Chapter 9

"Oh, the new issue of Emerald is out!" a girl exclaimed when she saw Yukina putting copies of it on the shelf. The girls that always crowded around him followed suit, and Yukina smiled that radiant smile of his.

"It's a good one this month," he said. "An acquaintance of mine is making her debut this month, and she's nervous about how it will go."

"I'm sure we'll love it!" another girl exclaimed, and each and every one of them snatched up a copy and started flipping through. Yukina smiled. That had been easier than usual. They were nice girls, but they were easily influenced. Of course, that just made his job of selling them as much manga as possible that much easier. "Kobayashi Miyuki, right? It really does look good! I'll probably buy the graphic novel when it comes out, too."

"Kobayashi-san will be happy to hear that." Yukina was finished stocking the shelves, so he started to break down the box so he could put it in the recycling on his way out. His shift was almost over. It was originally supposed to go later, but since Kisa was finally free from what he liked to call Hell Week, they finally had the time to go out with his parents again.

Originally he was supposed to meet Kisa at his apartment, since he was closer to the restaurant they intended to go to for dinner, but he'd gotten a text just a few minutes ago saying Kisa would pick him up, since he was in the area, anyway. Just as he was thinking about that, he glanced over and saw Kisa pushing through a crowd of girls oohing and aahing over a display.

"Kisa-san!" he said, waving his boyfriend over. The girls that were still hanging around, reading the new issue of Emerald, looked up and over to Kisa. They all seemed to recognized him.

"Yukina-san, who is that guy, anyway?" one of the other girls asked as Kisa approached.

Yukina smiled just as Kisa came up to them, glancing at the girls a bit warily. "This is Kisa Shouta. He's one of the editors at Emerald, and he's in charge of Morimoto Kana, among other authors."

The girls' expressions immediately changed, and they crowded around him. Kisa looked a bit nervous; even though he'd been a shojo manga editor for years now, he wasn't really used to girls crowding around him. Even during school, he seemed to put off a vibe that he was, indeed, completely gay. They all started introducing themselves, and Kisa glanced over to Yukina, who was just smiling as always.

"Ah, Yukina, Kobayashi-san called. She finally got her apartment contract in and she wanted us to go over and have dinner with her to celebrate. Your parents agreed to change their plans as well." He glanced back over to the girls, who'd stopped tittering like a bunch of birds and were now looking between Yukina and Kisa suspiciously again.

Yukina nodded. "Okay. I'm almost done with my shift, so if you wouldn't mind waiting for a bit, I'll go over with you." And then, right in front of the girls, he gave Kisa a quick kiss before pushing through the crowd so he could go drop off his recycling.

The girls all looked flabbergasted, and Kisa used the time they were distracted to leave the store. It was probably safer for both him and Yukina if he just waited outside like usual.

"So Kobayashi-san decided to stay in Tokyo, huh?" Yukina asked later as the two walked along the sidewalk. "Onii-chan said she might. I imagine it would be easier for her, at any rate."

"Yeah, and Takano-san has one more author to chase around the city when something is due," Kisa said, his hands in his pockets.

"I'm sure Kobayashi-san will do fine," Yukina said. "I've been talking to a lot of my usual customers about this month's issue of Emerald, and they all said they'd buy an issue to support her."

"Your ability to sell never ceases to amaze me," Kisa said, staring up at the sky instead of in front of him or at Yukina. "Although it has helped me, with how many issues of my authors' manga you've managed to sell."

"It's my pleasure, Kisa-san." Then Yukina's eyes drifted, and he stopped. "Kisa-san, would you mind if we stop here? I'd like to get Kobayashi-san some flowers."

"Yeah, sure." It was just like Yukina to want to do something like that, Kisa thought as he watched his boyfriend go into the flower shop and talk to the man at the counter. Kisa vaguely thought the man looked familiar, but he shook his head and looked away before he could think about where he'd seen him before.

Yukina emerged with a big bouquet of sunflowers. They had been a prominent feature on the cover page of Miyuki's debut manga chapter. She mentioned how much she liked them, and Takano had ended up telling her to feature them. It had certainly been pretty; the cover page had been the last thing she drew, but it didn't even need to be redrawn.

"So is your brother still in Tokyo?" Kisa asked as they continued along.

"Yes, but he's going back on the train tomorrow morning," Yukina said. Yukina had spent some time with his brother since Kisa's confession about their past, but Kisa hadn't seen him since their failed dinner with Yukina's parents earlier in the month. He felt like there was something they needed to square away, but Kisa had never been very good at talking about his feelings.

Miyuki had ended up renting out the apartment she and Ken stayed in for the month, getting funding from her parents. They didn't even mind paying for it; Kisa briefly thought it must be nice to have that kind of disposable income. It wasn't like he didn't have enough money, though, and he was still kind of annoyed by those huge apartments rented by only one person.

Yukina's mother and father were both helping Miyuki cook when Yukina and Kisa got there. Yukina smiled and gave Miyuki her flowers, and she ran off to find a vase to put them in with a huge smile on her face. As she ran up the stairs, she passed by Ken, who had a bag in his arms.

"Onii-chan?" Yukina asked as his mother and father went back to cooking. "I thought you weren't going back to Kansai until tomorrow morning."

Ken glanced at his younger brother, then over to Kisa and back down at his bag. "I got a job up in Hokkaido and the client wants to see me tomorrow morning, so I exchanged my ticket. I'll be heading out after dinner." Then he put his bag down on the floor in back of the couch and patted Yukina on the shoulder. "I'll come back through on my way home, though, if you want me to stop."

Yukina glanced over to Kisa, who just shrugged and looked up to the second floor, like waiting for Miyuki to put the flowers in a vase was really all he was there for. "That would be nice," Yukina finally said. "Let me know, okay?" And then he left the two there in the living room when he heard a crash from upstairs. Knowing Miyuki, she'd probably buried herself in a pile of bears again.

Ken smiled when Kisa finally caught his eye. "It was nice seeing you again!" he said, sounding more like he was talking to an old friend than a guy he'd slept with.

"Yeah, you too." Kisa tried to ignore the sounds of Yukina yelling for Miyuki to hold on. It seemed there had been an avalanche of bears again. Other than that, there was silence, even from the kitchen. "…is this where we have some kind of big talk and work things out."

Ken seemed to consider this as he stared down at his bag. "Nah. This is where I tell you to take care of my little brother, and that if I ever hear you dumped him, I promise to jump on the first train to Kanto and kick your ass."

"Fair enough." Kisa didn't think it was entirely appropriate to tell him he'd already tried to dump Yukina once and it hadn't exactly worked.

Miyuki suddenly came bounding down the stairs. She had been liberated of the pile of bears and had Yukina's sunflowers in a beautiful, blue vase. She also had a teddy bear clinging to the top of her head.

"Uh, Kobayashi-san…" Kisa started to say.

"Yeah?"

"You have a… a teddy bear on top of your head."

"Yeah, I know." Miyuki smiled and put the flowers down in the middle of the dining room table, rearranging a petal here and there.

"…meanwhile, I'm not sure how long she'll survive without me," Ken said, eying Miyuki.

They both watched as Yukina took the teddy bear off Miyuki's head, smiling at something his mother said. Kisa almost said something sentimental, but he checked himself before it could even fully-form in his brain.

"The day she chose to be a manga-ka was the day she signed her own death warrant."

"Ah yes, that's true." Ken gave Kisa one last smile before joining his family. Kisa had to admit that even though Yukina and his older brother didn't look a lot alike, they did have the same smile.