Disclaimer: I do not own Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi or any of it's characters.
Enjoy!
Onodera Ritsu hated the monthly sales reports.
More specifically, he started hating them when he noticed a particular trend over the past few months. The manga he worked on had reached their sales peak. The numbers sold were almost always the same, sometimes more, sometimes less. It aggravated him to no end. Takano's and Hatori's sales records had kept growing bigger and bigger as the year reached its end, and that left him even more disappointed with his own work.
His manga weren't doing badly by any means, but he had realized that it was probably because at this point it was the same people buying new issues as the months went on. It wasn't a good sign, and the pitch he had made the last month to boost sales had been rejected by Takano. The specific words the man had used were, "You haven't thought this through well enough, redo it and show me." Ritsu had run out of ideas and never gotten back to Takano on the topic. The editor-in-chief never asked about it either, so Ritsu had felt as if the fault lay in his own ideas and never bothered reworking them.
Which was why he was still sitting in the office after everyone had left, scowling at the sales records for the month of November and trying to fathom how he could possibly break out of his slump.
"Onodera!"
Ritsu startled as he turned around, the scowl still firmly plastered on his face.
Takano was staring blankly at him, his coat was on and it looked as if he was ready to leave, "Aren't you going home?"
"Huh?" A quick look at his watch confirmed that it was nearing 8 PM. Ritsu could feel something screaming inside him, he had just spent the whole day doing nothing productive and feeling miserable, "I'll… leave a bit later. I still have some work to do." He wasn't exactly being untruthful, he did have a draft to go through that day. It was something that had completely slipped his mind the moment he opened that formidable document in the morning. It had become a routine, he would go to work, open the Sales Records, stare at it miserably while coming up with ideas on how to improve his statistics, but at the end, he could find no motivation to get anything done so he would move through the day in a daze. After lunch break, he would open the document again and finally, when he felt he could do no more work that day, he would open the document for the last time and stare at it blankly.
Takano was looking concerned, and that annoyed Ritsu, "I'll be getting back to work now." With that, he started to turn back towards the screen when an index finger poked his forehead.
"Takano-san, what are you doing?" His scowl deepened as he felt the finger move his head back and forth. He was not a Bobblehead Toy, what was Takano doing?
"Do you ever stop scowling?" The man asked, slowly breaking into a smile.
"Stop that!" Ritsu grabbed on to the finger to move it out of his way, "And I'm not scowling."
"Tch." He heard Takano snort and he stood up in his chair. He turned around, and stood up as straight as he could. He just about reached Takano's nose at his full height, and that aggravated him even more. Even his genes had let him down.
"Takano-san, this is what I look like. I am not scowling and I really have work to do, so if you'll excuse me." Ritsu stared in surprise as he felt the finger slip out from his grasp and Takano's face moved to within inches of his, "I think you're overworking yourself."
Ritsu could feel the man's breath on his face and his knees began to tremble slightly, "What are you doing?"
Without answering the question, Takano brought his hands to Ritsu's face, and while slowly caressing him, landed a soft kiss on the man's lips. Ritsu fumbled for a moment before grasping what was happening and started to push the man away, "Takano-san! Not here!" He could feel his cheeks burning as the Takano stepped closer to him, moved his head to one side and slowly whispered in Ritsu's ear, "I'll see you tomorrow."
It wasn't until Takano had left and he was sitting alone in the dark office that Ritsu realized his heart was beating at an unnaturally fast pace. If work didn't kill him first, Takano-induced heart attack was a close second on his list.
The next morning, Onodera Ritsu found it really difficult to get out of his bed. Every time he opened his eyes, images of the Forbidden Document floated before his eyes. And it didn't help that he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the night before either. Between nightmares of how he could never be a successful editor at Marukawa, and waking dreams of the same, he was beginning to find it very difficult to function at all.
His mood dampened further once he realized that he would have to travel to work with Takano that morning. He had been trying very hard to avoid the man for the whole month, but as luck would have it, Takano had been waiting outside his apartment that day.
"Onodera." Ritsu noted that he sounded a bit worried and released a slow grunt in response, "Are you eating well?"
Everything was getting on Ritsu's nerves, especially Takano and Hatori, "Yes." He stared at the man, waiting defiantly for a response.
Takano just sighed, "Lately you've had that look on your face all the time. If something is bothering you, you could tell me." He moved his hands to ruffle Ritsu's hair.
The younger man did not object, he didn't feel like doing anything, "I'm fine." He murmured before walking towards the elevator. He could hear Takano's footsteps coming from behind him, and glanced back one time before moving even more quickly forward.
"Richchan, here's your coffee!" Kisa chirped as he plonked down on his seat, the movement making the chair swivel slightly as it bumped against the chair Ritsu was sitting on. Ritsu slowly turned his head, stared at the man before taking the coffee and went back to looking at the document.
"Ooh, Richchan looks scary!" Kisa teased as he moved in to look at what Ritsu was doing, "Looking at that again? It looks like you're doing well." He laughed pleasantly before he realized Ritsu was staring at him.
"Thank you." The man replied before taking a sip of his coffee and going back to staring at his laptop screen.
Kisa opened his mouth to say something, but he felt something light crash on his head and he quickly turned his attention to the source of his pain, "Takano-san! No fair."
"If you have time to chat amongst yourselves, I can assume you have finished everything you have to today." Takano replied with a straight face. The dark circles under his eyes were even more pronounced, and that made him look even more threatening than he intended.
"Aha…haha…" Kisa nervously went back to work, damn the year end deadlines. It felt like a marathon where the loser would be sentenced to death. He looked at Ritsu one last time, and noticed that he hadn't started working on the draft that had been lying on his desk for the past two days, "Richchan, are you okay?"
"Thank you." Ritsu replied absentmindedly.
Kisa was not sure what was going on, but he decided that he would talk to Ritsu later. If he needed any help, then as his workplace senior, Kisa wanted to be there to lend any assistance he could; after he finished his own work of course.
The morning had passed by and Ritsu had no results to show for what he had done that day. He nervously paced around the room; everyone else seemed to be working frantically. There was paper strewn all over the world, Kisa's desk was full of cups of finished coffee and Hatori had just run out of the office muttering something about. "This time I will make that draft arrive in time."
Mino was sitting calmly at his desk, his hands working on something at a furious pace, and Takano was pacing all across the office answering one phone call after another. Phone calls? Ritsu felt something sink in his heart as he reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone. The deadline was coming up, and he was supposed to have called the printers to buy them more time. He hadn't even asked after anyone's drafts, he wasn't sure how he could since he was barely finished with any of his work himself.
One of the authors he worked with hadn't been in touch with him at all, he wasn't sure how he was going to do anything. How did he let everything get this bad? He took one last look at the Sales Record for November before shakily reaching for the work he had left untouched. Would he be able to finish on time?
"Onodera! Can you hear me?" He started as he felt a hand tap him lightly on the head. Bewildered, he turned around to find an annoyed Takano looking at him, "I was asking where we were with the printers?" And of course he had to bring that up just as this moment.
"I'll… I'll call them now." Ritsu fumbled to grab his phone.
At the same time, Takano reached down to grab the untouched draft from his desk, "Why haven't you finished this?"
Ritsu could find nothing to say, "I'll get it done now." He spoke softly.
"What have you been doing these past few days? Do you even take your work seriously?" Takano spoke louder than necessary and a dull silence fell over the room. Takano quickly looked at the room's other occupants as they scrambled to get back to work.
Ritsu could feel his cheeks turning red as he turned to retrieve the draft from Takano, "I'll do it right now." He tugged lightly on the bunch of paper.
"That still doesn't answer why this is unfinished. And I still haven't seen your work on the Sales Pitch." Takano was speaking more softly now, but his voice could still be heard all across the office.
"I'll do that too." Ritsu said as he snatched the document back from Takano, placed it on his desk, hunched down and covered the shakily reached for a red pen.
"The deadlines are coming in two weeks."
Ritsu was sure he was still being reprimanded, but Takano continued, "I'll buy us some more time if I have to, everyone get back to work." And with that, Takano started pacing around the room with his phone again.
Ritsu felt absolutely miserable. He looked at the draft, and for some reason, looking at work made him sick to his stomach. He simply hated the thought of working on manga. Why couldn't he be better at his job?
During lunchbreak, Ritsu poked at his bento, not eating a bite. He was busy thinking about how to get done with the mountain he had accumulated, but each time he tried to cheer himself up, he kept reminding himself that he was a subpar editor and probably not meant to work in the manga editing department. It made him loose his appetite, and even though he could feel that his stomach was empty, he simply didn't feel like eating.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Ritsu looked up in front of him as Takano sat down on the chair opposite his in the cafeteria.
"I…" Ritsu poked at his food even more furiously.
"You look like you're trying to murder your food." Takano had placed his head on one hand and casually lifted his chopsticks with the other.
"I…" Ritsu could think of nothing to say
"Are you sure you're feeling well?" Takano had gone right back to looking concerned
"I'm just not sure how I can…" Takano waited for Ritsu to finish, but the man was simply poking at his food, a dazed look in his eyes.
"… finish your job?" Takano helpfully supplied. Ritsu looked up at him in surprise and he continued, "If there's something you don't understand, you could always ask me."
"I just… I'm not sure I'm good enough to do this." Takano seemed a bit surprised by this. It wasn't like Ritsu to say something like that, the Ritsu he knew would just say something snarky about how he could manage his workload just fine and storm off.
"Onodera…" Takano started, "If there's something bothering you…" He had to stop himself from reaching out to touch Ritsu. The man looked so miserable that he felt he had to do something, "I think you can do your job just fine."
Ritsu looked shocked, "You managed to learn the ropes around here pretty fast, and your works keep selling well."
"Not well enough," Ritsu muttered under his breath, but Takano caught that.
"Ha?! You just keep doing what you're doing. The number of copies being sold is the priority of the Sales Department."
"Yes, well… I can't deny that there's at least something I can do to help the author. The manga you and Hatori-san work on always seem to sell really well!"
"Is that why you've been wearing a scowl everywhere you go?" Takano looked a bit annoyed, "Look here. We're more experienced than you and work on manga that are completely different from yours. You should be focusing on your own work and not moping around while comparing yourself to other people."
Moping around? Ritsu had been moping around. He felt a surge of rage build up inside him. Well sure, technically he had been moping around and that was wrong of him, but did Takano really think that him being insecure about his job performance had no bearing on his life?
"I appreciate your advice Takano-san, but this really has nothing to do with you or Hatori-san having more experience than me. I simply feel inadequate, that's all." He almost bit his tongue when he finished that sentence, he had not meant to let that last part slip out.
"You know Onodera, maybe it's the moping around that is making you feel inadequate. You should just focus on doing what you can do." Takano had gone back to lecturing him on things he had no interest in hearing.
"It's because I am doing what I have been from the start that I am 'moping around'." He finished. He could feel that his heart was beating fast, and his face felt red hot. Takano was staring at him in surprise, his mouth hanging half open and his chopsticks suspended in midair, "Onodera…"
"Thank you for your advice. I really appreciate it, I will do what you said right now and go back to work." Ritsu moved as fast as he could, dropping his unfinished bento in the trash bin and practically running out of the cafeteria. He could hear people whispering as he left. He had never felt so embarrassed in his life.
For the rest of the day, Takano had been hovering around him like a mother looking after a sick child. Ritsu had no clue how that man always managed to finish his workload that fast, but he was happy Takano had decided to take an active interest in Ritsu's work. At this point, he really did feel as if he could take all the help he got.
Takano had given priority to checking through the draft Ritsu had finally finished and the copy was immediately faxed back to the author. Now all he had to do was call her up and tell her what things he thought she should work through.
Takano had even taken on the responsibility of collecting all the manuscripts and handing them to the Printers himself for that month. Ritsu wasn't sure if he was happy with that, it made him feel as if his boss was carrying the burden of him not being able to finish his own work on time, but Takano had been adamant and sent Ritsu right back to checking drafts, calling authors and working on the Sales Pitch which Takano now demanded that Ritsu hand in by the end of the day.
Ritsu felt absolutely miserable, but he also felt that at this rate, he might be able to finish the work he had been neglecting. Under the editor-in-chief's guard, work proceeded at a surprising pace in the office. Ritsu had always wondered whether people were lazy just because he was a bit new in the role, and now he felt as if he was right. He felt fired up, from the next month onward he would be twice the demon Takano was. Work would get done twice as fast, and there would be no last minute meltdowns before the deadlines.
He was moving as fast as he could, the cup of coffee Kisa had brought him lay untouched on his desk, he had no time to even breathe. By the time he felt as if he was done with his work, the office was empty. Takano was on his chair, one of his legs lay on the table and his head rested on his shoulders at a very uncomfortable angle. It made Ritsu cringe at the thought of the kind of cramps that would give him.
Ritsu finally stood up from his chair and stretched, he was beginning to feel a little more relaxed. Doing what he could was not bad advice at all, and he felt more accomplished today than he had in a while. He looked in Takano's direction and a small smile made its way to his lips. The man was very reliable. He quietly tiptoed over to where the man was, moving on instinct. He didn't want to wake Takano up, but for some unfathomable reason he felt like removing the man's glasses. It rested on Takano's nose, looking dangerously close to falling off. The left ring of the glasses was pointing to the air, and the right part was crushed between his ears and shoulders. On second thought, not removing it might be easier.
It was then that Ritsu remembered that he had had no contact from an author he had been waiting to hear back from for days. He felt a small, desperate scream escape his lips as he lunged for the phone on Takano's table. The man woke up, startled and looked around the room to check if everything was alright. Takano groaned and sat up, silently massaging his neck. Ritsu felt a small cheer well up inside him, he had known that that would happen.
But he quickly pushed aside his little moment of joy and started dialing the author's number frantically. He had been in touch with her so many times over the last two months that he knew it by memory now. Ritsu wasn't sure what had happened to her, but she had almost defaulted the last month. Had she even sent in a first draft copy? Ritsu hadn't seen it at all. Damn it! He just prayed that he had missed something, and that she was waiting to hear back from him.
He noticed Takano looking at him with a confused look in his eyes, and he sent back what he hoped was a reassuring look. But he could feel his own heart beat rising.
"Ah, hello? This is Onodera from Marukawa Publishing."
"Hello." The voice on the other end was soft, "I'll send the draft by the end of the week."
"What?" Ritsu heard the phone go dead as he muffled one last, "Wait!"
What was happening?
"Onodera?" Takano was leaning in to look at the number
"Uh… everything's okay. I just need to call her back. There was something wrong with the call." He laughed awkwardly.
Takano still looked puzzled, but pointed to the phone. Takano wanted him to make the phone call from there? Ritsu wanted to do it from the comfort of his desk, far away from Takano's eyes. There was no time to work through the different drafts of the manga, and judging by the way she had acted, Ritsu felt almost certain that it wasn't his mistake, but that she hadn't sent in even one copy yet.
Without a word Ritsu pressed the redial button and waited for the person on the other end to pick up.
"Hello, this is Onodera from…"
"I can't write this." The voice sounded strained
"What? Why?" Ritsu felt confused.
"I… I don't know how to write this. I… is it possible to default?"
"Default?" Ritsu noticed that Takano had stood up after hearing this, "At this stage it might be a little hard to do that. Could you tell me what happened?" He tried to sound as calm as he could, and he hoped that he sounded reassuring.
He felt Takano tug at the phone, the man wanted to talk to the author, but Ritsu moved out of reach, "I don't know if I can write romance anymore."
"Why? You're doing well. Your work sells really well." The words came freely from Ritsu's mouth, and he felt a sense of déjà vu.
Takano was now leaning over the table, trying to reach Ritsu and looking really annoyed. Ritsu placed one leg on Takano's table and using that to balance himself, used his free hand to try and push Takano back. He could take care of this, he didn't need Takano's help.
"They do?" The voice perked up slightly, "But then… I can't. Not anymore."
"Hah?" Takano was trying to push Ritsu out of the way, and the younger man felt himself losing his balance, "They do, your fans love reading your work. I love reading your work. Please reco-"
The author heard a loud crash come from the other end of the like, "Onodera-san?"
There were muffled groans coming from the other end before Ritsu's voice came back,
"Ugh… I'm sorry. There was a small accident here."
"Are you alright?" The voice enquired.
"Yes. It was simply the weight of my past sins falling with full force on top of me."
The author felt confused, and she was sure that she could near a man snorting on the other end, "Onodera-san?"
"Would it be inconvenient if I came over right now?"
"Now? No… that might be helpful."
"I'll see you soon then." And with that, Ritsu ended the call.
Takano was still lying sprawled over Ritsu, "Ah, Takano-san, could you get off from me now?"
"Weight of your past sins?" The man looked amused and Ritsu was almost convinced that he was making himself heavier to make Ritsu suffer.
"I… well, it's my fault the draft isn't done yet. I should have checked on her before." Takano was looking at him intently and Ritsu quickly turned his head, "I wasn't talking about …this."
"This? What do you mean?" Ritsu squirmed as he felt Takano's hand rest on his hips.
"Not… here. Takano-san!" Ritsu tried to move the hand away, it would not do to get caught at work. He tried to turn to the side, but the man was too heavy.
"You've been avoiding me, haven't you?" Takano grabbed one of Ritsu's hands to stop him from squirming. Ritsu looked at the man again, he was looking hurt.
Quick footsteps coming towards the direction of their office alerted both men and Takano released Ritsu from his grip. Ritsu was breathing heavily and looking at Takano.
"Ri-ricchan?" Kisa had entered the office and was staring at the pile of two men lying between the office desks. Takano's desk looked like it had been moved and the man's chair lay on the floor. Had he interrupted a fight?
"Kisa-san!" Ritsu sat up and roughly pushed Takano away, "This is an accident. He fell over his table and…"
"Uh… are you two alright?" Kisa laughed uncomfortably. It looked like today wasn't a good day to offer Ritsu his help, "I'll uh… I'll see you guys tomorrow. I left something here and came back for it." Kisa quickly moved towards his desk and grabbed a random piece of paper and scurried out. He had definitely interrupted something.
"Takano-san!" Ritsu turned to glare at Takano, "This is why I said not at work."
Takano didn't reply, he turned around and started gathering the things that had fallen off his desk, "Takano-san?"
Ritsu felt uncomfortable with the gaze that man had given him, he looked hurt. But whatever his reasons, Ritsu was of the opinion that there were some things that should just not be attempted at work. He didn't want people to know about parts of his life he himself hadn't settled yet. Work and private matters are best kept separate.
"I'm going to go now." Ritsu continued.
"I'm coming with you." Takano replied. He was now gathering his coat.
"Huh? I can handle this."
"This is work Onodera. And I am coming with you to find out what is happening." Ritsu sighed. He couldn't argue with the man, and bringing the editor-in-chief in tow might help convince the author.
After cleaning their desks and grabbing their coats, the two men made their way to the elevator. Ritsu hoped that things would come to a good resolution. He did not want her to default.
AN: Slowly uploading a completed fic here. It's a bit on the longer side, so I had to break it down into chapters. Well, I basically got a prompt that ended up in a story that focused on Ritsu's professional life a lot. I've never really written something like this before, so I hope it turned out okay.
Anyway, hope you had fun reading. Please let me know what you think! :)