Chapter Text
3 to 2.
rin itoshi looks down at the grass beneath him. his vision is slightly blurry. the heavy breathing and the rush of adrenaline he was experiencing was something he’s never felt before. his tongue’s saliva dripping down onto the dirt, his muscles and chest tightened, and his heart beating faster and faster as he registers the devastating fact; PXG lost to bastard münchen.
more specifically, his rival.
isagi yoichi.
but rin notices something. a peculiar man with a sharp rose tattoo on his rugged neck, leading to the rest of his arm. his intensely colored harsh red eyeliner, with his hair that faded from blonde to blue; and although admittedly an interesting color, the ends were irritatingly uneven all throughout. his unbearable demeanor, his masterful cheeky attitude, everything was broadcasted in front of rin’s eyes to see. and every single one of these behaviors was directed towards isagi. that’s what rin noticed.
“— thanks for your hard fucking work, my finest clown.”
rin turns, his head still throbbing from the rushing feeling of intensity. there, his eyes focus on isagi’s hand reaching in front of kaiser, only to be slapped away a mere second later.
but there’s an achingly strange feeling in rin’s chest. and even more strangely, it’s something he doesn’t recognize.
and at first, he suspects it’s because of the crippling fact that his team lost.
but later, when rin sits by himself to review over the match by himself, he realizes he feels it once again.
he flips through the recordings, the screen’s flashes filling up the empty room. rin’s eyes never once leave the screen; and weirdly enough, the aching feeling returns once he spots kaiser. but not kaiser by himself. moments where it’s kaiser with isagi, in specific.
rin pauses the screen, exactly at the moment where isagi is grabbing kaiser by the collar.
“how does it feel to be the clown of my story?!”
rin scoffs at this moment. but his eyes don’t look away from the screen. he observes the frustration in isagi’s eyes; his burning loathing seething through his stare. and rin can’t find it in him to look away from this scene, even if his chest feels like it’s ripping him from the inside out.
*fwoosh*
the door to the broadcasting room flies open.
“rin!” isagi says, surprised.
“what are you doing—“
isagi looks around, noticing the room is in total darkness. rin turned the TV off in an instant once he heard the door fly open, letting out a sigh out of relief.
“— um, were you just… sitting in the dark?”
isagi questions, his tone a little disturbed.
rin rolls his eyes, rising himself from the chair, turning himself to look at isagi.
“obviously not, you moron. i’m just leaving now.”
“i-i see,” isagi stutters, “i was going to ask if you wanted to practice. we haven’t really seen each other much due to our teams practicing seperately, so i—“
“no.”
rin glares down at isagi. but even rin doesn’t understand why he’s in such distress by seeing isagi’s face in front of him. he notices details that have changed about his face that he wasn’t able to see properly on the field; how isagi’s eyebags have gotten increasingly worse, the way his cheeks have been scratched and slightly bruised, the faint smell of mint lip balm on isagi’s lips. he takes in the sight as if it’s the first time he’s ever seen him before.
“i don’t want to spend my night training with such an annoyance like you.”
rin rolls his eyes.
“go practice with that so-called ‘clown’ of yours. isn’t he your new rival now?”
isagi shoots a nasty dagger at rin at the mention of kaiser. in one quick motion, isagi pulls the collar of rin’s black shirt closer to him, forcing each of their eyes to stare directly in the others.
“shut up. what difference does it make if both of you are my rivals? i was asking you, not kaiser.”
rin cuffs his fingers around isagi’s wrist, forcibly removing the grasp around his collar. rin’s voice lowers in frustrations, scoffing in isagi’s face.
“two rivals for you, huh? that’s greedy. i was just making a heartwarming suggestion to you, since i said no. piss off, isagi. you’re irritating me.”
rin tries to walk past isagi, when isagi impulsively yank’s his sleeve back towards him.
“what’s your deal, rin?” isagi interrogates, “why the hell are you acting like this? i—“
“shut up.” rin’s voice raises,
“i’ll kill you and that brainless servant of yours if you keep bothering me, isagi. i’m not practicing with you. i don’t want to see your face unless if it’s on the field. i don’t want to hear your voice until it’s crying out in agony in defeat. go practice with your shitty teammmate.”
rin feels his chest clench up. the mere thought that isagi had found someone better than him was excruciating. a pain that wasn’t exactly physical; a pain that he still was unsure what to classify it as.
“leave me alo—“
“—no.”
isagi tightens his grip around the sleeves of rin’s shirt, crinkling it around the edges.
“you’re not upset about the result of today’s match, are you? and even though you state we’re nothing more than just rivals, i know you better than anyone. the rin that’s frustrated when he loses wouldn’t sit in the broadcasting room doing nothing. i’d find him almost splitting his thighs in half from the pressure he puts on himself. and you’re not doing that. you don’t push me away from training with you, no matter what, and i…”
he looks up at rin, the anger seeping through his eyes. his stare burn into rin’s retina with the feeling of hurt, with the slight look of worriedness seeping through the gaps. but when he looks back at rin, he sees something strange.
“… nevermind.”
he lets go of rin’s tee, leaving wrinkles on his right sleeve. his voice softens a little, slightly expressing the defeat in his vocals.
“i’ll take your advice. thanks, rin.”
within a few seconds, isagi passed by rin, simultaneously avoiding eye contact as he opens the door and leaves rin in the dark.
he can feel his face getting hot, his heart beating slightly faster and faster per minute, his ears getting red…
isagi was angry.
he was angry at the look rin was giving him. he knew that rin wasn’t the best at being vulnerable with his emotions, but there’s a certain way rin looks at isagi that felt different from the other times. he usually looks at isagi with a dismissive look, but this time, his eyes screamed of genuine hostility; a look that isagi hasn’t seen since their first meeting. but it wasn’t just aggression that isagi saw from rin. it was a new look that isagi saw; an expression that he wasn’t even sure rin was capable of making.
and he didn’t know any other way to classify the look other than “hurt”.
and even though isagi wasn’t familiar with that look from rin, he was still aggravated and confused.
but it wasn’t just the look that ticked off isagi. it was kaiser’s name being brought up into conversation. kaiser this, kaiser that, it’s as if everyone around him will not shut up about kaiser. the mere mention of his name was enough to make isagi’s blood boil, but the fact it was coming FROM rin itoshi makes it even more infuriating.
i mean, rin also has his own rivals, right?
it’s not like isagi wasn’t the only person either.
“tch.”
isagi clicks his tongue, walking into the practice room.
“fuck both of them.”
⊹ ࣪ ˖
isagi kicks around his soccer ball feebly around the practice field, his legs exhausted from the training he put on himself out of frustration. he couldn’t get rin’s expressions or words out of his head; and surprisingly, practicing soccer wasn’t able to distract him all that well. he had already prepared two soccer balls as well, with the isolated ball in the corner of the room. he looks at the large clock on the wall to check the time.
“12:46AM” it reads.
“four hours already..?”
seeing the late hour, isagi rushes back to shower and head to bed. in an instant, he scrubs off all the sweat that’s developed through his workout. he soaks his hair in shampoo, then immediately rinsing his hair with cold water to flush it out. he grabs his workout bag, wraps a towel around his neck, and heads out.
he walks down the long, narrow hallway back to his dorm. isagi fussles around in his bag, searching for his chapsti—
thud!
isagi suddenly feels his back collide into the hallway wall. his body aching after the enormous training doesn’t help much either. he lets out a small “ouch—!”, before feeling the pressure of fingers on his shoulder.
he looks at who’s grasp it is.
“— rin?”
rin’s expression is dark. his jaw is tightly clenched, isagi can no longer hear the sound of flickering lights; the shared heavy breathing fills up the silence of the empty hallway. the rigid look displayed on rin’s face was even enough for isagi to feel a slight bit intimidated.
“you’re late.” rin utters out under his breath.
“what?”
“it’s almost 1AM.”
“… and?”
“you.. isagi, did you—“
“i practiced by myself.”
hearing those words, rin’s eyes eases up for a second. but the next second later, he tenses up again, scrunching his nose in disbelief.
“you’re lying, isagi.”
“i’m not, rin.”
“you think you’ve found someone better, huh?”
“what the hell are you talking about, you idiot?”
rin releases his right hands grip on isagi’s shoulder, bringing it up to his face, running his fingers through his hair in distress. his hands shake furiously, his heavy breathing becoming more and more unsteady.
but rin doesn’t know what he’s doing this for, or why he’s even doing this at all. he doesn’t understand why the thought of isagi with anyone else is making him feel bitter. he doesn’t understand why he decided to shove isagi against the wall and grip his shoulders. he doesn’t understand why he paced all those hours outside of the locker room to even get a glimpse of isagi. he doesn’t understand why his heart is beating fast out of desperation.
desperation for what, exactly? why does the thought of isagi’s attention straying away from him hurt so much? it’s not as if the spotlight truly mattered to him in the first place; but when it came to isagi, why was it suddenly all he could think about?
“rin, i—“
suddenly, rin brings isagi closer. his left hand drifts over to the back of isagi’s wet hair, as his right hand locks behind isagi’s lower back. he pushes their heads closer to each other, just a few inches away from each others lips. they stare into each others eyes, hearing each other blink in the silence.
“don’t leave.”
rin whispers out. his voice is colored in pain; not sure what to say next other than what immediately came to his mind. the vulnerability in his words is enough for isagi’s eyes to go wide in shock.
“huh?”
“don’t go to him.”
rin’s grip around isagi’s head tightens, scrunching a part of isagi’s hair within his grasp. it’s as if he thinks that once he lets go, he’ll lose isagi forever.
“i’m the one you need.”
isagi stares into the longing expression written on rin’s face. of course, he’s never seen such a look on him. it’s entirely new. but rin’s expression doesn’t bother him; and neither does the tight grip on his hair, nor the pain of his lower back from being shoved.
nothing else matters to isagi.
and as rin’s impulsive decision led them here, isagi decided it’s his turn next. he swings his hand to the back of rin’s head, pulling him closer. within a second, isagi’s lips planted a small kiss on rin’s cheek, then rolling himself back to view rin’s reaction.
and although isagi tried to hide it, he was nervous. he felt his cheeks burn up; he’s never really done something so bold like this before, so he didn’t know what to do. he didn’t want to force an unexpected kiss onto rin, because what if he accidentally got the wrong impression? hell, he didn’t even know how rin would rea—
rin pushes isagi’s head back towards him, opening his lips to kiss him back. but not on the cheek. oh no, rin wanted something more. and that’s what he needed.
the two tussled around in the hallway for a moment. each of their hands embracing each other; rin’s hands cupping isagi’s cheeks, while isagi’s hands wrapped around rin’s back.
and neither one of them wanted to stop. but eventually, rin pulled away.
“shit—“
rin panted, out of breath. they both fell onto the floor within an instant; the energy they both once had vanished. and even though they wanted more, they couldn’t help but just… look at each other, just for a second. but the tension was cut through after a few moments of silence.
“rin,” isagi spoke up.
“do you like me?”
rin furrows his eyebrows in frustration at the question.
”well, what do you think, dumbass?”
despite the fact that they just made out, he couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed by isagi. as if rin would just kiss anyone.
“… yes?” isagi answers, pitching his tone up a little more as if his response was a question itself.
rin sighs in , inching his face closer towards isagi once again.
“no, i don’t.”
“wha—“
“i hate you, isagi.”
even though rin’s words were said through a deadpan tone, isagi knew him better than anyone. and not only that, his flushed cheeks weren’t hiding anything either. isagi let out a small laugh at rin.
“i like you too, rin.”
“… not kaiser?”
isagi slaps his forehead with his hand.
“jesus christ, rin. ESPECIALLY not kaiser. why the hell do you keep bringing him up?! stop talking about him already— it’s like you’re jealous!”
rin pauses.
him, jealous? the thought of being envious towards someone he doesn’t know was such an unimaginable idea to him.
… there was just no way.
“i’m not jealous.”
“as if.”