Since he met you, something about you caught his attention, something that had nothing to do with the environment of the club where you both crossed paths. The people, the money, the betting... he knew all that well, but what really struck him was how, despite all of it, you approached him simply to talk.

He had seen you before, an elegant figure who didn’t let the surroundings intimidate you. You weren’t afraid to leave a generous tip just for a conversation, something that rarely happened in a place like this. There was something genuine about you, something that couldn’t be compared to the others who were only after the fleeting. That, without a doubt, intrigued him.

The first time you spoke to him wasn’t to ask for a favor, nor to make one of those little transactions that often occurred in the shadows of the place. You simply wanted to know more. And that, more than any money you could’ve left on the table, caught his attention.

From that moment on, something in Toji changed. The conversations grew longer, the meetings more frequent. No matter how tired he was or how uninterested the rest of the world seemed to be: with you, things were different. You cared about the man behind the façade, the big, tough guy that no one believed capable of having a deep conversation. But with you, it was as if the walls came down little by little.

You sat in your usual spot, and as soon as he saw you settle in, he approached with a slight smile on his face.

“Favorite client, huh?” he said quietly, while serving a drink in front of you, without the arrogant air he usually had with the others.