They can’t keep their hands off each other
This chapter isn’t one of those “big reveal” chapters where you get slapped in the face with information, like the previous one where we learned about Yashiro’s impotence. This chapter is more subtle; however, there’s some great takeaways from it, the main one being that both Doumeki’s and Yashiro’s masks are cracking and, despite themselves, they’re starting to show just how much they want each other.
What I love the most is all the touching and dragging around.
Doumeki drags Yashiro by the hand at Tsunakawa’s place and Yashiro pulls away, irritated, asking “Do you think I’m going to run away?” Doumeki responds with “You did so before,” remembering how Yashiro pointed a gun at him in chapter 33 then ran off to deal with Hirata. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. Why? Because Doumeki still cares. He’s worried about Yashiro, and doesn’t want him to run off into danger again. Yashiro tells Doumeki that he forgot about that incident but, to himself, he admits that he remembers everything he’s done. OMG is Yashiro feeling guilty? Contrite? That is growth! Old Volume One Yashiro wouldn’t give a single fuck about those kinds of things, that was just business. He threw old flames away as soon as they developed feelings, but Doumeki is still here, there’s history between them, and Yashiro has all kinds of tangled emotions about that.
The proof of those emotions comes later in the chapter, when Doumeki puts Yashiro under protection. After a meeting at Tsunakwa’s, there’s a worry that this whole situation is more dangerous than it seems, there are things lurking that haven’t fully come to light and that this isn’t just about money. Yashiro is asked who he wants as a bodyguard, Doumeki or Kamiya, and Yashiro blithely says either of them, because sometimes he’s still Old Yashiro and likes to play games. Doumeki calls him out on it by putting Kamiya in charge.
On the car ride back to his apartment, Yashiro enjoys torturing Kamiya (who is ofc driving bc Yashiro drives like shit.) He tells Kamiya that if he tattles about anything he hears to Tsunakawa, Yashiro will strip him and make him is fuckbuddy ajklshas I live for any interaction between them. Kamiya thinks he’s The Man and watching Yashiro bat him around is priceless.
But Yashiro does not want Kamiya as his bodyguard. He wants Doumeki. And he acts rashly.
He throws Kamiya out of the door and grabs Doumeki, dragging him along, just the way he did in chapter 20 when he realized that Doumeki had narrowly escaped death. Both then and now, Yashiro’s feelings for Doumeki overwhelmed him and he lost his chess-ability thinking, lost his mask, and went straight to his lizard brain. He wants Doumeki and he’s going to show it!
To be honest, there’s been a lot of touching since chapter 44 and it’s all beginning to boil over. From the shower scene, to Doumeki pulling Yashiro away from Inami and that steamy sexiness in Yashiro’s apartment, they can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. And now they’re dragging each other around in overly-familiar ways? Brilliant.
After Yashiro’s little hissy fit about what bodyguard he wants, Doumeki puts his gloved hand over Yashiro’s by the elevator buttons and leans in behind him, telling him “I’ll be back” and for some reason the entire thing is sexual af (like, srsly, look how close he’s standing ajsgakjgk) Yashiro is visibly shook; there are those emotions again. But let’s talk about Doumeki’s emotions for a moment too. He uses Anata when speaking with Yashiro, and says that his ability to gather intel will never be as strong as Yashiro’s. Those are both very kind things, repsectful. Despite his poker face, Doumeki still cares so much. He even makes sure to tell Yashiro that he will come back, but first he has to pick up a weapon (that is not his dick.) He also asks about Inami and WE ALL KNOW that there’s a bunch of jealousy in there.
Hopefully, once Doumeki comes back, we will have some Forced Proximity. The two of them alone in Yashiro’s apartment? Or another location? With only one bad? Doumeki protecting him? They will be forced to talk? And maybe feelings will come out? And touching? P L E A S E
-I love that the cover for this chapter has them side-by-side, not one following the other, or one hovering slightly behind, but together. As equals. And they need to be equals for their relationship to work.
-If you’re looking for some Reverse Dynamic in this chapter, Yashiro stares at the back of Doumeki’s neck, pining, just as Doumeki did with Yashiro in chapter 7. I saw those frames and it immediately brought me back.
-There is some link between Doushinkai and Okuyama’s group and Okuyama is an unstable factor with an axe to grind over Doumeki un-kidnapping Tsunakawa’s daughter so that’s probably why there IS more to this than money.
My ihrHertz is arriving in four days so I’ll have more info and pages for all y’all soon.