Chapter Text
As soon as the bell rings, a golden haired boy flies out of the 3-1 classroom, headed to the old building.
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It all started during a light-hearted conversation a few days prior with his friends.
"Hey Kou" Yokoo said, stealing a poki from Satou "Say, who do you think is the cutest girl in our grade?"
Kou stopped to think for a moment, but nobody really stood out for him, so he just shook his head. "Dunno. I don't really care."
"Oh, c'mon!" Yokoo proded the poki against his cheek. "There must be someone you like."
"Who do you hang out with? Aside from us." Satou asked, slapping the blond boy's hand away as he tried to grab another stick and earning a sad whimper from him.
Kou tried to recall — there's Yashiro-senpai, of course, but the crush he had on her dissipated lomg ago. Then there's Hanako, who's dating Yashiro — but he wouldn't be interested anyway. There's his brother Teru, the student council's vice-president Aoi-senpai and Yashiro's friend Akane-senpai, if you call fighting supernaturals together hanging out...
"There is one person I really care about..." he ends up mumbling. "But I don't like like them"
Yokoo shot Satou a mischievous grin, something in their eyes hinting at some sort of inside joke between them that Kou wasn't included in.
"Do tell!" Yokoo exclaims, turning back to Kou. "What do you do together?"
"Well, they're into photography, so I went with them to take some pictures once. We went to the aquarium together once, and we get ice-cream crepes all the time..." Kou rests his head on his hand as he recalls their hangouts. Just the night prior they went stargazing together, on a hill right behind the school. Now that he's thinking of it, he remembers the look in his friend's eyes much better than the starry sky. "And last night, we... why are you looking at me like that?!"
Yokoo is smiling from ear to ear, trying to hold back his giggles, and even Satou is covering his mouth with his hand.
"Kou, your face is all red." The black-haired boy said, almost apologetically. "Are you sure you don't like this person?"
Kou reaches out to touch his cheek, and Satou is right — it's burning hot. He never thought much of it — it also happens after he gets home from an hangout with that one friend, or when he's talking with him, or when they're walking and their hands brush against eachother — but now that Satou was pointing it out...
He did feel different around this person. It wasn't like with Yashiro or Hanako — his heart would beat faster, his hands got sweaty, and there was this fuzzy feeling pooling in his stomach that made him all dizzy. He liked hanging out with all of his friends, but with this one in particular, as soon as they parted he would find himself looking forward to the next time they'd meet. And that one time in the picture perfect world, he was more then ready to die for him — but that's what normal friends do, right?
...
It all dawned on him in that instant. He banged his head against his desk as heat rised to his cheeks. Oh, he was in love with Mistuba, wasn't he?
He distantly felt Yokoo's crystalline laughter.
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After days of rummaging on it, he was sure: he caught feelings for his pink-haired supernatural best friend. Problem is, he didn't know how to address these feeling — he didn't know the first thing about love. Luckily, he knew someone who did.
"Yashiro-senpai!" he bursted into the girls' bathroom, searching for the white haired girl. Instead, he found dark haired boy sitting by the window.
"Hey, kid!" The boy smiled, laying the mokke he was holding down onto the window sill. "Yashiro has club activities today, she won't be coming."
Kou's smile dropped. Out of all times Yashiro could be missing...
"What's wrong?" Hanako's voice came from behind him, making him jump and grip tighter on his staff. The spirit must have noticed his weird behavior, because he had an unsettlingly serious look in his eyes. Not like Hanako at all.
Kou sighed and went to sit down on the floor under the window, Hanako right after him.
"Say, Hanako..." he mumbled, fidgeting with the buttons on his uniform. "How do you act with someone you like?"
No answer came. Kou looked away from his shirt and up to Hanako — to see him covering his mouth as tears prickled his eyes. "W-What the—?!" Kou panicked, reaching into his pockets for a tissue, when the boy reached for his head and started ruffling his hair.
"You have a crush? Ah, they grow up so fast." He dramatically wiped away a tear, at which Kou frowned in annoyance. That's why he needed Nene for this.
"Who's the lucky girl? Wait no, don't tell me..." Hanako squeezed his eyes shut trying to recall any female classmate or friend Kou might have mentioned, but nothing came to mind. Has Kou ever mentioned a girl..?
"It's not a girl." He clarified. "It's Mitsuba."
Hanako looked at him deadpan, an hint of disgust on his face. Kou's heart skipped a beat— he hasn't thought about the fact they're both boys. Hanako was from another time after all, it wouldn't be weird if he was against it—
"Him?!" The ghost yelled, grabbing Kou by his shoulders. "With all the cute girls and handsome boys in the school, you chose him?!"
Okay, at least the gender wasn't a problem.
"I really want to confess to him" The blond boy mumbled, staring at the floor as heat rised on his cheeks. "But I don't know how..."
Hanako's hands now moved to squeezing his cheeks. "That's not how you do it, dumbass!" the spirit scolded him, pulling at his face. "You can't tell him you like him, you have to show him!" "Ouch— stawp twat!"
Hanako took his hands back and Kou took the chance to massage his cheeks.
"You could bake him something. You're good at that, right?" Hanako said, grabbing a Mokke that climbed up on top his head and placing it in his lap instead. Well, he wasn't wrong — he did like cooking, and his brother would always claim his cooking tasted like it came straight from Heaven. Also, he found a new cookie recipes he wanted to try just a few days prior...
Kou jumped up from his seat, startling both the spirit boy and the Mokke.
"That's it!" He exclaimed with a smile. "I'll bake him something! Thank you, Hanako!" he grabbed his staff from the wall and ran straight out of the door before Hanako could reply.
He sighed, letting another Mokke climb up his lap to nuzzle into his shirt.
Now he misses Nene.
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He took the cookies out of the oven ten minutes before he was meant to leave.
He wrapped a little less than half of the cookies in pink paper tissues and placed them in a cardboard box, careful not to break them — but burning his fingers so bad he had to run them under cold water after every cookie.
In the end, the box was a little dented and the bow was crooked, but it worked. Or at least, Kou hoped it did.
Now he was sitting on a bench in the middle of the empty park, gift in his lap, twisting some grass stems in his hands and then breaking them into little strips.
He didn't know why he was so nervous — it's just Mitsuba after all, they literally hang out every other day.
Today was a little different, of course — their whole friendship depended on whether Mitsuba got the hint or not. And whether the feeling were mutual.
"Hello? Earth to Kou?" he snapped back from his thoughts, an hand swinging back and forth in front of his face. He blinked a few times and them looked up from his lap — to meet eyes with the boy that has been consuming his thoughts this whole time.
His whole face took a red tint — that he really hoped Mitsuba wouldn't point out — and he opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. What was he doing?! He couldn't freeze now!
"Geez, what's up with you today?" the pink-haired boy mumbled, sitting next to him, their tights touching — he was really conscious of his body today, for some reason. His words were still stuck in his troath, so instead he held out to Mitsuba his hands holding the box. "I-I made you something." He managed to murmur under his breath, looking away but steaking swift glances at Mitsuba's reaction.
His eyes widened for a moment, then he took the box in his hands, the warmth radiating from it.
Mitsuba looked up at him, his eyes soft now–
"Is this a bomb?"
"Wha– just open it!"
The boy pulled at the ribbon, a rich smell of chocolate spreading in the air as the box opened. Kou scanned his face for even the faintest trace of an emotion he didn't like– and luckily, he didn't find any. He saw the surprise in his eyes, along with something else he couldn't quite pinpoint.
"C'mon, try one." Kou encited him.
Mitsuba carefully, almost reluctantly — did they look that bad?? — took a cookie from the book and nibbed on it, his eyes going wide.
"Woooah" he exclaimed, taking a bigger bite of the pastry. "These are too good to be yours."
Kou didn't know whether he should take that as a compliment or get offended. Just in case, he chose defense.
"Of course they are! I'm a great cook, y'know. You can ask Yashiro-senpai." he crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking away as Mitsuba bit into the cookie.
"So you bake for Radish-senpai too? Aw, and here I thought I was special." the boy complained, dramatically cupping his cheek with his hand.
"That's not what I meant!"
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Kou fell face-first on his bed. Mitsuba liked his cookies, sure, but they didn't work much as a confession. Maybe he needs to ask someone else...
He rolled on his back to stare at his ceiling, as the image of Mitsuba's reaction reappeared in his mind — one he wouldn't mind seeing in his dream tonight. Mitsuba's happiness could be so child-like and genuine sometimes — in that moment he almost forgot Mitsuba was a supernatural. Hopefully he gets to see that look in his eyes another thousand times.
He smiled to himself, in the dark of his room.