My Brother's Ragdoll(Junjóu Romantica)

Chapter 7

Haruhiko's POV

Two weeks before Akihiko's visit

It'd been several months since I kissed Misaki. Once the sensation of the kiss passed and I had recovered my logical mental faculties, I was partially worried that Misaki would file sexual harassment charges against me, but to my surprise he didn't. A month after that Takahiro moved to Osaka. In order for him to continue working with me I invited him to live with me. He insisted that I'd take rent out of his paycheck, but I didn't. It was adorable that he called Tanaka "Sebastian." We never really spent time together at home though, because when we weren't at work he was so burnt out he slept all the time. Him living there really hadn't changed our relationship at all. It was business as usual and Misaki was much better at being my assistant. I found that I admired how he was able to keep our professional relationship separate from our personal one. It made my affection for him grow since it proved that we were like-minded in some ways.

As time went on my love for him grew for multiple reasons. Firstly, when I found a reason to stop loving him, he unknowingly convinced me to love him again.

I thought that it was strange to have a romantic relationship with him, because he was barely 19 years old. But then, one night while we were working late, we took a break and turned on the lounge television. There was a news story about some college professor who was fired for dating a student.

"Hmm, it doesn't seem right to date a student. When there's a big age difference, it couldn't work."

It was only because it was rather late, but his voice had this sleepy ring to it. "I don't know about that Usagi-san, age shouldn't be important. It's really just a number. You shouldn't hold back from loving someone just because you were born too late or too early. As long as they love each other it shouldn't stop them."

He had to be doing this on purpose. He had to. He was making me fall for him. It was like when he talked to me on the train. Also, the sleepy dreamlike tone of his voice was making it so hard to restrain myself. I just wanted to have sex with him right here on the couch, but I held back.

Secondly, I realized it was ridiculous to feel so strongly about someone I knew nothing about.

He came up to me one day. After work he came into my office. I was surprised he was still there. I thought he would've been happy to get out of there after all of our late nights in the office.

"Usagi-san?"

"Yes, Misaki?"

"You and I are friends, right? It's just that we spend so much time together, but I don't know you at all. We just see each other at work. It's embarrassing, but I don't have any friends besides you and Sumi-san. I was wondering if we could hang out sometime when you're not busy?"

I just looked up at him, a bit surprised. I couldn't really explain the reaction for any reason other than that I couldn't believe he regarded me as a friend. He also felt the same way that I did about knowing each other. But, a part of me felt stupid for forcing all those late nights when I could've just invited him to hang out. I nodded and smiled. "Yes Misaki, it would be nice to get to know you better."

It was lunchtime. Usually Misaki went to Sumi's cubicle, but today he met Misaki. He posted up for a few minutes. I could only see the back of Misaki's head, so I no idea what they were talking about. I just saw Misaki nod eagerly as he had the tendency of doing. I wanted to find out what it was about, but I couldn't ask. Misaki was just my assistant, no matter how much I wanted him to be more. It was really beginning to bother me how possessive I felt of Misaki. Even if I didn't publicly act on it, I still felt this way. I hated Sumi for looking at him. I hated him even more for talking to him.