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The boy with light blue hair looked beautiful from behind and Reki could not help but stare. His hair looked soft to the touch and appeared to be the perfect shoulder length for it to not get dirty with the back of his seat. There was even a day once when he put his hair up in a bun as they were taking a test. Reki, of course, ended up failing the test. His hair just flowed too perfectly for Reki to pay attention to anything else.
However, Reki knew that this boy looked even more beautiful from the front. His snow-white skin was completely unblemished and his eyes were constantly frosted over as he lost himself in thought. That same beautiful light hair complemented his features so much so that seemingly everybody developed a crush on him.
Including Reki.
Langa was an interesting person to have a crush on. Many classmates confessed their feelings in the past, but he seemed so unbothered by crushing someone's heart that he had developed a few enemies as a result. But Langa never seemed to care–he didn’t even know the names of his admirers, let alone his enemies.
However, no one could help their feelings in regard to the matter: Langa was just too desirable for his classmates to not develop crushes.
Although Reki had a crush on Langa like all of the others, he never showed it. Unlike the other admirers…
He was a guy.
Reki knew what everyone would think if they found out about his crush. So instead, Reki just attempted to be unbothered by the pretty boy one seat in front of him, burying his emotions as much as he could.
After another class of doodling in his notebooks instead of writing down the lesson and instead staring at Langa like a weirdo, Reki finally heard the bell ring. He got up quickly with a relieved sigh that the day was over and started to haphazardly stuff his work into his backpack. Before rushing out of the class, Reki noticed something about his crush.
He was asleep.
Although Reki could get lost in his ocean blue eyes all day, seeing them closed in such a peaceful manner with his light blue hair dangling in front of his face messily made his heart go doki-doki.
Not wanting to stare any longer, Reki rushed out of the classroom as though he had somewhere to be. He should’ve woken the blue-haired boy up, but…
He looked so peaceful…
Walking down the hallways filled with people from all grades, Reki couldn’t help but think about Langa again. He had moved to their school from Canada only a month prior, yet everyone seemed to talk to him as though they’d known him for ages. Due to his looks and aloof personality, everyone wanted to get close with him, including Reki. However, he never seemed interested in what anyone had to say. Instead, he always appeared too… someplace else. Befriending Langa was an impossible challenge since he never fully seemed to be present when listening to another person.
“Hey, do you know when Langa gets out of class?” Reki turned to the voice, confused as to who would ask him such a question. Behind him, Reki noticed a girl with cotton candy pink hair and eyes the color of Langa’s hair.
She was beautiful.
And of course, she wasn’t talking to him.
Reki noticed that the girl–who just so happened to be the most popular girl at school for not only her beauty but also her sweet personality–was facing another girl from his class, directing the question at her instead of the weird skater kid. His classmate looked at her, confused.
“We just got out of class five minutes ago.” She responded.
A nervous expression made its way onto her face. “Okay! T-thank you! I’ll wait here until he gets out.”
…
Uh-oh.
Reki could immediately tell that she was planning on confessing her feelings for his classmate. That normally would be fine if not for the fact that Langa was hunched over his desk right now, asleep.
He was about to continue on his way when an image of this girl and Langa made its way into his mind. In his imagination, they look perfect together. Langa would be just tall enough to rest his chin on the top of her head and her eyes would complement his hair perfectly. Plus, she was known to be so sweet and Reki can already imagine Langa happily opening up to her.
He would be happy with her.
Reki knew that he had to help him out.
He began to walk in the direction he had come from, feigning that he had forgotten something from his classroom. He knew that Langa would never be able to like him back–let alone remember his name–but at least he could help him out. If Langa’s happy, then Reki will be too. And eventually, when he’s grown out of this silly crush, his chest won’t hurt at the idea of Langa with that girl.
When he reached the classroom, he took a breath before pushing open the door. Immediately, the breath he had just taken was lost as he looked once more at the sight of Langa sleeping peacefully. His face had been tilted slightly more towards the desk, resulting in a drop of saliva falling from out of his mouth.
Okay… ew man.
Reki giggles to himself at the unexpected display of sleepiness. He hadn’t realized his crush was this tired, originally thinking that he would wake up soon after the bell.
He walked up to the desk where he was seated, ignored the beating in his chest, and gently called out his name. “Langa?” Reki noticed that the boy still hadn’t stirred. “Hey man, you gotta wake up.”
Still not getting a response, Reki began to poke his shoulder. “Langaaaaa.”
Finally, the blue-haired boy began to move, his long eyelashes fluttering as he began to wake. His eyebrows narrowed slightly in confusion before he lifted his head from its position on the desk. After taking a moment to regain consciousness, Langa looked up at the boy who woke him with slight shock.
Reki could not help but blush at the sight of his crush. His hair was slightly ruffled from lying against the desk and
“Haha, hey man. Seems like you fell asleep during class. I just forgot something from my desk and noticed you were still here, so I decided to wake you. No other reason, haha,” Reki said. Fuck, he was explaining too much. Langa might assume he was lying.
Luckily, Langa was a pretty dense guy, not catching wind of any oddity in Reki’s explanation. Instead, he just continued staring at the guy standing above him. Reki began to get more nervous at the lack of response and–
Why was he still staring?
Reki thought back to the situation he had put himself in. This dude definitely did not know him and they’ve never talked, but then Reki showed up and started acting all buddy-buddy with him. He was acting like all of those other guys in his class who always tried to befriend Langa for his newfound popularity.
Most of the guys in their class weren’t especially fond of Langa. At first, they were nice since he seemed pretty cool, but most were put off after he revealed his complete aloofness. Those who weren’t already averse to befriending him became so when they realized that practically every girl had a crush on him.
However, some guys still tried to stick around him despite their dislike. They were under the illusion that girls would give them more attention if they hung around Langa.
People were weird.
But Langa probably thought that he was weird too, given the fact that he wouldn’t stop staring at him. Reki sighed, knowing that he had to explain himself again.
“Sorry, ‘m not trying to be one of those guys using you for popularity, haha.” He said, awkwardly defending himself, “I’m just an unnamed classmate helping you out.” Reki felt a pang in his chest at the reality of his statement.
Why was he even here in the first place? He looked down at his shoes in embarrassment. Deep down, he probably had selfishly hoped that they would become friends after he helped Langa with the girl. But that would never happen-
“You’re Reki, right?”
His head snapped back to Langa, still sitting at his desk with a confused look on his face. His head was slightly tilted to the right, but Reki could not even begin to consider how lucky he was to be seeing his crush with such a cute expression because he was in a daze over what he had said.
“How do you know that? You never remember anyone’s name?” Reki finally forced out, voicing his bafflement.
“Ah… I guess I just wanted to remember yours.”
“…”
Reki yelped as he pinched himself, causing Langa to stand from his desk, brows furrowed in worry. He stumbled slightly from his previous fatigue. In an effort to stabilize himself, Langa grabbed his forearm and Reki felt the urge to pinch himself once more.
“Are you okay?” Langa must have not noticed the reason for his yelp. Reki blushed and he realized that he would need to explain himself.
“Yeah… I just…um… pinched myself?”
“...Why?”
Reki chose not to answer. He wasn’t sure that he could voice the reason behind his actions without stuttering immensely. In fact, he must have been so embarrassed that he became delusional because he could’ve sworn that he heard Langa call him cute under his breath for a second.
He was so delusional.
In an effort to snap himself out of these thoughts, he clapped his hands and declared that they should get going. He remembered that the girl would be waiting for Langa, so he realized that he should leave first, allowing the popular girl to have some alone time with her crush.
“Well, I’ll get going then,” Reki said as he began to make his way towards the classroom door.
“Wait!” Langa called out, stopping the skater boy in his tracks. “Didn’t you need something from your desk?”
Oh.
Reki did not think this lie through.
He began to blush, his mouth open to expel some sort of excuse that never came. Despite no words coming from him, Reki’s silence spoke volumes.
Langa continued to look at him, perplexed, before he came to his own conclusion.
“Oh… so you just wanted to see me?” Langa asked, making Reki’s mouth drop even wider. Wasn't this guy supposed to be dense??
“Hey! Don’t put it like that man! You’re making it seem like I have a crush on you or something.”
“Do you not?”
“…”
“Cause I do,” Langa admitted.
“Huh?? You’re joking right?”
“No”
“Say sike”
“Why else would I remember your name?”
“Because you wanted to?”
“Why else would I want to?”
Reki and Langa both avoided each other’s eye contact from opposite sides of the room. In spite of the pause of silence between them, Reki’s mind raced a hundred miles per hour. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Maybe he was still dreaming. Maybe he should pinch himself again.
“So…” Langa began, commanding Reki’s attention back to reality, “I take it you don’t feel the same?” Langa questioned, sounding almost dejected to Reki’s ears.
Realizing that he had yet to admit his feelings and that they were not, in fact, a given, Reki stumbled to voice his attraction.
“Hey hey hey, no, I um… definitely do like you back. Like, a lot.” He said awkwardly, blush seeping into his face even more than before. This was the first time that he admitted his crush–a confession that he never thought he would vocalize to anyone, let alone to Langa’s face.
“Oh… okay. Good.” When Reki looked back to Langa, he saw a prominent blush spread over his cheeks, his pale skin enhancing the redness and his blue hair providing a heavy contrast.
He looked perfect like this.
A huge smile formed on Reki’s face. After the shock of Langa reciprocating his crush, Reki found himself to be incredibly giddy from the interaction.
After a few more moments of comfortable silence, Langa made his way over to Reki with his backpack slung over his shoulder. Reki still couldn’t believe that he was truly seeing a smile on Langa’s usually stoic face. He especially couldn’t believe that he was the one who caused Langa to wear such a relaxed expression.
Reki turned to leave the classroom, Langa following close behind. However, he stopped when he realized which way he and Langa were headed.
“Hey… don’t go that way.”
Langa tilted his head in confusion.
“There’s a girl who’s waiting to confess to you.” He selfishly left out who that girl was. Langa’s shoulders raised slightly. It would be unnoticeable to the average eye, but Reki–like the weirdo he is–had experience with watching Langa’s body movements.
“Hm… How else would I leave the school though?” From the voice, Reki could tell that he was uncomfortable.
“I know a super duper secret way! Want me to show you?”
Langa smiled softly, his shoulders relaxing like they had been back when he was still sleeping on his desk.
“Okay. Let’s go, Reki.”