fic for southview! (1/2)

[nino_mod]

For: southview
From: :3.

Title: My Boss, My Weirdo
Pairing/Focus: Sakumiya, Sho x Kitagawa Keiko (?) Matsumiya (one-sided), Aimiya (BFFs)
Rating: PG-15
Wordcount: 75.500
Warnings: slight angst, drinking (mostly as coping mechanism), a psychosomatic condition, attempted fluff
Summary: After being separated for years, Sho and Nino get finally reunited. It could have been so perfect, but rather than being friends again, they now face each other as boss and private secretary, and on top of that, Sho doesn't even seem to remember their childhood friendship. Nino is smashed. Will they be able to find back to their old dynamics despite the obstacles?
Notes: Dear southview, this is for you, I hope you'll enjoy. Maybe, the story is not as fluffy as you wished for, in the beginning, but I tried to create a fluffy ending for you :) Also, I started watched a K-Drama to get inspired for this. What shall I say, I guess it worked (and I'll finish watching it because I like it!). Special thanks to my hard-working beta and of course, thank you to our lovely Ninomod for the never-ending patience.
(Additional notes at the end of the story.)


Nino liked being alone during lunch break. He usually didn't mind if any of his co-workers wanted to join him, however, the best lunch breaks were those in which he was all by himself, so that after eating, he could still take a bit time for himself to read a chapter or two of a good book, play some games on his mobile phone, or give his mother a call.

Although Nino usually preferred to stay inside, chances that someone would join him on the table in the cafeteria were high, so sometimes, if he really wanted to be just by himself, Nino went outside into the park nearby the office building he worked in. Most of the time, he managed to occupy his favourite bench underneath a line of birch trees, from where he had a nice view over a large green meadow sprinkled with dots of various coloured spring flowers. Nino liked this view. He liked the calmness the green colour triggered in him. He liked flowers. And he liked the quietness in this park. It was miraculous, considering that it was located in the middle of a world metropolis, but it worked, and that was the most important. The solitude, the moment of calm before he had to get back to his – usually quite busy – job, was essential for someone like Nino.

He was completely fine with his job as a company owner's private secretary, actually, even if it had taken him some time to adjust at first, and it probably was not what he originally had pursued as a career, but by now he could say, he was happy with what he was doing. Sure, it wasn't his dream job, but some things should be kept for enjoyment, for a hobby, anyway, after all. Nino was not bitter about this, not anymore.

Thus, the young man didn't mind, when the alarm he set to get back to work on time, went off. He still had a few more minutes before he needed to be back at his desk and prepare for his boss's next meeting, so he hit the five minutes snooze button and took the time to finish the level he'd been playing, before he pushed the device back in his suit's pocket and packed up his empty lunch box sitting on the bench right next to him.

It was then, when something caught Nino's interest that he hadn't noticed before.

Nino frowned and reached his hand down to one leg of the bench, where he had seen something dark shining through the blades of green grass. He pulled the object up to have a better look at it. It was a middle sized notebook, the cover was of a leather imitating material. There was no pattern on it, it was simply black, but the quality made it look kind of expensive.

Nino glanced around. Someone must have lost it here, previously. It possibly dropped from the side of the bench or out of a bag, without being noticed by its owner, but Nino had not seen anyone around before he got here for his lunch break, so he had no idea who it could belong to.

The young man dared to flip the notebook open to try and see if there was a name written on the inside of the cover or on the first page, but to his disappointment, there was nothing. He turned the book around to see if someone had written his name on the backside, but still, there was nothing. Nino frowned, and decided to flip through a few pages to maybe find some valuable hints, like for example an address or a telephone number. He quickly found out though, that this wasn't some kind of planner for noting down appointments, but rather some kind of diary or journal, filled with scribbled passages, appearing in different shapes, as if someone collected poems and short stories in it. It definitely caught the man's interest, but no, he wasn't here to read someone's secret journal, he just wanted to see if there was a name or a hint on whom it belonged to, so he could return it to its rightful owner.

The alarm went off again – Nino's signal, that now, he really had to get up and go back to work. The young man wondered what to do with the journal in his hands. Again, he glanced around, but there was no other soul around than a jogger with his dog in the distance, and time was pushing. Nino could just put it on top of the bench and leave it there, hoping that whoever was the owner of it might come back and pick it up later on, but judging from the view in the skies, clouds becoming darker and building up for a possible rain shower in the afternoon, it would be a waste to leave it here and let it get ruined by the water. So, Nino decided to bring the journal along and give it a proper check later on. Maybe, he would be able to find another clue in it.

+ + +

It had been a normal, busy day at the headquarters of the Sakurai Group, owner of one one of Japan's leading hotel chains. Everything had gone according to schedule, there had been no emergencies, at least nothing that an experienced team couldn't handle, the results of the meetings they held that day were all in all very positive for the company, and so, with their daily goals met and their boss happy, chances to leave on time were pretty high for everyone.

Of course, this meant, that Nino had not had any time to dive deeper into his research about the journal he had found during lunch break, which was now stored safely in his bag, but that was OK. Nino used to be very focused on his job anyway, trying his best to keep up the quality of work to make it easy and comfortable for his boss to take care of all the important business decisions he had to make.

"Good work, everybody, thank you for contributing to another successful day," the company president, a middle aged man with gray streaked hair, wearing a dark navy suit and a blue striped necktie, finally said, turning around to face the group of people tailing behind him with a content smile. "If there is nothing left to be done for you at your desks, I encourage you to leave for today and enjoy your evening."

The man let his look wander, ensuring to make short eye contact with every single one of them, like he always did. Everyone smiled back, feeling content about the conclusion of another successful day, and rewarded for their hard work. The president's gaze remaining last at Nino, who used to act as his personal secretary, and basically the boss' right hand.

"Ninomiya-kun?" the man then added, taking a step closer to his secretary. He carefully put his hand on Nino's forearm.

"Yes, President?" Nino asked, straightening his tired back a little more to show that he was still focused and then leaning a little closer.

"Please come with me to my office, I need to tell you something important."

"Of course!" Nino replied, but blinked, slightly confused.

"Everyone else, you may leave now, I wish you all a pleasant evening," their boss finished, smiling at this crew one last time before he turned to enter his office.

Nino sent a confused look to his friend and colleague Satomi, who answered him a big smile and made some gestures with her hands that the young man interpreted as something along the lines of "Maybe you'll get a financial bonus for your good work? Call me later!" Nino frowned, shook his head and gave back a small insecure smile before he caught up to follow his boss into his office after hastily waving his colleagues good bye for the day.

Nino discretely closed the heavy door behind him and took a deep breath. He wondered, what this might be about. He was absolutely sure that he had already gone over everything important for today with his boss, he had prepared everything for tomorrow and had already briefed the company president about it, so in fact, there should be nothing left to be done by him for the day. Nino quickly glanced at the watch on his wrist. What was this about and would it take long?

"Are you in a hurry, Ninomiya-kun?" the company president asked, of course, nothing stayed unnoticed by the man.

"Ah, it's nothing, no worries," Nino replied, bowing slightly.

Actually, his best friend Aiba would probably already be waiting at home for a gaming session, as he had announced via LINE a few hours earlier, but Aiba was used to Nino getting home late, or let's say, to irregular hours, as he had to stick to his boss' schedule rather to his own. By now, his friend long had a spare key to let himself into Nino's apartment when he ran late again, so it wasn't really a problem.

Right now, Nino rather worried about what might be up. He doubted, that he would just receive a random financial bonus, yearly pay raise had just happened at the beginning of this year, and he couldn't remember anything outstanding he had performed recently. His work had been decent and constant, just as it needed to be. Maybe, it was something completely different. Did he do something wrong, perhaps? Forget something important? Or was there a new secret project that his boss could only mention in discreet privacy without anyone else of the team listening to them? It happened before. However, Nino would only find out once he talked to his boss.

Sakurai Shun was a respectable man. He was not only a prolific businessman, he was also a storybook-boss. He was friendly, polite, and very patient with not only his business partners, but also his employees, which earned him the biggest respect by the whole workforce of the Sakurai Group and related firms.

He had been especially patient with Nino, when he had first started out in this job some years ago. Very lenient even, considering the fact that Nino had gone through a rough time of his life when he had started out as president Sakurai's right hand. Compared to his father, Nino's predecessor, Nino himself still had a lot to learn back then. But what the young man hadn't been able to learn from his father, before the man had passed away, his boss had taught him, diligently and with the warm understanding, that for the young man it was a job he still needed to get used to. Additionally, the job had not been something that the young man had initially to pursue as a career. No, it hadn't been easy for Nino in the beginning, definitely not, especially since everything he needed to do made him think about his passed father, and grieve accompanied him daily, making it hard to overcome the loss of his parent, but on the other side, Nino pushed through and with finding himself to be a quick learner and his boss supporting him, he quickly figured things out.

"Please, take a seat," the man offered to Nino, smiling, gesturing towards the sitting area in the large office.

Nino bowed slightly once more and approached one of the sofas assembled around a large, glass made coffee table, while his boss joined him on the opposite side.

The whole office was large, no, huge. Well, it was the main office in this building, so this was probably no surprise, but still, after all those years working in the company, Nino found it impressive, intimidating even, sometimes. The design was rather simple and modern, but decorated with some flower arrangements here and there, it looked very elegant. Farther in the back, close to the tall glass windows that revealed a breath taking view onto the park lying next to the building, there was President Sakurai's working space. A huge desk with a computer and two screens, a stack of papers next to it, behind the desk, three shelves, neatly filled, but still not bursting, with folders wearing numbers but not giving away more details.

The large table, they both had settled around now, was actually used for welcoming guests, personal friends of the president, his wife, sometimes, or important clients he wanted to talk to in private and get to know better for a bit before escorting them to a meeting room for presentations and the like. It was a spot in the company, where interpersonal relationships were established and cultured. Nino sometimes accompanied his boss during such meetings, at least those with clients, sitting right beside him, offering tea or pastries. It was very rare though, that he was placed opposite of his boss.

There were already two cups of tea and a plate of cookies prepared – not by Nino, as the young man noticed, so his boss must have had some other secretary – Satomi, maybe - in the office prepare it for them. However, the longer Nino considered the situation, the more he suspected that something must be off. He frowned when a frightening thought passed his mind. He wasn't going to be fired, was he?! No, President Sakurai would never do that to him, at least not as long as his business was doing well. And it seemed to do pretty well, as far as Nino was informed.

Nino hastily brushed his hand through his slightly too long black fringe that was about to cover his eyes if he didn't part it in the middle to free his forehead. Oh, maybe, his boss just found that he needed a haircut? But then, President Sakurai had never once said anything about any of his employees' hairstyles... Stop being silly, Nino, it must be something way more serious than your stupid hair! Nino caught himself from drifting into insignificant thoughts.

The young man swallowed, breathed in, breathed out, calmly, reached to loosen his necktie a little bit to ensure he would be able to continue breathing properly. Although Nino rarely lost his calm attitude when it came to work-related situations, now his brain immediately started working at full blast, reviewing the most recent events and scanning them for any possible hints given by his boss. The consequences of a layoff started to branch in Nino's brain. What it would mean for his mother, if he couldn't count with his current income any longer... Nino could feel his body react, and he hoped it didn't show too obviously. His fingers started fidgeting, so he folded them to keep himself from reaching up to his neck and start –

"Ninomiya-kun?" the middle-aged man, who meanwhile had settled on the sofa on the opposite side of the coffee table asked in a gentle voice, pulling his secretary out of his spiral of thoughts. "Is everything OK?"

Nino startled, his fingers froze in their position, hands clenched so tightly that his grip revealed the white of his knuckles. Immediately, Nino untangled his fingers, brushed his hands against the sides of his trousers, cleared his throat and readjusted to sit up a bit straighter as he faced his boss.

"Ah, I am sorry, I was just a little distracted, wondering what all of this might be about...," Nino said, trying not to mumble.

"Please, have some tea. It's freshly brewed chamomile tea, good for calming nerves," his boss said, pointing at the cup standing in front of his employee, but the friendly gesture perhaps didn't really work as intended.

Do I need to have calm nerves to process the news?! Nino wondered, but tried his best not to freak out loud. He reached out his hand, thankful that it wasn't shaking as he picked up the cup of tea, and took a sip. The temperature had already cooled down a little so that the tea was still pleasantly warm but not hot enough to burn one's tongue, and the taste was light and somehow, the combination was indeed slightly calming. That's it, breathe in, breathe out. Take a sip of tea. Everything will be okay.

"So, as I said, there is something important I wanted to talk to you about," president Sakurai started, after he took a long sip from his own tea and placed the cup back on its small plate in front of him. Nino mirrored his motion, just in case he'd drop his own cup after finally receiving the news.

"This might come a bit surprising," his boss finally said, his voice calm, his face wearing a neutral expression when he darted his look at his subordinate. "But I wish you to listen to me carefully and consider my request."

What request, oh Gosh, spit it out already, am I getting fired? No, calm down, a request doesn't sound like firing, you don't request people to let themselves get fired, or do you? Maybe I'm getting relocated to another office? Oh, I hope it won't be overseas. Nino's thoughts went wild again. But why should he relocate you to another country, he knows your mother is here and you can't leave her. Right. He wouldn't do that to us. Calm down. He cleared his throat once more and tried to focus, his hands slowly brushing up and down his thighs to soothe his nerves.

"Whatever it is, Boss, I'm all ears," Nino said out loud only this part, trying to overrule – or at least hide – all of his doubts.

"You must know that I do have a son, right?" his boss started, folding his hands in his lap and looking straight at Nino. His facial expression turned softer, and so did Nino's, immediately. "He's just a little older than you are. Maybe you remember how you two used to play in the gardens or in one of the many rooms of our estate, together... back then, when your father has still been working for me as my private secretary and your mother has been hospitalized for some years. Do you remember that time?"

Nino swallowed again, this time a bigger lump in his throat, as the memories suddenly washed over him. Of course, he remembered that time. He would always remember that time. It had been a strange time for a young boy, the days brighter than he ever deemed possible, distracted from all of his sorrows, and the nights darker than he was able to bear, filled with fear for his sick mother's life.

It was as if Nino could almost see himself, no, the ghost of a memory of himself, running through the summer gardens of the Sakurai family estate, following after their cheerful and confident son, his own legs short and weak, almost unable to catch up to the other boy, who had been laughing joyfully, before turning around and rushing back to Nino.

The young man took a deep breath, and all of a sudden, it was almost as if he could breathe in and smell the exotic mix of all the flowers spread over the Sakurai family estate, Japanese flowers as well as numerous plants imported from all kind of places from over the world, dotting the gardens in every imaginable colour possible. It was as if he could almost hear their voices, himself calling after the boy running in front of him, the boy telling him to catch up before he turned around and came back running for Nino, to reach out his hand at his friend – so soft and warm – and help him, pull him with him, ready to show him a new adventure. Nino remembered everything, the sweet whispered promises from Sho that he'll play with Nino again, tomorrow, and tomorrow and the day after, and that he would be there for him, forever. Nino chuckled, almost voicelessly. Oh those sweet promises of oblivious children, spoken with a feeling of full commitment, but just as quickly forgotten...

Of course, Nino could also remember the painful feeling in his heart from back then. The voice of Nino's father at the end of the day, breaking through to his ears when dusk was about to settle over the world, calling him to go get home, but not before paying the daily visit to his sick mother. The sorrow caused by the fact that the woman has been ill and bound to a hospital bed for a long time, unable to take care of her son, although her words and tears assured her little boy over and over that there was nothing she'd like to do more, if her body just let her. All of it had been hard to bear for a child that tried his best to show his mother a smile, every day, and say some uplifting words that she'll soon be better, that she'll soon be home, as if trying to make them a good luck spell, as if trying to make them real. The nightmares that haunted the little boy in the dark as he dreamt about losing his mother, losing his family, losing his place to belong to.

Still, even if those had been hard times, it hadn't been completely unhappy times, either. While Nino's father had been taking care of the income of the family, working days and nights as much as he could for the big boss of the renowned Sakurai Group, Nino had been sent to the president's son and wife to play. He had never been alone, no, better than that, he had had a great companion. A great friend, for many years, until his mother finally recovered, and before time and circumstances had separated the two boys. Nino's heart warmed at the precious memories, but clenched at the same time when he remembered how quickly they had been torn apart.

He breathed out.

His fingers found each other again and Nino forced them to fold and stay still.

"Of course, I remember. It's Sho-san, right?" the young secretary asked, trying to smile. He was not completely sure how to address the president's son in front of the man, settling on a rather neutral way. A soft smile formed on his lips, automatically.

"Yes, Sho," the company president nodded.

"How is he doing? It's been so long since I last saw him and we barely have time to talk about private matters here, so it's been ages since you mentioned him," he added, the warm feeling inside him subsiding slowly but surely, the closer his memory walked from his childhood days to where he was standing now.

As much as he and Sho had liked to play together as kids, as many good memories Nino had collected during that time, he couldn't keep this bittersweet feeling, about what happened afterwards, from spreading in his chest. They hadn't just been separated years ago, when it had been decided that Sho would pursue his education from Junior High School level onwards at a prestigious boarding school overseas, also their contact had subsided almost immediately from that time on.

Nowadays, Sho-chan was just a precious memory to Nino. He wondered how his childhood friend must have turned out. Had he grown tall? It wouldn't be too difficult to grow taller than Nino himself, still, he wondered about it. Had he become a handsome man, just like the genes of his family promised? He had not seen pictures of him in ages. It wasn't like president Sakurai was a man who didn't like to brag about his son, but instead of showing pictures of him, he rather used to tell about Sho's good grades or other academic achievements. If Sho still liked the same things as back then? Did he ever miss Nino the same way Nino missed his old friend, or… had he perhaps forgotten him completely?

"Actually, he's doing great," Nino's boss replied. "It's been a while since he came home. After graduating from University a couple of years ago, he'd been travelling around Europe to get to know different cultures and languages and collect some experience, but now, I'm happy to announce, that he's finally back home."

Nino's heart skipped a beat. Did he hear correctly?

"He... he is back in Japan?" he asked, his throat slightly dry.

His boss nodded, the smile on his lips growing broader, the laugh lines around his eyes showing. Still, the happy shine within the man's eyes, all of a sudden made him appear at least ten years younger. Nino couldn't help but mirror the gesture, not only because it was seldom to see his boss smile so genuinely – not with the usual friendly business smile he distributed among clients and business partners, but a genuine smile – but also, because he could feel how he himself became excited about these news, as well.

"He arrived just a few days ago, yes," President Sakurai replied, beaming from joy and excitement.

"That's really good news, I'm so happy for you and your wife!" Nino finally said. His boss nodded at him, thankful.

"My wife is really over the moon from joy, you wouldn't believe it," Sakurai-san said, chuckling softly. Nino was convinced, she wasn't the only one in the family. Then, the man turned back to Nino, his expression turning a bit more serious again. "Anyway, while we were preparing at home for his return, these past few months, we also had to consider some changes here at work. With my son back, this also means, he will finally become part of his future heritage."

"He'll join the family business?" Nino assumed. Well, it wasn't a too surprising thought after all, but his brain was still busy catching up with the news, trying to figure out what consequences this change would bring for the company, as well as for himself.

"Exactly," his boss replied, pointing at Nino as if he was proud of the young man's conclusion. "That's why I need your skills as the excellent secretary you are now. How many years are you working for me now, Ninomiya-kun?"

Nino didn't need to think about that, he knew the answer right away. "I started learning from my father about five years ago, and I fully took over his duties -," when his father died, "Four years and two months ago."

President Sakurai nodded, a soft expression on his face. "And you've become splendid at your job, I might say. Definitely worthy of your father's legacy, and you know I always thought highly of him. I am very proud of you and your development and I am certain, your father is too."

"Thank you," Nino lowered his head.

A wave of different emotions was rolling over him. Pride, melancholy, a hint of grieve. He swallowed and gave himself a moment to collect his feelings before looking back at his boss.

"So how can I be of help in this situation? Shall I prepare anything for your son joining the company? Would you like me to search for a suitable private secretary for him? I am sure our Human Resources department has quite a few applications incoming on a regular basis. I could start checking them for candidates and inviting people from tomorrow -," the young secretary started, ready to pull out his tablet and take respective notes, however, his boss simply lifted his hand and made him stop.

"Actually, Ninomiya-kun," he started, still smiling. "I wanted to ask you for the favour of personally taking over this duty, starting of next week."

Nino blinked. This time, he really doubted his hearing. "Excuse me?"

"I want you to take over the job as my son's private secretary," Nino's boss repeated. "I know, you are capable of this, and you are the only one I want to trust my son to."

"President, I... I feel honoured, really, but," Nino dared to speak up. He'd be lying if he said that his boss' request hadn't shocked him. "What will become of you, then? I am your private secretary already and you know I cannot do both, so who is going to take over -"

"I know," President Sakurai said, making a soothing gesture. "You've been my secretary for a long time now, and believe me, I am more than satisfied with your work and would love to keep you in your current position. However, I think you are more suited to become my son's secretary. I don't want anyone new for him, I want someone who is familiar with our business affairs, with how things are handled internally, I want someone who is able to make the transition of my son from being an educated world hopper to a responsible business man with sense for the family's enterprise. This is a very important job and I want to entrust it to you, Ninomiya-kun."

Nino didn't know what to say, and so he stayed silent, which his boss probably interpreted as hesitation, so the man kept going.

"Of course, you'd also receive a bonus as compensation for your troubles, I know it's not easy to get used to someone completely new, learn new habits and everything, but if anyone is capable of this, I am sure, it's you. So, what do you think?"

Nino still looked at his boss in disbelief. He swallowed again and told himself to keep calm. He took a deep breath and released it again, slowly. His boss trusted him. He'd have to transfer to his boss' son – Sho-cha-, no... how would he have to properly address the young man then, Sakurai-san? Sakurai-san Junior? Vice-president Sakurai?! He would see him again, after so many years, and even work together with him on a daily basis. His Sho-chan.

"Ninomiya-kun?"

The young secretary could feel the turmoil roaring up in his chest, even if he tried his best to hide it. He lifted one of his hands and pretended to need to push his bangs out of his face, just in case he needed to hide a blush. He cleared his throat.

Well... what choice did Nino have? Sure, change was always a bit frightening, but he would readjust rather quickly, and apparently, he'd also get a bonus, which wasn't something to be ignored, considering his family situation. And, again, Sho-chan! Nino tried to pull his mind from the memory of his childhood friend, but for some reason, he couldn't. His heart was racing by now. He tried his best, not to show it, but he was very much confused.

"Sir, I'm really moved by your words and thankful for your trust," Nino finally said, smiling. "You know, I'd do everything for you. So, if you wish I take over the position of your son's secretary, I will gladly do so."

The face of the company president lit up, the relief obvious. His smile was dazzling. The excitement over finally welcoming his son and knowing him in good hands, made him look years younger, all of a sudden. Nino kept smiling. If this was how he could make himself useful the most for his boss, he'd do everything to make this work.

"So, when will I start my new duties, you said something about next week?" Nino asked. The better he could prepare for his new position, the better, after all.

"Exactly. I want Sho to start business from next Monday on," the president said, "However, to make things a bit easier, I would like to invite you to join our dinner on Saturday, Ninomiya-kun. What do you think?"

Nino's eyes widened in surprise for a second, but he quickly composed himself again and nodded. "Sure, thank you very much for the invitation."

"It will be a good chance for you two to catch up a little bit," the older man said. "I know you were friends as children, and I hope you two will be able to be friends also as adults, and support each other. It's important, to have friends in our business, Ninomiya-kun. Your father has been my loyal assistant, my best secretary, and my dear friend for so many years, I wish for my son being able to experience the same, so I beg you to take good care of him."

Again, Nino nodded. He swallowed once more, his chest tight from a strange mix of excitement, pride, and melancholy. "Of course. I'll do my best, Sir."

"Also, I would like to trust your judgement as head secretary, to choose one of your colleagues to fill up your position. I'd like to have someone become my personal secretary that you trust," the man added.

"Of course," Nino replied. "I'll think about it and let you know my recommendation as soon as possible."

+ + +

The car ride home from the office to Nino's apartment wasn't long, but it was long enough for the young man to dive into his thoughts and mildly freak out about what he and his boss had just been talking about.

Sho-chan's back. Since a few days. He hadn't tried to get in contact. Well, why should he. Surely he forgot about the past. He doesn't even have my number.

Nino felt his neck itching. He enforced the grip of his hands around the steering wheel. The young man tried to breathe slowly, steadily. No, he would not give in the urge. This wasn't even something to stress about, or was it? He had to pull himself together! This wasn't bad news, no matter what. This, this was good news. Like he often was, he had been panicking for nothing.

Hopefully.

When Nino finally arrived home, he was welcomed by the familiar sounds of a gaming character fighting scenes and screams paired with epic background music, so the young man concluded that Aiba must have used his spare key to let himself in, already. He wanted to go greet his best friend, but before he could think about joining the fun, Nino needed a moment to calm down. On his way home, his thoughts had started to run wild, wilder than he appreciated, and his nerves, and he feared, also his skin showed it.

He slipped out from his shoes and dropped his keys on the shoe cabinet in the entrance area before he shuffled through the corridor to the bathroom. In front of the mirror, Nino checked his appearance. His face looked normal – at least – but when he turned his head a little bit, he could see that the skin at the right side of his neck, starting behind his ear, going all the way down until it vanished underneath the collar of his white dress shirt, was reddened.

It's only reddened, it could be worse. Everything is fine.

Nino loosened his necktie and collar and turned on the tab to let the cool water run over his hands before he reached into his trousers' pocket and pulled out a hand towel with a tiny embroyded Doraemon at the outer corner. He drenched it in the cool water and carefully pressed the towel against the reddened patch of skin. He breathed in, and breathed out, and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to focus on how the coolness of the drenched towel took away the itching. It worked. Good.

After washing his face, Nino moved to his small but comfortable bedroom to get changed. His suit and dress shirt followed his necktie as he continued to get out of this uncomfortable day clothes. He draped his working clothes over the backrest of his reading chair in one corner of the room and pulled a pair of comfortable sweatpants and a simple band shirt from under his pillow.

He ruffled through his hair and casually brushed it back so it stayed out of his sight for a bit, fisted his hands and sat down on top of his bed, his legs folded and his arms leisurely lying on top of his knees. He still felt a little uneasy, his heart beating quicker than usual, his hands fidgety. Well, he wasn't too surprised by his body's reaction to this stirring news, but he wanted to take and digest them, like any normal person. Then he loosened his fists and brought his hands in front of his belly, pressing the fingertips together and forming a triangular shape. His eyes were closed and he focused on breathing.

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.

Everything will be OK.

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.

After a few minutes, the young man released a last heavy breath and opened his eyes again, and with that, Nino already felt way better than before.

Just a moment later, Nino finally entered the living room, where – as expected – he found his best friend, Aiba Masaki, already settled on the fluffy carpet in front of the couch in the living room, a gaming controller in his hands and a six pack of canned beer prepared on the coffee table, next to a variety of small packages of snacks from the conbini around the corner of Nino's apartment.

"Yo, welcome back!" Aiba simply said and it was enough to make Nino smile.

His friend laid his head back, so he could see Nino enter, his reddish-brown coloured bangs falling back. A potato crisp was hanging from the corner of his curled up lips, but even with snacks in his mouth, Aiba's smile was dazzling like always. The gentle look in his small eyes and the broad smile were a mood lifter and calming at the same time, no matter where, when, or in which situation. Nino also felt much more relaxed now, knowing, his best friend was here with him.

"Hey," Nino replied with a smile as he settled on the couch right behind Aiba, folding his legs up – after he poked Aiba's shoulder with his big toe – and reaching for a fluffy cushion. He hugged it close and dropped back, all relaxed.

Aiba had meanwhile paused his game, reached for a can of Sapporo beer and turned around to hand it to his friend. When his brown eyes met Nino's, he raised his eyebrows. Aiba's gaze quickly brushed Nino's neck. Nino felt a little exposed, but didn't say anything. He didn't even try to hide anything from his best friend, anymore.

"Everything alright?" Aiba asked.

"No worries, I'm OK," Nino said with a smile, nodded at the can in his hands, thankfully, opened it and took a first sip – always the best sip – from the beer his friend had brought along. Then, he gestured to the TV screen in front of them. "Didn't want to disturb your battle, please keep going!"

"Do you want to play for a bit?" Aiba asked, grinning, as he offered the gaming controller to the other man, but Nino shook his head.

"For now, I just want to watch. Is it a new test level?" the man asked, nodding towards the screen again.

His friend nodded and started explaining a few things, what had changed since the last time he had brought a demo of the new fantasy RPG of the small company he was working for as a character designer and game tester, which parts of the characters' designs had been his idea, and so on. Aiba resumed playing while he talked, the volume turned a bit lower so Nino could hear him speaking properly. The battle on screen between a female soldier wearing a light blue, flowing gown and long blonde hair and another person that looked like a dark elf in a green long dress, continued. They were both holding daggers, which looked like twin blades, even if the imbedded stones were coloured differently.

"Let me guess," Nino said between two sips of beer, "Those two are actually sisters."

Aiba sighed, pausing his game again. "I guess we gave it away too easily, didn't we? Is it the daggers?"

"That, and the fact that they have almost the exact same hairstyle, the only difference, one in blonde, the other in black," Nino added.

"I thought so," his friend nodded, pouting slightly, but immediately reached for a pen and notebook lying next to him on the floor, to take some notes. "Did you notice anything else?"

"That one movement just after the blonde women lowers her arm, isn't looking smooth enough, if you want me to be nit-picky," the other man replied, "Also, just a few seconds ago, it looked like one of the daggers vanished, which isn't possible from this angle. Maybe it's caused by a lag... you should fix that, too. Besides that, I need to see the rest to judge," Nino grinned.

"Thank you!" Aiba beamed, scribbling down everything Nino had just said. "Seriously, my colleagues already tell me to hire you for our team, you still won't consider? I know you'd love this job and you'd be so good at it!"

"Thank you, I know you find my eye for details helpful," Nino chuckled as he heard the offer by his friend. It wasn't the first time. "But you also know, that I can't just switch jobs."

"If it's the salary, it's really not that bad, believe me!" Aiba smirked and took another big sip from his can of beer, even if he already knew that Nino would decline. He still tried, once in a while.

Nino and Aiba had met and become best friends during college some years ago, when they both had enrolled for becoming game designers. In the end, it has only been Aiba who had managed to graduate properly and land a job in this field, since for the other man, the journey to his dream job was interrupted by some urgent family business – his father falling sick – and so in the end things played out differently for Nino.

His father, who had been the private secretary for Sakurai Shun for years, had wished his son to take over his job, even if he knew Nino might not want to. He actually even let him choose how he'd decide, and Nino appreciated that, but after talking things over with his family, and finding out, that his father had once taken a loan from the Sakurai Group to be able to pay the hospital bills for Nino's mother as she has been sick for some years during Nino's childhood, the financial conditions had made the decision for the young man.

The job as private secretary for the company president of one of the biggest and most successful hotel chains in East Asia was very well paid, and president Sakurai – after Nino's father had declined to take it as charity – had agreed on special conditions on paying back the loan, when associated with the company. This had counted for Nino's father, and was also counting for him. So, working as his secretary for a certain amount of years would help pay off the loan much faster than any other job would enable Nino to do so.

"But it's surely not as as well paid as my current one," Nino smirked, trying to play it cool. It wasn't like he wanted to brag, but... "You know how well the Sakurai Group is doing at the moment and let me tell you, it reflects in the salaries. Also, you know that my family is indebted to them. Not just regarding money... it's also some kind of moral indebtment."

Aiba let his head roll in his neck to look back at his friend again. "I know the story, Nino, I know, it's all about family pride stuff, right?"

"Not only pride... well, I guess you could name it like that, but seriously, it's important to me to keep this job, at least for a few more years. It might not be my dream job, but it's a good one. It's not like I hate it," Nino shrugged.

It was actually quite OK. He was good at it. His father had prepared him well before his death. He liked President Sakurai, he always treated Nino well, and Nino did not mind that much being indepted to this family, like this. And especially now that his boss had asked him for such a favour like taking care of his son, how could Nino think about quitting? This was a big thing.

The young man felt his heart beating a little bit faster again at the thought of Sho coming back. His brain did not seem to have processed this news properly yet, as it wasn't completely vanishing from his thoughts, no matter how hard he tried. It truly made him nervous. If he would be able to perform his work under Sho just as good as he was doing under his father? If he would even be able to work under Sho? Somehow, it was a bit hard for Nino to imagine. As kids, they had been playmates, equals, but now, their relationship would be of a completely different dynamic...

Nino tried to guide his thoughts back into a more general direction. He didn't want to think too much about this, for now. Back to his work, to his tasks. He didn't mind them much. He was actually pretty good in a lot of things, like organising stuff, keeping a good view on things. His eye for detail, as he had claimed to have just before, really came in handy in his current job, too. Sometimes, it was the small things that could make or break a situation, might it be a wrong number in a report, or being 10 minutes late for a meeting and upsetting a potential business partner versus being on time and satisfying all parties involved with professional behaviour.

Still... this did not change the fact that it just wasn't what Nino actually wanted for his life. But this was complaining on a high level, he knew it, and he didn't want to be too nit-picky. Things could be much worse.

For now, it was enough for him to casually see glimpses of the world he had been striving for during his teens, and he was always grateful when Aiba came by with a new product from the gaming company he was working at, to show it to his best friend and ask for advice. It gave Nino the sense of being part of this, even if he couldn't really be, and sometimes, his tips had been relevant enough to put his name into the special credits and get himself a free copy of the finished game to add to his small but fine collection. That alone was precious to Nino, and made him proud.

"I know. And I know no matter which job you'd take over, you'd be awesome," his friend smiled. "I do not doubt your skills as a private secretary, Nino, I just moan the loss of an aspiring genius game designer."

Nino chuckled and dived a bit lover to hide behind the fluffy pillow in his arms. "Stop it, it's not like I ever really worked in that field."

"But you were so close," Aiba showed him a pinch of his thumb and forefinger and tilted his head. "And you enjoyed the internship at our company, didn't you?"

Nino nodded. That's how far he had come back then. Nino couldn't help but release a small sigh. Yes, he liked revisiting the memories of him and Aiba taking that internship, even if back then the company had been even smaller and they had to do lots of not so interesting chores that were not really related to game designing or programming, like brewing coffee, running errands, sorting paper work, but well, those chores weren't so different from what Nino still had to do at work. Further, there had been times when they had been allowed to join the creation process, even encouraged to try some things, and in those very moments, it had been worth all the other trouble.

"You know, our door is always open for you," Aiba said, encouraging. "Just in case you get sick of your job, one day."

"Thanks, I appreciate that," Nino returned the smile.

He was happy for his friend that at least one of them could land their dream job, and he was glad that his friend had found a great place that he enjoyed working at. And who knew, maybe, one day, when Nino had finished paying of the loan, he could consider going back to college and finish his degree.

First, he still would need to save up some more money so he could continue supporting his mother. Ever since her illness during Nino's childhood, the woman was bound to a wheelchair, and after the loss of her husbands some years ago, she wasn't doing so great. It had become impossible for Nino to take care of her all by himself, especially with his time consuming job and the responsibility to earn the money not only for his mother and himself to live, but also to pay back the loan his father had taken with the Sakurai group.

Thankfully, president Sakurai held connections throughout all possible fields of business in the country, so he had been able to help Nino find a good place for his mother where she could live and be taken care of by specially trained caregivers, so he could live and work without needing to worry about the woman non-stop. Of course, he visited her quite often, almost every second day, and they were often talking over the phone. The woman was doing well, regarding the general situation. The most important was, that she wasn't alone all day long. However, even with the special conditions Sakurai Shun had negotiated for the Ninomiya family, the living circumstances of Nino's mother also added on top of the young man's bills, so he was glad he had a well-paying job.

"I'm still not convinced that everything is OK," Aiba, who had meanwhile returned to his game again, suddenly said.

"What?" Nino pulled himself out of his thoughts, trying to focus on his friend.

"You look... distracted. Has something happened at work?" Aiba sounded a bit worried.

Nino sighed. Of course, he couldn't hide anything from his best friend. He probably even had noticed that Nino had not come to greet him right away after he entered his apartment, but that he had first retreated to his room for a while. It was Nino's way of coping with stressful situations and to lessen the symptoms of his condition, something he had learned from a therapist that he had started visiting years ago as a teenager, and had continued on during when his family situation had become even more complicated, with his father's approaching death. It was simple things, like taking a few minutes for himself, breathing techniques, maybe some five to ten minutes meditations. It helped, mostly, and by now, Nino only had to go to a check up to his therapist once in a few months, or if he felt the urgent need to talk to someone, although that part was mainly covered by talking to his best friend, just like he'd be doing now.

Wondering, how to approach the topic in the best way, Nino let his glance wander around the living room. Besides the couch, the coffee table and the TV-set, there was also a desk placed at one side of the room, next to an almost completely filled bookshelf. On the wall above the desk, there was a pin board hanging, which was filled with photographs, one of Nino accompanying Aiba to his college graduation ceremony, an old wedding photograph of his parents, a family portrait from Nino's high school graduation, and of course a picture of his late father.

And then, there, in the lower right corner, there was a picture of Nino, perhaps 10 years old, pushing his mother in her new wheelchair together with his father, trying his best to stay composed and smile sincerely, despite being desperate and worried about her. Next to him, there was another boy around Nino's age, wearing a chick suit and a red coloured bow tie. His dark hair was perfectly styled, his white teeth shining at the camera, his expression strong, and so Nino also remembered the boy's supportive grip on his shoulder. Back then, Nino wouldn't have known what he'd had done if he hadn't had his best childhood friend. He wouldn't have known if he had been able to be as brave in front of his mother, as he appeared to be in the picture.

"You see... it seems like Sho-chan is back in Japan," Nino finally said in a low voice before he cleared his throat and guided his look back to his friend.

"Sho-chan?" Aiba asked, now fully turning around to face his friend. "Wait, you mean that Sho-chan?!" The gaming character Aiba had been playing released a painful scream and died, but for the moment, the young man didn't care, still focused on Nino. "Like in your best friend from childhood and first crush Sho-chan?!"

"Stop calling him my first crush!" Nino demanded, lifting his pillow and pushing it playfully into his best friend's face.

"Oh come on, Nino, the way you use to talk about that boy -," Aiba's shining eyes darted over to the pin board on Nino's wall for a second. He smirked.

"But that's it, he was just a boy. I was a boy. That's it," Nino replied, chuckling.

"I'm still convinced you had a crush on him," Aiba's smirk still didn't go away. "Correction, that you still do have a crush on him."

"And I already told you, that's not true!" Nino protested immediately. "Of course not, it's been nothing, we have just been childhood friends and we haven't seen each other in like what... 10 years, at least..." breathe in, breath out, "I bet, he doesn't even remember me anymore."

"Hah... we'll see," Aiba narrowed his eyes. "So now he's back and let me guess he'll be working in his father's company too, right?"

"Exactly," Nino nodded. But that wasn't all. He placed his pillow back on top of his folded legs. "Also, President Sakurai asked me to become his son's private secretary." Nino could see Aiba's eyes widen in excitement and his lips parting, so he decided to get out everything before his friend could interrupt him. He hoped, the sudden warmness in his cheeks didn't give away too much of his excitement. "And... I'm invited to dinner on Sunday so we can get to know each other again a bit better..."

"Oh wow!" Aiba cooed. "That's amazing! That's your chance to win over his heart!"

The fluffy cushion landed once more in Aiba's face.

"Don't overdo it!" Nino demanded, embarrassed. "I never said I want to do that!"

Aiba struggled his face free, pushing the pillow back at his friend.

"But Nino, look... Just imagine... the young prestigious company heir finally returns to his home country and fate reunites him with his childhood friend," the man flourished one of his hands, motioning towards the photograph on Nino's pin board once more. "They are supposed to work together, but things are more complicated when they realize they both have feelings for each other...," he dramatically clenched the T-shirt fabric above his heart.

"Shut up, Aiba!" Nino mumbled.

"No, seriously, this sounds like one of those cheesy dramas on TV, but a good one!" Aiba said, but even he couldn't hold it together anymore now, as he broke into chuckling in between, losing the last bit of his credibility.

"This is going to be a business relationship, only!" Nino tried to clarify, rolling his eyes at his best friend's ridiculous behaviour.

"You can't know that," Aiba replied, wiggling his eyebrows, as he tried to find back his composure but failed and instead made a silly kissing face. "Maybe, he misses you too–"

"Stop nagging me," Nino chuckled, crossing his arms over the fluffy pillow, pretending to be upset. "And just theoretically speaking, of course, besides everything I already said – that he was never my crush, and that this is going to be a business relationship, only - we don't even know if he's single, if he's even interested in men, so stop assuming things, your imagination is carrying you away."

"But it sounds so gooood.... secret love sprouting between the company heir and his private secretary," Aiba repeated, this time whispered, and this was how Nino's pillow once more moved over to Aiba, who caught it, laughing, and didn't give it back this time, just to be safe.

"You're interpreting too much into this!"

"Let's see how you'll react when you meet him again at that family dinner," Aiba wiggled his eyebrows again. "I bet, he's become a very handsome man. You know that I need pictures of him, right? That one over there is definitely outdated."

"I won't send you stalker pictures, forget it," Nino chuckled.

Aiba broke into whining. "Oh come on, Nino, please! I need to know who's that guy who stole little Nino-chan's heart and took it to Europe with him years ago -"

"I told you it's nothing like that!"

"All your stories about your childhood sound differently, and why else should you have kept exactly that one old photograph of you two as young boys? I know, there's a ton of other pictures with you and your parents together, so don't try selling this argument to me. You picked that picture on purpose, because of him! Also, why has no relationship ever worked out for you so far?"

"Not that this is of any concern to you, but," Nino blushed, his feeling of being uncomfortable talking to his friend about such a topic gradually reaching its peak. "Maybe I was busy with my job and my parents' situations?"

"Yeah, true, that might be a reason, sure," Aiba tilted his head, perceptively. "But think about it, isn't it possible that you've been waiting for him, sort of?"

"You are definitely over-romanticizing this," Nino rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I am not the romantic one here," Aiba chuckled as he finally stood up from his spot on the carpet and now settled on the couch next to his friend, not leaving his eyes off him.

Fine, Nino would pretend to play along for now. "Sill... we don't even know if -"

"Then find it out!" Aiba nudged his friend's side.

"But we'll be working together!"

"Don't pretend to be naive, you wouldn't be the first boss-secretary couple in world's history, Nino," Aiba nudged him again.

Nino slightly pushed back. "But I don't -"

"Stop it!" Aiba demanded, his voice suddenly sounding extra serious. "No more lies! I can read you like an open book, anyway. It might be true that your Sho-chan was your best childhood friend, but right now, I am your best friend, and I know you better than you know yourself."

There was a pause in which Nino just looked at his friend. Then, he leant forward to reach for Aiba's abandoned gaming controller on top of the coffee table to restart the demo game and try it himself so he could probably provide Aiba with a bit more feedback regarding the gameplay.

"Aren't you forcing this a little bit too much?" Nino finally replied, sending a mix of a smirk and a desperate look at his best friend.

"You know what I'm talking about, you just don't admit it," Aiba nodded, folding his arms on top of the fluffy cushion. He grinned. "Well, we'll see how things are after you met him. I can't wait for your report about the family dinner. And please, please try to get a picture! You just need to ask him to take a selfie together with you, for good old time's sake or for capturing the start of your work relationship or something like that."

Nino just sighed, giving up, and tried to focus on the game in front of him. Thankfully, Aiba let go of the conversation too, and instead watched Nino playing, getting his pen and notebook ready again.

Seeing Aiba holding his notebook, Nino suddenly remembered the journal he had found during lunch break today. He hadn't have time yet to check it out more thoroughly, but he would remember doing so later on before going to bed. He needed to find the owner of it, after all. But for now, it was time to go beat up some dark elves for Aiba.

+ + +

Sunday afternoon had come faster than expected, and so did the announced Sakurai family dinner, Nino was invited to. Saying, he was nervous about meeting Sho again, was an understatement, however, Nino managed to have his condition better under control than he expected. Breathing exercises helped, as always, and so did Aiba's presence who had come by to help Nino choose a proper outfit for the event, and sooth his nerves. Thankfully, he had stopped nagging Nino about his crush-or-no-crush on his old childhood friend, and instead had resumed to full force friend support, and Nino felt loved and respected and as if he could conquer the world. That was Aiba's magic, and exactly what he needed this evening.

Together, they finally managed to choose a suit that fitted Nino's figure exceptionally well, they picked the perfect necktie to match it, and Aiba even convinced his friend to let him style his hair a bit differently from usual. He even had brought a hair iron that he had borrowed from his sister, to add just a hint of waves to the edges of Nino's long bangs. Nino felt a little bit insecure about it, wondering if they weren't overdoing it, but Aiba said it looked good, so Nino chose to believe him and hope that Sho would think so, too.

The young man took the company car that he was allowed to use also for private purposes, to drive to the Sakurai's estate. He would be able to find his way there with closed eyes, as he often used to come here to pick up his boss and drive to business events together with him. It's been a while, though, since Nino had come here as a guest of the household, and it felt very differently.

Just getting closer to the quite large, western styled mansion, which was still surrounded with the wide green gardens from Nino's precious childhood memories, felt a bit intimidating today, especially when Nino considered what was coming up. The crunching gravel underneath the car's tires interrupting the relaxation music Nino had put on, was already enough to disturb the relaxing effect.

Nino's heart rate increased, when he reluctantly parked his silver car right next to a bright red Ferrari, unable to deny that he was slightly impressed by it, although usually, he wasn't even that much interested in cars. But since this wasn't his boss' nor his wife's car, Nino could just assume, that it must be their son's, Sho's car. When Nino got out of his car, he dared to take a closer look at the Ferrari. He swallowed. Bold. Conspicuous. Luxurious. He couldn't help but wonder. There were things being told about drivers of swanky cars. Would those things apply to Sho as well?

After a short while, Nino stepped back again and startet to walk up the short path from the parking lot to the Sakurai's mansion's intimidating entrance.

Once he had rang the doorbell, Mrs. Sakurai, who was always happy to see him, welcomed Nino personally, immediately waving him inside. Her matt ruby coloured lips drew apart into a warm smile and small wrinkles around her eyes appeared, showing sincere joy over the young man's visit. The woman was in her mid-fifties already, but nobody would have guessed that, as she was still looking very young for her age. Her elegant long dark hair was loosely pulled back into a low dot, a simple but beautiful big hairpin holding the strands in place. She was wearing a long-sleeved dark dress with big flowery print on it, which flattered her slim figure.

"Good evening, Sakurai-san," Nino smiled at the woman after he had bowed slightly to greet her. "Thank you very much for the kind invitation."

"Ninomiya-kun, it's always my pleasure to see you," Mrs. Sakurai chirped in a cheerful voice.

She was truly a gorgeous woman, not only well-mannered and friendly, but also beautiful, the perfect match for a great man like Sakurai Shun. Sometimes, when Nino drove over to pick up his boss, and he had to wait for him for some reason, the nice woman used to invite him on a cup of tea and a little chat, and the young man always enjoyed it. So, Nino tried to smile back as naturally as possible, but if he was being completely honest, his thoughts were already running wild, and of course, it was all about Sho. If their son had turned out only half as good looking as his parents, he must be the crush of half Europe.

The Sakurais' butler, Mr. Koizumi, who was standing right next to the woman, offered to take Nino's jacket and brought it to the cloakroom while Nino slipped out of his shoes and into some guest slippers that had been provided at the entrance area. Afterwards, although Nino exactly knew the way, he was guided through the corridors of the house into the dining area of the estate by Mrs. Sakurai and her butler.

The house looked just as much Western styled on the inside as on the outside, with open rooms that blended into each other, high ceilings and European furniture. The hallway was decorated with two large pots of beautiful flower arrangements, and there were a few paintings from not so famous artists hanging on the warm, creme-coloured walls. Anyone who entered the Sakurai family's home, clearly could see, that they weren't doing bad, financially. Still, they had not overdone it, which was something that Nino especially liked about them. Although they had the money, they didn't eat from golden plates, and they still acted like normal people, treating others with respect and civility.

The still empty dining room was big and usually very bright, flooded with natural light during the day, as president Sakurai's propensity to large glass windows also ran through his personal style of living. The dining area resembled more a winter garden than a simple room, with even the ceiling solely made of glass. There were light constructions hung up in the corners and along the long side of the room, which reminded on lanterns and their glow provided a pleasant amount of light, blending in well with the now slowly settling darkness outside. Tall green indoor plants towered in the corners of the room, emphasizing the natural atmosphere of the place. The table was already set for what probably would be a fancy dinner, judging from the nice smell that filled the house. Candles were lit and a basket filled with freshly baked bread already placed in the middle. With a glance, Nino quickly counted the place settings, and frowned. There were five of them. This must be for Mr. and Mrs. Sakurai, their son Sho, Nino... and one more person? At least, Nino knew that usually, Mr. Koizumi would not join dinner, but serve the meal and have some for himself in the kitchen. So, whom did the Sakurai family invite in addition?

Nino didn't get the chance to worry further about the number of place settings, when Mrs. Sakurai came back to stand right next to him, two flutes of champagne in her hands that she had taken from the tray Mr. Koizumi was carrying now.

"Ninomiya-kun, let's toast," the woman said cheerfully, handing him one of the glasses.

"It's my pleasure," Nino replied, taking the champagne from the elegant lady, before he added in a low voice, "But only one glass of champagne, I still need to drive home by car."

"Of course, of course," Mrs. Sakurai cheered, lifting her drink to clink glasses with her guest. "Responsible like always, Ninomiya-kun, I really appreciate that. And no worries, we have lots of delicious non-alcoholic drinks here too."

"Thank you."

"Tell me, how is your dear mother doing?" the woman asked, reaching her hand to touch Nino's elbow in a comforting way.

She knew well about his family situation, and even used to be in contact with his mother once in a while, but of course, Nino was the first source of information when it came to her.

"Thank you, it seems she's doing fine, lately. Her body has become a bit stronger recently, so sometimes, she can even walk a few steps," Nino reported the latest improvements of his mother's condition with a smile.

The illness the woman had experienced in the past had taken its tolls on her, eating on her over all physical condition, taking away all the strength, especially in her legs, and loosing Nino's father over four years ago had not been helpful. However, the long year physio therapy seemed to finally work, now that she was slowly overcoming her husband's death and gathering courage for the future. After all, she still wanted to see her beloved son to grow up into a fine man, wanted to spend time with him without beeing too much of a burden – her words, not Nino's – and so, she gave her best on recovering.

"This is such good news," Mrs. Sakurai said, releasing a relieved sigh and putting her hand over her heart. She smiled, sincerely. "I'd love to welcome the two of your someday for a chat with cake and tea, what do you think?"

"I will tell her, and I am sure, she'd be very happy to come visit, thank you," the young man nodded.

The two of them were then distracted by two male voices that seemed to approach the winter garden, coming from the mansion's living room. One of voices, Nino recognized immediately – the one of his boss – but the other did not sound as familiar. Nino held his breath for a moment, his heart starting to beat heavily in his chest.

It must be Sho.

And it was.

Even though definitely grown up now, Nino recognised the young man entering the dining area behind Mr. Sakurai, immediately. The young man might not have grown as tall as Nino almost had expected, but he must be a bit taller than Nino. He was slim, but not too slim, well built, even, the dark grey suit fitting his body perfectly. His hair was pitch black, cut short at the sides and his longer bangs styled back in a slight quiff, revealing a beautiful forehead and prominent eyebrows in a shape that surely could change from a friendly expression to sheer anger, if the son inherited the same repertoire of emotions as his father – even if Nino had to admit it's been a while since President Sakurai had shown anger towards anyone at work. The young man's big eyes looked calm, his high cheek bones and defined jaw line made his face look slim, but his lips were plump and red, and so beautiful... Nino swallowed, his heart was beating, excitedly. The young boy from his memory had become an even more attractive man, than he had ever expected.

When President Sakurai guided his son's attention towards Nino, Sho slightly turned his head and when his beautiful dark brown eyes met Nino's, those breathtaking lips parted into a wonderful, friendly smile. A Sho-chan-smile, wide and dazzling, showing his perfectly white teeth and causing his whole face to smile, right up to the corners of his eyes.

Nino quickly shook his head. He had to get rid of that habit of calling him Sho-chan, as quickly as possible. If they would be working together, he couldn't call him by his childhood nickname, that was impossible! Nino cleared his throat and straightened his back a little bit, remembered himself to smile, but he just couldn't get himself to take a step closer towards his old friend, his feet were like stuck in cement.

It was Sho then, who came closer, his hand already reached out for a handshake, so the young man was aiming for a European style greeting, Nino concluded. He briefly brushed the palm of his hand against the fabric of his trousers, just to make sure it wasn't sweaty, and mirroring Sho's smile, he reluctantly started to lift his hand too. Nino tried to swallow the lump in his throat. He needed to make this look casual, as if it was nothing, but oh Gosh, he was so nervous, this was everything but nothing! Still, for a second, he noted the absense of itching, pleased. Well, this might be stress for his heart, but it seemed to be positive stress and nothing to worry about. This was just a long-held dream coming finally true - meeting Sho again after those many years..

Their hands connected and Nino's heart skipped a beat. The young man suddenly became strangely aware of how dry his lips felt, how dry his throat felt. He hoped, his hand wasn't shaking.

Say something! Nino tried to encourage himself, but the only thing he managed to produce was a small, insignificant, "Hello."

"Good evening, it's nice to meet you, we're going to work together, right?" the man standing now right in front of Nino, said, their hands still connected, and his smile still dazzling.

Nino frowned slightly. Something about Sho's greeting felt wrong. Did he not –

"My name is Sakurai Sho, I am looking forward to working together with you," something was definitely off. Their hands disconnected, and while Sho brought his now empty hand up to his jacked, as if he wanted to adjust it a little bit, Nino's hand dropped strenghtlessly to his side. The president's son slightly tilted his head, a small line appearing between his eyebrows. "I'm sorry, my father told me but I fear, I forgot, what was your name... Ichinomiya-san?"

The lump in Nino's throat stayed.

"It's Ninomiya. Sho, I already told you, didn't I?" Sho's father said, releasing something between a slightly nervous and amused chuckle. "Ninomiya Kazunari. Did you really forget about him?"

Nino's world scattered. His ears twitched slightly. His neck started feeling warm, and slowly, it also started prickling. No. No, no, no, not now! Pull yourself together! Nino stressed himself. He clenched his hands, one around the stem of the champagne flute he still hadn't emptied – but did so now – and the other hidden in his trouser's pocket, pressing against his thigh. He tried to breathe in and out slowly, getting back the controll over the situation.

It would be fine. Honestly, what had he even expected? It had been over ten years that he and Sho had parted ways. Considering how much people could change within such a time span, they basically didn't know each other anymore. It wasn't such a big deal if Sho forgot his name, right?

But it was, and the worst part was, that it wasn't everything.

As if it wasn't enough that his Sho-chan apparently had completely forgotten about Nino, the young man's shock was doubled, when another person entered the room, behind Sho and his father, a familiar looking, beautiful young woman who immediately walked up to Sho, smiling at him apologetically, saying she took a little longer in the bathroom, and linking her arm with him. The young woman was wearing a stunning aquamarine blue dress, its border, lined with lace, barely covering her knees and her long dark brown curly hair was done up beautifully at one side. She looked like a princess out of a Disney movie.

Her eyes were cat like, her face flawless and her smile the one of an angel. Nino's own smile had vanished immediately, as he realised, that any normal young man would be smitten by her beauty, and of course, of course, Sho would not be any different, and of course, he would bring his girlfriend to family dinner.

Nino recognized the young lady as Kitagawa Keiko, the daughter of one of the Sakurais' most important business partners in Japan, but this did not improve the situation. If even, it only added the information that both families were powerful and that a connection between their offsprings would probably not be unwelcomed by both of their parents. Nino didn't know if the two had hooked up only recently, since Sho was back in Japan, or if they had been dating for years, already without his knowing – a quick briefing of his memory showed Nino that he had never seen the young woman with another man – however, considering his age, the only real question was if they were already married or not.

When Keiko's eyes caught Nino's, she greeted him with a polite smile. "Nice to meet you again, Ninomiya-san, I hope you're doing well."

"Yes, thank you, Kitagawa-san," Nino said, forcing himself to smile again. "I hope everything is fine for you too."

She smiled, nodding.

Well, with Sho by her side, what should she be missing? Nino's brain threw in. He tried to ignore the thought.

"So you two know each other?" Sho asked, raising his eyebrows at the girl standing beside him.

"We had the pleasure to meet at a few business events in the past," Keiko explained.

Nino just managed to nod briefly, murmuring his confirmation.

Suddenly, the young woman looked at him, slightly concerned. "I'm really sorry but... are you OK?" she asked, lifting one of her hands up to her neck. "It looks like you're a little red up there..."

"Ah," Nino chuckled, and he was so tempted to lift his hand too and cover the spot the young woman had just pointed out, but he knew, if he touched it, it would just become worse. "It's just a small allergic reaction, I suppose, nothing to worry about," he told his usual white lie with a forced smile. Please don't mention it again, he thought desperately, as he tried hard not to think of the slowly spreading rash and especially the urge to scratch his irritated skin that came with it.Damned!He had everything under control so well and now this...

Nino was eventually saved from continuing the conversation, when Mr. Koizumi announced, that dinner was ready and everyone was asked to take place. While President Sakurai took the place at the head of the table, and his wife settled down to his right side, the woman asked Nino to join her, and the young couple consisting of Sho and Keiko sat down at the opposite side of the table. Gentleman-like, Sho offered the girl the honour of sitting between him and his father, so that he and Nino were left exactly across each other. Nino almost didn't dare looking at the other man, but when he did, their eyes met briefly, just for the split of a second, before both of them averted their eyes and the first course was served.

During dinner, Nino didn't talk much. He didn't even know what he was expected to say after answering just a few work related questions from Sho and his father, but luckily, President Sakurai had taken it upon himself to keep the conversation lively. He was a very good speaker, after all and it showed.

"Ninomiya-kun is a great organisator, he even has our most important business contacts all filed in his head, including telephone numbers and e-mail addresses!" President Sakurai finalized some praise about Nino.

Sho nodded. "That sounds indeed not bad, Ninomiya-san!"

"Ah, I'm just good at remembering things that I read," Nino replied, slightly embarrassed. He didn't like to brag about his skills that much.

"You'll see, Sho, he will be a great right hand for you," President Sakurai proclaimed.

"Or left hand," Nino added, chuckling, causing Sho to look at him, slightly confused.

"Because he's a leftie," Sho's father explained, before politely laughing about Nino's little joke.

"Right, right," Sho replied, joining the laughter.

Nino wanted to vanish in thin air, and so he didn't contribute more for the moment and instead left the task of entertaining the table to Sho, who ended up talking a lot about the experience he had collected overseas.

Nino would have been fired up to listen to all of his childhood friend's stories, he even had imagined this kind of conversation, just, in his imagination it had been completely different. It had just been him and Sho and Sho's parents, and Sho's speech had rather been something along the line of wishing Nino had been there with him, instead of simply listing places and hotels he had visited and learned from.

Despite the unmet expectations, it all still sounded interesting, at least the part Nino was paying attention to. He had to admit that he had a hard time to focus on what exactly the young man was saying, his brain occupied with several other things – paying attention to Keiko and her mimics, trying hard to ignore the annoying rash on his neck and trying to forget his broken heart over the fact that Sho didn't remember him. He was not able to enjoy the meal, his sense of taste completely gone, and only hollowly praised the food, which apparently, Mrs. Sakurai had helped to prepare, despite having a private cook. Nino wished he could properly taste everything and praise it wholeheartedly, as he could see how happy the woman was about the fact that especially her son seemed to enjoy every single bit of it.

Between two courses, the conversation switched from Sho's Europe trip to his relationship with Keiko, although the couple seemed a bit embarrassed to talk about it and instead, Keiko only leaned a bit closer towards her partner, linking their arms while they were waiting for dessert and Sho smiling at her, warmly. He didn't want it, but the view of those two being so close, made Nino feel sick. It even made the rash on his neck so bad, that he had to pretend receiving an important phone call, so that he could stand up from the table and excuse himself for a while.

The young man took the chance while holding his phone in his hands and remembering Aiba's request and took a picture of Sho and Keiko flirting with each other. It wasn't exactly the type of picture he would have wanted to take of Sho, also not the type of picture he would have wanted to show to his best friend, but it was probably the only chance this evening, so he took what he could get.

Pretending to pick up the call, Nino quickly walked out of the winter garden, through the living room, and onto the corridor, aiming for the bathroom. When he reached it, he immediately dropped his phone next to the sink, reached up to loosen his necktie and collar, pushing it aside to reveal his neck. A glance into the mirror told Nino, that it looked just as bad as it felt. Red, and irritated, small pustules covering almost the whole right side – one of Nino's most affected spots. He cursed silently and squinted his eyes, collecting all the willpower he had left, to keep himself from scratching.

He immediately proceeded to wash his hands with cold water and soap, before he reached into his trousers pocket and pulled out his small hand towel and a small bottle of aloe vera gel. He drenched the hand towel in cold water and brought it up to the area at his neck which was affected by the rash, carefully cleaning it with the wet cloth and pressing it firmly against the irritated skin, trying to let the coolness work as a substitute for scratching. Soon after, he started dapping his skin.

It wasn't the same as scratching, but it felt releaving enough for now, at least enough for Nino to be able to collect himself again and focus on fighting against the fit. He drenched the hand towel once more to cool it again and repeated his actions from before while coming back to remembering his breathing exercises to calm his nerves. He breathed in, he breathed out, tried to forget everything that stressed him, focused onto the coolness of his hand towel.

Once the symptoms had calmed down enough, Nino proceeded to add some of the aloe vera gel, which also had a cooling and soothing effect to the red patches of his skin, allowed it to dry a bit while packing his things and then readjusted his shirt's collar and necktie. He looked into the mirror again. It looked OK. His skin was still red, but it already looked a little bit better and the most important was, that the itching had become far less than before and he had made it without injuring his skin. He took another deep breath and prepared himself mentally to spend the rest of the evening seeing Keiko clinging to Sho and the two flirting to each other. He visualised it, tried to accept it, and moved on. He could do this!

Back at the table, dessert had already been served, but noone had dared starting without him. Nino felt a bit bad about that and appologized once more for his sudden disappearance. When he settled back down, Nino could feel the others' gazes on him. Especially knowing Sho's look on him made Nino feel slightly nervous again, but he did not dare looking back at him and instead focussed on Sho's mother.

"Is everything alright?" Mrs. Sakurai asked, concerned. "Was it about your mother?"

Nino smiled at her, nodding. He didn't want to straight forward lie at her, so he let her to think what she wanted and just answered, "It's OK, please don't worry, it was just a false alarm. Sorry for making you wait, you could have continued eating without me, really."

"No way," Mrs. Sakurai said, smiling. "We wanted to wait."

"Now, let's eat," Sho finally said, determined.

He was suddenly focussed on his food again, already clenching the tea spoon that was served with what looked like mango pudding topped with a variety of tropical fruits and accompanied by waffles. Nino couldn't help but smirk. Sho really looked like he had had a hard time waiting and holding back to raid the dessert.

"You may eat, sweet tooth," Mrs. Sakurai agreed, Sho slightly blushed and the table broke into laughter for a minute before everyone started to enjoy the sweet treat.

The conversation topics switched to all different kind of things, from the weather to current political discussion, sports as well as other popular themes on the media and whatnot. They drank more – Nino switched to non-alcoholic drinks after the glass of wine he took with the main course – and talked more, and eventually, the strict seating order dissolved, people got up, walked a bit through the house when for example Mrs. Sakurai showed Nino a new painting in the hallway on the second floor that she bought from a local upcoming artist, or President Sakurai took Keiko, who seemed to have an interest in music, with him to show her his record collection, Sho following them, a glass of wine in hand.

Nino preferred staying in the dining area together with Sho's mother, the woman still chatty and in a very good mood after her dinner had been such a success. Together, they were now looking out of the window into the gardens. Although it was dark already, a few lanterns placed here and there, threw circles of light onto the nearby bushes and trees, enlighting certain areas just enough to help Nino remember how he had been playing there when he had been a child. Nearby the stone porch in front of the winter garden was a large magnolia, almost in full bloom, the light of a nearby lantern brushing the sweeping soft white and pink petals and in the back there was a planted line of blue hydrangeas, a small stone path guiding further in the back to what Nino remembered as the fruits tree garden, a small glade, sprouting daisies and dandelions, surrounded by a peach, apple and cherry tree, each.

There, on top of a plaid blanket, he and Sho had often been playing card games, talking, or reading books together or to each other, or just each to themselves, side by side. The happy memories came with a slight sting right into Nino's heart. How unimportant and insignificant those times must have been for Sho if he had truly forgotten them... but no matter what, Nino would cling to them. For him, they were all but insignificant.

"Your garden is so beautiful, Mrs. Sakurai," Nino eventually said. "Sometimes, I still dream about running through them." Together with Sho. But Nino didn't add that.

"You really liked playing in our garden when you were a boy, Ninomiya-kun," the woman replied, a nostalgic smile on her lips.

Nino chuckled. "What can I say, I was really grateful to have a place to come to after school. And I really do love flowers!"

They both laughed and playfully clinked glasses.

"Ah, yes," Mrs. Sakurai sighed. "When did you stop coming to visit us, back then?"

Nino did not need to think twice to give an answer to that question.

"When your son went overseas," he said. "My playmate was gone and I didn't want to bother you…"

The woman tilted her head and touched Nino's shoulder. "You know that you're always welcome here, right? We are so grateful for everything your father did for us and everything you do and will be doing for us and our son."

"Thank you, Mrs. Sakurai, I appreciate your words and I really enjoy having tea with you from time to time. Maybe next time we can set up a table in the garden?" the young man suggested, earning a pleased nod from the lady by his side.

A few minutes later, Mrs. Sakurai had vanished into the kitchen to talk over a few details with her cook so they could note down things the woman had noticed and could work on perfecting their recipes even more. Mr. Sakurai was still showing Keiko his most favourite musical pieces – which could be heard even in the dining area – so Nino was left alone, but not for long. He could already hear the footsteps of someone entering the winter garden again and when he looked up and saw Sho's reflection in the window glass, his suspicion about who had returned, was confirmed.

Sho just stood there at the doorframe for a while, sipping from his wine glass, and watching. If he was looking outside or if he was watching Nino, Nino wasn't completely sure, but at one point, their eyes seemed to meet in the window's reflection, and Nino immediately averted his eyes.

It took Sho a few more minutes and a refill of his wine glass before he approached Nino further, until they were standing next to each other, looking outside with a glass of wine – or black currant juice in Nino's case – in hands and obviously not knowing what to talk about to each other. It was weird, and Nino hated it. He had imagined this to be so different, actually. So much easier. But this, this wasn't easy. It was painful.

Although Nino had been doing his best to stay calm until now, being all alone with Sho definitely made him nervous again. He tried to take deep breaths and calm his slightly raised heart rate, unnoticed. Nino's biggest concern were his thoughts that already started to run wild again, even so far, that he considered for a moment to take the risk and talk about his and Sho's past, mention that they had been childhood friends and see if the other man truly did not remember. Maybe he just needed a little reminder. Maybe just a little story, to get back into it...

However, in the end, Nino couldn't work up the courage to do so and it was Sho, who spoke up first.

"So… do you like cars, Ninomiya-kun?" the young man asked between two sips of his wine.

Nino frowned at the other man, seriously confused. Really? Out of all possible things they could be conversing about, he wanted to talk about cars? Or was he just talking nonsense, because he was already quite tipsy?

"Not particularly, why?" Nino replied, still baffled.

"Uhm, I mean, I saw you taking a closer look at mine, before," Sho replied, raising an eyebrow and Nino formed an understanding "oh" with his lips. That's where he was coming from.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you," Nino chuckled "But that was sheer curiosity but not particularly deep interest... I'm not too much of a car fan."

Suddenly, Sho burst into laughter. It sounded sincere and it caught Nino completely off guard. He couldn't help but stare at the other man, his heart jumping in his chest.

"And there I thought I impressed you."

The slightly taller man chuckled one last time, looking at Nino, his eyes half closed as the laugh made them appear smaller, like shining sickles, illuminated by a nearby lantern. He sighed slightly, before he focused back on his drink. Nino wondered. Did he really want to impress him or just show off? What was even going on here?

"It needs more than a fancy car to impress me," Nino retorted, snorting. Rather than the car, what really interested him was what a car could possibly tell him about its owner.

The other man chuckled. "You know, that's a little sassy, but I like your straightforwardness."

Nino blushed. He had almost forgotten about their actual relationship – upcoming boss and secretary, and being called sassy even before they started working together was probably not the best way to go.

"I'm sorry, I did not mean to be disrespectful or anything," the man murmured.

"No no, it's OK," Sho shook his head. "We're not taking it personal."

"We?" Nino raised his eyebrows. "Oh, you mean like in you and your car?" He chuckled.

"Don't laugh at me," the other man returned with a serious look on his face.

"I'm sorry. I didn't," Nino said hastily, his smile immediately vanished.

Sho's eyes narrowed. He really looked serious. "You did."

"I'm sorry."

Probably, it was better not to say anything more, Nino assumed, and so they fell into a weird silence again. Luckily, it didn't last for too long, as Sho's mother was soon back in the living room to join them. The woman always had something to chat about – her topics definitely more interesting in Nino's books than cars – and so she quickly filled the emptiness between them.

+ + +

After the slightly awkward conversation with Sho, Nino soon excused himself to drive home, considering that he should better get up early tomorrow to give himself a thirty minutes extra to prepare for his new boss. When Keiko mentioned, that she was getting very tired too, Sho immediately offered to drive her home, but considering his blood alcohol level, both of his parents prohibited him to sit behind the steering wheel, and so Sho ended up asking his girlfriend to stay over for the night. While he asked her, he had his arm around her shoulder, but was looking at Nino, which the young man found a little irritating. If the other man was trying to impress him with what his night had still to promise, it wouldn't work. Nino didn't even want to imagine what Sho and Keiko would be doing once alone in a room. No, really.

"Show off...," Nino sighed, when he was sitting back in his car.

Of course, Sho's last behaviour had rubbed him in the wrong way. He didn't like it. Not at all. But what could he do against it, anyway? So, instead of lingering with the other man for longer in his thoughts, Nino checked the glove box of his car for his CDs and picked another calming relaxation music for his drive home. Before he started the engine though, he remembered Aiba's request again, and since he even had managed to fulfill it, which he had almost forgotten, he quickly opened their LINE conversation and sent his friend the picture he had secretly taken of Sho and Keiko at the dinner table.

"Here's your picture. Home in fifteen minutes," he added as a caption and then put away his phone to finally start his ride home.

As soon as Nino had returned home and taken off his shoes, Aiba's caller ID showed up on his smartphone screen. Nino picked up the call, putting it on speakers and informed his friend, that he would just quickly change into his pyjamas and then they could talk. Aiba agreed to wait and just a few minutes later, Nino was changed, had brushed his teeth and applied a bit more cooling crème on his still slightly red skin. Now he was lying on top of his bed, some soothening arome therapy candle lit on his bedside table, and low volume calm music in the background. His eyes were closed and his phone lifted to his left ear, the speaker setting switched back to normal phone mode.

"So, I assume you received my picture," he said.

Shuffling on the other side of the line. Probably, Aiba had also put the call on speakers so he could preocuppy himself while waiting for Nino. Shortly after, there was his friend speaking into his ear.

"I did!" Aiba said, obviously excited. "WOW, he's hot! But who's that girl?"

Nino sighed before he answered. "Kitagawa Keito, rich daughter of a business partner of the Sakurai's and apparently, his girlfriend or at least the girl he's supposed to marry one day, I guess."

Short silence. "Oh..."

"Even worse," Nino said before he took a deep breath and lifted his free hand to pinch the area between his eyebrows. "Sho completely forgot about me."

"What?!" Something crashed and Aiba cursed. He must have let something drop.

"Yepp... I know," the other man continued. "But seriously, he doesn't remember me at all. He even got my name wrong after his father told him about me."

"Damned… bummer… I'm sorry, man. Are you OK?"

If Nino was absolutely honest, it still hurt. Remembering how he had imagined his long anticipated reunion with his childhood friend that he had liked so much when he was a child, whose perfect image he had clung to for more than ten years, even if they had not been in contact at all, and how it had actually gone, felt devastating.

"I'm OK," Nino replied after a short pause, but the slight crack in his voice might give away his real feelings. He had considered telling Aiba about his rash, but in the end, Aiba probably knew anyway and there was nothing he could do about it, so he decided not to say anything. "And it's not your fault, I shouldn't have expected anything in the first place."

"Still, that sucks! I'm so sorry, Nino...", Aiba said, and he sounded sincerely concerned.

Nino tried to smile, for his friend's sake. "Don't worry, I'll get over it." Someday, at least, hopefully.

But his best friend wasn't finished yet. "Will you be able to work for him like this?"

Nino considered the question for a moment, before he replied. "Probably, it will be easier like this. Now I know that I don't need to get confused over my crush for him because I don't stand a chance anyway."

There was a snort coming from the other end of the line. "Sorry, I know it's inappropriate at the moment but... you just admitted it."

"What?" Nino frowned.

"That you have a crush on him!"

True! Crap! Nino slapped his own forehead.

"I... I'm working on making this a past thing," he said reluctantly. "Let's not talk about it anymore, OK?"

"OK, as you wish. Although you know that I'm all rooting for you, no matter if that guy forgot about you or has a girlfriend... we could find a way to make you win him over, you know?"

Nino chuckled softly. His friend's determination and unlimited support made him feel all warm inside. "Thank you, Aiba-chan, but I don't think this will be necessary. Sometimes, we need to accept a defeat."

"As you like, but if you change your mind, let me know and we'll come up with a proper battle strategy!" Aiba replied, causing Nino to actually laugh. "Anyway, good luck for tomorrow. Gaming session in the evening?"

"Yeah, sure. But I'll pay my mother a short visit after work, first. You can let yourself in again."

"Roger! See you tomorrow!"

"Good night," Nino said.

He hung up. He could still feel the smile on his lips. He opened his eyes. His room already felt brighter than just a few minutes before. That was Aiba's magic, again.

When Nino sat up and reached to place his phone on the bedside table, his eyes fell onto the black journal he had found in the park nearby the office the other day. He had placed it there, next to the aroma therapy candle and the small bottle of aloe vera crème that he kept there for nightly emergencies, should he wake up from a stressing nightmare of something like that.

Since it would still take the young man a little longer to be able to fall asleep, Nino decided to read a little more in the journal.

As he had not found out much about it yet, besides that it wasn't a simple planner, and nothing obviously showed who it might belong to, maybe reading a little further would clarify things. If this had been diary entries, just a name could have been enough for giving a hint, perhaps. However, it had not taken Nino long to realise, that it was not daily reports either that were written down on the pages. It was rather a cluster of thoughts, quotes, short stories, lyrics and poems to various topics, merged into a big collection. Some of those works were more abstract than others, but sooner or later, Nino was always able to decipher the message lying underneath. Some were more generalizing, others seemed to have a very personal touch.

Nino had to admit, that he felt a bit like an intruder, but on the other hand, the more he read in the journal, the more he felt like reading a book. A very good book. Maybe his favourite of all times.

This night, he started reading a short story of which whole passages had been blacked out and re-written, but he found it interesting and challenging to search a way through the scribbled noted and finally find the version that had been supposed to be written. It was a story, about friendship and how important it could be for someone throughout life, throughout the good and bad times. It had a melancholy touch to it but it was also simply beautiful and described feelings Nino could immediately connect with.

In the end, Nino was more tired than he thought and he felt so comfortable, that he didn't even notice how he fell asleep in the middle of the story. Lulled in by the calming scent of lavendar, the soothing background music and beautiful words he read on the pages of the journal, he got completely lost in the midst of a fictional character's feeling.

Nino didn't know yet, that he would be spending those thirty minutes that he had planned in more tomorrow for preparations for his new position, with finishing reading the story. Because he liked it so much that he couldn't even think about leaving the house before knowing how it ended.

+ + +

Probably, it shouldn't have been a surprise to Nino that his first day working with – or for – Sho turned out to be a middle-sized disaster.

First days always were challenging, at least, when Nino had first started this job and had followed his father around to learn everything important, he had felt completely overwhelmed by all of the duties a secretary had to cover, of how much he had to consider and coordinate and how alert and prone to details he needed to be. He had spilled his first cup of tea that he had been supposed to serve to President Sakurai – worst of all, he had spilled it onto the president's shoes – he had made copies of the wrong document for an important meeting and sent an e-mail to the wrong person. Any rookie mistakes anyone could ever think of, Nino had probably made them within the first week in this job. He had really been lucky, that his father as well as Mr. Sakurai had been very understanding and patient with him, but that alone wouldn't have improved the situation. Of course, it was upon Nino to make up for his mistakes, learn from them, and prevent them from reoccurring in the future.

Things today were different, of course. It wasn't actually Nino's first day. It was his first day with his new boss, yes, but truth to be told, Nino did not expect that many changes from his previous work. It was still the same company he was working for, it was still the same job profile, it was even the same family he was working under, the only difference was, that it wasn't President Sakurai now, he was directly subordinated to, but his son.

Nino wasn't completely sure yet, if this was an improvement or a degradation from his previous position, but apparently, Mr. Sakurai had high opinions of him and saw it as an improvement, so Nino wanted to try and treat it as such too, if possible. He could already imagine though, that things with Sho wouldn't be as easy as with the man's father. After all, Sho was a newcomer now. Being set up to take over the position of the vice president of a hotel management company, aiming for the position as their president one day once his father retired, and travelling through Europe after university graduation to check out some hotels, were two completely different pairs of shoes.

Nino did not know how well Sho was prepared for this, but the fact, that Mr. Sakurai Junior first of all, did not show up at work on time, already made the secretary slightly nervous.

Actually, it was pretty bad, because Nino still needed to do some briefing with Sho regarding the young man's first meeting as the aspiring vice president of the Sakurai group with the other big names of the company. Even if this was to be only an internal meeting, it was a very important one for Sho, to gain the respect and goodwill of his father's partners, the most important people in the company. Sho might already have it a little hard because as the son of the company president he was meant to become his direct successor anyway, in the long run, even if there were people who had way more experience in this business than he had, but Nino was sure, if Sho was competent and showed it, people would accept and respect him. Thus, it was crucial to make a good, professional first impression at such a meeting.

At least, that's what Nino thought, and what Sho's father also had told him, but apparently, Sho wasn't taking such a narrow view on this, as he was definitely late to his first appointment with Nino. Even if you're the boss, or probably, especially if you're the boss, this was not leaving a good first impression on anybody.

Nino couldn't help but wonder what might be the reason for Sho to be late on his first day. He checked the time on his computer, it was already almost an hour later than they had agreed to meet this morning. Nino already had had his first coffee, and the coffee he had had prepared for Sho, first thing in the morning, had long turned cold. "Nino had tried to reach Sho on his work cell phone, which number he had received yesterday, but he had been unable to reach the man three times in a row, so he had given up on that.

He knew that Sho had spent the night at his parents' place after the family dinner last evening. According to what he told during the conversation at the table, Sho wasn't staying there in general, as it seemed that the family had prepared a separate smaller house that belonged to them for their son to stay. However, considering that Sho had drunken a few more glasses of wine than appropriate for someone who still needed to drive, it had seemed to be the safer option to stay at his parents' home.

Sho could have just shown up at work together with his father, but when President Sakurai had stopped by to check in on Nino about half an hour ago, the company president had been alone, and informed his former private secretary with an apologetic face, that Sho would show up separately. Nino wondered, if the man wasn't mad at his son, but maybe, since it was only his first day, he had decided to go easy on him.

Probably, Sho is spending his morning with Keiko, taking his sweet time with her, Nino's brain made sure, he remembered. The young man blushed slightly and pinched the skin between his eyebrows.

He really didn't want to think about that part of the story, but his imagination had already taken off, showing him images of Sho and the young woman waking up together in the morning, in the same bed, both naked and only covered by a white bed sheet, Sho twirling some of Keiko's beautiful dark brown hair around his fingers, the couple smiling at each other tenderly, completely forgetting about their daily duties. Maybe, after a steamy night with his girlfriend, Sho had even forgotten that he needed to start a new job today! Maybe, he was even still sleeping, the young woman in his arms...

Nino groaned in heavy frustration.

"Ninomiya-san, what's with that attitude, making such inappropriate noises already so early in the morning?" a voice suddenly pulled the young man out of his thoughts.

When he lifted his gaze, there was Sho standing in front of him, wearing a dark pinstriped suit and a red tie, in which he looked criminally handsome – if just the necktie wasn't askew – his eyebrows raised sceptically. Crap!

"I-I am sorry, Sakurai-san," Nino almost hit his knees against his desk when he jumped up from his seat and quickly lowered his head in a greeting to his boss. "Good morning."

Even after Sho half-heartedly answered to the greeting, Nino was still not ready to lift his head again to face the other man. He could feel that his cheeks had turned red from embarrassment. So much for good and professional first impressions.

"So, what's on the agenda today? I suppose it's your job to tell me that much, isn't it?" Sho asked before breaking into a yawn. "Damned, it's been too late yesterday..."

Nino finally looked up again, his eyes immediately glued back on his new boss. He indeed looked tired.

"Of course, it is," he said, although he added in his thoughts, that he had also e-mailed the schedule to the work e-mail address of Sho, that the other probably had not yet checked. "I have already prepared your schedule and made a print out for your easier reference, here you go," he handed Sho the said print out. "As you can see, there is a meeting scheduled at 11, some kind of first formal introduction of you to the highest people here in the company."

"Sounds incredibly boring," Sho said frankly, pushing his lower lip a bit forward. "Do I really have to?"

Nino had a hard time not to return a cheeky So what about YOUR attitude, now and instead, he said, "It's a very important meeting you should leave a good impression with, so I suggest, we briefly talk about it so you're well prepared."

"Talking about it with you?" Sho pointed at Nino, his eyebrows raised again, to confirm.

"Yes?"

"Why should I talk to you about that meeting with those oh-so-important people, aren't you just my secretary?"

Just my secretary?! Nino took a deep breath. Had he just heard correctly?

"Excuse me?" he managed to say in a low voice, trying to hold his composure.

"I mean... isn't your job rather to make sure we all have something to drink and take notes and stuff like that?"

Apparently, someone here had no idea what he was talking about.

"Stuff like that is indeed part of my duties," Nino started to explain, trying to keep his voice calm and a smile on his lips, even if he did not feel like it at all at this very moment. He should consider, that Sho was new to this. "However, it's also my duty to be well-prepared for whatever meeting you're supposed to attend, and to brief you about it, accordingly. Which – pardon me – seems to be a good idea so at least one of us is properly prepared."

Sho simply hummed, nodding slightly, but his critical look still told Nino, that he was probably not convinced about Nino's explanation. Maybe, Nino had also been a bit flippant. He needed to take care of his emotions here, the secretary took note, mentally. It was harder than he expected to accept this new, subordinate role in his relationship with Sho, who had been his friend when they were children, someone who seemed to be at the same level as him, despite the different classes of their families. As children, it didn't matter to them that one of them was the son of a million worthy business and the other was the son of a secretary. As children, they had been equal and respected each other as just the boys they were. But now, it was different. And it was difficult. Especially with Sho having developed quite an attitude, apparently. Nino really had to get used to that.

However, besides all his misconceptions about how things would be with Sho now, Nino had at least expected that the young man would be a bit more professional when it came to his role of the future president of the Sakurai group and to take this seriously. Well... it was his first day and maybe, Nino was too quick to judge, so probably, he should give Sho some time to warm up to his new role. He couldn't expect him to be as much of a perfect boss as President Sakurai from the start.

"I guess, I'll go into my office and then we can talk?" Sho suggested, obviously clueless of how to handle the situation, "I'll call you inside once I'm ready."

"Alright," Nino replied. That was fair enough. "Just push the button with the number one on your telephone and I'll get a direct call from you," the secretary added, gesturing towards his own telephone on top of his desk, and Sho nodded before he turned and walked into his office, without any further word.

Once his boss had walked through the glass door that connected the two offices – Nino's space rather open, similar to a small reception, right in front of Sho's room – the secretary sighed and sat back down, frowning. Now, this could really have been a better start, he thought, his eyebrows creased, as he looked after his boss.

Sho's office wasn't as big as his father's office, but it wasn't small either. The room was located one storey below the company president's, so at least from Nino's view, nothing much had changed. When sitting at his desk, facing the office of his new boss, there were still those huge glass windows to his left side, casing the whole facade of the building and revealing the scenery of the nearby part behind it. Nino loved being able to look into the green. It kind of soothed him and helped him to refocus when work was becoming hectic.

The layout of Sho's office was similar to the one of his father, just smaller, and of course not as well equipped yet, considering that the office of a higher up ranked person in a company was often some kind of personal space which would change and grow together with its owner. So far, it was rather empty, except of the basic furniture like a big desk with a computer, a shelf for important documents and folders in the back, a small set of couch chairs around a coffee table, and – something Sho's mother had insisted on – a painting hanging on one of the walls, apparently another one that she bought from that street artist she had told Nino about the evening before. Besides that though, there was no personal touch of Sho yet. Nino wondered, if and how that would change over the years...

Through the glass wall that separated Sho's from Nino's work space, the secretary was able to watch his new boss' movements. There were blends behind the glass wall, however, they were open, so Nino had a clear view on the young man who had pushed his hands into the pockets of his pinstripe suit and took a look around the office. Shortly after, Sho sat down at his desk and started the computer. He seemed a bit occupied with it, but soon lost interest in it and instead reached for a remote controller lying on top of his desk, trying out what it was for.

It was the remote controller for the automatic blends, and quickly, the man proceeded to play around with them, opening and closing them, which produced a low but persistent noise coming from the tiny motors operating the mechanism, and it already annoyed Nino after five minutes. When he looked up from his own workspace, he could see Sho looking at him, a grin on his face and one hand raised to waive at Nino while still opening and closing the blends, as if he was to play "now you see me, now you don't".

Nino would be lying if he wasn't slightly irritated by Sho playing around with the feature he obviously seemed to have taken a liking on. Was his new boss an idiot, or what?! Nino tried to ignore him, as he had to focus on other, more important stuff. Nino slightly shook his head. This was ridiculous.

A few more minutes later, Sho had apparently stopped playing with the automatic blends – Thank God! – but then, Nino's phone rang. He quickly shot a glance towards Sho – the blends seemed to have ended up open for now – who sat there behind his desk with his own phone receiver pressed against his ear and looking straight back at Nino.

"Yes, how can I help you?" said, when he picked up the receiver.

Sho looked at him, his eyebrows furrowing. "Ninomiya-san, I just tried the coffee someone prepared and left on my desk. I assume that someone has been you?"

"Correct," Nino replied, frowning slightly. "Why?"

"Well, it sucks!" Sho replied, directly.

"Excuse me?" Nino was slightly confused.

"And it's cold!"

"Ah!" Of course... Nino cursed himself internally. He should have remembered switching out the coffee and bringing a new one, once he noticed that his boss was late and the coffee had turned cold. "I am sorry, I had already prepared it, since I expected you to show up earlier. I'll go make you a new one right now."

"Hm," Sho's voice in Nino's ear. "Good. I at least expected a secretary to be able to make good coffee, isn't that the most important part of your job?"

Nino gaped at the rudeness of Sho's comment, and if Sho hadn't put the receiver back on the telephone stand, it would have been Nino who ended the call. The secretary snorted to himself, still slightly dumbfounded, but quickly got back a hold on himself and stood up to go to the nearby coffee kitchen to prepare a new hot drink for his boss, and some tea for himself, if he was already at it. Somehow, Nino was already annoyed, he could use a cup of camomile tea, perhaps.

It didn't take long until Nino had finished, placed his own cup of tea on his work desk, and entered Sho's office to hand him his freshly brewed coffee. Nino was almost surprised when the other man murmured a "thanks" before taking the cup and taking a small sip to check it. Since the man has been kind of focused – probably on something on his computer – before, and his face didn't really change, Nino couldn't tell what Sho was thinking about the coffee.

Slightly confused, he dared to ask, "So? I hope it's to your satisfaction, now?"

Sho put the coffee down and looked at Nino for a second, his face still frowning. "It still sucks."

"Pardon me?" Nino raised his eyebrows.

"The taste is just...," Sho said, now pulling a slightly disgusted face. "I guess you really suck at making coffee."

"I am very sorry," Nino immediately retorted, trying to compose himself not to act up against his boss' disrespectful comment on the spot. "I fear that's just how coffee in this company tastes."

"I like my coffee with chocolate," Sho simply said, crossing his arms and shooting a dissatisfied look at his coffee.

"With chocolate? You mean, like, cocoa powder on top?" Nino frowned. Like younger people who aren't used to the bitter taste of coffee yet prefer to drink coffee?

"That, and a piece of chocolate melted inside," the young boss added.

"You could have told me," Nino said.

"Are you blaming me now?" Sho asked, pouting – which Nino almost found cute, if there wasn't more to come –, "Or are you going to get some cocoa powder and chocolate for me now?"

"I'm on my way," Nino sighed silently and tried not to roll his eyes. Instead, he took back Sho's coffee and bowed slightly. Then, before he left the office, he turned around to face his boss again. "Did you already have the time to take a look at the schedule?" in between playing with the blends and complaining about my coffee making skills?

Sho cleared his throat and leaned forward, leaning on his elbows and folding his fingers, as he looked at Nino.

"I honestly don't see why I should prepare for an internal meeting. The only purpose is to get to know each other better... won't I get to know all these people while working together with them?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I think that would be a much more... natural approach."

"It's only a formality, indeed, but it's how things work here and also what your father wishes," Nino replied. He started wondering. Was Sho really just not taking this serious or...

"Hm... fine, if it really has to be," the other man said, his look giving away how much he hated that idea.

"Please take a look at the notes I made for you on this section in the print out, while I'm going to pimp your coffee," Nino added, frowning worriedly. "I'll be right back."

When Nino exited the office, Sho closed the blends.

Nino rolled his eyes and headed back to the coffee kitchen again (but not before downing half of his camomile tea and taking a few deep breaths). When he entered the office again, Nino could only hear something drop to the floor, followed by English cursing. His boss wasn't in sight, although it only took Nino a few steps forward to see that he had just bent down behind the desk, apparently to pick up whatever he dropped. Slightly confused, Nino put the tablet with the upgraded chocolate-coffee on the desk and walked around to see what exactly his boss was doing and if he could offer any help.

"Sorry but, did you just curse in a foreign language?" Nino could help but ask.

Sho looked up, a slightly embarrassed grin flashing over his face. "Must be an old habit."

"Is everything OK?" Nino frowned.

"Uhm... Yeah?" Sho offered, but honestly, Nino didn't get the impression of everything being OK when he dropped his look and saw a mess of black on the crème coloured carpet lying underneath the office table.

"What –" have you done Nino wanted to ask, but then he saw the culprits.

There was a black fountain pen lying on the carpet, smashed by something that looked like a paper weight. The man's hands were covered in black, all over and he was holding them in a strange position, as if now knowing what to do about the situation. How did Sho even manage to drop both of these things at the same time, unlucky enough to create such a mess?

"I ruined the carpet," Sho said, looking distressed and guiltily pulling in his lips between his teeth. Nino couldn't help but chuckle slightly at that reaction, but stopped immediately, when Sho shot him an annoyed glance. "Don't laugh."

"I'm sorry," Nino replied, clearing his throat before he pulled out his hand towel from his trousers' pocket and bent down to pick up the demolished pen and the still perfectly shaped paper weight to place them back onto the table. "Well, look, it's not that bad, is it? I mean you could pretend it's supposed to be like that? Modern art and stuff?"

Nino reached into his trousers' pocket again, this time pulling out a small package of wet hand paper towels, which he always kept for emergencies. He ripped it open and instinctively knelt down again, to have better access to Sho's still ink-covered hands. When he noticed what he was about to do, he hesitated for the split of a second, but after exchanging a quick glance with Sho, he focussed back onto his boss' hands. He held one of his own small hands behind the quite a bit bigger ones of Sho, to hold them in place, and started trying to clean off the worst mess from his fingers with the wet paper towel. He couldn't help but notice how warm Sho's hands were, how soft, but also... slightly shaking. When he looked up to check on Sho, his boss had averted his eyes again and seemed to be busy studying the carped underneath his feet.

"Should I add some more dark spots here and there?" Sho suggested, jumping onto the train Nino set off.

The secretary shrugged while still damping the wet paper towel against Sho's fingers. It more or less did the job, at least for now. Of course, Sho would have to go to the restroom and wash his hands properly with soap, maybe more than just once.

"It would look like a pattern. Nobody would notice that is wasn't like that to begin with," Nino added.

Now it was Sho, who chuckled, and Nino took in a deep breath, trying to ignore the little jump his heart made at that adorable sound.

"I like your way of thinking," Sho said, looking at his secretary, already quite a bit more relaxed than just a minute before. His expression changed quickly to a more serious one, though. "But honestly... don't –"

"I won't tell anyone," Nino assured him immediately.

"OK," was everything, Sho replied. His look went back to his messy hands.

When Nino realised, that he was still holding onto them, he immediately let go off Sho's hands. He dumped the now darkened wet paper towel into the trash bin underneath Sho's office desk, and stood back up.

"Sakurai-san...," he began.

"Yes?"

"May I say something?"

Sho frowned. "Hm? Well... sure."

"Actually," Nino started, averting his look. He wasn't completely sure if he should break this to his boss, but on the other hand, wasn't it his job?

"What is it?" the other man asked, slightly confused.

Nino swallowed, and then, he dropped what was on his mind. "I think, you're nervous."

Sho blinked at him.

"What?! I'm not!" the man broke into laughter. It sounded fake. Nino immediately felt sorry for Sho.

"It's OK," Nino replied. "I understand. It's your first day here, everything is new, you don't really know what to expect, the upcoming meeting..."

"I said, I'm not nervous!" Sho repeated, a stubborn look on his face.

"Then why are your hands shaking?" Nino asked, challenging, pointing at them.

"Uhm... low blood sugar?"

"Seriously?" Nino frowned.

Sho gestured at the coffee standing on the desk "Thus, I need the chocolate!"

Nino was still frowning. "Sakurai-san..."

It took a few seconds or staring at each other, before Sho gave in, sighing. "OK, yeah, maybe I'm a little nervous, so?" He looked frustrated.

"So," Nino picked up, "I'd rather recommend some tea to you instead of coffee, to calm your nerves."

Sho raised a critical eyebrow at his secretary. "Do you?"

Nino nodded. "I'll be right back."

"But what about my chocolate coffee?" Sho asked, looking at the cup longingly, when Nino put it back onto the tray and got ready to leave.

"I can leave it for later, if you want?" the secretary suggested.

"It will be cold."

"There's something called iced coffee," Nino said. "It will still be delicious. I'll put it in the fridge for you for later."

"Do you have a solution for everything or what?" Sho asked, maybe intending to joke, but it came out a bit weirdly.

"Well, saving situations also belongs to my job as a secretary," Nino replied, slightly snappish before he got hold of himself again. "Now you should probably go wash your hands properly while I'm going to prepare some tea for your nerves, OK?"

Sho didn't complain anymore and to Nino's surprise even listened to his suggestion and went to the restroom to wash his still inky hands. After Nino had prepared the tea for Sho, he brought and left it on his boss' desk, before taking place in a second chair, deciding to wait for him so that they could finally brief about the upcoming meeting.

The meeting itself, a couple hours later, wasn't that great, actually. It seemed like Sho had quite a bit of trouble to talk in front of the whole crew, at least, nothing really valuable left his lips. While Sho's father tried to offer his son a few lines to jump on and keep the conversation going, Satomi, who was now the president's private secretary, following Nino's recommendation, shot her colleague a slightly confused look, whereas Nino just hinted a roll of his eyes. At least, now he knew why Sho had not been that fond of the idea of this meeting. His nervousness seemed to have gotten the worst of him.

In the afternoon, Sho was supposed to do some research on a certain new idea worked out by the PR-department of the Sakurai group, something, his father had especially assigned to him, and apparently, Sho wasn't that bad with research, so he quickly finished his task and started to get bored, which he made sure to let Nino know while constantly phoning his secretary and asking him to come into his office, just to ask the most basic and stupid questions about office work Nino had ever heard, like "How do I refill the stapler" or "What are those thingies called, you know those little coloured paper stripes you can put documents on and put them in a folder?" just to name a few. Luckily, Sho had restrained from actually trying to "upgrade" his carped any further, Nino would have been truly worried about a disaster, otherwise.

"Please, if there's nothing important that I can do for you, let's each focus on our work, OK? We have important things to take care of," Nino finally dared to request. At least he had still quite some stuff to do before he'd be allowed to go home.

"I finished my task already."

Nino checked the schedule for today again. There was no immediate further meeting scheduled for Sho, although his father had invited him to join one of his, but Sho had already declined that offer, which, judging from Sho's first appearance in the late morning, his father didn't have seemed to mind much. However, there was a visit to one of the "SakuHana" hotel branches nearby scheduled for in about two hours.

"You could prepare for our visit in the "SakuHana" branch later on," Nino suggested, therefore.

"And how exactly should I prepare for that? Make a list of hobbies to introduce myself with?" Sho retorted.

"Well, first and foremost you should know a bit about the hotel's history as well as their current reputation and goals, you could browse their website and... I don't know, just take a look at it, first?"

"Already did. I can read a schedule, you know?" Sho pouted. "I already checked out the website..."

Maybe, you didn't check it thoroughly enough, Nino wanted to say, but didn't.

"So... read the last annual financial statement of the branch or something. It should be in a shared online folder between you and the other higher ups of the company," he suggested, wondering who of them actually was supposed to be the boss here.

Sho finally complied, however, it only took about ten minutes until his boss had called Nino into the office once again.

"What is it, now?" Nino asked, slowly but surely getting a bit desperate.

"Do you have any idea how boring annual financial reports are?" Sho ignored Nino's question. The distress was written all over his forehead, denting creases into his skin.

"Actually, yes, I usually have to contribute certain sales numbers for the loss and profit statements in a proper excel sheet and whatnot for several branches," Nino replied and when he looked at Sho, the other stared at him as if he had just spoken an alien language. He raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me but did you really study Economics in Europe?" Nino raised his eyebrows.

"Of course, I did!" Sho huffed, averting his look. He quickly shook his shoulders as if to loosen them and focused back onto the computer screen. "Could you please get me my iced chocolate-coffee now, so that I won't fall asleep while reading this?"

"Of course," Nino said, approaching the door again.

"Hah, that's amazing... you just follow my order like that," Sho suddenly chuckled, causing Nino to turn and look back at him with a frown on his face. Compared to him, Sho was smirking, which kind of set Nino off. "You know, I've never had a secretary before... it's kind of exciting."

"To have people dance to your tune, you mean?" he snapped before he even noticed.

Sho's smirk vanished instantly. "Why do I feel like I need to apologize to you now?"

"Because you better should?" Nino froze. He immediately bit his lower lip. Did he really just... Damned, he shouldn't be so upset or at least, he shouldn't let it show. How unprofessional.

"For a secretary, you're kind of sassy, don't you think?" Sho added, leaning back in his office chair and swaying slightly from side to side. Was he pissed off?

"I'm sorry," the secretary just murmured, and bowed slightly. "I'm going to get your coffee."

"Yeah, off you go," his boss said, watching him leave.

After closing the glass door behind him and stomping into the coffee kitchen, Nino took a deep breath. He could feel that his face must have turned red. Thank God, he never had gotten any rash directly on his face, but he could also feel his neck itching slightly. He pressed his eyes close and tried to focus on his breathing. He was just upset because Sho had no idea how to properly treat a subordinate. But then, where should he have learned to do so? He had been a High School student, then a university student, then he had been travelling Europe. This was his first job and he already was being thrown into a boss position. It must be strange for him too, right? At least, that's what Nino tried to tell himself. He was over-reacting. He should focus on his job and if Sho's behaviour wouldn't improve over the first few days, he could still try to talk to him or if that did not help even talk to his father.

Nino collected himself, took the cold coffee he had stored in the fridge for Sho with him back to the office to give it to his boss – who immediately took a sip and at least didn't make a disgusted face so perhaps, this time he liked his coffee – and then returned to his working place. At least he should be properly prepared for their appointment, so whatever Sho would miss, Nino would be able to cover.

While briefing his material, Nino couldn't help but look up from his notes from time to time, to glance through the currently opened blinds into Sho's office. His boss was sitting behind the computer and apparently reading something – Nino didn't care if it were financial reports or any other information, but he hoped he was taking his task serious. Somehow, he did not have the feeling as if Sho was taking this job very seriously. But if he didn't, things might become difficult for him in the future, so Nino hoped that Sho was just a little bit confused on his first day and would soon realise that he had to pay proper attention to certain topics and have a focus on preparing well for meetings, visits, and other appointments. Nino could cover a lot of things with his skills and preparation, but he wasn't the voice of the company, so he didn't have much say.

Maybe, Nino was overthinking and worrying a little too much about everything, at least he seemed to have slipped into a thought spiral, of which only the sudden ringing of his phone managed to pull him out from. Out of reflex, Nino picked up. It was Sho. Again.

Nino looked up and tried his best not to shoot a death glare through the glass wall into Sho's office.

"What can I help you with, now, Sakurai-san?" Nino asked, trying to sound as nice as possible.

"Oh, I phoned you?" Sho's voice sounded sincerely surprised. "It was an accident, I swear! I wanted to call my Dad, sorry!"

"Perhaps you just pressed the wrong button, your father's number should be on short dial number two, I suppose."

"Alright, see you later, then."

At least, this time he hadn't to go again to make coffee or something like that, the secretary thought before he put pack the receiver onto the phone station and dedicated himself to his notes once more, this time trying his best not to get distracted again.

About one and a half hour later, Nino stood up from his place, put his notes into a bag that he used to bring with him when he was outside, and opened the door to Sho's office.

"Sakurai-san? We should head out now," Nino said, "Are you ready?"

"Do I have a choice?" the other man replied, but stood up from his desk and reached for his suit's jacket which he had put off in the meantime. He approached Nino and walked through the opened door.

"A bit more enthusiasm, please," Nino dared saying, with his best fake smile on his lips when he pressed a few copies that he had made from his own notes into his boss' hands.

"Yes! Since I don't have a choice!" Sho yelled in a fake cheerful voice. "No? Not like that?"

Weird. Nino just slightly shook his head but didn't say anything. If his boss was trying to be funny, he wasn't sure if he succeeded. "What happened to your necktie?" he asked instead, when glancing over Sho's appearance.

"Huh? What happened to it?" his boss asked, straightening his back and instinctively reaching up one hand to feel the fabric of his tie. Apparently, he didn't know that it had become askew even more than compared to how it was in the morning, when it was still acceptable.

"It's...," Nino couldn't help it, but he just couldn't allow Sho to leave it like that. "I'm sorry, may I fix it?"

Sho first backed off a little, surprised, when Nino came a step closer, however, when the secretary reached at the necktie and untied it carefully, Sho stood still and just let the other man do his job. Nino adjusted the piece of fabric around Sho's collar, taking extra care that the collar too was sitting perfectly in place, and tied it anew, carefully. It wasn't a big deal for him, doing variations of necktie knots – he had learned all of them from his father some years ago, however, it was a bit strange to do this for Sho, he had to admit. The sudden closeness was not only a bit strange for Sho, apparently, but also for Nino. While his own eyes were completely focused on the knot he was creating and his movement, when he afterwards adjusted everything to look perfect, he could feel Sho's eyes on him. It made him quite fidgety and so, Nino ended up glancing up, right into Sho's eyes. They were so beautiful, close up, that Nino's heart stumbled, and his body almost stumbled backwards over his own feet.

He could catch himself in the movement, pretending that nothing had happened, and quickly cleared his throat.

"OK, it's fixed," he managed to say.

"OK, good," Sho replied, just as simple.

He could say thank you or something, Nino thought, but kept his mouth shut. Apparently, this word just wasn't used too frequently in Sakurai Sho's vocabulary.

"So, I'm going to drive," Nino started. "This should be our last task for today so if you want, I can drive you home after we visited the hotel and then call it a day myself. I would be happy to leave on time today, as I need to pay my mother a visit."

"I see," Sho nodded. "Well, I don't see a problem with that. However, I'd appreciate if you'd drive me back here, I came to work with Emily after all."

"With whom?" Nino frowned.

"My car," Sho stated, matter of factly.

"Your Ferrari has a name?" Nino wasn't even sure if he wanted to know the details.

"Yes, her name is Emily," Sho said, proudly.

"And she's a girl?"

"Got a problem with that?"

Nino shook his head. "Of course not," but honestly, he found it a little strange. Why would someone name their car, and then, with an English women's name? After a woman even, perhaps?

"Hah," Sho sighed, his lips turning into a smile as if he was thinking about something very pleasant. "Those were good times..."

Nino frowned even more. Maybe his ex-girlfriend from his time in Europe? his brain suggested. Shut up! he threw back, but of course, now he couldn't get rid of that thought anymore and it poisoned his already bad mood even more. Great, that was exactly what he needed. Now he didn't only already got to know Sho's current girlfriend on the first day they met, but also found out the name of his ex-girlfriend. Too much unwanted information, thank you!

"Let's go," the secretary simply grumbled, speeding up his steps towards the elevator, so that Sho had actually try to catch up with him.

They didn't talk about car names anymore that day. They drove without speaking at all, actually. While Nino was driving his nameless, normal grey car – after having to explain to Sho that Nino's choice of music in this car was not up for negotiation, and that his father had always said the driver had the right to decide what to listen to – Sho was alternating between skimming through Nino's note and having his eyes glued to his phone screen, apparently texting with someone.

Keiko, perhaps?

Nino wondered.

Or Emily!

Nino shook his head, breathed in, and breathed out.

It wasn't his business with whom Sho was texting, so he tried to take his mind off that question and focused onto the soothing pan flute music, underlaid with the sound of the sea, instead, until they reached their destination.

At least, their visit at the "SakuHana" hotel branch nearby went better than Nino had feared, maybe because Sho had let Nino do most of the talking. Still, Sho made quite a professional impression, something that resembled much more the one Nino had expected from him in the first place, and even threw in a few names and data, so that Nino ended up to assume, that Sho actually had looked at the material he had given in. It was something! Maybe, this time he had not been as nervous.

They actually managed to finish their visit not too long after they got there, and so, even after driving Sho back to the office, Nino had enough time to reach his mother's place in time for dinner. Sure, there was always some work left, but nothing was so important that it couldn't wait until tomorrow.

+ + +

His mother's apartment was located not far away from work, so it did not take Nino too long to reach it. He parked his car outside on the side of the street, reached to a bag he had placed on the passenger's seat and headed inside a middle sized apartment complex, his goal, an apartment on the ground floor, its nameplate reading Ninomiya. He rang the bell to announce his arrival, but then pulled out his own set of keys on which he had also put a spare key to his mother's apartment. He let himself in, calling through the small corridor, just to be greeted back by his mother's cheerful voice coming from the kitchen, pulled off his shoes and walked in.

When Nino reached the kitchen, the woman with dark brown, shoulder length wavy hair welcomed him again, with a wide smile. Nino put his bag onto the kitchen table and stepped a bit closer to his mother, leaning down a bit to hug the woman sitting in her wheelchair who was currently searching for spoons in the cutlery drawer. while searching for spoons in the cutlery drawer. She abandoned the spoons she just found in favour or reaching her hands up to her son's face and gently pulling it closer, so she could place a kiss on his forehead. Nino chuckled softly, happy about his mother's usual welcome gesture, before he asked her if he could help her with anything.

"I'm glad you show up in time for dinner," the woman said, smiling, and picking up the spoons from the drawer again, which she gave Nino with the request to put them onto the kitchen table. "I made fried rice with chicken and vegetables and as an appetizer, chawan mushi."

"I'm glad I don't miss that, it smells delicious," Nino replied with a smile as he went to get some plates from a low cupboard that he handed to his mother who then filled them with fried rice and placed a cup of chawan mushi onto each of them.

"I tried my best for my boy," Nino's mother laughed, happily and then they sat down together and ate.

It's been just a few days since Nino's last visit. He usually tried to drop by at his mother's place as often as possible, at least twice a week for dinner, and sometimes in between, even if it was just to see how she was doing and if he could help her with anything. His mother was living in a small but fine, barrier-free apartment which was located in the ground floor of an apartment complex featuring several units of assisted living. There was even a small garden in the inner courtyard that she used to share with the other tenants.

Thanks to the system of assisted living, Nino was able to relax while being at work, or when he spent time in his apartment. He knew, that his mother was in good hands. There was always someone around who assisted her with whatever she needed help with, like when she needed help with cleaning, cooking, but also things like bathing herself and things alike. Things, that she wouldn't like to bother her son with, but felt more comfortable with a different, female, professional caregiver. Of course, it had been a topic for her and Nino if she should be in his care, which he would have gladly provided, or not. While Nino's father had still been alive, the family had to manage living together and it was sufficient to have someone come by and help out once a day, but since Nino and his mother were alone, and Nino was outside for work for the majority of the day, it had become necessary to face the situation differently.

Nino and his mother had found a good place for her here, thanks to a recommendation and a bit of financial support by Nino's boss. Like this, she could live by herself, not feeling like a burden, but still have help around all day long, in case something happened. Someone would look after her several times a day, take her outside for a walk and accompanied her for shopping if she wanted, every day. She could always spend time with the other people there and was never alone. This was the most important part for Nino, knowing that his mother wasn't lonely. As an added bonus, there were even regular doctors' appointments on her schedule, physically and psychologically, and ever since she came here, her condition was drastically improving.

"As expected, it tastes delicious, Mom," Nino said after almost inhaling the content of his cup of chawan mushi – the best chawan mushi in the whole world, according to his opinion – before he added, "I bought some of your favourite cake for dessert, by the way."

"Cake?" His mother's eyes lightened up. "What's the occasion?"

"Besides the fact, that I don't need an occasion to bring my mother cake," Nino started with a smirk, "I kind of wanted to celebrate that you're doing so much better recently."

"Oh, thank you, dear. You're too sweet," his mother replied, reaching one of her hands to her son's face to brush gently over his cheeks. They smiled at each other. "Soon, I might be able to let you to take me for a short walk around the block, without my wheelchair!"

Nino beamed. "I can't wait for it! I'm so proud of you, Mom!"

"Thank you," the woman replied. "Now, let's eat up so we can get to the cake!"

Nino smiled and dug into his portion of fried rice, appreciating the crispiness of the rice while also praising the juiciness of the chicken meat pieces.

"Is there something troubling you, honey?" Nino's mother asked, suddenly, looking at her son, slightly worried.

She didn't need to ask if her son had had another rash recently, the still visible redness of his skin at his neck from the fit two days ago must give it away, and he didn't even bother hiding it from her anymore.

"Ah... it's just, work has been a bit challenging today, you could say, that's all," Nino replied, flashing a smile at his mother. He slightly loosened the collar around his neck and pushed it aside while stretching his neck, showing his mother how the situation currently looked like. "But I didn't scratch, see?"

"That's great, Kazu!" the woman smiled, nodding. "Your other problematic areas are OK too?"

Nino pushed back the long sleeves of his dress shirt, revealing his wrists to his mother. They showed some old scars from past rashes, and probably were also a little redder than the rest of Nino's skin in that area, but there were no new scratch marks. He smiled and his mother sighed relieved. They both remembered just too well the peaks of Nino's condition in the past, horrible rashes, followed by unbearable itching, especially around Nino's neck and his inner forearms, all caused by immense mental stress coming from the sorrows his family had to bear with. However, seeking out a doctor and dealing with the problem had helped a great deal to get hold of the situation, and even if there wasn't a real cure to it, Nino had learned how to contain himself from worsening the initial problems. He had also become much better in stress management over the years, even if recent days admittedly had been a little challenging. That was just how it worked, there were better phases and worst phases, but all in all, he was doing fine. He had this under control.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't mention it and draw your attention towards it," Nino's mother said. "It looks good, just a little red. You're doing a good job, preventing the scratching."

"Thanks, Mom, I try my best," Nino replied, rolling back down the long sleeves.

Still a mother is always alert, so, of course, the woman did not let the topic slip completely. "So, is everything OK at work?"

"Yes, yes, just a bit different," Nino murmured while poking his rice with his chopsticks. "You remember, I told you that I'll be working with Mr. Sakurai's son from now on?"

"You mean Sho-chan?" the woman smiled.

"That's not how I call him nowadays, but yes," the young man slightly blushed at his mother using his former nickname for Sho.

"Hasn't it gone well, your first meeting after years?" she asked, curiously.

Nino hadn't told his mother yet that he has already met Sho at a dinner invitation at his parents' place the former evening, and probably, he shouldn't. At least, he didn't want to mention the rash, now that he had been praised so much by her.

"It... I don't know, it's a bit weird, I guess? Let's say, things have changed, just as I probably should have expected," Nino said, trying to smile, even if he knew he must fail.

Recalling the current situation and seeing how hard it still seemed to be for him to process and accept it as it was, showed Nino once again how deep the cut had actually been. He hadn't told Aiba the extent of his heartache, yesterday, and he didn't want to bother his mother with it either, especially not since she probably didn't know about Nino's childhood crush, but it was hard to ignore. Somehow, he felt like he lost someone really important to him.

"Kazu?" The worried voice of Nino's mother came through the man's clouded mind.

He looked at her, this time not even trying to smile. "It seems, he forgot about me, Mom. Like... he doesn't remember that we have been friends when we were younger, at all."

His mother must feel his pain too, as she put her hand on Nino's shoulder and tried to comfort her son. "Oh dear, that's tough. I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's OK, we're just going to build a new relationship as boss and secretary now," Nino replied, nodding as if he needed to ensure himself about what he just said, in the first place. "It's fine. We just need to work a little on that..."

"Sounds like it wasn't such a great first day?" his mother asked. "Don't you get along anymore? Or... I mean, don't you get along?"

Nino tilted his head. "I'm not quite sure yet, to be honest. He is acting quite strange and it seems he has no idea what he's doing. And to be honest, I also don't really know what to do. It's not that easy to adjust from working for one person for years, to suddenly switch to another person... and to be honest, it's hard for me, this sudden gap between us. I know we come from different worlds but I never felt it so strongly before. We used to be such good friends."

"It's just been his first day, right? And hasn't he been overseas for a long time?" Nino's mother waited until he nodded before she continued. "He probably doesn't have an easy time either. I heard about something called the reversed culture shock, so probably he has to deal with something like that. It's surely not easy to come back after years in a foreign country, having to readjust with his old home, his new job, and you. Who knows what he experienced during the years he was gone. And even if you have been friends, after years not seeing each other or talking to each other things can be a bit difficult at first."

Nino looked at her mother. He had to admit, what she said made total sense, and he had not even considered it. He had been so busy with his own confusing feelings about Sho's return that he had not thought about how things must be for him. While Sho had seemed to change so much in so many aspects, he also had omitted the feeling of having fit back into his old life, or having adjusted with everything so well already – Nino had to think of how familiar Sho and his parents had been with each other, or how close Sho and Keiko had been, which must have been something new too, after many years of absence – but that was only how things appeared on the outside. He had no insight into Sho's feelings and his personal journey of coming back. Nino sighed. He probably had been too quick to judge. Not sensitive enough. This wasn't just about him, after all...

"Perhaps he just needs a bit time to warm up to you again. Maybe, you just need to be a little more patient with him. I'm sure it will be fine, sweetie. You two will grow together into a great team. You got along so well in the past, it would be strange if you wouldn't have the potential to rebuild such a bond also now, don't you think so too?"

Nino smiled at his mother, proud to be the son of a woman so empathetic and understanding towards other people's emotions. He should really take her as an example. He had never been sure if his mother had known about his feelings towards Sho when he was a young boy (he himself had not known that he had a crush on him, so much for that), but he probably wouldn't be surprised, if she did. Back then, when his mother had been hospitalized, Nino had often talked to her about his little adventures with Sho. He had figured out, that the more he told his mother about his daily life, about his friends, the happier the sick woman had been. Apparently, she had entirely understood the importance of Nino's friendship from those days, and she must know, that the current situation was not easy to deal with, for her son.

"I guess, you're right," Nino said, and he really did hope, she was. "Like always. That's my mother."

The woman smiled at him, gently. "You know, if you wanna talk about it, I'm always here for you."

"Thank you, really, Mom. For now, I'd rather you tell me more about that new project of yours that you texted me about during lunch break, though!" the young man chuckled, finally tackling the last bits of his dish.

"Alright, if you insist. So... we are planning on sewing patchwork quilts and sell them on the flee market to gain money for poor children."

"Mom, that sounds amazing!" Nino's eyes brightened when he heard his mother's plan. "That's such a lovely idea! Please make sure to make one for me too, so I can buy it as well!"

"Thank you, Kazu, I really appreciate that," the woman giggled. "I'll make one for you in all of your favourite colours!"

Nino chuckled. "Wouldn't that be a bit too flashy for a guy my age?"

"Apparently, it is important to surround yourself with things that make you happy, which includes colours which can highly influence our moods," his mother started explaining. "That's what my doctor said, at least."

"Well, I guess I can't argue it, then," Nino shrugged.

"So it'll be a five coloured rainbow blanket for my dearest son."

"I'm your only son, Mom."

The woman rolled her eyes, but leaned closer to hug her one and only child. "Still, you are my dearest person in the whole world."

"So are you," Nino replied, hugging her back, before they finally finished their meal and got ready to devour the cake Nino brought along.

+ + +

Nino and Sho's first few weeks were bumpy, to say the least. Yes, Sho slowly seemed to get used to his position a bit more over the next few days after his start and improved even more in the following time. He was definitely more insecure than Nino had expected, but Sho was smart, and it showed, and Nino was convinced that he would eventually adapt to the new situation. Even with just a glance onto Nino's notes for specific meetings, Sho seemed to be able to memorize things quite fast. He was able to draw conclusions between business concepts, budget breakdowns and PR strategies, and he even had managed to memorize all the important facts he needed to know about several "SakuHana" hotel branches all over the country, in the course of his first week, as it was important for the heir of the Sakurai Group.

However, apparently, Sho still didn't quite know how to treat his subordinates appropriately. Thus, he continued to be kind of rude towards Nino, although sometimes it was hard for Nino to distinguish if Sho really meant it that way or if he just was poor in articulating himself.

Either way, it had been a few challenging weeks for Nino, it had been a lot of work regarding keeping things at work in order, as well as with his own stress management, and honestly, on Friday evening of a particularly busy week, Nino was so exhausted, that he did not even feel like participating in Aiba's gaming session.

His friend had shown up about thirty minutes after Nino had dropped onto the couch in his apartment, drained and about to fall asleep if the doorbell hadn't rang. He had not even managed to get out of his working suit yet, so Aiba sent him into his bedroom to get changed, while he took it upon himself to prepare the Chinese take-away food he had brought along and set everything up on the living room table.

It turned out, that Nino was almost even too tired to eat properly, so it took him quite a while to finish his chicken noodles. Aiba had already started to play a game, this time nothing work-related, but just a simple Jump 'n' Run he had planned to play with Nino, but Nino just stared blankly at the screen, as if he didn't care at all what was going on there.

"Seriously, Ninomi, you look like you spent a whole month in hell," Aiba chuckled, as he paused the game and opened Nino's still untouched beer can for his friend.

"Close enough," Nino murmured as he munched on a last bite of chicken meat and put the empty take-away box onto the coffee table in front of him, gratefully reaching for the beer and taking a sip before placing it back.

"Come on, it can't have been that bad," his best friend said with a grin on his face.

"At least, I know now why President Sakurai promised a bonus for when I take over this new job," Nino sighed heavily. "His son is really a handful of work."

"You want to talk about it?" Aiba asked, turning towards his friend.

Nino leaned back. "It's just... I'm sorry, I'm tired and I'm pissed off and I don't know what to think anymore..."

"About Sho-kun?"

"Yeah, or, should I say Sakurai-san as I am supposed to call him. By the way, it is so confusing having two Sakurai's at work, everyone throws around Sakurai-sans here and there without saying if they mean the father or the son, it's pure chaos!" Nino started ranting.

"Don't you refer to the older one as President Sakurai?" Aiba asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I do," Nino replied. "But not everyone does, especially not when just talking casually about him. So... yeah, it drives me crazy."

"Calm down, Ninomi, everything will be fine," Aiba started, putting his hand on top of Nino's knee. "I know, you don't like it, but think about it, that's not the real problem, or is it?"

Of course, it was not. Actually, this was just a tiny little thing. Nino knew that he shouldn't care about it so much, however, his stress management had been lacking quite a bit recently and now it was the little things that managed to tick him off the most easily.

"I think you're just really disappointed, aren't you?"

"I guess, I am," Nino sighed again. He lifted his hand to his forehead, pinching the spot between his eyebrows. He rubbed his face. "I don't know but I can't stop thinking of it... How could Sho completely forget about me? I mean, didn't it mean anything for him, that time we spent together as kids? For me, it was such a precious time, it was so important... he has been my pillar when I feared that everything around me was about to break apart. And then, he left and just didn't bother at all to stay in contact with me?"

"How did that even happen, by the way?" Aiba threw in. "That you two weren't in contact for so long?"

"Well, he moved away," Nino shrugged, as if that said everything someone needed to know.

"Yes but, didn't you exchange numbers before he left?"

"When he left, I didn't have a cell phone. I only got one later on. And indeed, I gave him my number then when he came back during summer, and we even texted for a while but then, suddenly he stopped and when I realised I wasn't getting any reply anymore, I... gave up one day?"

Nino sighed at the painful memory, the frustration, the despair, the wondering about what he might have said or done wrong that he had made Sho stop replying to him all of the sudden. He couldn't even remember their last conversation anymore, it's been so long and he had switched phones quite a few times since then, but he always had made sure to keep the same number, just in case Sho would reach out to him again... but he had been waiting for nothing. Even if assumed he had done nothing wrong back then, 15 year-old Sho surely had had much better things to do than stay in contact with his childhood friend. His life abroad must have been super exciting and busy... and so he must have ended up forgetting about his friend, and time had passed.

"That's a pity," his friend nodded thoughtfully. "Didn't you meet him again when he came back during holidays after that? You could have talked to him, maybe there was just a misunderstanding."

"Not really. I heard that he came back a few times, but not for long and at that time, my mom was already out of the hospital and home again," the other man started explaining. "I did not really leave our house during my spare time back then. I mean, I wanted to spend my time with her as much as I could, just in case she would become sick again."

"I understand where you're coming from but this also means that apparently, both of you, you and Sho-kun did not really try that hard to see each other again, right? I mean, not to blame any of you as I don't know the exact circumstances from back then, but it sounds like things just happened and time passed and... so actually it's not really just his fault?"

Nino pouted. Wasn't his best friend supposed to be on his side in this? However, if he was being honest, he couldn't say anything against Aiba's reasoning. He had just as much done nothing as Sho had, and the older they got, the more awkward it would have felt trying to get back in contact. But then, it really shouldn't have been a surprise to Nino that things were so strange now between them, after more than ten years out of contact. Of course they would have changed, both of them, of course they wouldn't be the same boys like back then.

"I am so stupid, right?" Nino eventually sighed. "It's my own fault that things turned out like this."

"Oh Nino... it doesn't help feeling bad about the past, shouldn't you try and focus on the present now? If he doesn't remember how it's been between the two of you, now it's the chance to start anew. I'm sure you can rebuild your friendship from back then," Aiba said, making a guts pose.

Nino chuckled at his friend's sweet attempt to cheer him up, but signed soon after, as the flash of hope was not enough to brighten up the situation.

"Start anew...," the young man murmured. "We're boss and secretary, how are we supposed to become friends like that? It's more like a king and servant relationship kind of thing that'll be established here."

"Oh come on, don't be overdramatic, Nino! It's not like Sho-kun's father treated you like a slave, is it?"

Nino tilted his head. "No, you're right, he didn't. He always treated me very kindly."

"And he has been friends with your father for a long time," Aiba repeated the story Nino had been telling him quite a few times already.

"Yeah."

"That means, boss and secretary can be friends."

Nino frowned and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "To be honest, I'm not even sure if I want to be friends with someone like Sho. I mean, he's so different from back then..."

"Of course he's different, how long has it been, over ten years!" his friend exclaimed. "I can't say for sure, because we haven't known each other back then, but you probably changed too, since then."

"I don't know. Maybe you're right. But it still feels so... weird. I can't forget about the past."

"Then let's try a different approach. Let's ask the important things for now," Aiba continued. "I know you like past Sho, that's out of question and there's no need for you to deny it, nobody will believe you. However, more important now is how do you feel about present Sho? Why is it so hard for you to work together with him? Because of your past or because of your current situation?"

"I don't think that we can separate those things completely," Nino dared to point out.

"Maybe not, but for now, let's see, what exactly annoys you about present Sho?"

Nino hummed. There was a lot of things his brain came up with right now, even if some of them were hard to put into words and describe to others, as he probably didn't even understand them fully, himself. But he could try to summarize the biggest problems, at least.

"He acts weird," Nino started. "He's so different from how he used to be and he's treating me like an idiot? As if he wouldn't know how this relationship between the heir of a billion worth hotel chain and his private secretary is supposed to work."

Aiba nodded. "OK, so... why is this, because he doesn't know how to treat a subordinate? Or is it you who feels strange about it, because in your mind you are still hoping to be his friend, rather than his subordinate?"

Nino frowned at that question.

"Are you implying that I have a problem with being Sho's subordinate?"

"Well... even without your complicated past, it would be understandable if someone felt a bit weird working under someone who's just about their age, when before they had been working for someone quite a bit older and thus having a completely different kind of relationship with their boss, right?"

"You really think that that's the problem?"

"It could be, no?"

By now, Nino had lost track about what exactly his best friend was trying to accomplish with this conversation, if he wanted to make Nino forget about his past with Sho, if he wanted him try again becoming friends, or simply live with the situation, but no matter what, no matter how, Aiba was trying to help him find a solution - any solution - to this complicated situation, and Nino really appreciated that. And maybe, Aiba had a point.

"Well... actually... it would make sense, at least. It's really a bit strange to let myself be ordered around by someone my age," Nino finally had to admit. "But that's probably just because I'm not used to it."

"Or because you still see each other as childhood friends," Aiba added. "Since you've been equals back then, you consciously or unconsciously want to be equals even now. But if your working relationship has to work out, you need to accept that Sho is your boss now. Even if he might be a crappy boss and still needs to learn some essential boss skills, at least if you accept your positions to each other, maybe you won't feel as stressed out about it anymore? You definitely care too much!"

"Do I?"

"You do, or you wouldn't be so irritated. Did you notice that you're touching your neck? Does it feel itchy?"

"What? Oh, I… didn't even notice."

Nino immediately pulled his hand from his neck. It was indeed feeling a little itchy, even if he had not focused on it. He must be more stressed than he even thought.

"I didn't scratch it, did I?" he asked his friend, who leaned a little closer and shook his head.

"Not yet. Maybe you should put some cooling crème on it, just in case," Aiba suggested. "You've been better lately but this is a sign that you do care. Too much. Nino. It's only been your first few weeks together. It's normal that things are a little rough in the beginning, you have to get used to each other first, after all. You should give it a bit more time. And who knows... even if Sho-kun doesn't remember you now, maybe he will in the future?"

Nino chuckled, slightly desperate. "I am not sure if I want to dare hoping for that."

"I understand."

"But I'll give you that I can't deny that all of what you said makes sense," Nino admitted, smiling at his friend. "Wow, I just realised how messed up this whole situation really is... but you gave me some new perspectives that I should try to consider."

Aiba laughed. "I'm not completely sure if everything I said makes sense, but I want you to feel better about it. Now, let's not think about it too much anymore, OK? It's weekend, we should enjoy our time and relax and have fun! So, if you still don't feel like gaming, what about we watch a movie together?"

Nino smiled even wider. "Sounds good."

He let Aiba choose what he wanted to watch, who picked a comedy on Netflix that his cousin had recently recommended to him. It was probably not what Nino would usually enjoy, but the light tone of the series and the funny dialogue between the characters made watching it a fun experience. That was, until about one and a half hours later, just when the story of the movie reached its climax, he and Aiba were disturbed by the sudden ringing of a phone, too far away to come from the living room, but also sounding too close to be one of the neighbours' phones.

"What's this?!" Aiba asked, completely confused, searching for the source of the noise.

"It's my work phone," Nino replied, frowning, before he stood up and headed to his bedroom where he had dropped it before alongside with his working clothes. He brought it back, holding it up to show at Aiba. "You know, the one they gave me at work for when I'm on field service and need to make phone calls and such?"

"Why do you have it with you on the weekend?" Aiba frowned at him.

"For emergencies."

"So this is an emergency?" his friend lifted his eyebrows. "You should pick it up!"

"It's Sho," Nino mumbled after checking the phone screen, confused. "What kind of emergency could he actually have, he left the office before me this evening."

"I don't know, you might only find out if you pick up."

+ + +

Only ten minutes later, Nino and Aiba were sitting in Nino's car, driving into the city. Of course, when Nino had asked Aiba if he wanted to stay back and wait for him or accompany him quickly to pick up his boss, Aiba's curiosity upon wanting to see that infamous best childhood friend slash crush – although Nino still tried to deny that one – slash bitchy boss had been too strong and so he had chosen to come with him.

Sho had sounded serious on the phone when he had called him and asked him to pick him up from a certain address. The call had been short and his boss had not even waited for Nino to answer to his request, and just ended their conversation by hanging up. Nino had stared at the phone screen, exchanged a confused look with Aiba, and then stormed into his bedroom to change from his pyjama pants into something more showable, just in case, even if he had no idea where he was heading to and what was awaiting him.

He had memorized the address Sho had told him, and immediately entered it into the navigation system of his car, just to find out, that it was actually an address pretty close to work, apparently just a few streets away from their office building. When they reached their goal and Nino recognized the location as an izakaya called "Akatsuki", a traditional Japanese bar, at least judging from the appearance, he frowned. He even was a little surprised, that he had never been there, but then, he never was the type of going out to eat after work, so he probably just wasn't the right clientele. Anyway, what kind of emergency could have occurred here? Did his boss drink and get into trouble or something?

"I'll be right back, wait here, OK?" Nino told his friend, trying not to sound too worried.

Aiba nodded and told his friend that he should call him if he needed something. Nino answered the nod, gratefully.

Quickly, Nino entered the izakaya, a comfortable looking, traditionally furnished place, divided in some semi-separé like spaces with low tables and floor cushions, and the bar area. The scent of grilled fish hung in the air and cheerful voices of customers filled the room. The colour scheme was a light brown colour for the wooden furniture, and white, a deep, vigorous red and navy blue for the colour accents as in the paper doors between the separated places, traditionally inspired ink drawings as wall art or the noren hanging between the bar and the actual kitchen in the back.

Soon, Nino's eyes fell on someone sitting at the bar. He recognized the man, even if he was sitting with his back towards Nino. He had seen that suit at work today, and he probably would have recognized the back of Sho's head everywhere, just from walking three steps behind his boss, constantly.

Sighing, but trying not to judge the situation just on the first glance yet, Nino braced himself and started walking again, until he had reached Sho. It was hard to keep himself from drawing conclusions though, when he saw his boss sitting there with a glass of whisky or something similar in one hand, his other hand pressed against his eyes. Nino's heart sank into his stomach at this sight. Somehow, Sho looked extremely troubled like that, and Nino couldn't help but get the impression, that this was probably not his first glass tonight...

Before Nino could say anything, the barkeeper had arrived and searched for eye contact with the newcomer. The man couldn't be much older than Nino and Sho, but his aura omitted a sense of life experience and understanding of the world, that Nino could probably only dream of. His face was friendly and his smile calm, he even looked a little sleepy, Nino thought.

"You're here for him?" the man asked, nodding towards Sho.

"Well, sort of," Nino said.

"I'd ask you if you want to eat or drink something, too, if I wasn't of the opinion that you should probably better take your friend home," the bar keeper said with a smile on his face. "I know it's not my place to say but..."

"Thank you," Nino replied nodding, immediately grasping the situation. He instinctively reached towards his pocket. "Did he pay for everything yet?"

The bar keeper nodded. "Everything's settled, no worries." He handed a glass filled with water at Nino, his eyes again wandering towards the sunken figure at the bar before looking back at the young man. "Good luck."

Nino frowned, but nodded back at the friendly guy, who then vanished again to take care of other customers. Nino placed himself on the high school standing right beside his boss and it was only now that he directly addressed him.

"Sakurai-san?" he asked, first carefully, repeating the name a little louder when he realised the man wasn't reacting the first time. "I came here as fast as I could, what's wrong?"

"Everything's wrong...," Sho whispered and if Nino hadn't paid close attention to him, he might not even have heard it.

"Sakurai-san...," he started again. "Forgive me for being so direct but, you're drunk, aren't you?"

Surprisingly, the other man giggled. He pulled his hand from his eyes, and turned towards Nino, looking at him with, his eyes looking tired, his pupils dilated. "Sure, I am, Sherlock."

Nino slightly rolled his eyes.

"Do you feel ill?" he asked.

When the other man did not reply, he hesitantly reached out to gently take Sho's hand off the glass he was still clenching. His fingers seemed slightly cramped, but the man didn't protest. For a moment, Nino felt tempted to just hold Sho's hands, maybe he needed it, but it would probably be too awkward for both of them, so instead, he pushed the glass of water the barkeeper had left with them, towards him.

"Maybe you should give this to me, I think you had enough tonight," Nino said. "Here, drink some of this."

Sho looked at Nino, then to the glass of water. He took it, clenching it just as tight as he could and slightly shaking, he brought the glass towards his lips, taking a sip. Whatever had happened, Nino knew that something about Sho was definitely not OK, and no matter how awkward things had been between them for this one week since they have met, it made his heart ache to see his old friend like this. He wanted to help.

"I need you to bring me home," Sho eventually said. Surprisingly, he by far did not sound as drunk as he looked like. But then, everyone reacted differently to intoxication.

"Why didn't you call a taxi or one of the Sakurai family's drivers?" Nino asked, out of sheer curiosity. Why did you call me?

Sho shrugged.

"You are my driver, no?"

"I am your secretary," Nino corrected him.

Sho demonstratively rolled his eyes. "You drove me around for the whole time, how am I supposed not to think this makes you my driver?"

So that's why he called me? Nino didn't want to admit it, but for some reason, he didn't like Sho's reply. He scolded himself internally. Yeah, he wanted to help Sho, but it didn't mean he was fine with being treated like a servant! Well, what did you even expect? He didn't dare to answer his own question.

"Actually, it's just that I happen to think there's no need to hire a separate driver if I can drive you to meetings by myself," Nino retorted, though. Even if he knew that he probably shouldn't get stuck in this, he just couldn't let things be as they stood.

"You're a man who thinks very practicable, Ninomiya-kun."

Nino had to admit, that he was low-key impressed that his boss in the drunken state he was in, was still able to voice such words as "practicable" properly. Nino could have let go of it, but somehow, he wasn't ready to end this conversation yet, even if it would probably be so easy to just take his boss with him and drive him home. No big drama, just a ride home for a troubled man and he was free again. But that would be too easy.

"Was this supposed to be a compliment?" Nino asked, therefore.

"It was, indeed," Sho said, taking another sip from his glass of water. "Didn't it sound like one?"

Nino raised a critical eyebrow. "Since you're drunk, I cannot tell for sure."

Suddenly, completely unexpected, Sho leaned forward, coming so close to Nino, that their faces almost touched. Nino held his breath, as the warmness radiating from Sho's face brushed against his skin, but didn't move.

"Would it sound better if I said that you have beautiful eyes?" Sho whispered in a deep voice. He looked at Nino, straight forward. He even looked serious.

Nino blinked. His ears twitched. His heart jumped a little. He swallowed. Where was his emo boss from just a minute ago gone to, suddenly? And what was this, a drunken flirting attempt? A joke? Probably the latter.

"Sakurai-san... please stop joking," Nino said, releasing a slightly insecure chuckle. He tried to turn away, but Sho followed his motions, so that their eyes stayed connected.

"What if I am not joking? "Sho said, his eyes focused and clear, and just for a second, Nino wished, Sho meant what he said.

"You are clearly drunk, and you are clearly joking," the secretary said, finally pushing himself from the high stool, backwards, to escape the slowly but surely uncomfortable turning closeness. He cleared his throat. "Come on, I'll bring you home."

"I thought you're not my driver?" his boss said, mischievously.

"No, but I'm driving you. That's why you called me in the first place, isn't it?" Nino wanted to scream internally.

Five minutes later, Nino had managed to drag Sho outside of the izakaya and onto the street. As articulated as Sho still seemed to be when drunk, as non-working were his legs, Once Aiba spotted them, he immediately got out of the car and rushed towards his friend and the drunken man, helping him to support him while bringing him to the open door and hauling him into the car.

"Aiba, may I introduce, this is my boss, Sakurai Sho," Nino said, as he took a deep breath after the short exhaustion, before he made sure to fasten the seat belt around his boss' chest. "I'm sorry, but you need to sit in the back."

"Sure," Aiba replied and got on the car. While Nino walked around to the driver's door and opened it, he could hear his friend introducing himself to the man sitting in the passenger seat, who just growled something while trying to look behind him, but giving up.

"I hope he won't puke during the ride, he doesn't look so great," Aiba whispered to Nino, who just sighed before starting the engine.

"We'll bring him home and then we can return back to our movie," he said and Aiba nodded.

"What movie?" Sho asked curiously, but Nino ignored him.

Since Nino had already picked up Sho from his home – a small but chick house a few minutes ride away from Sho's parents, modern and big enough for a small family, surrounded by a big garden, even if not as beautifully planted as Mrs. Sakurai's – he already knew the way. After parking in the driveway, as close to the house as even possible, Aiba helped Nino to get Sho from the car into the house, Nino having to fumble in Sho's pants to search for his keys, something he would have loved to avoid, but here they were.

The secretary was a little surprised to find the house in a huge chaos. Of course he had noticed already, that his boss was a little messy, at work he used to throw papers together that Nino then had to sort again in their correct order and little stuff like that, but he wasn't unclean and to be honest, Nino had expected Sho to have some sort of cleaning personnel or something to take care of his living space. But judging from the mess of shoes alone in the entrance room, as well as the tons of books and magazines that were lying in piles everywhere over the apartment, Nino wondered. Maybe, Sho had not completely moved in yet and this was how he temporarily stored his belongings until they found their destined homes, or, cleaning day was tomorrow.

Either way, they needed to find the way into the bathroom first, to help Sho wash his face and sober up a little bit, that much was clear. Luckily, Sho had not needed to puke during the ride to his house – considering the pale look on his boss' face, Nino really had feared he would have to clean his car afterwards – so who knew what else awaited them now.

"Can you manage alone from here?" Nino asked Sho when they finally found the bathroom.

Sho didn't reply and leaned over the sink, turning on the tab and immediately taking a sip of water from his hollowed hand before he collected more water in it to splash it over his face. His movements were slow and clumsy, and his hands were slightly shaking. Nino felt a sting through his heart and he gave in to the urge of getting closer and putting his hands around Sho's waist, to offer him some sense of stability. Sho was still smelling strongly from alcohol, as well as from the smoke from the grilled dishes in the izakaya. No, there was no way he could manage alone, at least, Nino didn't want to just leave him just like that. He didn't know what had pushed Sho to drink that much this evening, but somehow he could feel, that his behaviour had not come from a happy place. Or was he interpreting too much into the situation?

When Sho announced he needed to use the toilet, Nino exited the bathroom to give him some privacy, not before searching for some hangover medicine in the mirror cabinet over the sink, though, which he took with him to the kitchen to prepare something for Sho.

"I can't leave him alone like that," Nino murmured, as he filled a glass of water for Sho. Aiba had followed him into the kitchen, and simply nodded. "I mean, did you look at him?" Nino hoped, he didn't sound as desperate as he thought, but he couldn't help it but worry about his boss.

"It's OK, Nino," Aiba assured him. "Let's get him to bed, first. Did he get sick?"

"Not yet. I'm not sure, maybe his stomach can handle the alcohol," Nino wondered. "I don't know how much he actually drank and how much he's used to."

He placed the glass of water next to a package of aspirin on a small tray he had found in one of the kitchen cabinets. While the rest of the apartment was kind of messy, the kitchen was spotless, except a few empty cups placed in the sink. Probably, Sho did not really make much use of it, Nino thought. Perhaps, he used to eat at his parents' or he went out for dinner.

"Do you think I should stay?" Nino asked insecurely, turned to his best friend. "I mean, he's all alone here..."

"You could, if you want?" Aiba shrugged. "Do you want me to stay too?"

Nino shook his head. "I don't want to keep you occupied. I don't want to drag you into my problems from work and I think I can handle it on my own. Sorry for the trouble."

Aiba shook his head. "It's OK. Then I'll take a cab. We can meet up tomorrow and finish the movie, if you want?"

"Sounds good. I can pay the cab fee for you, if you want," his friend offered.

"Don't be silly," Aiba chuckled. "It's fine. Are you sure, you're OK with this?"

Nino nodded. "It's fine. I just want to make sure he's OK."

"What a nice secretary you are, Ninomi!" Aiba said, crossing his arms in front of his chest and throwing a cheeky grin at his friend. "Or do I smell any ulterior motives here?"

"Now you are being silly, we talked about this already," Nino replied, rolling his eyes.

"I wonder, though," Aiba added in a serious tone. "Why did he call you and not his girlfriend if he needed help?"

"Because he thinks as his secretary I'm also his driver, apparently," Nino shrugged, rolling his eyes.

"Hmm," Aiba sighed. "Well then, I'm going to fetch a taxi. Take care, Nino. And keep me updated."

"Thanks, I will."

While Aiba retreated from the house, Nino searched the kitchen for something to eat that he could add on the tray. It was best to have something light for the stomach the morning after a night heavy with alcohol, to ensure that the medicine against the hangover headache wouldn't affect the stomach negatively, so he wanted to prepare something for Sho to have once he work up in the morning.

When he carried everything into the bedroom, Nino was faced with more stacks of books and untidiness. There were clothes thrown everywhere, all the neckties Sho had been wearing over the week hanging over the backrest of a chair, T-shirts lying on the floor, a pile of worn socks in one corner of the room, the bed unmade.

Nino pushed aside some books on the bed's nightstand so he could place the small tabled onto it, and then automatically reached down to the floor to pick up a crumpled jacket. He brushed over it and hung it over the backrest of the chair. It didn't look as if there was a wardrobe in Sho's bedroom, perhaps he had a separate room for that, but Nino did not want to go as far as to look for it. Instead, he proceeded to pick up some books that were spread over the floor, opened and upside down. He took care not to lose the page and either put in one side of the book's dusk jacket or made sure to put some bookmarks that he found lying in one bookshelf, into the books.

The young man looked around and then picked up a slim sized book, maybe a planner or a notebook, from the top of the bed that he wanted to prepare for Sho. It had also been lying open, face down on the crumpled bed sheets, and Nino was almost tempted to glance inside, just for a second...

"What are you doing?"

Nino startled, whirling around, and there was Sho leaning in the door frame.

"Sakurai-san!" Nino exhaled, trying to calm his sudden raised heartbeat from the surprise. "How do you feel?"

Sho didn't reply, and instead stumbled closer, reaching his hand at the notebook and pulling it from Nino's hands. "Don't touch my stuff..."

"I was just cleaning up a bit -," Nino started.

"I said, don't touch my stuff!" Sho repeated, this time more forceful. "You don't need to tidy up my private space, or does cleaning also belong to your tasks as my secretary?!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" suddenly, Nino frowned at the other man. Sure, he understood that he shouldn't lurk into private stuff, but did he need to be that harsh about it? But Nino couldn't even finish his sentence, when he saw that his boss was suddenly turning dangerously pale. "Sakurai-san, are you OK?"

"I'm feeling ill," his boss murmured, pressing his hands onto his mouth.

"Oh no," Nino sighed.

Then, he rushed towards Sho, heading back into the direction of the bathroom with him, where his boss leaned over the sink once more, this time retching, until he released parts of his stomach's content. Nino averted his eyes, but stayed close to Sho, instinctively reaching out his hand to rub it soothingly over the other man's back. Thankfully, it didn't take long until Sho had calmed down again. He made some disgusted noises before he rinsed his mouth with water and mouthwash, and straightened his body again. Nino's hand had never left Sho's back.

"Better?" Nino dared to ask, looking into the mirror, meeting Sho's gaze, who just nodded, wiping his lips. Nino nodded. "Come, let me help you get to bed, you need rest."

His boss did not object and allowed Nino to guide him back to the bedroom, where Nino once more picked up one last piece of clothes from the top of Sho's bed, and lead him to sit down. After asking where the man kept his night wear, Sho just snorted and informed Nino that he used to sleep in his underwear, causing the young man to blush slightly and turn around once Sho started to peel off his clothes.

"Don't touch my stuff ever again, you hear me?" Sho murmured, slightly pouting, as he leaned back in his bed, allowing Nino to cover him with his blanket.

"I won't, don't worry," Nino replied, hinting a roll of his eyes. There was no need to be so aggressive. "Sorry, it wasn't my place to do that but if I may say, I'd recommend to keep your space a bit tidier. You could slip on one of your books while stumbling through your place in the dark or something..."

"I appreciate your concern," Sho replied, but he sounded sarcastic, implying that it indeed wasn't Nino's place to say anything.

Nino huffed. Was this Sakurai Sho's way to thank him for picking him up, dead-drunk from an izakaya in the middle of the night, although he was off duty? How nice!

"I prepared some light breakfast, some medicine and a glass of water for you here," Nino pointed at the tray placed on Sho's night stand, trying not to sound too grumpy, but the concern in his voice was gone, now. "Make sure to take it once you wake up in the morning. I was planning to spend the night on your couch so I could take care of you if need be, but it seems, you're doing pretty well already, if you can scold me again, so probably, I should better go now," he said, straightening up and turning around to leave the room.

"Wait!"

Warm fingers clasped around Nino's wrist, which caught him completely off guard. He froze, his breath hitched, and his heartbeat stopped. He turned around, just to be faced by his boss, who suddenly looked more fragile and desperate than he had ever seen him before. Nino couldn't bring himself to pull away his hand. He swallowed as he felt his heart constricting, then, after collecting himself again, he cleared his throat.

Damned, why am I so weak when it comes to that idiot?

"What is it?" he asked, calmly. "Do you miss anything?"

"You-… I-" Sho started, but it seemed he had not though much further than that as he fell silent again.

Nino just looked at his boss, confused, waiting for more, but nothing came out of Sho's mouth.

Instead, completely out of the blue, Sho pulled at Nino's hand, strong enough to make the secretary stumble towards him, until he came to sit on Sho's bed, almost crashing against the other man. Before Nino could jump up again, Sho had already reached out his free hand and let it slip past Nino's face, to the young man's neck, and pulled him closer, with an outrageous amount of gentleness that Nino had just not expected, at all.

Nino couldn't properly process what was happening, Sho's hand in his neck felt as if it was burning his skin, his heart started racing when their faces came closer, and he almost forgot how to breathe.

When Sho's lips touched his, Nino's brain completely seized functioning.

Sho's lips felt soft and warm. Nino could taste the mouthwash, Sho had previously used. It tasted like mint. His fifteen year old self was internally screaming and ready to pass out while Nino's current self was just dumbfounded and unable to move.

Shortly after, panic flooded the young man's system, and because his body always tended to show extreme reactions, he didn't only drawback, shocked, but instead he pushed the other man backwards, heavy enough to cause Sho to bump against the headpiece of his bed, while Nino jumped up at the same moment. Sho groaned, but didn't say anything, didn't yell at Nino, leaving space for the secretary himself to freak out completely.

"What was that?!"

Sho didn't reply and just slightly rubbed the back of his head.

"Are you crazy?! You can't just-!"

Sho still didn't reply. He didn't even look at Nino.

The secretary eventually pressed his hand against his lips, before he turned around and stormed out of Sho's bedroom. His heart was racing now, his breath hitching uncontrollably, and crap, he could feel it, his neck itching, even his wrists burning. He tried his best to ignore it, but it was impossible. Tears collected in his eyes, and he tried hard to get back control over his breathing, tried to breathe in and out deeply, but he struggled.

No need to freak out, it was just a kiss, Nino tried to convince himself, but his body had already fallen into full-force panic mode, with all its usual wonderful symptoms. Just a stupid, drunk, meaningless kiss!

He reached the bathroom and locked himself in. He pushed forward to the mirror, looking at his reflection. His face had turned red, so his neck. His wrists were itching. Everything was itching. His whole body. Nino's wrapped his arms around his torso, the pressure around his ribs only soothing the itchy feeling underneath his clothes unsatisfactory, but he could clench the fabric there with his fingers to prevent them from moving to the more obvious spots, where a rash had already broken out and started to spread. Damned.

Just a stupid, drunk, meaningless kiss from your stupid boss! Nino yelled internally.

If he just could see it as that! Things would be so much easier, then. But even if he technically knew, what he felt was something completely different, obviously.

Breathe. Nino breathed in, and out, shakily. The grib around his body loosened.

Relax.

"Funny!" Nino snorted at his mirror image between short breaths. "Very funny!"

Don't scratch.

Too late! Cursing, Nino forced himself to pull his hand away from his neck, clenching his fingers together tightly. It needed all of his will power not to let go and allow his fingertips to get back to the affected area, to run over the irritated skin, to try find relief. But he knew he could do it. He had managed before.

Breathe.

Yes, breathing. Nino should try not to lose focus, instead, he should try to redirect his focus. Onto breathing. It was a simple thing to do. He closed his eyes and tried to visualise it. He could just inhale and exhale all the stress, and things would calm down. This was just an initial excessive body reaction to stress, to a shock. A reaction his body had developed over years, but it didn't mean he couldn't fight it. Nino breathed in and out, in and out, trying to forget Sho and the kiss and the emotional turmoil this was putting him through. Once he got over that, things would calm down. He could still think about this later on, for now, the most important thing was to resist the urge of scratching and to will the itching away to not cause any more actual damage to his body. He could do it!

And it seemed to work, eventually. Nino's racing heart slowed down, his breathing became more relaxed, naturally, without having to force it, and the itching subsided, thankfully.

Nino sighed. Now that things were back under control, Nino could focus on first aid treatment. He inspected his neck. There weren't many scratch marks, he had only scratched for a tiny little bit. It could have been way worse. Nino pulled out his hand towel and followed the usual routine. Drenched it in cold water, gently patted the cool wet cloth against the most affected areas – his wrists, the right side of his neck, his face. Repeated the whole action, until he felt refreshed and the initial hotness of his skin had calmed down. He took his small bottle of soothing aloe vera gel from his trousers' pocket and carefully applied some of it on his skin.

Nino released a heavy breath. His body felt better. The gel would help the healing process. Everything would be just as new, nobody would even see anything. What was still left, though, was the mental side of the whole problem.

Like always, after such an intense reaction, Nino felt ashamed. It wasn't even a matter if anyone saw him like that or not, but the fact alone that his body was reacting this way to stress made Nino feel weak. As if he lost to something.

It was one thing to get ticked off by being kissed by one's former childhood crush, with whom they now had a more than complicated relationship with, maybe it would tick off anyone, however, it was a different thing to have one's body react to that so strongly. It was exhausting, it was embarrassing, and Nino hated it. He knew, it wasn't his fault, not entirely. His condition had manifested over the years, since he had been a child. It was his body's way to manage stress. It wasn't the best way to do it, it wasn't the healthiest way to do it, but it was what it was and Nino had to live with it.

Nino tried to remember the words of his therapist. There was no need to feel embarrassed. Every person was different. Everyone's body was different. Some people's bodies reacted stronger to emotional stress, than others. And emotional stress was something very personal. It wasn't about weakness. It was nothing to be ashamed of. Everything left to do was, trying to learn how to cope with stress better and to redirect thoughts. To focus on staying relaxed. To not worsen the symptoms of one's condition. It could be OK. It would be OK. It was OK.

Once Nino felt ready, he left the bathroom again. When he stepped into the empty corridor, he hesitated for a moment. He considered to check on Sho again, just to see if he was doing OK, after all, that was why he came to bring him here in the first place, but in the end, he was a coward and trusted that Sho was enough of a grown up to handle the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption by himself.

Nino left. He got back on his car, started the engine and drove away. His cell phone was connected to the hands-free speaking system of the car, and he used voice recognition to dial Aiba's number. He wasn't sure if his friend had already reached home, chances were high.

"Nino?" he could hear Aiba's slightly confused voice through the speakers.

"Aiba, I'm driving home now, so if you still want to finish watching that movie…," Nino started, not wanting to drop the bomb right away.

"What?" But who was he trying to fool? "I thought you wanted to stay over at your boss' house. What happened?"

"I might just have lost my job, I think," Nino said, yeah, still beating around the bush, but the thought just actually occurred to him and he needed to get it out before it started eating him up from inside.

"What are you talking about?"

"I... Oh my gosh, I can't even believe it..." Nino murmured, trying not to get lost in the memory again, or at least not in the emotional tornado he had just managed to get under control. "I panicked!"

"You panicked? What do you mean?"

"I pushed him and ran away!" Nino exclaimed.

"Why did you push him?"

"I'm so fired..."

"Nino!" Aiba pressed, pulling Nino back to the conversation, who immediately started rambling.

"I pushed him because he kissed me! I mean, he's completely drunk so, I don't know what he was thinking, maybe he was mistaking me with his girlfriend or he is just really, REALLY drunk and does things like that when he's drunk? I mean -"

"Stop Nino, stop, you're too fast, I can't follow," Aiba interrupted him. "So, he did WHAT?!"

"I know, right?!" Nino's grip around the steering wheel tightened. "And I completely freaked out!"

"You don't say!"

"Aiba, what shall I do?!"

"First, calm down. Are you still in the car? It sounds like you're in the car. You shouldn't be driving when you're worked up like this!"

"I am calm!" Nino retorted, slightly rolling his eyes.

"Then I don't want to know how you are in your freaked out state."

"Aiba!" Nino knew, his best friend just meant well, so he glanced at the tachometer and adjusted his driving speed a little bit, slowing down.

"Sorry, you know I didn't mean it. Are you OK? Did you-"

"I have it under control!" Nino said, not trying to think about his fit. "Well, back under control."

"Oh, Nino...," Aiba sighed, but didn't delve into the subject. Instead, he did what Aiba always did – tackle the issue and search for a positive approach. "OK, let's try to think this through. Your boss drunk-kissed you and you pushed him. Did he say that you're fired?"

"No... he didn't say anything," Nino replied.

"So, technically, you are not fired!" Aiba announced cheerfully.

"Yet," the other man took the weight out of his friend's perception.

Aiba ignored it, both of them knew he was right, technically, anyway. Instead, he branched out for a bit. "By the way, how was it?"

Nino frowned. "How was what?"

"The kiss?"

"Aiba! That's definitely not the important part right now!" Nino declared, although he could feel his cheeks flushing.

"But isn't it the part you initially freaked out about?" When Nino didn't reply, Aiba seemed to take his silence as agreement. "OK, back to the firing topic. You see, if your boss kisses you and you were not content with that, it's your right to act against that. And that's no reason for him to fire you, wouldn't it be against the law, even? Come on, you're better informed about stuff like that than I am."

"Theoretically not, practically... people can get fired for anything," Nino replied.

"Then you need to turn the situation to your advantage."

"And what exactly are you talking about right now?"

"You could threaten him to tell his girlfriend, if he tries to get you fired. She might not like to hear that her boyfriend is kissing other men."

"Whoah, that's mean," Nino said.

"But it will keep him from firing you in case he really tries to. So? Doesn't that sound like at least like a usable back-up plan?"

"Somehow."

"Good," Aiba replied. "Now forget what happened tonight, you can't change it anyway, so just ignore it. Distract yourself and you can deal with the situation on Monday at work."

"But what if I can't even look him in the eye when we're in the office?" the secretary asked.

"Relax, Nino. Pull yourself together. Don't forget why you're holding up with this in the first place."

"Because of my Mom. So I can pay off our debts and she can live without worries," the young man repeated what he always told himself when things at work got a little tough.

And like always, it worked. Especially, when he thought about how his mother just recently told him how much she enjoyed living in her apartment recently. He didn't want to cause any danger to that.

"Exactly. Never forget about that!" Aiba chimed.

"OK," Nino breathed out heavily. He got this! "I'm almost home now, by the way."

"Continue watching the Netflix movie. I'll watch the ending with you in parallel, just say when you're ready. And afterwards, do some meditation and go to bed, it's late and didn't you want to go visit your mother tomorrow morning?" Aiba suggested, thoughtfully.

Nino nodded to himself. "You're right. OK. Sounds good. Thank you!"

+ + +

Back at home, Nino tried to follow his best friend's suggestions. He called him again and while hanging out together on the phone, they watched the ending of the Netflix series. It was good to have Aiba on the line, Nino had to admit. That man was his safe place. He couldn't even put into words how greatful he was for Aiba's kindness, his continuing support and his endless patience with him. Nino knew, he wasn't always easy to be with, especially, when his tendency to overthink and worry, when his anxiety was taking over control. But Aiba had always accepted him and tried to help him.

The movie's ending was good, just like the whole movie itself, and the two men kept talking for a bit longer about it, before Aiba yawned into the phone receiver and Nino chuckled softly.

"I guess I should better let you go to sleep now."

"I guess that would be good," Aiba replied, yawning once more. "Can I leave you alone? Are you OK now?" he added, worried.

"I'm fine, thank you," Nino replied. "I'm sorry for keeping you up so long. And sorry for... that whole mess."

"It's fine, Ninomi, you know, I'm always here for you."

"You're the best, seriously," Nino smiled. "Sleep well."

"You too."

They ended the call and while Aiba was surely dropping to bed, instantly, Nino was heading to the bathroom, got ready for bed too. Soon after, figuring that reading might help get him tired, he found himself back with the black journal that he used to keep on his bedside table recently, in his hands.

Actually, he had read it through by now, since quite a while, even. He had read every single poem, every single short story and all the thought snippets that were written in there. He was able to find specific parts of it very quickly, when he was searching for some passages to re-read, and even had started to take notes on some of the works, writing down his own thoughts or small messages to the author, praising his stuff, even if they were actually just for Nino's eyes.

By now, he has almost given up on finding the one who wrote the journal, as there were no hints in the book that gave away information about the writer himself, at least nothing like a name or an address or even specific places. Some descriptions were really vague, others read like they were from faraway countries, it all seemed to be sprung from the very vivid imagination of whoever wrote this. Nino's only hope for now was, that maybe, one day that person would come to the park again on their search for the lost journal, but so far, nothing.

Nino flipped through the pages, searching for a specific section. He probably shouldn't re-read that one out of all of his choices, right now, but his brain didn't leave him another choice. So here he was again.


What is a kiss?

A touch of lips?
A touch of souls?

Fragile like a butterfly.
Wild like a storm.
Deep like an ocean.

A gesture of goodbye.
A gesture of affection.
A gesture of intimacy.
A gesture of love.

A kiss is something treasurable, something to treat with care.
Only an honest kiss will make your heart bloom.


"Exactly!" Nino called out, without even noticing. "That's how a kiss should be. Not some sloppy dunk kiss to irritate other people!"

The memory of Sho's kiss were back again. Nino closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He frowned and tried to will his thoughts away, but they were persistent and he was helpless against them. He remembered the lost look in Sho's eyes, he remembered the burning hot touch of Sho's hand on his neck, pulling him closer... the taste of mint on Sho's full and soft lips...

Nino cursed silently. Of course, now he couldn't just forget about that kiss. Of course, he was thinking of Sho now, again. Of course, his heart was racing now.

If Nino had ever imagined how it would be like to kiss Sho, and yes, maybe he had, this would definitely not have been it. He had imagined it to be something sweet, something gentle, innocent... something he had dreamed about since he was a teenager.

Nino's cheecks warmed at the imagination, but his heart felt strange, as if it once more got a little broken. The man could feel how tears started to form, and he had to pay attention, not to give in into the stress he was experiencing. He really should have read something different at such a time, why had he been so stupid?

The man calmed himself down with a few deep breaths and then grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from his bedside table and wrote down his exact same thoughts from before, just to give air to the tiny bit of anger he was feeling, left the paper into the journal and put it away. It was time to try to sleep over the whole thing and forget about it. Tomorrow would be a new day, a better day.

+ + +

Somehow, Nino had managed to catch enough hours of sleep to not feel completely crushed the next morning. This didn't mean though, that the memory of last night did not hit him like a slap in the face once more when his grey cells started to wake up, despite his hope it wouldn't. The image was still too clear, and it was as if the feeling of Sho's hand on Nino's neck never left him completely. The thought of their kiss still stirred a mix of emotions inside Nino that needed a good deal of deep breaths so it didn't make him freak out all over again.

Nino quickly stood up and decided to try get rid of his thoughts in a cool shower, something he had come to really enjoy, because it felt good on his irritated skin, and then get ready to spend the day with his mother. Last time they had dinner at her place, he had promised her to take her on a walk through her neighbourhood, through the nearby park and to the local mall for a small shopping trip and to invite her to a cup of coffee and a piece of cake. Nino needed to be available via his working phone during weekends, just in case, but in general, he could spend quite a normal, workless weekend like normal office people. He was grateful for that. He could at least spend one whole day with his family like this, once in a while.

His mother seemed to have had an eventful week. She told Nino about her and her group mates progress on their patchwork project, but also told him that she still wanted to buy some new fabrics for that, especially because she did not manage yet to find matching ones for Nino's favourite five colour rainbow quilt. She also needed to get a new book for her Sunday book club, as she admitted she had forgotten to set her name onto the list of people who needed to order their next read, during the last meeting and so she had to take care of getting a copy by herself now. Oh, and of course, there were plans for dinner tonight, what did Nino want to cook together with her?

Nino was happy to hear his mother talking so lively about several things. He definitely had seen her in way worse shape, mentally and physically, in the past. She had been very weak during her period of illness when he was younger, to an extent that he and his father had feared they might lose her. Nino's condition had started back then, out of sheer panic to lose his dear mother at a young age. He wouldn't have been ready to let her go, he loved her just too much. Of course, he still did. She had improved immensely thanks to the great care of the hospital's doctors that President Sakurai had suggested to admit her to, and although her body had always been frail since then, her bones fragile and her muscles weak, she was able to live a fine life in the care of those who loved her. However, things had become worse once more when Nino's father unexpectedly had fallen sick some years ago, and the fact that he had not been able to recover, had broken the poor woman's, and her son's, heart. She had become depressive, and for Nino alone, who had a great deal to do to handle his own psychological aftershock after his father eventually died, it had become too much to take care of her. They searched for help, found it, recovered, once more and now, the woman was happily talking about dinner plans with her son and which fabrics she wanted to buy. It wasn't like she or Nino had forgotten about his father, no, but they had learned to deal with his absence without forgetting the precious memories they had of him.

The young secretary had almost forgotten his most recent sorrows over his mother's cheerful talking, however, the backlash was inevitable when just before lunch, Nino received a message on his work phone. Of course, it was from Sho.

Nino swallowed, considering if he should even open it or just ignore it for a couple more hours. It probably wouldn't be a work-related emergency, but rather have to do with last night in any way, and he was not sure if he was ready to talk about that with his boss. If he was indeed about to get fired now for his behaviour the previous night, he didn't want to know, at least not while he was having such a good time with his mother. He couldn't allow anything to ruin the mood. In the end though, he ended up so distracted and unfocused, that his mother couldn't hold back any longer from asking him if he was feeling ill, so in order to gain back his focus, he needed to check Sho's message.

When he finally opened it, Nino's first reaction was pure relief. The message was much more harmless, than he had expected, to be honest. More than that, it was an open door to an excuse and hell, Nino would be stupid not to go through that door.

"Hello, Ninomiya-san. This might sound weird, but I just saw that I called your work phone last night. I can't remember why, did something come up?"

If Sho wasn't testing Nino or anything, this message rather implied that his boss probably couldn't remember what had happened the previous night, at all, which was possible, taking the amount of alcohol the man had probably consumed, into account. Nino released a short sigh, before he started to type a reply. He decided to get along with the situation and only tell the necessary minimum of what had happened.

"Hello. You called me to pick you up from an izakaya as you had one drink too much there and couldn't drive by yourself and so I drove you home."

Yeah, this should suffice. It wasn't even exactly a lie, right? Nino was about to pack his phone away again, when it buzzed once more.

"That's it?"

Nino swallowed. He brushed away the resurfacing memory of Sho's lips on his, and his reaction of pushing him. He tried to stay calm, breathe normally.

"That's it," he simply replied. Shortly after, another buzz of his phone.

"Then I guess, you can't tell me where the bump on the back of my head comes from?"

Ohhhhh crap. Nino blushed slightly. What now?!

Sorry for pushing you! Sorry for lying to you!

No, he wouldn't text Sho that part, but he truly was.

"No, I'm sorry."

Hopefully, his boss would just believe him that there had been nothing more, and leave it at that.

And he did.

"I see. Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience. See you on Monday."

Nino was truly relieved, but also immensely confused. Not only by the fact that his boss had just apologized to him, something that Nino had thought, this new Sho wasn't even capable of, but in general.

OK, so Sho didn't remember the kiss. Fine. That was good, right? It meant, Nino could really follow Aiba's advice and simply pretend, that it never happened. If Sho couldn't remember, there was nothing embarrassing to talk about, and Nino could just try and forget it as well.

But would he be able to do so? It obviously had not left him unaffected, or he wouldn't have had such a strong reaction towards it in the first place. He tried to think logically. What had this meant to him? Had it just confused him? Did he wish, it never happened? Did he wish, it happened again, like Aiba surely would suggest? Nino slightly shook his head. Something felt a little off, though, even if he couldn't completely grasp what it was. Did he want Sho to remember what happened and to address it properly? Because like this, wouldn't it haunt him? Nino couldn't tell, honestly. Still, he knew that for some reason, even if relieved that his job seemed to be out of danger, at least, he wasn't truly happy with the whole situation.

Of course, his mother had noticed that something was wrong, but Nino didn't feel like telling her the embarrassing story of Sho's drunk kiss and his following rash. She must have noticed something anyway, because her eyes sometimes lingered a little longer on the red spot on Nino's neck, who had tried to cover it a little bit with the fabric of his hoodie, but probably had not really succeeded. She must have realized that he didn't want to talk about it – at least not now – and respected this. Nino knew, he could come to her with all his sorrows, when he was ready, and probably, he would, just not right away. He didn't want to worry her, and first, he needed to proceed everything on his own. He still had Aiba to freak out to, who was always happy to lend him an open ear, even in the middle of the night.

Smiling, Nino assured his mother, that just now, a work issue had been solved in a positive outcome – which was true, considering that he would not loose his job because he had pushed his boss – and that they could now continue enjoying their Saturday. His mother agreed, and soon, they were sitting in a nice comfy café to have lunch.

+ + +

After Nino's joined Saturday with his mother and a fun gaming session with Aiba on Sunday, the new week came far too quickly for the young man's taste. As expected from him, he was in the office early, first thing he was doing – checking Sho's schedule overview for the whole week and confirming that all of the important meetings were also recorded in the company's intern calendar, so that people knew when the aspiring vice president was available and when not – and then, preparing a hot drink for his boss.

Regarding the fact that there was a meeting scheduled at ten, and because Sho still seemed slightly uncomfortable with those, Nino decided that it was best to go with tea first, and to promise some chocolate coffee for later. Sho did not dare to argue with him when he showed up around an hour before the meeting, slightly panicked about what he needed to brief for it, as it seemed he had forgotten about the meeting over the weekend. Nino brought his boss a stack of notes as well as the tablet with a cup of nerve soothing camomile tea and a small plate of biscuits his mother had made and given him to share at work. Nino didn't know if it was him being well prepared, or the sweet treats that seemed to please Sho, but he guessed, it was the latter.

Things were still generally slightly awkward between them. Apparently, one week of working together had just not been enough for them yet to fully get used to each other's habits and their dynamics as a team was still a little rough, but they would continue working on that, at least, that's what Nino had planned. No matter how he might feel about the whole situation with his disappointment over Sho having forgotten him, no matter if they still needed to improve their teamwork, he did not plan to slack at this job. They would make it work. Nino even almost had managed to forget the kiss from Sunday night... OK, that was a lie, but he was ready to pretend that it never happened, so that this wouldn't stand between them.

The scheduled meeting was taking place in one of the conference rooms of the office, and was supposed to be a first meeting for a new big project between the Sakurai Group and the almost just as renowned Matsumoto Group, which originally had been the former's biggest rival when it came to building and managing hotels in Japan. Recently though, there had been talks between the owners of both companies, to join forces for a project bigger and better than anything each of them had ever dealt with.

While the Sakurai Group was known for not only their most famous "SakuHana" hotel chain, a modern, Western inspired type of hotel, aspiring to not only cover most of Japans bigger and middle sized cities, but also to spread over the country's border to branch into other Asian countries (they just recently had finished building a hotel at Ubud, Bali, which was about to go into business, soon), the Matsumoto Group's approach was different. Highly traditional and especially famous in more rural areas, the company was operating a large number of branches of their "Murasaki Yashiki" ryokans all over Japan.

"Hana Yashiki".

That's the name, the two companies had come up with for a forged hotel chain concept. They aspired to a mix of Japanese traditional and modern Western style, in order to provide the best comfort but also cherish traditions, and appeal to a wider range of customers, especially young tourists from foreign countries, who were equally interested in their well-known Western comfort, as well as the typical Japanese style.

The heads of the Sakurai Group and Matsumoto Group had decided to leave this project to the next generation. Their hope was that their youth, as well as the experience the two heirs had collected during the past years, would benefit the project. On the one hand, they got Matsumoto Jun's experience in Japan, and on the other hand Sho's experience he collected over in Europe. It was the perfect mix of cultural knowledge, exactly what was needed for this.

It was a promising concept grounded on good basics, but apparently, the two heads of the team seemed to have slight differences in their visions, or, they simply didn't like each other. Nino had gotten strange vibes from both of them, at least, and the glares that Sho and Jun, had been shooting at each other, could have killed.

Probably, it had not been too helpful that Jun had been way better prepared than Sho. It didn't show too much, because Sho had not been completely unprepared, but Nino needed to cover for him a few times, and it always had drawn Jun's attention towards the secretary, which made both, Nino and Sho, a little embarrassed, even if for different reasons. While Nino felt a bit flattered, Sho seemed not as amused by the situation. Therefore, Jun seemed to have fun and used to keep up focusing more on Nino than on Sho, so that eventually, it even became quite uncomfortable for Nino because he wasn't used to that much attention, and Sho's mood went downhill over the next hour of the meeting.

Jun's own secretary on the other hand, a pretty young woman called Inoue, did not essentially take part in their conversation, and rather seemed busy with taking notes throughout the whole meeting. The talking was just to Jun on their side of the table.

Actually, both, Sho and Nino, already knew Jun quite well. First, Nino had seen him on several events featuring successful business men, as he had been accompanying Sho's father quite a number of times to such parties in the past. Then, when it came to Sho and Jun, they had been friends, well, probably rather acquaintances or friendly rivals, in the past. It even had occurred a number of times that they had been playing together as children and that wasn't everything. Jun and his group of friends from back then also had a history with Nino. Not such a pleasant one though, because Jun and his sidekicks seemed to have had quite a problem with Nino, the poor kid, joining them to play, and apparently didn't understand why Sho was even wasting his time on someone like him.

Well, Nino had been happy to tell them that he and Sho had been much better friends than Jun and his followers, however, he also remembered, that this meeting had not ended without a bunch of black eyes and bleeding noses. Ever since, Jun and his friends had bullied him, and Sho had made sure to protect him. Nino was convinced, that Sho would not remember that part of their past, as obviously, he had crossed Nino from his memory. Honestly, Nino had a hard time not to feel badly hurt at the fact that while Sho had lost his connection with Nino, he apparently seemed to still remember his rival from childhood days.

Jun himself seemed to remember every little detail, at least he had made sure to tell Nino so when they happened to meet at an event a few years ago, when the latter had just been new to his position as President Sakurai's private secretary.

The heir of the Matsumoto Group had grown up from a hyperactive average looking kid with too big teeth for his face into a fine, handsome man of above average size, hair dark and shining like polished wood and soft skin, dotted with beauty marks. To say, he had become an attractive adult, was an understatement, and of course, Nino, as someone drawn more to the male than female gender had not been able to ignore that fact. But not only Jun's body had grown up over the years, also his mind had matured and so had his behaviour.

"Aren't we all grown up now?" Jun had asked him back then, forcing him to clink glasses. "I think we should forget about past differences and accept each other as part of the same business world now. I am very sorry for my childish behaviour back then, I hope you aren't resentful?"

Well, which choice did Nino have? And even if there were painful memories, Nino also always remembered how Sho had protected him, and it had made him feel stronger, and every kind of fear he might have experienced when faced with Jun and his gang in the past, had vanished. He had grown out of being scared by others. He had learned that even though he might be different or was having a different background, he was as much worth as a human being, as everyone else. And Jun was right, they were adults now. So he had accepted the apology and had given Jun a second chance.

Nowadays, there was no problem between them. Nino was polite anyway, when it came to business partners and the like, Jun seemed to be a professional too, at least as far as Nino could judge from their first professional meeting and Sho tried his best too. He even seemed more passionate this time, although, or maybe even because he was faced with his somewhat-rival-soon-to-be-business-partner Jun. Nino would take any reason if it would make his boss fired up. He wanted this project, Sho's first project, to become a success, after all.

So far they were only at the stage of discussing first ideas and bringing to the table what each party had to offer from past experiences, taking notes of ideas that bloomed in the midst of conversations and discussions, but there weren't many details in debate yet. Things like design ideas and more specific parts of the project would come up later and involve more professional staff, after collecting and painting the first vision of the two main people in charge. So, the meeting did not take too long this time and they were finished way before lunch.

As it was Sho's responsibility, he thanked Jun and his secretary, Mrs. Inoue for coming to their office, confirming, that the next meeting would take place in the headquarter of the Matsumoto Group, as they had agreed on switching between the two offices for that purpose in the future, and guided them outside of the meeting room. Nino was right beside him, bowing at their guests.

"It's been good seeing you after such a long time, Ninomiya-san," Jun said when he was about to go through the door and extended his hand to shake Nino's, who perplexed complied. "When did we see each other last time… must have been last year's international hotel fair."

"Most likely, yes," Nino agreed.

"It's the first time we are working with each other, I have to say, I'm impressed by your dedication and knowledge," the other man continued. For a split second, he glanced at Sho before looking at Nino again, flashing him his charming trademark smile. "Seems you're the smart one of your team."

"What?! No!" the secretary immediately exclaimed, feeling heat rushing to his cheek and quickly looking at his boss. How embarrassing! "I am just doing my job to support Sakurai-san as best as I can."

Sho looked at him, frowning. He didn't look particularly mad, but he seemed unsettled by Jun's strange approach of praising Nino, while at the same indirectly down putting his actual rival.

Turned towards Sho, Jun then added, "That's a fine secretary you've got there, Sakurai-san. I hope you treat him well."

"Excuse me?" Sho raised his eyebrows.

He seemed extremely irritated by Jun praising his secretary, as if he expected another side blow hidden within the compliment. Well, Nino couldn't exactly blame Sho for that. He had already noticed Jun's sleekly way, the manipulating speech he used, and how he tried to hide all of that beneath his charm. If he just practised this a little more, Nino was sure that soon, Matsumoto Jun would be able to twist anyone around his little finger that he wanted or needed to. It seemed to be a skill that – surprisingly – Sho seemed to lack so far, to draw the contrast in the picture.

"You know, my own secretary shortly announced that she is pregnant –"

Nino's eyes widened and he immediately turned towards the woman, who had automatically broken into a proud smile. "Oh, congratulations, Inoue-san!"

"Thank you, Ninomiya-san," she said, brushing a string of hair behind her ear.

"Anyway," Jun continued, "This means that in a few months, her position will be vacant for some time. So, in case you are interested in a change –"

Nino raised his eyebrows in honest surprise. He was about to open his mouth and say something, but Sho was faster, taking a step in front of Nino as if to shield him.

"Could you please not try to hire my secretary from the spot here, right in front of my eyes?!"

Nino couldn't help his heartbeat speeding up a little bit at the suddenly possessive attitude of his boss.

Jun shrugged. "He would stay in the project."

"That's not the point!" Sho retorted, his voice sounding angry.

"Uhm, Excuse me, but in case you didn't notice, I am present, so could you please refrain from talking about me as if I'm some goodie that you can push around?" Nino jumped in.

"I am sorry, this was of course not my intention," Jun rowed back, immediately. "I just wanted to express that I appreciate your hard work and that everyone could be happy to call you their secretary. You're doing great work."

"Thank you," Nino accepted that, at least. He had not expected Jun to keep going after that, but the young man did.

"So, if not work-related, maybe you would like to go for a drink some time?" the man asked, smiling at Nino, who just blinked at him in surprise.

"For a drink?!" Sho repeated, snorting, completely thrown off balance.

"Only if you want to," Jun clarified, still looking at Nino and ignoring Sho completely. "Wait, here…," he took a business card out of his jacket's pocket. Even if all of them had exchanged cards already at the beginning of the meeting, he handed another one to Nino, but not before scribbling something on the back of the card. "Call me if you feel like it."

"Uhm… thank you?" Nino replied, after taking a baffled look at the card in his hands.

"Talk to you soon," Jun said, still smiling widely. He winked.

Nino just looked after him, when the man almost floated out of the room, as if he was surfing on top of an invisible cloud of confidence. The secretary was still highly confused about what just had happened.

"What was that?" Sho turned towards him, his expression a mix of confusion and bewilderment. "Did he just put his private phone number onto the business card he gave you?"

"Looks like it," Nino tilted his head, checking the numbers on the back of Jun's business card.

"He basically asked you out for a date just now!" his boss hissed.

Nino eyed Sho from the side. He was reacting quite strong to this, wasn't he? Did it bug him so much that his rival was trying to lull his secretary in? He should know that this was just a sheer power play, something to irritate Sho, or perhaps even to stir disharmony between Nino and his boss to test them, maybe to break them apart, or just to tease them. To show, that Jun considered himself to be the one having everything under control here, the bigger responsibility, the bigger power of decision, and the last word. Apparently, both young company heirs had not yet fully grasped, that their project should rather be treated like a group project than a competition, but then, it had only been the first meeting. Things would calm down and fall into place. And if Jun just knew that things weren't that rosy between Sho and Nino, anyway, he would probably have known that his flirting attempt with the secretary wouldn't have much of an impact.

At least not on Nino. It seemed to have quite an effect on Sho though, which the young secretary couldn't deny to find interesting.

"Oh, did he?" Nino therefore asked, playing along and pretending not to have noticed.

"You don't actually consider calling him, do you?" Sho asked Nino directly, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Nino started walking, Sho in tow, from the conference room back to their office. He pretended to consider the question for a moment. Even if he did not have a problem with Jun per se at the moment, he had to admit, that he would feel slightly strange to go on a date with his former bully. Also, good looking company heir or not, Nino was not interested in him. However, it was too easy to tease his boss right now, he couldn't resist.

"I don't know, maybe I should?" the secretary finally said, even if he definitely didn't mean it.

"You can't-" Sho started, but probably realised that it was not his place to tell his secretary who he was allowed to date or not, so he quickly changed directions after clearing his throat. "You don't plan to switch jobs, or do you?!"

"Calm down," Nino gave in, turning serious again. "I did not say anything like that."

"You've been flirting with Matsumoto," Sho suddenly accused his secretary.

"I what?!" Nino couldn't believe it. "When have I been flirting with anybody? I have not! He was being nice, I was being nice, that's not particularly flirting."

"But he has been flirting with you and you responded to it," Sho continued stubbornly.

Nino snorted in disbelief. Why did he have to listen to that crap now? Was his boss getting crazy? As if it was his fault how Jun treated him. And what did it even concern him anyway?

"Whatever...," Nino rolled his eyes. But then, he remembered that he could be pretty stubborn too. "But even if, isn't that my decision?"

"Don't joke with me, Ninomiya-san," his boss gave him a warning look.

"I'm not," Nino persisted, crossing his arms too, now.

They had by now reached their usual working space, Nino holding open the glass door to his boss' office to let him pass through what Sho did while Nino followed him. They shouldn't be talking about stuff like that, but rather make a quick debriefing after the meeting just now, checking their notes and writing down if they had ideas for the next meeting. However, Sho seemed not to be finished with the topic by now.

"Since when are you interested in men, anyway?" he asked once the door had closed behind the two of them.

Nino stared at him, bewildered. He had tried hard to ignore it these last few minutes but now, he could feel the skin at his neck burning from a reaction to all the stress, Jun's flirting, Sho's strange reaction, his ridiculous accusations and now Sho asking something like that. He took a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm.

"First, when did I ever say that," he started, trying to keep his voice low and steady. "And second, since when are you interested in my sexual orientation? This is not related to business, so I refuse to reply to this question. And don't act like you know me that well, please!"

"I don't want you to talk to him," was everything Sho threw at his secretary as a reply.

"Because he's your rival or because he was flirting with me and for some reason you didn't like that? Aren't you flirting with your girlfriend or with our female staff too, all the time?"

Nino realised that he just sounded more frustrated than he had intended to show, but apparently, this had bugged him more than he thought. Well, it was true. Even if he had not seen Sho and Keiko together since that dinner at the Sakurai family, he still had the image of them flirting with each other clearly in front of his inner eyes. And Sho was also particularly friendly to the female staff in the office. Maybe, Nino had exaggerated a little, it was not full force flirting yet, but there had definitely been scenes between Sho and some random female employee where smiles had been exchanged, where Nino had rolled his eyes at some cheesy compliments that Sho made to some of the female secretaries on the elevator, or he had seen him going on lunch break with various young women from other departments. Not, that he had been jealous.

"That's – that's not the same! First of all, they are flirting with me", well, Nino had to admit, Sho had a point here. Since he was the big boss' son, it seemed like the girls in the office were especially interested in him and perhaps he was really just playing along. "And second, I'm only thinking about the business. My father always says, being nice and a little flirty helps to keep the female staff motivated."

Nino couldn't hold back a chuckle. "Your father would never say something like that. Being nice, yes, but flirty? Does not sound like him. With all due respect, where did you really get that from, some wannabe becoming-a-boss-seminar on the web?"

Sho blushed slightly. "Fine, it wasn't my father's saying. I read about it in a men's magazine."

"Besides my doubt that a men's magazine is a trustworthy source for becoming a good business man, and I'm sure you know that, it never occurred to you that this is – and I apologize for my choice of words – a dick-way of thinking about women?" Nino asked, raising an eyebrow, challenging his boss.

"Yes, what? Why? You know, true, but there's also some truth in it. Did you see how everyone tries to sweet-talk me here? Well, except of you, obviously," Sho said, rolling his eyes.

Well, he was right, even if Nino was trying to be polite, for some reason, when it came to Sho, sometimes he just couldn't hold his tongue, became cheekier than he even thought he'd be capable of. He could only guess that this was his supressed frustration and passive aggression towards his boss, the not so charming prince from his childhood dreams, and the difficulty to accept the discrepancy between his expectations of Sho and actual Sho.

"Sometimes it feels like they are treating me like a rock star or something," Nino's boss rambled on. "It's not my fault if they believe they could have a chance with someone like me. I mean, there's even a non-dating policy at work anyway, so they know it's nothing more than a little flirting."

"Still, you shouldn't play with other people's feelings, no matter if men or women," Nino murmured. Admittedly, he caught himself rather referring to Sho's drunken kissing attempt than Sho's pseudo flirting at work, but his boss didn't need to know that.

"Whatever... I don't want you to talk to him," Sho repeated once again while he was finally taking a seat behind his desk and Nino handed him his noted from their meeting with the Matsumoto Group's representative.

"Because of that non-dating policy?" Nino retorted. "I though it only affects people who are both part of this company."

"Because I don't want you to talk to him!" Sho said once more, this time even more forcefully than before.

"What a great reasoning this is." Crap, Nino immediately cursed himself for not being able to keep his mouth shut. He wasn't planning on fighting with his boss, really!

Sho rewarded him with a death glare. "Stop talking back now, Ninomiya-san. You're walking a thin line."

"Am I? I got a job offer," Nino murmured, and then, Sho almost exploded.

"You said, you don't want to –" he grumbled, his eyes not leaving Nino, while he stood up from his chair again, his hands pressing down onto his desk. His slow but meaningful movements had something intimidating to them.

"No. No, I don't!" Nino immediately exclaimed, lifting his hands in defence. "I'm sorry. I should work hard to keep my temper under control."

"Good."

"I'm sorry," Nino added.

Sho sat back down on his chair. "So, if he does anything strange to you, let me know."

Nino frowned. "What are you saying, it's not like he's molesting me or anything..."

"I just say, if he does anything strange to you, let me know, OK?" Sho looked at him, all serious.

"OK, got it."

"Good," Sho said again, before he cleared his throat. Was there more he wanted to say? "That reminds me, we haven't exchanged private phone numbers yet."

Nino's frown deepened. "Do we need to? You have my work number."

"Well, what if there's an emergency and I need to call you?" Sho just looked at him, his glare almost as deathly as the one before.

"I have my work phone on me all the time for emergencies as you know," Nino dared to say. "Although I would like to take the opportunity and dare to say that my boss being drunk is not really an emergency that I am supposed to take care off. Don't you have any friends for that?"

Sho didn't reply to and just glared at Nino, who wondered if he had hit a weak spot. Maybe, he had. Considering Sho's yearlong absence, the thought of him not really having friends here anymore, wasn't even that far off. It was exactly what happened between him and Nino too, after all and if it was on Nino, they had been best friends. Things with Jun obviously had not developed into a good direction, if even, their rivalry had just made a revival after Sho's absence. Maybe, things had not been so different with other people from Sho's childhood, either.

"I'm sorry," Nino added quickly. He wasn't sure if he had just hurt Sho, it had not been his intention. Apparently, though, Sho had decided not to give the topic any more attention, anyway.

"Just give me your phone number, OK?" Sarcastically, Sho added, "If you don't mind?"

"Of course, not," Nino replied and finally leaned down to scribble his private phone number onto a piece of paper. "I actually thought you had my number...," he dared adding in a low voice. At least, he had never changed his phone number since the day he got his first cell phone as a birthday present from his parents, more than a decade ago.

Sho just looked at him before he averted his eyes. "I must have lost it, then," he murmured while taking the paper from Nino after he finished and typing the number into his cell phone. "I'll send you a message so you know which number is my private one. I assume you also only have my work phone number."

At least, if Sho had changed numbers within the past years, because his first phone number. Nino still had saved in his contacts, even if the connection had been lost a long time ago. Shortly after, Nino's private phone vibrated, he pulled it out from his trousers' pocket and checked it. It was indeed a new number, carrying just a simple neutral message from Sho, announcing his contact information.

The secretary slightly cringed at the realization that just some years ago he would have been over the moon to receive a message from his old childhood friend, but now, it just felt awkward. He felt his heart ache a little at the regret over not having what they could have had, and also over not being able to build a new, meaningful connection with Sho. Nino was torn in between wanting to fix things and just Sho leaving him alone. Things had been honestly weird between them ever since Sho came back. Maybe, they just were not compatible anymore, now as grown-ups...

"Thank you," Nino simply said.

For a moment, he was a little confused over under which name he should save the number. It felt wrong to overwrite the contact he had always cherished as "Sho-chan", somehow, so in the end, Nino just went with a neutral "Sakurai Sho". It would do.

Sho didn't say anything anymore, stuffed his phone back into his pocket and tried to focus on the next task on the agenda.

+ + +

Of course, Sho made use of Nino's private cell phone numbers for his "emergencies" as he continued to call him, even if his calls usually only consisted of him ending up drunk at the izakaya Akatsuki and asking Nino to pick him up. Recently, it even looked like Nino's boss was not only going out for a drink on Friday evening, but also during the week at least once or twice. With his growing habit to call Nino in the late evening, he had also started to piss Nino off quite a bit, since he was either interrupting his gaming time with Aiba, or his meditations before going to sleep. At least, Sho had not tried again to kiss his secretary, but that was about the only positive thing about the current situation.

"It's my boss again...," Nino sighed as he looked at his ringing phone lying on the coffee table.

Aiba paused the game they were currently at. "Needs you to pick him up at the izakaya? This is becoming a habit..."

"I'm sorry, Aiba, I also really don't like this," Nino said, but at the same time he was already up, ready to grab his car keys and head off. "You can wait here, I'll just pick him up, drop him off at his house and be right back."

"OK," Aiba nodded. "Just let me know in case you're staying over there, so I'm not waiting for nothing."

"I don't plan on doing that," the other man said.

"I know but remember how worried you are about him when he's drunk?" his friend raised an eyebrow. "I just want to say, it's fine if you want to stay and take care of him."

Nino froze. Actually, it had already happened. Even if he had freaked out that night when Sho had kissed him and drove home back then, after that, it had happened again that Sho had been that far drunk, that Nino had not been able to leave his boss alone without feeling guilty. So, he even had spent a few nights on Sho's couch already, just to make sure the other wouldn't do anything stupid during the night.

"It's just... I think he's really acting strange when he's drunk," Nino started. "Like a completely different person..."

"Is he more like the "old" Sho-chan, then?" Aiba wanted to know.

Nino shook his head. "No, he's just... different. Desperate. I think he's definitely drinking too much, maybe he even has an alcohol problem. And on top of everything, he always ends up calling me to take care of the mess, why is he making me feel responsible for his actions?"

"Maybe he just wants to see you? Maybe he would like you to join him drinking, maybe he wants to talk, even if he can't say it?" Aiba shrugged.

"No way. He probably only enjoys annoying me. What would he want to talk about anyway?"

"I'm not sure but usually if people drink alone too often – and can't handle it – it's a sign that they need someone to talk to."

Nino just sighed again, deeply. It wasn't as if he hadn't thought about that. It wasn't even as if he hadn't tried to talk to Sho, asking him if he was alright, at least and seeing if he was willing to talk about what was troubling him – if there was anything – but Sho had not really jumped on that. Mostly, he had been way too drunk already to even pronounce one whole meaningful sentence. So yeah, so much to that.

+ + +

"Oh, it's you again, as expected," Nino was greeted by the barkeeper of the "Akatsuki" a few minutes later when he entered the izakaya.

He looked at the man, slightly confused. He had already been expected?

"Your friend is over there," the barkeeper pointed at the other end of the bar, where Nino immediately recognised Sho leaning over a glass that looked – and Nino hope to be – water.. "He's done for tonight."

"I wished he'd stop calling me to pick him up... You know, even if I live close, the thing is, he would probably call me even if I lived further away. As if that guy couldn't afford a taxi," the secretary had not planned to tell all this to the barkeeper of an izakaya, who just looked at him with his usual friendly face, but somehow, he was really frustrated.

"You shouldn't be so strict with him, perhaps," the man replied. "Actually, I think he's going through a hard time. He really didn't look well tonight so I told him to call someone he trusts, and here you are again. You must be an important person to him and a good friend, if you show up even though you seem to be annoyed by it."

Nino could feel his expression soften when hearing the barkeeper's words. He looked at Sho, a slight pang occurring in his heart. He swallowed.

Someone he trusts?

"I'm sorry," Nino said, brushing his hand over his face. "It's just... I'm a bit tired of it. And I had a guest over that I needed to leave behind because he called and...," Probably, this isn't about you, Nino. "Is he doing OK now? Did he cause any trouble?"

"He smashed some dishes, but it was an accident."

Nino took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry, we'll pay for it, of course. Did anyone get hurt?"

"Your friend there suffered from a small cut, but nothing too troublesome," the barkeeper replied, putting a reassuring hand on Nino's shoulder, who had turned a bit pale upon hearing that.

"Gosh, what is he doing..."

"I know it's not my place to say anything but... I think he has some unsolved issues," the other man dared to say. "I suggest a talk rather than alcohol consumption, even if I'm not complaining about good customers," the man raised his eyebrows and then nodded his head towards Sho again.

"I'm not sure if I'm the one he wants to talk to," Nino replied.

"It's you who he called, so maybe you are?"

Nino hesitated for a little longer but then, he finally pulled himself together. "I'm sorry, I don't want to bother you with this. I'm going to take care of him. If there's anything left to pay, could you please let me know? I'll take care of it afterwards."

"No problem. Take your time and let me know if you need anything."

Nino thanked the barkeeper and finally started approaching Sho. He was getting a little nervous with each step he came closer. He just couldn't help it. He had tried to let the man's presence not affect him, but in the end, Nino just couldn't completely get out of his old habit. He was happy to see Sho, he was excited to see Sho, and he enjoyed looking at this handsome man. He couldn't deny it. Even if he had to admit, that looking at him when he was drunk, was rather painful. He actually really wished, he could do something against that pain, but therefore, Sho would have to start talking to him. Maybe, tonight was the night for that, Nino thought. He took a deep breath, and stood right next to Sho, who either didn't notice the newcomer right away, or didn't dare to look at him.

"Hey," Nino simply said, not knowing how else he should probably start.

Finally, Sho moved. He turned his head and looked at Nino. He looked so tired, and his dark eyes, only lit slightly from the dim light behind the bar, looked so sad, that Nino had a hard time not to hug his old childhood friend right on the spot. Sho seemed to attempt a smile at him, but somehow, halfway, it failed, and he gave up. Nino tried to calm his quickening heartbeat with a few deep breaths, and then, he continued.

"Are you OK?" Nino asked, hoping his voice was loud enough for Sho to hear.

The man only hummed, not really giving a usable reply. Nino pulled another high chair closer and stepped up to sit down on it, facing his boss.

"You got hurt?" Nino asked, but Sho only lifted his left hand and showed off an already patched up finger. "Cute plaster," Nino added, smirking at the dolphin print on the small piece.

"Ohno-san gave it to me," his boss finally murmured. "Everything's fine. It didn't even bleed that much."

"Ohno-san?" Nino frowned.

Sho pointed at the barkeeper, who just waved a little at Nino and then got back to work. "This is his place."

"I see," Nino nodded. Then, after a short pause in which both of them said nothing at all, he continued. "Sakurai-san... tell me, why is it you always call me when you're drunk?"

Nino didn't know what he was expecting to hear from his boss, and barkeeper had already given him some background, but still Nino had to try and ask. And surprisingly, he even received a reply.

"You are the only one, I can call, Nino," Sho said, sighing, and Nino's heart jumped. "You're my only friend..."

"How - how did you call me just now?" Nino asked, insecurely.

His boss frowned at him. "By your name, Ninomiya-san."

"You called me Nino!" the secretary exclaimed. "And you called me your friend!"

It couldn't be, right? Sho couldn't remember that they actually were friends, he had already made clear that he couldn't remember anything, so why should he just now call them friends and call Nino by the nickname he had used in the past? It must be a coincidence, right?

"Must have slipped. Because it's shorter, perhaps?" Of course, Sho didn't remember, what was Nino even expecting? "Is this how your friends call you?"

"It is," Nino replied slowly, hesitating. "But... we're not... friends."

Suddenly, completely unexpected, Sho started to laugh. Nino drew back a little, honestly surprised.

"Of course, you'd say that," Sho said once he stopped laughing. "But ouch, that hurt my feelings..."

Nino chuckled, perplexed and then, everything inside him broke loose.

"Your feelings are hurt now?!" he asked, and even if he wanted to sound sturdy, he could feel his voice break. "You are the one who completely forgot about our friendship, didn't you? Your father told you that we've been friends, but you can't remember, haven't those been your words?! And ever since you came back... aren't you the one who is always kind of mean to me, don't you think that I should be the one with the hurt feelings?!"

"That's –"

"Let me finish talking, would you be so kind?!" Nino continued, cutting Sho's words. "I can't believe what you've just said, behaving as if we were friends all this time, I mean, we could talk about it, but I think we would have a lot of work to do if you want to rebuild what he had or if you just want to try being friends and you know what would really help with that? If just for once, you could actually say that you are sorry, like every normal human being!"

Nino breathed out heavily, once he was finished with his speech, and it took him only a few seconds to realise what he just had done. He looked at his boss, who stared at him, gaped at him, his mouth slightly open, his eyebrows furrowed, but not in anger, rather in confusion. Nino pulled in his lips between his teeth, and when his neck was just about to start itching, he raised his hand and pressed it against the fabric covering his most sensitive spot, hoping that the pressure would ease the itching. He tried to breathe normally through his nose, while at the same time he was trying to prepare himself for a lecture from his boss on how to treat his superior.

But the lecture never came.

Instead, Sho took a deep breath, sighed, took a sip of water from his glass and then looked back at Nino.

In a silent voice, he said, "I'm sorry."

Nino blinked at him, speechless for a moment.

"Sorry, what did you say?" the secretary finally whispered.

"I said, I'm sorry," Sho repeated. "I really am. Could you please take me home, now?"

+ + +


(2/2)