Work Text:
Bachira Meguru is out shopping for new art materials when he discovers “Golden Stars”. The light novel sits innocently on the shelf along with the sketchbooks. The blue and gold cover catches his eye. Soon, it finds its way into his shopping bag as he happily skips back home with his new watercolor paper and pencils.
He finishes the book in 2 days and was surprised by the story. Not in a bad way, of course, it was just really unexpected. It was around the 5th chapter that he realizes its true nature. She’s just like me, he thinks with a tiny smile. Soon, he finds himself creating a new canvas in his drawing software and sketching out fanart for the two main characters.
Bachira enrolled into a comic book writing workshop before he started college. Today is the first day for that workshop. He makes his way around multiple chairs before choosing to sit beside someone with short black hair and a brown coat. He takes out his sketchbook and colored pencil and begins observing his surroundings for something to draw. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the person beside him grab a notebook and pen from his bag and begin writing.
“So you’re a writer,” he says. The person turns to look at him in question.
“Yes, I am,” they reply, then glances at his sketchbook and colored pencil. “And you’re an artist.”
They continue talking about their respective art forms until someone goes up the stage and announces, “We will begin in a few minutes. Thank you for being patient, everyone.”
“Oh yeah,” Bachira realizes. “I forgot to ask. What’s your name?”
“Ah, I’m Isagi Yoichi,” the writer replies, holding out a hand. “Nice to meet you…?”
“I’m Bachira Meguru. Nice to meet you, Isagi!”
A long white-haired girl wearing a hoodie and jeans walks onstage with another girl with black hair, a sweater, and a long skirt. They must be the workshop facilitators.
“Welcome to our comic book writing workshop!” the first girl cheerfully exclaims into the mic. All heads turn to her. “I’m Akiko Kimi and I’m the writer facilitator for this program. First, I’d like to introduce once again what this workshop is about. As y’all read from our poster, this is a once-a-week workshop for both writers and artists to improve their skills in making comic books. I’m joined today by Takarra Michiko who’s our artist facilitator for this program.”
“Hello everyone,” Takarra’s softer but no less enthusiastic voice rings inside the venue. “Now, just to tell you all in advanced, we will ask for a final output from all of you before the end of this workshop.”
“We’ll call each of you onstage to tell us your name and whether you’re an artist or a writer. Then, we’ll let you choose your own partner. These pairs should have 1 writer and 1 artist. But what’s the final project, you ask?”
(Akiko sends quite a mischievous smile to her co-facilitator’s direction. Bachira thinks he sees the other girl roll her eyes fondly.)
“Before the end of this workshop, each writer and artist pair should produce a short comic to showcase everything that they learned. Akiko-san and I will be the judges of your comics. We offer all of you a good luck.”
Bachira turns to Isagi as soon as the announcement ends. So what if they haven’t introduced themselves to everyone else yet? “Partners?” the artist asks with a wide grin.
The writer turns to him too and offers a smile back. “I don’t see why not.”
Bachira looks up from his tablet just in time to see Isagi taking his seat across the table. “Sorry I’m late,” the boy apologizes.
“That’s okay, I was early,” Bachira reassures him, closing the tablet and tucking his stylus behind his ear. “So, what’s your coffee order?”
The two decided to meet at a nearby coffee shop to work on the first partial output for the comic book writing workshop. After ordering their respective drinks, they prepare to start brainstorming on the story for their comic.
“We should probably make ourselves familiar with each other’s work first,” Isagi says, pulling out his laptop from his bag. They exchange devices after redirecting them to their works.
When Bachira had the other’s laptop settled in front of him, he sees quite a number of Word files. He peeks over the screen in question. Isagi notices his expression and blushes slightly.
“I haven’t actually published any of my complete stories,” he explains, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “I only tweet the shorter ones when I’m very proud of them. I recently became interested in writing for comics, so I decided to join the workshop.”
Bachira opens the first Word document, titled “Apricity”. It’s a short poem talking about the warmth of the sun in winter, which is apparently what the word in the title means. The 2 ending lines in particular catches his eye.
If my presence was as constant as the sun’s warmth even in winter,
Would you have stayed by my side?
“Damn,” he whispers. “You’re really good. Was this one of the works you tweeted? It should’ve been.”
“Which one is that?” Isagi looks up from the tablet to peer at the laptop’s screen. “Oh, ‘Apricity’? Yes, if I remember correctly, I tweeted that around 3 months ago.”
The next moments are spent in silence. Bachira continues reading every story he can. He notices at one point that all the Word documents he’s looking at were in a folder called “short stories or poems”. If Isagi’s shorter works were already this good, what more his longer ones?
It was Isagi’s turn to admire the other’s work after the lull in conversation. “You have multiple hidden details in this one,” he says, pointing out various parts of the illustration. Bachira moves his chair nearer the other to see better. (They really should’ve done this sooner. It’s a lot easier than constantly turning over the device screen.) It was the digital painting he did of the park he went to recently. He remembers having a lot of fun adding all the random trinkets in the bushes and trees, kind of like easter eggs for the viewers to find.
“This one just captures komorebi so well.”
“This–whoa. Is this a masquerade ball? …are they looking at us through those white circles in the masks?”
Bachira happily launches into explanations of the meanings behind his most liked illustrations. The two spend the next two hours talking about their art forms and the partial output. Bachira leaves the café mid-afternoon with a new sketch in his tablet and a large smile on his face.
Each of the workshop meetings were on Sundays from 2-5 pm. The facilitators have each writer-artist pair sit together. There are two pairs per table and 10 tables all-in-all. During the first official meeting, they analyze varying comic pages. Takarra-san mentions how important it is to first observe what specific elements make a comic page’s layout effective. Then, artists should take care to apply these to their own comics.
(Bachira’s current sketchbook is starting to turn into his notebook for the workshop. He doesn’t really mind though; it at least still has something to do about drawing.)
The next workshop meetings were more on the hosts teaching different concepts that will help both in art and writing. There were even sessions where the group would be separated into artists and writers to have specific lessons with the facilitators of their crafts.
The two continue meeting in the same coffee shop whenever they’re free, often occupying the same table, enough times for the café owners to recognize them after a while. The partial outputs range from character design, an outline of the story, and sketch drafts for the first few pages. Often, multiple tabs are open in Bachira’s drawing software to keep track of all the designs and page drafts. Apparently, Isagi prefers to brainstorm on paper instead of the laptop, so there are also a couple of papers scattered across the table. It’s a wonder they haven’t spilled coffee on any yet.
They don’t only talk about the partial outputs in the café. Instead, they start by asking each other if anything significant happened during their time apart. Because of this, they start to learn more and more about each other as time goes by. Bachira learns Isagi is a Creative Writing major in the same college he goes to. In turn, he shares how he’s taking Graphic Design as his course.
Both try each other’s coffee orders at one point, curious of the other’s preferences. (They do not talk about how they more or less choked on the drinks, their tastes contrasting each other’s immensely.)
How exactly does Isagi drink straight up black coffee?? Bachira thinks, bewildered, handing the paper cup back.
Other times, they’re too busy to do anything other than the partial output for the week. Although these “meetings” are a whole lot more serious, Bachira still enjoys them. He likes how Isagi settles into a “work mode” whenever he writes. It’s nice watching someone else in their element.
“You know, I’m glad I decided to join this workshop,” he comments one day as they exit the café together.
Isagi glances at him, confused. “Why?”
Bachira turns to flash him a wide grin. “Because I got to meet you, of course!”
Bachira gains a friend through this workshop in the form of Isagi Yoichi. They’ve known each other for a month now. He’s excited to see where this friendship will bring them in the future.
Except, was he really just a friend?
Another half a month passes, then that partial output assignment comes. The third Sunday of November arrives, and Akiko-san and Takarra-san ask for the fully colored draft of the first 5 pages. This time, instead of their usual table at the café, Isagi invites Bachira over to his dorm room.
Bachira finds himself staring at a door quite like his own 10 minutes after leaving his own room. He knocks gently, hoping he followed the instructions correctly. Sure enough, it was Isagi who opened the door.
“Come in,” he says, then retreats into the room. Bachira follows, closing the door behind him. He couldn’t help but think there is something different about his partner today. The thing is, he couldn’t quite put a finger on it.
All the dorm rooms in the building have the same set-up of a single bed, a desk, a chair, and aircon. There is a space in the middle of it all, where Isagi was seated, the papers for his brainstorming scattered all over the floor. His laptop was open diagonally to his right. Bachira tiptoes over the papers to take a seat on Isagi’s left side, the only other available space. He takes out his tablet and opens it, pulling up the half-colored pages. Nearly all the dialogue was filled in. The lines for the 4th-5th pages are still works in progress.
For a while, the only sounds in the room were pen scratches, the keyboard of Isagi’s laptop, and Bachira’s hums to random songs that cross his mind. The relative silence is broken when Bachira feels a tap on his shoulder. He looks up to Isagi’s face and his heart may or may not have stopped beating.
His partner is saying something, based on how his mouth is moving, but Bachira couldn’t focus on anything other than the fact that Isagi is wearing glasses.
That’s why he felt like something was different. Because he’s wearing glasses. Glasses with black rectangle frames. Bachira is reeling.
“-llo? Hello? Bachira? Earth to Bachira?” Isagi was waving his hand in front of his face. He snaps out of it, embarrassed but curious.
“You wear glasses?” he asks, leaning closer. Something stirs in his heart, a feeling he decides to ignore for now.
“Oh,” Isagi adjusts the glasses shyly. “They’re just to protect my eyes from device screens. I usually only wear them here or at home, though.”
“Ooooh, I see. They suit you!” Bachira grins as his heart rate speeds up.
What’s happening to me? he thinks, a little concerned now. It might have something to do with the glasses, since that’s the only thing different in this situation, other than the fact they’re in Isagi’s dorm room instead of the café.
“Anyway,” the writer interrupts his train of thought. “I was supposed to ask if you could show me the 4th and 5th pages again.”
Bachira hands over his tablet absentmindedly. His heart is still beating a hundred miles per hour.
Lately, Bachira’s been noticing himself acting strange.
The emotions seem almost familiar, in a way. Whenever any thought about Isagi comes up, his mood immediately brightens. He always looks forward to the meetings of theirs, sometimes being unable to sleep early because of sheer excitement. He enjoys every interaction with Isagi whether they talk about themselves or only about their workshop outputs. All in all, Isagi is someone he never plans to let go of.
He’s working on an art project for college in his room when his eyes land on Golden Stars. He brings it everywhere, kind of like an emotional support object, but hasn’t had the time to reread it since the workshop started. Decision made, he sets down his stylus and grabs the light novel.
He spends the next hour re-immersed in the story. It’s about an all-girls school where a student slowly falls for her classmate after the idea of being with them was made known to her. It was a hypothetical thing at first. “What if I was in a relationship with them? Do I want to be with them like that?” were questions that ran through her mind. Because of this, she starts to interact with her classmate more and more, becoming aware of who they really are as a person.
Slowly, she realizes she has feelings for her classmate. She’s always thought she was never going to romantically be attracted to someone since she’s never experienced it before. After some research, she discovers she’s demiromantic and demisexual.
So far, Bachira also considers himself demi. He experienced romantic attraction towards one of his former friends before graduating elementary, but that was the only time it happened. As much as possible, he avoids going back to that memory.
While reading, several things catch his attention. These were when the main character was starting to realize she was actually romantically attracted to their classmate. The more he stares at them, the faster he comes to the realization that these are the feelings he’s experiencing now because of Isagi.
Bachira stops reading, closes the book, and stares at his dorm room ceiling blankly. He doesn’t know what to do with this new information.
Maika, the main character of Golden Stars, realized her feelings for her classmate Tomoe when the latter held her forearm to lead her out the classroom and asked, “Can you go with me to the library? I just need to return something.”
The first thing she decided to do after the realization sinks in is to make a list of steps to help her classmate like her as well. There were 5 steps: 1st is to try to talk to her every day, 2nd is to compliment her, 3rd is to help her with subjects she’s having trouble with, 4th is to give her drawings and short notes of encouragement, and 5th is to try to hug her as a greeting.
Bachira makes his own version the day after he realizes his feelings for Isagi. He changes some of the steps to fit his own situation. Just because, he places the steps in his art software, decorates them, then makes the finished artwork his wallpaper. The quality of his sleep that night was easily better than the night before.
Step one: When there’s no workshop, café, or dorm room meeting, text him.
Bachira and Isagi meet only 2 days a week. The rest are spent working on their own projects for their respective courses. They exchanged numbers as soon as they decided to become partners during the second workshop meeting but only used it to coordinate for their partial output meetings. At this point, there is no need to confirm their meeting place. Both know they’re going to meet every Saturday in the café at the usual time anyways.
So far, Bachira avoided messaging Isagi about anything except the workshop. But what if he does it now? They’ve known each other for a month and a half, so it should be fine if Bachira messages the writer about other things, right? Which is why that Tuesday, right after his last class, he tries it.
How’s creative writing classes?
Isagi replies a few minutes later. They’re the same as always. We analyzed a short literary work called “Salmon Pink” today.
Isagi doesn’t ask why Bachira suddenly decided to message him about something else. He doesn’t ask where the question about his classes came from. They continue messaging each other until it becomes a natural thing to do every day.
Step two: Compliment his stories, appearance, ideas, etc.
It didn’t make much sense for Bachira to write down this step if he already does it every time he can. Still, it was one of the steps Maika wrote down in Golden Stars, and Bachira values that book and its story too much to leave it out.
Step three: Hug him as a greeting.
In the light novel, the word “try” was added to the beginning of the step. But for Bachira, there’s no try, only do. The next time they meet for a brand-new workshop day, Bachira nearly jumps onto Isagi to give him a hug. This catches his partner off guard, but he acts quickly so they don’t both fall down.
“Did anything happen?” he asked when Bachira pulls away enough to talk properly, a little concerned. “Did you have a nightmare? Why are you so excited to see me when we were together just yesterday?”
“I’m just really happy!” the artist exclaims, his heart beating a hundred miles an hour again. “We finally finished our first chapter yesterday, why shouldn’t I be excited?”
“Fair,” Isagi replies. Although he is a constant recipient to Bachira’s infectious energy, he couldn’t help but smile back.
Step four: Give him drawings and short notes of encouragement.
Bachira doesn’t know how he hasn’t thought of this before. Now that the idea is in his head, he couldn’t let it go. Time and time again, he finds himself opening his drawing software and sketching random things like lobsters (which he discovered is Isagi’s favorite animal one time they were messaging each other) or soccer equipment or even their comic’s characters. Then, he adds encouraging messages like “You can do it!” or “You’re stronger than all that research!!” because he knows Isagi struggles the most with his research subject.
He sends these online instead of printing or doing them traditionally like Maika does. Still, the appreciation is the same. Every time they meet on the weekend, Isagi makes sure to thank him for all the art and short messages he sends with a large smile and sometimes even free food.
(The day after he sends his first encouragement drawing, Isagi writes a short poem about one of his favorite illustrations and sends it as a reply. Bachira saves it in every device he owns and, don’t tell anyone, even prints it to tape on his dorm room wall as daily inspiration.)
Step five: Offer to pay for his coffee and food.
Now that he thinks about it, maybe he should’ve put this step higher on the list. That way, he could’ve done it earlier than a month and a half into their friendship. Anyways, knowing how stubborn Isagi could be, he arrives at the café earlier than usual that Saturday and buys the writer’s black coffee before he could arrive.
It becomes some sort of game when, the next Saturday, he sees Isagi seated at their usual table with his coffee order. There was no mistaking it. The writer couldn’t for the life of him consume such a sweet drink with a concerning amount of whipped crème on it. From then on, they competed on who could get to the café faster to order the other’s drink for them.
(They noticed the other regulars anticipating who would arrive first and even laughing when, one Saturday, they somehow burst through the café doors at the same time.)
The last step on Maika’s list was the “hug as a greeting”. Tomoe started developing romantic feelings for her around the 4th step, especially when she was given an encouragement drawing after the other girl noticed her constant struggle with English. With Maika’s help and the encouragement drawing, Tomoe starts becoming more confident in her worst subject. She also starts to realize she wants her relationship with Maika to be more than just friendship.
Bachira doesn’t know if following his version of the steps is working and if Isagi wants something more than just friendship with him now or eventually. What he does know, though, is that their messages have been getting more frequent and about more random topics. They now share even the most mundane events in their lives like seeing a calico walking outside their dorm or even facts about animals. Their hugs last longer, Isagi even initiating some of them despite not being much of a physical touch person. Their coffee game continues until they decide to buy each other’s coffee on alternating Saturdays instead, so it’s fair.
During every interaction, Bachira finds himself falling for his partner more. The problem is, he doesn’t know if Isagi feels the same way.
Bachira doesn’t notice the rest of November pass by. Before he realizes it, the first workshop meeting of December comes. Every step on his list becomes something automatic. He no longer needs his wallpaper to remind him of the steps, so he changes it to his favorite picture of him and Isagi instead.
The agenda for the workshop meeting is to start working on the second chapter of their comics. Akiko-san and Takarra-san are there just in case they have any questions, but the pairs are mostly left alone to work. The second chapter of the comic Bachira and Isagi planned is about the first friends their main character makes at the start of their journey.
Bachira approaches the facilitators about writing relationships. (Isagi couldn’t go with him, although the question came from the writer, because all his ideas decided to come at that very moment.) He brings his emotional support object for, well, emotional support.
“Excuse me,” he begins, effectively catching the attention of the older girls.
“Oh!” Akiko-san exclaims, turning to him and smiling brightly. “What do you need, little bee?”
“Ahem, Akiko-san…” Takarra-san nudges her fellow facilitator, giving her a look. The other girl’s smile only widens innocently.
“Anyway,” Bachira continues a little awkwardly. “Do you have any more advice for writing the development of relationships for characters? Especially when they transition from relationship to relationship?”
The main character and their first friend from their comic were supposed to be rivals at first, then friends later in the series. If they were friends first, then there would be no problem trying to figure out the transition. However…
“Ahhhhh, so that’s what this is about,” Akiko-san nods, dragging over another monoblock chair. “Sit, sit, and let me go over it again.”
And so Bachira sits, but before the writing facilitator could start explaining, her eyes land on the light novel he’s holding in his hands. “OMG is that Golden Stars??” she jumps up from her seat and points at it. Both Takarra-san and Bachira startle, staring at Akiko-san with wide eyes.
“It is!” Bachira grins when he gets over his surprise, lifting the book to show the two facilitators the cover. “It’s my favorite book. The characters are really well written, and I can relate to the main character a lot.”
At this, both facilitators smile at each other, then direct those smiles at him. He can’t help but stare at them, confused, before Takarra-san says, “The illustrations I created for that light novel are my favorite artworks. It’s nice looking back at them again.”
“Aw, Micchan, of all your illustrations, I didn’t know those were your favorite,” Akiko-san teases, and Bachira finally understands.
“You drew the art for Golden Stars?” he asks in awe. The art facilitator gives him another, brighter smile in reply.
“Yeah!” the white-haired girl confirms out loud. “Plus-” she pauses, eyes darting around quite sneakily. “-don’t go telling everyone, but I write novels too. Y’all know my pen name for writing comics, don’t you? Yeah, I have that, but not many people know I’m the person behind the name ‘Kagami Kokoro’ too.”
It takes Bachira a while to register what she just said. “You’re ‘Kagami Kokoro’??” With this, he stands up too. “You wrote Golden Stars?? The light novel about the demi high school girl who has low self-esteem and falls for her multitalented classmate??”
Akiko-san’s answering grin is wide enough, her eyes close almost completely. “Yup, I wrote Golden Stars. It’s strange, isn’t it? Me, bubbly and loud and all that stuff, writing something like Golden Stars.” She laughs when Bachira’s mouth opens like he just realized the disconnect. Takarra-san sighs fondly beside them. “It’s based on my real-life experiences, actually, but let’s not talk about that now. Sit, little bee, and I’ll explain writing the transition between relationships again.”
Finally, they sit back down to the black-haired girl’s relief. Akiko-san repeats their lesson on writing relationships, Bachira making sure he remembers all the important parts by asking questions whenever he needs to. After he’s confident he can recite all the steps to Isagi, he stands up to leave.
“You sure you don’t have any more questions?” the writing facilitator gestures around vaguely, eyes twinkling. “It can be anything you want to know about Golden Stars.”
Bachira almost launches into an explanation of his favorite things about the light novel but holds himself back. Instead, the emotions he always notices appear even just because of a thought about his partner come to mind.
“How do you gather the courage to confess to the person you like when you’re a demi college student with a damaged heart?” he finds himself asking, because that’s what he is. A demi college student with a damaged heart. It was never easy to tell people what he identifies as, especially because they might think he’s just making stuff up. He’s stronger now, but his heart had hardened since his first crush in elementary. He doesn’t know if he should risk opening up just to get hurt again.
Akiko-san’s gaze softens. “I get it,” she starts, not meeting his eyes for once. “I was like that, once upon a time. I was the demi high school girl with low self-esteem who fell for her multitalented, beautiful as hoot classmate. I can still be like that sometimes. But you know what I learned? Nothing will happen nor change if you don’t try. You’re always risking something when making important decisions. It depends on what you want to have more. Are you going to stay in the shadows and possibly miss the opportunity, or will you confess and get the chance to be with the lucky being you fell for?”
The facilitators let him leave without replying. Bachira’s glad for it. He doesn’t know if he can give an answer to a question like that anytime soon.
Bachira wakes up and wonders why December is going by so fast.
Their last comic book writing workshop meeting for the year is in a few hours. Instead of doing any work, though, they’re going to have an early Christmas party. Everyone was asked to bring their Secret Santa gifts and food and drinks to share with everyone.
(Bachira got the slip with Isagi’s name from the bowl last week. It takes him a while, but he finally decides to make his Secret Santa gift the recent illustration he’s been working on inspired by one of the writer’s short poems. Luckily, he’s able to have it printed as a poster in time for the party.)
He arrives at the workshop venue minutes earlier than usual, probably an effect of his excitement for the event. So far, the only people who are there are, of course, Akiko-san and Takarra-san, and other students he doesn’t really know. He places the rolled-up poster on the table with the other gifts, the donuts he bought on the table with the rest of the food, sits on his usual seat, and waits.
Isagi arrives just before the event starts, eyes wide and hair ruffled. Bachira, smiling mischievously, reaches up to mess it up even more. He leans back quickly to avoid his partner’s playful swat, sticking his tongue out and crossing his arms. The writer sighs fondly and takes a seat.
The Christmas party begins with the games. “It must have been Akiko-san who planned the games,” Isagi comments as they get up to start another round of musical chairs. Takarra-san had to forcefully drag her co-facilitator back to the sidelines when the first game, the boat is sinking, started.
They played 5 games including Pictionary, which was most likely picked by the art facilitator, before they are allowed to eat the food and drinks brought by everyone. Everything looked so good, Bachira ends up putting a little bit of all the food on his paper plate.
(As he reaches for a cookie, both he and Isagi watch Takarra-san physically restrain Akiko-san from pouncing onto the table of food. Ever since he found out the writing facilitator wrote Golden Stars, he started observing her more. So far, other than the time she gave him advice on confessing, there is little to no signs of the poetic Kagami Kokoro. Bachira thinks he understands her choice of using a different pen name a little bit more.)
When everyone finished their food, they’re called to the stage for the Secret Santa gift exchange. Each pair first pass the gift table to grab whatever has their name on it then sits on the stage to open it. Bachira doesn’t take long before he finds his gift. It’s the size of a bond paper, really, really thin, and has his name written on a white card in strangely familiar handwriting. He watches, heart skipping multiple beats, as Isagi picks up the rolled-up poster and returns to his side. They walk up the stage together.
Bachira feels his face turn red as Isagi peels off the tape, unrolls the poster, and pauses. He thinks his partner’s face reddens too when he reads the note from another rolled-up paper that tumbled out the poster.
The first poem I read of yours never left my mind,
Like the warmth of the sun never left even during winter.
While Isagi reads rest of the note, Bachira opens his gift. He’s careful about the wrapper this time, and gently slides what feels like laminated paper out. The first thing he sees is a bee. Or, to be more specific, he sees a kinda wonky, colored drawing of a bee. Curious, he pulls it out more to look at the entire thing.
The handwritten words register next. The biggest ones spell out, “Easter Eggs.” It’s a poem based on the first illustration of his Isagi commented on. Surrounding the poem are tiny doodles of animals. There’s the bee from earlier, another bee on the other side of the title, a couple of dolphins (that he thinks are sharks until he looks closer), and other random things. He also sees what looks like his usual coffee order near the bottom corner of the page.
Isagi wrote him another poem. Isagi is his Secret Santa, and he wrote him another poem. And drew all around it. Despite telling Bachira in the past how he isn’t good at drawing and doesn’t like doing it.
Isagi wrote him another poem, drew all around it, and laminated the paper to give it to him as a Christmas gift. God, if he keeps this up, Isagi might just be the death of him.
The workshop Christmas party ends at 9 pm. Bachira and Isagi stay a little bit longer to at least help the facilitators pick up all the trash. Then, they start walking back to the dorms together.
“I have something to tell you, but I’ll reveal it once we finish the comic,” Isagi says, keeping his gaze on the ground. “Can you believe it? There’s only three months left before it all ends.”
“We were destined to meet,” Bachira blurts out, heart hammering against his chest, but he knows that, this time, it’s because he’s afraid. “Can we continue being friends even after the workshop ends?”
His partner stops walking and looks at him, cheeks pink and features soft under the moonlight. “We’re not going to stop being friends even once the workshop ends,” he lets out a short laugh. Bachira finds himself melting because of it. “Besides, you’re never going to let me go that easily.”
They continue their weekly meetings in the café, already in the critical moments of making the comic. So far, they’ve finished half of the story already. Akiko-san and Takarra-san give more and more time for the artist and writer pairs to work on their final projects during the workshop sessions. The facilitators also occasionally check on everyone, complimenting frames or answering questions.
The last three months of the workshop is a blur between the comic meetings with Isagi, workshop meetings, college classes, work for the college classes, and the constant anticipation of what it is Isagi wants to tell him.
Bachira finds himself thinking about it during the most random moments. It can be during class as he’s drawing a winter landscape, while working in his dorm where he can always see the short poem of Isagi’s he printed and taped to his wall, or even when he’s about to sleep. The anticipation makes him more restless. He gives himself a lot of other art projects to do, like anatomy studies and new illustrations of things he doesn’t usually draw, just to try to keep his mind off it.
(He still sees Isagi’s pink cheeks and fond smile in his sleep and dreams of Isagi’s bright laughter echoing through the night.)
The closer the last workshop meeting comes, the more worried he becomes. Keeping himself busy isn’t working anymore. Unsure of what to do to feel normal again the week before their last meeting, he rereads Golden Stars as many times as he could.
Maika finally tells Tomoe about her feelings during a festival. It was late at night, the stars in the sky easily visible, and the two were resting from all the activity. Bachira remembers reading the scene for the first time, unable to put down the book to do the illustration he was currently working on.
“You constantly call me ‘precious’. You make sure you make time to talk to me every day. You’ve done so many things to make me feel special. But why do you do it?”
“I do it because you’re important to me. I do it because I don’t want you to feel like a side character in your own life anymore. I care for you, Tomoe. And…”
“And what?”
“And I’ve liked you for quite some time now. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything until now.”
Bachira also remembers having to stop reading to jump up and start running around to get rid of all the feelings appearing in his heart before he lets it all out with a scream.
(In the story, Tomoe replies with a pleasantly surprised smile and says, “I like you too, Maika.” The good mood Bachira gets because of it doesn’t leave even after that day ended.)
Should he confess? Should he tell Isagi everything before his partner says anything? Or should he just keep everything to himself and wait for what Isagi wants to tell him?
The night before they have to present their final output, Bachira barely gets any sleep.
Despite being sleep deprived, their presentation goes smoothly. Akiko-san and Takarra-san say their final goodbyes to all the students, thanking them for all their hard work during all the comic book writing workshop meetings. Bachira tears up, giving both facilitators hugs after everyone else leaves.
“Thank you for telling me you two made my favorite book,” he grins through the tears. “I’ll miss you both. You taught us a lot the past 6 months.”
“Any time, Bachira,” Takarra-san says. “Do not worry, you can still talk to us through our social media accounts whenever you need us.”
Akiko-san places her hands on his shoulders reassuringly. “Good luck, little bee,” she smiles gently, as if she knows what’s about to happen. “Just believe in yourself. I know you can do whatever you set your heart to.”
The facilitators leave for a while, leaving Bachira alone with Isagi in the room. They turn to each other, staying silent for a few moments. Slowly, Bachira walks to sit down beside Isagi, just like how they’ve always been since the first workshop meeting. He still remembers when he asked the writer if they could be partners. He didn’t bother turning to anyone else. Even back then, his heart knew Isagi is what it wants.
Eventually, the artist speaks. “So, what did you want to tell me?” His heartbeat has been racing since the facilitators left. He keeps his gaze on his lap, very aware of the redness of his face.
(Bachira knows looking at Isagi would only make his anxiety worse.)
He vaguely hears soft shuffling before warm hands wrap around his. Surprised, he looks up to his partner’s eyes and notices he also has an equally red face.
(It doesn’t register that this is the first time they’ve held hands. Every time Bachira leads them somewhere, he always holds Isagi by the wrist. It also doesn’t register that Isagi hasn’t initiated any contact with him other than the occasional hugs until now.)
“First of all,” Isagi starts, and Bachira gives him his full attention. “Thank you for talking to me on the first workshop day. Thank you for pairing up with me for the final project. Thank you for all the free coffee and encouragement drawings and notes. Many times, I found myself giving up on my progress for research class, but I would look at your drawings and everything is all right again.
“Second, you inspire me a lot. Everyday, I look at your illustrations and notice more and more hidden things. It’s so cool how you can include so many elements in an artwork and make it all look coherent.
“Lastly, I’m scared to lose you too, you know?”
At this, Bachira’s eyes widen. Isagi looks at him, an expression of determination on his face.
“I thought about asking this for the longest time, and now your ever-constant positive outlook on life has given me courage. Bachira, what if we become partners for real and not just for a comic book writing workshop?”
The artist thinks he officially malfunctions at that. “Partners? Life partners? Like, as in, you want me to be your boyfriend?” he asks just to make sure, head spinning.
Isagi gives him that smile again. “Yeah,” he says, grip on Bachira’s hands tightening. “I’m asking you to become my boyfriend.”
Later, Bachira finds out Isagi’s lips taste like his usual black coffee order from the café they work on their comic in. This time, Bachira discovers he doesn’t hate the taste as much as he used to.