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The wind was blowing steadily, the light breeze gently tussling his hair. Akai took the sun in, leaning on the window sill as he watched the occasional students walk by on the path underneath. The tapping of shoes on the stairs behind him were left unheard by his ears, the sound of leaves rustling and birds tweeting taking his attention.
“Oh, Akai.”
He knew it was Shun, only he would greet him with just his name. Akai turned his head to face the familiar voice. He smiled at him, straightening his back slightly. “Hey Shun, what’s up?” Akai asked, happy to see him as always.
Shun remained silent, his eyes looking off to the side as if to avoid eye contact. It was odd of him to not say anything, he would usually respond with something that happened or at the minimum a ‘not much’. Akai looked at Shun slightly concerned, turning his body to face him.
Just before Akai could speak, he felt something poke at his shirt gently. “Take it already,” Shun mumbled, turning his head further away from him.
Akai looked down, finally noticing the folded sheet of binder paper between Shun’s fingers. He took it from him, looking at it slightly confused. “What is this for?” Akai asked, wanting some information before doing anything.
Shun responded as he turned around swiftly, “Just read it.”
Akai noticed the slight red slowly growing on Shun’s ears as he headed down the stairs, though he wasn’t sure if he was just imagining it. He shrugged it off, moving his attention to the note he was holding.
His hands unraveled the paper, revealing a short, straightforward message inside:
I like you. A lot.
-Shun
Huh? Is he serious? Akai could only stand by the window, shocked, as he soaked in the new information, the sunlight highlighting the note. He held his breath, his heart slowly picking up its pace the further those words burned into his mind.
He tightened his grip on the paper. Akai could only ask himself if Shun was being serious, if this was some bad joke that was meant to be funny. All of him wished for it to be true and not a stupid prank.
It wouldn’t be like Shun to joke about something like this, right? So could that mean..?
As he let out his breath, his face began to heat up. He could imagine how red his face was getting at the moment. He tried closing his eyes and taking deep breaths in a poor attempt to control his overflowing emotions.
How was Akai supposed to answer? Write a note back? Maybe, but it wasn’t something he would do when accepting a confession. Talk to Shun? It’s definitely concise and appropriate for this situation, and Akai supposed it would be easiest for him to do.
One problem: Where the hell did Shun go?
Akai looked everywhere he could think of, all of Shun’s classes, the library, all the outside paths, he even asked everyone he knew to no avail. Too bad Shun seemingly teleported back to the stairwell without Akai noticing.
He quickly ran down the stairs the moment he saw Shun. He was leaning on the window sill, his earbuds in his ears as he stared outside. Akai subconsciously skipped the last step in excitement, panting softly as he greeted Shun.
“Shun! There you are,” he spoke, slightly out of breath.
Shun turned at Akai’s voice to glance at him, before promptly looking back outside. “Hey,” Shun uttered, doing his absolute worst to hide the fact that he was blushing.
Akai clearly didn’t think too far. His words got lodged in his throat, as if they were fine resting there. He didn’t consider the fact that he would probably stop talking like a lovesick idiot. The anxiety that was hiding finally hit him like a 6 foot tall wave, strong and way too tough to beat.
Moving up to the window, Akai leaned on the window sill next to Shun and quietly burned up.
The two of them remained silent while they internally screamed at themselves for how stupidly awkward this was. Neither were equipped to deal with mutual feelings, let alone between a friend who’s also a guy.
Akai swallowed his nerves and tried to speak again. He spoke as confidently as he could (which was not very), “...About the note you gave me.”
Shun visibly turned his head in the opposite direction of Akai, his face still very obviously turning more red by the second. “What about it?” he muttered, making it easy to tell that he was trying to keep his cool persona up.
Akai was trying his hardest to not just climb out the window and start running away out of pure embarrassment. He needed to say it before he chickens out and leaves on the spot. He took one sharp inhale just to prepare himself.
“...I like you too.”
It left his mouth quieter than he hoped, but maybe it would be better for Shun to not hear what he just said. Just then, Shun finally turned to face Akai, making eye contact. Akai felt his heart flutter slightly, realizing that Shun actually heard that weak response.
“You didn’t need to build it up for that long,” Shun answered, still attempting to play it cool even when he was red as a tomato.
Akai looked at him with slightly wide eyes, only to break out into a smile. He wrapped his arm around Shun’s shoulder suddenly, pushing him down slightly.
“Says the one who didn’t say a single thing when I arrived to tell you!”
“I wasn’t expecting you to talk to me on the same day.”
Akai laughed softly, taking his arm away from Shun. He opened the note again, staring at it adoringly.
“The dog you drew was pretty cute, too.”