Bonjour. I am back. I hate tests. I almost failed drama.
Merci beaucoup to my beta, Rosie-tan.
How are you?
Good? Good.
Bad? Aw, hope you feel better.

I'm currently on a two week break, so I might be able to write more. Yay. (might).

Hope you enjoy this. :D
Sorry for this short-ish chapter.

Onodera POV:

Today, when I got to work, it was arguably one of the most terrifying things that had ever happened there. The abstruse change of decor was somewhat amazing; so much pink. I would like to know who actually cleans the place up. I was one of the last people to leave work and arrived soon after everyone. I suppose it would always be a mystery. Three mildly attractive men stood before me, letting off a strange aura. Two were smiling, while the other had a poker face. They introduced themselves and the smaller one apologized. 'Sorry for neglecting you, Ricchan!'.

Ricchan, huh?

I placed myself on a chair, my desk adjacent to Kisa-san's.

"Hey Ricchan, do you have anything planned for tonight?" Kisa-san said, suddenly. I'm not sure if it was just me, but I felt as if everybody was now looking at me. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Nothing in particular..." I'd been planning to unpack the rest of my stuff, as I had just moved in, but I could do that later.

"In that case, we're gonna go out for drinks later to welcome the new guy!" he said, cheerfully.

"Um, I-" I protested

"It's decided." interrupted Mino-san.

"After work." Hatori-san added.

Takano-san remained silent.
My left eye twitched. I'm only going to be here for a few weeks, then I'm going to transfer to the literature department, definitely.

Takano POV:

"Hey Ricchan, do you have anything planned for tonight?"

My head snapped up. It's the 'Welcome the New Guy' plan. It had become a tradition here at Emerald. We go out for drinks. When people get drunk, or semi-drunk, they might blabber about stuff they would not had said, had they been sober. Why we do this, you ask?
'To get to know them better!' is what we usually say. Hell no. The actual reason was to get dirt on them, so we can threaten them with the information that we now have against them. We only do this for work related purposes, of course. Luckily when I was subject to this plan, I could hold my liquor. However, they managed to squeeze information out of me by other means. No harm comes from this, really. Of course, we make sure they get home safely.

The day passed by uneventfully as it was only the beginning of the cycle. Mino and Kisa showed the currently useless newbie how to do some of the basics while Hatori was talking on the phone with one of his authors. I resisted the urge to throw things at him (however failing roughly half the time) due to his ignorance of the workings of shojo manga.

6pm arrived quickly.

Kisa led the way, half-dragging the newbie to the location. I stayed at the back, I didn't know where we were going. Not that anyone else but Kisa, either. Hatori was talking to someone on the phone, sounding frustrated. A few minutes had gone by and Onodera was making pointless chatter with Kisa and Mino - no longer being dragged. We'd turned a corner past a bookstore, heading in the direction of the red light district. We turned another corner to find a bar, with a friendly sort of feeling. That is, until we got closer. Loud voices erupted and obnoxious laughing followed by sounds of items being thrown across the wall seeped through the walls. Everybody immediately cringed. I'd much rather stay away from places like that. I turned on my heel.

"...There's a place around here that I know." The place was somewhere in the red light district. I had stumbled across it with Mizuno after a particularly difficult break-up. They followed me and I stopped in front of the place.

"Can we go somewhere else?" Kisa said, somewhat weakly. He looked at the sign of the bar uneasily. It was a gay bar. So what?

"Do you know a better place?"

He stayed quiet.

We were seated at the back, due to Kisa's request. The four of them went to the table while I went up to the bar to get some drinks. I caught the bartender's attention. Before I got to tell him what I wanted, he interrupted me.

"So you and your friends are Shouta's new boytoys?" He sneered, a look of disgust on his face.

"Shut up and just get me five beers." I replied, coolly. He glared at me and turned to pour the drinks. Onodera had walked up to carry some of the beers over.

"Um.."

"Just ignore him."

"O-okay." I squinted my eyes and looked at him. I peered closely at his face, making him blink rapidly in succession.

"Do I know you fr-"

"Five beers for the two kissing in front of the bar." The bartender said, rudely as he slammed the last glass on the table, nearing spilling some of it. It caught a few people's attention. I swiftly turned my back on him after grabbing a few glasses and Onodera uneasily followed. I slid into the other side of the table, one was occupied by the other three. Kisa had returned to his happy-go-lucky mood. Everybody quickly reached for a glass.

"Cheers!" we all said, cheerfully. Well, Mino and Kisa. Everybody had sort of mumbled it. I raised the rim of the glass to my lips.

"So, Onodera-san, where did you work before? Just curious." Mino said with his usual smile plastered on his face.
I peered at Onodera while I sipped some beer from the glass.
It has begun.