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Gundham slowly shuffled through the empty hallway of the school, he couldn't wait any longer to say it. Day by day his heart weighed him down with these "petty human feelings," as Gundham would put it. Feelings for a seemingly strange boy, although not as strange as the likes of himself. A little shorter, bright eyes, with a more eccentric way of dressing. He was loud a great deal of the time, in appearance and aura. As far away as this seemed from what Gundham could want in life, this boy had managed to steal his heart in a singular foul swoop. All it took was that stupid toothy smile that was often plastered across his face.
Making his way to his crush's room, Gundham could feel his heartbeat growing louder and faster, sweat dripping down his face. He quietly muttered to himself about a variety of things. Should he have brought a gift? What should he say? This was a bad idea, wasn't it? With no way to calm his nerves as he approached the dorm, he took one deep breath before knocking. It was just Kazuichi, he'd be fine.
While awaiting a response from the inside, Gundham began to reflect on his status with Kazuichi thus far. It started with Sonia, a dear friend of Gundham's. Kazuichi had always swooned over her, never getting enough of her presence, which Gundham was attached to at all times. Kazuichi grew jealous, thinking that Gundham would try to "steal" his "Miss Sonia" from him, which was an entirely false assumption. Gundham only desired friendship, in fact, he didn't even have an interest in women at all. Unknown to Kazuichi, Sonia had no interest in men either. A small rivalry sparked between them due to this, however it quickly ended once Sonia revealed her relationship status to be taken by the gambler from the younger year. Having nothing else to fight about, Gundham and Kazuichi resolved their issues, and albeit not close, they were able to be near each other and hold conversations unlike before.
That brought us to here, Gundham's heavy breaths and pounding heart as he heard light stumbling noises from the other side of the door. He didn't know what to do with his hands, so he simply placed them in front of him, fidgeting with his thumbs. As he heard the door open, seeing a confused expression peeking through, he quickly adjusted his posture, suddenly becoming more aware of everything around him.
"Gundham? Ya' look like you've seen a ghost!" Kazuichi walked out of the room to look at Gundham more closely. Quickly backing off once he noticed Gundham's frozen state. "You alright?" Awkwardly shuffling to the side to see if Gundham wanted to enter.
"I am adequate, yes." Gundham said shakily. "How is your well-being at this point of time?" He took a few steps forward into the room. Kazuichi closed the door behind them and shuffled further into the messy area. The floor was covered in assorted items for projects Kazuichi was working on, and he slowly eyed Gundham as he walked to subtly make sure he wouldn't trip.
"Er- sit down if ya' wanna." Kazuichi sat down on the bed and patted the space next to him, signaling for Gundham to join him. "Wasn't exactly expecting any guests, sorry 'bout the floor."
"It is fine." Gundham stiffly sat down on the bed next to Kazuichi. "I cannot anticipate for you to have perfect conditions of your lair without knowledge of any future visitors." He quietly chuckled to ease his nerves. In all honesty he wasn't sure how Kazuichi hadn't figured out why he was there yet considering how flushed his face was.
"Well, what's up?" Kazuichi shifted in his spot, slightly fearful of the atmosphere being made. "Do ya' need something from me?" He accidentally brushed against Gundham's shoulder when changing his position to sit on his knees, causing a concerning jump from the other. Thinking it was suspicious, Kazuichi gave Gundham a confused glare before ultimately ignoring it.
"I- I uhm- I must inform you of something." Gundham looked away from Kazuichi, using his signature scarf to cover his face. "If you do not mind that I do so, of course."
Kazuichi chuckled a bit with concern, never before had he seen Gundham in such a fidgety state.
"Go for it, man!" Kazuichi placed a hand to Gundham's back in an attempt to be supportive, but after receiving another short jump accompanied by a hiss, he quickly removed the hand. "Ah, sorry dude, forgot you don't like bein' touched."
"It is fine, I suppose I cannot care much…" Gundham's sentence trailed off into an awkward silence, forgetting that he was even supposed to confess in the first place. The two of them sat in the thick and quiet air for nearly a minute, nothing being said.
"So…" Kazuichi awkwardly laughed, "ya' gonna tell me?"
"Yes! I- I mean- I should do that, yes." Gundham turned back around to look at Kazuichi, still very stiff in posture. He still held his scarf in front of his face, not quite prepared as he hoped he would be at this point. "So…"
"Yeah?"
"Over the course of the past few weeks, I have come to a rather… strange realization." Gundham placed his hands in his lap and took a deep breath. "I... have developed sentiments of the amorous variety… towards… you."
"Huh? Ya' gotta speak english!" Kazuichi flopped back onto the bed and sighed.
"It has piqued my interest that over the recent weeks that I have developed passionate and tender emotions in your direction."
"Ya' what?"
"You cause me to have palpitations of the cardiac organ." Gundham was growing slightly annoyed at this point, his eyes began to twitch.
"Huh?"
"You cannot possibly be this oblivious!" Gundham fell backwards onto the bed with Kazuichi, his whole body entirely clenched up.
"Ya' gotta say it easy!"
"I would like to pursue you romantically!" Gundham blurted out his sentence, his body was now much more tense than before. There was a small break of silence before Kazuichi spoke up.
"Really?" Kazuichi turned to his side to look at Gundham laying next to him, his entire body heated up. "Me?"
Gundham nodded his head in response, unable to speak out of fear that he'd burst into tears.
There was a pause between them, both boys looked blankly at each other, Gundham's face was pink and he was breathing heavily, waiting for a response.
"So…?" Gundham shrunk down, still wanting an answer from Kazuichi. "Will you speak?"
"Yeah, yeah I just- I'm surprised." Kazuichi furrowed his brows with a confused expression. "Do ya' really?"
"I do."
"Why?"
"I am not sure, I suppose you're just appealing."
"Never heard that before."
Gundham looked over at Kazuichi with a frown, still wanting to know whether or not he was about to get rejected.
"So I assume this is a no?" Gundham whispered, looking away.
"No to what?" Kazuichi raised an eyebrow and shifted to a sitting position.
"Going out with me, obviously…" He didn't have the energy to phrase things extravagantly, and with the perceived rejection his mood was low.
"I think I will, actually."
"Pardon?"
"I'd like to go out with you." Hearing this, Gundham sat up with Kazuichi, looking deep into his eyes.
"Are you serious? Are you sure?" He lunged forward, grabbing onto Kazuichi's collar, a shine in his eyes.
"I mean… yeah, why not!" Kazuichi chuckled and removed Gundham's hands from his shirt, taking them into his own gentle grasp. "I've actually been thinkin' of ya' like that for a while now, just never thought you'd feel the same." He gave Gundham's hands a light squeeze and smiled at him.
"So… what time, tomorrow?" Gundham looked down and blushed with a small smile on his face.
"Hmm… does 5 work?" Kazuichi chuckled, receiving a nod in response. "See you then!"