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It started slow at first, just little things really.
Like how long they’d been dating or who asked the other out, but Rui still always remembered that they were dating.
Akito wasn’t even the first person to realize that something was wrong. No, it was Ena, after Rui couldn’t answer her questions about the two of them.
Ena suggested that maybe Rui wasn’t 100% faithful and though Akito vehemently denied it, the thought crossed his mind too.
Why else would the person you’re dating forget how long you’ve been together, right?
But it was fine.
Even after a bit of digging, neither Ena nor Akito had found anything that would indicate that Rui was unfaithful and so they let it go.
Akito remembers when things got bad. When Rui forgot about their relationship for the first time.
Tsukasa came running to him, a frantic look in his face.
Apparently Rui and him had been throwing out ideas for shows and Tsukasa had jokingly said that they could ask Akito to be the princess to Rui’s prince.
Tsukasa had expected a joke or maybe agreement in return, but Rui had looked at him with an utter look of confusion, asking “Why Akito?”
Akito wonders how Tsukasa felt then, having to explain to his friend that he’d been dating Akito for a year.
He can’t imagine that it was easy, but he’s glad Tsukasa was the one who had to do it. Akito trusts him.
The pain Akito had felt when Tsukasa told him though… It was unimaginable.
He had felt as though something had ripped his heart out, crushing it into tiny pieces.
Rui… forgot. Rui forgot about them. How- how could that be possible? They’d promised forever didn’t they?
He cried that day.
Akito… he really did try. But his heart could only take so much.
He tried to be happy, reminding Rui of their relationship over and over again, he tried to be happy, just spending time.
But he couldn’t do it forever. He couldn’t do it anymore.
And so, one day he went up to Tsukasa and told him he was done.
“Senpai… please stop telling Rui that we’re dating. It- it was nice while it lasted, but I’m tired.”
He wonders what he looked like then, tears running down his face as he desperately tried to force a smile.
He has no problem remembering Tsukasa’s face though. The pain and understanding.
Tsukasa had hugged him, letting Akito cry out his heart on his shoulder. Had brushed a hand through his hair, trying to give comfort, yet unable to tell Akito that everything would be fine.
Because it wasn’t, was it?
It didn’t take long after that, till Rui and Akito were really just friends again.
They’d hang out and talk about things, each time crushing Akito’s hard just a little more.
But it was fine. He’d rather be Rui’s friend than lose him completely.
“Rui I-“
Rui blinked at him in surprise before slowly starting to grin.
“You’re finally using my first name!”
Akito felt his heart stop, eyes widening even as they began to water.
Rui’s grin froze and he began to look panicked.
“Akito-kun? Are you okay?”
The tears kept pouring and Akito sniffled pathetically, rubbing his eyes, trying to get them to just stop.
“S-sorry it’s- it’s nothing. I need to go.”
And with that Akito turned on his heel and ran off.
It was a gloomy day when things somehow got worse.
Akito didn’t realize it could.
He thought, if he couldn’t be with Rui, he could at least be at his side as a friend.
But even that was robbed away.
“Tsukasa, Nene, Shinonome-kun!”
The name he hadn’t heard from Rui in so long, the name that sealed their fate.
Akito had broken down crying again. Tsukasa had a look of utter devastation and Nene had just looked at Rui as if he were personally breaking her heart. Which, in a sense, Akito supposes he was.
“Hey Akito? Let’s be together forever. Through sickness and hurt, I know if it’s us we can always patch it up again.”
“Of course, Rui. Forever… that sounds wonderful.”