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Reki’s sister, Koyomi, has always been hopeful of her brother to finding someone to love, and has always wanted the best for him. She grew tired of hearing him complain about being lonely or needing someone to cuddle with, getting tired of his stuffed animals.
So, that’s why when Reki was caught with Langa’s photo in his phone case, Koyomi found it very relieving. “Mommmm!” she’d called, stretching out the word and running towards the kitchen, “Reki’s in love!” Her brother chased her all throughout the house to retrieve his phone from Koyomi.
By now, the idea is so old to the entire Kyan family. Ever since his best friend and him grew apart, Reki’s complaints have increased by a million. Then, once he met Langa, he immediately was forced into a chokehold by the gods of love or whatever is making his stomach feel all mushy.
Reki adores everything about Langa, even what can be seen as “negative” qualities. They could be on the phone until two in the morning, barely saying anything due to sheer exhaustion, and Reki would still cherish every moment of it.
Langa is the type of person his mother would like him to be with. He’s quiet and reserved, and always finishes his meals, even if it isn’t very good (he says he wouldn’t like to humiliate the cook). He makes sure to notify Reki when his shoelaces are untied, and if he has a headache, he’ll run to the nearby market and spend his only remaining cash on medicine. He even remembers all of Reki’s favorite orders at fast food restaurants.
He could laugh so hard milk came out of his nose and Reki would still find him gorgeous. Langa is the least repulsive man alive, and Reki finds his flaws graceful. That’s what love will do to you; you’ll become blind to things everybody else sees.
Today is a warm summer day, and today they’ve made plans to skate down to the beach and hang out for a while. Then, they’ll spend the night at Reki’s house.
Reki has always been allowed to have his friends over, even girls. As long as someone was there with them as kids, his mom didn’t see an issue with it. Now that he’s older, Reki ignores gender. If someone looks interesting, Reki will stir up a conversation with them.
“Do you think we should put on sunscreen?” Langa asks as Reki ties his shoes. His gentle eyes watch Reki make bunny ears with the laces and tie them together. He finds it silly that his boyfriend continues to use that technique and wonders if he’ll ever stop (secretly hoping he’ll continue with the method).
“Um,” Reki thinks for a moment, “I don’t think we really have to. Do you burn easily?”
“Sometimes.”
“Then… Do you want to?”
Langa bites the inside of his cheek. “That depends how long you think we’ll be there.”
“I don’t wanna stay for, like, ten minutes then leave!” Reki laughs, standing up to go find the sunscreen. “Let me go find it. Wait, do you want the spray-on one of the liquid one.”
“The liquid one works better, I think.”
About a minute later, Reki comes back downstairs with a big, orange bottle of sunscreen. “Do you wanna put it on now or when we get there? I don’t really wanna carry a bottle around the beach, but it’s up to you.”
“Let’s do it now, then,” Langa decides, taking his shirt off and taking the bottle of sunscreen.
“Let me know if you need me to do your back,” Reki says, leaning against the wall. “I’m actually glad you’re putting it on now. If you didn’t, we’d have to wait, like, ten minutes to actually get in the water.”
Langa smiles at Reki. “Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t even think of that.”
The sunscreen was a little cold on his skin, but it felt fine. It was nothing intolerable.
“I’m actually allergic to sunscreen,” Reki mentions after a couple minutes. “All but that kind. Or brand. Once, my mom bought me this acne lotion, except it had this weird sunscreen in it, but I didn’t find that out until after. For the next three days my face was red and itchy.”
“Of all things, how come you’re allergic to sunscreen?” Langa laughs. “Can you get my back?”
“Of course,” Reki smiles. Langa’s skin is smooth, and paler than his own, which the sunscreen is definitely not helping. “You look like a ghost. You’re so pale!” A few seconds later, Reki scoops a glop of the sunscreen off of Langa’s back with his index finger and dabs it on the tip of Langa’s nose.
After Reki finishes applying the sunscreen to Langa’s back, they leave, but not before saying goodbye to Reki’s mom.
The air feels cool as it rushes against them and their boards. After ten or so minutes of skating, Reki asks to stop at a gas station to buy some candy.
“How much money do you have?” Langa asks, watching Reki dig through the pockets of his hoodie, then his pants. (Sometimes, in weather like this, Langa wonders how Reki doesn’t overheat.)
“164 yen,” Reki replies, showing Langa the small amount of money. “Maybe it’ll buy me one of the more unpopular candies.”
Reki’s favorite candies are strawberry flavored, and he also likes sour candy. Unlucky for him, both of those are more than what he has (which shouldn’t shock Reki in the slightest, since 164 yen is practically useless).
“I have some money,” Langa says as he reaches into his pockets. “How much do you need?”
“44 yen.”
“Okay, here,” Langa says as he hands Reki the yen.
Reki smiles, thanking Langa and grabbing his strawberry candy as he walks to the register.
—————
Another ten minutes later, Reki and Langa are at the beach, running around by the shore in their swim trunks. They deliberately wore them underneath their pants, instead of boxers (which was very uncomfortable).
“I should push you into the water so you get soaked,” Reki calls to Langa, who appears to be skipping rocks.
“You’re such a bitch,” Langa laughs, turning to face Reki. “If you do, don’t think karma won’t get back at you.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’ll push you into the water, too,” Langa smirks.
Reki jogs to where Langa is, wrapping his arms around Langa’s waist and resting his head on his shoulder. “You’re horrible at this,” he whispers against his cheek, kissing it softly. “Let me try it.”
“I’m sure you’ll be just as bad at it,” Langa says as he bends down to pick up a nice little rock.
Reki tosses the rock over his head. “Reki, you can’t even do it right.”
“Whatever,” Reki scoffs, playfully shoving his boyfriend. “Let me on your back,” Reki says as Langa stands up.
“Why? I might drop you.”
“Knowing you, you would probably do it on purpose,” Reki laughs, wrapping his arms around Langa’s shoulders.
“Oh, shut up, I would never do such a thing!” Langa innocently states. He loves playing into Reki’s jokes; they’re always entertained by one another’s stupidity.
“Just help me.”
Langa almost drops Reki, however, despite Reki’s previous accusations, it was not done on purpose. They almost fall down together into the cool water due to Langa almost tripping over a rock.
“You’re trying to kill me!” Reki accuses, heart pounding. “Let me go, I don’t trust you anymore…”
Langa laughs, then watches as Reki walks away, towards their towels. “Where are you going?” he calls out to him, jogging over to him.
“I wanna go get ice cream. I saw someone else eating some and got jealous.”
“But you don’t have any money.”
Reki turns around. “Okay, and you do.”
“But… I didn’t agree to buy you ice cream.”
“But you should because I asked nicely.”
Langa rolls his eyes. “You never even asked! You just expected me to buy you ice cream.”
“‘Kay, then will you please buy me ice cream?”
Langa sighs deeply, a smile on his face. “If… How much is it?”
“I think, like, two hundred yen. And it’s super good!” Reki whines, lightly shaking Langa. “It’s, like… It tastes heavenly!”
“Is it, Reki? I doubt that.”
“Then I guess you’ll have to try it for yourself,” Reki replies, taking Langa’s hand in his.
Reki does not like chocolate ice cream. He finds it much worse than any other chocolate products. He’s more of a fruity person (pun unintended), ranging from strawberries to apples. His favorite ice cream ever is apple pie ice cream, which is the perfect mixture of apples, cream and cinnamon.
However, the small ice cream shop by the beach doesn’t have that, so he settles for strawberry flavor. Langa gets cookie dough.
“Is it good?” Reki asks after a moment.
Langa hums. “Mhm, it’s really, like… I can’t describe it.”
“Nah, I get it. You’re not very hard to read with shit like this, so I can tell what you mean.”
“What do you mean by that?” Langa asks, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Well, you’re my boyfriend,” Reki smiles. “I can read you pretty well. Like, sometimes you look at me when we’re talking to other people, so then I take initiative of the conversation ‘cause I assume you’re looking my way for help.”
Langa smiles, his cheeks pink. “Yeah, I do do that sometimes.”
—————
As they finish their ice cream, Reki and Langa mess around for a little longer, and afterwards lay down as the sun sets. A lot of people have left the beach, with some families and a couple or two remaining.
Reki turns to see Langa staring at the sky, which is an array of colors. Streaks of pink, orange and yellow fly across the sky, while the bright yet pale sun sets.
Langa’s hair blows in the wind. He’s definitely thinking about something, but Reki can’t imagine what it could be.
He takes advantage of the moment. Reki just stays there, staring at his lips. He allows Langa to enchant him; his eyes comparable to the clear ocean before them. His porcelain skin is so smooth and his nose is like those of a model. When Reki imagines his future, Langa is the main component. Without him, nothing is fun. He’s incomplete.
“God, Langa,” Reki groans, falling back onto his towel. Beside him, Langa sinks out of his trance, humming a silent, “Hm?”
“You’re so pretty,” he smiles, looking up at Langa, his bangs framing his face perfectly. Langa shies away, his hand coming up to scratch the area right below his mouth.
“You’re pretty too,” he replies, unsure how to accept the compliment without sounding too dry. “And you’re super cool, Reki.”
In a few moments, Reki’s nose is pressed against Langa’s as their lips meet in a sweet kiss. Their hands sit entwined in the sand, their painted nails complimenting each other. (It was Reki’s idea to paint their nails matching colors, his blue and Langa’s red.)
“You’re so gorgeous, Reki,” Langa bashfully smiles, his cheeks light pink. “No matter how many times I look at you, your beauty has, like, no boundaries.”
The remaining sunlight glows upon them warmly, yet no amount of light compares to how beautiful Reki looks underneath Langa’s eyes. It’s like the sun sets each night to emphasize and prove that Reki is too bright for this world.
“Shut up,” Reki insists, shying away. “You’re really too much for me.”
Langa smiles. “You deserve to be treated this way. I’d give you the world if I could.”
Because, truthfully, Reki saved his life. Another day would go by, another day of misery and dread. To be honest, Langa didn’t think he’d even make it to age seventeen due to the grief he felt when his dad died. It’s like a house without a roof; incomplete.
Life itself felt useless for a really long time. Langa wanted to go, he wanted to pass his legacy on as some unknown Canadian kid.
He lacked purpose. Nothing was fun anymore. Snowboarding wasn’t fun, and neither was living.
Before he met Reki, Langa had nobody and nothing to live for.
“It’s getting kinda late,” Reki said after a while. “Do you wanna go home? We could get some food on the way back.”
Langa tossed Reki his sweatshirt, which suddenly looked very snug since the temperature had dropped a considerable amount since night overtook them.
“I’m not that hungry. Kinda just wanna hang out. Is that okay?”
“Of course, babe,” Reki replies, kissing Langa’s cheek.
—————
After getting home, they went straight to Reki’s room. Langa has always liked it there; it’s small but very comfortable.
“Can I open your window?” Langa asks as Reki grabs a pencil from his little cup.
“Yeah, ‘course,” he replies, not looking up from his uncompleted sketch. “It’s always hot in here.”
“That’s because you’re constantly wearing fifteen layers of clothing even though it’s summer,” Langa teases, ruffling his unruly red hair.
“Yeah, well, you can’t even come at me right now since I’m wearing a t-shirt,” Reki laughs, sticking out his tongue in Langa’s direction.
A few seconds later, Langa notices something on Reki’s door, on his mirror. “What’s on your door?”
Reki turns around. “Oh, yeah, I forgot that was there.”
As Langa reads the sticky notes and scraps of paper, he realizes all of them are things he gave to Reki. “You saved all of these? Some of these are from weeks ago!”
“Yeah, well, what did you want me to do? Throw them away?”
“No, but you didn’t have to put them on your mirror!” Langa says, falling on Reki’s bed while laughing.
“You’re right. Maybe I should throw them all away right now…”
“No!” Langa insists. “It’s cute; just unexpected, is all.”
Reki smirks. “I wouldn’t have taken them off, anyway.”
—————
It doesn’t take Reki long to lose interest in the drawing. He was with Langa, after all; no time should be wasted drawing.
“Langa, do you like Japan?” Reki asks as they sit on the floor playing Uno.
“I mean, it’s pretty cool,” he replies, monotonously placing down a card. “It’s way better than I thought. Since I’m just some half white foreign kid, I thought everyone would hate me. And then, some weird kid with cute lips started dragging me to some illegal skating thing.”
Reki laughs. “That kid sounds really cool if he can sneak into an illegal place.”
“Yeah,” Langa agrees. “He’s really cool. And he’s funny - and talented, too. He taught me how to skateboard.”
“Really?” Reki asks. “This kid sounds impressive. I might have to meet him sometime.”
“You’d love him. He’s perfect.”
Reki kicks his feet a little. “All I asked was if you like Japan and you turned it into your five hundredth confession! You’re insatiable!”
“I wasn’t lying, though,” Langa expresses, leaning forward and kissing Reki’s cheek.
Reki laughs. It makes Langa’s heart swell.
And, now, they are both complete. Reki can’t find himself to mind the chokehold Cupid has forced him into.