Archive of Our Own

cinderella has to leave before the midnight bell finishes ringing

“Whoa. Kousuke, have you seen the invitation?” 

“For the class president’s wedding? Yeah, it just came in.” Ida scrolled through the invite page, seemingly fascinated by the way it moved. “That guy is flashy as always.”

“That makes the, what, fourth wedding this year? I can’t believe we’re already at the age where our high school classmates are getting married…”

“Don’t forget Hiromu and Rumi, who got hitched straight after university.” Ida snickered. “I wonder if Aida and Hashimoto are gonna be next.”

“Akkun better propose quick.” Aoki grumbled. “I don’t know what that guy is waiting for, doesn’t he know that Hashimoto has so many admirers?”

“Yourself included, if I’m not mistaken.” Ida chuckled, and Aoki turned sharply to glare at him.

“Shut up.”

“So… should we go together?” Ida changed the topic, scrolling down the page to the venue section. “It’s not very far, but I guess we could rent a car.”

At the question, Aoki suddenly looked unsure. “Ah. But – the venue is not far from the train station, isn’t it?”

“I just don’t think it’s gonna be fun standing in a train wearing suits.” Ida frowned. “And it’s an evening reception. The trip home is gonna be a nightmare.”

“Oh, well… then– how about we contact Akkun and Hashimoto? We can travel as a group, I think it’s more fun than just the two of us!”

Ida didn’t respond right away, but just as Aoki was about to open his mouth again, Ida smiled at him.

“Sure. That sounds good. Are you going to text them, or should I?”

“I will!” Aoki hurriedly replied, whipping his phone back out. “Been a while since I texted Akkun, gotta see if he has my number blocked already.”

“He won’t, that guy loves you.”

“That didn’t stop him from getting on my nerves, though.” Aoki muttered. “Oh, hey, he’s online. And he agreed to go together, that was fast.”

Ida chuckled. “That settles it, then.” 

**

“Oh, Aoki and Ida! It’s been forever!” 

Kariya waved both arms excitedly, only to be met with an indignant protest from Aida. “Only them? We’re here too!”

“Not that interested to see you, sorry!” Kariya stuck out his tongue, prompting Aida to chase him.

“Wah, it feels like we haven’t left high school at all.” Aoki commented, watching the two run around in the wedding hall. Next to him, Ida laughed, trying to find more familiar faces among the crowd. But it was Hashimoto who ended up finding their friends first, driven by a sudden commotion somewhere near the entrance.

“Huh? What’s going on over there?”

“Looks like Hiromu and Rumi’s daughter is crying.” Aoki craned his neck upwards, trying to get a better view among the crowd.

“Aww. Poor baby, she’s probably overwhelmed with this many people around.”

The group slowly made their way towards the source of crying, still trying to keep a healthy distance in order not to scare the girl even more. The toddler was sobbing in her father’s arms, her frilly pink gown all crumpled, princess tiara hung crooked on her hair.

Ida was watching the situation, murmuring “Little girls love playing princesses, don’t they?”

“I guess this one does.” Aoki replied, eyeing Ida as the latter started to fidget with his phone. “Why? You have a plan or something?”

Ida grinned. “Not sure if it’ll work, but…”

Everyone watched quietly as Ida approached the crying girl carefully. 

“Excuse me… Princess?”

The girl hiccuped, clutching her dad’s arm, turning only slightly to face Ida.

“I’ve been looking for you forever.” Ida whispered. “My name is Prince Charming.”

The girl gasped, eyeing Ida in disbelief. Ida winked, turning on his phone to show her an old photo of himself – in full Prince Charming garb for the high school drama production. Her eyes instantly sparkled when she saw the photo, even more so when Ida gracefully extended a hand towards her.

“May I have this dance, Princess?”

The adults all went silent as they waited for the girl’s answer – she eyed Ida’s outstretched hand uneasily, looking back and forth between the strange man and her father – until she finally took Ida’s hand and smiled. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief, clapping and cheering as the two started to dance, completely ignoring Hiromu who fell dramatically to the floor with a whisper of “My little princess…”

The little girl seemed to have forgotten all about her tantrum earlier, twirling around happily and giggling. There was no trace of the shy, nervous girl from earlier – once she became comfortable, she smiled and shook hands with every adult that greeted her, waving at her mom and dad every now and then. Among them, Aoki also laughed and clapped, watching the two dance.

Though for the rest of the day, he was thinking about something else.

**

“Kousuke, you’re really good with kids.”

“Huh?”

“What you did with Hiromu and Rumi's daughter today.” Aoki replied absentmindedly, still scrolling his phone in bed. The old high school group chat was buzzing with photos and videos from earlier. “That was really good, you know?”

“I teach high school and tutor elementary school kids. I think at this point it’s all occupational reflex.” Ida chuckled, glancing at Aoki slightly.

“Still, you’re so good at dealing with kids of all ages.” Aoki sighed. “I mean, I could never. Kids scare me. The only kid I’m comfortable with is my sister’s kid, and only because we’re related by blood.”

“It can’t be that bad.” Ida shook his head, still smiling. “You just haven’t been around enough kids.”

“You’re gonna be such an awesome dad.” Aoki blurted out and was met with Ida’s laughter.

“Alright, where did this all come from?”

“Just observing.” Aoki finally turned off his phone and placed it on the bedside table, turning his back to Ida. “Good night.”

“Good night, Souta.” Ida reached over to turn off the light, and Aoki could hear him whispering in the dark.

“I think you’re gonna make a wonderful parent, too.”

That night, Aoki lay awake long after the light was turned off.

the midnight bell is starting to ring.

On a logical level, Aoki understood that it shouldn’t bother him too much. It was just one day, and their friends talked about it only for a few days before it all faded into memory, tucked away to be brought back in the next big reunion.

But it wasn’t about what happened at the wedding reception – at least not only that. It made him think of bigger things, like what they could and couldn’t do. First of all, they couldn’t get married – at least not in the most traditional sense of the word. And even if they do get married, they couldn’t have kids – again, at least not in the most biological sense. Sure, there are more than one way to have kids nowadays, and there are also ways to do it at least half-biologically, but those things are complicated too – both logistically and emotionally. 

He wasn’t sure about how Ida would feel about any of those things – and at the same time, unfortunately, he couldn’t think of a good way to bring it up. Relationships are complicated, and even though some things do get easier with time, some things get more challenging, even more so when social and familial expectations are involved. In the meantime, all he could do was try to keep things between himself and Ida as normal as possible.

Nothing needs to change, for now.

**

“What do you want to eat for dinner today, Souta?” Ida asked as he handed Aoki his bento for the day – a neat little box wrapped in pale yellow furoshiki. “I don’t have volleyball practice or labs to prepare for, so I’m free after school hours. I’ll make dinner.”

“Ah.” Aoki took the bento box, cradling it carefully in his hands. “I have to stay overtime again tonight… I’m sorry.”

“I see.” Ida looked quite crestfallen, but he quickly changed his expression. “Let me make some extra rice balls for your bento box then – can you wait ten minutes?”

“No, no, that’s okay! You don’t have to!” Aoki quickly waved a hand. “I mean– there’s a konbini next to my office. People usually buy dinner there when we have overtimes, and I think our manager is treating us tonight? To make up for the extra work.”

“Okay. Just make sure you eat properly, then.” Ida placed the rice scoop back on the table. “You seem so busy lately. Is everything okay at work?”

“Yeah, well…” Aoki muttered, unconsciously gripping the furoshiki tighter. “Remember this new line of snacks I told you about? It’s finally at the final stage of development. We have to submit proposals and write reports for all sorts of testing before it gets approved for production, and it’s my department’s responsibility, so…”

“Ah, there’s no helping it, then. Hang in there, Souta. I’m sure you’ll all do well.” Ida smiled, patting Aoki’s bangs gently. “Well, I’ll walk the dog before getting ready for school. Have a great day!”

“You too, Kousuke. See you tonight.” Aoki smiled, waving at Ida as he made his way out of the house.

Aoki wasn’t lying about the overtime, their department was indeed really busy at this time of year. Before he started working in a confectionery company, he never imagined the amount of research it took just to create one single new product, let alone an entire line of it. It just so happened that the busy season at work coincided perfectly with the moment he wanted to avoid Ida. 

To be fair… Aoki wasn’t actively trying to avoid Ida, per se. It was more like he was unconsciously pulling away from the latter – from their relationship. Like it or not, the thoughts of marriage and kids had been weighing down in his mind, more so ever since he witnessed what happened in the class president’s wedding. 

Aoki didn’t hate it… he was just afraid. Maybe Ida was thinking about it too. Maybe he was wondering what it would be like to have his own kids. Maybe he was imagining a beautiful wedding ceremony, holding hands in the altar with the person he loved in front of all their friends and family. Maybe he would come to the realization that it was what he wanted. 

After all, Ida never had anything to compare our relationship with, Aoki thought as he absentmindedly unwrapped his bento. The box was really heavier than it looked, and when Aoki opened the lid, he immediately understood why. The bento was filled to the brim with his favorite karaage, plus rice and a few other side dishes. 

“Aoki, that bento looks amazing!” His friend squealed as she peeked at his bento, admiring the side dishes. Her exclamation drew the attention of their other friends, who instantly gathered around to take a look.

“It’s all fried chicken!”

“Woah, whoever made this bento really knows you.”

“It’s a bento full of love.” One of them giggled, poking him on the side in jest. Aoki smiled awkwardly at all their teasing, knowing that they all thought the bento was made by a girl. It wasn’t as if he was deliberately trying to hide the true nature of his relationship, anyway. It simply never came up, and Aoki wasn’t interested in stirring the nest for no reason.

They were right, though. Ida’s bento really looked amazing and tasted as good as it looked. Aoki could only imagine how early Ida woke up that morning to prepare everything, and his heart ached. Ida really was too kind. And to think that he was trapping that man in a fruitless relationship…

Aoki couldn’t stop thinking about it, even as he spent the entire day working and left the office in a dazed state later that night. Even while walking in the sparsely filled street, his head was full of moving thoughts – everything about his relationship with Ida was playing in his mind like movie reels, from their initial misunderstanding to the way they struggled to set things straight afterwards. Even with several near misses and an actual breakup, they somehow managed to overcome the obstacles. And their relationship had been steadily progressing ever since.

But after this – what? Even if they were steadily moving right now, Aoki couldn’t see where the road would lead them. For everyone else in a relationship, there would be milestones like engagement and marriage, and first child, second child, grandchildren. For them… there was nothing of that sort. It would just be a long winding road with no goal in sight, and unfortunately, they’ve walked too far to just abruptly end it all now. 

If only I could do things over…  

Aoki’s thoughts were interrupted –rather harshly– by the loud sound of screeching tires, bringing his attention to the actual road in front of him. More precisely, to a car coming from the opposite direction. The car’s headlights seemed to sway, looking like the car was moving in a zig-zag. It took him a few seconds of staring to realize that it wasn’t just looking like that – the car actually was moving in a zig-zag pattern, and it was heading in his direction, towards the sidewalk. People were starting to scream, pointing a few feet in front of him, and only then did Aoki realize that there was someone else standing between himself and the car.

A little girl.

The world seemed to move in slow motion as Aoki lurched forward, grabbing the little girl by the arm and tossing her to the side, losing his balance in the process. He could see the headlights from the car moving unsteadily from side to side, getting brighter and brighter as the distance between them decreased. The screeching tires and people’s screams distorted into white noise.

Aoki closed his eyes before he could feel the impact. 

Ah, they're gonna have a hard time scraping me off the asphalt.

“Aoki.”

“Aoki!!”

A slap on his shoulder, and Aoki jolted awake.

His head hurt. Where am I…? — he wondered as he stared blankly in front of him, trying to recognize what he was looking at. The world seemed to move a little too slowly for his liking.

“Aoki, are you crazy? How did you just fall asleep in the middle of a lesson like that??”

Aoki glanced to his left side, finding Aida glaring at him in disbelief. It seemed like the slap earlier was also his doing, seeing as his right hand still hung halfway through. 

“Lesson?”

Aoki looked up and glanced around. He was in a classroom. Taniguchi-sensei was up front with his back towards the class, writing something on the whiteboard. Hashimoto and Aida sat on the desks next to him, on his right and left side respectively. 

And sitting right in front of him was Ida.

Aoki blinked, finding the sight so nostalgic and yet so terrifying. He wasn’t supposed to be there. He graduated ages ago. But the classroom looked exactly the same as he remembered, with the lockers lining the wall and the paper crane decorations they hung together during art class.

And suddenly, he realized – there he was, in class, in the middle of a lesson. The calendar on the wall displayed a date nearly a decade ago, halfway through their first year in high school. This moment was supposed to be his past. Instead, Aoki found himself living it somehow.

Could it be that today is…

There was a commotion in the front of the class, and Taniguchi-sensei waved a stack of papers at the students, flashing his signature smile. “Come on, now. Stop whining and clear your desks,” he declared.

“It’s time for a math quiz.”

Aoki’s brain short-circuited.

An unexpected math quiz. If he checked his pencil case now, he would find that he had forgotten to bring an eraser. He’d beg Aida to lend him one, only to be rejected straight away, and then Hashimoto would kindly offer to let him borrow hers. The one eraser that started the whole misunderstanding.

Aoki poured the entire contents of his pencil case on the desk, uncaring about the noise it made. Only pencils, pens, and a ruler – no erasers. He could hear Aida snickering from his side. Something about being careless and forgetful. Aoki paid him no mind.

“What’s wrong?”

The voice sounded so familiar, and yet so distant. Aoki looked up from his desk to see Ida staring at him with a slight frown on his face, the papers he was passing down hovering in mid-air. Aoki blinked once, twice, before snatching the papers from Ida’s hand and looking away like everything was just fine. “Nothing. Just looking for something.”

“Aoki!” A feminine whisper came from his right side. “If you don't have an eraser, would you like to borrow mine? I brought spares!”

Aoki stared at the offered eraser, the blue and black striped cover seemingly mocking him. In the original timeline, he was supposed to accept the eraser, and when he took off the cover, he would find the name ‘ida’ scrawled alongside a little red heart on the surface. Out of pure surprise, he would drop the eraser and forget to put the cover back – and somehow, at some point during the test, Ida would accidentally knock the eraser to the floor. Then he'd pick it up, catch a glimpse of the name and the little heart, and – mistaking the eraser as being Aoki's own – completely misread the whole situation.

It was the beginning of everything.

“Aoki?”

Hashimoto called out to him in confusion and Aoki, snapping back to the situation in hand, took another look at the eraser. Then, with a faint smile on his lips, he looked up at Hashimoto.

“Thanks for the offer, Hashimoto, but I'm fine.”

Aoki stole a glance in Ida’s direction, smiling wider as he did so.

“I'll make do.”

It's good, right, Ida?

This way, you wouldn't have misunderstood anything.

**

“Man, that test was a total bust.”

Aoki only paid Aida half a mind as the latter continued to blabber about the test, how he hadn’t studied the materials at all, how much Taniguchi-sensei loved to give surprise quizzes, and how his grandma was going to give him one hell of a beating once the test results came back. Truth to be told, he didn't care at all about the test. He didn't even remember filling in the answers on half of them. All he could think about was Ida and himself.

Their entire story began with just one misunderstanding. Just a simple mistake that could have easily been avoided by properly talking – except that they didn't do so. Instead, they kept awkwardly dancing around each other, eventually culminating in not just one confession but two, and a relationship. A relationship that’s been dragging away for too long with no finish line.

But this time, Aoki had managed to prevent the misunderstanding from happening. From the beginning, Aoki himself hadn't even seen the name scrawled on the eraser, let alone accidentally made Ida see it. He hadn't even touched the eraser itself, all the way until the test ended. By all accounts, life went on as usual for every single one of them. 

Everything is fine.

Right?

Aoki's train of thought was interrupted when he bumped into someone turning the corridor – not hard, but enough to throw him off balance, nearly hitting the wall if not for the person catching his arm.

“Sorry. You okay?”

It must have been some sort of bad luck because out of everyone in school, Aoki just had to bump into Ida. The latter got a firm hold on Aoki's forearm, preventing him from toppling over, and for some reason, his eyebrows knitted together in what looked like worry.

“Is everything okay, Aoki?”

Aoki didn't expect that question. “Huh? Yeah, I'm fine, just surprised.”

“I mean, not just now, but like, today.” Ida let go, though his expression remained the same. “You look unwell. Didn’t you fall asleep in class earlier?”

“This guy probably stayed up late playing games!” Aida chimed in, giving Aoki a sharp jab on the side. 

Ida looked unconvinced. “Really?”

“Yeah. What he said.” Aoki quickly replied, not wanting the conversation to drag on. “I'm probably gonna crash as soon as I get home today. See ya.”

He didn't bother waiting if Ida had another reply, catching Aida by the arm and pulling him away from the scene. The conversation with Ida irritated him. Why do you suddenly care so much? At this point, we're just classmates. Leave me alone.

Ida was nice, but that kindness bothered Aoki. Because he knew that it was exactly that kindness that made him fall in love. Now that he managed to prevent the initial misunderstanding, he wanted to believe that the subsequent crush wouldn't happen as well.

He only wished that Ida would just leave him alone.

**

Ida didn't. 

In the following days, Ida had consistently been shadowing him. Watching him and asking him if he was fine everytime Aoki did as much as sneeze. During break time, he would come over and hand Aoki small things, like a drink from the vending machine. When Aoki stumbled over his own feet in PE class, Ida would be the first one next to him. 

Aoki tried to ignore him as best as he could, but there was only so much you could do when your classmate suddenly started behaving like your personal bodyguard. The sudden change in behavior inevitably caught other people's attention, including Aida, who always eyed him suspiciously whenever Ida showed up out of nowhere.

“What's with you two?” He directly asked Aoki one day – straightforward as always. Aoki feigned ignorance, but Aida wouldn't be Aida if he didn't know how to badger Aoki for answers that would satisfy himself.

“I don't know, okay.” Finally, Aoki gave up. “I was wondering too.”

“Really?” Aida raised a brow skeptically. “I see him around you a lot lately. Did something happen?”

“Something like what? I didn't do anything!”

“If there's really nothing, why is Ida following you around and giving you things?”

“Hell if I know.” Aoki spat. “Why not just ask him?”

“Does he perhaps want to recruit you into the volleyball club?” Aida guessed, completely ignoring Aoki's previous answer. “I can’t see why he would do that, though. You don’t have an athletic bone at all.”

Aoki sighed, shaking his head in annoyance. After just a few days, it was clear that Ida wouldn't let this go just by being ignored – whatever this was. 

He would have to do something.

Aoki ended up calling Ida to the rooftop – an act he himself admitted was stupid. But it wasn’t like he had much choice. The rooftop was one of the only places in school with relative privacy – the school guard hated it when students came up there, but Aoki had observed him enough to learn his rounds precisely and avoid getting caught. Aoki had been observing Ida too – and if there was anything he knew about the latter, it's that there was no better way to deal with Ida than directly confronting him. So he got rid of Aida through a ruse involving his favorite game, and stood face to face with Ida, just the two of them.

“Whatever you're doing, stop it.” He went straight to the point, without any useless small talk.

“I'm not doing anything.” Ida replied, and the flat tone of his voice irritated Aoki. 

“Nothing? Sure.” Aoki laughed sarcastically. “It's not like you've been showing up wherever I go lately, right?”

“I have my reasons.” 

“Listen, I know you're a good guy and you're probably doing it out of kindness, but – just leave me alone, okay? Please. I don't need you hovering around me all the time."

"Hovering?" Ida's forehead creased slightly. "Aoki, you don’t seem like yourself lately and I'm just worried. We're friends. Friends look out for each other, don't they?"

"Friends." Aoki parroted. "We're classmates. There's like twenty of us, so you really don't have to concern yourself with my problems."

"I just want to help–"

"And I don't need that." Aoki cut him off. "I'm okay. I'm fine. I don't need your help."

"But why? Like I said, if there's anything—"

"I don't want to fall for you, goddammit!"

Time seemed to slow down between them with Aoki's sudden outburst – Ida, wide-eyed, staring at him – but Aoki felt like he had gone too far, and there was no point of stopping it now, so he closed his eyes, letting out a sigh that sounded more like half a scream.

"Don't you get it?" Aoki sighed again, louder, hands flying up to muss up his own hair unconsciously. "You– you shouldn't act so nice to me, okay? I'm trying so hard to fix my mistakes, and you being so nice to me isn't helping at all."

"Aoki–"

“I had a chance to redo everything and make it right this time.” Aoki chuckled weakly, feeling defeated. “I didn't borrow that stupid eraser. No one is gonna see what's written there. The misunderstanding wouldn't have happened and everything would be fine. And yet…”

He glanced at Ida, shaking his head in amusement.

“You just had to nose around and make it that much harder for me, don’t you?”

Ida stared at Aoki with an unreadable look and Aoki laughed louder. This time, he really didn't care about looking crazy. Ida probably thought he was losing his mind already and to Aoki, that's what it felt like anyway. 

“You're not gonna believe me.” He declared, having given up on sounding reasonable. “You're not gonna believe me, but I was going to fall in love with you. Well, it was just a misunderstanding at first, but of course, you being you – you wouldn't let it slide just like that. You were too nice to reject me straight away, so we kind of danced awkwardly around each other for some time. And then, somehow, we ended up trying out a relationship.”

Aoki glanced at Ida's face, trying to see if his expression changed, but Ida just stood there seemingly confused and Aoki didn't want to bother interrupting himself just to see if Ida was following. He took a deep breath to compose himself before continuing.

“By that time, I've fallen in love with you for real.” His confession was spoken into thin air – Aoki made sure to look away from Ida when saying that. “There were more misunderstandings after that, and we almost broke up a few times, but you were always too nice. Always going a few extra miles. When I thought our relationship was going to end, you acted kindly and mended things, and this went on for a few years. Way too many years.”

Aoki's voice cracked and he fell into a crouching position, hiding himself from Ida's view and at the same time not wanting to look at the other boy.

“We should have broken up on one of those times, you know? But we didn't. And the years passed, and you were stuck in a relationship with me. You should have gotten married, have kids, be a dad, but you didn't get to do any of that because you were stuck with me. And even after all that, you were still too kind and wouldn't leave me, so when I woke up and you haven't seen the eraser, I thought– I thought that this time, I should be the one to take action and stop things before it began—”

Aoki stopped to take a breath, and only then did he realize that his face was wet with tears. He curled up tighter into a ball, wanting to avoid Ida's gaze, wishing for the sky to split up and just take him away.

And suddenly, he felt something - someone - gently touching him. It was so familiar and yet so foreign, something he wanted so desperately to run away from because it felt right and it scared him. Ida always loved to pat him on the head, and it was one of the small gestures that made Aoki fall for him — except that it just hurt this time and he hated it.

“Aoki.” Ida called out to him, and Aoki responded by squeezing his eyes shut, refusing to react.

“Has it ever occurred to you…”

Again with the gentle, soothing pat. 

“… that I didn't do all that simply because I was nice?”

Ida's words floated in the empty air, and Aoki couldn't find it within himself to answer that. Ida didn't seem to mind the silence as he continued to speak, still patting Aoki's hair gently the entire time.

“Has it ever occurred to you that when I treated you kindly, it was because I considered you a person I cherish?” Ida muttered. “Did you ever think that whenever I made a mistake and tried to mend our relationship, it was because I genuinely wanted it to work? That I genuinely believed in our relationship?”

The tone of voice changed slightly, and Aoki realized that this wasn't his classmate Ida. This was his boyfriend Ida, who had spent the last few years by his side.

“That relationship was never meant to be.” Aoki replied, not minding his cracked voice this time. “The more we try to stretch it out, the more painful it will be, and if I had known that ending it would be so difficult… I'd rather never let it start at all. It might be good for a few years, but there’s no happy endings to this story.”

“Happy ending like what?” Ida asked. “Like marriage and kids?”

“Was that not obvious enough?”

“Why are you so hung up on it?”

Aoki gritted his teeth.

“Because it's the right thing.”

Ida was quiet for a moment before he broke the silence with a gentle voice.

"Do those years mean nothing to you, Aoki?" 

Aoki gave no reply, allowing Ida to go on. 

“We had so many good days together, didn't we…? Those days, when I make you bento for work, when you find our favorite ingredients in the supermarket and brought them back happily, when we take our dog on walks at the park in the weekend, the ice cream on sunny days, the bugs we caught in the summer, the rocks you stumbled over on our way home–” 

Ida paused. 

“–do they not make you happy at all?”

Aoki couldn't answer – not because the answer would be no, it was actually the opposite. Those moments were beautiful, and Aoki loved them more than life itself. Still, when he thought of the bigger things in life, the things that had become clearer with age, the realization hurt him like a knife.

“Were they worth it, though?” He couldn't help asking. “Were they worth letting go of what you could have had in life?”

“Don't we get to decide what we want to have in life?” Ida answered, firm and decisive as always. “Life is all about choices, and this is what I want.”

Aoki finally lifted his head again to look at Ida. The latter was smiling warmly at him, the same smile that still made Aoki's heart skip a beat.

“I'm just afraid that you will regret it someday.” He confessed. Ida shook his head.

“I'm not gonna regret this.”

Ida stood up, took a couple steps back, and slowly held out an outstretched hand towards Aoki.

“If you're still not convinced…”

Aoki took the hand and hoisted himself up, balancing his body on wobbly feet.

“...you can wake up and ask me.”

Almost as soon as Ida said that, Aoki felt a sudden gust of wind – big enough to sway him. Combined with the daze of standing up after being in a crouched position, and the blinding sun, it was enough to completely throw him off balance, making him stumble. The world seemed to move in slow motion as his view gradually changed from the floor to the walls and the open sky. Briefly, he saw Ida's arms shooting forward to try and catch him to no avail, and suddenly the world seemed to vanish as his surroundings got too bright.

“Sir?”

The voice sounded distant, like it’s coming from another world.

“Sir, can you hear me??”

It grew urgent, followed by a hand shaking his shoulder.

Aoki squeezed his eyes shut, feeling a dull pounding ache somewhere in his head. Did he really hit his head that hard slipping on the rooftop? Was there anyone other than Ida and himself up there? Would a grown man actually address a high school student with sir?

Things came back slowly and painfully, along with his blurred vision – the first thing Aoki saw was the night sky and the neon lights reflected off each other, and then he saw the face of an unfamiliar man. The sounds gradually came back too, and as Aoki slowly recognized his surroundings, he began to recall what happened.

Right.

The man hovering above him seemed to have some sort of medical training – perhaps a doctor, nurse, or paramedic? Aoki noticed him pressing two fingers against his wrist, counting his pulse. Still laying on his back, Aoki lifted his head slightly. The little girl he shoved out of the way earlier had a few women surrounding her – maybe her family and some medical personnel? She was crying, but from the looks of it, she seemed fine – uninjured, at least. There was a trail of smoke against the backdrop of the night sky, coming from a short distance away. It looked like the erratic car from earlier ended up in a crash. Aoki couldn't see where the driver was.

“Sir, can you hear me? Can you tell me your name?”

Aoki blinked, suddenly gaining more awareness of the situation. “Um– my name is Aoki Souta.”

“Aoki-san, okay. Do you remember what happened?”

“I think so – well, the car was heading straight towards the girl, and I…”

“Good, that's good.” The man seemed relieved. “You saved her, she's fine. The car missed you by a few inches. Still, you hit your head pretty hard on the asphalt. Someone already called an ambulance.”

“Ambulance? Can't I… just go home?”

The man shook his head firmly. “You hit your head hard enough to lose consciousness. Even if you were only out for a few seconds, you have to get that checked at the hospital. The ambulance is just around the corner.” 

He eyed Aoki carefully with a concerned look. “Is there someone we can call for you? Family?”

“Ah–” Aoki paused. “My family lives in a different city, I'd rather not trouble them with this for now…”

“I see.” The man nodded in understanding. “Anyone in town, maybe?”

“Just my–”

Again, Aoki stopped. This time, he really wasn't sure what to say.

When he heard ambulance sirens approaching, Aoki snapped back to reality, and he realized that the man was still waiting patiently. “Sorry. I have a– a roommate, Ida Kousuke– you can use my phone to call him.”

Aoki gestured for the man to grab his phone from his pocket, and for a second he was really grateful for his habit of saving people’s numbers with their full names and nothing else. He watched the man give Ida a call as he allowed himself to get loaded into the back of the ambulance, answering the paramedic’s questions to the best of his ability. What would Ida think of this? How is he reacting?

Is it okay to go back to him just like this?

Should I pretend that I’ve forgotten everything?

His internal monologue stopped when the man returned his phone, remarking that your roommate will meet you at the hospital, and the ambulance door was slammed shut.

Aoki spent the entire ride thinking about Ida. 

**

Ida appeared at the door to the emergency room all disheveled, coat worn only halfway through, wearing sandals in the middle of the night. The look of fear and confusion in his eyes didn't really seem like the usual Ida, intensifying when he saw Aoki on the stretcher.

“Oh my God, Souta. What happened??”

For a split second, Aoki considered the idea – maybe I should pretend that I have amnesia – but Ida approached him with such a clear look of worry and Aoki couldn’t bring himself to do it. 

The nurse who was taking care of Aoki welcomed Ida with a kind smile. “Are you the roommate? Aoki-san is fine, we took care of the wound and his test results look fine. But he needs to be in observation until tomorrow, and it’s better if he stays awake for now. Will you be available to sit here, maybe talk with him?”

Ida nodded quickly, still wearing the worried look. “I’ll stay the night.”

“That’s good.” The nurse gave them a polite smile and bow before dismissing herself. Aoki smiled awkwardly at Ida, gesturing at the nearest chair. 

“Sorry about the roommate thing. I kind of blurted it out to the paramedic, and…”

Ida ignored it. “What happened? How did you get injured?”

“A little girl on the sidewalk, a careless driver… maybe drunk? I guess my body just reacted faster than my brain.” Aoki waved a hand at him. “But I’m fine, really!”

“Are you sure everything's okay? Are you in pain?”

“A little, but I'll manage.” Aoki shrugged. “I think the anesthesia's wearing off – I can feel the stitches now.”

“Does it hurt a lot? I can get the nurse–”

“I'm fine.” Aoki cut him off before Ida could ramble or do something worse – like jumping up and running straight towards the nearest medical personnel. “I mean– it's fine, it doesn't hurt that much. Sorry for making you worry.”

Ida nodded, settling into his seat though he still eyed Aoki uneasily. The silence between them began to feel stifling, so Aoki chuckled lightly, trying to lighten up the situation.

“I'm sorry.” Aoki shook his head. “I'm quite troublesome, aren't I? It's been years, and I still manage to rope you into my problems. I tried to stop, but it looks like it hasn't worked so far.”

Ida didn’t reply, seemingly lost in thought. His silence was terrifying to Aoki, and the gears in his brain began to spin fast, trying to come up with other ways to change the atmosphere – but before he got to do so, Ida answered, and his unexpected statement caused Aoki's mind to grind to a halt.

“Conversely, I think you don't involve me enough in your problems.” 

Aoki was dumbfounded. 

“What… are you talking about…?”

Ida smiled faintly. “This is probably the worst time to bring it up, but this past few weeks… I could see that you have something in your mind, you know? But every time I try to ask, you always insist that you’re fine, and you still wouldn’t tell me. It’s– well, it kind of makes me feel lonely…”

Ida broke it off with a slight pause, before hesitantly continuing. “I’m a pretty dense guy. Whenever this kind of thing happens, I wonder if I did something wrong… I was afraid that maybe I hurt you without thinking, and you couldn’t say it to me because I was too stupid… I’m sorry, Souta.”

Aoki wasn’t expecting it at all. 

“Wait– why are you apologizing??” He panicked. “You didn’t do anything wrong, okay– it’s me! I should be the one apologizing! I just thought that I shouldn’t bother you with my issues, I mean– those are my problems, you know?”

“I know.” Ida smiled reassuringly at him. “But at the same time… we’re lovers, aren’t we? As lovers, as partners… we’re supposed to support each other. And I wish you would lean on me sometimes.”

“But, Kousuke, it’s just–” Aoki was flustered. “It’s stupid, okay? I was thinking about things that don’t make sense, and I let it bother myself too much, but it’s not something you need to be worrying about!!”

“I still want to hear them, anyway.” Ida was looking straight into his eyes. “The nurse told me we need to talk so that you don’t fall asleep, so… talk to me, Souta. Don’t bear the burdens all alone.”

Aoki unconsciously gripped the sheets, unsure if he should talk about it right there and then. He didn’t think the hospital room was the right place to talk about something so serious – and he was still bleeding from the head, to top it off. But it wasn't at all a sudden thought – in fact, he had been grappling with it all alone for too long. And it wasn't something that would get better with time. Staying silent about it would just hurt everyone.

Aoki decided that no matter what happens, he would bravely face it.

“You see… these past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about something…”

Ida looked slightly surprised, and Aoki almost retracted his statement immediately if not for Ida nodding quickly, almost too passionately. “I'm listening.”

“I’ll be honest and tell you what it is, but… can you promise me that you will be honest too? It doesn't have to be a quick decision, but I want this to really come from your heart.”

Judging from Ida's expression, he was clearly puzzled – but he nodded anyway, telling Aoki that he promised. His sincerity brought a smile to Aoki’s lips, even as he began to ask the most difficult question.

“Kousuke, do you… want to get married, someday?”

The question hung in the air for a couple seconds as Ida's brain slowly processed it. And then, his eyes grew big with realization.

“Souta, wait, are you–” Ida looked flustered, slightly panicking, “–proposing to me??”

Huh.

What?

“Wait, what??” Aoki was completely flabbergasted. “No, I mean– not with me! Like, an actual marriage, with a woman!” 

“Why would I want to do that?” Ida's reply came quickly, and he now looked equally dumbfounded if not more. Aoki couldn't believe that Ida seemed genuinely surprised, but at the same time, knowing how he was – it made sense that he simply didn't think this would come up.

“You know… at our age, people are starting to get married, right? Some of our friends even had kids already. And Kousuke, you're really good with kids, don't you maybe want to have your own someday?”

Ida was quiet, and Aoki took it as a sign to continue.

“You might want to have kids someday, and your parents are gonna want grandchildren too. For me, my older sister kind of solved that problem already, but you're an only child. Your parents don't have anyone else that can continue the family name.”

“I don't think my parents cared much about things like that.” Ida muttered. “And neither do I, honestly.”

“But wouldn’t they? And wouldn’t you?”

“No. They’ve never really been the domestic type, anyway.” Ida shook his head slowly. “More importantly… do you perhaps want to have your own kids someday?”

“I never even considered that a possibility.” Aoki blurted out. “Like… this isn’t the kind of thing that would come up in a casual conversation with anybody, so it never really crossed my mind.”

“Can I ask you, why now?” Ida inquired gently. “I mean, it's not a bad thing– I'm just wondering if anything brought this on.”

Aoki looked down, twiddling with his thumbs. “Well, I've been thinking about this for a while, you know? Ever since we went to the class president's wedding, and I saw you playing with Hiromu and Rumi's child…”

“That long?” Ida’s expression was apologetic. “I'm really sorry. I never noticed anything. I'm too dense.”

“No, honestly, that's not the only thing.” Aoki paused, flushing slightly. “It’s gonna sound really stupid, but when I was unconscious… I had a dream.”

“A dream?”

“Like the amnesia dream you had.” Aoki nodded. “In my dream, we were still in high school, and it was the day of the math test where I forgot my eraser. Remember? I borrowed an eraser that has ‘ida’ with a heart written on it and you saw it, thinking it was mine… even though it was Hashimoto's and actually said ‘Aida’”

“I remember. There's no way I could ever forget that day.”

“Terrible surprise, wasn't it?” Aoki finally had the energy to chuckle again. “When I realized that you hadn't seen the eraser, I thought I had a chance to redo everything. If the misunderstanding didn't happen, maybe we wouldn't have fallen in love with each other.”

“You mean… you didn't want to fall in love with me?”

“I thought it would be easier.” Aoki admitted. 

“Was it?”

“That's the most annoying part. It wasn't.” 

Ida raised a brow at him, silently asking him to elaborate. It was embarrassing, but Aoki didn't have a choice. He already asked Ida to be honest, the least he could do was be honest too.

“See, even without the initial misunderstanding, you're naturally just a nice and caring person, and you paid attention to the people around you. I was trying to avoid you and probably acted weird, and you responded by treating me kindly. Before I knew it…”

Aoki flushed a deeper shade of red, clutching the thin blanket.

“…I already fell in love with you.”

Ida remained quiet, and Aoki looked up at him with fearful eyes. Why didn't he say anything? Was he angry?

But much to his surprise, Ida was blushing faintly. “You fell in love with me. You love me.”

“That's what you decided to focus on??” Aoki was bewildered, even more so when Ida readily agreed.

“It makes me happy.”

“You– wasn’t that clear enough after all these years??” Aoki grumbled – somewhere between a protest and an expression of disbelief – if only to hide his own blushing cheeks hearing Ida’s response.

“Yeah, but it still feels really great to hear, especially directly from yourself.”

Before he knew it, Ida was secretly holding his hand under the covers.

“So did I say anything to you?”

“Huh?”

“In that dream.” Ida murmured, playing with Aoki’s fingertips. “When you were trying to avoid me, and you said that I was treating you kindly anyways…”

“Oh. Yeah. I confronted you. And because I was angry, I ended up telling you everything.” Aoki chuckled. “I was ranting about how much I didn’t want to fall in love with you, how I was afraid of trapping you in a relationship, preventing you from getting married and having kids and whatnot…”

“And… how did I respond?”

“You said that you were happy.” Aoki flushed. “You said that life is all about choices… and you choose to be with me. You’re happy with the way our life is right now and you won’t regret it. I mean… that’s what he said, anyway.”

“He’s right.” Ida smiled softly at him. “He got everything right. With or without the eraser, I’m going to fall in love with you, anyway. And… I really do want to be with you. I’m already perfectly happy. There’s no doubt about it.”

“Even if that means… it’s gonna be just you and me?”

“That’s more than enough for me.”

“You…”

Aoki couldn’t say another word – only letting out a loud sigh. But underneath the covers, his fingers curled around Ida’s, holding back just as tight.

“You don’t get to regret it after this, you hear me?” He murmured. “I gave you a chance to walk away… but this will be your last chance.”

“I know.”

“Even if you fall in love with a beautiful girl later, you can’t leave me.”

“I won’t.”

“You’re stuck with me. Forever.”

“I’ll be happy to.”

“You’re a dumbass, you know.” Aoki chuckled, looking at Ida who just smiled softly. “But I guess I am too.”

“Maybe we both are.”

Ida glanced around quickly, observing the deserted corridors before pulling Aoki’s hand from the covers to kiss the knuckles lightly.

“But we’re dumbasses who love each other–” Ida paused “–aren’t we?”

Aoki smiled softly, bringing their intertwined hands close to his heart. “Yeah. We are.”

We love each other.

And that’s enough.

“I really love you, Ida Kousuke.”

“And I am always in love with you, Aoki Souta.”

cinderella has to leave before the midnight bell finishes ringing

but the prince will always seek and find her

always