Hozuki's Shadow--Hozuki x reader (Hoozuki no Reitetsu)

Chapter 9

"It bothers me because I love you!"

Everyone stared—Karauri, Nasubi, Oko...even King Enma had paused in his storytelling to watch. And, of course, there was (F/N), staring, mouth open, still trapped by his hand on her wrist.

Slowly, (F/N) knelt down. Then, lightning-fast, she grabbed a hot pepper, shoved it into Hozuki's mouth, and ran.

~o0o~

The next day, everything at the Offices of Enma was relatively normal. The only difference was that the Chief of Staff and Assistant Chief of Staff were not on speaking terms.

Karauri made sure to avoid the twin land mines as much as he possibly could, and, for the most part, he was lucky. That luck ran out, however, with a particularly cowardly coworker shoved a bunch of papers into his arms, and said, "here, you deal with them!"

So now Karauri was tiptoeing into their shared office, hoping things weren't going to get as bad as they were the previous night.

To his relief, everything was quiet. On one end of the office, Hozuki sat writing something. On the other, (F/N) drifted around aimlessly, staring intently at something attached to a clipboard.

Karauri quickly left the papers on Hozuki's desk, and hurried to the door. Before he could leave, however, he paused, and stopped next to (F/N), still staring at her clipboard.

"Um, (F/N)-san?" he whispered.

She jumped, and turned to him with a smile.

"Oh, hey, Karauri-kun, what's up?"

"Um, I was just wondering, is everything...all right?"

She stared at him a moment, then glanced over her shoulder at Hozuki, and sighed.

"Don't worry about it," she assured him. "It's not the first time something like this has happened."

Karauri thought back to King Enma's story, and gulped.

I don't want to kick the hornet's nest, but still...I have to wonder...

He glanced at Hozuki, who was scowling down at his work, and lowered his voice to a whisper.

"If you don't mind my asking, how did you feel about what Hozuki-sama said?"

(F/N) tilted her head to the side. "What part of it?"

"Well...you know..." He stole another glance at the desk. "The 'I love you' thing."

"Oh, that..." (F/N) thought for a moment, and when she spoke, he winced at the volume of her voice. "That was kind of weird. I mean, we've been friends since childhood, so I know he cares about me, but for him to just come out and say it...it's strange...it just doesn't seem like him, you know?"

While Karauri was staring at her, (F/N)'s phone buzzed, and she flipped it open, eyes widening when she saw the screen.

"Oh, I forgot I'm supposed to be inspecting Black Cord Hell! See you later!"

With a hurried goodbye, she rushed out the door, leaving Karauri to process what he'd just heard.

"Hozuki-sama said all that...and she didn't understand a word of it..."

"I have to say, I'm not particularly surprised."

Karauri jumped, and turned around to see Hozuki had paused in his work, and was currently glaring down at the paper, pen in hand.