Chapter Text
“Takumi,” the man sitting opposite of him sighs, staring at the hands that were holding drumsticks loosely. They dropped onto the snare drum in front of him, making Sho flinch.
The pink-haired male in front of him was still wary. The idea his friend had was stupid. Looking at the drum set in front of him, it was just a hobby of his to come into the music room during hours late in the evening when he knew that no classes were being held. Or sometimes he would enter the room on the weekends as he made friends with one of the music teaching assistants and therefore could get into the usually locked building (don’t ask how the psychology major managed to become best friends with a music major, it’s a long story).
He never meant anything serious by it, just a little stress reliever. And when his friend decides that he wants to form a band, well, the shy male just wants to sink into the ground where no one can see him.
“Sho,” Takumi whined out his name just like Sho did, bottom lip jutting out. Even after knowing each other since Takumi’s freshman year, Sho still falls for the face every single time. He should have known from the moment the younger gave him the puppy dog eyes, always a clear indicator that he will be getting whatever he wanted in the long run.
Sho sighed, resting his head on his hand. There’s no way now that he was going to convince the younger one in front of him, but that doesn’t mean he would stop asking. After all, it was Sho’s last year in university and he wanted it to be memorable, special. To have a good excuse to keep in touch when he leaves and his friends stay behind for one more year.
Sho had left Takumi to his own devices, the younger just toying with the drumstick now instead of actually playing it.
Music still rang in his ears, headphones plugged back in the moment Sho walked out the door.
Like a safe haven, the beats comforted the pink-haired boy. And yet for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to play.
Instead, he wanted to walk around campus, to feel the wind brush through his hair as the new school year started, fall coming early. He wanted to walk past the astronomy building, sometimes hoping over the fence into the vast field behind it so he could actually gaze at the stars without the lamp posts’ light interfering.
What he wanted to do the most was leave the room and then come back, only to find another person sitting in a chair with his back facing the door, one hand on the music stand in front of him. He wanted to hear the angelic voice that came from the male he would sometimes find in the music room when Takumi himself found a spare moment to visit, always instantly calming him even if his heart would start to beat unexplainably faster.
He just wanted to stop thinking and be in the moment of someone else creating something beautiful, without the pressure that he would be the one to do so.
And it frustrates Takumi to no end, but with his mind in a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions thanks to Sho, he decides that he will do as his thoughts allow him.
But really, nothing is going on inside the pink-haired boy’s mind as his feet maneuver him around the scattered music stands and chairs, out the door and down the hallway of the music building. It’s only Friday, the end of the first week back at university. Takumi was so excited to be back in the comfort of the music room, sometimes questioning why he wasn’t there more often — should have become a music major, he always thinks — but then again he is so shy that going up on stage was never an option.
It wasn’t even that late, barely 8 o’clock and the sun was just about to kiss the horizon but usually Takumi spends his Friday evenings behind the drum set in the music room, staying way longer than the university staff would like. The janitor knew Taumi well enough, though, considering the boy would sneak into the room after classes finished and would just drum away, nothing subtle about the sound. So the older man would clean every other room first, saving this room at the end of the hallway for last when he would hear a faint beating sound of the drums as he entered the building.
And sometimes the janitor would wait a little while longer, leaning on the broom as he listened to just the sound of the drum being hit, imagining what the guitar was like or the lyrics from the actual song the pink-haired boy was drumming to. But he liked the passion, intense energy that the university student had at night.
You could say the janitor was fond of the student, as when he would enter the room, even after months of knowing the older Takumi would still spring up out of the chair, stuttering his apology profusely for saying too late. He would be embarrassed still even after the janitor would compliment his skills, telling the young boy not to worry too much. But even when they first met Takumi’s second semester as a freshman, the student still had his reservations.
Now, though, they’ve seen each other too often and too much for Takumi to keep holding onto his hesitations. He’ll wave at the janitor around campus, make small talk with him as the older gentleman walks into the room after Takumi finishes his song. He was the only one that Takumi would let listen to his drumming, besides a select few others of course.
And when Takumi stormed out of the practice room, he didn’t even notice the man coming towards him from the other end of the hallway, eyebrows furrowed at the familiar figure leaving far too early than he normally does on Friday nights.
He certainly didn’t notice another figure coming into the building, somehow a shoulder brush with the other drowning out in the deafening loudness of the music blaring from Takumi’s headphones.