[Bungo Stray Dogs] The Gravity User's Junior Is Far Too Enthusiastic

[I want to write a more assertive, carnivorous Chuuya, but I don't know if I can pull it off. After saving up part of the draft, I realized the heroine seems more forward than Chuuya. How did things gradually stray from the path I had planned? There will be a melodramatic subplot that might look like Dazai has a one-sided crush, but Manye and Dazai are actually completely innocent. The plot differs from the original timeline.]

Chiba Manye, a master of slacking off who lives by the principle, "If you can slack off, do it. If you can't, then you have no choice but to get to work," has been under a lot more pressure lately.

The reasons for this can be summed up as follows:

First, her junior Chuuya's former partner, Mr. Dazai, defected.

All the useless members of the interrogation team shouted, "Help us, Lady Chiba!" As their equally useless leader, she had no choice but to step in herself and restore the team's reputation, lest the boss disband it for being so incompetent.

Second, Lady Kouyou seemed to think Mr. Dazai had played with her feelings.

So the big sister Kouyou assumed that her recent hard work was her way of channeling her grief into motivation and trying to forget Mr. Dazai. The more she tried to explain, the more Lady Kouyou seemed to dote on her. She even comforted her outright, telling her not to let a man ruin her health and that she had plenty of other options besides Dazai.

Finally, Chuuya had heard some kind of gossip.

Her junior also mistakenly thought she was one of the women Mr. Dazai had deceived. He would point out Dazai's faults and try to comfort her. In practice, this meant generously treating her to meals and drinks, driving her around to watch movies and play pool, and acting so worried she'd never get over her heartbreak that she might as well leap to her death and be done with it.

She had no idea why everyone thought she liked Mr. Dazai. Actually, compared to gloomy Mr. Dazai, she preferred the brightly colored Chuuya.

Then, when Akutagawa came to see her and promised that he wouldn't give up looking for Mr. Dazai either...

She took a deep breath, grabbed Chuuya, who was standing there with a sour expression and seemed to want to say something to Akutagawa, and turned her head to kiss him.

With Akutagawa staring in stunned silence and Chuuya looking thoughtful, she came clean.

"Mr. Dazai and I are completely innocent, really. But Chuuya and I are about to stop being innocent."

To make sure there was no doubt they were about to stop being innocent, she got into Chuuya's car that night and went back to his apartment.

After dinner, her junior tugged at his tie and asked what flavor of fruit she liked.

Chiba was lying on the couch, flipping through a book. Thinking he meant dessert, she answered casually, "Nothing too sweet. Something refreshing would be nice."

Then she saw the apple-flavored thing in his hand that was definitely not a dessert.

Chiba: "..." So that's what he meant by flavor.

They were both adults, after all, and she and her junior really weren't innocent anymore.

Theme: Work hard and live well.