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Mei wonders about what the team must be thinking... surely by now they’ve realized he was a no show. They’d probably be royally pissed off, considering he was ditching his own birthday party.
Also, he had to admit that he might have made a rather big fuss about having a grandiose party for him during the whole of December and even more so into the early days of January leading up to his birthday.
Well, what was he supposed to do?
He had texted that guy on a whim, it was just a joke; he didn’t actually expect him to respond positively...
Mei rereads that last text for the duration of the busride, reading the simple “hmm sounds great. see you” over and over again, imagining that guy’s voice in his ear.
He almost misses his stop (he was beginning to overthink things... and maybe he was letting his imagination get the better of him).
He helps an old lady get down from the bus and she starts fawning over him - how such a handsome young man would take the time to help her - and Mei forgets the fact that he only helped her because she was too slow and wanted to hurry up because he was a couple minutes late already. He grins cheekily as people look over in his direction, and he humbly replies, in a rather loud voice, that it was ‘no problem at all’ and that ‘oh please, i’m not that handsome’.
“He’s right, he’s not that handsome.”
Mei throws a look over his shoulder as he takes in a breath, ready to rip into whoever dared to--
It’s him. Of course. And he’s grinning widely, nonchalantly leaning against the bus stop pole, arms folded across his chest.
Pff. Does he think that he looks cool or something? Because he totally doesn’t.
The old woman titters, saying something to the effect of ‘two handsome young men, lucky me’ then ‘have a nice evening lads’ before going her way.
Suddenly Mei’s self-conscious, and that infuriates him.
“Oy, what’s the big deal,” he drawls, eyes slanting as Kazuya chuckles. “I’m way more attractive than you.”
Mei watches him approach, ’til he’s by his side, and feels him bump his elbow into his arm.
He sneaks a sideways glance at Kazuya, immediately peeved that he’s not even looking back at him, peeved because his jawline is so--
“So, what did you want to do?”
Just like Kazuya to ignore his comment. Mei sniffs at the air, chin tilted upwards as he tries to look down on him, but this guy’s got a good 5cm on him so it’s no good but still.
Actually, what does he want to do? He wasn’t planning on Kazuya to take him up on his suggestion of meeting in downtown Tokyo for his birthday so he didn’t really think this far ahead...
He hears a light chuckle. “What, you ask me out and you have no plans?”
Kazuya’s looking at him now, a smirk on his lips, and Mei grinds his teeth together, feeling blood rise to cheeks. He hopes the colour could be attributed to the cold.
“I did NOT ask you out,” he says, looking away, trying to calm down. “I just thought...” He takes a deep breath, then exhales. Fine, he’ll be honest. “Actually, I didn’t even expect you to agree to it so...”
“Haha, I know, that’s why I went along with it.”
Mei hates how his heart drops into his stomach, hates how he’s so affected, hates how he feels... So hurt?
“Anyway, why don’t we --”
“Forget it, I’m going back.” Mei plunks himself down on the bus stop bench. The next bus should be here in half an hour.
He’s staring out into traffic, but out of the corner of his eye he can see Kazuya looking at him with raised eyebrows. Mei tries to ignore his warmth when he sits down beside him.
“I was wondering about that,” Miyuki murmurs, stretching both arms out to the side; one resting on the bench, one nearly around Mei’s shoulders.
Mei tilts his head to the side, eyes narrowed at the fingers that drums against his arm. “What do you mean...”
“I mean,” Miyuki says, turning to face him, “why would you want to spend your birthday with me when you could be partying it up with your team?”
“I do what I want,” Mei replies simply, however caught off guard. Damn him. He probably already knows why. “Like before I felt like hanging out with you for some reason but now I want to be at my party.”
“Oh really.”
“Yeah really!” Mei’s voice is louder than he intends and Kazuya bursts out laughing. “Hey! Shut up!”
“You sure you’re not in junior high anymore?” Kazuya grins.
Mei’s retort dries up on his tongue when Kazuya suddenly leans in.
“Sorry.”
It’s whispered like an after-thought and Mei feels a shiver go down his spine.
“Why are you apologizing?!” He covers his ear with his hand, pushing that jerk away.
Kazuya takes him by the wrist. “I lied.”
Mei yelps when Kazuya stands and pulls him to his feet. “What are you--” He’s being dragged by the wrist down the sidewalk and he resists at first, but quickly lets Kazuya take him wherever. The kinds of stares they were getting were not the type of stares Mei particularly liked.
When Kazuya finally stops and lets go of him, Mei snaps, “Why’d you drag me all the way to some stupid deserted park?! I have a bus to catch, jerkface.” He glares at his back. “Hey, I’m talking to you!”
“Mei.” Pause. “I actually did want to see you.”
Kazuya turns around and Mei takes a step towards him. If Kazuya was going to drop his facade, then he was going to be just as honest. “Really..?”
“I hate to admit it, but yeah. Really.”
Mei can’t help grinning widely. “You sure you’re not in junior high anymore?”
“How original.”
Mei closes the gap between them, wraps his arms around Kazuya’s neck and whispers, “We’re definitely not in junior high anymore.”
*
It’s not until he’s on the bus back to Inashiro that he realizes that Kazuya didn’t even give him a present.
“Fucking bastard,” Mei seethes as he sends him a text complaining about the absence of a gift.
He gets a reply right away: ‘What, you wanna make out some more?’
Mei swears that he’ll never kiss that jerk ever again.
(It’s a blatant lie, and he knows it.)
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