In A Lifetime ( KBTBB : Eisuke Ichinomiya )

Chapter 3

I can't believe my ears. It's got to be the same for the others because here is a long pause before any of them react to what Mr Ichinomiya is saying. 

"Are you serious?" asks Soryu, looking more bewildered than I've ever seen him. 

"Yeah." replies Mr Ichinomiya, as if it's the most obvious thing.

"I knew you had a thing for Grace, Boss." says Baba, even though I'm not sure if he's teasing me or him.

"I hope you don't have an ulterior motive." inserts Ota, with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course he has one." answers Mr Kishi, deciding that it was his time to join the conversation.

"H-Hang on a second." I say, finally gathering enough air in my lungs to speak. Just then I realize the fact that I'm not meant to without permission in the first place and quickly shut my mouth again as the last thing I need is to get in anymore trouble.

Mr Ichinomiya stares at me for a second but I don't say anything. "Why are you so quiet? You're my woman. Speak freely." he says, when he realizes that I'm not going to speak.

"What?" Wait a second, he just pinned a trillion rules on me yesterday and now he's telling me to speak freely? What on earth was with him? However, asking that probably wasn't the wisest idea so I simply nod my head. "O-okay..." I'm still confused though because that's the last thing I expected him to do but I manage to pull myself together and get the words out. "But if I'm going to be your girlfriend, what about the woman who was just here?" 

"What about her?" Mr Ichinomiya asked, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Um, aren't you in a relationship with her?" I reply, not understanding what was going on here.

"I don't have relationships with women." he answers, looking as unemotional as ever and I have to bite down extra hard on the side of my mouth to stop myself from asking him if it was men he had his relationships with. 

I stifle a small laugh that he thankfully doesn't seem to notice before I voice my question. "Then why were you alone together?" 

"She approached me so I entertained her. That's it." he replies, casually and I genuinely can't believe what I'm hearing. I stare at him blankly for a short while waiting for someone to start laughing but no one does. "What?" he says, his patience seeming to run short with me staring at him like a fish.

"I genuinely hope 'entertain' doesn't mean what I think it does." I say, shaking my head.

"By 'entertain' Eisuke means have se—-" starts Ota as I decide I've heard enough.

"Whoa, too much information. Way too much information. I'm just going to pretend that we never had that conversation, okay? Moving on." I say, closing my eyes and trying to shake these thoughts away. This subject was definitely not one I wanted to wander into the realms of so I quickly say something else. "What exactly do you mean by me being your girlfriend?" I ask. "I mean what about my job and my apartment and ... "

"I thought you were here on holiday, Grace?" asks Ota, curiously.

"Nope. I'm here on residency training or an internship. Whatever you wanna call it." I answer with a shrug. 

"To become what?" presses on Ota. But before I can answer myself, somebody else does it for me.

"Doctor." answers Mr Ichinomiya.

"Yeah." I nod my head lightly before I realize that that's not information that I ever gave him. "Wait, what!? How do you know that!?" I yell, before I can stop myself.