Chapter Text
Kento does his best to ignore it. He’d gone home, ignored the words that had imprinted on the forefront of his mind, ignored it as it kept him awake, and ignored it as he dreamed about it.
Seducing you.
Kento’s woken up by the sound of his phone softly buzzing and by the time he groggily grabs it, it’s already stopped. Kento’s not a light sleeper, but he hasn’t slept well, and if a text is enough to wake him up at an ungodly hour in the morning then that’s enough distraction to put his mind off the other day.
Haibara: Are you alive?? You haven’t responded to my texts!
Kento scrolls up. He finds another restaurant with overhanging plants indoors and a charming bar in the background where Haibara’s wife is enjoying her wine. Haibara has gotten tan and smiles into the camera. Below it is a caption: please come visit us soon!
In spite of himself, Kento smiles.
“I was out on Friday.” After some consideration, he sends another. “You know the usual wrap-up of the quarter is coming up. Taking time off would be tricky.”
It’s too early to be texting at six in the morning, but he’s awake so he may as well get up. The bed creaks and then he makes his way over to the bathroom. By the time he’s brushing his teeth, Haibara has already sent a text back.
Haibara: I’m glad you went out. Did you have a good time?
Kento spits into the sink. When he looks up into the mirror he finds that his face is tinged pink.
Seducing you.
What would Haibara even say? He’s younger than Kento by ten years, and they always got along great, but he’s not as young as Gojo and he doesn’t want him to get the wrong impression. Kento didn’t encourage this. Hell, he doesn’t know what to do with it. He stares at the text for too long, can feel his heart pulse in his throat, nervous even though he shouldn’t be. Haibara is his close friend, perhaps he could… But he disagrees with that idea as soon as it forms: Haibara wouldn’t be able to help, half a world away, and would only needlessly worry.
“It was alright. I’ve done my civic duty by showing up so they won’t bother me about it for a while.”
Kento just hopes that Gojo’s forgotten about it when Monday rolls around.
.
Monday does roll around and so does Gojo, casually strolling into his office before Kento has a chance to settle, taking up residence in the desk next to his and smiling brightly at him. “Good morning, Nanami-san!”
Nitta isn’t even here yet. Kento hasn’t even had coffee yet but then Gojo produces a steaming mug and sets it upon his desk, still smiling at him.
Kento hasn’t had time to process this. Warily, he takes the mug. “Thank you.”
“Did you have a good weekend?”
No, he thinks, I’ve been worried about the repercussions of your little stunt and wondering if you are yet another obstacle set in my path by Naobito. I wonder if you’re going to get me fired by acting indecent and blaming me.
He needs to have this conversation.
“Gojo-kun.” He says while Gojo’s slung over his chair again, arms resting on the backrest, long legs sprawled over the floor. Kento ignores the way he’s grinning at him, ignores the way it makes him feel caged when Gojo sits so close to him. “Friday night shouldn’t happen again.”
“What do you mean?”
Kento feels a vein throb. “You can’t keep saying such things to me, especially to me. I don’t want either of us to deal with whatever mess you’re creating, so please for both our sakes: keep it professional.”
For a second, nothing changes, but then Gojo cocks his head at him. “Why?”
Infuriating. It makes Kento’s hands itch because why is he like this and what has Kento done, ever, to deserve this situation? Hasn’t he always tried to be a good person, hasn’t he always tried to do his job properly? First there’s the cheating, then there was his best friend leaving, and now there is this. He wants it to stop, just so he can have a semblance of a life back where his life line isn’t used as a skipping rope by other people, making his pulse jump.
“What do you mean ‘why’? I’m your mentor. This isn’t appropriate.”
“If you’re worried you’d be taking advantage of me—”
Kento’s lurching forward and presses a flat hand against Gojo’s mouth, heart thumping in his throat, hissing; “Quiet. Who knows who’s listening in?”
Gojo gently pushes his hand away and laughs. “Nanami-san, it’s not even eight yet. Nitta won’t be here for another thirty minutes.”
Kento knows he’s right but it doesn’t stop the anxiety from sprawling, doesn’t stop his breathing from going quick and ragged. He doesn’t need this. “I told you already—”
“Nanami-san.” Gojo says sagely. “You’re going to burn your hand if you don’t put your mug down.” And then he simply takes the mug from Kento’s trembling hands, whether he’s anxious or furious Kento can’t even tell, and places it back down. “I’m not here to make life harder for you. I’m not going to run to Naoya or make up stories and I know that’s, like, hard for you to believe right now, but I mean that.”
“Then why—”
Gojo interrupts him before he can finish his thought. Again. “Because I am serious about one thing and with respect to our professional environment I will say only that I’ve already told you that Friday.”
Kento looks at him dumbfounded. Gojo only smiles. “So unless you have major objections, I’d like to get on with work now, please.”
Kento doesn’t even have a retort for him because it’s at exactly that moment that Nitta walks through the door.
“Morning, Nanami-san. Oh, Gojo-kun, you’re here early…”
Kento’s mind is spinning. It’s all he can do to take a sip of his coffee and realise instantly that this hasn’t come from the coffee machine further down the hall, but from the café next to their building.
Perfectly done.
While Gojo is chatting away with Nitta, he stares right at Kento and offers him another knowing smile.
Perfectly infuriating.
∞
“That’s incredibly stupid, actually.”
It’s eleven in the morning and Kento has decided, after his coffee, to at least familiarise Gojo with the protocol of dealing with other teams and requests. He has just finished pointing out their requests and QA-system when Gojo comes right out the gate with a different kind of nonsense. Kento sighs deeply. “What is it this time?”
“It’s overcomplicated. It’s archaic.” He is rapidly drumming his fingers on the desk. Kento is glad he was smart enough to book a separate meeting room so no one else overheard his office faux-pas. “I’m honestly just not going to do it.”
“How else do you expect Utahime-san to fulfil your requests?”
Gojo stares at him as if Kento’s the one who’s stupid. “She’s my coworker, it is much quicker if we schedule a weekly and go through the items as needed.”
“What about her other responsibilities? What about yours?” Kento shouldn’t even be entertaining this discussion. They have worked with this system since he has started working here and although it has seen a few updates, Gojo isn’t wrong in saying that it is slow and cumbersome. It is simply that this is the way things are done because there is no other alternative. It is the only way to keep track of the flow of incoming tasks and ensure a proper standard is being followed.
Ironically, Utahime seems to like it given the numerous tasks that have been colour-coded to her satisfaction. Kento had pulled it up on the big screen so Gojo could see what a typical workload looks like, but it seems that had been a mistake.
“There’s different planning systems if need be. Or at the very least—” He gets up and walks over to the screen. He’s pointing at several steps in the journey with added vigor. “We can cut these steps out.”
It’s not practical. It’s not how it’s done. Kento scowls without meaning to. “That is not how it works.”
“Ohhh, scary face.”
“You’ve only been here a week, you don’t even properly understand the systems which is why I am telling you that there is no alternative. We can’t just go ahead skipping important steps of the process because you simply think it takes too much time.”
“It can be done.” Gojo shoots back. “You’re just being a stubborn old man because you’ve been stuck doing the same thing for so long.”
That stings. Kento knows he’s old, likely stuck in his ways, but it’s still irksome to hear it from a twenty-something-year-old who has barely made any mileage within a company. Childishly, it makes him want to snap back ‘and yet you still wanted to seduce me?’ But that’s ridiculous because Kento has already made it very clear that that particular avenue is closed. “Do what you want.” He says icily. “But I will not be responsible for the fallout.”
Gojo looks legitimately startled.
“Nanami-san—”
Kento unplugs the cable from his laptop and the whole system disappears off screen while Gojo still stands next to it, worrying his lower lip between his teeth, eyebrows knit together. “I have another meeting.”
He leaves Gojo to the meeting room and lets the door fall shut quietly.
Gojo doesn’t follow him out.
∞
He’s not annoyed. That is what he tells himself twenty minutes later, clicking his pen for the tenth time in a row and getting a gentle elbow from Mei Mei, who manages to keep her face perfectly poised. Better her elbow than a sharp jab of her stiletto heel, Kento thinks, but he still finds it hard to put the pen down. He needs something to do with his hands, anything to keep them occupied, lest he starts leaving half-moons in his palms.
But he is annoyed. It’s not just unprofessional, it’s simply rude for a starter to tell a senior how to do their job. It’s the sheer nerve of him that Kento can’t stand because it only shows how Gojo has lived most of his life free of consequences and that Kento has been giving him too much leeway.
His Teams lights up.
1 new message.
As Toshihisa drones on in the background, Kento opens Teams.
Gojo Satoru: I left an apology on your desk. :(
What follows is a complex series of emoticons that Kento doesn’t understand nor does he want to. For a moment he aims to ignore the text, but he’s forgotten that he has never turned read receipts off and therefore he finds another message soon afterward.
Gojo Satoru: [picture attached]
It’s a sandwich. From the wrapping Kento can tell that it’s from the bakery across the street he sometimes gets lunch from and that act in itself makes him feel more exposed than necessary. First it was the mug, then there was the coffee order from this morning (though not his favourite, admittedly), and now he’s aware of the bakery Kento frequents, even though Gojo has respectfully kept his distance during lunch hours.
He can quickly see Gojo typing when he doesn’t respond and Mei Mei is already throwing him a curious look so Kento finds himself responding.
Kento: That was unnecessary.
Gojo: Ouch. I went out of my way, you know? I don’t want you to be mad at me.
Kento tries not to sigh.
Kento: You could have said you were sorry. That would have solved the issue.
Gojo is typing again. Kento has started tilting his laptop away from Mei Mei’s curious eyes.
Gojo: That would be too simple.
Kento: And yet you haven’t come up with such a simple solution. I thought you were top of your class?
Gojo: Oh you memorised my resume? I’m so flattered, Nanami-san. Here I thought you weren’t interested in me. (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
Kento has the urge to slam his laptop shut.
Kento: That was obnoxious. Never do that again.
Gojo: Do what again? These? (⸝⸝ᵕᴗᵕ⸝⸝)ﾉ♡ , ✧⁺⸜(●′▾‵●)⸝⁺✧, (｡•ㅅ•｡)♡
“What are your estimations for the next quarter, Nanami-san?”
They’re all looking at him. Mei Mei can barely keep the amusement from her face as she steeples her lacquered nails together, grin small but noticeable. It’s Toshihisa who looks at Kento expectantly and Kento struggles to find the relevant notes to answer the question. Estimations for what? Their finances? The workload? Even Nitta isn’t throwing him a bone, he’s sat in the corner and throws Kento a look of pity that feels too much like a brand of shame.
“I’m sorry, do you mean the budget approvals, the estimated spend or a guess at our workload?”
Toshihisa blinks at him.
“I was asking about risk management, Nanami-san.”
Fuck. He guessed wrong.
Mei Mei snorts and Kento resists giving her an elbow back. The back of his neck feels warm and he’s not sure whether he can keep the heat out of his face entirely. When he finds his voice again, it is measured and level, which is only through years of experience. Ten years ago he might have crumbled under the embarrassment. “Let me quickly gather my notes.” Gojo has sent him five more messages and the indignant anger he feels flares up again. He clicks away Teams and opens his notes. It shouldn’t bother him that Teams still flashes red in the background, as it ticks into six, seven, eight messages that Kento tries hard to ignore.
“The tax regulations are getting tighter in Q4 and these will affect our bottom line if we do not update our current practices. Our clients will move elsewhere if we’re too late anticipating these changes.” He drones on and he can feel the room relax, lulled by the boring statistics of client risk assessment and ensuring compliance by the end of the year. “So risk management for Q4 is being prepared in Q3.”
A few murmurs. Nodding.
Toshihisa moves on.
Mei Mei whispers. “Good save, Nanami-san. I’m sure Gojo-kun will be delighted hearing he distracted you from our quarterly.”
This time Kento does feel the heat in his face bloom.
∞
The wrapped sandwich is still on his desk by the time Kento returns but there is no sign of Gojo. He’s not sure whether he should be happy or not: part of him still feels like asking Gojo why he chose this bakery specifically and a part of him doesn’t want to see him after he got Kento distracted during an important meeting. Unwrapping the sandwich, Nitta finally walks into the office, carrying a stack of papers. He blinks at the sandwich. “Oh, did Gojo-kun get that for you?”
“Why?”
“Saw him making a mad dash to the lifts an hour ago as I was moving between meetings.”
“And your immediate assumption was that it was for me?”
This could be a problem.
Nitta grins sheepishly. “You looked kind of pissed off during the meeting, Nanami-san. We’ve been working together for some time now, you don’t really let your emotions get to you like that unless Gojo-kun did something to piss you off.”
Great. Gojo is now slowly chipping away at his professionalism. Kento looks at the sandwich and wonders if he should take a bite with Nitta watching him like this, amused.
“I think it’s a good thing though.”
“Excuse me?” Kento blinks.
“Well, Gojo-kun starting.” Nitta says, all smiles. As if the constant headaches Kento is suffering are somehow a good thing. “He really brightens the place up!”
“You mean he disturbs our work,” Kento says slowly. He doesn’t see any benefit to that: Gojo is, as was once again underscored this morning, argumentative and stubborn. He’s opinionated and lacks the social grace to understand it’s not his place. It makes work more difficult for Kento in trying to explain how things work around here when he is constantly met with ‘no, but what if—’. It’s exhausting. It steals time away from other projects for no real benefit other than to make him inch closer to the resolution that Naobito wants: for him to quit.
Not to speak of the Teams messages. What if IT reads them? Fuck.
“He’s got the energy to change things around, don’t you think?” No, Kento doesn’t think so. Kento wishes for things to remain exactly as they are so he can do his work with as little effort as possible and go home to his cooking and his books. “Besides,” Nitta gives him that same smile again. Conspirational. It makes him shiver. “You’ve been looking so lifeless lately until Gojo-kun came along.”
Electricity whips through Kento’s spine. “Nitta-kun, that’s not—”
“How’s the sandwich?”
Kento almost jumps out of his chair with how close Gojo suddenly appeared: it’s like he teleported just so he could whisper in Kento’s ear. It’s creepy. “What the fuck.”
“Oh you can curse too, huh, Nanami-san?” Gojo laughs. “That’s kind of hot.”
Kento pushes his chair back to create distance between them. His heart is pounding and he’s too aware of how closely Nitta is watching the pair of them, when he’s never held such an interest in Kento before. It feels too invasive even though this is just a sandwich and Gojo isn’t doing anything inappropriate. Yet.
It’s the yet that has him get up from the desk, grab his sandwich and walk out the door. When Gojo keeps standing there, dumbfounded, Kento says, “Come.”
Like a puppy, he follows, bounding up to Kento’s side and smiling brightly. “Does that mean you forgive me?”
Kento ignores that. Instead he makes his way down to the lift and says nothing until they are all the way outside, away from prying eyes and those who could overhear them. He directs Gojo to a bench and once again, he obediently sits down, looking up at Kento expectantly. Kento sighs, if only he were so easy to direct during his tireless work instructions. Once he’s sat down, Kento finally feels like he has a semblance of control, having the height advantage. It’s difficult to be an authority when the kid you’re mentoring is half a head taller than you.
“The sandwich.” Kento says plainly. “How did you know?”
“What do you mean?” Gojo replies innocently.
“Gojo-kun.”
“Well you never appear to eat lunch with anyone, so I got bored the other day.” Kento can already tell where this is going. “I noticed you going across the street and grabbing a sandwich there. You also just decided to stay there, people-watching I guess.” Gojo smiles at him. “You looked happier there than in the office.”
You’ve been looking so lifeless until Gojo-kun came along.
He shakes it off. “So you stalked me?”
“Well I wouldn’t call it stalking. Call it having an interest in my favourite person.”
This is starting to feel embarrassing.
Kento can't deny that he’s serious. It was easy at first: to pretend that Gojo was simply messing around, having fun at Kento’s expense, but if this was then he’s going through a lot of effort for a mere joke. It’s the coffee in the morning, prepared the way he likes it, from the café next door with the barista who runs it by herself. Then there’s the sandwich in his hands. It isn’t Kento’s favourite, but it is a close second, and that means Gojo even guessed correctly what he’d enjoy. He’s serious, but Kento just doesn’t understand.
He decides he needs to nip this in the bud. “Do you remember our conversation from this morning?”
“Well yeah but—”
“No. I don’t want another excuse.” Kento has to stand firm. “I need you to respect the office environment before other people start taking notice. I need you to delete the Teams messages before IT sees.”
“I honestly doubt that IT cares.”
“They can and will check these chats. I’d rather not have to explain your behaviour to HR.”
He doesn’t want to get Gojo in trouble. He’s young, he’s ignorant of appropriate workplace behaviour, but he doesn’t need to be punished for either of those two things. As infuriating as he can be, he has been interested in learning the ropes of the company, even if he wants to do it differently.
Kento would just rather not deal with his antics.
“Relax.” Gojo pats the bench next to him, guileless as ever. “I’m friends with the IT-guy, he doesn’t care.”
“You told him?”
Told him what exactly? Gojo’s strange obsession with an older man? The strange harassment? Kento hasn’t been at the servicedesk in over five years and he has no idea who mans the station now.
“Well.” Gojo says grandly and he pulls Kento’s wrist again for him to sit down, possessing a strength that startles Kento into following his lead. He then gets out his phone and holds it up to Kento, a blank contact info page blinking at him. “You could also just give me your number, so everything I say to you is off the record.”
Of course he tries again. It doesn’t matter how many times Kento tells him not to, he’s like a child that keeps asking why.
“Is that your scheme? I could report you for sexual harrassment.”
“Aw Nanami-san, don't be like that.” Gojo laughs. “You only just forgave me.”
“I never said I forgave you.”
“Well you’ve accepted my sandwich offering anyway and that’s good enough for me.”
Kento has decided to give up for the day. He bites into the sandwich and it is the one good moment of his day: it’s delicious. Crunchy karaage chicken and lettuce with sriracha mayonnaise. It makes him regret not picking it more often. Kento’s a creature of habit and has a tendency to just choose what is most convenient and he likes best.
“Good, huh?” Gojo’s face is smug. “One day I’ll make you look at me like that.”
Kento swallows a mouthful of sandwich before he chokes on it. “Like what?”
“Like you’re actually happy.”
This is the second time someone has called him miserable to his face today. This is the only time where it stings. “I’m happy.”
“No, you’re not.” Gojo tells him but it’s without heat or accusation. “You’re just going through the motions because you don’t expect anything better. The only reason you’re against Naoya’s dad is because you don’t want to uproot your life, but you could easily find another, better job.” He pointedly stares at Kento’s wedding ring and Kento resists the urge to hide it beneath the sandwich wrapper. “You’re not married anymore, are you?”
Kento flushes red. It’s anger this time, not embarrassment. “That’s none of your business.”
Does he know? Has he asked that too?
It would be too much if Gojo knew about the biggest humiliation of all: the failure of his marriage, his duties as a husband, how he hadn’t known. How stupid he’d felt, how stupid he still feels whenever he thinks about it, because how could he have not known? It’s not as if it was the first time someone cheated on him, so why would he have missed the signs? Nothing has felt the same after that.
“You never talk about a wife.” Gojo says. His voice is neutral, not a drop of pity or derision in there, and it is the normality with which he speaks that ceases Kento’s heart to pulse right inside of his throat. “I just guessed, Nanami-san.”
And you confirmed it, goes unsaid.
“How observant of you.” Kento snips at him. “Any more personal details about my life you want to share with me?”
“Does it bother you to be seen?” Gojo asks and he’s sitting too close, his thigh pressing heat into Kento’s and it’s already such a warm day today. Summer has never been his favourite period. Perhaps that’s why his face feels so warm, why his pulse jumps. Or perhaps, Gojo’s right and Kento hates him for it. “Do you hate it when people take an interest in you? I like you, Nanami-san. There’s nothing wrong with getting to know your likes and dislikes.”
“What if I dislike that?” Kento bites back. His sandwich has already finished and Kento hates how trying something new was better than the option he has chosen so many times before out of convenience. “I don’t know you like that. You’re about twenty years younger than me and a brat besides.”
Gojo is not deterred. “But I want to know you like that. I told you that already.”
He doesn’t respond to the age gap, of course he doesn’t. He doesn’t even realise what it means for an old man like Kento to be seen with a boy his age, the amount of gossip it would start even outside of the office, even if they weren’t two men, two coworkers, a mentor and mentee. There is not a single strand of Kento’s DNA that would ever consider it. It’s ludicrous. There is no baseline for them to get to know each other on anything more than a superficial level because Kento isn’t a creep.
“No,” is all that he can muster up.
“Why?” Gojo challenges. “Don’t give me some stupid reason like how I’m younger than you and I’m your mentee, because you already told me that and I don’t care. The former is laughably stupid and the latter I already promised I’d be careful with. So what’s your objection this time?”
“I’m not a creepy old man, Gojo-kun.”
“Why would you be creepy? I’m pursuing you. I’m interested in you.”
“Why?” Kento counters sharply. “Because I’m hot?”
Even saying it out loud feels ludicrous. Kento isn’t hot, isn’t attractive in that sense. It’s why he couldn’t even blame his ex for cheating on him. He can’t fathom a boy like Gojo, looking the way he does, treating this as anything more than a mockery. But Friday, loathe as he is to admit it, showed differently. Felt differently.
Which is why he has to protect both of them from here on out. He can’t be made out to be a laughing stock being seduced by a twenty-one-year-old.
“Sure, because you’re hot.” His eyes flash and the heat of his words bleeds through Kento’s skin. It is the first time Kento has heard him sound so annoyed and includes the brawl with Utahime. “Even though I know you don’t believe me, just so you can throw it in my face. I’ll have you know I have immaculate taste, but whatever. It’s not just because you’re hot, Nanami-san. It’s because I want to get to know you beyond being hot.”
Kento is unable to give a proper response. None of this has ever happened to him before and so he doesn’t have experience to rely on, a gentle rebuke or a soft rejection. It takes a moment to realise that he’s feeling clammy because he’s embarrassed, not because he’s feeling irritated or disgusted. He crumples up the sandwich wrapping because he doesn’t know what to do with his hands and he tries to come up with a response that doesn’t feel woefully inadequate. But just as he opens his mouth, Gojo beats him to it.
“All I ask, Nanami-san, is that you simply let me get to know you. I’m not even asking for a chance, just don’t stop my every attempt to be nice to you.” He says and his voice is gentler this time. He takes the wrapping out of Kento’s hands and pushes it into his pocket to throw away later. “You do deserve someone being nice to you. Not everyone is like Zenin Naobito, I know that other people like you too.”
Kento feels stripped down to his core. It’s as uncomfortable as the heat pricking his neck.
Gojo gets up and he holds out a hand for Nanami to grab. He doesn’t even think about it when he takes it, trying to settle the embarrassment at being caught out by a boy twenty years his junior, when Gojo says;
“So when were you gonna tell me it’s your birthday tomorrow?”
∞
He has conceded his phone number. At first it had felt like a small humiliation all on its own, but that ended when Gojo beamed at him. He had insisted he wanted the number so he could at least wish him a happy birthday and had sounded so serious about it that Kento, who hasn’t been able to come up with any good excuse so far, hadn’t been able to deny him. It’s ridiculous. He doesn’t really celebrate his birthday and it’s on a Tuesday besides. Forty-six is the number he’s given Gojo when he asked, casually, in the lift how old he was getting.
Maybe he’d said it on purpose: just to make him realise the gravity of his youthful mistakes.
Gojo had only laughed. “Aging like a fine wine.”
Kento’s neck was still feeling heated when he finally entered their office and it had nothing to do with the heat from outside.
He actually manages to get a decent amount of work done by the time Utahime appears in his office again and Kento sighs and privately says goodbye to an early end of his day.
“I’m just wondering,” she starts, fury bleeding through her tone. “Why a finance head is telling Gojo it’s my job to write?”
Kento blinks at her. “Excuse me?”
“Tell me why Gojo is telling me that it’s my job to write ads and not his.”
Outside of the very passionate speech outside of their office, Gojo still appears to be Gojo. Which of his words has he misconstrued this time to his own benefit? It takes him a moment to collect his thoughts as she stands there tapping her foot impatiently. It finally dawns on him.
“Is this about some new ads?”
He had finally read up on the other Teams messages and none were so incriminating as the ones that went before it. Gojo had mentioned that he was finally going to run some ads now that he had gained access to several platforms.
“Obviously.”
“I told him that it would be rude not to inform you if he was going to write ads himself.”
Utahime visibly deflates. “Oh.”
“I apologise for his single-track mind and his lack of reading comprehension.”
In the few hours since lunch, Kento had told him explicitly that because Utahime had been there for longer than he had been, that writing ads was her job, and it would be rude to assume that he could do a better job. He had told him to ask Utahime politely if he could try his hand at the ads himself without overstepping.
Seems that this backfired.
He sighs. “Tell Gojo-kun to come to my office.”
That seems to appease her. “Sure. Thank you, Nanami-san.” She bows awkwardly, no doubt feeling the embarrassment of accusing her senior without proper evidence. She makes herself scarce soon after.
Nitta lets out a snicker. “See, I told you the office has become livelier since Gojo-kun joined the team.”
Kento sighs deeply. “If this is your form of entertainment, Nitta-kun, then I am questioning your sense of judgement.”
It takes Gojo a good fifteen minutes to show up and by the time he does, Kento’s patience has been worn thinner. It’s thirty minutes to five and perhaps Gojo knows that because he grins at Kento sheepishly. “You called?”
Kento doesn’t mean to scold him in front of Nitta, so he nods for him to leave. Nitta, though clearly disappointed, gets up from his desk and leaves the room to get coffee, the door gently closed after him.
“You know very well what you did, so I would like to offer you a chance to explain.” Kento says patiently. “I have already heard one side of the story and I know very well what I told you over chat. I believe you have misconstrued my words on purpose so I want to understand why.”
I thought you’d be responsible is something he will reserve for later.
Gojo has the grace to look embarrassed. “I didn’t think she’d end up going to you.”
“Clearly.” Kento says. His gaze doesn’t stray and remains firmly affixed on Gojo’s face. It’s immensely satisfying to watch him squirm beneath it and it might even be worth going home later for. The question is, why? Gojo has discarded his instructions before. Kento has absolutely scolded him before, but it hadn’t triggered the nervous reaction he sees playing out before him.
Curious.
“Well I wanted to create the ads myself, like you said, but Utahime immediately started meddling—”
“What is the other thing I had told you?” Kento asks patiently.
“Well—”
“I believe I told you that you had to tell her before doing it. I also think it wouldn’t be unwise to let her check the work after you were done, after all she’s the content person and you’re—”
“A growth marketer.”
“—Doing ads.” Kento finishes. “Twisting my words to fire back at her reflects poorly on me. This is why I tried to tell you this morning that you can’t just throw out the entire QA-process because doing so will get back to Zenin Naobito-san and have consequences for me. Do you understand?”
Gojo visibly swallows. “Yes, Nanami-san.”
“Will you follow my instructions from now on?”
“I’ll try. At least like— to not embarrass you. But if I can change the process without it reflecting poorly on you, then I definitely will.”
Kento sighs. “I suppose that’s as much as I am going to get out of you. Don’t do it again.”
To no one’s surprise, Gojo isn’t leaving. He comes closer and places both hands on Kento’s desk, leaning in until Kento catches a whiff of his cologne. It’s aquatic, fresh, like calling him to shore and Kento slaps himself mentally for making note of it. All it says is that Gojo is too close, but Kento does not want to relinquish his space by moving away.
“What are you doing after work tomorrow?”
That comes wholly unexpected. “Don’t tell me you made Utahime angry just to ask me that question.”
“No, no. I could have asked you over text, remember.” How could Kento forget. “This is just me making the most out of the situation.”
“It’s a Tuesday, I’m not doing anything.”
As soon as he’s said it, he realises that it’s a mistake when Gojo starts grinning at him. Kento should have known better than to indulge him, but it is too late to take it back now.
“So let me take you out.” Gojo says brightly. “It’ll be fun.”
Nitta can return at any moment. “You’d promised that you wouldn’t do this at work.”
Great, now it sounds even more illicit than usual. Gojo cackles. “You’re right, I did promise. But can I just mention that it sounded way more inappropriate when you say it like that?”
He finally steps away from the desk and winks at Kento. “I’ll text you then.”
“You can, but I can’t promise anything.”
“Oh trust me, Nanami-san. I’m not taking no for an answer.”
Fuck.