A/N: I don't own Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi, given I am not Nakamura-sensei. I hope you liked chapter one (I guess you must have liked it at least a little if you made it to chapter two) and please continue to enjoy Picture Perfect.
Chapter Two: Yuu Pays for Drinks
"Great work today everyone!"
"We're leaving now!"
"Thank for you work today!"
Exchanging the words they always said at the end of a day of drawing, Chiaki's five assistants left his apartment. They had drawn until their fingers were numb, but finally they were done with most, if not all, they had set out to accomplish that day.
As they were riding down in the apartment, Nijiro turned to the others.
"Let's all go out to dinner to welcome Yuu back," he suggested.
"Yeah!" Yumiko replied instantaneously, and Megumi and Aoki agreed, glad for an excuse to go out to eat. All three knew they were tired enough to not want to cook for themselves when they got home that night, and either didn't have a boyfriend (Megumi and Aoki), or, if they did, he wasn't one with culinary acumen (Yumiko).
"What's your favorite restaurant, Yuu?" Nijiro asked, ceding the right of restaurant choice to the one whose return they were meant to be celebrating. Yuu named his favorite, a simple izakaya, and Aoki, remembering it from previous post-manga drawing dinners, led the way.
Shizundaniwa Izakaya was a small cafe in Minato ward specializing in seafood and overflowing in sake, shochu, and beer of all varieties. Yuu had discovered it one night while wandering aimlessly down by the waterfront, and over time he had gone back on many occasions, introducing it to Chiaki, his fellow mangaka assistants, and other acquaintances; now it would be Nijiro's turn.
When they arrived, the restaurant was bustling; in fact, Yuu had never been there when it was anything less than full. Despite the crowd, however, they were able to sit down almost right away. Nijiro sat across the round table from Yuu, on his right sat Yumiko, on his left Aoki.
"Here are your menus," the waiter said, disappearing away to help some of the many other hungry and thirsty customers.
Nijiro, who seemed to be fiddling with something in his bag under the table, asked Yuu, without looking up at him, "What's good here?"
He must be looking to see how much money he has, Yuu thought, and he assumed his suspicion was confirmed when the boy winced. I guess he doesn't have much.
"The narutomaki and kanikama shoyu ramen's pretty good," he advised, picking an inexpensive dish he liked.
"True," Yumiko agreed–she had tried the dish on a previous visit, "it's pretty low calorie, too."
Yuu didn't think that would be particularly relevant for Nijiro, who was relatively skinny, but the man nodded thoughtfully at Yumiko's words, if only making a show of taking her seriously.
"Ah, and you have to get the Asahi Shochu they have here," Yuu told his new co-worker, insensitively adding, "I'll pay for it if you want."
Yumiko, misunderstanding his meaning (or perhaps covering for his insensitivity), happily called out, "Yuu's paying for drinks!"
Yuu opened his mouth to correct her, then realized he would sound stingy if he did and shut his mouth again. It wouldn't hurt that much to pay for drinks at his own welcome-back dinner.
"Thanks, Yuu-kun," Nijiro said honestly, then caught the light brown-haired man's eyes and gave him a combination wink-and-smirk to show him he knew Yumiko had trapped Yuu into paying for the group's alcohol. Somehow, it eased the burden of having to pay for what he knew would be numerous glasses of a variety of types of alcohol.
They ordered, and a few moments later the waiter brought their drinks. As a table, they had ordered a variety of the establishment's finest–in taste, that is, not cost.
"Kanpei!" they toasted, everyone but Megumi, who was a bit of a lightweight, draining shots of shochu. The parade of drinks suitably begun, Yuu magnanimously poured the sake he'd ordered and passed the miniature porcelain cups around the table.
"So, Yuu," said Nijiro, taking a satisfied sip of sake, "I bet you're wondering how I became one of Chiaki's assistants, since you were "on vacation" when I arrived."
Yuu was, of course, desperately curious about Nijiro's surprise arrival, but he had thought it too impolite to ask so directly. Here, fortunately, was a stroke of luck.
"Well," Nijiro explained, "I used to work primarily for Mutou-sensei, since I lived in Sapporo, but then I decided I wanted a change of scenery, so I came down here to Tokyo to work with Joshuya-sensei, you know, Joshuya Hidenobu, who was looking for an exclusive assistant. Well, I got the job and everything seemed to be working out fine, but if you follow the news at all you no doubt know how that turned out, so I ended out of work. I was looking around for a new job, and Yukina (that is, Mutou-sensei) was kind enough put me in touch with her editor Onodera-kun, suggesting he might have an idea of some mangakas who were looking for assistants, and I guess Onodera knew Hatori was at his wit's end because of Yoshino-sensei (I guess because of you, Yuu), so he pointed me in that direction. I decided I might as well meet Yoshino-sensei, and, well, you know what that guy is like, so of course when he offered me the job, I took it in a heartbeat."
"Wait, you used to work for Joshuya Hidenobu?" asked Megumi, her eyes widening in surprise. "Isn't he the horror mangaka who someone reported for using heroin and he ended up having, like, every illegal drug the attending paramedic had ever heard of?"
Nijiro made a face that was simultaneously disgusted and exhausted.
"Yeah," he replied, "I was the "someone" who reported him, actually. I accidentally showed up early one day and there he was, just about to shoot up. In hindsight, it's hard to believe I didn't realize sooner, but then again, who suspects their artist is a massive drug user?"
"Wow," Yumiko commented.
"Yeah," Nijiro agreed, "I mean, it's not that shocking–pretty standard, actually–that someone who's decided to make their living drawing horror manga would have at least a little something wrong with them. You have to be like that to get the ideas and images for horror. But I mean, like I said, who suspects their artist of that?"
Taking a long sip of his sake, Yuu casually wondered how many of Chiaki's readers would suspect he was a gay man. He knew how careful the mangaka was to keep his true gender a secret, no doubt he'd be terrified of the possibility of the fact that he was homosexual getting out if anyone ever did discover "Yoshikawa Chiharu" was a man. Of course, being gay was completely different from being a drug addict, but still. He suspected authors kept more secrets than the average person, and he knew well enough the average person usually kept more secrets than those around them thought.
Yumiko started telling the story of how a couple at her high school had committed suicide by drug overdosed during her senior year. Apparently they had started taking prescription anti-anxiety drugs because of how on edge they were about university entrance exams and had ended up getting addicted. They upped their doses as they became tolerant to the drugs, she said, and eventually felt like nothing could help their anxiety and just took the whole bottle together. Megumi made a sickened face when Yumiko added that they had hidden in the school library until after in closed and committed suicide there, and that their bodies hadn't been discovered until after the weekend, eyes sightlessly wide and bodies paralyzed by rigor mortis.
"Better change the subject before the food gets here," Nijiro commented mildly, seeing Megumi's vaguely nauseous expression.
"Let's talk about Chi-sensei," Aoki said deviously, using the nickname she'd invented to use behind their author's back. A wicked smile had crept onto her face; she wore an expression Yuu recognized as her gossip face. "I bet he has loads of secrets." She turned to Yumiko, adding, "Remember when we thought he might be in a love conflict?"
Nijiro's eyes widened, and he leaned forward, eager to hear more. "A love conflict?"
Yuu, who knew the real story and had actually been a participant in it, was not that interested to hear Aoki tell her version of events, but she steamrolled through any possibility she might not continue talking.
"Yeah, so one day at work Chi-sensei was acting really distracted, and he told us he was thinking about the plot for a new manga. Something about A liking C and B liking A, and B and C having this "really improbably friendship" or whatever. But it was pretty clear that he wasn't talking about a plot but real life, especially because of how insistent he became that it was a plot when I pushed him about it. You know no one gets really indignant like that if it really is a plot."
"Right?" Yumiko agreed, her body position and interest level mirroring Nijiro's despite the fact that she'd heard the story several times before.
"So who were the other two people in the love conflict?" Nijiro asked, lapping up the story like a cat would a bowl of milk.
"Oh, I have no idea," Aoki finished, obviously uninterested in that aspect of the tale. Nijiro's face fell, he was clearly much more interested in that particular detail than Aoki was.
At that very moment the waiter returned to the table and served them their dishes. Nijiro had, per recommendation, ordered the narutomaki and kanikama shoyu ramen, as had Yumiko. Aoki, ever hungry, had chosen katsudon, Megumi, ever dieting, had chosen tofu dengaku, and Yuu himself had ordered mackerel ramen. The moment the waiter placed the bowls in front of them, everyone (except Megumi) started wolfing down their food.
"Wow, I had no idea how hungry I was!" Yumiko exclaimed in between mouthfuls of ramen.
"You can say that again!" Aoki agreed, inhaling her rice.
"Kae-dama!" Nijiro shouted, pointing to his bowl. Aside from the onigiri, the assistants had hardly eaten all day, so it was logical they would be starving.
As the waiter rushed to bring the second helping of noodles, Megumi munched daintily on her tofu, a stark contrast to the rest of the group.
"Don't you worry you'll choke?" she asked the rest of the assistants.
Yuu open a beer and started drinking as he waited for his noodles. Across the table, Nijiro did the same.
"Not really," the new assistant said. "My gag reflex is pretty much nonexistent."
Yuu coughed, he'd accidentally inhaled a little of his beer at Nijiro's words.
"You okay?" the man asked, looking over at him.
"Yeah, a little went down the wrong way," Yuu explained. When the waiter brought the seconds for the two men (Yumiko had been satisfied with one helping), they ate more sedately, their insatiable hunger moderated. As they ate, Yumiko and Aoki sipped their sake, waiting for Megumi to finish. Finally, the curly-haired girl did, delicately wiping her mouth with a napkin.
"You don't mind if we head out, right, Yuu?" Yumiko asked, taking some money out of her purse and dropping it on the table. "It was already late when we got here, and I need my beauty sleep."
Taking a long drink of beer, Yuu shook his head. It was already almost one in the morning; after all, and they were all tired from their work that day.
"Great!" She, Aoki, and Megumi got up, the latter two adding their contributions to the pile of money at the center of the table. Before leaving, Yumiko turned to Nijiro and said, "Don't forget to take your medicine, Haru-san."
"Yeah, yeah," Nijiro replied obediently. The girls said their goodbyes and thanks and left, chatting busily as they did so. The two men, left behind, sat together in silence, Yuu drinking his sake and Nijiro the broth to his ramen. Their energy, it seemed, had left the shop with the girls.
"You ready to go?" Yuu asked when Nijiro had finished his next beer–that was it for the food and drinks they had ordered. Nijiro made a sound of assent and Yuu got up to pay the bill, taking all the money that had been left behind, plus a contribution from Nijiro. When he returned, Nijiro was fumbling around with something in his bag, but when he saw Yuu, he stopped and got up, following the magenta-eyed man out of Shizundaniwa Izakaya.
"Well, that was fun," Nijiro said as they sat on the train together. "Thanks for the recommendation, by the way."
"Yeah," Yuu replied. He looked over at Nijiro and noticed the man swaying slightly with the movement of the train. "You okay, rainbow boy?"
Instead of an answer, Nijiro slumped and slowly slid his head down to rest on Yuu's shoulder, fast asleep.