A Lingering Touch (Junjou Romantica)

[10]

Hiroki grinned from ear to ear while he stared at his online bank statement. He pressed the refresh button and the same numbers appeared before his eyes. The first check from his professional writing career. An amazing start and this uplifted his spirits to a high level. Sure, he received a small cut from his short stories, but the novel made way more profit. He thought upon making his dream dinner to celebrate the occasion. Half of the ingredients resided in the fridge which added him a trip to the market. He didn't mind. His giddiness overshadowed his usual morning mood.

Aikawa and Akihiko called him while he slept and left him congratulatory messages. Aikawa hinted at the BL story; Hiroki almost snickered at the way she sneaked in the subject. While Akihiko offered advice over managing his time. Hiroki chose to ignore Akihiko's words; the guy missed his deadlines all the time. Although, he felt touched over the meaning behind the words. Akihiko believed in him and knew his story ideas sold well.

Throughout the week, his cousins left him plenty of messages. Bright and positive messages about the content of his book. They expressed their shock about his writing goals. His cousins knew about his love of literature, but the writing aspect remained a secret.

From his last observation, the house remained spotless. Nothing to clean and no laundry to wash. A good lazy day where he laid around his home and snored away. Cuddling with his pillow and showing no care in the world. The coffee he drank piped up enough where he couldn't fall asleep.

All in all, the morning started on an amazing note.

He ended up watching some random movie online before his stomach grumbled. Taking the cue to get up, he went into the kitchen and made himself a quick snack. Simple rice balls. Nothing to extravagant before he left to the store. He prepared the rice and filled the contents of the rice cooker before pressing the button to cook it. In the meantime, he assembled the salt water bowl and fillings on the counter.

Once the rice was done, he left the lid open to cool it down as he wet his hands. He scooped a pile out onto his palm and began molding the rice in the proper triangular shape. Some of them ended up as spheres but he would still eat it anyway. While preparing his snack, he nibbled on one to calm his growling stomach.

The winds picked up and caused the bells to jingle throughout the first floor. Hiroki's heart skipped a beat at the noise. Hiroki wiped his hands with a clean towel and checked the vicinity. Hope filled his eyes at the idea of seeing his old friend again. He tried not to seem so eager as he sported a scowl on his face for appearances sake.

"Nowaki-" When he caught no sight of the guardian, Hiroki turned his gaze back to mold his rice ball. "Damn it...where are you? You know I finished my book. You of all people wanted to see the cover." He bit into his food and let out a deep breath.

Nowaki encouraged him through the beginning, listening to his mutterings about the story and imputing small suggestions. He sat right beside him during his harder nights of his continuous writer's block. It broke soon after Nowaki recommended walking through the woods early in the day. Of course, Nowaki followed him just to keep an eye for anything suspicious. The man worried over him due to those evil spirits he talked about.

He shivered just thinking about the dark entity that got a hold of him that one night. Taking extra care of his surroundings, he made sure not to stay out past sunset. He sort of understood why his grandparents insisted they carried sacred amulets when walking through the forest. The talk of the dangers of the forest extended to the boys, not just the girls.

He collected his rice balls and ate them as he returned back to the living room. His mind went back to Nowaki no matter how much he tried to distract himself. This flustered him as he quickly munched down his food and hit his chest when he coughed.