Chapter Text
There had been tears in Io’s eyes. Ryuu could remember seeing them just before he ran off. He couldn’t face them and the implications they set. Io had no reason to be crying, he was the one that had said all those horrible, hurtful things. Io was the one that refused to speak to him and instead chose to turn to someone else. Io was the one okay with keeping him in the dark.
So then why did Ryuu feel like the scum of the earth? Why did he feel as though if he were to fall down every single set of stairs leading toward Binan High School, it would hurt less than how he was feeling at that exact moment?
‘He’s my best friend. He’s...more than my best friend. He’s in love with me. I think I’m in love with him.’
Ryuu made a pit stop at the konbini near the school with the hopes of delaying his arrival. He didn’t dare face Io, nor the rest of the defense club; he assumed they either saw what happened, or heard about it. He couldn’t decide if he was upset and mad or guilty and regretful, or maybe even both. Because of that, Ryuu wasn’t exactly up to talking to anyone and dealing with their awkward sympathy or even worse - their awkward stares.
He walked into an aisle that had various assortments of wrapped pastries as well as fresh pastries in a few glass cases with tongs to retrieve them with. If anything could cheer him up, even if only temporarily, sweets could. It would truly seal the deal if Ryuu managed to find a cherry flavored pastry; he needed something to distract himself with.
The sounds of other students rushing in to grab a quick bite before class made Ryuu move a little quicker, not wanting to be spotted, potentially recognized, and then become bombarded with questions. Ryuu didn’t think he looked tired or miserable, but he assumed that since he felt that way, others would be quick to pick up on it. So he hurried his way down the aisle, grabbing a couple of packaged pastries and a few chocolate cherry macaroons before making his way to the register.
‘These will probably only keep me occupied until my second class,’ Ryuu realized with a sigh as he eyed the items in his hands. ‘I can’t keep running from this, but what else am I supposed to do? I wish I never heard that damn conversation.’
“You look so sad for this early in the morning... Cheer up.”
Ryuu certainly didn’t expect anyone to be talking to him. From the sounds of things in the konbini, the other Binan students were still running around making decisions on what to buy. Unless one separated himself from the group, and the thought was what caused Ryuu to at last raise his gaze up from his items to the man that was standing behind him on line. He was certainly no Binan student, but the smile on his face and the fact that his focus was directed solely at him confirmed to Ryuu that the man was, indeed, talking to him.
“You look too pretty to be sad,” the man spoke up again, winking at the end of his statement.
Ryuu didn’t expect that either, and his eyes widened at the words as his cheeks burned up in embarrassment. Was it embarrassment, or maybe appreciation at the slight compliment? He sure didn’t feel on his best game that day, but it was great to hear that somebody still thought so despite how unexperienced he was suddenly feeling.
“Um. Thank you?” He replied, wishing he sounded more sure of himself. Ryuu was so surprised that he failed to realize he was next up on line in spite of the old man behind the counter calling for his attention. He only moved when the man stepped forward to place his items on the counter. Before Ryuu had a second to process his actions or snap at him for cutting him on line, the man grabbed his items out of his hands and set them on the counter as well. Ryuu could only stare in bewilderment as the purchases were completed and a plastic bag was handed to him.
“You’re welcome. Something pressing is going on in there if you can’t focus long enough to pay for sweets,” the man teased, then poked Ryuu in the center of his forehead with his index finger.
Ryuu’s grip on the bag with his pastries tightened and he felt himself growing impossibly redder. ‘What the hell?! Is he flirting with me?! Me?! I can’t find any words to get back at him...!’
He didn’t notice he was following him until they were outside the konbini and back on the sidewalk. Ryuu found he still couldn’t speak, so he opted to instead get an idea on who exactly he was dealing with. The man was definitely not a Binan student, or any high school student for that matter. He was tall, wearing what Ryuu was dubbing ‘business casual’: fitted jeans and a blazer with a white button shirt underneath. Maybe a college student? Or someone already in his career of choice? His eyes reminded him of En with how blue they were, partially covered by wisps of light brown hair that somehow won over the messily-styled-to-perfection look.
If the man noticed that Ryuu was staring at him, he didn’t say anything, and instead chose to poke Ryuu again, this time directly on the Binan patch on his jacket sleeve.
“Binan High, huh? Prestigious,” he commented before pulling a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket to hide the blue eyes that Ryuu still couldn’t understand. “Well. I hope you have a better day, beautiful. See you around.”
It wasn’t until the man began walking away that Ryuu finally found his bearings, and he shook his head wildly from side to side to attempt to further snap himself out of it.
“What the hell was that?!” he chastised himself. “Some random guy flirts with you and pays for your things and you follow him?! Are you that stupid right now?!” Ryuu pressed his hands over his face in sheer embarrassment, groaning loudly at the feel of his hot cheeks against the palms of his skin. “I am not blushing over this. Io’s got me preoccupied. Yes, yes, that’s right. I am off of my game today, I’m not myself. Right.”
Ryuu paused in his words, pulling his hands off of his face in realization. “Io... Shit! I’m so late!” He hurried off in the direction of school, not even wanting to check his phone to see how late he had made himself with the random events of that morning.
Maybe he’d be preoccupied until third class, now. So at least it bought him some time before his guilt and misery over one Naruko Io haunted him again for yet another day.
Io hadn’t had as an eventful a morning. It took sheer force to pull himself out of bed and out of the house that day, and he felt like a real life zombie on the walk to school. His mind wasn’t on his stocks, and he found it incredibly difficult to give them his full attention. It was going to cost him, but Io couldn’t find it in himself to care at that moment. Normally, his finances were what he turned to when he was stressed. They were a way for his mind to focus on other things so he could calculate not only his profits, but use those strategies for other events and situations. It all calmed him usually, but not then.
All Io could think of was how wrong he had been, how he should have gone straight to Ryuu with his feelings instead of try to keep them from him. That was one of the reasons he thought they meshed so well together, because while he found his emotions and feelings something private, Ryuu wore them on his sleeve and was very open about them. They complimented each other. Yet, Io’s own words crashed back into the forefront of his mind: “After time, puzzle pieces don’t fit together so well anymore.”
“How could I have said that,” Io muttered, bringing a hand up to cover his lips, not wanting his peers to begin thinking of him as oddly as they had Itsumo.
He glanced at the time and decided, begrudgingly, to head toward the cafeteria. He hadn’t been talking much to En, Atsushi, and Yumoto, not because he was ignoring them, but because he was trying to ignore his problems, as childish as it was. The moment he became face to face with one of them, he knew they’d want to talk to him - especially Yumoto. Io didn’t feel like he’d ever be ready for that, but he had to swallow his pride and face them and hope that maybe one of them had an inkling of an idea as to how he could patch things up with Ryuu.
Every step, every moment Io made blended into the one before. It was as if he were running in slow motion as time whizzed by him at high speed and he simply could not catch up. He felt out of his element and it made him uncomfortable. No, he had to speak with his friends. He couldn’t hide from them any longer.
“Io-senpai!” Yumoto exclaimed as Io approached the table, but his cheery face faded the instant he spotted how miserable Io appeared. “You haven’t spoken to Ryuu-senpai, yet?”
Those words caught Atsushi and En’s attention. They both looked up from their meals to see Io just as he shrugged and claimed a seat across from them.
“I don’t know how to make things right,” Io replied as he set his belongings down on the ground beside him. “I never intended to hurt him so badly.”
“Just go and apologize to him, then!” Yumoto exclaimed just before taking a bite of his rice ball. “Tell him how you feel!”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” En interrupted, pausing to eat some more of his food before speaking up again. “I’m sure this will all blow over.”
“He won’t even look in my direction.” Io sunk down in his seat. “In class this morning, I tried to say hello to him but he wouldn’t even look at me. It’s hard to sneak texts in class, you know? And frankly, I don’t usually do so... However I know he always manages to find a way to sneak a few glances at his phone when the teacher’s back is facing us, so I attempted to text him. He didn’t respond.”
“Our conversation must’ve sounded pretty horrible...” Atsushi trailed off, placing a finger to his chin in thought. “I don’t want to say to corner him, that won’t end well, but you’ve got to get him to hear you out somehow.”
Yumoto swallowed the rest of his rice ball as he slammed his hands into the table, causing Io, En, and Atsushi to jump in their seats. “We can’t just sit here, then! We have to do something!!”
“It’s not like it’s a monster this time, calm down.” En placed a hand on top of Yumoto’s head to keep him from jumping up and out of his seat. “This doesn’t involve you.”
“But we can’t just sit here!” Yumoto continued. “Io-senpai looks miserable and I’m sure Ryuu-senpai does, too! We have to do something to help them!”
“You can start by keeping your voices down, it’s obnoxious and vulgar and disruptive.”
The four fell silent and glanced up at the sound of another voice joining their conversation, and Io almost wasn’t surprised to see Gero Akoya standing at the foot of the table, twirling a piece of his hair around his finger as he stared at them.
“Sorry, Gero-kun,” Atsushi replied timidly. “We didn’t realize...”
Akoya shrugged off his response and folded his arms across his chest, a wicked smirk replacing the look of repulsion he had on his face a moment prior. “I’m only here to inform the four of you that you have until Monday to find a fifth member of your group or it will be dissolved.”
“What?!” Yumoto cried out, eyes wide.
Akoya shrugged again, arching an eyebrow. “Hmm? Isn’t it true that Zaou left?” He could only chuckle at the wide-eyed stares and silence that he received in response. “I’m not surprised. Well, It’s like I said, you have until Monday. We’ve been at this crossroads before... It’s a shame. Take care, Defense Club...and, Naruko-san?”
Io wasn’t expecting to be singled out, unless Akoya planned on rubbing his failed friendship with Ryuu in his face; he knew very well that those two did not get along.
“The President wishes to chat with you before the lunch period is over. He’ll be in the council room. Don’t keep him waiting.”
Akoya walked off before Io had a chance to question it, and he was left in a more confused state than he had been in before.
En and Atsushi shared a look. “Is this about the student council?” En questioned.
“Are they planning to ask you to rejoin them?” Atsushi added.
“You can’t, Io-senpai!!” Yumoto exclaimed, making a move to stand up but was thwarted by En placing his hand back on his head to keep him put.
“What if it gives him the space he wants?” Io asked, quietly. “If I talk to him, and it blows up in my face... I would’ve done all I could, and would therefore need to respect his decisions. I wouldn’t want to hinder his friendship with you all, so maybe it would make sense to follow through.”
“None of that makes sense and you know it,” Atsushi stated firmly. “Don’t run from this, Io. You need to tackle this head on.”
“Like you’ve been so good at doing so?” Io pulled his hands down from the tabletop and onto his lap, not wanting his friends to see how badly he was shaking. “I’m sorry. I don’t know if I have much choice but to adhere to the consequences I’ve set up for myself.”
The cafeteria was loud and buzzing with sounds - laughter, conversations, shouting, and things of the like.
Their table was the quietest in the room.
The situation felt nothing short of deja vu. The last time Io spoke to Kusatsu Kinshiro, he was looking into joining the student council, had the defense club under threat of being dissolved, and he was fighting with Ryuu. And there he was, standing in front of the door to the student council office, days away from having his own club dissolved once again, and once again fighting with Ryuu. The only difference was that this time had a lot more baggage and reasoning behind it, and Io felt like a horrible person about the whole ordeal.
He couldn’t remember much of it, but the bits and pieces of his conversation with Atsushi kept popping up in his mind and made Io fully aware of the reasoning behind Ryuu’s outbursts. He deemed himself quite the hypocrite; how dare he ask Ryuu to talk to him when he couldn’t speak to Ryuu, either? They were both avoiding each other rather well, but it was putting a bigger and bigger strain on their friendship.
Then there was the reality that set in when Ryuu ran away from him: Io was in love with him. Completely, totally, really, truly in love with him. His calculated confidence tangled up in knots and left Io with only short sentences and chuckles. He wasn’t as suave with Ryuu as he wanted to be. The best he had been able to do was hooking a finger or two around Ryuu’s as they walked or tiny, kind gestures like holding his bag while he texted, or brushing his damp bangs out of his eyes at the Kurotama Bath. The shy smile Io got in return made all of his shaky teenager-with-a-puppy-crush antics so worth it and made him want to do more, say more, in order to get Ryuu to act that way again. With timid, private smiles reserved just for him.
“Why couldn’t I realize that before acting so pessimistic and shutting down every one of my thoughts in front of Kinugawa-senpai?” Io questioned to himself, knowing he had no answer to calm his stress. One of his hands raised and poised to knock on the door to the student council room, but was stopped when the door opened abruptly under his closed fist to reveal Kinshiro and his narrowed gaze focused on his face. Io lowered his hand, shrugging awkwardly. “Oh... Gero-san said you wanted to speak to me?”
“Hmm.” Kinshiro’s eyes were honed in on Io’s face and his stare was unnerving. “I did. Come in,” he replied, pushing the door open further and stepping out of the doorway so Io could enter the room.
Io closed the door behind him and took a moment to glance around the room, almost not surprised to see how lavishly decorated it was. From the way the student council had set up their own exclusive section of the cafeteria, Io expected nothing less. Kinshiro made his way over to his desk and Io gradually began to trail behind him, only stopping when Kinshiro turned around randomly and met Io’s gaze with a glare.
“You turned us down before,” he started, “when we offered you a position with us as treasurer. We even offered to compensate you, which is unheard of regardless of how interesting your demand was at the time. You then turned around and spit in our faces to continue with that defense club... Why?”
Kinshiro’s words caught Io off guard. He considered the question for a moment, but came up empty. “I...was preoccupied,” he replied lamely, unsure how to respond.
“And now, with your club on the brink of disbanding once more?”
“I’m... I’m still quite preoccupied...”
“With your relationship, or lack thereof, with Zaou Ryuu, am I correct?”
Io’s eyes widened. The entire day had been surprise after surprise, but he was sure this took first place. “Excuse me?”
Kinshiro walked around his desk to finally take a seat, tapping his index finger against the tabletop. “If you were to join us, the compensation still applies despite your lack of ethical values the prior time. You’d work with us during school hours, and we’d meet after school to attend to further business matters. I would require to be kept up to date with the council’s finances and our budget, and would request weekly reports on any gains or losses made due to funding school events and so forth.”
‘It would give Ryuu the space he wants,’ Io thought sadly, his stare lowering down at the floor to avoid looking at Kinshiro. ‘It’ll give me something to take my mind off of Ryuu; he clearly does not want to talk to me. I’ll be gaining money again which will supplement the hit I’ve taken since we started fighting.’
“Can I... Can I have a day to think about it?” Io asked.
Kinshiro didn’t reply immediately. He began to go through papers from a pile that was neatly placed on the right side of his desk, seeming to have dismissed Io entirely. Io assumed that the offer was gone, and therefore so was his pathetic excuse to force Ryuu out of his head. It wasn’t the smart thing to do, anyway. Io swore that there as a tiny angel on one of his shoulders, and a devil on the other, both pulling him back and forth between speaking to Ryuu or hiding from him. That painful ache began to develop in his chest again at the mere thought of not having Ryuu anymore - as a friend, or anything else. With all the love he had felt blooming inside of himself for his best friend, his words and actions were painting the opposite picture, one of a betrayer when that was so far from how Io really felt.
This was not a breakdown he needed to have in front of Kinshiro.
He turned to exit the room, and it was only when his hand gripped onto the doorknob that Kinshiro’s voice ran out and stopped him in his tracks.
“Don’t put off resolving something like that. It festers.”
Dumbstruck, Io kept his hand on the doorknob but turned his body to the side in order to look over to Kinshiro again, but the other didn’t move, didn’t raise his head. He continued with his paperwork as though he hadn’t just spoken.
Io kept watching him for a minute or two before twisting the doorknob to let himself out, only pausing for a split second when Kinshiro spoke up once more.
“You have until Monday, Naruko. Don’t spit on this opportunity again, or any others.”
The door closed just as soon as Kinshiro got his last comment out, and Io made it thirty seconds before he threw his bag against the wall beside him. The level of frustrstion he was feeling was immense. No, this was ridiculous and immature. There was no reason to keep putting himself and Ryuu through such needless stress. After school, he would pull up all of his confidence and address him.
After he said his piece, whatever Ryuu wanted, Io felt he no longer had a choice but to accept.
Ignoring Io for an entire day was exhausting, and by the time Ryuu was walking home, he found himself an even larger mix of thoughts and confusion than he had been during the walk to school.
Six times. Io had tried to talk to him six times.
Six times. Ryuu had ignored, dismissed, and ran away from Io six times.
As the attempt count grew, so did the sound of Ryuu’s heartbeat in his ears until it was a loud thunderous roar desperate for attention. His mind was running itself ragged, and his heart was trying its best to take over. Ryuu didn’t like being without Io; he felt like a part of himself was missing. Every single time he wanted to give in, to run to Io’s arms and talk and listen and heal, one of Io’s hurtful statements to Atsushi reared its ugly head and added to the growing number of metaphoric stab wounds to Ryuu’s back. The thought alone had tears pricking at his eyes again and made him curse under his breath as he ran a clothed sleeve across his eyes to stop his tears in their tracks.
He had cried enough. But perhaps Io had, too.
In a move so unlike himself, Ryuu had been ignoring his phone for hours. The last time he had checked it was on the way up to the club room right before he heard - ‘no, no, that never happened.’
Ryuu began walking slower down the sidewalk so he wouldn’t trip while his hands maneuvered his bag so he could pull his pink phone out, not surprised to see the ridiculous list of notifications that he had to scroll down for a time in order to read. As he feared, there were indeed a few missed calls, voicemails, and texts from Io, as well as the rest of the defense club. He felt like the biggest masochist in the world, but it didn’t stop him from sliding across one of Io’s numerous notifications to have the texts pop up on his screen.
12:02 Ryuu.
12:03 You have every right to be mad at me.
12:04 Talk to me.
12:05 Please.
12:19 Can we talk before class?
12:42 I’m sorry.
13:07 Are you feeling okay?
13:08 Are you sick?
15:29 Please talk to me.
16:32 I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.
17:58 I can’tdo this im sorry
07:40 Can we walk together to school?
08:06 Just... please know you can come to me.
09:15 Whenever.
10:33 I don’t want it to end like this.
12:59 You have every right to ignore me, but please hear me out.
15:01 I’m begging, here.
“Fuck,” Ryuu mumbled, his voice breaking, his steps slowing down as his tears clouded his vision. It was as though he could hear Io’s voice through the texts, and he had only skimmed through some of them. He had to admit, he felt a butterfly or two in his stomach at the idea that Naruko Io spent that much time and energy texting him when texting was always more Ryuu’s thing. Io’s sorrow was palpable through the texts and Ryuu could only imagine what was going on through his head. There was a tiny part of him that felt like Io deserved it for breaking him down and turning him into a person that didn’t know nor understand himself and his feelings when he did 48 hours ago.
Ryuu’s internal battle against himself stopped short when he collided face first into the back of somebody as they walked, causing him to stumble back before he regained his balance.
“Sorry, sorry...” he trailed off, dabbing his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket again just before he looked up, feeling ready to die when he noticed that the person he walked into was the same man that so brazenly flirted with him at the konbini that morning. Ryuu had forgotten all about him after lunch, when Io and his sad gaze and his persistence ate his heart all over again.
“It doesn’t look like your day went any better,” the man commented, pulling his sunglasses off of his face as he stepped forward and closer to Ryuu, much to his chagrin. “Well, mine was a real shit show. People say kids don’t understand anything? Please! Adults are even more clueless. They tell you to do one thing, and you do it, then they get mad that you did it that way even though those were the exact words that left their mouths... If I could punch my boss and not get fired, damn I’d do it!”
Ryuu blinked, taken aback by the complete and utter randomness of the man and his conversation. It was the first lighthearted thing he had heard or thought all day, and the stupidity of that fact as well as the silliness of the story itself made him laugh.
“There!” the man exclaimed with a bright, toothy smile. “You should laugh more often. Your smile is killer.” He winked, reaching out to hook a finger underneath Ryuu’s chin to tilt his head up. The action had Ryuu in immediate overload and he took a step back, his laughter silenced and his grin erased while he bit down on his lower lip. “Geez, I’m just some rude guy, aren’t I? Sorry, sorry! I’m Kaito, by the way. Nice to meet you!”
‘Is that what happens when you get older? You lose your mind and flirt with high schoolers?’ Ryuu thought, playing the randomness off. He had done and said worse to get a conversation sparked up between himself and a girl; his acknowledgement of that had him pausing his response. Is this how girls felt when he approached them? Were the tables finally turned? Was he getting the treatment he had always dished out at last?
“I’m Ryuu,” he finally replied. He needed to stop thinking and over-thinking things before he went insane. “You always float here around trying to flirt with high schoolers or what?”
Kaito let out a loud chuckle. “I always float around here, of course. I live nearby. However, I’ve yet to find anyone remotely attractive enough to flirt with. Until today, that is.”
Kaito was being so blunt and frank that it took Ryuu for a loop. It was as though somebody had stolen his script. He couldn’t deny that he was more than intrigued, even if he couldn’t exactly figure out why. But then again, when had he ever been anything but nonchalant about his feelings and actions? He always went for what felt good and fun, why stop now?
“And aren’t you too old to flirt with high schoolers? Especially ones you find remotely attractive enough?” Ryuu questioned as he shoved his phone back into his bag, it and all of the notifications waiting for a response immediately forgotten. “Wouldn’t you rather flirt with someone at your job? Someone your age?”
“Ouch. Those are hurtful words you’re throwing my way, Ryuu-chan!”
“...Ryuu-chan?!”
‘He’s not Io!!’ Rang out loud and clear in Ryuu’s head.
“You keep calling me old. How old do you think I am?” Kaito arched an eyebrow as he took another step forward to regain his closeness to Ryuu. “I can’t possibly look that old... If I do, I really need to return all these creams I’ve been buying.”
Ryuu let out a soft laugh. This time, he didn’t step back and away from Kaito’s advancements. “You think highly of yourself. I don’t know, twenty-three?”
Kaito sighed loudly, hanging his head mournfully. “Twenty-three, he says... I compliment him, I pay for his breakfast, tell him how gorgeous he is, how pretty he is when he smiles, and he calls me twenty-three. I will have you know that I’m just nineteen, thank you very much. Twenty in a few months.”
“So you did all of those things to get me to tell you that you look young?”
‘He’s still not Io!!’
“I did all of those things with the hopes that maybe I’d get your number next time I saw you,” Kaito replied, and in another confident move he brushed Ryuu’s stray bangs out of his eyes, holding his gaze. “You were so engrossed in your phone earlier, I figured...”
Ryuu felt strange. Io was the only one to ever compliment him like that - aside form girls, of course. Io was the only one to ever play with his hair or brush his bangs back. It brought Ryuu back to feeling stuck on how to reply, which was so unlike him and he knew it. The giddy sensation he had begun to feel with Io was there again, not as extreme as it was with Io, not as comfortable, not as familiar...but Ryuu could feel it in the pit of his stomach. It was the first nice thing he had felt all day, and he had no time to be floored over the fact that it was a man that was making him feel that way. A man that wasn’t Io, at that.
“Hmm,” Ryuu replied, breaking eye contact with Kaito to retrieve his phone out of his bag again. There were new notifications, but nothing new from Io. Ryuu felt his heart sink at that fact, but what did he expect? He hadn’t responded to a single message Io had sent him in the past day, why would Io continue to try?
As ridiculous as it was, it made him want to make Io jealous, to show off just how much of himself he did know and understand, and just how wrong Io had been before when ranting to Atsushi. And, how good was Atsushi’s advice, anyway? He was always pushing his own problems aside... Then again, he was the one telling Io not to be so hasty in terminating their friendship. ‘Stop. Thinking.‘
Ryuu’s fingers moved along his screen rapidly before handing the pink phone over to Kaito with a shrug after having made sure it was on the add contacts page. “You can add your number here if you want to. We’ll see what’ll happen from there.”
Kaito took the phone from Ryuu with a smirk, typing in his contact information before handing it back to him. “I see. So he’s cute and he’s sneaky. Good to know.” He fell silent as he watched Ryuu put his phone away, then the moment he found an opening he reached out to hook two fingers under Ryuu’s chin as he had done before, tipping his head back to regain his gaze. “I hope I don’t have any competition, Ryuu-chan. Because I play to win.”
Ryuu’s lips pressed tightly against each other to keep from letting out some sort of flustered, panicked sound. His face was burning again in a deep blush and he knew it - even if he couldn’t feel it, he could tell by the way Kaito’s grin grew wider in amusement, most likely as how easily it was to ruffle Ryuu’s feathers. He had dated for a long time, but he felt out of his element. He felt like a newbie and like he didn’t know what he was doing, but that brought a thrill he hadn’t felt in a while.
“T-there is n-no ‘chan’ in my name.” Ryuu stumbled over his words and that amused Kaito even further, causing him to laugh again while his fingers gently let him go.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Just like he had in the morning, Kaito flipped his sunglasses back on before waving. “Hope to hear from you. I don’t want you to look so sad anymore.”
“M-maybe.” Ryuu could only blink as he watched Kaito’s retreating back walk away from him.
It was the stupidest feeling, but Ryuu almost felt like he was cheating on Io.
“I’m in love with him, Kinugawa-senpai.”
Was it okay to flirt and talk to another guy that was clearly interested in him, knowing that? Then again, Io clearly had no intentions of confessing or explaining anything to him... The only reason he was so adamant about talking now was because he got caught, right? It wasn’t because he actually felt any remorse or felt anything for real.
Ryuu shook his head, trying his best to clear his mind and his thoughts from getting so scrambled again. He was sick of crying, sick of feeling lousy, sick of feeling like he had done something wrong. It was okay for him to text this guy. What would make this guy any different than any of the girls he had texted in the past? They’d chat, maybe go on a date or two, and that’d be that. Experience had, situation over. Ryuu was entitled to date people, he could do whatever he wanted.
With that settled in his mind, Ryuu began the rest of his walk home, completely oblivious to the fact that Io was standing a few feet behind him with Yumoto, Atsushi, and En. Io refused to raise his head, staring down at the pavement while the scenes of the past few minutes repeated on a loop in his mind.
“I doubt he’ll actually text him...” Atsushi tried, but was silenced by the look that En gave him immediately afterward.
“No! This is even more serious than we thought!” Yumoto exclaimed, hands pulling at his hair. “We need to stage an intervention! We have to lock them in a room, we have to get them to talk, we have to... Io-senpai?”
The three hadn’t noticed that Io had began to walk ahead of them, eyes still downcast. How had things gotten so screwed up? How had things gotten so bad? Every hour that went by, he regretted his conversation with Atsushi even more. He had been too shy and self-conscious of his feelings and was so sure that Ryuu wouldn’t reciprocate them; why say anything? But it happened right before his eyes, a boy with much more confidence and self-worth stepped in where Io was too afraid and took the chance that Io let slip through his fingers. He deserved this; this was his punishment.
But it still hurt worse than anything he had ever experienced in his life.
So much so that Io didn’t even realize that he walked right by Kaito when he turned a corner, and the taller man had a wide, wicked smirk spread across his lips.