Work Text:
Shigeko didn’t like the way her shisho hadn’t been looking at her or giving the esper much attention in the past week or so. She understood that they had been really busy with work, especially the older man since he was here from morning to afternoon.
Understanding didn’t mean she liked it.
She had tried gaining his attention back by talking to him more than before. Maybe if she talked about something interesting he would give her more of his attention? And yet, something would always come up, taking his mind off of her and making him work again.
She then tried to make food for him, bringing him snacks and lunch every day. Maybe if she offered to eat with him, they would be able to take a break and hang out a bit in the office? Yet it was likely they would only be able to sit down for a moment before someone or something came up. At least her shisho still seemed to enjoy the food she made for him and took it back to his desk to finish it.
She tried getting to work as soon as possible after her club activities. Maybe if she had a little bit more time in the office she would be able to get more chances? Yet, she often arrived to find the office empty or to Reigen dragging her into a sudden job. Seeing her arrive in such a hurry also resulted in Reigen telling her she could take her time to get to work, there was no rush.
She was truly starting to think there was no use, the man wouldn’t pay her as much attention as she wished he would. Even when the sudden waves of clients were done coming, Reigen was stuck with paperwork he had neglected to do while working so much.
This is how she ended up searching on the family computer late in the night “How To Get Boys Attention”. She ended up on a teen girls' forum, reading all the different suggestions left by previous users.
This is how she ended up in the office's bathroom the moment she came into work, greeting her shisho in a hurry, the man replying from where he was making tea in the corner. Once inside she placed her school bag on the small countertop, pulling out the makeup and perfume she had stolen (borrowed!) from her mother.
She tried her best with the makeup first, applying it as well as she could despite her inexperience with makeup. She had looked at tutorials nearly until morning the previous night, even taking notes to make sure she would do it properly. She may never have really put on any before, but she still came prepared to succeed.
She did her best to apply everything properly, trying to replicate the movement she had watched on repeat countless times. Surely she would be able to come up with something decent after all the studying she had done for this.
Once she was finished, Shigeko looked at herself in the small mirror, feeling weird about her looks now that she had makeup on. She was so used to not wearing any, it all felt heavy on her face now. Shigeko couldn’t help but feel like she had to have done something wrong too, some shape now looking off. But she didn’t have time to redo it all, nor did she think of bringing some makeup remover either.
This would do, as imperfect as it was. Maybe it would make her look more eye-catching at the very least.
Once she settled on it being enough, she quickly swapped her usual mid-calf school socks for knee-high ones with cute little bows at the top. Apparently, they were very popular with the other girls online and she had decided to get them too. This had been the one thing she had to buy, but at least they had been cheap to get. She did think they were pretty cute too, maybe she should wear them more afterwards.
She then picked up the perfume she had taken (borrowed!) from her mother. She scrunched up her nose a little bit when she smelled it, not quite liking the scent she had picked. Shigeko had been in a hurry that morning, running late after missing her alarm, so she had picked the first one she could get.
She had been scared that she would smell after her club activities, even after she showered quickly before going to work. She figured putting on some perfume would help make sure she wasn’t smelling of sweat at all. She felt pretty certain that much like herself, her shisho was likely not into people smelling heavily of sweat.
Although Shigeko wasn’t quite sure if this was better.
But it was too late anyway now, so she would live with it.
The last touch had her hesitating a little bit, suddenly feeling a little shy about it. Yet she knew other girls did it all the time, many at her school did. With unsure hands, she then started rolling the top of her skirt, making it shorter and shorter. She had to undo some of it though, feeling like she was exposing way too much skin all of a sudden.
She left it at mid-thighs, assuming this would do the trick. It felt weird once again, this time seeing so much of her pale thighs exposed when wearing her uniform. She hoped this would do it even more. Although the idea of always wearing her skirt like this from now felt a little…
Shigeko suddenly jumped when she heard knocking at the door, nearly dropping the glass bottle she was about to put back into her bag. “Mob? Is everything okay?” she heard her shisho asking through the door, sounding a little worried. “You’ve been in there for quite a while, are you feeling sick? I can go get you something if so”.
The young girl couldn’t help but feel flustered and embarrassed at the thought that she had been in there for so long that Reigen had to come make sure she was alright. “Y-yes everything is alright!” she managed to reply, voice sounding a bit shaky. “I just… got something on my skirt and tried washing it off” she lied, although it sounded fake even to her.
She then heard Reigen humming through the door, certain the man didn’t believe her in the slightest. “Okay, just tell me if you need help” he replied, footsteps going away following his statement.
This left Shigeko to take a deep breath, looking back up into the mirror. She could do it, she had already done so much and couldn’t go back now. Surely this time she would catch her shisho’s attention properly, and nothing else would take it away from her.
So with shaky confidence, she picked her bag up again after putting everything back in, making her way out of the bathroom. She tried looking confident as she walked to her little desk, trying not to stare at Reigen as she did so.
She noticed from the corner of her eye Reigen looking up at her the moment she stepped out, only to see him suddenly freeze behind his desk. She tried ignoring the strange reaction as she got to her desk, setting her bag down carefully. It didn’t help calm her own nerves.
“Shigeko…” she then heard her name being called, making the teen look back at Reigen. Yet instead of… whatever positive reaction she had expected, she found her shisho looking at her with concern. She suddenly felt really awkward as she stood next to her desk, looking away from the man who was now getting up to join her.
“Is everything okay?” he then asked her, warm hands gently holding onto her shoulder. She leaned slightly into the touch, enjoying the way his thumbs gently rubbed soothing circles against them.
The young girl couldn’t help but shift where she stood, hand fidgeting with the bottom of her shirt. Had she done something wrong for the man to think her attempt at attracting him was worrisome? Maybe she had just done that bad of a job.
She wanted him to talk with him and hang around at the office like usual.
Not have him worried about her.
“I was just…” She tried, getting flustered at the thought, now feeling a bit foolish and embarrassed. “I just wanted you to pay attention to me,” she finally explained, voice sounding quiet.
“Shigeko…” Reigen replied quietly, a hand coming up to pat her head gently. “You don’t need to do things like this for me to pay attention to you,” the man then assured her. “Why would you even try to get my attention when I already give it all to you?”.
This has the esper pouting slightly, a little annoyed that he would say that. “No, you haven’t, every time I tried talking with you and being around you in the past week you kept ignoring me unless it was for me to use my powers” She explained.
To this the man was quiet, seemingly thinking back about the last week or so again. Reigen then looked a little sheepish seeming to only then realise just how busy he had truly been. “I really have, haven’t I,” Reigen half asked, a quiet chuckle escaping him.
All Shigeko could do was nod as a reply, feeling too embarrassed to really say anymore. Clearly, none of what she had done had really worked. Especially since, aside from the cute socks, none of what she had done felt really nice. Sure, it was what others suggested, and what some people seemed to enjoy, but she didn’t, and didn’t quite get it either.
“Why don’t we take a break together?” Reigen suggested, “I bought some cookies on the way here after my lunch break,” he added. “I can take a break from all the paperwork, can’t read straight anymore,” he joked. “I’ll go make more tea, go sit for now,” he offered, gently pushing her towards the couches.
She did as suggested, trying to adjust the skirt back to its usual length as she made her way to their resting area. Now that everything was out of the bag, she kind of wanted to get rid of the makeup too. It felt too strange and heavy on her face, she didn’t like it.
“I have makeup remover,” Reigen said from where he was across the office. This surprised her, although she felt like it shouldn’t. Of course, her shisho would notice her trying to put her outfit into proper order and wipe some of the makeup off with a tissue.
It made her feel warm that he realised it from across the room. The man knew her well.
“That would be nice,” she replied as she sat down. “But why do you have makeup remover, shisho?” she asked, half-curious, half to tease him. She still remembered the one time he had to cross-dress to go on a job with her.
Maybe it hadn’t been the first time the older man had dabbled in cross-dressing.
“Well, you know,” Reigen started with a laugh, “Sometimes you need a disguise to proceed with an exorcism”. So he had done this more than once, which explained how good he actually was at applying makeup and working with extensions and wigs. Although the one-time Shigeko had seen him do it, the result hadn't been good enough to let him get inside the school.
Although there were big differences between a grown man and a teenage girl. It would have been easier to try and pass as Shigeko’s mother.
She was still fidgeting when her shisho joined her back with everything, placing the tea, cookies and makeup remover on the coffee table. “Turn towards me,” Reigen asked gently, applying makeup remover on a little cotton pad.
Shigeko turned towards him with a little nod, closing her eyes, waiting. She felt Reigen’s careful hand gently hold her head, starting the task of removing all the makeup she had splattered on her face.
She allowed herself to relax some more, knowing she was in good hands with him. She even enjoyed the way he gently held her face, his other hand carefully and skillfully erasing the disaster she had made of her face. She could feel her face warming up at the proximity, happy that if Reigen had noticed, he wasn’t commenting on it.
The silence between them as Reigen worked quietly for once felt nice, intimate even in a way. it was just the sound of the old building, the occasional voice in the hallway, the wind outside and the sound of their breathing.
After a while Shigeko figured her shisho had to be done, his hand having now fully let go of her face. She was about to pull away but was surprised when this time both his hands cupped her face. In her surprise she opened her eyes again, looking up at the older man.
Her breath nearly caught at the indecipherable look in his eyes, clearly thinking about what he wanted to say.
“Mob, next time you feel like I am not giving you enough attention please come directly to me” he said with a soft little smile. “There’s no need to work out such strange plans to get my attention back, if I get too focused on work just tell me” he explained.
This had Shigeko nodding slightly. Truthfully she didn’t really want to redo any of it again in the future anyway. It wasn’t really fun and she didn’t feel quite comfortable with most of it.
“Plus, you are already very pretty and beautiful, there is no need for you to add any makeup to catch my eyes every day” Reigen commented, one of his thumbs gently rubbing his redding cheeks. This made her butterfly flutter in her stomach, her chest warming up at his words.
Then as soon as the sudden intimate situation came it went away, with one last soft and gentle smile thrown her way. Reigen pulled his hands away from her soft face, instead reaching for his own tea.
“I think the socks look cute on you though” he pointed out, making Shigeko look down at her knee. This had the young lady hum with a little smile, finger pulling slightly against the bows of her socks. She thought so too.
Then Reigen started talking like he would usually do on their little tea break. Anything that came to mind, from some client he had when she was still at school, to something he saw on the way here this morning to the weather. It was comforting, listening to the man rambling about anything and everything.
Shigeko finally reached for her tea, grabbing some of the cookies at the same time. The tea was the same they had been using for years now, but it suddenly tasted sweeter. The cheap cookies tasted like some of the best she had in a while. She quietly listened, adding comments here and there, enjoying the body heat coming from her shisho, sitting so closely to her.
Her plan might have backfired, but she felt like she gained more than first intended.
She wasn’t going to complain about it.