Chapter Text
Ena Shinonome wasn’t someone who could just fall in love automatically.
She had way too many responsibilities to care about love currently
Her art, her music, her schoolwork, Vivid Bad Squad,
More and more
But her greatest wish and what drives her to her unyielding passion is her little brother.
Though he struggles with depression or is just a casual jerk, she will never hesitate to drop anything for him.
“AKITO YOU LITTLE SHIT, YOU TOOK THE LAST PIECE OF CHEESECAKE?!”
“FUCK YOU, YOU TOOK IT LAST TIME!”
Scratch that, maybe not everything…
For these past few months though, Ena has been feeling butterflies in her stomach. It flurries around whenever her best friend is near or even when she’s thinking of him
Whenever they were talking, she felt like all her words left her mouth before the time was up…she would get so nervous that she couldn’t form coherent thoughts or sentences anymore.
She would blush uncontrollably at nothing in particular and would feel embarrassed to the brim at every turn.
She’s confided in Mizuki (who she met a while ago while during a trip to the mall with her little stubborn brother) all about it
“You know! You should just tell him~” Mizuki commented during one their calls before munching on a macaron, pink just like them.
“Mizuki! You know it’s not that easy!!! What if he rejects me? Or you know just completely breaks off out friendship?!” Ena stands up suddenly and puts her hands on the desk
“WHAT IF HE DISBANDS US?!”
“Hahaha~! Enanan is really panicking now!” they laugh out
“Shut it Amia!”
They laugh at her while she sits down and tidies her desk up
“Well, Enanan. If you truly love him, shouldn’t he know?”
Huh…Ena never thought of that before…
“Ena, are you feeling alright? Should we stop practice today?” Toya glances at her worriedly
Ena flushes again as she’s snapped out of her thoughts
“No! No! Not at all! Just thinking! Hahahaha!”
‘So fucking smooth Ena. Great job.’
“Ena-Chan? Are you sure? Let’s sit down for a bit, I’m sure we all need a break.” The soft spoken girl stated
As Kohane, An, and Toya discuss about the choreography, Ena is left to her own thoughts as she takes a sip of her water bottle
‘I’ll confess to him soon. But right now isn’t the time.’
She promises to herself
‘He’ll have someone to love. I know it!’
As she ends that thought, her phone buzzes
Ed Sheeran 2.0: can you pick up cheesecake
She considers a snarky message back before another message appears
Ed Sheeran 2.0: please.
That’s when Ena knows he’s not having a good day
Maleficent: Yeah, will do
Ena puts her water bottle in her bag and clicks the buttons closed before slugging it over her shoulder
“Ena? Where are you going?” An asks
“Ah, gotta go home. Akito wants cheesecake.”
Ena has spoken about Akito multiple times before, either complaining (jokingly) about him or complimenting him. It’s never in between.
“When will we ever meet the guy?”
“I-I would like to meet him! He’s our age isn’t he?”
“I wouldn’t be opposed against meeting him. He goes to Kamiyama too doesn’t he?”
Ena thinks about it and realizes she’s met his friends before but he has never met her friends
“Hmmm…I’ll see what he thinks about it alright? Maybe next week then! Bye guys!” Ena beams at them and waves them off
Her eyes briefly meets with Toya’s as he waves her off
Her heart beats a second faster
The winter air is still as puffs of breath comes out from everyone
“Akito!! Don’t be so shy!”
“I’m. Not. Shy.” Akito barked out
Ena laughs at him before looking at him again
Akito’s eyes look hesitant and his hands are in his pockets
“Hey, are you sure you want to meet them? An is sorta….hyper but the other two are really calm! But do you want to?”
Akito stops and looks at her
“Look, if you’ve met Mizuki, you know I deal with this ‘hyper’ shit already. I’ll be fine…thanks for asking though.”
Ena smiles at her brother before they continue walking to Crase Cafe where the two see the girls standing outside
“Ena! You’re he-“ An gets cut off once she sees Akito
“O-oh! You must be her brother!” Kohane waves at him
Akito waves back slowly
“Wow, she was right, you two look nothing alike.”
“She’s adopted.” He bluntly says as he adjusted the jacket
“I wish.” She presses her fingers between the bridges of her nose before crossing her arms again
“So, introduce yourselves guys!” Ena scolded
“O-oh! Sorry! I-I am Azusawa Kohane. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Shirashi An! Hope we can get along!”
Akito stays silent for a moment before speaking
“Shinonome Akito. Nice to…meet you.”
He turns to face his sister
“Wasn’t your group, a group of four people?”
Ena then realizes
“Ah?! I can’t believe I forgot! Where’s Toya?”
“He’s inside, he should be out soon.” Kohane says with a smile
The door to the cafe opens in front of them
“Sorry, I got sidetracked. Couldn’t find my phone.”
Toya stands inbetween Kohane and An as he waves at Ena and looks at Akito
‘Oh…he’s wearing a turtle neck today, brown coat too…cute scarf. Damn he’s got a better fashion sense than me today.’ she glances at her sweater and then back at everyone else
Akito stiffened when he saw him
“Toya, this is Akito. My brother!”
“Hi, I’m Aoyagi Toya. I hope we can be good friends.” he smiles at Akito hoping for a peaceful greeting
Instead, Akito drops to his knees in the snow
“AaAaaAh?!! Akito?! Are you alright?!”
“A-ah…I always mess things up I swear…I’ll get some tea from Ken!” Toya runs inside while Ena kneels next to her brother
“Hey, hey, you ate right? Tired? What’s wrong?” Ena worriedly shakes her brother’s shoulder
She briefly hears murmurs before his head glances up
Akito looks at her with a flushed face
“Fever?”
“N-no. Just- tch. It’s nothing. I need to sit down is all…” Akito takes her hand to get up
The group sits on a concrete wall nearby the cafe, leaving Akito a whole wall to himself
“Are you su-“
Akito flashes Ena an angry look before reverting back to normal
He sighs before looking back at her
“I’m fine, don’t treat me like I’m glass. Just needed to sit down.”
“I-I’m glad you’re ok. Really scared everyone there for a minute!” Kohane exclaims
“For real! Toya went to get him tea from dad by the way Ena.”
Ena blushes a bit before nodding
There’s crisp sounds of snow being stepped in before Toya rounds the corner and appears
“Here’s…here’s your tea. I’m really sorry for scaring you.”
Akito takes the tea and stays silent for a bit before replying
“Nah, it’s not your fault. Just froze up is all. Didn’t scare me.” Akito says nonchalantly
Akito scoots over from his side of the wall
“I should introduce myself shouldn’t I?”
“No shit Sherlock.” Akito shoots Ena a dirty look before looking at the other boy who sits next to him while the girls start to ramble about various songs or cherography
“Aoyagi Toya, I hope we can be good friends.” Toya says with a brief but warm smile
“Shinonome Akito. I…I guess we can be...” Akito grumbled
Ena sees a light pink brush her brother and Toya’s cheeks
‘Huh, must be the winter air.’
As Ena’s eyes are focused on Toya, she reminisces how calm and kind he is to her. How he always is concerned about her or her problems with her brother or herself. How he gives blunt advice, never sugarcoating things. In the back of her head she can steadily hear a ‘You’re so down bad’ in the voice of Mizuki
“Hey, Toya!”
The three turn around to see Mizuki and Akito
Ena sees Toya’s eyes brighten out of the corner but she had too, her brother actually got out of the house!
“Huh! Never thought I’d see the day where you actually get out the house you hermit!”
“Yeah yeah, thought I should get out more. Kanade told us that it was better if all of us were healthy.”
“Mentally?” Toya asks bluntly
An chokes on her juice box
“WELL-“ Mizuki starts off
“Physically but, I mean yeah maybe.” Akito shrugs
Their conversation is cut off when a classmate runs up to An
“Shirashi! There’s a fight going on!”
“WHAT?! Not again! See you all!” An shouts before following them
Mizuki and Ena start walking behind the boys to the rooftop where she overhears one of their conversations
“Should we try covering something together?”
“Mmm..ever since Fragile? I’ve been thinking about that too. I’m..not sure what song you’ll like though.”
“Dude, it’s fine! I’ll be fine with anything really.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I trust you after all.” Akito flashes a toothy grin at him and nudges at Toya’s shoulder before Toya breaks a laugh out
Now that she realizes it, her brother and her best friend sure have gotten to be close friends haven’t they?
Ena comes back 30 minutes earlier than usual home, she groans at the fact that Toya wasn’t here today
To: Sorry, not going to be here today. I’m sick.
Kohane: Aww! Feel better Toya! We’ll have practice when you’re feeling better
An: This is why you should probably stop going outside to help the senoirs
An: Seniors*
An: THEYRE FUCKING CRAZY TOYA
To: They’re nice, Tsukasa-Senpai and Rui-Senpai just need my help sometimes
Enanan: Myb it’s best to take this week off, hope you feel better To!
To: Thank you very much
Akito is sitting at the dinner table alone seemingly working on a drawing for one of his team’s music videos
He glances up and is confused when he sees Ena, taking off his headphones quickly
“Huh? What are you doing home so early? Get into another fight or something?”
Ena waves him off and sits at the table putting her bag on the chair next to her
“I might be bad but I’m not that bad. Toya just was sick today and had to skip practice.”
As she sips her water, she sees her brother’s worried gaze
“Are you…actually worried for someone outside of your group?”
“Yes?! He’s my best friend?! Why wouldn’t I be?”
She feels the burn of jealousy dwelling inside herself but calms it down
‘Calm down, Akito is being comfortable with someone outside of those three girls. That’s good.’
“He’s ok right now. Just stopped messaging him, you should text him.”
Akito lets a sigh of relief out
“Nah, just wanted to know if he’s ok. He should get some rest.”
Akito pushes his drawing over to Ena
His drawing skills have gotten better and he’s definitely amazing at it
Ena smiles at the drawing before seeing another piece of paper stuck in the back
“Huh, another one-“
Akito quickly grabs back the papers
“Akito!”
“Sorry Ena. That’s for my eyes only.”
She rolls her eyes at him
He seems too embarrassed of whatever he drew underneath so she doesn’t press on it anymore
‘He’s been happier than usual these past few weeks though. I’m really happy he’s not feeling too terrible.”
She’s hanging out with Toya when she finds out he likes someone
She looks at Toya’s cheeks and soften eyes as she follows his line of sight to see the ‘Beginning of Spring Sales! 40% off!’ poster.
“I know damn well, you don’t care about those sales. What’s on your mind? A special somebody~?”
Toya looks back at Ena with panic in his eyes
“A-ah! Was it…was it that obvious?”
Ena drops her phone on the table
“Huh?! You like someone for real?!”
Toya looks at her and his cheeks redden but he slowly nods
“Yeah…I do.”
“Tell me!” Ena hopes it’s her
“N-no. Not yet.”
“Tell me about them then!!!”
“They…” Toya smiles and blushes even more
“They’re so amazing, even if they don’t think it. They’re sweet and kind, and they may seem really awful or mean but really they’re just sad on the inside.”
Ena can feel the burst of enfatuation and adoration in this words, she knows he’s being honest
He really loves them
Ena hopes and hopes it’ll be her
She smiles as he covers his face with his hands as Ena tries to take a picture of him
“Uhm…Ena….can I….can I talk to you? It’s important…” Akito walks into her room one day and THAT is not what she is expecting but it isn’t unwelcomed
“Yeah! Of course.”
Akito shuts the door and goes to sit next to Ena at the end of her bed
Akito fiddles with his fingers as he gets to the point
“Ena, um. Have you ever loved someone? Like, romantically?”
She was caught off guard by the question but she responds
“Uh yeah! W-why do you ask?”
“I…I think I like someone.”
Ena’s eyes widen
‘Akito likes someone?!’
Akito scratches the nape of his neck
“It’s weird though…I should be liking girls right? B-but, this guy is really amazing. He’s…” He looks at the floor closing his eyes
“I don’t want to lose him.”
The last thing Akito expected to say come out of his mouth
Ena’s heart sinks and she knows exactly what he means
But, if there is one thing she’s learned from her brother is never to give up.
“Akito, I don’t give a shit if you like guys. Kohane and An aren’t dating but they sure can kiss with their eyes more. If you fell for the right guy, he’s going to either reciprocate your feelings or reject you kindly. If not, he’s a dick. If he still wants to be your friend if he doesn’t feel the same then keep him as a friend.” Ena then grins at him at the end of her ramble
Akito smiles at that and lightly blushes
“You said something smart for once.”
“Oh fuck off!”
Akito laughs and then looks at his jacket cuffs, playing with them
“Let me guess, you wanna know who I like right?”
“Of course! Dude the sooner you marry, the better.”
“What the fuck?”
“Whaaat??? The sooner we can move outta this sad house.”
Akito playfully punches his sister’s shoulder
He looks at his hands and Ena can see the heavy blush that’s accumulated over the last minute
She’s been ready for everything that’s been thrown her way so far. Her brothers grown so much over the past few months. She’ll be by his side no matter what.
“I…I like Toya.”
Her heart shatters when she hears the name of her best friend.
The boy who she’s loved since the beginning. Who she fell for when he comforted her during her lowest lows, who she confided in when she couldn’t help Akito, who she adored with a smile on her face. Her partner who’s been with her since the beginning
Akito likes Toya.
And she hates herself even more because she can’t accept that.
“Then tell him!”
She tries to force a smile and hopes it doesn’t hurt to look at Akito
“I-I…what if he hates me or only likes girls?”
“He won’t hate you Akito, he doesn’t stoop that low unless you’re his father.” Ena can feel her butterflies die inside herself
“You think..?”
“Yeah. I know.” Ena forces a smile for him and gives him an encouraging thumbs up
She knows it hurt him as much as it hurts her.
She also understands why he didn’t tell her at first. But she’s starting to wonder if that was a mistake after all.
No. Her brother comes before anyone. Including Toya and herself. For her, this will simply be nothing
She feels a pair of arms wrap around her
“Thank you. Thank you so much Ena.” Akito says, voice cracking in between his words
Ena knows she’s doing the right thing. She’s doing what every big sister would do
But, why does it feel so wrong?
A few weeks past and the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, almost every student taking pictures of the trees and/or selfieing. Ena can see the foreigners around and how some of them cuddle up with each other. The ugly jealousy inside her chest claws and screams at her so loud that the Sekai could probably hear it
She talked with Len, and Kaito the other day, the fifteen year old being surprisingly mature about it.
Late at night, after the talk she had with Akito she ended up going to Sekai and presumably broke down where Len had grabbed Kaito and calmed her down together
They didn’t tell any advice (in retrospect, it might be for the best to ask Meiko that later on…) but had comforted her with hot chocolate and listening to her rambles
It helped a lot. She made sure to give Len and Kaito a gift and an apology the next day
She also talked (or sobbed on the phone) with An. An had figured it out already that she liked him. It felt bad to tell her how terrible it made her feel to give Toya to her brother
It did hurt still though, Mizuki could testify to that easily. They witnessed her heart breaking again after all
“Hahaha~ Enanan being embarrassed to walk with us?” Mizuki teased
“Why the hell couldn’t Mafuyu or Kana come instead of you…” Ena groaned
“Well excuse me for wanting walk to school with you two!”
“Will you two shut the fuck up???”
Today was when Akito’s night teacher called in sick, so all available night students had to come in the day into a classroom
Akito had slammed his head on the table when he saw the notice, startling Ena when she was drawing with him
They reach the intersection where the dualed hair boy had been waiting, playing a random rhythm game
Ena abruptly stops when she sees him, he still looks handsome with petals flowing by him and the fresh breeze flowing. He spots them out the corner of his eye and his eyes brighten
It’s a perfect picture.
“Akito! You’re here?” Toya questions as Akito runs to the boy
But it’s not the picture for her.
“Yeah, sensei for night class isn’t here today. Gotta come.”
“We can walk together now, with Ena and Mizuki-Kun too.” he smiles at Akito as if he’s the world
No, because he is the world to Toya
Toya blushes when Akito suddenly holds his hand
“H-hey! What about Ena and Mizuki?”
Akito looks behind them and sticks his tongue out at Mizuki but spares a glance at Ena that said ‘thank you’.
Ena smiles at him as the two walk towards the school
“Oh…Kito? I…I didn’t know.”
“Yeah. Two siblings having a crush on the same guy huh? Wasn’t this in one of…one of those stupid shojou manga o-or something?” Ena can feel unshed tears come
“…Yeah. Such is a cliche troupe but…the girl usually gets him. You…gave him up?” Mizuki gives her a handkerchief from their pocket
Ena nods as she takes the handkerchief and rubs at her eyes
“Yeah. He’s everything to me Mizuki. My little brother deserves the world. And besides, I’m his big sister. I should be able to sacrifice for him.”
A pair of arms wrap around Ena
“Yeah yeah, didn’t ask for it…but this helps. Akito told me.”
Ena hugs Mizuki back tightly
“Thank you…” she murmurs softly
“It’ll be alright soon.” Mizuki whispers as Ena’s falling tears make it on their shoulder
As the two make it to school after, Ena catches a cherry blossom in her hand
“Haha! Aren’t they pretty? Just as adorable as I am!” Mizuki giggles at Ena
She reflects back on her promise
‘Heh…he did have someone to love.’
Her smile is big and geniuine this time with a bittersweet laugh