Chapter Text
ghost
“you didn't have to do this alone, you know?”
but the thing is yoshida planned for it, pursued it. he would do anything to tie denji down by his side, leaving scattered clues that led him nowhere. so now, with denji just standing there, dumbfounded, yoshida stands bare to his accusing, if rather hurtful, stare—only that yoshida decides to just fully own it now. he refused to feel guilty about what he did. his shoulder bag slides down to the floor, thud.
yoshida opens his mouth, but decides to withdraw whatever he is going to say.
only his mistake is that he loves too much, wants too much, him and his desperate attempts to grab denji, to catch just the tiny bit of his hair, his longing to reach denji with his hug. denji started to remember it all, bit by bit, i have lived this before. this isn’t our first time.
denji died three years ago. a long walk followed yoshida’s sister back home and he caught on to her conversations with relatives far away that yeah, onii-chan is still not over him yet. he started to live in their shared flats again. every so often i think he’s lost it — he looks rather at peace though, sometimes.
and denji falling in love again is not supposed to happen, if yoshida’s plan is to keep him by his side. he's not supposed to remember why he ended up here in the first place—
once their purpose is fulfilled, spirits will no longer wander around.
yoshida wished he felt those arms that were supposed to embrace him. he didn't.
— you know that i loved you, right? then and now. sorry it took everything to say this to you.
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brother complex
“whatever aki is doing," yoshida squints, menacingly. does not suit him. "it’s gotta be incest,”
“would not surprise me if he is, that fellow is always a little strange,” kishibe takes a drag. “but i would rather not hear about you being rejected by your in-laws again,” especially knowing that kid denji would just cheer on whichever team is leading.
the core of it is simple, though. aki actually does not have that long of a list to cross. it’s just so happened that yoshida was born out of a family of hitmen.
in a tight truce with aki’s gang, that is.
If only quanxi is here, kishibe thinks. she might not show it but she has more of a penchant for a spin of romeo and juliet more than he does.
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teen flick
“a sloppy head at one random party was not ever gonna make him fall for you, like.” power stuffs her mouth with fries, not impressed with the way denji tries to steal some glance in one certain direction. “don’t look so down. you two have nothing in the first place anyway,”
power is actually such an empathetic human being, you know. and she actually has to give denji some credit for it; after all, it’s so well hidden. but as an attentive and caring sister that she is, of course she was going to notice her brother’s silly little crush on the school’s president, who is now standing far away on the opposite side of cafetaria, smiling with the school’s prettiest chick. prick , she thinks. he sure knows how to gather attention.
“okay, what the fuck. how did you find out?”
“not your business. anyways, those kinds of closeted ones will only ruin your life,” she nudges on her lunch’s chocolate pudding, “have some of this,”
denji stares at her then at the pudding. his head drops.
power sighs.
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teen flick pt. ii
denji is one handful godson.
actually not so horrible, that kid, makima’s fond of him. but damn that he is so easily influenced.
her coffee’s lukewarm now, as she full on stared at the magazine’s headline— MILLIONAIRE’S ADOPTED SON RAN AWAY WITH A WELL-KNOWN SCENE QUEEN AFTER PROM. the tail of her eyes caught on some details on how the black-haired kid proposed? to denji and how both of them teared up before sneaking out and never to be seen again. one testimony said that the two were last spotted in the male’s restroom.
emails are flooding in and immediately she finds out that they’re in taiwan right now. reflexively, makima just knows they are in some shabby hotels, crouching down on one shared phone, looking into how to register their marriage there.
not only is denji going to be grounded, he will only have online classes for the rest of his life.
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drama
it’s so, so disgusting that yoshida is in a relationship with some single father of an elementary schooler. pervert, fumiko immediately thinks. she knows how that friend of hers operates, and despite being the much younger party here, it’s certain that yoshida has the upper hand in their dynamic.
(one time yoshida confessed he already listed down all of that guy’s side jobs to make their meetings seem like fate. fumiko decided not to linger longer on it.)
seeing how diligently he grabs the little girl’s hand along the park and how he handles her talk back so patiently does not help either. he's too far gone; he must've been considering marriage by now that he also does babysitting. fumiko can only give him one last piece of her advice.
“make it official only after you graduate, please. don't make that guy be the creepy one in this. or do. goodbye,”