The CEO's Contract (gojo x oc)

Chapter 17

The music was blasting in the background, the bass thumping into his veins and heightening the already growing anxiety in his heart though to Kenjiro, it was all but white noise. He couldnt be oblivious forever.

"I mean, from what you've told me he's practically head over heels for you isn't he?" Panda started, repeating his thoughts out loud as he continued to shake the can of alcohol in his hand.

Kenjiro didn't even try to hide his distraught. Brows slightly furrowed as his hand lightly held the cocktail glass. Gently twirling while trying to organise his thoughts. He had clearly felt it.

The slight flutter in his stomach, the excitement that came along with his high school self when he had first snuck up onto the roof with his first boyfriend. He hadn't felt like this in years and the thought of it becoming a reality made him nauseous.

Kenjiro had a crush.

The frown on his forehead deepened, glaring down at his drink before swiftly lifting it up to his lips and taking a large gulp of the alcohol inside.

"Woah there, relax. What's lover boy gonna think seeing you hammered after having your first successful date?"

He let out a huge sigh, wiping his mouth before setting the glass down with a thud. "I made sure he was asleep before sneaking out."

Panda gave a small laugh, putting down the can of alcohol just as Inumaki swept it from under his hold. "You haven't 'snuck out' since you were seventeen, closeted in your mother's house. Is the thought of having a crush that bad?"

Kenjiro made a face and Panda threw his head back in a laugh.

"Don't word it like that."

The big bartender smiled, "Like what?"

"Like-like that."

"That you have a crush?"

Kenjiro glared up at the man, huffing before turning his body to the side. Before this, Rin couldn't exactly say that he regretted his actions. It was almost as if he was high on adrenaline, on some sort of emotion that had been awakened after being dormant for so long.

What he did know however, was that he shouldn't have kissed Satoru like that. Shouldn't have made it so raw, so personal. The man was a notorious player, if one date was enough to have made Rin so vulnerable, what's to say after a week of dating, or a month? How hurt would he be then if Satoru had decided the chase was fun while it lasted?

"Hey." Panda started, recognising the worried look on his childhood friend's face as the man reached over. Cupping Kenjiro's face with both hands Panda forced the stressed man to look up, squinting at the clearly drunken look on his face. "It's okay to want to pursue something for once."

Kenjiro looked convinced for all but two seconds. "We are in a business relationship, Panda. Bound by a contract."

"And what's to say he hasn't liked you all this time? I mean, the man's been going after you for years."

It could have been the alcohol, or the raw emotion that's been swirling in his stomach since the kiss. Whatever it was, it made Kenjiro honest about his feelings for once as he frowned. "Then why has he been sleeping with countless men and women for those same years?"

To this, Panda didn't know what to say as he stared back, sighing before finally dropping his hands.

"You're gonna have to ask him that yourself."

--

The boss's house was as quiet and dark as when Kenjiro first left it. Suguru sleeping soundly in his room while Satoru was presumedly where Rin had left him, on his own bed.