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In the middle of being scolded by the rest of his unit for being 45 minutes late to practice—still less than an hour!—everyone’s phones began to buzz. Rinne mentally thanked whoever was sending a Hold-Hands alert and fished his phone out of his pocket.
Ibara.
Okay, maybe that guy would get slightly less of a thanks.
"What the hell did we do this time?" Kohaku complained.
Rinne quickly scanned the message. Crazy:B was being called to Ibara’s office, immediately.
Niki looked over his shoulder to read the message. "Maybe he found some sort of job for us?"
"Would he not simply send the details of the job in that case?" Himeru asked.
"Let’s just go. He can’t get us in trouble for anything—"
"Do not jinx it, Amagi."
"Yeah, yeah, come on. I’m not gettin’ in trouble because you guys are slow."
Niki ran to catch up with him, shouting, "Because we’re slow?! You were an hour late—!"
"45 minutes," he corrected, chortling at Niki’s exasperated face.
It didn’t take long for them to make it to the CosPro office, especially since he spent most of it teasing his beloved Niki, and Kohaku when the kid tried to jump to Niki’s defence despite Himeru’s warning.
All hopes of the meeting being good news of a new, exciting job were dashed when they stepped into the room. Their vice president didn’t have that corporate greed grin on his face, and worse, two of the kids from Trickstar were there. Not a good sign.
Ironically, they were the ones who looked like they were in trouble—both sat stiffly in their chairs with their eyes focused on the wooden front panel of Ibara's fancy desk.
"So? What did we do now?" he asked, plopping down in an empty seat.
"We?" Kohaku scoffed. "It's usually something ya did when we get called here."
"Yeah!" Niki agreed.
He glanced at Himeru, his last hope, only to find the man nodding. "Oukawa is correct."
"What the hell am I keepin’ you guys around for if you’re just gonna be mean to me? I’m your unit leader! Shouldn’t you be agreein’ with me?"
"Amagi, this is serious," Hokuto insisted, jumping out of his chair.
Mao shot up, more panicked than his unitmate. He set a hand on Hokuto's shoulder, trying to get him to sit back down.
"Come on, really, I've been on my best behaviour. What the hell could we have even done?"
Ibara cleared his throat, and Hokuto and Mao obediently sat right back down. "Trickstar came to me after your last practice session—"
"Hey, we were practisin'!"
"Let me finish. Trickstar came to me after your last practice session because they were concerned about something they witnessed."
Crazy:B looked between each other. Rinne racked his brain to think of what was out of the ordinary, but he truly couldn't think of anything. Hell, they were more productive than usual. If anything, Ibara should be telling them that they did a good job instead of vaguely hinting towards whatever supposed issue.
Himeru spoke up first. "And what is it Isara and Hidaka saw?"
"Amagi—" Mao began.
"Aha! We knew it had to be you!" Niki jabbed his arm. "Rinne, you said you were gonna behave!"
"I have been!" he argued, grabbing Niki's wrists to keep him from poking him again.
"Guys," Kohaku muttered, jerking his head towards the rest of the group.
Rinne let go of Niki and settled back in his chair. He motioned to the Trickstar kids. "Okay, so what'd you see?"
"We were passing by and heard a scream, so we looked in, and you were dragging Oukawa by his legs around the floor of the practice room."
Mao picked up where Hokuto left off, "And then you had him upside down by his ankles and teased him even though he asked you to stop."
"Well, maybe if he'd said 'please,' I'd've let him go. Someone's gotta teach the kid manners—"
Hokuto frowned. "This isn't funny."
"Himeru can assure you that this is no different from Amagi's usual antics—"
"You and Shiina did nothing to help, which is just as bad!" Hokuto argued, back up on his feet. "Shiina didn't even stop eating and just watched."
Now he was stepping in. "Hey, hey, hey. Leave Niki out of this!"
"Yeah! Rinne's always targeting me!"
"We were just worried," Mao explained. "You're Crazy:B's leader. You shouldn't be treating your unitmates in a... hurtful way like that."
Kohaku, who had remained stone-faced, albeit a bit red at the retelling of what had happened, finally cracked with a loud snort.
Ibara, disappointed as usual, raised an eyebrow. "Oukawa?"
Kohaku rolled his eyes. "They didn't see anything that doesn't happen on a regular basis. Even ya should know that, Saegusa."
"He does this a lot?" Mao asked.
"Not that specifically. But he's always harassin' all of us— mostly Niki. That's just how he is."
"But he shouldn't," Hokuto stressed.
"Kyahaha! See? The kid's fine with it," he laughed, throwing an arm around Kohaku, who smacked him. "Ow, shit. Hey, you see that? He hit me, and you're accusin' me of being toxic?"
Ibara's eye twitched. Rinne couldn't help but smile since Ibara only had himself to blame. He'd decided to call a useless meeting knowing exactly what would happen, so he could reap the consequences.
"We all find Rinne annoying, but it's not like we were botherin' anyone else."
"But—"
"If ya say yer unit is fine, I ain't gonna tell ya how I think ya should treat each other."
Mao gave an awkward smile and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, Trickstar is nothing like Crazy:B."
"Exactly, so keep—"
"Oukawa," Himeru warned.
"What? Supposed to be on a date with your girlfriend? Is that why you're so pissy?"
Rinne dodged the swipe that came with Kohaku's hiss, "He ain't my girlfriend—!"
"—Amagi, you are the reason Himeru and Oukawa are stuck here. Behave."
"What about me?" Niki whined.
"You are always with Amagi anyway."
Niki made a betrayed noise but didn't deny Himeru's words.
"Well, we would all be practisin’ right now like any other responsible unit, but someone—" He looked at Ibara. "—decided to call a meeting."
"I cannot ignore a report—"
Kohaku crossed his arms, interrupting with a huff, "I'm sick of people accusin' of Rinne of bein' too mean with me."
The room fell silent for a few moments, but Rinne could just tell by the look on Mao's face that whatever he was going to say would piss Kohaku off.
"It's just that," Mao faltered. "You're young. People are just worried about you being taken advantage of or being in a bad situation and not know what—"
"I can take care of myself. I'm not some kid who needs their hand held all the time."
Hokuto opened his mouth, but Kohaku continued, looking at Ibara. "What? Do ya want me to write a damn statement or something?"
Ibara looked surprised by Kohaku's outburst. As funny as it was, Rinne couldn't really blame him. This was far from the first time they'd been called here for something similar, but it was usually Ibara having some issue with something said on stage or in an interview.
This was definitely the most infuriating instance, however. Trickstar clearly didn't intend on letting it go, and sure, Kohaku was a kid, but Rinne knew well that Kohaku would stand up to him if there was an issue. It wasn't their problem if Trickstar wouldn't be able to handle it if they were in Kohaku's shoes.
"If ya want me to write down what happened and that I'm fine and can take care of myself, I will. If I couldn't handle Rinne, I wouldn't've stayed in Crazy:B. It's my choice to put up with him."
"But would you really have many options if you did want to leave? You can see why we’re concerned, right? Crazy:B's reputation—"
Wow, Hokuto definitely just won the award for pissing Kohaku off the most.
Kohaku's face had gone redder, now fully from anger rather than the embarrassment of Trickstar detailing the "incident." He looked seconds away from truly losing it.
Before he could, Himeru stepped away from the wall he was leaning against to set a firm hand on Kohaku’s shoulder. "Himeru does not believe this conversation is going anywhere beneficial. Oukawa has stated his opinion on the so-called incident, Shiina has made his stance on Amagi's behaviour clear, and Himeru is rarely truly bothered by Amagi’s actions. If your concern is for Oukawa, Himeru can assure he is just fine. He is more than capable of taking care of himself, and if Himeru saw anything truly concerning, he wouldn't simply brush it off. Everyone is aware or Crazy:B's reputation, but nobody here is heartless."
Kohaku took a deep breath and nodded. "Sure— Yeah. I… appreciate the concern... and I get it, but everything’s fine."
“Are you sure—?”
“Are ya gonna listen to what I'm sayin' or not—”
Himeru gripped his shoulder tighter. “Oukawa.”
“Sorry,” Kohaku muttered sheepishly.
Hokuto and Mao looked at each other for a few moments before nodding.
"No, you're right. We should’ve listened to you." Mao let out a chuckle. "Sorry for taking up your time with this."
"It is far from the first time this has happened," Himeru explained, definitely holding back a sigh as he looked at Rinne. He turned to Ibara. "Himeru assumes this meeting is dismissed."
Not waiting for Ibara's response, he stood up and stretched. "Yep! I do think this meeting's dismissed."
"I did not tell you it was."
He grinned at Ibara. "Well, is it?"
He relished in the deep sigh. "Yes, fine. You are all dismissed."
"Great.” He grabbed Niki's hand to pull him up. “Come on, let's go home and play some mahjong!"
“Huh?” Kohaku looked back at Himeru. “Weren't we supposed to be practisin’?”
“It appears this meeting used up the majority of that time.”
Mao grimaced. “Sorry—”
Rinne waved it off. “It’s whatever. Glad someone’s lookin’ out for the little tike— Fuck!” He jumped away from Kohaku's lunge.
“Amagi, you knew what would happen by saying that.”
“Oi, Vice Pres, can I make a report—?”
“No.”
“He’s tryin’ to kill me! Ya can’t ignore that!”
Ibara rifled through one of the drawers of his desk. “Unfortunately, I do not see anything of the sort. If someone else were to make a report, however…”
“Niki, MeruMeru,” he pleaded, still running around the chairs to avoid Kohaku’s wrath.
Himeru turned his back to him, guiding Niki to do the same. “Shiina, perhaps we should invite Hidaka and Isara to play mahjong. It is less fun to play with 3 people after all.”