Miyuki glares down at Eijun. "You're gonna behave today. That means not running off. Or else I'm never bringing you out here again," Miyuki says sternly to the dog.
Eijun makes a small whining sound before looking away. Ignored.
Miyuki huffs, turning before pulling on Eijun's leash. He's going to try taking Eijun on a walk i one more time/i. If this doesn't work he doesn't know what he will do. Maybe he'll pay that Chris kid to walk Eijun in the morning, he seems responsible.
Eijun for his part at least doesn't try to run away this time. He does stop to sniff or stare at every little thing though. But that's progress in Miyuki's eyes, at least.
It's all working out… until they pass by another dog. Then all hell breaks loose.
"Ruff! Ruff!"
It seems out of nowhere another dog has come out. And of course Eijun wants to go running after it. Luckily today Miyuki has the leash on well enough so Eijun can't run away, but this just means Miyuki is being pulled after the dog. He really can't win, can he?
"Eijun stop!" Miyuki grits out as he tries to pull Eijun back down the path they were previously walking down. He has no such luck though.
"Oh, still having trouble with your dog there?" Miyuki hears someone ask from behind him.
Miyuki turns around to see the one person he hoped to never see again. No wait, he did want to see the man again. Just… not under these circumstances.
'It's weird,' Miyuki thinks as the man walks up to him. He didn't realize how short the man was before. Short, but still the man has well-defined muscles. And oh… are those piercings in his ear? Miyuki definitely didn't notice that the last time he saw the man. But it certainly makes the man look hotter.
"What's it look like?" Miyuki asks. And there goes trying to give the man a good impression of him.
"It looks like your dog just got away from you," the man says, followed by a laugh.
Miyuki looks back down at Eijun and, shit.
It seems like Eijun was able to slip his collar off and is now running across the fields after the dog he saw earlier.
"Shit," Miyuki curses after he tries to take after the dog.
He quickly realizes that he's not going to be able to catch him.
Thankfully, or maybe not so thankfully, he doesn't want to seem completely hopeless to this guy after all, the man is able to catch Eijun again. Although it does seem that Eijun put up a bit of a fight.
But at least it doesn't look like the dog injured the man.
"You really must not be good at this whole dog thing, huh?" he says as he brings Eijun back to Miyuki.
"What do you mean? I'm a master at this," MIyuki says jokingly.
"Says the guy whose dog escaped from him twice in less than a week," the man chuckles.
Miyuki looks away from him as he tries to hide the blush creeping up his face. Thankfully it seems the man did notice (or at least he doesn't say anything).
Before the man hands Eijun over to Miyuki however, he holds out his hand to Miyuki. "Kuramochi," he says.
At Miyuki's raised eyebrow, he repeats himself. "My name is Kuramochi Youichi."
"Oh," Miyuki says as he takes the man's hand to shake it. "Miyuki Kazuya," he introduces himself.
Xx ️xXx ️xXx ️xX
Miyuki pauses before he rounds the corner to the school building when he sees Haruno walking inside.
i Shit. /i
He went and saw her brother's house… no boat… last Friday afternoon, and told her he would give her an answer on whether or not he wants to take their offer today.
The only reason Miyuki didn't give the woman an answer on Friday was because he didn't know exactly how to … politely decline the offer of moving into the very odd houseboat.
It's not that the houseboat wasn't nice, because it was very nice once you went inside. It had a recently redone bathroom, and really modern kitchen appliances. It even had a dishwasher. His current place doesn't even have that. And the rent wouldn't be that expensive either, less than half of what he's currently paying. It's just that… it's a freaking houseboat!
And the outside of the houseboat… honestly looked like it had been abandoned on the side of the river for the last half-century.
Miyuki is pretty sure the boat was at one point a sailboat. But it had no sail whatsoever. It barely had a mast. If Miyuki really tried, he doubts he would even be able to row or punt it out of where it current;y is on the bank of the river.
There's also barely anytype of gangway to the boat from the land. How would he get his stuff onto the boat?
In a perfect world, Miyuki would have never gotten injured at the end of his college baseball career… he would be playing on a professional team today… he'd probably own his own house.
But this was not a perfect world. Now he's an elementary school teacher in some no name neighborhood on the outskirts of Tokyo, and he's being evicted from his shitty apartment because of the stupid dog he was forced to inherit.
He really needs a break.
That being said, maybe it's about time Miyuki doesn't pass up an opportunity, however small and questionable, to improve his life, if only slightly. It's not like he's been completely putting his housing situation on the backburner. He looked up a couple places online, and like you would expect, no one wants to rent out to a dog owner.
He honestly wonders how so many people in this area have dogs. Maybe they're just well trained enough not to be caught by nosy landlords.
At least that's the thing about the houseboat, Eijun would be able to live there.
Wait a minute… since when is he thinking about Eijun's living situation? He's still trying to figure out how to get rid of the dog without pissing his family off. Apparently getting evicted from his apartment wasn't a good enough reason for them.
Miyuki really needs to make a decision on this. But he guesses he can wait to give an answer until the end of the day today. He only needs to avoid Haruno until then.
That is, of course, easier said than done.
"Ah Miyuki-san," He hears the woman call out to him just as he is about to enter the classroom. Well, there went trying to avoid her.
"Ah, Haruno, good morning," Miyuki greets her while trying to hide how much he didn't want to see her right now.
"So Miyuki-san," Haruno starts as she leans into his shoulder. "My brother said he has some offers for people wanting to rent his place," Wait, people actually want to live there? "But he said since you were the first person to look at it, he'd give you until Monday to decide. I can try to push him off until lunchtime, but he really wants an answer as soon as possible."
Miyuki gulps. He really just wants to turn around and go back into the classroom, just tell her no. But he really can't do that. Maybe he can just stay in the boat for a couple months until he finds an actual place?
"You know what, Haruno. I think I'll actually take the man up on his offer. Can I ask for some specifics later?"
Xx ️xXx ️xXx ️xX
"Miyuki-sensei," Miyuki turns around to find Tetsu looking upset for some reason.
"Is something wrong?" Miyuki asks. He is just leaving the school building and about to walk over to their baseball field. For once Miyuki isn't late today. So why does Tetsu look upset?
"Yes," Tetsu nods seriously. "That thing is back again."
"That thing?" Miyuki asks, wondering what the kid is referring to, especially with the tone of his voice and the use of the word iagain/i.
Tetsu points his hand at the nearby field. When Miyuki looks over, he can only groan. It seems Eijun has somehow escaped from his place yet again and decided to interrupt baseball practice.
He really needs to find out how Eijun is doing this. Most importantly so he can istop/i Eijun from doing it. The last thing he needs is for the police to knock on his door saying the dog bit someone. Although saying that, then Eijun might get taken completely off his hands.
No, he really shouldn't think like that. He doesn't want anyone getting hurt, especially some little kid who doesn't know they shouldn't pet random dogs.
Thinking of that thought, he really needs to give those kids in the field a talking to about how they shouldn't pet any dog that decides to join them for their baseball practice.
As he walks to the middle of the baseball field intending to do just that, Tetsu scowling as he follows behind Miyuki, Eijun spots them, and quickly decides that means he can go on a chase across the field.
Miyuki sighs, realizing this is probably the worst option he should have done. There's no way Miyuki can catch the dog now. Which means today's practice is going to be pointless unless he can think of another way to get the dog away from here. Shit, they're first game is next weeks too, and-
"Don't worry Miyuki-sensei! We can go catch your dog for you!" Miyuki hears Jun shouts before he goes chasing the dog across the field, with half of the other kids running behind him. MIyuki sighs, hopefully this means the kids will be warmed up now.
Xx ️xXx ️xXx ️xX
In Miyuki's third week of looking after Eijun, he figures he has finally gotten this whole 'walking the dog' thing down.
EIjun no longer tries to run off at every squirrel he sees, he no longer pulls Miyuki all around the park using his leash, in fact, Miyuki can probably trust Eijun to not run off if he lets him off the leash.
It is all going great this morning… until Miyuki spots -hot-park-dude that he totally doesn't have a crush on. Before the other man notices Miyuki, Miyuki ducks behind a nearby tree and grabs Eijun up from the ground, holding the dog to his chest.
Shit. Now Miyuki is finding himself acting like one of his students who hide outside the classroom doors, acting scared to interact with their crushes. How is he going to go to the school tomorrow and tell them to stop acting like this?
As Miyuki hears Kuramochi's distinctive voice fade away, he figures Kuramochi has finally left this area of the park and decides he'll continue his walk with Eijun along one of the other trails going through the park. Lucky for him this park is large enough and there are enough trails where he might be able to avoid his crush today, even though that's really the last thing he wants to do. If only he could run into the man when he's not walking Eijun.
It's just as the human and dog are about to make their way towards the exit of the park, Miyuki spots Kuramochi again near the exit. Only this time there is a child standing right next to him.
From the corner of his eye, Miyuki sees Eijun about to try and run off from him again. As much as Miyuki wants to speak to the man again. Maybe ask him out. He doesn't want to be needled by the man about losing his dog for a third time.
MIyuki quickly pick Eijun up so he doesn't start running off again, or worse, starting barking at every moving thing around and drawing attention to them.
MIyuki looks back over at where he just saw Kuramochi standing. Sure enough, the man is still there, and it doesn't look like he noticed Miyuki.
But looking at Kuramochi again, Miyuki's eyes are drawn to the boy standing next to him and…
Oh… oh, no.
Miyuki feels like he should know this. Not only is the kid on his baseball team, but Tetsu is in his class for goodness sake.
He's definitely met the kid's parents, right? Right?
Or maybe the two aren't father and son. They could be cousins or uncle and nephew or something. Tetsu could have a really older brother if he tries and stretches his imagination. It's not unheard of.
"Hey Dad!" Tetsu yells at the man the next time he faces him. "Are you coming or not? We're going to be late."
Shit, Miyuki thinks as he holds Eijun tighter to his chest, trying to stop the dog from yelling or wiggling out of his arms. Why does his life have to be so complicated?