★彡[ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ʟᴏᴠᴇꜱ ᴄʜᴜᴜʏᴀ]彡★

Meanwhile, Dazai

2 Days Later...

In case anyone was wondering -- Osamu Dazai was still not in love with Chuuya Nakahara.

At least, that was what he kept telling himself. 

Out loud, as he sped ran his morning routine, stopped a bank robbery on his way to work, and even as he tried to get some random pedestrian to commit double suicide with him. 

I am not in love with Chuuya Nakahara, I am not in love with Chuuya Nakahara, I'm not- dammit!

The problem with trying to manifest how very not-in-love he was through the sheer power of spoken word, however, was that it ended up backfiring splendidly.

Because just the sound of that name between his lips sent something giddy, warm, and entirely unignorable throughout his entire body. 

The second Dazai arrived at the agency, he walked straight to his desk and buried himself in an obscene amount of paperwork -- to the complete horror of his associates who had already prepared for him the couch he usually dozed off on.

Seeing Dazai being an actual productive member of society was in fact so horrifying that when Kunikida  came in that morning, he dropped his coffee, nearly fainted, and demanded to know what other signs of Armageddon had been showing up and why he hadn't been alerted sooner.

"I don't think it's anything like that, Kunikida-san..." Atsushi sighed as he mopped up the spill.

"I agree," Ranpo added around a mouthful of potato chips, "He just seems a little out of it."

"But from what?" Kunikida, who was still looking pale, said, "What could have possibly upset Dazai-kun so much?"

All heads turned in the direction of the bandaged detective. 

The already frightening scene was only made more frightening when it became obvious that Dazai hadn't noticed their conversation at all.

He was lost completely in his own thoughts.

I don't hate you.

Yes. He had said those words. Because those were the words Chuuya needed to hear. And the thing was, Dazai had meant them. He had really meant them.

But that was it, that was supposed to be it. 

He only meant to poke a little crack in the wall around his heart. But clearly the wall around his heart was very poorly constructed because it was like the whole damn thing was about to come crashing down.

Being in love would only make the already confusing nature of like even more confusing. And being in love with that man? Well it was - it couldn't be.

He had his fun. Solving a mystery and bringing hell down on the enemy like the two of them used to in the past. 

But that was over now.

Chuuya didn't need him anymore.

So Dazai shouldn't want him to.

"I'm not in love with Chuuya," Dazai muttered his breath as he placed another file on the stack, "I'm not."

But as if he had learned nothing at all -- sure enough -- that name sent a rush of something sharp and breathless through him.

He tried to counter it by summoning up the little things he didn't like about that slug in the first place. But that horrible smirk seemed so charming now, and that fiery impulsiveness rather endearing.

Honestly, this lack of self-control was starting to get concerning.

Exhibit A: that little hospital schmick.