My Rental Boyfriend Is My Boss?! - Chapter 24

Chapter 24. Gap Moe

The crisp morning sun streamed through the curtains and hit Michiru’s eyes.

It was dazzling. It was also hot. She managed to open her shifty eye lids and looked at the man sitting upright in front of her.

“I’m sorry.”

He held in both hands the mug of coffee that Michiru had made earlier. She had prepared milk for his own cup as he planned to go to sleep later, but the smell of coffee, even from this distance, naturally made her head clear.

“No, I’m fine. I mean, it was my fault to begin with.”

“I took up the whole bed.”

“Well, don’t worry about it. I was the one who gave you a lift before, so I guess it’s mutual.”

“… Speaking of which, where did you sleep?”

Kamijemori looks around the room as if he had suddenly realised something.

It’s not a very large room for a single person to live in. There was no such thing as a sofa, and he wondered why he hadn’t seen it before.

Michiru groaned.

“You don’t mean… on the floor?

“No, uh… don’t you remember that?”

When Michiru stammered, Kamijemori tilted his head suspiciously. He also seemed to be the type of person who lost his memory when he got drunk.

‘I shouldn’t tell him about the conversation we had in the pub and in bed, right?’

Michiru was wondering how Kamijemori would react if he heard about it when he was in his right mind, but she decided to keep quiet because she would probably explode and not be able to face him at work.

“After I brought you home, I put you to bed and I got ready for bed.”

“Yeah.”

“Then I came back, thinking about where to sleep, and you were awake.”

“Yeah?”

“You spent the rest of the morning going over the correlation between the Denny characters and their descriptions and episodes.”

“… Huh?”

“I managed to slip away and go to the toilet, and when I came back, you were asleep, so I fell asleep next to you, thinking it didn’t matter any more. That was about two hours ago.”

“Oh, there’s a note on the table…”

Kamijemori looked at the papers scattered on the small desk, as if he was satisfied.

“I thought you were looking forward to going to Dennyland and had done some prep work.”

“Isn’t that your handwriting?”

“I was just wondering.”

Michiru nodded and took a sip of her coffee.

“I’m really sorry about that. I’m sorry for the trouble I caused you and for showing you my weird side.”

“It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s just that I knew you liked the character.”

Michiru murmured to the awkward-looking Kamijemori.

“Did you know that?”

In fact, if he thought he had hidden the day well yesterday, he was too naive. Michiru was surprised to see Kamijemori looking so surprised, and she couldn’t help but blurt it out.

“No, I get it. It’s called ‘gap moe’*.”

“I didn’t know, but… that’s not really something I would tell anyone at work about.”

“I won’t tell them. But I don’t think there’s any need to hide it.”

Kamijemori looked at Michiru as if he was looking at something more puzzling.

“It is normal for men to like pretty and sweet things nowadays. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, I saw you talking about it enthusiastically yesterday. It’s so precious to like something with that much passion, isn’t it?”

Michiru didn’t have many things she could talk about with that much enthusiasm, except for the children’s books she used to love.

Last night, Kamijemori’s eyes were shining as he spoke with great enthusiasm. Michiru could tell that he really liked them. The fact that Michiru, who had no interest in characters at all, was able to listen to him all night was undoubtedly due to the depth of his love for them. Otherwise, she must have fallen asleep quickly.

“But you really wanted to hide this from me, didn’t you?”

Michiru apologized in a small voice.

The story she heard last night about Kamijemori’s personal life was probably told because he was drunk. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have told her how he came to like the character, and the accompanying story about his parents’ home.

At first, Michiru thought that if he didn’t remember, she would just pretend that she hadn’t heard. But when Michiru saw him talking so enthusiastically, she wanted to tell him.

Michiru wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to hide his passion from her at least. She wanted him to know that no one should suppress his feelings and deny them, as a man of a samurai family should.

Michiru wondered if her feelings had been conveyed to him. Kamijemori was silent for a while, then drank the rest of his coffee in one gulp and stood up.

“I’d like to thank you. Thank you for… taking care of me.”

“Oh… yes.”

“I’ll let the office know that last night’s incident was my fault. You will be contacted shortly.”

After a quick check of his hair and clothes, he headed for the door. Michiru, who had been stunned by his sudden movement, hurriedly followed him. Kamijemori was just finishing putting on his shoes.

He turned around and looked at Michiru for the last time. After a pause, as if somewhat troubled, he finally opened his mouth.

“If you’re going to sleep, lock the door.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry for disturbing you.”

“Oh…”

Before Michiru could say a word, the door closed in front of her.

Michiru stared at the closed door for a moment, dumbfounded, as Kamijemori hurried out as if to run away.

‘… I guess I should have pretended I hadn’t heard that…’

It was a well-meaning comment, but it was probably a secret that Kamijemori didn’t want to be exposed.

The conversation between Kamijemori and Kato, which Michiru overheard last night at the pub, now reverberated in her ears.

“… Who’s the one being clumsy now?”

Michiru staggered back to her room and jumped head first into bed.

She was exhausted from yesterday and her energy was at its limit. As Michiru closed her eyes, I started to feel dizzy.

Just before Michiru fell asleep, she thought she caught a faint whiff of Kamijemori’s perfume on her pillow.

* ‘Gap moe’ is when a character does something that goes against their usual personality.