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After that night together at the gym, Sakurai had started acknowledging Aiba’s presence more often.
When he got down to their department, he would always make sure to smile at him, and sometimes, at lunch time, he would try to get Aiba and his friends to sit with him and his junior. After a few weeks, even Jun, who always thought Sakurai was an arrogant asshole, had to admit that he could be pleasant to have around.
Aiba was happy with this development, and while there still had been no actual time when he and Sakurai had been alone, he felt more and more comfortable talking to his colleague than he was before. He still made a fool of himself from time to time, but he didn’t put his foot in his mouth that much anymore, which he considered to be a success.
On the other hand, Sakurai was always the perfect gentleman. He always knew what to say, and how to say it. He never made a fool of himself, but he also never made Aiba feel badly about it when he said something weird. The more time they spent together, the more Aiba felt like he felt something about the other man.
That month, both their departments were working together on the same project. It wasn’t rare that the company would get members of different departments to work together, but it was the first time that he had been in a group with Sakurai, who had been assigned to be the leader of the project.
Aiba huffed as he walked to the elevator. The only drawback of this project was that they had a lot of papers to go through—as their company was still reluctant to go all digital—and his department had to bring it all to the tenth floor, where their offices for the month were. When he got in front of the elevator, he balanced the boxes on his arms to press the button. But before he could, someone else pressed it for him.
“There you go.”
Aiba could recognize that voice anywhere.
He turned and smiled at him. “Thank you, Sakurai-kun.”
The man nodded. “You’re getting these to the offices?”
“Yes. Are you coming?” he said, looking at the elevator’s doors opening.
“I think I’ll take the stairs,” Sakurai said, hesitantly.
“Oh, alright,” Aiba said as he got in. For some reason, he felt disappointment at those words. That was stupid. Why did it matter that much if Sakurai wanted to ride the elevator with him or not? They were still going to see each other in the office a few minutes later. “You’re sure?” he added, somewhat hopeful.
Sakurai seemed to be really thinking about it. He looked up at the stairs, and then at Aiba carrying his boxes while standing in the elevator.
“On second thought,” he said, holding the elevator’s doors. “I think I’ll join you.”
Aiba felt stupidly happy about that. Trying not to smile, he nodded casually and made some space for Sakurai to get in. His colleague pressed the button to the tenth floor and gracefully offered to take one of the boxes.
Aiba thanked him, letting out a sigh of relief when Sakurai took the box on top. With a content smile, his colleague leaned on the wall next to him as they watched the numbers on the display screen light up.
Aiba’s heartbeats started to accelerate, feeling Sakurai so close to him. He hadn’t really talked to him alone since that night at the gym, and now that it was just the two of them in the elevator, he felt nervous. What should he say? What should he do?
He was about to make some small talk, when suddenly there was a loud metallic noise, and the elevator jerked as it tilted to one side. They both lost their balance, dropping their boxes to find something to hold on to. The lights shut off as the elevator made another creaking noise and it went back to its original position, making Sakurai fall on top of Aiba.
They both groaned in the dark, the sound echoing in the empty chamber. Suddenly, the overhead emergency lights turned on, splashing them with a feeble yellow light. Now that they could see again, Aiba realized that he was just mere inches from the other man’s face.
“S—Sorry,” Sakurai whispered, getting off of him in a rush.
“It’s nothing,” Aiba said, sitting up and massaging his back where it had hit the ground.
Sakurai, who was sitting next to him, took his cellphone from his pocket and cursed under his breath. “I have no signal,” he said to Aiba. “You?”
Aiba got his phone from his pocket too, and shook his head. He also didn’t have any signal.
Immediately, he stood up and went to the display panel to ring the alarm bell and alert his friend Kazama down at the reception booth. However, no matter how many times he pressed it,—or other buttons—nothing happened.
He took his phone again and started walking around the elevator, his arm moving up and down to look for a signal.
“If only I could get one bar,” Aiba said as he tried to find a fruitful spot, “I could call Nino or Kazama and—”
“Could you please stop moving?”
Aiba turned around and looked at Sakurai, confused about the sudden harsh tone. The man was standing in one corner, fists clenched, and looked paler than when they had gotten inside. “Excuse me?”
“You’re making the elevator move,” Sakurai explained, through gritted teeth. “And I’m scared that it will—” he closed his eyes for a second with a pained expression “I don’t like high places,” he concluded, sounding apologetic.
“Oh.”
Aiba slowly got himself to the corner opposite to Sakurai and leaned on the wall.
“Thank you,” Sakurai said eventually.
“It’s alright,” Aiba replied. “Is this the real reason why you always take the stairs?”
Sakurai nodded curtly.
Seeing him like that made Aiba’s heart clench. He wasn’t a fan of the situation, but Sakurai really looked scared. “Maybe we should do something else while we wait to be rescued,” he suggested.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, like a game?” he supplied vaguely. Then, seeing the other man sigh, he added: “Don’t worry Sakurai-kun, I’ve been told I’m pretty good at providing distractions.”
To Aiba’s surprise, Sakurai chuckled at that. “That you are.”
“What do you mean?”
Sakurai fell silent, suddenly looking embarrassed, as if he hadn’t meant to say what he had. “It’s nothing, forget it.”
“No, really, tell me,” Aiba said, taking a step forward. He was hoping to get Sakurai to talk so he would forget about the situation they were in.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Sakurai cleared his voice. “Not while we’re stuck in this place.”
Silence fell between them. Aiba looked around, trying to look for a conversation starter.
“I don’t get it though,” he mumbled eventually. “Why get into the elevator if you’re afraid of it? You could have taken the stairs.”
“But then I wouldn’t be with—”
Sakurai stopped suddenly, gawking at him. Aiba’s eyes narrowed in confusion, and then immediately widened in surprise. Wait, was Sakurai saying…
“What are you—”
“Hello?”
Kazama’s static voice echoed inside the elevator through the speakers. Taking advantage of the distraction, Sakurai ran to the receiver and pressed the button to talk to him.
“Yes, hello, Kazama-san? This is Sakurai Sho from the sales department. The elevator stopped and we can’t get out.”
“I’m sorry about that, Sakurai-san. The thunderstorm reset the control panel, but I restarted it. You’re between the eighth and the ninth floor right now, just press the button of your preferred floor and you’ll move again.”
Sakurai pressed the number 9 and drew a sigh of relief when he felt the elevator move. “Thank you, Kazama-san.”
When the door opened on the ninth floor, Sakurai grabbed his fallen box and almost rushed outside with Aiba following behind. When Sakurai’s feet finally touched the building’s floor, he sighed and closed his eyes, slightly panting with a pained expression.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, as they started climbing the last flight of stairs to the tenth floor.
“What for?” Aiba asked.
Sakurai glanced behind them. “The elevator thing. That was totally uncool of me, wasn’t it? You must think I’m a coward.”
Aiba shook his head. “Not at all. I think it’s endearing,” he let slip. So much for not putting his foot in his mouth anymore.
Sakurai almost dropped his box again. “Endearing?”
“We’re already late, come on,” Aiba said, ignoring him and rushing the last few steps.
He didn’t turn around, but as he pushed the door to the tenth floor, he could swear he heard Sakurai say something that sounded an awful lot like “How can he be so cute?”