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As Hope’s Peak Academy’s enthusiastic, noisy hall monitor, Kiyotaka is known around the school mainly as a very loud, bossy kid. And he is loud and kind of bossy, but most people don’t know a rather surprising fact about him: he may be loud, but Kiyotaka can’t stand it when other people are. So even though he talks too loud, if you’re loud around him, he’ll flinch, the sound hurting his sensitive ears.
Most people can’t notice this, just assuming he’s being a jerk when he rushes away without saying goodbye, but Makoto can. He can read his boyfriend like a book. And he knows exactly what to do to help.
One day, Makoto and Kiyotaka sit in homeroom, surrounded by their classmates. Everyone talks and talks, Hifumi babbling about anime and Mondo swearing his way through an anecdote about his brother’s motorcycle gang and Touko flirting with a creeped-out Byuakya, all of them making a lot of noise. Makoto can filter it all out (and even smile at what some of the others say), but Kiyotaka can’t.
Taka hunches forwards in his seat, arms wrapped around himself, and he can’t quite suppress the flicker of panic in his eyes. Makoto sighs; he needs to help Kiyotaka.
Their teacher isn’t here yet, so he can cross the room without getting in trouble. So Makoto dashes across the classroom, leans over Taka’s desk and says, “Are you okay, Taka?”
Taka looks up at him, looking slightly like he might cry. He shakes his head.
“Wanna go somewhere quiet?”
Kiyotaka nods.
Makoto smiles. “Okay, come with me.”
And he leads Kiyotaka out of their classroom and through the school. When they reach the bathrooms, they duck into the silence of the empty room.
Taka sighs in relief. “Thank you, Makoto.”
“No problem.”