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“Ew.” Gaku wrinkles his nose as he exits Raccord. “It’s you.”
Toichiro rolls his eyes in obvious disdain, causing his temper to flare. Seeing the businessman is bad enough. Just being in the same 15 feet radius is enough to set off a lesser man.
“In the flesh.”
“What, no babysitter today?”
“Unfortunately, Shizuki is off doing more errands for me. You know, since I’m a very busy man.”
“Last I heard, you literally made Futaba run to your place for the entirety of last week to ‘look’ at art pieces.”
Gaku uses air quotes because it only takes a fool and Futaba to be the only people unable to see that the businessman is smitten with the woman.
Although Toichiro's version of smitten is relentlessly cohering the woman into bothersome activities. On a better day, it could be comparable to an elementary kid bullying their crush. Usually, Toichiro tests Gaku's patience when the man runs her dry. The days he spends personally requesting her, leaving less time for herself and more time into work because of Toichiro's whims.
And naturally, Futaba is too kind to decline. And even if she wanted to, it's a business call for her. It would be rude to decline, and she's anything but. So she sucks it up and goes regardless.
Which also leads to his less than stellar temper.
“At least I am not a child pinning over a woman almost twice their age.”
Gaku fights the red that threatens to reach his neck. Since she has had less time, that means there's less time for his brother. It also means there's less time to give the gifts he has in return for the last visit. He also has to stop himself from dropping everything right there to fight the man. Who cares if he’s 4 inches shorter? Someone needs to threaten a little violence to get his head out of his ass.
“It’s not like that,” he bites back stiffly. “Futaba just works closely with my brother. Plus, sometimes her family commissions us as a part of their job. Replacing pieces of rusted pieces.”
“Yeah, and that’s the reason you linger around for snacks despite hating all the sweets she makes.”
“I don’t hate them!” Toichiro’s eyebrows rise to his hairline, and Gaku has to reel himself back. “They’re for Brother anyway. She knows I don’t like sweets, so she has something else on the side too.”
“And you eat that up, apparently.“
“At least I don’t have to skirt around formalities and make excuses to visit.” Gaku lies. He does this too, but Toichiro doesn’t need to know that. “Instead of thinking you as a man, she sees you as a customer. At this rate, Koga is gonna be the one asking her for dinner.”
He already has, from what Gaku understands. Since Futaba is as dense as a brick, she thinks of them as hangouts rather than dates. But in her defense, it seems like Kuya also accompanies them for lunch, so the fight continues.
And before Gaku can add more oil to the fire and seriously contemplate homicide, a voice calls him out.
“Yahoo! I spot a Gaku!”
Kuro latches on to him, conveniently in a way that feels like he's holding him back from beating up the man in front of them. It’s kind of impressive that he can read the mood in the 3 seconds he came in and how he's considerate enough to allow Gaku to still hold his baggage of cakes.
Still, Gaku’s not nice enough to just let the pompous asshole free.
“Back off! I’m holding stuff right now!”
“Sweets for Yura? It’s pretty rare to see someone go to a coffee shop for cake!”
“Raccord sells all sorts of things, and you know this. If it weren’t for Brother and Ginnojo, this place would have gone under more times than Toichiro's pathetic flirting attempts.”
Toichiro opens his mouth for another rebuttal, but Kuro cuts in before he can.
"Woah there! Those are fighting words! If you're going to do this, they might as well do it in front of the lady herself! After all, nothing more clear than two guys fighting over her!"
"I'm not—"
"I'm just here for my daily dose of caffeine before the little guy starting picking a fight." A nasty glare is directed his way. "And of course, I’m not going to back down.
“Ouch! We’ve got two contestants ready to duke it out! But unfortunately, I don’t want that to happen, so!”
Kuro releases Gaku from his hold and forcefully shoves Toichiro into Raccord, shouting a quick, “Oji! Your favorite rich guy is here! Come get him a nice black coffee or something!” Then slams the door before Toichiro can get another word in edgewise.
Kuro turns to Gaku, swooping all of the bags on one of his arms, and cheerfully grabs the teen’s hand and drags him away. “To your house, we go!”
This time, Gaku doesn’t fight him, allowing himself to be hustled like a ragdoll. Better in Kuro’s company than Toichiro’s.