Shouta Aizawa has inherited his parents' teahouse and is having trouble finding new staff. Y/N has quit her job and is about to end her life, when she sees the poster about the open position and decides to give life another chance.
TW: themes of sui...
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Shouta was looking out into the back of the garden. The days were getting longer thankfully, which meant that Y/N usually spent the evenings just after she'd finished work outside working on the garden. It was already looking much tidier than before, but there was still a lot of work to do.
Which was good, because it meant that Y/N would be staying here for a long, long time from now. And Shouta liked having her around. He usually preferred solitude to having company, but he did like having Y/N around. She was very subtle, very unobtrusive and quiet. It was almost like she wasn't even there when Shouta didn't actively seek out her company. It was very comforting to have her around.
She was like some friendly presence and she seemed even more so when she was working around the garden, pulling out weeds and freeing the paths from any plants that had grown over them. She wasn't making fast progress, but Shouta didn't mind, because she just seemed so at peace doing this. And he felt at peace, too, when he watched her taking care of everything in the golden evening light.
Shouta wasn't sure if he should be watching her from the back of the teahouse the way he was right now, but Y/N didn't seem to mind. She had looked back at him, waving at him shortly, before continuing her work. Shouta waved back, smiling slightly. He really should have gone back inside and taken care of the dishes, but it was just so fascinating to watch Y/N work.
Everything she was doing, she was doing with so much elegance in her movement. It was almost as if every single one of her movements was so deliberate and precise, but at the same time effortless. Shouta wasn't sure why he kept thinking about her so much lately. Maybe it was because she was around more than before, maybe it was because they were getting comfortable with each other.
It definitely wasn't him developing some sorts of feelings towards her. Not at all. Shouta was still a married man and even though he had been separated from Mariko for a long time, it still felt somewhat wrong to even look at another woman like that and think about maybe having feelings for her...
But it was definitely something that was happening with Y/N. There was no point denying it. Shouta did have feelings for her and they weren't going to go away. Especially not while she was staying in the spare room. And while he was watching her tidying up the garden. But he also couldn't just kick her out. She had nowhere to go and he had promised her that she could stay.
Plus, he didn't want her to go. But he needed to somehow tell her about his wife and what happened between them. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to even think about a relationship of any sort. And then it wasn't even clear how she felt about him. Shouta was pretty sure that she didn't like him like that. She was grateful, yes. But other than that... she probably didn't like him.
Shouta didn't even like himself. There was no indication that Y/N hated him or anything, but Y/N was such a kind and gentle person... Even if she hated him, Shouta would probably never know it. And if she just didn't like him the same way he did there was no way he'd ever find out.
