The Case Of Yokozawa Takafumi Vol 6

Chapter 4

He was exhausted today, the massive emotional waves he'd been battered by having all but tapped him out. He'd had work he'd needed to get done, but had made no progress, leaving him stuck longer at the office with overtime than he'd planned.

"Guess I'll just hit the sack..."

He returned the book in his hand to its space on the shelf; he wanted to get some reading in, but if he didn't watch himself, he'd wind up pulling an all-nighter. Every time work picked up, he wound up losing any time to catch up on his reading. The commute to and from work tended to be his reading time, but when he was as exhausted as this, sleep took priority. Being sure to take good care of himself was the least he could do as a working adult.

"...Literature, huh..."

The book he'd been about to read was one of Marukawa's titles—a book he himself would be trying to push as soon as his transfer went through. He wasn't particularly averse to the genre itself—even had some favorite authors—so he was confident that he'd be able to do just as good and fulfilling a job there as he was right now.

Ironically, he felt like the conversation with Yasuda earlier had helped him put his thoughts in some semblance of order. The reason he'd initially resisted the idea of transferring when it had initially been put to him by his boss was purely a personal issue, he'd realized.

It was ridiculously selfish and childish to simply not want to be parted from Kirishima—and yet that just went to show how important a part of Yokozawa the man was now. But if he was going to be so affected by their relationship that he wound up making stupid mistakes like he had when things had turned sour with Takano...then maybe a little space in the workplace was for the best.

He didn't want happenings in his personal life to adversely affect his work, nor vice versa. He just needed to set firm boundaries—which was easier said than done, especially considering how dreadfully awkward he could be.

It was times like this that he realized just how very inexperienced he was. Despite striving daily to be the kind of person he always aimed to be, it felt like he was being constantly reminded that hewasn't yet. He huffed a sigh—when a bright pin-pin! from the doorbell announced a visitor.

"...Who could that be at this hour?" A quick glance at the clock showed that it was past midnight, but as he sat there considering how suspicious it was to have a visitor this late, his cell phone started ringing.

"What the hell..." As he noted the caller's name, a sense of foreboding fell over him, and when he glanced through the peephole—there he saw Kirishima standing. He scrambled to open the door, bowled over by the unexpected guest.

"Yo."

"What the hell are you doing at this hour?!" He knew that Kirishima was the capricious type, but there were limits to giving in to one's whims.

"I wanted to talk to you—face to face. We kind of left things up in the air earlier this afternoon, after all. I'm comin' in." Without waiting to be invited inside, he pushed his way into Yokozawa's apartment, clearly feeling right at home. A plastic bag from a convenience store hung from one hand, and Yokozawa could see it held cans of beer and snacks. "Were you about to head to bed?" He must have noticed that the lights had been turned down in the living room and realized.

"I was. And it's not like you had to come all the way over here—a phone call would've sufficed, surely."

"You'd just try and put me off if I called. That weird expression you had earlier's got me curious now, like there's something you're not telling me."

"......" He seemed certain now that Yokozawa was hiding something from him. Kirishima flipped on the lights and settled comfortably onto the sofa—his pose clearly indicating he wouldn't be leaving until he was satisfied as he started to line up the beer and chuu-hi on the coffee table before him. "Weird expression?"