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Ryuunosuke had finally decided to settle down after accidentally acquiring a child (and somehow earning enough money for three generations, assuming that inflation was negligible). He didn’t even know how he even ended up with the kid. Kyuusaku Yumeno had showed up on his doorstep one day, and the next day, he was their legal guardian. He didn’t actually remember much from that day, just that he had let the kid in.
Now Ryuunosuke is holding a bag and a luggage of all his belongings. He never got much, and he sold all the other stuff. Kyuusaku walks beside him, only carrying a small bag with their clothes.
“Where are we going?” They ask.
“My sister’s house,” he huffs. They had asked him the same question twice already. Why did they want to push Ryuunosuke’s buttons so badly? But then again he reminded himself that the kid did that every day. Little shit.
They walk along some vegetable farms, then into the actual village. Ryuunosuke’s legs were still aching from sitting in a stupid cramped bus seat for so long. Kyuusaku seemed perfectly fine, though. It must be because of their young and agile joints and bones, he thinks. The village looks the same as he remembers, same wooden houses, same shops, same roads. His feet take him uphill, nearing a corner to the road to Gin’s house.
Ryuunosuke was about to round the corner, when something crashes into him. Something suspiciously human shaped.
The person must not have been that strong, because he falls onto the ground on his ass, while Ryuunosuke manages to catch himself in time to not fall. Kyuusaku watches from behind him. The person picks himself up from the ground, hands brushing off the dirt on his pants. Short, dark coppery hair. Brown eyes. He looks so…normal, Ryuunosuke thinks to himself. He doesn’t understand why he’s thinking about a random guy’s appearance.
Random guy says something that sounds like “sorry! I really need to go!” And scampers off. Kyuusaku laughs, muffled by their hand, their eyes crinkling up in mirth.
“Stop laughing at me,” he says in the strictest voice he can muster. Kyuusaku sees through it (or rather, hears through it), though. “I’m not laughing at you,” they say. Ryuunosuke starts to think about the possibilities of that but decides not to entertain the thought and the kid. He continues walking, dragging along his stupid old luggage whose wheels sometimes didn’t like to cooperate with him.
-
They reach Gin’s house after a little more walking, where she comes out to greet them and embarrass her brother in front of his kid. “Hey, Ryuuuuu,” she says in an overly sweet voice, wrapping him in a hug for the sole purpose of condemning his existence. She only lets go after making a show of squeezing him tight and lifting him off his feet and spinning him around because she likes to show off that she’s about 4 millimetres taller than him. Then she turns to Kyuusaku, who gives her a bigass smile, one that’s guaranteed to make adults and kids alike think that they’re a good kid. The little shit.
“And you must be Kyuusaku. My brother has hold me absolutely nothing about you except your name and how you ended up with him. Don’t just stand there, come in,” she rambles on to Kyuusaku about something, and Ryuunosuke swears he heard her promising to tell them “Ryuu’s most embarrassing moments of his childhood”. She and the kid immediately descends in the list of people he likes. Not that he likes that many people, anyway.
The furnishings in the house are the exact same as when he was a kid: same ancient tv that for some reason never broke, same wooden tv stand, same dining table and chairs, same lumpy couch. When they were teens they accidentally spilled some of their dad’s alcohol onto the couch because their parents weren’t home and they were curious, and they washed all the covers and restuffed their couch, drunk off their asses, within one afternoon. They had decided to bury the hatchet and never tell anyone else.
He goes to his room, setting his things down. There was minimal furniture in there like he remembered, just his wardrobe, bed, a low table and nightstand. Some of his childhood stuff was still there. The homework from middle school which he didn’t do was probably still stuffed under his mattress. But there was no dust on any surface, which meant that gin had cleaned it beforehand.
He hears gin and kyuusaku’s voice from down the hallway, and hears a door creak open. The sound of it tells him that they got the guest room. Which was right next to his room. Great, just so that the kid could bother him all day.
Gin cooks them dinner because she’s great. (She ascends to a higher position in The List Of People Ryuunosuke Likes).
But then he’s forced to listen to her exaggerate about his embarrassing moments as a kid to Kyuusaku. But they laugh, and it’s an actual, unbridled laughter that 13 year olds should have rolling off their lips. So at least it was sort of worth it.
“There was this one time when he was 14 and I was 12,” gin pauses to giggle. Ryuunosuke knew which story she was about to tell. Fuck.
“He got into an argument with our parents because they didn’t want him going out on a school night, so life altering and tragic, right? Then he got so mad and told me that he was plotting to run away from home. He packed up some of his stuff and at eleven, he went to my room to sneak out from my window. And there was a plant right outside the windowsill, so when he opened it, it crashed onto the ground in the back yard. And our parents caught him.”
Kyuusaku laughs along with gin, and ryuunosuke couldn’t help but smile.
-
At night, after he makes sure kyuusaku was asleep, he goes downstairs to the living room, where gin is perched on their couch, watching whatever was on their ancient tv. Ryuunosuke sits beside her, and she nudges him. “How long will you stay?” Her voice is soft, almost vulnerable. “Don’t leave,” she whispers, as if it were a confession. He almost didn’t hear it.
And then all of a sudden, he was 6 again, and she was 4. Their parents had brought them into the city, and they were in a mall, and he got excited and wanted to see the comics, he wanted to see the world a small village didn’t—no, couldn’t give him. He had dragged her along, and their parents had been too busy fighting to notice them slip away. And then ryuunosuke’s hand that was holding gin’s slipped. In a swarm of people, in an unfamiliar place, it was terrifying. He had noticed almost a second too late, she could have been whipped away by the crowds of people. He remembers her, wearing his too big hand me downs, her hair that was tied into a ponytail messy. Gin had just stood there, rooted to the spot, crying. It wasn’t a loud bawl, not a sob, not a scream, but just silent tears. He hadn’t even noticed it until the tears soaked through her shirt in little splatters.
He had taken her hand, tighter that time, and weaved through the crowd until he found a gift store. He reached as high as he could to get a plushie off the shelf for her. It was a small white sheep. He put it in her arms and she held onto it tightly. He didn’t know what to do, he never seemed to understand how to comfort others. Then, gin looked into his eyes, tears still spilling, and barely stutters out two words. “D-don’t leave.”
The memory nearly knocks the air out of ryuunosuke’s lungs. It’s been so many years, yet the memory seems so recent, so vivid in his mind. He asks, “will you let me stay?” Gin doesn’t hesitate to answer. “I’ll let you stay forever if you wanted to.”
He nods. “Well, then I shall stay.”
They fall into a peaceful silence, half paying attention to the news playing on the tv.
Ryuunosuke is reminded of how lonely she probably was, staying in the house herself. Did she have any friends still in the town? Did she talk to the coworkers outside of work? He’s reminded that he’s her older brother, and he won’t be leaving anymore.
-
Since gin had the next day off, she had accompanied ryuunosuke and kyuusaku to the local bookstore, a small, quiet family owned business. It had been there since before ryuunosuke was born.
Upon stepping into the shop, gin goes over to the counter and the cashier, a woman with short blonde hair strikes up a conversation with her. That’s weird, gin almost never has conversations with most people willingly.
Ryuunosuke doesn’t overthink it, instead searching for the books that was in kyuusaku’s book list. He was to be sent to middle school when next week started. There was only one middle school there, and everyone and their mothers went or had once went there.
Ten minutes later, he has a small stack of books, which he ticks off of the list. He makes kyuusaku search for the rest of the books he couldn’t find, because if he didn’t the little shit would slack off again. Gin pulls him over to the counter, where she introduces him to the woman there. He learnt that her name was higuchi, and she was the great-great-granddaughter of the person who first opened the shop, and that her and gin were friends and would meet for lunch and dinner regularly because the clinic gin worked at was two blocks away. Apparently, to them, being friends meant making eyes at each other and getting flustered when they accidentally made skin contact.
-
Ryuunosuke walks kyuusaku to school in the morning, because gin had work and no matter how much they protested, they both knew kyuusaku did not actually know the way to school. They wore their new uniform, and carried their bag full of their new books.
He had to go to school because of some paperwork, which he knew was just signing a few pieces of paper.
Kyuusaku follows behind him as they arrive at the school, navigating his way to the principal’s office. He had been here quite a few times when he was a student. The secretary, a guy with spectacles eating sweets while lounging on his desk in the office just nods at him. “Just go in,” he says.
Inside, he sees his old principal. The same guy who stared him down when he was brought in after fights in the hallways. “Good morning, Mr. Fukuzawa.” He says, because he has to be polite. He gives kyuusaku a little shove to tell him to also greet him, which, luckily they catch the hint and comply.
After signing enough paperwork to last him a lifetime, Fukuzawa says the kid is good to go and a teacher will fetch them to class. Said teacher arrives two minutes later, still catching his breath when he opens the door.
And the teacher just so happens to be Random Guy he crashed into two days ago.
“Hi! Uh, I’m your homeroom teacher, and also art teacher, you can call me Mr. Tanizaki.” He addresses Kyuusaku, somehow remaining sort of professional sounding despite looking like he ran here.
Mr. Tanizaki looks over to ryuunosuke. His breath hitches. “Oh goodness, it’s you. I’m so sorry for the other day, I really didn’t mean it. Did I accidentally hurt you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine, it’s okay,”Ryuunosuke assures him. The teacher smiles, a small, sweet quirk of his lips.
Ryuunosuke’s brain almost short circuits. Now, he not only had a name to match to the face, he’s also made him smile. He’s just so…average yet so good looking and nice. Was that even a thing? He doesn’t entertain the thought. He watches as Mr. Tanizaki leads kyuusaku off. To their classroom, probably.
-
The next time he sees Mr. Tanizaki is after school, when he goes to pick kyuusaku up. Upon seeing him, the teacher walks up to him, another smile on his face. It looks a little tired, but he’s just spent an entire day with kids, so it makes sense. “Hi, kyuusaku’s dad. You already saw me this morning. How may I address you?” He asks.
“Uh, ryuunosuke is fine,” oh shit. He just asked someone he didn’t even know to call him by his first name. Mr. Tanizaki must think he’s an absolute loser or something.
“Kyuusaku is doing great in his classes so far, Mr. Ryuunosuke. He’s just a little quiet and doesn’t talk to his classmates much, but he’s probably still adapting to a new environment, so there’s nothing to worry about!” The teacher says. If he thinks ryuunosuke is an absolute idiot, he doesn’t show it. Kyuusaku suddenly appears beside them.
“That’s great, yeah. Um, thanks a lot, see you tomorrow,” ryuunosuke mumbles. He leads kyuusaku back home.
-
That afternoon ryuunosuke tries hard not to think about Mr. Tanizaki. That guy is his kid’s teacher, for fuck’s sake! He just hoped no one had seen through his neutral face. Gin has told him that he had a pretty good resting bitch face, so at least the teacher probably wouldn’t find out. Shit, what if kyuusaku found out? The kid knows pretty much everything for some reason. The little shitter better keep their mouth shut. But then his mind drifts back to a certain man with copper hair and brown eyes. He thinks about talking, actually talking to him about something other than stuff regarding his kid. Did he have a good sense of humour? (Ryuunosuke actually has a good sense of humour, if you don’t think about his rbf.) Would he smile a lot outside of school? Was he even willing to be friends or something?
In the end, he comes to the conclusion that they could be friends. In his mind. Not in real life because that would be kind of hard. It just wasn’t realistic. Because why would someone like tanizaki be friends with ryuunosuke?
Shit. He was starting to refer to him as only tanizaki. Whatever, it’s not like anyone was going to know.
-
Kyuusaku decided they absolutely hated this girl in their class. They were three weeks into starting in a new school, and it had all went smoothly, their teachers were nice, they convinced their parent (more like babysitter) to not send them to school because they could do it themselves, and most of the kids didn’t talk to them that much.
Until they caught the attention of none other than elise. They were pretty sure she didn’t realise they joined her class until last week, when she ran headfirst into them during PE. And then after that she made their life hell. First, it was the small things. Knocking one of their pencils to the floor and pretending not to notice. Then she used an overly polite tone with them, then complaining to teachers about them. The teachers didn’t do much though, so they were a little grateful for that.
And then came that day. She had pushed past them deliberately, nearly making them fall.
Kyuusaku had enough, and went up to her, shoving her.
And then the classroom door slides open and Mr. Tanizaki walks in, so kyuusaku puts on their most dramatic impression of those 20th century women and pretends to fall backwards but catches themselves. “Elise, how could you do that to me? I thought we were friends!” They say in faux exasperation.
That’s how they found themselves sitting outside the principal’s office, arms crossed and annoyed. Mr. Tanizaki had dragged the both of them downstairs.
He hopes his “babysitter” doesn’t have to be called.
-
Ryuunosuke speed walks to the principal’s office after getting a call from his kid’s teacher (he was totally not gonna save that number). What shit did kyuusaku get himself into now? A fight, apparently, as bad as fights could go for middle schoolers like them.
He sees Kyuusaku sitting on the bench outside of the office, with a girl sitting on the opposite side of the bench. Both of the kids are glaring at the secretary, who is once again sitting on his desk, eating sweets and grinning.
The secretary nods towards the door of the principal’s office.
Ryuunosuke takes a deep breath and knocks twice before opening the door.
(note from author: i don’t actually know how to write principal/teacher - parent interactions i know it’s unprofessional but just imagine it thanks)
He walks out of the office. At least he doesn’t have to pay for some sort of damage or something. Since the school day has already ended, he was allowed to take the little shit home. But when he looks up to call them, he’s surprised to see another person there.
“Hi, Mr. Ryuunosuke,” Mr. Tanizaki says. Oh, gosh, he’s smiling again. Ryuunosuke barely remembers to greet him as he walks to kyuusaku. “I’m terribly sorry, they caused you so much trouble.” He says. He realises he doesn’t even talk this much to other people he barely knew.
The teacher shakes his head, still smiling. “Not at all. It’s okay for them to get into fights…well, not really, but what’s important is that they learn their lesson.” Kyuusaku shuffles from beside ryuunosuke. They pull on his sleeve a little.
“Thanks, Mr Tanizaki, we’ll get going now,” they say, pushing ryuunosuke along as they walk towards the hallway. “Bye, kyuusaku, bye, Mr. Ryuunosuke,” Mr. Tanizaki waves at them as they go, chuckling a little.
Ryuunosuke catches himself waving back.
-
Huh.
Ranpo knows exactly what’s going on. Within three months he knows two people are gonna be snogging. He’s totally gonna tell yosano about them.
How cute.
Actually, not cute at all, because junichirou is like a little brother to him and he does not want to think about some guy swooping in and-
He needs to stop. He’s bouncing on his feet, and no, it’s not the sugar, yes, he has drank enough water today. Once school is over and his shift ends he’s totally going to find his lovely, beautiful boyfriend and his boyfriend’s pet raccoon and hope that it doesn’t bite him.
-
Ryuunosuke was wrong. He was very, very wrong about his assumption that nobody was going to know.
Now, because gin had pretty much spent her entire life (except when he moved into the city for a few years) looking at her brother, she knew exactly what he was feeling based on body language. And she knew that he was off.
The only other times she had seen him like this was when he was 16, when he gazed out of his window to look at the neighbour’s kid, who was around the same age as them. Ryuu had said he was “gazing out and pining” but gin told him it was more of “stalking intently”, to which he got very red in the face. Gin knows her brother had something of a crush on that guy for about two months before he somehow managed to become friends with him and figured they were better as just that and nothing more.
She isn’t going to beat around the bush, probably, and go straight to the point because her brother’s love life was definitely part of her business.
-
Gin browses through the limited drinks section at the convenience store. Grape soda or strawberry milk, grape soda or strawberry milk, gr-
Grape soda it is. She grabs the drink off the shelf and goes to the counter, where Tachihara, the worker in the store, and Lucy, the waitress from the diner down the street were talking in rapid fire and the occasional gasp. Gin raises her eyebrows. More gossip, apparently, because the two of them were single (double?) handedly somehow getting all the hottest gossip in town.
-
“Ryuunosuke,” gin says during dinner.
Oh shit, was he in trouble? But he did all his chores those past few days. He nearly spits out his food. He swallows his food before answering. “Yes?”
Gin doesn’t hesitate to ask, “is there someone new in your life?”
Kyuusaku suppresses their laughter through a mouthful of rice.
Ryuunosuke is internally panicking. “No, why do you ask?” Had he been acting weird recently? How did gin see through him so easily?
Gin looks at him suspiciously. “No reason.”
Huh. Weird.
-
Not long after moving back, ryuunosuke got himself a job as a cashier at their local hardware store, a one story building at the east side of town, not far from where gin works.
It’s a quiet store, but it somehow still has business and he gets a decent enough pay. He just sits at the counter all day, scanning the bar codes on products and telling the customers that no, they will not be getting a bag to carry their 2 meter wooden plank as if they couldn’t just use their hands. Sometimes he had to restock the shelves, and when he did he also went people watching so that they would get intimidated.
He spoke minimally, and when he did it was pretty much just to piss off customers by doing his job, so he considered it a win.
Until he actually talked his co-workers.
His friend atsushi also worked there, but the thing was that ryuunosuke had a crush on him at some point until he gave up and decided they were better as friends. He knows he never acted on his feelings, but it was still awkward to talk to him sometimes.
Then there was weird co worker no. 1. This guy’s name was dazai and his favourite hobby was annoying other people while slacking off. And lying on the counter conveyor belt. Ryuunosuke was so done with dazai. Does he ever shut up?
Weird co worker no. 2. Kenji. The boy wasn’t really as weird as dazai, but once he walked into work with his cow tagging along. He works part time there and also at his family’s farm. Other than the occasional animals he brings to work, he’s actually pretty nice. Ryuunosuke thinks kenji doesn’t like him the most, though.
Then weird co worker no. 3. Poe. He really doesn’t know what the heck is up with his guy. Actually, he can appreciate the fact that Poe is the only one who has a sense of fashion in this stupid little town. He thinks this guy might have like, anxiety or something and also he thinks he might secretly be a serial killer, but who knows. Ryuunosuke does appreciate the fact that he’s chill, and also his pet raccoon, Karl is the best thing about working there.
Then comes his manager, the honourable mention in this list because Kunikida isn’t his co worker. He thinks the guy is absolutely insane and had a notebook for about every different detail in his life. And ryuunosuke is 90% sure he and dazai are in some sort of situationship. Like, what the heck.
Luckily the rest of his co-workers were as normal as people working in hardware stores could get, so that’s pretty nice.
Gin comes in with higuchi, the girl from the bookstore every few days on their lunch break and they do a bad impression of pretending to browse the shelves while giggling to each other and occasionally looking at ryuunosuke. Sometimes he sees them holding hands.
-
“Yosano~” Ranpo groans, leaning over the pharmacy counter.
Said woman looks up from where she’s sorting through some medicine. “Yes?”
Ranpo smirks. “I think our dearest Jun might’ve met someone.” “Really?” She sounds sceptical.
He makes an over exaggerated gasp. “When have I not been right?”
Yosano hums. He’s always been right. “Tell me more,” she says.
-
Because kyuusaku decided that they were strong and braved the rain the entire way home without utilising their umbrella, they got sick.
But it wasn’t their fault because they didn’t know it was going to rain that afternoon, technically.
The next day, their nose was blocked, their head throbbed, and it was impossible to breathe without letting out this pathetic wheezing noise. At least they didn’t have to go to school that day (and the next day was Saturday, so they counted that as a win). Ryuunosuke walks into their room, holding a bottle of medicine. Oh no.
“Gin gave me this. It’s gonna help you get better.” He says, as if the contents inside wasn’t this weird bitter concoction. He pours a little into a cup. “Drink.”
“No,” they say as firmly as they could.
Ryuunosuke stares at him with those wide, unblinking eyes.
“Fine.” They whine a little before downing the medicine and trying not to spit it out, taking the bottle of water and drinking it to try and wash out the taste. It works a little.
And then they’re drowsy. Shit.
They fall asleep.
-
As much as ryuunosuke hates kyuusaku, he has to take care of him. He didn’t even know how the idiot got himself sick, but he had to take leave from work and get gin to get the kid medicine from the clinic she worked at.
The medicine seemed to work well enough, because they were knocked out within half an hour of drinking it.
He makes sure they were fully asleep before silently slipping out of the room.
He’s really worried about them, though he wouldn’t let anyone know that. He had spent the entire morning convincing himself that his kid wasn’t going to die because of a cold, and trying to take care of them. He hadn’t even ate yet, and it was 4 in the afternoon.
Downstairs, he starts to boil water to make coffee, just so he has something to do with his hands. The doorbell rang. Who the heck would be there? Ryuunosuke turns the stove off before walking to the front door and opening it.
There stood Mr. Tanizaki, holding a small file of papers and an awkward smile on his face. “Hey, uh, I’m just dropping by to give you kyuusaku’s homework, I’m so sorry if I’m disturbing you…” he trails off, as if embarrassed. There’s a small frown on his face, as if juxtaposing the smile that’s also there.
Ryuunosuke wants to make him stop frowning and rid him of his worries. “It’s fine, really. They’re asleep right now,” he assures. “Uh, come in.”
The teacher kicks his shoes off by the doorway, following ryuunosuke into the house. The both of them sit down on the lumpy couch, and tanizaki sets the file on the coffee table. “This is a file of their homework over the weekend. It’s not much, just tell them to do as much as they can, and if their condition is bad, just don’t get them to do it. It’ll be fine.”
“Thank you, Mr. Tanizaki,” ryuunosuke stands up. “Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee?” He finds himself speaking a lot more around this man. Weird.
Tanizaki shakes his head. “No, it’s fine, I’ll only be here for a little while.” He fidgets with the hem of his sleeve. It’s a little too long for him, covering his palm. “This may seem rather intrusive, but…have you been taking care of yourself?” When ryuunosuke does not answer and only furrows his (non existent) brows, he hurries to add, “I know when kids get sick, parents worry a lot, but please, remember to take care of yourself—“
“I can take care of myself just fine,” ryuunosuke interrupts, because he can but he doesn’t, and he also doesn’t want this man’s pity. Anything but his pity, because that just doesn’t seem right.
Tanizaki almost physically curls in onto himself. “I’m sorry, it was none of my business, I…I am very sorry about that. I’ll just go now…” And he stands up and walks to the door. He pauses and looks at ryuunosuke for a moment before going.
Ryuunosuke lets him. After the teacher walks off, he goes to lock the front door.
What the fuck had he just done? Why was he acting like such a bitch to someone who was only concerned for him? He felt bad. Very, very bad. He could have done anything but that. But he really just didn’t want the pity. Anything else could have been better.
-
Junichirou absolutely hates himself.
First, he didn’t really even have to deliver Kyuusaku’s homework. It didn’t really matter if they did it or not, the teachers didn’t really care for it when a kid was sick. Secondly, he didn’t have to be a busybody. Third, it seemed as though he cared too much for someone who didn’t even need it.
He arrives to the conclusion that he Absolutely Hates Himself.
He’s arrived at the same conclusion more than a few dozen times in his life. Naomi would definitely get mad if she knew, but she probably wouldn’t if he didn’t seem like it. Hopefully.
He rounds a corner on the street, then he remembers. This place was where he had first seen that guy. Mr. Ryuunosuke. He nearly trips over his own feet when he thought about him.
Junichirou was pretty sure the guy’s family name wasn’t ryuunosuke. Which meant it was his actual name.
He nearly trips over his own feet again. Focus on where you’re walking, junichirou!
Why would that guy tell him to call him by his first name? Weird. Maybe it’s a personal preference? Or maybe…no. Definitely not. He decided that Mr. Ryuunosuke would be called Weird Guy in his head from now on. He still feels bad for not minding his own business, though. Now weird guy would hate him. Great.
Also, can weird guy’s face stop appearing in his brain every other second?
-
Gin was very much done with her brother. He had seemed more sad as of late, and she knew it wasn’t only because kyuu was sick.
She gathers the prescribed medicine that yosano wanted, and puts them all on the counter, explaining to the patient which one to take and when. When the patient leaves after paying, she slumps back down into her chair.
Yosano notices, because she always does.
“Something on your mind?” She walks up behind her and briefly massages gin’s shoulders. “Also, isn’t your brother back?”
“Yeah, he is,” gin leans her head back, onto yosano’s stomach. “But I’m pretty sure his love life has some problems. And his love life sucks. You know how it is.”
Yosano snorts. “Tell him to get his shit together. Or like, get the person he likes a vibrator with his face on it. I dunno.”
“I’ll do the first one only, thanks.”
“Yeah, whatever. Go on your lunch break already, Don’t you have another date scheduled with the book store girl?” Yosano inquires. Gin gets up and stretches. “No, it’s book store girl and florist girl today.”
“Okay, threesome, whatever.”
When gin walks out of the clinic, she’s surprised to see both higuchi and naomi already standing outside, waiting for her. They get to the cafe a few blocks away, settling down at a booth while naomi complains to them about some weird guy her brother met.
“And then juni was just telling whatshisname that he should, like, take care of himself, right? And then the guy snaps at him! Like, what the heck is his problem,” she grumbles.
The pretty red haired waitress, Lucy, saunters up to their booth, taking a seat beside Naomi. She pulls out her notepad and pen from her pocket, popping her gum. “Hey ladies. What can i get for you?” She says automatically. They place their orders while also ignoring how Naomi’s eyes light up at the sight of Lucy.
The waitress goes back to the counter to place their orders before coming back, taking her place beside Naomi once again, listening to the gossip.
Higuchi looks a little dubious thinking of Naomi’s words. “I gotta say, I’m quite surprised. Your brother’s a pretty nice guy”
Gin nods, “why’s everyone’s brothers having some weird shit going on in their life right now, dude.”
“Beats me. What’s up with ryuunosuke? He just moved back, right?” Naomi asks.
“He probably just has another crush again, and he’s not gonna do anything about because he’s a pussy. And something probably happened between him and his crush because he’s kinda sad, so yeah.” Gin takes a sip of her drink. “He’s not telling me anything, though.”
Higuchi snorts.
Lucy leaves again before coming back with their food, setting the tray down on the table. Naomi lets the waitress have a sip of whatever sugary drink she ordered. “Stuff round town usually gets around to here fast,” she says, setting down Naomi’s drink.
She says it like the absolute gossipmonger she is, as if she doesn’t snoop around eavesdropping in the diner. And also she knows pretty much everyone around town and the neighbouring villages. “I’ll tell you guys if i hear anything from tachihara.”
-
“And then he says something about parents getting worried when their kids get sick, and then he tells me to take care of myself. As if I’m a child! I am a 28 year old man. And I know how to take care of myself, yknow. It wasn’t really any of his business. But then I snapped at him, and now he probably thinks I can’t take care of myself and I’m like, short tempered or something,” Ryuunosuke complains.
Karl makes an inquisitive noise.
He sighs. “You’re so wise, Karl.”
-
Ryuunosuke doesn’t mean for it to happen. He’s minding his own business, scanning products and pointing at the little screen showing the price and collecting and giving change and asking if the customer needed a bag. As usual as it could be.
The hardware store was actually sort of understaffed, so he was the only cashier for that day. Not like he cared. It was better than having one of his crazy co-workers talking his ass off within a five meter radius.
But then of all people that could have been there buying stuff at the same time that he had his shift, it just had to be him.
Before junichirou even came close to the counter, ryuunosuke had already been scowling at him behind the display shelf near the counter.
When he did inevitably have to go pay for his stuff, junichirou didn’t even realise that the guy he’d been overthinking about had been staring right at him until he was handing him cash, which he accidentally dropped. He picks up the note and hands it back, looking up at the cashier.
“I’m sorry,” junichirou says on instinct, but pauses when he fully registers who is in front of him.
His eyes widen and his breath hitches. “I-I’m sorry,” he mutters. He grabs his items and the change and walks out of the shop as fast as he could.
Ryuunosuke doesn’t know what the second apology is for. He doesn’t want to think of the possibilities.
-
Junichirou thinks that was Totally Fucking Weird. Originally he thought ryuunosuke was…something, but now he thinks that the guy is weird. Totally weird. Of all the places he could have worked at, it would be at the hardware store. Of all the places he could be at, it was the counter.
This was totally stupid.
Like, middle school crush stupid.
He sighs and goes back to marking attendance.
-
Ryuunosuke has come to the conclusion that Kenji was either just very convincing or he’s under a spell. Because who would agree to be doing this on one of the days of the week when the store was closed?
His arms are already starting to grow numb from shovelling soil. The compost reeks and he’s sweaty.
Yeah, he’s definitely under some sort of spell.
“Woah Mr Akutagawa, you’ve cleared so much! I knew i asked the right person to help!” Kenji cheers. Ryuunosuke looks up. Kenji’s already done three times the amount of work. He just gives the kid an awkward smile and goes back to work.
Until he’s hit in the ass by something that feels awfully like soil.
Seething, he turns around to see atsushi. “Oops,” he says, his voice coy. “Accident,” as if that really happened. Ryuunosuke resists the burning urge to hit his co-worker upside the head with the shovel.
Then they’re planting fucking rice, and his back is complaining to him in all ways possible. The sweat keeps dripping into his eyes, and he can’t rub it off because he’s, well, planting rice. He does manage to get a good splash onto atsushi, and when he turns around, intending to yell at him, he just says “oops, accident,” mocking atsushi’s earlier words. He may or may not get abducted and slow cooked over a fire that night, but it was worth it to see the expression on his co-worker’s face.
They get popsicles afterwards (aka ryuunosuke buys it for them), and they sit on the ledge overlooking the farm. Atsushi is off to who knows where, muttering something about his ‘wet ass’. They’re eating in silence before Kenji speaks up. “Something’s going on?” The boy says like a question, but it might as well not be because they both know it’s true.
Ryuunosuke stills. This kid knows more than he lets in on. He sighs, knowing he can’t hide much. “Nothing, really. It’s just stupid.”
“Stupid enough that it bothers you so much?” Darn this kid and his charms.
He sighs again.
He doesn’t know how to answer.
“Well, I’ve been trying to let it go, you know? Forgetting out it, forgetting about that person,” but the image of that person is burned fresh in his mind.
Kenji looks over. “Well, maybe the reason it still matters to you is because you can’t let it go.”
Huh, ryuunosuke thinks. This kid is something. But then Kenji spots one of his cows and goes on his little ramble about them.
Ryuunosuke is barely listening, and instead gazes off into the far distance where the green of trees blur into the blue sky.
-
When he returns home in the evening looking disheveled with dirt stains on his ass, gin gives him a once over from the kitchen and decided he hasn’t been in some sort of gang fight, and goes back to making dinner.
Kyuusaku just cackles at his appearance. Ryuu can’t even bring himself to get mad or something, and instead just drags himself to his room and takes a shower.
Kenji’s words linger in his mind. What did the boy even mean, anyways?
And why did those words impact him so much?
Dinner goes by like usual, but kyuu is poking fun at him more than usual. Gin is on their side. Well, he’s used to being ganged up on by them, so he just scowls at tires to pretend they aren’t kind of funny.
-
He and gin are in the living room, pretending to be interested in the news. He also pretends not to see her blatantly staring at him.
He scrubs a hand over his face, sighs, and admits defeat. “Kenji said something weird today.”
“You’ve been telling me he says weird stuff all the time”
He pauses before spitting it out.
“He says i can’t let it go because it still matters to me.”
“Well, yeah,” gin says, like it’s the most obvious thing ever. Ryuu pulls a face. “What do you mean, ‘well yeah’?”
It’s gin’s turn to sigh now. “Ryuu, if you didn’t care, you wouldn’t have spent two weeks thinking about it, would you?”
And yeah, maybe shes right, ryuu thinks. He also thinks of the quirk of soft lips and warm brown eyes.
-
“Maybe kenji’s right. I’ve really been an ass to him.”
Karl blinks at him.
“Maybe I should apologise…”
Karl tilts his little head.
“You’re right, Karl. I should.”
“Ryuu! Hey, a little help here would be nice.” Atsushi said from where he’s carrying like, five different boxes at the same time. Ryuu rolls his eyes and takes his own sweet time standing up from his spot behind the register and grabs two boxes from the stack that atsushi is holding. The both of them grumble under their breath about each other while walking to the supply room. Atsushi lowers the boxes outside the supply room, onto the floor.
“Just put the boxes in there for me,” he says in a hurry before scuttling off, muttering about more boxes. Weird. Ryuunosuke wonders why atsushi is acting like that today.
The answer to his question is actually in the supply room. Not just anything in there, but rather his co-worker dazai, sitting on a shelf and sucking faces with their manager, Kunikida. Ryuu sees dazai palming kunikida’s ass and decided he’s seen enough for the day and books it right out of there, slamming the door.
No fucking wonder atsushi made him put the boxes in.
At least he’s going to win big in the betting pool with his co-workers.
-
Ryuu comes to pick kyuusaku from school every Friday because he doesn’t have shifts on Fridays. He stands a little farther from the school gate than the rest of the parents, when he spots kyuu and the girl they got in trouble with whispering to themselves.
Ryuu tries not to over analyse, and after a while more of the two kids conspiring to themselves, kyuu walks over, takes a good look at ryuu, and smirks. “You look like you’re about to make a terrible decision,” they say. He’s a little offended, what right did this kid have to say that to him?
“I am not.” “You’re about to talk to Mr. Tanizaki, aren’t you?”
“How the hell do you know that?” He sputters. These kids are getting smarter, he swears.
Kyuu’s smirk grows wider. “You get that look on your face when you’re thinking of him, yknow? Yep, okay, I’ve gotta find Elise now.”
Ryuu is left speechless. What fucking expression is kyuusaku talking about? Also, wasn’t Elise their self-proclaimed nemesis?
And- oh, yeah. Mr gorgeous himself was there now, sending off the kids.
-
Junichirou was having a perfectly fine day until ryuunosuke just had to come and pick kyuusaku up after school. Sure, it’s great of him and all, but just. Why?
He’s already had such bad luck avoiding him.
Just avoid him, he tells himself. Easy, right? He’s probably still pissed at you. And then his stomach twists uncomfortably.
He knows he overstepped. Ryuunosuke was probably still so, so mad at him.
When all the kids are gone, he looks back up. Elise and kyuusaku are the only ones left, and oh.
Fuck.
The guy is already walking up to him.
-
“Hi,” tanizaki says.
“Hi.”
Theres silence. Tanizaki looks like he’s waiting for something. Ryuu wishes the floor would open up and swallow him whole, but he’s been wishing it for the past 20 years. It hasn’t worked.
He contemplates running away, but he really shouldn’t.
“I came here to tell you something,” he blurts. This isn’t like how he rehearsed in his mind. Tanizaki nods after a moment.
Ryuu takes a breath. “I wanted to apologise to you.”
Tanizaki blinks. “What?”
“For what I said. I wanted to apologise.”
Tanizaki doesn’t reply, but instead plays with the hem of his shirt.
“I-when you came over to drop off kyuusaku’s homework, you- you were just trying to help. And I was rude and snapped at you.”
“Oh,” tanizaki mutters.
“I didn’t mean to,” ryuu lets out a shaky breath.
“I-I thought you were angry at me,”the teacher says. “For overstepping. It wasn’t my place to. I’m sorry.” And the look on his face is just so, so sad and precious and maybe all ryuu wants to do is kiss those pretty lips and wipe that look off tanizaki’s face because a smile there looks better.
He doesn’t. “Oh,” he says instead. “So, are we, like, even now?” He curses himself internally, because he just sounds like an ignorant high schooler.
But tanizaki nods, so he considers it a win.
-
“Didja hear? Someone scored a date with Kyouka, from the florists downtown,” Lucy announces, sliding a packet of gummies over the counter.
Tachihara scans it and takes a dollar from Lucy, opening the packet and stuffing some into his mouth.
“Who’d ya hear from?” He asks, his speech slurring.
“Naomi. She works at the florist’s too.”
Tachihara snorts. “I know that, dumbo. Who’s the lucky boy?”
Lucy shrugs. “No clue. Kyouka didn’t even tell Naomi. I’ve been trying to snoop ‘round, but still…” she sighs dramatically, before snatching the bag and stuffing her face full of gummies.
-
Naomi, gin and higuchi are sat together at a booth in the corner of the diner.
Lucy comes with a tray of their food, setting the plates down and taking a sip of someone’s iced coffee. “Cmon Naomi, you really dont have a clue who this lucky fella is?” She asks.
Naomi shakes her head. “No way. She just muttered something about a date. Ran off before i could even ask anything else.”
Higuchi snorts, picking up a spoonful of her rice and feeding it to Lucy because she knows the waitress has been eyeing it. “Wouldn’t it be funny? She’d be the one giving flowers instead of the boy.” Gin shakes her head in disbelief.
“You really have gotta tell us who shes on a date with when you figure it out, naomi-“ “look outside!” Lucy cuts gin off.
Sure enough, Kyouka. And the farmer boy. What’s his name…Kenji. Right.
“Well, I guess we know now,” higuchi huffs, exasperated.
-
Right. It must just be his luck, at this point. He was just an innocent person who happened to see.
Yep.
Ryuu just happened to need to take out the trash at the store, and he had to go out by the back door to the bin. Right as he stepped out he saw people in the opposite direction, kissing. Again. But not just anyone, but Poe. Oh god, if Karl saw this he would probably flip out.
He goes back in and makes atsushi take out the trash.
Also, wasn’t that the secretary from the middle school with Poe?
-
Ryuu exhales again. You’ll be okay, he tells himself. He’s using his cologne and actually putting in effort to dress well. He opens his eyes again and looks at himself in the mirror. Fuck, this won’t do, will it?
“Gin, get in here!” He calls. Perhaps she might help. Maybe.
-
Ryuu holds out the bouquet of flowers like it’s a peace offering.
He knows his face is as red as a tomato, and his breathing is too fast. How he even got the courage to ask Tanizaki out, he doesn’t know.
“Oh,” the teacher says, “how sweet! I love flowers.” And he takes the bouquet from ryuu. Okay. At least that worked well enough.
They’re walking side by side down the street, ryuu trying not to bump into his date. Woah, his date. He was on a date with tanizaki junichirou, the most gorgeous man in this entire town. He pats himself on the back mentally.
They reach the diner and sit in a booth opposite each other. The waitress, this red haired girl comes over and takes their orders, coming back within five minutes with the tray of food. Ryuu swears she winked at him.
Dinner is awkward. Horrible.
“So, how was work, akutagawa?” Tanizaki asks.
“Um. It was okay. I thought i told you to call me ryuunosuke?” He says.
“Well, then you’re gonna call me junichirou.”
“Okay. How was school.”
“It was okay”
“Good.”
Silence again. Ryuu pokes his pasta with his fork.
It’s awkward until junichirou mentions kyuu’s clssroom antics. Then ryuu launches into a rant about the little shit, causing the teacher to giggle. And then suddenly the air around him is bubbling with laughter ass they joke around, taking about everything and nothing.
The bill arrives, and suddenly it’s awkward again. The both of then reach for it at the same time, and their hands knock against each other. Both of them insist on paying.
The waitress watches on with interest.
-
They walk home together. They walk through the dimly lit town, the sun setting behind the mountains.
They’re at ryuu’s doorstep far too fast for his liking.
“Hey,” junichirou says. “I had fun.”
Ryuu just nods stupidly. “Me too. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” comes the reply, and ryuu feels their hands brushing against each other before junichirou walks off into the night, waving goodbye one last time.
-
The house is suspiciously quiet today. The lights are on, which means gin and kyuu are home, at least. When he walks into the living room, they’re there, sitting on the couch, waiting like predators.
“How’d your date go” gin asks.
Ryuu scoffs. “What date?”
“You spent two hours there,” kyuu supplies.
“Yeah, eating dinner.”
“You changed shirts five times.”
Ryuu tries not to look shocked. “How do you know that?”
“I have eyes.”
He decided that he’s not dealing with this anymore. He tries to escape.
“Did you kiss,” kyuu asks when he’s halfway up the stairs.
Ryuu nearly trips. “NO.”
-
Junichirou walks into his house. Naomi is waiting, just like she always is. He sets the bouquet on the table.
“How’d the date go?” She asks, grinning.
“Not a date!”
“Okay. How’d dinner go?”
Junichirou makes a face. “It was good.”
“Just good?”
“Very good”
Naomi’s grin gets bigger. “Aha.”
Junichirou regrets speaking.
-
Kyuu and elise were off into their secret lair in the forest again. This time, they brought some of their stuff from home.
They had discovered the place recently and they were once again fighting over whose turf it was on before coming to the conclusion that it was in the forest and thus belonged to both of them. They signed a truce (with glitter pens on their palms) and carved their names into stone (onto the tree).
They decorate their secret treehouse with the things they brought, making wind chimes from old glasses and signs from scrap wood and paint.
They defeat the tree monster, reconcile a baby centaur with its mother and shoot arrows at flying piranhas all in one day. It’s great.
-
“Where are you going?” Gin asks, one eyebrow raised.
Ryuu turns around. “I’m going for dinner.”
Gin nods. “Again? With who?”
“No one.”
“Uh-huh. Sure about that,” gin says.
He swallows. No point lying now. “I’m going for dinner. As in a date,” he huffs and rolls his eyes. Gin mock gasps and clenches her fist over her heart over-dramatically. “You know each other’s schedules. So sweet.”
“Can you shut up?” He rolls his eyes again. Gin cackles. “Oh my days, you’re acting like you’re 16 again.”
That’s it. He slams the front door shut and walks away, flipping the bird at gin where he knows shes watching through the front window.
-
Yosano was sorting through the boxes of medicine again. God knows where gin was off to. Actually, yosano could probably get a good guess. Whatever.
She was getting sick of the little kid at her front desk trying to convince her to buy him candy. In fact, trying to ignore him was proving to be harder than she thought, even if shes had years of experience.
“Hey! I said stop ignoring me! Yosano!” Ranpo cries again. He’s lucky there’s no one else there right now. She slams the cupboard door shut and faces him.
Yosano opens her mouth to retaliate, but he beats her to it. “Apparently, Jun went on a date,” he sing-songs waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
She clicks her tongue. “Tell him to grow a pair.” Ranpo laughs. “Who’d he go out with?” She asks.
“Well, thats for you to figure out.”
-
This time it really isn’t his fault. It’s kyuusaku’s fault. Not his. He’s not to blame for this, really. Anyways, it was kyuusaku who told him that they had to get this book for their class or something, and where would one acquire a book?
The bookstore, of course!
He was on his way to the bookstore after being forced by the little parasite to get the book for them, and when he opens the door of the bookstore he gets greeted by none other than his sister and the bookstore clerk higuchi making out sloppy style.
He runs away and tries to get the image out of his mind.
-
Okay, maybe the Gods thought making him see so many goddamed people make out would give him some sort of hint. Or maybe it was to help him understand how kissing works, because as a 28 year old, fully grown man, it was embarrassing to admit to even himself that he hadn’t kissed anyone.
It was probably to tell him to take a fucking hint, anyways. What’s so complicated about kissing, anyways? It’s like, smushing lips together. It doesn’t even sound all that hard. And he doesn’t know why all the tv shows glorify it so much.
Maybe he should really man up and take the hint.
Gin thinks so too, and he knows because she tells him that. Actually, scratch that. She announces, proclaims it even. She dangles the fact that he’s a grown ass man who’s never had the balls to kiss anyone right in front of his face.
Also, it wouldn’t be so bad to get bullied by only his sister, but kyuu also decides its family bonding time and joins in on ganging up on him.
-
Kenji buys ice cream for kyouka and they sit on the steps down to the farm and eat the big tub of ice cream together, under the hot afternoon sun.
He had taken his co workers advice to ask her out again, because he thinks kyouka is like, the coolest person ever. And shes nice to him. Kyouka says something about flowers and herbs and he nods along even though he had no idea what she means. She knows that and lets him anyways, because he’s just too nice.
Around midday when it’s too hot to be running around, Kenji offers to drive kyouka around the farm on the tractor, and she has her doubts about him driving because they’re not legal yet, but no one can really say no to him. So she agrees.
They end up nearly driving into the pond like, twice, but besides that nothing much happens.
Kyouka asks how kenji always battles the hot afternoon sun like this, and he says something about facing it shamelessly.
She thinks it’s hard to focus on what he’s saying when he’s just so cute.
-
Ryuu is over at junichirou’s house because of kyuusaku’s grades. The little shit had the audacity to not study and then flunk all his subjects, and junichirou asked to talk to him.
He thinks it sounds like a shitty excuse to hang out, but he’s not complaining.
“I just don’t get it, they do all they’re work and gets okay marks on those, and I make then study at home. I really don’t know how they failed so many subjects,” ryuu says.
Junichirou sighs, looking up at him. “I don’t know either, ryuunosuke.” He smiles a little.
Oh. That smile.
The smile that causes problems.
Ryuu ignored the pounding in his chest. Cmon, man up, a tiny voice in his head says. It sounds suspiciously like gin.
“Hey,” he breathes. “You’re really pretty, yknow that?” His fists are clenched tight and his nails dig into his clammy palms. He knows his cheeks are flushed.
Junichirou’s eyes widen and his face flushes pink. He has this small, unsure smile on his face. “Really? I-thanks. You’re kinda pretty yourself,” the teacher stammers.
Woah. Ryuu thinks he could start spontaneously combusting right there on the spot.
“I-can I kiss you?” The words are out of his mouth before he even has the chance to process it. Fuck him and his stupid brain. But they’re sitting right beside each other, and their faces are so close and their shoulders are touching and he just couldn’t resist.
Junichirou looks a little shocked and his face flushes even more. He doesn’t lean away, which is a good sign. “Yeah. Yes you can,” comes the answer. He sounds almost breathless.
He leans in and-oh. His brain doesn’t immediately process it. It’s just a press of lips against lips. Heaven and earth don’t part, and it doesn’t shatter the world right into its core. It’s just quiet. Ryuu pulls back, afraid of finding junichirou totally disgusted or something, but he’s pulled back again. It was sweet and hesitant and junichirou’s lips moving softly like he was mouthing words into him. His hands found themselves on his hips and he thought for a split second-is this too much, but he remembers they’re basically sucking faces, so, maybe it was okay. His hands clenched tighter on junichirou’s hips and he tried to say with his kiss that he really meant it, everything from his guilt to his apology to, just, everything.
He doesn’t quite remember how they end up sprawled on each other on the floor, but he’s comfortable where he is, hearing the rhythmic beating of junichirou’s heart and gentle fingers carding through his hair.
-
Gin woke up slowly, warm and comfortable despite the face that Lucy was lying almost entirely on top of her. Naomi was on her right and had an arm flung over Lucy’s back, hand on gin’s hip. To the left was higuchi, curled into gin’s side and holding her hand.
Gin looks up over lucy’s head and sees Naomi already awake, eyes hazy from sleep and her hair pretty much everywhere. She smiles, warm and content and comforting, and brings her hand up to card it through higuchi’s hair. Higuchi stirred a little and made a small, happy sound and snuggled closer to her side.
-
Ryuu has to move an entire section elsewhere because dazai decided it was funny to put products where they don’t belong and then go on an off day. At least kunikida got pretty riled up by it and told him and atsushi that if they got the job done they could get bonuses for the month. Leave it to him to be the weirdest person in this fucking hardware store, whatever.
Ryuu was also getting riled up because atsushi was just trying to push his buttons. Lucky for him, Kenji and Poe come by to help because business was slow that day and they didn’t have much to do.
Kenji carries like, 10 kg worth of stuff in one go. Ryuu doesn’t know how the kid does it. Who even let the kid be this strong, anyways?
By noon they’ve moved everything to the right place, and ryuu has learnt a total of one thing. Dazai must be under supervision while anywhere in that goddamed store.
He’s back at the counter, when atsushi comes by with the disinfectant and sprays it on the conveyor belt and wipes it down. When he’s done wiping he sprays some disinfectant at ryuu before he goes on to bother someone else. Ryuu scowls.
His saving grace in this stupid fucking store comes in the form of a ridiculously pretty teacher. Junichirou is buying paintbrushes again, but at least this time they’re not in the middle of the fucking cold war.
“Hey,” junichirou says. “Hi,” he breathes. He knows his face is red and he is going to beat atsushi up later if he says a word about this.
“See you later,” the teacher says. Oh, right. He hands him the paintbrushes and lets their hands linger together for a second too long. “Yeah. See you later,” he mutters.
-
“Tachihara!” Lucy stomps into the convenience store. “Oh my days, did you hear?”
Tachihara bursts out laughing. “Fuck, of course I did! Wow, I never thought ryuunosuke could get his shit together like that.”
“Right? Naomi screamed her head off when she found out. Gin was freaking out, too.” Lucy says as she takes a can of soda from the cooler and slides a bill across. Tachihara takes the bill and the can, popping it open and taking a big sip for himself. “Yknow, I’m pretty surprised myself. I never thought resident emo would get with that sweet little guy,” he says, and proceeds to burp in Lucy’s face.
“Gross! Give me back my drink,” she snatches the can out of tachihara’s evil, greedy claws.
-
The treehouse is complete, and they’re laughing and giggling so much they double over. Elise shoves kyuu lightly as she continues to laugh, and kyuu cries out and they start to laugh at how stupid that was.
Suddenly, something snaps outside. Theres a clicking sound. That could only mean one thing. Flying piranhas again! Kyuu gasps and grabs their bows off where they were hanged on the wall, sliding down the rope and down to the ground. Elise follows suit, picking up a stray twig off the floor and using them as arrows, aiming them at the nasty creatures flying around.
Just as they were about to get swarmed by the horde of stinky flying fishes, two centaurs gallop in and scare the creatures off, saving kyuu and Elise.
Elise thinks kyuu is the coolest ever, but shes not gonna tell them that.
-
“Hey,” Jun says. “Hi,” ryuunosuke says, almost stupidly, as if they haven’t spent the past few minutes making out. They’re lying together on his bed, and Naomi probably isn’t returning home that night so it’s just them. He’s pretty much lying on the man, admiring his long eyelashes and his pink lips.
Jun smiles. “This is comfortable,” ryuunosuke mutters.
“Stay the night?” He asks, a little hopeful.
Ryuunosuke nods.