Unmistaken Pleasures

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3: THE CONTRACT

Dazai remained calmly seated in his chair as his eyes watched the door close. The tranquil ambience within the room feels colder. Chuuya's no longer inside his office. Without the man's presence, everything seems more silent. He's all alone now. In silence, his eyes lower on the printed fanfiction that he's currently holding, and his gaze lingers on the title of the work that he's holding.

The Devil's Temptation.

His half-lidded eyes stare at it emotionlessly. In his deep voice, he whispers, "Temptation, hmm?"

Dazai's eyes remained impassive, and his lips remained calmly pressed against each other. While staring at the paper, a certain memory flashes through his senses like nostalgia. With a calm exhale, Dazai slowly loosens his tie and leans on his chair before closing his eyes. The cold inside his room embraces him, but with his eyes closed, an image of a person flashes within his vision.

Nakahara Chuuya.

You're such a sinful temptation.

The image of the man continues to visit his senses until, slowly, such visions drift into the memory that he holds within his mind. That memory continues to play inside like a broken cassette. It's a memory from a few years ago. In that memory, he's sitting inside a huge library while reading his law book. He's currently reading the special proceeding in special civil actions. The sound of pages being harshly flipped echoes behind him, and that's a little distracting.

He's still a law student in his third year of law school, and he needed to review this subject for an upcoming examination later. He needs silence. He should've read this last night, but the unknown noises that aren't heard by ears are noisier than ever. Despite his photographic memory, which makes things easier for him, it's still a fact that he needs to read the subject matter. It's a shame he spent his night in utter disappointment. Thus, today, he needs to read everything. He needs to focus.

He must focus.

His memory is highly functional, but to use it to its full potential, he needs a very silent atmosphere. He needs silence—

"Motherfucker."

The highlighter almost slips from his hand when he hears a raspy voice muttering those words from behind him. It is the same person who flips his book's pages loudly. The same person that's been distracting him since earlier. It's a library but the way the man's voice exclaims those is louder than it should be. It makes his eyes narrow calmly.

"What the fuck is wrong with Malthus? He's a shitty piece of— damn it, because of that fucking theory of population, I'm fucking suffering right now!" The person behind him is muttering those words in frustration. Stress and helplessness are visible in his voice, "Goddamn it! I forgot what I read yesterday."

Dazai's brows curl a little. He must ignore that voice and focus on his own book but that voice continues to rant nonstop. It made it harder for him to disregard the man behind him.