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A million thoughts in my head
Should have let my heart keep listening
“Okay, that’s everything.” Kei glanced at the book, then did a double-take. “Wait, I take it back. We still need one tear. Which is fantastic, really, because I never cry.” Kei looked to his side where Shouyou was busy adding cashew nuts to the mixing bowl. “Can you conjure up any of your tears now, Shorty?”
“Nope.” Shouyou shook his head, “I haven’t felt the need to cry ever since we got here.”
“Can’t we just chop up some onions?” Lev said lazily, somewhere probably playing with his new pet cat, Leo.
“No.” Kei sighed and quoted from the book. “It says here ‘one tear of human sadness.’ Since this love potion gets the best reviews, I want to follow it down exactly.”
“Isn’t a tear just a tear?” Koutarou drawled, tossing the volleyball back and forth between his hands. He was sitting on a counter nearby, leaning against Keiji who didn’t seem to mind so long as his reading wasn’t interrupted.
“Not true, Bo.” Tetsurou came up on Kei’s other side, holding a bag of sugar. “All tears have antibodies and enzymes, but emotional tears have more protein-based hormones than reflex tears.”
“Nerd.” Shouyou teased. “Did you learn that in your class?”
“Nah, I read it online around a day after we got here.”
“Pshhh.” Koutarou huffed. “I knew that.”
“You did not.”
“Keiji, come on and support me just this once.”
Shouyou and Lev laughed and even Tetsurou snickered as the two bickered with no true ill between them. Kei simply watched, his mouth curving up slightly.
If only time could stop for them this moment.
“Tell me more about you.”
Kageyama was looking at him with such honest curiosity that Kei couldn’t possibly resist even if he tried.
Kei huffed and shrugged his shoulders. “Well... I’m fifteen. I’m an only child, and I’ve only ever lived in one place.”
“Oh, hey, me too.” There was a hint of mischief and a smirk on Kageyama’s face. “We have so much in common.”
Kei laughed. “Trust me, King-to-be, we do not. I mean, from the title alone—”
“That doesn’t exactly make me King.” Kei looked at Kageyama at the tone. The young heir was looking at his lap, fiddling with the handkerchief he brought out earlier.
“It kinda does.”
“No, not really.” Kageyama looked up and smiled softly at Kei. Affectionate. It made not only Kei’s heart beat faster but also turned his stomach to a world-class gymnast. “Your mother is the mistress of evil while I’ve got the poster parents for goodness, but we’re not automatically like them. We get to choose who we’re going to be.”
Oh how I wish it were that easy.
Keiji unrolled the floor plan of the castle’s ground floor. “Kageyama will be coming in from here, Kei will be right next to him in the front, Koutarou and Shouyou will be with their teammates a few meters away, and Tetsurou, Lev, and I will be up in the balcony.”
“Koutarou-san and I will be back-up for Kei once he gets the wand.” Hinata said, more solemn than he is serious. Beside him, Koutarou nodded but didn’t seem to be fully present.
“I already found the limo when we first arrived.” Lev muttered, absentmindedly stroking Leo’s fur. “The remote that breaks the magic barrier was in the glove compartment, while I managed to snag the one that activates the bridge.”
“I managed to make the chloroform stuff we see in the movies.” Tetsurou brought out a big jug and placed it on the table. He smiled a little. “I might have gotten carried away.”
Keiji smiled and patter Tetsurou’s shoulder in assurance. “That’s fine.”
Kei cleared his throat. “I pretty much saw when the wand will be its most vulnerable during the dry run earlier today. It’s after Headmistress taps both his shoulders.” He felt Shouyou’s eyes on him but he didn’t dare to look back.
“Okay, we’ll be on the look-out for that.” Keiji coughed and took one last look around their group. “Okay, that’s about it. Meeting adjourned.”
Kei left the room quickly after that. He heard Shouyou bid everyone else goodnight before running after him.
“You didn’t tell them?”
“I didn’t see the point.”
“Is that who I think it’s for?” Kei slammed the book shut as fast as he could but when he turned around, he saw it in Shouyou’s face that he has already seen it.
“Don’t tell the others.” If Shouyou was surprised to hear Kei actually beg, he didn’t show it in his face.
“You wanna break Kageyama’s love spell?”
“Well, yeah.” His voice cracked a bit and he cleared his throat, looking away. “This is for after we escape, of course.”
Shouyou was silent for a while. “I think... I get why, but I just thought—I mean, I really understand, I guess, but it’s just I noticed that you...with Kageyama...” Kei looked back and saw his best friend looking the saddest he’s ever been the past few months.
It made Kei feel... really sad.
“You looked really happy.”
Now knowing that Shouyou is sad for him, Kei felt blessed to have met someone like Shouyou.
“It was never going to work anyway.” Kei tried to sound nonchalant. Tried. “It just came to me when the villains finally do invade Kyoto and begin to loot, kick everyone out of their castles, imprison their leaders, and destroy all that is good and beautiful, To-Kageyama still being in love with me just seems a little extra... cruel.”
They stared at each other for a while before Shouyou nodded as if accepting his answer. Kei turned back to his book, only relaxing when he felt Shouyou’s reassuring hand on his back. But the remorse feeling never really left.
Halfway to their room, Kei felt Shouyou gently take his hand in his and gave a squeeze.
I know it’s time to say goodbye
But it’s so hard to let go
Funny how it’s when the steps don’t require Kei to include a tear of human sadness that he can’t stop crying.