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Akutagawa Gin wanted to be anywhere else, but the prom. They came, of course, because of Ryuunosuke, their brother, who wasn’t much more social than they were, but he now had a boyfriend. The couple was dancing and blushing, the kind of people Ryuunosuke would have criticized some months ago.
Gin sighed. They made fun of their brother, but his love life was way more successful than theirs. It wasn’t him the Akutagawa sibling who was pathetically staring at the girl he liked — and had no chance with — laughing, dancing and having fun, unable to approach. He was laughing, dancing and having fun with his own boyfriend.
They could just think about the picture of themself with Higuchi on the dance floor; they would step on the girl’s shoes, clumsily, since they didn’t have the habit of dancing. Then, Gin would apologize and Higuchi would giggle and say that it wasn’t a problem — even that it was a little bit cute, which would make Gin blush.
Honestly? Gin just wanted to go home. They started to hate that dress as soon as it made them feel like a man. God, sometimes they liked feeling masculine, but they choose a dress specifically to feel more feminine. They checked up on Ryuunosuke and Atsushi, his boyfriend, one more time, before leaving the hall. Gin wouldn’t go back home anyway, as much as they wanted to, so the love birds probably wouldn’t even notice their absence.
Outside the hall was obviously calmer than inside; there was only an aroused couple making out, which annoyed Gin, but it was still better than that sea of happiness. And well, they at least expected that the guy and the girl would notice them, eventually.
Gin grabbed their phone out of the dress’ hidden pocket and started scrolling through Instagram’s timeline, but they couldn’t say that was a distraction: it was full of pictures posted by people inside the prom, which meant long and cheesy texts about how they would miss each other (Gin wouldn’t), how much fun they had throughout all those years as classmates (Gin definitely didn’t think the years had been fun), and cliché quotes, that were obviously about the end of High School and ended up being even worse than the pictures.
“Gin?” They heard a familiar voice calling their name and, when they turned around, it was the person they expected to see the least: Higuchi Ichiyo, the girl they had a crush on and who was enjoying the prom while painfully close to a turquoise-haired girl. “Are you alright?”
“I… yeah?”
“Right… good. It’s just that… I saw you leaving and I felt like I should check,” she continued. Gin thought she would leave after that, but no — she just took a few steps closer and sat on a bench next to Gin. The couple that was making out finally noticed that they weren’t alone, but, apparently, decided that they didn’t care.
“You don’t need to stay here… you should go back inside, to enjoy your prom, with your friends…”
“Of course I don’t need to!” Higuchi replied. “I want to be here with you, I’m not on duty or something. And I already spent some time with my friends tonight. Now, I want to spend time with a beautiful, antisocial person who leaves in the middle of prom.”
“Who are you talking about? One of them?” Gin pointed at the couple and Higuchi laughed.
“I don’t think those two want my company, to be honest. Or anyone else’s.”
“I guess you’re alright…” Gin sighed. “How was it when you left? Awfully cheesy?”
Higuchi let out another laugh. If it was anyone else, Gin would find it weird and unnatural — but, since it was Higuchi, it felt beautiful and majestic.
“Yeah. But not awful. It’s just…” Higuchi smiled softly, to herself. “The cheesiness isn’t good when the person you want to be cheesy with isn’t there.”
Gin’s heart skipped a beat. There was something charming about Higuchi’s face illuminated by the moonlight; there was something charming about how open she was and how she was mysterious and intriguing, even though her emotions were written all over her face.
Raising an eyebrow, Gin replied, “Cheesy like them?”
Higuchi didn’t even have to look back to know who Gin was talking about — she let out a laughter.
“Exactly like them.”
“Well,” Gin couldn’t help but smile and get closer to Higuchi; they were almost touching at this point. Their chests were so close they almost could feel each other’s breaths and their elbows were almost creating an exciting electricity. But ‘almost’ wasn’t close enough. “I don’t think I can say no to a request from such a pretty girl during her prom night, right?”
They got closer to each other. Still not enough. “I like the way you think.”
“And I,” Gin’s thumb was now softly stroking Higuchi’s cheek, their body getting closer and closer. “I like you.”
Their lips were now touching and before Gin closed their eyes, they could see a soft blush on Higuchi’s cheeks, and it seemed the cutest thing ever. The first thing Gin noticed when they finally kissed Higuchi was that her lips tasted like strawberries, and that it was probably her lipstick’s flavor. The second thing was that Higuchi, who was usually nervous and insecure, was kissing and holding Gin confidently. Her hands and lips were doing a fantastic job communicating that she was sure about that, and that she knew exactly what she was doing. Gin could swear that, while bold, Higuchi managed to be even prettier than usual — if that was even possible.
“You’re a… great kisser…”
Everything about that moment was breathtaking.
“You’re a great kisser, too. Now, come with me.”
Higuchi stood up and offered Gin her hand, to help them to get up.
“What for?” Gin pouted, but accepted the help — they weren’t sure if they wanted to go away, but they would never pass the opportunity to hold Higuchi’s hand.
“They’re going to announce who will be the prom queen and king! I can’t lose it, I’ve been waiting for years! But I also don’t want to get away from you…”
Higuchi seemed incredibly excited, and her eyes were shining brightly; she looked like the sun Gin’s world spun around. They weren’t informed that an eclipse would happen during the prom night.
“Fine, let’s go. But only because I also don’t want to get away from you.”
Gin felt Higuchi squeezing their hand after the response, which made them want to do everything as the girl said, if that was the payment they would get. Following her lead, Gin went back to the hall. All the students were already staring at the stage, where the principal was standing on, and Higuchi quickly joined them.
Everyone was staring at the stage, but Gin — they had something way more interesting to focus on. A discreet smile appeared on their face, discreet enough that only Ryuunosuke, perhaps, would have noticed. Higuchi looked absolutely stunning, they noticed for the hundredth time that night. Her hair was stuck on a carefully done bun, her neck was surrounded by two pearl necklaces and she wore a gorgeous black dress, that had a laced cleavage Gin was surely obsessed with.
At that moment, Gin didn’t care about the results. No matter what, her queen was right next to them, holding their hand and they could still taste her lips on their own lips. There weren’t many things that mattered except that.