Chapter Text
Moving into his dorm at Teikyo University felt almost unreal. Shuumei had never lived in dorms before, so Hirano had shoved an itemized list of essentials and courtesies at him last time they'd talked. It made everything feel so much more... daunting.
Shuumei had never lived away from home, and now he would be living with a stranger. A stranger who was ignoring his school email.
Shuumei had gotten there first and set his side of the room up. A picture of both him and Miyano, taken right before he'd left, took center-stage on his desk. He'd pinned another one to his corkboard along pictures of his mom and sister and an old photo booth strip of him and Ogasawara from middle school.
Ogasawara had opted to go to a college in Kawasaki to be closer to home, unlike him and Hirano. Itabashi isn't that much farther from Yokohama than Kawasaki, but the distance loomed larger once he'd unpacked all of his things.
“Well,” Shuumei sighed to himself. “I guess I'd better call Miya-”
The fire alarm screamed to life.
“Or not.”
...
Jin was two steps into his new dorm building when the fire alarm went off.
'Ah, fuck,' he thought to himself, turning right back around.
Students trickled out behind him, sighing and chattering impatiently as they all waited for the alarm to stop. None of them seemed to consider the possibility that this could be a genuine fire – old hat, for someone who'd lived in a dorm before. Jin took a seat in a very uncomfortable outdoor chair and waited.
He'd had the worst luck with his school email – it had gotten misspelled with the wrong character somehow, and he'd had to ask them to change it. Then, of course, it had disconnected him from the organization and he couldn't get emails addressed to the entire student body or access the directory for sending emails. He'd been told that the only way to fix it would be a visit to I.T. services after school began, so he just ignored the whole account until then.
At least Giichi had gotten a laugh out of the situation.
After a few moments more of muffled screeching, the fire alarms stopped and the students hurried back into the building, Jin included. He knew his room number but had never met his roommate before. It was a little bit nerve-inducing, really. He'd never had a roommate for more than a couple of months, and he fell in love with the last one, though that was more a feature of Giichi being Giichi than his roommate, per se.
He'd also met a roommate while knowing he was into men. That would be... interesting.
Jin wouldn't say he'd been worrying about it, but... he'd been worrying about it.
Ah, well. There's no use getting worked up about it now.
When Jin reached his assigned dorm, the room was slightly open – the R.A. had informed him that his roommate had already moved in. Sasaki Shuumei, according to the door plaque.
Sasaki – presumably – was sitting on his bed when Jin toed the door farther open. He looked up from his phone, face open but neutral. His hair was about the same color as Jin's, but his eyes seemed to be more of a steely color. His many piercings caught the light as he moved, and combined with his half-buttoned shirt and unsmiling face, he seemed like the perfect casting choice for Punk #3.
“Hi.”
'All right, cheerful mask time!'
“Good morning!” Jin smiled. “My name is Kikuchihara Jin and I'm aiming for a major in film studies. It's good to meet you.”
“Mm, nice to meet you,” Sasaki replied. “I'm Sasaki Shuumei. I don't really know what I'm majoring in. I've never really thought about it.”
“Ah,” Jin vocalized, smiling. He turned towards the rest of the room, setting a bag on his bed. “I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually.”
“Yeah.”
Conversation petered out then, Sasaki turning right back to whatever he was doing on his phone and Jin dedicating himself to unpacking.
“Hey,” Sasaki called to him after a while.
“Yes?” Jin replied distractedly. 'Oh, damn, if I misplaced that volume Giichi's sister will kill me.'
“I sent you a few emails over the summer. You didn't respond.”
Jin looked up from his search, frowning. “Emails?”
“Yeah. Just, like, get-to-know-you stuff. And the important things, like allergies and when are quiet hours.”
“Oh.” Jin turned to face Sasaki, who seemed more curious than upset. “I've been having email problems all summer. If it helps, I don't have any allergies, and quiet hours are just common sense, y'know? No stomping around at three in the morning and no guitar practice while I'm studying at my desk.”
“Oh, cool.” Sasaki smiled, closed-lipped but relaxed. “Glad you weren't just ignoring me.”
“Of course not – oh there it is!” Jin held the missing BL volume aloft in his hands. “How did this get in with the toiletries?”
...
Shuumei perked up when he recognized the cover of the manga Kikuchihara was holding.
“You're on volume three?” He grinned. “Wait 'til volume four. It's the best in the series.”
Kikuchihara whipped his head around, surprise painted across his face. “You've read it?”
“Ohhhhh yeah.” Shuumei aimed his thumb at the picture of Miyano on his desk. “My boyfriend's a huge fudanshi and he loves this author. I couldn't not read it. And it helps that the top has his eyes.”
“Same.” Kikuchihara's shoulders relaxed minutely. “My boyfriend's sister is a fujoshi who got him into BL, and then he became a fudanshi and got me into it. The bottom's glasses in this one look a lot like his.”
“Cool. What's your favorite part so far?”
“Definitely the confession scene from the first volume. It's such a good fake-out.”
Shuumei grinned. “Yeah, this author does that. She's big on twists – some of her other works hit like a truck.”
“I know,” Kikuchihara sighed. “Giichi – my boyfriend – has no sense of spoilers or patience when it comes to this.”
“Miya's the opposite, then,” Shuumei said. “He never gives me spoilers for anything. I keep walking into things face-first.”
As their conversation continued, Shuumei learned that Kikuchihara had never been interested in another guy before, and still thought he was into girls, where Shuumei had never been into anyone aside from Miya. He also learned that Kikuchihara had lived in dorms and had roommates before, but those situations were always temporary and still felt foreign to him.
It was like a dam had broken, and conversation could flow freely once more.
This was a pretty okay rooming assignment, all things considered.
...
this rooming assignment is a disaster
“Hmm,” Jin muttered. “Rei's having roommate problems...”
Karma , he replied.
he wakes up so early
and he nags me about going to the stupid welcome activities
Jin laughed a little. Rei had never really gotten along very well with any of his previous roommates either – karma, they'd all said, for what a shitty boyfriend he was. Still, it was nice to have him at the same university – a piece of home in a foreign place.
“Your boyfriend?” Sasaki asked, glancing up from his own phone. He seemed pretty laid-back, now that they'd resolved their miscommunication.
“No, just a friend having roommate issues.”
“Tell me about it,” Sasaki groaned. “Hirano keeps texting me about his lazy new roommate. It's been a day.”
Jin snorted. “Rei's in the opposite boat there. His roommate's apparently a nag.”
Sasaki shuddered. “Sounds like Hirano, honestly. I'm glad to have someone I know here but oh my god I'm so happy we're not roommates. He'd never leave me alone about my studying.”
“Wow, our friends sound like a match made in hell.” Jin paused. “You don't think they're actually...”
“Roommates? Nah, that'd be insanely bad luck. God would have to hate them!”
...
Taiga stared at his new, standoffish roommate's Jerome cap and bored expression.
'God must hate me.'