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1.
The first time Langa had caught them, he decided not to bring it up with anyone.
It was right after S and everyone was at Sia. Langa had a beef against someone who played really dirty and won so Joe decided to treat him to a meal. He was sitting at the bar stool area, instead of being with the rest of the group, when he realized something.
‘Huh, where’s Cherry? Doesn’t he usually sit at the bar too?’ He thought to himself while looking around for said adult.
Langa noted that Miya, Reki and Shadow were all sitting at a booth, talking and making noise. He loved the three of them but they were being too loud for his head tonight.
That was part of the reason why Langa had chosen to sit at the bar area. The other half being that he felt like he didn’t do the best at his beef and wanted to ask Cherry for feedback on how he skated.
Looking around one last time, it was clear that Cherry wasn’t by them nor was Joe. He wasn’t surprised that Joe wasn’t with them in the seating part of the restaurant, he was cooking them all food. It was just odd that Cherry wasn’t either.
He decided to look for Cherry, and also see if Joe was almost done with the food.
Langa got up and walked to the kitchen doors, quickly checking one (1) last time that Cherry wasn’t anywhere in the seating area.
“Joe? Cherry?” Langa called out into the kitchen as he pushed open the doors, expecting to see an arguing Cherry and Joe.
Instead of seeing Cherry and Joe arguing like he expected, Langa saw Joe in the middle of cooking with Cherry having his arms around his waist.
“Uh- Guys?” He called out a bit quieter, not wanting to startle them.
Though he didn’t succeed, seeing as Cherry immediately jumped away from Joe, almost falling from how quickly he moved. Langa watched as Cherry turned to face him.
“Oh- Yes Langa? What did you need?” He said with a slight red tint to his cheeks.
“I just wanted to know if we could talk about how I skated tonight, I wanted some feedback.” Langa quickly said, picking up on how Cherry seemed to be embarrassed that he had caught the two.
He quickly looked over at Joe, who looked much stiffer than he did before Langa said anything. He regretted ruining their moment but he decided that it was probably best not to bring it up again.
“Of course, let’s go and sit at the bar.” Cherry replied, exiting the door Langa had entered through, with said male right behind him.
As they were leaving, Langa noticed that Joe got less stiff, as if he was relieved.
Langa didn’t know if Joe and Cherry’s relationship was common knowledge, but based on how they responded, he felt like it was better not to ask them or say anything about what he saw.
2.
The next time it happened, Langa was quite surprised that no one else noticed.
Everyone else was laughing because Joe had just thrown Cherry into the ocean. Langa had to admit, it was pretty funny listening to Cherry curse at Joe.
“Fucking asshole gorilla!” Cherry yelled out, dragging himself out of the water.
Langa found himself laughing and smiling along with the other four at the sight of Cherry. He was soaking wet and his hair looked a darker pink color because of the water.
Out of the corner of his eye, Langa saw that Joe was holding a towel open for Cherry, smiling fondly at him. He thought he was seeing things until Cherry huffed over to Joe, hiding himself in the towel.
Just to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, Langa looked at the other three next to him. He wanted to make sure he wasn’t the only one who saw that but Miya, Reki and Shadow had already started talking among themselves.
Looking back at Cherry and Joe, he noticed that Cherry’s hair was still completely wet. So he decided to go over and give him his towel, seeing as Langa didn’t need it.
He got up and grabbed the towel with him, starting to walk over to Joe and Cherry. As he got closer, he noticed that they were in the middle of a conversation and that he could hear bits and pieces.
“Kojiro, why did you have to throw me in?!” Cherry said, sounding upset but also amused.
“Awh, come on Kaoru, it was funny! The kids and Shadow found it hilarious.” Joe replied as he was putting sunscreen on Cherry.
Langa lightly coughed, trying to grab the attention of the apparent couple.
“Uhm- Cherry, here,” Langa started, holding his towel out to the pink-haired man. “Your hair looks soaking wet so I wanted to give you my towel so you could dry it.”
He stood there as both of their heads snapped over to Langa, looking at his face then what was in his hand.
“Ah- Thank you, Langa. At least someone’s being nice to me.” Cherry said, smiling a bit while giving Joe a sharp glare.
“You’re welcome.” He responded before quickly walking away, feeling like he was intruding on yet another moment of theirs.
He never asked if Reki, Miya or even Shadow saw Joe and Cherry’s moment, getting too distracted by joking around with them and forgetting about it. Langa did remember it by the time they all left the beach.
He just really hoped that it wouldn’t happen for a third time.
3.
By the third time, Langa thought that the universe had something against him.
For once, Langa was alone. It had been raining the last few days and he and Reki were skating in the rain. He wasn’t surprised when Reki got sick but it just meant that he had to do basically everything without someone with him.
Langa was walking home in the pouring rain because it was too dangerous to skate and his mom was working so she couldn’t pick him up. Just his luck though, the rain had made it difficult to see anything, so he had to find a place to wait out the rain.
He remembered that Joe’s restaurant was too far from where he was but Cherry’s shop was closer by. He decided to start walking there before he couldn’t see anything at all.
By the time he made it to Cherry’s shop, he could only see 2-3 feet in front of him. Langa walked over and knocked on the shop’s door. He waited for someone to open the door before he heard Carla’s voice speak up.
“Hello, Langa. Master’s door is now unlocked and he is inside the building. I have given you permission to enter the building.” She softly spoke out to him as he heard the sound of a lock opening.
“Oh, thanks Carla.” He mumbled back, opening the door before stepping inside.
Langa looked around at how it was basically dark in the shop except for a room at the end of the hall. He started walking to the door, hoping to find Cherry before hearing Carla’s voice again.
“Master is in there with Master Kojiro, Langa. As long as you knock before entering, Master will let you in there to warm up.” She told him, sounding as amused as an AI can sound.
He nodded, finding it a bit weird that Joe was there but still found himself walking to the room before seeing the door was shut. He gently knocked on it, shivering as he stood there.
“Uh- Cherry?” He said, wondering if Cherry could hear him through the door.
While waiting, he heard some muffled talking and a few curse words before the door opened, showing Cherry in comfortable clothing.
“Ye- Holy shit! Kojiro, go get some towels quickly.” He said, grabbing Langa by the arm and dragging him into the room.
“Hi Cherry, Hi Joe. Sorry if I’m bothering you guys, I just needed a place to dry off before I go home.” He softly mumbled, curling in on himself, trying to get warm.
He heard Cherry scoff and Joe’s heavy footsteps as he entered the room again.
“Langa, you’re never a bother, especially if it’s something like this.” Joe said to the younger male, wrapping a towel around him.
“Thanks..This towel is really warm.” Langa mumbled, walking over and sitting down on the couch Cherry had in the room.
As he started to dry off with the towel, Langa looked around the room, noticing it was more of a living room than just a normal room.
He then saw the coffee table which had two cups of tea and a bunch of paperwork that strangely looked like tax forms and devices on it, before looking back at the two adults in the room.
“Do either of you know when the storm will break? I’m supposed to be home before my mom gets off work in an hour.” Langa softly asked, looking between the two of them.
“It is not supposed to break for another 2 hours and 20 minutes, Langa. I think I speak for Master when I say that you should probably call your mother and let her know you won’t be home.” Carla responded to his question instead.
“Oh. Follow up question, can I use your phone, Cherry?” He asked, now drying his hair with the towel.
“Of course.” Cherry replied, picking his phone up from the coffee table and handing it over to Langa.
While Langa called his mom, telling her that he wouldn’t be home by the time she came home, he noticed that Cherry and Joe went back to sitting around the coffee table.
He watched quietly as they started to do paperwork again, talking to the other only when they needed to.
Letting his curiosity get to him for once, Langa let out a soft cough, gaining the two older males’ attention.
“Are you guys doing the taxes for your businesses or?” He softly asked, trying to look at the papers.
“Kojiro is doing taxes for Sia while I’m doing our personal taxes, Langa. Did you ask because you wanted to know how to do taxes or were you just curious?” Cherry answered, looking at Langa with a single eyebrow raised.
“Just curious..” Langa replied, not missing how Cherry said ‘our’ when referring to what he was doing.
If he wasn’t so comfortable and tired, Langa would have asked what Joe and Cherry are but he found himself falling asleep on Cherry’s couch.
+ 1
The fourth and final time it happened, Langa finally decided to say something.
He was currently on his way to Sia, holding onto hope that Joe would be nice enough to teach Langa how to bake a cheesecake.
Langa’s mom’s birthday was in a few days and he decided that he was going to bake her favorite dessert, cheesecake. He just didn’t know how but thankfully one of his friends is a chef and restaurant owner.
He kicked his skateboard up, pushing the doors to Sia open while calling out to Joe.
“Joe? Are you busy right now?” He said, walking into the seemingly empty restaurant.
Langa nearly had a heart attack as Joe’s green hair popped out of the kitchen, turning his head to look at him.
“Hey, what’s up kid?” He asked, walking out through the door and over to Langa.
“I was wondering if you could teach me how to bake a cheesecake? I want to make one for my mom but I have no clue how to bake.” Langa answered, walking over to the bar, seeing that Cherry was seated there.
He sat down on a stool away from him while putting his skateboard on the floor.
“Gladly, Langa! Do you wanna eat first though? Kaoru’s food’s almost so I can whip you up something quick.” Joe asked, smiling at the bluehead before walking back into the kitchen.
“Uh, sure, thanks!” He called out, looking over at Cherry, who was in the middle of drinking a glass of wine.
“Hi Langa.” Cherry gently said, smiling softly at Langa before turning his head back towards the kitchen.
He hummed in response, pulling out some homework from his backpack. He sighed as he came face to face with his Japanese homework. Despite speaking it his whole life, Langa struggled to read and write it.
“What’s wrong?” The adult next to him said, looking at the paper in front of Langa. “Ah, I see..” Cherry softly mumbled.
“I don’t understand why it has to be written like that. Japanese is hard and stupid.” Langa complained, laying his head on the counter.
He heard Joe’s soft laughter as a plate of food was placed in front of him. Langa quickly looked up to see what Joe made, as it smelt amazing.
“That’s what this one over here said,” Joe softly spoke, pointing his thumb at Cherry, who let out a huff while shoving food in his mouth. “Now look at him, his career is to write Japanese and he gets paid a ton for it.”
Cherry nodded, wiping his mouth. “The dumb gorilla is right, when I was your age, I thought that doing Japanese homework was stupid, especially because unlike you, I grew up here and really only read Japanese literature as a child. I hated it and now it’s one of my favorite things in the world.”
Langa listened to Cherry, eating as he let his eyes wander down to the hand that Cherry was using to eat. He looked at it for a second before noticing a small gold band on his ring finger.
He choked on his pasta after seeing it, quickly grabbing his water to try and swallow the food.
“Langa? Are you okay?” Joe called out, quickly running over to him and rubbing his back.
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine. Just didn’t chew it all the way.” Langa said, gasping slightly as he coughed.
He heard Joe sigh, walking back to his original position. As Joe walked past Langa, a shiny thing on his ring finger caught his eye. Staring at it longer, he realized it was an identical ring to the one on Cherry’s finger.
Langa blinked a few times, looking back and forth between Cherry and Joe before shaking his head.
He just went back to eating, thinking that maybe it was a coincidence that Joe and Cherry were wearing the same ring.
As he was finishing up his pasta, he looked over to see Joe and Cherry arguing like usual and just watched the two.
“I said red not white, dumbass!” Cherry said, getting close to Joe’s face.
“And I said that I didn’t feel like getting a new bottle of red, four-eyes!” Joe shot back, moving closer to Cherry.
The longer Langa watched, the closer Joe and Cherry got until they were basically about to kiss. It looked like they were about to, but Langa decided that he couldn’t deal with seeing them be all couple-y again without knowing if they actually were a couple.
“Hey!” Langa said loudly, reminding them of his presence. “What the hell is going on? Are you guys dating? Are you engaged? Explain please, because this is the fourth time I’ve seen you two be all domestic and I’m tired of it.” He ranted, looking at the two with a confused face.
He waited for one of the two to say something or at least answer one of his questions. It was 3 minutes later that Langa got his answer.
“Oh- Well, for your information, yes, Langa. Kojiro and I are married, have been married for the last 6 years and have been together since high school.” Cherry finally replied, his face a deep shade of red while Joe just nodded along.
Langa sighed as he put his head on the table, semi-regretting his decision to even come to the restaurant in the first place.
“Thank you for an answer. Now, can we make the cheesecake, Joe? I finished my food 15 minutes ago.” He said, getting up and heading into the kitchen.
He heard Joe yell out to him, ‘Don’t touch anything!’ before his heavy footsteps were heard heading to the kitchen. He let out a soft laugh, finally processing whatever the hell had happened in the last 30 minutes of him being at the restaurant.
Langa was happy for them both and really glad that he finally knew what the relationship status was of Joe and Cherry. He just wished his sanity could have been spared.
fin.