Chapter Text
“Hayato, here, this is for you,” Suo’s master says as he hands him a small box.
Suo opens the box, and inside lays a pair of yellow tassel earrings hanging off a red coral.
Suo gasps, these look very similar to the earrings his master always wore, and Suo himself has been wanting a pair since forever.
“They’re so pretty ! Thank you so much, master, I’ll be sure to wear it often from now on!”
“Mmm, go try them on and show me”
Getting the earrings on at first was a bit difficult but he eventually got them on. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever worn.
What a dream, Suo thinks to himself. It isn't often that he dreams of his master. His master had already passed, and it had been so many years already, he thought he had already gotten over it.
As he opens his eyes, he realizes that his face is pressed against the cold floor, and not his bed. He slowly looks around to see where he’s at.
“H-Hayato-sannnnn?? Sakura-san, what do we do?? Is he d-d-dead… What do we do, what do we do?? “
“Suo, can you hear me!??”
Nire?? Sakura?? Did… he faint? Just now? He didn’t remember passing out at all.
Suo nods as he slowly sits up, his vision slowly returning. Sakura looks worried and mad at the same time, and Nirei has tears all over his face, crying his eyes out. The last thing Suo wants is for Sakura and Nirei to worry over him. Once he realizes how embarrassing he looks laying on the floor, he immediately goes to stand up. “I-I’m fine, I’ll be fine..”
“Suo! Lay back down, would you??” Sakura replies with frustration in his voice.
Laying back down on the floor in the middle of a public park wasn’t exactly ideal, so he ignores Sakura. Thankfully, the park is empty right now, except for the three of them, but he didn’t want to be there a second longer, maybe he’ll take Umemiya’s advice and go home for today.
As soon as he stands up, he realizes that he isn’t fine like he thought he is, and his vision starts to get blurry again. He tries to walk away but a few seconds after, his vision goes out and he is once again out on the floor.
The next time he opens his eyes, he’s in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. This whole situation has gone out of hand, but all he can think about is how embarrassing the whole situation is, and how hard it’s going to be to explain what happened to his friends later. He already knows they’re going to ask questions about his eating habits again, and he’s not sure if he can keep up with the lie.
Once he gets to the hospital, it’s mostly doctors as they ask him questions and do all sorts of tests on him. The tests and questions got repetitive very fast, he just wanted to get them over with. Thankfully, he didn’t get any other injuries from the fall, hiding those would be a pain.
After all the tests, the doctors tell him it’s most likely due to low blood sugar, which is what Suo suspected as well. After he got some rest, he was pretty much free to go. He was told if he wanted to be more certain nothing was wrong, he should follow up with a cardiologist. Suo had no plans to do that, of course.
The nurses gets him some juice and crackers to have. Suo still waits for all the doctors to leave the room, before taking a few bites of what he was given.
Now that he’s alone, the overthinking gets worse. He’s sure Sakura and Nirei are going to tell his other friends, and maybe even classmates and seniors what had happened to him, and he’s going to have to explain to even more people what a loser he is. He has made sure for so long no one sees the weak side of him, just for it to all go down the drain in one day.
He really wishes he was more normal when it comes to eating, wishes he can eat normally with everyone else. He always stands out so much when they all go out to eat, when they realize he’s not having anything. He wants to do something about it, but thinking about it makes him terrified, he wishes he’s so braver.
After maybe 20 minutes, he hears footsteps coming from outside the room, and then a curtain opens, and Sakura and Nirei walk in.
Nirei still has tears in his eyes, but once he sees that Suo is fine, he rushes up to give Suo a big hug, placing his head on Suo’s shoulders as he sobs. “Hayato-san, I-I-I was so scared, you scared me….”
Sakura takes a chair and places it near the bed Suo was sitting on, and sits down, taking out a bento box and all of Suo’s stuff and hands it to Suo. “The doctors said you should have a more balanced meal after first having a small snack, so me and Nirei went home real quick, and made you something, it’s just some simple rice, meat and veggies, should be fine for a diet. “
“...”
Nirei adds with a concerned tone as he sits down next to Sakura. “Have some rest and eat something, don’t worry about patrol for the rest of today or this week, Umemiya-san was right, we should’ve stopped you from going out earlier, it’s our fault for not noticing before it’s too late…”
Suo did not want Nirei or Sakura to blame themselves for something that’s his fault.
“No, it’s not your fault. You guys don’t need to worry about me, I’ll be fine in a few hours.” Suo argued.
Maybe if he convinces Nirei and Sakura that he’ll be fine, they won’t be as worried and would leave sooner. So why is it, even when he tells them he’ll be fine, they still look at him with concerned looks on their faces? Suo looks away to down at his lap, unable to look them in the eye any longer.
“Why the fuck would we NOT worry when you just collapse like that??? You keep saying “ I’m fine, I’m fine!” but you’re obviously not fine. ” Sakura says as he suddenly stands up, pushing his chair back.
“S-Sakura-san, calm down, but Hayato-san, Sakura’s right, how can we not worry about you?” Nirei says, grabbing Sakura’s arms, pulling him to sit back down.
There are tons of reasons why they shouldn’t be worried actually. He just fainted, they go to a school where people get hurt all the time, this should be normal, most people don’t go to the hospital, so why bring him here?
“Sakura-kun, Aki-kun, I’m one of the best fighters in our class, I’m not that weak, trust me when I say, it’s not a big deal, this whole situation happened because I haven’t eaten all morning, I’ll be back to normal in no time. You two didn’t have to bring me here. ”
Nirei and Sakura still don't look convinced, and now Nirei looks more frustrated as well.
“Hayato-san…. It’s not that, I know you’re strong, you’re the strongest person I know, but just because you’re strong doesn’t mean we can’t worry about you. We were at your place all of yesterday, and you didn’t eat anything either, except for drinking some tea and water, so I feel like this is a much more serious issue… Am I right..?”
No. No, it’s not a serious issue, it’s just a silly problem of his, he’ll deal with it on his own, he’ll eat on his own and he can’t do that when they’re both still sitting here. He, however, didn't get to voice his concerns before Nirei continued to talk.
“I’ve been watching you for a while, Hayato-san. I know you didn’t want to tell anyone this but I was curious on what kind of diet you’ve been on and what kind of food you’ll eat, so I've been watching you for the past week to see what you’ve eaten when we’re together, and I have nothing down. We’ve spent tons of time together on dates and stuff, but you don’t eat, is this diet not too extreme..?”
Suo grits his teeth. “...Like Sakura-kun said a while ago, everyone has a few things they don’t want anyone to know about, I’m the same, after all.”
Sakura makes a clicking noise with his tongue and crosses his arms. “Tsk. Yes, I said all that but I ended up talking to all of you about my problems, didn’t I? I told y’all about my past, about what I’m insecure about, and, you specifically told me I should be more honest and rely more on others, just for you to go back on your words now? What a hypocrite.”
A hypocrite. This is the first time anyone has called him that. But it is all true, isn’t it? He did tell Sakura all of that.
“Hayato-san, even though I don’t know exactly what you’re going through that you won’t tell us, but if me or any of our classmates were going through a similar experience, you would want us to reach out to others for help, right?” Nirei says gently.
If it was anyone else that was having trouble with something, Suo would be the first one to notice and ask. Back before he was Nirei’s teacher, he was the one who first realized Nirei had something that was bothering him and that he wanted to learn to fight.
Suo doesn’t know what to respond, he knows however he tries to convince them that it’s nothing, they won’t believe him. “...I really don’t know how to explain… It’s complicated.” He says as he looks away from them and squeezes his bento box.
Nirei and Sakura’s faces light up, now things are getting somewhere.
“Hayato-san, It’s just me and Sakura-san here right now, you can trust the two of us, right? ”
“ Just tell us as much as you’re able to explain,” Sakura adds.
Sakura and Nirei sound so sincere right now, Suo doesn’t have it in him to want to continue lying to them. He can trust them, right? The two of them at the very least deserve to know. They wouldn’t laugh at him or dismiss his frustrations, he knows that.
“I’m… not on a diet, I lied. I.. just find it difficult to eat in front of other people, it makes me very nervous, I can’t really explain it ..might just be anxiety. It’s a really silly reason, I know.” Suo says, his voice a little shaky, trying his best to get everything out before he regrets saying anything.
“I-it’s not silly, Hayato-san, if it’s something that bothers you, it’s not silly at all…I want to help you, I want to be by your side.” Nirei argues.
Sakura stays silent for a few seconds before asking, “Soo ... .if we leave the room right now, would you eat?”
The answer was obviously yes, he would like to eat alone, but this is an issue he’s been wanting to get over since forever. If he continues to act like this, his friends would forever be worried about him, and nothing would change. He knows he should step out of his comfort zone and try to get better. Suo shakes his head slowly. “...Please stay.”
Sakura and Nirei both widen their eyes.
“Hayato-san… you mean..?”
“I… want to try eating… here with you two.” Suo says as he slowly opens the lid of the bento box. Once he opens the box and takes the chopsticks in his hands, he feels his hands trembling, unable to move forward. He looks up and sees the way Sakura and Nirei look at him with such hopeful looks in their eyes, he can’t help but feel he’ll just disappoint them. Sakura seems to sense that Suo is hesitating, So Sakura turns around to get the bag he has on the floor, and takes out another lunch box.
“I went to Cafe Pothos earlier and Kotoha made me some egg sandwiches that I took with me because I was running late.” Sakura takes one half of the sandwich and hands it to Nirei. “Would it make it easier for you if we ate with you? We won’t watch or comment on anything.”
Nirei nods as he takes the sandwich from Sakura. “I believe you can do it, Hayato-san, It’ll take time to get better, but I know you can do it!”
Suo takes another look at his food and then to Sakura and Nirei. Now, both of them were eating their own sandwiches, and Nirei took out his phone and seemed to be typing something. Sakura wasn’t lying when he said they wouldn’t watch him eat, they both seemed to be focused on other things right now.
Taking a deep breath, he picks up a piece of thinly sliced cabbage, bringing it to his mouth while covering his mouth with his other hand. He chews as quietly as he can, not making eye contact with anyone else. Nirei and Sakura didn’t say anything either, also quietly eating their own food.
He did it, he finally did it. It feels a bit weird, but he keeps reminding himself that it shouldn’t be, and most people won’t care what he does and are more worried about their own lives. Suo takes one more bite, then another. It’s not as bad as he imagined. The food is good, but it’s hard to concentrate on the taste when he’s still so nervous.
His hands are still trembling, and it still feels a bit hard to swallow, but he pushes on.
After five minutes, Suo had finished about a quarter of the food, when Sakura spoke up, “How do you like it? Nirei made it for you.”
Nirei beams as he says, “I don’t usually cook a lot, but I’m glad it turned out so well. You know? Sakura tried cooking as well, but his dish didn’t look so good, so he just kept it at home. I tried it and it tasted pretty good but … it just looked a bit unappetizing.”
“HEY… You didn’t have to tell him… come on.” Sakura mutters as he took another bite of his sandwich.
All the nervousness from earlier slowly dissipated, as Suo let out a laugh. “I think this is the first time I ate something my boyfriend made for me, I love it!” Suo says, looking at Nirei.
Nirei blushes as he replies, “I-if Hayato-san likes it, I’ll make more for you in the future, even better ones! I was in a hurry today so…”
“I’ll be delighted, thank you! Aki-kun!” Suo says as he goes to grab Nirei’s hands, bringing it up to his lips, giving him a kiss on the hand.
Suddenly, Sakura turns around and starts coughing, choking on his sandwich, his entire face red.
“S-S-SAKURA-SAN.. YOU OKAY??” Nirei sputters as he turns around, quickly reaching for his water bottle he brought with him, handing it to Sakura.
Both Nirei and Sakura’s faces were entirely red, for different reasons. Sakura, because he still can’t handle when his friends act romantic around him.
“I-I’m alright….” Sakura squeezes out, as he quickly drinks half the water bottle.
Suo can’t help but laugh some more, his earlier worries becomes almost nonexistent,
“Also, I should say… Thank you, both of you, for caring about me, and helping me, I couldn’t be any more grateful.” Suo said as he bowed his head.
“No need to thank us, Suo, just doing what a friend should do…” Sakura replies.
“Sakura-san’s right, we care lots about you!”
Suo feels tears welling up his eyes, as he quickly blinks to push back the tears. He hasn’t cried in years, since he was a little kid, he didn’t want to start crying right now.
Just then, Nirei's phone buzzes, and he goes to check his phone. His eyes light up.
“Hayato-san, We told some of our classmates that you were in the hospital, they wanted to send some get well gifts, so Kiryu-san and Tsugeura-san are coming in a few minutes, they all care a lot about you too.”
Just then, they hear footsteps and Kiryu’s and Tsugeura’s voices down the hall.
“Are we going the right way? So many hallways-”
“I think we're here, it should be this room!"
Sakura opens the curtains, and three look to the door, where the voice was heard, Kiryu and Tsugeura are both standing there, each holding a plastic bag full of stuff.
Once Kiryu sees that they’re in the right room, he hands the bag he was holding to Tsugeura and hurriedly rushes over.
Kiryu wraps his arms around Suo, crushing him with a warm and comforting hug. “Suo-chan!! you can’t imagine how horrified I was when I heard that you were in the hospital! I nearly fell out of my seat.”
“Right, Right, Everyone went and bought you some stuff, I also bought you some protein, it’s very good for your health! Here you go!” Tsugeura says as he walks over and places the bags on the corner of Suo’s bed.
“You guys really didn’t have to…”
“Oh, but we did.” Tsugeura argues. “ Plus, this is the first time we’ve ever seen you unwell, so we probably freaked out more than we should, haha.”
“Just take it, Suo, everyone cares a lot about you to get you all of this.” Sakura says as he picks up the bag, flipping through the stuff they got, including a bunch of hydrating drinks, simple snacks and other wellness supplies.
Nirei moves closer to Sakura and also looks through the stuff with him. He took out a tea drink from the bags and exclaimed with delight. “Wahhh! I love this brand, I’ve had it once when I was younger but it was sooo good!”
Kiryu became overjoyed at the mention of that drink, ‘Oh! I got that one, I thought Suo-chan would really like it!”
Suo had never had that drink before, but it does sound good. As the three of them continue to talk about different types of tea that they like, Suo then realizes he doesn’t know how much all their other classmates know, whether they know why he fainted or not.
Suo cuts into their conversation, “... Do you two know what happened….? Are the two of you not going to ask why I’m here?”
Kiryu and Tsugeura look at each other, and Tsugeura responds, “Just one look at your face tells me you don’t want to say anything.”
Suo internally panics, unsure what kind of expression he had on his face this entire time.
“Tell us when you feel like it, I hope one day you’ll trust us enough to tell us.” Kiryu continues.
Suo stares at them, a bit stunned. Sakura’s earlier words came back to him. ‘ They all care a lot about you’ The tears that he pushed back from earlier, threaten to fall again, but this time he didn’t stop them. He let the tears fall.
Even with tears on his face, he still couldn’t help but smile.
“Alright, I will. One day.”