Work Text:
Jo could always hear Yuma long before he could see him. He would always take a deep breath in, compose himself from the dizzying feeling in his head at the thought of what the older might be getting up to. Yuma only knew how to get into meaningless trouble. He would pull at people’s weaknesses just to get a rise. Jo never bites, he always looks, always notices too much.
He was a picture of composure to all of Yuma’s antics behind him. In his heart there were at least a thousand fireworks going off at once whenever Yuma laughed. Jo was drawn in by the way he teased people with a sharp edge softened by the way he never took himself too seriously.
That didn’t stop Jo from thinking he was the rudest person he had ever met. Yuma was inconsiderate of the teacher and every student in that class who wanted to learn. His lack of awareness and care was downright rude. Jo was drawn to him nonetheless. He hated himself for it - Yuma was on his mind too often.
When Jo was studying he thought of Yuma, when he slept he dreamt of his own misfortune being the cause of one of Yuma’s giggling fits. He was desperate for Yuma to look at him, pick him out of a crowd for all the things he was insecure about. Yuma never even looked at him. That was the most rude thing of all. Did the older think he was better than Jo? Jo would show him…
Jo was too perfect to ever act out at all. He couldn’t beat Yuma at that game but he was exceptionally good at making everyone think he was disinterested. Yuma never liked when he didn’t get the attention he craved. Jo wouldn’t bite, he wouldn’t flinch - he would look Yuma in the eye and look away all unfazed (even if the thought of playing hard to get made his stomach twist.)
S2
Jo was always in class while the dew was still settling on the grass. He liked the calm that came with emptiness. His life had never been busy, he didn’t know how to rush through things - there was always a care with his movements, a gentle breeze that kept the condensation in place. The Hurricane that was Yuma always came later when Jo knew how to exist beyond himself, the dew all but gone.
When he saw Yuma for the first time his hair was a golden blonde, unset, flowing around his head from the movement of trying to talk to everyone all at once. It was clear from the first second that Yuma opened himself up because he wanted others to like him - the loud version of Yuma was appealing. Even Jo was won over by his charm - Jo also liked the idea of a Yuma who was happy to sit with him in the morning sunlight avoiding each other's gaze because they didn’t know how to speak to each other.
Jo thought he would just be happy near Yuma enough to hear him laugh.
His laughter didn’t ring the same when Jo didn’t look at him.
Jo’s plan hatched on a cold winter's day, not a time best known for the birth of new things or exploration. Yuma walked in the first morning like nothing had changed - it hadn’t really, it was just Jo who was going to pretend like his heart didn’t skip when Yuma tried to pick on him. The teasing was meaningless in the grand scheme of things, Yuma would pick up on how quiet Jo was, say things to get him to engage in conversation. Stupid things, like pointing out how red his ears got when Yuma talked about him.
Jo couldn’t conceal that, his ears were a very prominent feature of his face, one he often thought was too obvious, so he styles his slightly too long hair in a way that would hide the top of them when Yuma said his name.
It didn’t take long. It never did.
‘Jojo’ Yuma shouted as he bounded from the back of the class up to where Jo sat in the front. His speech was slurred from his braces that made his smile even more mischievous. He stopped shy of Jo’s desk ‘... oh your hair is different, Jojo looks so handsome, doesn’t he look handsome everyone’ Jo tried to pay him no mind but his heart quickened when Yuma called him handsome even if it was to get a reaction out of the class. Jo knew he was good looking, he had been told so his entire life.
Yuma never called any of the girls pretty. Maybe he knew how weak Jo was to compliments, maybe Yuma liked to see Jo flustered by a pretty boy giving him the time of day.
Jo tried to push all those thoughts to the side and feigned genuine annoyance at Yuma’s words. He didn’t look at the boy's snaggletooth that was slowly being corrected, or the way his lips pulled up - he kept his eyes fixed on the textbook in front of him, hair successfully hiding the true effect Yuma’s eyes had on him.
‘Is Jojo ignoring me today, do you not like me anymore?’ Jo could hear the pout in Yuma’s voice, and he almost looked up to catch a glimpse of the other’s lips. ‘Jojo look at me… you’re going to make me sad’ his words got more inaudible as the pout intensified.
‘Nakakita-san I am trying to work’ Jo said with all the confidence he could, as deadpan as possible, only looking up at the last second. Yuma’s smirk deflated for a second before he scoffed and went back to his seat.
The plan wasn’t exactly successful because Jo could still only think about Yuma boring his eyes into his back throughout the entire class. If anything, seeing Yuma upset made Jo think of him more.
Jo was consistent, persistent, he wouldn’t let the first attempt fog the whole plan to forget about Yuma. He would annoy the other, be dismissive, be downright rude to him if he had to. Yuma didn’t react well to rejection or apathy. He liked to get under people’s skin, Jo wouldn’t let that happen anymore, he would steal his mind to Nakakita Yuma being nothing more than a stranger, an annoyance, some rude boy in the back of his class that was a distraction from success.
The rest of that week Jo didn’t pay Yuma any attention, he let his teasing fall into the background, he didn’t lift his head when the older approached. Into the next week Yuma stopped trying.
S2
Asakura Jo was many things and until recently Yuma wouldn’t say rude was one of them. Jo was sweet to everyone in the class, in a shy sort of way. He couldn’t hold eye contact with anyone for more than two seconds without his entire face going red but he was never rude about it, he always politely apologised for his nervousness.
Then something changed and for Yuma it was as sudden as the wind. It seemed like Jo was his usual self with everyone but him. Yuma tried to not let it affect him but he liked when Jo would blush at him and the way his ears would turn the colour of autumn leaves. He didn’t realise how much he missed the interactions, despite how small they were, until Jo pretended he didn’t exist.
He moved away from addressing him with annoying nicknames to talking to him exclusively in a formal manner. It was no more ‘Jojo’ but ‘Asakura-san’ and Yuma hated how it tasted on his lips. It was bitter rather than filled with any type of sweetness.
Yuma didn’t like this new Jo, he was too stern and difficult to interpret. Jo’s charm was that he was easy to fluster. Yuma knows he sat at the back of the classroom waiting with baited breath for Jo to turn around, look at him, and flash him a smile. It was wishful thinking - Jo didn’t spare him a single glance.
It was hard for him not to be disappointed but two could play at whatever game Jo had started, he would ignore him, pretend like he didn’t for just long enough for Jo to come back running to him, demanding his attention.
Yuma wasn’t sure why he wanted Jo to acknowledge him so much, it might have something to do with the attention but it probably had more to do with how his gums hurt so much from the braces rubbing against them while he smiled. Yuma appreciated Jo because he was kind, being rude was so unlike him Yuma had to do something to restore equilibrium.
S2
Yuma observed that Jo was only rude to him. It made him feel special, for a moment. Quickly, it made him mad, Jo ignoring him soon lost its novelty. Yuma didn’t like to be bored. Talking to Jo had always been a highlight to his day, even if he could only speak to him in decorative criticism and insults. Yuma really had no problems with Jo but now even his beauty was getting on his nerves.
Jo was too handsome, his face was small and his jaw perfectly sculpted. He still carried a roundness to his cheeks that made him look adorable when he smiled. Yuma used to smirk at him like Jo’s attentive eyes and face littered with freckles and moles didn’t bring it out of him automatically. Yuma liked Jo but he was finding it very difficult not to hate him currently.
Jo ignoring him was taking away his time to stare at him waiting for a snap back. One never came so he gave up. Jo still glanced at him, he almost made eye contact with him all the time, his ears glowing red every time he turned around. Yma always let out a huff when the eye contact never came.
He thrived on attention, loved people noticing him, making them laugh and for some reason he cared about Jo’s attention more than he did anyone else's. He missed it. Maybe it was because Jo was nice, he didn’t say things that made Yuma more upset, or angry at people not understanding him. Yuma was always good at using insults and comedy to distract attention away from things he was actually insecure about. Maybe Jo saw through all that and saw how cracked Yuma really was.
Yuma would have had no idea Jo wasn’t looking at him because he had a crush on the other. It took Jo time to recognise how he felt as a crush. It was silly that Yuma being rude to him had even materialised into such feelings but he missed Yuma, he missed the teasing every second of every day. It made him feel vulnerable, breakable, like he wasn’t so perfect in the way everyone saw him to be.
Jo liked how Yuma made him feel. When he next saw the boy, his eyes drifted towards the ceiling, heart racing as he tried to think of the right thing to say. It didn’t help that Yuma kept offering glances his way, giggling when he caught Jo staring.
Both boys let the class clear before Yuma flitted towards Jo’s seat.
Jo kept looking out the window, folding the corner of his work book in between his finger and thumb occasionally and Yuma wanted to reach out, grab his hand, and tell him to stop - that he might get a papercut.
‘You are very rude you know’ Jo’s quiet warm voice broke the silence.
If Yuma was a liar, which he usually was, he would tell Jo he didn’t care what he thought of him - he usually didn’t care at all about other people’s opinion of him. He cared a little too much about what Jo thought.
He settled on the truth ‘You’ve been ignoring me for weeks, I think that’s pretty rude.’
Jo smiled, a deep laugh bubbling from down in his chest.
‘I didn’t think the class perfectionist knew how to be rude’ Yuma interjected, causing the giggles to grow louder. ‘Don’t you think it’s pretty on brand for me Asakura-san?’ that typical mischievousness evident in his voice.
A blush rose on Jo’s cheeks and his ears went red, he brought his hands up to cover them. Yuma reached out to stop him, taking Jo’s hand away from his ears.
‘Don’t cover them, I think it's cute when you get embarrassed.’ The statement only made Jo shyer, more conscious of Yuma entirely invading his personal space.
‘Do I make you nervous Jojo?’ Yuma asked, pulling some of Jo’s hair down to cover his eyes, finger grazing the top of his cheek as he put it in place. Jo let out a squeak at the physical contact. Yuma really was a bother.
Jo shook his head, he allowed Yuma to do whatever he wanted to do to him until his hair was exactly how the older wanted it to be, a little messy - something he would just have to fix before he went home.
It didn’t stop him from smiling at Yuma sat behind him every chance he got before the end of the day.
When Jo stood outside the school building ready to go home many hours later, Yuma was still there, smiling his crooked smile at him.
‘You’re still here?’ Jo asked half as a statement and half a question, filled with a wandering curiosity like Jo expected Yuma to not want to talk to him again.
‘I wanted to see you before you went home…’ Yuma looked at him under the harsh outside lights of the school. ‘You put your hair back’ Yuma sounded disappointed.
‘I couldn’t go home with it a mess Yuma’ Jo said softly, like trying to explain to a child why dress up had to be taken off.
Yuma pouted, looking like he wanted to come closer and mess it up again.
He decided on smiling a shy smile instead.
‘I like that you are rude to me’ Jo admitted so quietly it could barely be heard over the sound of the rain falling. ‘It makes me feel…’ Yuma looks at him, snarky smile leaving his face for something warmer ‘different, like I don’t have to be perfect.’
Yuma let the light behind Jo bring him into focus - clearer than he ever had been before. Smirk decorating his lips once again. ‘Who said you were perfect?’
Jo didn’t laugh, he just moved closer and hummed. This was the way he liked Yuma, a little forward, mean, didn’t watch how he said things and oh so rude. Perfect had always been far too overrated anyway.