Chapter 61: Volume 1, - 61: The Lawyer He Found Attractive
In her third-floor office in Chiyoda, Aoi Tachibana was adjusting the red-ink seal on a commercial lease agreement when her desk phone rang.
She picked up the receiver on the second ring, resting her fountain pen against the blotter. "Tachibana speaking. Yes... No, the counter-clause regarding the tenant’s structural alterations is non-negotiable. If they refuse to indemnify against foundation damage, tell them we withdraw from the mediation."
She listened for another minute, making a swift, precise note in blue ink on a margin block before hanging up.
Aoi rubbed once at the bridge of her nose. She had been reading tracked revisions since eight, her eyes aching from the light, and the characters on the last page had begun to blur before she forced them back into focus. Her day had been relentless. Before her two o’clock appointment, she had already submitted a corporate registry update for an IT startup in Shinjuku, answered three client calls regarding inheritance disputes, and reviewed twenty pages of contract revisions for an estate client. Her career was a dense, highly structured ecosystem, and Kisaragi Business Support was only one file among many.
A light knock sounded on her office doorframe. Mariko Endo. Aoi’s senior legal colleague and one of the few professional friends who spoke to her without ceremony stepped in carrying two paper cups of black coffee.
"The mediation draft for the landlord is ready," Mariko said, setting a cup on the desk. She glanced at the neat stack of documents resting near Aoi’s leather blotter. "Is that the Kisaragi estate schedule?"
"Yes," Aoi said, taking her seat. "The asset distribution and corporate authorisation forms are complete. Kisaragi-san will be here at two to sign."
Mariko leaned against the corner of the desk, taking a slow sip. "You rescheduled your three o’clock client to four just to clear time for him. And you audited his administrative addendum yourself on Wednesday evening. You usually don’t keep an asset-verification review on your own desk this long. Is all this extra caution strictly professional, Tachibana-san?"
"It is professional," Aoi said.
The answer came faster than she intended. She did not pause her reading, but her thumb pressed a fraction firmer against the edge of the folder. "He is building a corporate structure out of a legacy estate. Clean execution requires absolute precision. A mistake in his file creates unnecessary liability."
Mariko smiled dryly, taking her coffee. "If you say so."
At 1:58 p.m., Ren Kisaragi arrived at the third-floor reception area, stepping out of the elevator into the quiet corridor. Having taken the train into central Tokyo rather than dealing with daytime parking and heavy traffic, he felt alert and composed. He wore his dark suit, and on his left wrist, the brushed steel casing of the Seiko SARX077 rested against his cuff.
Aoi opened her office door exactly at two o’clock.
"Kisaragi-san," she said, bowing politely. "Please, come in."
Ren stepped into her office. "Good afternoon, Tachibana-san."
As she moved behind her polished mahogany desk, Ren took the armchair opposite her. For weeks, Ren had kept his attraction buried beneath the role she played in his life. Lawyer, verifier, professional anchor. It had been easier to notice her beauty and immediately file the thought away.
Today, for whatever reason, the filing system failed.
He sat back, his gaze lingering as she arranged the signing documents.
She was an extraordinarily attractive woman, and he stopped pretending otherwise. Her straight, waist-length black hair fell neatly over the shoulders of a dark navy tailored suit jacket that accentuated her slim frame. When she reached for her fountain pen, the subtle scent of citrus and clean paper drifted across the desk. She crossed her long legs beneath the desk, her posture impeccably straight, her narrow brown eyes focused with absolute composure on the papers before her.
It wasn’t just her appearance. It was her sheer, effortless competence. The controlled cadence of her voice, the quiet authority in her hands, the sharp clarity of her mind. Every detail struck him with sudden, adult physical weight.
A sudden flare of guilt pricked at Ren’s chest.
’Suzune.’
Suzune was his girlfriend. They were sexually intimate; she had stayed at his apartment, held him, and offered him warmth and affection without hesitation. He cared for her deeply.
Yet sitting across from Aoi, Ren felt an unmistakable, heat-edged pulse of sexual attraction that had nothing to do with contracts or corporate filings. He felt annoyed with himself for a brief second, but the internal denial dissolved almost instantly. Dating Suzune hadn’t wiped out his biology. He couldn’t stop his brain from registering desire.
He couldn’t control the impulse. He could only control how he acted.
Aoi uncapped her pen and turned the first document toward him. "We are reviewing the final asset allocation schedule for the estate release. Once signed, these corporate governance clauses become active."
Ren reached out to take the pen, his eyes meeting hers. He didn’t avert his gaze as he usually did. His attention was focused, heavy, and direct.
Aoi’s hand paused for a fraction of a second as she released the pen. Her expression didn’t crumble, but her subtle composure tightened. Her eyes narrowed slightly, her posture becoming a fraction cooler, more formal. She did not lean in, nor did she acknowledge the shift with a smile.
"Please check clause four, Kisaragi-san," she said, her voice dropping into a flatter, strictly professional register. "Verify the corporate entity name before signing."
"The wording is clear," Ren said smoothly, signing his name cleanly on the designated line. He capped the pen and rested his forearms on his knees, looking across the desk. "Tachibana-san, once these estate documents are finalised today... what professional conflicts remain between us?"
Aoi met his gaze evenly, her hands resting flat on her blotter. "I still advise you on estate-linked matters and KBS matters that depend on those records. Kanzaki’s review is not closed. While I control information or legal work you still need, a personal invitation would not be clean."
The line was clear, invisible, and absolute.
A personal invitation right now would not be clean. It would introduce immediate conflict into the exact legal framework protecting his business.
Ren nodded slowly. He did not push. He did not offer a suggestive line or try to test the boundary. "I understand."
"Thank you, Kisaragi-san," Aoi said, gathering the signed originals and placing them into a neutral manila folder. "I will forward the certified copies to your office by Monday."
"I appreciate your thoroughness as always," Ren said, standing up and buttoning his jacket. He bowed politely. "Have a good weekend, Tachibana-san."
"Have a good weekend, Kisaragi-san."
Twenty minutes later, Ren stood on the platform at Ochanomizu Station, waiting for the train back toward Kawaguchi.
The late afternoon breeze blew past as he boarded the yellow Chūō-Sōbu local from Ochanomizu to Akihabara, then transferred to the northbound Keihin-Tōhoku Line for Kawaguchi. Sliding into an open seat near the doors on the second train, he leaned his head back against the glass.
He looked down at his left wrist. The Aitetsu blue dial of his Seiko caught the passing sunlight, ticking forward in six steady beats each second.
By the time the second train crossed into Saitama, Ren finally allowed himself to state the unvarnished truth in the quiet of his own mind.
’I want her.’
Not merely her legal advice. Not merely her sharp mind or her professional protection.
Aoi. As a woman.
The desire was real, heavy, and undeniable. He wanted to see her without a mahogany desk between them; he wanted to touch her, to hear that controlled voice break its professional cadence.
Yet as the train carried him towards Kawaguchi, he felt both excited and deeply unsettled. Suzune was waiting for him, warm, loyal, and real. Aoi remained behind a wall of legal duty and ethical restraint that he had no right to break.
Nothing had changed in his actions. He hadn’t broken faith with Suzune, nor had he breached his professional relationship with Aoi.