Epiphany. [Guren Ichinose x Reader] ➥ Book 2. [Semi-hiatus]

Epiphany ~ Chapter 48.

-Y/N's POV-
I could feel Guren's eyes boring into me in what I could only assume was an incredulous stare.
I was currently in his office, hands tangled in my hair as the reality of my carelessness began to seriously dawn on me.

"Stop tugging at your hair, you were screwed either way." Guren clearly didn't care to reassure me, as he rolled his eyes. Sure, he was right, but that wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear,

"You're no help at all," was all I replied, moving my hands from my hair and resting my chin on my fist instead,

"By accepting the offer to join the army, you were also accepting the very high possibility of coming into contact with your father again, my love." He walked up in front of me, standing before the desk I was seated at before replacing my knuckles with his hand and tilting my chin up with his thumb and pointer to face him, "You have to hope he doesn't have a chat with either Kureto or the maid and if he does, that he won't be interested in seeing you."

It was now my turn to roll my eyes at him, "Maybe calling Kureto's bluff wouldn't have been all that bad."

"That's too damn bad, cause looks like you're stuck with me now." He pressed a quick peck on my temple, "Come on, let's hurry up or we'll be late to this shitty meeting."

"What harm would that do? Not like I wanted to be here in the first place." I muttered but stood up to go nevertheless,

"Wanna find out?" Guren tilted his chin downwards to me, to which I could only sigh at.

~•~

I knew just how tedious meetings could go, but a meeting as senior as this outdid any dull order I'd been tasked with. My rank didn't even permit me to sit in such meetings, but I could only assume this was one of Kureto's sadistic methods of punishment. Not only was my father now sure to find out, but I also had to deal with being shoved into a new unwanted spotlight, after essentially deserting my ex-fiancé let alone the army.

Still, I refused to give the young General the satisfaction of witnessing a forced grin or any sort of attempt to appease the high-ranking officials who greeted me; instead I opted to simply return all greetings by a curt yet polite hello and nod of the head, while simultaneously avoiding any small talk when possible, which was sure to generate a new wave of gossip.
I could especially tell how offended some officials were by my lack of grovel when they made a point of reiterating my rank of second lieutenant as if to put me in my place. Although, I remained unbothered as this just made it evident that people seemed a lot bolder to antagonise me despite my last name; which only meant my scandal had tarnished it altogether or people began to finally acknowledge me as separate to my father.

Regardless, I could care less as I was only here to take part in some mystery mission, I had no obligation to carry out the rest of my duties and so being disliked was fine by me.

~•~

The meeting was only an hour and a half and yet it felt like it lasted an eternity. Anyone could ask me what was said in the first 5 minutes and I wouldn't be able to tell them as I was more occupied with fighting off sleep and kicking Guren in the shin when I caught him dozing off.
I quite frankly, couldn't care less if he chose to prop his feet up on the desk and take a nap in the most brazen fashion if he so wished; however, I could hardly get away with my eyelids drooping without catching Kureto narrowing his eyes at me and so I made it a mission to keep him awake out of sheer pettiness; especially after his smartass comments earlier.

He'd usually wince, before shooting me a side glance and attempting to subtly enact his revenge, which I rendered unsuccessful the first time and raised my legs in order to dodge his; I wasn't so lucky the next couple of times as he'd thwart my attempts to dodge and by doing so it turned into a game of footsie.

A majority of these rounds would be shut down by Kureto glaring at us two; causing my small smirk that'd usually appear on my face to dwindle immediately, Guren on the other hand seemed indifferent and sometimes unaware of Kureto's intimidation tactic and would take it as a win.

So when the meeting finally came to it's end, it was no surprise that Kureto was waiting for the two of us outside the building.

I pursed my lips in an awkward smile, as he approached us with his hands in his pockets, "Nice to see the two of you thoroughly enjoyed the meeting."

"Thoroughly is a bit of a stretch." Guren replied just as sarcastically,

"Really? I think it's pretty fitting for someone who tends to use it for their naps."

Guren said nothing and just shrugged, he clearly had no intentions of denying something that was very much true,

"As for you Y/N I didn't expect you to use it as an opportunity to flirt."

I rolled my eyes at both the comment and the grin I knew was growing on Guren's face without even having to look, "If it weren't for me, that meeting would've turned into yet another nap session." I defended myself in a matter-of-factly tone,

"Don't be jealous because you wanted to nap as much as he did."

"Sure, okay." I changed the subject, "Where's Shinya, I was going to find him after this meeting but surely it'd make more sense for him to attend than me."

"Trying to change the topic are we?" Guren looked at me, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face, which would've surely annoyed me in normal circumstances, although after Kureto's flirting accusations I couldn't help but get flustered and could only mask it by shooting him a glare,

Kureto sighed, "No actually, I'm glad you brought it up. I hope you were a lot more focused than you appeared to be," he glanced at his watch, "Shinya should be finishing his training just about now and he'll need to be briefed."