Chapter Text
It has been a solid 6 months since Hina's debut and Gorou hasn't been short on cash since. Even though his work for the magazine is not much of a profit, Yae couldn't resist paying him more than his paycheck normally came.
It's a blessing, really. But Gorou still couldn't shake the fact that he's been friends with Itto for half of those time. It's almost two and a half month since he first met Itto at the training camp. Which he recently quit because of lack of time during his finals.... Sara was very understanding fortunately.
Itto texted him almost everyday if not every hour. It's fascinating how consistent the Oni was it's like he had planned to befriend Gorou. Perhaps he has his own his fascination since he looked like Hina. Ironically I suppose.
During those times, Gorou still couldn't give the benefit of the doubt. Itto looks far too innocent to be a creep.
The Oni is good. Far too good. Too good for little Gorou's heart, who gets attached too easily. He still kept the pretty stone Itto gave him during one of his training.
Not good.
Because Itto starts to mention meet-n-greets that Yae Publishing had mentioned in several posts
***
"Gorooouuu"
"...yes, Ms.Yae, what is it that you need?"
Gorou's evening study session once again interrupted by none other than Yae Miko. They're currently in Gorou's room, accompanied by Kokomi and Kazuha.
"Have you checked your emails?" Yae casually takes a seat besides Kokomi who seems as curious as Yae is. Kazuha does acknowledge Yae by his greeting earlier but doesn't seem too invested.
"No but I did check my notification, had to turn it off so I could study in peace" Gorou rolls his eyes presenting his annoyance.
"I know right?? Ei reported this morning that your hashtag is flooded with new questions! More than ever before.." Yae scrolls her phone screen like her life depends on it - it kinda does since it pays half her rent.
"Ms.Yae it's... Too much. Too many questions. I'm not sure how many I could actually handle this time and I don't think it's going to be the same as the previous session....i-"
"No you're doing amazing! Have you not read? They're supporting you. Well besides the simps- which I'm appreciating since it's well-deserved for you but besides the besides the point's point!"
"Ms.Yae, Hina is a fake person. They're supporting her not me. The writings has no impact on me, and it's too many questions" Gorou close his notebook, suddenly loosing motivation.
"Does that also mean your writings were fake and merely pieces for the internet?" Kazuha suddenly interrupted. His eyes full of... something And Gorou thinks he needs to look back at this whole thing.
Why had he agreed to this? It's just a side job for his former senior, who happens to be close like family. Who would be more than understanding to accept if he ever not able to accept the ridiculous job.
He could have said no. The fans would find out, would they? Even if that never happened there's still something bitter at the back of his tongue, but he couldn't figure out what causes that taste.
Because he could have said no. Why didn't he? Why couldn't he?
Or does he actually want this...
"...Will you answer me, Gorou? Sorry if that wasn't a good question" despite that, Kazuha doesn't show any sign of playfulness, so it was a serious question after all.
"...um. Is it okay if I ask you first? You don't have to answer of course" Gorou starts, gaining all of their attention in the room.
"Of course, if that helps you to answer mine" Kazuha gives an assuring smile. That helped. Because it's less pressuring with less chance to get Kazuha to get mad. A mad Kazuha isn't a friendly Kazuha.
Honestly, even knowing so much about Kazuha for how long they have been friends, there's always something that Gorou couldn't figure out about the man. He couldn't pin point exactly what but he guessed it has to do with his calm yet sometimes odd behaviour. Maybe Gorou just wants an excuse to delay his own spotlight but it never hurt to ask, right?
"Why are you wearing that ring on your finger if you're not into jewelry nor have a partner? I'm just asking of course- I have a point I swear!"
Kokomi turns towards Kazuha, she wants to know as well. Kazuha hides his small giggle behind his hand, the silver ring shines brightly in the settin sun lighting, making it's small red pearl sparkle.
"...well it's a promise ring. As simple as that. I thought you were going to ask something else, that's unexpected actually" The smile on his face is as sweet as ever though his eyes tells that his mind is somewhere else. Unless Gorou had been worse at reading people.
"A promise ring? But didn't you say you're not in any relationship??!!" Kokomi gasps and shakes Kazuha's shoulders, Yae makes an 'oh?' face.
Kazuha simply laughs, "well I was, the person had promised me love till the end of time, hence the matching promise rings"
"But you're single??!! Are you not single?? What have you been hiding what has been happening?' Yae is unusually invested than usual.
"Well... we had a promise, to love eachother till the end of time, no matter the time, place, or phase of our lives. How could I ever break it if go in a new relationship?"
Past tense.
"Wait... Kazuha-"
"Though he has long passed away, never had he broke the promise till the end of his time, so wouldn't i, untill the end of mine" Kazuha gives a warm smile.
"Gorou .." Kokomi hugs Kazuha's side trying to comfort him but Gorou's not seeing a glint of sadness in his eyes. The man seems happy and calm, longing at most?. If it were Gorou he would have broke into tears, I guess that's just how beautifully complicated pure love is. He'd rather die virgin than to experience fake love. Which he doesn't even recognize what's real or not anymore.
".... I think I do like this job, Ms.Yae"
"I'm sure you do, it's your passion after all"
"And I think I'd like to start to believe I'm not doing this for the sake of it. Well, id like for this to be something I look back on and be joyful about it so I think as long as you kept the privacy under control I'd be more than happy to continue"
Yae firmly nods,
"I think it's great, I get to do what I like most and help others, and I've gotten many loyal readers over the years. It's gonna be hard to let those go just for the few temporary viral posts"
Gorou gives Yae a reassuring smile, which she appreciates with her own.
" Of course"
Speaking of fake, has it been intentional of Arataki Itto to be so fond of him? He did mention multiple times of his obsession with the Ms.Hina persona. Even if he doesn't know it's Gorou, being so close to Gorou just because of the resemblance is enough to leave a bad taste on his tongue. There's a small chance teh guy's genuinely friendly but it does not do good for Gorou's small heart.
***
"Gosh she's so cute, look what she posted!"
Itto shoves his phone onto Shinobu's hand for approximately 17th time that afternoon.
"Yea a mirror selfie at a studio, cool. Have u done your errands, boss?"
" I knowww look at those papers she's holding you think it's some answers for the QnA?"
"...."
"What"
"...?"
"Oh. No I haven't done my errands"
Shinobu sighs. "You always procrastinate on your errands, how are we going get the stocks ready?"
"Yeah. You're right sorry. I will ask someone to come along with me as well tonight to keep me in check, ok? Promise" Itto salutes, puts his phone onto the table of their gang's hangout table, but not turning it off.
"...good to hear. Sometimes I wonder if you even like your job"
"I love it more than anything! Once everything is cleared, i will still keep patrolling" Itto has this look on his face, it's nothing dramatic but it's something Shinobu knows that shows her boss isn't giving up on their whole goal yet. Not soon. People needs the Arataki gang after all... consciously or not.
"So, about your little friend, he went to university with Kujou Sara?" Shinobu closes her notebook, leaning back onto th couch and looks at Itto.
"Yea his name's Gorou. Pretty cool,huh. I mean he's way cooler with the ears and everything I thought they were fake!"
"You mean Shibanese? Isn't MissHina one as well?" She quickly looks at Ittos phone to make sure and yes, they are of the same kind.
"Indeed! Dog people always had cool looks. I tried touching his ears but he doesn't seem comfortable with that.
"Hm I guess he gets people asking that same question often"
"Probably? I should ask him"
"Especially now that MissHina is gaining popularity in the community, you don't think people are starting to be fond of Shibanese more? Since they are quite rare.... Though I don't expect much. Good stuff to observe nonetheless"
"Oooohh yea I see now. They even look similar I would believe off the bat if someone said they'd be siblings"
"Who knows"
***
Gorou wakes up again, this time it's the weekend and the weather seem to be on his side. It's a sunny day after the rain! Gorou knew it was raining around dawn, which leads to a comfortable weather to lay around the house. It makes doing work way less daunting.
After a quick shower and brushing his teeth, he settles to make breakfast. A simple toasts with avocado should do it. He'll have a heavier lunch later.
Now that his toasts are ready, he puts his breakfast right beside his laptop that's conveniently placed at his tiny dinner table. Gorou opens up his email to read letters chosen to be read and answered for this month's issue of That's Life. They made it really convenient ever since Miko hired an assistant to filter the questions on Twitter and the emails. Tho the Twitter QnA is less important he still insist they're worth looking into as well even tho it's only visible on Ms.Hina's profile. Some that stands out do get featured which was their most popular content for years.
As he's done sending the 5th email that morning, Gorou is met with one of his regular sender, Arataki Itto. Even though the email has no name of Itto whatsoever he knows [email protected] way too well, sometimes even before Ms.Hina existed.
To: Ms.Hina
Subject: My amazing week ft friends and family
Dear, miss Hina
It's me again! As usual I'd tell you abou my day and week before ASKING so you know the background, ofc. (It'll be a long one but it'll be exiting I swear!)
On Monday, I went to visit my bro Ayato at his place to pick up some trading cards, he lost from me last time who knew that dude has the face to lose again ahaahahhah! Anyways I got some really cool cards one of them has a purple dragon on it, it reminds me of my onikabuto buddy, so I will send it to your next P.O box once you open it again!
On Tuesday I went on a break with my bros from my gang, after we finish our work and palyed with the neighborhood kids, I immediately thought of 'heyyy how would half breeds kids handle their hair?' that's cause I recently has a Shibanese friend and his hair is really soft and fluffy it seems so hard to maintain so I thought of how does kids survive with that sort of situation especially if they're homeless? I hope you'll answer with some suggestions with that
Speaking of Shibanese friend, he's so gorgeous you have no idea, I start to believe Shibanese are attractive one way or another. I went to meet him on Wednesday after his afternoon class and he's so cool so nice so polite, I even get to talk about card games with him and he actually had FUN listening! We even went to get ice cream later
On Thursday I ask him to hang out again but he declined cuz he had work to do. Understandable but it still makes me down a little bit. Just a little tho. But I've always felt so good whenever I'm with him even tho we only knew eachother for like, 3 months! It's like im having a crush on him, maybe cuz he has really cute face and cute ears and cute smile with his cute cheeks and pretty eyes and
Gorou couldn't finish reading the email. Not because it's too long. It's because he couldn't take and shake the fact that Itto is talking about him in his email. Especially in that way. Oh it has to be platonic. It has to be!!!
This is again, not good for Gorou's poor little heart.
***
"Xiaaaaoooooo"
"Yes?" Xiao averts his attention away from his tablet to Aether. They're in his living room at the moment, since Aether's class is cancelled again because his professor couldn't stop taking family issues break.
"I need your attention"
"You have my attention"
"I was talking for the past hour, Xiao"
"I listened. Gorou had an existential crisis and came to you crying over a gang leader who had IQ lower than a goldfish"
"Good. So what do you think?"
".... I'd rather not" Xiao shifts his focus back to his tablet. A true crime documentary playing.
"Why is that?" Aether sits properly on the couch instead of laying on his back, facing Xiao within whispering range. "Did you found out about something?"
"No, not at exactly" Xiao turns off his tablet screen and faces Aether. "Yea Miko often gets in few scandals behind the scene. I.. don't know every last detail but i heard enough from Zhongli to not stick my nose in"
"So he do tell those stories as well huh" Aether leans onto Xiao's shoulder, assuming there's more to tell so he gets comfy. "Is there anything I should be worried about?"
"I don't think so. If anything your friend should be careful since online magazine these days gets many views. With views comes the fans and you know how this could go, especially under Milo's influence"
Aether nods. "I'll watch over him. If anything Kazuha would know since he always knows any news before everyone else"
"Good to hear"