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“When are you going to buy me that meal?”
Kaji could’ve sworn that was the only sentence he’d heard from Sakura lately. His response, quite sensibly, was always soon. Rather than the monetary loss, he was more pissed about the reason he owed Sakura a meal. He fucking lost the bet – lost in a spar against Sakura, so now he had to feed him. If he went ahead and bought that meal, it’d be like admitting his defeat, absolutely humiliating as a senpai.
“C’mon!” Sakura started whining after the first week. “You promised!”
Kaji was sure he’d forget it at some point, but he should’ve known that Sakura would never forget anything that has to do with food. One time, they got skewers as a thank you gift and Enomoto accidentally ate Sakura’s share, the dumbass actually hissed at Enomoto because of that. Still, the nagging feeling never stopped and he had to admit defeat eventually. It didn’t sit well with him to deny Sakura from his rightfully earned food, but that led to the next hurdle. It was no secret that Sakura ate, well, like a fucking pig, and that’s Kaji using nicer words.
This wouldn’t normally pose a problem, but Kaji not only wasted his entire savings on a new guitar, he also had to ask for advance on his allowance, which obviously was a problem. Telling Sakura to be mindful of how much he ate sounded like…a bad idea, in all honesty, something that Kaji didn’t want to do, so he had to be creative. He looked around for buffet restaurants, figuring that Sakura would have a blast in them, and he happened to see a restaurant that offered a discount during Friday evenings. The catch? It was only for couples, but it was a half price discount…he was so tempted by it. It’d be like paying for one person, the longer he thought about it, the better it sounded. So yeah, they might need to go through an embarrassing process at the beginning, but who the hell cared? It’s been so long since Kaji splurged on food, always relying on the kindness of his senpai and classmates, because he was just this broke at the moment.
Naturally, he couldn’t reveal his plan to Sakura, since the other would never appear if he heard about Kaji’s scheme, so he purposely hid the fact this restaurant had this discount until they were right at the entrance. It was only then that he directed Sakura’s attention to the board, hoping he could convince him that pretending to be a couple is a good idea.
“Look, they have a half price discount for – “ Sakura’s face became red before Kaji even completed his sentence.
“C-c-cou…” Sakura stared at the board next to the hostess. They were still waiting for their turn, standing in a queue full of couples that were clearly there for the same reasons. “But it’s a half price discount.” He frowned and mumbled to himself, forgetting how Kaji was the one paying this time. Perhaps he was mindful of the price, but Kaji wasn’t sure if that was the case.
“We just need to pose for a picture.” Kaji leaned in and whispered, making sure that no one would hear them. “Then you get to eat whatever you want…” Was…Sakura ever at a buffet? Well, at least he wouldn’t be swayed by the side dishes that were supposed to fill the customers before they arrived at the meat station. He was certain Sakura would completely focus on the meat the moment he’d enter the room.
“Oh…” Sakura nodded as if he was in a trance. “Yeah…we can do that…”
“Wow.” Kaji had to stop himself from continuing, otherwise he would’ve said he didn’t expect Sakura to go along with it so easily. He’d be absolutely busted if he said it, fuck. “Alright, let’s go.”
They were finally at the start of the queue, right in front of the hostess.
“Seats for two?” She asked with a smile. “Are you two…” Her smile faltered for a second. “A couple? I don’t want to assume…”
Sakura froze in place, with a huge blush on his face, while Kaji tried to nod at her question. He himself was starting to turn red at the mention of the word couple. He logically knew it was a part of his plan, but it still made his heart beat so fast.
“Good, we just need to take a picture.” Her smile widened. “Come over here.” She took them to the next board, which was used as a background for the pictures. It was pink, full of hearts, and hella embarrassing to stand in front. They also had to strike a pose where they both put their hands in a way that would make a complete heart. Needless to say, Kaji had to physically move Sakura's hand because the idiot stared at the hostess with his mouth agape.
“Ah, I’m sorry. The picture I took didn't turn out good, so I'll take another one, okay?” The hostess told them before they could move. Kaji saw Sakura's hands shaking, so he guessed that was the reason, but she was too nice to say it out loud. Not that they could make it stop, Sakura was just overwhelmed by the entire situation. Kaji couldn’t remain unaffected as well, and his hand started trembling after a few minutes of standing so close to Sakura and feeling the warmth of Sakura's fingertips. Quite literally, he thought as he sneaked a glance at Sakura and saw that even his hand turned red. Was this…even possible…? That's kind of cute…
What! What was that thought! Kaji almost shook his head to make it disappear, but remembered he shouldn't move. It still resulted in a terrible picture and they had to go for a third round. Fortunately, third time was the charm, so they got it right apparently, with apparently being the keyword.
“There you go.” The hostess handed them two pictures, which Kaji shoved into his pocket without daring to look at. He would make sure to…to get rid of that later, probably. “It's always so nice to see new couples like you, hope you have a good time today!” She earnestly smiled at them before sending them inside.
That sentence made both of them short circuit, walking in a daze inside, but Sakura quickly forgot about it as he could see the dishes being served. Just as Kaji had expected, Sakura beelined to the beef station the moment he laid his eyes on it, which made Kaji stifle a snort at his kouhai. Though, he was just as bad, because he followed Sakura, trusting him to pick the best things to eat at this place.
“This is so good!” Sakura told him with sparkling eyes as he kept shoving more and more food into his mouth. He barely used the plate he was given, opting to have it straight in his mouth if possible.
“I know, right? Definitely worth it.” Kaji nodded. He didn't eat outside lately since he didn't have the money, so it was such a great treat. They both forgot about the picture they had to take after stuffing their stomachs with food, but never had they imagined this would come to bite them back later.
❛ ━━━━━━･❪ 🎕 ❫ ･━━━━━━ ❜
Kaji was on his way to school when he was congratulated by at least four people. They only offered a big grin when he looked at them quizzically, so he had no clue why, but he had a sneaking suspicion he didn't like it. A fleeting thought reminded him of his “date” with Sakura, but he dismissed this idea fast. First of all, that restaurant was outside Makochi and he never spotted anyone they knew around, so no way anyone knew about it. Besides, if anyone saw Sakura, they'd know for sure he was more in love with the chef who made the food by the way he was acting that evening…
Kaji made sure to put the pictures they received in his drawer, not being able to throw it away because it was…a cute picture, really. Uh – hilarious! He meant it was hilarious of course, Sakura's expression was too funny to get rid of it!
Anyway, he was sure that it had nothing to do with people congratulating him. Maybe they did it to piss him off, sometimes his classmates and senpai were this annoying. Because annoying Kaji was a reasonable hobby for some reason, he grumbled to himself as he entered his classroom, only to stumble backwards in shock.
“KAJI!” He heard a few of his friends shout as they jumped at him. He almost thought they were about to launch a surprise attack, but they only grabbed him and pulled him into a group hug, laughing and giggling.
“What the hell man, why didn't you tell us?”
“Yeah, no need to be so cold! You should've told us earlier!”
“H-huh?” He stared at them with wide eyes. “What?” The amount of people trying to talk with him at the same time made it all the more confusing. He could hardly hear any of them when they kept cutting off each others’ sentences! “The hell?!” He looked for Enomoto and Kusumi, in hopes that they could give him a better explanation on this chaotic situation. When he found the two of them just to his left, he tried to move towards them and get a response, but Enomoto was talking before he could open his mouth.
“I can't believe it, you really kept it a secret, huh?” Enomoto gave him a light-hearted slap on the shoulder. “Good for you, though!”
“No, what?” Kaji was still bewildered. He noticed Kusumi typing on his phone, so he waited for him to talk.
「 Yes, yes! It finally happened, huh? ( ´ ∀ ` )
We all thought it'd take you forever (^^)v ☆★
Well, since it's Sakura and you (ｰ ｰ;)
But I guessed we worried for nothing! ( ´ ▽ ` ) 」
Ah, fuck! It took the entire walk to the school to convince himself he was acting paranoid and now he found out he wasn't! How did they even know?! “Who told you?!”
“Oh, we actually got it from a first year student. Really, you know how sad it is to hear the news from a kouhai?” One of his friends answered while shaking his head, pretending to be disappointed.
“Tell me who, I'll fucking kill them.” He should've known better, ugh.
“No threatening the kouhai!” Enomoto reminded him. “But it's okay. You're both too shy to announce a thing like this out of the blue, right? Let's cut them some slack, everyone.”
H-hold on! Kaji panicked as he realized his reaction was totally wrong. He didn't do anything to deny they were dating and instead went to the threats part straight away, that was a huge mistake! “We're not dating, by the way!”
“Suuuure.” “Yeah, right.” “Of course you aren't.”
Most of his class answered the same way, all having the same stupid smirk. It was far too late to deny it and Kaji wanted to punch some of them for being so fucking dumb. “We're really not! I swear to God…!” He racked his brain trying to come up with a way to get this message across, but his train of thoughts was cut off by the door opening. Hiragi stood behind it, all smiles, until he saw the commotion in the classroom.
“Hey, y'all need to disperse. Don't bother Kaji that much.” He frowned at the students and made a gesture to shoo them away as he walked towards Kaji.
“Hiragi-san, don't tell me you also heard about…that…” Kaji dreaded the answer. Although the rest of his classmates had their backs turned to Kaji and Hiragi, seemingly giving them some space, they were still very much listening to the conversation.
“Yes, congratulations!” Hiragi was genuinely happy, which made Kaji hesitate. “I thought it'd take you longer, heh.” He put his hand on Kaji’s shoulder and squeezed it in encouragement. Why did everyone expect Kaji to date Sakura, anyway?! “Take care of him, alright?”
Kaji was too mentally tired to do anything other than nod. Convincing everyone that he wasn't dating Sakura appeared to be currently impossible, not to mention – now that he thought about it, trying to reason it as a way to get a discount sounded pretty stupid. “Sure, I guess.” He managed to eventually say.
❛ ━━━━━━･❪ 🎕 ❫ ･━━━━━━ ❜
Kaji had to avoid being spotted near the first year's classrooms for two reasons – with the first being all the reactions he got from students if he was anywhere near Sakura. Whether it was whistling or whispering, it pissed him all the same, making him seconds away from losing his temper and punching anyone around him. The second reason was that if he ever found out which student was the one to spread this stupid rumor, well…he thought it was clear what would happen.
Despite minimizing their time together, they still had to endure the teasing. Any time he'd have to patrol, even though 2-1’s designated areas weren't supposed to coincide with 1-1’s ones, he found himself being shoved next to Sakura with the excuse of them having to do it together. It was usually followed by a wink and suggestive have fun! that Kaji really didn't like.
“Fun…? Fun?! Really?!” He was mostly talking to himself. Sakura turned unresponsive after one of his classmates called Kaji his boyfriend. Unsurprising, as the slightest mention of romance around him got him stammering like a jammed radio. He was even walking like a zombie with his eyes unfocused, forcing Kaji to make sure he wasn’t going in the wrong direction. “C'mon, dumbass.” He nudged Sakura when he noticed how the other kept walking straight ahead despite the shopping street clearly being to their left. “God, I swear if I see that guy from your class, I’m gonna knock some sense into his head – !”
Kaji didn't expect Sakura to reply to that, not after he spent the walk saying nothing. “Y-you can't do that! Besides, that was your fault! If we didn't walk to that restaurant – !”
“Haa? You were the one who kept pestering me about getting your food, so I did it! You can't complain about that when you were scuffling down the food!” That was the pettiest and lamest excuse Kaji had ever let out of his mouth and he knew it, but he refused to let Sakura lay all the blame on him. Of course, Sakura didn't like neither his tone nor his choice of words, so they kept squabbling while they strolled down the shopping street.
“You really looked like you didn’t care when you had three plates of beef – “ Kaji was cut off by Sakura who turned his head.
“Hold on, I wanna get something from this shop.” He told Kaji absentmindedly and left before Kaji could acknowledge that.
“Hey, come back here! Ugh, that idiot.” Kaji was annoyed that their argument stopped short because Sakura saw something he wanted to eat. “What's taking him so long?” He found himself tapping his foot on the ground as he saw Sakura through the windows. Minutes passed by and Sakura was still talking to the shop owner, turning redder whenever he opened his mouth. Kaji almost stormed off into the store to drag him by his hand, but he stopped himself and grabbed a lollipop from his pocket instead. He took out a random one, without looking at the flavor, and it turned out to be a sour candy. “Bleh.” He should remove this flavor from his stash for sure, it was terrible.
“K-kaji.” Sakura finally came out of the store. He held two steamed buns in his hands, with one hand slightly extended towards Kaji.
“For me?” He was bewildered. Sakura didn’t like sharing his food so it was extremely unprecedented for him to just hand it over, especially since they were technically in the middle of an argument. “Really?”
“S-she gave me these for free…”
“Huh? Okay?” They would usually receive free gifts just because they were Furin students, but Kaji sensed it wasn't the case for these buns. It suddenly clicked when he took the bun. “Fuck, don't tell me she also heard that we're…?”
Sakura nodded fervently and Kaji groaned. Well, that explained the lengthy conversation and the bright red blush across Sakura's face, not that it made him feel better.
“Don’t tell me the entire fucking city knows we're dating now!” He ended up raising his voice by accident, just because he was too frustrated by this situation. It was enough that their schoolmates thought so, he didn't need the residents of Makochi gossiping about it!
“Uh…” Sakura made this dumb expression he usually did when he was overwhelmed, but Kaji ignored him and continued his rant.
“Who the fuck told her? Who else knows?! If I catch that motherfucker – “
“Kaji…!”
“What?” He didn't understand why Sakura's face twisted in fear all of a sudden. “What the fuck is up with you?” Sakura was looking over his shoulder, at someone behind him, so Kaji turned around to face the person who was standing there. “Ah, fuck.” He muttered when he realized it was his fucking mother.
“God, the amount of curses coming out of your mouth.” She shook her head in disappointment. Kaji was about to retaliate when she continued. “That aside, what is that? You two are dating and you didn't tell me?!”
“No, you don't understand, mom – “ Kaji tried, looking at Sakura desperately, but the other wouldn't even meet her eyes.
“Imagine that! I had to hear that from the cashier – really, Ren? When did you plan on telling me?”
Good question! Kaji thought, and the answer was never because they weren't even dating in the first place!
“Anyway.” She looked at Sakura now. “It's so good to hear that, Sakura-kun! Are you going to come over today? I'll cook your favorite for dinner!”
“Mom, you really don't need to – “
“Hush, Ren, you need to treat your boyfriend better!”
Begrudgingly, Kaji had to invite Sakura for dinner and his mother made good on her promise, cooking way too much food for the occasion. The bizarre situation should've had Kaji wanting to bang his head against the wall, but it wasn't so bad to have Sakura over. For once, his expressions when he tried to speak to Kaji's father were enough to make up for everything. He kept tripping over his words and dropping his utensils, how adorable.
❛ ━━━━━━･❪ 🎕 ❫ ･━━━━━━ ❜
But it only got worse, much to Kaji's horror, when he was called to see Hiragi. He was utterly confused when Hiragi handed him a couple of bills.
“I know you’re tight on money right now, but you should still treat Sakura.”
“Huh?” Kaji stared at the money that was pushed into his hand with disbelief. “Hiragi-san, you don't need to…!”
“No, no.” Hiragi shook his head. “As your senpai, I need to make sure you don't screw up anything. C'mon, take this and go have a nice date, alright?”
“I…guess so…” It was hard to say no to Hiragi – not just in this situation, but in general, so Kaji took the money rather unwillingly and made a show out of taking his phone from his pocket. The message he sent to Sakura was rather brief – we’re going on a date this weekend. Without any chance to refuse, Sakura opted to not answer despite reading the message, as Kaji saw him typing for a few minutes before he seemingly gave up on replying. So long he got the message, Kaji didn’t care about whether he answered or not, but he made sure to send another one, one that included two words that Sakura really liked.
Free food.
That ought to seal the deal, he smiled smugly to himself, but Hiragi mistaken the nature of his smile. He commented about being so glad to see Kaji happy, which…which was ridiculous obviously! Kaji let out a disgruntled noise, knowing that however he tried to deny it, he’d be unsuccessful since people, for some unknown reason, thought he and Sakura were a good match. Kaji would’ve loved to understand why, but then again, he might not like the answers he’d get.
A few days later, he was getting ready for their “date”, and that meant he just put on some of the cologne he saved for special occasions. Just in case, but other than that, he didn’t make any effort for this date – he wore his regular hoodie with his skinny jeans and his favorite pair of shoes. He almost forgot to brush his hair, as he woke up about half an hour before he had to leave. It was fucking humiliating to have his mother yell at him to wake up so he wouldn’t be late to his date, fuck.
He ended up leaving his house ten minutes later than he planned on, once again being scolded by his mother for what felt like hours, and hurried to meet Sakura at the bus station. The idiot was standing at the station and Kaji could see how much he was shaking even from a distance. He picked up his pace, until something odd struck him and he had to slow down to do a double take.
This…wasn’t Sakura’s usual outfit. Kaji scanned him with suspicion as he took in the clothes – he could spot the white t-shirt, a staple clothing in Sakura’s wardrobe, but he had a nice, black short sleeve jacket over it. In addition, Kaji was pretty sure none of Sakura’s few pairs of jeans had rips so the one he was wearing at the moment, a dark blue one that was far too tight on him, wasn’t his either.
Kaji’s slow pace almost came to a halt, until he realized what he was doing and quickly walked to Sakura while cursing himself.
“Hey.” He said to grab Sakura’s attention, immediately seeing the bashful expression that he didn’t notice from afar. “Nice outfit.” He said without thinking, so fuck his brain for being stupid today.
“Oh, t-thanks…” Apparently, Sakura took it as a compliment, so nevermind. Kaji felt his face was starting to heat up so he tried to change the topic.
“Anyway…uh, I think this is the bus, right?”
That saved him from the awkward conversation because the bus was crowded, they had to squeeze in, something that made Sakura visibly uncomfortable. Kaji tried to push him onto the corner, figuring he’d be more comfortable in that spot, but he couldn’t do anything else for Sakura. They suffered quietly for the rest of the commute, not being able to even look at each other, though Sakura didn’t look like he wanted to look at Kaji. His head was tilted down and he fiddled with the hems of his jacket.
Definitely not his own garment, Kaji snorted. It was a good distraction from the terrible bus ride, as he was starting to get impatient and uncomfortable as well. Probably due to that person who kept stepping on his foot, and Kaji knew it was by accident, but would it be so hard for the asshole to turn around and apologize? Kaji glared at him for the remainder of the ride, until Sakura hesitantly nudged him to remind him about their station.
They pushed past the other passengers, until they finally managed to get off the bus, and took a few seconds to calm down. Sakura was now fully red and Kaji was sure he wasn’t much different, but in his case it was out of anger.
“So…what are we doing now?” Sakura asked after a brief silence when neither of them moved.
“Ah, maybe go to see a movie? And grab something to eat later?”
“H-huh?” Sakura was giving him a dirty look. “What kind of wishy-washy plan is that?!”
“I don’t know!” Kaji listed things he assumed would make for a good date, but the truth was… “It’s not like I’ve ever been on a date!”
“Really? Never ever?”
“Yes yes, never EVER, why are you so surprised?”
“Oh I don’t know, I figured you went on a few d-d…d-dates, augh.” Sakura turned shy at the end of the sentence, so he mumbled the rest. “You look like you’d be popular or somethin’…”
“Me?” Kaji pointed at himself and laughed bitterly. “Are you blind? Who the fuck would want to go on a date with me. Damn, you really suck at romance shit if you can’t tell that.”
“W-what! How would I know that, I’ve never been to one myself – a d-date!”
“Alright, I don’t doubt it, but I think some people would love to take you on a date if you weren’t so snarky, you know?”
“A-and I’m sure people would do the same for you if you weren’t so annoying!”
Why the fuck did Kaji keep saying things he didn’t mean to say?! And why, for fuck’s sake, did Sakura become heated over this subject?! “Yeah? Cause I don’t exactly see a line of people just waiting for me.”
“Oh, pfft, because I obviously have one?” Sakura was rolling his eyes.
“In case you didn’t notice – I am!” Kaji blurted out, then had to clarify himself. “Taking you out on a date, I mean.”
“Augh!” Sakura made a cute noise of confusion before Kaji’s words settled in. “Y-you’re impossible…”
“Fuck, whatever, let’s just…do this shit and get done with it.”
What a disaster, Kaji groaned inwardly. He was familiar with the area, so he started walking to the nearest cinema to make good on his promise to Hiragi. Sakura was following him, a few steps behind though, and Kaji would’ve loved to tell him to hurry up, but he couldn’t find his voice. The conversation they just had made something inside him snap and he wasn’t entirely sure what snapped, but he didn’t like it.
❛ ━━━━━━･❪ 🎕 ❫ ･━━━━━━ ❜
The movie they watched turned out to be mediocre, but Kaji expected it – it was Sakura who chose it, and he seemed to have a great time so whatever. Kaji reckoned it was good enough if at least one of them enjoyed it, even if he found himself dozing off in the middle of it. Too many exploding cars and kissing scenes that had Sakura gawking at the screen, though Kaji thought it was amusing. He could spend all evening staring at Sakura instead – for his reactions strictly, of course!
Afterwards, they entered the nearest restaurant in the area and found it was a family place. It meant cheap prices, always a bonus, but the actual good thing was how the owners took a liking to Sakura, bringing him more free food. Lots of food equaled a good date, right? Kaji assumed he was carrying out his role as a fake boyfriend pretty well if those were the standards.
“Tasty!” Sakura kept saying. He was also eyeing Kaji’s plate, so he let him have it. He was already full because of the large bucket of popcorn they had earlier anyway. How Sakura was still able to eat after that was beyond him…
“Damn, make sure to breathe in between. I sure as hell won’t save you if you choke.”
“I am!” He stuck out his tongue. “Breathing!”
“Fuck.” Kaji used his hand to cover Sakura’s mouth. “Don’t speak and especially don’t do that while you have food in your mouth, that’s disgusting!”
“Ugh.” Sakura swatted his hand away. “Fuck off…”
“Yeah, right, anyway…did you have a good date?” He did it on purpose, just to see Sakura turning beet red. “Guess we now each have a date under our belt.”
Sakura finally put down his chopsticks. “When…are we going to stop with it?”
“What, the whole dating thing? When we can get the others to fucking listen to us. It will require a lot of yelling because people think we should date. I really don’t know where they got this idea, ugh.”
“Right.” He looked to the side, with the blush slowly disappearing from his face. It took him a while to resume talking, which annoyed Kaji. “Because I don’t think it can happen for real.”
“Are you still hanged on that stupid shit of no one wanting to date you? Just so you know, it’s so stupid.”
“It’s not.” Sakura protested. He looked truly pained as he spoke. “No one would want to!”
“Listen – I would, okay? I would absolutely date you, so shut the fuck up.”
That…made both of them speechless. Kaji chose to stare at the table, noting how messy it was from the humongous amount of food they had, and the silence made him feel miserable. It definitely wasn’t his day if he kept blurting out shit, stuff that he could unfortunately no longer claim he didn’t mean to say.
“Hnnn…” Sakura was attempting to speak. His voice was far too quiet in the loud restaurant, but Kaji could read his lips.
I wouldn’t mind…dating you either….
Ah, fuck that, was he…for real? Kaji’s eyes widened. Oh, perhaps…that was the reason people were so insistent on them dating, huh.
“Okay.” He rose slightly so he could lean over the table and grab Sakura’s hand. “So it’s a thing – we’re a thing now. For real this time.”
Sakura nodded slowly. “Y-yeah…”
“And since I got our first date covered and this one happened thanks to Hiragi-san…” Kaji smirked.
“UGH, I got it! I’ll…pay for the next one, fine!”
There, Kaji guaranteed himself a way to eat outside for a while, with the addition of a cute boyfriend? He certainly wasn’t going to complain about that.