Ritsu's Affair (Part II)

Chapter 13

Onodera Ritsu certainly did not want to wake up. His head was throbbing, and his throat felt like truckloads of sand had been shoved down it and he had been force-fed the gritty material. In other words, he was not comfortable at all.

But he couldn't deny the fact that he was now in a state that wasn't quite consciousness, but wasn't quite the opposite, either. He was stuck in that awkward wakefulness and unconsciousness in-between. Trying to readjust himself without completely dragging his mind free of sleep, he felt himself bump into something as he rolled over.

"Hnn…?"

He cracked open one eye, and found himself staring into a strangely familiar yet unfamiliar face at the same time. Was this the sleep affecting him?

"Good morning, Onodera-kun."

At that, Onodera's eyes snapped fully open. He winced slightly, his headache worsening, but managed to stutter out, "H-Hai—Haitani-san?!"

It was Haitaini-san's turn to wince. "Ah, don't be so loud in the morning, Onodera-kun."

"What the hell are we doing in the same bed?" Onodera continued, in the same tone as before and disregarding Haitani-san's words.

This caused the man to smirk, and Onodera felt a pit of dread form in his stomach. "Do you really want to know, Onodera-kun? Why don't we just leave it a mystery? Isn't that much more fun?" Onodera was about to reply, panicked, when Haitani-san continued with a laugh. "Don't sweat it, Onodera-kun. We—no, I didn't do anything. But I did find out something very interesting last night."

The dread didn't vacate his stomach. It sat there, cold and content. "What…what did you find?"

"I found this."

Onodera's eyes had to adjust to read the small text on the phone screen. It read:

"I'm sorry, Onodera. Help me make this right."

Onodera gulped. Shit. His face turned a brilliant red color.

Upon seeing Onodera's reaction, Haitani-san burst into laughter. "You know what this means, don't you?" Onodera could swear he felt Haitani-san inch closer to him under the sheets. "You told me last night about the two of you. 'That idiot', remember? I kind of wanted you to elaborate about your high school story, but you were dead drunk by that time, and I had to drag you back here." Haitani had to admit. The look of utter disbelief and surprise that turned Onodera-kun's face from red to white in an instant was priceless. (A/N I like to think that Haitani is the slightest bit sadistic. Not like chains and whips but…you get what I mean. ^^')

"You—how—I couldn't have—"

"Slow down there, Onodera-kun. Don't hurt yourself. You have a pretty bad hangover right now, don't you?" Haitani-san reached out to stroke Onodera's cheek with a cold palm. "You have such a pretty face, Onodera-kun. You're wasting it, only letting that Takano be able to see it in the throes of ecstasy. Won't you show me…?"

"Screw off, bastard!" Onodera snapped, slapping Haitani-san's hand away and abruptly sitting up—causing his head to scream in protest but he refused to lie back down next to this man. Haitani-san, however, didn't look surprised at all at his reaction. Instead, he looked amused by it.

"But Onodera-kun," he continued, "you wouldn't want this little tidbit of information to make its way into Marukawa Shoten, now would you?"

Onodera froze.

"You…you wouldn't."

"Would I?"

Onodera gazed in shock, fear, and disgust at the man lying the same bed as him. He was going to blackmail Onodera into sleeping with him? Like hell!

But you can't let the fact that you're in a physical relationship with another man get around the department… Onodera cringed. He was completely cornered, a rat caught in a trap. He had no other choice but to comply with Haitani-san unless he wanted his past situation—and his present one, for that matter—floating around both Marukawa and Emerald. He'd be fired on the spot, and his coworkers would probably never look at him again.

And he had no doubt in his mind that this Haitani—the true Haitani—wouldn't hesitate to put his money where his mouth was.

"I…" Onodera gulped. The sandy sensation hadn't disappeared. In fact, it had worsened. "What do you…what do you want me to do?"

Haitani-san smirked. "Wise decision, Onodera. You know, I might just have some fun with you." At first, Onodera didn't know what he meant, until Haitani-san shoved Onodera's cell phone into his face. "Call Takano and tell him that you're here."

Onodera felt his stomach lurch. Call Takano-san? But—

"Do it."

Onodera flinched at Haitani-san's harsh tone and hastily grabbed the phone out of his hands, dialing Takano-san's number that he somehow knew by heart. He heard the foreboding ringing begin, and abruptly end as Takano-san answered.

"Onodera."

Crap…Takano-san sounds so calm. What will he do? How will he react? But before he could even utter a single syllable, the phone was snatched out of his hands and Onodera's head was pulled down onto a firm chest.

"Hello there, Takano!" Haitani-san greeted cheerily. "How're you?"

There was a pause. A pause that brought a deafening silence upon the room. Even Haitani-san didn't make a sound as Takano-san began to digest what was going on.

"Haitani."

"Mhm?"

"You're on Onodera's phone."

"Of course, how could I be so rude? Onodera-kun, say hi to your 'boss'," Haitani placed the phone onto Onodera's head, enunciating the word "boss" to make it sound tenderly sarcastic.

Onodera took a few deep breaths to steady himself. He would not panic, he would not panic… "H-Hello, Takano-san…"

There was another excruciatingly painful pause. "Onodera…why are you with Haitani at seven in the morning?" Without waiting for an answer, Takano-san continued. "Haitani, I swear, if you do anything to Onodera, I'll—"

"Oh but Takano, you don't know the whole situation! I mean, it's not Onodera-kun's fault or anything! I mean, he didn't voluntarily tell me about his and your old relationship, and how you said you were going to make him fall in love with you again. He was drunk! Oh, and what a cute drunk he is. You'd better thank me that I didn't take advantage of him while I could."

Takano-san, again, didn't reply right away. "You wouldn't dare blackmail him, Haitani," he growled, already getting a feel for the situation, apparently.

"Oh Takano, you know me. I don't play clean, do I?" Haitani-san smirked as he spoke. "Anyway, I think Onodera-kun's phone is about to die. But if you want your cute little boyfriend back unscathed, I suggest you meet me at my apartment at noon today for a little chat. Don't be late." And with that, Haitani-san hung up. He tossed the phone down to the end of the bed, and glanced back at Onodera.

"Well, today isn't going to be boring in the least, now is it, Onodera-kun?"

I AM SO SORRY. This chapter…it honestly sucked. Probably one of my worst chapters. It was all useless dialogue, but I had to do it. Don't worry, I will somehow tie Usami, Misaki AND Ijuuin into this little meeting of theirs *smirks* it will be a meeting of the gods. But for now, please don't hate me for this crappy chapter. It had to be done to set up everything for the next chapter, which will have a whole shitload of plot and good stuff in it. I hope.

Another reason this chapter was so bad is because I really needed to update. I'm very, very sorry that I disappeared for so long. I feel horrible Dx I promise to make the next chapter great to make up for this one. (I really feel like this was bad, else I wouldn't be ranting like this.)

Ugh…I don't feel like I have the authority to say this…

See you next week~