![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[My Boss, My Hero] j-dorama fic
Title: Simple Arithmetic
Series: My Boss, My Hero
Word Count: 2,626
Summary: Seven years later, Makio finally finds a use for the counting problem that dragged him back to high school in the first place.
Author’s Notes: For Celeste! Since I owe watching the rest of this series to you and bribery is a good reward even if it's late. I hope this is fun for you, if not I'm sorry I fail at your pet fandom.
It had been seven years, three weeks, and two days since Sakaki Makio enrolled in St. Agnes in order to complete the conditions his father set for him to inherit the Kantou Sharp Fang. Of course Makio hadn’t counted the days after his release—that would take too many fingers and carrying over. Besides, he had formed a personal grudge against actually using date keepers to keep track of time ever since Kazu’s red markings for the pudding deliveries bled into the pictures on his mail order Meiko Kaji pin up calendar, making the actress look less like a femme fatale and more like Pipi Longstocking. Kazu carried the label of “I will not mess with Aniki’s stuff” in marker over his forehead for a week, along with a red goatee.
No, all he had left was how vivid the memories felt to him. Because Sakaki Makio, who was never the brightest at discernment, could still recall his ‘childhood’ at St. Agnes as if it were yesterday. In fact, sometimes he would forget and spring up from his bed shouting “Iron Face, no more supplements!” until Kuroi reminded him he was currently the Kantou Sharp Fang’s Third Boss, the uncontested head of his domain, and that the whimpering sounds were unbecoming.
Makio liked remembering his youth that way, nightmares of naked test taking aside. When he left he was afraid that ‘Makky’ and ‘Sakaki-kun’ would vanish beneath the whirlwind of his Tornado persona, but time proved it to be an enduring and real aspect of him. Just like how children and their carefree youth still hold traces of what they are in adulthood, ‘Makky’ was something that he held onto even without his classmates, his friends, there to keep it from disappearing completely.
Makio still thought about his friends a lot. Gossipy Hagiwara-san, shy Okumoto-san, stuck up Yasuhara-kun, Freaky Long Hair, Tanaka-san, that wannabe punk Hoshino-kun. The way they talked, or how they acted would spring up in his memory at random moments, and Makio wondering how they were doing. Admittedly, he thought about some more than others. The two he remembered daily were Umemura-san and Sakura-something, Sakurakoji’s personality more than the entirety of his name.
Maybe it was because, out of everybody, they were the two that offered their friendship without protest. Sakura-something going out of his way to fawn and poke him with cutesy nicknames, Umemura giving him a pencil or a kind word when it seemed everyone else considered him a fool. Or maybe it was because they tried so hard to keep him from leaving them permanently, even trespassing onto yakuza headquarters to remind him of his importance when his secret identity (as a yakuza, not that one time as a sentai ranger) was discovered. They were the two he didn’t want lose contact with, no matter what.
The memory of Sakura-something and Umemura was what finally drove him to asking his younger brother, Mikio, to check up on them every so often. It wasn’t being sneaky really. Makio wasn’t the type for subterfuge at all. But he knew from experience that his status as a yakuza boss and the relationship he had to those who were innocent of such dealings, they were like...apples and oranges. Or pudding and martinis if he thought more about it. The two just didn’t mix together. Separate was fine! Even if stirred martinis were kind of a pussy drink. But Sakura-something and Umemura were definitely the pudding in his life.
So it came as some surprise on Makio’s monthly update that Mikio gave his older brother a small smile and said, “They want to meet with you again.”
“Anyaa?” Makio gaped, swinging his feet off the oak desk he kept as the boss, to spin in his chair and leap out on his feet. He sprang forward and grabbed Mikio’s frail arms, staring hard into his face. “What’d you say?!”
“Please don’t bruise the messenger,” Mikio said and putting his fingers on Makio’s wrist to remind him to exercise restraint. For which the yakuza boss complied, sheepishly wiping away the creases he left on his younger brother’s pastel golf shirt.
“Eh, I got carried away.” It was almost an apology. “But whaddya mean they want to meet with me?! It’s been—!” Makio tried counting on his fingers and gave up. “Been a really long time! They finished college, ‘n that takes years!”
“I know. Remember, you and Kazu asked me to smuggle you into see their graduation even though the disguises weren’t necessary.”
“We could’ve been spotted! It was like staking out a territory, that not obvious inconstable type.”
“You mean inconspicuous. And the air horn rendered those precautions null.”
“Hey, that was Kazu!”
Mikio sighed and gave his older brother a withering look. “Nevertheless. They want to see you now.”
“But!”
“When I said now I meant they’re standing right behind you.”
In a split second Sakaki Makio’s hands flew to both sides of his head, as if he was belatedly trying to keep Mikio’s words from reaching his ears and thereby keeping it from coming true. Mikio, out of pity or amusement, flicked his wrist in a shooing motion as if to tell him to turn around. Which Makio did, managing to look like he was combing down his hair while executing a perfectly timed heel spin that would have made any idol group envious.
And, for what it was worth, Sakurakoji Jun gave an approving thumbs up when he finally stopped turning. Sakurakoji smiled, the kind of shy grin Makio remembered looking at quizzically when they first met, wondering if something was wrong in his head. Standing near Mikio, it looked like he had adopted his upperclassman’s wardrobe sense of collared shirts and questionable manly attire.
Next to Sakurakoji, Umemura Hikari was hiding a smile behind her hand. She had grown up from the girl in pigtails and St. Agnes uniform, Makio thought. Now her hair was pulled up in a modest bun, with her bangs spaced out to show more of her face. She aged well, and looked like she had become more mature than he could ever hope to aspire to be.
“U-u-u-u-u-ume-ume-me-mura-san,” the third boss sputtered like a smitten schoolboy.
“Hi Makky!” Sakurakoji quipped, as if no time at all had passed.
“It’s all right to use ‘Hikari,’” Umemura added demurely as she nudged Sakurkoji for taking too much enjoyment out of their friend’s awkwardness. “It’s been a while since Minami-sensei’s class, and...I don’t mind.”
“Makky, aren’t you glad to see us?”
“Sa-sakura-something.”
Sakurakoji made a tsk-ing sound. “All this time and you still don’t call me by my full name. I know you didn’t forget. Mikio-sempai told us how you keep asking about us.”
“Inconspicuous eh?!” Makio shot a venomous look to his younger brother, the kind where he bared his teeth like a very angry dog that hoped his prey would take a hint and just submit to thrashing with little trouble.
Mikio replied by backing to the hallway, calling out from behind him. “I’ll let you all get reacquainted. I’m sure there are many things you all want to talk about. Let’s give them some privacy, Kazu.”
From the bookcase slinked the yakuza henchman, and confident of Makio. Kazu nodded perfunctorily at them before rushing to catch up and leave with Mikio. The faint cursing of “I’ll crush ‘em” and “who calls a thirty-four year old mob boss ‘Makky’?!” following them out.
When the finished and silence once again reigned, Umemura said, “It’s nice to see Kazu is doing so well.”
“...ah, yeah,” said Makio.
“How have you been with...everything?”
Now that they were alone Makio felt like he could relax a little and tried to smile as non-threateningly as possible. “Ah, not much. These Kankura punks started some trouble at one of our clubs but we totally cru—uuuuuuuuuh,” the look on Umemura’s face caught him and he swallowed hard. “I read this, uh, book. It was about some extended family and it reminded me of you. The big sister was always taking care of people.” He didn’t add that it was translated from an Italian mob story but he figured she wouldn’t need to know that.
“I’m glad.”
A look passed between Sakurakoji and Umemura. It made Makio wonder what happened in the seven years he spent only looking at them from a distance. “How’ve you two been doing?”
Sakurakoji fidgeted. “I asked Hikari to be my fiancée.”
The yakuza boss blinked in surprise, a small twitch of his brows before he nodded slowly. “So you finally recognized your feelings?”
“I turned him down,” Umemura continued, brushing her bangs back. “Because even if I finally recognized how he felt about me, he hasn’t recognized his feelings.”
Makio blinked. A mixed feeling of relief and dismay washed over him, although he didn’t know why. On one hand he still wanted to think he had a chance with Umemura, as stupid and improbable as that may be given she was a nurturing, caring, pacifist girl that wouldn’t harm anyone while he was...a yakuza boss. If she got married to someone that would be the end of even wishful thinking. And still, he should be happy if his two close friends got together. Oh if she finally ended up falling in love with Sakura-something and he hurt her, Makio would be there to set him straight! But on the other hand if he did propose and she refused him...that would mean...he would have to set her straight on Sakura-something’s behalf? Did Sakura-something have some kind of honor he should be defending?
High school relationships were way too complicated.
While Makio was trying to figure out what he should do by imagining each possibility in his head, Umemura grabbed Sakurakoji’s hand and pulled them both forward.
“Back then, everyone thought the one you had a crush on was Sakaki-kun. So when you told me that you had feelings for me at graduation I was surprised. I liked Sakaki-kun, but I didn’t see you as a rival. Even if you seemed closer, and you were the one he turned to about problems. ‘Makky’ this and ‘Makky’ that. Then I thought ‘Oh, I get it now.’ That I was the one who didn’t notice it because you kept that from me, so maybe I was wrong.
“But you do like Sakaki-kun. Like I like Sakaki-kun. You always did,” Umemura said softly, and Sakurakoji’s eyes focused on the tile as if it was the most interesting physics equation he had ever seen. “And I know you like me, Jun. You’re too smart to say you do when you don’t mean it like that but...I can’t marry you when we both have something like that holding us back, even after all this time.”
Makio was silent, still mostly trying to figure out what he should be feeling about the rejected marriage. He had decided most definitely that if he couldn’t use violence he could at throw them a bachelor party together. Side by side, yeah that might work if he got the girls...
Sakurakoji waved a hand in front of his face. “Did you hear what she said Makky?”
“Oh! This about a rivalry!” he perked up, ears catching the only word that really stood out. “Right?”
They both sighed. “Makky!” “Sakaki-kun!”
“Jeeze, if I’d known there’d be a test I’d think Iron Face woulda shown for this reunion,” Makio whined petulantly, completely ruining the image of his mob boss form with the dark three piece and the slicked back hair. “So me ‘n Sakura-something like you!”
“And Hikari and I both like you!” Sakurakoji shouted.
“...uh.”
“I can’t believe neither of you noticed. Sakaki-kun it makes sense, maybe...”
“Hey!” they both shouted in protest.
Umemura laughed. “This isn’t how I thought it would go.”
“Hikari...” Sakurakoji murmured, “If I knew how to make it simpler...”
“Simple? My head hurt when it was just one midget knocking around in there,” Makio said. “Now you’re telling me it’s two and they’re skipping around in there, probably getting bonus levels.”
“...”
“Basically we came here to tell you,” Umemura continued with folded hands. “We thought you should know. No matter what happens...”
“So you let me know. Now stop being stupid and go get married.”
“That’s way too harsh!” Sakurakoji rejoined. “Makky, listen to what we’re saying.”
“I’m not picking one over the other, you hear me! I may not be the smartest guy in the world but I don’t do that kind of crap—er, stuff. Sorry. It’s not a choice. You or her, boss or student. Maybe I would if I thought I could do the right thing by having...”
“Sakaki-kun?” Umemura asked as she saw the older man’s eyes glaze over like when he had an epiphany. Perhaps a little fearful since the last time he did there were cymbal accidents and ‘Oh Happy Day’ remained impossible to get out of your head once it was stuck there.
“One, two, three,” Sakaki Makio counted, holding up his fingers.
The two twenty-four year olds tried their best to see where this was going.
“Having both! Triangle!”
“Does this make sense to you?” Umemura asked Sakurakoji.
“I’m still shocked he took the ‘I like boys’ sometimes thing in stride.”
“It’s a little obvious, Jun.”
“...”
Meanwhile, Makio had taken out a sheet of the prefecture and drawn a triangle on it in deep black marker. This defacing was all right, considering there were no pictures of pretty women in the way and nobody thought koban systems were sexy. He finished writing their names out with a flourish (Umemura, Sakaki, Sakura-whatsit) at each point and stood back to admire his work.
“Um, what’s that supposed to be?” Umemura asked, pointing at her name.
“A simple solution!”
“…ah.”
“I finally get it,” Makio continued. “Sakura-something, Umemura-san, and me. It’s just adding one more if everybody agrees. Really simple eh!”
“You like me back, Makky?”
“One problem at a time or I’ll get distracted...”
“Relationships aren’t like addition,” Umemura said.
“Maybe he has a point, maybe this is the experiment. And we should at least try, Hikari. You kept saying if we just went forward without telling him there’d always be this uncertainty...”
“See? Sakurakoji agrees with me!”
“You said my name right, Makky!”
Umemura sighed, wondering how on earth she could follow Makio’s well-meaning but utterly tortured logic. Maybe it was yakuza logic the way he seemed to deal with girls when she heard about it from Hoshino. But, Umemura reminded herself, Makio was also the kind of person to let himself be hurt just to ease her conscience. Even if this was going to blow up in their faces, he would do his best to make sure he protected their feelings first. “Just a date first then. Go slow. If you don’t think that’ll be a problem Sakaki-kun.”
The yakuza boss grinned impishly in a way that made him seem just as young as they were. “Of course...Hikari-san. And, um, it’s okay if you call me Makky too.”
Umemura tried hard not to laugh. “We’ll see. Makky.”
“Come on then, Maa-chan. Where’s the first date going to be? You know we can finally drink alcohol!”
“What’s with this Maa-chan shit. You always gotta one up the girls in the cutesy names, don’t you? Hey!”
Umemura sighed and grabbed each of their hands in her own, squeezing them for emphasis. “No matter what happens we stay friends, okay?”
“Of course,” Sakurakoji said.
“My word as a boss,” said Makio. He knew it would come through, even if there were some problems. Nothing the great Sakaki ‘the Tornado’ Makio couldn’t handle. After all, this was quite possible the smartest idea he would ever have in life.
Series: My Boss, My Hero
Word Count: 2,626
Summary: Seven years later, Makio finally finds a use for the counting problem that dragged him back to high school in the first place.
Author’s Notes: For Celeste! Since I owe watching the rest of this series to you and bribery is a good reward even if it's late. I hope this is fun for you, if not I'm sorry I fail at your pet fandom.
It had been seven years, three weeks, and two days since Sakaki Makio enrolled in St. Agnes in order to complete the conditions his father set for him to inherit the Kantou Sharp Fang. Of course Makio hadn’t counted the days after his release—that would take too many fingers and carrying over. Besides, he had formed a personal grudge against actually using date keepers to keep track of time ever since Kazu’s red markings for the pudding deliveries bled into the pictures on his mail order Meiko Kaji pin up calendar, making the actress look less like a femme fatale and more like Pipi Longstocking. Kazu carried the label of “I will not mess with Aniki’s stuff” in marker over his forehead for a week, along with a red goatee.
No, all he had left was how vivid the memories felt to him. Because Sakaki Makio, who was never the brightest at discernment, could still recall his ‘childhood’ at St. Agnes as if it were yesterday. In fact, sometimes he would forget and spring up from his bed shouting “Iron Face, no more supplements!” until Kuroi reminded him he was currently the Kantou Sharp Fang’s Third Boss, the uncontested head of his domain, and that the whimpering sounds were unbecoming.
Makio liked remembering his youth that way, nightmares of naked test taking aside. When he left he was afraid that ‘Makky’ and ‘Sakaki-kun’ would vanish beneath the whirlwind of his Tornado persona, but time proved it to be an enduring and real aspect of him. Just like how children and their carefree youth still hold traces of what they are in adulthood, ‘Makky’ was something that he held onto even without his classmates, his friends, there to keep it from disappearing completely.
Makio still thought about his friends a lot. Gossipy Hagiwara-san, shy Okumoto-san, stuck up Yasuhara-kun, Freaky Long Hair, Tanaka-san, that wannabe punk Hoshino-kun. The way they talked, or how they acted would spring up in his memory at random moments, and Makio wondering how they were doing. Admittedly, he thought about some more than others. The two he remembered daily were Umemura-san and Sakura-something, Sakurakoji’s personality more than the entirety of his name.
Maybe it was because, out of everybody, they were the two that offered their friendship without protest. Sakura-something going out of his way to fawn and poke him with cutesy nicknames, Umemura giving him a pencil or a kind word when it seemed everyone else considered him a fool. Or maybe it was because they tried so hard to keep him from leaving them permanently, even trespassing onto yakuza headquarters to remind him of his importance when his secret identity (as a yakuza, not that one time as a sentai ranger) was discovered. They were the two he didn’t want lose contact with, no matter what.
The memory of Sakura-something and Umemura was what finally drove him to asking his younger brother, Mikio, to check up on them every so often. It wasn’t being sneaky really. Makio wasn’t the type for subterfuge at all. But he knew from experience that his status as a yakuza boss and the relationship he had to those who were innocent of such dealings, they were like...apples and oranges. Or pudding and martinis if he thought more about it. The two just didn’t mix together. Separate was fine! Even if stirred martinis were kind of a pussy drink. But Sakura-something and Umemura were definitely the pudding in his life.
So it came as some surprise on Makio’s monthly update that Mikio gave his older brother a small smile and said, “They want to meet with you again.”
“Anyaa?” Makio gaped, swinging his feet off the oak desk he kept as the boss, to spin in his chair and leap out on his feet. He sprang forward and grabbed Mikio’s frail arms, staring hard into his face. “What’d you say?!”
“Please don’t bruise the messenger,” Mikio said and putting his fingers on Makio’s wrist to remind him to exercise restraint. For which the yakuza boss complied, sheepishly wiping away the creases he left on his younger brother’s pastel golf shirt.
“Eh, I got carried away.” It was almost an apology. “But whaddya mean they want to meet with me?! It’s been—!” Makio tried counting on his fingers and gave up. “Been a really long time! They finished college, ‘n that takes years!”
“I know. Remember, you and Kazu asked me to smuggle you into see their graduation even though the disguises weren’t necessary.”
“We could’ve been spotted! It was like staking out a territory, that not obvious inconstable type.”
“You mean inconspicuous. And the air horn rendered those precautions null.”
“Hey, that was Kazu!”
Mikio sighed and gave his older brother a withering look. “Nevertheless. They want to see you now.”
“But!”
“When I said now I meant they’re standing right behind you.”
In a split second Sakaki Makio’s hands flew to both sides of his head, as if he was belatedly trying to keep Mikio’s words from reaching his ears and thereby keeping it from coming true. Mikio, out of pity or amusement, flicked his wrist in a shooing motion as if to tell him to turn around. Which Makio did, managing to look like he was combing down his hair while executing a perfectly timed heel spin that would have made any idol group envious.
And, for what it was worth, Sakurakoji Jun gave an approving thumbs up when he finally stopped turning. Sakurakoji smiled, the kind of shy grin Makio remembered looking at quizzically when they first met, wondering if something was wrong in his head. Standing near Mikio, it looked like he had adopted his upperclassman’s wardrobe sense of collared shirts and questionable manly attire.
Next to Sakurakoji, Umemura Hikari was hiding a smile behind her hand. She had grown up from the girl in pigtails and St. Agnes uniform, Makio thought. Now her hair was pulled up in a modest bun, with her bangs spaced out to show more of her face. She aged well, and looked like she had become more mature than he could ever hope to aspire to be.
“U-u-u-u-u-ume-ume-me-mura-san,” the third boss sputtered like a smitten schoolboy.
“Hi Makky!” Sakurakoji quipped, as if no time at all had passed.
“It’s all right to use ‘Hikari,’” Umemura added demurely as she nudged Sakurkoji for taking too much enjoyment out of their friend’s awkwardness. “It’s been a while since Minami-sensei’s class, and...I don’t mind.”
“Makky, aren’t you glad to see us?”
“Sa-sakura-something.”
Sakurakoji made a tsk-ing sound. “All this time and you still don’t call me by my full name. I know you didn’t forget. Mikio-sempai told us how you keep asking about us.”
“Inconspicuous eh?!” Makio shot a venomous look to his younger brother, the kind where he bared his teeth like a very angry dog that hoped his prey would take a hint and just submit to thrashing with little trouble.
Mikio replied by backing to the hallway, calling out from behind him. “I’ll let you all get reacquainted. I’m sure there are many things you all want to talk about. Let’s give them some privacy, Kazu.”
From the bookcase slinked the yakuza henchman, and confident of Makio. Kazu nodded perfunctorily at them before rushing to catch up and leave with Mikio. The faint cursing of “I’ll crush ‘em” and “who calls a thirty-four year old mob boss ‘Makky’?!” following them out.
When the finished and silence once again reigned, Umemura said, “It’s nice to see Kazu is doing so well.”
“...ah, yeah,” said Makio.
“How have you been with...everything?”
Now that they were alone Makio felt like he could relax a little and tried to smile as non-threateningly as possible. “Ah, not much. These Kankura punks started some trouble at one of our clubs but we totally cru—uuuuuuuuuh,” the look on Umemura’s face caught him and he swallowed hard. “I read this, uh, book. It was about some extended family and it reminded me of you. The big sister was always taking care of people.” He didn’t add that it was translated from an Italian mob story but he figured she wouldn’t need to know that.
“I’m glad.”
A look passed between Sakurakoji and Umemura. It made Makio wonder what happened in the seven years he spent only looking at them from a distance. “How’ve you two been doing?”
Sakurakoji fidgeted. “I asked Hikari to be my fiancée.”
The yakuza boss blinked in surprise, a small twitch of his brows before he nodded slowly. “So you finally recognized your feelings?”
“I turned him down,” Umemura continued, brushing her bangs back. “Because even if I finally recognized how he felt about me, he hasn’t recognized his feelings.”
Makio blinked. A mixed feeling of relief and dismay washed over him, although he didn’t know why. On one hand he still wanted to think he had a chance with Umemura, as stupid and improbable as that may be given she was a nurturing, caring, pacifist girl that wouldn’t harm anyone while he was...a yakuza boss. If she got married to someone that would be the end of even wishful thinking. And still, he should be happy if his two close friends got together. Oh if she finally ended up falling in love with Sakura-something and he hurt her, Makio would be there to set him straight! But on the other hand if he did propose and she refused him...that would mean...he would have to set her straight on Sakura-something’s behalf? Did Sakura-something have some kind of honor he should be defending?
High school relationships were way too complicated.
While Makio was trying to figure out what he should do by imagining each possibility in his head, Umemura grabbed Sakurakoji’s hand and pulled them both forward.
“Back then, everyone thought the one you had a crush on was Sakaki-kun. So when you told me that you had feelings for me at graduation I was surprised. I liked Sakaki-kun, but I didn’t see you as a rival. Even if you seemed closer, and you were the one he turned to about problems. ‘Makky’ this and ‘Makky’ that. Then I thought ‘Oh, I get it now.’ That I was the one who didn’t notice it because you kept that from me, so maybe I was wrong.
“But you do like Sakaki-kun. Like I like Sakaki-kun. You always did,” Umemura said softly, and Sakurakoji’s eyes focused on the tile as if it was the most interesting physics equation he had ever seen. “And I know you like me, Jun. You’re too smart to say you do when you don’t mean it like that but...I can’t marry you when we both have something like that holding us back, even after all this time.”
Makio was silent, still mostly trying to figure out what he should be feeling about the rejected marriage. He had decided most definitely that if he couldn’t use violence he could at throw them a bachelor party together. Side by side, yeah that might work if he got the girls...
Sakurakoji waved a hand in front of his face. “Did you hear what she said Makky?”
“Oh! This about a rivalry!” he perked up, ears catching the only word that really stood out. “Right?”
They both sighed. “Makky!” “Sakaki-kun!”
“Jeeze, if I’d known there’d be a test I’d think Iron Face woulda shown for this reunion,” Makio whined petulantly, completely ruining the image of his mob boss form with the dark three piece and the slicked back hair. “So me ‘n Sakura-something like you!”
“And Hikari and I both like you!” Sakurakoji shouted.
“...uh.”
“I can’t believe neither of you noticed. Sakaki-kun it makes sense, maybe...”
“Hey!” they both shouted in protest.
Umemura laughed. “This isn’t how I thought it would go.”
“Hikari...” Sakurakoji murmured, “If I knew how to make it simpler...”
“Simple? My head hurt when it was just one midget knocking around in there,” Makio said. “Now you’re telling me it’s two and they’re skipping around in there, probably getting bonus levels.”
“...”
“Basically we came here to tell you,” Umemura continued with folded hands. “We thought you should know. No matter what happens...”
“So you let me know. Now stop being stupid and go get married.”
“That’s way too harsh!” Sakurakoji rejoined. “Makky, listen to what we’re saying.”
“I’m not picking one over the other, you hear me! I may not be the smartest guy in the world but I don’t do that kind of crap—er, stuff. Sorry. It’s not a choice. You or her, boss or student. Maybe I would if I thought I could do the right thing by having...”
“Sakaki-kun?” Umemura asked as she saw the older man’s eyes glaze over like when he had an epiphany. Perhaps a little fearful since the last time he did there were cymbal accidents and ‘Oh Happy Day’ remained impossible to get out of your head once it was stuck there.
“One, two, three,” Sakaki Makio counted, holding up his fingers.
The two twenty-four year olds tried their best to see where this was going.
“Having both! Triangle!”
“Does this make sense to you?” Umemura asked Sakurakoji.
“I’m still shocked he took the ‘I like boys’ sometimes thing in stride.”
“It’s a little obvious, Jun.”
“...”
Meanwhile, Makio had taken out a sheet of the prefecture and drawn a triangle on it in deep black marker. This defacing was all right, considering there were no pictures of pretty women in the way and nobody thought koban systems were sexy. He finished writing their names out with a flourish (Umemura, Sakaki, Sakura-whatsit) at each point and stood back to admire his work.
“Um, what’s that supposed to be?” Umemura asked, pointing at her name.
“A simple solution!”
“…ah.”
“I finally get it,” Makio continued. “Sakura-something, Umemura-san, and me. It’s just adding one more if everybody agrees. Really simple eh!”
“You like me back, Makky?”
“One problem at a time or I’ll get distracted...”
“Relationships aren’t like addition,” Umemura said.
“Maybe he has a point, maybe this is the experiment. And we should at least try, Hikari. You kept saying if we just went forward without telling him there’d always be this uncertainty...”
“See? Sakurakoji agrees with me!”
“You said my name right, Makky!”
Umemura sighed, wondering how on earth she could follow Makio’s well-meaning but utterly tortured logic. Maybe it was yakuza logic the way he seemed to deal with girls when she heard about it from Hoshino. But, Umemura reminded herself, Makio was also the kind of person to let himself be hurt just to ease her conscience. Even if this was going to blow up in their faces, he would do his best to make sure he protected their feelings first. “Just a date first then. Go slow. If you don’t think that’ll be a problem Sakaki-kun.”
The yakuza boss grinned impishly in a way that made him seem just as young as they were. “Of course...Hikari-san. And, um, it’s okay if you call me Makky too.”
Umemura tried hard not to laugh. “We’ll see. Makky.”
“Come on then, Maa-chan. Where’s the first date going to be? You know we can finally drink alcohol!”
“What’s with this Maa-chan shit. You always gotta one up the girls in the cutesy names, don’t you? Hey!”
Umemura sighed and grabbed each of their hands in her own, squeezing them for emphasis. “No matter what happens we stay friends, okay?”
“Of course,” Sakurakoji said.
“My word as a boss,” said Makio. He knew it would come through, even if there were some problems. Nothing the great Sakaki ‘the Tornado’ Makio couldn’t handle. After all, this was quite possible the smartest idea he would ever have in life.