Chapter Text
“Jesus, dude, what’s in this-” Kaoru Sakurayashiki groaned, dropping a box that he had been holding down on to the floor with a soft, but not that quiet, thud. They’d been moving boxes upstairs to Oka Shokichi, the new manager of Dope Sketch’s, new office for about a week, and had finally gotten the last ones upstairs.
Yet, Oka just chuckled, sighing as he placed down their celebration pizza boxes on the desk and opened the lid, watching Kaoru drift over magnetically. “I asked if you were okay to take that one when you grabbed it downstairs, don’t go complaining now.”
“Yeah yeah...” Kaoru just scoffed, not daring glance over, knowing he was being smirked at for being sour over a decision he himself had made. “I’m just glad we are done here.” He nodded with a calm smile, pushing himself to sit on the desk next to the open pizza boxes and reaching for a slice.
And Oka just followed, giving a small agreeing hum but otherwise allowing them both to tuck into the well-deserved food break before they would have to begin decorating and unpacking the masses of boxes.
Kaoru was probably his closest friend right now, ironic based on the guy’s popular (but often for wrong reasons) social status, as well as being two years younger than Oka himself. He had begun working in Dope Sketch with Oka last year, after finishing high school, Kojiro had left for university in Italy, and Kaoru himself needed to figure out what came next on his side.
Naturally, this had led the two of them to get closer, spending most of their free time with one another, until Shokichi’s father, owner and previous manager, landed himself in the hospital. He’d gotten sick - bad and fast. Shokichi spent a lot of his time in the hospital because of that. Other times he’d spent quiet nights with Kaoru, not wanting to sit in his lonely house where it used to be just him and his father.
However, since this event had led Oka to becoming the new manager earlier than already intended, he, of course, was dragging Kaoru to help.
.
“So uh-” Kaoru finally spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence, the remnants of pizza muffling his words. Yet all the same, he glanced over to Oka’s general direction, taking in the cluttered-yet-empty room around them as he did, before he swallowed the remaining food down and sighed, eyes soft, but trying to not push the boundaries too much. It’s not like Oka wanted hard sympathy, that was just awkward. But they were still friends; it felt wrong to say nothing “How are you holding up? With the whole-” he paused, gritting his teeth, the uncertainty on where to go from here eating at him. Feelings weren’t exactly his strong suit, and even if him and Oka shared deep conversations, this felt like uncharted territory. “...Dad-in-the-hospital-taking-over-as-manager... thing?-”
Right. Just rip it off like a band-aid. It’s fine.
But all Oka responded with was a low, soft chuckle, giving Kaoru an amused, but still gentle and caring glance, “Don’t force it, Kaoru. I know shit like this isn’t exactly your expertise.” He started off with a sigh, watching as the other boy visibly relaxed the moment he mentioned it.
Despite the teasing nature behind his comment, Oka had meant it. Kaoru didn’t need to force concern to prove he gave a damn.
Kaoru wouldn’t be here if he didn't care; that was more than enough for Oka.
“It’s weird.” he started again very matter-of-factly, cutting back in when he saw the confusion take over Kaoru’s rather expressionate face, he hadn’t answered the guy’s question yet, “...but... I’m handling it. My dad’s getting there, slowly, but definitely will still need rest when he comes home.” There wasn’t much point in pushing them deeper into territory that they both knew neither were fully ready for - this was just enough to put Kaoru at ease, not that they wouldn’t still be spending most nights with each other either way. If a conversation needed to be had, they would get there eventually.
Yet, Kaoru still seemed to be in disbelief, giving an accusatory glare at Oka.
One that said exactly how he hadn’t faith that Oka truly was "handling it”.
Of course he didn’t, especially when the conversation always swayed to how his dad was doing rather than how Oka himself was holding up.
Yet, instead of ignoring that queue, Oka let out a sigh, laced with a gentle laugh and smirked at Kaoru, giving him a small jab to take his mind off of this mess. “However... officially becoming your manager is certainly helping.”
Bingo.
The smile Kaoru tried to fight off was plenty evident enough they were still on the right terms with each other.
“I hate you-”
Even if he refused to admit it.
“You really don’t.”
.
.
.
“Hey, uh, by the way- do you mind if I take more shifts up front when we re-open next week?” Kaoru hadn’t been able to keep his mouth shut, he was hoping to not mention this until closer to the time, but the silence had gotten to him, desires getting ahead of logic.
But Oka wasn’t as quick to agree as he anticipated. Instead, a glare of suspicion immediately hitting Kaoru. “Don’t you... hate dealing with people? The front is literally straight shifts of customer service, and it’s going to be even busier than normal since we’ve been closed for a month.” In the year he’d been working with Kaoru, never once had he once seen him willingly working up front. If anything, he’d seen his dad practically needing to drag the boy, or even bargain extra pay, just to get him to leave his comfortable backroom of power tools and heavy metal music.
The again, Kaoru was always a bit more considerate to Shokichi himself, rather than his father.
Not that this seemed merely considerate.
“Oh come on, dude! Have some faith!” Kaoru had immediately snapped back, but in reality, Oka knew something was up, and Kaoru knew Oka knew. He just had to play it off with some humorous scoffs and teases. “Maybe I’ll surprise you-”
“Right...” Oka sighed out, giving the latter a small, soft but still amused smile, caving quickly. “Whatever, sure, but I’ll be putting you up front for at least the first week, not just a day, if that changes anything. Honestly, I’d rather this way, it lets everything settle back down - and honestly, I just don’t need the hundreds of conversations a day where people feel they have to push forced sympathy onto me, given everything that’s going on right now.”
“And I'm the one bad with people?” Kaoru teased, trying to take the edge off of the obviously painful conversation he had accidentally led them into, watching as Oka managed to scoff out a small laugh before finishing off his statement. “But sure, the first week is fine by me.”