Chapter Text
Junior year of high school, already half of the year had gone by and Minamoto Kou was completely breezing through it, without a care in the world. Sure, he wasn’t doing so hot in a couple of his classes, but he had the rest of the year and senior year to fix everything up so he’ll just wait till then. That wasn’t the point of today though, Valentine’s day was in less than two weeks and while he didn’t have any plans besides buying carnations for his friends, for the past week Kou had been receiving secret love notes in his locker. It was definitely flattering! But he just couldn’t wrap his head around who would leave them. He only really had two friends, Nene and Hanako who were both a year older than him and also in a relationship together, so it certainly wasn’t either of them, and while he guessed he could count his study partner, Mitsuba as his friend, the frustrating boy was really more of an acquaintance than anything else. Plus considering how much Mitsuba borderline bullies him, Kou highly doubted that, even if Mitsuba was into boys, he wouldn’t be wasting his time on him. Kou essentially had no leads as to who could be leaving the notes! He didn’t talk to any other girls really anyways, but Nene thought it was super romantic that someone was dedicating so much effort into letting him know how they feel, and Hanako teased him a lot about it in general, but Kou just felt confused. If someone liked him that much, why wouldn’t they just talk to him? Kou sighed as he approached his locker, his heartbeat quickened as he put in his combination.
19-38-22 and…
As soon as he opened the door a pink note fluttered out from the locker, landing gently on the floor with a heart sticker concealing its true feelings inside. Bending down to pick up the note, a chipper voice interrupted his nervous demeanor.
“Wow another one? This girl must really like you Kou!”
Standing up, Kou spotted Nene and Hanako walking over, arm in arm.
“Yeah what is this like, the 5th one this week?” Hanako teased.
“It’s the fourth but I guess she must really be nervous about actually letting me know who she is. Honestly it’s making me nervous not knowing!”
“She must be super ugly if she’s leaving notes and not even talking to you. I’m not surprised you would attract that kind of girl though.”
Kou turned to see the person who made the unnecessarily rude comment, which of course, was from Mitsuba. They didn't really talk to each other before last November but with Mitsuba helping him with math, and Kou returning the favor by helping with biology, they have begrudgingly been spending more time together. Increasingly since the end of winter break. Nene somehow knew the boy already, from P.E apparently? She also shared the same berating experience as Kou, the pink haired boy was ruthless, calling her daikon legs or whatever during the class. Kou couldn’t understand how someone so soft and cute looking could be so crude.
Wait, cute?
“Don’t be so mean Mitsuba! You’re just jealous that you don’t have a secret admirer!” Nene defended, cutting off Kou’s thoughts.
“Tch! Why would I be jealous? I don’t want some perv fantasizing some weird porno me!”
“Hm… do you really think some girl would think about our Kou like that?” Entertained Hanako.
“Hanako don’t encourage him!” Yelled Nene as Kou rolled his eyes.
“Ugh, you always have something weird to say Mitsuba! This isn’t that weird of a thing! This happens all the time!”
“In movies sure, but nobody else in this school is getting any love notes that’s for sure. What does it even say.”
Kou’s face got red, a combination of frustration and embarrassment but turned his back towards him as he carefully peeled the sticker off the note and opened it.
“I was getting to that.” He mumbled, casting his eyes down to the letter.
You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen,
I wish I could get lost in them
The frustration faded away from Kou’s face as it was replaced with a pleasant buzz as he gave a small smile. He didn’t know who was writing these notes, but he had to admit, they had a special way of brightening up his day, even if it was a little cheesy. Unbeknownst to him, Mitsuba was watching Kou’s expressions very carefully, before getting impatient
“Well? You haven’t said anything so I’m assuming it’s a shitty poem.”
Kou snapped back into reality, his frustration and embarrassment also coming back.
“Could you go to class already? We’re going to be late anyways since we’ve been here for so long.” Kou responded as he put the note in his backpack, careful not to accidentally crush it. Mitsuba huffed as he headed down the hall to his class while Nene came up to Kou, putting her hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry about him Kou, he’s just bitter. I can’t wait to see what she’ll do for Valentines day if she’s already started leaving notes for you, she must be building up to something big!”
“Maybe Mitsuba is right, maybe it’ll be a special surprise~” Hanako implied before Nene elbowed his ribs.
“We’ll see you at lunch!”
Nene and Hanako walked off just as the bell rang, Kou hurriedly grabbed his bag and headed in the opposite direction.
I can’t imagine who would be sending me these, but Nene is right, this must be leading up to something big on Valentine’s day. I should probably prepare something just in case! But what…
----
Mitsuba was scrolling through his phone as the bell rang, glancing up as the teacher began to prepare for the lesson. He pulled out his notebook, and opened it up right as Kou ran in, obviously late. Mitsuba gave an audible tsk as Kou took his seat in front of him and rummaged around to get his stuff out, the familiar pink note falling out. Before he could say anything, Kou quickly picked it up, gently folding it shut again before putting it in his folder. The gentleness that Kou exhibited towards the paper filled Mitsuba with warmth. The announcements went in one ear and out the other as he watched Kou get ready for class, staring at the back of his blonde head. Mitsuba would never admit this to anyone, but he had been harboring a crush on Kou since the last day of school last year.
.
.
.
Last day and the last hour of sophomore year, yet Mitsuba was spending it outside in the heat with a camera, trying to get some good shots in before going home for the summer. He needed something interesting, something new with a good composition, after all, he was going to submit these into a competition in July, and he wasn’t going to have access to such a nice camera then, so he needed it done now. He was trying to get a shot of something in action, preferably animals since people in photos seemed cliche and boring to him. Mitsuba snapped several more photos of some birds swooping down to pick up the seed that he had thrown out to attract them when a voice called out to him.
"LOOK OUT!"
Mitsuba looked up to see a soccer ball heading straight for him and braced for impact when suddenly, a blonde boy showed up in front of him. It… honestly wasn't that graceful of a save, seeing as the ball hit the boy dead in the face, knocking him over and toppling him onto Mitsuba instead. The crown of the boy's head hit his chin as they both collided to the ground.
"OW." Stated the boy, sounding slightly nasally as he sat up before quickly turning around "Oh my god, are you ok??"
Upon first sight Mitsuba had to admit, even with the bloody nose he was really attractive, sparkling light blue eyes, flushed cheeks, brown eyelashes he was… too close.
"Maybe I could figure that out if someone wasn't literally crushing my body." Mitsuba wheezed.
Mitsuba was known for his foul manner but it seemed justified in the moment as the other boy clambered off of him and reached out to help him up.
"S-sorry! Here let me help."
Despite doing the least helpful save, he was gently helping Mitsuba up before picking up the camera and handing it back to him.
"Sorry I just, noticed you had that camera and didn't want it to get smashed or anything."
"Yeah well it might've had a better chance against the soccer ball than your entire body." He spat.
The boy seemed taken aback, clearly shocked by his attitude.
"I- I mean I guess you're right, but you shouldn't have been so close to the soccer field with such an expensive camera anyways! I'm sure your parents wouldn't appreciate it."
Mitsuba rolled his eyes.
"This belongs to the school! So you would've had to buy a new one for them anyways! You also are the only one with a bloody nose shitty hero."
The boy wiped his nose with his hand, a gesture that Mitsuba made a face at before he responded.
"That's even worse!"
"Shut up." Mitsuba grabbed the boy by his arm as he marched back to the school. "I need to get a new battery anyways and the nurse is right there so you might as well come on."
Nothing really major happened at the nurse's office, he mostly just stood around while the blonde tilted his head forward with tissues stuffed into his nose. After sitting back up, Mitsuba smushed a blue bandaid with stars across the bridge of his nose.
"Ow." He said again, more nasally than the first time. "What's the bandaid for?"
"The ball scratched your nose."
The boy pulled out the tissues from his nose and sighed.
"Hey, I'm sorry I caused you more trouble. Things went a little cooler in my head but uh… well, you know."
He was clearly a little bummed out for, essentially being embarrassed in front of him. Mitsuba understood why he would be, he was such a cute boy after all, no wonder he wanted to save him. Still, seeing his eyebrows furrow up slightly did make him feel kind of bad.
"Well I appreciate the idea? Maybe if you hadn't tried to catch the ball with your face you would've seemed cooler."
The boy gave out a small laugh at that, and if Mitsuba was being completely honest? He wouldn't mind hearing it again.
And again.
And again.
.
.
.
The two of them ended up spending the next couple of hours together after school as Kou mostly just hung out with Mitsuba while he took photos for his competition. Before his mom came to pick him up, they stood together in the stairwell watching the sun start to go down and Mitsuba took one last photo: a photo of Kou. Only after Mitsuba got home that evening did he realize not only did he not get his phone number, but he didn't even learn his name! And to make matters worse, he couldn't stop thinking about him for nearly the whole week after! Mostly because he had a bruise on his chin from when they crashed into each other, but also because he had never felt so… relaxed around another individual before. Like he knew he was safe around Kou. And that made not knowing who he was even more frustrating.
Thankfully they just happened to get the same math class and Mitsuba recognized him, unfortunately though, Kou didn't have the same reaction back. This sparked a silent treatment for a couple of months, not like it really did much of anything since they didn't talk much to begin with, but once they were assigned to do a math project, he learned that Kou was a dumbass, but he was a dumbass who Mitsuba had a crush on and the more time he spent with him the more his feelings festered. It drove Mitsuba crazy that Kou didn't remember him, but that was fine, he was going to do things his own way then. The two had been studying together after school sometime in November, and by the end of winter break he had figured out what he was going to do.
Valentine's day. That was the day he was going to confess. He would leave notes in Kou's locker leading up to the holiday, dropping hints and on the 14th he would leave a note telling Kou to meet him at the soccer field after school, where Mitsuba would finally admit to everything and give him the photo that he took of him last year as a final gift. The whole thing stressed him out, but he's already gotten started so he can't stop now, and if Kou didn't like him or wasn't into guys well. Guess he'll die lol.
The teacher soon stopped her lecture to collect the homework assignments she gave them the previous night and hand out the new ones, and Kou immediately swiveled around to look at Mitsuba, his sparkling blue eyes searching for his sympathy. He had no idea what he was doing. Mitsuba rolled his eyes as he pulled out the assignment the teacher was coming around to collect.
"Did you even do the homework last night?"
"I did! Probably not well but I did do it." Kou handed Mitsuba his work to look over before handing it in. Mitsuba looked over the paper before glancing back up at him, cocking a brow.
"No don't give me that look I already told you it wasn't good!"
Honestly Mitsuba was just messing with him, but Kou's flustered face was so endearing and cute to him, he had to tease him every now and then.
"It's actually not that bad, you only got a couple wrong but I can help you out more with that after school."
"Oh wait, I won't be able to make it after school today, I have to go watch my brother's martial arts competition. He's doing broadsword or something." Kou said, taking his homework back and handing it to the teacher who finally came up.
"Oh… well maybe you could come over this Saturday? I have a biology test coming up soon so I’d like to go over things first before completely failing."
Kou gave a surprised look, clearly not expecting the offer before pulling his phone out.
"Yeah ok sure! What's your number?"
Mitsuba scowled. Realizing it took him this long to even ask for his number.
"What do you need my number for, pervert? You're not that smooth."
"Ey! So you can text me your address! You're the one who offered, remember!"
Mitsuba snatched Kou's phone from his hands and turned to start typing it into his phone.
"Not smooth at all, how do you expect to even get to second base with that tactic?"
Mitsuba handed back the phone. Kou glanced at his hand, then right back at Mitsuba before taking it.
"Well it worked on someone as cute as you so I'll probably be fine."
Mitsuba felt his face turn red, at the same time as Kou's ears turning pink at the realization of what he said.
"Wh- what I meant was-"
The bell rang, signaling the end of their class and their conversation as Kou decided to separate from the situation as fast as he could.
"I'll see you on Saturday!"
Mitsuba stared after him, still feeling hot from the unintentional compliment before shaking his head and softly muttering.
"Idiot."
Saturday couldn't come soon enough.