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Nagi likes Reo.
It's not some random thought, Nagi thinks, rarely, but he still thinks. He knows, in detail, of the ‘like’ he feels for Reo. And he loves thinking back, or being reminded, of just why he likes Mikage Reo, of the things he's felt and done, all because of this boy he likes.
Nagi likes Reo because it's summer. It's summer and Reo doesn't look like he cares about the heat. The only thing Reo does to give the heat a semblance of care is put on his summer uniform.
Reo doesn't care when Nagi still wants piggyback rides to that one staircase they always eat lunch at. Neither does he care when he's sweating and Nagi chooses to lay right on his thighs to open up his shooting ga—
Nevermind he's opening up an.. otome game? Most men play bishoujo games, not that it'd be much better if Nagi did play that instead but no judging.. yeah.. no judging.
“New game?” Reo gets closer.
“Yeah.” Nagi stays still, only moving his fingers as he claims his daily log in award, which.. he's on his second week now! Good for him.
“You trying to romance someone? You..?!” Reo tries not to sound too shocked.
“Eh.. sorta.”
“Don't ‘sorta’ me! Tell me, what's your type?”
Nagi thinks for a second, “.. cute”
“Oh! Well. That's simple, very vague, secretive about your crush eh? I respect that” Reo pats Nagi on the back. Nagi misses the split second of a slightly disappointed look on Reo's face.
It doesn't take long for them to fall into comfortable silence. Comfortable by Reo's standards at least, he's eating his rice up smiling ear to ear. For Nagi? Nagi wants to know Reo's type now. Really badly. But how?
Oh wait, he can just say it right? Obviously he can! He's Nagi Seishiro!
“Reo, what's your type?”
Reo stops his hands in the air mid bite. Looking at Nagi, he lowers his arm and thinks for only a second. Clearly he's thought about it before. A smile spreads across his face fast.
“If you ask me, talented people really get me! Ooh especially pianist! I could only get so far in piano before becoming bored of playing, but watching never gets boring. If I had a pianist partner.. I'd love to buy her the grandest piano I could haha!”
“Can't they be a drummer or something?”
“Hm.. I don't know, never really cared about drums, the 88 keys on a piano are something else. How do you do all that with two hands you know?”
The male love interest on Nagi's phone has his face slowly morphed from excited to pissed due to Nagi's long absence. Otome games can even sense when you're afk now seriously? Not wanting to completely lose hearts with the interest, he shuts his phone.
Well. Nothing but Reo to entertain him now.
Turning back to Reo, he's quiet, not displeased with Nagi's sudden silence, and just gets ready to continue his bento. It's as if he thought the white haired would just continue the game, which, fair.
“So.. tell me more about piano's?”
Reo's face absolutely lights up, who knew Nagi would unintentionally find one of Reo's fixations?
“The thing about pianists. Their hands! Definitely their hands. Even a blue collared man's hands can look elegant so long as they can play a piano well. A piano is so simple yet.. so complex! It's the true embodiment of how simple things build up to become complex. Not to mention,..”
Right, Nagi's brain can't handle all that. But he's sure Reo understands, so he slumbers off without much thought.
In Nagi's dream, he doesn't see anything, just Reo's voice going on about piano theory, something about melodies, and Nagi just can't keep up really. All he knows is this voice is akin to a melody of a lullaby lulling him into a sleep in a sleep.
A little more and Nagi won't ever wake up again. Just.. a little..
—Ring! Ring! Ring!
Well nevermind.
Before the boys say their goodbye, Reo feeds Nagi one octopus sausage to wake and last him the rest of the day. Nagi's nods in thanks and watches as the other walks in the opposite direction of him to his own class.
In class, Nagi replays the taste of the octopus so much he feels like the number one octopus hunter. After the 6th replay, he realises he's just been thinking of Reo's face. On the 10th replay, he flushes pink. How could someone so perfect ever like him?
____________
So. Awkward situation, Nagi is learning the piano now.
Yes the rant about the piano did inspire Nagi to be better for Reo, who can blame him? He's only a weak boy. The only way a perfect person could like him, is by putting himself in the same league.
However, Nagi is not just a weak boy, but also a penniless boy. It was only after going through posters of piano lessons did he realise just how expensive they are. Nearly 7k yen monthly just for lessons once a week? Which is 4 times a month making it nearly 2k yen just for one day! No way.
So obviously, Nagi, being the genius he is(as Reo says), finds a way. It wasn't easy finding it, so he hopes the brainstorming he put into this is paid back in folds soon. In the form of a certain cute purple haired guy, possibly.
One might ask, how does one suddenly acquire the funds to learn piano?
Well, you don't.
You text your parents after 7 days of no contact, the last message being a 3 minute conversation about how Nagi’s day went “ok”, he said. And that was it. It's not too uncomfortable given it's a norm, Reo might say otherwise though.
-Mom,
Hi
Can I have some money
Need food
It doesn't take long for Nagi to hear a ding back, but it isn't just from his messages.
[ Nagi Moma has transferred 10,000¥ to your bank account! ]
-For this month, use it well.
-Thx a lot
It slowly becomes a back and forth where Nagi’s mom asks and Nagi answers questions. It's not so bad, having to think back about what he did this week and imagining Reo.
In any case, the funds are acquired and Nagi goes down the rabbit hole of cheapest pianos on the internet. How are even the shabby looking not giant fancy ones over 30k? In the end, he settles for a 61 key electronic keyboard piano he found on a shopping app. Luckily, new user vouchers exist. The 10,000¥ has been dented, but the piano is acquired.
How does Nagi learn? Well, the millions of piano tutorials on youtube will surely help. Ever seen anyone play Beethoven off youtube tutorials? No? You will soon.
Okay maybe Nagi had to spend just a little more money on printing sheet music at the local library he's visiting for the first time since school started.. since squinting at the phone isn't exactly helpful.
Preparations are all set, mind is mentally ready to be in front of this piano for the next.. whenever he gets good. Besides, piano is just pressing your fingers down, nothing hard about that.
“I'm so ready for this.”
_______________
「 DAY 1 」
On a beautiful and warm and cozy and every synonym for perfect conditions for staying in bed, Nagi, unfortunately, has to forgo that as his parcel has arrived. Meaning, his plans for today are set, and that would be learning the piano. Opening the package, he notes it's the perfect size to hide in his closet when Reo comes over. If Reo ever stumbles upon piano sounds coming from Nagi's room, it's a good thing his neighbour is a big music enthusiast!
Nagi doesn't know actually but he is if Nagi says he is because Reo would believe him anyway.
To start, Nagi opens youtube videos and really, he's about to fall asleep but it sounds to be pretty simple. What say he learns a song? Even if he's only 6 minutes into the first piano for beginners video.
Honestly. Piano is ridiculously EASY. Maybe it's because he's a genius? But Nagi is pretty sure he easily flew past the first 2 grades. Sure he doesn't know what exactly is grade 2, but you can't convince him that being able to play baa baa black sheep through pure memory is not a genius move. Now why would Reo not want a man like him?
And it took.. 2 hours! Is that good? Maybe.
The issue.. he was following a video tutorial, so note reading is not exactly his forte right now. So far, he only knows the basic keys and whatnot. In fact, he's not even sure if the 81 other piano tiles are h to z. The time will come though.. soon?
Following the 2 hours of constant mispressing notes and 15 minute breaks for a 1 minute song, he realises reading musical sheets may be easier than figuring out which note some white man is putting their hands on.
Searching up a random piano notes quiz on Quizizz, he instinctively starts memorising the order the questions(and answer) appear in rather than what the actual notes are. The thought of how useless this all is only comes to him after 10 minutes of mindless pressing answers. Well, no biggie, he can just play multiple different quizzes.
From the afternoon to evening, Nagi has already heard the C key played a billion times by a hundred different tutorials. Okay there's a C key he gets it.
By the end of it all, regret flashes and the thought that maybe all the time sleeping in music class in middle school could've been transferred to physics class instead.
The hunger from lunch has finally caught up and dare Nagi say, he deserves not one, but three, jellypacks today. He's this close to tearing the package for the second jellypack when—
*Ding dong
Three consistent knocks.
This can only be one person. Screw the jelly, that piano is out at the end of the hallway entrance as if shouting “look at me!”. Nagi unplugs the plug from the socket and moves the piano in his closet, not with ease.
Knock knock knock
Another knock, that's how he knows it's been a minute at least since the last knock.
Not letting the guest wait a second longer, Nagi opens the door.
“Sleeping in again?” A chuckle follows.
As expected, it's a purple haired beauty— Reo, holding what seems to be Nagi's dinner for today.
Hiding the ragged breathing, Nagi nods aggressively and lets Reo in. Less than a second in the so-called place Nagi calls “house”, and Reo already spots the fridge of jellypacks half opened and sighs as if he expected it.
Reo strides in smoothly as if he's been here a thousand times, placing the mysterious bag of food on the table. Reo unravels the contents inside and reveals.. two bento boxes!
As if opening a mystery box inside another mystery box, another content must be revealed— the food! So Reo opens the boxes to, once again, reveal.. beautiful katsu meals designed like a red panda!
The two sit down for a hearty meal, and it doesn't take long until Nagi is finished with his bento and opts to lay on his hand as he lazily replies to Reo’s happenings.
Nagi doesn't know when, but soon, he's laying down on the dining table snoring softly as Reo covers a blanket on him.
“Goodnight, Nagi,” Nagi vaguely hears in his dreams.
「 Month 3 」
When you watch multiple piano tutorials, it's no surprise the algorithm thinks you're an obsessed music freak and spams you with a bunch more. What was once endless videos of valorant videos have become musical instruments. Nagi is so making a new google account.
Yet again, another video of an Asian child exceeding expectations on the piano playing on Nagi's feed. But Nagi doesn't have to care about competition like that, Reo doesn't like little kids afterall.
Nagi has a fixed piano schedule now, which is, whenever he feels like it on the weekdays, and maybe, just maybe, on saturday.
At this point, Nagi’s pretty much got it all down, life’s pretty easy when you don't have to care about the theory of it all isn't it! Just look at the sheet and play away.
Play a song without a sheet? Oh.. maybe another time.
「 Month 9 」
Embarrassingly, Nagi actually has some fun playing around on the piano now, it's not a strong fire, but you gain an attachment when you play on an instrument after half a month has passed.
At the same time, it's exam season, piano time should be taken up by his studying, but instead, it's taken up by Reo's frequent visits to study. “For better concentration”, he says. And Nagi doesn't want to argue with that.
“Nagi, What time is it?
“Uuhh let me check”
“...”
“8:40”
“Oh, it's getting late. I'll get going.”
“...but, if Reo stays, he can study until midnight here.”
“Well, that is true..”
「 Year 1 」
Nagi tries not to think about the amount of time he spent on some rectangular sound making thing that could've been used to grind for ranks in games. The good part about the piano is, unlike games, piano has basically an infinite amount of “modes” to play.
Reo hasn't brought up the topic of music since that conversation a year ago. But Nagi still can't but fall into the natural schedule of weekly, even daily, playing of soft tunes.
They're third years now, and Nagi should be thinking about his path, how to pave that path. Roughly a year ago, Nagi would've said
“I'll go wherever Reo goes.”
Today, Nagi will say
“I'll go wherever Reo goes.”
“.. Nagi, you said the same thing last year.” His homeroom teacher sighs. “surely you have some sort of hobby you've been doing? Some.. side passion.”
Nagi stares.
“- that is not Reo.”
Nagi stares harder.
“Uuuhhh, I have.. a digital piano. I play it. Sometimes.”
His teacher nods approvingly with surprised eyes, “Okay, why not a musician? You know, orchestral pianists get paid quite a lot.” The teacher says as if she doesn't know it's a bit late to start without a single bit of experience related to music in his school profile.
“It's not what Reo wants.”
“Do you know what Reo wants?”
Not music that's for sure, is what Nagi thinks first. “It doesn't matter.. I just need to be near Reo.” Being in the same school is enough, even if all their courses may be different. At least Nagi isn't halfway across the country pressing on keys, without Reo.
The teacher's given up on this point. If Nagi wants to be with Reo, who is she to stop puppy- true(?) love. It's not like Reo's a bad influence anyway.
“Ah.. whatever you want Nagi. But heads up, Reo’s future aims for the best, as in, the best in the country. If you want to follow him, do your best.” She clasps her hands together.
Nagi doesn't really know what to say, so he just sits there, waiting for the leave signal.
“..uh.. you can go now! Thanks for the time, and keep playing piano!” The teacher waves Nagi off. Nagi doesn't even look excited to get up either, nonchalant final boss much?
“Mm yes ma'am.” She blinks, and he's gone.
Through the door window, a flash of purple that mixes with white can be seen going away.. and away.
「 year 3 」
Nowadays, cramping the time or energy to pull that old piano out of the closet feels like a bother, a weight. But when a miracle happens and Nagi does so, he plays and plays until his fingers would rather type a thousand more lines of code on the computer.
The likeness he has for music isn't something he'd ever expected, but he likes it. Of course Reo would be right again about what's good. It's a bit unbelievable, but yes Reo has yet to figure anything out even after the 200th.. something visit.
Honestly, Nagi isn't actively hiding it anymore. He forgets to switch youtube accounts half the time and ends up on “top 10 BEST composers still alive” without even realising. Reo doesn't say anything as he thinks it's just Nagi spacing out and letting whatever play on his screen.
And there really isn't any time to even play anymore with college in the way of it all. Nagi spends half his days on campus, typing away lines of codes for assignments as he waits for Reo's many, many classes to end.
When Nagi finishes with work, he kind of just.. sits on a chair near wherever Reo's last lecture is.
Sometimes he sleeps, most times, he's thinking about what the composition of the best Reo love song would be. Other times, he thinks about plants versus zombies and what happened to it.
Maybe the song could go like, “oh reo, oh reo, amazing, beautiful, yea yea yeaa-”
Okay nevermind someone just walked by, cringe. Oh wait they're not going away, wait- it's Reo!
Nagi keeps his head down avoiding Reo's gaze in a calm flush. “..hey Reo. Class good?”
“Hhheeyy Nagi, class great!”
If Nagi could see Reo right now, Reo wouldn't see him because Reo would be looking to the right, holding in a laugh.
「 year 6 」
If Nagi could give himself a grade for his musical skills, he'd give it a grade 1000, because he really is just that amazing. He hasn't printed a single sheet of music since.. some years ago.
In fact, since he's such a genius now, he's straight up stopped touching the piano. It's collecting dust right now in the back of his closet, covered by unhung hoodies.
Except there's really a much, much more reasonable reason that he's stopped. And it's that he doesn't need to anymore. The fuel that ignited him to start. The fuel your local engineer would name “jealousy” had stopped sparking.
Why so? Well, there's no musician to be jealous of anymore, no musician to one up for the sake of Reo. Not like Nagi can beat himself up.
Because Reo is— has been, officially Nagi's.
The confession had happened so suddenly, but the memory of it all stays clear in Nagi's mind. Clearer than any gacha pull he's ever gotten, yes, even the limited summer edition bono-bono collab character that looked eerily similar to a certain someone.
.
.
.
“Meet me after school.” Reo had said, quite sternly.
"—under the ch-cherry blossom trees, behind the school..” he added, less sternly
Nagi is no oblivious fella, and this was setting up to be a little too similar to be like the confession episodes in his otome. This was the confession. Definitely. But he couldn't let Reo think he knew already, so he just nodded, dumbly.
It was break time when Reo had said that, so after that crazy realisation Nagi sits in class spaced out. It feels crazy, he's stuck in his head thinking of ways to accept Reo's confession while looking cool—since Reo only likes cool guys.
Slowly, the images of how the confession will unfold becomes imaginations of them in the future, domestic and loving. Nagi didn't think he'd had it in him to be so loving, his heart turns fuzzy.
He stares at the clock hung above the blackboard impatiently. Even his sweet daydreams aren't enough to speed time up unfortunately.
—Ring! Ring! Ring!
In Nagi's head, he's already made a run to where Reo is. But, he won't do such a thing, Reo needs time to prepare too.
Nagi makes his way to the building behind slowly, he spots Reo and walks a little faster. With graduation coming, Reo must be swamped with meetings from girls who think it's worth a shot to try, even if it means to be rejected. How had Reo even found the time to meet Nagi? The idea of Reo rejecting everyone else does make Nagi feel sound though.
“Nagi! You're here!” Reo's sitting on a bench, bag by his side and he seems to be holding.. a small box.
“Reo.” Nagi makes his way to Reo, naturally falling next to him.
“Hey, I've just called you here to say something uh. Things” Reo's staring at Nagi, but his eyes are flicking as if he's unsure if he should be.
“Okay.”
“Promise you won't leave?” And if Nagi had wished to reply with how stupid of a thought that was, he won't say.
“Promise.”
“Here, this box. It's for you. We're about to graduate now so.. just a little something.” The purple haired boy hands the box in a shy manner. He's almost starting to look like the girls that confess to him now.
Nagi takes the box, he opens it— it's a ring. What's disappointing is it doesn't come in a pair with Reo, but this gift has 100% confirmed Nagi's hunch. Turning his gaze back to Reo, Reo is basically flushing at this point.
“So.. you know, we're about to graduate. And I don't really know where you're going. I mean- I hope with me, but, you know. Follow your dreams..?” Nagi nods along, the other boy seems out of breath, but there's clearly more he wants to say.
“What! I'm trying to say, is. I really like you, I've had the fattest crush on you since- I don't know, it just all happened when i thought of the impending doom of us parting after graduation. And this confession isn't to stop that doom, it's to..” Reo pants, finding his words. “make said doom more bearable.”
Nagi notices Reo's stare is slowly getting lower, and lower till his head is basically looking at the bench. He tilts Reo's head up, not wanting to waste a second—
“I like you too Reo, I've been waiting. For a long time now. In my head, there is no impending doom of university, because I was always going to keep following you. I like you so much Reo, thank you for liking me.” He understands why a confession could make someone so out of breath now, the rush of happiness is definitely a key factor.
Reo is staring at Nagi with the biggest eyes ever, and really, how could Reo have ever believed there was even a moment where Nagi hadn't been in love with him? Nagi pulls Reo in for a hug, he's started the hug but he doesn't know how, doesn't want— to end it.
“Nagi.. I'm so happy right now” There's sniffling noises coming from Reo, and the white haired boy debates on whether to wipe the tears away or keep the hug. He keeps the hug.
“Me too Reo, uhm.. does that make us boyfriends now?” There really is only one answer, but Nagi has to hear it from the man himself.
“Of course, my.. boyfriend!”
.
.
.
The transition from occasionally playing to spending so much time with Reo that Nagi had simply forgotten about the piano was slow, but smooth.
That brings us back to the present, where Nagi and Reo have just come back to Nagi's house from the busy Christmas atmosphere outside. Outside, there were big christmas trees, snow was falling, some might even say love was in the air.
—not to be forgotten, there was also a piano performance. A tough but elegant christmas song was played by a gentleman in his 30s. The performance captivated many people, including the Reo Mikage.
Reo had even taken a video to commemorate the song, wanting to hear it even more back home. And that he did, ever since the doors locked, Reo had been playing his video on loop, humming along to it.
Really, what was so impressive about it? Nagi could do that too.. it only seemed like a tough song due its speed, but it's playable for sure.
After the 5th loop, Nagi had already decided he wasn't going to hear it for a 6th. When Reo got up to the window for fresh air, Nagi was quick to shut the video off immediately.
“Eh-? Nagi! I was listening, you know.”
“Reo.. I can do it too. Stop listening to others.”
“...”
A moment of silence. Reo slowly turns his head.
“Uh, haha, Nagi— boyfriend of 2 years, I never realised you made jokes like that!”
More beats of silence.
“You're for real?” At this point he's directly in front of Nagi now, eyes very much wide and shocked.
And suddenly Nagi is being rocked back and forth with Reo's hands on his shoulder.
“How? How!? How can I just hear of this?!”
“Ahm.. I just kind of forgot about it.” Well, Nagi really isn't telling any lies.
“You need need need!! To play that song for me right now!! Oh- you can do that right? I don't mean to underestimate your prowess but it doesn't sound easy..” the rocking has stopped and Reo is looking at Nagi with newfound joy now.
Nagi is greatly affected by Reo's smile attack and walks to his closet in two quick strides for the instrument. After a simple dust off and plug-in, the piano is set, and the pianist? More ready than ever. A year of inactiveness isn't enough to pull down a genius hand-picked by Reo.
Reo sits on Nagi's bed, patiently waiting for Nagi to get started. “Should I pull a sheet up on my phone?” He asks concerningly.
After hearing the song for the 6th time? Yeah Nagi's fine as he is. He shakes his head gently.
And so he starts. Each key beneath his finger a melody that represents all the days he's spent playing for Reo, all for this moment, to play for him.
Nagi can't compose the perfect song for Reo to hear, but it's a given Reo- with his better ear for music, would find the best song for this long awaited moment.
When Nagi plays it himself, he admits, it's a really good song. When did Christmas songs upgrade this much? His neighbours could be paying him for this performance. Scratch that, he seems to be getting paid by Reo's expensive happiness now.
Reo is humming along to the melody of the song, and Nagi finds himself never wanting to stop hearing that hum. So he loops the song over, and over, hopefully Reo doesn't notice.
Alas, his fingers had to give out after the unending replays. It's only when Nagi finishes does he realise he's sweating, he was nervous, and he still is. Because he feels like there should be something to say after this.
Maybe a speech about how he started all this because of Reo, how he's been wanting to do this for so many years. How this could've been a potential confessing method, but Nagi still favours the real way they got together the most of course.
“Ahh, Reo uhm. So, well..”
Nevermind he's failing at a rapid rate.
But Reo, the ever loving boyfriend senses this nervousness and chooses to ignore it altogether.
Reo holds Nagi's hands like they're magic, Nagi stays still and stares at Reo through his shy, tilted head. It's like they've fallen in love even deeper, just like those sappy couples who kiss under mistletoes.
And if they happened to get a noise complaint for playing melodious tunes into the night, at least they were happy.