Junjou Possession

Chapter #10

Junjou Possession | Chapter #10 l Minori

Satisfyingly looking over my clean-up of the closet, I get up off the floor and dust my slacks off. It took me forever to get all the blue prints straightened out! But finally everything is in its place: just like Haruhiko wants. Exiting from the closet I wonder where Ryomei is. He didn't return after leaving with Haruhiko. The ravenette did look angry.

Was it because he caught me and Ryomei so close together? I stare at the hallway wall, tracing back to the moment it happened. Well, what else was he supposed to do? Let me fall? Ryomei shielded me from the box that fell. I could've gotten seriously hurt if it weren't for him!

I feel my stomach rumble and I find my lunch bag in my satchel. Lunch sounds good right now. But I should report to Haruhiko first, I think to myself and head down to his office with the huge doors.

I notice that the door is opened just a bit and I slip inside. "Haruhiko, the closet's organized," I say before regarding my boss's composure with a mixture of curiousity and shock.

Haruhiko sits behind his desk, his hands folded and pressed against his lips. He looks troubled. He seems to not realized that I'm in the room. His eyes stare off at his desk and I see that his high cheeks are a little colored. Did something happen?

"Haruhiko?" I stand right in front of him and he blinks from his stupor.

"Ah, yes. Sorry. Would you mind repeating what you just said?" he asks me straightening himself in his chair. He seems absent minded.

I straighten myself. "Er, I just came to tell you that the closet's cleaned," I reiterate. 

He nods. "Alright, thank you Minori." Haruhiko spots the brown sack in my hands and raises a brow. "What is that?"

What does he mean 'what's that?!' "It's my sack lunch."

"Ah, so you bring your lunch in a bag?"

"How else would I bring it?" I mutter. Has this guy ever had a bag lunch before? Excuse me for not being rich!

Haruhiko pushes his glasses up and looks at me with steady eyes. "Well, since you are here why not eat in here? You are very welcome to."

I twist the bag awkwardly, feeling my heart pick up to a different pace. I still don't know what I feel for this guy exactly. He's cordial, strict and accurate-but I can't read his emotions. He's almost like a robot from those manga that I read on occasion. "Are you sure it's okay?"

"Sit down."

Immediately I do so, keeping my sack on my lap. He watches me pull out a rice ball and some leftovers I had from last night. I eat it slowly, my eyes avoiding contact with him. I hate it when people watch me eat. It's some sort of insecurity that I have. I don't like eating in public unless it's a private setting and with a minimal amount of people-but it's different with Haruhiko. I can feel every misdemeanor, every little mistake that I make in front of him that he calculates in his mind after seeing it. Yet...am I okay with it? I take a bite from my lunch expecting Haruhiko to have some sort of lunch with him.

"I will eat later," Haruhiko explains with the wave of a hand. "I have yet to finish revisions for a project and will work on it now." What's the point of me eating in here if he has no meaning to socialize?! He turns to a set of blue prints and sets to work scratching away. We do our business in a neutral silence while I busy myself with eating and hearing the sounds of the city outside the large wall-like glass.

"Minori." His voice catches me by surprise and I nearly drop my small thermos of tea.

"Yes?"

Haruhiko is still working on the plans, his eyes regarding this work seriously. "Do you have any hobbies, anything outside of school?"

"Ah..." I hold the thermos in my lap. "Um, I like to sketch and read." I honestly can't think of anything else outside of that.

"I see," he murmurs. "What sorts of things do you find fascinating to sketch, Minori?"

I'm able to answer easily. "The ocean. Other people. Mainly scenery though," I say finishing part of my food.

"Really? I find the ocean to be very fascinating." He pauses to look over his work, tapping the pencil in a slow, repeathing rhythm. I see his dark brown eyes shine for a moment from the sun outside. They lose their rigidity for a second, warming up into chocolate-like pools. "The way the water moves and all its color swirling around-it must be nature's masterpiece that it took an eternity to find all of its calculations to create..."

I am astonished by his detailed description. I wouldn't have been able to come up with the words exactly, but he took all the unthought-of words from my mouth and built the perfect description. In my mind I remember a class fieldtrip to the beach near a sea town along the edge of Japan. The ocean was a beautiful sight to see. And it was the only time I've ever been to the ocean.

Haruhiko coughs and looks up to check on me, pushing his glasses up once again. His eyes return to their hardness. "Sorry, I was thinking for a moment and all my thoughts spilled out."

"Yes," I say, almost quiet: there was something nagging at me from the back of my mind. Something I had forgotten from that time...but what was it? "The ocean is beautiful."