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Please treat me the same as you do all those other women
I'm not clever enough to act like someone who is right for you
“Our big star is almost here,” Sugawara announces, and suddenly, Kei feels like he’s about to burst from all the butterflies swarming around haphazardly in his stomach—butterflies that have been caged up for two whole years and unleashed now that he’ll finally see Shouyou face to face.
Maybe I should just go home and sleep this off, Kei ponders, but remembering how Shouyou had whined and whined about Kei not coming to the airport to pick him up, he sighs and decides to stay just a little longer.
When Shouyou enters the restaurant, Kei scowls down at his drink in favour of blatantly ignoring how the energetic idiot flits from member to member of their first Karasuno team, briefly hugging everyone while some of them slap him on the back and congratulate him on the Black Jackals’ win.
“Shouyou!” Tadashi greets beside Kei, standing up to receive a hug of his own. “Look at that tan!”
And then, even before Kei can pretend that he hasn’t been paying attention to Shouyou’s interactions with the others, the idiot is plopping down on the empty zabuton next to him and resting his chin on his palm to peer closely at Kei.
“Those glasses are so cool, Kei!” Shouyou gushes, and Kei feels his heart stuttering because even though they have been on a first-name basis for years, he still can’t quite get used to the sound of his own name coming from Shouyou’s mouth. “I kinda miss your old hair though. You totally look like a university student now!”
“I am a university student, you idiot,” is Kei’s easy retort, but then Shouyou is surging forward and grabbing him by the head and hugging him so tightly that his glasses are sure to be smudged.
He smells exactly the same, Kei can’t help but think, his face pressed into Shouyou’s shirt, like everything that reminds me of high school.
Then, he remembers that it’s Shouyou who’s hugging him, longer than a hug is supposed to be—heck, being hugged for a second is still a second too long—and starts to squirm in panic because nobody should be getting the idea that he’s enjoying a hug.
After Shouyou belatedly lets him go, Kei glares down at the ever-grinning fool, using the moment to take in how much Shouyou has changed in the last two years. He is no longer the shrimp he used to be, now sun-kissed and so well-defined that his presence is somehow louder and brighter. He looks so good, and glaring faltering, Kei digs his nail into the tip of his thumb to stop any pink from crawling up his neck.
“I’ve missed you, Shittyshima,” Shouyou says with a guileless smile. “Texting you is way too different from seeing you in person—hey! Don’t roll your eyes at me! Stop thinking mean thoughts!”
But Kei’s only thought is how Shouyou didn’t tell anyone else that he missed them.
What I think of as being lovable, you'll soon get tired of
Lie to me casually like you're kicking a pebble, and let me have peace of mind for now
“Sooooooooo,” Shouyou says, leaning forward to get a better look at the rest of his ex-teammates. “What’re we getting to eat?”
“Food, I hope,” Kei deadpans, which only earns him a hard swat from Shouyou.
While a clamour of laughter comes from the other end of the table, Daichi says, “Seeing that Noya and Chikara found us this okonomiyaki house as an apology for not being here, how about we see what their specials are?”
“Maybe some modanyaki?” Sugawara suggests mildly. “I saw some good reviews.”
“Oh, and yakisoba!” Tanaka chimes, opening the menu to where the page where there’s a blown-up picture of kimchi yakisoba and flashy texts around it to indicate that it’s a house special, a ‘MUST TRY!!!’, and ‘CHEF’S RECOMMENDATION!!!’
“At this rate, we might as well order one of everything on the menu,” Kinoshita points out.
“Let’s do it!” Shouyou shouts. “I’m super duper hungry after all that talking to the press because I beat Kageyama’s ass—”
“Oi, bumass!” Kageyama shouts back. “I’m still in the lead!”
Shouyou pulls his bottom eyelid down with his middle finger and sticks his tongue out. It earns some snorts around the table, though Kageyama refrains from making another retort when he sees Daichi smiling tightly at the waiters and waitresses who pass by their table, looking vaguely amused and very starstruck.
“You haven’t changed at all, have you?” Kei ends up huffing in annoyance.
It’s not true, Shouyou wants to immediately shout back, because he knows he’s grown up in the way that being alone in a foreign country for two years forces someone to be. He’s still Shouyou, no doubt. Just… mellowed, he guesses. Even these days, when he thinks about his high school memories, he can’t help but cringe in embarrassment at himself at times.
But when he notices how Kei hides his smile by adjusting his glasses, all he decides to do is bite his lip and grin in response.
I want to laugh and pretend I don't know, don't know at all
I want to play dumb like I don't understand, don't understand at all
As Daichi collates their orders—which ends up actually being one of each item on the menu—and calls for a waitress, the rest of the team breaks into small groups to chatter. Content to just listen, Kei cradles his cup of warm oolong tea and tries not to rib at his best friend’s attempts of flirting with Hitoka.
Kei will never admit it, but it’s kind of sweet that Tadashi’s so smitten by Hitoka even after all these years and despite already being together for a year. It makes Kei glance over at Shouyou, who’s happily raising his voice to chat with Narita, seated on the other end of the table.
Watching Shouyou through the corner of his eyes feels like how Kei had to nurse his crush daily back in high school. He always acted as indifferent as he could, even if his feelings slipped through the cracks and he often sounded more fond than mean when he spat sarcastic remarks, which Shouyou seemed to always notice by knowingly beaming back at him.
It almost felt like Shouyou saw through Kei’s feelings in those days, breaking down the flimsy walls that he tried to build and hide behind. Maybe Kei should have said something back then; there had been a hundred and one chances when the moment felt right, but he always chickened out. He wonders if a confession would have made a difference. Would Shouyou still have gone to Rio and left Kei behind?
Well, even if he knew, it’s not as if he likes me back, Kei thinks and then shifts his focus to a painting of a weirdly demonic-looking cat that’s hanging in the corner of the restaurant.
“Hey, what the hell is up with what Miya-san said earlier?” Kageyama asserts out of the blue, uncaring that he’s interrupting a conversation. “About you being his spiker. You two dating or something? I thought you liked—”
“Oh, that!” Shouyou cuts in, and Kei’s head whirls so quickly to glower at Shouyou that Tadashi starts choking on his own spit, trying not to laugh.
“Yeah, that,” Kageyama spits. “How dare you get together with someone and not tell me?”
“It’s nothing, you moron,” Shouyou replies cheerfully before rolling his eyes. “It’s just Tsumu being Tsumu! He was just trying to rile you up.”
“‘Tsumu’, eh?” Tadashi teases while nudging Kei.
Taking a sip of his tea, Kei wonders if it would be okay to smash his fist into his best friend’s face. His perfected poker face doesn’t betray his struggle this time.
But all I really want is
Go away, just go away—the me who loves you this much
Quickly, quickly now, just go away
Begone, just begone! Why does it have to be you?
I hate, hate, hate it so much that I'm like this
When Shouyou hears Tadashi’s pointed jab, hyper aware that Kei is next to him, he flushes and waves his arms in Tadashi’s direction. “No, no, no, no, no— it’s not that special! Everyone on the team calls him that!”
Now that Kageyama is sure that his best friend isn’t hiding something from him, he loses interest and turns to Sugawara, starting up another conversation about whether the elementary school where Sugawara is teaching has a volleyball club.
“You seem to be getting along really well with your new teammates,” Hitoka says, pressing her hands together. “From how you’re talking about them, I mean!”
Shouyou pumps his head up and down excitedly, then says, “Yeah, but you guys are still the best. I miss playing with everyone.” He trains his eyes on Kei, a soft smile dancing on his lips. “Especially you.”
It’s the second time that Shouyou’s mentioned missing him, not that Kei is counting. And besides, if he is being technical about it, Shouyou said that he misses playing with everyone. Not that he misses everyone. But that he especially misses playing with Kei. Does that still count then? Is he trying to hint at something?
“Did you hit your head?” Kei answers in a rush, the tips of his ears feeling hot from his internal spiralling. “Shouldn’t it be your precious setter over there?” He jerks his chin towards Kageyama.
The second Kageyama bursts up from his seat and turns to Kei with a growl, ready to pick a fight, a waitress chirps, “Careful! The food’s hot!”
She inserts herself between Shouyou and Kei, at the corner of the table, carefully transferring an enormous heap of kimchi yakisoba onto the simmering hotplate that’s in the middle of the table while effectively cutting off Shouyou’s razor sharp stare at Kei.
He looks pensive, like he’s just realised something, but Kei is the only person who doesn’t notice.
Look how casually you ask me if I'm OK, but you're just being nice out of habit
Whatever, I still want to hear your voice. I'm a lost cause
Oh, I can't really explain, and I don't expect you to understand
Whatever, I still want to see you today. Why am I like this? Just get lost!
With the entirety of their food and drinks being delivered, the table is so over-cluttered that they have to place their drinks and even some of their appetisers on the floor next to themselves. Someone is definitely spilling something tonight, Kei thinks, and that person is likely to be Shouyou, and if not, Tanaka.
“—and Tooru said he’d visit us the next time he comes back to Japan,” Shouyou is saying to Kageyama and Sugawara, now that the same waitress has stopped putting herself next to Kei and passing shy glances at him.
Tooru? Kei thinks, leaning backwards. Isn’t that Oikawa? When the hell did he start calling Oikawa by his first name?
“Oi, Tsukki! Be care—” Tadashi yelps, but then it’s too late, and Kei has rested his hand precariously into a freezing cold bowl of octopus with chopped wasabi.
Kei swears under his breath, thankful that he hasn’t dunked his hand into something hot instead. He should probably go to the washroom to wash his hand, but between his rumbling stomach and how annoying bright Shouyou is shining as he talks and talks and talks, Kei can’t quite find the motivation to get up and do just that. For now, wet tissues will suffice.
Imagine being the idiot who spilled something first, Kei thinks in frustration.
“Y’know, you should just tell him,” Tadashi whispers to Kei. “You’re mooning over him like we’re back in high school, and it’s so obvious that even Asahi’s staring at you weird.”
“Shut up,” Kei hisses, so put upon that he momentarily forgets what has just happened and rubs his eyes with his thumb and forefinger and his eyes are burning. “Damn it!”
After fumbling open yet another pack of wet tissue, Kei yanks his glasses off and presses the wet tissue into his eyes. It’s also a good way to hide his scalding cheeks, really, especially since Tadashi and a few others around the table are choking back their laughter at his misery.
God, why am I such a loser around this fucking short moron, Kei can’t help but think.
The second he feels the heat on both his eyes and cheeks subsiding, he pulls away the wet tissue, only to find Shouyou’s face shoved up to his, brows knitted tightly in concern.
“Kei? Are you okay?” Shouyou asks, eyes so annoyingly raw and artless that Kei think he may just be about to throw up between them.
“Urgh, go away,” Kei grunts, shoving Shouyou’s face. “I’m fine and you’re taking up too much of my space.”
“Fine,” Shouyou pouts. “The food I want is over there anyway.” He picks himself up from his seat, calling over to Narita: “Oi, Kazu-kun, swap places with me? I wanna eat that grilled pork modanyaki.”
And then he’s gone even before Kei can work up the courage to get him to stay.
Make sure to put on the pink filter properly to look at me
The water you gulped down noisily reaches down to my core
Halfway through the meal, when Kei is already bloated from how much food people keep shoving at him, he finds himself seated between Kinoshita and Daichi—a swap at Asahi’s request.
He’s more than happy to rest back on both his hands (making sure that there’s nothing behind him this time) and watch people catch up and regale in their high school shenanigans. He feels nicely buzzed on the single glass of beer he’s had, even allowing himself to smile freely at the familiar chaos around him.
He tries not to think about the paper he has due in two days that he still needs to proofread or the fact that he has to get up at fuck o’clock to make it to his internship tomorrow.
Shouyou, with his endless pit of a stomach, is still shovelling okonomiyaki down his throat, only pausing to sprinkle more bonito flakes onto his food. Shimizu is telling him about the new line up at the sports store she’s working at, and whenever Shouyou hears something interesting, he replies with his mouth full.
Kei scrunches his nose in disgust, secretly admitting to himself that this is a good vantage point. To watch everyone, that is. Not just Shouyou.
Most definitely not just Shouyou, Kei reminds himself, because that would mean tugging at the thread that’s connected to the massive tangle of emotions that he’s been harbouring for Shouyou since the first day they met, to the day he fell sick at nationals, to the day he insisted and insisted on Tadashi to become the captain, to the day they graduated, to the day he announced that he was leaving for Brazil, and to the day he actually left, and to the day he came home, and to today.
Yeah, Kei thinks, sliding his eyes away and distracting himself by picking at the tatami beneath his fingernails, not just you at all.
I won't ask you anything so I don't see through your façade
If it makes you feel good, I'll try to swallow up all your usual lies
“Something seems to be bothering Kei,” Shouyou whispers to Hitoka, who then laughs so awkwardly that he starts looking at her weirdly. “What? Did something happen?”
She shakes her head so violently that it looks like it’s about to topple off and then offers him a lopsided smile. “You know, for someone who can be so perceptive,” she says, “you can be really daft sometimes.”
“What do you mean?” Shouyou asks.
At the realisation of what she’s just said, Hitoka’s eyes widen so large that Shouyou thinks he could poke a single eye with three of his fingers and they may just fit.
“I’m sorry!” she squawks, slapping her hands together in front of her face. “I shouldn’t have said ‘daft’. The more appropriate word there probably should have been ‘dense’? But that doesn’t sound any better and I don’t mean that you’re stupid or anything; it’s just that aaaaa—”
Yachi’s rambling trails off into a loud sigh when Tadashi places a hand atop her head, as if to ground her. She flashes Shouyou a stiff smile.
“Please just ignore what I’ve said,” she tells him apologetically, then turns to Tadashi and lumbers into his conversation with Asahi, not quite successfully pretending that she hasn’t just said something momentous.
Not having someone to talk to for the first time that night, Shouyou picks up his chopsticks and reaches for a squid tentacle. It’s been on the hotplate for too long, judging by how tough it is. But when he works his jaw and bites down harder, it somehow tastes as good as when one of the waiters first brought it to their table.
As he looks up, he catches Kei staring at him, looking as solemn as he feels. In response, Shouyou tilts his head and cocks an eyebrow in question, but Kei just sneers at him and turns away to take a sip of his drink.
Nothing must be wrong then, Shouyou supposes, if Kei can still make an expression like that.
I want to dance and pretend I don't know, don't know at all
I want to party like I don't understand, don't understand at all
Plopping down next to Kei, Tadashi reaches over for the bowl of salted edamame and pops an entire pod into his mouth.
“That’s disgusting,” Kei says, despite having seen Tadashi do this a hundred times before. “Why can’t you nibble the beans out like a normal person?”
Tadashi shrugs while he pulls the de-beaned edamame pod out of his mouth and places it on Kei’s plate. It sits there, offensively glistening in Tadashi’s spit, and Kei fights the urge to gag by shoving the plate to the side.
“So,” Tadashi starts, putting another pod into his mouth, “do you want to talk about it yet?”
Kei scoffs, grip on his cup tightening. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Uh huh.” Tadashi nods his head indulgingly. “Anyway, like I was saying earlier before you decided to rub wasabi into your eyes—”
“—that was not a decision—”
“—like I was saying, it’s pretty obvious, you know? He’s the only person you pay so much attention to.” Tracing his finger in circles on the table, Tadashi looks over at Kei in search of a response.
But when Kei just stares down to where bits of unfinished food have gone black on the hotplate, Tadashi adds, “I really thought you’d confess to him when we graduated, even if it meant just getting it out of your system. But I guess you’d rather swallow it down like you do with everything that you don’t want to deal with, huh?”
“I thought about that,” Kei mumbles begrudgingly. He tugs at his fingers, vexed that something like a stupid high school crush had outlived its intended lifespan. “My fe— it was supposed to go away. It was supposed to stop once I wouldn’t have to see him almost every day.”
Tadashi snorts. “That’s cute. We both know what you’re like once you’ve gotten hooked on something. I mean, look at your collection of dinosaur figures.”
Kei glares at his best friend with half the mind to throw his drink at him. “S-shut up!” he growls instead, but Tadashi just snorts again.
“Just tell him,” Tadashi says, too conspiratorially for Kei to make sense. He raises a hand in acknowledgment at Sugawara’s abrupt call and makes his way to stand. Just before he leaves, he puts a heavy hand on Kei’s shoulder and tells him, “It’s about time you realised that he feels the same way.”
“What…?” Kei says, wide-eyed and confused, but Tadashi has already said his piece and switched seats.
But all I really want is
Go away, just go away—the me who loves you this much
Quickly, quickly now, just go away
Begone, just begone! Why does it have to be you?
I hate, hate, hate it so much that I'm like this
“This is bullying,” Shouyou whines, staring down at his very empty wallet in despair.
Daichi slaps Shouyou’s back and guffaws. “That’s what you get for disappearing on us for two whole years and coming back without saying hi in person. Besides, you’ll be earning heaps with all the matches that you’re gonna win.”
“Is that how it works?” Tadashi asks, genuine in curiosity.
Shouyou shrugs. “I dunno,” he says. “I just want to play volleyball.”
As Kageyama slaps Shouyou over the head, Kinoshita gags at the thought of exercise and rushes off to a bush before throwing up the contents of his stomach. Narita rushes over to Kinoshita, patting him on the back but also scolding him for having too much to drink; at the same time, Asahi gasps and digs into his bag for some tissues and Sugawara lets out a long-suffering sigh before going over to help.
“Kiyoooooooooooooko,” Tanaka sings, dropping his head backwards onto his wife’s shoulder. He starts to swing his hips from side to side, as if he’s performing a mating ritual, then begins to cry a second later. “I love you so much—so let’s get married, okay?” He lets out a loud, ugly sob. “I can’t bear the thought of you being with someone else.”
Shimizu rolls her eyes and looks down at him fondly. “We’re already married, you dummy,” she says softly to him, but it only serves to make Tanaka cry louder.
“Alright, alright,” Daichi declares, clapping his hands together to get their attention, which makes Kei notice how Daichi must be a little tipsy himself, otherwise he would have been shouting at them right now. “It’s time to go home, you lot.”
Not wanting to go through any farewells, Kei nods over at Tadashi and Yachi with the intention of heading off by himself. Though, they seem to be in a hyped-up conversation with Shouyou, who’s flushed to the neck and bouncing his head up and down energetically, so they don’t notice Kei at all.
He could grab their attention easily by calling out, but that would lead to having to say goodbye to Shouyou yet again, not knowing when they might see each other next.
Forget it, Kei thinks to himself bitterly, pulling his headphones out of his bag and starting to walk off. He’ll just have to text Tadashi later, but definitely not to clarify what his best friend meant by Shouyou feeling the same way or anything like that.
Twenty steps away from the group, a voice cuts through the soft, wistful music in his ears: “I’m going this way too!”
It’s Shouyou, the very person Kei doesn’t want to say goodbye to—the very person he doesn’t want to say goodbye to again, really. Kei closes his eyes and curses the gods.
Is my life some sick joke to you? he thinks, but then Shouyou’s beaming up at him so brightly, and he’s already rattling off about what he’s been up to the past week (despite having repeated the story to others at the table a dozen times that Kei, of course, listened to each time), and there’s a skip in Shouyou’s step, just like there’s a skip in Kei’s heart.
Look, only you would notice the song that I'm humming
I can't stop myself from hoping a little. I'm a lost cause
Oh, just stay by my side even if you're looking elsewhere, and be nice to me out of habit
Whatever, I still want to see you today. Why am I like this? Just get lost!
Kei lowers himself onto a swing, surprised at how Shouyou somehow managed to convince him to make a detour by the playground near their bus stop. Shouyou, ever so restless, paces around in front of him, kicking up tiny clouds of sand while scrunching his face like he’s just bit into a lemon slice.
“Can you just swing on the swing instead?” Kei grumbles. “Watching you is making me dizzy.”
Shouyou purses his lips but does as he’s told, opting for the child swing next to Kei’s instead of taking the other adult one on the far end. He doesn’t fit at all, sitting on it haphazardly on its side so that he faces Kei.
Surprisingly, Shouyou doesn’t say anything. He just sits there, shivering in his Karasuno jacket, the same one that the team had kept for years and years, just to wear on occasions when they would meet up. Kei’s is too small for him now, but he indulges in the nostalgia each time by hanging it over his own shoulders.
“Do you want my jacket?” Kei finds himself asking even before the thought has finished processing, then covers it up by grumbling, “The way you’re shaking is so pathetic. It’s not even that cold.”
“Yeah,” Shouyou huffs and kicks a foot towards Kei. “Except you’re wearing four layers and I’m only in two.”
“Just shut up and take it,” Kei scowls, getting up from the swing and taking a step over to dump his jacket on Shouyou’s shoulders. “I’m not dragging your frozen ass back to your place.”
Then, just as he is about to move back, Shouyou looks up and says, “Hey, are you free tomorrow?”
Kei raises an eyebrow. “Only at night, I guess,” he answers. “Why?”
“Oh,” Shouyou says, feet dragging slowly across the sand, “I thought maybe we could hang out a little more before my flight in the evening.”
Blood rushes to Kei’s ears, loud and engulfing, when he remembers what Tadashi said earlier tonight. He took it with a pinch of salt then, though he knew that his best friend wasn’t one to joke about such a thing, unwilling to let his heart do something as silly as hope.
“Oh,” Kei echoes dumbly, wishing that he could just spend a little more time with Shouyou, but this internship is much too precious for him to screw up, even if it’s for a single day.
“Yeah,” Shouyou mumbles softly. “Maybe next time, huh?”
But all I really want is
Go away, just go away—the me who loves you this much
Quickly, quickly now, just go away
Begone, just begone! Why does it have to be you?
I hate, hate, hate it so much that I'm like this
“Guess we won’t be seeing each other for a while,” Kei says after a long silence.
Shouyou jumps off the swing, nearly knocking into Kei. He shuts his eyes tightly and braces himself because, all at once, it feels like if he doesn’t take a chance right now, then it’s never going to happen. And he can’t—won’t—let his unspoken feelings for Kei die without putting up a fight. Not any longer.
“It’s so stupid, you know?” Shouyou declares. “I’ve liked you so much all these years. Since that time in second year when you saw me and Natsu at the bookstore, and she kept asking me about dinosaurs, and I didn’t know what to say, but you came over and patiently explained what she wanted to know, and, anyway, I know you don’t feel the same way, but I, uh, I—”
He opens an eye hesitantly, only to catch Kei’s bewildered expression. His mouth immediately shuts, regret wringing his throat tight. Of course, Kei doesn’t like me back, Shouyou thinks, and yet he has just gone and ruined their friendship by putting his own feelings first.
“I’m sorry,” Shouyou mumbles under his breath. When his vision threatens to blur, he dips his head and bites his lip. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’ll just—”
“Shut up, shrimpy,” Kei scolds, and then he’s crowding towards Shouyou, giving him no choice but to grip onto Kei’s arm for support or risk tumbling backwards over the swing. “You’ve always talked too much, you stupid, stupid idiot. Why do I even like you?”
But with Kei bending over at the waist, hands cupping Shouyou’s cheeks ever so delicately and tilting his face upwards, Shouyou stares at Kei with his jaw slack, unable to voice his confusion.
“I’m going to kiss you,” Kei warns, his heart a relentless pulsation caged behind his ribs.
It hits Shouyou then, what Kei means, and he instinctively surges forward and circles his arms around Kei’s neck, yanking their heads together.
Lips clashing, Shouyou laughs as Kei kisses him back open-mouthed, so frustratingly gentle that Shouyou jerks and knocks his teeth against Kei’s. It draws out a fond chuckle from Kei—a rare sound that makes Shouyou realise that he hasn’t messed up their friendship, that Kei actually, actually likes him back, that it’s going to be them now, now, now.
“Stop thinking and keep kissing me back, dumbass,” Kei demands, tugging at Shouyou’s hair.
It’s exactly what Shouyou expects, really—their first kiss becomes messy and needy and rough and fevered, just like them, just like how their friendship has been from the very start.
And that’s how Shouyou knows that they’re going to be okay.
Look how casually you ask me if I'm okay, but you're just being nice out of habit
Whatever. I still want to hear your voice. I'm a lost cause
Oh, I can't really explain and I don't expect you to understand
Whatever. I still want to see you today. Why am I like this? Just get lost!
Later, back in Kei’s dorm, when they’ve each showered and gotten ready to sleep, Kei lays on his side, resting an arm on Shouyou’s waist. “I wish I could take tomorrow off,” he murmurs.
Shouyou responds by shoving a hand onto Kei’s mouth and shaking his head. “It’s cool,” Shouyou tells Kei, then lets out a short laugh. “Hey, remember how excited you were when you got that internship? It was the first time in my life seeing you text with so many typos and emojis. That was suuuuuper cute.”
“I hate you,” Kei hisses into Shouyou’s hand, but Shouyou just rolls his eyes.
“No, you don’t,” Shouyou grins, pinching Kei’s cheeks together and giving him a little shake. “You kissed me first.”
“Technically, you kissed me first,” Kei grumbles, his tone exasperated but fond. “And anyway, how is this—whatever we are—supposed to work? It’s not like we live close to each other and it’s not like we both have time.”
“In case you missed it, we’re boyfriends,” Shouyou emphasises but trails off after a while, looking deep in thought, which lasts no more than two seconds. “Actually, I don’t know how. But we’ll find a way!”
“Right,” Kei says quietly.
Shouyou gives Kei’s face another shake, making Kei yank his hand away. Undeterred, Shouyou says, “For starters, I’m going to video call you every single night. And then we can do movie dates on the weekends! Wasn’t there some new dinosaur movie that came out recently? We can watch that this Sunday!”
“This sounds tiring already,” Kei sighs and knocks his knee into Shouyou’s thigh. “Let’s go back to being just friends.”
“Hah!” Shouyou shouts, squirming closer so that he can wrap his limbs around Kei and get all up in Kei’s face. “Too late, Stingyshima! You’re stuck with me forever!”
Forever sounds nice, Kei thinks, not that he’ll admit it for ages.
Besides, if Shouyou knew, he’s only going to tease how elated Kei feels—all because forever means that their farewells now hold the promise of an until next time.
Please tell me why I'm different from all those other women
Being without you—
I can’t imagine that at all