

“Feel kind of bad for that girl, though. She seemed pretty normal when we met her.”

Pretty normal? Yuki was certain that she was just masking when she was with them. It’s not like nearly 99% of all the rich people are the most vile and fakest people imaginable, with his brother acting as a good representative for what he imagines Yoshie was like, as Jiro just said:

“I’d say she was pretty ok to deal with. She wasn’t inappropriate, not nearly as fake or didn’t want to jump in my pants like all the past attempts, and I dare say I found her humorous on some rare incidents, but she mostly scored headaches for me. That Fenneko laugh replica of hers scares me to this day. To think some people thought I was officially dating her when I first bumped into her…”

“Haha… yeah… who’d do that, right?...”

“I’m talking exactly about you-know-who.” Jiro muttered, as he continued taking bites out of his pancakes hastily, which meant that he must have done an amazing job on the meal. “A white park cattle bull, just slightly bigger than me, makes me feel all good when I think about him, can cook a pretty good okonomiyaki, has a killer body and they’re my idiot.”

“...Seems like a certain annoying guy I know about.” Shikabane added, as Yuki just slightly rotated his head away from the two out of shame, as he silently whispered ‘I’m sorry about that…’, which Jiro picked up, perking Yuki to look at him again by how the hyena sat his palm on the bull’s right leg.

“...You could apologise by giving me a tender kiss.”

The cunning man stated, and if that’s all it took for Jiro to quote on quote ‘apologise’ for his past transactions, then he shall just do that, which is why he slowly went ahead and took his mouth closer and closer, until they eventually met with the lips of the hyena, as they firmly kissed for each other a bit, not without the faux-throwing-up sound that Shikabane was making in the distance, as she then stated:

“Can’t believe I lent my aid to only get this as my reward on promoting your relationship. I’m like carrying a debuff item with me now, now that I can get jumpscared by cringe scenes like yours. I’m gonna swap my sleep costume for my gil-earning costume.”

She got up from her one-seater, setting the bowl of cereal that she had on the table, as Yuki just focused on Jiro right now, and when they departed their lips from each other, Jiro reopening his eyes that she shut whenever they kissed, as Yuki promptly answered:

“Guess she’s our little hater now. I think it’s high time for me to change into my suit as well, so do you have any plans for yourself, now that you’re under house arrest?”

“Hmm… can’t I just spend the time sleeping on your bed again? I don’t know how you managed to send me to sleep on there while we…” Jiro looked down at Yuki’s chest, his cheeks just getting a bit more scarlet. “..made out, but as long as it doesn’t take literal hours to fall asleep, then it would be preferable.”

Yuki contemplated whether he should honour Jiro’s wishes, but considering that he’d have to lock up the apartment when he and Shikabane leave from work, it’d mean Jiro would be a prisoner in their apartment, and he himself doesn’t think Jiro is able to sleep until the two return, it’d be wiser to just send Jiro home.

“Look, I know you’re probably magnetised to my bed due to my smell and your brain telling you that you want to sleep there, but I think you should go home and enjoy yourself for a bit until I come back from home, and then maybe I’d come over to your place and… talk more in detail on how our relationship is going to work now, since we’re lovers now?”

“What do I even do at home?” Jiro questioned, as Yuki now faux-irritatedly rolled his eyes at Jiro from his clinginess.

“Maybe you could play some games on your Switch, the video game console that you bought for yourself from Fenneko’s advice? You could even go relax at a spa or something, or go read a book. Jiro, I very much would prefer to just pick you up and lock ourselves up in my room and have us talk, trauma dump, coddle, make-out, kiss and everything in between, but my work is calling, and I don’t want to get on my boss’s nerves again, seeing as the guy never seems to genuinely smile ever… but anyway, I promise I won’t snap out of existence with a snap, you just have to wait a bit for me to return from work, alright?

“...OK, I’ll admit I’ve been more… What's the word for this… more naughty, I suppose, so I suppose I’ll listen to you, but I want to know as soon as you're off work so I can pick you up… Wait, maybe I could drive you two to work? I promise I’ll drive slowly!” Jiro said, taking the last bite out of his pancakes, with the bull cook feeling a huge amount of achievement that it was so good, that Jiro basically left no crumbs on the tray, as Yuki then responded:

“My guy, you just learned that you’re into men, and especially into me, so I wouldn’t blame you being an exploding volcano when it came to exploring your sexuality like that. From what I can tell, you probably didn’t even watch porn your entire life, until you decided to do some research that Fenneko told you, right?”

“...You’re right.”

“See? Be obnoxious with me for a few weeks, and the only rule you should follow is that you don’t get too feisty just yet, and then it will take time for you to calm down from the catnip you’re chowing on.” Yuki said, as he now sat up from the couch, deciding that he should get himself changed into his suit, since it’s about time for him to leave for work.

Changing into his salaryman outfit wasn’t much of a struggle, but goddamn wasn’t tying a tie a darned thing in itself! The cycle is that he doesn’t remember properly how to tie a tie, which guides him to a tutorial video on ZooTube, do the same thing and memorise for a bit, until Yuki eventually forgets what the precise movements were, which would give him a whole knot of nothing, and he was now at the first step of this recycling tie-dilemma of his…

He tried several ways to get himself the proper tie he wanted to do, but most of it ended up in a knot-otrophe, and before he couldn’t have been more arsed enough to try it on his own and just look it up, he heard his slightly open door move to show him his waiting boyfriend, gesturing to what he assumes was the foyer, as Jiro stated:

“Shikabane already went ahead, and I just wanted to tell you that-” He stopped, as Yuki turned his body towards, and as much as it seemed like Jiro was checking him out, he soon noticed the sad dandling mute yellow tie of his, which is when Jiro genuinely seemed a bit worried for Yuki, as he questioned. “...You do know how you can tie your tie, right?”

Well, he found himself in a tie-rsome situation, it seems.

“...I kind of… I mean, the steps are kind of circumventing my mind at the moment… But I do know how to tie my tie!... I just need a moment to think.” Yuki muttered, trying his hardest to do everything from top to bottom, but with the added eyes of Jiro, he might as well have been playing darts while blindfolded, as he staggered around with the tie, up until…

“You know, you are going to miss out on your train if you keep fiddling around with that. Could you let me help?... Wait…” Jiro stated, as he laid his back against the door and crossed his arm, waiting for Yuki to give a reply.

“Before you think of something untrue, no, I’m just being a dumbass right now. Also, please, I need the help urgently, because it’s half past 8, right?”

“It’s zero eight thirty eight, actually.” The hyena responded, taking a glance at his phone, which is when Yuki could feel his heartbeat dropping.

Without any forewarning, he slid upfront to Jiro, giving him the two sides of a tie, as he quite literally begged him to do it:

“You need to tie it now! Do it while we put on our shoes and I lock the apartment!”

And thankfully, Jiro was quick to take over the two ends of the tie that Yuki had in his hands, as the two man feverishly rumpled into the foyer, changing their shoes while Jiro was somehow able to keep tying Yuki’s tie on him, and as soon as Yuki was able to close the door and grab out his key that he grabbed around the foyer and the two were outside, Jiro let go of the tie, meaning Yuki just had to shove it up to his neck and voilà, a neat and typical tie for work!

Before Yuki ran off, he still wanted to at least thank Jiro for being able to tie the tie on him while they obviously weren’t standing still, which is why he abruptly muttered to him, leaning closer to his cheeks:

“Thank you for doing my tie but I’m gonna be late soon to my train stop if I don’t hurry my ass so-” That is when he gave him a good smooch on the cheeks, surprising the hyena from the sudden gesture, as Yuki turned around, waved his hand at him. “-Have a good Friday see you after work!”

While Jiro no doubt stood there gobsmacked, the only thing Yuki had in the moment was that if he doesn’t reach the train station in about 7 minutes, he’ll have one crazy mad boss yelling over him for daring to be late!

He needs to hurry, hurry, hurry!

What a way to finish their non compos mentis of a week.

From having Jiro go into lockdown for three days, to having been dragged out with a few promising words from his brother, to getting some sense smashed into his brain by said brother, and then supposedly leading to him confessing and getting some action from what Haida has told her yesterday, Fenneko’s attempt of wingmanning for Jiro and Yuki was a total success, and as always, she kept herself to the promise that she’d complete the process this month!

It really made her happy, as much as she was hiding her giddy feeling about it, unlike Retsuko, who was positively beaming next to her. If Fenneko had to make an educated guess, it’s highly likely that she’s looking forward to the fact that Jiro now has less incentive to call his older brother, whilst also being happy that Jiro found someone through his own means, and not through an arrangement from pesky relatives.

It kind of was a whiplash for Fenneko, now that she thinks about it, because last year, Retsuko would be staring with a dead expression on her laptop, while Ton pushed some work over from a certain gazelle, and then get another heap of paperwork from Tsubone, but in the current times, Retsuko barely got any extra paperwork, because the gazelle that she mentioned before successfully coaxed the no-workers to dump their works to each other, which Fenneko duped the Great War of Slackers, and it looks like Ookami has been the targeted victim as of late, as much as he’s the least laziest among the people participating in the war. She even feels bad for him, now that he took a good look at him… But on a second note, she’s sure Ookami once insinuated that she was seeing Jiro, even though he didn’t know he was referring to him, so this surely was karmic retribution getting its share against the maned wolf.

And in a more expected manner, Shikabane looked as bored with herself as any other day, with Kabae still helping her ease into the workflow, as Fenneko was quite shocked that she was working alongside her and Retsuko. And in a more surprising twist, it felt like Shikabane was working longer than just measly 5 days, but it was probably due to the stress that Fenneko built on her system from overseeing Jiro’s and Yuki’s relationship at the time.

She’s really looking forward to their next group dynamic, now that Jiro and Yuki were lovers, because not only did that mean that Haida would get less pocketed from Jiro in LOL, with Yuki kind of stealing him, but also, according to Shikabane, those two were those annoying kind of couples. She was so extremely proud of Jiro, because she was so gonna annoy Haida with the information that Jiro was more dirty minded than the dumb hyena thought of his younger brother.

And to even have her head wrapped around the fact that Jiro was her wine buddy. If she told her past self, specifically right after the election, which she still thinks was a fraud, that Jiro would be her best friend and wine connoisseur, she’d think her future self has gone totally cuckoo in the head.

Man, to think all of this happened because she and Jiro carelessly bumped into each other in December, which led to that scheme of hers on wasting some of Jiro’s money to taste some expensive wine that led to having Jiro meet Yuki again, as much as they originally started on the wrong feet, but hey, they supposedly can’t stop themselves from going out on each other from what Shikabane has been telling her in the changing room, so good for them, honestly.

But, enough about talking about her friends, and instead focus her attention on her beloved horse of a man! With the current debacle between the hyena and the bull solved, she now had her undivided attention back, she could spend time together with him for real, like going to amusement parks together, or doing other couples stuff!

She gazed over to Seiji’s place, which was currently inhabited at the moment, as the horse decided to go take a break in the break room to drink some coffee. She’s pretty sure that the guy had Haida beat in the caffeine addiction department, because even though Haida drank it regularly, Seiji drank it for every meal in the day.

Guess she’ll continue working on her job, wait for lunch to come around and then tell Seiji, who probably was unaware that they managed to get Jiro and Yuki together, that their plans were successful, which meant that they should firstly hold a celebration at Jiro’s place this weekend, and then have her talk with Seiji on what kind of activities they want to spend together, now that they were free to roam around as a couple.

And so, she continued her job of being a great accountant, who tapped on her keyboard like as if she was playing an instrument… and the instrument was a faulty return statement that seemed to have a mistake in it, but it was so miniscule, that she personally had to go through the whole numbers to fix it.

Sigh…

And lunch soon came upon Fenneko, with the usual crowd around the usual table, but this time around, it looks like Ton joined them for some reason, which seems to be either because he wants to steal some of that fashion Shikabane wears to impress his twin daughters, be nice to Shikabane and try welcoming her into the accounting department or because he wanted to watch the news on the big television which was barely used in the cafeteria nowadays, besides the few times when a Gen X’er was hanging around the place and wanted to see some products being shilled or just watching simple ‘ole news, which they could have done on their smartphones.

She didn’t want to tell Ton about Jiro’s and Yuki’s relationship, since he really wasn’t involved in the matter as the other 4 were, but since she knew Ton was unlikely to gossip about it, they might as well tell him about it…

"As of recently, Liberal Manifest politician Jiro Haida has decided to publicly publish on his social media platform that he has broken up with his most recent lover. His reason for it is simply wanting to take some time off for himself. How this would affect the-”

The TV news-reporter stated, as Ton chuckled to himself, as he told to the table:

“Ain’t that Haida’s brother? And if I’m not mistaken, that woman that they omitted from naming is some rich CEO’s daughter, quite a beauty too from what they told me. It sure reminds me of that phase of Calendar’s when it seemed like she got together with every next man that dared to give her the time of day.”

“Eeugh… I mean…” Retsuko grimaced, but before Retsuko could have said anything that might have led the conversation downwards, Ton expanded upon his words.

“Mean no harm with it, Calendar. You are together with Haida now, so what am I to judge your past dates before? It was always obvious that you two would end up together… Also, that was Haida’s brother on the screen, wasn't it?”

“Yes, I even have his tweet up on my phone. I recommend not checking out the hidden comments on this one.” Shikabane voiced, as Fenneko felt curious, so instead of looking up the tweet that Shikabane was talking about, she did the lazier option of asking her instead.

“It’s thirst tweets… aren’t they?”

“Bingo.” Shikabane replied, as Fenneko found it humorous that this time around, Jiro actually did something with those few insistent thirsty comments that would end up on his political tweets, mostly dictated from his party, and kept it hidden. All it took for him to hide those things was for him to get a lover who he cared for with all his heart.

“The hell are thirst tweets… are those some kind of business related things on that social platform or what?” Ton asked, as before they could keep Ton oblivious to corrupt things like that, Shikabane told him:

“It’s kind of highly sexual tweets to something or someone, like for example, this user said: ‘He would wet my pants if he ever directed bedroom eyes at me, less than three’”

“Oh… it’s those things… and to think you almost subscribed to this fame, Calendar!” Ton replied, clearly showing his disapproval to the act of thirst tweeting, as Retsuko just shook her head and said:

“But it’s kind of lucky that I didn’t… it’s crazy how people talk about you online as if you aren’t a human being as well…”

“Well said, Calendar. You know the crap I hear my daughters murmur to each other about their latest celebrity crushes? If I remember correctly, they uttered some wild crap about Haida’s brother and that bull who personally makes my eye go blind from how much light he radiates out of himself and how they’d make a good couple aesthetically, something about the sun and moon aesthetic which was utter cryptic nonsense to my ears. It kind of makes me feel slightly sorry for guys like Jiro on the screen right now. If anything, he could be feeling beyond devastated that he had to call it quits with the canary, and here are people fantasising under his comments about him… People these days..” The pig boss spoke, which is when Fenneko decided that she might as well whisper about how Jiro truly was feeling, saying:

“Actually, Jiro couldn’t be happier at the moment. If some pesky paparazzi does get a picture sneakily taken of him, it’s highly likely we’ll see him genuinely smiling for once on camera.”

Of course, Retsuko and Shikabane looked at the fennec fox warily, with the former making a gesture that she should keep her mouth shut in front of Ton, while Shikabane couldn’t be more inclined to interfere, while Ton and Seiji, who didn’t know the context for Jiro’s happiness, stared at Fenneko weirdly, well, besides Seiji, because he soon had a lightbulb get illuminated on top of his head.

“...And why would that be the case? I didn’t know you two were that close to each other… but I guess Retsuko should be at least familiarised with him, since he’s your brother-in-law, and all.”

“Well, me and Jiro have been friends for a few months, and we three girls saw the deciding moment when Jiro called it quits with that golden woman.” She replied to the man, clearly making her boss ever more curious, as Retsuko, who Ton couldn’t see at the moment, was gesturing for Fenneko to abort in so many shushed ways, you’d think Fenneko was about to cut the wrong wire on a bomb to disarm it.

“Huh, now that is interesting…” The boss man said eccentrically, and boy did Fenneko not think Ton would be the type to be interested in gossip, as Shikabane just stated:

“He was having a crisis of liking my roommate, but Haida was quick to talk some sense into him from what you guys have told me, which is when they came by yesterday and Jiro and my roommate shared their feelings towards each other. I don’t even know if this is going to make Yuki more annoying or not…”

“So he called it quits with that arranged meeting so that he could chase the woman that his heart desired? That’s more romantic than I first imagined, but eh, good for him.” Ton replied, and before Fenneko would have replied, Seiji was faster, as he stated:

“That Yuki is a he, not a she.”

The table then became relatively quiet, as Retsuko looked dead in the eyes from how everyone but her was trying to keep Jiro’s and Yuki’s relationship a secret, until…

“Damn… I can’t believe my daughters were actually right in their assessment that Haida’s brother was secretly putting up appearances as a straight fella… those two have an eye on using perception, it seems.”

Naturally, Retsuko was quick to lose that shocked expression of hers, as she now actually appeared doubtful from what Ton has said from his mouth, as the red panda asked him:

“...Wait, you don’t have anything to say to it?”

“What? Why would I have something to say to ‘em? From what Fenneko and Katsumi have been telling me, it sounds like they’re in love, and I have no jurisdiction when it comes to who you should love… Wait, were you just assuming I’m a bigot, Calendar?!”

Damn, what a way to get Ton to scream at you after a long week of keeping her record clean.

“Well.. I… Uhm…” Retsuko muttered, but her circling her fingers together wouldn’t help herself from the reddened eyes of their superior, looking down on her, as he forcibly demanded.

“Tell the truth.”

“Uhm… I kind of thought that you were one… because of how old you are…”

“Hey! I might be old fashioned, but I don’t need to follow every viewpoint that I’ve grown up with! And what do you mean I’m old! Do old people stir and shake their pants in a jiffy whenever they get reminded that their third child, a little son, can anytime be brought into the world, huh?!”

“I’m very sorry about that Mr. Ton, I’ll be sure to-... huh? You’re getting a third child? Oh. congratulations to you and your wife, Mr. Ton!” Retsuko’s worried expression changed as fast as she recognized that yes, Ton does procreate, and this will be the third spawn that he helped make and released into the world.

With the mention of his unborn son, Ton was sure to get the whole table informed on how his family has been treating the emergency, and if Fenneko had to be frank, she couldn’t give a crap about it.

Honestly, it kind of hurt listening to Ton, because she could hear how he absolutely loved his wife and twin daughters, and it kind of made her think whether Retsuko and Fenneko and all the other women who once suffered through Ton’s once misogynistic phase was because they really were incompetent… wait, that couldn’t be the case, because if that was the case, then Masashiro didn’t classify as a woman, which she surely did! Yeah, Ton was misogynistic, no doubt.

Man, she really wishes Ton wasn’t here, drabbling on how their daughters have been doing wonderfully in school, feeling that Ton might be exaggerating their smarts. If Ton went to whatever table he sat at, they could have, the people at the table, talked about what they’d be doing, now that they got the two lovebirds together?

Retsuko was sure to capitalise on having more time to Haida, now that Jiro was definitely gonna call him less or try to carve some time out of her husband’s time, Shikabane was sure to complain to the chat that it was surely a mistake getting them together, as much as she obviously still cares for Yuki underneath it all… and for Seiji, he’d probably want to spend more time together with Fenneko, and get to know each other more…

But alas, here she is with all the people she mentioned, listening to Ton explaining how his wife once speared a living shark in the head for self defence while they went diving… wait, this story does sound exciting to her overgrown ears…

Now with some intrigue on how Ton’s wife was not only able to brutally murder a shark that seemed to have tried attacking the couple for their bacon, Fenneko listened onward, as Ton told high tales of his wife, and man, if what Ton said was true, then she was a total badass! How in the heck was Ton able to convince her to marry him????

This must be some kind of a sick joke. Her eyes must be playing tricks on her! Jiro… Jiro didn’t just…

She looked, glared, stared, but no matter how long she had her eyes on this one, singular message from Jiro, Yoshie felt devastated with herself, as if she had her wings personally sawed off.

She was glad her posture didn’t seem off or seem weird enough for people to notice how much in smithereens she laid in, and how she just wanted to spend this Friday day crying her heart out, wondering where she went wrong in their relationship for Jiro to get sick of her. Did it all start going down when she tried mimicking Jiro’s friend, the fennec fox from that trading firm? No, around that time, Jiro got more livelier with her… Maybe she wasn’t active enough, and Jiro lost patience from how Yoshie didn’t make any incentive to further their relationship, waiting for her to make the first move?... No, that couldn’t be the case either, because when she was brazen enough to put her hands on his, Jiro immediately retreated his hand.

She has done something wrong, but why couldn’t she see it?! Why did her Prince Charming not mention any reason for their break-up, only mentioning that she was the best woman that Jiro had the courtesy of meeting, but then that begged the question… what mistake did she commit, could it have been improved upon, why wasn’t she good enough, if she was seemingly the best woman he ever met?

All the people famed her and credited her as being a bachelorette, the apex of what all women should be like in high-class society, few compared to her in status, reliability, looks and charm, so then, how come it wasn’t good enough for the man that she wanted to spend her time together?

Was he really that untouchable? Did women even have a chance getting through Jiro and getting his affection, if Yoshie foundered? Would he be this unassailable and unobtainable man that all women fawned over, while they had to content with lesser men?

Why? Just why did she fail on her mission on pursuing Jiro enough to have him ask her hand in marriage, when it could have been not only a considerable boon to her family’s company, on marrying on such an important family household name like the Haidas, but it also could have had her attain her perfect lover, who enriched the world in her eyes, whenever she had time to perceive the man.

What were the reasons for this? If she wasn’t at fault, like Jiro is trying to make her think it is, then why did Jiro call it quits with her?

It couldn’t have been because he found himself a new lover. He complained to her once that his father constantly put him up with woman when he first matured in age, when he could have been shown around as an enticing prize for other wealthy families to latch onto, and Jiro was surely not dating someone among the general populace, because if the fennec fox lady was only a friend to him, and they were that close to each other, then Jiro would be dating no other women from among those ranks.

It also couldn’t have been because Juzo found a better pair for Jiro, or got tired of Yoshie not making enough progress on having Jiro consider marriage, because she got informed via emails that he wants to come to their company’s meeting room, explicitly so to gather together and ponder what they should do next, now that their whole marriage plan was torn up in ribbons.

Did he lose interest with her? Was he not interested anymore? Why, why, just why? What was the reason for their breakup to be so… unceremonious?

She knew she was visibly fine, but she was glad that Jiro knew that it was probably easier to tell the news to her through text, because if she heard of the break-up through Jiro’s voice, or even worse, seeing him in person, she would have probably had a break-down right there and then.

She has wasted half a year from Jiro’s life, and now, she was a ragged, worn handkerchief compared to whatever cloth she was before she accepted on dating Jiro, and she never felt this… useless before.

What man would be interested in getting her, when they’d learn that she was denied by Jiro? Who’d be interested in a failure like her, who couldn’t be perfect enough to have Jiro love her like she loved the hyena? No one likes failure… it shouldn’t be a tolerated subject for people like her.

She was a reject, a dysfunctioning piece from their family, and why did she expect that with her determination alone, she would be able to cover for her unrelation in blood with her family with that alone, when she would always end up inadequate for what was expected of her?

How would her father look her straight in the eyes again, after the meeting they’re going to attend together shortly, knowing that she wasn’t simply unskilled on woo’ing over Jiro with everything she got?

The meeting… The meeting was just a few minutes away, and she is currently heading towards it, simply having been in her mind while she traversed from her office to the meeting room, while greeting and bowing subordinates that she met through her journey to the meeting.

She can break-down after work, and is going to do that with a huge amount of alcohol and ice cream, but until then, she has to keep her facade up, and keep smiling, even if it strained her very essence.

A few minutes later…

The air felt suffocating. All of them felt the tension in the air, from the seething fuming Juzo secreted with that awful face of his, and those eyes looked like they could kill someone if they wanted to.

Jiro’s father, Genta’s father, her father, herself, and a few nameless trusted confidants of mostly Juzo’s and Riichi’s were there, talking under their breath, everyone looking a few uncertain by the sudden summoning Juzo decided to do at her and father’s company, which is when Juzo finally managed to civilly, and she means civilly, start the discussion.

“You all saw why we’re here. We all know… why we’re here.” He toned, everyone feeling a chilling sensation go down their spine, as if they perceived from a deadly predator who could murder as soon as they set their eyes on them, maybe besides her father and Riichi, with the latter one looking more annoyed by this while her father looked… oddly pensive about it, like as if he was expecting this.

“So… let me start with the first thing that needs to be discussed here. Yoshie, just wha-” Juzo slurred, but before he could get on a rant that Yoshie was dreading at this point, her father spoke up, raising his voice:

“Don’t you dare call my daughter incompetent from how you raised your son. I know how I taught my princess, and I know I didn’t withhold her from attending school normally, just so you can mould your successor to your liking, which seems to have backfired drastically.”

Why was he defending her? She must have been the one to cause a rift between the two, it must have been, because as much as her father thought of her to be spotless, she had plenty of faults in her, of not being good enough…

“But… Father, maybe I wasn’t being social enough with my dates with him, so-” Yoshie tried to excuse, but her father, who sat opposite to her, was quick to shun her, as he angrily now stated:

“As far as I last recall, you always told us that it was always Jiro who couldn’t be more arsed to meeting you on those dates that Juzo put you two through, and if anything, I think Juzo here did something that broke Jiro’s back. Do excuse me on this one Juzo, but you are fucking galling to listen to when you think you’re being the boss around here.”

“Just what do you think you’re doing putting the blame on me, Kuroiwa! If anything, it must have been that defective son of mine who must have put him against me!” The man shouted, pointing at her father, as he leaned back into his wheelchair. “The nerve… The absolute nerve of Ichiro to teach my promising son of mine to end the call on me unprovoked… that dastard is turning him into those pesky punks idiots who all cry and shout about change while not considering the consequences of their actions!”

Juzo continued then mumbling about his older son, who he seemed to talk in a vexing manner, while all the men whispered to each other, as her father was silently trying to ease her from this, knowing that everyone in the room had their eyes pointed to her, the failure that she was, until her father swooned in and tried arguing with Jiro’s father, blurring her in the background, wondering why her father was putting so much on helping her when she was the one who messed up. If she could have had Jiro stay longer with her… maybe he would have caught feelings for her, and she wouldn’t be in this situation at the moment.

While that was going on, Riichi, Genta’s father, soon coughed, gathering everyone’s attention.

“Juzo, I hate to say it, but it’s highly likely that your son is compromised. You should have seen how he exploded on me, my wife and Genta when we had our sick son over… and it’s worrisome, if I had to be honest about it.” He explained, with Yoshie being surprised to hear that Riichi had the gall to invite this supposed black sheep of the Ushijima that not even Genta liked talking about, as she soon remembered of the few times Yoshie talked about him, his supposed best friend, and the hyena only talked positively about him.

“Compromised? COMPROMISED?! I let him go through the privileged tutoring that I had to offer, and THIS IS THE THANKS I GET?! Have his brother challenge him in the election, win against him AS EXPECTED, and have Jiro go over to him, because that damned bastard just conveniently got hit by that truck! He knew if he got hit, Jiro would go crawling back to him like that abnormal child that he was, hanging on his legs like he was glued there!” Juzo spat, soon beginning to couch vehemently, and as soon as the hyena was done hacking, her father soon spoke up.

“Juzo, we all know how loyal Jiro is, and I’m afraid to say, before you, your party’s ideas, the first person he was loyal to was your ‘defective’ son of yours, and he seems to have had his loyalties awakened again when you had the audacity to send that nasty attack on that red panda’s political headquarters. I’m not a prayer type of man, but this was surely God enacting righteous justice.”

“IT ALWAYS COMES BACK TO ICHIRO! WHENEVER THINGS GO WRONG, IT’S ALWAYS HIM IN THE FRONT OR CENTRE AND EVERYTHING FROM HEARTH TO HEAVEN! MAYBE THAT TRUCK SHOULD HAVE FINISHED THE JOB ON HIM WHEN IT COULD HAVE, BECAUSE IF HE WASN’T AL-”

Juzo literally exploded, fume forming around his mouth, but her father was quick to assert his dominance, that all of them were using his cave to argue right now, as he irritatingly stared at him and said:

“Oh, go kill him then! You already told us how well Jiro behaved when he got separated from his brother, and you think you should remove him entirely? Juzo, your youngest is obsessed with your eldest, and if your oldest kicked the bucket, so would your youngest mentally. Just make him as crazy as that Korean woman that came over to tutor Jiro!”

“Don’t you dare compare my blood to that fanatic’s Mi-Sun’s or whatever that crazy butterflies name was! She was POISONING HIM with those ruckus theories she verbally said of her being the ‘All-Mother’ and how she would attain moksha and all that Hinduism crap!”

“Jiro sure did take a liking to her, as far as I remembered. Makes me curious how my own unblemished son must be doing overseas on ripping some of that money from that crazed woman’s non-sense of a church. It might have become better when she passed the rule of being the leader when her husband… died tragically in that helicopter crash… Oh, I see where you were going with this, Touma.” Riichi commented, as her father soon nodded to the old bull, as Juzo seethed in place, as she remembered a discussion with Jiro once in their death of him remembering a woman he was fond of when he was younger, and how he saw her as more of a mother than his biological one, which meant whoever woman he was talking about, it must have been that church leader.

Just… What did Jiro go through? Why did he never talk about his past, when Yoshie had her whole story laid out to him 2 months into their relationship?... Well, it’s not that easy to admit that you probably got indoctrinated nearly, and it seems like Juzo found out about it, and stopped it before she could have succeeded with it…

“Anyway…” Her father took over from Riichi, glaring over to the hyena who really looked like he needed fresh air. “What do we do now, because from the short encounter I had with him and the story he’s been telling the public, he really seems sick with your matchmaking attempts.”

“Can’t do jackshit but try convincing Jiro to be done with this childish rebellion he’s having with me and start looking for a potential wife! I already sent my own wife over to his place to try and soothe things with him seemingly not wanting to date at the moment, and I hope he’s at least rational around her to realise how much of a dumbass he’s been trying to please his brother’s revenge plan!” Juzo confessed, making Yoshie wonder if Jiro could have potentially ended their meeting because this piece of crap that Juzo is talking about told him to do so. Why should she be in the crossfire between him and his father, when she just wanted to be together with Jiro, that she wanted for herself, and not for gain, as much as it started with that originally…

“That is some ordeal you’re putting your wife through, Juzo. You really think Jiro would listen to his mother, when we know he was more obedient to his older brother than her? It’s not like he ever was disobedient, before now, but you know what I mean.” Riichi muttered, earning a scowl from the older hyena, as her father now added to the bull’s comment:

“You know, me saying that he fell in love with the paperwork you rigorously put him through might be not that hollow of a theory, now that I’m saying it outloud…”

“SHUT YOUR TRAP, TOUMA. I DIDN’T TEACH HIM TO BE THIS VICIOUS WHEN WORKING!?”

The man shouted, as soon, the meeting continued onward what they’d be doing, with all of them, besides mostly their father, being afraid of what Jiro’s next step would be, now that they were fairly certain that it wasn’t Juro who wasn’t influencing him, but his older brother, who Yoshie never could have predicted was using his younger brother to get revenge for not giving him the reins of their family.

It made her go thinking… Was it really her fault that her relationship with Jiro went awry?

She remembers how Jiro talked about his brother, how much faith and admiration he had for him, but was all of it… misplaced?

Her father told her several times already that whenever she had to blame someone for a mess she was involved in, she would always put herself as the culprit, because not only was it easier to not point fingers at anyone else, but also because the whole process would be easier, and most of the times, her father chastised her for it, and told her that in the future, she should try not doing that, which she generally followed…

It was easier to just blame herself for the mishap, to be depressed than to feel irate with someone, because it would take precious time out of her life, since her father was always telling stories of how revenge and grudges could ruin her life in this type of lifestyle she found herself…

But it did make her feel, when she thought of Ichiro Haida, Juzo’s oldest son, to be the perpetrator behind Jiro’s break up with her, all because he wants to get back at his daddy dearest from not giving him the keys of his legacy, because he messed up.

That sparkling ember of anger was bubbling inside of her, getting steamier when she just thought how her prince, her nearly untouchable prince, was being a subservient instrument in his brother’s plan of getting vengeance, and Jiro was probably not even informed about it!

She would curse that man’s name, as soon as she gets out of this meeting, returns back from work, and has nothing to do with her remaining time to relax to finally let loose of the emotions that her prince was taken away from her, all because of some revenge plot!

She… she hated that stupid, vicious man that she would hate for the rest of her life!

She didn’t think she would be visiting one of her children, as much as the two were so busy with their lives.

Sukekiyo was concerned when Juzo… blew up in all proportions, screeching how Jiro was misbehaving by the influence of Ichiro, and it was by God’s grace that she was able to convince Juzo to take off the alcohol from his lips, and try to think what he wanted to, now that Jiro impromptu called it quits with that charming Yoshie woman, who she met once and twice, and all of her life interacting with other woman of her status, she really seemed sweet for Jiro.

She knew this wasn’t Ichiro’s fault, she knows this, because she knew from how Jiro has been reacting as of late, that he’s making the decisions all by himself, ever since that awful incident of his brother getting nearly murdered by the truck near his wife’s election headquarters.

Jiro didn’t remain impartial to his parents, didn’t remain hateful to his brother, because he now loathed both Juzo and herself, and most have had his love reawakened for his older brother, who Jiro idolised for so long. And in some way, she doesn’t blame for how Jiro must be thinking at the moment.

It was their parents who produced a rift between them, when Juzo dragged Jiro into private tutoring, while Sukekiyo did nothing but let it happen, while the two of them must have been terminally suffering inside. The first few years of when Jiro snapped on his brother… Both of their sons were hurting so much, and she couldn’t do anything but watch it happen.

If Jiro was to turn her around and yell at her to go back to her estate, Sukekiyo would understand it wholeheartedly. Why would he want to interact with someone that he thinks hasn’t protected him, when he needed it?

And so, she was inside the lobby area of Jiro’s penthouse, as she sauntered over to what she assumed to be the speaker to get in contact with Jiro, pressing the bell button on it, and waiting for Jiro to accept it.

When she heard the intel-com get less static, she heard one of her child’s voice, stating:

“...Yes, hello?”

“...Hi, sweetie.” She responded, as Jiro stopped responding to her for a few seconds, and before she could ask if he was still there…

“Did Father send you to interrogate me? If yes, turn around and get out of my sight.”

Those words… Those words were colder than the snow up on glaciers, and she had to be honest with herself… those words did hurt her, but she shouldn’t show how she was feeling, because Jiro feeling guilty for making her sad is not what she wants to make him feel, which is she responded truthfully:

“Unfortunately, yes… but I also came here to check on you to see how you’ve been doing ever since the election!... You sure did great, and I would understand if you were too busy to call me, now that you have a lion’s share of work upon your sleeves!”

She soon heard Jiro grumble to himself after she said her purpose for being here, and before she could have accepted to be told to get lost, Jiro sighed and said:

“Fine, you can come in, but only because you want to check up on me, and for you being sent here to question me… say I have no comments.”

Oh, this is lovely! She was beyond relieved to see that Jiro at least cared for enough, but it looks like Jiro heard her, which is why he spoke up again, before letting his mom in:

“Just so you know, I’m only doing this because Ichiro insists that I should try talking to you, as much as I see no reason in it…”

Ah… so Jiro was still mad about her, and he was only allowing her in because Ichiro felt bad for her. But… she shouldn’t let this distract her that this is progress on getting through Jiro that as much as she loves Juzo, she wouldn’t give up his son for it, whom she loved on equal measures.

It was just… unfortunate, that her children had conflicting ideals to their father, but she had to chalk it up with the younger generation getting fed up with her own, and she could understand it. Juzo… wasn’t the most pleasant man to talk to when he has his eyes set on something, and he would do anything to achieve it, like his current goal on getting Jiro together with a wife, as much as Sukekiyo tried to say all over the years, as soon as Jiro hit 18, that they should wait until Jiro felt ready for it.

Upon entering the elevator, and getting up the level where Jiro’s home was, she noted how much more western the layout of the whole building seemed to be, feeling thankful that it was her that Juzo sent to visit, because if her husband was to see where he’s living, he would surely make a ruckus on not trying to stay traditional.

It looked pretty modern and clean, so she should see why Jiro would prefer to be living here, than back home. It still surprises her that Jiro begged his father to go out of the house as soon as he was 18, and how Jiro was able to get this location to be his home all under his father’s nose must have been a big act of shrewdness on Jiro’s part.

She paced herself to the door on the other side, which was the entrance to where Jiro must be, knocking on the door soon as she was there, with the door being opened as she moved her hands away, revealing his youngest son in shorts and a t-shirt, with one of those signs that Juzo would definitely call satanic, but she knew that it was just a harmless coven logo, if anything!

As she looked at her son, surprised to not find him in his iconic navy blue suit of his, her eyes soon traversed to her son’s face, who looked more than unimpressed to see her here..

Eh?... Is her eyes playing tricks on her, but why was her son’s jugular bruised… aren’t those bite marks?

Oh. She understood everything now. It was so clear to her now that Jiro’s reasons for ending the relationship between him and Yoshie…

He must have found someone else that he must have liked, and speaking from how sensitive Jiro was to being touched, if he allowed a woman to get so personal to him, then he must be truly be in love with her, and wanted to have a relationship with this supposed mystery woman that teeth were lingering on Jiro’s neck… as much as the bite a bit larger than what she would accept for a woman to do…

“Mother, are you just gonna stare me in the face, or have me shut the door in your face from not getting in? It’s your choice.” Jiro spoke up, dragging the beyond thunderstruck Sukekiyo to a bit of clarity, as she just told him a lie for her bedazzled state.

“Sweetie, your mother never gets to see nowadays without that navy-blue suit of yours!” She spoke, entering the penthouse of her son’s, looking at the huge, bustling space, as her eyes were gripped by the TV on the walls… and how it looked like it was showing a paused video game screen, spotting that red and bluey video game console laying under it, as she said. “Why don’t I brew some tea if you have some, and then we can go sit down and have a little chat between us two, and I’ll promise Juzo isn’t going to be involved in this one!”

Jiro hummed, as he guided her to the kitchen, and showed her the tea connection he had in one of the drawers in the kitchen, feeling prideful that at least one of her sons was able to appreciate the vast amount of teas she once brewed for them, as she picked out the gyokuro box, and instructed her son to go sit at the couch, seeing as she was the one intruding in his free time from work, which was probably safe enough for her to quiz Jiro about, and as she stood there, brewing the tea, she had some thoughts going inside her mind.

Her son must have been in love, and he must have been quite inexperienced, if him not noticing that big of a hickey on his neck wasn’t a big tell. He might remain unemotional sometimes, but even he would get embarrassed if his mother caught him with a love bite on his neck. There must be a reason as well as to why he was hiding this mysterious culprit that bared their fangs on her son’s neck, and it might also have to do with the fact that Jiro was so extreme in the last 3 days at work, most likely meaning that this mysterious person must have confessed, or Jiro, yesterday night, to him, and both of them had some rough fun with each other, which she did not think Jiro was the type to make. Now that she looks at it, she would have thought Ichiro to be the type, but it looks like their intenseness to their partners were polar opposite from what one might expect them to be, when only looking at them at a base level.

As much as she has some issues on how Jiro brusquely severed himself from Yoshie, she was glad to see he wasn’t willing to lead her on, when his heart was set elsewhere. It might have hurt the woman in the future, and she was glad that Jiro wasn’t the type of man to break someone’s heart. He did always strike her as a romanticist from the books he once read, as much as it was him borrowing it from his best friend at the time, but she knew he was enjoying reading those books he was lent.

Before long, she had two cups of warm, gyokuro tea ready, delivering them to the big couch where Jiro was lazing around, until she placed the two tea cups on the glass table, as Jiro thanked her for it, before taking the cup in his hands.

“I’m not going to question anything about the Yoshie relationship, since you don’t want to talk about it, but is it already sweetie if I ask about the reason for why you closed yourself off into your office for three days straight? I was really worried about it when we got informed about it, so…” Sukekiyo started, taking a sip from the expensive tea, as Jiro seemed to have moved his eyes the opposite way from where she was standing, which she knew meant that he felt uncomfortable about it.

“I can trust you that you aren’t going to blab to Father about any of this?” Jiro replied, as she gave him an assured hum that she was on her side, that she would keep her promise, which is when her son continued: “To be frank with the matter… I was going through some self discovery, a terrible one, I might add, and as per my friend’s words, I was using work as an escape mechanism, but you don’t have to worry about that anymore, Mother, I’m being perfectly normal now.”

“That’s good to hear, dear! Don’t mind if I pry, but is that friend of yours the same Fenneko I keep hearing about from Ichiro?” Sukekiyo questioned, fitting her to be the most likely person that could have gotten Jiro’s heart, because according from all the information she received from Juzo, he did invite her to some private dinners, and she was working alongside Ichiro at that trading firm Ichiro once worked at, so it would bring bonus points for the woman if she was familiar with Jiro’s brother.

“Yeah, something something about my father only showing me a world of hurt and me embracing it because I was programmed to do it, yadda yadda, I swear, most of the things she says seem like easy-to-spot bait for her to get a reaction out of people.” Jiro muttered, with her studying her son’s face to see if he was making kind of unknown gestures that she didn’t see yet in her son’s face, but she knew this face all so well, it was the face he had on him when he wanted to appear annoyed, but still secretly liked the person. It’s the face he made when he was best friends with Yuki… so this Fenneko person mustn't have been the person she was seeking for.

“My, she does seem like an intriguing gall!” She replied, watching Jiro take a sip from his cup, as she did the same.

“Interesting is an apt description of hers, yes.”

The two continued sipping on their knees, the hot beverage slowly being drunk by the both of them, as Sukekiyo thought that she might as well probe Jiro on his current relationship status, because from what he was presenting to her, he very well could be in a relationship.

“Jiro, if you may be kind, is there anyone else you’re seeing at the moment, now that you’re not together with Yoshie? Any secret girlfriends I should know about?” She spoke joyously, making Jiro throw her a weird expression, which didn’t seem like an admission of guilt to her, but his tail was wanking in that weird way that she knew meant he was hiding something from her, as he responded:

“Mother, I’m not Ichiro. Why would I move on with a romantic partner as soon as I break up, when it should be used to take some time off of yourself to recollect and think about what you want to do in the future?”

“But dear, you have a big love bite on the sides of your jugular!” Like that, Jiro nearly spat out the tea that he was sipping at the moment, meaning that he was in fact hiding a secret girlfriend from her, as her son put an hand on his neck, looking awfully red in the face, while looking like he was mentally cursing to himself for not noticing that, as she happily clapped her hands together, spouting: “Oh Jiro! I knew this day would come! Jiro, who is the lucky woman that you let in, and when can I see them?... Oh, I’ll definitely keep it a secret, you have my words!”

“Where did you meet? At work, at a show, at a party? Is it someone I know, does Ichiro know about this? Do your other friends know about this?” She blabbed, her eyes shining like a star that someone was able to get Jiro’s attention.

“Mom-”

“Don’t tell me that she’s hiding somewhere here, because I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing which lucky lady is able to have such a perfect man like you as their partner! Speaking of, a friend of mine made a bet between us that you’ll never find a woman in your life, and I’ll be glad to furtively take my well earned money from knowing my son best!”

“Mom!-”

“So, what have you been thinking about the future with this woman? I don’t mind if you don’t want to marry or have kids yet, but-”

“MOM, Listen to me!” Jiro yelled at her to get gain her attention, which it did, as Jiro looked annoyed that her blabbermouth of a mother was desperately trying to say something to her, but here she was, too happy about the how’s and why’s and if’s in Jiro’s relationship with this mysterious woman, as she waited for Jiro to say his peace.

“Mother, I’m going to say this because I have the slight hope that you’d back up on your words, but the only thing I’m going to say about this rumoured partner of mine that you’re mucking about is that yes, they exist, as evidenced by this…” Jiro grabbed onto his neck, wincing away when he presumably touched at a sensitive point. “...love marks they left behind, but I’m not going to just tell you about them.”

What? She could understand why Jiro might want to keep the mysterious lover to his Juzo, as he surely would try to first assess if it was even sound for him to marry whoever woman Jiro was seeing at the moment, but why would he want it to keep it a secret from Sukekiyo?

“Dear, why ever not? I don’t mind if they’re mixed-race, or even if they have committed some crimes, you were always the one to feel bad for them whenever we talked about it during dinner, but-”

“No, you don’t get it!” Jiro interrupted her, greatly surprising the woman, because now, she was really at a loss as to why she was left in the dark about this mysterious lover.

“Jiro, I won’t get it if you don’t tell me, and I promise you, I won’t judge you, no matter how bad or good your lover is. Mothers should always be beside their children, shouldn’t they?” Sukekiyo stated, as Jiro’s face seemed to turn more and more into a grimace, as he then said:

“I don’t care if you don’t judge me about it, mother! If someone here needed to be judged for something, then it would be your awful observational skills, because this supposed ‘lover’ of mine has been dangling in front of your nose for a long time, and I assume Ichiro and I must have gotten this trait from you of being so painfully oblivious.”

Huh? Jiro’s lover was right in front of her nose all this time? What does Jiro mean by this?

If she tried thinking back, there really wasn’t anyone that Jiro was interested in, because most of the time, he would try being together with Ichiro, which changed as soon as he made good friends with Yukiharu, who’s still his best friend as of late….

And then she grasped it, the obvious dangling key that Jiro has been referring to. She opened her mouth wide open, as she looked into her son’s eyes and asked:

“Did… Did Yukiharu leave those marks on you?”

Jiro, of course, didn’t respond, but by the obvious way his tail now started flapping, she knew she hit the mark right on the coffin.

“Oh gracious, it really was that obvious, was it?”

“And now we’re three to three from us Haidas learning about Yuki and I’s feelings towards each other, feeling totally blindsided by it all. What a sick joke…” Jiro muttered, as Sukekiyo snapped her fingers, as everything now fell into place from Jiro’s questionable movement as of late, as she said:

“Dear, did you find out about it this week as well?! Were you always aware that you were gay?”

“No, I have known for a month, I think… it’s just that Ichiro suddenly appeared when I went drinking with a few friends, and my drunk self is more prone to not keeping his mouth shut when it comes to secrets, so I… locked myself in from shame..” He said, looking despondently at the ground, making Sukekiyo feel terrible for her youngest, as he stood up and went next to him.

“Jiro… you know your brother wouldn’t judge you for it. I’m not sure if you still remember this, but Ichiro really went loose on your father once while he was still a child when we saw two lovely men that were definitely an item, and asked what his problem was talking badly about them.”

“I know, I know… in retrospect, it was silly of me to think Ichiro would be disgusted with me, seeing as he was the one who got me to stand up on my feet again and go confess to Yukiharu.”

“And I assume by those marks left behind on you, he said yes?” She joked, making her son pull away from her, clearly seeming flustered about it, which wasn’t often she was able to see her son acting like this, as he responded:

“I-uh, technically, he confessed to me first, but well… uhm… and I said yes… so yes?...”

Upon hearing those confirmations, she once slid next to her son, taking him in for one lunge-crushing hug, feeling absolutely alleviated that both of her sons were able to find love a few months after each other, merrily shouting at him:

“My littlest boy was able to find someone! I’m so happy for you Jiro! You better invite me to have Yuki meet me again, because as your mother, I have a responsibility to get to know how Yukiharu turned out!”

“M-Mother… I need…. Oxygen…”

“Oh! Pardon me for my hastiness!” She worryingly stated, as she let go of his son in love, having the male hyena cough a bit to clear the airway in his lunge, and as soon as it seemed like he wasn’t stifling anymore, she joyously remarked:

“Jiro, you need to tell me everything that happened between you two! I barely have any clue on how you even found Yukiharu again, since he was estranged from his family, but I need you to go from top to bottom with this one… so would you mind if I went back and refilled our tea again?” She gestured to the two empty cups, as Jiro seemed to have been considering whether he should humour her or not, as he seemed unsure for a moment, as he said:

“Mother, please, promise to me that you’re not gonna tell anyone about this, besides with Ichiro? I only had Yukiharu back in my life for a few months, and we’re only boyfriend for less than a day, but I don’t wanna lose him again… I don’t think I am able to endure it again, like last time…”

“Jiro..:” She stopped from moving up, turning around to look at how Jiro was begging Sukekiyo to keep it a secret. “Dearie, I would never hurt you, remember? And if your father does learn about your relationship with Yukiharu… I’ll fight tooth and nail to protect you both, like I should have all this time ago, this I vow.”

She waited to see how well Jiro had made his promise, and after a few moments from Jiro seemingly returning his face to normal… her now noticing that he was trying to make the same teary-eyed expression he used to do to try convincing her mom easier, as he sighed, pointing towards his kitchen, making Sukekiyo more than happy that Jiro was really allowing her to be privy on how she fell in love with his best friend!

… But it did pang her heart, thinking how she would be keeping this a secret between herself and Juzo, as much as she loved, but she knew if Juzo caught wind of Jiro’s relationship with his best friend, he would no doubt try destroying it.

But for now, she needs to hear her youngest explain from scratch on everything that transpired between the two, and to see just how much he was into his now boyfriend.

Here he stood, right outside of his boyfriend’s door, the hyena only having to hear the bull’s voice to let him in, as he pondered about all the things they would have to talk about, now that their relationship has upgraded from best friends to boyfriends. Wait, no, Shikabane would call it a sidegrade…

He just came off of work, bought a ticket line to get to Jiro’s place, and left Shikabane back with their apartment, and he couldn’t wait any longer on finally seeing his boyfriend, who he was frequently thinking about all day, so much so, that nearly everyone at work mentioned how Yuki seemed to appear more happier than usual, and hey, just saying that you got hitched with your best friend whom you had a crush on for a decade does that with you, and it’s kind of surprising that he didn’t explode yet.

During his trip to Jiro’s place, Yuki remarked how he would be going over to Jiro’s place with nothing but his work suit, as he realised that the one time he came over to visit Jiro’s place to get a home PC, the man literally had nothing in his fridge. Jiro got dragged around on several social events, he knows that, but does Jiro really have nothing better in the kitchen but pre-packaged junk food? And from what he remembers, Jiro must have bought the most priciest instant ramen, because he knew at least a dime of dozen alternatives that he could have used that still felt pretty nice for the stomach. Jiro probably never went shopping for himself, did he? He could teach him on how he should use his money wisely to purchase ingredients and goods, and what he should stir himself away from, like those god awful money-grubbing tactics deals he still sees, which makes him groan internally whenever he sees people in malls go for them.

The door rustled, which earned the bull’s attention immediately. The door was pulled in, revealing a hyena in a shorts and a dark t-shirt showing some kind of a coven related stuff, he presumed, as Yuki held his breath from how dreamy Jiro looked like, as much as he was in a random set of clothes, him also noticing just how brightly Jiro was smiling back at him, feeling a bit mischievous that Jiro’s neck still did seemed to have some impact left from their last time playing rough with each other, as the hyena stepped back, and sad:

“Come in! It’s so nice to see you again!”

“The feeling is mutual. I never wanted to leave work as quickly as before… your lips look so kissable right now, by the way.” Yuki mentioned, as he stepped inside, throwing him a smirk, making Jiro just a bit redder in the face as he closed the door behind him.

“...Are you asking for one?” Jiro asked, moving just an inch closer to the bull, and as soon Yuki was able to grasp the man’s chin, as he proudly told him:

“Sure I am, so if you have no complaints, I’m gonna drag your beautiful face closer to mine.”

The hyena soon looked like melt pudding in his hand, which was presumably due to him being overly sensitive on being touched in such an intimate manner, which Yuki would be foolish to not capitalise in the future, as he took his boyfriend in for a short, yearnful kiss.

He imagined, fantasised about scenarios with Jiro like this, and if Yuki was more of an emotional guy like what Jiro secretly was, he would probably have shed a tear. On further inspection, having the real deal in his grasp was so much better than whatever dream he spun in his mind, because there was no way he could have made his mind think just how good it would feel having their lips like this. And don’t get him started just the way Jiro’s eyes were moving, because boy, did it nearly make Yuki deactivate his brain and just go ham with it, but he has self-discipline, which is why he thankfully didn’t act on his primal brain of his that awoke for a second there.

When their lips finally departed from each other, the two of them were staring at each other, with Yuki retreating his hand from the other man’s chin, as the hyena slowly blinked at him, and before Yuki could have asked if he was throwing bedroom eyes at him, the hyena said:

“...Let’s go paddle over to my couch, we still have a lot to talk about… our relationship now, right?”

Alright, it wasn’t the bedroom eyes timeline, but hey, making guidelines is as good.

“That we do, but it’s really not that much.” Yuki stated, as he and Jiro now slowly walked over to the enormous couch that looked more back-friendlier to sleep on than the one at his apartment, and when he dropped himself onto it like he used it, he nearly groaned from how comfortable it was from sitting on it. Man, did he appreciate a furniture’s comfiness way more, ever since his back nearly got twisted in two.

“Shit… it feels like my back is healing itself…” He stated, as he turned his head around to look at Jiro. “You don’t mind if I come to your penthouse more frequently to sleep on your couch?

“...If you wanted to sleep in my house, then why don’t you do it in my bed- wait no, in the guest room? Also, your bed isn’t that uncomfortable, if I do say so myself.”

“Yeah yeah, but sleeping over at your place sounds more… fun to me, if you know what I mean?” Yuki winked, as Jiro gave the bull a kind of stone-faced expression, as he now felt a little bit dumb with himself. Maybe Jiro was more prone to make flirty comments and understand them when he’s sleep deprived or when he gets woken up in the morning, because how he was able to miss those clear ‘I want to bone you’ signs was ridiculous.

“Well… anyway, we should discuss our relationship, and I should oughta start with something important…” Jiro said, as the man stood up from his place on the couch, went in front of him, kneeled down at him… wait, oh boy, Yuki liked this important thing they were starting with…

As he then bowed down to the bull, as he began spilling out of his mouth:

“I’m so sorry for urging you to have sex with me, on two different occasions, and even though on one occasion, I wasn't that well rested, it still was inconsiderate of me to say that, when we only just started dating, and it’s disgusting of me to influence you to do it with me, when it’s surely a sensitive subject for yo-”

-!-

“OK, hold on what the fudge?! Jiro, what are you saying? And when the fuck did sex become a sensitive subject? Are you referring to that one time I was forced to suck a guy’s dick when I was fresh on the streets?” Yuki intervened, with the hyena still bowing down to him, which really was making Yuki nervous from how long the hyena was bending his back over for an apology that wasn’t even warranted from him.

-!-

“...Y-Yes…” Jiro quickly replied, which Yuki was just able to hear. “I was just worried… that you might…”

“Oh, Jiro, my poor innocent angel. That stuff was like several years ago now. It might have traumatised me at first, but I was able to live with it now. Sure, my first time wasn’t that pleasant… or that consentful, but hey, I’m not the one behind bars now, so I don’t pay much attention to it. Jiro, I really don’t care much about it.” Yuki laughed, making his heart miss a few on how considerate he was to him, but this is when Jiro finally stirred his head up, looking absolutely awestruck from what he just said, saying:

“Yuki?! It should CONCERN you, at least! You… you got violated… so then why-”

“If I concern myself about it, then I’m still being affected by it. It sucks and all, but I promise, it is what it is, and I’m just gonna say that you’d never violate me the same way as the guy, and honestly, I really thought you were gonna suck my dick when you bent down, and boy, I wouldn’t have stopped you.”

Damn, he just saw Jiro’s jaw fall open like a bird shot out of the sky, as it really looked like he wanted to appear repelled or frustrated from what Yuki just told him.

“Jiro, I’m a pervert, and from what you said to me, you’re also a pervert in an innocent way. When I requested that we don't have sex with each other was not because I didn’t want to, but because we couldn’t, and also, waiting for it and treating it as an award is gonna be godlike, and I honestly think we both don’t have the patience for it.” Yuki added, the hyena is still being flabbergasted from all the news he’s being fed, which is really everything Yuki had in mind when he wanted to talk with Jiro, because who gives a crap on how his relationship with Jiro should go? Hell, if they wanted to smash each other to all oblivion one week into their relationship, then he’s not letting some ‘advice’ deter them from having it.

It seemed like Jiro was finally regaining his composure from the shocking news, as Jiro was now staring on his knees at him, as he mouthed:

“...So we can make love, now, if we wanted to?”

“Do you have protection?” Yuki asked, making Jiro just a bit redder in the face.

“....No.”

“Did you get tested for STI, or want to do it without a condom? I never did it raw before, but I’ll definitely make an exception for you.” He said, really making Jiro tense up, as Yuki really hoped Jiro somehow, and somehow got himself tested, because he knew he was clean, and if Jiro was clean, then…

“Also no…”

Nevermind. Anything too sexual at the moment can wait for a few days or a week…

“Then I’m sorry to say, no love making between us today.”

When Yuki exclaimed this to the kneeling hyena, he could see the man before him figuratively drop to the floor defeated, and before he could have teased Jiro about it, Jiro questioned him once again:

“...So… you really want to do it with me…?”

“If it’s somewhere private enough for no one to hear us, and when we either get some rubber over our fiddlesticks or get tested negative, then yeah, totally. Although, it would be fun to keep it at bay for time, to see which one of us cracks first.” He replied, as Jiro threw him an irritated glance, as he then said:

“We’re doing it as soon as one of the requisites is met. I wanna… I wanna experience having you in bed, and that closeness between our bodies…”

“God, whatever ideas I had in mind about us being together are all falling flat to this, because I’m absolutely intoxicated about how much you crave me, you horndog…” Yuki smirked, making the hyena throw back a smirk of his own, that devilish smile of Jiro doing something to his lower parts.

“Bold words from the person who called themselves a pervert.”

“Pot calling the kettle black, eh? And even so, what are you even gonna do about my bold words, hmm?” Yuki teased, and as much as he wanted to rile up Jiro, now that the both of them were definitely on the same wavelength after that impromptu discussion, Jiro was quick to pounce on him.

Oh, he wanted to rile up Jiro, and he’s glad that it was this easy, because he was gonna spend his time destressing from work by tearing each other apart on their faces.

It wasn’t even one day since they became a couple, but it really feels like half of the time they spend together, it has been them making out with each other, while the others were spent waiting for each other. They didn’t need much to communicate with words, when they could express their feelings with action, and man, Yuki knew Shikabane was going to start hating Jiro and him if they’re going to be insufferable and shameless like this.

Damned be what they’d do behind closed doors, because to the two, they both wanted the other, and the best way they could express it is by clashing their mouths against each other, with Jiro biting into his lip which oh god was *doing* things to Yuki.

They’re each other’s addiction, and they would probably beat crack addicts on their level of obsessiveness. Yuki was never letting Jiro go, now that he had him, and it seemed like Jiro shared the views as him on it. He waited pessimistically for this for so long, that he didn’t have the words to describe how much he craved the intimacy he wanted, or is having between Jiro right now, which is why they were busy having Jiro tower over him while they went ham on Jiro’s couch.

He sure hopes after they’re done, it’s gonna be just them that they’re gonna talk about, and think about, because Yuki wants to memorise everything about Jiro.

A little while later….

He jinxed it, he so jinxed it.

After Jiro and Yuki calmed down from their raging war of ravaging each other in a way that didn’t turn too sexual still, Jiro brought them dinner that he pre-made for them, with Jiro now actually having a few ingredients in his fridge, and as much as it seemed to look normally on the outside, when Yuki took a bite out of it, he knew Jiro must have oversalted the procedure, but he remained silent during the process, as he said that Jiro’s cooking was… tasty.

And then the real kicker. Supposedly, Jiro’s mom came to visit, and she knew about them. She knew about them, and she wanted to meet Yuki.

Yuki could handle Ichiro, but having a confrontation between him and Mrs. Haida?!

Oh… how in the hell was he ever gonna convince her that she was worthy for Jiro?

Chapter Text

Day 1 - Tuesday

Genta’s ride to Seoul has been more brain-numbing than he first anticipated.

The trip was all too short, and even with much comfort, it couldn’t reset his feelings on how on edge he stood from the day before, of when his rival, Jiro, was able to induce over most of the party’s opinion about the Old Age Extermination Bill by having that CEO of several IT companies lend a hand to him with the support of that ENI-O thing, which the donkey had the gall of advertising during the presentation.

All it took for most of the people to be convinced there is a bright smile on both men’s smiles, with promises of change that seemed so detached from reality, Genta had to take a few seconds during the speech to think whether Jiro was jesting with them or not. Just who would give away their legislation powers in congress, in exchange of becoming an advice puppet for younger people that may or may not even come to them when their help is most requested!

He knows that it was that Tadano’s man’s forté of talking big of his products, seeing as IT in the business world are still a blooming thing in the economy, but how in heaven did Jiro think that using the same tactics here was the right choice, and how in the hell was he right about it?!

He knows that Jiro was in some way a freak of nature, as described by his father, but was he really so outwit by the hyena, that he used something as idiotic as that bill he proposed to go drastically change the political landscape of Japan? In some way, he can agree with Juzo about the motion he has over his son of him being a masterpiece, seeing as he has the smarts, charms and look to make people obey him if he wanted them too, and only a select few are able to resist the man’s overbearing aura, like himself.

It is such an unfortunate thing that Jiro went rogue on them, with his interest now being as clear as looking into muddied water. He can’t describe what Jiro wants for the whole of Japan, or himself. He could be mechanizing the downfall of Japan, for all they knew, and they would be none the wiser about it.

Jiro was a stunning enigma, something that people dared to look at, but yet couldn’t undermine its complexity, and boy, did it grind Genta’s gears.

All eyes were on him, all the people were talking about him when it came to their party, be it good or bad, and if Genta could blow a blood vessel about it, he totally would.

How come HE isn’t the one getting the undivided attention from those prying eyes? Why aren’t people talking about HIM? Women and men alike wanted him, so why do people want a piece of that man?

If anything, it made Jiro more of an enigma from how withdrawn he seemed to people wanting him in any way desirable, which Genta couldn’t comprehend. He had a whole army of suitors of women at his doorstep, and if there was a slight chance that Jiro was interested in men, then there would be a squadron full of people he could choose from, so why did he litter around, when he could have anyone?! He’s pretty sure Yoshie could be described as the queen of the top echelons of women in Japan, but Jiro was quite assuredly leading her on, so that Juzo couldn’t pester him about his needed duty of furthering his family’s legacy, and he knew Ichiro’s offspring with that red panda idol wouldn’t suffice to anything, seeing as the older hyena besmirched it with his actions already.

The people that Jiro even spent a grain of time with were with his brother… and Yukiharu, which is what confused Genta even further.

Jiro saw something in Ichiro that nobody is able to see, like he was the messiah or some horsecrap, with him remembering how attached the smaller hyena was to his older brother.

He couldn’t fathom the hyena’s action, no matter how strongly he tried to think of something positive about the rebellious older hyena. What was the man’s reason for his fascination with his older brother, and why did it irritate Genta the more he thought about their relationship as brothers?

Confusingly more, what did Jiro see in Yukiharu? Whilst Ichiro was nothing more than a rebel fool, he was still educated through and through, but what did Yukiharu do for him to gain the hyena’s attention? His younger brother resigned himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to pick up the family’s legacy, as much as he ultimately made a stain on it with his… sexuality, or sickness, as their father would call it. What did he do to even gain the hyena’s devotion, when nearly half of the populace in Japan were dying to get that out of the hyena? The easiest answer would be that Jiro loved Genta’s brother, and that would be great for him, because if so, he could finally have something over that ‘masterpiece’ of a man, of being normal and to regain some of the sway that Jiro has over some of the people in their party, but did Yukiharu really deserve it?

After everything he’s done in his life, the most sought-out bachelor of Japan is right under his feet, just like that?! It was too good for him to have that, so even if Jiro and Yukiharu were to secretly love each other all this time, he would be sceptical to the idea until he was given the hard truth. However… them being best friends as of late was still ridiculous to him, because how could they have remained that, even after they didn’t meet each other for a whole decade? Their bond couldn’t be that inseparable, could it?

Such thoughts haunted the bull’s head through his journey from travelling via planes to Seoul, and finding his hotel of utmost stature, while he kept a smile on himself, not letting any one of these strangers he saw see what his thoughts were making inside of his own mind.

It felt ridiculous. Why did he feel so bitter towards those three men in particular, even if two of them were the black sheep of the family, respectively, while the other one was an abnormal man hiding behind an elaborate mask? Did they have something that Genta wanted himself, but he was too blind to notice what it was? Was he… missing something out, unlike those three?

No, this is getting too silly for him, he had everything over them, besides maybe Jiro, so he was just talking out of his ass. His thoughts when left alone do tend to go in such pathological ways, now that he thinks for a moment to reflect on it…

Not so soon afterwards, he arrived at his destination, which was the Grand Hyatt Seoul hotel, a rather pricey resort that he would be spending his whole week relaxing whenever he’s not negotiating deals with that nutjob of a woman, who only seemed to reimburse their party at an odd time.

On Mi-Sun stopped any and all kind of funding into political parties as soon as she went into power, or approximately after a month after that gruesome accident where she was the sole survivor of the plane crash that decimated her spouse, Son Sook Mun, their kids and grandchildren alike, with the butterfly only having one direct child of hers still alive, who did an exposé on the whole affairs behind their parents and organisation, and god knows wherever the woman was now.

Genta wasn’t on his laurels during his visit here, because as soon as Oowada asked him with the quest of relocating those funds safely into their party, he made himself busy discovering as many things as he could about the woman. Namely, when he first saw an at a meeting in Japan when the aforementioned woman came over while his father was still working, Genta had that slight feeling that he had already seen the woman somewhere, but ultimately passed it off as him passively seeing the butterfly somewhere before. More curiously, his father stressed to Genta that Jiro, who was still not elected at the time, was to be kept a good distance from the woman, which he didn’t know for why, but as soon as he was told the story of Jiro being tutored once a time ago by that woman, it became clear why it wasn’t ideal for the two to meet.

The more he learnt about the woman, the more it sounded like he was reading a fictional story. From what he read from the sources provided to him, it didn’t seem like she had much control of the group as a whole, and seemed more like a figurehead. While the religious church was preaching Christianity, it seemed like On Mi-Sun was more aligned with buddhist/hinduist beliefs. It really seemed like the whole organisation was in a whirlpool of interest, with the former people trying to usurp the woman’s power being the woman’s husband most trusted confidants, while the other party was On Mi-Sun herself, and the followers who converted to her thinking. It really seemed like it was a huge battle between the previous religion her delirious husband was withholding versus the new order she was installing in the group. It was all… too bizarre for Genta to take seriously, if he was honest with himself.

And from the way Oowada was talking about the Amalgamation Church, it really looked like the late leader’s confidants were the one being unhappy about Jiro’s ruling as of late, with Genta being unsure how she felt about Jiro’s involvement in the Liberal Manifest Party.

It really looked like it was going to be difficult to convince the woman to lend some of the fundings to his political party, seeing as she was allergic to spending it on anything she deemed unnecessary for the organisation's survival. Moreover, from personal interviews, she was as crazy as he thought her to be, because besides the two glaring missing wings on her back, which were cut off to save the woman’s life, something was… very off with the woman. Whenever he gazes into the woman’s eyes, it feels like he’s staring into the abyss of nothingness, as if nothing was inside of it all. In some way, that would make her his total opposite, as his eyes shone with as much shine as possible, while hers grew darker and darker the more you stared into it. It was… off-putting, to say the least.

But maybe that was the case due to her age? She was 60, after all, and even though she doesn’t look the part, seemingly being told that it looks like she stopped ageing after the plane accident, so it’s not like there’s much sparkle that could be going on in her life. Old people do become isolated as time comes by, after all…

However, it’s highly likely she’s going to spend her whole life being the leader of the Amalgamation Church until her dying breath, lest there is going to be a serious power-struggle in the religious group to take that right away from her, but seeing as she’s still known as the ‘All-Mother’ to the followers, it’s very unlikely that’s ever going to happen. It would be tantamount to overthrowing Jesus… but now that he thinks about it, he DID get betrayed in those fabled stories, if his memory serves him correctly.

Mi-Sun, Mi-Sun… it truly was going to be an interesting week being in this country for him, with all the known facts he has over the woman.

But in all honesty, he was really curious just who this spouseless woman was…

Day 2 - Wednesday

After an hour of being driven to somewhere around Gapyeong, he was taken to a weird office building in the middle of nowhere, being in the vicinity of a private boarding school, which to no one's surprise was run by the same church whose headquarters he was visiting.

He didn’t know how he could best describe the building he was soon going to enter, with many bodyguards secured at the entrance of the place, but it looked more like a religious temple to him, as much as he read that this was the official headquarters of the organisation. Well, it wouldn’t be that crazy if a religious organisation’s headquarters were situated at a religious temple, now would it?

“Mr. Ushijima, if you’d be so kind, you may follow me into the headquarters.” The chauffeur, who was acting as his guide during the whole process, stepped outside of the car they came from, and gestured to the temple.

The bull nodded, quickly coming side to side with the guide, as the two walked up to the entrance with the many bodyguard situated at the entrance, as the guide made some kind of a hand gesture to the chief bodyguard there, then speaking something between each other, which Genta wasn’t able to understand, due to having no knowledge about the korean language, as the two were led inside while the bodyguards, or more like bodyguards who were converted to the church, did that weird hand sign to the two.

He saw On Mi-Sun make that hand sign before, and if he remembers correctly, it’s something she came up that has to do with the group’s goals and duties or something, but it really felt like some kind of alien language to Genta when he heard the butterfly describe the meaning behind the hand gesture. Delusional people do love to spend their time creatively, he supposes.

While the guide was leading him through the temple, he saw many people spot their eyes on him, having heard the quiet whisper, and even if he didn’t understand it, he had a feeling what they were talking about.

He was an outsider… but he could be made into a potential ally, if their leader serves their cards well, or something to that effect. Unluckily for them, it would take much more effort to convince Genta to join this bogus religious group, since not only was he an atheist, but he was sceptical of the organisation as a whole.

The whole place felt too… eerily to him. He could practically smell the faint aura of conflict in the air, like everything could collude on itself with just an air breeze. It’s actually surprising how this place is still being kept in power, as much as it should have crumbled as soon as the ‘All-Father’ has perished.

Just how many secrets was this cult hiding, really? From trying to enact political influence over other countries, from those “spiritual sales” they made in the past, to the blatant anti-Japanese views the cult held until the former leader’s death… just how many secrets was the chairwoman trying to bury beneath the holy soil here?

No matter, that’s not what he’s here for anyway. This place could have as many despicable secrets as it could produce, but Genta would bat no eyes towards it. The important thing was getting the funding from the cult, seeing as they were a fervent supporter of their political party long ago, but stopped ever since the rise of their new leader. Sure, they do get funding from high-ranking officials in the cult, but it’s very much clear that they’re doing so without Mi-Sun’s consent or knowledge.

If he does convince the crazed woman to finally support them, then the Liberal Manifest Party was sure to stay strong in power and influence, which is everything that his father would want from him.

“We’re nearly at the altar of All-Mother’s office, Mr Ushijima.” The guide stated to him, with Genta thinking of the massive doors to be hiding the woman he was seeking after, simply nodding along, as he was led to the aforementioned doors.

The man knocked on the door 3 times, as he then opened the door halfway to give some space to Genta to go through, and before Genta went through and saw for himself how Mi-Sun was personally 1-on-1, the man added:

“It’s highly likely All-Mother is meditating at the moment, so please don’t disturb her and just wait until she’s done with her contemplation. You may take a seat in front of her desk.”

“Understand, thank you very much.” Genta replied, as he moved his feet across the half-way opened door. When the doors were silently closed behind him, he was spending the time getting his eyes used to whatever he was seeing inside the small, and he was surprised to see how… unusual the room was.

Firstly, there was a huge painting depicting Sun Sook Moon and On Mi-Sun, which had a barren looking desk with the woman’s computer. There were also two statues on the far end of the room, which seemed to be gods from the same religion the ‘All-Mother’ was preaching to all the Amalganationists here. On his right, there was a big glass window, which had a clear view outside, and it sure looked beautiful. There was also a flower in a vase on the empty office, a blue-purplish flower that Genta didn’t know the name of. However, the thing that really caught Genta off-guard was the miniature waterfall in the middle of the room, the central part being a sunken area with water flowing from his left to his right and discharged from the ditch under the glass windows.

It… sure was an office, as much as it seemed to terrify him. And since it was an office… Where was Mi-Sun?

Genta sauntered over to sit in one of the two empty chairs placed in front of the woman’s desk, looking around in the meanwhile, as he noticed two god statues next to the door from where he came from, undoubtedly hailing from the same religion as the other two gods in the back of the room.

When he was halfway through the room, he saw a woman sitting down in a meditating position, in a hanbok, if Genta could guess, facing to the picture with that grubby looking moth of a man, with the beautiful butterfly being the person that caught Genta’s attention.

It didn’t take long for Genta to put two and two together, and to realise that the butterfly mediating right in front of the picture was none other than On Mi-Sun, who was facing Genta with her back.

Since he was sure she didn’t hear him, or chose to ignore him, he went ahead and continued wandering to one of the chairs, and as soon as he was next to one, he quietly sat down, and waited for the crazy woman to wake up, so that they could talk business. He was on borrowed time for a week, and he needed to make as much use of it as possible, because convincing a crazy person was going to be hard work.

“Genta Ushijima, I take it?” The butterfly spoke soon after, in perfect Japanese, nearly startling the man, wasn’t it for the fact that he was just in the motion of sitting down.

“Yes, All-Mother.” He responded, hoping the respectful response would get her on his goodside.

Mi-Sun, or the ‘All-Mother’, soon stood up from her kneeling position, as she bowed to the framed picture of her and her deceased partner, and turned around to face the worried bull.

Looking into her eyes, with him being the only other person besides her, sent alarm signs in the bull’s head. She was dangerous, he felt his bones turn to ice, and her all-glaring stare felt empty. In a more roundabout way… it’s as if she was a black hole, and she was absorbing the light he emitted from himself effortlessly. This woman… tutored Jiro once?

“That will not do, Mr. Ushijima. Since you are not part of the Amalgamation Church, you are not obliged to call me ‘All-Mother’. You may call me… Mi-Sun.” The woman replied emotionlessly, as she pulled her office chair towards her, and sat down on it, as she returned those piercing eyes on him, rendering him completely immobile.

He thinks he can still move… but it really felt like the woman’s aura was keeping him in check, as if she was spurning him to do… nothing. No wonders why she’s called the ‘All-Mother’, if she has such an indomitable aura around herself.

“Oh, if that’s what you want from someone as charming as myself, then I hope you don’t mind if I do that.”

“Hmm.” Mi-Sun responded, not showing much enthusiasm… or emotion, on her face or voice. Strangely enough, Genta could describe her as a husk of a person… or even a corpse, if he wants to get more bloody in his wording. As much as he sees the woman subconsciously wink and breath, it doesn’t seem like she’s very animated. Do all of these attributes get more obvious, now that he was only sharing this room with her?

“It’s great to see you here with soul and body here. It is not often that I receive visitors to my humble working place. I’ve already been notified about Oowada’s request for funds from our church.” Mi-Sun stated, cold in her words as ever.

“That’d be correct, Mam. Naturally, our party and your church used to be good business partners about a decade ago… before you know what, and we were hoping that you would consider supporting us in the rear again, if possible?... Also, do excuse me if my appearance blinds you in any way, even though I try to keep my appearances to a minimal level, I just can’t help making myself perfect, without realising so!”

Genta stood proudly in his chair, and as much as he liked tooting his own horn, it sure didn’t seem to get a reaction out of the butterfly. Maybe the woman just couldn’t express her emotions clearly…

“And what would that help on my part?” She responded, staring at the bull, who was quite ready for something like this to be thrown to his face, as he retorted back:

“Mi-Sun… I assure you, having the Liberal Manifest Party be your business party is nothing more than a privilege of itself! We have many skilled politicians in our rank you might want to learn about and make a connection with!”

“The church has no need for external relationships. We are fine as it is, and your offer brings no value, like a computer that is displugged from electricity.” She said, spotting her usual emotionless face of hers, as he spat back at her:

“Mam, but have you thought about the benefits our party could bring to your denomination? Just think of the profit that you could reap from our contracts!”

“Profit is not in urgent danger for our denomination, and we do not need any side-benefits. If one was to accept your offer, it’d be out of momentarily greed from oneself.”

And just like that, Genta was quick to get into a small debate on getting the woman in front of him to get convinced enough to fund them with as many angles he could use to twist the woman’s arms, but it looks like the butterfly just shook it off without even a moment’s notice.

During all of that, which must have taken several hours from how he saw the sky change colours outside the glass window, the woman’s face remained cold, her expression and tone being a total mystery to the bull. He could always read how someone was feeling from their face alone… but this woman was an oddity from all the people he met in his life!

Even when some church followers delivered lunch for them, as much as the female servant said that it was Mi-Sun’s favourite food, not once did he saw Mi-Sun a difference in his expression, even though she personally said it was delicious.

Just… what was she?

“Mi-Sun, I assure you, Mr. Iha is a-”

“I do not wish to hear about them.” The two continued rambling on, with Genta plainly on his wits-end on how he should progress further on convincing the butterfly, because as much as he still had 4 days left in his pockets, he quite literally exhausted every option that he could personally think, as he decided to sit there for a minute to reconsider all of his options at the moment.

He’s sure he’s named every co-worker that he and his father favoured, but no matter how Genta tried to convince the woman, she never seemed to be enticed by what they had to offer to them. He’s sure that she could maybe make a reaction if he spoke about Jiro, since it seems like they have history… but he’s not going to rely on Jiro to get what he wants for their party! He could do this by himself, and he only was going to use the hyena’s name on the last day, when possible!

“Mr. Ushijima, if you would be so kind, it’d be advisable if we stopped talking about our business meeting for the last remaining quarter hours, and talk about something more… intriguing.” Mi-Sun stated, as Genta couldn’t do anything but nod to her, since it would be highly dumb of him to not see how tired the woman was getting with negotiating with him, as the woman turned her attention the flower in the vase on her desk, and said:

“That lovely shade of blue and purple petals of flower is called a Periwinkle. Do you perhaps know what these flowers symbolise?”

“No, Mam.” He responded, obviously, since he wasn’t a botanist, and the most luck he would have from his family knowing about this plant would highly likely be his mother.

“They represent everlasting love.” Mi-Sun stated, as she dragged the small vase in front of her, taking… a petal off the flower, as she continued exploring the meaning behind the flower.

“The plant’s roots are said to run deep and grow underground, reflecting the hidden emotions and unspoken desires of the human heart. It reminds me of a certain boy that I knew some time ago.” She said, taking a petal off slowly, with Genta feeling a little bit sorry for the abused flower.

“In addition, the plant’s delicate and solitary blooms can also be seen as a symbol of quiet reflection and contemplation, which can be a lonely experience. The boy I mentioned, he was lonely. Very much so.” And another petal came off of the flower.

“I do not know what happened to the boy. Did he wither, from having his love stumble carelessly, or did he survive, just like what this flower is meaning to say to us, since despite its associations with loneliness, periwinkles are also considered a symbol of hope and perseverance. This is because the plant is able to thrive even in harsh environments, such as rocky soil or in the shade of larger plants. It’s even blue, and I know the boy’s favourite colour was blue.” Another petal fell, which left the poor flower with only one healthy remaining petal to it’s sorry state, as Genta worryingly asked:

“...Who are you talking about, Mam?... Could they be one of your sons…?”

“No, not technically. He just reminded me of my son, of how he would have looked if he was given to live longer, he must have achieved moksha, as much as it must have churned his body to achieve it.”

Moksha…? Just what was this woman mumbling about? Is this one of her religion’s term words?

“...Moksha?” He questioned, raising his eyebrow on what the word could even mean, as Mi-Sun tore the last remaining petal out of the periwinkle.

“The periwinkle’s ability to adapt and survive has made it a symbol of resilience and strength, reminding us that even in times of loneliness, there is always hope for a better future. As much as prayer is solitary in nature, I prayed with this flower that the boy was able to overcome his fate, and lived a happier life than me and my family. I do certainly wish that the little one isn’t as lonely as I am in my recluse office, as much as I feel my wings the most here.”

Naturally, he would feel weirded about how creepily Mi-Sun has been acting, but as soon as the butterfly had the vase in her hand, and threw it down next to the desk, making the vase splinter and break, showing the brown soil it was hiding inside of it all along.

OK, he was pretty sure Mi-Sun now certified as a threat, which is why Genta jumped up from his seat, but before he could do anything as say a word, Mi-Sun rotated her head to look at the bull, and this time around… he could see a slight evidence of emotions on her face, and it showed sorrow, a deep, blue sorrow.

“Excuse me if this made you jump. This has become… some sort of routine that I do each week. The day I last saw the boy was on a Wednesday, so the day holds a special meaning in my heart, as emotionless as I am.” Mi-Sun responded, strangely reappearing passionless as always, as Genta made the foolish decision of sitting back in his chair, which is when she said:

“I’ve heard you mutter moksha under your breath. It’s safe to assume that you're not familiarised with the concept yet?”

“Uhm… I do not have any knowledge about the topic, Mam…”

“I see.” She nodded, as she moved her hands to do the weird hand sign that Genta saw the guards do outside the temple a few hours ago. “Moksha… is many things. It is the goal of a man's journey, to be liberated from this tormentous cycle of samsara we found ourselves in, it is… freedom, true happiness, so to speak. Maybe the term ‘nirvana’ rings more of a bell?”

Genta started pondering for a few seconds, but eventually realised what nirvana stood for, as he gave a hum for the woman to continue, which she did, saying:

“Moksha is perfection. It is what we at the Amalgamation Church seek, and I, the ‘All-Mother’, will guide the believers there, even if that leaves me all alone in this world. I am the shepherd, and I will do anything to protect my people who believe in me.”

“Hmm… I see. It does pique my interest, but where did you come up with that hand sign? Is it an antique hand sign?” Genta questioned, but oh did he regret asking about it, because Mi-Sun answered it:

“No. I saw my little girl’s lifeless corpse do this sign when I regained consciousness after the fall. It is of high importance to the church.”

OK, the woman had way more screw loose in her head than Genta first anticipated, because he’s sure people don’t bring up such sensitive subjects like that one, without even showing a smudge of sadness on their face!

“In some way, I’m relieved to know that all who perished in that accident were able to achieve moksha. Otherwise, they would begin at the beginning of the samsara, and the cycle of suffering would begin anew.” She stated, her eyes being more focused on her hands, as she soon raised her eyes to the computer scene on her desk, saying. “Oh, it looks like our time together for today has come to a halt today. May we see each other tomorrow, Mr. Ushijima.”

Genta brought out his smartphone to see whether the butterfly was correct with her assessment, but lo and behold, it struck 5 P.M on the screen, the time where they would end their meetings these coming weeks.

“Oh, I see that it’s time for us to depart. I do hope you aren’t going to miss my radiant self…”

“I won’t.” She quickly responded, which Genta didn’t know whether she was actually annoyed by the bull, or was just truthful in her wording, as Genta regained his posture, and stood up.

“Well… that is good. Then until we meet again, Ms. On Mi-Sun.”

With those parting words, he waved at the woman and turned around, leaving the temple and returning back to his hotel.

During all of that… he had a lot to think about. For one, he was 100% sure that On Mi-Sun, or this ‘All-Mother’, was clearly not well in the head. He knows that even though his father respects Mi-Sun for how she was able to sever any connections that her husband might have made in the past to conserve the Amalgamation Church to be a prominent figurehead in South Korea, but clearly, she wasn’t fit to be leading the organisation if she was like this. Second, just how was he going to crack this nutcase he’s in, seeing as Mi-Sun seems less than willing to aid their political party, no matter how much Genta tried convincing her that it would be a perfect choice for her to make.

And third, while she was tearing apart that blue-purplish flower, who was she referring to as the ‘boy’? She seems very attached to him, and seems to be reminding her of a son she might have, but everything else is a blank on Genta. Just who was she talking about, anyway?

Day 3 - Thursday

The Haidas were yet again invited by his dad to come over for dinner.

He really didn’t like meeting the two sons that Mr. Haida and Mrs. Haida brought with them, because Ichiro was beyond bored when Genta started talking about himself, and because Jiro was snitched up by his brother or sister, so he didn’t know what the other hyena was like, unlike the rebellious hyena who he spent time debating with.

However, there was one thing he knew about the younger hyena, and that it was his admiration for his big brother.

Yukiharu and Sakiyo wouldn’t shut up about it. He doesn’t know why, but it sure sounded like they made Ichiro sound more like a problem, that they need to overwork to get closer to Jiro. He outmatched Ichiro in every way, but yet his brother was admiring him, while his own siblings were annoyed most of the time spending time with him.

Would Jiro admire him, if the younger hyena realised just how much more amazing and dazzling he was compared to that guy being on the edge of being a delinquent? It would sound terribly good if someone was finally able to appreciate his talents who were around the same age as Genta, and someone who he might be close to beyond being strangers in the classroom.

Well, precisely to say, the answer was a big no to that, because when everyone, so the 9 of them, gathered at the dining room, it really looked like Jiro paid no attention to anyone there besides his brother, and when Yukiharu spoke to him or his parents.

Why was he clinging to him? They were just having a simple dinner over at their place? And why does Ichiro look so unbothered by it? Did he get used to it?

“Kin, the fish tastes amazing! Did you prepare yourself?” Jiro’s and Ichiro’s mother spoke up, who had her palm on her cheeks, clearly enjoying the palette that his mother had brought the table, with his mother just stating:

“Of course not, you tease! Why cook when we can simply get takeouts from this luxurious sushi place that is going to run itself out of business from how tax their pricing is!”

“Unbelievable that a sushi place has run you both out of business when it comes to cooking. Guess that’s one way for the old ways to die down…” Genta’s father said, both of the adult women throwing the bull a faux mean look, which is when Mr. Haida spoke up, gruntfully.

“Tch, as if a simple restaurant could beat Sukekiyo’s cooking, seeing that she practically is at home all day. She’s a master chef, compared to whatever those fish-cutting waiters do.”

“Dad is right about that, she even baked a great cake and decorated it for Jiro a month ago when his birthday happened, and I’m pretty sure he ate half of the cake, right, Mr. Glutton?” Ichiro added, making Jiro just move away from his brother a little bit, as he looked annoyed at the older hyena, and said:

“But it was my favourite flavour, Ichiro! And I’m pretty sure your calorie intake is bigger than mine, anyway! I saw you stealing the cook- Humph!” And before Jiro could finish the sentence, making it sound like as if he was about to tell a secret that Ichiro was hiding, as his mouth was shut by the older hyena’s hand, who was now sweating nervously, as he nervously continued:

“Yeah yeah, I’m bigger, so I eat more, that’s just how things are!... Speaking of Jiro, did you tell anyone about the love letter you received last week? It sure read like she was swooning over you!”

Upon hearing the word ‘love letter’, nearly everyone changed their expression to match their expression. His parents and Mr. Haida looked curious, Mrs. Haida looked beyond excited… while Yukiharu and Sakiyo rolled their eyes at it. It was basically a well-known fact to nearly everyone in the two families that Sakiyo had a small crush on Jiro, and the only ones who didn’t seem to notice that was Jiro himself and Ichiro.

“Oh, that’s really delightful to hear, dear! Just who is this girl, is she cute?” Mrs. Haida asked, as Jiro finally was able to have his mouth be freed by his older brother’s palm, as he passively just stated:

“Uhm… Her name was Reiko Sawa? I think I remember seeing her several times… but it’s only because we’re in the same literature club.”

Whatever drink Mr. Haida was having at the moment nearly spat out from him, as all the adults, including Genta, looked blemished at the younger hyena.

“Reiko Sawa, that Sawa? Juzo, your son might have figuratively landed a jackpot of a lifetime!” His father stated, with his sister now being more annoyed by the fact that the adults were actually encouraging Jiro to go out with her, saying:

“Who is this Reiko anyway? She doesn’t sound that amazing to me…”

“Dear sister…” Genta finally spoke up, earning his siblings attention. “The Sawa family, or the one in Ichiro’s, Jiro’s, Yukiharu’s and mine school, holds one of the biggest car companies in the world. She reeks of high-standard, unlike the previous girlfriends of a certain other hyena sitting next to Jiro-”

“Oh shut up, Genta! Anyway, Jiro.” Ichiro spoke up, as he then bumped his elbow into the younger hyena. “Are you gonna accept it? Even though she’s two years younger than the girls in my class, she’s quite a beauty, yeah?”

“Ummm….”

“Colour me impressed. I thought we’d have to help you get yourself a wife in the near future, but it looks like your mother’s look was able to assist you, since you look like her the most between you two little runts.” Mr. Haida stated, as his wife soon slightly tapped him on the shoulder, giggling, as she then said:

“Even though you might be praising my beauty right now, didn't it also take intervention from outside for us to meet…?”

Naturally, Mr. Haida began defending himself, bringing all the adults, including Ichiro and Genta to the conversation, while Yukiharu and Sakiyo looked less than pleased from what they’ve been hearing. And surprisingly… Jiro seemed to look downtrodden, for some reason.

“-So true!... Anyway, Jiro dear, it might be imprudent to ask you this, but is there any possible wedding bells that your parents might be hearing in the futu-” Genta’s mother said joyously, turning her attention to the solemn hyena, which is when he finally spoke something from his torpor.

“...No, I don’t like her.”

And like that, all of the laughter and excitement seemed to vanish at the dining table, maybe besides Sakiyo’s and Yukiharu’s faces, who were smirking to themselves.

“..Huh, why not, Jiro? I’ve seen her try giving you small gifts before, and she really looked embarrassed when she attempted to give you those, which, no offence, might be due to your unnerving aura, Jiro.” Ichiro said, clearly confused on why Jiro didn’t want to be together with her, Genta confused by it as well, which is when his father spoke up:

“Think of the future, young Jiro! If you were to marry her, just think how much you would accomplish for your family!”

“But I don’t want to marry someone I hate!” Jiro pronounced with more emotion in his voice, which is when Mr. Haida spoke up, questioning:

“Hate? Just what did sh-”

“That heartless tattler was talking behind my back about Yuki! She said he was an annoying dimwitted bull who latches on to me because he has no friends, and that he’s being a hindrance to her getting together with me! I heard her gossiping about those things to her friend group near the stairs when I went back to the club to get my belongings!” Jiro now basically blew up on them, making everyone at the table surprised, because Jiro always stayed silent. However… Yukiharu had a scarlet colour on his cheeks, which riddled Genta. Why was he blushing…?

“Uh… Jiro, you know how girls are, maybe she’s just envious of Yuki-” Ichiro tried remedying the situation, but it looked like it set off Jiro more, because he then slurred:

“I don’t care! She can drop dead in a lake for all I care!”

“Jiro, don’t say that-” Jiro’s mom tried to calm him down, but Jiro just snapped his neck at him, as he then told:

“But it’s all right for her to say, because she’s envious and it’s all justified?!... I’m excusing myself to the bathroom…”

He stood up from his kneeling position, and rushed off, but stopped himself when Yukiharu stood up from his table as well, and excused himself to go help Jiro calm down.

The dining room soon fell into silence, everyone, besides Sakiyo, on edge. Mr. Haida naturally only leaned forward, taking the alcoholic beverage, and basically filling it up to the brim, as he chucked it down with one, big, gulp, as he then forcibly smashed the glass bottle down on the table, cracks appearing on it.

“Uhm… I oughta fix whatever mess I started… haha… I’m gonna be right back with Jiro and Yuki in tow!” Ichiro stated, who basically jumped up from his position as soon as Mr. Haida started glaring at him, and hurried himself to go aid his brother.

His siblings never tried comforting him when he needed it… not like he asked for it from them, anyway.

When Ichiro wasn’t in sight anymore, the tense aura that was emanating from the oldest hyena was growing wider, with Ms. Haida looking visibly upset and terrified, as he finally started muttering:

“Is this supposed to be some kind of a twisted joke?!”

“Honey…” Ms. Haida tried to comfort her husband, but it proved to have no effect, because he soon tilted his head up to look at Genta’s father, saying:

“Here I thought Jiro finally having a friend would make him less clingy with Ichiro, so that he could finally be more open, but it’s like the Gods above are laughing at me, because not only is he obsessed with our oldest son, he’s now obsessed with your goddamn middle child!”

“Thank you for saying the obvious, Juzo.” His father responded. “But what do you want us to do about that? Jiro’s the only friend Yukiharu has been able to have for years now, and you know how bad he is with staying friends near age!”

“You should be worried about it, Riichi! You think both of our sons are gonna find a woman in their life if they are as inseparable as they are right now, huh?!” He spat back, and before the two adults could get into a fight, while their wives watched on the sideways, Sakiyo spoke up:

“...Maybe they are gonna get married, after all?...”

Jiro and Yukiharu, married? Genta scrambled his mind thinking about that possibility, because not only did she mean that they are going to love each other in the near future, but that it would mean that he’d become Ichiro’s brother-in-law and did not want that to happen! Not to mention, that’s not how marriage worked in the slightest!... Their parents said that a wedding is between a man and a woman, and it’s not like Yukiharu would be like those people… right?

Sure, Yuki gets bored with Genta whenever he starts talking about himself, but he was still his brother. If he was a… like those people, wouldn’t he be betraying him and their whole family…?

But that scarlet expression back then… Yukiharu wasn’t that easy to tease with his lovelife. And he seemed…. More strange as of late, were all of those…?

“Sakiyo! Don’t you dare make such a baseless accusation! Our son wouldn’t be a filthy queer!” His mother berated his sister, as his father was quick to follow it up by saying:

“I’m not sure about Jiro, but ours wouldn’t be sick in the head like them!”

“I-I know, but-” Sakiyo muttered, but was quickly told over by the loud yelling Mr. Haida let out, screaming:

“JIRO’S ABNORMAL AS IT IS, AND YOU THINK HE’S A FAG?! MY OFFSPRING BEING SUCH A PIECE OF GARBAGE IS IMPOSSIBLE!”

“Honey, don’t say tha-” However, Ms. Haida’s words fell on deaf ears, as his parents and Juzo began screaming at each other, which is when Mrs. Haida took Sakiyo’s hands, who was about to be on the verge of tears, and took her outside.

It’s like the times before when Sakiyo was still a baby, and when their father and mother screamed at each other due to themselves, their three kids, or people outside their house. He hated when they screamed, because Yuki and Sakiyo usually cried and he also did too, and it was so terrible.

However, when he thought of a way to get them to stop arguing, he always needed to get their attention, which was not that successful most of the time. Then, in due time, he became better and better at stealing their attention, so much so that the two were intently listening to him.

Which is why he’s going to do it again to escalate the situation downward, which was making himself the target of attention, coughing loudly to gather everyone’s attention while still sitting at the dining table.

When all eyes were on him, he came up with a quick excuse, to get them to stop talking about Jiro and Yuki, which was:

“Mr. Haida, Dad, Mom, you are thinking this way out of proportion. Just think of it this way, if I only had a single friend, and I knew that I’d be terrible at getting more friends, wouldn’t you keep them close to yourselves like Jiro and Yukiharu are to each other?”

He awaited with bated breath the response from their parents and Mr. Haida, and when he saw the three of them look more collected and calmer, Genta let out a sigh of relief.

“...Your son’s right, Riichi. With how Jiro is, it’s kind of expected that he would be like that to him… guess I just have to wait until he develops the same kind of attachment to a woman like he did with his brother and his best friend.” Mr. Haida murmured, as Genta’s parents just gave him a nod.

Afterwards, Mr. Haida went out and left with his family, with Yukiharu looking quizzically why it seemed like a huge fight was brought out in the dining room, with no one telling him why that was the case.

It’s not like as if Genta wanted to tell him, because if he said to him what the topic was about, there was a high likelihood of him showing on his face about how he truly feels about it, and he… didn’t wanna learn if what he’s been suspecting was true at all.

If it was true… then there’s no way he could make himself the main attraction for their parents to lose their fury, because if they found out about it, there’s no way he could protect Yukiharu from their screams.

Genta soon winced himself awake, his blurry mind slowly returning back into the realm of the living, as he realised that he was dreaming about his past, about the time when he figured out that Yukiharu had the hots out for Jiro.

But wasn’t he currently busy having fun in bed with some woman that his pimp handler, who had influence over at South Korea as well? Yeah, he basically had the air kicked out of him while the bed was up and down, and if that was the case…

Did he fall asleep after they were done…?

Genta made his back stand up straight, making him grunt from pain after using his wear-down muscles when they were still recovering, as he struggled to reach out for the light on the bed table, and as soon as the device illuminated light, he noticed a small note on it with a heart. ‘Hope you had fun 💘’

Next up, he leaned down and opened the bedside table’s drawer, where his phone was still laying, as he grabbed it and activated it to see how late it was.

23:30

Oh, so it was probably a few minutes since the hooker silently left his hotel room, if Genta’s sourness was a measuring point. Damn, she really did a number on all of his body parts, because it really felt as if his dick would fall off any moment now.

After letting the euphoria run through his bloodstream, Genta felt his whole body return back to that empty feeling, as if he had a hole in his chest, and he doesn’t mean it the same way like that crazy woman did.

Speaking of her, that woman was proving to be more of a challenge to negotiate with, because it seemed like they spent half the day arguing about physiological theatrics like the Mandela Effect, that the world was just one, big simulation and everything between it all. Naturally, he would think of her as just a senile old woman who really looked as if she needed to be put down to rest in peace, but there was something darker in her voice, and in her expressionless face.

He never wanted to have video game logic used as a reference as evidence for the simulation theory being real… He might be more gifted than most people, but even he had problems keeping up with the nonsense Mi-Sun was spouting to him…

Measurement problem in quantum theory… it really sounded like he was back in university, and Mi-Sun just happened to be the crazy professor at campus who tried to convince students to join a cult.

Just how in the fudge was he going to convince this demented wingless woman? Were there any weak points that he could use to his advantage? Senile that she may be, she was clearly well educated, and seems to see through his manipulation tactics, but she doesn’t say anything about it… her wall of defence was basically impregnable.

However, there must be something that he could use to convince the woman. The boy… She keeps dropping the mention of the ‘boy’ whom she tore that flower apart, and subsequently replaced the next day, or this day, afterward…

And much as Genta tries to remain ignorant to the subject, he couldn’t just look the other way from how Jiro is sounding more and more suspiciously like the ‘boy’ Mi-Sun keeps muttering about…

But… he can do this on his own, he doesn’t need his help! He’ll drop the bait with Jiro’s name on the last day when possible, hoping it would entice the woman enough to know that if she supported the Liberal manifest Party, she would be directly supporting Jiro, the ‘boy’ she keeps holding to high regards, who she sees as her son.

Genta sighed, deciding that he should save his energy for the day ahead of him, because if it’s going to be the same as today, he needs to be well rested to put up with that crazy woman’s tales of insanity.

Oh, how he envied Jiro’s position back at home, working in the office non-stop… at least he could go insane on his own terms, and not whatever cult tactics Mi-Sun was throwing at him.

Day 4 - Friday

Here he was yet again, in the lair of the crazy woman, having spent nearly half of the day already on trying to convince the woman to fund his political party, but as always, she remained stoic as a pebble.

He tried instigating the reason for her negligence in supporting them, saying her husband would surely have spent his money on his money, which she did concede, but ultimately said that would be the case if he was still living among them, which he now wasn’t for a good decade or so.

Then, he questioned whether she supported their opposition party, which Mi-Sun only gave her the gaze of the abyss with her eyes, and said that her organisation wasn’t politically interested, since she told them religion and law should be separated when it could be. She was indirectly telling him to just screw off with his prompt on asking for funds from the religious cult.

The two of them, who just returned from a nice dinner around in the temple, were seated in the woman’s office again, with Mi-Sun looking like she could play this game with him for all eternity if she could, seeing as she remained impassive as always, while Genta was urging himself to not have his irritation show on his face. He did work with a lot of old people, most of them more stubborn than an angered bull, so he did have some kind of resilience to this play between them.

“Mr. Ushijima.” She spoke, ambivalent in her speech. “Would you be up for some games of chess? It is a good way to express tactical prowess and a great introduction for sacrificing things, but I assume you already went through the terms of doing sacrifices.”

“What, not shogi?” He teased, finding it strange that someone like her would prefer the western type of shogi, as she soon answered:

“Shogi takes too long per round, and I do find myself fascinated with the prospects about how chess works.” She soon leaned down to pull open a drawer on her desk, placing a chess board on her desk. “And I myself detest the idea of how shogi operates as a board game. The chess pieces are unloyal, insubordinate, traitorous. As soon as they get defeated, they’ll be in the enemy’s general’s palm, easy like that.”

She explained, opening up the chess box, and one by one pulling out the white and black chess pieces from the box, neatly putting themselves on opposing sides, but not on the chessboard yet.

“That’s just how life functions. Most people would all be too happy to change sides as soon as the sides they’re fleeing to can provide for them better.” Genta scoffed, finding it obvious that Mi-Sun seemed to like servience from her pawns, which he mostly expected from the cult leader, as the old woman soon added:

“The original sin of all mankind, the instinct of selfishness for themselves. It is… regrettable that people are too embedded with that motion to give themselves up for the people, for their loved ones, even. Being liberated from wanting is how we can achieve an idealistic future for the people that will walk the planet after we long perish.” She said, staring intently at the black queen piece, as she picked up a pawn on the white side, and said to Genta.

“It is why chess pieces, these pawns, are commendable for their loyalty. They perish when taken off the board, and the only change they undergo is a promotion if they reach the other side of the board. They are the ideal tools for their sides, and people with such attributes are to be appreciated. It’s why sacrificing them is easier to do than the ones in shogi.” She appraised the pawn, with Genta now wondering what he did in life to have a grandma who has totally lost it talk about subserviency about chess pieces, as she soon tilted her eyes towards the bull, and stated:

“You have sacrificed people in your life before, haven’t you, Mr. Ushijima? I can sense it from your mind, the thwarting string of guilt is very eminent from how you radiate it in an unpleasant way.”

Genta felt a sudden chill up his spine, the judgemental glare of the woman nearly enough to whisk away the man’s shining soul.

Just what did she mean by that? It’s obvious that as a politician, he had to step on some toes here and then, but then why did it sound like the ‘betrayal’ she was talking about was more pronounced, something more personal to Genta as a whole?

Was she talking about Yukiharu? How?...

And even if that was the case, why was she assuming that Genta had any sense of guilt for exposing his secrets to the family…? It’s not like he was the one who actually wanted to expose him, seeing as he was caught reading his diary, and his mom was as curious as Genta to see what the younger cattle had written, which turned out to be horrific experiment, because he can still picture the moment his mother dragged the book from his hands, urging everyone to meet together to talk about the new events that were discovered, and how Genta should be the one to read it, since he was the one who found evidence of Yukiharu’s ‘sickness’.

No, he shouldn’t dwell on this memory, since he really didn’t feel any type of guilt for it…

“And what of it?” Genta questioned, trying to defend himself from the woman’s treacherous eyes of nothingness. “It’s not that far to assume that you haven’t done the same as me, the dazzling Ushijima? If I were to reach perfection, then I will do anything necessary to achieve it for the betterment of Japan!”

“I see…” Mi-Sun muttered, her voice seemingly some hint of disappointment. “... how unsatisfactory. As much as we could debate about perfectionism and how it’s unattainable in the life cycle that we find yourselves in, we shouldn’t dally around any longer, we should begin our joust of pawns.”

The grandma placed all of the pieces on the chessboard, with him having the white pieces, and with Mi-Sun having the back pieces, which would mean he shall make the first move.

“I surmise you know how the rules of chess function, I take it?” Mi-Sun asked, with the bull responding with a nod for confirmation, as she gestured for Genta to move his first piece on the board.

The games between then begin fully, with the two of them taking pawns and figures alike off the chessboard, and even though he doesn’t play chess that much, he has a feeling that he’s on the backfoot fighting Mi-Sun, because it feels like she is scheming manoeuvres left and right, like as if she conniving pitfalls for him to fall into.

“Do you know there are more chess moves then there are atoms in our universe?” She randomly interjected, as she took his last knight off the board, making the bull worried whether he was going to win at this point, as she then added: “The amount of atoms in the observable universe is to be estimated to be around 10^78 to 10^82, while there is about 10^111 to 10^123 possible chess positions. Isn’t it strange how our world consists of less of the material that it’s made out of, then there are moves on a 8x8 board?”

“Mrs. Mi-Sun… Do you always have random trivia ready at your disposal?” Genta questioned, as he moved his priest a bit to threaten the pawn which was making its way to get promoted, as she replied:

“No, not always. It’s just something I remember telling the ‘boy’ when I was still able to see him.”

The ‘boy’ again… Genta was now pretty sure that Mi-Sun was talking about Jiro, which really caused so many questions to stir in his mind, like how she even got to teach him in the first place, when it would have been a bloody ordeal to convincing Mr. Haida to get over his anger about anything that didn’t authentically come from Japan, and what even she was teaching him in the first place. From the few tidbits she’s been dropping about her time as Jiro’s tutor, it’s highly likely she thought him mathematics, because she was insanely fast on computing numbers in her head, even making the bull sit there in awe yesterday when he first listed off a huge list of profits the church would be getting, and how it was all ‘unneeded’.

“And speaking of the boy…” Mi-Sun stated, as she grabbed a hold of the queen piece, making Genta alarmed by the possibilities she could be making with it, as she seemingly placed it on a weird angle. “The queen piece, it is what I would say is a great descriptor of him.”

Jiro, a queen piece? Just where was she getting to?

“Gender aside, the queen piece is the strongest piece on the board, overpowering any and all pieces that come in contact with it. It is a juggernaut of immeasurable power, and as much influence they have over the board, they will turn to dust as soon as their king gets checkmated.” Mi-Sun said, making Genta not only distracted by what the hell she was getting into, and also nervous on what kind of move he should do next, as she continued on:

“In some way, the boy and I are two queen pieces, pieces that belong to different orders, and we were able to see each other after both of our kings have been checkmated.”

If Genta is following her lines of thought, then that means the king piece for Mi-Sun would be her husband… while for Jiro… it had to have been Ichiro. It just made the most sense, seeing as even though Ichiro was to be the successor, it was obvious to nearly everyone how Jiro was able to outmatch him, like how a queen outmatches a king’s movement infinitely.

“...Wouldn’t that mean that you’re saying you’re both worthless?” Genta questioned, finally deciding on the best move he could think at the moment, which was to sacrifice his last pawn to the priest, which he would take down with his rook.

“No. A queen piece without their king piece is nothing. It is void of their former self, it is incapable of doing things by itself. It cannot function without the support of the king. The boy and I, we found solace in the emptiness that we had in ourselves, of losing our purpose, of having been checkmated in the grand scheme of things.”

Strangely enough… This profound mess she was talking about did sound logical to him, since the Jiro he remembered that was vividly up-in-arms for his brother was a glaring difference from the one he met who actively, but silently hated his brother at the time. However, he wouldn’t describe the latter Jiro phrase as being nothing… but more like a husk of his former self.

“No new games can be made for me, as my side lacks the prerequisite pieces for it, but for the boy… he still has the pieces to begin the game anew, to gain the power back which he once held. I do worry myself over him, and whether he was able to find purpose again. Check.” She stated, moving the queen piece to directly Genta’s king piece, which he was able to thankfully move away for now, as Genta just asked:

“You speak highly of this ‘boy’... it almost sounds like you’re nearly dying to see him again.”

“Yes, that would be the case. I have no good guess on where he could be at now, since the people close to him would be less than excited to see my face again, daft as their reasoning for it may be. Also check.” Mi-Sun stated, as Genta used a figure to protect the angle Mi-Sun’s priest could have attacked his king.

“I see…” Genta muttered, as he made his final mistake of the game, as Mi-Sun moved her queen piece in such a way, where whatever tile he was to move the king piece, it would be either attacked by the queen piece, the priest piece, or the knight on the left side, meaning there was no way for him to win, as Mi-Sun announced.

“Checkmate. Not bad for a beginner. Some needless sacrifices were made by you, but besides that, you used all figures to their utmost potential. Interested in a rematch?”

Genta hated losing, and as much as this chess match was trivial, it sure stung him a little that he was being footstumped by the grandma during the latter half of the matches, saying:

“Naturally! While we’re duelling, I assume you not to be annoyed if we tried negotiating again?”

Mi-Sun didn’t respond, but he knew she didn’t turn down the offer, which meant that for the rest of the day, he spent his day getting his butt kicked by the grandma, while making no progress whatsoever on convincing the woman to let down her guard.

At this point… he really has to bring up Jiro to entice her in a bit… and he doesn’t know how he should feel about that…

Day 5 - Saturday

He really has to bring out the Jiro card tomorrow.

He faceplanted himself on his bed to sober up from whatever excuse of a meeting he was with Mi-Sun, feeling himself get more calmer the more he was suffocating under the neatly put bed sheets.

Mi-Sun, as always, went on a tangent about whatever word salad of a conspiracy she was thinking of the moment, sounding like a broken record to the bull, because he was now confident he could clearly explain in detail everything to do with the simulation theory, principles supporting it and a mix of hinduism that the butterfly was fluttering about to him.

It was, quite literally, a time waste of what he was doing here. On a second retrospection, was it really that smart of a choice for him to not mention Jiro’s existence during their negotiation, to see how the butterfly would have reacted after being told of the ‘boy’ she seems to hold in high regards, and whether that was because she was fascinated by him, or because she was projecting her issues on a 13 year old at the time?

He really had to question why the prime minister seemed so insistent over the phone yesterday that he should get the Amalganations’s church support and funding. He could have understood if the previous leader of the church was still in power, because beneath the cult persona of his, he was a shrewd and brutal businessman, using his influence and power to channel money to parties that aligned with his worldviews. Surely, the church didn’t hold that much money and power, now that Mi-Sun cancelled nearly every money route that flowed into the church, right?

Genta mentally wailed to himself, as he turned around and laid himself on the bed for some time until it was time for him to eat dinner, and then probably see what he was missing out in Japan, and possibly watch TV, since his libido seemed satisfied at the moment.

After dinner…

Genta was comfortably laying on his bed, just having showered a few minutes ago, only spotting a thin t-shirt on him and his boxers, as he was channel surfing through every possible channels on this TV, and he seemed content with the NHK one, supposedly reporting on a scandal back home in Japan about how some business man turned crazy like Mi-Sun, and slaughtered his whole family, until he eventually couldn’t live with himself, and joined them.

What a great introduction to his leisure time. As if he didn’t have enough crazy people in his life, even the television from this high-class hotel was mocking him about it!

The screen showed that it was 21:00 right on the dot, which meant that he still had a few hours left before he inevitably went to sleep, and was greeted with the last day of putting up with the cult leader’s bullshit, hoping spelling out the name Jiro Haida was gonna be enough for Mi-Sun to reconsider her funds allegations, which kind of was non-existent, besides the few companies whom she still was supporting behind curtains. Most companies do not want everyone to know that they’re affiliated with a religious organisation that is dangerously close to being a cult, after all, as much as the current leader made it less cultsy.

“Hajime, I know you were the one to report on the news yesterday about what’s happening in politics and we know you love reporting on it, but are you willing to bend an ear to a gossip loving woman like myself, and have us talk about a mixture between the two?” The female lemur in the orange smiled fervently, while the neutral looking elephant in the blue suit just rolled his eyes at the rumour-loving woman, saying:

“This again, Kanako? It’s better not be about the man I’m currently thinking about…”

“Too bad! It’s exactly about him I wanna talk about again! You know, this info might interest guys like you in no capacity, but this information for us women is tantamount of having rediscovered gold!”

Kanako Sachno, the lemur reporter standing on the right, was an anchor in the NHK, and if her stating it outright wasn’t obvious enough, she specialised on reporting on infidelity, affairs, and human connections, while the elephant to the left, Hajime Koga was an anchor in the NHK as well, but being more specialised when it came to politics. It was basically impossible to not see his face when an election or anything similar to it was occurring, and he of course was supporting the Liberal Manifest Party, like he should.

“*Sigh*, just because Jiro Haida is single again, you don’t have to blow a horn to all the women around Japan to covet him again...”

Wait, is he partially deaf, or did he actually hear that correctly? Jiro Haida being single again?

“Hajime! The number one bachelor is liberated again! Of course there would be a nationwide announcement to all the lonely women out there that they might have a chance with that piece of a man!”

The woman stated, as on the screen behind the two anchors, a photo appeared, which seemed to be a screenshot from Twitter, that was clearly a message from Jiro and how he was quote on quote “taking time to himself”.

Genta was instantly spurned on to grab his phone to go investigate himself, and with a few clicks, it was without a doubt the same thing he was seeing on his mobile phone as it was showing on the television.

Well, well, well. It seems like even Yoshie wasn’t enough to tatter Jiro down, and it sure feels like Jiro was personally spitting into his father’s face for all the matchmaking activities he put him through.

“Kanako, if you would, it clearly says the the poor man is taking time off for himself, so I highly doubt lonely women like you are capable of woo’ing his heart, and not to men-”

“Lalalalala, what a bunch of elephant crap! We know that Jiro is just playing with our feelings here, and he either must have found someone else already, which would be disastrous to the whole of Japan-” This earned a grunt from the elephant. “or he’s on the lookout for a suitable partner!... So, you damned hyena, my phone number is 48-”

“How about we don’t do that on live television, Kanako…” The elephant spoke, clearly embarrassed for his colleague, as he held his long nose to shield whatever kind of strings of numbers she was going to spell out, as the woman looked red in the face that she was silenced. “Anyway, on a more pressing issue, in Saitama-”

Genta toned out whatever those anchors were reporting on, because at the moment, he decided that he should write to two people, with it conveniently being the same two people the news reporters were just talking about.

For Jiro, he just wrote:

He’s not sure if the hyena got himself busy with an illegitimate lover or he was genuinely tired with his father’s puppeteering, but he sure hopes at least gets a whiff of irritation from it. He had Yoshie devoted to himself, but his ego was so ginormous, that he didn’t even try paying attention to her, all because it was his father’s choice. It’s pitiable, really.

And now, for the person whose reply he was anticipating the most, the surely heartbroken canary that just got dumped. It must be quite an experience being dumped for the first time, he thought to himself, as he wrote a message to Yoshie, it being.

Before he could even do the courtesy of moving his head up to see what those two clowns on the reporting were doing, his phone immediately bugged with a notification, and upon checking it, it was a message from Yoshie.

Oh, Yoshie was way more aggressive than Genta thought the woman would be, imagining her to be more depressed than lashing out like this, as he responded:

Forced to dump…? Huh? Surely, she wasn’t getting delusional out of this, was she?

Two shots of tequila… that basically meant she was dangerously closing on intoxicating herself to death in Yoshie language, which is why he wrote a quick warning to her father, just to be sure she wouldn’t drop dead from a crushed heart, as he began writing back to her:

Yeah… Yoshie was pretty drunk, alright. Hiding his disgust from Yoshie’s fantasies, Genta decided to press on the important thing the bird didn’t elaborate yet, which was:

Ichiro? Ichiro’s the reason why Jiro pulled out between him and Yoshie? Sure, Jiro looked up to Ichiro… but would he really break up this relationship of his, just like that?...

On a second thought, Jiro wasn’t that invested, and Jiro was highly obsessed with Ichiro, so it wasn’t that far off the mark for Jiro to pull a stunt like that…

Oh, was Yoshie really that adamant on getting back to Ichiro, who may or may not have incentivised Jiro to break up with the woman? Maybe he can put more log on that burning streak of vengeance, by writing…

She started writing, which Genta didn’t deal with at the moment, which is why he stopped reading the messages. With nothing else to do, he refocused his mind on what was being shown on the TV, and it seems like the elephant and lemur were discussing something else, which seemed to be another case of murder, and this time around, it seems like they are talking about a serial murderer.

“Another case in the Lynchers murders… to think it has been nearly a decade since these sporadic strangulation homicide cases hang themselves open in our country!” The lemur described, with too much glamour in her voice from the sensitive subject they were talking about, as the older, more refined man continued on.

“The strangulation case happened in Mie Prefecture, Yunuharacho, with the victim being a young man around in his late twenties, whose body was found hanging near a shrine. As per the Lynchers MO, the killer wrote down on a note the sins the man has committed.”

“Supposedly, the man had pornographic content about children, and had several cases of assault on his name. Well, guess the Lyncher Vigilante has struck again with cleaning off dirt from our country!” The woman cheered, as the elephant waved his hand from how much he disagreed with the notion, as he stated:

“Kanako, I thought we already went over this. This sociopath picks victims in an unsystematic manner, and many good men and women perish from this bloodied murderer's hands.”

“It’s what they say, but let me tell you, those guys must have had some secrets hiding in closed doors! People don’t just assault people and then choke them afterwards for no reason!”

“Tch, try keeping the rumours out of professional cases. It’s unbecoming of us news reporters…” The elephant muttered, as the younger woman seemed to get the motion, and cleared her throat, as she continued reporting more in detail about the most recent victim.

However, Genta just shut down the television, seeing as he wasn’t that privy about how a murderer, whose gender was still a mystery to the public, showed the man’s corpse like some attraction side at the shrine, and decided that he might as well go to bed, not having anything to do at the moment but rest.

And boy, was he going to need the rest for tomorrow, because it’s going to be the last day attempt, where he’ll unfortunately have to utter Jiro’s name, and pray it would be enough to convince that troublesome butterfly to spare some money for their campaign.

Day 6 - Sunday

Since he was going to return home around 2 P.M, and it was currently 10 A.M, he quite literally had to quickly tell Mi-Sun that Genta was in fact in touch with the ‘boy’ she keeps muttering about like she was the man’s own mother.

And that moment was now, where the two of them were yet again sitting at the woman’s desk, with Genta unfortunately having to listen to another round about emptiness.

Like, damn woman, he does not give a damn that she’s depressed, he’s only here for her organisation’s funds, and only for that! Maybe Jiro would be motivated to entertain the woman, but he wasn’t the hyena, which meant he might as well be cutthroat in the matter.

“Yes, I very much understood what you were preaching to me, Mi-Sun.” He lied, losing the thread of their conversation about halfway through. “But may I start a conversation between us that doesn’t have to do anything with our fund negotiation, since it is our final day together at this place.”

“I assume it’s gonna be an attempt at convincing me to fund your political campaign indirectly.” The woman spoke, as Genta mentally prevented himself from twitching with his face, saying:

“No, it’s about the ‘boy’ that is a constant driving point in our conversation, I think I may know him personally.” Ah, and just like that, it seems like the statue of a woman expressed actual emotions for once, the woman raising her eyebrow, as she just said:

“Oh? Do go on…”

“Well, he’s my co-worker, sorts of, and his name is Jiro Haida. Does the name ring any bells, as much as it isn’t as fascinating as I?” The bull spoke, making the woman actually react with shock and excitement, as her face soon died down.

“Jiro’s… your co-worker? I see... How is the boy doing?”

“I’d be lying if I said anything, since I’m not really friends with him, besides the bond we share at our workplace.” He stated, hoping the woman’s curiosity was going to get the better of her…

“Then I shall travel over to Japan to visit him. You can show me where he works, correct?”

“Hold on, woman, you’re just deciding to go fly over to Japan? I’m not really sure what you do all day, but can you really fit that in your schedule?” He spoke, clearly puzzled how the woman changed her tone, as she said:

“I can, and I will. Just to be clear, is Jiro in the same political campaign as yours?”

“Yes, that he is. He is quite a fierce rival among our ranks.” And he was going on his nerves, too. He was practically outperforming him, and getting that bill through was still making Genta mad whenever he thinks about it…

The butterfly hummed, as her eyes tilted to her monitor.

“Could you share your travel information? I might detest flying, but I’m confident I’ll be able to grin through it.”

“...I’ll send it over via email.” Genta spoke, as he began sharing the information to the woman, who was pretty quickly typing on her keyboard.

“Regarding your obnoxious amount of nagging for funds… I’ll be considering it, so please don’t ask me about it now.”

Like that, he most certainly was able to get some of that money from the Amalgamation Church, just like what was requested of him. It’s ridiculous how he only needed to mention Jiro’s name fully and that the two of them were co-workers for his plans to go his way. Why is it that Jiro always seemed to be involved in things like this, because how in the hell was a cult leader so fond of him?

No wonders Juzo called him abnormal, because a person like him might have been fictitious. And to think he never once saw this woman, seeing as his parents saw the woman a few times, due to her being Jiro’s tutor, until Juzo got too suspicious of her trying to convert Jiro.

“I am happy to learn that…. Is there anything else you might want to discuss with me, because if you’re coming to Japan, then we should stop our meeting and get prepared for the trip back to Japan.”

“Yes, let us halt the meeting. I need to make some directives for my subordinates for the time being, since I’ll be gone for about a week. Just to be clear, is the boy… subservient to his father?” She stated, as Genta raised his shoulders, and replied:

“Nah, Jiro would burn him alive if he could. It’s quite… irksome, to say the least.”

“Hmm…” The woman replied, as Genta slowly rose up from his seat, as the two decided to sever their conversation.

“Well…” The bull declared, who was just in front of the door that led outside, turning his back around to look at the woman still sitting in her office chair. “Guess we’ll meet at the airport? Never thought I’d have the privilege of spending more time with a dignified person such as yourself.” Oh, he cringed inside. It was the literal antithesis of a privilege of having to listen to the mad woman’s rambling, and he hoped they would be seated 10 feet apart.

“That we shall. You may leave now.”

Per her request, he left the office, leaving out an enormous relief of sigh, as he wandered back to the chauffeur that brought him here.

Well, as soon as he gets home, he can enjoy his afternoon knowing he was able to complete his mission, as much as it was mentally taxing to put-up with Mi-Sun.

However, he did not anticipate the woman coming WITH him…

Just what was the woman planning? She assumes she wants to meet Jiro, and if that was the case, then he should keep his mouth shut about it around his father and Juzo, because if she gets denied access to Jiro, she might not pay the fund to their campaign.

But currently, he was happily strolling along the corridor, silently whistling to himself.

Mi-Sun was alleviated by the news. Jiro, her little Jiro, was now a full-fledged adult, and from the bull’s words, was doing drastically better when she first saw him.

The boy back then was all reserved, his soul being wrapped in a black tar that made everyone blind looking at it, of him being devastated with his life.

She herself was devastated around the time, when nearly all, bar one, of her family members died at that awful, blazing accident. So terrible…

The plan now could be commenced, seeing as she would have no regrets with continuing this plan of hers, now that she knows how well the boy was doing well.

She embraced herself, the black emptiness just being a tad bit brighter than usual, as she announced to the empty office:

“The embryonic state of Operation: Nihility… it has begun. The ontogenesis process finally started, thanks to the boy.”

Operation: Nihility… the operation that would save her and all her followers from all torment and agony…

It truly has started, and she needs to make some adjustments to see her dreams realised. She turned around, to face the painting that haunted her office, of the man who’s been liberated from the shackles of responsibility, from this cycling hell of torment.

“Sook Moon, the occasion has arrived. I’ll not be disappointing you.”

Chapter Text

If she knew for an instance on how a dream felt like, she would surely be thinking that she was out of her mind having a boyfriend like Seiji, and how currently, they were eating at a nice Italian restaurant, and finally spending some time with each other, now that Yuki and Jiro now have become Shikabane’s problem. From the way she texted and sounded over when they were gaming, it sounds like they are the couple that makes you look the other way from how you feel you’re intruding into their personal space, and Fenneko was more than proud to know that that was the case.

She is going to receive so much evidence of Haida’s brother’s indecencies that the man might crook over from shame. His brother went through 25 years of no unsolicited thoughts with anyone, and now that he was finally sharing with his ex-best friend, he was sure to be as annoying about it as any other person.

And personally, she isn’t going to mind if she’s annoying about her love with Seiji, because he’s the first person that she ever dated and his charm… the horse was just too mesmerising in his own ways.

“So… what are you getting?” Seiji asked, going through the menu, while Fenneko, who was busy receiving some complaints from Shikabane, as she just answered:

“Maybe some vegetarian pizza. As much as buying spaghetti and us having slurp on a single pasta noodle sounds romantic, I’m a pizza type of gal when it comes to Italic food.”

“That’s a shame. Then I’ll just order some lasagne for myself, seeing that it’s Monday.” The man responded, as Fenneko let out a smirk from having Seiji reference the orange cat, personally seeing the guy as her spirit animal, because who genuinely likes Mondays? It'd have to be someone that actually likes their job, so probably Tadano or Haida. She would have added Jiro to the list, but since he left work at 6 P.M, like how most honest-living adults hate their lives in Japan, she was certain Jiro also belonged to the same group like Fenneko and Retsuko of tolerating their job. Now that he thinks about it, maybe she could invite the man to a double date so that she can have an excuse to drink fine wine, and possibly also invite Haida and Retsuko over, but at that point, would it be a triple date, or just friends hanging out?

“Who are you messaging on the phone, by the way?” Seiji asked, who now had the menu closed on the table, while he called for a waiter to come to their table, as Fenneko just responded:

“Shikabane. Seems like she’s less than happy that we managed to get the two lovebirds together, since she feels like Jiro has invaded the apartment Yuki and Shikabane share. Also a few comments about her having the slight chance of getting jumpscared of the two men loving physical content. She’s fearing that she might walk into them doing it, and I don’t blame the girl, because I’d be terrified of it as well if I was living with the white bull.”

“It really sounds like Shikabane is the one intruding into the guys’ corner, like she’s the skunk that Yuki decided to one day adopt from a box carton, and now she’s the non-consenting third wheel to their shenanigans.”

“Haha, that kinda fits the description. Good thing this isn’t my problem to deal with, because even if I got them together, I don’t need to pry into their relationships besides from the rear, just like Haida’s and Retsuko’s relationship.” She replied, as a waiter came by, and got the couple’s orders.

“Man, it’s still weird to think that the politician I saw on television many times before is so different in real life, because who would have thought that the man who had nearly all women charmed by his looks had the hots for some gym rat white bull who can’t cook for crap.”

“I think it’s a well established fact that Jiro is very likely to like men who are absolute losers. It’s been proven that people often go for romantic partners that remind them of their family members, and since Yuki ticks out the loser checkmark, albeit not to the level that Haida has, and with his physic, it’s a no brainer that the hyena is down bad for the other man.”

Seiji seemed intrigued by what the fennec fox had to share, seeing as he raised his eyebrow.

“Oh really? Maybe I remind you of a family member you have?” The horse said, which is when Fenneko tried to think if that was really the case. Her father didn’t act like Seiji, and her brothers were nothing like Seiji, so that wasn’t the case. Even her mom didn’t act like him, with her being too uptight to serve any semblance of similarity between the horse and the woman.

Now that she thinks about it, the most likely scenario would be that she started liking the horse as soon as day 1, and it was because he was a real-life counterpart to Seiya, the horse boyfriend she had, before she eventually pawned off the guy, or tried to do, because she couldn’t really get back all the transactional purchases from the game.

Would it be really that smart to tell the man that she started liking him because she reminded him of a fictional man who served as a boyfriend to women not in a relationship? Now that she thinks about it, it was a very scummy thing to do to capitalise one’s and zero’s to get a customer’s money, and how she fell into their trap like any other person. Just how? What is their secret…

“Uh… not really. It’s just a possibility that that’s the case. So what about me? Is there someone nonchalant in your family tree that I should know about?” Fenneko retorted, as Seiji just gave her a shake of the head, and then told:

“Not really. You really have a distinctive personality, you know?”

“Ah, aren’t you just a charmer. I could say the same thing about you as well!” She blushed, returning the compliment/flirt at her.

“Really?”

“Really really! I mean, your flirting is the only thing that gets me flustered like this! If even a saint in being patient like Jiro was able to get tired from my rambling about you, then I dare say you are as distinctive as I am.” She responded, making the horse smile a bit more, as he then said:

“It really does make me think, what is this special sparkle you see in me? Call me self-deprecating all you want, but I really think I’m one of those guys you see on the streets that you don’t pay much attention to.”

“Oh, then I’ll call you self-deprecating, because you’re far away from being the normal man you can meet anywhere. It’s hard to describe it, but it’s like you’re directly coming over from a dream, because not only are you beautiful, charming and playful, but also radiating in the best way possible. Also, can you really call yourself the guy downtown when you have nearly visited every country in the world?”

“Yeah, guess I really was just fishing for compliments there, was I?” The man scoffed, as Fenneko sighed, and said:

“That you were. I thought you would have some little shame in it when you admitted to it.”

“Guess not, huh?”

The two continued having small talk between each other, as Fenneko’s tray of as minimal amount of meat on a pizza arrived, while the horse received a very tasty looking lasagna, as the two began eating their meals. The pizza was very delicious, and if the person sitting opposite to her wasn’t Seiji, she might have not shared it with the recipient if they were to ask for a bite.

“Strange thing to ask you while we’ve been dating for like a week, but what do you even like to do? I know that you know that I like wall-climbing and I’m an adventurer, but I really don’t have a clear picture on what you do, besides being a professional relationship expert on the side-lines.” Seiji spoke, taking a gulp from his meal, as Fenneko tried to think of some of her likes that she liked to do.

“Yeah, now that I think about it, the two guys going sideways with their love life did throw a wrench in our own relationship, so you really don’t know of my own hobbies. Well, I really don’t have any kind of exercise or activities that I do in the afternoon, besides gaming with my friends. Guess I’m one who you would describe as being terminally online, and I don’t like how that sounds… forced online, yeah, I’m like that.”

Seiji seemed puzzled by her answer at first, but it didn’t take long for him to regain the expression he held a few minutes ago, as he pressed Fenneko again.

“Really? I mean, spending a lot of time online isn’t necessarily that bad, because you’re sociable enough. What do you even spend your time doing when you’re not going out with friends?” The man questioned, as Fenneko instantly answered:

“I filter through all social media apps and act as its officer to call out BS when I see one.”

“Uh… what?”

“You know, those types that act as thirst tweets so that they can get guys to click their OnlyFans link to earn some revenue, political dickheads who are really all about themselves and the money than the general populace at hand, people with unjustly bad taste in shipping, like those kind of couples that don’t make sense or have no chemistry, or worse, have some fucked up markings to them that would make you think why you had to see it all, alt-right hypocrites that make the most folliest arguments imaginable or-”

“I think I get it… so you just… wait, what do you even do as a cop? You’re not a moderator on all social media apps, are you?” Seiji soon interjected, as Fenneko now got to explaining that instead, which was.

“Instacop, Twittercop, etc… Well, you could say that I’m a high analyst, who’s able to deduce people’s general patterns using social media, like for Tsunoda as an example has this pattern to herself where she posts random photos of selfies, latte and dessert pics, but usually, whenever she sends a thigh pic, it is a virtue signalling to all the thirsty guys out there in hundreds that the antelope is open for some fun again, and by fun, I mean needless dates that go nowhere. That’s what Komiya told me a year ago when he was able to go out with her, and it really seemed like she wasn't interested in a man, lest they come with some dripping hot limousine in their names. Maybe she should just date an ATM machine so that her problem of marrying a rich guy is solved like that.”

“Oh…” Seiji muttered, and Fenneko wasn’t sure what the reason for the horse’s dejected look was, because wasn’t it interesting how she’s able to dunk on people who were stupid to her like the aforementioned Tsunoda?

Like what was the point of marrying a guy just for money? It'd be no better than being married to your credit card, and all people knew it would be terrible if you could date them, because as soon as the card gets into some difficulties, you’ll have to jump through so many loops to get them to be accessible again, and Fenneko didn’t have the patience for it. Trash talking them was also fun, because most political arguments online can be freaking terrific in concept from how much it could deny basic human rights, having people in support of it utter the most ridiculous thing you’ve read in your whole life, while they’re yelling to themselves that they’re on the right side is the funniest thing ever to Fenneko. Being a troll to people like her is something she would do without any kind of pay, which she was doing all the time, anyway.

“Anyway, is there anything you like besides wall climbing and travelling the world? I don’t think I have anything else I can describe to such limits like my social media copping, so I might as well pass the ball over to you.” Fenneko spoke up, as the horse now seemed lighter in the face.

“Hmm, oh, actually, there’s a few things I can tell you about! Like for example-”

And like that, their usual ping-pong of small talk to each other as a couple continued while eating delicious Italian food, as Fenneko forgot during the conversation of the sudden way Seiji seemed to have reacted to trash talking people online.

All these new things that they’re going to share between each other, now that they are a couple, was going to be so exciting, that Fenneko couldn't help but think of how love can feel so wonderful sometimes!

In some way, it’s like being intoxicated with wine, and how you always want more of it. She really can’t imagine being without Seiji, like she is when she’s drunk and she didn’t have any kind of red liquid minutes after that realisation, and she hopes she can keep him for many years to come.

It has been 4 days since Jiro has broken up with her, and if she had to use the correct words for how she was feeling at the moment, she’d describe it as being bedridden with unimaginable panging pain.

Thankfully, she hid her face enough for people to not notice how miserable she was feeling, besides her Father, who gave her a week off to handle the issue of being separated from Jiro. She didn’t need it, to be frank, because during those 4 days, she’s been doing nothing but eating ice cream while watching her favourite dramas, while possibly intoxicated whenever an emotional moment came up in the series. She’s sure she drank more alcohol the last 4 days than she did the whole year around, and she was positive she was getting tired from it.

Thusly, she was in front of a Private Detective Agency, The Tokyo Sleuthhound Agency in Shibuya City. The sun shone, with the rain from yesterday subsiding, which meant that standing in front of the building was swelterish. She hated summer, due to her clothes mostly consisting of black clothes to match with her near-gold feathers, which meant that she always had to hide her displeasure being figuratively cooked alive. However, if she was to wreak havoc on the man who ruined her love life, she needed to gain intel on the older Haida man, no matter if she were to be roasted alive for it. That man needs to pay for needlessly hurting her in his petty jousting match that he has with his father, and oh, will she make sure the man is going to feel the same amount of pain that she’s feeling.

She’s pretty sure she can not tell the Agency her intention of upping the score with the man, possibly getting Jiro back into her hands, so she came up with a well-reasoned lie which could put a private investigator on the hyena’s tail, and his wife’s.

She already decided that she wanted a private investigator on Ichiro Haida for tracking him due to safety reasons, and she can use Jiro’s reason for breaking up with her of him doing so because he wanted to protect her from threats that Jiro received, but didn’t share with her, just in case if they ask to get a look on those threats. Paranoid customers are surely what most private investigators have to do, so they can just write her off as being too worried for the sudden break up with her boyfriend.

With her head held upright, she moved into the building that the agency is situated at, moving up the building.

The clicks of her high heels were the only thing she heard while she rose the building, while her mind was wondering how she could get back against the trash that was Jiro’s brother, but decided she will think about her plan when she has gained some intel to make her move.

On the 2nd floor, she finally arrived on the floor where the agency was located, with two other businesses being on the building, but since she wasn’t here for therapy or for any other medical checkups, she just ignored those establishments, as she made her way to the detective agency.

Entering the agency, the doorbell rang, as the canary looked around the place. The floor was made from sturdy wood tiles, and it seems like she was in the waiting room, which is why she sauntered over to the chair that laid there, contemplating whether she wanted to pick up the heap of newspaper that was on the table.

After roughly half a minute afterwards, from the door that was on the opposite side from whence she came from, a German Shepherd made their appearance known, as she stated:

“Welcome to the Tokyo Sleuthhound Agency, come right in, miss!”

Yoshie stood up straight, adjusting her clothes a bit to appear more dignified, as she followed the female dog inside the agency. To her surprise, when the establishment prided itself on immersing the customer to the detectives of old in Britain, they weren’t speaking of utter nonsense, because the place basically looked like somewhere where Detective Sherlock Holmes would work with his trusty assistant. It really looked like she sat foot in a 1890’s building where detectives would work, from the copious amount of books sheltered on shelfs, to corkboards being nearly plastered on every wall with pictures, and a big fireplace… where a bat was laying whilst he was reading a book…

He was a glaring contraction to the atmosphere, because unlike the private detective agencies from centuries ago, he dressed himself more with the times.

The man who seemed to be in his early twenties had a gloom and shady expression on his face, and in this position that she was seeing the bat from, the only other things she could make out from the bat is that he had a small drop of light green hair dry protruding from his head, with him wearing a plain black t-shirt and skinny jeans with a pouch on his left side.

Honestly, the man might look more depressed than when Yoshie was back at home, and she doesn’t know if she should be impressed by it or not.

It seemed like she spend more time staying in place, being focused investigating the bat in the weird place he’s in, as the woman who took her inside turned around, a bit embarrassed, as she said to her:

“Oh, I forgot to mention, but Yami’s kind of like this! He’s an intern, but he does great work! He’s a good kid.” The woman explained, gesturing with her head to the bat who seemed to be focused on reading whatever kind of book he was reading, as she then stated:

“Earth to Yami! We’ve finally got you a customer to handle at the moment! Say hi to them!”

Sadly, the bat didn’t seem to notice the woman’s cries of attention, as the bat lazily turned next to the page, staring with dead eyes onto his book that looked tattered and used.

“He doesn’t seem to have noticed us…” Yoshie noted, as the german shepherd took a disappointing sigh, walking up to the man so that he couldn’t stay ignorant to the two women in the room, which is when Yami raised his head up, and asked:

“Oh… Mrs. Motosuwa… what’s the occasion?...” The bat spoke with a gloomy tone in his voice, still not realising that Yoshie was in the room, as the Mrs. Motosuwa in question replied:

“Yami, you’re needed in the line of duty, which is why I need you to get familiarised with Mrs. Kuroiwa standing behind me! It’s about time you finally got something else to do but read those scary stories you keep snatching from our office… sometimes, I wonder if my husband decided to order a dozen of them because you read through it like some maniac…”

“...I see… Welcome to… my working place, Mrs. Kuroiwa… Hello…” The bat waved to the canary, still laying on his stomach inside the fireplace, while Yoshie was really reconsidering how this place seemed to have the most positive results from all over Tokyo.

“Greetings to you too, Mr…?” She inquired, as the bat seemed to have continued on reading his book.

“My surname… that is of no importance… you can just call me Yami…”

“He’s Yami Komuri, and as I’ve said, he’s an intern we have in our agency! As gloomy as this boy appears to be, he’s a very thorough investigator!” Mrs. Motosuwa spoke, and instead of Yami appearing annoyed by it, it seemed like he wasn’t that bothered by it, humming to himself while he kept on reading his worn-out book from this office.

“Hop hop, boy! It’s rude to keep our customer waiting like this!” Mrs. Motosuwa, who must have been the owner’s wife, seeing as she remembered seeing a certain Motosuwa on the agencies website, as Yami took a dejected sigh, and set himself up from his resting place, as he quietly mumbled to himself:

“Sigh... I wish I could have died today…”

Yoshie was now really concerned for whatever was wrong with the bat man, as the elder woman just gave Yoshie an easy-going smile, speaking with her face to not raise her eyebrows from this man’s quirkiness.

“Follow me, Mrs Kuroiwa… you can tell me why you’re here, and then the receptionist here can handle the payment.” The bat uttered, as he stepped over to the closest door to the fireplace with an non-straight back, as the so called receptionist seemed to have gotten red in the face, as she declared:

“Yami, you know I’m not the receptionist!”

“But you’re always the one… greeting visitors, helping them navigate through the office, and supplying them with refreshments as they wait…” The man retorted, as the German shepherd seemed to have been lost on words, as she saw the dog go through a horrendous self-realisation.

She let the woman lay deep on realising the position she held in the agency, as Yoshie swiftly followed after the young bat, who she now could see on a better front. The man didn’t wear a simple plain black t-shirt, since on the front, he had an astronaut hanging from the moon, with him wearing a black bandana on the lower section of his neck which had some kind of a star-shaped design on it. Besides that, the only thing he noticed on the young man was a moon and bat tattoo on the front of his neck, which he could easily hide with the bandana right under the tattoo.

The intern and Yoshie soon walked into the small room, as the two took a seat at the table. In all honesty, she didn’t expect to be consulted by a young man about a decade younger than him who looked like a total emo. Is this how private investigators function and look? She expected them to look a bit more professional… but since they’re not working directly under the police force, the dressing code should be more laxer, Yoshie thinks.

“Excuse me… for being too invested in the literacy I was reading under the cosy fireplace.” The young man apologised, without much passion in his voice or sincerity in it, as Yoshie just stated:

“It’s no problem… but I have to wonder, why do you read under the fireplace, when you could read on furniture?”

“It’s more… calmer and warmer at the fireplace. It’s not like it’s getting used… anyway.” The man responded, perking a slight smirk on his face, as Yoshie wondered if those were good reasons as to why he should break for a place to read.

She shouldn’t really wonder how the man functions, because as long as he’s capable of getting some intel about Jiro’s brother, she shouldn’t care what the man is like.

“Anyway… should I be concerned about why Yoshie Kuroiwa is at the agency’s door where I intern?... It’s strange to see someone as rich as you reach out for our… services.”

Oh, so he knew her identity. That cut some of the explanation short.

“So you know me… that’s good, I don’t have to begin explaining about my backstory then.” She stated, taking a sigh of relief, as the bat scratched the back of his neck, moving his eyes away from the canary, as he replied:

“My friends talked about you… once. I wasn’t really interested in it, though…”

“Kind of figured, it doesn’t seem like you’re that… sociable.” She said truthfully, which earned a slight giggle from the dead looking man, until he eventually returned his neutral expression that he held a few minutes ago.

“Guess so… I was a loner most of the time, until a certain princess decided to latch onto me…” Princess? Who is he talking about? “But enough smalltalk… let’s kick off our transaction… for what are you in business for, Ms. Kuroiwa?”

There it was. The primal matter at hand, which would be her asking to monitor Ichiro Haida for intel. She took a deep breath, readying whatever nonsense she was going to tell to this apprentice, hoping he isn’t going to be able to see through the veil of lies she’s going to utter a few seconds from now.

“Well… would it be possible for you to monitor and gain any kind of information from a person?”

“Hmm… tracking? Yes, we offer such services, but I have to ask beforehand… Does it have something to do with Jiro Haida? We also offer services if it comes to cheating, but such cases are more requested from married couples in case of infidelity…” The man’s eyes twinged, as if he was directly scanning whatever Yoshie’s true intentions were, and as much as she thought about requesting that as well while also looking for information about Jiro’s brother, she knew Jiro would never have cheated on her. Her own investigations about it yielded no results, so it’s not like he was with someone else at the moment.

“In some way, kind of, but it does not have anything to do with checking if he has any illegitimate lovers at the moment. It’s about his… brother, older brother, if I have to be precise about it.” She said, feeling a bit awkward about it, as the bat seemed to have been staring at her for a few seconds, until…

“Tracking… Jiro Haida’s older brother? How curious…”

“If you’re questioning why I’m requesting him to be monitored… it’s because Jiro lately has received threats about his brother getting hurt if he didn’t personally break up with me…” She muttered, as the bat pulled out a block to write on from his pouch, looking uninterested all the meanwhile.

“I see… Do you have any evidence of those threats that I could bat my eyes on?” Oh, the first hindrance in her attempts to get intel. However, she confidently told the bat:

“No, unfortunately not… Jiro only told me about the existence of such threats, I have no idea if he got it over by mail or through online…”

“Bummer… chasing a physical ghost seems troublesome…” The man grumbled, clearly more intent on finding out who this supposed unknown party was that supposedly “threatened” Jiro.

“It is troublesome… but is it possible to keep an eye on Ichiro Haida, and his wife, Retsuko Akai?”

She hoped it was enough for the man to not ask more questions where he didn’t need to ask, but it seemed like she was unlucky on that matter, because he soon moved his gloomy exterior of a face in a curious way, asking:

“Bodyguarding isn’t exactly my expertise… but don’t you also want me to look into Jiro Haida, since he’s the person receiving those past threats?... I’m not well versed as to what happened between you two… besides my friends paraphrasing some snippets about it… but it sounds like it’s oughta be more prudent if I also investigated Jiro, just in case he’s getting more demands from this mysterious ghost.”

Oh… she didn’t actually think what kind of response she could give to this. She took a few seconds to herself to gather her words, with the man being busy writing everything down on a piece of paper from his block, as she stated:

“Well… I assume Jiro’s already contacted someone to do that for him, so it’d be redundant if there were two people looking up things for him…”

“Hmm…” The bat responded, making Yoshie drop a sweat whether he was actually buying the story or not, but when he gave out a short ‘Ok..’, she felt her worries drop away, just by a negligible portion.

“Just to be clear… do you want me to track Jiro’s Haida’s brother’s movement and his wife, just as a precaution? It sounds kind of boring… but I’ll do it.” The bat responded, his boredom clearly being shown by the level of passion he had in his voice, as Yoshie corrected the bat’s observation, adding:

“And if possible, a little visible evidence of any activities that they might partake in, or any kind of changes in their daily lives? I need to be sure they’re not acting… differently from before.”

“Understandable… that would be all, I think. Mr. Motosuwa just needs to first approve of this, and then I’ll be able to go investigate these two targets… I wonder if I should wish for the cold salvation of death beforehand for it, or not…” The man stated, writing down the last part of their speech, as Yoshie really wondered if the man was doing way worse than Yoshie was doing internally.

Since Yoshie recognized that the man agreed on accepting her request, she waited for the man to let her out, which didn’t take long, because as soon as he wrote down everything, he stated that she can go negotiate the prices with Mrs. Motosuwa, which she did.

As she found out, private investigators do not work for cheap, because if she were to hire the bat guy for investigating, she would have to pay the agency 17 '000¥ per hour. However, that was merely a drop in the bucket for her, which is why she happily accepted the terms, and waited for this “Yami” guy to be dispatched as soon as he was approved by the boss of this agency to go investigate.

The hours of vengeance have begun, and she will relish in the chance when she’s able to get back to that insignificant, unimportant hyena that tore her Prince Charming away from her, just because of some twiddling family feud. Ichiro Haida… He should count his days.

Why was she dragged along to be a third wheel?

This was the question Shikabane beckoned to herself, wondering why she was giving up her Wednesday afternoon of gaming just to eat at a KFC.

It wasn’t even those luxurious, expensive restaurant that Tadano somehow kept inviting her to, which is what she expected Jiro to do with the two, like before, but it looks like Yuki convinced his boyfriend to go cheaper, and she never wanted to bash the bull’s head in with an oversized hammer before like before.

They weren’t even exploiting Jiro if he and the hyena were lovers now, so why was the bull so insistent on not spending that much money? Does he even know how much Jiro hypothetically is loaded, considering he’s living in a penthouse?

“But Shikabane, that would sound like I’m only loving Jiro’s money, and not him!” is surely what Yuki would use as an excuse, and man, did Shikabane never held more irritation in her mind than the last few years.

Speaking of him, he was sitting opposite to the skunk, while his hyena of a boyfriend sat next to him, and boy, did Jiro make sure he was unrecognisable in public. Not only was he wearing some kind of glasses that have some weird properties where if he was outside while it was shining, the glasses would slowly turn into shades to protect his eyes, which sounded epic to Shikabane, but he was also wearing a face mask, just for good measure. It kinda made him look like a thug.

Strangely enough, Jiro began to leave work as soon as he could, and even though there was a slight chance it was due to him receiving a warning of not being able to do any overwork the remaining month, she had an inkling that it might be because he wanted to see Yuki sooner. She mentally sighed to herself. She already was surprised to see the hyena in their apartment when she first came home, and she’s not sure if Jiro was going to keep appearing in random places around their apartment, now that he and Yuki were a thing.

She highly underestimated just how clingy Jiro was in actuality, and she’s paying the piper for it.

“Shikabane, what are you typing away on your phone?” Yuki soon spoke as he devoured a chicken wing, making her head tilt up to look at the bull directly to urge him to not tease her about talking about Tadano, and how he’s her supposed ‘secret’ boyfriend or whatever, but… “Don’t tell me you’re typing with Tadano again, your muse?”

“No, I’m not. Stop shipping me with him.” She simply stated, rolling her eyes, and that would have been the end of the discussion, weren’t it for the fact that they weren’t alone like all the other times…

“Wait, are you two a thing?” The hyena questioned, looking confused, which is when Shikabane truly wondered if she could just walk away, just so she could avoid any kind of discussion that the three of them could hold over Tadano and Shikabane.

She’s sure that she spends the most time together with Tadano from her friend group, if she were to exclude Yuki for being her roommate, but it’s not like she was romantically interested with Tadano.

She just vibes and digs Tadano’s way of doing things, and he was a pleasant guy to talk to, not to mention she always liked going on the donkey’s private jet, and from all the things he’s been saying to her, Tadano was what she would describe as a ‘based’ individual, as much as she thinks that Tadano’s dream just might be watered-down communism.

But hey, communism wasn’t ever a tried concept before, so maybe it isn’t as bad as it’s being portrayed? Whatever, not that it’s ever going to suddenly come into power, now that capitalism basically has the reins all over this green planet of theirs.

“We aren’t, Yuki just ships us because I spend time texting to him like a friend.” Shikabane sighed, looking outside in the sweltering heat, wondering whatever she has done in her life to deserve being in this heat, as Yuki tch’d, as he then voiced:

“Too much, I dare say! Something fishy is happening between you two, and I’ll be the last man laughing whenever you two decide to show your true feelings to one another!”

“So much shit coming from the guy who couldn’t confess to his boyfriend for a month because you thought he wasn’t into you.” That earned a definite yelp from the bull. “Just so you know, my Emotional stat is more maxed out than yours, so I’m more cognizant if I had any crushes on someone, or people having crushes on me.”

“But he does bring you out to fancy restaurants, as I’ve heard…” Jiro sputtered, which was enough for Yuki to fix his shocked expression to replace it with an overconfident smug, saying:

“Exactly right, Jiro! Do you bring out friends to fancy restaurants, all platonic like?”

“I was coerced into bringing Fenneko to such restaurants when I wanted to keep spectating my brother from afar…” Jiro stated, and before Shikabane could thank Yuki’s boyfriend for being the one who dragged his brain cell for them in the couple, Yuki soon retorted:

“But you weren’t friends then, right?”

“...Hmm, yeah, we weren’t. Nevermind.”

She sighed disappointingly. Strangely enough, she would have liked spending time with Tadano, instead of these two lovebirds, or just being back home gaming. She knows she didn’t like Tadano in that way, at least she’s pretty sure she isn’t, so she hopes Yuki isn’t going to convince Jiro of this supposed ‘secret’ relationship they’re hiding from them, because unfortunately Haida seemed to have bought the story, and the bull only told him just a few days ago!

Why she tolerates Yuki as a friend is a total mystery to Shikabane. She’s not even sure if she wants to keep tolerating him, because she had an awful idea spring into her mind, and that was Yuki comparing her to a tsundere, and she’s pretty she would drown in embarrassment, if that was the case.

A little while after…

After roughly having a 5 minute debate of Jiro and Shikabane trying to convince Yuki that they didn’t need to split the bill 50/50, and that Jiro could just pay fully for the meal at the restaurant, but the bull stubbornly let up until Jiro gave him a final offer of a 75/25 in Yuki’s favour, which he accepted, pouting all the meanwhile. She can’t believe Yuki isn’t taking advantage of having a rich boyfriend who she’s sure would hand him his credit card to make any kind of purchases. Old habits die hard, huh?

The three of them were now moving around Shibuya City, moving aimlessly. She insisted that if she can go home, so that she can give the two man some privacy, but Yuki relented, saying that the bull and the skunk were a package deal, which meant that she had to go with them, because in a surprising twist, when Yuki asked Shikabane to hand over her apartment key when the two of them left their apartment, it was all a ruse to make sure Shikabane stayed with them. Shikabane and Jiro were less than pleased about the fact Yuki was holding her prisoner.

If that was the case, then she might as well put as much effort into annoying Yuki as she could, which is why she set her eyes on the fact that the two were cringefully holding hands, saying:

“You guys are being cringy acting all lovey-dovey like, you know?”

Jiro was surprised from the skunk’s observation, which is why he rotated his head around to look at Shikabane, who was walking to the right of Yuki, and said:

“But… we’re only holding hands?”

“Jiro… Jiro… you might not know this about Shikabane, but she can get jealous like all human beings. She’s all envious of us for being the perfect image of a couple!” Yuki proudly stated, making the skunk nearly puke from how much he was shoving his ego around, now that he had his crush in his hands, which is why she responded:

“You guys have been together for 6 days, you’re being so cap with that statement, Yuki.”

“6 days together, but we were spiritually together for a decade! Right, Jiro?” The bull chirped, returning his face to look at the masked hyena, as he stated:

“Wouldn’t that mean you were cheating on me all the time you were with other men..?”

Ah, that now made Shikabane smirk and make her anticipate whatever kind of nervous breakdown Yuki would have, as he told with panic:

“Uuuuh, well, not… exactly..?”

“Wow, what an answer, bullhead. Can’t believe you would do something as bad as aimbotting in shooter games.” Shikabane replied, but her victory on watching Yuki squirm was short-lived, because Jiro began to smile, as he told the sweating white bull:

“I’m just messing with you, Yukiharu. Although…” The hyena stated, as Shikabane saw in real time, of the man unclenching their hands to him putting that hand on the bull’s waist, dragging him closer to him, as he then whispered into Yuki’s ears which Shikabane was unfortunately able to pick up on. “I’ll make sure you’ll forget all about them, now that you’re with me…”

Unbelievable. Why did she try so hard on getting her loser of a roommate his desired crush to him, when the only thing she’s getting back from this is her being an unwilling accomplice to their dates, while she was in earshot of when they started talking all mushy like, and she’s pretty sure if she’s not careful enough, she might hear them scheme with each other about doing something more nastier with each other.

Maybe she should try asking Tadano to be her boyfriend, so that Yuki didn’t have any reasons for bringing her along, when she wasn’t lonely back at their apartment. However, she didn’t want Yuki to win, of him shoving into her friend how he was “right”, when she was going to fake it with him, which is why she discarded that train of thought.

Also to note, she’s pretty sure Jiro was dropping drastically in her friend’s tierlist that she has in her mind palace. Why was he so cringe whenever he was near Yuki now? Why? He thought Jiro would be the one to have more dignity between the two men, but she was wrong in her assumption, very wrong.

She saw the two men kiss 4 times, involuntarily each time, and it was always initiated by Jiro, or at least pressured by him. She thought Jiro to be better than this… they were supposed to be allies with their idgaf faces that they share. And to be frank, it was… uncanny to see Jiro smiling this much, even if it was currently being hidden by the face mask. Even his tail moving so much was creepy. If she didn’t know the context behind it, she surely thought an impersonator was pretending to be him at the moment.

“When I kick the bucket, I’m gonna haunt you guys for forcing me to watch all this. My stomach doesn’t need to twirl around whenever you’re being all cutesy like together.” Shikabane stated, but it seems like her ears dropped to deaf ears, because Yuki was too embarrassed at the moment to even realise that she said anything, and Jiro of course just ignored her.

Would it be wise to specifically spite Jiro’s and Yuki’s relationship, and no other gay relationships?

While she was considering her options about it, Yuki finally rose from the spell Jiro put him under, as he pointed towards… an ice cream vendor, and said:

“Hey, why don’t we get some ice cream! I have cash on me!”

Ice cream in this weather sounded nice, so she obviously didn’t have any objections, and since Jiro didn’t have one either, the three of them walked over to said ice cream vendor, greeting the young man at the stand, and before they could even say as much as hi, the woman squealed, as she said:

“Wait, are you Jiro Haida?!...”

Well, so much for using disguises to keep his identity a secret. She was sure that the tuft on his head was too recognizable on him, but well, not like she was to blame for not doing anything about that.

“And you’re…” The woman soon moved her eyes indiscriminately to where Jiro’s arm went, with it being itched to the bull’s waist, as she let out a gasp. “Oh, OH!... Oh…”

She wasn’t sure what those three crescendos of ‘Oh’s’ were, but she’s pretty sure she saw the woman go through the whole steps of grief in an instant, which is when Yuki was finally incentivised to do something before the woman either banishes them from the vendor due to jealousy or before she took a picture of them, he swiftly stated:

“I’m not sure who you’re talking about… but I assure you that my boyfriend” Oh for frick sake, he didn’t have to be so posh about it… “is not that Jiro guy, right, Akihiko?”

“You’re really giving a bad impression thinking that you never met the guy, Yuki.” Jiro responded, and Shikabane was pretty sure that that wasn’t Jiro’s voice, because it sounded more like Haida. “Guess the politician is just my evil clone, or something.”

“I think you’re the evil clone.. Akihiko.” Shikabane added for good measure, which is when the ice cream vendor was finally convinced that the hyena in front of him was in fact not Jiro, when it was clearly him, as she bowed her head together and said:

“Oh.. Apologies about that!... Guess you must have been confused with Jiro Haida a lot… seeing as you look exactly like his twin… and who am I kidding thinking as if he was into men! He’s the sexiest hetero guy I’ve seen in my whole life, after all!” The woman stated, and boy, did it take all three of them to keep their facade about how wrong she was with that statement, as she asked the three:

“Anyway… what do you three lovely individuals want to scope from my place?”

A little while after…

The three of them continued on with their sightseeing, with all of them having one cone of ice cream in their hands, and as much as Shikabane insisted that Yuki should have her get two scoops of ice cream, he refused, saying his money isn’t some kind of charity case, but she for all purposes know he was doing that because he wanted to save money.

Why is he saving money when he has a rich boyfriend?! Why?! Maybe the reason why they feel broke all the time was due to the fact that they were eating like they were broke, because Yuki was too allergic to take-outs, and his cooking didn’t need to be elaborated further on on why it can be classified as broke cooking.

They stopped at a tree where they rested behind the shade of the birch tree, which meant that Jiro had to slightly pull down his mask to eat his chocolate ice cream.

“I can’t believe my disguise wasn’t good enough to keep unwarranted attention at bay… Am I really that recognizable?” Jiro muttered, licking his ice cream, which is when she responded to the man:

“That punk-like tuft on your head is pretty glaring and even your mask face can’t really mask your chin that much. Good thing you’re pretty good at impersonating Haida, or we would have been toasted by that polar bear lady.”

“If we weren’t keeping up appearances, I would have lectured that woman for her indecent comment which objectified Jiro so much, it hurt. Sexy hetero guy my ass.” Yuki pouted, munching onto his soyboy flavour ice cream, vanille, as the hyena shrugged, and said:

“It’s the price I’m paying for being on TV. I already got used to it, being called Japan’s most sought after bachelors…” He muttered, as Shikabane made the precautious action of turning her head around to not see whatever disgusting thing Jiro would do with Yuki this time around. “But you’re right on the money about me not being heterosexual. Why be that, when I swing the other way and glare at your ass?”

Is there a way for her to kill herself on the spot and to drastically change Jiro’s and Yuki’s trajectory in life? She did promise to herself that she wouldn’t do that, but it has become rather difficult to uphold that promise, now that she had to share her breathing area with two guys letting their testosterone take control of their brain. She had the spite in her to do it, but she’s sadly too smart to actually do it. The worst thing was that Yuki actually got flustered by that, and she didn’t know whether she was in a bad BL story or not. Why did she have to suffer being with these two losers again? Oh right, she was being held hostage. Well, it sucks to suck, Shikabane guesses.

“Navi’s butt is flatter than a woodpile. Stop coping, Jiro.” Shikabane retorted, which seemed to have been the wrong course of action for her to undergo, because Jiro was quick to reply to her, as he said:

“I’m pretty sure I had the pleasure of having them in my palm, and they’re anything but flat, Shikabane.” He stated, as he let his one free arm roam behind the bull’s back, and from the subsequent ways the bull seemed to have jumped, it landed exactly behind the bull’s butt. “They’re quite round and squishy, if I do say so myself.”

“If there’s any gods, I hope they smite you down for this moment alone.” Shikabane responded, her eyes glaring seethefully at the hyena, while the man returned a mocking smirk at her. Oh, she found her new nemesis, alright.

It didn’t take long for Yuki to bounce back from the surprise touch, as he seemed to have titled his head to look at his boyfriend and Shikabane, which is when he said:

“Uh… we don’t have to fight, you guys! And also, if we’re comparing ass sizes, Jiro’s pretty great as well!”

She didn’t need to hear that. She so desperately didn’t need to be privy to that information, which is why she gave the meanest glares towards her roommate, as the man seemed to realise how done Shikabane was with these two guys’s horny thoughts.

“...And also, you can return your arm, Jiro… you don’t have to prove a point to those women chasing after you like you’re some trophy!”

“...Fine, just because I’m nice and don’t want to show our love any further to Shikabane…” The hyena mumbled, taking his arm back from the bull’s buttocks, which is when the skunk countermumbled, saying:

“You’ve been doing a terrible job hiding it, then.”

“Ahhh, you don’t have to be so turnabout the way you care about us! You’re our favourite hater, after all!” Yuki cooed, which earned an irritated tick from the woman, and before she could muster a reply about the utter statement the bull made…

“Jiro?”

A sudden, unfamiliar voice rang through Shikabane’s ears, and instead of it belonging to another young woman who recognized Jiro, the voice sounded more like as if belonged to an older person, with her turning to see who this granny wa-

She froze. Her mind didn’t remind her.

“Huh? Do you know this lady, Jiro?” Yuki questioned, totally oblivious to who… who this monster of a woman was.

She was the reason for why her past life crumbled… why he was taken away from her… why she went insane…

“Hold on… Auntie Mi-Sun?!” Jiro yelled, which is when he inched nearer to the… butterfly in question, and asked: “Is that really you?”

“Oh, Jiro. It has been a decade since we last met, and you still call me auntie, even though you matured into a fine man.” The butterfly responded, and as Jiro stood there in utter shock, but not in a stunted way like Shikabane was doing, she then added: “My, you’re almost twice my size now.”

“Well, there was a decade of difference from my teenager self to my adult self, so me being taller isn’t that much shocking to hear, Auntie.” Jiro said joyfully, which is when Shikabane began asking questions to herself.

Why is On Mi-Sun here in Japan? Why is Jiro familiar with her? Why does he appear happy around her? Why does he call her ‘Auntie’?

“...Uh, Jiro, who’s this… auntie of yours?... I don’t recognize her…” Yuki muttered, still clueless on the true identity of this fanatic.

“Auntie Mi-Sun used to come visit our family every once and in a while, and during the time when… I got homeschooled, she served as my tutor! I’m pretty sure you can credit my exceptional academic prowess due to her being an excellent teacher.” Jiro replied, as Shikabane now felt less paralysed from being face to face… with someone she wished she never saw again in her life, as the butterfly said:

“It is not I that deserves these praise, Jiro. You were an exceptional student because you are smart. I just brought you up to speed on the curriculum that you had to undertake while being at home. It’s no wonder you still ended up as a shining politician without my aid, when your father banished me for ever setting foot at your residence again.”

“Banished…?” Yuki said, with Shikabane trying her best to not appear affected by the presence of this fanatic, as Jiro replied:

“For some reason, my father thought she was a bad influence on me. It was a shame really, because she’s the only tutor that I actually liked… she actually seemed to care about me and didn’t chastise me for any mistake that I made.”

She actually didn’t believe what she was going to just say to her mind, but she praised Jiro’s and Haida’s dad from severing On Mi-Sun from Jiro, because if they didn’t notice what kind of a monster she was, she might have… converted Jiro to her beliefs, and this woman’s beliefs…

They were dangerous. Life-threatening danger.

“But…” Jiro soon muttered, facing straight at the butterfly, as she then questioned: “Auntie, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in South Korea?”

The emotionless, callous face shuttered everything inside Shikabane’s mind and soul, as if it personally hurt just looking at her, which is when the creepy butterfly admitted:

“I knew you’d be here, and I wanted to reunite. A certain associate of yours spoke to me last week, and I had to come visit you, just to see how you were doing.”

She knew he’d be here? Something was amiss here, how’d she know that? What is this fanatic’s angle here? What does she want with Jiro?

“Associate… don’t tell me it’s a certain white bull like Yuki here?” The hyena asked, gesturing to his boyfriend beside him, making the bull tick with his mouth from the mention of his older brother.

“Yes. But besides him, there’s some things I have to attend to, and as much as it would be lovely to have a chance talking with you again, I know you’re busy with your two friends here. Is it alright if I come by your office the coming week?” The butterfly stated, which Shikabane was hoping that the woman hurried herself up as soon as Jiro gave the woman a positive hum, as she and Jiro hugged each other, before she evidently… walked away from them, with none of them being none the wiser just how much turmoil Shikabane went through in the span of a minute.

While Jiro was waving at.. Her, Yuki lightly hit Jiro in the ribs to question him.

“Jiro… what the heck was she? Why did it feel like she was directly staring into my eyes with those big black eyes of hers?!”

Jiro only threw the bull a slightly upset face, not liking how she referred to On Mi-Sun, as the hyena replied:

“Well, to be more precise, she’s not actually my auntie, but was my mother’s supposed good friend, up until my father decided to also control my mom’s friends like he did with you and me. I actually don’t know much about her, besides that she’s from South Korea, but she’s probably the only person besides you that actually listens to me whenever I bring up the topic about the paranormal or Japanese myths and folklore.”

“Ah, I see. Man, it’s kind of wild how we just randomly bumped into her all of a sudden.” Yuki laughed, placing his hand on his hips, which is when he realised something from the way his face seemed to turn into a grimace. “Wait, how does she even know my brother?... Do you even know what her job is?”

Are they deft? Do they not realise just what kind of a monster was standing besides them in their rear views? Jiro surely knew something about her being a cult leader, right?

“Mother always told me she’s working at some church that auntie’s husband started, and became the leaderhead for it when her husband died in an awful accident, which is why she doesn’t even have her wings anymore. It supposedly got burned to cinders when the plane crashed.”

Oh. He was oblivious to all of this. He does not know the deplorable things the Amalgamation Church has done.

She felt as if she wanted to scream. She felt herself screaming out in languish. She felt sick. She was hearing chalk being dragged across a whiteboard, and it wasn’t pleasant in the slightest. She wanted to go home. She couldn’t have her take her home, not again, not now.

“...Yuki… can I go home?” She asked with as much composure as possible, making the two men turn around.

“Shikabane, you already asked that 7 times ago, so why do you think it will wo-... wait, you look kinda paleish…” Yuki muttered, who probably noticed just how much Shikabane began to sweat not from the unbearable heat, but from the confrontation that they had against with On Mi-Sun, as Jiro mumbled:

“Maybe you were right about the strawberry flavour looking too loaded with sugar…”

“Of course I was!” Yuki happily stated, and as much Shikabane would reprimand the bull for being wrong on this, like always, she really needed to get back home, where it was secure, as the bull reached into his pocket, and fished out Shikabane’s key. “Alright, you’re free to go! Not sure when I’ll be back home today, but you should probably order take-outs, because regrettably, I didn’t cook any kind of leftovers the last few days.”

Shikabane didn’t make any ounce of noise, as she patiently waited for Yuki to hand over the keys, because she wanted to have it in her possession and make a run for their apartment, not giving any damn whatever kind of gross things Yuki and Jiro would get invested into, now that she wasn’t acting as their officer keeping them in check.

So, as soon as Yuki dropped the key into the skunk’s hands, she placed it inside her pockets, as she quickly looked for a route to Yuki’s and her apartment, and quickly jolted off, making Yuki reach out to her if she needed Jiro to drive her home instead.

No, she couldn’t let them see how undone she got from being in close proximity of that… monster, and how she began having those awful memories resurface, of her being called a beast…

She… she wasn’t a beast… nor was he… her dad… the one who…

She buried all of those memories in an instant, knowing that if she tried remembering it, it would hurt her more.

She just needed to run back home… Yuki was with Jiro… so he was safe as well… and she was safe back at home…

In that way… that monster can’t hurt her or her loved one’s again… she didn’t want to have a repeat… of that… of that…

She clenched her eyes, running towards the train station that her GPS was showing her, trying to ignore all these pent-up emotions she thought perished with her all coming down like a volcano. Just try to do the exercise training that she saw Retsuko do in the breakroom…

Just count to ten… Just count to ten…

If Sakiyo ever had to feel how it felt like being at a mosh pit, the OTM concert that she attended with Azumi right now would be the closest reference she could have.

It really felt like she was ascending towards the sky, how the crowd was riled up from the surplus amount of energy Manaka and the two twins were shooting from their singing, and how their dreams and hopes can be attainable and all that!

Frankly, she’s pretty sure half of the lyrics went over her head, but she was still able to understand the overarching meaning behind those words. At least Azumi was able to, because she started crying at the end of the performance, and she’s not sure if the song was that emotional.

But hey, what's wrong with crying about a heart-touching song? If ‘zumi was brought to tears from the lyrics, then she can cry as hard as she can on her shoulders!

Although, it does start to grate her patience from how much her roommate was acting like she was seeing the messiah, when it was just a simple dinner with the OTM girls and their manager.

“Aaaah… Saki… we’re eating dinner with OTM girls… we’re so blessed…” Azumi whispered, looking totally enarmed at the girl group, which is when Sakiyo muttered:

“I know… this is the 4th time you said it in the diner…”

The 6 of them were at a cheap soba ship, and as much as all the OTM girls complained of Hyoudou still bringing them to cheapass restaurants when they had a steady amount of cash going their way, the leopard insisted that they eat here. He was a cheapskate, and Sakiyo was glad that the fame didn't change the man drastically.

“...So, besides this cheap soba that we’re eating, is our palette going to change when it’s time for us to make our biggest debut around Japan?” Manaka scoffed, making Azumi, who was sitting besides Sakiyo, nearly fall over from her stool, as before Hyoudou could even give her a solid answer, she sprung up:

“What?! Is OTM girls going on tour?! When?!”

“In a few months. We announced it tonight on all of our social media accounts.” Hyoudou stated, pensive and cold-stone as ever, as he then adjusted himself to Manaka’s complaint. “And you girls don’t have to mock me about it, there will be plenty of food, as our event organisers promised me. We basically don’t have to spend a dime on it.”

“Will there be crab! Can we finally eat those things now?!”
“And salmon! Don’t forget salmon!”

The twins stated joyfully, as their manager gave the girls an irritated twitch on his mouth, as he stated:

“I am pretty certain I spotted you three munching on those very things you keep demanding of me about! If you girls don’t tame your gluttonous tendencies, we'll be out of business!”

“Ma god, we can’t even eat shit! You see what this dickward puts us through, Sakiyo and Azumi?” Manaka pitched up, tilting her head to look at the two women not associated with OTM girls.

“Why are you keeping these goddesses in chains when they should be free, Hyoudou! Also, crab and salmon aren’t really that expensive!” Azumi reasoned, looking insulted on the behalf of the idol group.

“C’mon Hyoudou, they should be allowed to eat unreasonable food once in a while!” Sakiyo insisted, spotting an unsure smile at the scowling leopard.

Evidently, it seemed like him being pressured on all sides by all the women there succeeded on loosening the idol’s girl budget, because he soon sighed with utmost disappointment, and mumbled:

“...Fine, we’ll go to some fancy-dancy restaurant or whatever after your next performance. Think of it as your preparation feast for your tour… and don’t ask me for stuff like this again for a long time!”

That earned a cheer from the idol group and from Azumi, who wasn’t even a part of the group, as all of them continued eating at the small restaurant.

After a few minutes of munching on their soba, Azumi finally seemed to return back to the topic of their tour, which is when jubilantly said:

“Oh, speaking of the tour, how long is it going to take? I might be able to call in sick at our university during the time when the tour happens!”

“No definite answer yet, but we’ll be sure to inform you on our social media account as soon as we get more info from the event organisers.” Hyoudo started seriously, taking a glance at his smartphone. “But would it be wise for you to miss your education because yo-”

“Hahah, Hyoudou, you silly man! Of course we’re gonna tell you as soon as we know about it! I’ll hope that you’ll be there, since you’re our number one fan, afterall!” Manaka stated, capitalising on Azumi’s adoration for the girl group, as her roommate just squealed from excitement that she was called the group’s number one fan, as Sakiyo wondered if she should play middle man between Azumi and OTM girls, just to make sure she wasn’t going to blow her life spending on the idol group.

“I’m pretty certain you can even ask the university for a month off, since you’re at the top of your class, Azumi. It’s kinda like how Sophia does it from being pulled all around Japan because she’s highly requested.” Sakiyo muttered, name dropping the exchange student from Great Britain that nearly made Sakiyo drop dead when she first found out what her family ties were.

“Hmm… that’s true, but she only takes a week from school, and she’s some kind of super computer when it comes to academics, Saki!”

“Bestie, you literally have a super computer in your head as well, so you have no reason to find excuses for it.” Sakiyo replied, which is when Azumi shook her head.

“I just don’t have a gag reflex, Sakiyo, and not to mention, you know I pulled many all-nighters for my exams! Meanwhile, we literally saw Sophia open up the book that we had to read thoroughly for an exam and read through it in mere seconds! That royal british canine is not human, I tell you!”

“Sophia? Sakiyo, is it that girl friend with the funny surname? What was it again…” Manaka muttered, who seemed to get curious from the border collie that the two university students were talking about.

“Yeah, it is that girl! Sophia Bytheseashore!” Sakiyo announced, and besides from Hyoudou, who didn’t seem to understand what the English surname stood for, Hidarin and Gigi seemed surprised by the super weird surname that Sophia had, as Manaka snickered:

Yeah, that girl! By-the-sea-shore. Man, British people are so funny, aren’t they? Is it true that she keeps wearing those elaborate british hats like tradition?”

“I’m fairly certain I counted at least a hundred hats when she invited us over to her hotel room… there were so many hats in there!” Azumi said, looking scatterbrained at the moment from recounting every hat she saw.

“Man, what a funny gal! It’s kind of hilarious to think that she’s on the 18th line of succession for the crown.”

Upon hearing Manaka drop a bomb that Sophia Bytheseashore was not only an exchange student from Britain, but had family ties to the British Royalty, Hyoudou and the twin both spat out the soba they were eating, coughing heavily.

“Cough Cough Cough... pardon me? This Sophia gall is what?!” Hyoudou questioned, properly flabbergasted, which is when Azumi was prompted to go info dump about their princess of a friend.

“Sophia is indeed a princess from the royal family! We were flabbergasted from it too, and she’s way more special than we first thought her to be! She’s less regal than we first thought, and she’s kind of an airhead, to be honest. However, airhead that she might be, she does in fact have some unnatural brain, which might be the reason why her parents banished her here.”

“B-Banished?” Hidarin stated, her mouth wide open, which is when Azumi focused more on that:

“Well… Sophia doesn’t know she’s been banished here, but from her words alone, it seems like her royal parents got scared by her godly investigator brain and sent her across the other side of the planet to keep her away from Britain, and it seems like she’s none the wiser about it… We don’t really have the heart to tell the truth to her, because she seems to think she’s here as a way for her to gain more life experience…”

“That’s crazy…” Gigi added, the twins and the manager looked blemished in the face, as Azumi continued explaining:

“What’s worse, we’re pretty sure they sent her here because she originally didn’t speak Japanese, and it was a way to punish her for her smarts!... Whatsoever, from what she told us, she said that it took her a few weeks for her to hold a conversation in Japanese, and this is further evidence as to why Sophia must be some kind of an eldritch monster masquerading as a human, because who learns Japanese that fast! English and Japanese are way too different from each other!”

“You’re starting to sound how her parents might have acted, Azumi…” Sakiyo muttered, which is when the goose seemed to reel back from how she was narrating the princes to be otherworldly, telling more tales about princess detective’s exploits living here for the past year in Tokyo, while Manaka, who found the whole situation hilarious, and the other three people in OTM listened with their jaws wide open.

Sophia… She was a fairly special individual. When Sakiyo first thought that real-life princesses from fiction weren’t real, she was rightfully wronged by the appearance of this British princess from the middle of the globe, and how supernatural her abilities seemed to be. It seemed like a split personality to her at first, from the bubbly airheaded princess persona to the genius investigator, but as she found out, she was just like this. It kind of made her decrypting to her, because she seemed to be weird in all shape and form, because lately, it seemed like she has taken a liking to an emo in their university who seemed to be interested in the occult like Jiro was, and she was genuinely terrified from the bat, as much as he seemed to appear like some pushover of a man.

Now that she thinks about it, maybe she could call Jiro to make sure what she should do around Yami, because as much as the bat doesn’t talk that much, his whole ambience kind of creeped her out. Just what was his whole ordeal about yearning for death? It gave her the yippies more than when Jiro brought her to that infamous cursed tunnel, which she’s sure she had nightmares about, for some reason.

Oh, maybe she should introduce Jiro to Sophia and Yami! Even though she’s sure he was content with Yuki listening to whatever ghost story Jiro knows about, but with the knowledge that Yami and by extension Sophia would have, Jiro was sure to like her friends!

It’d be kinda like the 4 of them going on a double date, because as much as Sophia and Yami aren’t in a relationship like her brother and Jiro, they turned into a weird duo that you see together nearly all the times, which is due to Sophia following around Yami with gleam, while Yami was unbothered by the princess’s presence.

Yeah, why not? It should make Jiro less incentivised to speak about his… hobbies to Sakiyo, which would be a win-win situation for all parties involved!

She can’t believe she’s spending her Thursday afternoon with Ookami of all people. Both of them clocked off work for today, and they decided to hang around at the small café area inside the foyer, because both of them had no plans today.

Even though Tsunoda thought that if she went on a few dates again with men, she would have a little bit of fun socialising with them, but as she found out, it all felt barren to her. It still made her empty, and she doesn’t know why that was the case, or why it even started.

She knew it started as soon as that stupid wrench of a horse joined their department, but why she even disliked the man was so annoying to her, because she’s supposed to know herself… So why was this horse causing so much grief for her?

She knows that he’s hot, everyone in the accounting department can attest to that, besides maybe the new hire Katsumi, so what was the overarching problem with the man?

He doesn’t do any shady business behind everyone’s back, he goes bouldering on his free days off, he likes travelling… So what was the issue with him?

“What are you thinking about, Tsunoda?” The maned wolf quipped, taking a sip from his drink, while Tsunoda navigated around Instagram with a mood.

“Lots of things that aggravate me. It’s so frustrating!” She replied with an attitude, not sure what she even wanted to do after she and Ookami part ways from the workplace, which is when she saw Fenneko send a picture of her being together with Seiji, and she can’t believe what she’s seeing right now, but was she taking a desert pic while making sure that one of the horse’s hoof was in the picture. Wasn’t Fenneko the one to always annoy Tsunoda about her taking pictures like this?! Is she a damn hypocrite?!

“What, seriously? It’s not like you get much work shoved on your desk, and you begin dating again, now that your surveillance over Fenneko’s and Seiji’s relationship brought no results of malice from the horse’s side.” Ookami replied, genuinely sounding surprised why Tsunoda felt so confused with herself, with the gazelle feeling the same.

“I don’t get it either! Everything shoulda and woulda returned back to normal, back to the status quo or whatever the French say about it! But there is something different with my life, and it doesn’t have to do anything with the new rookie at work! She’s kinda just chilly… and seems to be familiar with Retsuko and Fenneko.” Tsunoda complained, as the man sitting besides her started to caress his chin curiously, which is when he stated:

“Maybe you’re jealous of Fenneko’s and Seiji’s relationship? It’s the only thing that would make sense in context.”

Her, jealous of the two? Please, she met more respectable and dignified men than Seiji, so she shouldn’t feel envious about them, but Fenneko should be the one to have felt envy towards her, which she never did.

“No, I’m not!”

“Wait, for real?... It’s kinda obvious that their relationship… kind of altercated you in some ways. I can’t believe you barely drop any kind of extra work onto Retsuko, but poor little ole me.” Ookami noted, looking like as if he was personally trying to solve the puzzle that was Tsunoda’s weird feeling about Fenneko’s and Seiji’s relationship, as she just punctuated:

“Well, if you weren’t busy fixing your hairline all the time, you wouldn’t be the main recipient of it while I do more important things.”

“Hey! I need to be presentable if I want to find love!”

“Then make yourself more presentable outside of work, you laggard.”

They exchanged words, as Tsunoda now made a deep dive into Fenneko’s account to see what kind of things she’s been doing, now that she was dating the horse. It turned out to be the first mistake, whatsoever, because as soon as she clicked the fennec fox’s account, the woman was deliberately showing her status of being taken in her bio, and Tsunoda nearly puked from it. She wasn’t that bad when she had a few boyfriends that she liked to be around with!

“I’m gonna go think of this in a curveball manner, but what if you’re jealous of Seiji?” Ookami spoke up, his pondering look only making Tsunoda’s mood even worse, because she soon stated to the wolf:

“As if! Even if he’s a man, I’ve got more style than that cheugy guy! There is nothing for me to begrudge myself over!”

“What, no, I don’t mean it like that.” Ookmai stated, which is when he got into the meat of the issue… which was. “I just mean that you’re envious that he’s taking Fenneko's attention away from you.”

What? Pardons from a freaking arson, what the fuck? She felt envious of Seiji because he was taking Fenneko’s attention away from Tsunoda?

“Excuse me on all levels, huh?! Are you high, Ookami?!” Tsunoda jolted in shock, feeling absolutely appalled why she’d feel so, because even if Fenneko was less of an ‘Instacop’ in the current times, she was her analyst, and without her inputs and thorough clinical thinking, she would be less popular on Instagram.

“What, are you serious? Weren’t you the one who taught me that if people react like you, that means that they might like someone?” Ookami sputted, which is when Fenneko got a flashback of when she had to throw the book on Retsuko, when she was still unsure how she felt about Haida, and how her reacting angrily that Haida was being a coward on not asking her out was a natural expression to do for women.

“I… yeah, totes… but…” Tsunoda muttered, now feeling unsure how exactly she was supposed to feel, because if she were to correlate her current feelings with how Retsuko felt, then that would mean…

She gasped, realising hitting her harder than a truck, as she grasped what this irritating and empty feeling that was brewing inside of her… Did she actually like Fenneko?

“Oh… I think you get it now. Man, you really look like a deer caught in headlines.” Ookami reported, a weak smile put on his face, which is when Tsunoda decided that she’s not dealing with the wolf this time around, saying:

“Actually, you know what? I’m calling a raincheck on this. Thanks a million for paying for my drink~” She stood up, grabbing her small bag with her, as she began walking off…

“H-hey, are you just leaving me here?!” Ookami voiced, but Tsunoda just fine-tuned him out of her mind, not minding whether the wolf had to pay for both of their drinks, as Tsunoda tried to understand what these now illuminated feelings were to her.

She liked… Fenneko? Like like liked? What was there to like about her? Did she even like women?...

She didn’t actually like anyone… even when she went on dates with other guys, so then why would she like Fenneko? Why is this all so complexing to think about? She’s supposed to be the love ref of what people should do in a romantic relationship, people besides her, so why wasn’t she able to recognize what was not normal with her?

But… it would make sense for Ookami’s reasoning to be right if she felt jealous of Seiji, for taking away Fenneko’s attention away from the gazelle, because as much as unpleasant it might look on the surface, she secretly liked it when they were having silent wars between each other, like grabbing coffee for Fenneko when she requested soda from Tsunoda, or when Fenneko dropped comments after comments of when Fenneko tried rebuke Tsunoda’s posts make it like she dated a big shot that she can’t remember the name of, only remembering the fact that they were some new-upcoming entrepreneur.

God fricking dammit and anything adjacent to said god mentioned beforehand, if Fenneko caught wind of this, she would make so much fun out of her with that monotone laugh!

What the heck is a Love Ref supposed to do when she requires a Love Ref of her own?!

Walking down the hallways of the Liberal Manifest Party headquarters was quite a nostalgia trip for Sukekiyo.

She paid a few visits here when she and Juzo first got romantically involved, when the two of them were still young. They of course got together through an arranged marriage from their own parents, when it was slightly more popular back in the day, when the times were a lot more simpler back then.

Nowadays, the generation after them have so many problems to deal with, it’s beyond ridiculous to hear how much responsibility Jiro is wearing on his shoulders from literally trying to find a solution to problems in their country. Energy-crisis, the cost-of-living increasing slowly, climate change… and so much more that would clog her brain fully.

It is saddening to Sukekiyo in some way, because in all honesty, she feels like their generation raised up their next generation in a world of hurt. And if that wasn’t the case, there was no denying that she didn’t do exactly that with Juzo for their sons, and there was no way she could describe how much it hurt thinking about the amount of adversaries they had to go through, just because they weren’t capable parents.

While Juzo was too distracted keeping up their legacy, and not noting how much torment his two sons went through when that video online was published, she herself was guilty under the sin of omission, when she should have stepped it to wake her husband up from how his razor-edged focus on making their family dynasty bigger was actively hurting everyone in the family, but she knew it probably wouldn’t have amounted to much.

She thought of intervening before, when all the things had been happening, or when cracks were appearing in their family, but she felt powerless in that estate, which is why she gave up putting any kind of resistance to return things back to normal, when living wasn’t strifeful.

However, it seems like after some time has passed, her sons decided to not rest on their laurels and accept life as it was, and actually do what they want with their lives. They weren’t giving up now, and they were fighting for what they believed in was going to change Japan for the better.

She has called Ichiro plenty of times already, and her oldest already stated that he believes that Jiro is going to make ripples of change in their past-shackled country of theirs, and that it was his turn to be Jiro’s believer. In some way, it never makes her not smile on how humorous the role reversal was from Jiro acting besides Ichiro’s and aiding him.

As much as Juzo’s condition and temper have become… haphazard, she felt positively overjoyed that not only were her sons actually living happily again like before, but that also both of them found someone that they admire with their hearts.

She’s not sure if seeing her sons’ happiness be exchanged for the happiness of her husband was a silver lining to all of this, a sacrifice, if you would, but she’s not going to do anything to prevent their sons' flourishing happiness to be subdued again.

Speaking of such things, Jiro notified her that tomorrow, she can come over to his penthouse to see Yukiharu again, and meet the man who seemingly has encapsulated Jiro’s heart for many years, it being the most logical conclusion she came to when she puts together the fact that Jiro spit out every woman that Juzo tried to put him up with, which most men would have surely accepted without much fuss.

Her son was a loyalist, after all, so it is natural to think if his heart belonged to Yukiharu for so many years on end, he wouldn’t accept the love of someone else, no matter how much they tried.

Upon reflection, it is beyond ludicrous to Sukekiyo how their whole family wasn’t able to figure out that the two boys had crushes on each other, especially when they account for the fact that the both of them were infamously known for not being able to make friends. Did they simply ignore it and were just thankful that they had some kind of friend from the other family, and brushed it off as the two being very close-knit best friends?

Or the most likely answer… would be the fact that it would be unthinkable, and very much prohibited for them to be like that together, because Sukekiyo saw no way for the two to co-exist together as lovers while their families were involved. At least her husband and Yukiharu’s parents wouldn’t have allowed it.

It’s… tragic that her husband and Yukiharu’s parents still had such narrow-minded world views about such topics, ever since it became easier for people like Jiro and Yukiharu to express themselves after the world quote unquote became a ‘friendlier’ place. She knew why her husband would object to Jiro’s and Yukiharu’s traits, and that it would be because the two of them couldn’t conceive any heir for the future, and as much back it wasn’t that crucial for Jiro to procure the heir for the family, Juzo still expected that Jiro at least continued their bloodline.

That itself was an unfortunate thing, because she can already imagine how Jiro and Yukiharu would behave if they were parents, and she can already imagine Jiro going up to her asking for advice. Honestly, he might ask her if it was socially acceptable to strangle a crying baby, because she knew Jiro would go insane if he had to bear through it.

Her imagination aside, she realised that she was about to be in front of Jiro’s office, which is when she shook all of those thoughts behind her mind, as she let out a sigh for why she was even visiting Jiro.

Juzo tasked her to visit Jiro, and per his own words, “figure out why this runt has been ignoring my fucking phone calls!?”.

She’s obviously going to report back whatever Jiro wants Juzo to know about, but it is kind of tiring that she has to play messenger between the two, now that the two male hyenas were at odds against each other.

Juzo wasn’t that happy when Sukekiyo told an alternate story from when Jiro broke up with that canary gal, and it was clear he was at his wit’s end from Jiro’s disobedience. It unfortunately meant that Juzo began drinking again, and she never liked when he became… so volatile while drunk. He seemed to curse Ichiro’s name in vain, and was blaming him for everything that’s been happening with Jiro as of late, like he was a scheming manipulator and mastermind behind Jiro’s sudden acting.

It was a bunch of nonsense to Sukekiyo, because she knew her son wasn’t capable of doing something as calculated as that. Maybe Jiro was capable of that, but surely not Ichiro.

Murmuring a few words under her breath, she took the remaining few steps towards the room where Jiro’s private office was and gently knocked on the door separating her from the office.

When he heard the familiar sound of his son shouting to her that she may come in, she slowly opened the door and peeked through, and she saw…

Jiro held company with him in the office, and it was none other than On Mi-Sun! Jiro and Mi-Sun both turned around to look at Sukekiyo, which is when Jiro finally answered:

“Mother? How come you’re here?... Please do come on in though.”

As requested from her, she quickly sneaked inside the office, being thoroughly surprised that someone like On Mi-Sun was clearly speaking with her son. The two first met when Ichiro and Jiro were still toddlers, and compared to their husband’s friendship, they weren’t that relatively close. Most of the time, the topic of their conversation mostly revolved around their children, which On Mi-Sun had much to talk about due to the size of her family.

However… After that incident where On Mi-Sun was the sole survivor from that accident, and by extension that one daughter of hers that didn’t come with them due to family complications, they became more… detached.

On Mi-Sun still came over and stayed in Japan for quite a while when the accident happened, and volunteered to help tutor Jiro without any cost when the turmoil in her own family was happening, but it didn’t take long for Juzo to get suspicious of her and blacklist her from ever setting foot in the family estate.

Any other information that she might have gained from On Mi-Sun came from her husband or from information she might have seen on television, which was of the butterfly taking control of the Amalgamation Church and making drastic changes from what she still remembers.

“Sorry dear for interrupting your discussion… maybe I should be out of the office until you two finish your chit-chat?” Sukekiyo voiced, just barely inside the office, as the male hyena held out his hand to interrupt her from moving outside.

“It isn’t that confidential, Mother. You can take a seat next to Auntie On Mi-Sun and join in our conversation.”

Oh? Jiro still called her auntie?

Deciding that she should do as Jiro requested of her to do, she swiftly closed the door behind her and moved towards the empty stool beside On Mi-Sun.

“How fortunate that we cross paths again, Sukekiyo. It has been some time since we last saw each other, hasn’t it?” The butterfly stated as Sukekiyo sat down, which is when she noted just how unnerving On Mi-Sun still looked, as much as she was putting on a weak smile. Maybe old age is getting through to her?

“That’s true… although, you barely look like you aged a day!”

“That’s to be expected. Such a shame that I can’t quite say the same back to you.”

As much as it seemed like Mi-Sun was poking into her, she did in fact change in some places in the last decade or so. Some of her fur seems to have become more grey as the days progressed, and she can’t pinpoint whether that’s due to her getting older or by the stress that she accumulated the past decade.

“Mother, I assume father has sent you on an errand again behind my past actions as of late?” Jiro suddenly noted, uncharacteristically smiling, and whether that was because he was holding a conversation with On Mi-Sun or because he actually seemed to enjoy messing with his father, she didn’t quite know.

“Unfortunately, yes. I’m really sorry that I had to bother you again like this, especially when you’re at work.”

“It’s no problem, mother. It’s father that is to blame here, and I’m sorry to say, but it will take some time for me to accept his calls, seeing as I would like to remain…” The hyena said, moving his eyes to the butterfly, gesturing to Sukekiyo to keep Jiro’s relationship a secret in front of On Mi-Sun. “...out of a relationship for some time now. If he’s ready to communicate with me again that doesn’t have anything to do with romance, then I will accept his calls again.”

“Hmmm, heard loud and clear, Jiro!” She spoke, memorising the exact phrasing to tell later back at the estate. It shouldn’t turn Juzo’s frown upside down, but maybe it can be the incentive for Juzo to realise that if he keeps pressuring Jiro into relationships, then Jiro will just never contact him again, and that is something Juzo is not willing to account for.

“...That’s quaint… I thought you were in a relationship with that male bull when we randomly encountered each other with your two friends, including the male bull.” On Mi-Sun suddenly voiced, and if Sukekiyo didn’t know the few ticks that Jiro usually does with his face when he’s trying to hide something, she would have thought Jiro wasn’t taken aback by the random accusation.

“He… isn’t my lover, he’s just a really good friend, like Katsumi, the woman that we were with earlier.” Jiro said straightlaced, sounding exactly like normal, and as much as Sukekiyo thought that would be enough information for Mi-Sun to stop pestering Jiro for more questions, she added:

“I am positive that male to male friends do not touch each other’s buttocks and fumble like they would do with members of the opposite sex.”

Oh, now that definitely would have earned a reaction from Jiro, now that Mi-Sun pulled his pants down in the open like that. She also couldn’t help but let out a grasp of her own, because Yukiharu did *what* with her son?

“If you’re gonna ask me if I have anything to say to it, due to my status as the ‘All-Mother’ and the stance my church upholds, I’ll carve out an exception for you. You appeared happy while you were around the man and the woman accompanying you two, and it would be rather counterproductive if I said that I didn’t allow it. I care very much about your happiness, Jiro, and if the man does break your heart…” Mi-Sun began explaining, and when she started describing what kind of countermeasure she would use against Yukiharu, leaving the room anticipating for this pregnant pause to end. “...I can get rid of him, if you would dare wish for it.”

That made Sukekiyo’s blood curdle, because Mi-Sun wasn’t the woman to ever lie, so if she made a promise like that, she meant it with her whole heart.

Jiro also understood that, which is why the two hyenas were gaping like they were both hit by thunder.

“Apologies, but is there something that I misspoke? Both of you seem caught flat-footed.” Mi-Su said, looking ruminative like the woman was after the incident.

“No, no, Mi-Sun!...” Sukekiyo worriedly spewed, which is when she tried asking if she wasn’t… going to misuse that knowledge she has about Jiro. “But could you keep it a secret, for Jiro’s sake? You know… how some people would react to it.”

“We are acquainted with Juzo’s stance and the general stance that some people hold in this country. I’ll be covert with Jiro’s relationship with that white bull… I assume it’s the same best friend you had, since you referred to him as ‘Yuki’?” Mi-Sun made an observation, which is when Jiro nodded, as the butterfly commented: “Makes sense…”

“So… Uhm..” Sukekiyo now said, not sure where the conversation was going to steer itself, seeing as Jiro was too thunderstruck at the moment and Mi-Sun was waiting for someone else to continue. “...If you two were talking about business while I wasn’t here, and I’m interrupting stuff, then I’ll be more than happy to skirt myself back home…

“That’s… not necessary, mother. We already had our business talk finished, and we were catching up on both of our lives… You could maybe join us? There’s still half an hour slated in my schedule until I have to return back to work.” Jiro said, looking a bit more embarrassed in the face.

“Oh, I’d be more than happy to, Jiro!”

Sukekiyo already was well informed about how Jiro’s life was, but learning more of the friends that Jiro seemingly made half a year ago was a delight to hear. If she ever has the chance to see this ‘Fenneko’ lady in-person, she’s sure to give her a huge amount of thank-you’s for being the root cause why her sons were on talking terms again!

However… they didn’t learn much about On Mi-Sun’s life, besides that she has taken over the church that her husband has left behind, and for some reason, Sukekiyo thought that the butterfly must have felt lonely these past decade ago, because if there was nothing remarkable those 10 years, while Jiro had twice the story to tell in half a year.

She couldn’t tell exactly why… but something was amiss with the butterfly. It wasn’t her personality that she felt was awry, but it’s something ominous that the butterfly had draped over her.

Jiro looked pretty happy talking with her, so maybe she’s just being a conspiracy theorist…

Chapter Text

The fennec fox found herself yet again at her tiring job of typing on a keyboard and being a good worker bee, doing accounting and all.

In a way, life has been moving relatively slower than last month, and it also unfortunately meant that the seasons were turning more into the extreme summer times, in which almost 5 people fainted from heat in the accounting department. Whoever exclaimed that their favourite season wasn’t fall or spring was a fraud and their opinion should never be respected again.

Besides the extreme heat that the sun was blasting towards the planet Fenneko and billions of people were inhabiting, life has been progressing steadily. Jiro and Yuki were still high on love, as per Shikabane’s complaints, Haida’s and Retsuko’s wedding was just three months away, and it has been some time since she and Seiji became a couple.

Yes, everything was moving smoothly, and there were definitely no problems on the surface that Fenneko had to worry about.

Exactly, nothing was poking at her brain, and surely nothing was bothering her at the moment.

…..

What is she kidding, there’s a problem, as much as it wants it to look like an unseen problem!

She doesn’t know whether the hyena’s and the white cow's relationship some-fucking-how drained whatever fuels her relationship with Seiji has been running on, because lately, it seems like Seiji has been actively avoiding being with Fenneko, and whether she indirectly asked the charming horse what the problem was, he always found a turnabout way to not talk about it.

And as if the creator above who forced Fenneko to live in this world wanted the situation to be funnier, she was working while being able to see Seiji working, and as much as she enjoyed being able to see the man, this time around, it felt tortuous.

And to make things matter worse, it didn’t seem like she was the only one suffering from being tense at the moment, because from what she can remember, besides Seiji, Shikabane and Tsunoda also seemed to be behaving a bit differently than usual.

Starting with Shikabane, the weird thing happening with her was that she looked more lost in thoughts lately, so much so, that Kabae once spooked her when the hippo came back from her break, and if she knew anything about Shikabane, the one glaring difference from normal Shikabane was that it was basically impossible to scare and get a reaction out from Shikabane. The skunk could walk through the most nightmare-fueled forest with monsters that could tear anyone up without mercy, and just walk it off like it was an usual Monday.

From what Fenneko gathered from the skunk, it didn’t have to do anything with her roommate’s relationship with Jiro, but something else. She didn’t quite know what that was, but she hopes whatever thing that’s worrying her is going to get resolved soon.

Tsunoda, however, was something else entirely. Instead of Tsunoda trying to play detective around Seiji’s background, something was terribly wrong this time around with the gazelle, because the peppy face of hers was long missing from its usual spot.

And to add to the mystery pile that was Tsunoda’s whole divergent mood, it looked like the gazelle was deliberately ignoring her as well. Did she commit some kind of crime that Fenneko didn’t realise was a crime, and now people were avoiding her like the plague, even her boyfriend?

No, that couldn’t be right, because she’s still interacting with Retsuko all fine and daddy, and in all honesty, it seemed like she was the sole person in the accounting department that didn’t have any kind of problems as of late, and to add to that, she was positively beaming that ever since Jiro was now more preoccupied with his boyfriend, she had more Haida-time to herself. Didn’t Jiro only call his brother for a short while? Was she literally glad that she could spend 3-5 more minutes with her hubby? The absolute nerve of that red panda was staggeringly eye-rolling.

What a turn-about of events in the accounting department. Retsuko was surely having her revenge against the place that worked her to near extinction, and all people in the department were suffering from it. Ton with his worrying about his soon-to-be third child, god forbid was it terrifying to think that her wife was willingly procreating children with that man, Komiya, Yagyu and all other men with no girlfriends complaining about their love life, while women like Tsubone were also complaining about their love life, Kabae supposedly nearly got busted for espionage again, Anai has been receiving some negative reception online on his website, and so many other problems that the other co-workers have in the accounting department.

And her problem was that whatever stuff was going on between Seiji and his reluctance on talking about why he was spending less time with her. She wasn’t clingy, was she? She had Jiro to compare herself to, and she was pretty sure Jiro was the word to word definition of a clingy person.

So then, what exactly was she doing wrong for Seiji to distance himself from Fenneko? Was something happening with his family again? Did it have something to do with a relative, a friend, or something else entirely? Did it have something to do with her at all?

Goddammit, just what was that horse hiding from her? She wouldn’t bite the man’s head off if it was something embarrassing, and if she finds out that this all tension was unneeded, she will throw hands with the man, even though he was her boyfriend!

The horse was sure to avoid her again when lunch came, so the only thing she could do was call the girls over and small-talk. Maybe during that process, she could brainstorm an idea to approach Seiji and have him blurt on his reluctance on meeting up with her as of late, and maybe try something to counteract it, because she really wanted to spend more time with that horse, because how dare she get upstaged by the two man she wingmanned for when it came to relationships!

The first Haida was happily married, while the second was knee-deep being lovey dovey, so why wasn’t Fenneko also not sharing the same merriment as the latter hyena?

Yes, she will try scheming something to get that sexy horse to talk to her, and then she can have that time back when she was head over heels for the man!

Lo and behold, lunch time has come, and of course, the three women sitting at the table did what most girls did when they sat together around a table.

Be on their phones and eat their lunch mindlessly.

But compared to what Fenneko was having, which she personally put together herself, Shikabane and Retsuko were eating bento boxes, and as much as the skunk’s meal didn’t look like a nuclear waste-space, Retsuko’s looked to be more delicious.

It would be good to have Seiji do something like that for her or have her do something like that for him, but as circumstances stood, there’s no way she could have something like that for some time, unless she does something to fix whatever is building a wall between them.

Fenneko monitored her surroundings, making sure nobody was listening on their table, especially if a certain pink hippo was in the vicinity to spread it around like the black plague.

“OK girls, I need some relationship advice. Can you two barge your head off from your smartphone and help me untie the situation I find myself in?” The fennec fox said, which made the other two women raise their eyes towards her, fully gaining their attention.

“Why are you asking me for relationship advice? Do I look like I play dating simulator games?” The skunk naturally responded, baring her bored expression as always, as she regained her eyes back to her smartphone screen.

“I’m asking for any kind of advice. Just as long as you think I could do something to improve my situation with Seiji…”

“Oh, are you having withdrawal syndrome, now that you aren’t spending as much time together with him as usual?” Shikabane stated, as she then whispered the following. “I wonder if Navi is going to be like when his politician boyfriend is gonna get requested in the future to go some place for a few days…”

“Hey, I wasn’t being an addict when it came to being a good girlfriend for Seiji! My anxiety is very much more understandable, since he’s definitely being weird around me!” Fenneko cried, fighting for her dignity, because she wasn’t a damn crack addict!

“I guess that’s true… it does seem like he’s acting jumpy only around you.” Retsuko muttered, as she took another bite from her lunch.

“Shikabane, Retsuko, did I do something wrong that I didn’t notice? I’m not sure what you even do in relationships that much, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything to get such a reaction out of him…”

Shikabane and Retsuko, however, didn’t have any kind of answer to Fenneko, because the skunk just shrugged with her shoulder, while Retsuko seemed like she was considering what she might have done wrong, which meant that Retsuko also had no idea what she was doing wrong.

Was this some kind of a guy thing that they don’t know what to do? Maybe she should ask Haida or the other guys in her friend group to figure out what was wrong with him, or with her.

“Maybe…” Retsuko finally murmured something of substance, as she then continued… “you should ask Tsunoda about it? She’s the Love Ref, after all…”

Question Tsunoda about this?... As if! It’s not like that was the best choice to do…

Wait, no, questioning Tsunoda about this was probably the best choice to do, because she was the gall who had a Ph.D when it came to relationships relating to a guy and a girl…

But would Fenneko really stoop to such a level to ask for Tsunoda’s help? It’s a whole different issue when she asked for it when it came to Mr. Blunder Boy and Mrs. Blunder Girl, and when it came to her own romantic relationship!

“Yeah, no. I’m not gonna pester a damn fornicatress for her opinion about this… She would probably make the whole situation worse by saying things like ‘he’s cheating on you’ or ‘he doesn’t love you anymore’, teehee…. Blegh.” Fenneko was a bit upset, as she mimicked Tsunoda’s perky voice. This was going to be her last attempt doing something like this to get her point across.

“Seems like a BS reason to ignore sound-proof from someone who refers to themselves as the ‘Love Police’. You were the one to complain about how she gets into relationships and then ends them like a real professional.” Shikabane stated, and as much as Fenneko hated to admit that she did in fact say something like that before, she’s not sacrificing her pride to fraternise with Tsunoda when she doesn’t need to do it!

“I agree with Shikabane… Tsunoda has a good grasp when it comes to relationships from inside out… She was the one who gave me and Ichiro helpful advice, after all…”

“Well, sorry to say Retsuko, but I’m not willing to stain my legacy with Seiji by having Tsunoda aid our relationship, thank you very much! And what the heck, I WAS the one who got you two losers together!” Fenneko responded, very clearly upset that Retsuko was implying that Tsunoda was the one who actually helped the most.

“Did take you 5 years from what Haida and you told us.” Shikabane said.

“Hey, it was hard work getting Haida to grow a pair, and speaking of you telling me that I’m inefficient, I did get your roommate and Haida’s brother together, and it only took me a month!”

“It isn’t that difficult to get two people together when they had abysmal crushes on each other for who knows how long. It’s like playing on the easiest difficulty.”

As much as Fenneko wants to argue with Shikabane about that, because even if that was the case, they had to do a lot of roundabout ways for the two to get together, especially helping Jiro, because the man didn’t even know he had such feelings for the bull!”

“Whatever, we’re not talking about them, we’re talking about me! There’s something that I can do to climb over the wall that suddenly popped up between me and Seiji…”

“Just go ask Tsunoda, dude.” Shikabane blurted, which is when Fenneko responded:

“Never in a million years!”

“But Fenneko-” Retsuko now joined in, but Fenneko naturally deflected it, saying:

“You can’t convince me!”

Retsuko and Shikabane took this as a cue to look at each other, with Shikabane not emoting that much, while Retsuko looked at the skunk with a worrisome expression, as the two finally called it quits with trying to convince her to go to Tsunoda when Fenneko wasn’t going to ask for that skank’s help.

Dang, the two were of no help, but Fenneko already thought that this would be the outcome. She will probably ask for Gori and Washimi’s help afterwards, and then go to Haida and the boys when the two mature women don’t have anything to pinpoint Seiji’s problem. If it’s a boy problem, then the boys surely have an answer to it, and then she can go lay that mountainwall that was separating her from Seiji low, and have her life return to the status quo a few weeks ago.

University life has been hectic as of late, and if Sakiyo was still preoccupied on playing wingman for her brother, she probably wouldn’t have realised just how much stuff her professors were trying to push onto their students before they would have two months free.

Summer vacations for university students usually weren’t that long in practice, since most students still beg their professors for private tutors lessons to help shape up their grades, and not to mention, the copious amount of homework they get during the vacation to do. If Sakiyo wasn’t exactly a proper student, she would probably be sweating buckets, but since her grades were meticulous, she had no worries for the foreseeable future, having instead peppy thoughts for the occasion.

She already up and announced to her parents that she would spend none of her time being there, as much as her parents persisted from the phone calls they were making with her, and as much as the vacation offers were enticing, she would rather spend it with her friends than with her family.

However, besides Azumi, she knew nothing of what her other friends were going to do during this long break, and besides the goose and three other friends of her, her other friends were sure to spend their time learning and doing their homeworks than relaxing, and Sakiyo already spend most of her ‘I said so!’s towards them. Was it really that hard to come to group studies?

That is why she was now spending her lunch break looking around the campus for some of her friends whose answer she does not have at the moment, keeping her eyes peeled. If her assumptions were correct, if she were to find Sophia, she would have to look around the campus which wasn’t that busy, had a good shade for a certain bat to laze around, and preferably around a tree to make the area as gloomy as possible.

She already had a good idea where that area lay, which is why she was going through the seas of students loitered around campus who were either looking like they were on death’s row, either terrified by it or just simply accepting their fate, or were just simply happy that it was going to be summer vacation soon, greeting a few friendly faces here and then, which is when her eyes spied two people sitting solitary under a ginkgo tree.

Considering that one of them looked like they were just laying under the tree with the most ‘draw me like one of your french girl’ energy protruding from them, while the other was neatly sitting next to them, leaning next to them to see what they were reading while wearing an exotic looking hat, she knew instantly that she found the princess.

Yami and Sophia did in fact radiate couple vibes from them, as much as they weren’t, and the two people she was seeing from here did in fact radiate the same kind of vibe that Yami and Sophia created together.

And so, she strolled over to them, wondering why Yami always laid down like that, waving over to them, which the hyper-curious princess noted and returned with much vitality.

“Hi, you two! How’s it going in the gloomiest place on the campus?” The cow questioned, deciding that she might as well spend her time eating her lunch here, as she sat next to Sophia.

“Greetings Sakiyo! It’s going very amazing like!” Sophia answered, positively beaming like she was doing the most fun thing of her life… which was looking over Yami’s shoulder to see him whatever kind of book he was lending out from the library in the university, which is when the gloomy bat gave the cow a weak wave while still having his eyes glued to… their homework? Were they really spending their lunch doing their homework for the summer holidays?!

“Hi… Sakiyo. What are you doing here…?” The man stated with the most expressionless voice imaginable, which is when Sakiyo retorted:

“You know, just coming over to my friends during lunch, like always. So…” She mumbled, wandering her eyes to their textbooks that their professor stated would have the homework in it. “...Guess you two are preparing yourselves when the professors are going to bombard us with homework.”

“Exactly right, Sakiyo!” Sophia said, in a very chirpy tone. “Notwithstanding the foregoing, it shouldn’t take that much time for us to finish if we keep our minds busy! We might be able to finish it before my birthday!... Uh, when was it again…”

“18th of July, Sophia… I think you said that to me about a week ago…” Yami answered the princess, who was having a memory leak, which was a daily occurrence for the border collie, because as smart as the girl was, she probably was the most air-headed person that Sakiyo had the pleasure to meet.

“Oooooooooh…” Sophia said with much wonder, like she literally just figured out when her birthday was. “...So how many days do we have to finish the homework before my birthday happens…?”

“Summer vacation is going to happen in two weeks from now… so about two days?” Sakiyo answered now, and thinking about the time they would have, having it take two days for them to complete the homework was possibly impossible…

“Oh, that will be enough time! We’ll have so much fun together when I turn 22!” Or guess that was possible, now that Sophia stated that it was.

Thinking about it, it did sound nice to spend their early vacation day for an extreme homework get-together, and then have all of her days off during the vacation.

“Won’t you be returning to Britain for your family though, Sophia?” Sakiyo asked, because as much as it seemed like she was exiled here from her family, surely a regal princess like her would have her birthday celebrated back in the rainy country.

“Naw, my papa and mama seem to be busy with internal affairs with our family, so they advised me that I should celebrate my day of birth with my friends here in Japan, if I have any!” Oh, poor naive Sophia… she surely has to figure out that her parents are leading her on… right?

“Well… you have some, so you can spend it with them…”

“And with you!”

“...And with me…” Yami and Sophia responded to each other, and now that she thinks about it, Yami was going to be the only guy at the party, since none of Sophia’s friends have any male friends or boyfriends, because Amaya and Kiku broke up with their boyfriends. Not to mention, Yami wasn’t the type to be around groups, because before Sophia shoved herself next to Yami when she first appeared at campus, he was a known loser around the university.

His reputation kind of changed under-night when Sophia cushied herself next to the bat, because people were now approaching him, as much as the bat was loathing it.

“So anyway…” Sakiyo spoke, now trying to get back to the topic that she wanted to discuss with Sophia, and by extension her cohort, Yami. “Do you guys have anything planned for the coming vacation? I’m trying to see if we can do anything within the summer besides melting into a puddle!”

“Not really!” Sophia immediately answered. “Although, I’ll probably be pulled on all sides from the place I work at part-time… but at any rate, I will have a lot of fun being useful as the ‘Multi-Purpose Detective Princess’!”

If people didn’t immediately fall over meeting Sophia as soon as she tells them that she’s a princess from Great Britain, most of them usually get knocked down by the fact that not only was she a detective that worked on several areas, even though she’s pretty sure foreigners weren’t allowed to practise in the police force, which she just chalked it off as her having connection due to her status, and she was a pretty famous figure in the inner circle of the Metropolitan Police Department, because she is pretty sure she saw Sophia walking along side with the chief of police, which is when Sakiyo started to think whether Sophia was a figment of everyone’s imagination.

“...It’s a shame, really… weren’t you on patrol in Fukui somewhere? You are one pretty unconventional detective, princess…” Yami muttered, making the chirpy canine sitting next to him pout up a little, as she responded:

“Yami, you know I requested everyone to not call me a princess! They always insinuate that they should take over my job, because it’s way too lowly for me to do… but I always love doing stuff like investigating the crime scene because it’s usually bloody and or a grotesque smell from the corpse! It always makes me think as if I’m in a noir detective film!”

Oh, Sakiyo forgot to mention, but when you got through the fact that Sophia was not only a royal princes, and she was a goddamn beast when it came to being an investigator, she was kind of a weirdo, because the girl was kindly put obsessed with anything that has to do with secrets, and when a mystery is more bloodied and violent, Sophia’s eyes always shine up like an innocent kid watching cartoon. And supposedly, from what Yami has told her, she also kinda overgoes a massive personality change when she’s investigating, describing that personality of hers as the most fiercest and detective-like personality imaginable, and as much as she entertained the possibility that the canine had a split-personality, which would be a good reason as to why her parents exiled her here to not communicate with her, Yami told her it wasn’t that massive for it to be that. Yami described it as her pushing her air-headed tendencies back in her back and letting her intelligence run wild, but she’s not sure if she can trust that claim of the bat.

“Speaking of your time at Fukui, how did it go? Did you catch the culprit?” The white cow questioned, curious if the border collie was able to figure out the case of a homicide case, where a close-roomed mystery happened, as far as Sakiyo remembers from the news… Damn, she did start watching such stuff on the news more ever since she became friends with Sophia, huh?

“...Uh, where’s that? I thought I was at some place called the 44th president of the United States?”

“Fukui Prefecture… in Obama city… supposedly, one of the staff at some construction company killed their boss in blind fury when they denied him a promotion, which he needed for his family or whatever…” Yami recounted, who kind of served as Sophia’s reminder, since he was the first person that Sophia informed whenever it came to cases like this, cases that she could tell the bat anyway. “It happened two weeks ago… remember?”

“Oh right!... Guess I forgot, teehee!”

Well, it was endearing of Sakiyo to be such an air-head, the cow thought, as she tried to ignore the question her mind was dying to tell the canine on how she was able to forget such an important thing last month.

“How about you, Yami? Are you as busy as our Multi-Purpose Detective?”

“Sakiyo, you forgot to add ‘princess’ to my moniker!”

“But didn’t you tell us that you didn’t want people to refer to your status?”

“Yes, but ‘Multi-Purpose Detective Princess’ is a title… a nickname, I think, and not my status, so I’m fine if people call me that!”

“Uh… OK…” Sakiyo and Sophia buckled amongst each other, as Sakiyo just simply accepted that she will not emit the ‘princess’ when referring to her title, and was it wild to think that Sophia was able to earn such a title while she was only in Japan for only a year now.

“...You could say I’m… occupied with a case right now.” The bat answered, turning a page over from their textbook.

“Is it about another cheating spouse again, like usual? Or is it about checking a potential match-making candidate's background for any racial or caste background?” Sophia questioned, not really asking for specifics, because she knew Yami couldn’t disclose it to her, because he was working at a private investigator agency, after all.

“Hmm… not this time… to summarise it with few words as possible, I’ve been asked to… bodyguard a person that has been threatened, as much as I’m sure they’re only asking me for that because they want to gain information about them, but they sure have a lot of money to waste, so who am I to refuse them…” Yami described, making the canine sitting regally next to him perk up a bit.

“That’s very nice, Yami! Whenever you talk about things like that, it always has to do with those awful infidelity cases… I hope you’re having fun tailing after the target of interest!” Oh, just to add another case on Sophia’s weirdness, the girl was a-okay investigated the most bloodiest crime scene, but she was very reserved when it came to infidelity cases. Some people just prefer different things, huh?

“In this heat?... I’d hardly say so… the person that I’m monitoring is a droner… he’s just a simple guy with a wife… and he doesn’t even do anything special…”

“So what you’re saying… is that you’re busy throughout the summer until you find some evidence to get the requester satisfied?” Sakiyo asked, and when the bat gave her a weak hum, the cow sighed a little.

As Sakiyo spent her time silently watching Sophia and Yami freaking read their homework during lunch break, eating her loosely done sandwich, which is when she realised that she forgot to mention an idea that she had two weeks ago.

“Oh, I forgot to mention, but would you guys want to meet my brother and his boyfriend over at some café in the following days? His boyfriend might not look like it, but I definitely think he’s gonna mash well with you two, especially with Yami, because he’s grossfully interested… in the occult.”

At the mention of the occult, the bat turned his head around, looking a bit more interested in the face, as he said:

“Oh?... One of my kind, and he’s Yukiharu’s beloved… does he wish for eternal sleep like I do?”

“Nope! He does not have the same gloomy exterior as you do, and he wants to live life as long as possible!”

“Oh… what a shame.”

No, it was in fact not a shame that Jiro didn’t sound as gloomy as Yami, because if that was the case, she would surely be afraid of the hyena.

“Ah, that sounds very lovely, Sakiyo! You rarely talk about your older brother to us, and I was always intrigued by how you describe him! Maybe I can study his cooking to make sure whenever a murder case was caused by food poisoning!” Youch, what a low blow to her brother’s cooking, Sophia…

“Good to know… anyway, I’ll go ask my brother and his boyfriend about whether they want to meet you guys, and then we can have fun chatting! It’s about time my brother learnt some of the friends I have, since I basically know my brother’s whole friend circle!” Sakiyo commented, and without any complaints coming from the canine or the bat, the three of them continued on enjoying their lunch break as much as possible.

While she was thinking of the possibilities of how that friendly chat could go, she was slapped in the face of the fact that Jiro and Yami might ramble about their occult interest, which is when Sakiyo realised just what kind of hell she unleashed with having Jiro meet someone that actually shares his pastimes as much as he does.

What if they banded together to become necromancers?! What if they accidentally summoned some kind of tentacle monster that would put the world into jeopardy, and it was because she thought it would be neat if Jiro talked to one of her friends!

Is this how she’s going to see ghosts for the first time?! Just what did she unleash into the world?!

“And your sub-total will be 4’320¥, sir.” The cashier stated to Ichiro, scanning the last item that he would need for today’s dinner, as she then asked: “Is there anything else you might want?”

“No, got everything I want.”

“Then let me package all your items.” The cashier said in the usual customer-service smile, and as soon as she got the ingredients in the paper bag, and handed the bag over to the hyena, she bowed down and said. “Thank you for shopping at Doumart!”

He gave the cashier a faint smile, as he left the convenience store. It was time for him to return home and cook a warm meal for himself and Retsuko.

Well, that would have been the thing that would have been on his mind most of the time, weren’t it for the fact that Ichiro felt like… he was being watched.

He doesn’t even know what prompted this feeling in him, because he never felt this tense before, well, never for situations that didn’t require it from him.

And to make things worse, it doesn’t seem like his wife noticed anything wrong, because she seemed to be more relaxed lately, and especially more happy. Would it be awkward of him telling her that ‘hey, I’m having the feeling we’re being watched, how’s your day been going back at Charayman?’, or was it just him?

However, no matter how much he tries to make spontaneous movements, whenever he looks behind his backs, no one seems to be following him directly, which means that his stalker was either very good at being discreet, or he was just simply being delusional. He’s also pretty sure Jiro’s not the one tailing him, because even though he’s a great spy when it came to putting his nose into his business, he was absorbed with Yukiharu at the moment.

And so, Ichiro kept having such thoughts wander into his mind, with his hands probably earning a few papercuts here and there from the bag of ingredients he was carrying, while he walked back to his apartment that he shared with Retsuko, wondering whether he was going crazy from nothing.

….

While the hyena was lost in such thoughts, if he looked behind him and looked up past the last pine tree he passed through, he could have seen a black bat hanging onto the branches of the three, looking through a pair of binoculars.

Finally at the entrance of their apartment, Ichiro grabbed his keys out of his pocket, fidgeting with it a bit before unlocking it, as he per tradition announced to the room:

“I’m home!”

“Welcome back!” Retsuko replied to him, making Ichiro’s worry melt away just a bit from hearing his beloved wife’s voice, as he saw Retsuko sitting in front of the tv, watching some kind of a show. “How did shopping go?”

“Same old, same old.” The hyena replied, taking his shoe off at the foyer. “I hope you like curry!”

Ichiro soon entered the kitchen of their apartment, and before he could even begin cooking, Retsuko interfered, saying:

“Ichiro, you just came home! Why not laze around a bit before I get to taste your delish curry? Even though I’m sure I’d be content only eating your curry for the rest of my life, I can wait a bit!”

Ichiro considered Retsuko’s alternative idea, and since it didn’t seem like so much of a bad idea, he put all the ingredients he bought into the fridge, as he then placed himself next to her, greeting her again with a kiss on his cheeks, making the red panda blush up a little, as he looked over to see what kind of show she was watching.

It was some kind of comedy-drama series where the characters in it sometimes do a musical number, and surprisingly, every musical number he saw from the show was pretty catchy, even though one of them was about how three girls conspired to hang congress with their braided hair.

“How’s work been? Did anyone from the accounting department get on your case again for sending in wrong data?” Ichiro asked, which earned a pout from his wife.

“Not really, your program makes sure that’s never going to be the case.” Retsuko answered, as she then threw a glance towards him. “Can’t you somehow gain royalties from how your line of code is saving our butt optimising our work?”

“I am sad to retail that that’s not the case, I fear. It’s kind of like open source for you guys, and not like I could wager some kind of deal with the CEO. Don’t wanna bother Jiro or Sakiyo about this when we don’t need any extra money to live comfortably, can we?”

“Guess that’s true, we already have each other, and that’s enough for me.”

“Those sappy lines are really doing it for me, Retsuko…”

“I know, that’s why I use ‘em.”

Ichiro and Retsuko exchanged with each other, and as the charmed fool that he was, he leaned closer into her, hoping that she caught the cue that he wanted to kiss her, which she definitely most have caught, because she soon also started leaning in closer, her flustered cheeks mirroring that of his own, and they itched closer and closer, until…

“Ichiro, you wanna share with me why you looked so tense when you came in?”

Crap… his perfect innerworld that was his apartment crumbled like that, pulling him back into the cruel reality known as living in Tokyo, Japan, as he leaned there frozen, blinking a few times, as he then grumpily reeled himself back, wondering how best he can explain to Retsuko that he has this uncanny feeling that he’s being watched.

“So you noticed… guess that comes with the territory of being lovers…” Ichiro mumbled to himself, as the red panda just awkwardly nodded.

“Yeah… you had that face since last week, and I went over the tipping scale of trying to ignore like you do… it doesn’t have to do anything with Jiro, I hope?”

Oh brother, Ichiro hopes Jiro isn’t going to be the reason again why they’ll have a slight disagreement with each other again, because one time was plenty enough for him, he thinks.

“I assure you, Jiro’s got nothing to do with.” He stated, spotting a smirk on his face to signify that Jiro was not the culprit for this time around.

“That’s good to know…” Retsuko said, stealing a look at her smartphone laying on the low table. “I thought since Jiro was being all crazy-like loving his childhood best friend, you’re missing his weekly check-ups on you through your phone.”

“Oh, please!” Ichiro said, giggling a bit that that’s how Retsuko imagined Jiro got him acting a bit tense this time around. “I’m his brother, so I relate how butt-crazy he’s being with his first love and all, and as much I kind of miss it, now that you brought it up, I do understand why he’s being like that.”

“I see…” Retsuko muttered, as she now continued onward to her second guess, which was. “Then does it have something to do with work? Tadano’s not being pushy with you, is he?”

“I’m afraid not. Work’s been peachy, and I do get paid a good amount. And if Tadano even did something like that, Jiro would probably get on his case the moment the guy does it.”

“That’s true…”

It really seemed like Retsuko was now wholly lost on what Ichiro’s issue was as of late, and as she took her moment to get through a few scenarios, which all eventually went into the bin, as she just literally asked the man:

“So what’s the issue? Is there anything I can do to help?”

Anything that she can help to make him feel watched?... Ichiro thought about it, but he sure is finding no answers to it. Honestly, it would be disastrous if Retsuko also felt uneasy, because if that was the case, then they might as well become shut-ins for a few days to get those irrational anxieties out of their bodies.

“Well… I might be wrong about this… but I kinda have the feeling that I’m being… tailed?” He confessed, feeling a bit embarrassed that he had to tell, because surely, there should be something more groundbreaking in his uneasiness at the moment, and just some silly feeling he has with no evidence proving his claim, right?

“Oh Ichiro, that’s terrible! I’ve already felt terrible when Ikari trailed me that one day, I can’t imagine having been followed for a week straight and not being able to talk about it!” Retsuko stated looking absolutely sorry for him, which is when he just simply responded:

“I know it sounds terrible, but I’m really fearing that I’m just imagining things in my head… I’m not overworking myself, am I?”

“Don’t worry about that, Ichiro. I know when you’re like that, and ain’t surely the case this time around…” Retsuko said in a sombre tone, probably reminiscing about the time when he got too blinded with ambition, and might have possibly have committed fraud, weren’t it for the fact that Retsuko and co. from the accounting department committed espionage in return, and Ichiro still wonders how the two parties involved in those crimes weren’t legit busted for any jail time or fines, as Retsuko suddenly jolted up with an idea, it being…

“Why don’t we do something in the future to help you unwind? If it’s stress that’s making you paranoid, then something like going to the Isshiki Beach should surely do the trick of easing up some of those knots inside you!”

Going to the beach? That sounded… uh… how did it sound to him, exactly…?

“That’s a great idea, Retsuko… but I…” Ichiro played around with his fingers, unable to hide just how nervous he was telling Retsuko this secret. “...I never went to the beach in my whole life…?”

Damn, he must have dropped an absolute unit into Retsuko’s face, because the red panda looked gobsmacked in the face. Was it really that bad that his family never went on vacation like that?

“...No kidding?” The tone of disbelief in Retsuko’s voice was palpable, and boy, he does not know what kind of expression he should be expressing right now.

“No kid in the ding…”

“Your family never went on trips like that?”

“If it wasn’t some national holiday, no. It’s just our dad thought it was too quote unquote “lowly” for us to be among commoners on the beach, and before you ask, I can swim, we did go to public pools, albeit when it was rented by dad and his colleague and their families…”

Upon hearing his own words, he might have underestimated how much of a classist his dad truly was, because was he really that prone to people being lower-status to outright distance him and his family from them? How Jiro and he didn’t turn out to be sheltered guys was something of a mystery to Ichiro, now that he thinks about it…

“...Ichiro, I’m gonna be honest, I forgot for some time that you were kinda a rich kid…”

“Me too… I sometimes wonder how I ended up like this, but it’s not like I’m complaining.” Ichiro said, and before he knew it, something was awakened in Retsuko’s eyes, like a branding fire that threatening to burn everything in its path to cinders, as she proudly exclaimed, grabbing onto her smartphone:

“Since it’s summer and the weather is going to be terribly hot this month, I need you to show how amazing it is being at a beach!... Wait, should I invite your brother to this, since he also doesn’t know what it’s like being at a beach?”

“Yeah, I’m not even sure if he can swim… but wouldn’t that mean that we’d have to invite Yuki as well?”

“And that means we’d have to invite Shikabane as well… OK, change of plans, let’s make this a group activity and have our friends hit the beach for some fun and sunny activities!”

Going to the beach with his colleagues, friends and his family? Thinking about such a scenario, it sure sounds pleasant to him, because whenever he watched people being at the beach or just being told how it was like, he had that slight part of himself feeling envious of it and yearning for it, just to see if it really lived up to the hype that it had around itself.

Maybe his uneasy tension that he carries with himself will resolve itself as soon as he takes some of that sea air into his system, and his body was just indirectly screaming at him to get some day’s off, even though he’s sure he didn’t need it.

Now that he thinks about it, who would even stalk him, anyway? Maybe some espionage spies from Tadano’s competitors? He’s not sure why they would think that would be a great idea, because there was no way in hell they could gain some kind of advantage over him by closely monitoring his right-hand man, because compared to the donkey, he was irrelevant, as painful as that statement is.

He could be gaslighting himself at the moment thinking that wasn’t any kind of stalker at the moment, but he would wait for such a conclusion when he went to the beach with Retsuko and a few others, and then decide whether he still had a feeling of being watched or not.

However… What could he even do if the case turned out to be the former?...

It has been a few days since Yoshie asked for the services from the Tokyo Sleuthhound Agency, which is why she’s paying a visit to see how the gloomy bat is proceeding on finding some evidence on that monster who has broken her heart into fraction.

It has been loathsome to work as of late, because even though she’s been performing as was expected of her, it felt like she was walking on glass barefooted going through her workplace, knowing full well that some of the employees were definitely still gossiping about her broken-off relationship with Jiro.

Her father stated that she might be depressed, and asked her if she wanted more days-off to recuperate from her issues, but since she’s sure that there was no fix, it would be wasted having her laze around while her father and their employees were working hard.

It was a Wednesday afternoon, and she came over to the agency as quickly as she could when the trainee investigator called her for an update back at the agency, which is why she was currently sitting in the same room where she told the issue she had, with the melancholy looking bat was as unimpressed as ever.

She didn’t know whether that was because he was disappointed with the request he was given, or because he saw through the front she put up for why she even asked for the agency’s services.

“Good afternoon… Mrs. Kuroiwa. It has been quite a few days since we saw each other in person, huh?” The bat said without much enthusiasm in his voice, and the canary returned the greeting back to the bat, saying:

“Same to you, Mr. Komuri. I hope you’ve been enjoying the summer times.”

The bat seemed to have sighed at the mention of that, as he took a gulp from his bottled water on the table.

“Not exactly… my skin is as gloomy as my interior space, so vast and lightless as the deepsea… which is why I don’t mesh well with investigating in the summer times… but I didn’t die from heatstroke yet, which is one unfortunate thing…”

Ignoring the man’s rambling of sort, she kept her mouth shut that if she could have personally commanded the bat, she definitely would have ordered the bat that he couldn’t die on the job until it was done, and that she needed him at the moment for evidence gathering, so that she can brew up some revenge-plot against that trashbag of a reject.

“But enough of my complaints against the cursed shining star in the atmosphere… we should discuss the intel I got from Ichiro Haida and his wife…” The bat spoke, pulling the canary out of her mind from how she would retaliate against the very man the trainee investigator mentioned.

The bat had two weeks to investigate, so there must be something that she could use to mess the guy up, right?

“Hmmm… where do I begin with him… maybe with the threat that you said Jiro Haida received… it seems like Jiro must have been truthful, because the hyena I’ve been investigating has been more… on-edge.”

“O-oh? Is that true?” Yoshie questioned, now properly dazzled. There was no way in hell that she was true in her fake assessment, right?

“That… or it’s because he has a third-eye of being watched… and I’m plenty sure I’ve been discreet enough for him to not notice who’s behind him like a ghoul…”

“Oh god… so Jiro was right…” She mumbled, trying her best to appear worried for Ichiro, but was secretly relishing in the fact that the hyena was being tormented, because that was only the beginning for what she had planned for the man.

“As of right now… I’ve been unable to locate the source for his uneasiness, because even though I gained access to his chat logs from his smartphone-” Yoshie raised her eyebrow, wasn’t that illegal…? “He seemed to be acting like the usual joe… but one thing I’ve found weird is that something must have happened about three weeks ago, where he and his brother had 4 days of no communication whatsoever, which coincides with the times when you told me he locked himself in his office… it’s safe to assume the ‘threat’ must have been sent to him around this time.”

“I-I thought the same… actually.” Yoshie muttered, trying her best to appear shocked at the revelation, as she waited for the bat to continue.

“Yeah… moving on, I should proceed talking about the hyena’s backstory… because I found a suspicious link in it, which I assume you’re probably not in the know about…” The man stated, which is when Yoshie’s ears lit up in an instant. Was this a piece of information she was looking for?

“...And what would that be?”

“It’s concerning his occupation in the last year… do you perchance know where he’s working currently?”

Now that Yoshie is talking about it, as much as Ichiro was brought up in their conversation during their dinner trips, Jiro never seemed to talk about where Ichiro worked at, besides the fact that he was an IT engineer working at a prestigious company with good pay, and how Jiro tried convincing his older brother to expand from living at some little apartment.

Why did Jiro never seem to specify where he was working?

“I know that he’s an IT engineer, and how he worked as an accountant in some trading firm from Jiro… but I have no idea where he earns his paychecks now…” She admitted, now being curious if Mr. Komuri found something incriminating about Ichiro, and how she could use it to her advantage.

“Does the company… Promise_AI rings any bells?”

“...No, it does not. What is it?”

“Promise_AI, as evidenced by their name, is a company concerning itself with artificial intelligence, and it just so happens that the CEO of that company is one donkey that you might have seen on the television before…”

A donkey that she should have seen on television before?... If she adds in the fact that said donkey is the CEO of an AI company, then that would mean the man should be…

“Tadano? What does he have to do with Ichiro?” She answered, wondering how someone as unimportant as Ichiro could be connected to someone like Tadano, who was the cream of the crop of high standart men like Jiro, as much as he was inferior to Jiro in ideals and looks.

“From what I’ve uncovered… Ichiro joined one of the many companies Tadano has, it being Promise_AI, and surprisingly… it seems like he might as well be the right-hand man of the playboy donkey, even though he had no prior experience working at an IT company…” Mr. Komuri stated, making Yoshie now properly wonder if Ichiro was secretly doing things behind the curtain to end up being Tadano’s right-hand man, because even to her, it sounded way too fishy that the hyena rose so high up in a company commanded by Tadano.

“Not to forget… his sudden own-dismissal from Charayman was also strange… I found no evidence for why he would quit his job, and even though there were some companies he tried joining, he never shared for what reason he quit his job as an accountant at that trading firm… there was no way for him to end up empty-handed on those job hunts but then end up as the right-hand man at a company owned by a big-shot like Tadano, unless he had some connections… although it’s not like he’s doing anything illegal, thankfully…”

Yoshie nearly let out an irritated twitch from her mouth, because if it wasn’t illegal, then she could not use it as leverage to get back against the hyena. She could not stomp on his toes by declaring to people that he got his position at a job due to his connection that he has.

“So… there’s nothing he’s doing that’s prohibited… right?” Yoshie questioned, and when the bat gave her a nod, she added, trying to appear relieved for the hyena. “...That’s good…”

Dang, so the only thing she has as information is that Ichiro must have used some kind of connection inside Tadano’s company to be at such a high-position inside the company, or at least the company that he joined, and that for some uncertain reason, he quit his accounting job at Charayman for undisclosed reason that appeared arbitrary for the investigator. Should she press the investigator to try to uncover for what reason the hyena actually quit, or should she just let him be and have him investigate more in case there was something suspicious with the man?

“...Mrs. Kuroiwa, may I be frank with you?” The trainee investigator suddenly blurted out, making the canary tense up. There was no way he was able to figure out that Yoshie had an underlying motive behind asking the agency to look into the hyena, right?

“It’s pretty obvious that only looking into Ichiro Haida… is not earning information from what you’ve been requesting from us, and as much the agency would be squeezing out money from your pockets watching the man, which is why I want to recommend an altercation to our services.”

“...And what would that be?” She inquired, sweating a bit from how ominous the bat made his words to appear like, which is when he suddenly reached into his pouch, and pulled out a simple photo of Jiro, something that he must have taken from the internet, as he then stated:

“As evident from my wording… I think it would be prudent if I also looked into Jiro Haida’s backstory and movement, because he’s the one who shared to you that he received those threats, wasn’t he?”

Yoshie simply nodded, trying to keep it a secret that those threats were in fact a huge load of bull coming from her.

“Mrs. Kuroiwa… you know that us private investigators deal with a lot of cases of infidelity, right?” Yoshie also nodded, not liking where the bat was taking the offer to. “It’s going to sound harsh… but there’s a high likelihood that the ‘threats’ that Jiro Haida has been telling you might be nothing more than just a made-up fantasy.”

Even though he was a trainee detective, Yoshie had to give some credit to the man for figuring out that those threats were nothing but a lie, but he was still a bit away from the truth, seeing that she was the one who originated those thoughts and ideas.

However, since Yoshie was the client, it would be easier to think that Jiro came up with those ideas, but then that would mean he wanted to end the relationship between the two, and since the bat brought up infidelity, the professional word for cheating in a relationship… he insinuated that Jiro was leading her on, and that he was seeing someone else at the moment.

That couldn’t be the case thought, because there was no women that Yoshie knew about that striked Jiro’s fancy… but she was talking about Jiro, one of the most capable man in the country, so it wouldn’t be strange if he was also competent at hiding his secret relationship with a woman…

“Are you telling me that Jiro cheated on me?!” Yoshie exclaimed, not really thinking that Jiro did that to her… because what kind of woman was able to get Jiro’s attention, if not even she was capable of woo’ing her? She thought Fenneko, the fennec fox working at Charayman, somehow accomplished that, but she got informed by Jiro that she was just a close-friend that Jiro owns a lot, for some reason…

“Maybe…” Mr. Komuri said with a creepy smile, which ticked off the avian woman, as she said:

“What is this new offer you’re even talking about? Do you want to say that you want to look into Jiro, to see if he’s together with some other woman?!”

“Yeah… Looking into Ichiro Haida seems like a dead-end, and changing our perspective is an essential attribute to being an investigator, which is why I’m recommending that you ask me to look into Jiro Haida, instead of his older brother…”

There was no way she was going to gain intel about Ichiro if she were to look into Jiro, and as much as she was curious whether… it was true that Jiro was double-timing her, as much as that sounded ridiculous to the canary, because Jiro was very infamously known for being… terrible dating other women…

“...Could you look into both Haida brothers, then?... I don’t think Jiro is being unfaithful… but if you think there’s something awry with him, then you should investigate him… although I don’t expect you to find anything of usefulness to our dilemma…” Yoshie said, thinking this to be the best idea without making the bat suspicious of her.

“...That would require a revision to our services. You’re certain you want to pay more, even though I told you that Ichiro Haida is highly likely irrelevant to the case?” The bat probed her, as the canary gave her an approving nod. She had money to burn, and it’s not like it was going to dry out, now that her father’s company has been thriving more this year compared to the past.

“I see… then I hope I’m able to find some relevant information soon. As much as I like getting paid… getting it like this sure leaves a bad taste in my mouth… and I don’t think me dying for it as atonement isn't going to change much…”

“Mr. Korumi… excuse me if I sound offensive, but why do you sound so suicidal…?” She asked, not really wondered whether the bat was doing worse mentally than Yoshie was, which is when the bat gave her a weak smile, and stated:

“I’m not yearning for my ruin… I’m just entertaining the idea of eternal sleep sounding… peaceful… and especially being quiet… oh, I also wouldn’t be required to work… that sounds heavenly…”

And just like that, Yoshie immediately grasped what Mr. Komuri meant with those comments… he was just liking the idea of taking the easy-way out… as much as he’s not really doing that, seeing that he seemed to be hard-working if he was able to get this much information to her, even if it was not what Yoshie wanted to find from Ichiro.

She just hopes he doesn’t find anything incriminating about Jiro, because there was no way someone as perfect as him was doing something malicious like… cheating on her.

And if that was the case, who outperformed her on capturing the hyena’s heart? As wise as the trainee investigator seemed to be, it was beyond ludicrous to think that someone like that existed, because if she had such difficulty unshackling the puzzle that was unlocking Jiro’s heart, then surely everyone else had the same problem.

She just hopes the investigator finds something of substance from Ichiro, like finding out the real reason for why he suddenly quit his accounting job, which she could use against him, because as everything stood at the moment, she quite literally had nothing.

When she gets evidence, she’s going to make sure Ichiro never interferes with her relationship with Jiro, to make him pay for getting her involved with his petty fight with his father and treating Jiro as a means to an end.

Yes, she just has to patiently wait, and hold it out until she has Jiro in her hands again, and to finally make Jiro realise just how much devoted she was to him.

If Shikabane ever thought about the idea that Yuki might have gained an upper hand whenever the two played video games against each other, now that he had Jiro as his boyfriend, like Mario Party, then she was surely mistaken, because Jiro was not being anymore lenient to him, now that the two were lovers.

And to her surprise, it was kind of hilarious to see the bull squirm when Jiro did something that didn’t benefit him, especially when he did something in the current turn to aid Jiro.

Seeing Yuki suffer like this was making her kek in all the right ways.

“Good job being beaten by the AI, Yuki.” Shikabane commented straight faced, with them finishing a minigame that happened at the end of each turn, which properly riled up the bull sitting at the couch with his hyena boyfriend, as he tearfully stated:

“You were focusing on me, you damn ungrateful skunk!”

“But she got 1st place, Yuki…” Jiro said, who ended up being 2nd place, which left the AI, who was Mario, in 3rd place.

“She still had it out for me! I’m your boyfriend, your lover, Jiro! Why weren’t you protecting me?” The bull soon cried while facing the hyena, but the hyena was staring at the television screen, as he mumbled in his same stone-faced expression:

“Everyone is out for themselves in this war called Mario Party.”

OK, Shikabane was a bit relieved that Jiro wasn’t just a lovey-dovey idiot like Yuki, with her coming to terms about the fact that the hyena was more vocal about what his dick was thinking than his actions and words. She knew something was amiss when Haida told her that Jiro was the most pure guy in existence when Yuki and Jiro were still not a thing.

In some way, it was kind of ridiculous how much Haida and everyone else was seeing this side of Jiro, Jiro included, acting around everyone else, with her being the unfortunate victim that had to see what these two guys were like when they were together. She’s convinced that Jiro was now living among them, because she basically saw the guy as much as she did Yuki, and she was living with the latter one in the same apartment.

The game continued onward, with her comfortably being in the lead with 3 stars and plenty of coins, while everyone else was in the same ranking as the minigame results, with Jiro being just a few steps away from snatching Shikabane’s first position, the AI included, while poor Yuki had a lot of coins, but not a lot of stars.

The AI stole a star from him while he stood in front of it, and more funnily, Jiro did the same thing as the AI last turn. She’s pretty sure Yuki considered threatening Jiro with breaking up with him if he did that, but he was too much of a coward, and just let it happen while he looked devastated. It kind of sucked how Jiro tried mitigating the damage he’s done after collecting the star by rubbing his boyfriend’s back, because that’s all he needed to cheer up a little and get back to being destroyed in Mario Party. She swears, that bull can spring back from anything, as long as Jiro was there to cuddle him up. It sounded like a broken mechanic to Shikabane, and wondered whether the power of love needed to be patched whenever the game devs of Earth woke up again to fix it, or make it more broken.

“Oh just fuck me sideways with those rolls! What the hell?!” Yuki complained, as his role was a one big one move, which meant that he landed on a red space, making him lose three coins.

It was Jiro’s turn now, as he leaned into Yuki’s ear, and possibly whispered something dirty in his ears, and as much as she was thankful that the two noticed that Shikabane preferred if she didn’t have to hear what kind of things they tell each other, she could tell what he must have said, since Yuki lit up like a ripe tomato, as Jiro moved forward a few spaces towards the star.

Was it preferable that she didn’t know what the two of them were talking about, or was it more like a curse now?

“Oh c’mon! This is rigged! The freaking bot is getting the exact rolls it needs!” Yuki yet again complained, like the complainer he was when it came to games like this.

“Skill issue.”

“I’d say it’s more of a luck issue, Shikabane…” Jiro added, making her turn to him for a sec, as she then said:

“Luck issue.”

“Why the fudge am I the unluckiest guy imaginable! I always get kicked in the ass like this!” Yuki stated, crossing his arms together in discontent, which is when Shikabane decided that he might as well be exposed for the hypocrite that he was, saying:

“Have you ever thought that you might be this unlucky due to having someone like Jiro as your lover? It’s not the game’s fault for you being out of luck points.”

“I’m not using such an argument to justify my unluckiness! It makes me look like I’m coping, and as much as I agree I’m kind of lucky to have Jiro, I don’t wanna appear delusional!”

Well, wasn’t Yuki just a mood ruiner. She couldn’t make fun of him for being delusional now…

“Kind of lucky? I’d say I’m the luckiest to have someone like you as my lover.” Jiro interrupted, making Shikabane roll her eyes of Jiro being delusional that Yuki was the best, because in no way was the guy the best choice, right?

“Enough of your mirage you have about Yuki, Jiro. It’s time for the next minigame.”

Jiro let out a little smirk, which didn’t usually bode well for Shikabane, as he said:

“Why should I live in a fantasy when real life is already perfect? There’s nothing to fix with Yuki… besides maybe being more open of spending more money when we’re together”

“Jiro, we already discussed this, but you don’t have to open up your wallet to make it easier for me, you’re more than an ATM, you know!” Yuki once again became a bullhead when it came to spending money, like the hoarder that he was, which is when Shikabane commented:

“Why? Jiro acting as your sugar daddy doesn’t sound that bad for us.”

“Shikabane… you know he’s more than that, right?”

While they were discussing that, the three of them, including the AI, were brought into another round of minigames, this time being a 2v2, with Jiro and Shikabane versus Yuki and Mario. Yuki’s annoyance was pretty palpable on his face.

Now that she thinks about it, the teaming was very much close on the current topic that they were having of having Jiro share his credit card information to Yuki, and by extension, Shikabane, with Jiro and Yuki being on the yea side, while Yuki was on the nay side.

“I know that, Yuki.” Jiro stated, looking a bit more serious in the face, and as soon as the game joined, he added: “What I don’t get is why you’re prone to not wanting to be pampered by me? You reel your head the other way when Shikabane mentions take-outs, and as much as your cooking seems to be more… presentable, you can spend my money without trying to split it as reasonably as we could.”

“As I’ve said…” Yuki started, looking as focused as the hyena sitting next to him. “I’m not trying to make it seem like we’re taking advantage of you, and why do we need to live more wastefully? You do know how much money the citizens around the city waste their money on, when it could have been relocated to something more useful?”

“Navi, you make it sound like we’re some broke-ass city dwellers, when we’re living comfortably in a nice flat, while you have a rich boyfriend who is more than willing to share their credit card information with you. Underselling yourself as a miser is not a good look, you know?” The skunk stated, and whether Yuki let out that irritated twitch from his mouth due to the fact that he was long against them or due to the comment, that remained a mystery… until he opened his mouth, saying:

“And what if I’m a miser? Why do you want to burn through our funds and Jiro’s, when we could just suck it up and take the most efficient option?”

“Your cooking is beyond the meta option when it comes to eating, you bull.”

“I agree with Shikabane here. As much as I love you, you’re like Ebenezer Scrooge, but instead of being selfish, you’re selfless.”

“Yuki, if you said to us that you like being miserable, we’d understand why you’re like this, by the way.”

The three of them continued on playing the minigame, and to no one’s surprise, Jiro and Shikabane were victorious, and thankfully, since they had the discussion dissecting why Yuki was being such a miserable piece of crap when it came to spending money, he didn’t whine that he ended up being last place again.

“Yuki… are you getting grumpy with us?” Jiro asked, looking a bit worried, like he was overstepping, but it seemed like that was enough to get the bull out of his shell, as he said:

“No… I’m just wondering why you two are so insistent on wanting to waste money.”

That seemed like the wrong answer, because Jiro paused the game, making Shikabane wish that the two were simping over each other like usual, because when that was the case, they at least didn’t have to halt their gaming…

“Yukiharu.” Ooooh, that meant business is about to go down. “Why do you even think of it as wasting money? Just because you lived on the streets once, doesn’t mean you have to behave the same way when you’re out of the slums, you know? It’s not a crime to live a little.”

“I don’t think your opinion about this is as valid as mine is, Jiro. You weren’t the one living on the streets, remember?” Yuki retorted, and before Shikabane could come in to argue in favour of Jiro, the hyena beat her to it, saying:

“I don’t, but Shikabane sure does. And what’s her opinion about it?” He looked over to her, bringing the grumpy bull’s face towards her, as she stated:

“Stop having these hoarding tendencies, you dummy.”

Since Yuki had no argument whatsoever to battle Shikabane’s opinion, he was being his pissy self of seething there, knowing his stingy live-style was kind of idiotic, as Jiro used this opportunity to be gross, leaning more into him, whispering:

“C’mon Yuki… won’t you allow me to love you as much as I want to? Do you know how much I would spoil you if you just said yes?...”

“Are you trying to seduce me into having you spend money on me…?” Yuki questioned, trying to look as unbothered and grumpy in the face as hard as he could, but Shikabane knew his cheeks being red was a telltale sign on how he was feeling. What a loser.

“As much as this is cringeful to look at, I think this is the only way we're gonna get Navi to realise he’s being a dumbass.” She sadly said, and when Jiro took this as affirmation to try convincing the bull harder by leaning closer and closer to the bull, and if there was a way for her to turn blind for a few seconds, she would have done that.

Oh wait, closing her eyes accomplishes just that. She’s going to appreciate her eyelids more now.

While she closed her eyes and waited for Jiro to egg on Yuki to act less like a fool, trying to ignore the fact that he saw Yuki let out a surprised grasp.

After a few mumbling groans from Yuki, the bull seemed to finally crook, as he said:

“OK, fine! Maybe I'm going to spend a few things here and then, just because you guys are so insistent…”

“Can’t believe all I needed to do to make you reasonable is sending your boy crush on your neck.”

Shikabane opened her eyes again, hoping that the two men in front of her weren’t in any compromising position, which they thankfully weren’t, albeit still too close to each other to classify as gross.

“Why the heck are you making me sound like Jiro can convince me to bomb a nation by just sending me bedroom eyes?”

“Don’t let her little teases get to you, Yuki… You’re just very obstinate, and I had to step in to make you a bit brighter.”

“And now you’re making me sound like an idiot!”

“Yuki, I would probably get you anything if you asked for it, and you aren’t doing anything with it. It is idiotic of you to undertake no action, and I assure you, I don’t feel taken advantage of, you know I can say no, as much as it looks I’m showing the contrary!” Yuki and Jiro argued with each other, which is when Yuki waved his white flag of defeat, sighing and telling:

“Fine… maybe I am an idiot…”

“Yes, you’re my idiot… and as punishment for having to put up with you, I wanna kiss you.”

“Oh you cheeky… come here, hotstuff.”

Was there a way for Shikabane to unalive herself at this moment? As much as she closed her eyes to avoid seeing the cringe, she knew that it was happening in front of her. Maybe if there was a spell to have Haida take her place, because Shikabane was getting sick and tired of Haida looking at her like she was talking about ghosts whenever she mentioned how unbearable his brother and Yuki could be together, and he needed to be hit in the face in it on how condescending he sounded thinking he knew his brother than she did.

After what felt like a good minute or so, the unfortunate sound being sprung from the couch quieted down, as Shikabane carefully opened her eyes to make sure she wasn’t going to get more traumatised than she already was, and when she was certain that those guys weren’t on each other’s lips, she opened her eyes to see the two guys staring at each other, and before she had to chance to call them being extra, Jiro suddenly said:

“Now that I launched that stupid motion of you not wanting to live more comfortably in space… Maybe you can consider moving into my humble home?”

If Yuki had anything to drink at the moment, it would have surely been spilled into the low table, because the way his mouth stayed open accurately described the amount of shock he received from having something like that said to him after a kiss.

“Uhh… you kidding with that, right?” Yuki exclaimed, but since Jiro didn’t change his expression in any way or form, he was being dead serious with that offer.

The offer he was giving was too good for Yuki to pass by. She’s pretty sure that if Yuki was being invited there, so was Shikabane, because Yuki seemed pretty insistent to bring her nearly anywhere he went like she was some stray pet. The penthouse was pretty majestic to the good old internet café’s she lived at, and comparing this apartment was like comparing a simple family-house to a castle. She’s also pretty sure the guestroom and Jiro’s bedroom were separated enough that if Jiro and Yuki got frisky, she wouldn’t be their uninvited guest listening in.

“OK, you might have convinced me to maybe spend a bit more, but I don’t think you’re gonna be able to seduce me to say yes to that, because moving from Shibuya to Suginami is a pretty big deal, because our commute to work would probably get way long-”

“You don’t have to worry about that, I already figured that out.” Jiro interrupted, looking like he anticipated that this was something Yuki was going to say. “I’ve already calculated the train line you both take to get to Otemachi, and taking the train from the Minami-asagaya station would only take 10 more minutes than it would from Shibuya. Is 10 minutes really that long for you guys to not live with me?”

“Oh, he came prepared. You’re not winning this argument either, Yuki.” Shikabane commented, smirking just slightly towards the bull, as the hyena said:

“It’s just an option… although I’m pretty sure you’ll try your hardest peer pressuring him, seeing as you already get on his case enough.”

“Buzz off, Jiro. We know you’re relying on my peer pressuring to get your boyfriend into your bed.”

“You need to get the bull in the house before I could even consider that, you know?”

She and Jiro conversed with each other, with her actually tolerating Jiro when he was like this, but Yuki finally muttered something, which was:

“You guys know I can hear you, right?”

“Yes/Yep.” The both of them replied to the bull in unison, as the bull looked like he was actually considering the offer, and as much as Shikabane hoped that Yuki was sensible this time around and just accepting it, because she really wanted to feel how it would feel like bathing in that spacious jacuzzi bath.

“Well… uh, guess I’ll keep it in my head.”

Oh for frick sake, she can’t have anything nice in this house. She can’t believe she’s going to try convincing as hard as she could.

“You could just say yes and have us both live more comfortably.”

“It’s a bit too early for that, Shikabane! And also, don’t you share any semblance of bond with this flat?” Yuki stated, making the Shikabane roll her eyes yet again, as she said:

“It’s just an apartment. Getting attached to it is kinda stupid, because we know which one of the houses is nicer.”

“You know what, we already spent a lot of time discussing this thing when we should be gaming, so let’s just continue having you guys kick my ass, aight?”

Shikabane surprisingly agreed with Yukiharu this time around, as did Jiro, as the three resumed playing Mario Party, very much kicking the bull’s butt thoroughly…

And to everyone’s surprise, the winner of the round turned out to be the AI, who only won through post-game bonus stars. Well, having your victory stolen from you like that was just life, huh.

She has no idea how she was baited going to the beach, but guess she had to deal with the consequences of following the idea Retsuko proposed to everyone going to the beach because her loser hubby never went to one, which by extension included Jiro as well.

And now Shikabane was under a parasol, relaxing on the warm sand, while she was silently watching everyone having fun on their way.

The two idiots were in the oceanic tide, which meant Haida and Yuki were swimming around, with Retsuko being the only woman who actually joined them on their swimming trip, and from what she’s been seeing from this solitude place, she probably had them beat when it came to swimming exercises.

Most of the other more-witted people, on the other hand, were sun-bathing or doing volleyball on the side-line in different groups. Gori, Washimi, Seiji and surprisingly, Tsunoda were playing volleyball in one place, while Jiro and Fenneko were relaxing somewhere else, with the latter group being a bit closer to the boys and the red panda. She’s pretty sure Jiro was just there to ogle Yuki and make sure his brother didn’t drown, although she’s sure he was the one that couldn’t swim between the two, while Fenneko was awkwardly laying next to Jiro, probably dumping onto the poor hyena about how she doesn’t get it why Seiji has been distancing himself from her.

It wasn’t her problem, but she could probably say it was due to her sharing her hobbies of being a stalker on social media, and it just happens that one of the girls that she usually does that for surprisingly showed up at the very same beach that she was at.

It was kind of nice, now that she thinks about it.

Although, as much as she thinks that is the case, it doesn’t combat the fact that usually when she’s alone like this to gather her thoughts, her mind wanders to rather unpleasant things.

Most of the time, it was rather easy to keep it in mind when she didn’t have any kind of connections with anyone, when she was playing solo. She could tune it out with the sound of whatever music her multiplayer game was blasting through her headphones or the sound of her keyboards being too loud for her to be cognizant of her thoughts, but ever since Retsuko screamed some goals into her soul, it has been harder for her to just not give a fuck about her own thoughts.

This time around, it seems like her memories have been taking her back to the encounter with On Mi-Sun and how she was toe-to-toe with the woman who helped destroy her family with that cult nonsense they were feeding her mother.

Now that she has the current moment to reminiscence, her dad always seemed fondly of the sea. He always said that it always reminded him of home, some small village located around the bay of bengal.

It always makes her think why that was the case, because the ocean was just one big sad slate of water that housed a lot of fishies. He would surely bring up how the view was organic and lively, which she would probably refute and say that he was blowing it out of proportion, and then they would bicker amongst themselves until one of them yielded, and that’s when her father would try to cheer her up, properly buying her ice cream, even though they were more than broke.

It does make her think when it was enough for him, and decided that he didn’t want to bear through life anymore.

Just when was it too much for him to decide that he wanted to quit being in a stressful wedding where his wife ‘donated’ nearly all of their spendings to the Amalgamation Church, screamed at him for being a dirty outlander, and how she never should have beasts like himself that came crawling into Japan. Since she shared blood with her father, she wasn’t spared from her mother’s scolding, even though she inherited more of her mother’s features, making her ‘pass’ and have the kids in school think she was from Japan.

Could she have… done something to have prevented that? If she wasn’t self-absorbed at the moment, maybe she wouldn’t have found her father… hanging… like..

“Do you mind if I scoot myself next to you?” Suddenly, a voice barged itself into Shikabane’s consciousness, making Shikabane abandon the thoughts she was having, tilting her head up to see…

Tadano, in a simple swimming trunk, standing in front of the skunk.

“Oh… um, sure.” She said, moving a bit to give some space for the donkey to sit down besides the hot scorching sand, trying to ignore how her eyes felt embarrassed at how nearly nude the donkey was.

Right, she nearly forgot that Tadano also joined them, telling them that he would be coming in half an hour later due to some business dilemma.

“Man, the sun is brutal today, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s supposed to be a deadly ball of lava, after all.” She answered, earning a chuckle out of the donkey, wondering why Tadano decided to relax with her, instead of… playing volleyball with 4 of her friend's friends playing it.

“Can you believe that it’s also my first time at a beach like this?”

“No, not really. It would be a pattern of you rich guys not going to a local beach to relax.”

“Well, I am kind of different from Haida and Jiro, seeing as I never was this rich as I am today.”

Shikabane had the words go into her ears, and as she gazed into the wide ocean, seeing Haida and Yuki emerge themselves out of the waters to go to the resting place where Jiro and Fenneko were at with their sunscreens.

“Really? Were your parents not financially well to bring you to the beach?”

“Well, I really can’t say. I don’t even know where, or who my parents are.”

Oh, she did not anticipate Tadano… to be an orphan. Well, that’s one more thing learned about the donkey.

“So you’re an orphan?... That sucks.” She answered, hoping it didn’t sound that harsh from how monotune her voice usually was, but it seemed like the donkey didn’t mind, because he soon responded:

“I don’t really mind it, because I could be like Kobayashi and hate both of my parents. Since we’re talking about our family right now, how about yours?”

Wow. She literally was just thinking about them. It’s like she jinxed it to be mentioned by Tadano.

“One of them is dead, even though I didn’t want them to be, while I hope the other is dead as well.”

“Oh…” Tadano muttered, so he must have realised that her parents were kind of a sensitive subject, dropping the subject altogether.

However, the two of them soon trailed after what Haida and Yuki were up to, noticing that they were now up in front of Jiro’s and Fenneko’s place, and from this distance, they were talking more about Jiro than they were about Fenneko.

“Didn’t know I was going to people watch with Tadano of all people. Do you have any idea what they might be discussing up there, since you’re a dude?”

“According to my assumptions, they’re probably trying to get Jiro into the water… oh, guess they’re taking him by force.” Tadano said, as the two of them saw Yuki pick up Jiro, while the hyena seemed to have tried getting out of the bull’s grip, he was pretty powerless compared to Yuki’s muscle, which is why the white bull and the older hyena stole Jiro from his place, while Fenneko watched his wine buddy be snatched from him in shock and being princess carried away into the deep end.

“They’re going to drown him, aren’t they?” She questioned, trying to not to think about the connection that Jiro seemed to have with that butterfly.

“I bet he’s going to use your roommate as a tree to hang on. Oh, it seems like he finally has accepted his fate, seeing as he’s not struggling anymore.”

Since there was nothing to add of Jiro being princess carried into the ocean before Yuki, Haida and Retsuko forced him to sink or swim, she returned gazing back into the clear skies and the blue ocean, wondering if she really wanted to go out there and join them.

Tadano also seemed to be doing the same thing of just gazing into the sea, which is when Shikabane decided that if Tadano was the first person she even talked to about her parents, albeit in a very short and summarised version, she should probably ask the guy what she should do about something else bothering her at the moment, which had to with the hyena who accepted sinking, while Retsuko was showing him how he should be reacting being in the water.

“Tadano, can I ask you for some advice?”

“Oh? Sure, lay it on me.” Tadano said, making the skunk think whether she should be really bothering the donkey with something like ‘hey, what should I do with my roommate’s boyfriend calling the woman who’s cult ruined your family and everything she held dear as auntie, and should I tell the boyfriend that the woman is a piece of shit that needed to go to jail for ruining countless lives?’.

“It’s about… Jiro.” She muttered, making the donkey raise his eyebrow, as he questioned:

“Really? What about? I don’t think I’m that Jiro verified, since I’m pretty sure the guy still disapproves of me and lowkey hates me still. Oh, did he get tired of you endlessly teasing into your roommate, hmm?”

“No, not really. He takes the teasing well, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mind me, even though he could be kinder by not being all mushy with Yuki while I’m right in front of them.”

“Ah… is it due to the fact that he’s impeding your apartment, since you make it sound like he’s living in the walls by how many times he’s come over to see Yuki.” Tadano said, as Shikabane shook her head, and retorted:

“I would much prefer if the two of us were living at the hyena’s penthouse. Jiro offered, but Yuki is being all sentimental like with our apartment and how it would be cruel if we just left it after living in it for half a year.”

“Oh? Three weeks, and the lovebirds are already thinking of moving in together? At this rate, they’ll get married in three months from now.”

“They’re already married, Tadano. Couples aren’t supposed to be as domestic as those two idiots are.” She muttered, wondering if it ever became legal for two guys to marry, whether Yuki was going to appoint her as his best man or whatever Haida and Retsuko were doing, because even though she lowkey got irritated with the bull… she was her dumbass of a bull that she had as a friend.

“I see… does your issue with Jiro have anything to do with Yuki?” The donkey asked, making the skunk shake her head again, which is when she decided that she might as well be precise on what she wants to hear from the donkey, saying:

“No. You don’t know about it, but during one of those times when Yuki dragged me with him to his date with Jiro while he was incognito because he didn’t trust me being alone in our apartment… we met someone.”

Tadano was intently listening in, nodding along, making the skunk continue on to the problem,

“Precise to say… they’re probably the person that I despise most on this planet.”

“Despise? As in genuine hate or the hate you show Yuki?” He asked, making Shikabane look at the donkey in the face, as the donkey gave her an innocent smirk and a raised shoulder, as she answered…

“The first one.” That was enough for the donkey to drop that smirk, which is when Shikabane continued on with the story.

“And unfortunately… Jiro and this person seem to have some kind of familial bond between them, and I’m pretty sure Jiro doesn’t even know just how much of a monster they actually are.

The glance Tadano was showing was pretty uncomfortable for the skunk, as Tadano took a few seconds to take it all in.

“Do you feel like you’re gonna break whatever semblance of friendship you share with Jiro when you tell him that?”

Well, she thought about that, and if Jiro had the same kind of bond that he shared with Haida and Yuki, it would be pretty hard to convince Jiro that On Mi-Sun was a crazy preacher, and that she didn’t deserve to be called something as innocent as his ‘auntie’.

“I don’t know.”

“You sure?” The donkey asked while he looked at her quizzically.

“I mean, it would suck if Yuki’s boyfriend hates me. He already had a shitty childhood, and I don’t think he needs to hear that not only was his father a piece of crap, but someone else as well.” She confessed, wondering why she was concerned for hyena in such a way, because she’s pretty sure she’s seeing Jiro drown from this distance, with Yuki, Haida and Retsuko now swimming over there in distress, with the bull being the most worried, and she couldn't care much about the drowning man trying his hardest to reach out for something to grab on.

“Hmm… have you told Yuki about this?” Tadano asked next, making the skunk shake her head. “Then you should probably tell him. If you think he’s going to lose his marble as hard as he’s drunk and someone dared to make a single complaint about his brother, then letting Yuki take the vocal hit is probably ideal. He’s not gonna hate him if he loves him at the same time.”

“Hmm.” Shikabane muttered, wondering now if she should bother Yuki with the truth. It’s not like anything positive came out when she ever thought about her family, after all…

Laying on the mattress in relative quiet, she was contemplating whether she could put up a mask in front of Jiro, knowing full well that he had a different perspective on a cult leader, thinking of the woman as his aunt.

Suddenly, however, Tadano sat up from the mattress, turning around a bit, and extending a hand.

“Just so you know, I see how much you’re yearning to join them, as much as you don’t want to say in words. You could make fun of Yuki and his swimming inept lover, you know?”

As much as she wanted to reject the proposal… It seemed like her heart really wanted to join them, because she accepted the extended hand, not thinking about the fact that Tadano guided her to their swimming friends while they held hands.

She just knew Yuki was going to drill into her and say how shameless she was with the donkey, when she’s pretty sure he was the literal definition of being shameless.

Chapter Text

Another week, another day at her tiresome work Charayman…

That is what Fenneko would have said this Monday, but as the cards were given to her this time around, she not only was treading through tiresome accounting work like usual, but also an uneasy, stressful week of her not being able to catch Seiji alone to ask what kind of problem he was having to distance himself from nearly everyone… Nay, not everyone, only her!

Ton had the nerve to whisper to Fenneko in the break room this morning that she probably shouldn’t have attempted to date someone in the workforce, with him saying something gross like you shouldn’t eat where you poop or junk or whatever that kind of expression meant.

Thankfully, it was lunch, which meant that she didn’t have to see the pigman’s face around in her visual, but instead her two friends who could have put more enthusiasm being worried for Tsunoda, because guess what? Shikabane was yet again talking about the two guys she got together!

OK, she knows that she was the one who managed to get them together with a massive assist from Haida from poking into his brother to chase his heart, but can there be some kind of relationship being uttered around the table besides theirs? Why weren’t they talking about the latest celebrity couples or Retsuko’s relationship with Haida?

“Fenneko.” Shikabane suddenly stated, tearing the fennec fox’s gaze away from her smartphone and the tap she had open. “Sorry if I sound brash, but your face looks shittier than Yuki gulping down three whole bottles of sake when he was still Jiro-less.”

Oh, it is going to turn more shittier, now that she named the two guys that were living happily together without a worry in their heads! Seiji and herself should be like them, so then why was she miserable and Seiji was so mysterious?! They should have been acting like those two with them kissing each other like their life depended on it, even though she’s pretty sure Shikabane was exaggerating all those claims.

“I preferred you better when you weren’t just a constant drone telling us about Jiro’s and Yuki’s lovelife to us like it’s supposed to be our responsibility to witness too…” Fenneko stated, groaning in misery and being already done for today. Can’t she just see herself out of today and get herself drunk?... Oh wait, Jiro’s her wine buddy, and that would mean he would also invite Yuki over, because it’s like the hyena has become allergic to detaching himself from his lover! She really was losing on all fronts today… Why her…

“OK… guess you’re still hung over from Seiji ignoring you like the plague. You know you can quest a certain gazelle to help you tackle this issue, right?” The skunk retorted, not sounding any way offended.

“Ughh…. I am not summoning that demon from Instagram for some guy advice… if the dudes weren’t able to figure out what Seiji’s reason was for avoiding me, then it’s hopeless…” She groaned, the weather outside also making her life more miserable, feeling like she could turn into slime if she was forced to sit around any longer at the table. If her current love life situation wasn’t gnawing away her soul, at least the sun outside helped make her drop dead sooner than later.

“Maybe we could ask Seiji what’s going on with Seiji? He doesn’t seem to look the other way around whenever we come in contact with him at the least…” Retsuko muttered, which is when Fenneko cheered up a little from having her friends actually contribute on helping her get through Seiji, as she replied:

“Yes, finally! I don’t know if he’s going to respond, but I need some answers before my mind goes to a morbid place, which it’s currently on the brink of doing!”

“Don’t think he’s going to respond, in my opinion…”

“Well, I didn’t ask for your opinion, Katsumi!” Fenneko retorted, puffing her cheeks up from the skunk’s pessimistic comment.

“Well, we’ll be sure to give any kind of response if we get close to him, that we promise. Right, Katsumi?” The red panda stated with a smile on her face, as the skunk sitting among them just nodded with as much apathy in the movement as possible.

Yeah, she can trust that Shikabane and Retsuko were going to get some answers out of Seiji, right? He was kind of avoiding Fenneko, but he wasn’t doing that to the other two, so he should open his mouth and tell the reason why he was sheltering himself away from his girlfriend.

Just for what reason was he even doing this? She’s definitely sure she didn’t do anything that would have provoked such a reaction out of the horse, so maybe it had to do with something that was out of her hands, like the time when Kabae spread around the company about the fact that Seiji’s brother was kind of a drug lord sitting in the roundhouse, rotting away from being caught red-handed and high.

Whatever the case was, as soon as the girls got some information for her, she could do something to combat Seiji’s malaise towards her.

Well, guess she just had to suffer through work to get an answer from them, which meant 5 more hours of hell in the cellblock known as the accounting department.

5 hours of tension and drowning in her own sweat afterwards, and the girls returned with no information of substance.

She just knew she should have clocked off from work when it was 3 P.M, because why was she suffering in her body and mind for them to get back with no information?

Shikabane quite literally didn’t try, spotting her and Kabae sitting at the skunk’s workplace, but instead of the chatterbox trying to tell what she’d be doing, they were playing Sudoku on it, and boy did she want to snatch the both of them, weren’t it for the fact that Kabae quite literally demolished her opponent when it came to who could clean the board faster.

Retsuko however at least tried from what she said in the changing room, stating that she bumped into Seiji, but whenever she questioned why the horse was acting a fluttershy, the horse either changed the subject altogether or just left the red panda all high and dry, and went elsewhere. That elsewhere was either back into the accounting department, or the break room.

“I’m so sorry that I couldn’t be any more of help, Fenneko!... I’ll try again tomorrow, I swear!” Retsuko nervously said in an apologetically tone, while she walked alongside with Fenneko and Shikabane.

Fenneko couldn’t come up with any response to the red panda beside a tiresome sigh, and any afterwards afternoon activities like going out for drinks with the girls was all but cancelled.

“Why bother? We should just go up to Tsunoda and have her deal with it. She’s the Love Ref, no?” Shikabane muttered, her eyes being busy and focused on looking at her smartphone while she followed behind them like some guide, which is when Fenneko mustered up some words in her, and stated:

“You guys should absolutely not do that! As I’ve said, she’s going to make things worse! What if she’s gonna be the reason why Seiji is gonna be camping at his apartment again?”

“It’s at least better than you writhing in silence because you’re basically neighbours.”

“If Retsuko was able to tough it out when she was penniless after that unicorn squeezed her tight from all those in-game purchases, then so can I!” Fenneko retorted, and if she was in a better mood to be more cognizant, she would have noticed the absolute face Retsuko threw towards the fennec fox’s direction from throwing her under the bus like that.

“I didn’t know you were also hooked up on that virtual money-grubbing video game like Fenneko.”

“Don’t make me remember…” Retsuko and Shikabane exchanged with each other, with now Shikabane being the only woman who didn’t seem exhausted in the face. All the woman needed to spot the same face as theirs is for her to be working here for many years to understand the pain of a thankless 9 to 5 job.

Without any further commentary, the three girls continued strolling towards the elevators as Fenneko fantasised about the idea of taking a hot bath and the wine she should order from the place she had a massive discount from the membership card she received from Jiro on Christmas… but having remembered the fact from whom the card came from, her mood worsened. Why was she so unhappy in her relationship, while the two relationships that she helped embolden were living their life as if they were in a fairy tale?

Taking yet another dejected sigh, the three woman itched nearer to the elevator call buttons, but as if her day just had to get worse somehow, when they took a turn to look at where the elevators were supposed to be, she saw the two guys she met with Retsuko and Fenneko during a single’s party on one end… while Tsunoda and freaking Seiji were on the other side, and they sure seemed to be talking to each other!

How in the hell was it possible that Seiji was talking to someone like Tsunoda, while Seiji kept his distance from her?! Hold on… was Tsunoda trying to snitch her man?!

“You know what.” Shikabane murmured, suddenly turning around, and before she wandered off from where they came from. “I’m taking the stairs. I already am involved with dealing with a couple, and I don’t think I need to add this to my side-mission bar. Peace.”

Seeing red, she stumped in a nettled manner, the poor red panda behind her chasing after her in a panicked manner, which caused the 3 people waiting for the elevator, excluding the Space Cadet to turn around from the imminent juggernaut that was Fenneko coming closer, and besides from Seiji, who looked extremely worried all of sudden, the other two just gave the gazelle a friendly smile. Why was Tsunoda trying to pretend she wasn’t just trying to leech off of HER boyfriend, huh?!

“Hi Fenneko! How’s your day going?” The gazelle queried, looking like her oblivious self, and before she could give her piece of mind, the elevator door opened.

Considering that Fenneko didn’t want to miss out and wait for another elevator to come get them while she tore off Tsunoda’s and Seiji’s head for shamelessly fraternising with each other in front of her, she waited for the two to go in.

Tsunoda naturally went in without much preamble, but the traitorous horse really seemed like he was considering whether he wanted to join Shikabane and going down a couple dozens of levels through the stairs, but since he had a lot less will in him than the skunk, he joined the gazelle and the other two dudes from the sales department into the elevator.

Seeing no way for the horse to escape her now, she urged Retsuko to join her in the elevator, crossing her arms and making it known to the whole cubical small-place that she was not having it anymore.

“Are we all going… to the foyer?” The Space Cadet asked, the one who was in charge of the elevator button as the bigger man towering over him gagged and pressed the button, saying:

“Of course we are, it’s the end of work, you dingus!”

“Oh…”

The elevator doors then closed, and since the pallas cat already did the astronaut’s job of pressing a single button, the elevator began its slow descent back onto the land.

The silence in the elevator was unbearable, and everyone besides the other red panda, who seemingly never seemed to realise what social cues meant, everyone felt the tense aura that Fenneko was spreading through the small room.

Since the socially inept red panda stood there and was daydreaming about whatever, the one social red panda was sweating awkwardly looking at the ground before her, the gazelle looked not all that bothered by how Fenneko was throwing daggers towards the horse, and said horse was looking up to the ceiling of the elevator, blue in the face, with the one innocent bystander stood there like a deer caught in the headlights from the way how he was moving his eye to the horse and the fennec fox.

The hostility like aura must have fed up the pallas cat, because he soon spoke up, saying:

“Hey, aren’t you spitfire and pretty boy together?” The hunky looking man exclaimed, tapping the red panda’s shoulder who was staring at the elevator buttons, acquiring the man’s attention, as he said to his colleague. “See Resasuke! This is what you should be aiming to achieve instead of those plants you keep home!”

“...But they don’t look all that happy.” The red panda responded, making nearly everyone twirl from the sudden correct observation from the most socially inept worker in Charayman.

“Well.. Uh…” The pallas cat spoke without much of a rebuttal he could combat the red panda’s words, which is when Fenneko chimed in between them, saying:

“Of course they aren’t, you potted plants! They aren’t communicating, and it can be solved altogether if our gentleman opens up from the impediment thing bothering at the moment, riiiiight, Seiji?”

Just what was Tsunoda thinking her cheeky comments are going to acco-... Huh?

Hold on, what was Tsunoda doing, being on her side of wanting to have the horse open up from why he was avoiding her like she was lava? Wait… it couldn’t be that she was hoping that she wanted to let Seiji know that he was more interested in Tsunoda?! Damn you, Tsunoda! Thinking that she could have convinced Fenneko that she was on her side!

“....” Fenneko stated nothing, her eyes still fixated on her boyfriend’s face, and before she could have let it rip right there in the elevator, the horse finally started speaking.

“Look… there are some thoughts that I’ve been having… and I think I need to come to terms with it before I could tell it to you.”

Huh? Can this mustang of a freaking horse be anymore unclear in his words?! Being unclear in their communication was barely any better than not communicating at all, so what was he thinking telling such a forewarning message to her, when he should have apologised first for making some distance between them without warning Fenneko about it?

“Oh… and sorry that I’ve been more distant as of late.”

Well, thank you, but she still feels pissed! If he thinks he’s getting to get away with a sorry-put apology like this, he sure is going to get his due reckoning, because she’s going to let it rip!

“...Sure.”

No! Was this really all that she could accumulate in her words?! Two weeks of torment for her to give a half-assed ‘sure’?!

Before she could give more of her thoughts, the elevator finally reached its destination, opening up the doors, making everyone scatter like rats.

While the guys from Sales went as a duo, Seiji and Tsunoda went separate paths, while Fenneko stood there, frozen in place, with Retsuko standing there in solidarity and looking like she really was about to cry.

God, she felt absolutely devastated, and even a hot bath won’t be able to fix this depressed and defeated mood of hers…

It was the last week of his time at university before the sunny vacation times have cometh, and as much he loathed how tax their professors have been lately getting all the students familiar with their homework, which he probably got in the bag due to the assist of a certain British princess, a few more days and then he can spend his time relaxing back home… in the serenity of his apartment’s shade and the AC, while working a bit at the Sleuthhound Agency…

On the first day of the week before the summer holidays began, however, he was invited to go to a café to meet with a brethren from the occult…

Thankfully, he didn’t have much to do, because after getting a good tip from an afghan hound by the name of Himuro, he learnt a crucial and damnable information about his client’s target. It wasn’t that hard to track the fastidious man down, because when he looked up information about where the hyena worked at, he found it very suspicious that the temporary stand-in CEO quit around the same time as the hyena did, and call him a conspiracist, but the crazy lay-offs happening left and right as soon as the hound came into power and the hyena’s ascension as director to the accounting management basically screamed malpractice.

Good thing he didn’t need to look into Jiro Haida’s profile, because it was already tiresome looking into a person while he was dissolutoning in this heat, cursing for once the scientific rule of the colour black absorbing all wavelengths of light and converting them into heat… Not to mention, Jiro Haida was gonna be way harder to track, seeing as he was a more higher-ranked citizen in the country… Not to mention, he very much didn’t like the vibe the hyena was protruding from himself, because whenever Yami took a look at him… the ominous darkness in his eyes sent shivers down his spine.

Well, pictures that were taken from last year, because otherwise… he appeared fine to Yami. Irrespectively, he didn’t need to look into him, now that he found something shady about his older brother, and he then can enjoy his time at the agency lazing around down in the fireplace, with him properly finishing the American book he started concerning examination of Neopaganism in the United States. The book… has been a delight to read, and he will rue the day when he’s gonna finish reading it… If only there was a way for him to restart his memories of experiencing reading masterpieces from literature…

But reading can be postponed, ‘cause at the moment, he was sitting alongside Sophia and Sakiyo in some café called Q-Pot, a café that Sakiyo frequented very much, waiting for his fellow brethren and Sakiyo’s brother to join them.

“This place is so superb! I can barely regulate my curiosity of ordering already before Sakiyo’s brother arrives with his inamorato!” The princess chirped, looking around the restaurant with curiosity rivalling that of young children.

“My brother just texted me a few minutes ago that they’re driving over to this very restaurant, so I bet we don’t have to wait that long.” The cow stated, being dressed in some kind of pink lolita dressing, and since Sophia had the foresight of asking beforehand what kind of sub-genre Sakiyo was dressing in and the cow responded she dressed in Sweet Lolita. It was a shame, really, because he preferred when she dressed in something black, but she was rather averse when it came to dark-clothing.

“Speaking of which, I think it’s about time that you stood up straight, Yami… You know my brother and his partner are going to sit there, you know?” Sakiyo added, possibly noting the fact that he was laying down on the empty seats around their table, with his head laying beside Sophia. He was on his smartphone, playing one of the many mobile games he had on his phone, with Sophia enthusiastically watching by.

“But it’s more comfortable… than being seated like you two…” He retorted, not wanting to sit up straight, and wanting to live comfortably like this until he had to face the two men he soon was going to spend small talking to, and as much the thought of that made him hurl, one of them was a kindred spirit, so maybe he can tough it up with being sociable today…

“If you were seated like us two girls, your spine wouldn’t look like a sorry mess of a knot, just saying!”

“I agree with Sakiyo! Even though I see no complaints watching you play this tactical game on your phone, willingly sacrificing your back for it doesn’t seem to be beneficial to you in any way. Just imagine investigating with a broken spine, it’d be abhorrently painful!”

The two women buckled with the bat, and since he disliked the two women egging him on, he took a disappointed sigh, and sat up. The things he does for them to be more sociable…

“Is this… more to your satisfaction, Sakiyo?” He mumbled, already feeling the loss of his sides, not feeling the cushy sitting place anymore while the cow gave him a positive approval.

The three continued on waiting for some minutes, much of the discussion being spearheaded by Sophia and her excitement of meeting this elusive man that Sakiyo told to them was Yukiharu’s beloved and a man cut out from the same cloth as Yami, with the cow having told them already that whoever they are going to meet was going to surprise the lot of them, which intrigued the bat further on why she used such a specific wording. Were they… supposed to know who this mysterious person was?

His curiosity was about to be satisfied, though, because not so soon afterwards, the three of them heard someone enter the café, with them being the only customer in sight (he doesn’t know whether that meant that Sakiyo’s reason for this being her favourite café was due to the whimsical feeling it was giving with the wallpaper and decor, or because it was desolate for her to enjoy a single cup of tea), as they saw two men enter the establishment.

One of the men was undeniably Sakiyo’s brother, observing him as a white park cattle like the woman. He dressed himself in a loose short t-shirt and blue shorts and it seemed like he had a pretty positive expression on his face.

The other man, on the other hand… was a spotted hyena with silver half rim glasses and a white face mask. He wore a navy-blue henley shirt and shorts of a lighter blue tone. However, besides all of those things on him, Yami could clearly tell who this person was, because even though his face mask was obstructing his mouth, nose and muzzle, he could positively say that the man before him was none other than Jiro Haida, in the flesh.

If he didn’t have such a good poker face, his expression would read as a very surprised man. The man who seemed to share the same intrigues in the occult and the gloomy subject it came with it was the very same man he saw on television during the election, and on many tv-screens when he wanders around town, and even on the news when he accidentally moves it to that channel, was Jiro Haida? The very same hyena that he tried to make his client, Mrs. Kuroiwa, agree to look into?

His brethren, his brother-in-arms about the paranormal and occult, was Jiro Haida? So that’s *what* the dark that was glinting from the hyena meant…

“Yuki, Jiro, hi! Come sit down with us!” The cow was not that slow to get her brother’s and Jiro’s attention towards her, as the two men gave the woman a wave with their heads.

“‘Sup Sakiyo! Sorry for the delay, this guy over here-” The bull and the hyena sat down next to the lolita dressed woman, with the horned specimen bumping into the hyena a bit. “Needed to get changed from his tight suit, and he sure is bad at deciding what kind of shirt he wanted to wear.”

“Well excuse me for not being a careless scatterbrain who just decided to take the first t-shirt he saw in his drawer and said it was good enough. Clothes make the man, remember?” Jiro said, taking off his mask and promptly putting it away in his pockets.

While he was hiding his disbelief that the man Sakiyo was talking of much respect and admiration for, saying that the man was her brother’s childhood best-friend turned lovers when they finally reunited with each other, it seemed like the princess next to him was more than shocked to learn that the politician she must have seen plenty times already was the man that Sakiyo was talking about, because she soon said, putting her hands on the table with some force in it, that:

“Oh my, I didn’t think the person that I would be seeing in front of me was going to be a familiar face!” The border collie sputtered, as she then said: “You are the hyena that I saw performing with Aggretsuko on her side against some other hyena, correct?”

Well… looks like she got the man in front of her confused with his older brother, because as much as it looked like she thought the man in front of her was Ichiro Haida, the hyena said:

“That’d be my brother, actually, and I would be the other hyena you just mentioned right now. Jiro Haida’s my name.”

“...Apologies, but that name does not seem familiar to me in any way. I’m very bad at remembering names, mind, so excuse me for my poor memorial abilities!” Sophia bowed her head a few times, and if she had one of her hats on her head this time around, it would have surely have fallen off of her at the time, with Sakiyo using that time to address the waitress watching all this commotion and ordering each one of them a drink.

“I don’t mind, really… It’s actually relaxing not to be recognized in public, because walking around with a face mask when I’m not sick does get me… sick of the whole protection on my mouth.” Jiro voiced in a happy tune, with Yami finding it weird that all the previous clips of him sounding in a happy, upbeat tone seemed to sound a lot less livelier, now that he personally heard the man in front of him.

Before Yami could even blink, Sophia and Jiro were quickly thrust into a conversation about keeping their identity a secret, with him knowing that Sakiyo didn’t tell the two men about Sophia’s identity.

When the waitress returned with three cups of tea for the two girls and Jiro, a can of coffee for Yami, and with a can of energy drink for Sakiyo’s brother, the cow stopped whatever discussion they had about the piece of cloth that served to cover their faces, and said:

“Thank you for coming, you two! I’ve said to you already that I wanted you two to meet my friends because I think you would like each other… So why don’t we start with introductions? I’ve already spoken off these two heads about you Yuki, and I thought Jiro was obvious enough for who he was, but since Sophia doesn’t seem to remember him, you can introduce yourself last, alright? Why don’t we start with you, Sophia, since you already seem to hit it off well with Jiro?”

“With absolute certainty, Sakiyo!” The border collie howled, turning her attention with much glee to the two men, her tail wiggling around with much activity. “My name is Sophia Bytheseashore, I descend from the royal family in Great Britain, being the 18th heir to the throne-” Such an impactful introduction left both men flabbergasted in the face, but since nobody wanted the canine to stop, she continued on making her best introduction to them. “-and I’m an exchange student, or that’s what my parents are telling me that I am, from Britain, studying criminology to become those wonderful detectives combating crime like some glamourous knight, fighting for the truth! I’m 22, my birthday is this week Sunday, and my astrological sign is that of cancer! I’ve been in Japan for around a year, I think, and I’ve been enjoying my stay here studying at the same university as Yami and Sakiyo! I am very interested in being fast friends!”

When the princess finished her wordful introduction, the pregnant pause that left the table deserted of any conversation was palpably awkward, and before Sophia could ask if she messed up on her wording again even though she basically spoke perfect Japanese for the most parts, the bull muttered:

“Y-You are a real life princess? Of royal descent?”

“Yes, very much so! Is it that surprising?”

“Positively, Sophia. I never considered that Sakiyo would seek out a princess as a friend…” The hyena said, the two men looking at utter disbelief that the cow was in fact friends with Sophia, as the bull had another question for her:

“Do you perhaps have any relatives here, because your Japanese is surprisingly clean for a foreigner, especially from Great Britain!”

“Naw, I learnt the Japanese language in about two weeks or so when I came here, and it’s so wonderful of a language! The way it’s spoken reminds me of how a certain green humanoid alien speaks in Sun Affray!”

If the bull wasn’t devastated by the news hitting how weird Sophia was being here, her telling him that she basically mastered the language in such a short amount of time raised the two uneducated men’s frowns tremendously, looking into Sakiyo’s face for confirmation whether she was a compulsive liar like Yami first thought her to be, only for the cow to respond that she was not lying in any way, the surprise from their faces now turning into awe.

“I think I’ve shared a good bit about myself, so I will pass the rights to introduce themselves to us to Yami!” The border collie stated, merrily passing the ball over to the black bat, pondering whether he should have died on his way here to not be forced to make such pedestrian thing as introducing themselves, but since half of them were going to do it, he might as well do what the group was expecting him to do…

“Uh… My name’s Yami Kuromi… I’m 22 and I was born to this insufferable planet on April 17th.. Let’s see… I’m friends with Sophia and Sakiyo at the university, studying the same thing as Sophia, criminology… and I guess I could say I’m very fond of reading books and anything that has to do with the unnatural…. That’s good enough of an introduction, right?” Yami introduced himself, looking over for Sakiyo as the judge, and when she nodded in affirmation, he looked over to Jiro, passing the ball over to him, which the hyena understood without any direct communication between each other, as he told to them:

“Then let me finish by saying who I am. I’m pretty you saw my face somewhere around here, but I’m Jiro Haida, a politician in the Liberal Manifest Party, and I’m the person that Sakiyo must have been secretly telling about being Yukiharu’s boyfriend. I am very excited to see who Sakiyo’s friends are, because she never talked about you guys to us.”

“I never had the time to bring them up, so sue me!” Sakiyo replied, earning a chuckle out of everyone on the table, besides Yami, who found Jiro’s inclusion to the party a bit too strange.

He knew he had to report this to Mrs. Kuroiwa during their next meet-up sessioned that he scheduled for tomorrow. He knew most infidelity cases ended poorly on the client’s side, and as much as he didn’t have much compassion for client’s in this line of work, he still felt a bit of pity for the canary for being absolutely sure that Jiro would have never cheated on her, because as things stood, he was witnessing evidence that debunked the woman’s claims.

“Sorry to stir the pot… but weren’t you together with a certain canary a few weeks ago, and then announced that you’d be… withdrawing from any foreseeable relationships?”

Just as he expected, the whole lively atmosphere of the table dropped to a halt as soon as he mentioned his client.

“That’d be right…” Jiro muttered, his face exhibiting a bit of annoyance on it. “But as soon as I realised I loved Yuki, I called it quits with the relationship I was in with Kuroiwa.”

“Oh my, I didn’t know that this man that you kept talking about was as heartless as Yami's heartbeats!” Sophia stated, but before he could a rebuttal that he did a slight beats of heart rhythm in him, Jiro responded:

“It was an arranged relationship, after all, so there was no love involved on either side. I never quite felt romantic love before, as much as my father drove me to numerous relationships before in the past, but I think Yuki helped me to become more illuminated on that matter, didn’t you?”

“Just took you a great many years and for me to show up again to get your heart pumping again, huh? It’s wild to think that you didn’t even think of other people during my absence!” The bull responded, as Yami wrote down this as Jiro stating that even though he didn’t commit cheating, he confessed to never having any semblance of love towards Mrs. Kuroiwa, and he’s not sure how the bird was going to take the news. Probably devastated, but a few nights of drinking oneself to oblivion should do the trick to riding out the depression mood of hers, if he has a good read on her personality.

He didn’t found anything noteworthy afterwards when they begun conversing in full force, because from the conversation they were holding, and the general body movements and words uttered from the two men, it sure seemed like the hyena and bull were in love with each other, already having noted the man’s name down as Yukiharu Ushijima, who just turned out to be one of Sakiyo’s older brothers, with the oldest one being a politician much like Jiro, if his memory serves him well.

Sophia, Yuki and Sakiyo were the conversation starters between the 5, and the longer he sat there, his posture of that of an unsteady pipe, the longer he wondered whether they would come to the conversation that he and Jiro shared the same interest, because as much he had a duty to inform Mrs. Kuroiwa of the information of him being together with Sakiyo’s older brother, he at least wanted to know more about his brethren.

“If I may have the word…” Yami muttered, gaining everyone’s eyes to look at him, probably from the fact that they didn’t expect him to start a conversation, as he then stated. “Sakiyo has been telling me that you, Jiro… share a love for the paranormal and the occult… is that true?”

“Hmm! Yes, that I do! I presumed you to be the one that Sakiyo said shared some of my hobbies! As limited as I am with carrying out those hobbies due to my status, I am delighted to have someone share the same interest as me in real life, because Yuki is listless about it, as much as he wants to enjoy with me-” The bull looked a bit defeated in the face when Jiro said it. “And I’m pretty sure Sakiyo is petrified from my hobbies altogether.”

“Yes… I don't know what kind of voodoo magic you guys are into, but I’m not ever walking into it willingly ever again after that cursed visit to the tunnels back in Fukuoka…” Sakiyo said, her voice sounding like it was trembling, which is when Yami responded, saying:

“I see… is there anything noteworthy that you have done as of late, besides the visit to the Inunaki tunnels? Sakiyo already told me and Sophia in a great summary of what happened there…”

“Not really, I didn't have the time for it…” Jiro said, but he then added onto it: “But I’ve been lurking around in 2chan to see if there was anything new in the community.”

The bat’s ears twitched at the mention of 2chan, the very same imageboard he visits for his leisure and for work alike, as he then stated:

“Oh… I’m also there. What’s your unique tripcode… I don’t have my code in memory, but I usually say after my posts that I’m ‘darkbat467’.”

Upon having the signature name he uses to differentiate himself on the imageboard, it seemed like the hyena was left speechless all of a sudden, and before they could ask what was wrong with him, he replied:

“Y-You’re ‘darkbat467’?” Yami nodded, realising that Jiro must have seen his messages on the imageboard a few times already to have a reaction like this from him, but he then added… “I’m… ‘muktiroji’.”

Oh. He did absolutely not fathom the fact that first he thought he would meeting someone mind-liked like himself, but to instead meet the person whom he’s being chatting frequently on 2chan all around, threats upon threats that they’ve built together from the copious amount of words they’ve spoken to each other from the small tid-bits of their life and their shared love for the paranormal and the occult. To think Jiro Haida… was ‘muktiroji’... he didn't foresee such a big twist to happen at such a quiet café… Life sure can be interesting when it needs to be.

While the two paranormal enthusiasts remained in silence from taking in the fact that they obviously knew more about each other than they originally thought, Yukiharu finally broke the silence around the room, as he queried:

“You guys… know each other?”

“Yeah! He’s the one I talked to for two years now whenever I had the time to go online to discuss my hobbies! I… man, the world IS a small place, isn’t it?” His brethren-in-arms responded, which is when Yami was brought back a few weeks ago when said muktiroji spoke unceasingly about his new boyfriend and how much said boyfriend took up most of their discussion, as much as Yami would have preferred to speak of their usual discussion, as he decided to play the snitch, saying:

“Sure it is… it’s safe to assume Yuki here is the said boyfriend you’ve been bragging to me about for some time now…”

The others around the table seemed to have gotten more interested in the topic when Yami stated of the knowledge he had about what Jiro has posted to him, which dwelled into more sexual topics and with ‘muktiroji’ asking for him for advice what he should do, but since he was a loner, the best he could do is say what he would, and then give a big warning that it’s his opinion, and that it should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

“Oh really…?” Yukiharu said in a curious tone, his eyes wandered from the bat to his lover, as he then added: “What kind of things were you saying about me to your internet friend?”

Naturally, as Yami would have done in his own place if a girlfriend acted similarly in Yuki’s position, Jiro flushed up, as he embarrassingly told:

“...Not that many things, really…”

Call him a sociopath, but he always liked whenever he had to see the true faces of people whenever they had the truth shown to their face, feeling a morbid curiosity how people would react if their wrongdoings were presented to them in their face with people facing, which is why he decided to call him out on that lie, saying:

“If that’s not that many… then you must surely have way more packed in your mind, because there were some colourful descriptions here and then, and I assume nobody would be against it if I…. told them about it?”

“Wait, you don’t need to-” However, Jiro’s complaint was drawn out, because the other three people, the majority, soon stated:

“Why not? If Jiro’s embarrassed about it, it definitely has something good about my brother!”
“That is a huge invasion of privacy, Yami…. But I’m very intrigued about it, so tell us!”
“Go on, I’m all ears…”

He didn’t think he would end up embarrassing muktiroji, his fellow friend on the other side of the screen today, but oh he did that exactly well, because if he was forced to read through those pretty diverse comments he left for him to read, he might as well share it to his other friends. Investigators were the seekers of truth, and they usually shared it with others, after all…

It is why he finds it regrettable that he has to report everything he learnt today back to Mrs. Kuroiwa tomorrow, because even though Sakiyo stressed that he should keep the relationship between the two a secret… he had to discard any semblance of emotion and connection to people when he was an investigator, because if he were to mix up those things together with his investigation, it would be a half-assed truth. Would he be happy coaxing the woman and telling her that Jiro didn’t cheat on her, when in actuality, he kind of did not, but he did confess to not having ever loved her.

As he loathed doing this to a same-minded individual like Jiro, he had a duty to fulfil, and everything after that was quite literally out of his hands. It is what it is…

Another round of being brought up to speed how the bat investigator was advancing in his search into Jiro’s brother profile, and the man himself, as much as hated the idea of the amaenic bat looking into him and finding something that Yoshie couldn’t stomach about the hyena.

Even though Mr. Korumi knew something was amiss with her story of Jiro being threatened to break up with her, the fact that he thought that Jiro was the one lying to her when it was she that made up the lie was more than troublesome, because it was unthinkable to even imagine Jiro being with another woman right now, when he purposefully told on social media and on TV that he was on a break with having a relationship at the moment, because even if Juzo Haida was thinking it was due to him being tricked to spit him by his older brother, he wouldn’t use it to hide a relationship that his father might not approve of.

He didn’t even mention women that Yoshie could even think about at the moment, besides maybe Genta’s younger sister, due to the two going to Fukouka for a special interest, but it’s not like Jiro spoke that differently about her besides calling her one of his friends, like Fenneko.

It was probably a waste of money to also use this Agency’s services to spy on Jiro, but she just did as the investigator advised her on what they should be doing, which was sacking the bat on Jiro as well.

Jiro was an honest man, maybe even too perfect, now that she had some days to relapse from her heartbreak, so she knew when the bat called her that he might have found a lead, it definitely had something to do with that prince’s older brother.

As the previous two times, she met the bat in front of the fireplace of the agency, and when he took notice of her, god knows how long she stood there, the man guided her to the same place where they negotiated and exchanged information the last two times.

Maybe after she’s done talking with her, a new lit hope was going to form in the canary, of something that she can do to fight against that petty man who tore her future soon-to-be partner of hers away from her. Maybe then she could try getting the man back into their status on where their relationship stood beforehand.

“Good Tuesday afternoon, Mrs. Kuroiwa… you look a bit brighter in the face.” The bat noted while greeting her, the man looking as finished in life as he appeared all the previous times.

“Thank you for noticing… but good afternoon to you as well, Mr. Korumi. Did you find anything concerning Ichiro Haida and why he seemed agitated?” She asked during her greeting back to the man, wondering if he found something substantial she could use to finally make a move on the man who broke her heart.

Mr. Korumi left her hanging for a little while, looking like an unresponsive shell of a human, but he soon reached out into his pouch and pulled out a photo of a man who appeared to be in his 30ties. He was an afghan hound and looked like a pretty charming man, but Yoshie soon heard alarm bells ringing in her ears, because she recognized this man who joined her father’s company around last year of Fall, taking the roll of the executive director in a blink of an eye, and bluntly speaking, he was the reason why Nippon Steel was flourishing more in the current times.

She and Himuro had the chance of brushing their shoulders a few times here and then with the slight phantom invitation of romantic teases when they were colleagues, but ever since she accepted the offer her father asked whether she wanted to date Jiro Haida, their relationship has been nothing but professional, something that she liked very much from the hound.

“Do you… recognize this man?” The bat stated, slipping the piece of picture towards the canary.

“Y-yes… he’s the executive director of our company, of my family… Is he connected to the reason for why Ichiro Haida has been stressed out as of late?” She squirmed, wondering what Himuro had to do with Ichiro Haida, because even though she knew that the two men worked together under the same company, Himuro was the CEO of the trading firm and the man himself said that even though he tried his best to bring the company to a more competitive stand in the market, deciding that he would rather look elsewhere where he could use his effort instead of trying to change a vessel from the 1980’s, like their family’s company, which was outright crying for change.

“I assume… you know about Mr. Himuro’s time working at Charayman as the CEO, right?” He stated, as the woman just gave a nod of knowing.

“Then I guess I’ll report about him as I will about Ichiro Haida… Window dressing is something you’re familiar with, right, Mrs. Kuroiwa?”

The canary noted, already predicting what this conversation was stirring towards. There was a time when Himuro and she went out to the mixer, which is where the hound was pretty open about the time he almost committed such malpractice, but was thankfully prevented from doing so. She doesn’t know whether that was a slip-up made by the fact that alcohol was involved, but when she asked tomorrow afterwards if what he said during the party was true, the hound was quick to elaborate on the matter, and how versed he was on that subject. Even though he never directly mentioned it, she knew from the mixer beforehand that Himuro only did that because he saw no other choice to save the company besides faking the numbers. The loyalty he showed through his action was admirable, which is why Yoshie kept her beak closed. Thankfully, they didn’t have to resort to any underhanded tactics like that, because through Himuro’s advice with nothing illegal attached to it, they were able to find a way for the company to raise its stock price.

“All in all… Mr. Himuro in the picture and Ichiro Haida conspired to illusioning their numbers, and even though they were close to almost committing fraud. Why they stopped their attempt at it due to shame from their creative accounting remains a mystery to me. Besides our target hyena nearly committing fraud, the reason for his uneasiness seems to have faded, but I still have a feeling that kind of knows that I’m somehow following him…”

Yoshie noted everything down, and as much as she grumbled at the fact that Ichiro didn’t actually commit fraud, she wished to have something more hard hitting, but it was still an attempt of fraud regardless, which must have been punishable in some way if Ichiro was willingly cooperating with the proceeding.

“Oh… I see.” She mumbled, hiding her gleeful expression in her mind. She finally had something over the man, and she was more than glad to kick the hyena in the ribs when the time came for him to pay the price… although how could she leave their executive director out of all this, because they do require the hound in their company…

“Yeah… my 3rd case of finding out about fraud, and it’s something I found out accidentally… It’s just the surprises that I see in the daily as an investigator…” The bat mumbled, making the canary wonder just how much experience the man held, because he was still in university if he was working here part time, wasn’t he?

Well, she did it, she found something actually incriminating, and she wasn’t wasting her money afterall! She could probably tell the bat that she has something urgent to do, and then tell over emails that she wants to end their services altogether while tipping them a bit for their quick find from an apprentice. She didn’t know apprentices working as investigators were so good that they were able to find out about window dressing that was made a whole year ago.

“Anyway… moving up from Ichiro, I’ve also found a thing about Jiro that you probably won’t like hearing about, but it’s preferable that you listen to it nonetheless.” Mr. Korumi suddenly stated, turning Yoshie’s whole happy celebratory feelings upside down, because he was able to find out something about Jiro, and something that would make her sad?

Why does her stomach suddenly feel twisted… like it’s about to erupt? Surely, he wasn’t saying that Jiro…

“First off… I will say that Jiro Haida didn’t commit infidelity with you, technically…”

“Technically?!” Yoshie raised her voice immediately when she caught wind of what the bat was trying to imply from his words, as the bat held out a hand towards her, taking the picture of the hound back into his pocket, as he then elaborated further on his words.

“Yes… it didn’t take long for me to confirm whether Jiro had any kind of affairs during your time together, and there were no traces of Jiro double-timing with you… however.” The bat said, looking a bit more gloomy in the face. “I’m mournful to announce that Jiro held zero romantic interest in you, Ma’am.”

“Pardon? Do you have any evidence supporting that claim?!” Yoshie stated, fearing the worst. She knew that in some small part, Jiro didn’t share the same enthusiasm that she had during their time together… but to be told that Jiro was wholly uninterested was too cruel to be true! There were a few times he had a smile on his face… so there were times when he enjoyed being there with her on their dinner dates and visits to high class parties!

“Evidence…? The man himself stated that to me with his new lover in tow…”

Silence. That’s what the room turned to when the gloomy investigator uttered that sentence to her, making the bird feel like a pristine wine glass that had a crack form on it, if not outright breaking after being carelessly thrown to the ground.

Surely she must have misheard that, because Jiro had… a new lover? Why… that doesn’t make sense in the slightest…

“That’s… inconceivable! Jiro said to me and everyone that he took a hiatus from dating!”

“He did say that… but it’s not like all people uphold their words all the time, do they?” The bat quipped back to her, and even though she wanted to say that Jiro would have surely not gone out skirtchasing again, which was something she could have imagined the past men that she dated to do, like Genta, and not Jiro, of all people…

“I don’t understand… Jiro’s not the type to go out personally to date people and his father didn’t seem to know about his lover… just who is this woman you are talking about?!”

“Hmm… Jiro’s lover… they’re not a woman.”

Huh? Was he insinuating…

“Are you saying that Jiro… is with a man?! Y-you can’t be serious about that… it’s not like…he’s allowed to do that with his responsibilities…” She muttered, trying to keep her composure, imagining just what kind of… man was able to get Jiro’s attention.

“...I am very serious about that. And it does make sense for him to make such an announcement if he wants to keep his relationship with his male partner a secret…”

On second thought, it would make sense for him to do that, because nobody thought he was actually dating a man, because people either were accepting that Jiro was in fact not making himself busy with anyone, secretly dating a woman in secret, or the theory Juzo said of Ichiro commanding Jiro on ending their relationship to spit him….

“...Who is this man? Nobody was able to get through Jiro’s heart… So then, who are they?!” She demanded, desperately wanting to find out just who managed to charm Jiro’s heart, waiting for the bat to give a response.

It looked like he was considering withdrawing the information, but after letting out a despondent sigh from himself, he said:

“The man is called… Yukiharu Ushijima…”

Her breath hitched up. Ushijima?... Then that would mean… that it had to be…

Wait… Yuki, it was him! Jiro’s best friend! But.. she cannot understand it, Yukiharu was less than regal, and his family disowned him… so why was Jiro even associated with him?!

She was way better in any level compared to the man, in status, beauty and wealth… So why was he chosen over her?! What did he have over her for Jiro to choose him?!

Why… Why didn’t Jiro choose her? Was she really that worthless that even someone like Yukiharu was able to outperform her..?

It didn’t take long before she realised that tears were falling from her eyes, with the investigator soon giving her a tissue for her to clean her eyes…

Going to his go-to bar after a day of hard work was the usual movement that Genta did, being good friends with the owner of the place, a weird culmination of a host and a hostess bar.

Said owner was also his pimp, so he didn’t have to do much introduction around the place besides just waving his head to the current barkeeper on duty, and he usually communicated with the person on the job to ask how his good old buddy Saito was doing and if business was doing well. He rarely meets the rhino in-person, their preferred method of communication being their cellphones, with it being strictly business, besides the few quips the man tells him about his taste in women.

He doesn’t want to dirty himself with any random woman today, with only being in the mood to just socialise with people, be it the hostess’s flirting him or just talking about what kind of women or what kind of shit the craps guys desperate enough to be wanting to be entertained in such a way.

Before he entered the bar, he would usually disguise himself by putting on contracts, changing his suit to something less recognizable and putting on glasses to make him a bit less recognizable to the common people in the bar, with him also spotting a fake name, ‘Shin’.

It was good enough to distinguish him well enough from the image he presents to the public, which meant that even if he had hookers over, they would think the person they were helping get off wasn’t the shining, perfect politician they see on the news, but some everyday chap who just happens to look similarly to the man.

In a way, ‘Shin’ is the alter ego that Genta had that actually had some connection to people on a more intimate level, who could whip a few jokes with the guys or gals alike, while being sexually active with women as well. Genta though didn’t have the privilege, because he had to appear seamless, to be the very best, so him follying himself like this was unheard of, even if people like him would never be under the same scrutiny as he.

He knows at least a few coworkers he saw in this very bar, chatting away without a care, and with them being none the wiser that Genta was very much seeing what they were doing in their free time. He obviously didn’t tell them about it, because it would blow his cover as well, which is why he decided to keep his head in the ground for the occasion, ignoring what his co-workers alike were spending their cash on after work hours.

This place was going to be his secret he hoarded forever, how he wished for validation while being in a commoner’s identity, without expectation flying around, and being around people who were less fake than the men and women he had to meet around the workplace and high class events like parties and galas, as well as arranged meetings through his father’s connections.

In a way, that’s why he liked-hated working with Jiro, because even though his disdain for him was recognizable from a mile away, his dislike for him was not an act, it was something he was showing to the bull without any layers or mirrors that could make it different from its original meaning. However, he hated it more than liked it, because even though Jiro wasn’t fake, Genta had a weird realisation that if Ichiro and himself swapped brothers, Genta would be so much happier in the present than his current bond with his two siblings. If Jiro was his brother, who had such an immense devotion for him instead of that burn-out of a hyena, Genta and Jiro would have been unstoppable together.

However, he was chained to that trash-bag masquerading as a human being, while Genta had two siblings who didn’t seem to like their parents or himself very much, siblings who didn’t pay attention his way or didn’t adhere to their parents like Genta did. He honestly never understood why that was the case, because they were indebted to their father and mother for bringing them to this world in the first place!

And what did they do in return? Well, quite literally put shame on their family, with his younger brother being the biggest offender between himself and Sakiyo. Why didn’t he do as was told to him, and keep his… abnormality a secret from his parents, rather than just lazily writing his dreams and thoughts about his best friend in his diary, which was so easily accessible to anyone? On the other hand, Sakiyo was getting a bit too bold with her words and the power she thinks she possesses. If father didn’t have a sweet spot for her, her rebellious phase would have gone down the drain the same way as Yuki’s whole livelihood of being at their home went.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Genta, or more preferably, ‘Shin’, entered his favourite bar, Sunface Shinjuku, having his usual salutation to the barkeep, who happened to be Shika, a 40 year old something woman who was a guy once, if his memory serves him correctly.

“Hi Mama, give me the usual.” Genta said, the elephant barkeeper curving herself towards the bull’s directive as she silently mouthed ‘sure hun’, continuing to serve the customers that arrived quicker.

Shika wore a fluffy purple dress with an equally fluffy fur on upper area of the dress and ribbons around the midsection of her overweight body, stating that the dress was tailor made for her to make her feel like a fairy godmother to all the people who come to the bar she works at, while also donning a few pearl necklaces and earrings.

Her flirtatious personality aside, she was an excellent bartender, a gifted one, if he had to describe the woman’s capabilities, so it didn’t take long for the elephant to slide over a margarita, without needing to stop the glass in motion. The woman’s aim was impeccable…

Taking the citrus imbued drink into his hand, he took a few sips, gazing through the big bar and imagining what kind of situations the men and women went through to spend their time in such a bar. Was it to work off some tension, to get drunk without a care in the world or was it the same reason for why Genta was here as well?

His time spent peoplewatching was relatively short, courtesy of Shika being too good at her job of giving people the alcohol and spewing them out to the more populated area of the bar with countless hosts and hostesses, as the barkeep walked over by the sound of her high heels being remarkably iconic to the elephant, beaming positively.

“If it isn’t Saito’s favourite purse! Not going to get entertained by one of those hostesses over there, or are you elated watching from afar?” The elephant japed, and as he turned to face the barkeep, the woman was positively smirking in a non-taunting manner.

“Not today, I’m afraid. Not in the mood for it.”

“Well, that’s all fine by me. I do love spending my time chatting with you, since you obviously don’t pre-hydrate with alcohol when coming here.” She stated, her face turning a bit jaded at the mention of troublesome customers making the elephant turn sideways when it came to entertaining them, which Genta was all too familiar with, since he personally saw Shika personally having to go over the bar to dissolve a fight between two men who got pissed with each other. Her size alone was enough to intimidate both men to submission, as she then promptly kicked them out of the bar with a life-time ban on top of it all.

“What’s this? Did the fridge back there manage to impersonate the real Shika, with that pink freezer back being there a decoy with the real Shika in it, because I never thought I’d see the day when you greet me without some kind of attempted flirtation thrown my way… Has my beauty blinded you truly, oh inanimate object?” He responded, returning the tease back to her, the elephant giving the bull a mean pouty from using the fridge joke again.

“No, honey, you’re all attractive as always, it’s just that Mama had to deal with some rough customers today… like that high civilised woman over there, somberly sitting plain old whiskey with a few modifications made by me to make it more interesting. Shin, I’ve always said that being a barkeeper is a thankless job, because us putting up with people dropping their woes over their failed love life is simply unbearable sometimes.” The elephant whined, pointing over to a lone sitting figure at a deserted table with a cloth over her hands, and as the figure became more apparent to him…

He nearly gasped from the realisation. What the hell was Yoshie doing at a bar like this, all alone in her work outfit still?

“Wait… crap, I think I have the privilege of knowing that woman… Can you safeguard my drink while I go over there? If you even dare to spike my drink, there will be consequences, woman.” He stated, staring into the eyes of the elephant, making the woman giggle there a few seconds, as she then said:

“Can I atleast do the Momoko special on your glass?”

“No, what in tarnation? I don’t even comprehend why people pay for their glass to be licked in such a manner…”

“Hey, girlie is a hustler, and since she’s not allowed to kiss on the job, indirect kisses have to be done to earn more cash.” She retorted, and as Genta sat there blindsided how some people were able to do such unhonourable things to earn more, something that he could see Yukiharu doing, she soon added. “Hop hop, go deal with that sop wet bird with whatever problem she’s going through, or do you want me to demonstrate the Momoko special on your glass?”

Like that, Shika now prompted the bull to make his move over to the empty table that Yoshie was occupying at the moment, crossing through a few dozen people to reach his destination.

When he reached the bird’s nest, it was clear from the stench that Yoshie must have taken a lot of alcohol in her body, which he never thought he was going to mentally say to himself, and how woozily she stood there, like she was in a trance.

The woman, as he already stated before, was in her work clothes, and the only other thing he could pinpoint from the woman in appearance alone was the peach-pink blush on her face from the toxication she delivered to herself.

Looks like she wasn’t dealing well with the fact that Jiro left her all dry and high, being crushed that a man of his calibre has abandoned her. How the tower has crumbled into pieces of concrete slabs, and he was witnessing the wreckage in close proximity. Just what happens when you set your ambition too high on thinking she was going to tame the man that was Jiro. That man had to get a collar dressed on him and pulled to even bring him closer to women. He does not envy Juzo Haida’s position in any way.

“Yoshie? What are you doing here?” Genta voiced, stirring the woman a bit to consciousness, but as soon as she set her eyes on the man, her distaste seeing him was obvious enough, the woman’s churning being a telltale expression.

“Hrrat, jusy as mt day ciuldb't ge. t aby worse, yiir amug sas face had t.o show itself tonig ht!”

“I… excuse me?” The bull stated, having caught nothing of what Yoshie just laid to him, alreadying calling the woman’s chauffeur to drive her back home, because she’s unfortunately not going to get home like this.

“Yoshie, be a good girl and be intoxicated for a good few minutes. I’m calling your chauffeur to drive you home.” The canary gagged, obviously happy from the bull’s considerate words and action, as she retorted:

“No! I want to stonk moore snd have me for. get ab. ouy the fact that I am uselrss an d co. ntemptibñe. amd a diahra. xe ro the Kuroiws fanily! Hpw was I outperf oormef by yoit feeajung disiqmed brptge r og all pwoplw from eoo'ing Jiro's jeart?!”

Incomprehensible as her words may be, Genta didn’t miss the fact that he could barely put together the words that Yoshie was spewing out of her beaks, which was her saying that someone incomprehensible was able to woo Jiro’s heart. Many questions arose in his mind, because it seemed ridiculous to him that Jiro found himself a new lover this quick without the help of his father… But if Yoshie wasn’t vomiting nonsense, then he needed to immediately get Yoshie to testify who this supposed woman was, because he needed to see the main puppeteer for why Juzo Haida was frankly having a tantrum, with his father and his associates being the one dealing with the mess that the man left behind.

“...OK, could you perhaps start over and tell me whom this person you seem so up in arms about… taking Jiro’s heart, which sounds a bit delusional to my liking?” Genta said, taking a seat opposite to the roundtable.

“Can y. o. u stoo prstering me abput Uuji. hatu, you dsmb seune! I aweAt, I wIll ttwar that low-life to cinders!”

Still incomprehensible, unfortunately. Genta took an irritated sigh, thinking he must keep his queries limited while Yoshie is vulnerable like this, lest he wanted to see the woman come more undone than she needed to be.

He did not imagine his after-work visit to his favourite bar would end up him babying Yoshie to his chauffeur, which was a huge blow to his, deciding he wasn’t even in the mood to be around the bar anymore, making him leave posthaste after downing the glass that Shika, which thankfully wasn’t gone through the Monoko special.

His car-ride home had him in thoughts he didn’t consider before, like who this mysterious lover of Jiro was. Jiro being sullied like this seemed unimaginable, as much as he poked fun in him saying that he was keeping a girl a secret.

Ultimately, it’s highly likely that Yoshie was having some kind of misconception, like that time of her thinking that she thought Jiro was secretly in kahoots with some fennec fox girl where Jiro’s brother worked, or something to that effect… However, he should keep his ears out and eyes peeled, just to make sure whether Yoshie’s words held water or not.

Just who even could manage to get through Jiro’s closed-off heart, was the million yen question. That man didn’t touch any human being with a stick if he wasn’t obliged, besides his brother and Jiro’s brother…

Who is he kidding, it’s laughable to think that Yukiharu was able to capture that man’s heart! He was a… letdown of a human being, so what could he have offered Jiro compared to all the women throwing themselves on the hyena?

Never would have Ichiro managed that seemingly going to the beach to loosen up was all he needed to get some of those ominous feelings out of his skin.

Credit where credit is due, Retsuko was a genius realising that all Ichiro needed the last week was to have a taste of that sea air and for him to enjoy the cold, pleasant waves of the sea. Some of their friends might have not needed it as much as Ichiro, but he was heartened to know that everyone enjoyed their time there, as much as Fenneko seemed to have been paranoid about her relationship with Seiji. Oh… and he’s pretty sure Jiro threatened him that if he ever threw his brother into the sea like that, there would be major consequences.

What cheek! He can’t believe his younger brother, his number one supporter, was playing favourites with Yuki, even though he was also responsible for Jiro tasting seawater, and nearly drowning when they brought him to deeper levels to try to make him swim. It was… kind of bittersweet, now that he thinks about it.

Well, it would be bittersweet, weren’t it for the fact that he was currently staring at his smartphone, which was currently turned off at the moment, and waiting for Jiro to finally call him to ask how big bro Ichiro was doing.

Why isn’t he calling him?!

“Ichiro, as much as you stare at the thing, it won’t magically make Jiro call you, you know?” Retsuko rustled in the kitchen, with her being on kitchen duty this time around. His murmurs must have been audible enough for her to hear his grumble from so far, it seems…

“I know… but why isn’t he calling me, Retsuko? It has been three weeks already, and he never went M.I.A on me like this before!” He outcried, staring at the black screen of his little microcomputer and seeing his face reflected in it.

“He kinda has a partner that he can beset instead of you? You were the one telling me about how Shikabane is spelling falsehood about how your brother is behaving himself around Yuki, remember?”

“It’s because she’s lying! Nearly all of the things that she has said about my brother are all ridiculous!” He retorted, feeling ridiculed that Shikabane had the gall to speak that Jiro was shamelessly flirting with Yuki in front of the skunk and the fact that he wasn’t averse to physical touch initiated by him or Yuki, also including in front of the gamer skunk.

His little brother wouldn’t act so brazen and fatuously! It’s a thing he did back in high school about the girls he was in a relationship with, and he’s pretty sure he stated non-verbally to him to not emulate him in any way or form! Jiro was way smarter than him, so him doing things like that was unheard of for him to do!

“But didn’t you personally see-”

“We are not talking about that incident in Yuki’s and Shikabane’s apartment, thank you very much! I still feel personally haunted by the sounds I’ve heard the two make in there…”

“Well, being snoozy about your brother’s relationship backfired on ya.”

“...That it did.”

They exchanged with each other, as Ichiro contemplated whether there was a way for him to blissfully walk this plain of existence again without having any evidence of what Jiro and Yuki sounded like when they confessed to each other for long last. There should be a way for him to erase his memory without smashing his skull in with a brick, right?

Thankfully, his wife’s cooking was completed by the ring that the oven made, which meant that their simple dinner of feasting on dino nuggets was coming closer. Even if people think that it was lazy for Retsuko to simply heat up nuggets, those people can go back to when the meteors wiped off the dinos, because those things were delicious and easy to make! Just throw them in the oven and have some ketchup on the side, and voilà, a tasty meal for dinner with no effort!

And with little effort as well that it took for it to get ready, Retsuko didn’t have to struggle much getting those nuggets out from the oven and plated on the mini-table where he was aimlessly staring into his phone for some minutes.

“A plate of extinguished creatures nuggets, as you ordered, Ichiro!” Retsuko cheerfully said, the red panda’s glimmer of excitement making him forgetful for why he was feeling pouty and felt like he had knowledge of something that he should never have learnt about.

Even though it personally hurt his fingers taking a piece of these still seering nuggets in his fingers, he dipped it in the sauce that was besides the plate and took a bite off it, feeling tears swell up on him from how his mouth personally burning like hell and the fact that it was way too delicious. Fuck, he loved dino nuggets so much…

However, it seemed like Retsuko was less than happy to see Ichiro burning the inside of his mouth to enjoy a good taste of these freshly baked (or incinerated?) nuggets, which is why he decided to spare a few minutes for the singeing nuggets to cool down, as he ate the less hot nuggets together with Retsuko.

The dinner all and all was delicious, as much as they could have come up with something more impressive with the ingredients they still had in the fridge, but Ichiro would never say no to tasting dino nuggets while it was made by the love of his wife and the oven that they possessed.

It might sound ridiculous, but he’s pretty sure he could live on these things for the rest of his life, and he wouldn’t dare make a complaint about it… but he’s pretty sure he can’t exactly bulk up by eating nuggets like this, or that’s at least what Yuki would tell him.

After the two of them sat there surprisingly sated for the time being, Retsuko soon started speaking, saying:

“You know, it’s crazy to think that in about a few months from now, we will be holding our official wedding ceremony!”

Oh, right, they were going to hold a wedding ceremony around in October, if he remembers correctly, which would have been roughly around the time when Retsuko and he got together to marry legally, while his relationship with Jiro was still murky than stable. Honestly, if he never got hit by that truck, he wouldn’t have come to that sudden declaration to Retsuko and Jiro would still be in their father’s clutches. Good thing he wasn’t stating that directly to the red panda, because he’s pretty sure he might cause her to faint.

“...Why do you have that face that tells me you just realised that now?” Retsuko said in a low beat irritated tone, as Ichiro simply defended himself, saying:

“Can you blame me? This year was pretty wild, all things considered! It’s hard to keep track of everything that happened in my small head!”

“Yeah… there’s so many great things that happened around the time we got married, and I sometimes wonder that the gospel about marriage being able to solve every problem a couple might face wasn’t actually hearsay…”

Wait, now that he truly thinks about it, it sure seems like everything turned happier in their times together being married legally, with basically no loose ends for them to fix. Huh, the power of love is a power to be reckoned with, isn’t it?

“It just makes me think of the times when we hold the ceremony… and what future endeavours await us afterwards.” Retsuko voiced, positively pondering in the meanwhile from what he could tell. “When I first thought about getting married, I used the whole concept as a way for me to escape my crappy job at Charayman, when Mr. Ton had basically nil respect for me. The get hitched to get bailed from hell incarnate, as I’ve dubbed the idea beforehand…”

“Oh, is that why you randomly asked me one time about if I was going to be the breadwinner if we got married? Now that I think about it, it sure doesn’t seem nice that you fled as soon as I’ve said it would have been fine if we both kept on working.”

“Yeah… I really wasn’t using marriages for love, but for financial convenience and for myself to not go to therapy from all the crap I had to deal with around Ton. It’s totally crazy that I would have been fine making kids with that mysterious person as long as they were able to cover the rent!” Retsuko said, but Ichiro got all nervous as soon as she mentioned the sacred k word when it came to married couples.

Kids. He didn’t actually ever think about the concept of creating a child with Retsuko before, with his mind probably not being delusional enough to think he would get this far… but fate be damned, he actually was able to get to this point, which meant he had to think about the concept.

Making kids is the natural instinct that nearly all humans possess in order to repopulate, and especially in this country, they would be doing a lot for their country if they let loose a child of theirs into the world, but it would also bring in the many benefits and negatives that having a child brought to people.

First off, Retsuko would be literally in purgatory carrying their child, and even though most people think that child birthing is a miraculous thing, it’s honestly more miraculous how terrifying the concept was and what the mother had to go through to bring mostly one child into the world, who they then had to nurture until they were able to fend off for themselves, which would bring in the fact that they would have spend more as a result, seeing as they would have 3 heads in the apartment than just 2.

But… he wouldn’t mind going through such a thing together with Retsuko, and he knew Retsuko wanted kids. The two of them striving together to raise their child, and then see them leave the nest and do whatever they want in the world. That sounds very appealing to him…

“Kids…” Ichiro murmured, feeling blushed from the question he was about to pose his wife. “I’ve been wondering… when exactly do we…”

“Oh!... Uhm, possibly after the wedding ceremony? It’s what my mom said that I should be doing at least, because I can already imagine how she would look at me if we were at the altar and it was obvious from sight alone that you knocked me up…” Retsuko said in a hushed tone, the red panda blushing up as hard as he was, as the man just gave her a few nods of understatement. Kid making can wait until the ceremony, duly noted!

That’s where their awkward discussion about having kids would have ended, weren’t it for the fact that Retsuko soon spoke up, asking Ichiro:

“If we had kids… would you want them to be a girl or a boy?”

Oh… heavy question, but if he had to choose one, it was pretty obvious what he would pick:

“Oh, a daughter for sure!”

“Well… I honestly would prefer that our kid ended up as a boy. I wouldn’t wish periods on my worst enemies, ever!” Retsuko added in, which Jiro noted to himself a good point on why their kid should be a boy instead of a girl.

However, such topics like that could still wait a few months, because currently, they are still a pure married couple, and boy is he going to enjoy his time being ignorant together with Retsuko!

Spending his time in a hot jacuzzi bath while having a good look on Tokyo was not something Yuki ever thought he would be having for a long time, or the fact that he was chillaxing in a luxurious penthouse like he owned the place.

It has been about three weeks since he and Jiro became a couple and he has been loving every second of it, feeling like he’s on the top of the world. Hell, even his boss noticed how livelier the bull has been before he scolded him to not get this metaphorical thing making him more distracted, which he tried to keep in mind. Although, he had to confess that there were some times his mind wandered to off-work related stuff, like going home to his apartment and seeing his boyfriend and Shikabane. He didn’t understand why Jiro felt so insistent on visiting them each day when he could have spent his time relaxing in this very tub that the bull was in at the moment, but Jiro was an unorthodox guy…

Speaking about the guy who had him captivated from all angles, said guy was also in the jacuzzi, relaxing in the tub while Yuki had his arm around behind the hyena’s neck, and the guy looked to be in total bliss. The bull had a blush painted on his cheeks throughout his stay in the jacuzzi sitting next to Jiro while the both of them were butt naked. It really took him a great amount of self-restraint from not bringing his eye to the length Jiro hid behind the bubbling waters.

“Fuck…” Yuki cursed, absolutely elevated from how much he enjoyed being in the tub. “I could practically fall asleep here…”

“Hmmm, yeah. That happened to me a lot before… but let’s try not to do that, unless you want your vesicles to burst and get yourself susceptible to infections.” Jiro murmured next to him, uttering some technical word that Yuki must have heard once in his entire lifetime, making the bull pout a little and move his head closer to the hyena, kvetching:

“What’s so bad if that vehicle or whatever thing bursts? I can’t imagine jacuzzi water damaging our skin that badly…”

“Bathing for a long time doesn’t only result in pruney skin, Yuki.” Jiro muttered, as he began listing down things. “Too much water immersion could result in skin breakdown, like sores, blood clots and atrophy. If you’re taking an extended bath every day, you’ll likely have a lot of bodily fluids that have been trapped in those vesicles and you’ll then have a lot of new skin that’s being exposed. Cue the infections. Who’d have thought that bathing too long is unhealthy for human beings, huh?”

Oh… that’s… nifty to know about. He will probably reconsider his time spent being in this jacuzzi in the foreseeable future, now that Jiro spooked him with fun trivia that was more horrifying than fun.

“Man, I sometimes forget you’re a walking encyclopaedia… But regardless, I’d still love to bathe in this heavenish tub all day. All we would need is some kind of margarita in our hands, and then we’d have everything with this absolute limelight we have in Tokyo!” He said, already fantasising about the good life he could have, when Jiro perked up, making the hyena turn his head around to look at the bull.

“That could be rearranged with one simple trick, if you catch my drift?”

“Look, jacuzzi tubs alone aren’t going to be the deciding factor as to why I’ll move in with you alongside Shikabane, even though you have three of them in this opulent estate… Wait, why do you even have three of them?”

“Don’t look at me, it’s just how the penthouse was structured, and it would be too troublesome to reshape it and repurpose it.” The hyena responded, moving up his shoulders. “But my offer is still up and pending. It’s not like my home only has three baths to tender.”

“That I know, Jiro.” Yuki stated, staring back at that face which made his whole body combust in many positive emotions. “And I have to admit, it’s getting harder and harder to resist by how you and Shikabane are literally double teaming me with the lulls you keep whispering into my ears about how great it would be for us to be here together, while Shikabane has been thrashing our humbly apartment and how this place was a direct upgrade and all that.”

“And has there been some development piercing through your steel-headed skull of yours?” Jiro asked with a smirk on his face, the man being a prime target of being kissed like always.

“Maybe…” He sighed, keeping the fact hidden that he was positively convinced by the hyena to join him in this penthouse, and he was only waiting for him and Shikabane to get paid to make the move towards Jiro’s penthouse. He just hopes nobody is going to raise their eyebrows or go look up the penthouse the house they’ll be living in, because there was no way he could convince people he and Shikabane were able to earn enough cash to live in such a pricey penthouse.

Since Jiro only responded by showing the bull a big grin on his face, the two of them stood there in the bubbly waters in relative silence and in the warmth from the tub and from the close contact they shared.

It was romantic in nature to share a bath together like this, of the slight teases of touching on their shoulders and back. However, since he felt a bit greedy on wanting more than just touching, which is why he guided his eyes towards the hyena’s chest.

Besides feeling like a proud couch from shaping those twig like features of his boyfriend into something more sturdy, including his prior noodle arms, it made the bull giddy looking at his boyfriend’s chest and abdomen area, admiring just how more sturdy the man’s pecs have become and how his abs have started showing its colours after the training regime he and his brother have been through in the tutelage of Yuki.

“Like what you see, hmm?” Jiro said with a teasing tone, making the bull redden up by the fact that he was caught red-handed in his staring, as he responded:

“Yeah… you considerably bulked up compared to when you started training with me and Ichiro and I gotta say, I sure feel accomplished…” Yuki used the hand that was over Jiro’s neck, formed it into a rock, and knocked on the hyena’s pecs. “Seeing these bad boys of yours finally growing some muscles. And yeah, they sure look nice to behold.”

“That’s good to hear.” Jiro stated with his eyes being left ajar, and dammit, did the bull feel like Jiro was chiselled to perfection, just for him. “It wouldn’t be fair if I only had to serve you a half-baked body while you served me a cake of utter delicacy.”

And damn, there it went his perfect mood, having Jiro making such a comparison again, rolling his eyes, and telling the hyena yet again:

“Ugh, this again? If you treat working out as some way for you to objectify yourself to me, I am going to cancel our gym sessions on Mondays!”

That was enough for Jiro to have his body wake up and have his face deteriorate into panic, as he retorted:

“I promise to you that I do in fact use our sessions together as a way for me to feel proud of my body and all, I swear!”

“But it’s barely the reason why you’re still bulking up, am I right?” That delivery was enough for the bull to see his man sweat up buckets, and he was definitely sure it wasn’t because of the heat of the jacuzzi. “Look, I know you’re the most selfless guy on earth, but I tell you Jiro, it’s good to be selfish here and there.”

“‘It’s good to be selfish here and there.’ Paraphrased the man who is still on the fence about living in a wealthy penthouse offered by his generous boyfriend. While I do admit that I am somehow motivated working out with you and Ichiro to impress you, don’t play the humble priest. Besides, you did personally say you started bulking out with the side-benefit of making yourself more presentable… to guys.” Jiro quipped back, looking more irritated in the face than Yuki was… and did he detect jealousy in his boyfriend’s voice?

“Well… that’s true… Then at least promise me that you’re bulking up more for yourself than you do for me, right?”

“...Fine, I promise.” Jiro breathed, seemingly untangling himself from his tense grimace he was showing.

Feeling bad for souring their pleasant time together, he decided he should repay Jiro with kindness, he took the man’s chin sitting next to him, and initiated a brief, tender kiss with the hyena.

When he tore their lips apart, he saw the man’s face gesture to a diffident look. He shouldn’t forget the fact that he can use the same tricks that Jiro does against him when he wants to turn the bull calmer. Exploiting Jiro’s weakness like this to get him to be more composed was a handy trick, now that he thinks about it…

“Jiro, don’t think I didn’t notice the pout you were spotting on your pretty face right now, alright? You know that nobody is ever going to compare to you being my lover, yeah?” The bull heartened the hyena, which was what Jiro must have wanted to hear, because he soon collapsed his head on the bull’s shoulders.

He might not ever confess this to Jiro, but Jiro’s animosity towards the past few guys he dated before was cute to descry. He could understand why Jiro felt such feelings towards the guys who deprived the hyena of having Yuki experience his first-evers together, but it’s not like he even remembers the names of the guys he dated before, since the bull’s relationship didn’t last that long with them.

Pondering in the jacuzzi with Jiro on his shoulders, Yuki realised just how many new experiences he was showing the hyena and how magical it was for the both of them doing it together, but he had to come clean with one activity they still haven’t undertaken together, something he deliberately stalled between the two, being slightly afraid and feeling unready about whether Jiro would actually enjoy it as much when he was forced to action.

But, he thinks he has an answer now whether he wanted to do the deed with Jiro at his penthouse, with Shikabane no one in sight to bother them, or anyone else for that matter.

Maybe… he should ask if Jiro was ready to throw his continence in the air to scatter.

It was roughly about 11 P.M, with the date turning to Saturday as soon as a hour passes, and at the moment, Yuki and Jiro were standing in front of Jiro’s bedroom, having their last discussion together until Jiro closed himself in his bedroom and the bull went into the guestroom, or have it turn to something more lively, if Jiro wasn’t going to refuse Yuki’s request on inviting the bull into his bedroom.

Even though Jiro made an effort to go home on time now, Jiro always seemed to return to their apartment a bit tired and put through the rigger, undoubtedly due to asserting himself fully in his work. Jiro wasn’t a slacker, that’s for sure.

“Before we go into our own respective beds, just know that we can’t sleep through the whole day, since my mother wants to see you tomorrow early morning.” Jiro stated, slightly sounding tired in his voice, which is when Yuki’s eyes bolted up in an instant, remembering the discussion they had once when Jiro told him about his mother finding them. In a way, it is hilarious to think Jiro got busted due to the hickey he left on the hyena’s neck, feeling weirdly happy about the fact that that happened, but on the other hand, Jiro’s mother being the one to find out about them was making all of the sirens inside him buzz loudly.

“Oh shit, you’re right! Can you wake me up an hour before she arrives, because I need to look my absolute best when she arrives! I gotta make sure she doesn’t disapprove of me!”

“What’s the sudden worry all of a sudden? Yuki, you know there’s no way that you’re gonna make my mother think you’re not worthy of having me.” The hyena responded, a bit too lax for Yuki’s liking, which is why he responded:

“I’m sorry to reminding you of this, but she’s the only parent between the two of us who actually wouldn’t throw a slur at our doorstep were they to found out about our relationship, so if I’m gonna have one of your parents listen to my words about how I’m gonna treat you better than kings were treated back in the past, then they should at least be convinced that I’m gonna be good for us!”

“Still think you’re making yourself stressed for no reason… but whatever. Don’t get all surprised if my mother ends up hugging you for being there for me and all that.” The hyena retorted, looking like he was ready to say his farewells and go into his bedroom, which is why Yuki unceremoniously brought up:

“Yeah yeah, gotcha… Our awful parents aside from your mom, I wanna ask you something, and I don’t mind if you say no to it…” He mouthed, feeling at a loss of words, now that he’s actually finally requesting the deed from Jiro, who was curiously eying him up. “But… Uhm, remember when we first got together and I had to tell you that… we should wait it out before we… uhm… had… the you-know-what?”

Jiro looked askance at the bull, until the bull personally saw Jiro had the lightbulb inside his head turn on, as he firmly stated without any shyness in his voice:

“Before we had sex?... Oh!”

“Yeah, I know it’s sudden to have this be sprung on you, but have you made sure… you checked yourself, because I know I’m clean…”

It seemed like Jiro was spellstruck from the sudden request of the bull, but Jiro was known for how quick he can be on on his feet, because he said:

“Me too… But are you implying that you want to do it with me, this very moment…?”

“Hmm. I kind of can’t wait anymore, and since you said that you’re fine, that would be the idea… so what do you say?”

“Gods, what do you think, you sexy bull? Come on i-” Like that, Yuki took that as an invitation to barge into Jiro’s bedroom, dragging the hyena and himself to the man’s private space.

– !!!! –

Having his proposal of doing the deed accepted lit a fire inside Yuki that was unsurmountable to vanquish, which is why he began assaulting his lover’s lips with his own, and from the sounds that Jiro was making, the feeling was reciprocated.

He wasn’t paying attention to where he was heading, or who even was stirring between the two, feeling like he was stuck in a whirlpool with Jiro, but when they made contact with an obstacle, which happened to be the closet of the hyena. The sound that Yuki heard must have been Jiro hitting his head on it, making the bull pull himself out of his trance to go check on Jiro, asking:

“Shit, did that hu-”

He wasn’t even given any seconds to breathe, as the man that had the backside of his head hurt forced the bull into silence by making their lips meet again, the frenzy make-out between them continuing with him pressing Jiro against the closet and exploring every inch of the man.

Thinking of the man’s shirt to be a hindrance on him, he grabbed onto the man’s short, which was the only thing he was wearing at the moment besides his underwear, and pulled it up, and as soon as Jiro caught on what the bull was trying to do, he loosened the hold he had on the bull’s hips and raised up his arms, making it all so easier for the bull to pull the shirt off in one swift motion.

Before he could use his eyes to gawk at his lover’s body, Jiro soon clutched onto the bull’s own shirt, threatening to rip it off of him if Yuki didn’t comply and help him take it off of him, and seeing he didn’t mind being nearly naked in front of Jiro, he let the hyena pull off the shirt of him, throwing it somewhere which Yuki couldn’t care much about the moment.

The two of them made out in such a way a few times already, but Yuki knew that between them all, this was the most rushed and desperate of them all, knowing that afterwards, the two of them would be wound up on the bed and make a mess out of it when they’re done with each other.

At the moment, he was getting his tongue as deep as he could inside the hyena’s mouth, with the man on the other side having the same idea as the bull, which meant that their mouth was fighting for dominance, and god, was it making things fuzzy for the bull. Their mouths aside, he had Jiro locked up in the closet behind him via clutching his knees onto the man's thighs and pushing him against it and keeping a hand on one side of the man’s waist, while the other was pleasantly planted on the man’s cheeks.

Jiro, the man being shoved into his closet, wasn’t doing that bad himself, because with his two free hands, he had one gripped onto the bull’s hips, dragging the bull closer to him, while the other one was behind the bull’s asscheeks, thoroughly groping them. If the bull’s member wasn’t active by how the man was thrust into a make-out session with Jiro, this definitely did the job of raising it enough for Jiro to see how riled up the bull has gotten, as the two continued groaning into each other while they were lost in pleasuring each other.

The speed at which they broke their position was quick, when Jiro finally pushed back against Yuki instead of reeling the bull into him, which the bull conveniently allowed for the hyena to do. Instead of the small blunder that Yuki has done with smashing Jiro against a wall, Jiro was more experienced around navigating his own bedroom, because Jiro soon pushed him forward, and before he had any chance to prepare himself from impact, he landed on something more cushier than the closet he thrust Jiro against.

Laid out on his lover’s bedroom like this, he gazed his eyes towards the man still standing between them, a smile cheeking up on him to reflect back the creeping smile that Jiro had on him and the obvious flush pictured on his face.

The man leered closer, foregoing the idea of just pouncing on the bull and having them finish their make-out on the bed, slowly climbing onto the bed and coming closer to the bull sprayed out to him, making no effort to move whatsoever.

When Jiro was finally crawling on top of him, he expected the hyena to go wreckage the bull again, so he was surprised to see that the only thing Jiro did was put their noses together, and stare at the bull with eyes that Yuki can positively say was only reserved for him, and him only.

“You sure do love staring at me.”

“Hmm… I also love touching you, and thinking about you. I’d say it’s surprising that I didn’t combust from how happy you make me.” Jiro responded, and boy, did Yuki think HE was going to be the one to explode at this rate, seeing how close they were.

“Same… I cannot put it into words on how much I love you, Jiro.”

“...I love you too, Yukiharu…”

Without much preamble, the hyena dug his hands into the bull’s underwear, which is when Yuki realised that they have forgot to mention something to each other, saying:

“...So what kind of role do you want each of us to fulfil in bed? I know this is your first time, but I’m pretty sure I’m flexible enough to be on the receiving end or be the one putting it in you. Probably should ask whether you have condoms and lube as well, for convenience sake and because as much as I think I’m capable of doing it raw, it’s preferable if we had a lubricant when one of us… goes in.”

The slow removal of his underwear was halted, caused by Jiro suddenly thinking whatever kind of position he wants to be in. However, the hyena didn’t think long for an answer, because when he successfully put Yuki’s underwear to rest, or wherever it flew in the room, he had his eyes set on the bull’s length, looking like a man who found his prize.

“It’s as big as I imagined… Also, I do have that stuff, but I wanna do it without condoms as much as possible. I tried it out by having one on, and I don’t think the rubber texture is to my liking… And I think I want you to pound me until this bed breaks.”

Well, OK. Sure he can do that! He still turned red at the intention of what Jiro wanted him to do, but it’s not like he didn’t account about the time the two of them did that together, but he still imagined that Jiro would be the one to go knee-deep in the bull.

“...Alright, I’m topping… great!... So uhm… where do you keep it?” Yuki said demurely, eyeing the hyena on top of him.

Jiro didn’t comment on it, because he only needed to crawl over the bull to lean towards the bed table that had the hyena’s phone on it, charging, opening the drawer. During all that, Yuki couldn’t help but notice how close he got into contact with the man’s underwear on top of him, and man, was his mouth watering being able to see his boyfriend’s bulge through the black fabric. Fuck, maybe he could have bargained with Jiro to be on the receiving end instead…

When the man brought the lubricant into the bull's eye-view, the hyena changed his position of being on top of the bull… to sitting on the bull’s hips, making Yuki nearly flinch from how close their respective body parts that they were going to use soon were from each other, making him wonder whether Jiro intended to do this to rile up the bull.

“I’ve done my due diligence on looking up what kind of lubricant we should use during sex, and I’ve decided that using silicon based lubricant should be the safest, because I don’t know whether we’ll have an allergic reaction to an oil-typed lubricant instead. Not to mention, silicon lubricant never dry up and feel velvety on the skin, making them perfect fo-” Jiro began info-dumping like he usually did, but even though Yuki found it cute whenever he did that, he didn’t have the patience this time around to explain to him what lube is, saying:

“Jiro… look, as much as you look cute laying all this information down on me while my dick is inches away from your buttcheeks, but I don’t think this is the type of foreplay I imagined us to be doing…”

“...Oh, did I? I hope I didn’t ruin the moo-” Not wanting to hear Jiro’s complaint about himself, Yuki did the quick switcheroo with their current position by grabbing the man’s waist and gracefully laying the man of his love down on his back, taking the bottle of lube from the man’s hand, telling him:

“No, you didn’t, you oblivious bloke. Since I’m gonna act as the captain here, I’ll need you to terminate that prison of a cloth hanging on you to have access to your ass… and prep it.”

“You can tear it off yourself…” The hyena stated, a bit flush from the sudden turnabout that Yuki did. The man was obviously leering at the kneeling bull’s body, which the bull noted, but didn’t put it out, as much as it would flatten the hyena’s cheek to an even redder tone.

Deciding that he should entertain the hyena with his idea, he placed the bottle besides Jiro’s legs and took it down to a level where he could release the hyena’s length from its cages, the thing springing free as soon as the underwear wasn’t in the way anymore, making the bull let out a satisfied whistle from the dick, complimenting it:

“Damn, now that is one of the most cutest and sexiest dicks that I’ve seen.”

“...I beg your pardon, what was that first adjective?” Jiro questioned, having a mixture of surprise and flush on his face.

“I’m saying that besides the length and the girth of your dick, it’s as cute as you are.”

“Are you saying that I’m a dick, then?!”

“What?! No no no! It’s a figure of speech coming from me! Your penis is very great, is all I’m saying! Yep! A very suckable dick, if I do say so myself!” Yuki declared in a nervous manner after Jiro seemed to have mistaken what Yuki meant with his words, trying to compliment his boyfriend’s dick to get Jiro to understand what he was meaning.

“...Oh.” Jiro muttered, looking more embarrassed to have misconstructed the bull’s words, and before he could have something self-deprecating about himself, Yuki continued dragging the underwear of the hyena until Yuki had it in his two hands, throwing it just besides the bed as he set his eyes on the body that his boyfriend possessed.

“So our first time is being more awkward than it needs to be… you prepared to begin?”

“Yeah… I really think you need to put that thing in me and fill me up or I’m gonna go crazy.”

“Fingers first, Jiro. It’s safer to loosen up your hole first. I know you are secretly a masochist, but let’s just make it more enjoyable for the both of us, yeah?”

“Tch, fine…” Jiro grumbled, making the bull pleased to see that Jiro was sensible enough to be prepped first before they went down to business, because bragging aside, it would probably hurt a lot if the hyena had to take in the size that Yuki had on him, probably being larger and longer than most other guys.

Finally beginning to start the adventure that the two are sojourning on Jiro’s bed, Yuki took the bottle of lube in his hand, opening the cap and tracing some of the content on his right hand.

“It’s a bit on the colder side, so don’t get spooked when I breach through your butthole.” Yuki said, coating his hand with the appropriate amount of lube he needed to loosen the guy up, while the hyena simply stated:

“I’d rather freeze to death than burn to death, so that’s good.”

Letting out a hum, Yuki used his free hand that wasn’t contaminated with any sticky subject to move apart Jiro’s thighs to get a better access to Jiro’s hole, taking long breaths, and he was heartened by the fact that Jiro seemed to have been emulating him, because at the moment, the hyena needed to be more relaxed than stiff.

“I’m going to put in the first finger, and if it’s too much for you, just squash my tail with your leg or something. You ready and relaxed?”

“..:Yeah, I am.” Jiro responded, the bliss on his face being obvious from what Yuki could see, which is when Yuki decided that it’s nigh time for him to explore Jiro’s body like he always wanted to, inserting a finger into his boyfriend’s butthole.

As expected, Jiro nearly jumped from the intrusion that entered, wincing in surprise, but not in any pain, which was great. Yuki used his remaining hand to put it on Jiro’s left thigh and just loosely grasping it, while he gazed in wonder at how Jiro was reacting to what Yuki was doing. Fuck, he desperately needed to save this in his memories, because seeing it in real-life was way better than he expected.

“You’re doing great, Jiro. You feeling well? Can you take another finger in?”

“Hmmpf, yeah… it feels good…”

Humming happily to see that he was making Jiro feel great, he began stretching the hole he was gonna pleasure for himself and Jiro with a second finger, which flipped in without a problem, the groan from the hyena telling the bull that he was doing a fine job.

After a few seconds of loosening Jiro up, and listening to the music Jiro was letting out from himself which was already arousing more than Yuki was at the moment, Yuki decided to ask whether he should continue putting in the last finger after the next praise he mumbled to Jiro of how good he’s doing and how pretty he was.

“I’m putting in the last finger. Last finger to have you all stretched out for me to be ready when I’m gonna go in you, alright? You’re such a good guy with this patience, yeah?”

“Fuck…”

The hyena only groaned, looking like he was overly sensitive at the moment to communicate thoroughly with him, which Yuki took as a mission accomplished on making Jiro feel good, letting the final finger breach the hyena’s defences.

The grunts of pleasure from Jiro were still as lovely, and from the little changes in his tune, it seemed like the Jiro very much preferred having more in him, and at this level, the hyena could take the bull’s dick without much of a wuss, and fuck, maybe he was just shaped perfectly for his dick, making Yuki wonder whether they were perfectly made for each other, and that it was fate that they would eventually do this.

With his thoughts urging Yuki to prepare for one of the things he wished for all this time all along when he realised just how much he craved for the man he pined for all these years ago, he wordlessly departed his fingers from Jiro’s entrance, earning a wuss and relieved sigh from the hyena, probably from the loss of touch and by the fact that Jiro was more excited to finally make love each other, which made Yuki all the giddier to know that his love wasn’t unrequited, but was shared.

To think the shy four-eyed boy that he once met who had such a keen interest in his Game Boy would turn to this man that he worshipped and loved with all his body. The boy who pulled his heartstrings in so many ways, to put up being friends with him, to being his best friend. The boy ingrained all of himself into the young’s bull mind, making it impossible to ever forget about him and all the things he has done for him. And to make Jiro ever more special, Yuki was also like that to him, and fuck, he might become misty-eyed if he thinks about how much of a paragon Jiro is to the bull, or no, a freaking saint!

To imagine a saint like him spending his perfection on a guy like him was still so otherworldly to Yuki, because no matter how much he puts his mind about it, Jiro could have easily looked for other guys to date and love, but he didn’t. The guy subconsciously restrained himself from any lovers, well, lovers that he chose by his own free will, just to love and treat a guy like him with utmost care .

Just when did he ever deserve to have something as perfect as Jiro love him in such a way? He messed up so many times in his life before for being ineptitude and sloppy, but Jiro still loved him for it. Loved him so much, he was going to let Yuki take his virginity with absolute trust.

He can’t believe he’s stating this inside his head, but god thank his father for introducing him to the Haida family, because without him, he wouldn’t ever have met Jiro and made love with him like this. Guess that’s the second thing he can thank his father for, besides being one of the parties to birth him into this messy world.

“...Are you going to move or are you going to gawk there without a thought?” Jiro suddenly said, promptly Jiro to grab the bottle of lube again to coat his dick this time around, as he responded:

“Sorry, I was just thinking… how crazy it is that I get to have you. Fuck, I’m not the guy to go crying over things like that, but I might shed a few tears if I keep thinking how perfect you are for me.”

“You can’t imagine how I must be thinking, then, because I think you’re more than perfect, like something people shouldn’t be able to get… and you’re mine.”

“I still think you’re giving me too much credit… but anyway, let’s establish safewords. Say yellow if you want me to slow down, and red if you need me to stop, okay?”

“Can I say green if I need you to move faster, then?” Jiro muttered, raising his eyebrow curiously, reminding Yuki just how mischievous the hyena can be when he wants to be, making the bull return a flirtatious smirk, saying to the man of his life:

“Eager as ever, huh? I can’t get enough of you, you know?”

“Hmm, I hope that is the case, because I could say the same about you.” Jiro hummed, making Yuki’s worry go away just like that, making the bull grip on the hyena’s hips, taking his dick closer to the hyena’s entrance.

Just a few seconds, and his dick was finally going to do something other than standing up like a rod and be there all pent-up. He was going to indulge drinking in everything that Jiro had to offer to him, and nothing was going to stop them no-

– !!!! –

*DING*

Of course he can’t have shit even when he was at the apex of his life, because Jiro’s phone just had to alert the two who were about to rock their worlds out of each other that someone messaged Jiro, and he swears, if it was his brother, he’s going to fucking kill hi-

“Ugh… I need to see who that is, but I doubt it’s going to take that long. Can you stand in place like this so that you can fuck me after I’m done reading?” Jiro spoke, in an irritated manner like Yuki, feeling at least relieved to see that Jiro was as upset about this sudden revelation like the bull was, as he crawled towards the phone placed on his bedside table and began reading the message.

Yuki did as what Jiro tasked him to do, pouting in place while he looked at the naked hyena at the top of the bed read the message he got, but when he saw Jiro drop his jaw and have his hot face turn to shock, he know something was amiss with that message he got, which is why he asked him:

“Jiro?... You good?”

However, Jiro didn’t respond to him, standing there frozen, so he decided to disobey Jiro’s commands and take a peek to see what got Jiro’s panties in such a mess. When he got there, he thought he was going to see a message from Ichiro’s wife and how Jiro’s brother broke a leg or something like the dumbass he was, so colour him surprised when he saw the message was…

Before he could think about how Yoshie, the canary that Jiro was forced to date before he broke up with her to be with Yuki instead, was able to figure out that the two of them were lovers, and if that was because they got ratted out by someone or because they weren’t careful when they went out together…

*RIIIIIIING RIIIIIIING*

The doorbell rang, making both men look at the direction from where the sound was coming from.

Looking over to Jiro, he saw how drained of colour his face looked like, looking like an empty vessel before he rose his head to look at Yuki, silently mouthing to him that he’ll handle this, dashing up from his bed and looking for his clothes that they haphazardly thrown around in the room.

Was… Is Jiro really gonna handle this? Was it his luck to not have… good things like this?

Panic overtook the bull’s body, as he sat there on the hyena’s bed, his thoughts bringing him to unpleasant ideas about his uncertain future.

Chapter Text

Yoshie wasn’t having a great week.

Ever since she found out about the secret that Jiro was forcibly keeping from her all this time ago made all of her bearing in life worse greatly. She could barely do work in her state, so much so that her father sent her back home to take more unneeded time off of work while also hiring some puny therapist, being equally as unneeded as her father’s treatment of banishing her from her workplace when she could probably have gritted her teeth together and went through work like usual while she contemplated everything she shared with Jiro.

She could hardly believe that Jiro was being manipulated by his brother to end their relationship altogether for a petty scoring match that he had against their father, but to think the hyena felt so wicked to make sure Jiro wouldn’t act out of proportion by putting him together romantically with his best friend to make sure he would stay grinded with him and to keep him chained to his command like Juzo Haida has been muttering all this time ago from what her father has been regaling to her, and how the older hyena couldn’t be any more correct in his assertions that Jiro was being used as a tool by the two men.

For Ichiro, he was using his younger brother, his own kin and blood, to use as a petty device to make the older hyena scowl over in frustration. It made Yoshie desperately saddened by the fact that Jiro was nothing more than a puppet being pulled on both sides by his male relatives, and that he seems to be non cognizant about the fact that his older brother is using him, unlike his knowledge spanning about his father.

And for that disgusting Ushijima, it was without a doubt that his involvement in all of this was due to Ichiro again, with the issue being that that hyena asked the bull to date his younger brother who just happened to be the bull’s best friend to keep Jiro grounded to Ichiro, or so he must have minced from his mouth, while the bull greedily took the hyena handed to him without any complaint.

She knew just what kind of unsolicited thoughts and actions he would do with Jiro, now that he had free reign over his best friend that he lusted over all these years ago, already having being told by Genta of his younger brother’s predatory nature, which is why even if the Ushijima was in the known or not about how Ichiro has been using Jiro to strike back against some decade old feud between their father, she’ll ruin that bull’s life more than the Ushijimas could have ever inflicted on their own, making the canary wonder if they were too reluctant on their punishment from the sin that their middle-child has committed.

Just why was Jiro being controlled by all these men around his life, and why wasn’t he doing anything to combat it? Was he even remotely dating the Ushijima out of his own free volition, or was he being forced by his brother to do so, like how his father has been doing all this time? Did they make Jiro into a subservient perfect puppet who could only be controlled by the people who had their grubby hands on the controller of the man, like his father and brother? Was his devotion for his father and brother all manufactured by both men?

Why was she even doubting herself, of course all of that was correct! She had a small glimpse, that small glimpse that solidified her love for Jiro when he broke free of acting as a perfect puppet, and that man was vastly different from who she resigned herself to marry as a way to expand their family in wealth and status.

That man who showed that bull how thoroughly done he was being teased by him by exploding on the bull was the real Jiro, who was rightfully upset for being nothing more than an object used as a stepping stone or as a means of revenge by his family, and she just knew that he was crying to be let free from his cage, and she would naturally be the one up to the task, having seen through the schemes of both men and seeing the outline of the hyena’s prison.

She needed to tell the truth up front to her perfect prince, to see how much he was wronged by the people that should have been there to support him rather than being a support item for greed, revenge or lust.

The cycle that he was stuck in will be destroyed by her own hands, and when she grants liberation to Jiro, she’ll expect Jiro to finally make decisions on his merits rather than people’s opinion, and even if Jiro decides that he doesn’t want to date her, then so be it. At least she would leave this relationship with resolution on this, knowing she was able to save Jiro from the people using him.

It is why she was currently travelling up to the floor where Jiro was in his penthouse to meet the man, even though it was terribly late and she may have woken the poor man up from his slumber, because she had to make sure no one was with him to influence him at the moment like his father or his brother to get a clean answer from him. Jiro was a logical man, so as long as she put out her reasoning, he’ll be more than convinced to see the faults of his older brother, and realise how he’s been played by him all along.

When the sound of the elevator notified the avian that she has arrived at the level where Jiro’s domain laid, she wasted no time getting out of the elevator shuffle, hurrying to the door that stood at the opposite side of the hallway and before she could even come near to sound the beeper to the left of the door, a hyena opened the door widely, almost aggressively, making the canary stop in her motion to look at the bed-dressed owner of this place.

Ignoring the man’s face, the hyena’s shirt seemed to have been loosely be on the man, like as if he was in a struggle, making Yoshie come to an unfortunate conclusion for why that would be the case if Jiro was in his penthouse, and even though Jiro’s black boxer’s seemed to have been on him correctly, there was an obvious, glaring thing that the boxer hid behind it, cementing the awful thing she must have walked into.

And when Jiro’s face was perceived, it was obvious that the hyena didn’t appreciate the fact that Yoshie walked into herself, the man’s eye looking like that of a killer gone mad. He was furious with Yoshie, and as much as that would be discouraging enough to convince Jiro of the shackle that his brother and father have over him, she had a duty to fulfil on rescuing Jiro from his prison, which is why she won’t have that anger directed to her be her stopping block.

“What the fuck do you want?” Jiro seethed, making Yoshie’s shoulder stand-up straight as if she was shocked.

“Jiro, I’m here to collect some answers. I promise I’m not here to extort or threaten you like you imagine I’d be doing” Yoshie calmly stated, hoping her words are soothing enough for the man to relax, and surprisingly, it seemed like it was enough to convince the hyena to let her in, because he removed himself from the entrance, keeping the door open for her to enter.

She didn’t think it would be this easy to convince the man to let her enter.

Entering the penthouse, it just hit her how she never seemed to have came over for a visit like she did with men less worthy than the hyena, marvelling at how grand and expensive it must have been to secure such a place for himself, making the canary all oblivious to the fact that she missed the click behind her of Jiro closing the door.

“Didn’t you come here to ask me for some answers, or are you just going to mindlessly drone around the place like you own it?” Jiro replied, snapping the canary back to the main issue at hand, which is why she only pointed to the L-shaped couch that faced the TV on the wall, and took the negotiation over there.

As soon as the two were able to take a seat opposite to each other, knowing this wasn’t an opportune moment to ask if the hyena had anything for them to serve at the moment, which is why she stated:

“Let’s cut to the chase then, you saw my message, correct?”

“Threat? Sure.” Jiro retorted, his voice full of disdain.

“It’s.. No matter, before I begin, you’re not alone in this penthouse, right?” She said, her eyes feeling to meet the man’s expression and alarmed stance, making the hyena scuff and respond to her:

“What? So you have both of us to threaten?”

“I’m not threatening you, I’ve already said that!... But Yukiharu is here in your home, isn’t he? If he’s here, then I need to have him hear my questions as well!”

“Woman, if you want to ask if I cheated on you, then I’m just gonna say I didn’t, because first off, we weren’t in a relationship to begin with, and second, I’ve made sure to break us off with that fake love story that the media has circulated around us so that I can do that with Yuki.” Jiro responded, looking extremely disgusted in the face, like he was expecting Yoshie to only have come here for that, even though she knew the answer to that already, which is why she responded:

“No, that’s not why I came over here! You need to hear something urgently, and it’s better if that Ushijima is here to witness our conversation…” To expose for what kind of dastard the man was, or so she left out of her statement, making the hyena stare at her for a long time, wondering whether that was her true reasons for coming here or not, but he ultimately seemed to do what Yoshie wanted from him, because he soon yelled:

“YUKI, THE CANARY WHO COCKBLOCKED US FROM HAVING YOU PUT YOUR COCK IN ME THE FIRST TIME WANTS TO SEE YOU TOO. CAN YOU PUT ON SOME CLOTHES AND COME INTO THE LIVING ROOM?”

And that proved the scary theory of hers when she first laid her eyes on Jiro’s clothes and what she must have been interrupted, making her cringe away from Jiro, Upon reviewing those words he spoke, she realised that she was fortuitous enough to stop Jiro being used by that bull to satisfy his own perverted wants for the first time, which heartened the bird just a little bit, even if Jiro seemed to have been more than pissed-off when he yelled that over to the bull being in the bedroom of the hyena.

The two of them waited for the bull to come in, making the bird just squirm in her own seats from how exposed she felt and worried how frustrated the hyena sounded, but it felt similar to the anger that the real Jiro held, which must meant she must be getting through to him somehow, which is when the lust motivated bull finally made his entrance from the way his footsteps became more imminent, making eye contact with said bull.

He looked more flustered and panicked in the face than the other man in the penthouse, and it was no doubt due to him realising that Yoshie must have caught on to what the man’s intention with Jiro was all along, of using the hyena for the bull’s sexual drive.

The Ushjima stood there looking absolutely as if the ghost was punched out of him, which she would do as soon as the man sat down. Jiro soon pat the empty space next to him for the bull to hurry along, making the embarrassed man jolt over to him.

“Alright… both of you are here now, so I’ll head to what I want to say, Jiro, I-” Yoshie began, wanting to lay low the truth in front of Jiro and one of the men using Jiro for their own purpose, not exactly surprised that Genta’s younger brother wasn’t that far off from the bull himself, but before she could even continue, Jiro butted in:

“You are not going to break off our relationship. I am not willing to rekindle our quote unquote ‘relationship’. We were never lovers, and never will.” He said, his words more colder and hostile than any winters that Yoshie had to suffer through, the canary and bull being as equally surprised by how the hyena set his foot straight into the matter.

“...I didn’t hope that we’d get together again…” The canary said dejectedly, having known that it wasn’t gonna be that easy to have Jiro back with her. “But when I tell you the things I’ve learnt, you might reconsider being together with… this man.”

“Oh! Is that the case?” Jiro suddenly pepped up, looking like he just heard a terrible joke, with the pervert sitting next to him looking more worried, and maybe Genta was right about his brother being freaking terrible at lying, because that must have meant he caught up. “Then please, do tell me! Just what did Yuki commit for me to consider stopping loving him?”

It was clear to her that he was daunting her, probably thinking Yoshie was out of her mind, but she knew she had all the cards she needed to show Jiro the truth.

“I should probably start from the bottom up, since it would make no sense if I stated my reason for why I disapprove of him.” Yoshie started, making the bull grimace. “Let me start with the prime target I wanna converse about… your older brother is a scheming manipulator who’s taking advantage of you!”

When Yoshie stated this, she would have expected Jiro to be left blindsided, to be left bawled at the idea that his older brother, who Jiro seemingly held in high respect for whatever reason, even though he didn’t dare compete against Jiro, the hyena gagged. It was the bull who made the surprised imagine on his face, looking more confused by the seconds, until he finally spoke up for once, questioningly saying:

“...Are we talking about the same Ichiro, or does Jiro have a second older brother that I don’t know about…?”

“I am of course speaking about Ichiro! He’s been using Jiro for his own vile needs and I don’t know if you’re in the know about it, but-”

“...You sure you’re talking about Ichiro Haida, because what do you mean he’s using Jiro for his own selfish needs? That guy’s not smart enough to take advantage of Jiro!” The Ushijima stated, making the hyena sitting next to him turn his head around and scowl at the bull. “Babe, you know I’m right. Don’t make that face to me.”

“But it is true!” Yoshie said, trying her best to make the two men, or Jiro at least, and before the bull could even reply back to the bird, Jiro seemed to have motioned to him to keep her talking. “I… I know you have a special bond with your brother, on an unnatural level than most sibling relationships, and that… hyena is taking advantage of it to settle some petty score points with your father!”

“Summarise your points, because I am not in the mood to follow your delusion trail that you left behind.” Jiro stated, looking more aggravated than he looked when she first met the hyena at the doorway.

Gathering her thoughts and everything that she learnt from the private investigator, she began her story of Ichiro’s blatant emotional control over his younger brother:

“Ichiro wrested control over you from your father while you remained a clueless puppet caught in the warzone the two other Haida’s have been having against each other, which is why he must have convinced you to break off the relationship we held because it was overseen by your father, and decided to put you two together, and whether this… guy is the know about Ichiro’s diabolical plan of using you is still unknown to me, but he must have tried to keep you tied down with him so he can make sure you’re not acting on your own!”

With the truth finally in the air, she was ready to give any explanation that Jiro might have about it, but when the two men sitting unnecessary close to each other seemed to have gobbled down the facts, Jiro….

“Hah… Hah hah… Hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah!” The hyena began laughing in an dissimilar manner to the canary, making her and the bull wince from the uncharacteristic way Jiro seems to have been acting, as he then added. “Oh this is good! You hear the crap that she’s bumbling about Yuki? That I am just some agency-less puppet! If we keep her talking, do you think she’s gonna call me naive?”

“Uh… I mean…” The bull muttered to him, absolutely flabbergasted about this facet of the hyena’s personality as the avian was, which is when Yoshie decided to speak up, saying:

“But it’s tru-”

“Still your tongue, cretin.” Jiro stated, unamused to have witnessed Yoshie butting into the depraved man’s muttering. “Do you know what I loathe the most when it comes to discussions like this? Nonsense. Since I can already spot that you’re just gonna utter some drivel about how you came to the conclusion to that, which I will disapprove with sensible information and actual facts, so I hope you cleaned your miscreated ears to finally be fed some sensual information in your life for once.”

She remained in her place frozen, absolutely surprised to her core to see Jiro speak so discourteously before, because she didn’t think Jiro was able to even curse like this, wondering if this was the real Jiro seeping through finally, as he began explaining:

“Let’s start with the only thing you were correct in your point, which is surprising to me if I were to be honest, with my sham of a father controlling me as a puppet figure and enacting his wants through me. Sadly, it is true that things had control over nearly everything in my life. Were I to appear at some random party of a random associate that I didn’t even know the name of? That I did. Were I to accept being in a relationship with women that my father put me together to accumulate my family’s wealth with theirs? I entertained the boar, even if I eventually broke up with them, was it for boredom or because the woman was too disruptive in my work. Oh, speaking of, if the woman dared to make me uncomfortable with her words or actions, well bucko, she’s into you Jiro, you should accept the proposal, as much as your boundaries were violated. What did he say again… something something Dad knows best, and I shouldn’t wonder whether it was correct or not, as long as I’m the one reaping the benefits from it.”

“V-Violated?” The Ushijima spoke, clearly being surprised at what Jiro had to say about his past dating experiences, which Yoshie was unfortunate enough to hear from the hyena himself when they had dinner once, and was still shocked to see how ambivalent the hyena seemed to that information.

“Sudden and unwanted touches ranging from my face to my buttocks, although they were never able to assail my lips, since they would have to be in front of me to do it. Some of them still feebly attempted it, though.”

The bull seemed horrified in the face, making her question why the bull was so concerned for him. Was he not having such thoughts about Jiro like those women in the past, or only using Jiro for his looks?

“Anyway, that thing aside… everything you told me is utter idiocy.” Jiro continued, taking his fierce gaze back to her. “So you hypothesise that the reason I called it quits with our fake relationship was due to my brother’s doing?”

“...Yes, that would be the c-”

“Wrong.” Jiro stated, shutting down Yoshie’s reply. “I was the who ended it, but I have to say that brother was the one who gave me the push to get romantically interested with someone I loved.”

“So he was involved in influencing you! He must have wanted to get you together with this shameful man bec-”

“When did I give you the right to utter your fantasies to us?” Jiro butted in, sighing dejectedly. “Just to be clear, you’re thinking Ichiro was capable of duping me into loving someone, just like that?” She nodded, seeing as it was the only logical conclusion she could come to explain why Jiro acted like this.

“Ludicrous… I’m not even gonna bother explaining to you how that’s impossible, and just concentrate on telling the true reason. I loved Yukiharu Ushijima romantically decades ago, but due to circumstances, I never had the chance to realise my feelings I had for my best friend.”

Impossible… Jiro never mentioned of ever having loved the Ushijima in that way, so it’s obvious that Ichiro must have spewed fake memories into the hyena’s brain, which is why she responded:

“Are you certain that that’s the c-”

“I am. Can you stop doubting everything that I have to say for myself?” Jiro said, his eyes seeming to distort to a darker shade. “Since it’s obvious that you’re only doing this for your selfish needs-”

Now it was Yoshie’s turn to interrupt Jiro’s statement, feeling angry to think Jiro thought she was doing this for herself when she was desperately trying to save Jiro from the people taking control of him.

“I am not doing this to get you back like some toy! I am too sick to have realised just how much control and manipulation you were under and wanted to set you free from it all!” She said in distress, trying desperately to get Jiro to realise just how much the strings around him were apparent still.

“Your attention for me is unwarranted, and also, you are already too late to the party, because I’ve been liberated for months now, and it was all thanks to my brother waking me up.”

“Ichiro didn’t help you, he just locked you in another bird cage after helping you get free from the one your father set, you-” She argued back against Jiro, but when Jiro unceremoniously hit the glass mini-table around the couch, the sudden display of anger from Jiro surprising both bull and bird.

“ARE YOU INSINUATING THAT ICHIRO PURPOSEFULLY SENT A TRUCK TO RETSUKO’S POLITICAL HEADQUARTERS DURING THE ELECTION TO GET HIT BY IT?! ARE YOU INSANE? THAT WAS FATHER’S DOING, AND ONLY HIS! IT WAS AN INTIMIDATION TACTIC BECAUSE HE WAS WORRIED I WOULD LOSE THE ELECTION.” Jiro screamed, making the canary crawl away from the man. “DO YOU HAVE PROOF TO SHOW OTHERWISE? DO YOU HAVE PROOF WHERE YOU MAGICALLY CAUGHT ICHIRO PLANNING ALL THAT, OF THINKING ME AS SOME TOOL FOR HIS OWN NEEDS? DO YOU HAVE SOLID EVIDENCE TO SHOW WHEN MY BROTHER, WHO ACCEPTED ME AND LOVED ME, WOULD TURN OUT EXACTLY LIKE MY FATHER, HUH?! USE YOUR GODDAMN BRAIN FOR ONCE, YOU BIRD-BRAINED WENCH!”

She was left speechless to see Jiro explode on her like this, just as much as the bull, because he now had his arms on the hyena’s shoulder, saying:

“H-hey Jiro… Look, Yoshie is probably meaning well even if she’s wrong, but-”

“BULLSHIT!” Jiro spewed back at the man, dropping the man’s jaw to the floor, as he continued on saying… “I DON’T CARE IF SHE MEANT IT WELL, IT DOESN’T EXCUSE THE FACT THAT SHE DISGORGED SOMETHING AS DISGUSTING AS STATING THAT ICHIRO WAS GASLIGHTING ME ALL THIS TIME AGO- OH, AND DON’T GET ME STARTED ON HER INSINUATING WHETHER I LOVED YOU! I KNOW YOU DIDN’T STATE IT, BUT I JUST KNOW YOU HAD SOME NEGATIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT YUKI, DIDN’T YOU?!”

Yoshie flinched, knowing that Jiro was dead accurate in his deduction, and when Jiro’s impatience got the better of him, he continued:

“WHAT? CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE? IF WE’RE AT THE TOPIC, THEN I MIGHT AS WELL SAY THAT I AM THE SAME ‘DISGUSTING’ TYPE OF MEN YOU MIGHT BE THINKING ABOUT YUKI, BECAUSE GUESS WHAT?! I AM INTERESTED AND AROUSED ONLY BY MEN, WITH YUKI BEING MY FIRST EVER ROMANTIC PARTNER THAT I EVER LOVED. ANY OTHER WOMEN THAT I WAS FORCED TO BE WITH, INCLUDING YOU, WAS SOMETHING I DID TO KEEP MY FATHER’S PESTERING WORDS OFF MY BACK OF FINDING A WIFE WHEN THE ONLY PERSON I’D WANT TO POSSIBLY MARRY IS YUKI!”

Yoshie was flabbergasted, if there was a way to keep notes that her thoughts were taking, because when she thought about it logically, like Jiro wanted her to… she realised just how much sense the hyena was saying. If Jiro thought he was liberated at the moment he learned of the incident during the election, which now that she thinks about it, why was it so hushed down? Not to mention… she did not have any concrete evidence like Jiro was asking her to present, because she was going on the thinking convention that Juzo Haida was sputtering, and would someone like Ichiro be capable enough to manipulate Jiro enough to make him love the bull next to him? Could Ichiro really make or force Jiro to love the Ushijima like this?

“...I hope you’re happy with the answers I’ve given to you, because this is the real truth. I don’t know what my father fed you, but the geezer is probably delusioning himself from things not going his way… And just as a precaution, if you tried exposing the relationship that I and Yuki are in when we want it to keep in wraps…” Jiro stated, looking fiercely at the canary, looking a bit more calmed down, which is when he coldly said. “I’ll do anything to ruin your life.”

“J-Jiro, dude… that’s-”

“Yuki, I already lost you once in my life, I am NOT having anyone else take you away from me, now that we’re this intimate together!” The hyena retorted, which is when it was certain to Yoshie that there was no excuse for her to harp on, because what does she have to argue here? She saw no point in performing counterarguments, because what kind of evidence did she have to prove whether Jiro was manipulating Jiro or that he forced him to love Ushijima, when there was more evidence to the contrary?

So all of her effort and time looking into Ichiro and Jiro was just wasted. Those past few months spending time with Jiro was doomed, because the man had his heart for someone else all this time ago, and she was never going to rival the bull, because that man carved himself into Jiro’s heart for her to do anything, not including the fact that the glassed man was very confident in him stating that he was a gay man.

Why is she feeling so relieved now? Why was she so happy to learn about the fact that Jiro never loved her? Was she happy that Jiro was up-front to her and said the truth to her? Why is she even thinking about this, she can just dump her problems to the therapist that her father has hired for her, and it’s unbelievable to think that her father was correct yet again when he sought out such a professional.

“I…I see. I’ll be sure to keep your… relationship a secret. I’m so sorry for being insensitive towards you two and Ichiro.” Yoshie eventually told, making both men look at her. Yukiharu seemed happy from the canary’s words, while Jiro looked like he was doubting her words, which was understandable to her.

“Uh… no probs, Kuroiwa, right?” She nodded to the bull’s inquiry. “Yeah, as long as you don’t tell people, I’m sure Jiro’s not going to come after you with a kitchen knife!”

“I’ll be sure not to incite that to me…” She said, wondering whether Jiro wouldn’t just call someone else to come after her. “I’ll probably head home now, and… I’m sorry for interrupting your time together.”

Yoshie perked herself up from the couch that she got overly familiar with for now, with Jiro standing up to escort her to the doorway. Unlocking the door again, which she didn’t notice was closed all this time along, and before she could depart from the penthouse, she asked one last thing for today:

“I know you probably don’t hold me in high regards, and you don’t want to ever see me again after this, but can I at least ask you if you would at least entertain us being friends?”

Jiro seemed to have considered for a brief moment, but when he let out a tired sigh and gave her a short nod, she wandered outside, with the door closing behind her.

When she first planned to come out of this door, she would have thought she’d be the one leaving this place with being the one to emancipate Jiro with truth, but it looks like it went the other way around.

The most surprising thing to her was the fact that the Ushijima that Jiro was dating, Yukiharu, was a far cry better person than his brother, and she definitely was going to weaponize this fact whenever she has put up with the man again, who no doubt is going to crawl back to her, now that she’s single again.

Maybe she should put relationships on a halt, or whatever her new therapist is going to console her, now that they’re going to come up tomorrow afternoon.

She should have taken that consultation office near the Sleuthhound Agency than pestering some depressed uni student to go investigate Jiro's brother, now that she thinks about it…

When Jiro was able to close the door without the presence of Yoshie near the penthouse, he nearly could have collapsed from the strain he put himself through, granting himself the opportunity to cough from how much he used his voice to yell at the woman, who has given up too easily for Jiro’s liking.

There was no way that all he had to bring to the table for the canary to leave them be was to tell her what was wrong with her reasoning, which happened to be a load of bullshit from his father, which didn’t surprise hyena any bit.

Should he scout out Yoshie and keep a careful eye on her to notify him if she does anything suspicious? He should probably already do that, now that he thinks about it, and then-

“You’re overthinking stuff again, aren’t you?”

A voice suddenly brought him out of any plan he had in his mind, as he felt a similar hand land on his shoulder, feeling slightly happy that he had physical contact with Yuki, because he surely needs it at the moment.

He sulked in place, keeping silent about his thoughts to the bull, even as he turned around to face Yuki, who is way more defenceless than he should be after that encounter, guiding the hyena back to the couch.

“Let’s do some breathing exercises to get you down, alright?” Yuki said to him, Jiro only nodded to him as confirmation. “Take in a deep breath… and out. Take in…. And out.”

He did as his lover instructed, feeling the unbearable fog in his mind clean out a bit, and when he felt secure enough to drop the defensive position he was holding by standing up straight like his father taught him to do when-

—--------

“WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT, YOU ASOCIAL PIECE OF CRAP?! ICHIRO WOULD HAVE BEEN ALREADY THROUGH THE EXERCISE THAT KANESHIRO HAS GIVEN YOU!” The domineering, authoritative voice boomed through a certain young hyena’s ears, who was being lectured at the dining table with the two of them being the only person there after Jiro let out as much as a sniff after his mother asked him how his lessons went today, and since Father has had a horrible day, it sent him overboard, sending Ichiro, who was avoiding him now, and Mother out of the dining room, while Jiro had his head bowed in front of him, just a few inches away from sobbing.

What is this, he doesn’t remember this-

“I-I’m sorry… I’ll-I’ll-” He muttered, his knees already feeling stiff from how long he kneeled there as punishment, just only being prompted to talk-

*WHIP*

He wasn’t prompted to talk, Jiro now realised, now that he was whipped in the back by the belt that his father sought out while he left the room, making Jiro bite down on his lips as he bore through the sudden pain.

‘Yuki went through worse than this when he protected him from his bullies, Ichiro broke his bones before which was worse than this, if they didn’t complain about it, then he shouldn’t complain about it.’ He chanted to himself, reprimanding himself for being stupid again on not realising that it wasn’t his turn to speak up and apologise, as his Father angrily stated:

“YOU RESPOND BACK TO ME WHEN I TELL YOU! DAMMIT TO HELL, WEREN’T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE WAY MORE INTELLIGENT?! WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG FOR YOU TO CATCH UP TO ICHIRO?! THAT SHITHEAD JUST HAD TO MESS UP SO THAT YOU WOULD END UP IN THIS SITUATION…”

Jiro was afraid. He was cowering, closing his eyes to try mitigating as much as he could from what he could feel at the moment, hoping his Father would just calm down enough to let him go so that he could back into his room and study, like he always did, so that he wouldn’t mess up like this again.

His father promised him that if he’s going to perform exceedingly well while he’s being taught at him like this, that in a year from now, he would have the opportunity to see Yuki one day per week and that he would have a day off once per month where he could be with Ichiro for the whole day, which is why he needed to be more than perfect so that he could talk to them again.

“ABNORMAL FREAK, GO FETCH ME THAT BOTTLE WITH THE LEMON LOGO ON IT, AND THEN YOU CAN GO CRY IN YOUR FUCKING PILLOW OR WHATEVER. YOU’RE DISCHARGED FROM HERE AS SOON AS YOU DO IT! GOT IT?!”

Jiro could only let out a weak grunt as he slowly got back to his feet, it felt tortuous for the young boy to walk into the kitchen while he searched for the alcohol that his father tasked him to find. When he returned back into the dining room, he was alleviated to see that the only reaction his father made was a neuronic reaction as he had some kind of sheets from work laid out on the table, it being the main reason as what Jiro imagines why his father has been acting like this tonight, putting the bottle next to the sheets as he bowed and went towards the sliding door that led to outside of this hell, when his father coughed, ceasing Jiro in his tracks.

‘Please don’t hit me again…’ Jiro chanted to himself, hoping that the imagines in his thoughts weren’t going to become reality, which is when his Father just angrily stated:

“What are you waiting for, a parade?! You’re fucking discharged from here!”

Oh, he just misconstrued the cough by his Father as some stopping sign, when in actuality it was just a simple cough made by him. But he didn’t understand it, why wasn’t it a stopping sign now but that day it was?

Jiro didn’t dilly-dally any further, quickly leaving the dining room while keeping his tears in check, well, until he was inside his own room and closed the sliding door, as he curled up in a ball and went down the door on his back, where he had the privacy to finally let all these negative emotions out of him, making sure he didn’t cry as loud, because last time he did that, his Father complained about it, and also because Ichiro called him a crybaby for being a sore loser.

He didn’t want to get screamed at like that again, and he wouldn’t wish for anyone to have gone through the same amount of pain that he went through, is what Jiro was thinking at the moment, which brought him back thinking about Yuki and how he usually got hit like this, which is when he realised just how much stronger Yuki was for simply brushing it off when they talked about the subject when they heard that the school found out that Yuka was called into the principal office for being suspected of being hit by her parents.

Is this what Yuka went through on a daily occurrence..? But she always looked so cheerful and put together, so then why…

Why was she getting hit and screamed at like this?... Why was he and Yuki put through that thing like that as well? Why would their parents do that to them…?

“H-hey, Jiro?” A voice, something that belonged to someone he knew he could trust with his whole life, who wouldn’t scream at him for misbehaving, rung up, latching him back to the real world, which is when he noticed that he was… in his penthouse, and that he was reliving some kind of… past memories?

But he never remembers his father abusing him like that… so then why did he misremember something like that? Did he… forget about it, like some kind of sealed memories that he once read about online. Did he just dissociate just now?... Why did it felt so fucking horrible and why did he have it in the first place…?

Then came the awful self-realisation of what the trigger was, because he remembered yelling exactly in the same manner towards Yoshie as his father did with him, which made him tremble in place, his chest feeling like it was going through a pile of frayed wires and it was cutting in him all directions…

“A-Ah…” Jiro said out of breath, feeling terribly hot in the face for some reason, inching closer to Yuki.

“Jiro? Are you- Do you need anything from me?” Yuki asked of the hyena, Jiro slowly tilting his face to look at the bull, as he only shook his sideways, and mumbling:

“Y-You…”

Even when Yuki had a faint smile on him to make Jiro calmer, he loved when Yuki was smiling, he made himself comfortable putting his chin on Yuki’s shoulder while hugging him like some real-sized teddy bear.

“Shhhh… we’re fine, we’re fine…” He cooed the hyena, patting the hyena’s head and firmly touching his oversized ears and fuck did the bull bastard figure out another weakness of the hyena because the bull was softening him with this.

“I… I’m sorry for s-screaming… I’ll… I’ll do better…” Jiro muttered, probably choking the liver out of the bull from how strong he was hugging him, but he of course wasn’t bothered by it, because he soon replied:

“Hey, it was probably one of the most jumpy situations ever, so I don’t blame you for losing your marble. I rather find it more admirable from how you shut her down in an instant!”

“No… that’s n-not the problem… I… I… I’m becoming like my father…” Jiro kept jittering, doing a bit better by hanging onto Yuki’s whole body, feeling like he would drop dead if he didn't hang onto him.

“Jiro…”

“Y-Yuki… what if I’m gonna turn into my Father… a-and start shouting at you-” Jiro asked the bull, which is when everything turned tenfold more painful, now that he imagined the scenario, or tried imaging the scenario. “-No… no no no no I’m sorry I’m so sorry-”

“YOUR SHOUTING TURNED ME ON!”

…..

Everything he felt inside his body vanished as easily as snapping his finger when he understood just what Yuki told him, pushing Yuki away to look at the man and give the most split expression he could give the man. What did he just say to him???

“...What the fuck did you just say…?” Jiro twitched with his eye, still reeling from what he heard Yuki tell to him, as his stupidly cute bull blinked severely, as he said:

“Did it work? Are you feeling better?”

Feeling better?... Wait, he is in fact feeling better? But he felt his body go through unimaginable torment before, barely feeling any of that negative thing he experienced, actually wondering what the fuck Yuki has done to him, because he can imagine Yuki empowering him when he thinks about him, but not like this!

“I… yes..? What the fuck did you do? Wasn’t I panicking before?!” Jiro responded, looking absolutely confused to the bull.

“Uh… so I’ve heard from a guy or so that you’re able to possibly get people out of episodes or panic attacks or junks when you tell them the most batshit insane thing you can tell them that makes their brain stop the train and slow down, which is usually enough to get them to leap out of it or something?” Yuki explained unassuredly, feeling terribly hot in the face in a good way, which Jiro will note to himself to look up in his free time because it sounded too crazy for him to be true, but he did read crazier things…

He remained in place while he was lost in place, wondering how he was able to retain a sealed memory to having what he images what a panic attack must have looked like to wanting to get back into the bedroom with this moron to continue what they started, which is when he finally assembled some kind of sentence on what his next set of words would be, which was:

“Me shouting…. Turns you on?” He questioned, still not absolutely sure why that was the case, because why would he get lustrous feeling from that, making the bull’s cheek as pink as a cherry blossom petal, as he muttered:

“Well uhm… When you assert yourself like you did… it kinda makes you… way too sexy?...”

As Jiro tried to comprehend what his boyfriend was telling him, he remembered a certain phrase that Shikabane said to them while Jiro was at their place, which is why he curiously paraphrased that exact sentence to him.

“Is that what Shikabane meant when she recited to me about being your dom to your sub? What the heck is a dom and a sub, even?”

That got Yuki’s face to drop in an instant in shame, making Jiro question further what the heck the skunk meant with her words, because those abbreviations weren’t making any sense to him. Maybe he should zoogle that later to see what they mean…

“...How about we forget everything that happened before you questioned me whether you yelling turns me on…” He stated depressingly, which solidified to Jiro that he should zoogle the subject further, because he needed to understand why it caused such a reaction out of him.

“...Sure.” Jiro nodded, hoping to swipe the slate clean, which is why he thought it might be prudent to see whether Yuki was still in the mood to educate Jiro in the way of having sex, asking him: “So is us having sex still on the table, or should we call it a night and head to our respective bedrooms and get ready to meet my mother in the early morning of tomorrow?”

“Uh…” Yuki muttered, left gawking at Jiro while he seemed to have really considered what he should say next. “I mean yeah?... But I wanna have a slight altercation between our positions in bed this time around….Can I be the one on the receiving end?”

If there’s a motion that Jiro could use at the moment to pronounce how lost he felt conversing with Yuki, it would be tipping his head sideways and looking at the bull weirdly, as he noted:

“...But didn’t you prepare me to be the one taking your dick? Wouldn’t it be optimal if we went back and continued on from where we left off?”

“People can change their minds about stuff, Jiro!” Yuki admitted somewhat embarrassingly, as he then added: “And also, I could just do you after you’re done with me! We have two dicks and two holes, after all!”

“Oh… that’s correct.” Jiro hummed to himself, feeling a bit more open to the idea that Yuki has put forward, because it sounded nice to him on paper if he exerted himself physically by firstly performing anal sex on Yuki to get exhausted, and then have Yuki be the one doing him, because then he would be exhausted in the muscles to make it easier for Yuki with dealing with a newbie like Jiro to show him how it’s done.

This is why he loved Yuki so much, his moronic and stupid sounding ideas beside, there laid a golden brain in the bull who might have rivalled Jiro’s intellect, even as much as the bull seemed to have conceded the fact to be as equally in intellect as the hyena, making Jiro think that the man was underselling himself from how perfect he truly was. Yukiharu was ripped, brilliant, beautiful and kind, and the bull thought of himself to be counted among the average guys in Japan? Is he the only one that has the privilege of knowing about Yuki that realises how perfect the bull is, or was everyone just too stupid to see his worth?

Before he could beckon Yuki about this and inquire if Jiro was the only one who actually had eyes, even though he had a pretty shit inscription on his eyesight, the bull launched himself from the couch, still blushing from the topic of their conversation, as he then said to Jiro:

“So… back to your bedroom?”

“That is the room that keeps the furniture which most people have sex on, so yes, we’ll be doing that on my bed. It is also where the lubricant is, if you recall.” Jiro stated a fact, now feeling thrilled to actually experience having intercourse with Yuki. If anyone is going to intervene between them now, he’s definitely going to commit some kind of crime that will not bode well for the second intruder into their pastime of having sexual fun with each other.

Yuki held out his hand, gaining the hyena’s attention, even if the bull was too embarrassed at the moment for some reason to look into his eyes, which Jiro gradually accepted, and the best way he can describe going bed into their bedroom was like as if he was pulled there by the bull, as the door behind them closed, finally putting them together to continue off from where they started.

Sukekiyo never felt so excited being up for a Saturday morning than today!

It was about time that Jiro had free time to introduce him to how Yukiharu turned around and what a fine man he’s become for Jiro to still love him after all that time being separated from him!

She’s plenty sure that both boys didn’t appreciate being up at 9 in the morning on a weekend, or Yuki at least, because she’s sure that Jiro was awake at such an hour and this day someday, and it’s not like Jiro ever complained when she had to get him out of bed, unlike his older brother, who she sometimes had to drag by the legs as he desperately wished for 5 more minutes to get ready. Jiro was always the least argumentative between the two, after all…

And here she was, knocking at the entrance from the door that separated her from her little son and his childhood sweetheart. Her heart could practically shatter from excitement!

Soon enough, the door seemed to have been slowly opened, revealing her adorable son in a simple spooky t-shirt that she’s pretty sure is some kind of satanic ritual marker if her memory serves her right and a neat black-grey shorts.

“Morning Jiro!” She pepped up, waving to him.

“Morning Mother… You can come in.” Jiro replied back to him, spotting a smile on him, which was unfortunately not a common thing she’s used to seeing on the boy. If he felt so happy, then surely this day is going to be one productive day!

As soon as she passed through the door, she looked around the place in the hopes of finding a certain white park cattle bulk around the place. When she recognized the horns of a certain bull, she couldn’t help herself from darting over to who she imagined was Yuki, making the bull turn around to face the woman and before the bull could even speak up…

“Yukiharu, my goodness!” She spoke up, which is when she started pulling the bull’s face to all sides from seeing the boy she remembered turning to such a magnificent young man. “You look so gorgeous! It’s good to know that my sons picked their partners to be beautiful!”

“T-The com-mpliment is a-a-appreciated ma’-am-” Yukiharu said while his face was being mushed around by her hands. “B-but could y-you please stop p-pulling m-my face?”

“Oh, a tenfold of apologies, dear!” She stated, retreating her arms while also keeping a cheerful smile on her face. “The excitement has gotten the best of me… it’s been nearly a decade since I last saw you, didn’t I?”

Naturally, in that decade, the young brashful teenager that she met turned to one dashing bull wearing a suit, a glaring contrast to the normal loving clothes that Jiro had on him, like he specifically designed to put them on to appear more professional and serious to her, which made her heart all into glitter to see how well meaning Yukiharu must have been to prepare this all for her!

“‘But J-Jiro, what if she doesn’t gonna like me when you introduce me to her again?’” Her son mimicked his sweetheart's voice, probably phrasing him when he put on the suit, looking like a smug man who knew the outcome far ago, as he promptly took a seat next to the bull. “So much for your gloom and doom theory, huh?”

“Oh shut up Jiro! Can’t I at least look a bit more put together than you just randomly picking out some shirt and shorts when your mom called in the intelcom?” Yukiharu quipped back at her son, elbowing him in the sides, earning a wince out of him.

“I should probably brew us some tea. Be right back.” Jiro stood up, pointing towards the kitchen for the two of them. “You two better not share embarrassing stories about me…”

“But Jiro, it’s a mother’s responsibility to share their child’s secret to their loved ones!”

“It is not, mom!” Jiro retorted while on his way to the kitchen, making the female hyena giggle.

Since she and Yukiharu were left on the couch while her son prepared to bring over some tea, she immediately bombarded the bull with the questions that she wanted to tell to see what his side of the story was, because she already quenched everything from Jiro when she came over to visit him a few weeks ago.

“Young man, I need you to tell me everything that happened after you… got estranged from the Ushijimas, because even though I know a great deal on how you were able to reunite with my boy, I really want to hear what you’ve been through!” She asked, really wondering what the young bull has been doing in those years she wasn’t able to see him.

“R-Really? Mrs. Haida, I promise you, it isn’t that interesting… it’s really just me couch surfing for a while until I met a roommate whose friend just happened to blackma- uh I mean was friends with Jiro at the moment…I rather not talk about it, if I’m honest…” The bull responded, which is when Sukekiyo understood that the topic might not be something that the bull looks back in great favour, responding in kind by giving the bull an understanding nod.

The two of them then used the small timeframe where Jiro was in the kitchen saying small plantities like how they’ve been doing, like asking him why it appeared like the bull was in pain every time he moved his legs, which he said was due to his job and that he pulled it. She can’t imagine what kind of jobs system engineers have to go through, but it sounds like a dangerous job if Yukiharu got hurt on the job like this!

However, as quickly as it took for her to blink, Jiro returned back with two cups of brimming hot tea which she thanked Jiro for, with Jiro now joining in the conversation, as he then gave the bull canned coffee.

“Two cups of hot tea and a can of bean soup, just as we ordered.” Jiro stated, plainfully pokerfaced at the jab he pointed towards his sweetheart’s choice of beverage.

“Thank you very much for the can, Jiro, I hope you and your mom enjoy leaf water as much as I do with my canned coffee.” He retorted, and Sukekiyo couldn’t help but chuckle to see these two men fighting about as trivial as their beverage choices, saying:

“Boys! We haven’t started talking yet and you two are already at each other’s throats!” She gestured with her hands to settle down, which was enough for the two to drop their hostile attitude towards each other, as she then continued: “Since I’m the one talking, and I know basically everything that Jiro has to tell, could you please me how you two met again and also when you realised that you had feelings for my son?”

“Uh… that’s quite a lot to ask with a single question Ma’am…” Yukiharu said to her, sweating a bit from how she must have put him in place. “Well, Jiro and I met in December of last year and even though we kind of had a rocky friendship for a while, we were the best of friends again!... Then there was that awkward phase where we realised we thought of each other more than friends….. And now we’re here! I gotta say, Ma’am, as much as it was a confusing whirlpool for us to get here, I’ll do my best to keep your son happy and healthy!”

Yukiharu bowed, while the two hyenas stared at the man who seemed pretty flustered to tell all of this, which is when she decided to tell him:

“I’m sure that's going to be the case, Yukiharu! You should see how Jiro’s eyes lit up into fireworks when he began explaining about you in detail when I came over to visit him! In tangent with you, I think it was the only time when Jiro didn’t roll his eyes towards me and groaned when I spoke about marriage!”

That seemed to have flustered Jiro up her boy while the bull seemed genuinely surprised at the information, with Jiro quickly coming in and saying:

“Well… we still have only been together for a few weeks now… and not to mention it would be complicated getting us to get together like that…”

“I agree with Jiro on that part!” Yukiharu stated. “There’s no problem if we take it all nice and slow, and not like we need any labels on our relationship, right Jiro?”

“Yes, that is a true statement…” He responded back with an obvious fluster on his face.

Sukekiyo couldn’t be happier to learn that not only did Jiro find someone that he loved at such intensity, but to imagine that that person was none other than his best friend of old…

If she was to be honest with Jiro, she really… didn’t have much faith in Jiro ever finding love when she was still under the presumption that Jiro liked the opposite-sex, because even if Jiro was courteous and polite, it’s all he had to offer to the arranged partners before they eventually quit of their own volition or because Jiro couldn’t be more bothered to put up with them. In a way, she should have caught on sooner when Jiro tolerated someone else from outside their family when Yukiharu became a more frequent visitor into Jiro’s life, but to her defence, it could be said that the two of them were just really good friends in the beginning, but she at least should have noticed something being fishy the longer their friendship developed! She’s plenty sure the first time she ever witnessed Jiro being jealous over anything was about the time that some girl in their highschool asked the bull out for a day, which the bull promptly denied, even if his family scolded him for saying no to someone as pretty as her.

“I see. Besides that, then, how has it been doing together? I’ve heard from a certain someone that my son has strangely begun clocking off at a respectable time as of late, and I wouldn’t be far off if I said you to be the culprit for it, right?” She said teasingly, letting out the fact that it was her husband who’s been telling her this, and he was less than pleased to hear that Jiro seemingly has become unpredictable to the hyena.

“Guilty as charged, Ma’am! I honestly think Jiro has made himself more comfortable at my apartment than he does here, which irritates my roommate to no end! You should hear about the things she tells us of us two being too disgusting and all that, right, Jiro?”

“...I think she doesn’t need to hear everything that the skunk has to say about us, Yuki.” Jiro said back to him, which meant that there was some innuendos that her son didn’t want her to know, seeing as the bull’s cheeks blushed up, which is why she decided to pull out the rug under the two man’s feet, saying:

“How wonderful! If I were to be crass, the things that you don’t want me to hear from your roommate… is it anyway associated with the fact that when I found out about you two, Jiro had a love bite on his neck?”

Just as she expected, both men began shaking their heads in unison, which basically paraphrased the truth to her.

“I wholly understand, you two. But even if you two aren’t that sexually active in your relationship, just know that if you did anything naughty with each other, you should use protection!... Wow, it’s hard to grasp that I’m telling this to Jiro, and not Ichiro…” She mumbled to herself, unaware of the fact that even though Jiro was hiding his expression very well, it would have only taken a glance for her to look at Yukiharu and find out what the real cause for the man’s inactivity in his legs were, but he put himself together quite quickly before she could notice it, which is when he responded back:

“W-We’ll be sure to do that, Ma’am!”

The rest of their conversation returned back to having the two men explain to her all the days they spent together, and she was quite surprised by how more clingy her son has been with Yukiharu than his own brother, but making her heartened all the same to see that the bull was more than happy to have Jiro be at his side all the time.

She was more than glad to see Jiro in capable hands, and to see that Yukiharu exceeded her expectation when she would meet him again, which is why after a good quarter hours of her curiously asking the two for information about their days, which usually was either them telling without much a fuss, or one of the two seemingly flustering up about a detail, she left them be, telling the two that they should enjoy their time being together on a Saturday.

She finally was gonna get some answers to why her boyfriend has been more distant as of late, with her now standing in front of the horse’s apartment door with bated breath.

Receiving a message that he had something important to tell her on a Saturday morning is not what she imagined how her weekend was going to go, so Fenneko basically busted her butt over here as fast as she could, even calling Jiro over for that occasion, but lo and behold, the hyena was ‘too’ busy with his boyfriend, who was more than happy being with him.

She’s not jealous about that fact. She doesn’t want to smash both of those guys heads in for a rock because it’s what she should have gott-

Ahem.

She was waiting for Seiji to open the door, already having rung the doorbell of the place, padding on her feet and feeling like it’s taking hours for this man to open the door, which it did, hearing the doorknob being opened on the other slide…

And thankfully, it showed said horse that lived inside the apartment, looking like he just woke up a few minutes ago, wordlessly opening up the door fully for the fennec fox to enter. She wandered inside the familiar apartment that she was in quite a few times already, zoning into the living room with the absurdly uncomfortable couch the horse had, like, she basically felt like her back was being contorted into places she didn’t think her spine could go, and she doesn’t know what kind of voodoo black magic curse the couch was under for this to be the curse.

The two of them sat on the same couch awkwardly with them both knowing that they had to have the talk sooner or later. She knew that Seiji should be the one to begin the conversation, because it was technically his fault for not communicating to her what this issue was, but Fenneko has the slight want in her to begin scolding the man for leaving her all high and dry for quite some time now, and worse of it all, since her winebuddy was too preoccupied with his own partner, she had no one to vent to!

OK, so maybe she’s also kind of pissed at the moment? She’s not sure if pissed is the correct description of her feeling, but she’s feeling a bit angered on behalf of herself for being kept in the dark for so long with only herself while her friends annoyingly listened to her. She knows Retsuko tried to show a bit of interest in her love life, unlike a certain skunk who showed only the amount of fucks she gave about her and Seiji’s relationship, and even though Retsuko thinks she’s the master of disguising her feelings, it was clear that she was getting tired listening to her rants all day long at Charayman. She basically saw Retsuko’s dissatisfaction in life the moment she realised that the accounting life only had so much to offer to them, and boy was she bad at masking that dissatisfaction behind her face.

Is this what Retsuko felt like when she was dating that moai faced red panda down in accounting? Damn, maybe she should have given less flack towards her when the two of them broke up, because how could a woman like this play appearances with their boyfriend who’s been dropping the ball lately while doing the simple task of communicating with each other?

“...I should probably start off by apologising to you for the long wait, huh?” The horse finally uttered something besides ellipsis, which was very appreciated, she thought, saying:

“...You probably should.”

And if she thought that the horse was giving to give it to her straight away, she was in for a world of disappointment, because she had to wait exactly 7 seconds (she kept count in her head) for the horse to apologise:

“...Here it goes then…” He began, and Fenneko’s not sure if the horse was looking at her, because she was sitting cross-armed and looking away from the horse as her act of deficiency for what she was put through. “I know it isn’t excusable for me to have left you feeling like that for days on end, and I understand if you’re feeling more than enraged about it… but I had to sort out something to make sure if this was going to be the right choice.”

Something? Why was he so ominous about this again? Does it have something to do with those terms he needed to come into agreement again like he said to her in the foyer?

“...About what, exactly?” She asked, hoping that Seiji was going to illuminate her about this invisible issue at hand that the horse was fighting on his own, now feeling angered on behalf of the horse for whatever stuff was keeping Seiji like this.

Oddly, the horse remained quite for a bit, and if Fenneko didn’t have the patience of a saint, she would have asked him again to make sure he understood what she said to him moments ago, which is when Seiji first mumbled something to himself, as he then finally said:

“...It’s about our… relationship.” That made the fennec fox rotate her head around 180 degrees in an instant, her face ridden with shock. “And I think you know where I’m going with this, right?”

Wait, he wasn’t insinuating that he wanted to call it quits with her, right? Was she jumping to the worst case scenario, and that there was something else at hand that had to do with their relationship… But what would that be?

“...Where are you going with this, Seiji?” She inquired, not wanting to say the answer herself, rather wanting Seiji to be the one to personally confirm it.

However, it was probably her worst decision, because when Seiji’s face looked uncomfortable from the way he gestured, she knew she was in a world of hurt, because the horse replied back to her…

“I…I think it’s preferable for the both of us if we broke up… and just remained friends at work.”

Fenneko’s eyes were peeled open. Her jaw was agape, widely. She was sweating profusely. Her worst fear has come to pass, and now she has to deal with it.

During her momentarily shock in place phase, where many questions popped up in the head, which was usually the several w questions like ‘what’ and ‘why’. Since she wasn’t in the state to hand out a response to the horse, he made himself useful by elaborating further on his answer:

“I-I know you have many questions for why that would be the case, but if I had to list off a reason for why I decided to do this… Uh… I’d say it’s due to the fact that I… don’t experience the same kind of spark that we had together in the beginning… and I think I’m just leading you on now, so…”

What? He fell out of love with her? Why? When did that spark die out, and why didn’t she seem to notice that?

“...Are you for real… about this?” She mumbled, still clearly shaken up by this revelation dropped to her knees, and after Seiji cleaned up the sweat producing from his head, whether that be due to the season or for his nervousness, he responded:

“...Positively so, I’m afraid… I’m so sorry about this… I’ll try making up for it, if you wa-”

“It’s… alright, Seiji.” She retorted, getting the horse to stop in his tracks before he did something like give her parting money, and as much as he liked money, it wasn’t going to fix up the empty hole that was protruding out from her chest. Is this what emptiness felt like? “...Thank you for telling me… as much as this should have been delivered the same-day you realised this…”

“...Yeah, I messed up on that…” Seiji muttered, awkwardly caressing the backside of his neck.

Sitting on the back-killing couch, she was contemplating many things ranging from questioning whether she was the one that messed up something in her relationship or the horse, whether she did something to make Seiji distance himself from her, because there must have been a reason for why he stopped loving her, right?

However, she didn’t ask the man who could answer that to her, instead preferring to sitting there for quite a while, until the horse was prompted enough to do something, which was:

“...Uh, do you want something to drink, or?...” He asked, oblivious that the only thing Fenneko thought that could quench her thirst was none other than wine, and since it was high unlikely that Seiji had something like that in his fridge, she turned her head side to side, as she told her… previous lover:

“I’m fine… I think I’m gonna call a rain check, yeah?”

“Yeah… it sure is rainy, huh?...” The horse replied, knowing full well that it was probably going to be hotter than inside a working oven in the afternoon, making the fennec fox stand up dejectedly, and assuredly without any soul in her, as she slowly and robotic like walked towards the exit of the apartment, already knowing that she had a destination in mind tonight.

When Fenneko put on her shoes and was outside of the horse’s apartment, she turned around to face the horse one last time today, feeling absolutely destroyed at the fact that she got baited into thinking love was real, and that everyone in the country currently in love were all paid actors/actresses.

“...I’m sorry for… telling you all this… I really wouldn’t think bad of you if you decided to wipe me clean of the planet if you could… bye.” Seiji apologised to her once again, waving at her as he slowly but surely closed the door, and no amount of waving from the fennec fox was going to change the fact that the doors of opportunity of having a long and steady love life with the horse was all but ashes, because when the door closed, she could practically feel the crushing sound of rejection inside her mind.

She waited in torment for days on end for a rejection, and now she was standing outside flabbergasted to even emote currently, and if she ever wanted to feel like the terminator from how robotically she moved, this was the time to experience, because before she even noticed it, she was leaving Seiji’s apartment without a word, the fennec fox utterly devoid of life.

She knew that days like this is why the Greek, or whatever race of people invented alcohol, or more aptly, wine, because on these occasions, there was nothing better to do but to drink oneself to oblivion, which she will be doing tonight with her wine buddy.

Who the fuck needs love when you could just have a really good wine friend who’s currently in love crazily with his stupid moron of a boyfriend who she helped get together with-

She should have NEVER helped that betrayal of a hyena with his stupid childhood crush together, because that old for nothing 4-eyed son of a bitch left her hanging, and now she had to get a substitute to fill his role, which just happened to be his older brother!

Her precious wine ‘buddy’ couldn’t attend her vent party, because according to him, he was too ‘busy’ at the moment, and couldn’t entertain her for tonight.

“WHY THE FUDGE DID JIRO NEAB BY NOT BEING ABLE TO ATTEND THIS VEMT EVENTM HUH?!” She cried, too drunk in the face to even think remotely anymore, letting her inside voice do the talking for her. “DOES SUCKING HIS BOYFRIWND’S DIXK REALLY YSKE SUCG PRIORITY FOR HIM., HUH?! WHY DID. M’T YOU DO ANYTHING TO NOT STEER HIM INTO BECO,ING SOMEONE LIKE THIS, HAIDA. ???”

“...Fenneko, you’re absolutely drunk…” Haida, the betrayal’s brother, pointed that out to him, turning the other way around from showing the man his brother’s tendencies with his boyfriend.

“Let her vent, Ichiro…” Retsuko, which she now noticed sitting next to the hyena, strangely finding it weird why she didn’t seem to notice that she was there, until she realised that she erased the red-panda from her memory, because while she was still existing, that meant Haida wasn’t a miserable loser with no bitches, and fuck, does she need that sort of guy to vent to at the moment, which is why Fenneko used whatever means necessary to ignore Retsuko’s presence there, looking at the hyena again, yelling drunkenly:

“I DON’T UND.ER STANF WHAT I DID WRONG?! IS THERE SOMETHING THST I DID BEYWEEN ME ABD SEIJI TO CAUSE S RIFF BETWEEN EEACH OTHWR?. AM I TIO UGLY IN THE FACE?! DP GUYS. LOOK AT ME AND SEE ANOTHER BRO IN THE GACE?! IS THIS ALL DIE TO THE FACT THAT I EAS RAISED BY A M OSYLY MADCULINE HOUSEHOLD?! JUS.T QHAT DID U DO WRONNG.?????”

She wailed, she cried, and boy, did she take a sip from her wine. After that small mini venting from her, cursing each and every male family member that she had for doing all this, as she wondered whether love was all a fairy tale, fictionally nonsensical and utterly batshit insane, or did people mean it like like in the middle ages, where fairy tales were more horrifying than magical.

Naturally, seeing as Haida and, wait, there wasn’t anyone sitting next to Haida, remained in silence, she took this as an answer from the hyena that she should start complaining about other things she felt angry about at the moment, who just stood there right in front of her.

“LUGE IS SPO UNFAIIIR… HOW DO BAD BITCHES THAT ARE SMART AND SHIT GET T HE SGORT END OF THE STICK WJIÑE GUYS LIKE YOU AND JIRO GET EVERYTHING THEY WANT? I DICKING CALL NEPOTISM ON THIS ONE, YOU HYENA BABIES!”

“...We have our own sets of problems, Fenneko…” Haida muttered under his breath, which was a grave crime in her eyes, making the fennec fox revv up in anger, yelling to him:

“YOY DON’T JAVE AANY PROBLEMA, JAIDA! NOT ONLY ARE YOU. GETTING MSRRIED TO WHOEVER IS. SITTING NEXT TO YOU, BUT YOU ARE ALSO ON GOOD TERMS WITH YOUR BROOTHER AGAIN, WHICH IS ALL DUE YO MY EFFORTA! WHERE IS MY THSNKS FOR ALL OF TJIS, JUH? WHY DOB’T I GET NY FAIR SHAR.E OF THAT PIE TOU TWO ARW HAVING, AND IF THERE’S A REASON FOR WHY IT’S GETTONG GATEKEEOT FROM ME, IS IR DUE TO ME NOT HABING ANY TRAUMATIC BAACKSTORY?”

“Fenneko, I… nevermind, it’s no use talking to you like this…” Haida gave up whatever kind of sentence he was going to feed her, which she appreciated, because she didn’t need to hear an opinion of someone who was having ZERO problems with ZERO issues and ZERO complications, and maybe she should feel grateful that Jiro felt too horny with that hornhead of a boyfriend to be with her, because she knew Jiro was going to dispel any and all words with that smart mouth of his, and she didn’t need logic at the moment, but only delusion and fucking wine!

“YOU KNO.W WHAT? I’M NWVER GIIBG TO LOVE AGAIN, LEST IT BE CO ,ING DROM HATSUNE MIKU, BECAUSE SHE’S THE ONLY ONE WHOM I COULD FULKY TRUSR BEING LOVED BY ABD NOT HAVING MY HESRT BROKEM BY HER. BECAUSE MIKU IA LITERALLY PERFECTIOB INCARNATE!” She croaked with her mouth full of alcoholic waste on her lips, as she honed her eyes to focus at the splitting hyena, like he was duplicating, and even though she had enough hyena to accompany her here, saying to the still one hyena sitting opposite to her awkwardly sipping his beer: “DP YOU KNOW HAYSUNE MOKU, HAIDA? SHE’S LIKE, A TOTA L GODDESS, UNLIKE EVERY ONE OF YOU, AND NOW THAT I THINL ABOUT OT, THERE’S A GUY WHO’S MARRIED TO HATSUNE MIKU… DO TOU THINK I COULD NEGOTIATE A POLYHAMORY RELATIONSGIP BETWEEB THE TWO AND JOON THEIR MA. TRINONIAL RELATIONSHIP?”

“Fenneko… please don’t get suckered up into dating characters on the screen again…” A certain invisible red panda urged towards her, probably the wind, if Fenneko were to analyse the situation, and man, wasn’t she letting the fucking wind trash her taste when it came into Miku, which is why she responded back to it:

“NUH UH, I’M ALREADY DEPRESSED LIVING IN JAPAN, DON’T KECTURE ME WHO I’M SUOPOSED TO DATE OR NOT! DATING MIKU IS LEGIT SELF CARE, OR WHATEVER YHAT RED PAANDA TOLD TO ME WHEN SHE WAS DELULU DATING… UGH…” Realising that thinking about that unicorn brought back memories of a certain horse that she was seeing, the fennec fox couldn’t hoard it in anymore, and let out a very sad drop of tears from her, sniffing, while Haida and the wind next to him looked onward with worry.

“Hey… I think you had enough wine for today, Fenneko… Just act civil and hand over that glass full of rosé, Fenneko…” The wind blew the words into her ears, and hell was she going to let the elemental power of the air decide what she should do with her outlet, which is why she gobbled down every last drop inside the bottle, stomping down the glass bottle so hard that cracks formed on the top of it, as she told the thing:

“NEVER! UOU’RE NEVER CATCHING ME ALIVE WIRHOUT MY TRUSTY WONE SR MY SIDE! IT’S THE PNLY LIFELINE THAT I HABE WITH ME, UNLESS I WANTED. TO BITE THE DUST, AND I DON’T WANNS DO RGAT, BE CAUSE BITING INTO DUST SOUNDS FREAKING DISGUSTING, AND UNAOPETIZINGG BUT ALSO BEECAUSE I DOM’T WSNNA END MYSEKF UET! I DECIDED THAT I EVER WERE TO DO YHAT, I WOULD AT LEASST DO IN FRON.T OF ASDHOLES TO IR REPARABLY CHANGE THE LIVES OD THOSE AASSHOLE AND THEIR TRAJECTORY IN LIFE, BECAUSE I WANNA GO OUT QITH A BANG, SAMMIT!!”

“Ichiro… people are staring at us…” The wind stated to the hyena, who now seemed a bit more than awkward in the face now, and even though she could give a rat’s ass about the fact that people were looking into their discussion, which landed more on them for listening onto their discussion than Fenneko’s venting, because wasn’t this bar supposed to be a safe space for her to vent her frustrations out? Was this false advertisement from the place she loved visiting with her friends and frenemies alike?!

“Crap, they’re really doing that… we should probably tap out of here and take you back home, Fenneko…” Haida muttered under his breath, and what the fuck?! She really can’t have shit in her life, because now they were taking her away from this safe haven called Mindy’s Bar and back to hell, which was her apartment?! As if she was letting that happen to her?!

“NUH UH UH! I’M GONNA STAT HER E, WHETHER I’M MAKING A SCENE OR NOT, BECAUSE IT’S MINE TIME TO BITCH AND MOAN ABOUT MY PROBLEMS TODAY! WHY IA IT THAT I HAD TO-” She got p hysically taken up ny the hyena, who hss put out s money tap on their tanle, wav.ing for a server to collec.t the money. , as she continued ramblung while she was basically muzzles from t he biGger and stribher man. “LUSTEN TO YOU AND YOUR BROTHER BITCH ABOUT THEIR LOVR LIFFES WHILE I. DON’T HAVE THE SAME EULING?! YOU KNIW HOW RIDICULOUD IT WAS HEARING YOU SIHH DEJEC. TEDLY AT THE FSCT TH. AT YOUR CRUSJ SIDN’T AVCEPT THE DINNRR INVITATION THAT YOU SENT HER, WHICH MWANR I HAD TO LISTEN YOU CRY ABOUT IT IN UOUR BEAR?! AND NOT T O M-” The three of them, Haida, herself and a certain someone she couldn’t remember the name of, were now outside the bar, with the two people besides her calling a cab for them to be driven in. “-ENRION THE FACT THAT EVEM THOUGH JIRO WAS LESS PATHETIC ABOUT OT THAN YOU WERE, IT DOESN’T EXCUSE THE FACT THAT I HAD TO PLAY THEEAOIST FOR YOU TWO WHULE YOY WER EN’T A DIME FOR MY SERVICES?!”

While she kept rambling to herself in utter aggression, a taxi car soon stopped in front of them, the two person who called said vehicle sighing with relief, as the two of them dragged the struggling fennec fox’s body into the backseat, as they negotiated the address where they wanted to go.

However, it seemed like the taxi driver was less than pleased to have someone as rowdy in his car as Fenneko, which is why he made an ultimatum between the trio, that if Fenneko didn’t shut her trap soon enough, he would have no choice but to kick them out, because it was quote unquote ‘unbearable to listen’ to the old man.

Even though she was about to come up with the best diss she could make about the goat’s haircut, Haida and the red panda sitting next to her nodded to each other, mumbling to each other to something, and before she could ask them what they were keeping thing a secret behind the fennec fox’s back, she was karate chopped in the neck by the red panda, making her cognition become considerably worse, until her eyes could only make out nothingness.

Chapter Text

Gleeful. Happy. Elated.

These three words are how Retsuko would have described her current feeling, looking over at the place where she’ll marry.

Funnily enough, if her past self would have seen the amount of money she and Ichiro have spent to make this reality, her eyes and sanity would have been inflamed at the panic of losing so much money over a single day of celebrating the reunion that she and Ichiro are going to have, but thankfully, she wasn’t living miserably anymore to have someone get a reaction out of her!

Not only did she have a loyal husband at her side who she loved to all bits, but all the things that made her rage inside her head were more tolerable now, and some of them she doesn’t even mind anymore, like working at her accounting job at Charayman!

She never understood in her college days why people appeared to have become more miserable after graduating, because moving into the real world sounded so wonderful to Retsuko at the time, which she eventually learnt in due time that it was yet again her wanting to find an exit to something from her life, with her having been dead tired listening and adhering to her mother’s dictator like words at her parent’s house.

However, it was so worth it suffering in the real world, because if Retsuko didn’t endeavour into the real world, she wouldn’t have met all of her good friends like Gori, Washimi, Fenneko, Shikabane, and not to mention, the most important person in her life who has been in front of her all this time, but she was too preoccupied with herself to realise that the right man for her was dangling for her for so many years.

Her thankless, colourless life has been transpired into a big bouquet of rainbows and flowers, and it only took her two years for her to attain that, and she only had to become a pop-idol, a secret corporate agent to gain intel on financial statements (from her husband’s computer, she shouldn’t forget to add!) and the fact that she ran for office, surprisingly coming into third place, even though she had to put in her one’s damnedest to learn everything about politics and how she should appear in front of the public. It was one topic she could bring up around Jiro, which eventually boiled down to the both of them complaining about how much effort they had to put in to gather the people’s trust. To think that Ikari somehow managed to weasel his way into the wedding, yet again being as persistent as ever on wanting to get invited to it. She sadly accepted once it was too tiresome for her to ignore him, but to her surprise, there was a good roundabout way for her and Ichiro to get back at him for all the unnecessary worry he’s caused them, which is all thanks to a brilliant idea that Jiro concocted with Fenneko, Gori and Washimi.

About 3 weeks ago when October started, around the time Retsuko hesitantly accepted Ikari’s request to be at the wedding

Retsuko, Ichiro, Fenneko, Jiro and Washimi were all solemnly watching the portable whiteboard placed haphazardly in Retsuko’s and Ichiro’s apartment, while a certain gorilla dressed in pink had her game face on, which was the usual cue for Retsuko to understand that Gori wasn’t messing around.

The gorilla also had a laser pointer at her disposal, which she was currently at the time to shine a red spot on the party of rage’s leader’s forehead.

“Peeps, our target of interest, Masou Ikari.” The gorilla started the brainstorming round, her aim still held true on the man’s forehead. “We already discussed this while and back, and we all came to the conclusion that we want him to pay in the literal and the metaphorical sense, yeah?” Everyone nodded their head who were looking at Gori’s presentation. “Of course we do, that man saw Retsuko nothing more as an instrument to furthering his own political preach across, and it’s very much anticipated that he might do something again to prompt Retsuko to busy herself with politics, according to Jiro’s testimony and update on the Party of Rage’s standing.”

“Still a mystery to me how that man and his party are feasibly passing by in the office… that man’s whole gimmick of being furious is worthless in a space of intellectual debate.” Jiro commented in the peanut gallery, his tone making it out that it was tiring meeting the raging bushbaby on a monthly basis.

“If anything, that politician knows how to attract crowds. His appearance aside, he possesses some keen manipulative skills under his belt.” Washimi added, her words echoing to the rest of them that even though Ikari may look like a waning man in his 50’s, he does possess a brain, and that means he might be able to see through the ruse that they are setting up for him to fall into.

“I’d say he’s more persistent and less manipulative, and a creep.” Fenneko stated, which all participants in the apartment agreed wholeheartedly. The red panda still has nightmares figuring out how Ikari managed to slip through going into Charayman, and then somehow crack the password on her locker so that he could ambush her to run for office. Thanks the stars above that she managed to open that locker and get spooked by that man when no one else was inside the woman’s changing room, because not only would she have to explain to any prying eyes why a geezer was living inside her locker, but she would probably have a solid ground to charge the man for harassment, which she did not want to do due to the heavy process it would take for her to build a case against the politician. Maybe laying low and ignoring the man wasn’t the best choice, but paying time and effort to have the guy lay off of her was no way preferable to the red panda.

“Exactly right, it is totally unacceptable, and it’s time we dish out this Ikari guy his just desserts… behold!” Gori spoke, rustling around in her pockets in her dress, pulling out some sort of paper, smashing it against the white board with considerable force. “...A complicated wedding entrance contract with its terms and conditions!”

The contract plastered on the whiteboard, glued onto it by Gori’s iron grip on the board, depicted the same plain vanilla contracts that Retsuko has seen time and time again due to her experience as an adult, noting how similar it looked to a wedding she went to and how it explained the whole day process and what the guest should keep in mind to ensure a respectful and enjoyable time for themselves, guests and the married couple… However, the sheer size and content was so large, she could barely read off words on it.

“...A contract posing as a wedding timetable? Really?” Ichiro probed, seemingly discontented that the way they’re going to get their due payment from Ikari was through a sheet of paper, as Gori promptly shut him up with her fierce gaze.

“As an expert in marketing, I have seen it time and again. People are given the TOS of business related crap, and all their spotty eyes do at the moment is lazily scrim through it while not activating their comprehension skills to read what those terms actually comply with. I’d imagine an old fluke like Ikari is more cautious when it comes to things like this, but not even the most paranoid of people are going to read through the conditions of this wedding, and think something malicious is hiding underneath it all. We’ve got this bad body ensnared in our trap, and he’d be none the wiser as soon as he signs the contracts, and by any chance he refuses it, we’ll just have to kick him out, seeing as he would have to sign the contract where he to join the wedding. Hahahahahahahaha!”

“...So we either suck it up and have Ikari bleed himself dry with that while we reap the benefits of… the convoluted terms that Gori and Jiro came up with, or we’ll be rid of him? Woah, nice job, you two!” The red panda complimented the two, who by her knowledge where the two parties involved in forging said contract specifically designed for Ikari, while the other contracts remained spotless of any fraudulent practices.

“It’s no sweat, Retsuko! It’s actually really been fun conducting such a thing as a first than me having to look over it, and I’d have to say, I’d never have pegged your brother-in-law to be such a cunning term maker!”

“...I’m a politician, Gori, and in the LMP, if I have to add more. I’m just doing my job.” Jiro responded back to the gorilla with no hint of his words being a jest, which was enough for the whole room to snicker about Jiro’s self exposal, while said hyena remained in place with a scowl on his face mixed in with confusion.

Retsuko let out a sigh of relief, having her entourage of friends scheme out such a devilious plan to Ikari. ‘Guess who’s gonna get hit in the face with the wedding entrance contracts from hell!’ she echoed to herself, chirpily mumbling to herself on how she and Ichiro are going to be swimming in riches.

During all of that innermonologing, she was seated alone in the changing room, where Yuki’s younger sister has been applying Retsuko’s make-up and making her as beautiful as possible, which Retsuko personally could see on the mirror image. It wasn’t time yet for her to get into her… bridal gown, but she could positively say that in it, she’d surely be the most radiant woman among the people in the wedding!

“And voilà, we’re done!” Sakiyo proudly exclaimed, looking in the mirror to behold the masterpiece that the cow has created, with her shortly deciding to clean up the place.

“I look…. So beautiful! It’s like I’m a model from those magazines… just what kind of witchcraft did you enchant on me, because I’m not complaining in the slightest!”

“It’s no witchcraft.” Sakiyo smirked, putting all of the products that she used on Retsuko in her pouch. “It’s my ultimate talent as a fellow dress-up gal!”

“You know… it sometimes eludes me that you’re supposed to be in university getting your lawyer degrees, and that your fashion choices are more of a hobby than a revenue income.” Retsuko truthfully admitted, still finding it odd how much Sakiyo likes to stand out with her choice of fashion, and if she were to be honest, she does kind of envy the younger woman’s confidence and boldness. Sakiyo would have probably found a way to make that awful antiquated dress that was gifted to Retsuko by her mom some time ago, and she didn’t know whether she should respect the cow for it or fear her.

“I’d probably enjoy doing it, but I think being an attorney is what my true goal in life is supposed to be…” Sakiyo slated, but she soon started quieting down in tone, as she added. “...Lolita dresses aren’t exactly that cheap to make and outsource, I’m afraid..:”

“They sure aren’t, hahaha…”

After the small laughter that Retsuko let out, the two women began moving outside of the changing rooms for the bride, and into the main hall of the wedding after roving from one building to the other, where the main staff was still hard at work.

The atmosphere of the room was something out of a great fairy tale, the decorations and all the white adjourning anything and everything. There were also a lot of bountiful amount of flowers with all colours from the rainbow, and as Retsuko tried to take a whiff from an orange looking flower, her nose was bombed with the tasteful fragrance of this happy flower, which made the red panda wonder if this is how bees felt like when they pollinated.

She doesn’t know if she thanked Washimi enough for the recommendation here, because even though it takes 6 full hours to drive to Kyoto, this place was earning its keepsake as a garden of paradise! She should probably keep in mind that even though going to heaven sounds appealing, she has to first marry Ichiro for that!... And then yeah, a highway ticket to heaven would be very much appreciated! They surely have an endless supply of sweets there, so it’s not like anything bad would happen if she were to leave this plain with Ichiro while the two lived their life in harmony.

And speaking about the bird who tweeted this recommendation into her ears, she was standing and staring at the magnificent view the place had on the chartered garden with Gori where Retsuko is going to have her photoshoot there with Ichiro and a few others. Deciding for herself that she wanted her best friends in the world to have seen how fabulous the cow has transformed the red panda, but…

“What deplorable crap is this, huh?! The groom is highly allergic to this! Have you even read through my detailed report I’ve submitted, or was that message sent for naught!”

She soon heard the raised voice of a certain hyena who has been acting like a general in a war zone, making her head turn around to the ruckus that Jiro has created with his complains to see him reprimand a staff worker who looks way worse compared to how Retsuko was in the face when Ton got on her ass like this, bowing apologetically. The male staff retrieved the potted plant and whisked himself away to store it somewhere, his face basically screaming that he thought if he didn’t do what Jiro commanded him to do, he would get his head for his insolence.

Yukiharu, Tadano, Tadano’s chauffeur and Shikabane were of course by the hyena’s side, watching this all unfold, with all men there carrying something with them for the wedding. It basically looked as if Jiro was surrounded by his minions who were doing all the hard work for him while he kept a lookout for any problems that might arise at any certain point… with Shikabane surely being there on the ride to spectate it all in front of her.

“...I should probably report back to Jiro before he notices me lazing around with you.” Sakiyo mouthed, now seemingly cognizant of the fact that if she were to be spotted by Jiro, she would be the next person that would get an earful from Jiro.

“Just don’t exhaust yourself for my wedding ceremony, though! This is a celebration for all parties involved, isn’t it?” Retsuko retorted, hoping this would be enough kind words for the cow until she got added to one of the many minions Jiro had at his arsenal at the moment.

Sakiyo whipped the red panda with a smile of understatement, as the cow sauntered over to the hyena’s side, who immediately tasked the cow to do something if her short stay around the hyena wasn’t an indicator for that. She hopes at least that those poor guys won’t drop dead when the day is finally over, because even though it’s only ten in the morning, nearly all staff and said minions look red in the face from exhaustion.

Besides those people she listed, the only one who weren’t in the clutches of the domineering man’s grasp were of course herself and Ichiro, Gori and Washimi, and the two women that Jiro was going against to gain the bestest men title today, Fenneko and Tsunoda.

Thankfully, Fenneko didn’t seem so intense and demanding with the staff members like Jiro was, but it was clear to see in the fennec fox’s face that she didn’t like how much stuff her rival was handling, surely having analysed the situation pretty thoroughly, and finding herself on her backfoot. Tsunoda meanwhile was only there to support Fenneko against Jiro, and even though the gazelle was surprisingly good at helping people when the time required it, Jiro unfortunately had the numbers advantage.

Retsuko was still feeling the aftershock that supposedly, and this was clearly not a fabricated joke, that Fenneko and Tsunoda supposedly got in a heated argument with each other three weeks ago like always when they were drunk, resulting in Fenneko to make a slip of a tongue by admitting that she might or might not have feelings for the gazelle, which all of that resulted in a huge domino effect where the two just said damn the torpedoes and began dating each other.

And to think this all happened at the business mixer that the accounting department held around that time…

Going out for drinks with the whole accounting department was a monthly occurrence in Retsuko’s life, and even though she didn’t felt compelled to attend each and every one like her life depended on it to raise some brownie points with her superiors back in the day due to having gained the respect of Ton, she still liked coming to them.

Not to mention, Jiro and Yukiharu personally tasked Retsuko and Fenneko to show the ins and out on how company parties, or nomikai, to Shikabane, and how it was basically requested of her to be there while she was still a newbie, even though she already attended 4 of these events, with none of it ever entertaining Shikabane that much, considering that the skunk doesn’t even drink alcohol.

Shikabane always sat next to Retsuko and Fenneko, with the two acting as her bodyguards to make sure nobody was going to hit on her, because strangely enough, Yukiharu made it clear to the two that if Shikabane were to date somebody, they’d have to go through him first and have them be approved of the bull, and as much as Retsuko would have hated being in Shikabane’s position of having an overbearing person act like some judge in her love life, Shikabane couldn’t be bothered trying to have someone love her.

Introductions aside, they were at the same place that they always go for company parties, the very same place where she hit the group with her decimals that flew nearly everyone around in the room a good two or three years ago, with Retsuko very much enjoying her time there. She’s feeling a bit boozy and loosely, probably the amount of beer catching up in her system, and everyone else was engaging with each other in conversations from the muttering all around the tables.

“Retsuko… can you eat these for me?” The skunk queried of her, pointing towards the cabbage and turnip on her plate, having everything vanished away on her dish besides the stain it left on it.

“...You don't like greens? They’re really healthy for you, though!” Retsuko responded, her drunken self trying to hide the fact that she too hated eating greens, not wanting to eat it for her, which is when Shikabane just simply stated:

“No, it’s just I get PTSD flashbacks of these two veggies whenever I have to eat them. I can’t ever trust myself from biting into these ever since that incident.”

Oh, that incident. The incident that Shikabane was referring to was when she and Yuki still lived in the same apartment before they migrated into Jiro’s penthouse and Yuki tried something ‘creative’. If she remembers correctly, they had to take both her and Yuki into the hospital, and they were there for a week straight. She sometimes shivers at the thought of how badly Yuki was able to cook, thinking of it as an innate accidental talent of the bull… However, she heard that he now seemed to cook in a more safer manner, which meant that there weren’t any mishaps or disasters of meals made from Yuki for a long time.

“...Why don’t you hand it over to Fenneko? I think she likes radishes, so it means that she in some way must like turnips as well!” Retsuko answered, not wanting to have a bite of that overly green produce left on the skunk’s tray.

“Can’t. She’s having a mid off with Tsunoda, look.”

She did as what Shikabane told her to, looking over to the next seat over to Shikabane, where a certain fennec fox was having a petty argument with Tsunoda, from the looks of it, while a few people, like Seiji, Ookami and Anai, were watching this with bated breath.

Even though Seiji and Tsunoda broke up a few months ago, it didn’t take long for the team to adjust to that dynamic, and it took even shorter for the two to become friends again, or well, friends during work. There wasn’t any bad blood between them, but Retsuko knew that even though that was the case with them, Tsunoda still seemed to be behaving oddly around Fenneko specifically. She can’t put her fingers on it, but there was something definitely dubious going on with the two, and there must be a clear reason for why that would be the case.

“God, you’re such a bimbo, you know that? Why do I have to bee the onw monitoring your Onstagra, activities, it’s añl jyst you flaunting your body for some thirsty guys… “ Fenneko quipped, clearly in a drunken haze by how wrecked she sounds in her voice.

“Well I’m doing it because I want to do it, and don’t you think it’s a bit eye-brow raising that you’re stalking my Insta like those thirsty guys you speak of in bad faith?” Tsunoda echoed back, as drunk as the woman she was arguing against, which is when Fenneko jumped to her own defence, saying:

“Even though your thigh pics are great, I ain’t stalking you like those freaking guys! I have some dignity in me, thank you very much!”

“Oooh, thank you, I worked really hard to make those pics alluring as possible to… huh?” The gazelle stomped on her words, having been caught dumbfounded by what Fenneko must have described her thigh pics as… Wait, she called those pics what???

The whole chatter of drunk salaryman and salarywoman turned into background ambience to Retsuko, honing her ears to the argument turned to a bombshell of revelation. Retsuko knew much about the fennec fox’s complaints, but it was very much obvious to her and her friends that even though Fenneko said that she identified as a straight woman, all the evidence points to her liking both. Her liking men was very conspicuous to anyone that could see, but her like for women was even more obvious if you were friends with her, because she’s not sure if Fenneko could convince Retsuko, or their friends, that having a gazillion amount of posters dedicated to some unreal internet idol didn’t meant she was into women. She declared to them that the only woman who Fenneko would date with all her heart would be Hatsune Miku… but that still meant that Fenneko felt open about dating women, as much as the idol was made out of zeroes and ones.

“Did you just… compliment my thighs, Fenneko?” The gazelle questioned, seemingly looking more shocked in the face than angered that Fenneko didn’t constitute in the democratic for whom Tsunoda is even doing those pictures for. The fennec fox in question really seemed like she was combating her inner demons from how indecisive she looked in the face from what she actually told the woman sitting over to her, as she eventually just replied back to her:

“And what if I did?!”

“So you think I’m appealing to you…?”

“I mean… probably?”

When the two women who were ambiguous skirting around each other halted in their track after Fenneko confirmed that maybe, just maybe, she might be into Tsunoda for some reason, a bunch of their co-workers sighed in disappointment from the two not having achieved anything with those pent-up feelings they supposedly had to each other, and now that drunk Retsuko was behind the steering wheel, it’s so obvious that something was happening the two for some time now! She really underestimated Tsunoda’s intelligence for a while, but she knew there was something more fishy on the surface if the gazelle felt prompted enough to send Kabae on an espionage mission where Seiji worked previously, when Fenneko obviously had a big crush on him at the time. Now that she thinks about it… do good friends really go to galas together? She knows the two did it because Tsunoda at the time blackmailed her when she found out that Jiro and Fenneko were having expensive dinner together while they were still very much strangers to each other… and taking that also in account, it’s also super weird that Tsunoda stalked the two, even back in December! Just how long was this silent pining created?

“...So do you two like each other or not? It’s getting too tiring for me to spectate all of this for a second time.” Shikabane unceremoniously butted in, making everyone who were watching all of this unfold look at the skunk worryingly, gesturing to her that she shouldn’t have noted that to the two, but suddenly…

“...I think so?...”

“...She’s more tolerable than before, so yeah?...”

The two women in question stated, surprising everyone but Shikabane about their confession. Fenneko and Tsunoda blinked at each other with utmost confusion towards each other, however, their blinks seemed to have mellowed out a bit, as they then said…

“You wanna ditch these guys?” Tsunoda inquired.

“Yeah, company parties are tiresome, anyway..:” Fenneko responded back to her, getting up from her place and taking her bag with her.

“Yippee! There’s a super awesome salon that I need to show you, since we’re together or whatever!”

Before anyone gazing at the two could make any kind of complaints about how the two are seriously going to leave the party just for themselves, the two of them already made a headway to the folding door leading outside, bidding farewell to Arihiko, the organiser of the party.

As soon as the two woman, hand in hand, were able to weasel their way out of this party, the table where the debacle between the two quieted down considerably, each accounting member looking flabbergasted in the face, besides Shikabane, who looked a bit more livelier in the face, as she told Retsuko:

“Nice, I can finally eat my food in peace.”

Damn, that day was way tamer than she remembered it as. She thought Fenneko at least dropped a whole bunch of truth bombs in front of the gazelle, but she was probably too intoxicated at the moment to think of that…

After being done with the reminiscing trip, she hurried herself to Washimi and Gori, with the secretary bird being very modest in her response on how great she looked, while Gori was complimenting her like crazy, saying that she must have been the prettiest bride that walked on this place, however, Retsuko shyly just responded that Washimi must have been prettier, which is when the two gazed at the secretary bird to ask whether she had any pictures of her being a blushing bride, and after much peer pressure from her two best friends, Washimi relented, showing the two curious woman some pictures on her phone.

This was the most turbulent event of his wedding, Ichiro thought to himself.

It was approximately 1:30 P.M, which meant that everything was prepared for the place to accept guests, with them already having finished a long time beforehand due to the good diligence from Jiro, his workers, Fenneko and Tsunoda. He never saw Jiro act this bossy before in his whole life, so it’s surmise to say that he was caught off-guard when he saw and heard a staff member, or several, get yelled at by Jiro when they did something to his dissatisfaction. He appreciates the enthusiasm from Jiro… but he has that rising feeling in him that Jiro is being too much of an overachiever and seeing this more like work than a time of celebration. Surprisingly enough, Jiro just returned back home after flying over to to South Korea, so he at least expected Jiro to at least chill out a bit, but nope, he had a full squadron of helpers beside him making this whole wedding easier for Ichiro and Retsuko, and he doesn’t know if he should be grateful for that or not. Ichiro shouldn’t be the one to rely on his baby brother, but the other way around…

However, everything besides that was swimmingly going well, with everyone who was already at the wedding having done the shots from a professional photographer who was booked by Jiro. There were a lot of photos taken with Retsuko shining like a spotlight on each and everyone she was in, making the hyena struggle to comprehend that he really had Retsuko as his wife.

While everyone who came to their wedding beforehand was already familiar with the venue, Ichiro and Retsuko still had to wait for the greet and meet for all the upcoming guests, which according to Gori was nearly 80 people. It was gonna be wild to imagine so many people coming to watch the two put their rings on each other, and if Ichiro was to be honest with himself, he was feeling the heat from the impending amount of people that are soon going to enter the premises of their wedding.

*DING*

That was the sound of someone entering the venue, the sound of a device that Jiro gave to Ichiro, since he was the one to welcome guests besides Fenneko to accept the wedding money from each and every guest while also showing them the wedding timetable.

“Looks like some of the guests have arrived, Retsuko.” Ichiro stated, looking over to his beautiful bride, face filled with panic.

“Yeah, the first guests! Just keep my cool, and everything is going to proceed smoothly…” The red panda muttered to herself, but since Ichiro knew that she obviously wasn’t keeping her cool, she soon added… “Oh, who am I kidding with this one, I’m too nervous for this! What if my mom comes in and starts criticising how badly my sweating is destroying all the make-up on my face, or-”

“Retsuko.” Ichiro interrupted her, grabbing onto her hands firmly, seemingly knocking Retsuko out of her frenzied state. “I know how you feel… But I promise to you that we’re gonna get through this day all happy like, and maybe the fond memories we’re gonna share today is gonna be clowning on how unnecessarily nervous you were!”

“Y-Yeah…” The red panda in the gown admitted, her confidence seemingly building up more. “You’re right, Ichiro! Alright me, no more of this clownery, I now demand myself to be a badass and go through this wedding with no worry!”

She steeled herself, looking more fierce and determined in the face, making Ichiro all the more happier to see Retsuko not twirling her pants in a twist from worry, which is when the first few guests came in, who were none other than Ichiro’s and Retsuko’s family members.

That obviously meant only his own mother was the one to come to his wedding, beside Jiro, while Retsuko on the other hand had her mom, dad, aunt and her aunt’s family.

Damn, the first wave of the guests were going to be the most difficult to welcome, seeing as he had to see a lot of Retsuko’s relatives, and make himself as presentable as he could in front of her family, because even though her family has accepted him into their family, he still had to prove his worth to them during the wedding ceremony!

When all of their relatives sauntered over to the married couple, Ichiro half-expected Retsuko’s mother to gush all over her daughter, and heck, that’s exactly what she did, as the elder red panda joyously cooed:

“Ooooh, Retsuko! I just have ants in my pants, you look absolutely CHARMING, young lady! How much did it cost? Do you have any reference pictures for me and your dad to have a look at?”

Yeah, Retsuko’s mom having an overreaction like this wasn’t unexpected.

“And… and Ichiro looks as dashing as ever… although, not as dashing as what your dad looked like on our wedding day!... Ah, you should burn this occasion to your memory, Retsuko, because this day is going to be one of the biggest highlights in your whole life!” Retsuko’s mother directed her gaze towards Ichiro, having a faint smile on his face.

“Dear… I think you may be opinionated on the matter.” Retsuko’s father responded, having his same cold expression on his face, which is when he turned around to get opinions from Retsuko’s aunt side of the family, who had her aunt, the aunt’s husband, and their two children with one being nearly a full-fledged adult while the other one was still a teenager.

“Have to agree with your parrot of a man, Sis. Your man seemed less impressive on his wedding day compared to this fine bloke and his brother at the reception venue, right honey?.” Retsuko’s aunt stated, looking over to her husband for an answer, and unsurprisingly, he was about as stoic as Retsuko’s dad, wondering if he’ll end up like them after spending some time together with Retsuko and getting more humbler, him saying:

“Yes, I agree.”

“Tch, you and your hubby are always undermining Yasu’s qualities!... How about we ask your two kids with some promising future ahead of them…” Retsuko’s mother responded, clearly a bit upset that everyone else thought he looked better, and as much as he appreciated the compliment, he feels like this conversation wasn’t going to be about them anymore…

“My cousin-in-law looks way better than what Uncle Yasu looked like from those geezer photos.” The oldest of Retsuko’s aunt said, a 19 year old red panda who started with her undergraduate studies, a stern and serious girl from what Ichiro heard from Retsuko, as her younger brother, a 14 year old weasel, then added:

“I concur with my big sis… Cousin Ichiro does look better than Uncle Yasu does… but I don’t mean he’s in any way bad in form, or anything…” Between the two siblings, he was definitely more on the timid side compared to his sister, who seemingly took no crap from the adults around her, even Retsuko’s grandmother’s screaming not being enough to shake up the young red panda’s foundation.

“...My dear, as much as I don’t know about how Yasu must have looked in his prime, I have to admit you look absolutely stunning, my boy… and Retsuko too, if I might add. You two are going to have an amazing ever-after, no doubt!” Finally, Ichiro’s mother butted in, making the male hyena blush up from the compliment his mother was giving him, and heck, he really enjoyed hearing such encouraging words from her this time around than her awkwardly trying to show her support to him when he dated a few girls here and there in high school and after he broken up with them. It’s weird… but it’s like his mom finally started believing in him again after that colossal fuck up he did back then…

“Thank you mom, it’s… really great hearing this from you.”

“Ms. Haida, I wholeheartedly promise we’ll do just that!”

The two of them responded to his mother’s kind words, as all of them bowed to each other, as Tsunoda and the henchman of Jiro motioned to them to be escorted off somewhere else for the time being.

7 people down, 73 people more to go, the hyena recounted to himself, getting ready for more.

After roughly 10 minutes of having a few friends enter the venue that Ichiro and Retsuko respectively had, another familiar face showed itself in the venue, with it being none other than the big pig behind the desk that he obeyed when he was still working at Charayman.

It was none other than Ton and his family, which seemed to have had an addition since last time he saw them, a little infant boy no older than a few months old being moved around in a stroller. Guess Ton and his wife were realising that their twin daughters were going to move out of the nest soon, and wanted something that could keep them occupied for two decades or more.

“Well, damned I be, if it isn’t Haida and Calendar, hand in hand.” Mr.Ton spoke, still in his brash tone. “I didn’t think I’d be here when you have your ceremony or some crap, but guess even my abacus couldn’t have accounted this from happening, huh?”

“Mr. Ton… it’s nice to see you here…” Retsuko stated, a bit embarrassed from being called by her moniker back at work, as she then added. “But could you please not call me Calendar while we’re off work?... This is Ichiro’s and mine wedding, after all.”

“Biting the hand that feeds you, eh?” Mr. Ton exclaimed, which made Retsuko freeze up on the spot, but the pig soon scoffed and had a shit eating grin on his face, saying: “Just kidding, Retsuko. ‘Tis your wedding, so it’s sorta expected of me to play nice for this day to you.”

“Honey, shouldn’t you always be kind to Retsuko all day long? Didn’t you tell us that she’s one of the most reliable workers in your department?” Ton’s wife said, making Retsuko ease up from her stance, as she said:

“Ahhh, you think so, Mr. Ton?”

“What, I never once said that to t-”

“Nuh uh, you definitely did, Daddy!”
“You’re like, being a total tsundere right now!”
“Uhuh, what she said!”

The twins put their oar in, giving each other a high five to each other, while Ton seemed to have grumbled to himself.

“OK, maybe I hold some kind of reliance on you, but that better not make your work more shoddier, you hear me!”

“Aye aye, Sir!” Retsuko replied, standing up straight like a soldier in her gown, which seemed to have chilled out the glaring red beam generating from his eyes.

“Speaking of something else, who is this small fella with you guys?” Ichiro pointed out, kneeling down to be face to face with the infant boy.

“Oh, this is Ton and I’s little boy, Tamotsu! We just had him in August! Isn’t he cute?” Ton’s wife replied happily, but before either Ichiro or Retsuko could affirm that Tamotsu was actually cute…

“He isn’t cute when he’s crying!”
“All he does is just wah wah and suck on his pacifier!”
“We aren’t going to get children if this is how all babies react!”
“So true! You better not make the same mistake as our parents did, Retsuko!”

The twins responded in a pair, which seemed to have angered their mother a bit, as she chided them saying:

“You two, this isn’t how young ladies like this should behave themself! Didn’t I and your father teach you some manners!? I can’t believe that you shamelessly tried to ask whether Retsuko’s brother-in-law was in a relationship with someone or not!”

Huh, Ton’s daughters asked what to Jiro?

“But Mooom, even though that hyena told on his social media ages ago that he wasn’t in any relationships before, we both have the feeling that he’s hiding a partner!”
“He might have had a great poker face, but we could still say that something was afoot-”

“You two! You better nip that in the bud, or we'll turn around and drive back home! If you two would excuse us…” Mr. Ton declared in his dictator like voice while nodding for his family to move, promptly interrupting his daughters from ranting about Jiro’s status when it came to having a relationship, which Ichiro really appreciated, because Ton’s daughters having a sniff of information about Jiro’s relationship with Yuki would be like having something in the wrong hands, because it’ll be too unpredictable what those two internet savvy girls would do with that information.

“Ooook Dad…” The both of them said, clearly not content with the fact that the two were hushed from talking any longer, following after their parents with their baby brother being taken away with them.

OK, it was good that Ton knew it was smarter that if he were up to shut up his two daughters than let them talking, and he’s sure to thank the pig boss that he kept Jiro’s relationship a secret, which he still finds surprising that he was one of the persons in the know about it, and more shocking to hear that he was so chill about it. Guess that was one good facet about the man.

Ichiro and Retsuko continued on greeting the guests that came after Ton and his families, with several other friendly faces, like a few co-workers from Tadano’s company, co-workers from Charayman like Anai, his girlfriend, Tsubone, Komiya, Seiji, Ookami, Yagyu, and in a shocking turn of events, even the CEO and his family came to the wedding. He was not going to lie, it was basically in his primal instinct to nearly bow in front of the man, still having him in his memory to be his boss.

Funnily enough, after those people, supposedly a friend of Retsuko’s came after them, a woman whom she accompanied to a wedding once where she blew off 30’000 yen, which hugely inconvenienced Retsuko, and while the two said their hi’s to the woman and accepted her in to the party, said couple to whom they went to came next, and even though he thought the two of them were still a married couple, Retsuko whispered to him that the two supposedly broke up ages ago after a big argument, and they just so happened to come together at the same time to their wedding. Retsuko weirdly smickered under her breath and muttered to herself how she’s going to use the money from the two to finally have some closure on her pain that was inflicted on her years ago, with the only thing Ichiro could say about the situation that it was good for Retsuko…?

However, he couldn’t be prepared for the next amount of people to come next to greet them, which was a borzoi and another suspicious looking hyena, making Ichiro drop sweats from his forehead. Just when did they invite her, and how is this going to not go in the most awkward direction ever?

“Ah, you must be Sir Jiro’s older brother! It’s very nice to meet you!” The male hyena stated next to Inui, seemingly unaware of how awkward the air is between Ichiro and the borzoi dog, as he then bowed to the married couple.

“What Yoshio said, it’s nice to see you two again.” Inui said in a respectful tone, bowing in front of them, which is when Retsuko finally said the thing that was bothering Ichiro, which was:

“Yeah, welcome to our wedding… Although, did Jiro invite you two to our wedding, because it surely must have been ages since we last saw you!”

“Yes, Sir Jiro did invite me to the wedding, and I said what the heck, why not? I’ve never been to Kyoto before, and neither has Inui, so this is all a new experience for us two!” Yoshio replied, beaming positive.

Shockingly, some time ago, Ichiro learnt that Jiro supposedly made himself a friend at his workplace, the very same hyena that Yuki was first seeing before he eventually called it quits with him after realising he didn’t have his shit together while still having feelings for his younger brother. If he were to be honest, Ichiro wouldn’t be surprised if he called his friend work over to become one of his henchmen to outperform Fenneko. However, Jiro wasn’t that kind of a person to just simply invite a person over to be nothing but a work slave, so maybe he’s just here to be a guest, like everyone else?

“This place is really pretty, I gotta say. It sure must have cost a lot to afford it, no?” Inui stated, and she sure wasn’t so off the mark with that statement. Their wallets were surely crying, shedding tears from the damage they have taken to pay for all of this, and they as well.

“...Yeah, you couldn’t be any more right about that, so I hope you two are going to enjoy the day as much as we’re going to!” Ichiro said, saying it with a certain nervousness. He hopes that the whole day isn’t going to feel like this, especially considering that it’s supposed to be special for the both of them…

“I sure hope that that’s the case… if you excuse us, we should get going! Let’s go, babe!” The other male hyena voiced, gesturing for the borzoi dog to come with him, nodding to the married couple, as the other couple began wandering to where the other guests were at.

Oh boy, that sure was awkward as hell!

“Hey, Ichiro…” Retsuko suddenly spoke up, and before Ichiro could ponder about what kind of awkward thing she was going to ask about his relationship with Inui before, she said: “Why is it that people seem to mix up this Yoshio guy with Jiro? The two don’t even look that similar to each other!”

Oh. That’s all she had to ask him. But since she noted that to him, it’s kind of weird that people seemed to have confused the two to be the same when Ichiro was certain that he looked more familiar with Jiro, due to them being brothers…

“Yeah, that’s kind of weird… the glasses are a pretty obvious tell that they’re different.”

“Right! The guy doesn’t even wear glasses!” Retsuko responded, looking like she finally found a fellow brethren who found it weird that the two hyenas were mixed up for some reason, and before they could have said more about the issue, another set of guests came over, which they welcomed in like all the previous guests before them.

Those guests were none other than Sakiyo’s friends from university, and if Ichiro remembers correctly, Jiro seemed to have made great friends with the gloomy bat and a british princess, who seemingly had the same interest in the occult as he did. Ichiro once asked Sakiyo if Jiro was going to steal away her friends, but surprisingly, Sakiyo was more glad to have her two weird friends have someone to share their interest with, because per her own words, she couldn’t join them without having her hair stand up straight from the horrors they would show her, like raising ghouls and demons, and such things.

After those two weird guys and a few of Sakiyo’s female friends, the politician that they dreaded to come came over to them after he seemingly let loose his rage if his screaming at the reception desk wasn’t obvious enough, him possibly letting his rage be directed towards Ichiro, who appeared to be none the wiser to the terms he consented to, which delighted both the red panda and hyena. After that awful angry little man, the OTM girls were the next to greet her, with Retsuko having a bit of a smalltalk with the girl group to question how they were doing, and from what they’ve been saying, they’ve been doing more than good. Even though OTM girls used the fact that Retsuko was associated with them in the past to get a bit more popular during the election, he was glad to see the band that Retsuko performed in going splendidly. After them, Yoshie came to visit next, who according to Jiro, the two of them were good friends. He was a bit perplexed to see Jiro be in good terms with the woman who he was forced to date in the past, as much as Jiro didn’t like to talk about the times he was forced to do by their father, but he does remember his brother saying that speaking to her was at least not that bothersome to him…

After the canary, none other than Shishido showed up next, it being the warthog’s MO to show up this late, and it being more like him to be less than formal to just extend a hand to him, which Ichiro was more than happy to accept.

“Well, if ain’t my good bud, getting married off to his girlfriend! How’s ya doing, mate?” Shishido uttered, being as brash in his tone as always, which you could easily identify to that of a delinquent.

“Well, you know, same old same old, just getting married off to the girl that I love most. Honestly, I may not show it, but my feets are probably shivering at this very moment…” Ichiro responded, making his mate chuckle up from the confession he laid in front of him, as the guy with the shade said:

“You were always the kind to have the biggest guy with the biggest stage fright, so I’m not even that much surprised.”

“So uhm…” Retsuko added between the two’s conversation, not looking that sure what she wanted to say to them. “You must be one of Ichiro’s old friends, right? It’s so nice to see you, because this is our first time seeing each other, isn’t it?”

“Damned be if I weren’t that! Back in our highschool days, we were the most punk-like guys around the whole school and we could probably have converted the whole of Japan to the coolness of punk, but guess some things weren’t meant to be.” The warthog started, making Ichiro just roll his eyes having Shishido refer to their highschool days as his glory day, because it sounded way too depressing when he put it like that. “You know what it was like back then, Ichiro? Us boys with your brother as our number one supporter, impressing lads and lasses with my voices and your instruments, and speaking of Jiro, is he trying his damned hardest to make your wedding the best that it could be?”

“Oh, you don’t wanna hear about it… he’s competing with the woman who he was probably sitting next to to see who’s gonna be the better best man between the two, and I think this is the first time that I saw him be this competitive before…”

“That true?... Poor woman, Jiro’s one vicious beast when it comes to you, but he’s still that adorable dork that I know, because you should have seen his face when I tried giving him a pet on his head like the good ole times! He was basically pouting at me!” Shishido added, and even though he’s sure to still remember Jiro always acting like that when they were younger, Jiro probably thought he was probably too old for that stuff anymore, which might explain the face he might have given Shishido, which is why he responded to him:

“...He probably did that because he’s too old for that shit now, you know? Also, isn’t he bigger than you now? I don’t know if you can still call him the little guy, now that he has the height advantage.” Ichiro teasingly replied, knowing that Jiro was just a few inches bigger than his big brother, it automatically meant he was bigger compared to the warthog. However, Shishido seemingly took it with style, because he then replied:

“In a literary sense, but in a spiritual sense, we’re still the guys with a head-size amount of difference in height, you know what I mean, right?”

“Not really…”

“I think I’m also in a tizzy here…”

He and Retsuko replied, making the warthog look a bit more despondent to them, seeing as they weren’t able to grasp what he tried to tell them, which is why he changed subjects alarmingly fast, which was:

“Well, let’s shake things up… I know this ya wedding and such, but has Jiro found a partner for himself? This is my first seeing him being all grown up and shit, but from what I’ve been hearing from the news, he’s imitating you quite well for being a good skate chaser, but that sudden end of it all is beyond suspect… pray tell, did he find a good chick that ya sperm donor wouldn’t approve of?”

Damn, why is the second time someone has asked about Jiro’s standing in a relationship? And even worse of, it’s his best friend asking about it, and as much as he thinks it would be safer for him to know about it than Ton’s daughter, he didn’t wanna disclose his brother’s sexuality to people without his consent, which is why Ichiro just said to him:

“Uh… not that I know of. And what the heck, he’s not making the same mistake as I am, dude! It’s just our dad putting him up in arranged relationships to go find a wife, so it’s kind of understandable for Jiro to just say no to him after having been through this process for some years now.”

“Oh, so that’s it… Yeah, your old man would make meeting beautiful women like that feel like hell.” Shishido replied, which eased Ichiro quite a lot to see that he wasn’t suspecting anything going on with Jiro at the moment, which is when gave them a wave, telling the two. “Aight, I should better get going with the rest of these folks and wait for you guys at the altar, yeah? You better not pee your pants when ya girlfriend is being handed off to you from her pops!”

With his old buddy making his exit, Ichiro couldn’t help but silently curse at him for putting such a ridiculous thought into Retsuko’s mind, because was he really the guy who would embarrass himself like this…?

…He probably was, now that he thinks a second to think about it…

Crap, crap, crap! She really can’t do this, now that it was time for her to face the storm head on, because she does not want to head out there, with all the people assembled at the altar, with Ichiro no doubt waiting for her at the end with a priest to officiate their relationship, but how she can move out there, thinking about all the peering eyes that were going to be set on her as soon as they tell everyone there that she was coming, and what the heck was she supposed to do to combat this?!

It was about to turn at 2 P.M, which is when the ceremony between them was about to take place, but here she was, moving around in circles nervously in a break room, while everyone else was surely waiting for her arrival! Why did they have to invite so many people over to their wedding, and why did she kept nodding to whatever information Jiro, Gori, Washimi and Fenneko has been telling them about their venue for months unend, when she should have been more attentive to make her ready for this exact moment!

Why does she feel like she just wants to shrink down and go hide in a corner? She knows that was the coward’s way out… but what the heck does such a title mean to her when her nervousness was eating her very essence at the moment?!

Continuing on her little charade of walking in circles, Retsuko heard the clicks of familiar high heels zoning onto her location, and before she knew it, as the doors to the room she shut herself in were opened, none other than Washimi and Gori were visible outside, which is when Washimi simply told:

“As I’ve thought.”

“Woah, Retsuko! We need you to get moving soon, because soon, you’ll be that blushing and flushing bride on the altar, holding each hand with your future hubby for life, and it’s going to be the most memorable moment in your life!” Gori said afterwards, looking absolutely abundant with energy, as she always is, but unlike her, Retsuko could only show them an uneasy grimace, which changed the gorilla’s expression in an instant, as she then added: “Retsuko… You’re nervous as all hell, aren’t you?”

“...Hmm, yeah… It’s like… as if my legs are knotted together, and as much as I want to untangle them, they keep tangling themselves together again… we’ll probably have to postpone the ceremony if I’m going to act this much of a wuss on my own wedding day…” Retsuko despondently said, wondering if this day was really going to be the best moment in her life, now that it’s as awkward as this.

Washimi, however, the badass of a woman that she was, took none of the crap Retsuko was spewing out of her mouth, because the secretary bird only went ahead to Retsuko, Gori following her behind, as she set her hands on the red panda’s shoulder, gaining the attention of the indecisive red panda, making her look up to the mature woman.

“Retsuko, I know how big this conundrum that your mind is seeming to tell you… but take it from someone who was shedding blood on my own wedding day, it isn’t as terrible as you make it out in your mind.” Washimi started, the breadth of experience from the bird being as massive as it was, and even if Retsuko had any rebuttals about even if it’s just her imagination frightening herself, she still felt unable to muster up her courage, Washimi continued. “We know what kind of character you have. You might appear timid and tender when it comes to diving into new and unexplored topics, but as soon as you set even an inch of your toe into that uncharted territory, you’ll be able to blitz through it without much difficulty.”

“It’s just as Washimi is saying, Retsuko. Remember the time we took you involuntarily to a karaoke booth, with you trying your best to loosen up around us?” Gori said, with Retsuko giving the gorilla a few nods of confirmation. “There’s one scene that I still remotely remember, when I inserted a death metal song in that box with a code that was revealed to me from the gods above, and do you remember how you suddenly changed from being a meek girl to the most badass red panda in that karaoke booth? You were KILLING it on those bars, Retsuko!”

“I know… but this is a very different thing to singing death metal…” Retsuko responded, still clearly not having enough faith in herself to go out and walk through the altar. “I did death metal in my pastime… but I’m not prepared to just go there and be… wed. This is my first time, which is why I’m feeling this nervous! What if I stumble on my way through the altar… and then everyone is there as a witness to see how much of a mess up I am during my own wedding!...”

“Then you get up, and walk forward with your chin held high up.” Washimi responded, being cold in the face as ever. “It’s really not that big of an issue as you make it out to be, and to be honest, weddings aren’t even that important in someone’s life, because usually, they’re more of a cost sin-”

“Ah hell naw, we ain’t having you go on a rant again about your opinionated matter on weddings, girl! This is Retsuko’s moment to shine, and she’s gonna be the most shining star in the altar, and none of this doomsaying crap needs to be heard from her!”

“Oh, the uneducated woman about weddings is talking about opinions related to weddings again, isn’t she?”

“As if your divorced cheeks have anything to add to the conversation!”

The two of them yet again started bickering amongst each other, and since this was about the ten-thousand times she had to listen to her best friends argue about semantics when it came to how weddings went, she stopped both women in their tracks, as she exclaimed:

“Washimi! Gori! That’s enough!” She yelled to them, bringing them out from the bad blood that would come out of them, as she then continued. “I know you two have differing beliefs and opinions when it comes to weddings, but I’ve decided just now… that this wedding is going to be mine and mine alone to judge. As you two have your own ideas about this, so will I… and even though I’m still feeling a bit undecided… I know that I want this wedding for me and Ichiro to be as metal as possible, which is why me sobbing about it here isn’t going to solve anything!... I think I will challenge this nervousness inside me head-on, and come out on top!”

The two women, who were caught surprised by Retsuko’s sudden motivation to show her two best friends that she meant business when it came to her wedding, gave her a reassuring smile, as both of them asked her:

“Then are you ready to show ‘em who’s boss?”

“Yeah… I am!”

That was all Retsuko needed at the moment to get herself back on her feet, walking towards the ceremony room with vigour and confidence, even if it was a bit difficult to move around with this big of a dress. After having reached her destination of the ceremony room, her father was just waiting for her outside the door, with Retsuko feeling envious how calm he could be when the situation called for it, as said man finally noticed her coming over with Gori and Washimi, as he noted:

“Retsuko, there you are. For a second, I thought you took a quick nap somewhere, and you forgot to set an alarm for this occasion.”

“No… I didn’t. I was just… a bit nervous, that’s all.” She responded back in kind, with her father seemingly not being that much surprised by it, because he said:

“Figured. It’s time I oughta lead you through the altar, and have your guy take you over, and if I were to be honest with you, you are quite a catch, my little girl.”

“Dad…”

Having taken in her dad’s compliment, her two best friends went to each side of the door, their hands locked onto the doorknob, having their eyes set on the two red pandas, her dad holding her hand for a bit before he eventually has to give it over to Ichiro, as Washimi and Gori stated to them:

“Are you ready, Retsuko?”

“Go break a leg for us, girl!”

With no other option left for her to do but to commit, she rotated her nervous head to the door that will lead her to the hyena waiting for her at the altar, and no doubt all the other guests as well, which is why she happily told the two maids of honours:

“...I’m ready to face the music, you two!”

When Ichiro heard the click of a door being opened, all of the chatter between the guests having been seated quieted down, which is when the pianist finally began playing in earnest than just patiently waiting for Retsuko to arrive into the ceremony, and if that wasn’t enough of a medium for Ichiro’s breath to be taken away, Retsuko’s wonderful beauty was sure to finish the job for him, because he felt a bit drowsy just having Retsuko show up at the front of the altar.

All she needed to do was to stroll across hand in hand with her father, and then it was going to be the time when they’ll be prompted by a certain someone to say their vows to each other, bonding them forever in matrimony, or as Fenneko would like to describe it, matrimony till divorce. However, he will do his utmost to prevent that from happening, because as much as he wants people to appraise him as an edgy and punk guy, he still wanted something like having an eternal love with a girl, and that girl was being none other than Retsuko, who was slowly making her way towards him with her father, with her two best friends already having quickly sneaked past the guests to be at the altar, joining Jiro, Fenneko, Jiro’s henchmen and Tsunoda on it.

While he was bewitched by the blushing red panda joining him on the altar soon, he had the capacity to understand what kind of music was playing in the whole room, which was supposedly an English song that Retsuko picked out with her maids of honour. The three of them struck gold with this song, because it sure was making him sentimental on stand, having comprehended that this was really going to be his big day.

His baby brother and mom were right there, watching this all unfold in front of them, and the two of them surely must have been proud that he found a girl whom he loved with all his hearts and back, but there was still that glaring hole that was missing, and as much as he loathed thinking about it, his mind was lamenting the fact that his dad wasn’t invited over to see all of this happen, although for obviously good reasons for why not.

Before he could even think about having his mood be soured by the images of possible alternatives that could have landed his father to be sitting besides his mom, he stilled that thought in an instant, knowing that thinking about it was fruitless, because even if he tried to convince him how he loved Retsuko, his father would think of Ichiro as a disgrace for marrying someone like her, when he could have simply been a good boy and just stayed in the rule that his father put him through, before Jiro unfortunately had to step in to replace Ichiro when their father got tired with his oldest insolent actions.

That didn’t matter to him anymore, because he knew it would be a lost cause to talk to his father, which is why he was content with the fact that even if he wasn’t here, he at least was able to have his baby brother and mom at his side as he exchanges rings with Retsuko.

Staring at Retsuko being guided to him was an ethereal feeling for the hyena, like as if he was experiencing something foreign, but undeniably something that was being positively accepted by his own body and mind, which grew more stronger as his wife came closer to him, the feeling absolutely overbearing as soon Retsuko and her father reached the altar, making the older red panda reconvene back with his own wife, who had a lot of sand in her eyes from how she seemed to be tearing up.

The stage was set for the both of them. After being handed over by her father, Retsuko quickly walked over to stand opposite from where Ichiro was at, extending her arms out for him, which he caught, making them hold their hands together.

It was an especially warm feeling having his wife’s hands in his palm like this, like having sakura petals in his hands.

However, before he would begin adventuring on describing the feeling he’s having about this whole situation in flower language, the man who volunteered to join Retsuko’s and Ichiro’s hands in matrimony stepped up and moved up into his position.

“Welcome, everyone, from family, friends and even the occasional people who were dragged to this place to witness this ceremony, it is my privilege to have been entrusted this task of joining my brother with the love of his life, Retsuko, to matrimony.”

Jiro recounted, and as much a few people were surprised to see his brother be the pastor who would be the one to officiate the two, it seems like Jiro made it his mission to get a licence for this, and honestly, he was hiding his snort in from how much Jiro was still his biggest supporter.

His little brother was the type to be an overachiever, and if Ichiro had any say on which person he would want to act as their priest during the ceremony, it would be none other than his brother, who seemed as excited about his job as he made it sound like.

“There is an abundant amount of questions you could put in front of my brother’s and Retsuko’s doormat for why they decided they wanted to get together, or even something as minor as how I was capable of getting a licence for this.” This earned a slight titter of laughter from the guests, even if Jiro didn’t mean his contribution to be their pastor to be humorous. “However, I am quite sure that if you knew these two soon-to-be’s beforehand, you must have been thinking how all of this was going to be an inevitable event, and all of this was going to be a big game of having the sand clock trim it’s last grains of sand downward, before we’d be in this very same place and situation. It might have taken a few years for the two to get together, but as soon as they were more romantically interested in another, the pieces fell down like domino pieces, and here we are!”

He told into the microphone he was handed over to have all the eyes focused on where he was standing, with him just being behind his older brother and Retsuko. After exchanging smiles with both his older brother and Retsuko, he went searching into his pockets, pulling out a thin piece of paper with the content being the vows that the two of them were going to exchange to each other.

“Please, repeat after me:” His brother stated, looking over to him. “I, Ichiro Haida.”

“I, Ichiro Haida.”

“Hereby take Retsuko Akai.”

“Hereby take Retsuko Akai.”

“To be my wife.”

“To be my wife.”

Repeating those words, he couldn’t help but have his hands tremble around crazily, and if it wasn’t due to Retsuko’s reassuring smile, he would probably have had a meltdown from how much emotions were blowing out of him at the moment, as Jiro continued onward with the vows he wanted Ichiro to say to Retsuko.

“In sickness and in health.”

“In sickness and in health.”

“I will respect, console, help, honour her and prove faithful.”

“I will respect, console, help, honour her and prove faithful.”

“Until death do us part.”

Having squeezed Retsuko’s hand, the only other way Retsuko was able to tell how serious Ichiro was about the two being married was by his face, which showed nothing but utmost care and loyalty to the red panda, which is when Ichiro gathered all the energy he had in him to tell us 5 words to her.

“Until death do us part.”

Even though he was barely able to tell these words to Retsuko, he thought that Retsuko being the one to tell him all of this was surely going to go a bit smoother, but oh how wrong he was, because when it was Retsuko’s turn to say all of this to Ichiro, he needed all the emotional support from looking into Jiro’s absolute stoic face before he would succumb from oxygen loss, his breathing having become an irregular mess as soon as Retsuko was able to come up to him at the altar, Retsuko’s parents were prompted up by Kobayashi and Shikabane for the next phase in their ceremony.

“Now that Ichiro and Retsuko have sworn their vows, they have agreed to seal it all in with the ceremonial drinking of sake with the bride’s parents, to welcome Ichiro…” Even a guy like Jiro, who basically had him beat in him to mask as much of his emotions as he physically could, couldn’t hide the little sniff he did there, before he was finally able to utter. “...as a part of the Akai family.”

Next up to act as Jiro’s henchmen for this laborious task of bringing over the three cups with a bottle of sake was none other than Yuki, who seemed to be the guy who enjoyed sake the most from whom Ichiro was able to retain from what their opinion about the alcoholic beverage was. The bull poured a good amount of the content inside each cup, and as soon as it was filled to the brim, both him and Retsuko’s parents took the cups, doing exactly what his brother and Fenneko and Retsuko’s best friends were telling him what he should do, and as soon they were able to perform the offering, before the two of them were escorted back to their seats, Retsuko’s father quietly whispered over to Ichiro.

“...I hope you take good care of our daughter, Ichiro…”

Since he didn’t have time to respond to him, or the opportunity to do so, because when the two red elderly pandas made their way back to the seats, Fenneko, who was viewing this from the sidelines all this time finally came up to the three, pulling out the ring box that was going to officially seal them together forever, opening it, with Ichiro being the first one to pick out the ring meant for Retsuko’s finger, as he slowly slipped the ring on his wife’s fingers, with her doing the same thing to him.

“With the giving and receiving of the rings concluded, the ceremony is now finished. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, Ichiro and Retsuko Akai.”

With their ceremony being finished, the next and final thing for them to do was the ceremony kiss, with the both of them being as impatient from having been forced to say all of that, ignoring the cheer and applause from the guests from the spectators seats, as the two dove right into a longing kiss between each other, which was the final crack in Ichiro to finally cry like a baby, because he felt happier than happy.

He… he never cries that much, so it was a surprise from him to see him shed tears like this, of him shedding it in the name of happiness rather than sadness. He doesn’t know if the next sort of things he was going to tell himself was going to sound profound or not, but he thinks he must have found true happiness being together with Retsuko, and he wishes that it’s going to remain like that until the both of them get old and weary, which is when it’s gonna be their time to complain about the good-for-nothing youth being lazy and unmotivated, it sounding like hell for that generation, because if Retsuko used her death voice for that, there’d be no way for them to remain unharmed from Retsuko’s otherworldly powers.

But he shouldn’t hurry himself into that possibility for now, because as things stood, he was in the present, and the present is what matters most, making Ichiro forget about that impending future for now, and just concentrate on the woman whom he’s going to share his life with for as long as he draws breath.

It was finally time for Retsuko to simmer down from the constant excitement and needing to be needed by the photographers for the family portraits, and boy, this was probably going to be the day where she will be photographed the most, even if she was an underground idol for a good while!

However, there was no need for that anymore, because now everyone was enjoying themselves in the main section and the secondary section in the venue, and in a base level, the main difference between was the fact that the main section was reserved for the two married couples family and closest friends, like Gori, Washimi, Fenneko and a few others. They had to think a lot about who goes who, and if she were to be honest, she really thought she was prompted to invite Ton over, but after a few convincing words from Ichiro, she sent Ton and his family to the secondary section.

She just wishes some of her friends aren’t really feeling that angered towards that they had to pay for the second venue, because as much as she tried to tell Jiro that the two of them didn’t need it, Jiro insisted that they do it regardless to gain profit, and honestly, she sometimes think that Jiro should sometimes have some empathy for people outside of his direct friends and family, because even if the money gained from those people were very appreciated, she didn’t want people to look at her weirdly because she’s some grubby and greedy red panda!

Thankfully though, even though the people in the secondary reception had to pay to be there, there was a buffet-style of finger foods with lots and lots of alcohol in the venue, and not to mention the fact that there were also some games played around in the venue, with the gifts naturally being bought by Jiro himself, having already bought them before Ichiro and Retsuko could have done it, and from the ruckus in the venue that she found herself in, it surely was getting competitive between all the guests participating in it, because from what she heard from Puko, she drew a prize that offered tickets to Disneyland and a few other goodies.

And speaking of Puko, she was currently conversing with her and her own mother, who were having a grand time listening to all the shenanigans that Puko has been up to during this whole time, her mother probably nearly falling over from laughter from the absurd situations the cougar found herself in other countries.

“Oh dear! You are one wild cat, like always!” Retsuko’s mother giggled, having heard another story from Puko in her time around in Washington, where the cougar supposedly dove right into Moses lake to get her camera back after it was thrown in the lake. Ah, classic Puko!

“Yeah, it sure wasn’t the most logical moment in my life… I have literally no idea how I survived and got my camera back! Ah, that sure was a fun memory… even if I was sobby like cat when I got out of that waterpath!” Puko responded, laughing at the life-threatening situation she was in with a wave of her hand. Puko was surely a crazy-cat, wasn’t she?

“Puko, no matter how many times you tell me, I’m still blown away by the stories you tell me! Is there anything else you didn’t tell me about your journey that was as dangerous as your time in Washington?” Retsuko asked, not knowing any stories in her mind at the moment.

“What, you don’t remember my time in India?” Oh, that sure was a dangerous time that Puko experienced, and now that she compares it to the events in Washington, that event was way more dangerous than just simply swimming through some river!

“Oh… now I do…”

“What, young lady, I request that you tell me immediately what you did in India!” Her mother asked, with Puko’s stories being something like catnip to her mother, making the cougar stir up a little, as she began telling said story to her.

Honestly, having seen the colour get squeezed out of her mother in real life was not something she thought she ever was going to see, but guess that’s not the only thing she was going to witness besides having her wedding.

She never saw her mother this horrified before, and even if she was possibly more horrified when she came over to the hospital after she got attacked once, the magnitude of fear that her mother was showing was… immense.

“...And that’s my experience in India! It’s quite a woozy, ain’t it, right miss?... Miss?” Puko finished her story, which is when the feline noticed just how gobsmacked the older red panda… until said red panda fell over from her chair, which alarmed both Retsuko and Puko.

Crap, she doesn’t need her mother to go to the hospital on the same day she was about to be wed! Thankfully, before the two had time to react, Jiro was quick to come over to the rescue, checking on her mother’s wellbeing. Wait, wasn’t the hyena in the kitchen at the moment to get ready for the dinner soon, since she’s pretty sure he’s the one that yelled at the head chef for where the lamb sauce was?

Luckily, her mother was wincing in pain from the fall, which meant that she wasn’t unconscious. Swooping up the fallen woman from the ground, Jiro wordlessly snatched her mom, gesturing to Retsuko that she shouldn’t panic and just keep low and he hopefully took her somewhere safe to see how she was faring.

She wouldn’t really be that surprised that Jiro possibly also had the time to learn how to be a ninja, because even though there should have been a commotion from her mother’s sudden falling, nobody batted an eye from the fact that a person suddenly went missing, and she didn’t know if she would be worried about the fact that it was due to the people being too engrossed with the games to even notice.

Anyhow, Retsuko and Puki did witness all of this, which left the two women staring at each other from the man who just stole her mother to see if she needed any medical attention.

“Damn, I never thought the guy who you went against in the election was secretly a shinobi. It’s kinda crazy that he’s your brother-in-law, yeah?” Puko noted, moving her head lazily to Retsuko.

“Yeah, it’s really insane…” Retsuko nodded.

“Hey, Retsuko…Do you think I have a chance with your brother-in-law?” The cougar suddenly brought up, making the new-wed bride nearly spit from the sudden change in their conversation, looking at her friend from school with shock.

How exactly could she tell her that Jiro was currently… unavailable.

“Ehm… excuse me?” Retsuko inquired of her friend, not wanting to tell Puko that it was practically impossible for her to do that.

“Ya think I could get involved with Jiro? It might sound like I have a brass neck, but I think we have some nice chemistry, and before you and your mom came here to visit us peeps in the second venue, he did compliment me from the dress I picked just for today!” Puko responded, making the red panda look at the dress that Puko must be talking about, which was a pretty peach dress.

“Oh, really?... But I think he’s probably doing that because he wants this wedding between me and Ichiro to be the best.” Retsuko responded, which Puko seemed to have taken well, since she only let out a sigh.

“I see… that’s probably the reason, because he gave me some fill-out paper and asked me to fill it out, and from what I’ve read from it, it’s kinda like gauging whether Jiro or that fennec fox chick is a better entertainer and host to the wedding.”

Wait… just what kind of thing did Jiro give Puko?

“Wait… did Jiro just hand you out a survey paper, can I see it?” Retsuko asked, hoping to see what kind of thing Jiro was keeping a secret from herself and Ichiro, because she was pretty sure that neither Jiro nor Fenneko said something about this!

“Oh, sure! Let me just pull it out real quick…” Puko responded, grabbing said paper from her pouch, and putting it in Retsuko’s hands.

Setting her eyes on the fine print, it didn’t take long for her to notice that there were only two answers at the bottom of the paper asking whether Jiro or Fenneko was better. Feeling a slight twist of anger boil up from her seeing evidence of Jiro and Fenneko still acting like children, trying to one up each other and making it a competition between themselves when it should have been a celebration about her and Ichiro getting together, she began reading the small paper through from the top.

“This is a quick survey meant for all guests that attended this wedding to put their votes in from who between Jiro Haida (the groom’s brother) and Fenneko Zelda (the groom’s wingman) has performed best entertaining the guests around in the wedding. If it isn’t that much of a bother, could you please sign this survey out before 9 P.M, and submit this paper to either Jiro Haida and Fenneko Zelda in the second venue when the evening food is served before the finale of the wedding? It would be very much appreciated.”

What is this? What kind of crap was she reading? Wasn’t this the exact same paper she once laid her eyes on, and promptly discarded with Ichiro, telling the two that they didn’t need to jockey for position?!

She was feeling a tormenting emotion bubbling inside of her, a scorching hot emotion that would tear the whole wedding apart where she would to unleash it…

Rage…

Boy, that banquet was probably the most emotional draining feast he had to attend in the most amazing ways, but Ichiro was still kicking with energy, and they only had to wait 4 more hours before the day would end before they had to drive back to Tokyo to earn a whole day to sleep through the day and probably have a massive hangover.

And speaking about a hangover, he was opening up a cold one with all the young guys, or just staring at the loads of alcohol at the table.

“Well boys, let’s commemorate Hai- I mean, Akai’s wedding by getting wasted!” Ton spouted, laughing greatly while patting the hyena in the back, and before the pig could have spurred into action, Ichiro immediately noticed the fact that two guys weren’t around the table that were invited around to get wasted, and as much as one of them was surely against the idea, due to wanting to be sober while he was still overseeing the wedding, while the second guy probably had the same idea, because at the moment, he was listening to everything that the first guy was telling him.

“Wait, my bro and Yuki aren’t here yet! We can’t just begin without all the guys here!” Ichiro stated, having noted that besides the two guys, everyone was at the table.

Weird, he could see Yuki being late, but Jiro’s whole shtick was that he always arrived on time, being punctual as always. Just what reason did the two have to be so late?

“Let me go fetch them, so you guys better not start without the groom!” Ichiro said, moving a few steps away from the table, but before he could went off for a short fetch quest, Shishido interrupted him, saying to him:

“Then let me help ya, Ichi! We already know how hard it is finding Jiro when he’s hiding, so it’s better if we have two heads than one!”

Not seeing any downsides from bringing the warthog along with him, he bobbed his head, and went searching for Jiro and Yuki with his help of his buddy, as much as the guys were less than pleased to see their drinking time halted.

Not seeing the hyena and the bull around in the dinner area, Ichiro made sure to see whether the two were in the kitchen, with Jiro being there to keep the bull in check, because without the hyena’s supervision, the kitchen would probably end up in flames.

The two of them (fortunately) weren’t there besides a few staff members cleaning up the kitchen, with one of them crying in a corner for some reason, and since he didn’t want to go near that problem with a ten-pole radius, he turned around in an instant.

“Hey…” Shishido muttered to the turning hyena, walking alongside him now. “I know the ceremony and the speeches are already done with, but it’s still good to see you being the same sappy kind of guy like always.”

“Me? Sappy? I think you got the wrong guy, Sisid!” He reprimanded the warthog, his edgy exterior wanting to combat the accusation that was made on his persona.

“Your face basically screamed sappiness when Jiro said his speech after the dinner. Don’t lie to me, my guy.”

“If I were to be honest, I always saw this day coming, so I had a lot of time to prepare my speech.“

Jiro started, having the spotlight on him after dinner had been wrapped up, with everyone in the dinner room having their eyes on the neatly dressed hyena.

“I’m just gonna come clean and just confess that this speech is going to be a bit one-sided, since I have decades more experience with my brother than I do with Retsuko, and I hope you aren’t offended by that, Retsuko.”

That earned a chuckle out from a few people, with Retsuko who was sitting next to Ichiro just waving her hand to continue.

“My brother… I’d probably talk about him for hours unend, so I’ll make it as brief as possible. I’m not sure if this is what all younger siblings feel about their older siblings, but to me… Ichiro was like a superhero to me. In some way, he was my idol who I took much aspiration from, and I still hold that belief from now. Even if my brother is probably one of the most turbulent and chaotic individuals, he’s still the brother that I adore very much.”

Jiro retold, making Ichiro get a bit embarrassed from being complimented like this, because as much as he appreciated this from Jiro, he really couldn’t be compared to superheroes, he’s just a lucky guy that likes rock.

“It sure isn’t a kept secret that my brother used to date a few girls in the back in his highschool years, and while those relationships didn’t last that long, the fact that Ichiro and Retsuko were together for so long must mean that he must have found the woman of his dream and vice versa. My brother usually muttered back in the day about how one day he’s gonna marry his soulmate, and well… guess that day came to be.”

Goddammit, was Jiro meaning to roast him on his own wedding, because he was feeling a bit naked at the moment from his little brother still remembering something like that… but now that he’s retelling all of that, he does remember saying that, which meant Retsuko was his soulmate…

“Ichiro, Retsuko… I wish you both eternal happiness. The future endeavours in your path might be plenty, but I am certain that with your powers combined, you’ll be able to venture through it. I’m… really overjoyed for you both.”

Jiro finished, and even though there didn’t seem to be any kind of changes in his brother’s voice, he could sense that Jiro was getting a bit sentimental, and frick, he might be getting sentimental too!

Ok, on a second take, he might have shown more emotion on his face after that, but what could he do at the moment?! It was his baby brother on the stage telling all the guests there how much he looked up to Ichiro, and what guy wouldn’t get emotional about that!

“You’re an only child, you damn hog! How about you get a little brother like Jiro, and see how much damage he can inflict on you emotionally! Even the shades aren’t going to hide the tears that would fall down from your eyes!” Ichiro responded, clearly on the defensive, as his buddy next to him just chuckled.

“Nah, I think I’m fine being the only family disappointment in the family. Do you know how much of a bad influence I’d be on my little bro?”

“Hey, Jiro ended up fine, and do you know how impressionable the guy was in the past! I still can’t believe you tried handing my brother weed!” Ichiro responded with a frown on his face, because without his intervention, his past self would have had to deal with a kid high on weed, and he doesn’t want to think how Jiro would act in such a state.

“Dang, I just forgot how much ya turn into a copper when your brother is around. Sometimes I wondered whether his innocence all this time was due to ya pulling the wool over his eyes that could threaten your brother’s pureness.” The warthog scoffed, while Ichiro remained indifferent. It was the older brother’s business to keep their younger sibling pure and innocent from all the things that the older one gets into, wasn’t it?

“Yeah, whatever dude.”

The two of them continued onward looking for said brother and his lover, which was a mystery to the warthog still. Unfortunately, the two of them weren’t in the main or second reception, which meant that they must have been hiding somewhere around in the staff area only, probably not doing something dirty to each other… but he’s talking about Jiro, so it’s not like he would allow that during his big brother’s wedding.

Even though Shikabane tried her damned hardest to convince Ichiro that Jiro was quote unquote “the biggest pervert in the whole of Japan” with clearly fabricated videos and photos, it’s not like Ichiro was believing any of that! No matter how much Shikabane and Fenneko call him a guy exhaling delusional gas, he knows his brother the best!

And thinking about Fenneko, her speech after the dinner was something that was memorable to him, but in a less sentimental way… and in a more teasing way from the fennec fox, like her usual M.O.

“Well, damned I be.” Fenneko started, her being the next person to do her speech after Jiro. “If I were to be honest… I really didn’t account for the fact that I’d be here, because I didn’t have much hope for Hai- Ichiro.”

Damn, Ichiro felt as if he was thrown cold water into his face, because having been told such words after Jiro’s speech was not something he thought he would hear. And here he thought he already got roasted by Jiro plenty enough, but Fenneko was sure to outdo his brother in that department, and she was only two sentences in.

“I’m pretty sure me, Retsuko and Ichiro joined Charayman around the same time, and while during that time, these two lovebirds didn’t share any romantic feelings towards each other, I noticed that there was some kind of an invisible bond forming between the two, which began to bolster in strength the 5 years we were working our butts off as newbies.”

Fenneko continued, clearly impassive in the face as always, and honestly, Ichiro was fearing the worst from what next she could tell everyone, because he doesn’t need to be roasted any further on his own wedding…

“Our lucky guy for the day realised his feelings a lot sooner than the gal, and while I didn’t know how Ichiro realised he fell in love, which I will keep a secret for the benefit of the groom.” Oh thank god, the last thing he needed was for Shishido to make fun of him for falling in love with Retsuko due to him seeing her steal company water… “And while Ichiro was complaining to me non-stop about how his feelings weren’t reciprocated at the time, as soon as Retsuko built up feelings towards Ichiro, their relationship sailed forward steadily, even if there were a bit of hiccups in the beginning. Ever since then, they’ve been those kinds of couples that are obnoxious together, but in a way where you feel envious about the fact that the two of them click together so well.” The fennec fox turned around, facing said groom and bride sitting together. “You guys better remain annoying until your dying breaths, you two.”

Wow, it sure felt inappropriate for Fenneko to say all that, but he knows that Fenneko meant that in good spirits, and heck, she was the one that had to sit with him for several years at a remote bar to cry his eyes out for his failing love life, so she should have some leeway to complain about her situation to all the others.

She might have never stopped not believing in Ichiro in ever being successful in woo’ing Retsuko, but she still tried helping the two get together, even though it must have been a drag for her.

After being done having recounted what Fenneko has said in her speech, Shishido and him continued looking for his brother and Yuki around in the staff area, and if they weren’t able to find them here, he should probably call them to see whether the two didn’t get kidnapped by Ton’s daughters, because Ichiro has been side eying those two from how they’ve been leering his brother. He knows they’re just teenagers, but he can’t help but come between the two to protect his brother from leering gazes, especially due to the fact that he was in a happy loving relationship with his best friend.

As luck would have it, they wouldn’t have to use his phone to call Jiro or Yuki, because they heard the sounds of two talking in a break room, and by their voices, both of them seemed to be male, with him identifying one of the voices to belong to his brother, a deep and low pitch voice that he probably could tell apart even if there were a thousand of people at the same time, while the other was a higher pitch compared to Jiro’s, just being a lower pitch than his own voice, and thinking about it, you’d expect the two to sound like the other guy, but that was not the case here.

“That’d be our runaway guys, huh?” Shishido whispered over to Ichiro, and even though Ichiro just wanted to make their appearance known to his brother and Yuki, the warthog put a hand over the hyena’s mouth, as he then said: “I wonder what they’re secretly telling to each other…”

Oh for frick sake, he cursed towards Shishido in his mind, and before he had the opportunity to tear the mouth tape put on his lips, he started involuntarily listening into what Jiro and Yuki had been discussing, which was…

“Babeeeee, c’mon…”

No, no, he doesn’t need to hear Yuki trying his hardest to flirt with Jiro, but since he was physically weaker to Shishido (how in the hell was he still a freaking pushover when it came into physical contact with other guys?!), the warthog curiously manhandled Ichiro closer to the break room, taking a peek into what Jiro and Yuki were doing in an isolated room.

When Ichiro was unfortunately dragged to see what his brother and Yuki were up to with Shishido, the bull had his arm on the wall behind Jiro, who seemed a bit impatience at the moment to be in this position, and if his brain wasn’t ringing alarm bells from the fact that Shishido was seeing all of this happen, he felt so fucking validated to see that unlike what his friends have been telling him, Jiro’s not the pervert in the relationship!

“Holy linguini… I freaking called this…” Shishido mouthed under his breath, and while Ichiro was still in a paralysis from the fact that somebody who wasn’t meant to be in the know about Jiro’s and Yuki’s relationship, Ichiro’s jaw dropped from the fact that supposedly his buddy knew that there was going on between the two?

“Yuki, no matter how much you try to convince me, I’m not going to let us unwind at my brother’s wedding! Also, are you fucking drunk?” Jiro retorted, very much annoyed in the face that the bull had him surrounded with no way of escape.

“Nope, I am very much sober, as per your request! Can’t you at least reward me for good behaviour?”

“Good behaviour isn’t something you get rewarded for… but do you really have to act like this at my brother’s wedding? We can resolve this tension between each other back at home…”

“But Jirooooo, you’ve been at South Korea for a week, and I missed having you all to myself~”

Supposedly, Jiro went to visit that woman that Ichiro saw a couple of times at their residence when they were still little, and even though the woman carried some kind of a vibe that made Ichiro steer away from her, but for Jiro, the butterfly really appealed to him, because she might have been the third person (besides Yuki and the butterflies’s second oldest daughter, or was it the third oldest daughter? That woman had way too many children…) who could have listened to Jiro’s hobbies without getting terrified, bored or anything in between. He really doesn’t like the fact that Jiro seemed to insist on meeting with that woman… because his gut feeling is telling him that something is seriously amiss with her, with Shikabane surprisingly agreeing with him on that topic. It’s probably the only thing that he and Shikabane actually agree on without much bickering.

“And I promise you, it was tortuous waking up in the morning without clutching onto your firm body and your grumpy tantrum you do everytime I wake you up… but could you please let me go and have us go back to my brother?”

“But Jiroooo~ You’ve been exhausting yourself all this day to make your stupid brother’s wedding the best it could be while competing against Fenneko, but you know that guy is probably overdosing on alcohol at the moment with his bride and I’m positive you crushed your wine pal, so let me just kiss youuuu~”

“Yuki-” Jiro stated, grabbing the bull’s chin to prevent him from moving his lips closer to his brother’s “The day’s not over yet, so control yourself until we can get back home, and then we can do each other all Sunday, which I’m looking forward to fervently.”

W-what? What did his brother just tell his boyfriend? Do each other for all of Sunday? Jiro wouldn’t say something like that, especially if he’s sober like this…

“...Really?”

“Really really.”

That seemed to have been enough for the bull to retract back a bit to think about the fact whether he wants to tough it out for a bit longer, until he finally said:

“...Can I at least get a kiss from you? Pretty please?”

That obviously earned an irritated tick from the hyena being currently put against the wall, but he didn’t remain that pissed off with the bull, because he soon gave out a fatigued sigh, telling the bull who was probably giving Jiro the biggest puppy eyes:

“Fine, c’mere…”

Actually, you know what, he isn’t going to bear witness having his baby brother kiss his childhood best friend on the lips without feeling like a creep alongside Shishido, which is why he coughed loudly enough for the two men in the break room to notice the two guys spying on their conversation. Yuki looked beyond furious to see the two, while Ichiro was convinced that this must have been the most embarrassing he ever saw Jiro in the face.

With their cover were blown, Shishido’s first instinct was to of course flee as fast as he could, but since he already made their bed, Ichiro was going to make sure that both of them are going to lay in it, and to make sure Shishido wouldn’t do anything stupid about the information that Jiro and Yuki were together, he now dragged the warthog into the break room, with the break room consisting of three flustered guys and one bull who probably was seeing red from having his kiss interrupted. And Ichiro sometimes thinks why the bull seems to hate him…

“Uhm…” Ichiro started, not really sure what he could say in this awkward situation. “We two were looking for you, since we’re about to get wasted… and uh… we walked in the wrong time…”

“You think?” Yuki pronounced, his grimace screaming bloody murder.

While Yuki was showing both him and Shishido one of the fiercest looks the bull could produce, and as much it wasn’t as bad when Jiro was directed that look to him, he still made his hair stand on end, because he’s know he’s gonna get wrecked if Yuki ever decided to use violence against him.

“...Hold on a freaking second…” Shishido muttered, now looking a bit more curious than nervous that he was caught in the vision of a bull who could kick his ass if it was prompted to him. “Are you two kids fuckin’, or are you more than just fuck buddies?”

Really?! Is that the thing he was going to ask them? There’s no way Jiro could stop Yuki from beating up like a freaking twig now…

“...We’re boyfriends… have any problems with that?” Yuki responded, thankfully taking his attention from the two of them to just the warthog, making Ichiro take a sigh of relief from not being in the vision of this pissed off bull.

“Nah, it kinda was clear as day that ya two kids were more than best friends… but do you two get nifty in bed?”

“...Yes?”

After the bull gave him an unsure response that the two of them did the deed, which personally was breaking everything he believed in his mind palace, because… because how was his innocent and pure brother convinced to do the deed with his best friend? Was he coerced to do it, is his relationship less pretty than Jiro has been telling him all this time, and was he being taken adv-

“Oh!... Damn, looks like your little bro has ya beaten in who had sex with their soulmates fir-” Oh hell no, he wasn’t listening to what his buddy was telling him, making the warthog shut up by promptly hitting him in the ribs with his elbow.

“Dude! Yukiharu is surely just kidding with this one!... Right, Jiro?” He reprimanded Shishido, as he then relocated his eyes back to Jiro, who seemed as equally interested in digging up a hole to die in it like Ichiro was at the moment, and when pleading the fifth to his answer, he said: “...Jiro?”

“...He’s not lying-” His kneecaps were kicked in. “Yuki and I had…. Intercourse-” A punch was delivered into his abdomen. “.... several times already-” An anvil was dropped on his head. With so many punches delivered from the words of his brother, Ichiro felt the image he held of his baby brother vanish into thin air, making Ichiro consider if he was dreaming at the moment… because the two of them were only together for only like 4 months… so for them to have done the deed… several times already seemed impossible to Ichiro, because Jiro… Jiro wasn’t the type to… do that…?

While he was contemplating everything he was living for, the man who was the main reason for why he learnt of the forbidden knowledge that never should have been picked up by Ichiro, suddenly started acting up, seeing as he began chuckling to himself, as he then stated:

“Hey, Ichi, you owe me 90’000 yen, now that we have confirmation on your brother’s and Yuki’s relationship!”

Wait, since when did he owe Shishido money? It was probably the biggest mistake to ever be in debt to the warthog, so when did he make such a stupid mistake in the first place?

“Huh?... When did I owe so much money?!” Ichiro responded, very much in shock from the amount owed, because he doesn’t remember any of this!

“Remember the time we performed at Kameyo’s house? When Jiro sneaked into our concert sneakily like always?”

A performance by a girl called Kameyo… Oh, he remembers now-

Oh, he remembers the bet. Well…. Shiiiiiit.

“At Kameyo’s?... I think I remember where that was… wasn’t she the class representative of your class at the time?” Jiro spoke up, and god dammit Jiro you have to keep your mouth shut, because Ichiro didn’t want to lose money when he could remain silent about it!

“Yeah, we kinda made a bet with all the guys betting on you two getting together while your brother thought you were just friends, and since we don’t have contact with those two assholes anymore, all the money that would have went to them goes to me, which is why I am going to be 90’000 yen richer!”

“W-What, no we didn’t! C’mon, Jiro, he’s clearly lying to get money from me…” Ichiro muttered, hoping Jiro was going to believe his brother over Shishido…

Jiro seemed to have been perceiving both men, like as if he was personally looking into their iris’s to see which one of them was lying, as he then said:

“Brother, you’re clearly lying here-” Why was his own flesh and blood calling him out on his lies?! Wasn’t he supposed to be biassed towards him in all things?! “And if you’re owing Shishido money… then you have to do what you promised him and give him the money, but it’s not like you have to, but you’re gonna appear like a massive dick.”

“WHAT?! That bet was freaking decades ago!”

“There’s no clauses to mouth-to-mouth bets, and I assume there was no set time-limit on the bet… was there?” Yeah, that was enough for Ichiro to keep his mouth from what Jiro has been asking him, because he sure does not remember setting a time-limit on the bet…

“...How about we talk about this another day, and just bring you guys back to us to drink ourselves to oblivion?” Ichiro inquired, not wanting to put up with Jiro somehow being on Shishido’s side on this, while also having his pure image of his younger brother shattered in all bits.

“Sure…” Yuki responded, who was quiet throughout this whole topic, since he wasn’t there when that bet happened. “But you aren’t going to blab your mouth about me and Jiro… will you?”

“Wah? If you don’t want me to, I won’t! Look, I know you kids were dating in a spiritual sense for decades, so if I was able to keep that a secret, I swear and promise or junk that I won’t tell crap about you and your best friends being more than friends!” The warthog stated back to the obvious threat that Yuki was telling him, but that was enough to disarm the discerning gaze the bull was sending him, again.

“... So uhm, let’s go back! The guys have probably gone ahead of us on getting drunk, so we oughta hurry back ourselves!” Ichiro said, hoping that was enough for all of them to go back and just ignore what he and Shishido walked into, and everything that they talked about, because there was in no way that everything that he heard here was reality.

Jiro… Jiro wouldn’t… do that… right?

The clock was slowly running down, with only about three hours remaining this Saturday, which only caused concern for the red panda, because the time was inching closer for the evening buffet to be served, which was going to be the time when Jiro and Fenneko were going to collect those papers that they discreetly given to everyone behind Retsuko’s and Ichiro’s eyes, and she was sure to make them rue the day that they went against her words of not making this a freaking competition between the two to see who was the better best man!

She had to keep her anger a secret from nearly everyone ever since she found out about this secret, with a few people including Ichiro if she was doing alright, which technically, she was doing fine, it was just the fact that she was fuming about her husband’s best man who had a bone to pick with each other for some reason, and she doesn’t know why it’s this hill they’re willing to die on. They’re even more petty compared to Gori and Washimi, and Retsuko was certain that when the two had an argument with each other, they were the most stingy and bullheaded women in the whole wide world, and that is not something that Jiro and Fenneko should be outperforming!

However, she already planned her revenge in advance, having come into contact with Manaka and the OTM girls to have the band perform again before the evening buffet started, which is when she would use her death voice to obliterate both Jiro and Fenneko, and tear up each and every one of those sheets of papers they passed to everyone. The OTM girls and Puko’s sheets were already terminated, with the rest of the survey being terminated when both Jiro and Fenneko collect said sheet and get promptly asked to see what Retsuko is going to be needing from them, which was to stand in place and take her frustrations out on them, even if they would be ricocheted against the wall.

She had some of the OTM girls and Hyoudou keep an eye out on both Jiro and Fenneko just in case they were using another medium in their ego measuring contest, and since the both of them were too busy hosting games and entertaining all the guests in the wedding, they were none the wiser about the fact that they were being trailed.

“Retsuko, I’ve spotted Fenneko and Tsunoda whispering to each other in a remote location! Shall I eavesdrop on them?” Hidarin stated over the earpiece that Retsuko snuck into her ears, which picked up any kind of message that the girl group wanted to tell her.

“Permission has been granted.” The red panda said like a military commander, wanting to see whether Fenneko and Tsunoda were up to something mischievous, because due to the huge personal advantage Jiro had of having more men on his side to do tasks all around the wedding place, they were definitely on the backfoot here, and if she was thinking like Fenneko, she was going to plan something big to outperform Jiro on the very last minute.

Be that it may be, that’s not something that Retsuko was going to allow in her wedding, because this best man contest was going to get cancelled by her, and the two would have nothing to do but weep about the fact that they’re both equally good being Ichiro’s best men.

Hidarin used the confirmation to sneak ahead, or that’s what she thinks she’s hearing from the twin, just in a close proximity to overhear the two girlfriends talking amongst each other, but not that close to get spotted by them, which is when Retsuko began listening into the conversation that the fennec fox and the gazelle were having.

“-e have to do something about the fact that everyone is getting duped by that stupid four-eyed hyena!” The fennec fox muttered, clearly distressed by the fact that it was going to be 9 P.M soon with her being in the disadvantage. “We went over to each and every guest in the wedding to make sure our influence would be greater, but that guy is inhumane! Even if we split off to tag two people at the same time, Jiro would somehow be quick to have talked to 4 people at that time!”

Calling Jiro inhumane isn’t what she would describe the hyena, Retsuko thought to herself, because according to Ichiro, he, his brother and Yuki always worked out on a Monday evening, which meant that Jiro bulked up considerably in strength and stamina, it being a very clear cut explanation as to why the hyena was able to outpace them. He also was twice the size of both girls, so it was expected of him to walk faster, because compared the stride difference between the three was very much one-sided.

It could have been more one-sided if Jiro called his boyfriend or any of his henchmen to help support him, but he either thought they were needed elsewhere, or he thought he could handle the talking-to by his lonesome, with the latter option being the non-preferable solution from Retsuko.

“You don’t have to worry about anything there, Fenny.” Tsunoda self-assuringly asserted, which made Retsuko stand up on edge. Having Fenneko scheme was already a bad thing on it’s own, but the fact that Tsunoda was doing that as well is when things could turn lethal, because she swears, the fact that you can never whether Tsunoda is sincere with you or not meant it was hard getting a read on her, and she hates not grasping people she knows!

“It’s very obvious that Jiro used his sex appeal to convince most of the women to vote for him, yep?” She questioned, with her unfortunately knowing that was the case by Puko. Even though Jiro was already in a relationship, he sure didn’t have that stop him from using his charm on women and men alike, making her feel a bit sorry for his bull boyfriend. “Well, since that smoo is using such tactics, I’ve decided to mirror him and attack him with the same underhanded tactics that he used against us…”

The fennec fox gasped in anguish, seeming perturbed with the idea that her girlfriend was referencing, but it looks Fenneko was probably honing her senses to be the best hostess ever, because Retsuko saw how many times the gazelle tried sucking up to men in an attempt to woo their votes, and if Tsunoda was the one to be in Fenneko’s, the red panda would have probably let it loose harder on her than she will with Fenenko and Jiro.

“No, you mustn't have!... We already said it through and through that we wouldn’t stoop to such a level!” Fenneko responded in shock, and while she appreciates that Fenneko at least knew trying to get votes via flirting with guests was probably a bit too far for the cause, that still doesn’t excuse the fact of what she did today and what she helped enable by being in this contest.

“Anything deplorable as that is all fair in love and war or whatever, and since Jiro felt the need to do it, even though he outnumbered us severely, then we might as well hit him in the face with that thing too.” Tsunoda explained in her chirpy tone, continuing onward. “Even though everyone thinks this is in the bag for Jiro, they are highly underestimating how persuasive I am when it comes to men, with me basically having a degree when it comes to figuring out what makes men tick, and while the hyena might think the same about his abilities to do the same to girls, we are way more complex than that, right, Fenny?”

“Uh… I mean, kinda? What do you even mean by that, Tsu?” Fenneko questioned, not really understanding where the gazelle was going with this, including Retsuko or Hidarin, which is when Tsunoda elaborated.

“We are thankful that during the attempts of you two vying for each and every guest’s vote, I made sure to tell all the girls to vote for you, even if Jiro tried persuading them as hard as he could. Adding that in the equation, and the fact that the gender split between the guests is slightly more on the male side, there should be no way for you to not win this, because you have the great majority of the votes, as much as the projected winner is supposed to be in Jiro’s favour…”

“What are they talking about…?” Hidarin questioned under her breath, taking the opportunity to communicate with Retsuko while Fenneko was too gobsmacked in the face from Tsunoda’s shrewdness, with the red panda responding back vexingly:

“Utter pettiness…”

“Huh?”

However, with no time to respond back to the questioning tone the guinea pig gave her, the two of them listened along to what Fenneko had to say about Tsunoda’s brilliant tactic, which Retsuko was going to either way quash without mercy as soon as it was about time for her to commence the counterplan.

“Damn, Tsu, you are a freaking beast! So according to you, I’ll come out on top, instead of him?” Fenneko uttered, very much impressed by the sleuth talents of her girlfriend.

“It was no problem, really eely! We’ll just have to wait until the evening buffet with those yummy desserts happens, and then we’ll relish in the fact that you’re the best… woman!”

The two woman celebrated, unbeknownst to them all that Retsuko overheard all of this from what Hidarin has been picking up, and boy, was the raging panda going to make sure they’ll think twice next time they pull such a stunt at someone’s wedding, because she’s going to throw the book at both her brother-in-law and her co-worker!

It was just 5 minutes before 9 P.M, and per her intuition, the two culprits seemed to have been collecting the sheets already. While Ichiro seemed more than confused as to why a sudden line was created, Retsuko was already plotting the demise of the two perpetrators, with having all of the OTM girls tasked with bringing the instruments around on the stage where the girl group would perform, and she’s so thankful that they were able to push in at least 5 minutes in the start of Retsuko taking the lead, making her reminisce about her idol career for a good while, before she eventually decided to get ready for her plan, parting away from the now more confused hyena.

Ichiro wouldn’t possibly have his younger brother get targeted with her death voice, but culprits like those need to be punished with the appropriate amount of penance for their crimes.

Hurrying into the backstage, she made sure to first take a moment to memorise everything she wanted to rage about at the moment, because all in all, she barely used her rage voice for months, which is why she also tried exercising, and when it came out like she expected, she felt thankful that even though she got pacified a bit from being together with Ichiro, her true anger could never be quenched, because even if it isn’t a shining star in the galaxy, the star will revive itself in times of need.

“Well, if it isn’t Retsuko, taking the stage dans le centre, huh?” Manaka quipped, adjusting her iconic pink guitar for the right pinch that they were going to use them for, with the twins standing besides her, and Hyoudou being Hyoudou, looking over them with a scowl in his face. That guy never has anything to smile about in his life, huh?

“Uhm… thank you guys for allowing me to play alongside you again, even if this reunion is kind of brief.” The red panda stated shyly, pink creeping up on her cheeks.

“We don’t mind!”
“It’s awesome that you’re playing with us again!”

The twins responded in chorus, both of them beyond excited to play with their prior bandmate and prior accounting director, and Retsuko hopes she didn’t set too much of an example for the accounting director of OTM girls to aspire to, because it would be impossible to endeavour to the same milestones that Retsuko accomplished with the girl group during her time in it.

“You should be careful not to trip on your heels. Wedding gowns are not as elaborate to use on stage than the costume you had in our hand.” Hyoudou claimed to the red panda, as stoic as ever, giving the leopard some reassuring head bobs that she’ll not move around that much, because the last thing she needs in her death voice is for her to trip over, because then she’ll be singing death voice to the floor, or her own high heels!

Upon hearing the sound of a beep, all of the people backstage knew that it was showtime.

Taking her trusty microphone in hand, Hyoudou wished the girls well in her performance, waiting for them to first go out on the stage that was built for her wedding in a short amount of time, wanting this requested because who wouldn’t want an idol group like OTM girls performing at her wedding!

Naturally, when she made herself known that she was going to be a singer on the stage, nearly all guests gasped in surprise, especially Fenneko, Jiro and Ichiro, who she could see from here, who were totally unaware that Retsuko slipped onto the stage to sing her rage out of her system, while simultaneously crushing those hefty amount of survey in the hyena’s and fennec fox’s hands.

“Hi everybody! Bet you didn’t expect the bride to make an appearance on stage, did ya?” Retsuko spoke into her mic, which was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear them, as the people she questioned nodded and hummed positively.

“I first didn’t anticipate that I would be performing on stage… but there is a special song I’d like to sing for Jiro and Fenneko, so I hope both of you are both ready!” She said with a smile, and besides everyone being blindsided as to why the two best men were chosen for this special song, Ichiro immediately realised what his wife was getting into, and even though he tried running towards Jiro to shield him from his death voice…

It was terribly, terribly late for him.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

It is my time to be a blushing bride
A cute, terrifying red panda
Taking the spotlight with stride
But there’s two bossy best men making it all about themselves!

Starting with the hyena having a whole army of underlings
Twisting and screaming his heads on everyone he meets
Do it right for his bro, do it like that for me! So much mutterings!
Just shut up and enjoy the wedding, this isn’t a spreadsheet!

And to continue onward to the fennec fox, your contribution is less, but your participation is still a mess
More discreet that you may be, it doesn’t absolve you of your sins
You spurred on, spurred on all of this, while you could have purged it, purged it all!
Just shut up and enjoy this wedding, this is no place to be condescending!

This is my moment, not yours!
This is Ichiro’s moment, not yours!
This is our moment, not yours!

The force that she unleashed with her death voice was enough for both the hyena and the fennec fox to immediately fall to their knees after being hit by her decimal of rage, both of then laying defeated on the floor, which is when Retsuko used this time frame to channel her inner death voice powers… to shoot a laser to all of the paper that were dropped from the seemingly knocked out hyena and fennec fox, incinerating all of the survey questions with one fell swoop.

Her anger substantiated for the time being, she began calming down by taking deep breaths and huffing smoke out of her mouth, hearing the sound of music and instrument being played behind her, which all fell to deaf ears while in her stance, and when her three previous bandmates finished, all the guests who were watching the play jollied up and started cheering for the performers, while Ichiro, Yuki and Tsunoda rushed to the casualties side, with the bull doing CPR on the defeated hyena to get him to breath again.

Deciding that she wanted to make her exit as dramatic as possible, she dropped her mic on the ground, as she slithered back into the backstage to reconvene with Ichiro and to see whether Jiro and Fenneko learnt their lesson having their ego battle it out at Retsuko’s and Ichiro’s wedding.

Phew… that sure did wonders on her! Getting mad at stuff sometimes can be quite refreshing!

The last minutes of his wedding with Retsuko were coming to an end.

It was probably just a few minutes from the next day, and surprisingly, nearly everyone who was invited to the wedding were still alive and kicking to continue further, with everyone now being outside to get ready for the big finish, which was going to be a huge firework show up in the sky.

Fireworks were a grand and fleeting things, and even though they were shorter than most things, the memories of gazing them up in the sky was going to be branded in someone’s memories forevermore, or that’s what Jiro told him is what firework are meant to represent, but to Ichiro, they were just a pretty pyrotechnic explosives produced from chemical reactions.

However, he could understand why some of the girls tried to say how fireworks and marriages were kind of the same, and even though Fenneko thought that meant because weddings were relatively short before the two couple divorce, the other girls tried to tell him it was because human lifes in retrospect were as short as fireworks, so if two people were to intertwine their lives together, the ka-blem were to be greater compared if they weren’t together for life.

In some way, he could say having Retsuko by his side was making him explode the same way as fireworks exploded, with him currently sitting next to her and waiting for the show to start. Just them.

“Just a few more seconds, and we’ll have our happily ever after.” Ichiro muttered, having her arm over the red panda’s shoulder, pulling her a bit closer to him.

“..:Yeah, we’ll have that any second now.” Retsuko responded, clearly flushed in the face as the hyena was, and he no doubts that even though they’ll be together for decades to come, they’ll surely still get blushed in the face at the action of just draping one of their arm’s over the other’s neck.

He probably recited this in himself countless times already, but he can’t believe that he’s having all this. Having a woman like Retsuko as his sweetheart, lover, wife, soulmate… it still felt surreal to him, no matter how much he shakes his head around it.

Ever since he laid his eyes on Retsuko, even though Retsuko at the time didn’t have anything outstanding about her for Ichiro to raise his eyebrows, he knew something deep inside was special about her, even if Fenneko once called the red panda the plainest of all plain girls. Ever since Retsuko dug a part of herself inside Ichiro’s mind, his life began to rise up from the depressing mess that it was, when his life was nicely put went into the shitter.

He was on his father’s shitlist, her mother barely called him, Jiro absolutely loathed him in secret for not being there for him, and the vibrant future that he had laid out for him by his father.

But slowly and surely, with the help of Retsuko, he built up some kind of hope in himself that maybe, just maybe, somebody would want a trashbag of a human being like himself. It might have taken a few years for him to get accepted by Retsuko to be more than just work friends, but after all that, things started to go uphill from there, even though there was a massive dump in the start of it all when he was… blinded with being appreciated again.

In hindsight, when Himuro uttered to him how much he could be useful for the company, he knew something was amiss all back then. It felt similar to being relied on by his baby brother, but he must have recognized that something wasn’t authentic with how Himuro’s words were compared to Jiro’s, but it felt too nice for him to point that out to himself. The CEO didn’t recognize Ichiro, Haida, back then as a human being, but as a cog in the machine. However, to Jiro, he was a human being whom his baby brother could trust on without any ulterior motives.

Without Retsuko and all the spy stuff that the people in the accounting department have done, he would have probably remained a mindless puppet in Charayman, doing everything that the CEO would have done without much thinking whether it was actually OK for them to do, because to him back then, he was needed by someone. Without Retsuko and the others, he would have been blissfully ignorant about how he was trying to relive being needed by his father to be what he expected him to do, but more importantly, it would have been like as if Jiro was relying on him again, and by his brother’s own words, he would have been his superhero, invincible to anything remotely evil.

Retsuko shattered that illusion he was living in, and showed him how he could have that in real life too. If she didn’t compete in the election, Ichiro’s path with his brother would have remained nothing more than just being related to the same two people who made them, but that red panda did the unthinkable… and did that exactly to change the trajectory of both his and Jiro’s life.

Jiro back then only could stare at him while remaining silent, seething why Ichiro failed him, and how he broke his trust in him, but now, he trusted Ichiro again, loved him again like he did when they were still little, and it was all thanks to Ichiro meeting Retsuko in his life.

Everything was back in it’s usual shape, as it should have been, and even though his father probably still had him in his shitlist, it’s not like he needed to bargain for his attention, because not even Retsuko would be able to redeem him. Some people just couldn’t be helped, he supposes.

Not wanting to think about his father at such a joyous occasion, when his wedding was about to end on the highest of notes, he refocused his pondering mind back into reality, he heard Fenneko speak up about how the fireworks are going to be released in less than a minute, which is when the people around the two new-weds began to countdown until the new day began.

“One more minute.” Ichiro repeated to Retsuko, and the red panda probably had sand in her eyes, spotting how tears were beginning to stir up under her eyelids, and this was not the first time she started bawling, but it will probably be the last one of the day.

55… 54… 53…

“Yeah…” Retsuko only responded, bringing her eyes to look at him, and if looks could kill, Ichiro would have surely dropped dead from how much emotions the red panda was emitting from him.

51… 50… 49…

“Before our wedding ends… can I say I didn’t expect you to unleash your death voice here of all places.” Ichiro brought up, still reeling from the fact that supposedly, Jiro and Fenneko tried to deceivingly compete against each other, which Retsuko caught wind off, and promptly karaoke chopped them on the neck for it, with them begrudgingly accepting that the both of them were best men, and that one of them wasn’t better than the other on being a best man.

45… 44… 43…

“Hey, the two of them deserved it!” Retsuko raised her voice, but then calmed down a bit. “But at least they seem to be behaving now.”

Ichiro followed the trail of where Retsuko was gazing at, and from here, he could see both Fenneko and Jiro from the sea of people, with both best men being close to their respective loved ones, and not working overtime.

37… 36… 35…

“You could make anyone behave with your death voice, I bet. You probably won’t have to chide our kid if you just threaten them with that.” The hyena half-joked, because even though Retsuko’s death voice wasn’t capable of brainwashing, it still influenced an individual to think twice before they angered the red panda again.

31… 30… 29…

“Nah… my mom was raised by my grandmother, and according to her, my mom used to be a troublemaker, and you know how both me and dad fear mom’s mom.” Retsuko replied, and she was yet again talking about her elusive grandmother who seemingly had a scarier version of Retsuko’s death voice.

23… 22… 21…

When the countdown began to go down to 20, both Ichiro and Retsuko knew that it wasn’t time for smalltalk, which is why they listened to the people around them countdown the time for the next day in silence.

13… 12… 11…

However, when the numbers only had one number in it, he knew that something needed to be said between the two, because the end was nigh.

“Hey… do you wanna?...”

“Kiss at the end?... Yeah…” Retsuko spoke the very thing he wanted to have with Retsuko, and since they didn’t have much time to waste, the two began to slowly inch closer towards one another, as time itself began to slow down.

5…

He feels so grateful for Retsuko, for coming into his life and revitalising it all. He is beyond grateful, were he to be honest.

4…

Retsuko also stated many times already that his feelings were also what Retsuko felt about the hyena, which meant that the two of them were kind of like puzzle pieces that fit perfectly together. Something that belonged together.

3…

The two of them were going to share a beautiful life together, and they have a lot of friends and families who were with them on that journey. Their parents, his brother, Fenneko, Gori, Washimi, Shikabane, Yukiharu, Shishido, Tsunoda, Tadano, and so many other people…

2…

And in the near future, there might be a little girl or boy who will join them in the adventure, and the two of them are going to make sure that said child will have the happiest childhood in the whole wide world. They might complain about how their father might be a lame guy, or how their mother can be a little scary, but at the end of the day, they’ll surely love their parents all the same.

1…

However, since this is only the present, Ichiro had his eyes marked at a blushing red panda, whose lips he had on his own, and when he felt the sensation of Retsuko’s love on his own lips, he heard a loud bang in the background, which is when he knew a new day has started for everyone, but most importantly…

A new dawn for both Ichiro’s and Retsuko’s future.