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jiro couldn’t help but stare dumbfoundedly at the letter that fell out of his locker when he tried to open it. out of all the things that he thought would happen throughout the school day, he certainly wasn’t expecting a mysterious letter to pop out of his locker so unexpectedly. he had no idea what it could be about, though he did have a few predictions. classmates often asked jiro if he could fulfill a job for them since he did work at odd jobs yamada, so it was probably another request. but it was strange. jiro could easily be reached during school hours, so he wasn’t exactly sure why they had decided to write a letter, but he didn’t think too much about it.
“oo, a love letter~” one of his friends commented in a sing-song tone. “soo, who’s it from? you gonna accept or reject it?”
wait wait wait, love letter? there was no way. i mean, sure, jiro did get his fair share of confessions being a member of one of the top rap groups in the nation, but not like this! they were usually face-to-face confessions, or at the very least, a letter given to him by the person themselves. this white envelope didn’t have any indication that it was a confession. there was no red heart sticker that he usually received with such letters, and there certainly was no name or return address of the sort. so even if it was a handwritten confession, jiro couldn’t even give a proper response! surely the person wasn’t that stupid to have missed out on such crucial information. then again, if jiro was writing one himself, he’d probably be wayyy too nervous to remember that tiny detail.
“l-love letter?! this isn’t a love letter!” jiro sputtered out, though surely his red face would make him hard to believe. and sure enough, his friends smirked at his flustered reaction. of course they didn’t believe him. “b-besides, there’s no name on here or anything. i’m sure it’s just another request.”
“uh-huh...then why don’t you open it?”
“fine, i will!” jiro was desperate to prove to them that this absolutely wasn’t, without a doubt, a love letter. he had great intuition about these sort of things after all. there were no clues leading to it being a confession! big bro ichiro would’ve never let him help out at the shop if he didn’t have some great deductive skills to fulfill requests (all those jobs were given to saburo). besides, his gut was telling him that this wasn’t a love letter. then again, his gut was feeling butterflies, and jiro couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious opening that letter up. he didn’t doubt himself, no way! it’s just that...well...maybe he secretly wanted it to be one? yeah yeah, that was it.
as he ripped up the envelope, a single white paper fell out, and jiro was already celebrating his early victory, smirking cockily at his friends and whatnot. see, there was no special colored paper or little doodles or fancy pen ink! it was a plain piece of white lined paper written in pencil. this couldn’t be a love letter after all, since all the ones he’s received beforehand had some charm and character to it. this was nothing but another request he and his brothers had to fulfill, plain and simple. he may as well read it aloud in order to rub it in their faces.
“dear jiro,” he started, clearing his throat and smugly smirking as he eyes his friends. all they could afford to do was roll their eyes and wait for him to continue. “i’m not really sure how to start this, but there’s something i’ve been meaning to tell you for a while now. let me get straight to the point. the truth is that i...like you...eh?!” jiro’s mouth fell agape as he said the last three words aloud, not believing what had just transpired. wait, this really was a love letter?! his friends behind him were howling with laughter right now, though that was the least of his concerns at the moment. he couldn’t help but clutch the letter a bit too tight, wrinkling it ever so slightly, as he stared at the last sentence he said. “i like you.” his gut had failed him? jiro was wrong?? this was still all unbelievable, and jiro wasn’t sure if it even registered in his mind at the moment. well, how could he have known it was a confession from such a plain envelope! gahh, now he didn’t know what to do.
“still sure it’s a request?” one of his friends asked sarcastically behind him, though it was all in between fits of laughter. “request to date you, maybe.”
“you should’ve seen your face oh my-” the other one added, wheezing and trying to calm himself down. jiro was, needless to say, quite red and embarrassed right about now. and he had went on a whole spiel about how it was nothing but a mere request. this was way too much right now, especially at the end of the school day.
“w-well, whatever!” he huffed, stuffing the letter in his pocket. he still had no idea who the sender was, so maybe it was all a sick prank by some students in his class. it’s not like he recognized the handwriting anyway. all jiro could do now was throw it away and hope that it wasn’t an actual confession since he’d feel guilty for having done so. ughh, whatever. he’d think about all of this at home. jiro really didn’t want to be at school more than he had to right now, especially since his friends were practically laughing at him.
“what if it’s from y/n?”
at the mention of that name, jiro froze in place. y/n sent him that letter? well, that thought surely made him feel butterflies. he had dreams about y/n reciprocating his feelings. he did have a huge crush on her after all, that he tried his hardest to keep hidden (it didn’t mean much that his friends figured it out within a few days). i mean, it’s not like it was out of question! yeah, there was still hope for him. after all, there was no name on the letter, and besides, it’s not like he knew how her handwriting looked like. maybe it was her, maybe y/n really did like him as well. the image of y/n secretly slipping the letter into his letter, too embarrassed to reveal herself made him grin like an idiot. she was way too adorable for her own good! and, if it really was her, then the two of them could start dating and jiro could finally kis-
no no, of course not! this wasn’t a shoujo manga!! she was a top student in his class, possibly the school. there was no way she’d waste her time pining over an idiot like jiro who didn’t pay much attention in class. all he ever did was zone out the teacher and take naps twenty minutes into the period. his homework was never complete, unless someone let him copy, and all the tests were nothing but a foreign language to him. she’d never fall for someone who couldn’t even differentiate between x and y in math class!
“w-what? of course it wouldn’t be from her!” jiro spat, a bit hurt that his friend would even suggest it in the first place. he knew how much jiro liked her, so it was just too cruel for him to even bring her into this mess in the first place. he planted the idea in his head, and jiro had no idea how to get rid of it. it was like he was experiencing rejection without ever having confessed. “she’d probably be busy focusing on the upcoming history test anyway. she doesn’t have time to write some silly letter…”
“all i’m saying is that it’s a possibility.”
“yeah yeah. i’m gonna go home,” he muttered, feeling his pocket to make sure the crinkled letter was still in there. now that the idea of y/n was in his mind, jiro didn’t have the heart to throw it away. deep down, he still held on to hope that y/n was the one that sent him the letter, though he tried to justify it by saying that it would’ve been a jerk move by him to throw away a letter that contained so many feelings. the person opened themselves up to jiro, he couldn’t heartlessly toss it in the trash as if it meant absolutely nothing! it totally wasn’t because there was a possibility that y/n may have sent it. nuh-uh, absolutely no way! ok, maybe that was part of the reason…but just a little. gah, this was all so confusing. jiro couldn’t wait to get home and push it aside for a few hours.
~
jiro had tried everything: manga, tv, video games, hell even homework, but he couldn’t get his mind off of that letter. it was the only thing he could think about, and everything seemed to remind him of it. quite frankly, it was starting to get on his nerves. who exactly sent that letter, and why did they want to hide their identity so much? it sure would’ve saved him a headache if that person had came outright and confessed to him in person. jiro would’ve at least gotten some kinda resolution, but nope, he was now stuck with this mysterious letter. and it was near impossible to narrow it down. there was no name or even hints as to whether or not jiro knew them. for all he knew, it could’ve been some underclassman that he never even heard of! it could be anyone in the entire school, how was he supposed to find the sender with such little information?
“why can’t i stop thinking about that stupid letter?!” jiro groaned, throwing his light novel that he’d been reading to the side. everytime he tried to read a page, his mind wandered off and started to think about the letter that now sat on his desk. if the person was trying to mess with him, then they were doing a damn good job at it. he wished that they would just come outright and say it. surely it would’ve saved both of them from this weird confession purgatory they were both stuck in. the person would get their answer, and jiro would finally figure out who exactly wrote it. it was a win-win situation really.
“what are you even yelling about?” great, just when he thought his headache couldn’t get any worse, his younger brother shows up. why was he even in jiro’s room in the first place? it’s not like saburo even liked stepping into his room, claiming that it was way too messy. saburo must’ve had some sort of sixth sense that younger siblings had in order to annoy their siblings when they already had enough on their place. there was no other explanation for his impeccable timing.
“ugh, what do you want?” he didn’t bother to look up from where he lay on his bed. the rotation of his ceiling fan was already more interesting than what saburo had to say.
“i don’t want to be here anymore than you, but it’s your turn to manage the front.”
“ok i’m coming.” although he said that, jiro showed no signs of moving from his spot on the bed, still hung up on the letter and its mysterious author. it irritated him to no end. saburo, on the other hand, was becoming rather impatient with his older brother. he didn’t want to manage the store front anymore, and ichiro was gone on a request, so currently, there was no one to greet the customers.
“then get up. why are you even sulking?” jiro paid no mind to his younger brother’s snarky remark and remained laying down, to which saburo grew even more irritated. his brother really had no sense of responsibility, huh? guess he had to go and fulfill jiro’s job, yet again. how many times did this make it exactly? well, it was whatever. he’d just have him repay next time. right before he left, however, something on jiro’s desk caught his eye, and saburo being the nosy middle schooler that he is, couldn’t help but take a quick look at it. “what’s this?”
“hm? h-hEY, drop that!!” jiro really wasn’t expecting anyone to barge into his room, much less snoop around and go through his personal belongings, but that was his fault. he had forgotten to take into account that he lived with a middle schooler whose job it was to know everyone’s business. so when he caught saburo with the love letter in his hand, jiro practically jolted up, causing him to fall off of his bed and hit his head in the process.
ignoring his brother’s demand, saburo merely rolled his eyes at jiro’s clumsiness and continued on reading, that is, until jiro came over and snatched it from him. it was much too late, however, for saburo had already read over the entire letter, which was evident by how he looked so bewildered. that did absolutely nothing to quell jiro’s anger though. ugh, why did his little brother have to be so nosy and be so judgy when he was the one that marched in there and pried into his stuff. it was all so irritating.
“you actually have an admirer? you? someone actually likes an idiot like you?” saburo asked in disbelief, grimacing as he looked at jiro up and down. yeah, he still had zero clue as to how someone could’ve fallen for his older brother. everytime he tried to think of jiro’s good qualities, saburo came up short. then again, that was just his bias talking. i mean, saburo did know that all three of them had fans since they did compete at rap battles on the national level, but it never really hit him until now, when there was physical evidence right in front of him. knowing that someone liked his brother felt so strange.
“hey! of course i have admirers stupid.” jiro huffed and stuffed the letter back into his pocket, cautious of the fact that saburo may come into his room again and do some more digging. he was quite used to saburo’s remarks having lived and fought with him for years, but this time his words hurt a bit. of course there were people who loved him, he was one hell of a rapper after all. he couldn’t help but feel hurt that saburo had thought that no one really liked him. it made him feel as if he had done something wrong or that he was unlikeable. jiro didn’t really think that he had that many insecurities, but hearing saburo’s words made him feel like he had some. “anyway, why are you still in my room?!”
ignoring his question, saburo asked one of his own. “are you going to accept or reject their confession?”
“um...reject? i dunno. why do you even care?” quite frankly, jiro began to have enough of saburo’s antics and questioning. geez, why was he so interested anyway? it’s not like he cared about his school life before anyway, so the sudden change confused jiro more than anything. maybe if he just answered his incessant questioning, saburo would finally leave him alone.
“how do you not know?”
“look, i don’t even know who sent it.” there was a hint of anger in jiro’s tone as he started to grow restless from all of these questions. saburo seemed to pay no mind to it, however.
“should’ve expected as much from you…”
“hey! it was just in my locker, how am i supposed to know who sent it?! there was no name on it or anything!” with that final remark, jiro ushered saburo out of his room. gahh, he really could be insensitive at times. at least he’d be able to finally have some peace and quiet. saburo wasn’t quite done, however, much to jiro’s annoyance.
“wait,” the younger one started, seemingly a bit hesitant to go on. it looked like he wanted to say something important, or at least jiro assumed so with the way saburo wouldn’t look him in the eye. “if you want me to find out the sender for you, i can do that.” although the last part was mumbled out, jiro still heard it, and needless to say, he was quite bewildered. saburo, helping him out with his problems? that sounded like nothing but a dream. i mean, saburo never once took interest in jiro’s life, always ignoring him or telling him to shut up. but this was new. he actually wanted to help jiro. it frightened him to say the least.
“man, what’s up with you today?” jiro sighed to which saburo took full offense. it was really hard for him to offer some help, yet jiro brushed it off and instead poked fun at him. that did an entire one-eighty, however, when he saw how jiro grinned at his offer. man, this entire interaction was just awkward.
“whatever,” saburo huffed, finally walking away from jiro’s room much to his content. he’d finally be alone for a few hours and ponder on the letter some more, although he wasn’t exactly looking forward to that. the mystery surrounding the letter’s author was more or less starting to get to him. geez, he couldn’t wait until this entire situation was over, that is, if it ever did come to an end. at this point, it’s starting to seem a lot like a prank done to annoy him, and it was working quite well. maybe jiro would get some hints tomorrow at school. after all, he was supposed to see his classmates yet again, so surely there would be some hints scattered throughout the day. well, he’d find out tomorrow. for now, jiro was going to try and enjoy the rest of his day.
~
it was honestly just like any other school day for jiro who was currently droning out the teacher in history class. it wasn’t that he was purposefully ignoring the teacher; rather, jiro had absolutely no idea what was even being lectured at the moment. everything sounded like complete and utter nonsense, with all of the fancy names and dates and whatnot. there were so many dates; he couldn’t keep up with them at all. so he resorted to what he did best in times like these: tune out any outside noises and dream to himself about who knows what (usually it was about winning the drb and finally gaining recognition from his big brother). that all came to a halt, however, when he heard his name being called.
“jiro,” the stern voice of his teacher called out, which quickly took him out of his daydream.
“hm?” it was a disgruntled question about, well, everything. he had absolutely no idea why he was being called on, but he hoped that the teacher hadn’t caught him not paying attention. that would be way too embarrassing, especially in front of the class and all.
“you’ll be working with y/n.”
ah, y/n. that name certainly got his attention. at the mention of his crush, jiro couldn’t help but dart his eyes towards her as he stared at her admiringly. and she even gave him a little wave! gahh, maybe she was staring at him too. maybe she also had a crush on him and reciprocated his feelings. that thought alone made jiro feel on cloud nine. it really would be a dream come true, quite literally too. he’s had way too many dreams about her, way more than he’d like to admit. this entire imaginary scenario was too much for heart...wait, did the teacher just say working with her?
it took jiro a few moments to process what the teacher had said due to his airheadedness. woah woah woah, he was her partner? he would be working with her, like conversing with her and all that jazz?? no longer would he be admiring from afar and creepily gazing like some sort of stalker, but he’d get to actually interact with her? geez, he must be dreaming. it didn’t even matter what the project or assignment was, jiro couldn’t believe that he’d be in such close proximity with his crush. guess he judged his teacher too harshly. after all, she must be on his side if she paired the two together. she was his wingman, and jiro couldn’t be more thankful. he’d have to pass the next test in order to make it up to her.
then again, being able to talk to one of the top students at school was terrifying to say the least. oh god, and jiro was a complete fool! what if he couldn’t even understand what she was saying? well, this wasn’t the ideal situation. if he messed this up, then she wouldn’t even dare look, much less breathe, in his direction again. no pressure, eh? right before his very eyes, jiro’s shoujo dream crumbled into a hundred irreparable pieces. his teacher must’ve plotted this from the very beginning. of course she was out to get him after his complete disregard for this class. ugh, if jiro had known better, he would’ve at the very least paid attention.
“hi jiro.” he had dreamt of her calling out to him so many times before; it felt so surreal to actually hear it come from her lips. he snapped to his left only to be met with y/n’s smile, which, needless to say, did nothing to calm down his racing heart. when did she even get here? well, it must’ve been around the same time everyone had moved seats in order to sit by their assigned partners. too bad jiro was too busy panicking over talking with his crush to listen to instructions.
“um, hi y/n.” things turned awkward rather fast as there soon was a good few seconds of silence between them. jiro had no idea what to even say much less know what the project was even about. was it even a project or simple assignment? thankfully, y/n soon took charge of the conversation.
“so, which part of the assignment do you want to do?”
“uh, whichever?” jiro wasn’t about to take his chances and look like a fool right in front of his crush. he wasn’t going to admit that he wasn’t paying attention to a single word that the teacher had said; rather, he’d just roll with the punches, maybe try to impress y/n here and there. that sounded like a great plan, though it was his only one. despite his nervousness, jiro was quite grateful for such an opportunity. if things went his way, then he’d grow closer to y/n.
over the next few minutes or so, the two of them split up the work as well as worked out what they were going to do, although it would be much more accurate to say that y/n did the majority of the work while jiro tried to pitch in every once in a while. he really did try to help, however, since he didn’t want her to feel as if she had the majority of the workload on her. well, whatever it was, the two of them did get work done, so it’s not like it mattered that much.
there was something that was bothering jiro at the moment, however, and that was her handwriting. it looked so familiar and quite similar to the letter that was stuffed in his locker a few days ago? jiro didn’t want to get his hopes up and expect the love letter to have come from his crush, but it was eerily similar. the way that the letters were connected in each word were practically the same as well as the little accents that defined her letters from others. well, that definitely got jiro’s hopes up, and he felt his heart skip a beat at the mere thought of y/n writing him a love letter, especially when she was sitting right next to him. what he wouldn’t give to have that come true.
“whatcha thinking about?” her sudden question startled jiro out of his shoujo daydreams once more. he’s been having those same thoughts quite a bit recently, usually at the most unconventional thoughts. they were truly a force to be reckoned with.
“um, nothing…” great going jiro. that was sure to be believable huh. he mentally cursed himself for spacing out so much. there was no way that y/n was going to believe his answer. hell, jiro didn’t even believe it himself! thankfully for him, however, she didn’t seem to pay much mind to it and instead moved on to ask a totally unrelated question.
“hm, well, did you maybe receive something the other day?”
now things were getting more and more suspicious. did she perhaps know about the love letter? there was no way, right? jiro couldn’t help but entertain the idea that she did indeed wrote the letter. think about it, all the puzzle pieces were falling into place. first there was her handwriting which matched up perfectly with the letter, and secondly, she was possibly hinting at it right about now. there was no other possibility, unless of course it was simply someone she knew that had handed in the letter or she had just happened to be passing by when the sender dropped it into his locker. either way, any of those two options would practically break his heart given that he’d went and gotten his hopes up.
jiro was a bit of a hopeless romantic at times given the amount of romance media he’s consumed over the years. at times, all he truly yearned for was to have someone by his side; someone he could protect and show affection to; someone to cuddle with and kiss whenever he felt like it (preferably his crush of course). those daydreams combined with his usual airheadness and spontaneity led to jiro ruling out any other options on who could’ve sent the letter and pinpointed it to one: y/n. his mouth was working faster than his brain and he was pretty much high on adrenaline right at this moment, which is why he immediately grabbed both her hands and asked in a voice that was a bit too loud:
“did you write the letter?”
the moment those words left his mouth, jiro realized the grave mistake that he had just committed. did he really just go off of vague clues and blurt out his thoughts out loud? surely there were no good outcomes from this predicament. the first option would be that y/n had no idea what he was talking about and probably liken him to some sort of fool. he was spouting nonsense in her perspective. and when he had to explain that he had gotten a love letter from a mysterious admirer, then she’ll think of him as a creep, one that boasts a lot mind you. i mean, why would he think that she sent it in the first place? his crush on her would be exposed by then, and y/n would be disgusted that someone as foolish as him even fell for her in the first place. jiro couldn’t begin to imagine the humiliation that would follow suit. also, it’d seem like he was bragging about the fact that he had a ton of admirers. sure, he may have been a rising rap star in the drbs, but no one likes a show off. saburo was right, he really was an idiot.
the second and third options would be the fact that she really did write the letter, though her reaction would differ. jiro’s preferred outcome was the one where she admits to having a crush on him as well and the two start to go out and then have a date underneath the cherry blossom trees that were just right behind the school. that would be the highlight of his entire life up to this point, though chances of this dream coming true were slim to none considering that she was a high-achieving student and he was, well, jiro. the latter option (and the one that was the most likely in his mind) was that she did write the letter but only on a dare. y/n didn’t truly have any feelings for him; rather, she or someone close to her thought it’d be funny to play a small, ‘harmless’ prank on him. he’d have to prepare to have his heart shattered by that one.
to his surprise, however, y/n simply smiled and nodded. wait, what? what?!! y/n had really written the letter? y/n wrote the love letter! she had feelings for him! it took a few moments for it all to settle in as jiro was still frazzled by this sudden turn of events, but when it finally did, you can bet that jiro had that cute goofy grin of his. huh, he really hadn’t expected it to be this outcome, not that he was complaining though. needless to say, jiro was pretty much ecstatic at this point, if not, flustered. both his heart and mind were racing, and his face had gotten pretty flushed by this point. gosh he felt so hot; if only he could open a window and feel the cool breeze outside. this atmosphere was getting a bit too stuffy for him to think straight.
“so, do you have your answer?” jiro couldn’t help but think of how adorable she looked right now as she averted her gaze and mumbled out her question, nervous as to what his answer was. he wanted to embrace her right then and there. it wasn’t even a matter of choice for jiro, however; after all, there was only one correct choice.
“yes, of course!” he beamed, unknowingly squeezing her hands even more tightly. he had not missed a beat of her question as he immediately answered. sure he may have seen a bit desperate, but at that moment, jiro didn’t care. his crush had reciprocated his feelings, and jiro was downright ecstatic. everything else around him at the moment was irrelevant. the only thing that mattered him and y/n (now all he needed was a close up panel of the two as flowers start to blossom and their surroundings dissolved to nothing more than a mixture of soft, flowy colors and sparkles). jiro was so happy, really.
when he first found the letter, jiro hadn’t really expected it to be from his crush. i mean, what were the odds given that practically his entire high school was his fan. the idea may have been in his head, but jiro didn’t really believe that there was much of a chance that she had feelings for him. it was quite the unexpected turn of events, though a welcome one. honestly, he thanked his usual dumbassery and airheadedness for finally getting confirmation. if he hadn’t blurted out the question, then it probably wouldn’t have come to this. he would’ve never scored himself a cute girlfriend then.
“so, um, are you free this saturday?” jiro asked, a slight blush prominent on his face. dating was an entirely new experience for him, meaning that jiro was quite excited and nervous to get started. he wanted to go out on all of the cutest dates and do all sorts of couple things he’s seen online before. jiro wanted to experience it all for himself.
y/n couldn’t help but giggle at his enthusiasm, finding it to be absolutely adorable. “yep, i’m free, but we should really finish our project first, don’t you think?”
“o-oh, um, yeah.” once again, jiro had gotten ahead of himself, completely forgetting about the fact that he had a history project to complete. it shouldn’t be so bad though since he’s got his girlfriend by his side this time. girlfriend. the word itself made jiro feel goosebumps. it felt so foreign to him yet so good. jiro absolutely couldn’t wait to start a new relationship and experience this phenomena called love, immediately daydreaming about all the ways he could impress her.
first things first, however, he had to finish his project.