Chapter Text
“Soma-kun!” Megumi’s face lit up as she saw Yukihira walking into class. Yukihira in response, shot her his signature smug grin, and began to make his way to his seat that was next to her.
Takumi tightened his grip on his bag strap ever so slightly and continued to walk, turning his eyes away, with much effort, to the next classroom approaching ahead. At 9:58 am sharp, the same situation repeats itself every day.
He had a History of Japanese Cuisine class at 10 in the morning, and after some subtle investigation (that included peeking through the window panes from the outside and interrogating Isami on the first day of the semester, after realizing he attended the same class), he had found out that they were taking an Introduction to Culinary Theories class that occurs the same time he had his.
Dumping his bag at his allocated seat, he stared at the chalkboard in front of him, almost wishing the big letters scrawled across the board read “Culinary Theories” instead.
“Why so sulky again, Aldini?” A teasing voice interrupted his thoughts from behind.
“I’m not!” Takumi snapped immediately and plopped down on his chair, refusing to even spare his classmate a glance.
The whole lesson passed in a blurry. Despite getting sufficient rest the night before, Takumi found his thoughts drifting away. Not aimlessly though, it always went back to the same scene at 9:58 am. He was equally confused and annoyed, no matter how he tried to analyse the situation, he repeatedly returned to the same unsatisfying conclusion.
The bell rang on cue at 12 pm, signaling the end of class and the start of lunch. Takumi remained in his seat for 3 minutes as per his routine, and then very robotically packed his bag, pushed in his chair and made his way to the classroom next door.
“Nii-san!” Isami greeted him as Takumi neared his seat in the front row. Takumi rested his weight on the teacher’s desk parked in front of Isami’s table and folded his arms, assuming his usual position of waiting, knowing very well that Isami liked to take his time packing up. He let his eyes follow the naked cherry tree just outside the window, wondering how long more before the buds would sprout and the flowers bloom.
“Nii-san, are you okay?” His brother eyed him with curiosity and concern. Ever since 2 weeks ago, his brother had been sulkier than usual. Takumi’s angry (and whiney) sulk sessions he could handle perfectly fine, but his unusual lapses of quietness – he couldn’t.
Takumi considered for a second, before settling on a new resolve to find answers to his predicament.
“Isami, did you get any chocolates for Valentine’s day?”
All traces of concern vanished from his brother’s face, as he stared back at him. A wide and smug smile stretched across his face as he began snickering.
“That’s what this is about?”
Takumi felt his face burn up and immediately sought to defend himself.
“I- No! It’s – Ju-just answer the question!”
His brother got a couple more laughs out before he sobered up. He made a show of taking his brother’s question seriously for Takumi’s pride sake.
“I got chocolates from about 4 girls,” Isami paused for a moment and then added “3 of whom you don’t know” to clear the doubts that were evidently arising from Takumi’s confused face.
For a moment, his eager response to ask and confirm his suspicion of the one girl was almost contested with the curiosity of the 3 other unheard of girls. Almost.
“Who’s the one I know?”
“Tadokoro-san.” Isami replied so casually, it increased Takumi’s annoyance by one degree.
“Isami-kun, did you call me?” The sweetest voice chimed in from the back of the class, getting the attention of Isami and a horrified Takumi.
“Oh, not really.” Isami laughed as if to shrug the situation off, earning a small laugh of embarrassment from Megumi and an apology for her mistake.
Takumi could have sworn by his theory that she always leaves the class exactly 2 minutes after 12. She was here the whole time! How could I have been so careless? And what was she doing here in the first place?
“What are you still doing here anyways?” Isami asked. Takumi marveled at their twin brother telepathy.
“I was looking for my clip,” Megumi explained sheepishly, “B-But I found it already!” She quickly explained, to avoid any unnecessary efforts from her friends to go out of their way to help her. She smiled in embarrassment with slightly pinkish cheeks.
Takumi found himself again drawn to the glow emitting from her smiling face. So bright, so warm.
“What about you, Isami?” Megumi asked back.
“Talking to my brother,” Isami tilted his relatively large body to the side to reveal Takumi.
“Oh! Ta-Takumi-kun! I didn’t see you there.” Megumi let out another laugh, although Takumi noticed it was slightly forced. Takumi suppressed the unpleasant emotions erupting from inside and smiled at her.
“Hey Tadokoro-san.” He greeted her, feeling grateful that he sounded a lot more collected than he was actually feeling.
A moment of silence passed between them. He noticed her eyes roaming around the class, anywhere but at him, as if thinking of a way out.
Megumi broke the silence and confirmed his speculation.
“Ah! Um, I have to go now! I’m meeting Isshiki-senpai and Soma-kun for lunch!” She began frantically packing her desk and picking up her bag.
“Bye Tadokoro-san!” Isami shouted as she almost out the door of the classroom.
She hastily turned around and shot a bright smile, more towards Isami if anything, yelling “bye bye!” before dashing off.
Once she was gone, Takumi resumed his sulky expression.
“Was it a honmei chocolate?” He asked his brother quietly, feeling slightly bitter after his most recent and unfavorable encounter with Megumi.
“Relax Nii-chan, it was giri chocolate.”
“I didn’t know you guys were close.” He replied sourly, not feeling any less comforted.
“She gave all the guys in this class the same chocolate.”
“Then all the more-!” Takumi stopped himself before he could finish his sentence. Why didn’t I get any?
‘So what if I’m not in any of her classes, I talk to her more than some of these guys in here!’ Takumi thought to himself scornfully.
Two weeks ago was Valentines’ day. He purposefully hung around after Isami’s class in hopes that he could receive one of Tadokoro-san’s signature blue package. Along the corridors, he had heard some guys raving about the chocolate truffles they received from her, and how incredibly delicious they were. People found her chocolates even more special because she presented them in an exquisite dark blue origami box that she had folded herself.
The longest two minutes had passed, and all Takumi got was the image of her back growing smaller and further.
“Maybe it was because you were carrying 12 other girls’ worth of chocolate… and a huge teddy bear.” Isami suggested, already understanding his brother’s situation.
“Or she just doesn’t like me.” Takumi sighed in defeat, knowing that hiding his feelings from his brother was futile. He tightly crossed his arms and looked back at the tree. He realized it was going to bloom soon and reminded himself of the little progress he has made since last year.
“I mean… do you see the way she looks at Yukihira, or even you? She looks so genuinely happy to meet everyone, anyone… except me.” Halfway through his sentence he began to mumble in an attempt to suppress the insecurity and self-pity that was threatening to spill.
He thought they were getting along really well towards the end of the year; their private meet-ups, late night conversations, secret jokes, they convinced him that he at least had some chance with her. But suddenly she began treating him with less enthusiasm, selfishly taking her innocent smiles and laughter away from him. She almost looked uncomfortable around him, only him. To everyone else she was so beautifully carefree.
“AARGGGH” Takumi let out a long grunt of frustration, shaking his head furiously as if it would physically shake off these unwanted worries.
“She likes me… She likes me not… She likes me… She likes me not…”
It took him a minute to realize that it wasn’t him saying this out loud, although he was very well thinking about it. Isami had a daisy in his hand and announced Tadokoro-san’s feelings with every petal plucked out.
Isami always had weird things in his bag, Takumi had learnt not to ask how he got the flower. However, he was bewildered at what Isami was doing.
“Stop it, it’s so pathetic.” He groaned, unimpressed by his brother antics.
“You should see yourself.” Isami retorted, peeking up at Takumi’s lingering gaze over the few remaining petals, filled with so much concentration, contrary to his previous remark.
He silently plucked the rest of the petals and looked up with a solemn face.
“She doesn’t like you, Nii-san”
“I don’t think you did it correctly. Your counting was off.“ Takumi replied without missing a beat.
“Let me do it.”
—-
In the end, the Aldini brothers – more specifically, Takumi – concluded that the flower was not decisive. Definitely not for the reasons that on both occasions the result was ‘she likes me not’, but because by Takumi’s logic, it is not in their power to decide the fate of another.
And so, also by Takumi’s logic, Tadokoro-san had to be the one to do it. He needed a sign, any sign from the gods, or fate, or whatever.
“Why can’t you just ask her if she likes you?” was Isami’s logic, but was patronizingly shot down when Takumi brought out the ‘you’re too young to understand’ older brother trump card.
For some reason, the daisy gave Takumi the inspiration and encouragement he needed to take action. After much thinking, he decided to use the upcoming White Day occasion as his excuse to approach Megumi. Out of a box of 10 chocolates, 9 would be made intentionally sour and bitter… and the last one sweet. The chosen ‘she likes me’ chocolate. Her first pick would be the deciding factor. He couldn’t handle a 50-50 chance like in the case of the daisy. The chances of her choosing the sweet chocolate were so slim, surely if she were to choose it, it was all the sign he needed to confess. The perfect plan.
Takumi logic , he marveled at his masterplan again and mentally gave himself a pat on the back.