「CHAPTER 9」
If he was going to repay Hatori with anything, it was to do his work diligently.
That was the only thing he could do right now. With that thought in mind, he
concentrated and because of that, finished his upcoming plot. It was easily given the OK.
Then, he started on the storyboard for the plot. He worked on the storyboard more
smoothly than usual, so surely he had good progress with it than how it was in his
previous schedule. This miraculous schedule didn"t happen many times in a year, but
finis.h.i.+ng with extra time to spare surely put both his mind and body at ease.
I have to contact my a.s.sistants soon and give them their next agenda.
Yos.h.i.+no thought, and looked at the calendar nearby as he tried to figure out the
plan.
“Lets see…I feel like the next crunch time will be from here to here…But, the
finished work to give to my a.s.sistants is…”
Presently, he had three regular a.s.sistants, with Yanase being at the top, and if he
didn"t have enough people to help out, he had one more a.s.sistant to call.
However, that didn"t mean that all of them belonged only to Yos.h.i.+no, so if they
had already made plans with other authors, they wouldn"t come. So even if they saw the
work plan, he always directly contacted his a.s.sistants since it was necessary to make sure
they were following his schedule and everybody was on the same page.
…I need to contact Yuu.
He wanted to thank Yanase for his previous work and to make peace with him
once and for all. Yanase was his dear friend, so he didn"t want them to drift apart from
such a misunderstanding. He thought that, but he couldn"t quite find the opportunity to do
this. Even when they fought when they were students, it was inevitable that they were
going to see each other the next morning in school, so there was a time slot to apologize,
but now, he couldn"t see them talking if he didn"t willingly contact Yanase himself. He
thought about texting him, but he couldn"t deny that it will come out cold, because it"s
hard to be clear through that. He felt like he couldn"t express his feelings too well, and
picking the right words for the situation was not his forte.
I should call him, but how do I start the conversation…?
As he hesitated about what to do, his home phone rang. Perhaps Hatori was
calling him at this time, just check that he sent the envelope throughout home delivery
service.
“Yes, this is Yos.h.i.+no – “
“Chiaki? It"s me.”
He had picked up the phone without checking the number on the display screen,
so his heart leapt when he heard that voice. He wasn"t mentally prepared, so he had
difficulty replying.
“Yu- Yuu, umm…it"s been a while.”
On the other side of the line was a sign that Yanase was appalled at Yos.h.i.+no"s
stupid reply.
“It hasn"t been a while. What will the next a.s.sistant do? We can"t form this
schedule if you don"t contact them.”
He felt relieved that Yanase spoke like he always did and tried to not let his
happiness show as he chose his words.
“Ah, sorry, I was going to contact them today.”
“We"re starting somewhere around next weekend as usual?”
“Ye- yeah. I look forward to working with you.”
He still felt very awkward, so his word choice came out too polite.
“What are we strangers now? That"s not nice.”
“No, um…Thanks for the other day. We were saved once you showed up.”
“You"re welcome.”
“I figured I"m useless if you"re not here Yuu. I don"t know what to do. Oh, but you
knew I was drawing at the company?”
Suddenly, he remembered that time and only asked now. He wasn"t even thinking
at that time because he had been panicking, but where in the world did Yanase hear that
he was in a mess? Yos.h.i.+no wondered until Yanase gave him a simple explanation.
“Hatori called me. He said to come help you, because you guys were in a tight
spot.”
“Tori did?”
Hatori hadn"t said a word to him about this. Now that he thought about it, Hatori 
was the only other person besides Yos.h.i.+no who contacted Yanase, so how did Yos.h.i.+no
not realize this before?
He planned on hiding this too?
Yos.h.i.+no was happy that Hatori worried about him, but not telling him anything
was a little depressing. They weren"t children, so he wanted them to communicate
properly.
“I waited for you to contact me, though.”
“S-sorry…”
He shrugged his shoulders at Yanase who sounded annoyed about this.
“Anyway, I"m sorry too, for sulking. But you should make it up to me for ditching me at
the onsen.”
“I know. We can go to your favorite onsen next time, Yuu.”
“Then let"s go to Yufuin. Just the two of us, of course.”
“Eh? Not with Tori?”
He panicked, remembering the words Hatori had told him before: “Promise that
you"ll never go out with him anymore, where it"s just the two of you alone.”
Yos.h.i.+no had agreed to that obviously jealous-sounding order. It was a situation
that happened because of a situation, but he didn"t want to break his promises unless they
were deadlines.
“Absolutely not. As if I"d go with such a work fanatic.”
“B- but…”
“Anyway, this is a promise. Then, contact me when you figure out where your
ma.n.u.script is going,” Yanase said just what he wanted to say and quickly hung up the
phone.
“Wai-wait… Yuu! Listen to what others have to say…!”
It was useless to talk into the disconnected phone receiver, but he couldn"t help
complaining at how one-sided their conversation had been.
“Honestly, he"s so selfish and does everything his own way…”
He was dumbstruck but glad that he had patched things up with Yanase for now.
Relieved, he started working on the storyboard again. He was to go on a business meeting
with Hatori in the evening, so he had to have at least a rough idea by the time he left the 
house. With a small load off his shoulders, Yos.h.i.+no decided to concentrate on the
storyboard.
* * * *
As soon as he finished the storyboard he put it into a file folder and left his home
to go meet Hatori for their business meeting. The place he was heading to was the shop
they often used in the past to have their business meetings. When he opened the door of
the shop that read “kissaten” rather than “café”, a ringing sound of a bell resonated. There
wasn"t a single person inside the shop today as well. It seemed that people showed up at
night to get their intake of alcohol, but during the day, their favorite manager made coffee
as a hobby.
“Welcome.”
Relieved at the same, calm tone of voice of the manager, he ordered without
looking at the menu.
“Lets see, one hot cafe au lait.”
“Certainly. Please wait a moment.”
The reason Yos.h.i.+no had stopped coming so frequently to this shop was because
when they had their business meeting here, Hatori had suddenly kissed him.
Yos.h.i.+no had made a huge racket because of this, but neither the manager nor the
part-time clerk showed any reaction to this, however, Yos.h.i.+no had still been
embarra.s.sed. Because he felt awkward, he had stopped coming here, but he figured that
they would eventually forgot about this so starting last month he began to come here
again. He had tried to visit several other shops, but none of them were as relaxing and
quiet as this one and none of them had tables as wide and useful as the ones in here.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting. Here is your cafe au lair.”
A nice smell came from the cup the part-time clerk was carrying. Yos.h.i.+no liked
black coffee, but part of him thought it was bad for his recovery. But as he sipped his cafe
au lait, he sat in his usual seat and reviewed his storyboard until Hatori finally arrived.
“Did you make progress with the storyboard?”
As usual, the first thing he said had to do with work.
“Yeah. But there"s a part that worries me a little, so I want to talk it over with
you.”
“I see. Ah, I"m sorry, I"ll have a blended coffee, please. And a clubhouse
sandwich.”
“Certainly.”
“What, you didn"t eat?”
“I missed lunch because I was in a conference since morning. We can do this as I
eat, right?”
“Sure, but I think we can do this after you"ve finished eating.”
“That"s wasting time. Show me the storyboard. How much progress have you
made?”
“I finished it all.”
“…How in the world did that happen? You"re fast this time.”
Hatori sounded suspicious as he took the storyboard packet from Yos.h.i.+no.
“E- even I can finish something when it has to be done!”
“True. I"m going to try reading this for now. We"ll talk after.”
With that said, Hatori laid the storyboard on the table and held a red pen in one
hand, entering reading mode. When Hatori was like this, he wouldn"t listen no matter
what was being said to him.
“……Nice working with you……,” Yos.h.i.+no muttered and sipped his now rather cool
cafe au lait.
* * * *
“Then start drawing from that material. I think you should adjust the dialogue, but
after you try drawing it, we need to see how it"s balancing out.”
“Understood…that reminds me, do you know who Yuu likes?”
As he wrote down the suggestions the got from Hatori on the storyboard, he
inadvertently asked this.
“…Why do you want to know that?”
“Actually, Nozomi-chan likes Yuu. Never noticed it, right?”
“And so?”
“Well, it bugs me. What do you think we should do?”
“How should I know? You"re kind of poking your nose into other people"s
business.”
“Yeah, I guess…”
When he looked at Nozomi, who seemed so innocently in love, it made him want
to help her out. It was probably unnecessary to do so, but he wanted to do something for
her because, who knows, maybe they will become happy thanks to him initiating their
relations.h.i.+p.
“I think that even Yanase will hate it if you poke your nose into his business.”
“Eh? Why is that?”
“…Because.”
Hatori gave a vague answer and sipped the remainder of his coffee. Then, looking
at his wrist.w.a.tch, Hatori said apologetically.
“Sorry. It"ll be bad if I don"t go soon.”
“Eh? Already? You"re very busy today.”
“I have my hands full with conferences and business meetings. If I have time, I
planned on coming to your place to see how everything is going, but at the moment, it
doesn"t seem likely that I can come.”
“You"re that busy now?”
“There are some things to take care of about the making of the drama. Honestly,
it"s a pain, but I can"t do anything about it because there isn"t anyone else who can do
this.”
“I see…”
Hatori not being able to come meant he wouldn"t be able to eat Hatori"s cooking.
He was immediately disappointed, realizing that he would have a hard time finding
something to eat for dinner.
Come on, this makes it seem like I only care about the food!
He scolded himself for having thoughts only focused on dinner. Of course he was
also sad that he wouldn"t see the person who cooks the dinner. But it was a big deal
because when Hatori came, he always brought food and other provisions. With that 
excuse in mind, Yos.h.i.+no saw Hatori place a paper bag, which he had brought in with
him, on top of the table.
“Here, take this home with you.”
“What"s this?”
“Your dinner tonight. I brought this instead because I can"t come to your place. I
bought that dish at the department store on my way here, but I made the onigiri and the
omelet.”
It seemed that the contents inside the bag were provisions for Yos.h.i.+no. When he
looked inside, he recognized the tupperware.
“Uwa, thank you! This really saves me!”
If the omelet was not a sweet roll with das.h.i.+ prepared by Hatori, he didn"t care for
eating it. Onigiri was more delicious prepared by hand than from the convenience store
so he felt rather relieved.
“I bet you were going to eat instant noodles today again, right? It"s not
unreasonable to ask you to cook your own food, so stop eating that. It"s okay to eat
sometimes, but if you eat that everyday you won"t get all the right nutrients.”
“Whaaat? Then what should I eat?”
“Frozen meals. All you have to do is just heat them in the microwave.”
“Those are heavy to bring home with me.”
Hatori"s lip twitched when Yos.h.i.+no complained.
“You know, those vegetables I bought were heavy too.”
“Urgh…sorry…”
“Then I"ll be going. I think you did especially well on the storyboard this time. I"m
looking forward to it, so do your best.”
Hatori encouraged Yos.h.i.+no and then left the cafe in a hurry.