Work Text:
Nene Yashiro is a renowned author. She writes heart-racing, drama driven, romance novels. Her latest work has been a success in sales, often sold out in libraries all over the country. A thrilling love triangle that ends in all three characters deciding to date in a poly relationship!
Nene hates it. Out of all her works that could get popular, why did it have to be the most self indulgent one?
If possible, Nene will take this secret to the grave: that novel is based on her and her two long time crushes.
It's not like she meant to write it like that! She swears! But when she was first drafting the story she thought it would be cute to give the main character, who she had spent days trying to figure out, a few of her quirks. To make it more realistic. A few insecurities maybe, just so the readers could relate to her easier...
And you know what? It had been so long since she wrote a love triangle! She loved reading those in middle school. It was about time she tried to add one to one of her books right?
So... She thought one of the love interests could be blonde. Green eyes? No, blue. Eager to help everyone and support the heroine. With a bright personality that would surely have her readers comparing him to a golden retriever.
The other love interest could be mysterious and brooding, with a secret sweet side. Everyone loves those. What if he also teased the main character? The heroine was so easily flustered by him! He truly was...
Suddenly she was 500k words in and it hit her she was just describing Kou and Amane.
What was she supposed to do?! Her publisher had been asking for something for weeks! She couldn't just NOT turn it in!!
Nene panicked. She sent it in. The publisher liked it. She panicked more.
"There's too many plot holes!" She tried to insist. "No one will read love triangles nowadays!!"
Her publisher made a confused hum at the other end of the call. "What are you talking about? Love triangles are all the rage in the young author genre."
Nene was desperate. She tried to grasp at anything she could think of for that thing to not get published.
"The main character is boring!"
"She's perfect for self-projection."
"There's too much drama!"
"That's kind of your signature..."
"IT'S ABOUT POLYAMORY!!" she screamed over the phone.
There was a pause.
Surely monoganormativity would make that the nail in the coffin right? Right?
"Wait, really? I didn't even notice! Queer works are trending a lot lately, I'm sure that would be-"
Nene hung up the call and screamed into her pillow.
The three of them have been friends since middle school, back when Nene still had short hair and hadn't learned that love wasn't as painless easy as it was in the books she read.
Everything was so simple back then. Just Nene the daydreaming bookworm, who waited patiently for the day she would find a love letter in her desk or someone would confess to her behind the blooming tree at school. Kou, a kid with a smile that could rival the sun in its brightness, who still couldn't control his volume and used corny phrases he got from hero movies. And Amane, the solitary new student who sat in the corner of her classroom, always looking somewhere far away.
Nene approached Amane one lazy morning, because there was a two person project and she couldn't take any more of hearing him quietly ask the teacher if he could do it alone every time they had to do one of those.
Then Kou approached her, because he accidentally fell on top of the tomatoes she had worked so hard to grow for the gardening club, and he felt so guilty he decided to help her grow new ones.
...Then Amane annoyed Kou into being his friend too. It used to worry Nene that they didn't get along, she still knew the shyest version of Amane, so it was strange to her at first. It took her time to know that vulnerability is not really his thing, and teasing is the way he has of expressing when he likes somebody.
So they all hung out together, all the way to highschool and then all the way to college. Nene hopes that they stay together for the rest of their lives.
Things changed as they grew up. Amane got bolder. Kou got calmer.
Nene got feelings. For both of them. And truly, that's what complicated everything.
What is she supposed to do with that?
She named the book with them, as a punchline to the horrible joke her life has been since she first opened that google doc. She had rattled her brain for days and, still unable to come up with anything, begrudgingly asked them to meet up with her in the cafe a few blocks from her apartment.
"How about... Something that has to do with cherry blossoms?" Suggested Amane.
"Seriously? A romance book with a cherry blossom theme? That's not original at all!" Protested Kou.
"Well, genius, do you have any better ideas?"
"Yes. I mean- not yet, but nothing can be worse than that."
"I don't think it's that bad..." Nene tried to intervene.
"Hah! See? Nene likes it. Point for Amane!"
"We're working with points now?"
"She's the author, it has to count for something!"
Nene sipped at her tea. They would tire themselves out eventually. She looked at the list of names they've been writing down on a napkin. It's not looking very promising.
Kou tapped idly on the table, with a slight frown on his face that told her he was trying his best to focus. "How about... The power of... Three..?"
"What is this, My Little Pony?"
"Shut the fuck up Amane."
Amane, predictably, started playing the tattle on card.
"Neneee" he whined pathetically, "Kou's being mean to meeeee"
"Kou, stop being mean to Amane." She indulged.
Kou sputtered a confused complain about Nene choosing sides, Amane snickering a bit too triumphantly beside her before she threw their names napkin on his face.
"And you! Quit playing and help already!"
Amane pouted. "But you guys didn't like the name I suggested..."
" 'Impending threesome' is not an acceptable name." Nene and Kou scolded simultaneously. Again.
"Ugh, fine! How about..." He mixed the sugar on his coffee absentmindedly, "...Love by thirds?"
That.. didn't sound too bad.
"I like it!" Kou declared, an excited smile on his face, "see? You can be useful sometimes!" He completely ignored Amane's indignant jaw drop to address Nene, "what do you think? It's your book, after all"
Nene paused, taking another sip of her tea. She did like it. It was simple, to the point, and-
"One of the characters is a math teacher right? I was thinking it could be kind of a nod to that."
Nene choked on her tea.
One of the characters is a math teacher, because Amane is a science teacher. And she didn't want to make it too obvious. Of course, it would have been better to just give Hiroto-kun a different career as a whole, but his love for teaching was such an essential part of his character Nene just couldn't bring herself to change it.
So. Math. Researching for that was a pain. Those nerdy 'math jokes' websites still haunt her nightmares.
Once her coughs had finally calmed down, a fretting Kou by her side rubbing her back, she tried her best to answer smoothly. "That- that makes sense. Sure. Why not. I like it. Did you- I didn't know you were paying attention to my description of the plot."
Amane scoffed. "Of course I was. You guys have too little faith in me. I'm not always an asshole."
"Glad you're aware of your common status as one, at least."
Nene sighed as her friends started bickering again.