RIVALS INCARNATE

Chapter Fifty-Six: Awareness

PRESENT, 2020 (Tokyo)

"It's nice seeing you again," his voice was a little gentler now than she had remembered when they had first met so suddenly not too long ago. Yuko Amazawa was not really sure how to address the man in front of her yet she tried her best to put a smile on her face, bowing at his presence.

In daylight, he actually looked different. Ebisu Akai. That was his name when she had read that document that Osamu Sato gave her in the flash drive. She looked at him with those masked eyes filled with curiosity. He was not even showing any sign of pretentious regard towards her. He actually looked genuine when he smiled down at her. He was also very tall. That was the first thing that she remembered about him though. She was actually very startled when he had been too forward in that hall during the party a few nights ago.

And now, seeing him in a different light made her impression of him changed quite a lot. Yuko found herself gesturing to the empty couch across her desk and he gladly took the offer and sat there with just a smile on his face. Then Yuko called for her assistant to ask for two cups of tea served. She then took the seat across him with the coffee table between them and let the silence settle over them.

There was really not much to say at first, they had been introduced formally. She was just waiting for the tea to get served before she could go down to business straightaway. And it seemed like, Ebisu Akai did not really mind the stillness of the room. He actually looked comfortable waiting patiently there in his seat. And he casually roamed his eyes around the expanse of the office, with that kind of quiet appreciation drawn on his face.

He was a gentleman. And Yuko found it quite pleasing.

After a while, the door finally opened after a soft knock, and Yuko's assistant walked in, balancing a tray. She slowly placed the tea set in the middle of the coffee table and gently poured each of them a cup. Once done with it, the assistant politely excused herself and left the room. The silence still remained in the atmosphere.

Yuko took her time to reach for her glass and took a sip from the hot drink. It immediately made her sigh and she quietly smiled to herself.

Then after a few moments, Ebisu Akai finally broke the silence.

"Are you really just Kyouhei's publicist, Miss Amazawa?"

At the very moment, when she had heard him ask those words, her whole body froze in an instant and she felt the chills overcoming her. She did not want to think he really said that but now, she was feeling quite nervous as she looked up and met his gaze from the near distance.

"What do you mean, Mr... Ebisu?" she warily asked back, refusing to answer.

Ebisu merely smirked. His face changing at once and Yuko almost could not recognize him who was just so nice and very gentle a while ago. Because this time, he was no longer looking at her with genuine eyes, he was staring at her with that kind of icy searing gaze that almost bore a hole on her face.

"You know what I am asking, Amazawa-san," Ebisu said, his voice switching its tone as well, and it got a bit colder and lowered, "Just answer the damn question 'cause I really don't like wasting my time."

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"Does that change after a while?"

Kyouhei Kurosaki was quite a little drunk that late evening after working hours. He had been drinking with his co-worker again and this time, he did not really have to worry about being too drunk or out of his mind. Tomorrow was the weekend and he was just going to spend it all alone in his flat. Ami Komatsu had been out of town to do something... whatever she does. Kyouhei did not really mind. 

He was actually relieved to finally find some time for himself. No more s*x. At least for quite a while because he figured it was actually pretty tiring to do that every night and now he was just too done with it all. He was no longer feeling anything but numbness. He just wanted to make him feel alive again and so far, that was what the whiskey and the taste of lingering burn in his throat had been giving him.

"You know, Kurosaki-san," his colleague, Yamamoto Tori, the same guy he had been drinking occasionally for a few times in the past, begun to say to him as he wobbly shifted on the stool that he was sitting on by the bar counter, "Women are very complex. They say things they don't mean. Demand things that do not even make any sense. And when you somehow did something that they did not like, even just a little bit, they try to take it all on you and talk s**t about how you're so insensitive and dumb or an asshole. Trust me," Tori hiccuped as he placed a hand over Kyouhei's shoulder and added, "You're always going to say sorry."

And he was actually right, even when it looked like Tori did not really know what the hell he was saying to him. Kyouhei fell silent as he pondered over those words. He remembered how much he had tried to reason himself out to Yuko and to Ami who were both just too self-centered to actually care about what he wanted. They just took every damn thing from him, asking and asking while thinking that they were giving him back something in return when the truth was... He never really got anything.

At least to him, he never had received at least a single ounce of affection that could have possibly meant anything more from having to deal with them. And now he just felt too empty.

The whiskey had been washed down and he could feel the effect of it as he started to lose his focus, the glass completely empty. And even when Kyouhei was almost reaching his limit, he still waved at the bartender to ask for another round. Tori was now snoring beside him, and it would probably be difficult to drag him out of this place yet Kyouhei tried to convince himself that he could just worry about all of that later. He still needed some booze.

Yet just when he was about to take the new serving of the liquor from the bartender who appeared in front of him, a hand suddenly snatched the glass before he could even touch it and Kyouhei followed it with his eyes as he found himself turning to his left and seeing the side profile of Osamu Sato downing the whiskey without much of a flinch on his face. 

"What the hell are you doing?" 

Kyouhei glared at the guy. He was not really expecting him to appear out of nowhere. He hated seeing him and every time he looked at him, his fist would itch to punch that silly face of his. Kyouhei tried to hold himself back. He was trying not to do something stupid. He might be a bit drunk but he was not yet that dumb drunk to do something like punch this asshole on the face.

"You got to go home, Kurosaki," Osamu said to him, almost as if like commanding him to follow. And Kyouhei scoffed back, letting out a bitter laugh as he swayed over his seat.

"And who do you think you are? Ordering me around like that?" Kyouhei drunkenly replied, "You're not Yuko."

"That's right," Osamu said, glaring at the total mess Kyouhei was, "And she just told me to look after you so I'm here doing this stupid job to get your ass home safe," and looking past Kyouhei, Osamu grimaced as he added, "And that dumb guy next to you, though I don't even know him and I wouldn't care. But since you're with him, I take it that he's part of the responsibility tonight."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Kyouhei frowned and tried to fix his eyes on Osamu's face but he was starting to get dizzy as he spoke to him, "We're not that close yet."

He was talking nonsense and kind of childish and probably he was already making a total i***t out of himself but he did not like the idea of this damn bastard taking him home just because Yuko said so. And damn Yuko for having this guy do that for him... Kyouhei was not a child anymore.

"I can go home on my own," Kyouhei said defiantly, trying to look capable but failed when he almost fell down on his seat face first, if not for Osamu who had immediately tried to hold him back by the arm.

"I could have just left you here but then I don't really like making Yuko hate me so I'm doing this for her, you hear me? You, damn moron," Osamu muttered to the guy but he already doubted he even heard it all since Kyouhei was now snorting so soundly and Osamu could already feel the guy's entire weight dropping on him.

He really was a moron.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------next chapter: Chapter Fifty-Seven