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The scent of pipe smoke almost suffocated him, Oguri fanned away the fumes with his hand. He already found it hard enough to breathe; he didn’t need any external factors to get in the way. The feeling of setting one’s pride aside and having their throat tightly wrapping around every word was enough. The atmosphere and its bitterness filled up his entire body. He would’ve become completely overtaken by the world around him if not for the face he was stuck here in a compact office room.
He loathed this, he wanted to back out of this, he wanted to walk out and never look back. But it was far too late to back out now. The lengths he had to go to even set foot in the Ayatsuji Detective Agency’s building were too grand to be left to waste. Now that he was standing face to face with the blonde detective himself, Oguri was trapped.
This better be worth it.
“You’ve been staring into space for a good minute,” Ayatsuji lifted the pipe away from his lips; his fingers were loosely holding it with delicacy. His voice was as cold as ever, no fluctuation. Yet he seemed amused almost, Oguri couldn’t explain it but the detective’s gaze said it all.
All of a sudden, the detective snapped his fingers, “Oguri, are you going to stand there like a fool or are you going to say something?”
“I am no imbecile?! I was merely planning out my words, don’t dare mistake me for a fool!” Oguri crossed his arms with irritation.
“Why don’t you get to the point then? You’ve been here long enough. Surely you have your thoughts now.”
Oguri glanced away from the detective, what he came for. What he had to confess. It had been long enough, he had his thoughts compiled. He couldn’t hold down these thoughts for any longer. All there was left was actually expressing them. Finally gathering the mental energy to speak, Oguri looked back at Ayatsuji.
He began to speak with elegant composure that almost read as overly cheesy, “I have romantic affections for you. I would have to admit that you are worthy of my affections. You do not know how long it took me to tell you this myself. I had to truly ready myself to finally make this confession. All for you Ayatsuji, you’ve earned my love.”
Oguri let out an awkward laugh right after his confession, watching Ayatsuji stare at him through the latter’s sunglasses.
It was as if Oguri confessed an entire sin for the whole world to see. Everything went silent. Ayatsuji’s face barely changed, the detective practically had no reaction at all to the confession. The whole air felt tense with sheer anticipation for the world to start moving again.
Finally, the atmosphere changed. Ayatsuji’s expression changed.
He had a light smirk dancing on his face, “I honestly knew for a while, it took me roughly 7 seconds to figure it out. It’s nice that you finally confess, only took you a month and a half. Tch, it’s obvious you prewrote that as well and practiced endlessly prior.”
Oguri felt a surge of red on his face from the sheer embarrassment he felt. The detective was completely right and Oguri detested that. He felt like all of his work went down the drain. All of that and for what? It was utterly preposterous in his eyes that his confession would be undermined by detective work, “You think of this as some sort of party game, do you? Why ruin a heartfelt confession by admitting that information?”
Ayatsuji adjusted his hat casually, “You’d get flustered over it, it’d be amusing.”
He was right once more, Oguri did end up finding himself flustered. The proclaimed Detective Killer had been completely figured out with ease. He stepped back, growing more exasperated as the situation progressed.
The detective further explained himself, “Besides, I let you take your time and waited until now to say a single thing. It’s obvious that I was waiting for you to confess. Don’t be so simple-minded to assume I intended on completely ruining your fun.”
Oguri thought for a moment, Ayatsuji did allow the Detective Killer to declare his love uninterrupted. The Homicide Detective had every opportunity to touch upon the topic yet never took any of them until now. For once, he was being merciful in a way.
Ayatsuji answered a question lying in Oguri’s head that was left unsaid.
“You thought you had things under control when I could see through your act. You’re the dramatic type Oguri. Your expressions showed me everything I needed to know. You acted unnerved around me, avoided me, and often spoke with a defensive tone. The main giveaway however was the moment I teased you and you were absolutely flustered.”
The Detective Killer himself was standing in silence, feeling dumbfounded. Nothing could be hidden from Ayatsuji no matter how hard he tried. The fact that Ayatsuji practically saw through him made his heart race.
Out of all people to give his heart to, it had to be him out of all people. It took him ages to finally come to terms with his feelings and he was greeted with this. As unfortunate as the circumstances were, Oguri couldn’t help but find himself drawn in an odd way.
“Oguri, learn how to speak without a script. No prewriting, only you. Your feelings are genuine yet every word you said felt like a romantic comedy.”
The Detective Killer took a moment to think, quickly devising a proper confession to Ayatsuji, “I love you. I never thought I’d be in love with a detective out of all people but… Ayatsuji, I truly do adore you.”
Ayatsuji set his pipe aside on a desk and clapped, “That’s more like it. Bravo.”
Though his voice still had the same cold tone, there was a hint of sincerity behind it. Just enough to make Oguri feel validated in his feelings.
The detective inquired, “Now then. What do you think my response will be?”
Oguri had a light smile on his face, hoping that the answer was as easy as it seemed, “The feeling is mutual?”
The detective gave out a nod, a nod that would leave Oguri rendered speechless. Everything was fitting into place. Everything felt right for once. As eccentric Ayatsuji was as a person, he still held the charisma detectives had.
As much as Oguri hated to admit that he was in love with a detective out of all people, it was worth it.
So perfectly worth it in the end.