Too Late
Mutou had taken one month off to do promotional work for her manga. This included going to Tokyo and doing signings in a few shops, accompanied by the always-nervous Ritsu. By the third signing in two days, he was so twitchy that Mutou actually called Marukawa to ask if someone else could come and pick him up. She didn't need him, after all; there were members from Marukawa's promotions department guiding her around.
"I'm fine, Mutou-sensei," Ritsu said when she hung up the phone.
Mutou just smiled. "I know, Onodera-san. But I'm sure you have a lot of work to do even without me dragging my feet on my pages this month! We can go out to dinner or something and I'll tell you all about today."
About twenty minutes later, Mutou was signing a manga for a woman when she looked past the line and saw Emerald's head editor, Takano Masamune. She was surprised that he was there, until she realized that he was there to pick up Onodera. Who was currently on the opposite end of the store and had been ever since he realized that Usami Akihiko had a new book out.
"Takano-san!" Mutou called, and every single woman in that line turned to look at him. "Onodera-san is over in the new releases section. I'm not sure you'll be able to pry him from there." Then she saw the girl whose manga she'd just signed was staring, wide-eyed, and Mutou smiled. "Ah, this is Emerald's head editor, Takano Masamune."
The girls squealed in delight, but Takano made it out before they could storm him. As much as he enjoyed shojo manga, the adoration of thousands of teenage girls was not part of that. He gave them a winning smile before ducking into the BL section and creeping out under their radar.
Just as Mutou had said, Ritsu was standing before a rack of newly-released books, reading a copy of Usami Akihiko's newest and smiling. Takano remembered that smile, mostly because it was the exact one he'd had when they were in high school and he was reading a good book. Takano was tempted to just stand there and watch him, but he was on a schedule.
"Onodera!"
Ritsu jumped in surprise and dropped the book, the front cover flopping out of its dust jacket. When he saw Takano was there, he glared before leaning down to pick it up. "Takano-san, what are you doing here?"
"Mutou-sensei wanted someone to come pick you up," Takano said, indifferent. "If you're just in the way here, you may as well come back to the office."
Ritsu stared down at his book and was about to say something, but he was cut-off.
"I knew it was you!"
Ritsu looked up, and Takano turned around to see one of the women who had been in the line for Mutou's signing. Ritsu was puzzled, not recognizing her, but Takano sighed and subconsciously moved closer to Ritsu.
"I didn't recognize you, because you changed your name and you look a little different, but you're Saga, aren't you?" The woman smiled, clutching the signed manga to her chest.
"Do you know her, Takano-san?" Ritsu asked, his bite suddenly lost under this woman's gaze.
"…she was in my homeroom in high school," Takano said.
"Ah, and I confessed to him, too," the woman said, looking wistful. "But he rejected me, the heartbreaker." Then she glanced at Ritsu. "And this is?"
Ritsu was lightly blushing, but he had the sense to bow. "Onodera Ritsu! I'm Mutou-sensei's editor."
"Well you're doing a good job! I do love Mutou Yukina's works." Then she glanced at Takano. "It was good to see you again! Maybe we can go out sometime."
Takano looked like he was dying to reject her, but she pressed a card into his hand and left before he could form the words. Ritsu couldn't suppress a laugh as he took the card from Takano's hand and held it up in the air, looking at it.
"You handled that well," he said. And then his eyes softened. "She confessed to you?"
"Right after you did." Takano smiled and patted Ritsu on the head. "Come on, Onodera, you still have work to do."
Ritsu huffed and headed for the register so he could pay for his book. He wanted at least some control over his day.