Chapter Text
光GENJI – Boys In August
Summer 1997
All around the forest expanse, cicadas rent the air with their sound. Toshinori Tsujinaka lay on the grass, his right arm under his head. Up ahead, the sky was a dizzying blue. Next to him, Kouhei Indou sat with his legs crossed, his hands stuck out behind him. Despite the buzzing sounds of summer all around them, here in the clearing, there was a stillness of sorts, as though an invisible barrier buffered them from the hot, moist, wild summer air.
“So this is it, then, huh, Toshi?” Kouhei said absentmindedly. His face was turned slightly away from Toshinori. His gaze was fixed towards the expanse of sea across from them.
“Hmm?”
“Our last summer in high school,” Kouhei replied.
“Oh, that. Yes, it will all be over before we know it,” Toshinori’s voice sounded almost muffled.
“You’re right about that. You always are with most things.”
Toshinori was silent. The cicadas seemed to grow louder if at all that was possible.
“Well, what do you wanna do?” Kouhei turned to face Toshinori with an almost devilish smile.
A bead of sweat trickled down Toshinori’s temple. His face flushed slightly. Thankfully, the other boy’s shadow helped hide it.
“Huh?” Toshinori ran his hand through his long, straight, dark hair before shifting his baseball cap.
“Are we going to spend such precious time doing nothing? What do you want to do before break ends?”
It’s not nothing if I’m doing it with you. But the words never left Toshinori’s mouth. Kuchi wa wazawai no moto. Some things are better left unsaid.
Next thing he knew, Kouhei’s face was hovering inches above his own. Toshinori’s flush turned deep red. Kouhei had straddled him and even though he was shorter and had a slighter frame, he had managed to pin him down. Toshinori’s eyes moved down to evade Kouhei’s piercing, expectant stare, his wide grin only to land on an even worse sight. Kouhei’s parted legs had met his torso there.
No, no, no! Not here, not now! Not… like this.
Barely registering the thought, in an instant, he had Kouhei on the ground, pinned his arms under his back and his legs firmly under his knees.
Kouhei started laughing. His laughter cut through the summer din. It pierced Toshinori’s ears, bounced off the trees, rose to meet the sky, ran through the ground till it seemed to vibrate. The look on his face made Toshinori feel weak around his stomach, like the bottom had caved in on itself. His hands trembled. Kouhei’s hair fell thickly in waves. Beneath, his grey-blue eyes glinted. His teeth were so sharp. In parting, they flanked his open mouth like an abyss. Toshinori gulped.