Archive of Our Own

Sae —-

That day was a special one, an occasion that happened too rarely for Sae’s taste even if it was hard to admit to his own mind.

He would finally get to see Ryusei again and was pretty happy about it, feeling emotions this intense was enough to know that demon had a pretty big effect on him all the time they’d been together.

Thanks to their schedules, teams and the fact said teams played constantly they mostly kept their relationship from the distance.

That never really affected the midfielder emotionally, he actually found himself checking his phone in his free time and looking through whatever Ryusei had sent him through the day.

It was almost like a burst of emotions and hot pink warmth enveloped his mind whenever he spoke to his boyfriend, whether it was through text messages or in rare occasions a call.

Ryusei had also affected him physically, you see, Sae’s never had too much of a libido and even through his teen years he considered it average or low enough. His first time, he of course hadn’t been completely clueless but that demon had to guide him through even if unknowingly.

And some days when he was all alone and somewhere quiet, he just couldn’t get the striker off of his mind. He’d also found himself guilty of fulfilling his own needs while hearing that sweet voice through the phone.

It admittedly brought a good balance to his life in all aspects, he found himself in a better mood but still kept his priorities and face to the public intact. Though something that bugged him was how much he wanted to see the other.

Maybe he’d picked that up from that demon as he was constantly talking about how much he wanted to see Sae. Though at the end of the day, Ryusei himself seemed to be managing the distance well and still be in love.

Sae knew deep down that Ryusei was a very mentally strong person after all, something like their arrangement for the time being wouldn’t get him down.

And so, when Sae was offered to play for Japan’s team in the U-20 World Cup he accepted immediately.

After playing against Blue Lock for the first time his interest had grown even more, seeing as most of the players he played against would be playing for Japan. He’d spent more time than he should ever have following the whole Neo egoist league after all, it lined up pretty well with his schedule.

While watching bltv, he’d grown even more interested. His brother Rin had gotten noticeably better since he last saw him play, Ryusei was thriving on the field thanks to that young blonde player who seemed to understand him well enough.

He wouldn’t consider himself a fanatic of the P.X.G team, he just thought they were really going to win. But Isagi Yoichi playing for the Bastard München team had peaked his interest, making Michael Kaiser react like that on the field and then scoring the winning goal… hm.

He already had mental notes on who he was interested in and who he couldn’t care less about anyway. Sae would play alongside Japan in the match vs Spain, if they proved worthy.

——— ⚽︎ ———

It was true that Sae had been staying in Japan for the time being, watching from the TV screen how Japan team was working. They were still pretty lukewarm and wasting lots of potential by the second but Nigeria’s team was shit enough to get beat 4-0.

The match against France went by a little trickier, they even decided to take the risky move and let two other aggressive players and Ryusei lose on the pitch.

Japan did end up losing but they hadn’t really given his demon a chance to score… eh, he didn’t seem too discouraged onscreen at the moment, he was too optimistic for his own good sometimes.

And well, Sae was due to join them in training later on but deemed necessary to start as soon as possible when he saw that match, though he still wanted to not make them all too dependant on him.

He needed to test them, have them adapt. Except Ryusei, they’d already played side by side and Sae knew he could keep up.

And so, just like that he was stepping foot into the clinical-like blue lock facility where Japan’s players resided in between matches. It was getting later in the day and he knew Japanese people kept an earlier schedule than Spaniards… or maybe Spaniards were the ones with the later schedule.

In any case, the players within the facility should have had their training wrapped up by the time Sae arrived, so his presence there must’ve been announced earlier in the day.

His plans at the time were to leave his belongings in the room he was granted all for himself, take a shower — he felt strange after long rides, he’d gotten there by a long one — and hopefully be in time to eat something.

But also very importantly to see Ryusei before the next day, no images to put up for anyone or weird stares. Hopefully be done and have some time that day rather than the next… alright he may or may not have been very desperate. Rather happy to see him.

After some formal greetings and forced small talk, Sae’s suitcase rolled across the oddly sterile place, deep down he liked things that way. All the doors and places mostly looked the same though there were signs indicating which room was which. Efficient if you ask him.

He made his way towards the room he’d been told was his for the time he would reside inside, it smelled exactly the same as the rest of the building which was deep down disappointing.

Well, he’d have enough time to make it a somewhat decent place to sleep and whatnot, maybe Ryusei’s scent would eventually mix into the air too. Fuck, deep down he missed everything stinking of him.

Sae set down everything he had to bring and quickly organised as best as he could, he wasn’t very good at it or anything besides soccer for that matter but he’d been basically living on his own since he was too young, he was confident in it being okay enough.

Though he needed to get back on track with his priorities, he grabbed a little basket of hygiene products, sorted through and mostly replaced the products with his own. He needed that shower.

The midfielder thankfully found himself inside an empty locker room as everyone had long wrapped up. After undressing, he set his clean and dirty clothes down and took the necessary products inside the shower.

It was surely refreshing to feel the water running through him, he started off by washing his hairline, bangs, hair and just went from there.

Though a weird feeling kept nagging him seated deep in his stomach, it wasn’t in any way fully describable by words but it kept telling his mind to go faster and wrap up quickly.

Sae was used to and even preferred completely empty locker rooms so it wasn’t a matter of being afraid, he was enjoying his time under the water so it wasn’t that either. Too complicated, whatever.

——— ⚽︎ ———

Sae had thankfully managed to grab a bite before the cafeteria could close right on his face, the food was surprisingly okay and healthy enough after some sketchy machine served it.

He was relieved to have had a pretty acceptable meal, they’d clearly improved the food since he last stepped foot inside.

Though the feeling that had lingered in his stomach seemed to not be caused by hunger either, he could stomach the food just fine but he had the urge to eat faster and get done with it. Strange but he was no psychologist or doctor at the end of the day.

After quickly thinking over what he had left to do, the feeling intensified.

He’d settled in, showered and eaten.

Therefore he could try to find some time to see Ryusei.

Ah, so it was that demon’s fault in the end. The feeling wasn’t rooted negatively like he’d thought, take it as a boost of energy to his otherwise calm demeanour.

Well, he was already clean, in his sleepwear, fed well enough and not making a mess out of his living space. It didn’t seem to be too late either, every positive thing seemed to have aligned Sae’s way.

Well all except that earlier on he’d noticed he needed to trim his bangs a little, he could see just fine but it had been getting a little more troublesome to put them back, they kept getting into a weird, ugly shape.

The midfielder had apparently been too busy fidgeting with his bangs, hence why he’d almost walked past the door he needed to find.

Three knocks landed on the door warning of his presence before he gripped the handle and pushed down, making the door click as he opened it to a room smelling of… instant ramen? Ew, none of his business.

“Ah, Itoshi Sae?”

Anri’s melodic voice called out to him from somewhere in the room, she was a pretty hard and passionate worker. That creepy glasses guy, Ego, seemed to be too busy having his head up his own ass anyway.

“Hello. What room is Shidou Ryusei in? Is he still awake?”

“Ah, at this hour? May I know why?”

“I need to speak with him before tomorrow”

Sae crossed his arms, firm and secure in his stance without giving too many explanations as Anri seemed to think for a second.

“I guess most of the boys are awake, yeah. He’s been put in a solitary room today though.”

“Huh?”

The midfielder’s face was pretty bad at showing it but it had surprised him for a good second until he started rationally thinking. He probably looked annoyed from the outside.

It wouldn’t be such a crazy thing for Ryusei to have been placed there, the first time they’d met that demon had been previously electrocuted and tied up for being dangerous and aggressively fighting other players constantly, he had quite the hot temper.

Sae continued “did he attack or fi-“

“He personally requested it.”

One annoying voice interrupted him, Ego had finally made the oh so great effort to utter some words.

“And I decided to grant it to him. Maybe he was upset about not scoring and wanted to whine for a while, what you young players do.”

No, that didn’t sound like Ryusei at all. Sae had seen how he congratulated other players live, he wasn’t one to get bitter thanks to others scoring and whatnot.

“No, that’s not-“

“Do you know him that personally to determine, Itoshi Sae?”

God what an annoying guy, how had Ryusei not punched those glasses into the back of that creepy guy’s skull already?

“Itoshi-San, you’ll see…” Anri caught his attention again “we didn’t want him to start any conflicts again, he was pretty relaxed around others during recent times. Today he seemed pretty angry and it was for the best.”

Sae was thankful to still have one sane adult in the whole facility that knew how to have a normal conversation. It made sense but it didn’t at the same time, it was just strange. He wanted to check it out for himself though.

“Where’s that room?”

“It could be dangerous, are you… no, nevermind. The room’s sign reads—“

Maybe it was his mere presence that was intimidating or Anri was equally as uncomfortable as him having Ego’s eyes drilling holes through the both of them, it had worked in the end.

Once he got every detail and directions — he was still pretty unfamiliar with the place — necessary from her, Sae gave a brief nod as a thanks and almost sprinted out of that room. It stank and that glasses guy was one hell of a person to deal with, so annoying.

Sae knew that he needed to focus on soccer but Ryusei had never really distracted him, not even while they were playing on the same pitch. He would have this for once, it was free time otherwise wasted.

The walk towards the room was again long one, it wasn’t that far away from his own. Hopefully it was all pretty empty and no one really made him pause to chat, they would’ve been harshly shoved away.

When that cold door stood firm in front of him, an ear was pressed against it but no sounds were really heard. He gave three quick knocks of warning and opened after a brief second.

His heart involuntarily fluttered at the sight, it was really him. Well of fucking course it was him… gosh he really had his mind somewhat else lately.

“Sae-chan!?”

Ryusei seemed extremely happy to see him, adjusting his pants that had seemingly lowered, it was all sort of like he’d imagined.

But his reaction felt like it was lacking… since when was Sae so insecure? Gosh he’d never felt so pathetic even inside his own head.

The wave of affection was immediate, arms wrapping around the shorter one and lips against his, Ryusei wasn’t holding back.

Sae was pretty sure in his mind that he would’ve just stayed still, take it all without lifting a muscle.

But as the door had long closed behind them, he figured it would be fine wrapping his pale arms around the other, kissing as much as the selfish side of him wanted.

After that, the exchange of words was brief on his side, that demon as expected just kept talking about anything that made its way into his brain. But the midfielder did take a quick mental note.

Ryusei’s body language didn’t seem to be neither sad nor angry, not in any way disturbed by feelings. He seemed rather energetic, Ego’s mouth was too big and just kept sputtering bullshit nonsense it seems.

Those stupid meaningless words had been tugging at his mind before he’d gotten to see Ryusei in the flesh by himself, hence why he’d knocked on the door before entering.

——— ❤︎⁠ ———

Earlier, Ryusei —-

Ryusei never meant for everything to come crashing down that way, not right there at least, trapped in that damn facility.

He was on his last fucking nerve for something so dumb it made him even angrier, he had quite the temper after all. It still didn’t make it any less infuriating.

It was already enough excitement built up after spending a whole match benched, not being able to fight it he was one to build up the buzz of energy under his skin. He saw his own team beat up Nigeria’s 4-0, and it only got him going even more.

So after the annoyance that came while sitting down while France’s strong team crushed his, the striker was determined to explode and leave one big mark.

Except it never came.

Every chance was stolen, almost like that one match against Bastard München back in the NEL, except he wasn’t really being targeted against France and didn’t even get to score. It was all deep down a problem of his and his alone.

All of the buildup just to run around and have the ball for too short of a time frame. At least he got to run around next to Charles, that little demon was almost like that redhead and Loki’s son. He was okay with being the fun uncle.

It still didn’t change the frustration he felt, that damn four eyes bastard Ego would surely refrain him from playing for even longer. And what would his Sae-chan think? He’d been chosen for his “potential” in the first place for fucks sake!

When the final whistle blew, the adrenaline shooting through his body kept him from thinking clearly and so he was still all pumped up, like he should.

But once he’d cooled down in the shower, his hand went to immediately grip his thigh. Those cold shivers ran down his spine even though the shower was warm, he knew what it meant.

The shower turned cold in an instant. Shit.

Ryusei really thought he would’ve already calmed down as soon as everyone was back in the facility, but that wasn’t it.

He was livid, his blood felt like it was boiling with pure frustration. He didn’t want to hear anyone speaking about whatever had gone down in that match or see their faces anywhere.

But most importantly, it was announced Sae was getting there the very next day. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.

So, that’s how he found himself standing in front of Ego’s weird management room after barely being able to stomach his own dinner, swinging the door open to the repugnant stench of processed food.

“Hey, I want to have a room for me tonight, you bastard.”

Ryusei could make out Anri’s nervous demeanour but his eyes were completely focused on Ego, that guy hadn’t even bothered turning around.

“Hey, mr. Lock-off, I sai-!”

“Are you angry, Shidou Ryusei?”

He was running out of the little patience he had at the moment, seeing as Ego started clicking around with a mouse while moving his filthy mouth to utter useless words.

“What do you think?! You want fucking trouble, eh?”

“Why should I give it to you? Are you going to have a cry in there? If you have a problem with the way I or your teammates works, say it to our faces. Now…”

Ryusei’s heavy steps filled the room, walking towards that damned bowlcut idiot very determined to beat him to a pulp.

Though his feet stopped all of a sudden, seemingly glued to the ground. Even if he remained free to move.

The big screen was displaying something.

“Tell me, are you just angry at yourself?”

It was some sort of sheet, data indicating it was in fact his. Was this some psychiatric bullshit he didn’t know about? It seemed like it.

It read a ton of… not bullshit, it was all maddeningly true. It said stuff about his anger, how it was directed often towards others but sometimes himself, in behaviours such as-

Fuck all of this!

“Who the hell do you- do you want me to murder you?! Just give me the goddamn room asshole!”

“Oh I will. But will you be strong enough?”

He was left… speechless for once.

“Very well. Use room —“

His brain finished registering the words as best as it could, making him leave the room and shut the door without any care. He could still make out faint voices from inside, Anri’s doubtful voice and Ego’s arrogant one discussing how he “knew Ryusei was strong enough” bullshit.

Ahh fuck this just made him even angrier, he could feel himself shaking like a goddamn leaf from all those intense feelings, his hand hardly gripping his thigh.

At least he’d gotten the fucking room, now he needed to stop by the bathroom and go back to his new space.

——— ⚽︎ ———

The damp locker room was dark and almost empty, though he could still make out someone someone rustling around and closing a locker. He was there for what he needed though.

Ryusei made his way towards all the hygiene products players were offered, skimming over to find the shaving razors right next to the toothpaste containers.

The blue plastic semeed to almost look back mockingly at him, but he was there for the metal within.

As soon as he felt the steady plastic handle under his fingers, a demanding voice made him nearly jump and throw a kick at the air.

“Move, you cockroach.”

He nearly punched Rin’s stupid teal eye into a bruise for the next week, though lashes jr. seemed to only be looking for the toothpaste.

“The hell are you doing with that? Planning to murder someone?”

That being the most reasonable explanation to come into Rin’s tiny brain would be concerting for most. The blonde didn’t even care, answering with a mocking tone. One more minute in that room and the other was most likely getting murdered.

“I need to shave, Sae’s arrival is tomorrow”

He could see the vein pop in Rin’s forehead, though he didn’t even try to start a fight. Probably because the other was holding a fucking blade, covered with plastic but nonetheless a blade.

Ryusei made his way out of there as he hid the newly acquired object , he didn’t have time to fight even though his body screamed with rage.

Fuck, he just wanted to punch the walk and tear the whole fucking place apart, that interaction had tipped him even more over the edge if that was even possible at that point.

His heavy steps echoed through the hallways, now he needed to get it out of its plastic prison.

Honestly, he didn’t even know at that point.

A feeling just wrapped around his throat and wouldn’t let him breathe until he’d taken care of business.

——— ⚽︎ ———

After bringing his bag back to his room and suffering through the struggle of getting out what he needed from that mocking blue plastic, Ryusei sat down on the clean looking bed.

He’d shoved the now empty handle somewhere in the depths of his bag, he had the cold metal that mattered in his hands now.

And he could still feel everything, the frustration and rage. Just accompanied… no, just manifesting themselves via a strange calmness.

It was strange, he was so calm yet his hands were shaky.

Not with the rage from earlier but the anticipation of whatever the hell he was doing.

He slid the cloth of his pants off all the way to his knees, feeling himself in a vulnerable position when exposing those old faded marks to the cold, if any sensation still remained within them.

He ran the tip of his finger through a particularly big one, Sae had run his own pale finger through it before. He would be extremely confused and disgusted if he could see what was happening.

Both of his thighs had been occupied in the past, the ocasional line running a bit lower.

None of it really showed even if he wore shorts when training so he’d really gotten no questions, just the occasional stare from those who noticed which were most of the time teammates.

The striker didn’t even care, they could make headlines of it and he still wouldn’t bother to hide. What he didn’t want is someone noticing any red and angry marks for the next few weeks and trying to kick him out of the field, restraining his whole life form.

And when the first swipe landed on his upper thigh and that white flesh peeked from underneath, it barely felt like anything. It hurt, sure. But not like he wanted, it was bleeding red already but it wasn’t anything big compared to what was there and that wouldn’t ache exactly lik-

The anger kept pouring out from his body, vibrant, red, angry, accompanied by the pungent scent of blood; its very core.

The second that raw scent hit his nostrils, a weird feeling rushed back to him, the realization everything was always smelling too clean and normal all the time. He loved it.

The second one had more pressure applied before the motion and therefore was deeper, he could see his skin open up to another bit of that same white flesh, more visible and deeper. Hah, he wasn’t even applying a lot of strength.

He’d always thought soccer was the ultimate form of release, his way to make an impact and live freely. But this feeling was so violent and pulsating it made him release nearly the same as when he fought or played.

The third one was deeper and more painful, it was deeper but not too far off from the others, a lighter pink flesh was visible. He wasn’t an anatomy expert but from experience it was the same layer, that one would stay pink for longer before turning white once it healed.

And in between swipes and pain, he breathed out. A sigh of relief, he was much more at peace now.

It was a shame that he had to limit himself to only that number of wounds because nothing would ever beat a feeling as intense as that one.

All of his senses were overtaken by it, it was good, it was so good.

Now he’d just stop and wipe the blood with some paper to then flush it down the toilet. Hide the blade somewhere just in case.

——— ⚽︎ ———

Later that same night, Ryusei was tempted yet again.

The ache was sort of there but not at the same time.

Just replaying that feeling was enough to want to have more.

That habit was always a hard one to kick off whenever it returned, specially given his temper.

But they wouldn’t let him do whatever he wanted with his fucking body, seriously, it was his business alone.

Hopefully Sae wouldn’t notice, Ryusei knew he’d 100% be all over his Sae-chan all day once he got there. He’d been patiently waiting to hug him for so long! If he even was interested in him at that rate.

Shit, he was ready again and just wasting time fidgeting with the blade in his hand.

And when it finally landed it hurt, it wasn’t deep but it hurt and fucking stung like a bitch.

Maybe because he truly wasn’t longing for the pain anymore.

He wished it was Sae’s gentle hand caressing his skin instead.

Fuck.

Knock knock.

Oh, fuck!

The blonde jumped up from the bed and immediately shoved the metal back into the bag in a messy way, he had a time frame of just seconds to compose himself as best he could.

And all of that while his brain worked to figure out who it was… most of the chances landed on Ego or someone who knew what had just happened, that glasses maniac bragged about not having cameras in private rooms but who knows if it was true in the first place.

Ryusei barely managed to pull his pants back up, the wound wasn’t particularly deep so there wouldn’t be a blood stain as long as he didn’t press down the fabric against it.

And as soon as his mind processed who it was, happiness mixed with fear washed all over him. Fuck those feelings from before because now he was the happiest man to ever live.

It was Sae. His Sae-chan, his angel, his boyfriend! He’d arrived early it seems.

“Sae-chan!?”

He couldn’t help but exclaim out loud as the biggest smile ever creeped onto his face and his hands began to shake, heart beating fast.

Ryusei was pretty relieved, fully adjusting his pants and quickly making his way towards Sae as he shut the door.

And all he wanted to do was to show how excited he was, directly going in for a kiss. The midfielder’s lips answered after a second of probably registering, he’d missed his angel’s kisses.

He swore that if he caught Sae off guard, he’d kiss him in front of everyone to let them see how happy they fucking were. Well, the other probably wouldn’t like that very much, save it for when they win a match or something big!

The night just went by normally, Sae didn’t seem to be acting any different from his usual self at all.

But a feeling lingered in the striker’s mind.

He was sort of scared, insecure even.

——— ⚽︎ ———

That next day, Ryusei checked himself out a little in the mirror after having put on his shorts, his tan legs were mostly covered and he already knew people could barely see old scars but the transparency of the cloth needed to be checked.

And to his relief it was just fine, no one would ruin his day by noticing and having whoever managed those things pestering him the whole time.

The striker knew that the red and angry looking wounds underneath would ache the whole time he was training, the heat, sweat and constant friction with the cloth would trigger such a thing.

Unbothered, his feet started making their way towards the pitch, at that moment he just hoped no wounds would reopen and bleed if that even happened outside of fiction.

But damn if he wasn’t buzzing with excitement already, he would get to train alongside Sae.

And it all began on a good note, after the brief hello Sae allowed himself to give the striker.

The blonde demon started moving, training his muscular body, running around the familiar field and feeling the adrenaline through it all, his breaths started coming in shorter as the beads of sweat began to form.

And to be honest it stung, burned. As expected, but damn if it wasn’t making training harder… maybe he should drop by later that day to discreetly get some bandaids

But the burning was bad, it was so fucking bad his performance was affected. Oh god that was the worst possible outcome, how was he going to play properly? He couldn’t explode like that.

Trade one explosion for the other I guess… ah fuck he wasn’t able to step properly at all. He paused, catching his breath. It was burning and stinging like hell.

——— ❤︎⁠ ———

Sae —

Even if it was hard to admit, as much as Sae would’ve loved to sleep on the same bed as Ryusei the previous night he eventually had to wrap up and sleep inside his brand new one.

Everything felt so familiar within that interaction, it brought him a little reassurance knowing how accustomed he was of the striker’s everything and how the feelings within him seemed to only grow a little stronger everytime they were face to face.

That day Sae began training with the rest of the players, he had taken serious interest in some of them.

And hopefully he wouldn’t really have to deal with Rin being difficult, he knew things turned sour with his brother. It all did when he said all of that after his early arrival from Spain… but whatever, it wasn’t an issue for the moment.

After being introduced and watching all their stupid amazed faces, training began. Those players had grown and weren’t nearly as inexperienced than when he’d played against them.

But Ryusei caught his attention, his performance. It was being affected in the end. He was bound to say something that day, he just didn’t know how.

Sae knew he sucked at feelings, at comfort and at being vulnerable. He could still feel the bitter taste of his own words after that night with Rin, it… no, it wasn’t important anymore.

He now had a motive to bring it up to Ryusei, he wasn’t blind. He’d noticed the weird behaviour, he’d noticed the bloodstain and every other warning sign after the previous night.

But putting Sae, who was so bad at being a person in general with such a situation wasn’t life’s best choice.

So after training he stopped to get some things, things he could work with to treat a wound. Hopefully.

——— ❤︎⁠ ———

Ryusei —

“Here, demon”

“Huh?”

The striker was sitting in his now individual bedroom, Sae had just entered and stood there for a few seconds before tossing him something. Patches?!

“Sae-chan what?”

“I know.”

And Ryusei could feel his stomach drop, he knew exactly what Sae knew. Maybe deep down Sae was the last person he wanted to find out, not that he wanted anyone to do so for that matter.

And truth be told, the otherwise loud and chaotic demon was oddly quiet. He was speechless as he saw both his biggest weaknesses attacked.

His relationship and his bad habit… well fuck.

“Listen, I’m not good with feelings.” Sae started speaking “but I’m here. I don’t want you to do that.”

And damn if that didn’t make Ryusei’s gut twist in the most painful way. Maybe it was the shame that came alongside it, he wasn’t ashamed of his old scars or way of life. He wasn’t sure of what was even happening.

But an explosion was definitely coming, a painful and teary one.

The mattress shifted under Sae’s weight as he sat beside him, he didn’t speak for a second but eventually that voice filled the room.

“I searched some things about this so I know I don’t have to pressure you and I should be mindful of my words…”

“Hah… hehe”

Ryusei let out a tiny laugh, how could he not? Sae was bad at this, bad enough to search it up and it was funny but it was also sad.

He didn’t want to stop, it was an euphoric feeling. But the other had taken time to help.

It was all conflicting.

Though the tears still came right afterwards.

And Sae just sat there for a long second, staring a little clueless.

Then Ryusei felt arms wrap around him.

“I’ll help you treat it after, demon. I won’t tell that creepy glasses guy.”

He was so fucking bad at this it was good.

But it moved something soft deep within Ryusei’s intense inside world.

The things the correct person could make one feel were inevitable and at times uncomfortable inside someone’s own mind.

But feelings new things is just part of growing as a person.

At the very end, the people a person left such a deep mark on had the same effect back.

And leaving a mark one way or another is just coded within every living meaning.

In short, Ryusei was glad to have met Sae.

And to have come to love him like that.

“I love you, lashes.”

“Me too.”

This felt way better than any pain.