Chapter Text
The day had been harder than Riku could have imagined. No one had warned him just how exhausting the final year of his master’s program could be, the first year in which he was facing the prospect of a potential job in the near future. Besides having to stick close to the seniors to learn as much as possible, he also had to treat them with respect and do absolutely everything he was told, just like a well-trained puppy... from bringing them coffee up to the sixth floor of the building without an elevator to taking care of a few seniors’ pets over the weekend. He didn’t come to this internship to do that, but to make a good impression, he would have to keep putting up with all of it. He had to hang in there-he’d have to cope so he could live a life free of financial worries, that was his goal... to live like a normal person...
It was already nearly midnight, and Riku’s footsteps echoed on the empty sidewalk, the sound of his heavy shoes mingled with the sound of cars passing by him. He was in a hurry because if he didn’t make it to the bus stop in less than five minutes, he’d miss the last bus to the area where he lived, and taking a taxi was too expensive for a guy like him, so with every passing second, Riku quickened his pace, almost running by now. Seeing the bus stop in the distance, he breathed a sigh of relief and adjusted his bag over his shoulder—he’d made it again tonight!
As he got closer and closer to the stop, his full attention was drawn to the silhouette of a man who seemed to be trying to climb onto the roof of the stop, his black hair fluttering slightly in the night breeze. Riku had already had a bad day, and by his logic, that man was a lunatic, maybe even a homeless person looking to cause trouble, but all those thoughts crumbled when he reached the station and took a closer look at the man in front of him. Dressed in a sports uniform, with his socks pulled up almost to his knees, his light blue soccer cleats standing out clearly, a T-shirt with a university logo on the right side, and shorts the same color as his soccer cleats. He didn’t look like a madman anymore.
Riku doesn’t say anything yet, he just watches the boy’s futile attempts to climb onto the roof, but he watches him closely. His gaze drifts upward because he’s too curious about why that boy is trying so hard to get onto that roof… And then he sees the reason: a soccer ball that didn’t look like it was going to fall down anytime soon. An amused smile appears on Riku’s face, and to be honest, he’s struggling not to laugh out loud. He can’t figure out how that ball got there, but he won’t ask, it’s not exactly his business or his problem… yet he decides to give the black-haired boy a helping hand. He leaves his bag on the bench at the station and, with determined steps, walks closer to the boy, who is still clinging tightly to the edges of the roof with his hands... Riku clears his throat before speaking, hoping the sound will catch the boy’s attention, and it does, the boy glances briefly at Riku but says nothing and goes back to what he was doing... continuing to hang there like a monkey.
"Looks like you need some help. You're lucky I'm here," says Riku, placing a hand on the station's roof. Riku was tall enough to reach the station roof without standing on his tiptoes, so there was a good chance he could grab that ball and throw it back to the boy... but the boy’s slow, venomous voice makes him take his hand off where he’d just placed it...
“I’d be lucky if you’d just leave and let me solve this problem on my own!” said the black-haired boy without even looking at Riku, continuing to hold onto the roof with one hand and flail the other aimlessly through the air, trying to bring the ball closer to him.
Riku hadn’t expected this response from a stranger who seemed to be in an… unfortunate situation! He takes two steps back because he wasn’t the type to meddle in other people’s business, he didn’t want to bother the boy too much, plus he’d had a long day himself and didn’t want to get into a silly argument with him. As he was about to go sit on the bench where he’d left his bag, he noticed on the back of the T-shirt the black-haired boy was wearing...the large logo of the university he attended himself… and that made him stop in his tracks for a few seconds, just staring at the boy’s back. He wasn’t just a stranger anymore. He was someone from the same university, and, without knowing exactly why, Riku felt a kind of silent camaraderie, enough to make him turn around and help him again. So Riku suddenly grabs the rough edges of the roof with both hands and presses both feet against the station wall for support, and in one swift motion, just like a monkey among the trees, Riku lands on the station roof, which makes a loud noise; it wasn’t the sturdiest structure, so Riku moves quickly, He takes the ball in his hands and throws it toward the boy. The boy doesn’t even have time to react to Riku’s actions-his hands slip gently downward, letting go of the sharp edges of the roof, and he stands next to the station like a lost cat...no thank you, no sound....
But Riku breaks the silence when he carelessly jumps off the station roof, landing on his feet, the sound of his landing echoing through the stillness of the night—the silence between the two of them.
"We go to the same university." He says simply as he looks at the boy, who still seems... stunned? "You should be nicer to strangers tho...especially if they try to help you!"
He looks at the boy, expecting a thank you—after all, who climbs onto a station roof in the middle of the city for a stranger just to retrieve a stupid ball?
The black-haired boy seems caught off guard by Riku’s words, besides the fact that he hasn’t yet realized he’s reunited with his ball, which was lying flat on the asphalt at his feet now, he’s still stunned by the stranger’s actions. After a good few moments of silence during which Riku simply stared at the boy, he finally decided to answer him...
"Is that why you helped me? Because we go to the same university?" the boy asks, running a hand lightly through his black hair as he makes eye contact with Riku.
Riku raises an eyebrow, surprised by the answer; he was still expecting a "thank you."
“Are you even going to thank me?”
The boy with black hair blinks rapidly a few times, he’s grateful that the guy in front of him gave him the ball back because he cared about it—it was the very ball he’d had since his freshman year of college, and he carried it with him every day like a good-luck charm.
"Thanks, Spider-Man." He says this and bends down slightly, taking the ball in his hands as he prepares to walk toward the large sports bag sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, right where he’d left it when the ball landed on the roof. However, Riku continues the conversation without paying any attention to the nickname he’d just been given...
“What’s your name?” he asks directly, continuing to look at the boy intently. Since he was now doing an internship at a TV station focused primarily on sports, he was intrigued by the boy, it was clear he was studying sports. The boy with black hair stops and turns toward Riku, and in a bored—or perhaps tired—tone, he replies...
“Yushi... Tokuno Yushi.”
“Yushi? Okay, Yushi. I'm Riku, Maeda Riku," he replied, nodding slightly as he watched Yushi sling his large bag over his shoulder, holding the ball tightly to his chest with one hand as if he were about to fly back onto that roof...
"I don’t remember asking your name… but anyway, Maeda…" he says, pausing briefly, unable to read the expression on the boy’s face, nor did he know why he even wanted to continue the conversation with him…
"So... what are you studying?" Yushi asks, probably out of politeness or... who knows, even he didn’t know. Maybe he felt awkward? Grateful?
Riku didn’t expect Yushi to ask him anything; he thought their conversation would end there, he thought he’d only know the boy’s name, but it seems he was wrong.
"I'm in my final year of a master's degree in journalism... As it happens, I'm doing an internship right now that's related to sports, maybe you'll be able to help me out someday." He says this, and while waiting for Yushi’s reply, he notices out of the corner of his eye that the bus is at the stop...his bus. Without a second thought, he runs away from the boy, quickly grabs his black bag from the bench at the stop, slings it over his shoulder, and strides toward the bus entrance. He climbed the first step but suddenly turned his head, meeting Yushi’s confused gaze, so he called out to him.
"See you around, Tokuno...!"
As the bus doors close, Yushi watches the boy’s silhouette move through the bus and finally settle into a seat by the window. He remains there for a few seconds. He was supposed to take the same bus. But now he stood there, holding the ball to his chest, watching as it drove away from him, still thinking about their entire interaction. What did he mean by, “You’ll be helpful to me in the future”? Yushi didn’t really understand and hoped that Riku had just said that for the sake of the plot, because Yushi had never even thought of having anything to do with a journalist… he wasn’t that kind of person, he didn’t know how to… conduct an interview, for example, or talk about himself or his passions...it wasn’t easy for him.
Yushi stood still for a second, then nodded slightly and slowly set off in the same direction the bus was disappearing into the distance. He had missed it. Not just the bus, but also something he couldn’t quite put a name to yet. He’ll walk home.
In the departing bus, Riku gazed out the window, unaware that he had just passed someone who would remain in his mind longer than he should have...