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“Psssttt, hey traffic earring” a voice whispered
There it was again, the annoying pestering voice of a pink-haired spirit had been haunting him during class time.
“Don’t ignore me loser, I know you can hear me.” The voice said, now at a normal volume
Kou knew he couldn’t respond. One: because he was in the middle of a lesson, and two: because if he did, he’d look schizophrenic. So he opted to write on a piece of paper.
‘Stfu or I swear on god i will exorcize you after school’
Kou felt the presence looking over his shoulder and then he heard an annoyed sigh, “That’s so mean, how could you ever possibly think of hurting my beautiful face,” Mitsuba mused, “Or do you just want to knock my unconscious so you can have your way with me you sick bastard!”
Kou let out an exasperated sigh as he dropped his head face first on the face of his desk, feeling his cheeks go red. Not that he wanted to do that because he definitely didn’t! It’s just that whenever Mitsuba would say something like that it got him all flustered, who wouldn’t be, that’s not the most wanted or pg thing to be put into someone's head in the middle of history.
‘i hate you so much’
Mitsuba gasped dramatically and ‘fell’ over Kou’s desk, “How could you say that?” He pouted, with a false sense of despair.
He shuffled his pencil out from under Mitsuba’s back and wrote one final thing, ‘just talk to me after class… theres literally 10 minutes’ then added ‘you dramatic asshole’ before shoving into the pink-haired ghosts face. The physics of that are confusing but Kou was an exorcist so it wasn’t too strange for him.
Mistuba huffed and elected to just go off and see who else he could bother, which would probably be Nene and Hanako. Kou would apologize to them later.
Kou nodded off for a moment but before he knew it, the bell rang and he had to drag himself over to the highschool building to clean Hanako’s bathroom.
When he arrived Hanako was already prancing all over, pestering Nene as she mopped the floor. They both noticed him and Hanako floated over to hand him a rag.
“Where’s number three? Isn’t he usually with you?” He asked looking around
Nene chuckled, “Did you guys fight or something, he came to bother me while I was gardening,” She asked
“No, he was being annoying so I told him to fuck off,” Kou threw his backpack in the corner, “And then he pouted and left.”
“Ooohh, trouble in paradise huh?” Hanako raised his eyebrows a couple times and Nene snickered.
Nene and Hanako had been teasing him because he and Mituba were together so often. He would try to tell them they weren’t dating but they always replied with something sarcastic.
Kou huffed and rolled his eyes, though he could feel a bit of heat on his cheeks, “We aren’t dating guys, plus I only have the hots for girls alright?"
“Well guess what,” Hanako paused for suspense, “Mitsuba looks like a girl so he’s right up your alley! Oh gotcha!”
“Yeah, I mean he got the looks and you two already bicker like a married couple so-” Nene added
Kou sputtered for a second on a comeback but he had nothing so he just gave up, his face red in frustration. To which Hanako cackled and Nene giggled
“I can’t deal with this today man,” His face still burning as he muttered to himself, spraying down the glass mirrors.
Unbeknownst to him, there was a certain pink-haired ghost spying in on the other side of the mirror.
No Mitsuba wasn’t picking at him because he wanted Kou’s attention (He definitely was). And he most certainly didn't want his attention because he had a crush on him (He’s lying he definitely does). And he absolutely was not satisfied by the fact that Kou got flustered at the idea of dating him (This is the giddiest he’s ever felt).
If he had to be honest, Kou had thought about dating Mitsuba once or twice but who is he kidding. He could never date a ghost, could he?
~
The next day was the same thing, Mitsuba bothered Kou during class before he got shooed off to see Nene instead. She, being the wing-woman of the century, kept telling him to just confess instead of trying to push feelings out of the ginger boy.
“Do you just want me to ask him for you?” She asked while lugging a bag of soil to the planter she was working at.
“Absolutely not, it has to come naturally!” Mitsuba insisted, “I can’t ask him because then that’s like a total violation of the rules of confessing.”
“Oh? And what are those?” Nene humored
“Well obviously the hunkier one has to ask out the cuter one, that’s just how it works,” He started, “And it has to be all romantic and planned out, but if he’s in denial then it won’t work,”
“How about I ask him about it and try to just nudge him a bit in your direction, because I’m sure he likes you, he just thinks that you would make fun of him,” She paused to think for a moment, “Because honestly, you probably would.”
Mitsuba gasped, placing a hand over his chest, “You suck! I would never,”
Nene gave him a look and he shrugged in a ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about’ kind of way.
She sighed and just decided to talk to Kou one on one later.
The school bell rang and Nene grabbed her bag before heading to the bathroom, Hanako’s bathroom that is. She figured she’d talk to Hanako about her and Mitsuba’s conversation before Kou arrived.
She thought carefully about Misuba’s words, “It seems like he does like Kou but he’s so hard to read!” She thought aloud, “And Kou gets all flustered when we tease him about it so maybe-”
“Maybe what?”
“OH SHIT!” She shrieked, flipping around to see Hanako floating over her shoulder, “Stop doing that! Man, I hate it when you sneak up on me.”
He snickered, “That didn’t answer my question Yashiro, I said, maybe what?”
“I was just thinking about Kou and Mitsuba,” She buzzed her lips in a minor frustration, “They both seem to like each other, but Kou is so deep in the closet that he isn’t aware of it yet and Mitsuba is being a sarcastic ass, as per usual, and it’s making it hard for me,”
“How is it hard for you? This seems to be a them problem,” Hanako sighed
“It’s hard for me because I’m nosy and I wanna know but I also wanna help but they just- UGH I HATE BOTH OF THEM!”
“Woah woah woah, let’s take it down a notch, you’re harshing the vibe of the bathroom,” He said, making a lowering motion with his hands
Now fully taking in her surroundings, Nene realized she was, in fact, standing in the middle of the bathroom with a mop. This situation was taking all of her focus and she needed to solve it, not only for the boys, but for herself as well.
And not 3 seconds later, Kou and Mitsuba came through the door and Nene just looked at him. She looked at him and then made the decision that she would either talk to him now, or forever hold her piece and that was not happening.
“Kou, could I borrow you for a second please?” She asked
“Sure I gu-”
She cut him off, “Thanks so much, come along now,” She didn’t even wait for him to follow her, she just grabbed the back of his shirt and started walking.
“Hey let go!” He said, squirming as he got pulled down the hallway
“Not until you admit you have a crush on Mitsuba,”
“A crush? What? What are you talking about dude?”
Nene stopped abruptly, leading Kou to fall onto his back allowing her the high ground. She stood over him and just started listing things.
“Do you remember all the times you’ve blushed while talking about Mitsuba? Because I do. Or the times that Hanako and I have teased you and you stuttered, or got flushed in the face, or do that weird thing you do when you look away and scratch your cheek. Or when you’re talking to Mitsuba and you slip up on your words and he makes fun of you and your stupid ass traffic-safety earring that you got for him because he got hit by a car and that’s how he died, or when you’re just getting all distracted like, staring at him longing like from across the room like you just want to give him a phat smooch on the mouth,” She huffed, not having taken a single breath throughout that whole rant
Kou just laid speechless and it looked like his brain was working overtime trying to wrap his head around all these unconscious moments he’s had. His face poofed red, it was really very comical, Nene could’ve sworn she saw steam rising from his face. By this point she had given up standing over him menacingly and opted to sit next to him as he stuttered out a response.
He sat up and sputtered for a second before turning his head to look at Nene, “Fine, I was lying, have I really been that obvious?”
She let out a sigh of relief, “Finally,” not bothering to respond to Kou’s question, prompting him to ask more.
“Does he know? Did he find out? How did you know?” Kou asked, frantic
“I knew before you did sweetheart, let’s just say that,” Nene snickered,
“Huh?” He looked at her confused, “Wait wait wait, does he even like me?”
“Duh, when else do you think I’m caught in the middle of this,”
“Well, then why didn’t he just ask me out?” Kou questioned, now even more confused
Nene let out an exasperated groan, having been reminded of Mitsuba’s stupid demands, “For starters, you were oh so adamant that you were straight and it’s kinda cliche to for a gay guy to ask out a straight guy,” She explained, “But also he said that the ‘hunkier one’ should ask out the cuter one,” She made air quote and rolled her eyes, “I could also ask the same to you though.”
“Hunkier?”
Nene gave him a look that said ‘do you really think I’m lying right now’. He looked back with a sheepish smile, understanding how Mitsuba could get.
“I’m not trying to force this on you by the way, it’s just getting lame seeing you two gaze longingly at the other from across the room,” Nene said, moving her legs to sit criss-cross applesauce.
“Yeah, I know, but now that I know that there’s a possibility he likes me back-” Kou started
She interjected, “ Does like you back,”
“-I don’t know how to ask him out,” He finished
“I would say the confession tree, but that’s long gone,” Nene thought aloud, “Why not write him a letter or just straight up tell him,”
“Noooo, both of those sound totally embarrassing dude!” Kou whined
“Quit being a baby, just think of something,” She patted him on the shoulder and then stood up, “I’ll leave you here to contemplate, Imma go back and finish cleaning. Good luck,”
Kou leaned against the hallway wall and groaned, now plagued with the curse of not being able to figure out how to ask Mitsuba out.
“I could write a note, no no, that’s stupid. What if I texted him? He’s dead, he doesn’t have a phone.” He spoke to himself, “Uuuggghhh,”
Kou took out his phone and started googling suggestions, not paying any mind to his surroundings. As he scrolled through the options a particular pink-haired spirit floated up next to him.
He hovered there for a few seconds before speaking up, “Whatcha doin ginger?”
Kou shrieked and threw his phone to the other side of the hallway. He tried to say something but all that came out was an incoherent stutter.
“What’d Nene want?” Mitsuba asked, laughing at Kou’s over the top reaction
“Ummm,” Kou tried to think of something while sliding to get his phone, “She just wanted advice on something, yeah,”
“She came to you ? For advice? You’re a bad liar, almost as bad as your stupid earring.” Mitsuba said, “So, what were you looking up, was it something pervy?”
“It’s nothing,” Kou said
“So it was something pervy, ewwww,”
“It wasn’t anything pervy, stop bothering me,”
“If it wasn’t pervy why won’t you tell me” Mitsuba pressed
“I will execute you, I swear!” Kou threatened
“Ooh, you get mean when you’re defensive, just tell me what you were looking up,” He said, floating up to Kou’s face, he could see his cheeks getting red.
The back and forth kept on for another minute before Kou finally blurted out, “GOD FINE! I was looking up ways to ask you out, you’re so fucking annoying,” He got up and started walking back to the bathroom, fully flustered.
Mitsuba just sat there in shock, he didn’t expect for Kou to say it that easily. Then his face slowly started growing pink as he realized what just happened.
Wait. Was he actually gonna ask me out? Wait- HE LIKES ME.
“Damn, Daikon-legs was right,”
(Back in the bathroom, Nene sneezed.)
Mitsuba then realized if he didn’t follow up with Kou now, this would never be brought up again. Not having to run to catch up would be the easiest thing about this, it was getting Kou to be un-mad that was going to be difficult.
He caught up to him and floated in front of him, to which Kou just swerved out of the way and continued on a bit faster than before.
“Come on, don’t ignore me,” Mitsuba said, staying close to his side
Kou didn’t pay him any mind until he blocked the path completely, “Just talk to me, I’m-” Mitsuba groaned like this physically pained him to say, “I’m sorry for pressing, ok?”
Kou looked up at him, tears pricked the corners of his eyes, “Yeah, sure you are, now let me through,”
Is he crying because of me?
Mitsuba shook his head, “Nope! Not until we do this properly,”
“Do what? You just forced a confession out of me after I tried to something nice, after all you do is make fun of me,” The tears were starting to gather up, making his vision blurred
“I didn’t mean to, ok? That’s just the way I am, I like you too, I promise.”
“Well it doesn’t really seem like you do,” Kou pushed around Mitsuba and wiped his eyes with the back of his arm, “So just forget it alright, forget I ever said anything,”
He tried to think of anything he could do to make Kou believe him; a dramatic confession of love? No he was above that. A love letter? No, that would take too long. And then an idea popped into his head, a perfect plan in his opinion.
So he grabbed Kou’s shoulder and spun him around so their lips could meet. It wasn’t at all graceful but he hoped it would get his point across.
Kou stood there stunned after Mitsuba pulled away, “There, believe me now?” He asked
The only response Kou could give was just pulling him in for another kiss. Mitsuba quickly melted into it and wrapped his arms around his shoulders, placing one hand on the back of his head. While Kou laid his hands on his hips.
The kiss deepened quickly and at this point they were just fully making out in the middle of the hallway. Kou was the first to pull away, obviously because he had to breathe and rested his head on Mitsuba’s shoulder.
“Dammit, now I owe Nene 2000 yen,” A voice came from a bit further down in the corridor.
Kou spun around to see Hanako hovering with a mop, “YOU TWO BET ON THIS?” He yelled, following up with, “Did you see all of that?”
He looked over at Mitsuba who was as red as he probably was and then back at Hanako who was slowly backing up.
“I was gonna tell you guys to come back and clean but I’ll let you off the chain for today,” He turned around and as he was leaving yelled, “BUT ONLY TODAY!”
Kou shifted back to Mitsuba who giggled nervously before breaking the silence, “Sooo-” He paused for a second, “So what are we now?”
“I suppose we could be boyfriends, does that sound right?” Kou said
“Yeah I think it does!” Mitsuba agreed, leaning back in to give Kou another kiss, to which he gladly accepted.
~
“No, yeah they were totally making out,” Hanako said when he got back, dropping the mop on the floor.
“See? I told you it would work out,” Nene said, “Now pay up,”
She held out her hand and Hanako slapped the money down, it was a mix of different sized bills and coins he had ‘found’ (read: stole) around the school.
“I hate it when you win” He whined, to which Nene flashed a shit-eating grin, flexing her winnings.