Dissonant Harmony [G. Akechi x Reader]

juuroku

"Hey, Maruki-san?" I asked one late afternoon.

He perked up at my sudden question. Most of the time I had spent in his office had been quiet, aside from his few attempts to start conversation.

Realizing he wasn't going to speak, I continued on. "If you were to do something that would ruin one friendship and help another friend, would you do it?"

"That's quite a hard question, (Y/N). Is this something you're facing?" His voice became heavier than I'd ever heard it before.

I nodded back and he sighed.

"From your tone, it sounds like either way this is taken, it'd be destructive for one of your friends." He leaned forward from his relaxed position and rested his arms onto his thighs. "Internally, this is a decision you'd make based on what you want in the future."

"That's such a hard thing to do, though. Especially when neither has a great outcome. . ." I faded out, staring towards the table in front of me instead of in his direction.

When silence follows my response, I looked up to see a pair of softened eyes looking back at me.

"Which outcome is safer for you?"

"Is it wrong for me to say neither?" I asked. Sighing, I added, "If I were to add into account that one would be safer than the other momentarily, it would have to be the one I already protested because I consider what they're doing to be wrong."

"Then I think you already have the answer set in stone for yourself," Dr. Maruki concluded.

I pursed my lips into a thin line, knowing that I had come in here with that answer already.

Maybe it was really time to say goodbye to Akechi.

"Well, how about you, Maruki-san? How is your paper coming?" I asked, hoping it was enough of a distraction to get me out of further questioning.

His eyes seemed to light up at this, proving to me my distraction worked. "It's going well, actually. All thanks to you and Akira, I'm coming closer and closer to being done-"

I could feel my face heat up at the mentions of Akira and all his words were lost to me in seconds. The memory of that kiss replayed in my mind as if it happened yesterday, when in reality, it was a few weeks ago.

Though we saw each other basically every day because of school, I didn't feel I had talked to him much. The first week was polite conversation that always ended fast because something came up. The second week was even harder to catch him; his friends were always dragging him away to do something they wouldn't share.

Akira would always flash me one of his iconic smiles, before the whiplash Ryuji ensued would carry him away.

". . . and that lead me to the discovery that pigs could fly." He paused to look at me again, and I knew he had caught me. "I lost you, didn't I?"

"I'm sorry. My mind has been everywhere but here and that's incredibly rude to you," I rambled, standing up. "I think I'll be heading out so that I don't waste any more of your time."

He stood up fast, following my suit. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about anything else? You don't seem any better than earlier. . ."

I shook my head and smiled in his direction, before bowing and walking out the office.

Nothing seemed to be going right these days. Arima-sensei and my lesson times tended to be a lot more tense in the uncertainty that we didn't know how much more time either of us had together.