Rumors

"*sigh*"

"Twenty-three," Jun said not lifting his head from the papers he was reading.

"Pardon?" Iori inquired 

"That was the twenty-third sigh you made since we started this meeting an hour ago. Do you hate working with me that much?" Jun said with a smile looking up at her and Iori fought the urge to say some witty comeback that would throw them into an eternal word spare that will never end unless one of their editors tried came along.

Iori sighed again and then realizing what she did she looked up at him,

"Twenty-four..." He said

"Ugh, stop counting my sighs, will you? It's unnerving,"

"Well, it's better than suffering through them for another two hours without having any alternative to divert me from your clear disinterest in what we're doing..."Jun retorted

"I am not disinterested," Iori said defensively

"Oh? Could've fooled me..."

"I really am not. I'm actually looking forward to starting this project. I just..." Iori stopped not wanting to disclose anything to her annoying partner.

She had been like this since she talked with her brother about her contract the previous day. When they went over it again, they discovered that the contract she signed had this very disturbing clause to it.

It entailed that she had no say about the marketing means the company uses to promote her book. and gives them the liberty to promote her image as they see fit. Her brother had told her in no uncertain way that the president had the right to spread a rumor that she was dating Jun Kamokoi if it was going to promote her book. The only relief she'd felt back then was when Haruki had assured her that the president didn't have the right to force her to live with anyone of she doesn't wish to.

Back when she'd first signed the contract with the president, she had her own conditions that he had unconditionally accepted and respected so she'd overlooked the weird cause in the contract. Giving him full reign with marketing had been the smartest choice because the amount of work he had to do in order to reshape her image and bring her back to life in the publishing world had been tremendous. 

Iori had nothing left back then and he was the one who gave her back the most important thing in her life. Her writing. She knew that this clause was there solely for her because it was the only way to help her back then. But, she didn't put it past that old man to use it to his own advantage now. In fact, she was sure that he was already planning something in the shadows.

Usually, Iori didn't fear rumors, she was beyond that, really. But, she did not like the idea of being manipulated into posing as a lover to the infamous playboy Casanova of the century. Rather than not wanting to be misunderstood, the was a question of pride, and her pride is very close to the edge when it came to this one.

"Say, Jun. Do you dislike rumors?" She asked wondering what he would think of president Satoru's scheme.

"Not particularly..." He answered looking back up from the plotline he had been reading, "Speaking of rumors, did you hear what the little birds are saying about us?" He said with a crooked smile clearly amused.

"Don't tell. Let me guess!" Iori said making a show out of it, "Oh!" she exclaimed with a wry smile

"Yepp, apparently the wedding is around the corner..." 

"Wow, we got that far,"

"And to think that we didn't even realize it ourselves, how interesting."

"As expected from Satoru-san he works fast..."

"yeah..." Jun responded leaning forward, " How come you call the old man by his first name? I mean, are you two that close?"

"Oh, it's a long story. He kind of scouted me and forcibly dragged me to write for his company. I earned the right to call him by his name in the process..." Jun said not willing to go too deep into the past, "How about you? Why do you call him 'Old man'?"

"Well, that's because he's an old man," Jun responded with a snarky smile avoiding her eyes.

"No, Not that. You're usually all charm and charisma. but when it comes to him, you kind of... hmm I don't know, become another person. I mean you wouldn't be caught dead using that language with another person..."

"Ugh, well" Jun started rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, "The old man just rubs me the wrong way..."

"Well, he kind of does that with everyone..." Iori said sarcastically

"Yeah, well, It doesn't help that I've known him since forever..." Jun said with a sigh leaning back in his seat.

"You mean he's some kind of relative?"

"Yeah, something like that..." Jun said a wry smile on his lips, "It had always been like that between us so I guess old habits die hard,"

Iori watched as Jun almost reddened with embarrassment, it was such a rare sight, an honest display of his real self that she rarely gets to see that she kept eying him lost in her thoughts.

"You know, It won't help those rumors die down if you keep watching me like that..." Jun said with a smirk and this time Iori wanted to smash her own head.

"Yeah, not that it would make any difference for you," Iori said

"You're right. Rumors are something that's always circulated around me, but, something about the idea that the old man getting what he wanted and manipulating us just pisses me off," Jun said 

"Yeah, don't I get it..." Iori said wryly, " It's not like he can force us to live together or anything like that. That was probably just a bluff coming from him to rile us up," Iori commented

"I wonder about that. That Old man is really unpredictable. He's the kind of person who would do something completely insane just to say something like 'I'm living up to your expectations,' or something like 'ha, did you think that I wouldn't do it?'"

"You really do know him well," Iori said chuckling at the mental image Jun had just conjured to her and. Indeed the president was THAT kind of person, but living together was something that he will never persuade her of doing. Some things were just out of his power and hers...

"The fact that we will be meeting regularly is probably going to help out with that. Not to mention our meeting place choice," Jun commented

"Yeah, I bet luxury restaurants with private room tend to give the wrong impression,"

Both of them chuckled at the realization that they had both been playing right into his hands all along,

"Tha sneaky old geezer," Jun said hopelessly shaking his head

" Yeah, tell me about it..." Iori said wiping the tears in her eyes, 

"What do you want to do from now on? Meet at the company? Or try to find a more private venue to avoid any problems. Because it's not like we have the right to tell them the truth if we were to be cornered by the media," Jun said

Neither of them had the right to reveal anything about their collaboration of the book until the company releases an official announcement. Their contracts included that kind of clause too. So even if someone was to ask them why they were meeting frequently, they wouldn't be able to say that it was for work. The crafty president knew what he was doing...

"Meeting at the company would be more like stepping right into his chessboard. And trying to sneak in and out of our meetings can backfire on us because that way it would seem more suspicious and if discovered could lead to a bigger misunderstanding. My guess is that both our editors inform the president of our meeting places and times since they're the ones arranging them for us. But, what if we arrange our meetings without going through them?" 

"That might work... Hiding in plain sight as they say..." Jun nodded

"we still have tomorrow's meeting arranged by them, but starting then we can control our situation better..." 

"Yeah, that's sensible. It would give the old man some hard time too. He would eventually find another way of tracking us though. He's like that..."

"Well, if we speed up the making a plot we can demand a permanent official workplace at the company where we can meet regularly..."

"We will have to hang on until them..." Jun said standing up and stretching out before looking at her with a spirited smile and a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"I like that. We're going to make that old man have a hell of a time trying to keep up with the two of us," He said gleaming with excitement like a little boy.

Iori chuckled thinking that he really could be a child beneath that playboy surface.

"What? why did you laugh?" Jun asked eying her

"Well, I was just thinking that you must really want to have it out with the president..." She said

"You have no idea..." Jun said with a smirk.