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Saga was never one to stick to one particular type of book, finding the thought of limiting the amount of books he had to read unappealing. Today, he’d decided to read some manga, specifically shoujo manga.
It wasn’t something that he’d made a habit of doing often, but he never saw the harm in it. To him, manga were just as interesting a medium of storytelling as the prose he’d more often lean towards in novels. He may not have been the target demographic for shoujo manga, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate it.
He might as well have been living through one at the moment—as his boyfriend of just a couple of weeks, Oda Ritsu, had described seeing him take home an abandoned kitten from a cardboard box while it had been raining.
While Saga hadn’t thought much of it in that moment beyond thinking that a cat might make some good company in the place he found hard to even call a home, looking back on it, he’d become a walking shoujo manga trope. Or rather, they were a walking shoujo manga trope. It seemed to have endeared himself to Ritsu even further, if the way he had talked about it had been any indication.
That was one of the most typical love story tropes…catching the tall, dark haired, mysterious upperclassman doing something uncharacteristically soft and falling in love. Although Ritsu had definitely been keeping an eye on him for much longer than he’d had Sorata around, and while Saga didn’t think he was mysterious by any stretch of the matter, Ritsu seemed to think otherwise. He would jump at every little thing Saga did, and it was becoming worrisome.
He wanted to figure out a way to make Ritsu be more comfortable around him, because although his jumpiness was cute to a point, he didn’t see them developing their relationship further as things were now.
Hence why he had decided to flip through some shoujo manga, because as embarrassing as it was to admit, he had little to no real life reference on how to navigate a romantic relationship properly. His own past dating experience had gone poorly, his parents were the absolute worst example that he could imagine, and there were no other adults he saw regularly in his life that he could look to for advice. All he had were books—because there was no way he was going to directly ask Ritsu.
Shoujo manga were the first thing he could think of to look to for help. He didn’t care if the girls surrounding the manga section or the clerk at the bookstore looked at him a bit funny for the stack of tooth-rotting romance he had piled up in his arms, he was on a mission: make Ritsu more comfortable around him.
The main issue that he came upon though was that some of the male leads in the series he’d picked up that were very clearly being depicted as being in the wrong early on were reminding him a bit too much of some of the things he’d already screwed up with Ritsu—particularly that time where he absolutely tore into him at the school library. Some of the couples even approached breaking up over similar scenarios.
Did Ritsu think he was the reason that Saga blew up that day? Is that part of why he always seemed on edge over every little thing? But even before that Ritsu was pretty jumpy, and Ritsu never really said anything further about that day besides forgiving him and brushing the whole thing off, so…
Thinking back on it, it didn’t really feel like forgiveness, so much as taking responsibility for something that wasn’t even his fault. Saga’s chest ached a bit out of guilt. He’d gotten so caught up in falling in love that he never truly ended up apologizing for what he did.
Seated at his usual spot in the library, Saga waited for Ritsu to show up more impatiently than usual, one of his legs bouncing uncharacteristically. He wanted to see Ritsu as soon as possible so that he could apologize, but showing up at his classroom felt awkward as there would probably still be others around. The library was far more quiet, and they’d have privacy that way.
…But it wasn’t as if they’d made an agreement to meet up after classes in the library every day. It was just something he’d assumed was some foregone conclusion ever since Ritsu had confessed his feelings. What if Ritsu happened to have something else to do or just felt like going home right away?
Right as Saga was about to stand up to go look for him, Ritsu slid the library door open. His face lit up in that way that Saga never quite understood how he deserved to be on the receiving end of.
He sped walk over to him and Saga’s heart picked up a bit as Ritsu took his usual spot beside him.
“Hi, Saga-senpai!” He greeted, his cheeks taking on a light pink hue. “How are you?”
“I’m fine-” Saga’s voice cracked up a pitch slightly and he felt his stomach flip. Stupid puberty. It did little to help his leg bouncing, which Ritsu thankfully hadn’t seemed to take notice of. “There was actually something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh-um, what is it?” Ritsu straightened in his chair, giving Saga his full attention. He seemed a bit nervous—more than his usual at least.
“About the other day, when I yelled at you…” Each word he got out made his chest tighter, and he could swear he felt his palms getting sweaty. “I’m sorry.”
“O-oh, um…” Ritsu looked down at his tightly closed fists. “It’s okay, I understand why you would say those things-”
“No, I don’t want you to think you were at fault for any of what I said. You just happened to be there after I had a really bad day, I had no right to lash out on you the way that I did when all you were just being considerate of me…” He scratched the back of his head, watching Ritsu’s reaction to his words carefully. “I’m sorry I didn’t apologize sooner...you aren’t annoying or gross or any of those things that I said.”
Ritsu blinked quickly, seemingly trying to urge away any tears—but it was a fruitless effort.
“I-s-sorry, I don’t mean to cry, I-” Ritsu wiped his eyes. “T-thank you, Senpai, I accept your apology.”
A huge weight off his chest, Saga scooted their chairs closer together, hugging Ritsu close.
“You don’t need to apologize, I’m the one apologizing here.” His smile leaking into his voice, he felt Ritsu’s entire body go rigid in his arms. “If there’s anything that I can do to make up for all this, just tell me.”
“Um…” Ritsu’s voice came out quietly, muffled by Saga’s uniform coat. “…Just being able to be around you is enough for me.”
God, what did Saga do to deserve this? He pulled back a bit, still keeping Ritsu in his arms, kissing him on the forehead. Ritsu’s entire body seemed to go red with just that small action, and as he began squirming, Saga pulled him closer again so that he couldn’t run off.
“Um, Senpai, I don’t think I can stay very long today, so-” Saga’s arms tightened around him, and Ritsu’s voice went up a pitch. “I-I have to attend something with my parents tonight, so…”
“Why'd you bother coming to the library today then?” Saga already knew the answer, but he asked anyway.
“I wanted to-um…” Ritsu trailed off, heat radiating off of his body. Saga chuckled quietly, only making things worse. “Y-you’re making fun of me, aren’t you?!”
“Let me make this easier for you.” Saga pulled back, hands on Ritsu’s shoulders now, the smallest curve to his lips. “Did you come because you wanted to see me?”
Ritsu nodded, staring. Saga leaned in again, giving him a quick peck to the lips.
“Okay, you can go home if you have to, don’t worry about keeping me company.” Saga pulled back, and watched Ritsu stand up on jelly-legs.
“Um!” Ritsu took a shaky step away, eyes screwed shut. “Thank you again for the apology, Senpai. I really appreciate it! I’ll see you tomorrow then! Goodbye!” He dashed off, nearly running straight into the door on his way out.
Saga just exhaled through his nose, somehow having fallen even more in love.
The next day, instead of waiting for Ritsu in the library after classes let out, Saga went straight to the first year classrooms. Although Ritsu hadn’t mentioned it directly to him, his class number was on the library check-out cards.
Thankfully when he got to Class 1-2, Ritsu hadn’t left yet, still gathering up his books and supplies.
“Hey.” Saga greeted, walking up to him. “I was thinking of heading to some bookstores today, do you want to go with me?”
“Senpai!” Ritsu turned so fast that he knocked some of his things off his desk. “Ah, sorry, I wasn’t expecting you!”
“I didn’t mean to scare you, my bad.” Saga crouched down, beginning to gather up Ritsu’s things.
“Oh, no, you don’t have to-” Ritsu leant forward in his seat, and ended up bonking heads with Saga by mistake. He pulled back quickly, arms frantically swinging about. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you like that!”
“It’s fine, really.” Saga had gathered up all of Ritsu’s things, putting them back on his desk. “So? Do you want to go?”
“Oh, yes! I should be able to today!” Ritsu nodded enthusiastically.
“Good.” Saga stood back up and patted Ritsu’s head. “Finish packing up your stuff and we can get going.”
“Sure!”
When the two of them got to their first bookstore for the evening, they split up to different sections, having different books in mind. Ritsu headed off to a section containing foreign language books while Saga headed off to the manga section—he settled in the shoujo manga section as he had a few days ago, on the hunt for more reference material.
“Have you read the most recent volume of this series?” His ears twitched upon hearing conversation on the other end of the aisle between two girls around their age.
“Yeah! The male lead has been bugging me so much in recent chapters! He’s letting the girl do all the heavy lifting with the emotional talks and it makes her feel like he’s not really interested.”
“Yeah, it’s really annoying! It’s like, how can he not see what he’s doing is going to hurt her?! If he likes her he should just man up and say he likes her already!”
Saga gnawed on the inside of his mouth upon hearing that. Just slightly touching Ritsu sent him into hysterics at times. Confessing felt like far too high of a hurdle for them as things were now.
“Is something wrong, Saga-senpai?” Ritsu’s voice broke him out of his eavesdropping, having returned to Saga’s side with a small stack of books to purchase in his arms.
“No, I was just thinking about this bo-” Saga looked down at the book in his hands, one of those tooth rotting, fluffy shoujo romance manga that he’d been looking to for reference lately. “...This book.”
“Do you like manga, Senpai? I remember you mentioned it one time at your house.” Ritsu had picked up a copy for himself, oblivious to its contents despite the absurd amount of flowers and colors on the cover.
“Yeah, I like manga, but if you were to start reading it I don’t know if that would be a good one for you.” Saga took the book from Ritsu and put it back on the display table. “I think a shounen manga would suit you better.”
“Do you have any recommendations?” Ritsu looked up at him, eyes wide and hopeful.
“Well…”
Despite the fact that they were dating now, there were still mornings where Ritsu was definitely following Saga around on the commute to school. Saga didn’t get it, thinking that Ritsu should be comfortable enough around him now to just approach him properly and be beside him.
So instead of just waiting for it to happen, this morning Saga approached him on his own, taking a seat next to him on the train.
“Morning.” Saga greeted him nonchalantly.
“G-good morning, Senpai.” Ritsu hung his head slightly, tenting his fingers. “How are y-”
“Is this actually the train you have to take from where you live, or do you only come this way to follow me?” Saga got straight to the point, much to Ritsu’s embarrassment.
“Ah-um-well…” He looked anywhere but at Saga. “...to follow you.”
“You know, I noticed you following me in the mornings a long time ago. Do you have to get up extra early to get here in time for me to show up?”
“J-just an extra forty five minutes early, it’s not a big deal…” Ritsu shrugged, unaware of how ridiculous that statement was.
Saga hummed at this, trying to hide how that had somehow only endeared Ritsu to himself even more.
They fell into a silence, Ritsu only daring to peek up because Saga had made a point to pretend to stare out the window. He could see in his peripheral vision that he was being watched, but he didn’t mind. He had gotten to a point where having Ritsu’s eyes on him and him alone was never a bad thing.
One stop before they would be at the station closest to their school, an elderly woman boarded the train. Out of respect, Ritsu offered up his seat, which she thanked him for with a smile. Curse Ritsu and his manners.
Partially out of displeasure about sitting next to some random old lady, but mostly out of wanting to stick to Ritsu’s side, Saga stood up and held the hand rail closest to the one that Ritsu had just grabbed onto. They didn’t say anything to each other until their stop, but he could feel Ritsu’s gaze on him.
“Ugh, we’re going to have to wait for that stupid crossing…” Saga grumbled as they hopped off the train.
“I-Is it really that bad?” Ritsu asked, as if he hadn’t personally stood behind it hundreds of times now.
“Maybe not for you, you were always occupied just a few meters back staring at me.” Saga threw a look over his shoulder. “Right?”
“So you noticed that, too…” Ritsu fiddled with his school bag handle, a small frown on his face. “Sorry…”
“You don’t need to apologize.”
Ritsu stared at him with wide eyes, and Saga pretended not to notice the way he had begun blushing.
They approached the crossing, its sharp dinging echoing across the otherwise quiet landscape.
Before Ritsu could get nervous and back off, Saga grabbed onto his hand.
“Wh-what are you-”
“Holding your hand.” Saga said matter-of-factly. “Do you not want me to?”
“...I don’t not want you to.” Ritsu mumbled.
Saga hummed quietly, and that ghost of a smile appeared on his face again. It was hard to not acknowledge the intense stare being directed at him, but he had three years of practice under his belt, so he managed just fine.
They waited out the crossing together, and after a train whirred by, the crossing gates finally rose up, allowing them to finish their commute to school.
After switching into their indoor shoes at the school entrance, they saw each other off with the promise of meeting up later.
“Later” usually meant meeting up in the library after classes had wrapped up at the end of the day. But today, Saga made his way to Ritsu’s classroom during lunch break, intending to spend it with him.
He entered the classroom just before a girl with long brown hair, who was right at his heels as he approached Ritsu’s desk.
“Hey, Ritsu.”
“Hi, Ricchan!”
Both of them spoke at the same time. They turned and looked at each other as Ritsu looked up from his desk in surprise.
“Saga-senpai, An-chan!” He exclaimed, not having expected both of them to approach him at the same time.
The two of them gave each other once overs, each equally irritated to have their desired alone time with Ritsu interrupted.
“Oh, um, you probably don’t know each other, do you? Senpai, this is-”
“Kohinata An.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Saga Masamune.” He shoved his free hand in his pants pocket, trying to hide his jealousy at the fact that a girl was interfering with what was going to be (he hoped) the first of many lunch periods spent with Ritsu.
Ritsu just blinked up at the two of them, oblivious to the tension between them.
“Did you have business with Ricchan today?” An asked coolly. “I usually spend lunch break with him every day.”
“Oh, you do?” Saga glanced towards Ritsu, curious about his relationship with this girl. “Can I borrow him for today?
An looked at Ritsu now, waiting for him to make the choice.
“...Just for today would be fine, right?” Ritsu did that small smile that he did sometimes that made it hard to tell him no.
“I can go back to my class and eat with some of my friends, don’t worry about me.” She backed up slightly, allowing Ritsu to stand up, jaw dropping at the way Saga threw an arm around his shoulder possessively.
“S-see you tomorrow, An-chan!” Ritsu stuttered out, blushing at the physical contact.
When they were a good distance away from the classroom, Saga finally spoke up again.
“So who was that?” He asked, keeping a careful eye on Ritsu.
“Oh, um, An-chan is my childhood friend, our parents have known each other for a long time.” Ritsu explained. “And, uh, Senpai?”
“What?” He asked, not all that satisfied with the answer.
“Could…could you move your arm?” Ritsu slumped awkwardly in his hold.
Saga shrugged and pulled back, as they’d arrived at where he’d planned to eat anyways—a bench in the courtyard that wasn’t all that far from where the orchestra kids usually practiced.
They settled in and opened up their lunches—Ritsu’s looking stupidly fancy just as Saga had expected it to. He idly wondered if he was eating stuff like that at home all the time, and who was the one making it. How big was the home Ritsu was living in anyways? He wanted to visit and see what Ritsu’s room looked like…
“Um, Senpai, you’ve been looking at my food for awhile, did you want some?”
Saga cocked his head slightly before a gentle smile appeared on his face. He opened his mouth slightly, saying “Ahhh”.
“Eh?” Ritsu’s eyes became huge and he shakily grabbed a piece of meat with his chopsticks, bringing it up towards Saga’s mouth. “Um, here.”
Saga shook his head and gestured towards himself, not letting Ritsu off that easily.
“.........” Saga was certain he could hear a small whine coming from the back of Ritsu’s throat as he brought the food to his lips, and he finally took his bite. “H-how is it?”
“...It’s good.” Saga said after swallowing it. “Who made it?”
“Oh, um…we have staff at home.” Ritsu admitted sheepishly. “I’m not sure who exactly made it today, there’s a couple different people who take care of that kind of thing.”
Oh.
He was rich rich.
That probably meant that the childhood friend girl was from just as wealthy of a family.
Did Ritsu’s parents care about the status of his partner? Would they even be okay with him being with another guy? He found himself caring more about their opinions than his own parents, as he didn’t even see himself keeping in contact with them once he graduated high school.
“...Did you want more?” Ritsu had grabbed another piece and was holding it up again, and Saga happily dove in for the bite, quietly “Ahh”ing again.
Some passing students laughed at the sight, and Ritsu looked just about ready to melt into a puddle.
Saga found himself laughing as well, and Ritsu’s blush only got worse.
Getting through classes day to day was already a drag before Ritsu had confessed to him, but now they posed a whole new obstacle—rather than getting in the way of him spending time in the library, they got in the way of the library where he’d get to spend time with Ritsu.
So when his braided classmate approached him timidly after he’d already packed up his things, he found himself a bit irritated.
“Um, Saga-kun, we have cleaning duty today.” She mumbled.
This girl hadn’t approached him since he rejected her a couple weeks ago, and he could understand why. That was something that likely took a lot of courage on her part, and he turned her down. Now he could say with certainty what he’d told her that day was true. He was in love with someone else—someone who he very much wanted to be with right now instead of cleaning their classroom up for the day.
It wasn’t a huge deal...just move all the desks to the side of the class and do some sweeping and such. The big deal was that he hadn’t been able to warn Ritsu about it, so if he was just sitting in the library he might get worried about him and think something was wrong and-
“...Saga-senpai?” Speaking of, Ritsu popped his head into the classroom.
“Oh, hello! We’ll be done in just a bit if you need to speak to Saga-kun.” The braided girl greeted Ritsu kindly, smiling.
“I-I can help if you’d like.” He took cautious steps into the classroom, leaving his bag by the door. “My name is O-”
“Oda, why don’t you come help me sweep over here?” Saga beckoned him over, grabbing a second broom.
Ritsu cocked his head to one side, eyebrows furrowing…until an absolutely horrified expression came upon his face. Despite how uncomfortable he looked, Ritsu came over and began to help clean, cutting the amount of time spent in half. After they got all the desks back into place, the braided girl parted ways with them, waving as she left.
“Ever since you got here, you’ve been acting weird.” Saga observed. “Well, weirder than usual.”
“It’s just, um…” Ritsu was gripping down on the hem of his uniform jacket harshly, unable to meet Saga’s gaze.
“Did I do something wrong?” Saga asked, worried he’d somehow messed up again.
“No, um, it’s not you at all! It’s just, really, really embarrassing…” Ritsu sunk onto the floor, bottom lip quivering.
Saga crouched down next to him, even more curious now than he was before.
“...My last name isn’t Oda.” Ritsu whispered, barely loud enough to be heard.
Saga just stared at him, unsure if he’d even heard Ritsu correctly.
“...What? But the checkout cards-”
“Gahh! I never introduced myself, I’m such an idiot! Of course you found out using the checkout cards!” Ritsu curled in on himself, absolutely mortified.
“What is your last name then?” He could be upset about this situation later, so instead Saga decided to just get some clarity.
“Onodera.” Ritsu replied through gritted teeth.
“Like the publishing house?” He asked.
“Um, yes, that’s the one…” Ritsu looked up at him for the first time since crouching over. “That’s my family’s company.”
Saga stared at Ritsu with wide eyes. No wonder Ritsu’s family was rich! They owned one of the most successful publishing companies in the country! But there were more important things here to be caught up on, like…
“Shit, I can’t believe I didn’t even know my own boyfriend’s name.” Saga grumbled, missing the way that Ritsu briefly forgot how to breathe at hearing himself be referred to in such a way. “Were you even planning on even saying anything?”
“Well, you-you never really called me ‘Oda’ until today, so I didn’t know that you didn’t know. I’m so sorry, I was just worried that if you noticed my name on the check-out cards you’d think I was stalking you!”
“Well you kind of were, fake name or not.” Saga just covered his forehead with his palm, shaking his head. “Is there anything else I should know about?”
“I-I don’t think so?”
“Well I guess we should be happy I found out now rather than later, right? Could you imagine how long this could’ve gone on for if this hadn’t happened today?”
“I’m really sorry, I didn’t realize that I hadn’t introduced myself…”
“It’s fine, you were kind of occupied when you spoke with me for the first time.”
Ritsu trained his gaze downwards, too embarrassed to meet Saga’s eyes. They sat quietly for a bit, taking all this new information in, until Ritsu couldn’t handle it anymore, too curious about one particular thing.
“Um, Senpai, you…”
“What?” Saga asked, wanting to hear whatever it was Ritsu had to say.
“Um, it’s just…” Ritsu began playing with his hands again. “You called me your…‘boyfriend’.”
“Well yeah, that’s what you are, aren’t you?” Saga raised a brow at him. He thought that even if Ritsu’s self-esteem wasn’t the greatest he’d at least understand that much.
“It’s just…you haven’t been all that clear is all. So, um…” Saga just continued looking at him expectantly until he continued. “I guess what I want to ask is, do…do you love me?”
Saga blinked once, twice, three times.
Was this why Ritsu had been so awkward all the time? Had he been wanting to ask about that? Had his actions not made that clear enough up until this point? Apparently so, since he bothered asking to begin with.
This was Ritsu after all. He had to put it clearly or risk putting a rift between the two of them…even if it was the first time in his life properly confessing his love to someone. Not that he’d ever experienced such a feeling towards anyone else before.
All the shoujo manga that he’d read in his attempts to study were escaping him at this moment, and the longer he took to reply, the more likely it was Ritsu might misunderstand—so he had to just hurry up and get on with it! Stupid teenage pride be damned!
“...Yes.” Saga nodded, taking Ritsu’s hands in his own. “I do love you. I may not express that as well as you do, but I do try to. I must have been doing a pretty bad job if you didn’t think I did though.”
“N-no, you-!” Ritsu inhaled sharply, his hands beginning to shake in Saga’s grasp. “You’ve seemed much…happier lately is all, I didn’t want to be conceited or anything but I thought um…I might have something to do with it, so-um!” Saga yanked Ritsu towards him, pulling him in for a kiss. When they pulled apart Ritsu’s face was bright red.
“That’s exactly it.” He squeezed Ritsu’s hands. “Being around you and falling in love with you has made me so much happier than I was before.”
“I…” Tears began to streak down Ritsu’s face. He pulled up a hand to begin wiping away at them. “I-I’m really happy to hear that, Senpai.”
“I would have said it sooner if I knew you were worried about that kind of thing.” Saga brought up a hand, wiping Ritsu’s cheek with the pad of his thumb.
Ritsu’s crying got even worse as he let out a wail, and Saga recoiled slightly. These must have been feelings that he’d been holding in for awhile.
“Come here.” Saga pulled him close again, arms wrapping around his shoulders. Ritsu reciprocated, clinging to his back, cries muffled by the fabric of his uniform.
“I love you so, so much, Senpai…”
It was muffled, but he was certain that had been what he heard.