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“Pst, Iemon.”
The boy turned his head, seeing Kuon’s friendly face behind him.
“Do you mind helping me clean all this up?”
“Of course,” Iemon easily agreed. It was hard for him to turn anything down and it was Kuon asking too, so it was a no brainer.
They collected everything from the makeshift potluck, carrying it back to the cafeteria to throw it away.
Kuon was chatting away, making small talk about how the games were going and how strange life in Blue Lock was.
At some point, Iemon stopped responding, eyes lingering on Kuon’s face as the man threw a napkin away.
“Is…everything alright?” Kuon clearly noticed, gently calling out his odd behavior.
“Yes, I’m fine. I just…” Their gazes met,
“Your eyes.”
Kuon’s relaxed expression dropped and he ducked his head,
“Right. I know they can be sc-“
“They’re beautiful,” Iemon blurted out.
Kuon gave the most suprised look Iemon had ever seen out of him, whipping his head back up to look at the other boy. He opened his mouth to say something, but just closed it again.
Why did he say that?!?
Iemon immediately started to apologize,
“I’m sorry! You probably don’t want a stranger commenting on your appearance, I just thought-“ He was just digging himself a deeper hole. He groaned quietly, “Nevermind, please just forget I said anything.”
He was about to walk away and try to erase this interaction from his memory, but Kuon stopped him.
“Wait! I, uh-“
He paused, not sure how to get the words out. Iemon nervously watched as he tried again.
“I was just surprised. You didn’t do anything wrong, really. It’s just, nobody’s ever…said that before.”
Kuon was flushed, but he was less stunned than he’d been a few minutes prior. Iemon really seemed too nice for this ruthless program. Kuon didn’t think he had the resolve to make it far here, but…
Kuon took a deep breath, willing his cheeks to stop being so warm. He wasn’t meant to be spilling his guts to this temporary team, but something about Iemon was different. He was nice and basically co-lead Team Z with him. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt?
“Um, having red eyes is kind of weird, right? That’s what everybody tells me, at least. I…I never knew you saw them that way. Or even thought anyone would.” He took a step closer to the other boy, who seemed less skittish now, “I’m just trying to say thank you, I appreciate it.”
There was a pause before Iemon smiled,
“Oh, wow! I’m glad that wasn’t super creepy.”
They both laughed at how awkward this conversation was.
“Well, whoever said those things about you was wrong. Your eyes aren’t weird at all, they’re bright! Like, um, gemstones…” He trailed off, realizing how cheesy that was.
Kuon blinked, trying to stay calm. He wished Iemon would stop talking, it was making it hard to keep up his usual persona, no matter how much he enjoyed the compliments. He was still blushing, wasn’t he? Ugh.
He nodded, “Well, we should probably get back now.”
“Ah, right.” Iemon agreed.
Neither of them moved though, Iemon staring while Kuon grew more flushed under the attention. He wasn’t used to it at all, this was…certainly new. Sure, he worked hard, but that didn’t tend to get much recognition from anyone other then teasing or mockery. For the first time in a while, he felt truly uncertain.
Kuon moved first, heading back to their room. He couldn’t afford a silly crush right now, he had bigger things to worry about, they all did.