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Atsushi was trying his best to focus on his schoolwork, he really was, but he just couldn’t get his brain to actually comprehend the words on the page of his book. His mind kept wandering to places that it really shouldn’t be wandering, especially right now. He sighed, choosing to fiddle with the mechanical pencil he’d pulled out to take notes.
The girl next to him peeked up from the book she was reading, her eyebrows furrowing as she stared at him, looking rather annoyed. “What are you sighing about? This is, like, the eleventh time you’ve sighed in the past thirty minutes.”
Atsushi ducked his head. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, setting his book aside and folding his arms to use as a pillow. “I’m just a little distracted.”
Lucy snorted, nudging his foot under the table. “No shit, Sherlock,” she said, laughing. “Why are you distracted? Is it your roommate again?” Atsushi’s face turned red at the mention of his roommate, and that seemed to be answer enough as Lucy clicked her tongue. “You’re going to have to tell him someday.”
“And have him laugh in my face and reject me?” Atsushi asked, sitting up now to pout at his friend. “I’d rather not. Besides, what would I say, anyway? ‘Hey, Akutagawa, I’ve been in love with you since you helped me rehome that kitten we found?’ Yeah, no, I don’t think so.” He rested his forehead against the tabletop with a light ‘thunk’, groaning quietly.
“...Well I don’t know, Atsushi, but I think you have a chance,” Lucy spoke up from beside him. Her tone had shifted, sounding almost amused, which made Atsushi’s eyebrows furrow.
“Do you really think my suffering is that funny?” he asked, pouting again when he saw his friend biting down on her lower lip, her face turning red in an attempt to keep from laughing. Lucy lifted her hand to point across the table, further into the library, and Atsushi’s face paled as he followed the gesture.
Standing at the other end of the table in the flesh was none other than Atsushi’s own roommate, his face fixed in a scowl that Atsushi had started out thinking was permanent. Akutagawa’s gaze felt as if it were burning holes into him as Atsushi’s face flushed, and he scrambled to grab one of his books to hide it.
Akutagawa coughed quietly, averting his eyes finally. “...I was going to head to a coffee shop after my next class,” he stated, causing Atsushi to lift his head to look at him again. “Don’t be late.” And with that Akutagawa was gone, the library door shutting behind him.
The look of blank surprise Atsushi turned to look at her with was enough to finally push Lucy over the edge, and she doubled over, her head hitting the book she was reading as she began to wheeze.