A Lingering Touch (Junjou Romantica)

[16]

Hiroki cut his conversation with Akihiko short. Akihiko chattered about a new novel he worked on, but Hiroki's mind drifted away. Not contributing much. He tried hiding his tiredness throughout the phone call but, he had a sneaking suspicion that Akihiko knew all along. Akihiko agreed on ending the call and said nothing to prolong their usual banter. He didn't argue against him and congratulated him again on venturing into the BL genre. This caused him to hang up on Akihiko on the spot. He heard his distinct laughter before the connected dropped.

This distraction helped keep his mind away from the nightly events. Thinking about Nowaki plummeted his stomach. The whole ordeal of the dark apparition produced nightmares and he stayed inside of his home. Hiding himself away from the outside world. Nothing new to people who knew him in his personal life. He preferred staying at home and working on his new ideas. It happened when he still had his job at the university.

When he ran out of food, he called his uncle to help bring in groceries. He provided the money and a list of everything he needed. His excuse of diving into a new project convinced the older man to an extent. He still received questions about his well being but he deflected them. His uncle might call his mother and inform her of his concerns. Knowing his parents, they would drop everything to come see him.

The circles under his eyes became prominent from lack of sleep. During his breaks, he used frozen used tea bags and bagged ice to cover his eyes. An old trick his mother used whenever she showed dark circles or puffiness. Then again, she used make up for concealing any imperfections on her face. Not that she needed much application.

Plugging his phone in its charger, Hiroki placed his attention back to his laptop. The empty word document mocked him. His plans for writing a coherent sentence slipped away with each passing hour. Despite eating lunch, watching a program, and taking multiple breaks, nothing popped into his head. His hands hovered his keyboard and he glared at the screen.

After a minute of doing nothing, he decided on switching to his work email. A new one. The one from Mitsuhashi didn't fit into his new work and he already erased it. Better to shift through his mail for anything new, it didn't take much effort on his part. Aikawa warned him about sending him a message sometime during the week.

His cellphone rang. Breaking the monotonous typing. A familiar bell chime which informed Hiroki of the caller ID. He set it for his mother before he thought about denying the call. Akihiko's constant calls brought him to assign ringtones for his contact list. He grabbed it and set is against his ear.

"Hey mom." Hiroki looked through his emails in boredom, he tried disguising his lack of emotion, but he knew it showed through. "Is something going on? You haven't called me in weeks." The sound of him typing on the keyboard broke the silence of his living room.

"Your name is all cleared. You're off the blacklist of banned professors."

Hiroki's attention went on high alert, he almost slammed his knee onto his desk. "W-What? How?"

"Motou handled everything. She has friends in different areas that secured your innocence. They found the evidence pointing at this person as the one who framed you. The young man's family has taken the bargain, so their child doesn't have a mar on his record. Much easier for everyone involved."

Hiroki inspected the outside of his window. "A trial is unnecessary. Such a waste of time when the humiliation of their son's crime is more than enough punishment. What are they going to do?"

"The parents want their son to kneel and beg your forgiveness."

Hiroki held back a snort. "It's the least this brat can do to remedy this situation." Fuyumi giggled on the other line. "What's so funny?"