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It was an off day. Kaiser had invited Isagi over, wanting to relax after a tiring week. Soft, innocent kisses had ended up turning into something more, and they had ended up going for a few rounds.
The both of them were talking whatever came to their minds, with Isagi's head on Kaiser's shoulder. The topic shifts to their dating life. To Kaiser's surprise, he finds out that he's Isagi's first partner.
“How many people have you dated before me?” Isagi asks.
Truthfully, this is the question Kaiser's been dreading the most. Isagi could just look all of it up online, right? Why does he need to hear it from him?
Kaiser averts his eyes. “Yoichi, let’s not talk about that, please…”
“Tell me.” Isagi's adamant on hearing his answer, his eyebrows crossing. Great, he's made Isagi suspicious.
The weak mutter he replies in doesn't feel like it came out of his mouth. “...Seven.”
“Seven?! Have you treated all of them just like me?" Isagi throws a pillow at Kaiser's face, and gets up to wear his clothes.
“No, you’re different,” Kaiser says, grabbing onto his arm.
“Different in what way? That you’re sticking it up my ass?” Isagi spits out.
Kaiser winces at the crude language. “Don’t talk about yourself like that…”
Isagi breaks free from his grip. He puts on his jeans and puts on his jacket, not bothering to wear his shirt underneath.
“That’s it! I’m breaking up with you —”
Kaiser's eyebrows raise, alarmed. Isagi's getting too worked up over this. “Wait a minute —"
“Until I date seven people too," Isagi says, abruptly. "Then I'll date you again."
Is this the best logical decision he could come up with? Has the water here rewired his brain's circuits? Kaiser stays speechless, not understanding how to reply to Isagi's declaration.
In the end, he replies with a very intelligent "What?" of his own.
“I’m going to my apartment. Don’t follow me.”
“Ness.”
“Yes, Kaiser? Did something serious happen? It’s 1 am.”
“Yoichi broke up with me. And said that he'd date seven other people before getting back together with me.”
“What?!"
He’s pretty sure Ness’ scream over the phone made him lose hearing in his right ear.
Isagi is the one who always comes to practice first. Kaiser has always been the last one to leave practice.
At this point, all of his teammates are used to it, waving him bye and thumping him on the back before leaving. He tries to talk to Isagi before he leaves, but he ignores Kaiser and slips away.
Weren’t they on good terms again? Isagi played like he always did today. He’d even responded to Kaiser’s sneering with a death glare of his own.
Sometimes, he doesn’t get Isagi at all. Yeah, he’d played around in his younger years, but Kaiser was serious about Isagi. He’s never let any of his past lovers see him in glasses. Nobody but Isagi has seen him in an ugly Christmas sweater.
With Isagi, he can be his true self. He isn’t expected to keep up an image or be the perfect boyfriend around him.
He sighs as he walks towards the lockers after showering. If Isagi keeps this up for too long, he has no choice but to suck up his pride and apologize.
Although he really doesn’t want to. But he'll do anything to make Isagi happy, even though it definitely wasn’t his fault. Maybe the relationship advice articles online were right.
Kaiser, lost in his musing, takes a while to notice an envelope fallen on the ground. It must’ve been stuffed in the space between the locker’s door and side, falling when he’d opened his locker. He bends to pick it up, examining it for details, but finds only his name on it.
To Kaiser.
He's told his manager several times not to deliver his fan letters to his locker. Kaiser should take it home, but something inside him urges to see the contents right here. He opens the letter. There’s only one sentence written on it. Plus, the handwriting seems familiar.
"Kaiser. Go out with me," it says, in German. The rudimentary strokes and curves tell him that his secret admirer tried to replicate the words to the best of their ability. How adorable.
He rushes to the reception to ask for a pen. On obtaining it, Kaiser goes back to the locker rooms. He crosses out his name on the envelope, and writes ‘To my secret admirer,’ instead.
Inside, he replies to the sentence. “Sure.”
Kaiser places the letter inside the plain white envelope, and draws on a quick rose on the outside of it. It’s a coincidence that the pen’s ink is blue.
He fixes it the same way on who he suspects to be his admirer’s locker. None of the staff need to know why he leaves the practice grounds humming an old Japanese lozenge commercial’s jingle.
The next day, which happens to be Tuesday, he receives another letter. It’s not the same one as yesterday, the letter stuck into a fresh white envelope. It’s written in Japanese. Kaiser opens a translation app on his phone and scans it.
"Idiot. Date me."
Well, he’s always appreciated things said straight to the point. Honesty is an attractive feature too.
He replies back with a yes, written in Japanese.
His secret admirer strikes again on Wednesday.
"I would like to have the utmost pleasure of having the most shitty individual person on the planet to be my partner. To be honest, I think I'm doing the whole world a favor." The whole letter is written in German, this time.
A hard-working learner and generous in their praise. He should seriously start looking for wedding rings. Should they be fancy – no, they should be simple. Something that the both of them could wear during a match.
"You're too kind! Why yes, I wholeheartedly agree."
Kaiser has started to look forward to answering the letters. It’s a good way of coping with the zero attention Isagi gives him off the field.
"Those are some nice muscles you've got there. Mind helping me workout?"
He thinks back to his practice routine today. Wanting to get a bit more training done, he'd headed to the gym. The only new thing he’d done was add a few more leg presses – Oh. How open in telling their desires. That’s attractive too.
"Sure. Come over, and I'll help you stretch every single muscle of yours."
To his disappointment, no one showed up at his apartment, even though they knew his address. Kaiser wonders if he’s going to get a letter today or not, but that’s an unfounded worry because he finds one.
With the exception of the second letter, every single one is written in German. This one is too. It’s kind of touching, them being in his mother tongue, as if the sender wanted their letters to connect with him on a more personal level.
"You have really pretty eyes. But I think I'd like them better if they were only looking at me."
They even follow the morning news. Must’ve seen the photo of him and that actress. It’s just a rumor, though. They had met on the streets by chance, even though Kaiser doubts that it wasn’t planned.
He has no interest in brown hair or green eyes, when he prefers black and blue instead.
"They're always looking at you. You just don't notice."
"Our jerseys are red,
Roses are blue,
Kaiser.
I want to go out with you."
The letter is written in English, which is completely understandable, because it would be impossible to make it rhyme in German.
As always, he writes back an agreement. If he's correct, the next letter should be the last one. It's a shame it's ending, because he's even started to keep a pen on him, to reply to the letters.
No matter how hard he looks or waits for an appearance, he's never able to find them, not being able to even catch a glimpse.
He feels tomorrow will be interesting.
This time, he finds that his secret admirer has decided to show up, to deliver their letter in person.
Isagi smiles at him when Kaiser enters the locker rooms.
"Got another letter for me, Yoichi?"
He nods, handing him the usual white envelope. Kaiser opens it. It's simple, and short, just like the first one. With a small change.
"Michael, will you date me?"
He shuffles through his duffel bag, and pulls out his pen.
"You want me to write it down or say it out loud?"
"However you'd like. I know the answer anyway."
Kaiser can't help but laugh. It seems like he's become too predictable. Still, he doesn't plan on changing his answer anytime soon.
He hands over the revised letter to Isagi.
"Yes," Isagi reads out. He doesn't resist Kaiser's pull towards himself. Kaiser hugs Isagi tight, breathing him in through the space behind his ear.
Isagi hugs him back with equal strength. He's missed the feeling of Isagi's body in his arms.
"Are you done now? You're going out with seven people. At the same time. Even I wasn't that cruel to my exes."
Isagi shakes with laughter. His shoulders raise and fall with every laugh, and his eyes seem to be smiling along with his lips.
"This cruelty is reserved specially for you."
Kaiser pulls away to look Isagi in the eyes.
"You're so fucking cute. Get ready to spend your whole life with me, because I'm never letting you go."
Isagi holds their hands together, breaking their embrace. He gives Kaiser a confident grin.
"I won't let you even think of it. Keep that grip of yours on me tight."
Isagi will admit one thing – coming up with something new for seven days really dried up all of his creative juices.
When he reaches the locker room, he finds a letter stuck in his locker, just like he had put in Kaiser's. Compared to his plain white ones, the envelope is a deep, expensive blue. Isagi's name is written in gold on the outside.
The letter is written on good quality paper. It reads —
I am yours.
No refunds.