Chapter Text
Gakushuu… is having a problem.
A small, minor, miniscule problem.
Something so tiny, so easily overlooked, really, perhaps it was already overstating it, by calling it a problem-
He wasn’t overreacting . Probably.
“I can’t believe the first thing you both did, after meeting for the first time in ten years, was each other.”
“Ren, shut the fuck up.”
Ren, predictably, does not shut the fuck up.
--
Ren calls Araki, who calls Koyama, who calls Seo. Ten years after they've parted ways for larger and farther things in the world, (ten years of mixed-timezones calls and half-promises and months of not contacting each other, wondering if time has passed too much too fast), they reunite again under a warm Japanese roof with ramen bowls and warm tea.
“Holy shit,” Seo says. “You all look the same.”
They didn’t really. They changed - of course they all did, but (Gakushuu looked at them, through the reflection of the window, reflecting the ramen bar and the streetlights,) they looked the same where it matters.
“Dude,” Ren says, to Koyama. “You look good.”
“Yeah. I,” Koyama says, “fixed my teeth.” He did a bit more than fix his teeth. Ren beams at him.
“Can’t believe Ren’s still the tallest,” Araki said.
“I don’t think we were going to do much growing after high school,” Gakushuu says.
“You never know,” Seo says. “I got a few inches.”
“On your waist?” Koyama snarks at him.
They’ve spent a third of their life knowing each other. They’ve watched each other grow up, from the beginning of middle school to the end of high school. It’s been such a long while, and this is the first time since they’ve managed to be in the same country altogether.
“How’s the wife and kid?” Seo asks.
Araki glances at Gakushuu, the same time Gakushuu looks over at him. Seo falls quiet for a bit, but Araki smiles, and something in Gakushuu loosens.
There was a wedding, a couple of years ago. All of them were expecting Araki to be the first to settle down, he’d gotten steady in their last year of high school and it seemed like it’d be the long haul. They weren’t quite expecting it to be right after college, freshly graduated with half a job listing, but they were happy for him.
Gakushuu… hadn’t managed to make it. He wanted to, he really did - but he’d gotten the invitation right around graduation, right around the same time where his father asked if he was coming home.
Gakuhou didn’t push, but the question, and just the thought of it… Gakushuu spiralled, for a bit. All those years being apart and free and now-
Father wasn’t expecting a yes. He had sounded disappointed on the phone, but he said, “I understand.” That was somehow, somehow , the breaking point for all those years of unsaid things.
Gakushuu couldn’t go back to Japan. He tried, really - he booked the tickets and packed his luggage and everything. The day of, he laid in bed and ignored the emails for flight rebookings and the calls from oceans over.
Ren flew over after the ceremony. He didn’t talk about all the things you’d expect about weddings, like how beautiful it was or how they all wished he could have been there. He picked Gakushuu up and swept his apartment and called his therapist (Anne had freaked out at him. He’d ghosted her for weeks.)
The months after were hard. Araki said he understood, but of course he was hurt. Gakushuu didn’t know how to apologize. Araki had said, “eating your meds on time is apology enough.”
Gakushuu sent over his gift. Araki called him and said, “did you buy us a fucking car, you lunatic?”
“Maybe,” Gakushuu had sniffled. “You can return it if you want to.”
“No, I love it,” Araki told him. “I love you. I’m not mad, you know that I- Honey, I’m talking to Gakushuu. Asano. Yes, the Porsche. Yes, he’s the one that- yes, I… yeah, okay. Give me five minutes.”
“Love you too,” Gakushuu managed to tease.
“Oh, idiot,” Araki said. “I’m not mad. I’m… hurt, yes. But I get it, I really do. Sorry, I have to cut this call short. I have to go to the store. Pregnancy cravings, you know. Don’t buy us anymore cars.”
“Preg… oh!” Gakushuu sat up abruptly, throwing his blanket down and displacing all his papers. (Ren was going to scold him later for making such a mess.) “Congratulations!”
“W- oh, shit,” Araki said. “This was supposed to be a big announcement. Um, don’t tell anyone yet.”
“Wait,” Gakushuu said. “Did you have a shotgun wedding, Teppei-Kushiya?”
“Bye,” Araki said.
Gakushuu sends over a gift every year, for the birthdays and holidays. “You’re spoiling her,” Araki would always complain. “She’s more excited for her fun presents from Uncle Gakushuu instead of mine now.”
“They’re both doing well,” Araki says. “Gakushuu, you haven’t met them in person, yet. You should-”
“I would love to,” Gakushuu says. “I just finished moving, yesterday. I still have to get things steady at the company, but I should- my schedule should clear up, in about a month.”
“Is this permanent?” Koyama says, “the move, I mean.”
“Oh,” Gakushuu says. “I’m not sure yet. Maybe.”
“How’s the sperm donor?” Seo asks. Getting the elephant in the room right out of the way. Elephants are hard to fit through a door. Koyama smacks him.
Gakushuu shrugs, and makes a vague gesture in the air. “Okay. We met for dinner last week.”
It had been awkward. It’s been ten years.
They met at Gakuhou’s new apartment. Old apartment, considering the move had been years ago by now. He sold the old house, didn’t tell Gakushuu why, but Gakushuu thinks he can read between the lines.
“I always hated that stupid house,” Gakushuu had said. “It was always so empty.”
“Yes,” Gakuhou had agreed. “I know.”
Gakuhou cooked. There was wine, so Gakushuu ended up staying the night. The both of them cried, and they’ll never admit it to anyone. They hugged, and it was super weird, and they just kept hugging. It kept being weird, but weird… is good.
“And Japan is still standing,” Seo says, sounding far too impressed.
“I can’t tell which is the most dangerous meeting,” Ren takes a sip of his tea. “The Asano family reunion, or the high school rivals r-”
Gakushuu promptly reunites his foot with Ren’s shin.
It had… also been awkward. It’s been ten years. It felt longer, because at the very least Gakushuu had been in contact with Gakuhou, on and off.
The morning after was…
“We talked about math,” Gakushuu admits.
“WHAT,” Seo says.
The waitress nearby pivots and scurries away.
“Gakushuu,” Ren says. “What.”
“He’s in finance,” Gakushuu says, as he sinks lower and lower into his seat. “I’m doing. Tech. We talked about math.”
“The fuck kinda aftercare is that, dude?” Seo kicks him.
Gakushuu kicks back. Seo winces and hikes his legs up.
“Don’t put your legs on the bench,” Araki says.
“Yes, dad .”
“I mean,” Koyama says. “Back in high school, whenever they talked about math, you could see sparks fly.”
“Ugh,” Gakushuu says, face burning.
Seo waggles his eyebrows. “So math gets both of you off?”
“They fucked before, not after,” Ren says.
“Ugh,” Gakushuu says, again.
Koyama looks appalled. “No, you didn’t .”
Ren looks way too delighted for talking about Gakushuu’s sex life. “I can’t believe you had morning-after sex after talking about math.”
“We talked about other stuff,” Gakushuu says, although he knows he’s not really making his case.
“Like what?” Seo says. “Science?”
Gakushuu kicks him again.
“We did talk about science,” Gakushuu admits to Araki much later on the ride home, embarrassed.
Gakushuu doesn’t have a Japanese driver’s license yet. He’s not going to get one anytime soon, not unless he wants to get into a car accident because he drove on the wrong side of the road. The little inconveniences they don’t tell you about migrating, huh.
“At least you don’t have to worry about a shotgun wedding,” Araki says.
--
One week passes, and then another. Akabane’s number sits in his phone.
Akabane was the first one to text him. The ball is in Gakushuu’s court now, or something.
Gakushuu is nervous .
“There’s been no one? Seriously?”
“Not really,” Gakushuu says, to an incredulous Ren, over Saturday coffee.
“But who doesn’t want to fuck you?”
The table next to them turns over. Gakushuu quickly lifts up the menu to cover his face.
“I got into… flings in college,” Gakushuu says, voice muffled. “You know how it went. I wasn’t exactly… emotionally available once I graduated.”
“Or physically available,” Ren pointed out. And yeah, that too. “Your workaholic tendencies are- nevermind.”
“That’s what Alesha said,” Gakushuu says, embarrassed. “She keeps trying to set me up with people.”
“Your secretary sets you up with people?” Ren says.
“She keeps scheduling ‘business meetings’ with people she thinks I have ‘chemistry’ with. We’ve closed many deals ever since, but she keeps ‘accidentally’ telling the chef to draw hearts on our dessert plates. I downloaded Tinder so she’d stop.”
“I can’t believe even she is sick of you being single.”
“I introduced Mark to her and she’s made it her life goal to get me hitched.”
Maybe if Gakushuu wanted this to be strictly business, he wouldn’t have hired his college best friend to be his secretary. She didn’t start off as his secretary, but after his previous hire stepped down (his working hours were apparently too “long” and “inhumane”), Alesha aggressively took over his timetable and scheduled in menial details like “eat” and “sleep”. She ended up being scarily efficient at her job so Gakushuu started paying her, and after a month Gakushuu’s employees (traitors, the whole lot of them) were begging her to stay.
Ren raises an eyebrow. “Does she know about Akabane?”
Gakushuu sighs. “Unfortunately.”
“And what is she saying?”
“Text him back.”
“And what have you done?” Ren says.
Gakushuu sighs, again.
Ren waggles his eyebrows.
“But what would I even say?” Gakushuu says.
Ren says, “just keysmash.”
On Sunday, Gakushuu gathers up his wits and texts, “hey.”
He doesn’t have time to be anxious about the wait, because the reply is almost immediate.
Akabane: hi
Akabane: how have you been?
Gakushuu: Quite busy, actually.
Gakushuu: Sorry I didn’t text sooner.
Akabane: I saw your interview
Akabane: Expansion sounds tiring
Gakushuu: It sure is. Hopefully things calm down by the end of the month.
Gakushuu: Anyways, I texted to see if you wanted to meet again soon.
Akabane: Like on a date?
Gakushuu pauses. Is he asking Akabane on a date?
They already had sex, so...
Gakushuu: Yes.
Gakushuu: Would that be alright?
There’s a long pause. Is Karma typing? Oh god, what is he typing? Too long of a pause, and after each passing second Gakushuu’s heart beats faster. He begins typing “we could just be friends”, when Akabane’s reply comes through.
Akabane: that’d be good
Akabane: (forwarded from Gakushuu) When and where?
“Annoying,” Gakushuu mumbles, smiling to himself.