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“Guess what day it is!” Sora cried suddenly during a break in their band practice. Most clubs had already ended meetings and left, but SOARA usually stayed later than most. They were a professional band, after all. Tsukino Productions offered them a practice studio in their facilities—one that was much nicer than their club room at school—but it was far away, especially since Sora and Nozomu both lived so close to school and so far from the studio.
Soushi kicked his feet up onto a desk and leaned back in his plastic chair. “I dunno, Tuesday?”
“It’s actually Wednesday, Sou-nii,” Ren replied quietly.
“No! No, all wrong!” Sora yelled. Ren muttered something about how it actually was Wednesday as Sora fished around in his backpack and pulled out a little red box. “It’s Pocky Day! I’m gonna get a cute second year girl to play with me, and we’ll get close but she’ll be embarrassed and say, ‘I’m not good enough for you, Sora-senpai!’ And I’ll say, ‘That’s not true, you’re beautiful,’ and I’ll lean in slowly and she’ll—”
“Shut up.” Soushi smacked Sora on the back of his head, and Sora whined and swatted back. The taller boy sighed and took a drink from his bottle of iced tea. “Besides, I’m pretty sure all the girls have gone home. We’re the only people who ever stay this late.”
“Don’t discourage him,” Mori said with a wry laugh, and Soushi raised a single eyebrow at him.
The idea of the Pocky Game secretly intrigued Mori, but he would never admit it. There were some people he’d want to play it with, people he’d want to kiss. Really, just one person.
But he would never admit it.
As his bandmates bickered, Mori watched with a gentle smile, trying to push those thoughts out of his head, yet he thought about proposing an idea. He worried that it’d be too obvious what he was going for. But, fortunately, Nozomu said it before he even had to figure out how to phrase it.
“Oi, why don’t we just play with each other, then?”
Sora shook his head. “No way! I’m not gonna kiss any of you guys,” he said with an exaggerated gag.
“You don’t actually have to kiss,” Soushi reminded him. “You can be a coward and give up when you feel too uncomfortable.”
Nozomu laughed brightly. “Yeah, yeah! Don’t sweat it! You don’t have to kiss if you don’t wanna. So, how ‘bout it? Ren?” Nozomu pulled a Pocky from Sora’s package and held it out to his small, shaking classmate.
Ren coughed. “I-I think I’ll pass. I don’t want to do this.” Mori felt for Ren, and he was hesitant too due to his own… predicament. He knew Ren had feelings for Nozomu, and Ren knew of Mori’s crush; they often talked together over tea and confided in each over over these matters. They both decided that the other was the least likely to let anything slip, and so they bonded over their desperate homosexuality.
Nozomu frowned, and a wave of disappointment flashed over his face that Mori didn’t miss. Could he have wanted to play against Ren, too? “Aw, okay, you can just watch if you wanna,” he said, flashing a smile. “Alright, Sora! I challenge you!”
“H-hey, why me?!” Sora exclaimed, hands on his hips.
“Because I wanna beat you! I know Sou-paisen and Mori-senpai would beat me, because they’re both such ikemen… but I can take down Sora-senpai!” Nozomu laughed obnoxiously, and Sora grumbled in response.
Sora stood and snatched the Pocky from Nozomu’s hand. “Fine, fine! You’re on, Nozomu-kun! But I’m never gonna lose to you!”
Mori stood behind Soushi and Ren, and the three bystanders watched with bemused expressions as their idiot duo faced off. “This is definitely gonna be funny,” Soushi murmured. Mori chuckled, and Ren only gulped.
Sora and Nozomu’s duel began with full force. Both of them were glaring and somehow still screaming as they held the Pocky between their teeth and began to inch closer to each other. As the distance closed, Mori spotted embarrassment growing on Sora’s face, while Nozomu’s eyes were only filled with determination. The winner was already clear, he thought.
His predictions held true as Sora soon gave up and pulled away, only centimeters away from Nozomu’s face. “I can’t do it, I can’t do it!” he cried in defeat, as Nozomu whooped and hollered, running around the practice room and boasting.
“I beat Sora-kun~!” Nozomu bragged repeatedly, cackling obnoxiously and marching between the desks. Mori sighed, and after a few minutes of Nozomu parading around and Sora lying face-down on the desk in shame, they finally all settled down.
“I thought I could hold out longer, but I was too close to Nozomu-kun,” Sora groaned, and Soushi patted him on his head. “But I felt bad, I didn’t wanna kiss him when he li—”
“Sora, oi! Shut it! ” Nozomu covered Sora’s mouth, and Sora let out muffled cries when his kouhai tackled him onto the ground.
Mori shook his head. They were always so rowdy.
A couple minutes later, Sora and Nozomu were sitting next to each other by the desk and Soushi was instructing them in breathing exercises, to “calm yourselves the fuck down,” as he put it. Mori and Ren only watched. Mori’s heartbeat was beginning to flutter, since they were calm enough now to propose a second round.
“Okay, who’s next?” Sora asked, but he already had an answer for his own question. “…Sou? Mori?”
“What do you want?” Soushi grumbled, suddenly finding the wall on the other side of the clubroom very interesting. Mori thought he noticed a tinge of a blush on Soushi’s cheeks, but he decided he must have been fooling himself.
Nozomu drummed his fingers on the desk excitedly with a devious smile. “It’s your turn, paisen! You’re playin’ with Mori-senpai. No arguing. You gotta do it.”
“B-but…” Mori stuttered, “do we have to?” Hopefully, he thought, his pretending not to want to play the Pocky game with Soushi would fool them. His heart flipped with the idea of getting so close to Soushi, of their lips meeting slowly… He shook his head. He couldn’t think about that.
“I mean, I’ll do it,” Soushi mumbled. It was almost inaudible, but it made Mori perk up.
Mori raised his eyebrows and looked at Soushi. “You… you want to?”
Sora chuckled quietly. His lips were parted in a mischievous grin, and he took a Pocky from the box and held it out for Soushi or Mori to take. Mori shot him a glare—did he know? How would he have known?
“Sure, if you want to,” Soushi said.
“I-I want to try,” Mori managed. He prayed that he didn’t sound too eager.
“Okay, let’s go for it.”
“Yeah.”
“You ready?”
“Y-yeah.”
Soushi took the Pocky from Sora’s hand, invoking cheers from the other three members. Mori caught Ren giving him a thumbs up from behind Soushi’s back, and he gave him a brief smile before turning to look at Soushi. Soushi was holding the Pocky between his teeth, a sight that made Mori’s whole body heat up.
Hesitantly, Mori swallowed and leaned forward over the desk. He carefully took the other end of the Pocky in his mouth and nibbled.
He was very careful to avoid all possibility of eye contact with Soushi, staring down at the desk as they got closer. His rapid heartbeat was causing him to waver, but he didn’t want to stop this. He had to push forward.
Soon, they were close enough that looking down only meant looking at Soushi’s lips, and that wasn’t helping Mori much, either. He looked up, only for his eyes to be caught by Soushi’s. His face was definitely burning now… but now Soushi’s blush was unmistakable, as they were mere centimeters away from each other. Two centimeters. One. Just a few millimeters. Mori held eye contact with Soushi until the last second, when his eyes instinctively fluttered shut as their lips finally connected.
Rather than pulling away or staying there awkwardly, Soushi reached a hand forward to grab Mori’s collar and pulled him into a kiss.
Mori felt his heart rise out of his chest. He gasped briefly before returning the kiss, sighing into Soushi’s lips and steadying himself by bracing his hands against the desk. His position wasn’t ideal—half bent over the desk, not fully standing but not sitting, either—so he stood up and leaned in closer, tangling his fingers in dark brown hair as Soushi’s fist clenched the collar of Mori’s shirt. He was fully aware that the idea of the Pocky game having a winner and a loser had been abandoned, as he parted his lips for Soushi to kiss him more deeply.
An embarrassing noise slipped from Mori’s mouth, something like a pleading whine as he invited Soushi further, and that was when Sora decided that he’d had enough of watching his bandmates make out with each other.
“CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?!”
At Sora’s shout, Mori reluctantly pulled his lips away from Soushi’s to look at his other three friends. Sora’s face was bright red, which Mori theorized was out of embarrassment, shock, and jealousy that he didn’t have someone to kiss like that. Nozomu was grinning devilishly, sipping his soda as he watched in entertainment. Ren was covering his eyes with shaking hands.
Mori finally processed the situation. He’d just made out with his bandmate, best friend, and most importantly, his crush. Soushi had been the one to initiate it, so clearly he had feelings for Mori, too. And they’d done it in front of their three closest friends. Mori felt his skin get about thirty degrees hotter with his realization. He was paralyzed, unable to even attempt to explain.
He looked over at Soushi, who appeared to be just as flustered. Eyes wide and face burning, Soushi used his free hand to cover his mouth, though his grip on Mori’s shirt only tightened. Mori noticed that his hands were still buried in Soushi’s hair, so he slowly, shakily pulled them back and rested them delicately on the table. He could only look at Sora apologetically, his mouth opening and closing like a startled goldfish.
“Well? Anyone? Can either of you explain why I just had to watch you two do… that ?” Sora crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently.
Mori carefully glanced at Soushi, his eyes begging for the other to give some sort of reasoning behind why he kissed Mori. “…Sou?” he asked, his voice cracking a little.
Soushi only looked away, his face growing redder. The far wall seemed to be very fascinating to him once again.
After a minute of tense silence, Nozomu declared, “It’s ‘cause they like each other, duh.” Everyone turned to look at him, all equally shocked (aside from Ren, who had known all along, but was still flustered from the kiss). “It’s obvious,” he continued. “Sou-paisen, d’ya think we don’t see the way ya look at Mori-senpai and talk about how amazin’ and perfect he is when he’s not here? And Mori-senpai, I saw how ya doodle his name in your class notebooks when Ren borrowed your English notes last week. Oh, come on, just date already.”
Soushi and Mori froze and looked back at each other.
“You… talk about how amazing I am?” Mori managed.
“Y-you doodle… my name… in your notes?” Soushi stammered.
Sora groaned. “This is pathetic.” Ren nodded in agreement, though he didn’t want Soushi or Mori to see that he was taking the others’ side.
While Mori and Soushi gawked at each other, Sora nudged his juniors, and they all shuffled out of the practice room, leaving the other two alone.
Mori cleared his throat. Soushi finally released Mori’s collar, his hands jamming into his pockets as he stared at the floor silently.
“So, l-let’s… get the obvious out of the way,” Mori began, his voice hoarse and quivering. “You… I… I-I like you. A-and, um, am I correct in assuming that you like me, too?”
Soushi cautiously looked at Mori before nodding. “If I didn’t like you, I wouldn’t ‘a kissed you.”
“And you kissed me because you like me?”
“…Yeah.”
“So we like each other.”
“Yeah.”
“How long have you liked me?”
Soushi froze for a moment before looking away. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Sou,” Mori insisted, furrowing his brow.
“Fine,” Soushi sighed. “Since first year. More like, the first week of our first year. It was like love at first sight, really—”
“ Love? ”
“No, forget I said anything,” Soushi quipped, his face burning more than ever as his eyes bored holes in the linoleum tiles under his feet.
Mori frowned. “Do you love me, Sou?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny that statement.”
“Don’t get all tsundere with me.”
“Don’t call me tsundere !”
“Sou…” Mori hesitantly reached out a hand and rested it on Soushi’s shoulder, despite how it nervously tensed up at Mori’s touch. “It’s okay if you say you love me. I’ve known of my feelings for you since our second year, a year ago. It took me a while to admit it, but, um… I’d call it love. So, if you love me, then it’s only—”
Mori was cut off by Soushi kissing him again, this time almost more of a surprise than the last. Soushi’s hands were grabbing Mori by the sides of his head, and Mori stood there frozen, wide eyed, as Soushi kissed him passionately. When Soushi broke the kiss, he only stared into Mori’s eyes without saying a word. But Mori knew that his actions had said all that needed to be said.
“I love you,” Mori whispered.
Soushi cleared his throat and tried to look away, but the smile on his face betrayed him. Mori teased him, calling him tsundere again, and Soushi quietly muttered a “fine, I love you” under his breath before going to fetch the others from the hallway.
He turned around. “They left.”
“Do you want to walk home with me, then?” Mori asked, meeting Soushi by the door and gently taking Soushi’s hand in his own. The flush across the taller boy’s face couldn’t be missed, and Mori giggled.
Soushi sighed and nodded. “How about we stop at a convenience store and buy some Pocky? Sora took all the extras, and I’m kinda hungry.”
“Sounds good,” Mori laughed. They walked together out of their school. The sun was beginning to set, casting a rosy hue over everything. Mori couldn’t tell if the pink dusting Soushi’s cheeks the whole way to the store was from the sky or from all that had happened that evening. He could only assume it was both.