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Sekiguchi thought his new boss was strange. But not in a bad way. Working for someone quirky was a change. You could even say it was fun. Sekiguchi never met someone like him before. Yano was lively and the type of person you would never get bored with. He was able to transform difficulties into opportunities and knew what he was doing when it came to money. He also treated Sekiguchi well so far. Not to mention the pay was good. Looking back on when they met, his first impression wasn't positive.
He has been wondering at the time if the higher-ups were messing with him because he was fresh meat. Yano was always speaking in rap. He was obviously way younger than Sekiguchi. He also looked frail and was the shortest person in the room. He seemed to be better suited to look pretty in some host club rather than get his hands dirty with the yakuza. To think this guy was supposed to lead the way.
But the other underlings were treating Yano with the utmost respect. Sekiguchi speculated that he was the son of someone important in the group who got there thanks to nepotism or something like that. He expected this job to be tedious. But his first week was anything but that. He had never seen so much money at once before. It was rare for Sekiguchi to be wrong about someone. Life really was full of surprises.
He didn't have any right to complain. Especially after his misjudgment. But there were times when he had trouble understanding Yano. Not because of the rap, ironically. Yano was intriguing to say the least. While Sekiguchi was now comfortable enough around him to ask some questions here and there when he was driving his boss around town, conversations started to go south fast when it involved anything before the time Yano started to work with the yakuza.
Sekiguchi made a point not to talk about anything that could remind Yano of the past. However, it was easier said than done. He wished he could do something. Yano clearly had problems that wouldn't leave his mind despite how much he avoided talking about them. Sekiguchi felt useless. But he never really knew what to say in those kinds of situations. He always had the impression he made things worse. It would be so much easier if Sekiguchi minded his own business as always.
They didn't talk much during this particular morning. Sekiguchi was busy setting everything up in their new hideout. The first thing he had brought was the couch so Yano would be able to sit comfortably while he waited. His superior had other ideas in mind and wanted to participate. But every time he tried to take a box or some furniture, Sekiguchi would snatch the stuff out of his hands and tell him to get some rest. Yano always had dark circles under the eyes. He obviously wasn't getting enough sleep. There was no way Sekiguchi would let him do any physical work under any circumstances.
He turned his back for a few seconds and when he looked behind him, he saw Yano heading towards the last box. His underling walked as fast as possible and got to it before Yano could even lay his hands on it. The short man sighed and looked away, annoyed.
"I don't want to sit around doing nothing. Letting you do all the work from start to finish is embarrassing," Yano said.
"It didn't take very long. I'm almost done," responded Sekiguchi in a reassuring manner.
Yano didn't answer and sat on the couch, looking at his phone. After a few minutes, Sekiguchi was finally done and looked around, satisfied with himself. They still needed to get a few more things so the place would be comfortable enough but there was no rush. He sat in front of Yano, who barely acknowledged his presence.
Sekiguchi immediately felt something was off. He wanted to ask if the place was set-up properly, but his instinct told him it was better to wait for that. He opted for asking Yano if he was hungry since it was almost noon.
As usual, Yano asked for ramen. Sekiguchi tried to persuade him to eat something else for once, like he did for the last two weeks. This couldn't be healthy. But Yano was stubborn when it came to food. Sekiguchi gave up and complied, like always. He took his laptop and searched for the nearest restaurants. He noticed that Yano was staring at him curiously. Sekiguchi wanted to hide behind the screen.
"You get things done. But why are you always using that and not your phone?" Yano suddenly asked while fidgeting with his gloves.
"I don't know. I'm used to it and it's useful for multitasking I guess. Not to mention the screen is bigger," said Sekiguchi. He was thinking about buying a tablet anyway but didn't mention it. He was happy enough that Yano wanted to know more about something he did, no matter how mundane.
"You're at ease with technology but for me it's the opposite," Yano said.
It was yet another difference between the two of them.
"You don't seem to have much trouble with your cell phone though," Sekiguchi observed.
"Dobu showed me how to do it. He explained that in this line of work, it's mandatory to have one and that it's just a matter of getting used to it," Yano said. He got up and started wandering around.
And Dobu was absolutely right, but Sekiguchi would never admit it, especially in front of Yano.
"When I couldn't sleep at all, he would let me use his phone to play some trendy game with animals. It's funny to think that it is popular even with criminals," Yano continued, humming a song and happily pacing around now.
Dobu must have trusted Yano a lot to lend his phone like that. Sekiguchi wondered with a hint of jealousy if him and his boss could trust each other the same way one day. He couldn't even bring up certain subjects without walking on eggshells. Sometimes he felt he would never be good enough for Yano.
"Do you want me to show you how to handle a laptop?" said Sekiguchi.
"I don't need it since I can simply use my phone!" Yano objected.
He had stopped dead in his tracks, his arms crossed and frowning. He probably tried to look assertive. Sekiguchi couldn't help but find it cute more than anything.
"You never know. What if you can't have access to your phone for some reasons?" said Sekiguchi.
Yano hesitated a bit then finally caved in. They sat on the couch and Sekiguchi put the laptop on the table along with a wireless mouse he always kept just in case. His boss moved closer and it became a lot harder to concentrate on what he was doing.
"You click on this button to power on the laptop. You can set a password too, if you want to protect information on it," Sekiguchi explained.
"It's kind of like with cell phones then..." Yano mused, resting his head on his hand.
"It's true that they have more in common than what people think," replied Sekiguchi, glad his superior was taking an interest. "Now we're on the desktop. You can use shortcuts there."
"Desktop? Shortcuts?" asked Yano, looking clueless and confused.
Sekiguchi was almost tempted to use more technical terms to experience that side of Yano longer. He rarely saw him like this, and it was oddly charming. But he didn't want to upset him. So he tried to slow down. After some explanations, Sekiguchi started to encourage Yano to use the mouse.
"If you click on the last shortcut on the left you can use the internet," said Sekiguchi.
Yano placed his hand on the mouse but didn't move at all. He was focusing on the computer screen but looked lost and overwhelmed. Sekiguchi would lie if he said it wasn't endearing. He would no doubt think otherwise if it were anyone else sitting next to him, but things were different when Yano was involved. There was no logical reason for it. But Sekiguchi couldn't care less.
They were getting nowhere though. Growing a little impatient, Sekiguchi decided to help in a more direct manner and gently placed his own hand on top of Yano's. He then moved the mouse and clicked on the shortcut.
"See? This is easy. You'll get used to it very fast," said Sekiguchi.
His enthusiasm was met with deafening silence. He looked at Yano. The latter was blushing and starring at the mouse. Sekiguchi realized what he was doing and quickly removed his hand. He felt the blood rushing to his face. Why did he kept making so many mistakes around Yano? It was like he wasn't able to think clearly in the last couple of weeks. It was a miracle he still wasn't fired.
"You don't have to move my hand for me!" Yano exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, I wanted to show you how to do it. I thought it would be more simple like this..." explained Sekiguchi, rubbing the back of his neck.
He kept apologizing and clumsily trying to justify his actions. He wanted to dig a hole and hide.
"Now is not the time for foolishness. Let's get to business. Just talk me through it, or I swear I'll quit," Yano said, still blushing.
Sekiguchi managed to salvage the situation even if he wasn't sure how. Yano was a fast learner and even had fun. After a while, Sekiguchi felt like he explained pretty much everything there was to know and decided to let Yano try to get familiar with the keyboard.
"So you never used a computer before at all?" asked Sekiguchi, curious. "Most people used one at least once at school."
"Why do you even care?" Yano replied coldly.
Damnit. Sekiguchi shouldn't have talked about school of all things. The cheerful attitude had disappeared so quickly it was jarring. Sometimes it was hard to keep up with Yano. But his henchman took it as a challenge.
"Would you prefer it if I didn't care at all?" said Sekiguchi.
Yano seemed to be at a loss for words. But he soon regained his composure.
"Maybe I would prefer it if you weren't constantly on my back," he snapped.
Sekiguchi knew at this point that Yano was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. A part of him wanted to fix the situation as fast as possible while the other loved the thrill of it.
"What do you mean?" Sekiguchi asked.
"Stop acting dumb," said Yano.
Now Sekiguchi was truly lost. He wasn't used to be the one being provoked. Usually, people would avoid antagonizing him for any reason, especially when they were the size of Yano.
"I'm genuinely asking," said Sekiguchi.
"Why are you always questioning me about my past?" Yano complained.
Yano suddenly got up from the couch. He was staring daggers at his underling. He was still very close, which made Sekiguchi feel even more awkward.
"I just want to understand you better..." finally answered Sekiguchi after an agonizing silence that seemed to last minutes instead of seconds. It was better to say the truth at this point. No matter how uncomfortable it made him. "I apologize for being out of line," he continued, chewing his lips.
Sekiguchi finally glanced at Yano, who looked more frustrated than ever. He obviously wasn't having any of it.
"But why do you act like I can't do things on my own? Why are you being concerned about what I do all the time?" continued to ask Yano.
Yano barely reached Sekiguchi's shoulders, but it was the latter who felt like a child being scolded. He tried to choose his words carefully.
"I can't allow something bad to happen when I could have prevented it..." said Sekiguchi, looking at his hands.
Yano was speechless. Sekiguchi realized how it must have sounded and tried to find the right words that wouldn't imply Yano was a walking disaster who couldn't do anything right.
"I meant that I don't want something bad to happen... to you," managed to say Sekiguchi. "Because you're my boss," he added quickly.
"I don't like it when people pity me," murmured Yano.
His face didn't show any emotion whatsoever, but his voice was bitter. Sekiguchi's heart skipped a beat and he felt even more guilty. He was starting to understand how extremely condescending he must have looked, shooing Yano away and insisting on doing everything himself the whole morning. Was Sekiguchi always like this? The thought of Yano resenting him because he couldn’t respect his superior's boundaries was driving him nuts.
"If I pitied you, I would work for someone else," Sekiguchi said bluntly. "I know you wouldn't be where you are today if you couldn't handle it."
Yano stared at him with wide eyes. Sekiguchi regretted his words immediately. He shouldn't speak this way to his superior. He was about to apologize profusely but Yano started laughing.
"I prefer when people I'm working with are honest. A pathetic yes-man would be dismissed," said Yano.
Sekiguchi noticed that his boss didn't spoke about him as a subordinate but more as an associate, somehow. His respect for Yano, which was already pretty high to begin with, just skyrocketed.
"I'm glad you didn't take this the wrong way. It wasn't my intention to... I want to help as best I can. That's why I'm here after all," said Sekiguchi.
Yano expression softened and he sat back on the couch, even closer than before, and stayed silent. He was probably calming himself down. He finally put a hand gently on Sekiguchi's arm. The henchman felt like he was melting.
"You don't have to prove anything. Once in a while let me do something," said Yano with a genuine smile on his face.
"I apologize again for being out of line. I don't want to be a burden," blurted out Sekiguchi.
"You're way more skilled than I thought at first. To pretend the contrary would be dishonest," said Yano with a smirk. "I remember how Dobu made it sound like you were some big stupid mass of muscles but it's far from the truth. When the time calls for it, you can be smooth."
That last piece of information about Dobu should have annoyed Sekiguchi to no end but he kept his mouth shut. At the moment, he felt too ecstatic to care. Yano was throwing a bunch of compliments at him and he enjoyed every second of it. Obviously there must have been a reason Sekiguchi was in this hideout with his boss today and not some other underling. He had no idea how to react, so he thanked Yano respectfully. He was just glad the misunderstanding was cleared up.
"I might fire you if I don't get those ramen I asked for half an hour ago though."