Chapter 5

Kisa ended up going home after they ate dinner, and Yukina gladly escorted him. That left Miyuki and Ken alone in their apartment. Miyuki had finally dragged her light table out of its corner and was working on the second half of her storyboard. Ken, for his part, didn't have anything to do until it came time to draw the actual pages. Instead, he was going through a box of pictures he'd gotten from his parents during his visit earlier that day.

Miyuki tried to look like she was working, but she couldn't help but look up again and again. The older man looked confused as he picked up a certain picture and examined it. "Yukina-san, what's the matter? You've been going through those pictures for three hours now."

Ken shook his head and put the picture beside him. Curious, Miyuki walked over and picked it up. It wasn't a very good picture. It was of a boy, his head slightly turned so you could see an eye and part of his mouth, but the frame was tilted and a finger hovered at one edge. "Well," Ken said, taking the photo out of Miyuki's hands. "There's a reason I never went into photography."

"Is that Kisa-san?" Miyuki pushed a piece of her long, black hair behind her ear and leaned forward a bit, looking expectant.

"I don't know," Ken said. "I never knew his name. We were in a class together my senior year. It was an intro class, the last one I had left to take, and I always assumed he was a freshman. But Kisa-san is my age."

"No way!" Miyuki said, falling back. "I thought he was closer to Kou-san's age! Did he find the fountain of youth or something?"

"I'm wondering that, too…" Ken had his eyes on the picture, but he was staring off into space.

"…so, what, did you two have a thing?" Miyuki said bluntly. Ken jumped in surprise, but Miyuki wasn't going to let it go. She poked Ken on the shoulder, over and over.

"Not really." Ken averted his eyes from Miyuki's intense stare. "As I told you, I didn't even know his name. We just…" Miyuki nodded, prodding him along. "Never mind. Get back to work. When you're done with the storyboards, Takano-san wanted you to go in for a face-to-face meeting."

Miyuki wilted, looking disappointed. It wasn't like she and Ken ever talked; he was her parents' friend, after all. Still, she liked him. And it wasn't like she had anything else to keep her excited as she kept herself closed-in until the manga pages were done.

Finally, she pulled her glasses down onto her eyes and went back to her light table. Ken kept staring down at the photo, though. "Hey Yukina-san, you think I could make a BL manga someday?"

"Why the sudden interest?" Ken said, finally putting away the photos and replacing the lid.

Miyuki shrugged, tapping her soft-lead pencil on the table. "There are rumors that Akikawa Yayoi bases her couples on real people, and Kou-san and Kisa-san looked so cute together." She grinned like the Cheshire Cat as Ken gawked at her.

"You are going to be the death of me."

It was Friday when Miyuki finally finished the storyboards. She might've done them sooner, but she ended up redoing the first five pages according to the corrections Yukina had given her. She was still only a day past the deadline, though, and the men at Emerald were infinitely amazed when she stepped into the office, Ken lurking behind her.

"I think she's the first author to get her storyboards in," Ritsu said as Takano put down the phone he'd been yelling into just before Miyuki and Ken arrived.

"That won't last." Hatori was always the optimist, after all.

Takano's phone suddenly rang again, though, and he sighed and picked it up. In the meantime, Miyuki looked around the room, amazed. "I didn't realize how… pink this place is when I first came here." She walked through the room, her heels clacking again the floor. That was probably the only time of the month you could actually see the floor; the rest of the time, it was covered in tone sheets, manuscripts and occasionally an editor. Ritsu was the first to go down those days.

Kisa had been sitting at his desk the entire time Miyuki and Ken were in there, just trying to go about his work. He knew Ken was aware he worked there at that point, but that didn't mean anything had to be different. Unfortunately, Kisa was out of coffee, and if he wanted more, he'd have to go down to the vending machine in the employee lounge. And, based on how many storyboards he didn't have (which was, of course, all of them), he'd need as much coffee as he could get.

As he was passing by Ken, who just continued to stand there in the doorway as Miyuki made a big deal out of the extremely pink office, he felt something being put in his hand. It seemed to be a slip of paper, or maybe a photo; he wasn't going to look down at it until he was alone, or at least away from Ken. He did look back at Ken, who had finally entered the office and put his hand on Miyuki's shoulder, saying something to her. Miyuki looked somewhat dismayed, so he was probably telling her to pull herself together. Even though she was still a teenager, she was, after all, a manga-ka for the company and should act professionally.

Because, of course, Kisa and the rest of the editors always acted in the most professional manner possible. The fact that Kisa was basically a humanoid lump when it got down to the wire on the magazine deadlines was beside the point.

Once Kisa got into the lounge, he reached into his pocket for change for the vending machine. He was alone in the lounge, which was odd; there was almost always at least one other person sitting in there, trying to ignore his or her duties. Since he was alone, Kisa decided to risk it and look at the piece of paper Ken had handed him.

It was, indeed, a photo. Kisa squinted down at it. It was slightly blurry, the frame was tilted and there was a finger in the way on one edge, but he could tell it was him. Judging by a few choice appearance details (his hair, for one; he would never understand why he thought that hairstyle was a good idea) it must've been taken when he was in college.

Kisa's can of coffee dropped down into the slot, and he picked it up. He kept staring at the picture, though, trying to think about why this photo was significant. He and Ken had already established that they'd gone to college together so why…

Kisa started choking as realization dawned on him, and he put the coffee can down on a side table before thumping himself on the chest. Well, this was going to be awkward.