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Ever since Keito joined Rhythm Link, he’d been seeing more Sakuma Rei than he thought he ever would again. From them sharing lingering eye contact in the hallways, to random instances of small talk eventually evolving into Rei visiting his office just to tease or distract him—it’s all more than Keito would have liked.
Today was one of those days where Rei decided to force himself into Keito’s office in the middle of the day with the pure intent of disturbing his work.
“-and that is when Kaoru finally found poor, old me and set me free from that horrible locker’s grasp—Hasumi~,” Rei whines, sinking further down into the forest green guest chair in Keito’s office, “Stop looking at those papers with a death stare and pay attention to this old man before he dies of loneliness~” he crossed his legs and turns his head away in a (fake) pout.
Keito couldn’t take it anymore.
“Shut up , Sakuma. Can you not see I’m trying to work here?” He grit his teeth and slammed his fist on the table.
Keito was way too exhausted for this.
At this, Rei continued his pouting act with more fervour than before, “Oioioioi,” he cried, ”I come all the way here to engage in conversation and all you do is stare holes into your paper and yell at me.”
“Yeah, well,” Keito sighs, “Unlike you, these papers are important. They need to be done tonight.”
The main job he was tasked with at the moment was looking over proposals for ES’s 1st year anniversary party. Everybody from all agencies were to be attending so it had to be perfect. Keito really couldn’t care less about some idiotic party, but he was asked—forced—by higher ups to lend his aid in the project.
Now deciding to ignore Keito’s hostility, Rei stands up from his chair and walks to stand behind Keito, leaning over his shoulder to glance at his papers.
“What are you working on?”
“That’s none of your business, Sakuma.”
“Come on, don’t be like that.” Rei teases, “You never know, this old man may have some wise advice to give.”
Honestly, Keito was at a dead end. He had to choose between a million proposed themes presented by different colleagues, and he genuinely had zero clue which one to pick. As much as he’d hate to admit it, Sakuma might be a good person to ask about this kind of thing.
Keito decided to give in.
“It’s about the ES 1st year anniversary party,” he exhales, “I’ve been tasked to decide on a theme and I cannot seem to pick a good one.”
“Well, it appears that you have a huge list of suggestions written down here. Why not decide from one of those?” Rei inquired, lifting his fingers to his chin in a fake thinking pose.
Oh boy, if only he’d thought of that.
“Thanks for stating the obvious,” Keito remarked sarcastically, “It’s just that, well, I’m not quite familiar with things such as parties.”
‘Why am I telling him this?’ Keito pondered to himself, ‘ It’s not like he really cares. If anything, he’ll probably just use this as more material to tease me.’
Rei chuckled to himself at this remark, “Fufufu. Well, I cannot say you’re incorrect about that. When I think of ‘Hasumi Keito’, the word ‘party’ is not the first thing to pop into my mind.” He gave closed eye smile.
Keito hung his head in defeat. “Ugh . Why did I even bother asking you? I don’t know why I expected actual help.” Keito slumped over in his desk chair.
How long had he even been thinking about this stupid party? Keito didn’t know. What he did know, though, is that he was exhausted. Keito had pulled an all-nighter the night before to complete proposals for Akatsuki, but he couldn’t afford to sleep right now. Not yet.
“Well, whatever.” Rei shrugged and walked away from behind Keito, striding over to the 3-cushioned, leather couch in the corner of the office. As he moved, his long, black coat flowed behind him like he was in some type of 1800’s era movie.
He sat down and patted the spot beside him, motioning Keito to come over.
“Come, take a break and spend time with your beloved guest. I want to show you something.”
At this rate, Keito knew he wouldn’t be coming up with any theme ideas anytime soon. His unit mates did always tell him to take breaks.
“Fine. 30 minutes, that’s it.” Keito reluctantly gave in and went to sit at the farthest end of the couch away from Rei.
“Look at this~” Rei had since whipped out his phone and opened an application, “The twins taught me this interesting game called ‘solitaire.’” He exclaimed, staring at his phone screen while squinting to try and read it. Rei should really invest in a pair of glasses.
‘Solitaire? Really? I’m surprised the Aoi twins even know what solitaire is.’
“They even customized the game board’s background for me. Look, we’re in the desert, fufufu~” Rei chuckled happily to himself. He paused and came to a realization, “Oh, wait. Do you know the rules of Solitaire, Hasumi?”
“Of course I know. I’m not an idiot.” Keito replied with zero enthusiasm. He’d rather die than admit to Sakuma that he often played solitaire in his spare time.
Rei leaned over closer so Keito could see the screen, and Keito decided to just accept his fate. He was close enough that the scent of Rei’s cologne was now noticeable; a mix of sandalwood and lavender.
Keito’s breath hitched. It was the same cologne Rei started wearing in his last year of middle school—long before things went wrong.
It gave Keito sudden flashbacks to back then.
“Look, look, Kei-kun!” Rei rushed up the stairs to the Hasumi’s temple, holding a small bottle of purple liquid.
The little glass bottle was a deep purple. formed into the design of a crescent moon; the cap in the shape of a star. He almost tripped on the last step but caught himself at the last second. Once stabilized, Rei then proceeded to shove the bottle into Keito’s face.
”Be quiet, you’re too loud. This is a temple, people are praying here,” Keito sighed, pinching his nose bridge with his fingers. “What do you want, Rei?” He asks.
“Ritsu just gave me this cologne, saying it reminded him of me! I really have the best little brother in the world.” Rei shouts, joyous tears now streaming down his face.
“Smell it!”
Keito had zero time to react before getting a spritz to the face with cologne.
“KUH—Rei, what the—KUHHH—hell?!” Keito cried out, breaking into a coughing fit. He leaned against the building pillar behind him for some kind of support while he wheezed; trying his best to recover from the scent bomb he’d just become the victim of, but to no avail.
“Smells great, doesn’t it?! Ahh, this is the best day ever.” Rei lets out a content sigh, hugging the bottle to his chest.
“ACHOO!”
Keito snaps back to reality to see a phone in front of his face.
“Hmmm… I really need a red 6.” Rei thought out loud, lifting his fingers up to his chin.
‘Why did I have to remember that now? I thought I forgot most of those memories,’ Keito thought to himself bitterly, deciding to rest his elbow on the arm of the couch and put his head in his palm.
Those times were over, there’s no sense reminiscing over them. It hurt too much.
Keito peers at Rei’s screen and yawns, assessing the game board.
“If you move that 8 of hearts to the stack with the 9 of spades, you can open that spot to reveal new cards,” Keito states monotonously.
“Ah—you’re right. Thank you, Hasumi.” Rei moves his finger to drag cards around.
“Yeah.”
Keito can barely keep his eyes open, the smell of nostalgia not helping his previously honed fatigue.
He closes his eyes, succumbing to slumber.
-
Keito’s eyes snapped open as he realised he’s lying on the couch. As he sat up, the long, black, gothic style coat that was draped overtop of him cascaded down the upper half of his body. As he picks the coat off of himself to assess it, a familiar scent wafts over him.
Whose coat was this? Wasn’t someone just with him?
“Ah, Sakuma?” He called out, only to be left with no response.
Keito let out a yawn as he looked out the window, greeted with a beautiful, pink and orange sunset.
Wait, a sunset?
Shit.
He shot up off the couch and scanned the room for Rei.
He was gone.
“Ugh, that bastard! Distracting me and then tricking me into falling asleep so I don’t finish my work on time. Incorrigible!”
Keito scatteredly rushes over to sit in his desk, hoping to try and crank out anything within the time he has left. He flicks his gaze to the black digital clock on his desk, the shining red letters showcasing the numbers 8:34pm.
‘Okay, 26 minutes. To finish all this paperwork. You can do this, Keito.’
He takes a deep breath. His determination now found, he picks up his favourite black pen and gets to work.
Huh?
Every paper on his desk was filled out in neat cursive, even forms unrelated to the party—forms due weeks in advance.
A wave of confusion hits Keito like a ton of bricks as he sees a baby pink sticky note on his desk. He picks it up to read it:
An automobile cannot run with a dead battery, Hasumi.
Keito didn’t need to have half a brain to piece together who left that note and completed all of his work for him.
“Idiot,” he mumbles. “Leaving your coat here. You could have at least stayed until I woke up to let me thank you in person.”