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Cornering her into the wall, he slams his hand beside her causing the cute maiden to yelp. Her heart starts to beat rapidly and her face burns pretty red. He entraps her, leans in, close. He lifts her head by tilting her chin upwards and then proceeds to whisper into her ear—
Poor girl.
Rui sighs. He should’ve done his research or asked someone experienced before picking this random romance manga… As in, he probably should’ve asked Mizuki.
Rui reads lots of books—he has from a young age. However, he has always chosen biographies or educational novels, rather than battle shounen which a typical, normal 7-year-old should be reading. So in retrospect, he doesn’t have much to associate or compare when it comes to manga, much less the shoujo genre.
He probably would’ve never had even the slightest interest in reading shoujo manga if it weren’t for a certain cutely dressed, pink-haired friend of Rui’s.
It’s no secret that Mizuki enjoys shoujo manga. Just from their personality in general—you could probably make the assumption that a person who very seriously devotes their appearance and personality, their very soul, into being cute, would be a fan of the genre.
Despite their favorite tropes being mostly Mahou Shoujo titles, the romance aspect is something Mizuki is very familiar with. The plot twists, tropes and types of pairings—Mizuki knows them all. Whenever they would read one they especially liked, Mizuki would go on for hours to tell Rui about how adorable the main couple was and retell their cutest scenes, how the author would incorporate age-old tropes and still make the readers’ hearts skip a beat as if they’ve haven’t seen the trope a million times.
After hearing tones of different tropes, one of the more, well, fun ones that stick out, to Rui, at least— is the classic kabedon.
It’s simple, really. In most situations, the taller love interest corners their crush into a wall with a bang. Their crush gets embarrassed, turns red, sometimes even squeaks, and goes ‘Kyaaaaaa!’ Unnamed love interest leans in close to their crush’s face to fluster them even more, and most of the time, at the end doesn’t even do anything to progress the main pairing’s never-ending mutual pining. It’s a trope made mostly to fluster.
Rather embarrassingly, it’s Rui’s favorite trope.
He loves thought-out love confessions, yes. Words and acts of affections with meaning is something he enjoys thoroughly and he himself focuses on it in real life, be it with his friends, or with—
His crush.
His crush, Akiyama Mizuki.
Sometimes Rui fantasizes—doing those cheesy tropes to Mizuki who loves them so much. And even… kabedoning his adorable crush. How would they react? Would they turn pretty pink and look away embarrassingly or would they run away in confusion and disgust, never talking to Rui again?
Ah, he’s having those thoughts again. He was supposed to be getting better.
One afternoon, after another eventful day of harassing the daily lives of Kamiyama students with various explosions and mishaps with his (unwilling) partner-in-crime Tsukasa-kun, Rui decides to live the role of a high school girl for a fleeting moment and venture into the shoujo part of a little corner manga store after school.
Browsing through the different titles, he recognizes some of the works that Mizuki has mentioned before, but Rui’s looking for something entirely new—to give him a new outlook of a certain trope, so to speak. Rui has always liked to expand his horizons, after all.
In his peripheral vision, he spots some high school girls who seem to be looking at him oddly. From their point of view, it could look like Rui’s just buying some new volume for their significant other or something. If only that were the case.
He notices a title he hasn’t heard of before—seemingly, a new one, judging by the single volume on the shelf. The cover seems typical enough, with what Rui presumes to be the main pairing holding each other in a tight embrace, with the male love interest looking smugly into the camera.
Taking the volume into his hands, he flips the manga to read the summary. On it, apparently, this series is supposed to pay a tribute to classic shoujo titles by adding a modern twist to infamous tropes commonly associated with the genre. It sounds… interesting, Rui supposes.
Making up his mind, he decides to purchase the volume after all and makes his way to the counter. Who knows? Rui might’ve found a hidden gem.
Choosing not to take the receipt, he mumbles a polite, ‘Thank you very much.’ and heads home.
On his way back, Rui goes through his head on what various tasks he needs to finish—robots for performances and club work so that his poor juniors suffer as little as possible. Rui’s a third year now. He has to be the responsible Kamishiro-senpai. It is sort of funny when people call him that—the fact that he’s actually recognized as an upperclassman, someone who is respected by his peers and juniors.
Way different than how he was treated before.
He doesn’t even realize he’s at his doorstep by now, it promptly distances himself from reminiscing about fairly negative memories. It’s an even better distraction when, entering his ‘room’, the scattered pictures of his troupe members and friends across his walls remind him that he is not lonely nor perceived as someone not worthy of love and respect. Not anymore.
Throwing his school bag in some random corner of his room, (he may be happier, but it appears he will always be messy at heart), along with his newly-purchased manga he settles onto his couch-bed-hybrid thing. It’s in couch-mode, currently. He has an actual bed in his room, but he repurposed the mattress space as a storage unit.
Anyhow, he has a shoujo to read. Settling his seal plush he won from the arcade when he was with Mizuki onto his lap, he opens the book. Another thing Mizuki likes to gush about is the volume’s colored art at the beginning of every series’ addition and how it’s unskippable, so Rui decides to pay special attention to the gorgeous art before getting into the actual story and plot.
Rui’s always loved books, after all.
— — — — — —
He doesn’t know why he took the manga with him to school.
Sitting against the railings of the familiar school rooftop as the spring sun lightly shines down his frame—he decides to continue, for some God forsaken reason, the poorly-written shoujo manga.
Every few pages has to scrunch his face in cringe and genuine confusion to the plot lines. The male love interest downright bullies the girl he supposedly has a crush on, not to mention, the so-called ‘modern twist’ was actually just the inclusion of dating apps playing into the storyline.
What a mess, Rui thinks.
He really should’ve checked the reviews, or read a more popular shoujo title to spare him from this awful—
“Uwa… That’s a scary expression~! Whatcha readin’?”
Rui jumps as Mizuki suddenly appears standing right beside them, he didn’t even hear the rooftop door opening, apparently. His expression softens at their unexpected arrival.
“Fufu, as you can see…” He lifts the book in demonstration, “I’m reading a shoujo manga. Courtesy of your undying love for them, I’ve decided to take a try. But, ah, it is sort of…”
“Badly written, huh?” Mizuki says Rui’s thoughts out loud. “Yeah… Sometimes shoujo manga can be kind of hit or miss at times~ You should’ve just asked me, silly!”
“I agree. I figured out that was the better option only later, unfortunately.” He stands up from his sitting position and leans against the railing next to Mizuki, facing them. Err, even if Mizuki’s a few seventeen centimeters shorter than him. “I did not even keep the receipt with me, so I cannot return it.”
“Ehhh!? Poor Rui~! If you really don’t want it, you can give it to me.” Mizuki says, but Rui doesn’t hear them as he seems to get distracted.
They have their hair down, and that alone does something strange through his entire body—but that’s not all. Today, their pretty pink hair is adorning cute hairclips of fruits, cats and bows. Mizuki’s nails are painted pink. Their face looks like it’s practically glowing. To Rui, Mizuki will always be the number one, most cutest person in the world, but this is even beyond that.
Rui can’t take it anymore.
Rising himself from his leaning position on the railings, he moves himself in front of a confused Mizuki. Moving his hand, he leans his forearm, (gently, not with a smack as the male interest did) onto the railings slightly above Mizuki. He lowers his gaze down onto them, with Mizuki’s eyes following his every move.
“...Rui?” Their voice is quiet, barely heard, but with how close they are, he hears it clearly.
He leans closer, so much so their noses are lightly brushing and copies Mizuki’s quiet tone;
“Mizuki.”
He brings his other hand to softly cup Mizuki’s cheek. They simply stare at each other, not saying a word. Their light breathing and the wind are the only sounds they can hear at this moment. Rui can notice Mizuki’s face turning a pretty shade of pink, just how he imagined it wou—
Realization sinks in.
In a panic, Rui quickly retracts his hands away from Mizuki, as his face turns an even brighter pink than his friend that, at this point, he may be even compared to a tomato. He attempts to say sorry, an apology, or literally anything, but he cannot form the words to do so.
“Ah. Um. I-I’m sorry.” Is all he can muster up.
Mizuki’s not responding, Mizuki’s not responding, they’re just looking at them in shock.
“Please excuse me.” Having no other option, he takes one, two steps backwards—and bolts, not looking behind him.
Mizuki probably thinks he’s a weirdo now.
— — — — — —
They can only register the sound of their racing heartbeat.
Standing on the school rooftop, still with their back facing the railings, Mizuki is left alone with an all-too red expression on their face.
They slowly slide down into a sitting position and cover their face with their forearms, replaying the past few minutes over and over again.