It's not a full minute before she calls again, and Yamada (or someone pretending to be him, not extremely likely but she's been in this career for a while) answers after two rings. "Yes."

"Is this Yamada Inori? I am Ōta Makino."

    "Yes."

"Would it be possible for you to go somewhere Kokonoe Tōkan isn't likely to overhear you?"

    "...why would I want that?"

That's about one of the least reassuring things he could've said. "You may share the contents of this conversation with him at a later point if you judge it safe but I would prefer it if initially it were a conversation between only you and me. If you do not have a safe way to do this, please respond with 'I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I don't think you're talking to the right person'." Plausibly deniable enough unless she's being directly overheard.

There's a moment's pause which based on the tone of voice of what he says next she interprets as incredulous: "Safe...? What, you think this wimp could make me do stuff I don't want to do? Fuck off, I'll kick his ass."

She has to cover her lips to not laugh out loud. That, on the other hand, she likes a lot more.

"That is a reassuring reaction," she says, letting some of the warmth she's feeling for him leak into her voice. "I would nevertheless feel better if you had space for yourself here."

"...fine." Then he apparently pulls away from the phone but she can still hear it: "I'm gonna be in my room, don't go upstairs, I'll break your arms if you do."

She smiles to herself while she waits and eventually she hears the sound of a door closing and he says:

    "I'm alone. What is it?"

"Do you know about Ōta & Ōta?"

"Tōkan said you're a lawyer. A famous one. So what?"

...hm, if Kokonoe already knew who she was then even if Yamada is out of earshot Kokonoe might still press him on details later.

"Our firm focuses on corporate law but my husband and I have a history of activism for omega rights. And when we can, we take cases where rich people—and let's be frank, here, it's mostly rich alphas—are abusing the corruption of the system to oppress omegas."

"I'm not fuckin' oppressed, I just got a shitty alpha on my case 'cause she's mad I beat her up when she was trying to rape a middle schooler."

...yes, that's what she—this kid is going to be a handful. She sighs and says, "Well, we can help with that, too."

"If you need rich person money—"

"We do not," she interrupts, being very firm abou that. "Yamada-san, we do this pro bono. My husband and I, we became lawyers because we wanted to change things and make it harder for, as you say, 'shitty alphas' to get away with all that they get away with. If this goes to trial we'll be there for you, but we want to try to make it not go to trial at all. We're going to need your help. Are you up for it?"

A slight pause, then: "Yeah. Fuck 'em."

She thinks about ending the conversation, then, but... she needs to ask. "But on a related matter... Are you okay with Kokonoe Tōkan? Do you need help leaving him?"

"What? Fuck no." He sounds honestly affronted by the question.

Gently, gently... "So... you trust him? You believe you are safe and he's on your side?"

"Of course he is! Fuck kinda question's that, I wouldn't let any shitty alphas tell me what to do."

That's what they all say...

...well, no, it isn't. And also if half the stories she's heard about this boy are true, she kinda does think it's very probable there's no way Kokonoe would survive an encounter with him that he didn't want to have.

Still. She softens, a bit, again. "You can understand my worry, though? He is the Kokonoe heir..."

"He's not his shitstain dad, stop making assumptions about people you've never met. Tōkan is Tōkan, not just some alpha."

She has to stifle a laugh at "shitstain dad". If Kokonoe just is okay with Yamada talking about his father like that maybe he is just straightforwardly a good guy. That'd be so refreshing, someone being straightforward.

"I see. Then I am happy you found someone who's good for you."

"...yeah," he says, and it's his turn to soften a bit.

He sounds like he's in love. She really wishes that were reassuring.

"Well, we'll be in touch to talk about this further on Monday. If there's anything you'd like to discuss or ask, feel free to message me, and for anything urgent you can call me. I'll message you my email and my husband's phone number and email, too. It's been a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Yeah. Thanks." And he hangs up.

She is really hoping that this is what it looks like and there won't be any nasty surprises later. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, if Kokonoe is in fact a good person then the money and influence he'd bring Yamada would be nothing to scoff at. But if he were a really good person he'd be doing something about everything that's an unfair requirement, the kid's seventeen, he hasn't had time to do anything of import if he is that good.

...maybe they should look more closely into him. She sends Inori the contact information she promised him then messages her husband about it. He's got the kinds of contacts that'd let him find out more about Kokonoe Tōkan.

Subaru did mean it when he said he enjoyed Aoki's presence and missed him but he'd forgotten how nice it actually felt from the inside to hang out. Aoki's humour tends incredibly acid, and his murmured commentary on the terrible romcom they picked to watch had him having to hold back laughter in the theater. He has to go home afterwards but they agree to have dinner together on Monday and catch up some more.