Rules Were Made to be Broken

‣ scene 04 [parental controls]

"Ishimaru? Look alive!"

Kiyotaka's boss' voice invaded his thoughts. He stammered a quick apology before he got back to work.

Normally he had no trouble focusing at work. He eased through it on most days. Today was different, and for reasons that he was ashamed to admit: he kept having embarrassing and very unprofessional daydreams.

He'd never felt this frustrated with himself. He hardly ever thought about relationships, or about sex, and he put everything he had into making it through the day without collapsing from overwork. But here he was, having erotic (and slightly masochistic?) daydreams about someone he hardly knew, like some horny teenager. It was distracting, and it was out of character for him, especially because these fantasies were far less tame than ones he'd had in the past.

But the fact remained: he was insanely, ridiculously attracted to Mondo Oowada. Which was weird, because that wasn't normally his type. He'd always been a fan of tall and muscular guys, sure, but never the ones with tattoos and long hair and a five-o-clock shadow before. Mondo seemed to be the exception to his rule.

Kiyotaka skipped lunch to make up for lost time and spent the last few hours of his shift typing angrily and absolutely refusing to think about Mondo.

His coworkers gathered in the break room near the end of the day to celebrate someone's retirement with a cake. Everyone was friendly and the room was full of smiling faces. It annoyed Kiyotaka, who knew that each smiling person had gossiped about Ichijou before and said they couldn't wait to get rid of him. It was like each employee had two separate faces. And he couldn't fault them for this, because he'd become the exact same way. He scarfed down a slice of cake to fill the emptiness of his stomach left by his lack of a lunch break. He'd have to work off the calories at the gym tomorrow.

As soon as he made it into his car, he breathed heavily and deeply, squeezing his eyes shut as his hands gripped the sides of the steering wheel. It was an effort to reign in his anxiety. When he got home, he'd have to get some extra work done to make up for his earlier failures. And then, maybe, he would feel a bit better.

He took a quiet backroad to avoid traffic. His stomach growled. That cake hadn't been very filling. It was while he was thinking about what to eat for dinner that his car speaker made a quiet dinging sound, informing him that someone was calling his cell phone. He clicked a button.

"Hello?"

"Nice of you to answer us, Kiyotaka."

Kiyotaka winced. He knew he'd forgotten something yesterday. He hadn't called his parents, and he must have missed their call. He didn't usually take detours to noodle restaurants or spend a good hour conversing with men he barely knew, and he had turned off his phone to help him focus on relaxation.

"I-I'm terribly sorry, mother. I had to get some extra work done and forgot about our phone call."

His mother hummed, like she wasn't sure whether to believe him or not.

"I certainly hope that's the case. The last thing your father and I need is for you to start slacking off." Kiyotaka heard her pouring herself a glass of wine. "Now, you'll have to clear your schedule for tomorrow night. Your father has arranged a dinner with the Nevermind family, and their daughter is going to be there. If you play your cards right, the two of you could hit it off."

Kiyotaka felt his muscles tense. The Neverminds— they were local foreign-born art dealers and heavily involved in the city's social scene. The parents always donated a lot of money to political campaigns, and the daughter was the area's most famous heiress and always the talk of the town. How was he supposed to make a good impression on somebody like her?

"...O-Oh? That's... great. I'll be there."

"Kiyotaka." His mother's voice turned firm and scolding. "You must take this seriously. We've introduced you to so many beautiful women from good families, and you still aren't married!"

Oh no. Kiyotaka felt his head spinning.

"I just haven't hit it off with any of them—"

"Nonsense. If you'd put in the least bit of effort, you'd be married by now. It's like you don't even appreciate how hard your father works to arrange these gatherings!"

No.

"I'm sorry, okay?!"

"Don't use that tone of voice with me! You should have been married years ago. You're not getting any younger, and if you don't get serious about this, your time will be up. You're twenty-four years old and still single! Don't you know how embarrassing that is for me?"

No, no, no.

"I-I just haven't found the right—"

And just as Kiyotaka's anxiety reached the boiling point and he felt the urge to vomit, he heard a loud pop, and his car heaved and jolted before it screeched to a stop. He couldn't help but shout, and his heart beat so fast that he couldn't hear his mother over it. He took a moment to focus on breathing. He didn't need to have a panic attack right now.

"What was that? Did you hit something? If you can't even focus on driving, don't answer my calls until you're home!"

You scream at me whenever I dismiss one of your calls, Kiyotaka bit back and stopped himself from replying. He huffed.

"I think there was something in the road that I couldn't see," he answered. "I might have a flat tire. I'll call you back later."

He hung up with another click of a button, ignoring his mother's protests. She'd have to yell at him about how disrespectful and inattentive he was later.

Kiyotaka groaned as he studied the damage. Sure enough, someone had left some kind of metal scrap in the road, and it had popped one of his tires. He didn't have a spare, and he wouldn't know how to change a tire even if he tried.

Kiyotaka growled in frustration before pulling out his cell phone and calling for a tow truck.