Chapter Text
"I'll see you later?"
"Yes."
Kaiyama were holding another school festival, six months after the last event. Akito and Toya had been caught up in spring exams, so used this as an opportunity to talk to eachother one on one.
Akito, along with a few others, was being made to stay behind to clear up the aftermath of Rui's "biology project", so he asked Toya to head to the roof in order to meet him there later.
He noticed a few students up on the rooftop already. That probably wasn't an issue. Toya rested his elbows on the railing and waited a while, meanwhile the students carried on with their conversation a few metres away.
"Dude, did you see Shinonome earlier?"
Toya's attention was immediately grabbed at the mention of a familiar name.
"What, wearing that weird shirt?"
One of them, sat to the side, elbowed his friend sharply, "we're all wearing weird shirts, idiot."
"At least we don't look.. that bad. Whatever. It could be worse."
"Yeah, I've seen her walking around town every now and then. Gives Kamishiro a run for his money with that dress sense."
'Oh, Ena,' he thought. A trivial point to make though. Ena usually had a nice wardrobe, mostly chosen by Mizuki. Hm.
They didn't seem to notice Toya staring and carried on talking to eachother.
"Makes sense though. Isn't she... y'know, like Akiyama?"
"Obviously, are you blind or something? To be fair, she covers it up pretty well."
One of them seemed to notice Toya and turned towards him.
"You're her friend right?"
He nodded in response.
"Hm. Does that mean all of you are.. the same?"
The student who had retaliated earlier called out again, noticing how uncomfortable Toya looked.
"Dude! Sto-"
"It's an innocent question. Are you?"
He didn't quite know what to answer with. What were they even talking about? His friend group had a lot in common, it could be anything.
"What.. do you mean?"
The boy who asked the question glanced to his friend, muttering, "He can't be that oblivious, right?"
"Shinonome. Orange hair. Are you like her too?"
"Like him... how? "
"A cross-whatever-you-call-'em. Like Akiyama. Acts like she's a guy?"
The question cut right through him. Mizuki had mentioned she was trans once, but.. Akito? He'd heard of crossdressers, but Akito had expressed before feminine things made him uncomfortable. That's just a personal preference, right?
Surely it didn't matter. Akito was usually pretty transparent about these things, but he didn't owe anyone information sensitive to him.
But it didn't matter. He was just... Akito.
"Hey, It's fine, you're probably just a normal gu-"
The student trailed off, staring in another direction. Toya and the others turned their heads-
To find Akito, looking back at them, clinging to the entrance door.
Everything seemed to contradict itself.
The world felt like it was spinning round, yet painfully still. His blood ran like molten iron, yet colder than the gaze of the person standing before him.
The group of students had already been scared off by his sudden appearance, and had gone to the other end of the rooftop.
Toya uttered a single word.
"... Akito?"
Akito couldn't bring himself to meet his eyes. He crossed his arms, enclosing them tight to his chest, fingernails digging into his forearm.
The silence froze them both in place. Any background noise was filtered out as they stood, unmoving, hesitant.
He gave a short response, in spite of the overwhelming dizziness.
"..."
"I'm sorry."
Akito made his way out the door, speedwalking down the stairs.
"Akito!"
Toya, naturally, followed after. Akito quickened his pace.
Toya eventually caught up before they reached the school's entrance. He grabbed Akito by the wrist, holding him back.
"Wait. Please."
He pulled his arm out of Toya's grip, and ran out the door.
Toya simply stood there, taking it all in. He had no chance of catching up anyway.
If only.
If only he'd said something.
If only...
he'd tried harder.