"tomoe-oneesan, would you like to go drinking with us?" hayasaka turned around to face her coworkers, one having a hopeful look in his eyes while the other two just stared blankly. while hayasaka wanted to go home and play this new game that she bought, she knew she couldn't ignore her coworkers forever. and so, she reluctantly nodded, staring down at her feet as usahara cheered and lead them to their usual spot.

    once all four of them sat down, hayasaka began to regret her decision. after all, she's going to be drinking with guys she barely knew (save for omota, but she also didn't know him that well). add on to the fact that kumatani was quite intimidating and usahara was too extroverted for her liking. all these reasons made her shrink in her seat as a couple beer mugs was placed in front of them.

    "uwaa, that hit the spot!" usahara said, quickly finishing his first mug before moving to the next. hayasaka didn't know that she could take her time, which resulted in her following usahara's flow and quickly getting tipsy. this resulted in her leaning her head down as she babbled nonsense.

    "can i get two waters here?" kumatani ordered as omota continued on smoking. his head was in the clouds until hayasaka babbled on about a topic familiar to him. "why the hell do i have to get married? can't they see i'm content with my life right now? i mean, working at a kid's show isn't the best, but it allows me to buy whatever i want. getting a husband will hinder that dammit!"

    omota quickly passed the cup of water to her, watching as she quickly downed the liquid. "if it weren't for them, i wouldn't have to get uramichi-san involved in this!" usahara, who was slightly sober, yelled in surprise at what she said. "oi, calm down. drink some more." after downing another cup of water, hayasaka managed to finally calm down. though the redness in her cheeks didn't disappear.

    "wait, did i just?" hayasaka asked, now realizing she was babbling about things that she wasn't supposed to. when all three nodded, hayasaka turned to omota with teary eyes. "i'm sorry.." she said softly while hanging her head down. 'cute.' omota thought before patting her head. usahara and kumatani could only stare in genuine surprise at the two.

    "what do you mean uramichi-san's involved?" omota was about to explain before hayasaka beat him to it. "uramichi-san and i are faking being engaged so that my parents could get off my back about marriage..." hayasaka closed her eyes, her nervousness bubbling over as her liquid courage was gone. she felt something placed on top of her pinky, and so she peeked. upon seeing a pinky on top of hers, she quickly followed the trail that lead to brown eyes. eyes that were always tired, and yet somehow still had that awkward kindness to it. almost as if the usual depressed man in front of her had a softer side still hidden somewhere within him. somewhere where it'd be hard for her to reach.

    hayasaka calmed down, knowing that omota was comforting her in his own way. "ehh? so right now, you guys are pretending?" hayasaka thought usahara's confused face looked adorable. it made her want to ruffle his hair, though she stopped herself from doing so. "haven't you noticed they were wearing rings since last week?" usahara yelped again in shock, now examining the rings around their ring finger. "you can't blame me! these things are too small to even be noticed immediately."

    "you know, everyone has been talking about it ever since." and so, the night ended with all three staring at kumatani in shock. who knew gossip could spread that fast in their workplace?

thank you for 2k reads!  it really means a lot to me especially since this hobby of mine isn't something that i do quite often recently.