Chapter Text
"Okuyasu, could you spare a minute, dear?"
Yukako smiled at him patiently, gently coaxing him away from the group. Okuyasu hesitated, he was still a little afraid of her after everything that went down, and he wasn't exactly keen to be alone with her. He looked back to Josuke and Koichi, silently pleading for assistance, but they were already ogling some clothes through a store window. He swallowed and took a deep breath.
"Uh, sure, Yukako, guess there's no harm in it."
She sat gracefully on a bench in the shopping center and indicated that the space next to her was meant for him. As he sat, she looked over to the other boys. Okuyasu assumed she was just staring at Koichi, but her gaze actually seemed to be more trained on Josuke. She sighed.
"Oku, when are you going to tell Josuke how you feel?" She said without looking at him.
Okuyasu felt his face start to burn and he stuttered awkwardly. "I don't know what you think you're talking about, but-"
"Oku, sweetie. If there's one thing I'm dedicated to, it's love. And I don't just mean Koichi, either. I've realized that love is the most incredible, most powerful thing at our disposal," she sighed and looked at the ground. "My love for Koichi changed me, Okuyasu. For the worse, and then for the better. I just want to spread that power in the world, so everyone can have it," she smiled and faced him now, "and the first step to that is being able to recognize love when its sitting right next to you, right? It's obvious to me that you have feelings for Josuke, I want to help you express them!"
Okuyasu stood, mortified. "Sorry to disappoint, but I think you've got the wrong idea," he said, a little too quickly. "C-come on, let's go see if the guys wanna swing by the food court, I'm dyin' for a pretzel."
About a week later, Okuyasu found himself at Yukako's front door. It felt strange, he didn't really want to be invited in. He'd had to ask a very suspicious Koichi for the address and pace outside the place for a good ten minutes before he'd worked up the courage to knock. But, ironically, he was beginning to feel like she was his last hope for sanity.
He'd been feeling this way about Josuke for a while now. At first he'd blamed it on a close friendship coupled with teenage hormones, but lately he was becoming less sure about that. The more he thought about Josuke, the worse it got, and the worse it got, the more he wanted to think about Josuke. He was sick of it. At this point, Yukako would either have to work her love magic on him or choke him to death with Love Deluxe.
An unfamiliar woman opened the door. "Uh, is Yukako home? I was told this is where she lived."
The woman smiled and turned around. "Yuka, dear! You have a visitor!" She smiled at him again. "Please, come in, make yourself at home." Okuyasu grinned. For such a weird girl, Yukako seemed to have a sweet mom and a pretty home. Yukako looked surprised to see him, but her shock quickly turned to joy as she approached.
"Okuyasu, what a pleasant surprise!"
"Uh, sorry if I'm intruding or anything," Okuyasu mumbled, realizing that he probably should've called or something first, "but I was kinda hoping you could uh, well....do you remember what we talked about the other day?"
Yukako's eyes widened. "Oh! Have you reconsidered my offer? That's wonderful!"
"Well, maybe. It depends on what you had in mind. I ain't doing nothing crazy! No kidnapping or face swapping for me."
Yukako's smile was still there, but she looked a little ashamed. "Hah, yes, it's no good trying to force these things anyway. Shall we go up to my room and talk things through?"
Yukako sat slowly onto the neatly made bed and once again gestured for him to join her. He felt a little nervous about sitting on a girl's bed, especially the girlfriend of one of his best pals, but he obliged.
"So, what do you like about Josuke?" Yukako asked casually, pulling her long dark hair back away from her face and tying it delicately.
Okuyasu blushed. "Uh, I dunno. I just like him, I guess. He's a really good guy and we have a lot of fun together. Like, he's my best friend, but sometimes I kinda think like, 'hey, who even needs a girlfriend? Josuke's got everything I need' right? And then I'm like, 'well but, best thing about a girlfriend is that you can kiss her and stuff' you know? And so I think like, 'would kissing Josuke be that bad?' Next thing I know kissin is all I can think about when I'm with him. Is that dumb?"
Yukako opened her mouth to respond, but Okuyasu was already continuing as he stood to pace around the room. He couldn't stop fidgeting, but it actually felt really good to just let everything out like this.
"And so I figure like, maybe it's just that we hang out too much, right? Like of course I think about him all the time, we're attached at the hip. So I took a few days where I tried to not hang out with him as much, and that made it way worse! I could hardly think cuz I wanted to talk to him so bad. So I figure that if waiting for it to go away ain't working, and avoiding him ain't working, then I gotta do something about it, right?"
Okuyasu flopped down onto the bed, exasperated. Yukako could tell that he wasn't quite done spiraling, so she wasn't surprised when he groaned loudly and put his face in his hands.
"But Josuke is my best friend, Yukako. He's the best thing I've got, you know? So I don't know if I wanna like, fuck that up. Especially because he probably doesn't even see me like...like that. If I told him and he got upset and hated me for it...."
Yukako placed a hand on his shoulder. Whether it was to reassure Okuyasu or just make him stop talking was unclear, but he gave her the benefit of doubt and assumed it was the former.
"Hey, I'm gonna help you, okay? It sounds like you really care about Josuke, and I want both of you to be happy. We're gonna work this out, please don't be afraid of him hating you. He could never hate you," she sighed, "I understand how you feel, though. But I guess that goes without saying, huh?" She let out a small laugh then.
Okuyasu smiled. It was strange. Here, in her room, with her powerful locks tied behind her back, Yukako seemed every bit like an ordinary teenaged girl. Maybe that was all she ever was. Maybe it was good that he'd taken her up on this offer after all. Come to think of it, he and Josuke had been enemies to begin with as well. Yukako deserved a second chance to be friends as much as he did.
"Thank you for this, Yuka. I appreciate it. So what's your plan?"
She thought for a moment. "Well, I agree that this a really complicated situation. Especially since Josuke is so moody. It would be helpful if we knew a little bit more about Josuke's stance on all this," her eyes widened, "Would you be okay with it if I got someone else to talk to Josuke? Discreetly, of course."
"Uhhhh, maybe? Who did you have in mind?"
Yukako grinned confidently. "The most dependable person I know, of course!"