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Shinonome Akito was a mystery to Toya.
Usually, Toya would like mysteries. He’d always labeled that as his favorite genre, but he never realized that he liked it because there was always a way to solve it. Akito felt different, he felt like a puzzle that purposefully hid pieces just so you wouldn’t finish. Toya felt so close with Akito, he was the closest friend he’d ever had, but he often wondered if Akito felt the same with him.
Toya was unconsciously always looking for hints. Hints to the type of person Akito really was, to his interests outside of singing. And today, he might’ve found one.
He watched over Akito’s shoulder, an empty notebook quickly being filled up with sketches of what appeared to Toya as different styles of clothing and the sort.
“I didn’t know you drew.” Toya pointed out, causing Akito to flinch and quickly turn the page over, looking behind himself with an apprehensive expression.
“How long have you been fuckin’ standing there dude?!” The boy nearly yelled at Toya, causing a few heads down the street they were near to turn. “I… I don’t draw, I just sketch ideas I have sometimes…”
“That sounds like drawing.” Toya tilted his head, a bit confused. His gaze was drawn to the notebook held tightly in Akito’s hands. He’d never seen him seem this embarrassed about anything other than missing the rare note during practice here and there.
“You should’ve texted me you were here, scarin’ me like that… Jeez…” Akito mumbled, getting up off of the bench he’d been sitting on. “Are you ready for practice, or should we warm up first?” He stored the notebook in his bag, pulling out a microphone and tossing it to Toya hastily.
Catching it, Toya turned it around in his hands a few times. “I’d like to see more of your drawings, Akito. They looked interesting.” He knew he might be being pushy, but sometimes it felt like ‘pushy’ was the only way to get through to his partner.
Akito hesitated for a second. “You’re not gonna move on with this unless I show you, huh?”
“Most likely not.” Toya affirmed.
Akito let out a long sigh, fishing the notebook out of his bag. “Just be quick, okay? I don’t want to delay practice more.” He plopped the book into Toya’s hand, looking away just in time to miss the small smile that appeared on his face.
“Thank you, Akito.” He sat down, placing the microphone in his lap and gently flipping through a few pages.
What met his eyes were blank pages filled with pencil sketches of items that Toya could swear he’d see in high end fashion stores somewhere. A jacket with fabric that almost looked like it was taken out of magazine pages and stitched together, a jersey that looked just light enough for sports, yet nice enough for casual wear, it was all…
“Akito… These are really good.” Toya looked up at his partner, who was nervously fidgeting with his sleeve as he watched Toya flip through the pages.
“They’re not. They’re not even colored, it’s just random ideas I think of in class…” He scoffed.
Toya furrowed his brow. “They are. Even without color, it’s like your ideas just… bloom to life on the pages.” He glanced back down at the drawings, eyes landing on an especially fancy drawing, a dress shirt with wing motifs on the collar and tie. “Here, this. Tell me more about how you think of the color for this one, I want to hear.” He pointed to it, beckoning Akito to sit down next to him.
“That one?” Akito sat, frowning. “That one I was imagining as actually just gray and white, I thought that there should be an accent color or somethin’ though. Couldn’t figure out what color to make it.”
Examining the illustration for a moment more, Toya thought. The model the clothes were on felt like they were so free, the flowiness of the cloth rolling off of them in what seemed to be a windy setting. Akito was so creative.
“Maybe… yellow?” Toya suggested, looking up and glancing at the yellow in Akito’s hair for just a second. “I think it would look nice.”
Akito tilted his head, imagining it in his head. “Yeah… yeah, that would be nice!” He smiled, pulling a pencil out and making a small note on the side of the drawing. “Any reason for yellow, or is it just the first thing that came to your head?” Akito glanced at Toya, raising an eyebrow.
“...No specific reason.” Toya answered back. “I’m happy I could help you. You know, you really should share your drawings more.” Toya’s voice took a more serious tone, though it was barely noticeable to anybody other than Akito. “I’m surprised I didn’t know this about you, it’s obvious you’ve been drawing for a long time, Akito.”
Akito’s shoulders fell a bit. “Nah, I… It’s fine like this. Not like I’m trying to be a fashion designer or anything, so… No point, y’know? I thought about showing Ken a few, but I feel like it’d be weird to just go up to him and go, ‘Hey Ken! Look at my sketches!’” Akito let out a short laugh. “I’d be like a kid showing his parents a stupid doodle.”
“Ken would be very impressed, I think he’d like them a lot, actually.” Toya further insisted, receiving a shake of the head from Akito.
“Still, I don’t really want to. It’s just…” He hesitated, biting down a few words. “I don’t want people to see me as an artist. I want people to see me as a singer. This will just get in the way of that.”
A small silence overcame the two, as they both looked down at the notebook. One gaze filled with admiration, the other filled with antagonism.
Toya thought about his words for a second more, before opening his mouth. “It can just be for fun, Akito.” He spoke softly, looking over at the boy. Akito’s eyes widened, and fell to the floor. “Nothing needs to change from now. You don’t have to be an artist, you can still draw only for fun. It's just… It makes me feel bad that you seem so embarrassed of this part of yourself.”
“I’m not embarrassed.” Akito quickly, almost defensively corrected Toya. He didn’t add anything after that, just silently closed the notebook again and shoved it back in his bag. “I don’t want people to see them. That’s all.”
Toya pursed his lips. There was obviously a story here, a hint to Akito’s puzzle, but… maybe the piece was still too fresh to talk about like this. He’d wait for Akito to open up about it himself this time.
But Toya wasn’t ready to start practice just yet. He felt like he was on a trail, about to find out something about Akito.
“You like fashion, right? All the sketches were of clothing, so I assume…” Now that he realized it, Akito had always been very good at styling outfits for live shows and casual wear. Even his school uniform was slightly customized, most likely against the dress code. Toya glanced down at his own clothing, still dressed in the fancy vest with his middle school’s crest on it, the dress shoes and uncomfortable pants he loathed putting on every day.
Akito seemed to notice where Toya was looking. “Are you into it at all? I never see you wearing anything other than your uniform.”
“I… do not own much else, I fear. All I have are a few concert shirts and hoodies.” Toya’s voice seemed a lot sadder than Akito expected. Was this some sort of sensitive topic? Akito debated on just moving on with practice—they were far behind anyways—or…
He pulled off one of the two necklaces he was wearing. It was silver, with a triangle shaped charm as its drawing point. “Here.” He unclipped it, clasping it around Toya’s neck, the distance between them a bit closer than needed. Toya could feel Akito’s cold hands on the skin of his neck, making him shiver. Akito pulled back, smiling as he saw the necklace on Toya. It fit his eyes well. “Now, you have jewelry too.”
…Oh.
Toya was smiling. A genuine, beautiful smile that Akito had never seen on the boy as he looked down at the necklace, examining it with his hands.
…Did Akito’s heart skip a beat?
“Thank you, Akito.” Toya smiled up at him, and yeah, Akito’s heart skipped way more than just a beat. “I’ll make sure to treasure this forever.”
“Whatever, dude, don’t mention it.” Akito said a bit too fast, the words coming out all jumbled and slurred. “We’ve wasted too much time sitting around, the sun's already setting. Let’s start already.” Akito got up, setting up their speaker and his own microphone.
“And after, can you promise that you’ll show Ken one of your drawings?” Toya began working on his own microphone, missing the small smile on Akito’s face.
“...I’ll think about it.”