A/N: New chapter drop!

With all the little character into's out of the way. We really get into the meat of the story with this chapter.

Enjoy!!

“Oh my god you’re a liar!” Kimiko laughed, punching Akito on the shoulder playfully, “You aced your interview. You ace everything!”

But no, Akito hadn’t. A whole life of perfect grades, hard work and hours and hours and hours of studying, all for naught. Though he found Kimiko’s starry-eyed innocence endearing at times, it was absolutely abhorrent at the moment.

“Please do not rub it in.”

The sparkle in Kimiko’s eyes disappeared so quickly he almost regretted having said that. “Sorry,” she said, widening the gap between them as they walked away from the cafe. She did that more and more recently. Any perceived flaring of his temper would be met with the same icy self-preserving reaction. 

“I didn’t mean to be rude,” he said, but Kimiko didn’t respond, and the mood of the whole conversation deteriorated.  Akito hated it when this happened. Why did everything he tried with Kimiko have the opposite of the desired effect? Why could he never do anything right with her?

He had a pounding headache already, and all the aspirin in the world could not help him, “Look, the firm that just turned me down is one of the biggest in the country. I’ve been dreaming of getting a job there my whole life. So I’m a little upset.”

“It’s okay, you’ll find another job,” Kimiko shrugged, “it’s just one of the best firms in the country, right? There are still others.”

Yes, she was right. Under normal circumstances, he would have told himself the same thing, but this was different. As things stood, he had very, very limited employment options, and none of them too promising, none of them with the potential to take him where he wanted to go. His career had to go in a certain direction, he would not settle for anything else. 

But Kimiko couldn’t understand. She didn’t know what had actually happened in that interview.

“Rejected. I don’t like your face.”

Hamada Ryoshi, a legend in the world of law and a man Akito had always looked up to, had said those words to him. No reason, no explanation, the man hadn’t even looked at him. Akito had never felt more insulted in his life. Yet, Akito had not said anything for a few seconds, thinking it was some kind of test, a method of gauging his ability to react appropriately or something. But then he noticed the confused looks from the other members of the board. Akito knew then that it had to be real. He had been rejected.

“Can I at least have a more substantial explanation?” He had asked, and Hamada had promptly ignored him, calling for the next candidate. Sometimes Akito forgot what insufferable assholes lawyers were. But he was stubborn and furious and had decided not to leave until he had an answer.

He went straight to Hamada’s office, told his secretary with his most flooring smile that he had been sent there by her boss as part of his interview. He seated himself at his table until Hamada returned from the board room.

The older lawyer had just laughed when he saw him there, “I was half expecting you to do that.”

“I’m not leaving until you tell me why.”

“Himura Akito, huh?” He made himself comfortable in his swivel chair, putting his legs on the table, “The Tokyo Daigaku topper.”

“So you did read my resume.”

“Hardly an interesting read. Topped this, valedictorian, gold medalist blah…it gets really monotonous after a while,” he said, “so called intellectually gifted people make the worst employees, in my opinion. I would pick a hard-working retard over you any day.”

Akito blinked in confusion. None of what he said made any sense. Was he really the Hamada Ryoshi? Was this all a joke to him? Anger bubbled in Akito’s, the urge to throw something at him almost too much to handle, but his face revealed nothing. He remained seated with his fingers clasped on his lap, the picture of serenity and self-confidence.

“Still doesn’t answer my question, Hamada-San.”

“God, you would say that, wouldn’t you?” Hamada groaned as he threw his head back and checked his Rolex to make a show of how much this conversation was bothering him, “Okay, fine. You see, the thing is…I don’t like people like you. You think you’re the smartest, so you hate taking orders from others. You haven’t the slightest clue about dealing with failure…” he sighed in a long-suffering way, “and just so you know, contrary to what most people think, I’m not one of you. I’ve had to work my ass off for everything I have achieved. Something you couldn’t relate to if you tried.”

“If that was the case, you would have hired me just to put me through hell,” Akito said.“Not hiring me, Hamada-San, gives you no benefits.”

Hamada laughed, “You’ll make a great lawyer kid,” he looked at him quietly for some time then, as if he was weighing the pros and cons of something he was about to do. He pulled out an envelope from his desk drawer, “Take this,” he held it out to Akito, “open it.”

Akito took the manila envelope from him, hoping it was a letter of employment and that all this was a test after all. His hands went numb when he saw what it contained.

Photographs. The envelope contained seven damning photographs of him and Rein. Irezumi on full display, engaged in less than respectable…

He stuffed the photographs back inside on his third attempt, sweat beading on his forehead.

Hamada then had a serious expression on his face, “Piece of advice? Avoid things like this from getting out if you want your future clients to have faith in you, hmmm?”

If Hamada knew, so could the others. Akito should have known. Rein was too important, there would have always been someone watching. How could he explain that to Kimiko?  He did not know if she knew about him, they had never spoken of that incident at the Yukata shop, it was way back in freshman year.

“Am I right? Other firms may hire you?” Kimiko waved her hand in front of Akito to draw his attention.

“Right,” Akito said, and offered her a smile that felt completely believable to him, but by Kimiko’s expression, it was not. She stopped walking and came to stand in front of him.

“Akito, tell me something…Do I really look that stupid to you?”