Chapter Text
It’s a normal day, not normal to others—of course, but normal to Ushio at least. Though, just because a day like this is considered normal to him doesn’t mean he essentially likes and enjoys every second of it.
Isotake Akuta. One of Ushio’s very few friends, who he doesn’t even want to be around. But, here they are, talking. Ushio sits down at his usual spot in the lecture hall, he had given up avoiding anyone once he realized Akuta had already locked his eyes onto and started following Ushio around.
“And then I—Hey! Ushio! Are ya even listening!?” He yells—not asks, that’s too light of a word—to Ushio, which prompts him to put a palm to his ear that happened to fall victim to Akuta’s vocal chords.
…Not really talking, actually. This sort of conversation is always seen between the two of them, Akuta, the more talkative one by a long run, shares and exchanges words with the wall, Ushio being a mere visible placeholder, pretending to lend an ear. In the other ear, which isn’t visible at all to Akuta, lies a singular earbud, playing some of unlove’s music, who is a current rising sensation in the world of song.
He finally remembers what he was supposed to mention. “Ah! Do you know about unlove?”
“Uh, yeah? Who doesn’t?”
“I got tickets for his next concert nearby! You wanna come with? The girl I was supposed to go to dumped me like two days ago!” Ushio felt a feeling of dejection in Akuta when the last sentence was said, but prying further would only extend the length of this one sided conversation.
In all honesty, who wouldn’t turn down going to a concert for practically no cost? “Free concert tickets, huh? I’ll go, sure.”
Akuta checks his phone for something for a brief minute, and looks back at Ushio, who looks more tired of him than he was earlier.
“They’re front row tickets, too, by the way!” How did he even get his hands on these? Ushio is pretty sure Akuta is on the same level of broke college student as he is.
Ushio fake-laughs, thinking this is for the most part, a joke. There is no way a guy like Akuta could ever even dream of getting such expensive tickets for a famous artist. No, actually, knowing him, having something like crazy dreams and fantasies of simple ideas was an easy task. “Idiotake, is this another one of your pranks? I’m not in the mood to be falling for this kinda thing.”
The other shakes his head rapidly, going all defensive. “No! Not at all! We’re actually childhood friends!”
“You? Unlove? Childhood friends? I’m starting to think your ambitions are getting too into your head.”
“I’m serious!” Akuta says, pulling out his phone again. He scrolls across the screen of the device, fingers swiping in lightning speed as he seems to be searching for an old picture. “Found it!”
In a millisecond, Ushio’s eyes are met with a bright screen with two figures he can barely process, due to the extreme closeness and brightness of the phone in front of him. He shouts to pull away, and as Akuta does, Ushio’s eyes begin to focus more, blurry vision slowly clearing up.
What he sees now is a clearer version of these two figures, which he’s guessing are Akuta and what appears to be unlove, both around 4 years old. They have the biggest smiles plastered onto their faces, wearing cute little kindergarten uniforms. Ushio’s been on the internet long enough to tell this probably isn’t photoshopped, but it never hurts to make sure.
“So… are you sure this isn’t AI, or edited, or something…?” He points to the picture on Akuta’s phone.
The person holding the phone’s free hand waves around in denial. “Nah. This is 200% real, not fake!”
“…Whatever. I’ll go.”
“Good, great! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so you better not ditch me like that girl!”
Honestly, Ushio thought the girl Akuta mentioned is rather stupid. Even if you had to be around the likes of Idiotake for more than an hour, this is unlove we’re talking about. What kind of person would miss out on a front row ticket? But alas, this must be fate, and Ushio is finally hitting his luck. But this is really lucky for him—too lucky, in fact. He’s maxed out his luck gauge, and he thinks he’ll end up with a missing limb or two. His inner thoughts were starting to sound a bit like someone he knew of, but he can’t remember who exactly…
You might think that Ushio happened to be a casual listener of unlove just because his music is good. It is, of course, but being a secret geek, he has his reasons.
First of all, he looks nearly exactly like Chiyoda Reito. If you didn’t know who that is, you know now—he’s Ushio’s one and only oshi. From the way they both style their hair, to the eyes, to the way they smile. He hasn’t really had the time to look at unlove’s actual appearance directly, aside from the occasional dazzle post, but his point still stands. Lots of online threads and discussions inside the PatiBato community also talks about their similarities, and of course Ushio has read some of them.
And, second, his genre of music and the way he does it makes him instantly know why he’s gotten so popular. It can be—and is—classified as pop, sure, but his songs go a wider range than just pop music. He even has an album just for his own covers of various anisongs, of which includes the infamous PatiBato intro. He could listen to it on loop for hours, honestly—not saying he hasn’t been.
He chooses to bring the relation of PatiBato to unlove up to Akuta, as he knows and has read some of PatiBato, and is probably waiting for Ushio to bring up the topic of Reito. His uncle has even animated some of it, so what could go wrong?
But, Akuta gets to do so before Ushio does. “Hey,” He starts, scrolling through his gallery more, which upon closer inspection, is an album of he and Nanaki’s childhood through high school photos together. “Doesn’t he look like that one anime guy you really like? Raito? Rento? R—“
“Reito. Yeah, I was about to say that…”
“Oh!! One time he did a Reito D.I.Y cosplay a few years ago, and never posted it to the public! But I was one of the lucky ones to see it!”
Ushio tries his best to act disinterested, but he couldn’t let a chance to see how exactly his oshi and some random musical star look alike. He nods, trying to look as reluctant as possible.
A phone meets the front of Ushio’s face again, but Akuta has learned his lesson and its distance is at least two feet more than earlier. He’s absolutely stunned. It’s like seeing a 3d 1 to 1 replica of Reito. How was this even possible? It’s very clearly a shabby closet cosplay, but he carries it so well. Ushio thinks of a way to get Akuta to convince unlove to buy a legit Reito cosplay.
“Their similarities are really…”
“Uncanny! Heh, maybe I should finish PatiBato now—“
The PatiBato-pilled person then shoots an aggressive look to Akuta at the mention of finally finishing his beloved manga.
“Yes, Idiotake. It’s about time. I’m giving you ‘til the end of the week.”
“Wh—Hey! End of the week? It’s literally Thursday!” Akuta exclaims, putting both his hands on his head in a dramatic manner.
Ushio raises his eyebrows. “You’re not gonna go back on your word, now, are you?” He sarcastically teases, easily predicting the outcome of these words being said.
Akuta physically deflates in his seat, appearing akin to a balloon. “Uugh… Fineeeee—“
Shortly after, their professor walks in, and they immediately go silent.
—
One little internet search never killed anybody, right? It’s not like searching up unlove online was particularly embarrassing, but it still felt like it, to Ushio, at least. People search up celebrities’ names all the time
As Ushio clicks on the enter key of his laptop, he feels as if his eyes had been blessed hundreds upon hundreds of times. Was he really, somehow extremely closely connected to this guy through a random mutual friend? He doesn’t think he’d be able to keep a straight or normal face at all if he ever gets the chance to meet unlove in person. How can someone be this good-looking? Is he even real?
There are also mentions and promotional material of his upcoming concert, which also happened to be the one he’s going to. He skims through those, but he takes a few seconds to look at the pictures that included unlove’s face.
He then proceeds to go and check out some online forums. His cursor in the search bar disappears as he adds a ‘…chiyoda reito SpiNet’ to the end of his original search.
Many results come up, but he ignores them and clicks on the top link.
Whatever he sees proves his point. Attached onto the post, there is a side-by-side comparison, on the left half was a photo of Reito from a PatiBato official art from an instrument company collab, while on the other side was an image of a face he knew all too well.
The resemblance was strong and striking, looking at the attachment. These two images seem to have been chosen specifically on purpose, as they are both making nearly the same expression, in the same pose. The post was captioned: “Many people were saying that unlove and Chiyoda Reito look extremely similar, so here’s a comparison… They really are all right.”
Ushio is nearly about to rip his hair out. Everyone on this planet should be grateful to be graced with the presence of a person with such looks. Unlove genuinely has all the rights to become this famous—Ushio thinks.
An idea strikes Ushio. He picks up his phone, opens him and Akuta’s messages, and with no hesitation, types up a text asking for the picture of unlove’s shabby Reito cosplay. He won’t spread it, and prays Akuta will believe so.
Idiotake: what??????
Idiotake: i mean sure but dont spread it heheheh
Idiotake: lemme jus find it
At least Ushio’s prayers were answered. After what felt like centuries of waiting, he finally receives a loud notification noise from his phone, and he raises a fist in celebration upon reading the banner that it was an image attachment.
He sees a familiar picture, like he had expected—but what he didn’t see coming to him at all, was 4 whole other photos.
Idiotake: AGHHH MY FINGERS SLIPPED
Idiotake: whatever!!!!! take them as a BONUS! ENJOY!!
And after that final message, Akuta sends a weirdly distorted meme where Ushio can only vaguely make out what appears to be a thumbs-up. On the other hand, he felt like he was getting way too lucky for his own good, but he isn’t complaining.
The first three are normal photos of the same Reito cosplay, mimicking an array of the character’s recognizable and iconic poses.
However… The last one sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s not exactly a weird and offputting picture, though. It seems to be something framed to be a thirst trap.
It’s taken in a low angle, unlove’s eyes looking directly at the viewer. Almost the entire half of his torso can be seen, and he’s wearing a normal shirt, along with a jacket and a singular necklace. But, the lighting is rather dark, and the jacket he wears is hanging off his shoulder, exposing a bit of skin on his arm.
Ushio feels like he’s not allowed to be looking at this, but can’t take his eyes off of the image on his phone, anyway. He doesn’t realize how hot his cheeks feel, and checks his forehead to make sure he has a fever. It very much was an ordinary photo—from a mere description, that is—but, who can blame Ushio, really? The look unlove was giving to the camera was not an innocent one at all! How did Akuta even get his hands on this?
He sighs a long sigh, still stuck on looking at the image. “What good have I done in this world to deserve such a blessing,” he jokingly whispers to himself.
Hours deep into his ‘research’, he hears an alarm, and the realization finally sets in as he reads the alarm title, which was made to remind him of the actual research he should have been doing. A research paper. God. It’s 11pm—it’s due the next morning.
‘It was all worth it, I guess. I’m definitely gonna regret this tomorrow.’ His brain says, as he gets up from his slouching position from sitting on his desk—he hears his spine cracking as he stretches—to get ready to pull an all-nighter.