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“GET BACK HERE YOU FUCKING-”
Gakushuu blinked in shock before turning on his heel to see the cause of the commotion. He stood in an otherwise empty waiting room, filling out forms to attend his mandatory therapy, when crashes and enraged yelling broke out, steadily getting closer to him.
Just then, the door leading to the back of the building burst open and two figures bolted out, one pursuing the other.
The one doing the chasing was a middle aged man, face dark red from the sheer rage Gakushuu could feel pouring off of him. A swift look at his name tag revealed that he was the therapist Gakushuu was there to see that day.
Good to see he was going to have been in good, completely mentally stable hands.
The boy he was chasing however, was much more interesting for Gakushuu to look at. He seemed to be around Gakushuu’s age with messy soft looking brown hair, black rimmed glasses, and dark green eyes.
…Eyes that didn’t currently match the rest of the expression he was wearing. His eyebrows and mouth were tugged down in a worried frown, but Gakushuu could see the dark humor burning in those pools of emerald.
“YOU BASTARD!” The man continued yelling angrily, having come to a stop in the waiting room. “THIS IS YOUR FAULT! YOU TOLD HER-!” He interrupted his own sentence as he grabbed a nearby lamp and raised it over his head, ready to bring it down swiftly.
“Sir,” the brunette began in a concerned tone of voice, his hands behind his back, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but you’re starting to scare me. You should really put that down.”
“‘PUT IT-!?’” The man sputtered angrily. “DON’T YOU DARE TRY TO TELL ME WHAT TO FUCKING DO, YOU RUINED MY LIFE!”
Seeing the man begin to swiftly bring the lamp in his hand down, Gakushuu decided it was time to intervene. He quickly took a few steps forward and grabbed the man’s wrist, yanking him away from the other teenager as he knocked the lamp from his grasp and kicked his feet out from under him, following him to the floor as he went so he could hold him still.
Gakushuu looked up and glared at both the shaken secretary behind the glass and the suspiciously not shaken teenager staring down at him. “Would one of you mind calling the police?” he asked, annoyed at the lack of action as he held the man still.
The secretary nodded dumbly in shock before moving to do just that. Gakushuu pulled some zip ties out of his bag and quickly immobilized the man beneath him.
“You carry zip ties on you?”
Gakushuu looked up and met the curious gaze of the teenager peering down at him from where he stood. Now that he stopped and got a better look at him, he noticed that the brunette’s light blue sweater looked both expensive and soft to the touch. Likely comes from a wealthy family then, he thought. But almost in contrast with the soft appearance the boy held, Gakushuu could see the edge of bandages peeking out of his right sleeve, some just above the collar of his sweater, and one square bandage was taped carefully to his left cheek.
“You don’t?” Gakushuu shot back imperiously.
“Oh, I do.” The other responded easily. “I just thought the average person wouldn’t.”
Gakushuu scoffed. “I’m hardly average." he spat the word as though it were a grave insult.
The strangers eyes were trained on the fully grown man now restrained on the floor. “No.” he murmured softly, “No, I suppose you aren’t.”
Before Gakushuu could ask what he meant by that, a large man stepped into the room from the open doorway the two had crashed in from before.
“We employ a security guard in case a patient ever gets violent with one of our therapists.” The secretary explained helpfully, frowning at the irony in her sentence as she spoke. “I called him over to escort…” she glanced down at the struggling restrained man before continuing hesitantly, “uh, him… to the police station.”
Gakushuu watched in mild amusement as the brunette smiled angelically at the woman on the other side of the glass window.
“Thanks,” he said sweetly, adjusting his sleeves, “I’m grateful that someone so vigilant and reliable was here to call for assistance.”
The woman blushed as the security guard grabbed the man on the floor and lifted him to his feet. “It’s no problem at all.” She said, glancing away shyly. “I apologize for the trouble our employee has caused you. We will endeavor to make things right with you as one of our valued customers.”
The man being forcefully led out the door snarled hatefully at that. “Don’t fucking apologize to him! That bastard ruined my life-!”
The door slammed closed behind them, cutting the man off.
“Oh dear,” the stranger said with an alarmingly believable edge of pity to his words, “it’s a sad day when the psychologist has such an unfortunate mental break instead of the patient. I do hope he feels better soon.”
After a few more harried words of apology from the secretary, she finally closed the dividing window between them and began making calls, leaving Gakushuu alone with the stranger.
“Thanks for the help.” the brunette said, casually running a hand through his hair. “That could’ve gotten dangerous otherwise.”
Gakushuu scoffed. “Dangerous for which of you exactly? In any case, I hardly did it to help you out, I just dislike when my peace is disturbed unnecessarily.”
The stranger blinked slowly as he processed the first half of Gakushuu’s statement. “What makes you think it would’ve been dangerous for him? I’m just an already injured and unarmed teenager, after all.”
Gakushuu narrowed his eyes at him shrewdly. “When that man grabbed the lamp as a weapon, you put your hands behind your back instead of putting them in front of you in defense like anyone else would’ve done. More specifically, you used one hand to reach into your sleeve.” He gestured vaguely towards the other’s sleeve as he continued, “Judging by the size of weapon you could be hiding in there, the most obvious conclusion is that you’ve got a knife strapped to your arm. It’s just basic deduction.”
From behind his glasses, the stranger’s eyes seemed to flash for just a moment before he smoothed over the expression with his normal guileless smile. “...What an interesting person.” The stranger said softly, almost to himself. Yet despite the innocence of that smile and the seeming frailty of the body in front of him, Gakushuu suddenly had the gnawing feeling that he had just unknowingly prodded some unseen predator awake. It felt as though his every move down to minute facial twitches were now being evaluated closely by those fathomless dark eyes.
Well if he’s being tested, then Gakushuu would refuse to back away from this. Like hell was he going to let this stranger get the upper hand.
Before he could say anything however, the brunette spoke up once more. “Oh, how silly of me, I forgot to introduce myself!” The boy smiled politely. “Hi, I’m Ren.”
Gakushuu noted the lack of an offered last name. Very well. “My name is Gakushuu.” he said in return, not willing to be the first to give too much information until he had at least gotten a better read on the other.
“So,” Ren began, “you had an appointment here?”
Gakushuu shot the other a dry look. “I did, but it seems that the psychologist is now otherwise occupied.” After being met with the other’s unchanging smile, Gakushuu sighed and rolled his eyes. “Well I didn’t want to be here of my own free will to begin with, so I suppose I don’t really mind.”
Ren tilted his head in interest. “You were forced to come here too?”
Gesturing to the bandage taped to his own cheek, Gakushuu raised an eyebrow at the other. “It was court ordered.”
“Oh,” Ren trilled back with a grin, “mine too, actually! Say, since neither of us have any reason to stay here anymore, how about we go to the café across the street? We can continue this conversation. You probably have some time to kill now anyway since your appointment got canceled.”
He says that so easily. As though he wasn’t the one who got my appointment canceled in the first place. …What a strange person.
“Alright.” Gakushuu said aloud, having made his mind up. “I suppose I do have a few hours to kill.”
Ren opened the door for them both and shot the other a smile as he walked through it. “Great, we can trade stories on how we got stuck here. You go first, I’m sure your story is fascinating.”
Gakushuu huffed as he followed him, refusing to be swept away so easily by the other’s charming smile. “Very well, it’s been rather public anyway. To begin with, have you heard of Kunugigaoka?”
—
“It sucks that the judge made it mandatory to attend these therapy sessions if you don’t want to be separated from your parents.”
Gakushuu sighed at the brunette’s statement, fully in agreement with him. “The only redeeming part of it is that my father has to attend appointments as well. I’m not exactly looking forward to when we’ll be forced to attend sessions together, though.” He could already feel how awkward that’ll be.
Ren winced sympathetically, the small smile never quite leaving his face, however. “Yeah, that sounds awful. I’m thankful that I only need to attend these meetings alone.”
“So,” Gakushuu began after taking a long sip of his coffee, “I’ve told you why I’m being forced into therapy. Your turn.”
Laughing lightly, Ren rested his head on his hand as he leaned forward. “Right to the point then? Well I suppose that’s fine.” He paused to take a bite of his cake before continuing, “I got emancipated from my parents, but to get it fully finalized, the judge insisted I attend mandatory therapy for at least three months.”
Gakushuu blinked in surprise. Somehow he hadn’t expected that. “You got emancipated?” he asked.
“Yep.” The other replied easily. “I saw you eyeing my bandages earlier. Who do you think injured me in the first place?”
Bringing his hand down from his face after realizing he had subconsciously touched his own bandage in response to that, Gakushuu frowned at the other. “I hope you’re suing them on top of becoming emancipated, then.”
After all, when it came to physical wounds, Gakushuu really only had the one on his face from his father. Looking at the boy sitting across from him, however… Gakushuu got the feeling that he might have gotten off easily in that regard, all things considered.
“Oh, no worries on that front.” Ren replied brightly. “I did much more than just sue them.”
Gakushuu paused, cup midway to his mouth. That… sounded suspiciously like the tone he himself used when he would talk about winning against his father. Huh.
Ren hummed for a moment before seeming to come to a decision. “Maybe this will help explain my situation? Especially since you’ve told me your full name now.” Aiming a smile at him with just a few too many teeth in it, Ren continued smoothly, “My full name is Ren Sakakibara.”
Gakushuu’s eyes widened as things began to click into place and he cursed himself silently for not having put that together earlier. It had been everywhere in the newspapers recently that the Sakakibara parents had been found guilty of parental neglect and abuse. On top of that, anonymous reports had come out about their under the table dealings, causing them to be investigated thoroughly by the police. Coupled with the many bandages, the connections that got him to such a high profile therapist, and the clearly overly expensive sweater, he should have realized it sooner. “...I see.” he finally said, unsure what he could say in the face of all of that.
Ren seemed untroubled by his lack of a proper response, and Gakushuu got the feeling it was because the other had somehow managed to easily read him, judging by the satisfied smile on the brunette’s face.
“Well since you’re already aware of the situation, I won’t need to explain the finer details to you.” Ren said as he took a sip of coffee.
“So, the anonymous reports that came out about them…?” Gakushuu trailed off questioningly.
“Yeah,” Ren confirmed lightly, “those were my doing. I figured I’d have an easier time getting emancipated if my parents were under fire for more than just their parenting skills. And it worked! I have my own apartment in the city now.”
To willingly cause so much damage to his parents’ reputation…
“You did all of that just to become emancipated from them?”
“Oh,” Ren responded, looking as though he had expected this question, “no, not really. It would’ve been pretty easy for me to get emancipated without causing this much of a fuss. In fact, I could’ve easily done it without harming my parents’ public image at all.”
Feeling oddly as though he was treading into dangerous waters, Gakushuu carefully prodded the other along with his explanation, wanting to know more against his better judgment, “Then…?”
“Well it’s simple.” Darkness swirled in the depths of his flat green eyes as Ren continued, “All they ever did was fight. I let it go for this many years because I loved them, but recently the damage has been getting worse and worse and I’ve had enough.” He met Gakushuu’s eyes and smiled a sickly sweet smile, poisoned honey given form. “So I decided to ruin them. That’s all.”
Gakushuu blinked at him, feeling strangely disconnected from this moment. Is this how he had sounded all these years, planning his father’s downfall? Distantly, he realized that it wasn’t the same. Something told him that he would always have pulled back right before truly ruining his father. He may have been willing to sue him out of a large amount of money, or try to bend him to his will, but…
He got the feeling that the boy across from him could easily crush his parents to bits under his heel and feel nothing about it. How frightening he was.
How interesting.
Taking his silence as a cue to continue, Ren went on obligingly, “The rumors that I spread around function not only to make it harder for them to reclaim me against my will, but they’re also incredibly damaging to their image.” His smile was now full of teeth as he went on, “How unfortunate that all these horrible rumors are coming out now about how they’ve been lying about what a good family they were, how they grievously injured their only child, and how underhanded many of their business practices are. Mergers will fail, people will start pulling away financial support so they aren’t associated with them, company backers will leave…”
Gakushuu could practically see it all laid out in front of him now that the other had explained it so clearly. “So when you said ruin them…”
Ren quirked his lips up, pleased that the other was keeping up with him so well. “I meant it, yes. They might even lose the company in the process. They'll be destroyed from the ground up and be helpless to stop it.”
“What will you do about money then?” Gakushuu asked, furrowing his brows. “Will you get a job?”
Ren shook his head. “No, I already had a separate bank account before this that I stockpiled money into that they have no say in. With the money I’m getting from them from the court, I won’t really need to ever get a job in my life as long as I’m smart with the money I’ve got.”
Gakushuu blinked. “That’s… rather impressive actually.”
Ren huffed a small laugh before taking another bite of his cake. “Y’know, after hearing about your dad, I don’t mind giving you tips on how to break your parents. If you want, I mean.”
Taking a moment to consider it, Gakushuu hummed. “As things stand right now, I don’t believe I’ll need that information. However, I think I’d like to hear about it anyway. In any case, I do have another question.”
“Oh?” Ren asked. “By all means then, ask away.”
Tapping his fingers against the table, Gakushuu leaned forward in interest. “What did you do to that therapist?”
The predatory glint from earlier flashed in those sharp eyes before it was once more suppressed with an innocent look. “I’m not sure what you mean? Like you saw, he clearly had some kind of psychotic break and started blaming me for things going wrong in his life that were completely unrelated to me.”
“Cut the bullshit.” Gakushuu retorted flatly. “Save that for whatever dumbass judge you’re trying to manipulate with it and just tell me the truth.”
“What makes you so sure I’m lying?” Ren asked reasonably, showing no real negative emotion at being called out.
Gakushuu rolled his eyes. “Because I’m neither an idiot nor was I born yesterday. Also, when that man was chasing you, you were suspiciously unbothered about the whole thing, even when he was about to attack you. Almost like you had been expecting this outcome.”
Ren nodded. “Yeah, good point. I was just surprised since most people wouldn’t have picked up on that. You’re pretty sharp.”
Gakushuu has the oddest feeling that this boy held more interest in the skill it took to catch him than he did in the fact that he had been caught. What an odd person.
“You are right that it was on purpose, though.” Ren confided lowly as he leaned forward so he wouldn’t be as easily overheard. “I decided that since I was being forced to go to therapy that I’d have some fun with it. As I went to sessions I started to question him back, learning what I could about him without making it too obvious. Then I figured out that he was feeling bored of his marriage.” Ren shook his head in mock sadness. “So I started subtly suggesting he get out more, look for more interesting things to do instead of staying home with his wife. The poor thing was so stifled. Really, I was doing him a favor.”
“Well,” Ren continued blithely, ignoring Gakushuu’s look of horrified dawning comprehension, “after he started going out more and getting a taste of the rush of adrenaline that can give you, I decided to go out of my way to do him another favor. You see, I know a lady around his age who’s been looking to have someone to… spend some time with. She’s been incredibly lonely, and I thought this sounded like the perfect solution to both of their problems! So I gave them each other’s numbers and they seemed to hit it off. Within a week they seemed almost inseparable. In fact, they were meeting up nearly every night. Unfortunately it seems they took it too far and started an affair. It’s the sort of regrettable action that no one could have predicted really, but it was still sad to hear.”
The look the brunette sent Gakushuu was so full of exaggerated sadness that he doubted even a blind person would fall for it.
“In the end, apparently some concerned citizen found out about them and sent pictures of them kissing to his wife.” (Gakushuu mentally translated the ‘concerned citizen’ to Ren himself.) “He got a call from her while we were in the middle of our session. Apparently she wants to file for divorce. Really I suppose I can't blame her considering how he cheated on her so easily.”
Gakushuu found himself at a loss for words for possibly the first time in his life. The casual cruelty so easily used to tear a man’s entire life apart…
“So,” Gakushuu found himself asking after a few moments of grappling with the realization that he might’ve made a horrible mistake by getting this person interested in him in any capacity, “what exactly did he do to deserve that? I understand your parents, but wasn’t your therapist a stranger?”
“He was.” The monster sitting across from him agreed easily enough. “If I’m being honest, I did this for two main reasons.” The brunette lifted one finger as he explained, “The first is that I really hate mandatory therapy. But after a situation like this where my deeply trusted therapist tried to kill me… I’d say that’s more than enough reason to be able to claim I’m now too traumatized by the event to go back to any therapist. Now I don’t have to finish the rest of the time I was supposed to be forced into this, as long as I spin it well enough for the judge.”
Gakushuu hated to admit it, but the other actually made a good point. It went far past the sort of methods he himself was willing to use, but he could not deny the effectiveness of the series of events put into motion by the other. …He wondered if he could claim trauma by proxy of being in the same room while it happened.
“And the second reason?” Gakushuu asked, finding himself drawn in almost despite himself with a horrible burning sort of curiosity. What exactly could cause someone to choose such cold-blooded methods to achieve their goals?
“Oh that?” Ren hummed as he rested his head against his hand. “The second reason was because he was boring.”
Gakushuu blinked before shaking his head in shock. “I-... boring?”
He did that because he thought the man was boring??
Ren frowned faintly at the ceiling as he appeared to remember something. “I got a pretty good read on him before I did anything y’know?” he began, almost absently. “He only became a psychologist for the recognition he’d get from the job. He just wanted to feel important, he really never cared what happened to his patients in either direction. He married his wife because she was pretty and from a good family. He didn’t care about her personality at all. And he so easily dropped her when the opportunity for something new showed up.” His frown tugged downwards into a light scowl. “People with no genuine passion or love inside of them for anything or anyone, who just selfishly use others for their own gain without caring about how it’ll affect the other person…”
Ren trailed off for a moment before slowly dragging his eyes back down from where they’d been staring at the ceiling.
“People like that are dull.”
The last word was spoken with the finality of a guillotine blade dropping. Gakushuu got the feeling that for the boy sitting in front of him, that was the most damning description a person could be given.
And yet, upon meeting the brunette’s eyes, Gakushuu could not help the chill that raced down his back. The darkness he saw in those eyes was the first real glimpse of the predator he had felt lurking under the other’s skin. Hiding behind the angler’s lure of the other’s lithe beauty and seeming weakness wrapped in bandages, was the horribly sharp and unforgiving teeth that weren’t seen until it was already too late.
Despite his instinctual fear, however, Gakushuu did not look away from the other’s stare. He refused to be cowed by some stranger. Not after everything he had been through to get to this point.
(And it was its own sort of terrifying, that the other didn’t even seem to be trying to intimidate Gakushuu at all. Instead he was only staring at him as though he had found an interesting new toy to play with. Something amusing, but ultimately unimportant.)
Then, all at once, someone a table away dropped their silverware too loudly, and the tense air was broken, as though it had never been there to begin with.
“Well,” Ren began cheerfully, looking for all the world as if he had never experienced a negative emotion in his life, “this has been fun, but I should probably get home to feed my cat. If you want though, we could exchange numbers? Talking to you has actually been a lot of fun, and it’s nice to talk to someone who can keep up with me.”
Gakushuu knew he should say no. He was aware that the logical thing to do in the face of this strange person who set off so many of his mental alarms was to get up and leave, and hope to never run into him again.
And yet…
It was… nice to finally talk to someone his own age that was intelligent, and didn’t seem intimidated by him at all. Not only that, but when Ren wasn’t being blatantly unnerving, he seemed to have an almost soothing effect on Gakushuu’s state of mind. Most of the time they had spent talking in this café had been the most at ease he had ever felt with another person.
Coupled with the fact that this person certainly wouldn’t run at the first sight of ruthlessness from him, who had clearly just demonstrated his own lack of care for morality in a way that had interested Gakushuu more than he'd like to admit…
“Alright.” Gakushuu said as he pulled his phone out. “I suppose I’m not adverse to this.”
With a grin, Ren pulled his own phone out and the two exchanged numbers. After they entered the numbers, Ren slipped his phone back into his pocket and aimed a sugary sweet smile at Gakushuu as he got up to leave. “It’s always nice to add the number of a beautiful person to your phone.” At Gakushuu’s answering sputter of surprise, Ren laughed lightly and waved before smoothly making his way out the door, humming to himself as he left.
Gakushuu scowled at the door the other had just walked out of. Silently cursing him for getting the last word like that, Gakushuu sulkily ate the last bite of his cake and hoped his face wasn’t too red in the dimmed lights of the café.
Vowing to get the last word next time they met up, Gakushuu picked up his phone. He still needed to inform his father that therapy was canceled for the near future.
—
Ren opened the door to his apartment and stepped inside.
“I’m home~” he called out, closing the door behind him as he heard a distant thunk and an answering meow. He smiled as he listened to the meowing getting closer and closer until a small fluffy cat darted forward at top speeds and launched itself up at him.
Ren laughed quietly and caught the cat in his arms, pausing to pet its head before he started kicking his shoes off.
“Hello hun~” he cooed out as she started purring in his grasp. He shifted her up so he could free his hands, carefully holding still while she climbed onto his shoulder to sit there instead. “You’ll never guess what happened today!” He walked into the kitchen and grabbed an apple and a knife, slowly beginning to peel the apple before cutting it into smaller slices to eat. “I met someone interesting.”
What a wonderful gift it had been! He had gone into the therapy office today expecting a bit of a show when that dull man’s life crashed down around his ears. Some yelling, maybe some violence. The usual. It was always fun to watch someone mentally collapse when it truly clicked for them that their life was ruined in a way they’d never be able to come back from.
What he hadn’t expected was to be greeted by the sight of a beautiful boy with a stern frown and a no nonsense attitude. A boy that had so easily discerned the fact that despite being chased and attacked, Ren had really been the one at fault. Granted he hadn’t been putting a lot of effort into acting the part of the scared victim at the time, but most people wouldn’t have bothered to look beyond the very surface of the interaction. But even so, that wasn’t what first truly caught Ren’s attention about the boy.
What really called out to him like a siren’s song was…
Hand moving almost subconsciously, Ren gently touched the corner of his eye. “I’ve never met someone with eyes so much like mine before.” he murmured quietly.
When their eyes met for the first time in that waiting room, Ren had momentarily been struck silent by the absence of light in those beautiful violet eyes staring back up at him. Those eyes so void of joy and life that so closely reflected what he saw when he looked in the mirror… they had drawn him in like nothing in his life had so far.
“He told me some of what he’s been through, but I’m certain he left a lot out of his story. I can’t help but wonder really, what exactly happened to make a teenager quite like him? He was so capable and intelligent, but there was a tired sort of sadness to his words and actions.” A grin began to pull at the edges of his mouth. “Oh I can’t wait to learn more about what makes him tick! What makes him laugh, what makes him cry, what he fears…”
A manic sort of delight began to slowly fill his eyes as he cooed down at the cat who had jumped onto the counter in front of him.
“I really want to break him.”
“That man today was only mildly interesting when he broke, but someone like Gakushuu? Someone so visibly, painfully, fragile as him… someone who looked like he was only holding onto his grip on this world through sheer stubbornness and a few last frayed strings of hope..." In his glee, he slowly ate the apple slices on autopilot, enjoying the mental images he was conjuring up.
“Oh, when he breaks it would be so lovely to watch. Someone like him, so determined and driven, could never break quietly! Imagine how interesting it would be to watch him shatter.” Ren could almost picture the other going out in a burst of flames like a phoenix once he finally broke for good.
And yet…
Ren paused, feeling the sick joy begin to slowly fade from his mind, gone faster than usual. If I break him, Ren thought to himself with the beginnings of a frown, then that would just be the end. And breaking him… might be crushing something precious.
That was right. There had been something else that had drawn Ren towards this strange boy. Something that had given Ren more pause than even that sharp mind of his or those lightless eyes.
When he tackled that man to the floor for me, it wasn’t just because he was causing noise. No, I’m sure of what I saw.
Despite having already figured out that I was to blame and also armed, there was still a flash of genuine concern on his face right before he moved in to stop the man. Even at a risk to himself with no known benefits, he still stepped in to help a stranger out.
How odd.
“I think,” Ren began quietly, softly petting his cat as he spoke, feeling almost unsure of himself for the first time in ages, “I think that as much as he might act heartless, there’s someone genuinely kind hidden under all that anger and stress he wears like armor. I don’t mind breaking selfish or cruel people because most humans are, but… I think he might be one of the rare exceptions.” It wasn't like him to hesitate when he found an interesting target, however...
Ding
Ren blinked at the noise before pulling his phone out of his pocket to look at it. There, on the screen to greet him, was a text from the boy who had been occupying his thoughts so completely since he had gotten home.
>> Hello. This is Gakushuu Asano from earlier. If you are amenable to the idea, then would you be interested in meeting up next weekend? If you happen to be free, that is.
Ren blinked down at the message in silence for what could have been minutes or hours. When the message finally properly clicked in his brain, Ren couldn’t stop a small snicker from coming out. Then, almost against his will, more and more bursts of laughter left his lips until he was bent over with the force of it, tears blurring his eyes.
Oh, oh this boy was such a dork! He had no idea why it was so surprising to him, or why it felt like the most amusing thing he’s experienced in years, but he just couldn't get over it.
Of course someone like this would use perfect capitalization and punctuation even when texting. Of course he’d feel the need to sign his name, despite the fact that he saw Ren make a contact just for him. And of course he’d make hanging out sound like they were meeting up for a business deal!
It felt so good to just laugh like this. Not at someone, but because of them. He couldn’t remember the last time his joy had been so weightless instead of edged with cruel delight at someone else’s misfortune.
As Ren typed out an agreement to meet up, still laughing lightly, he decided that he’d just table the thought of breaking this fascinating boy. He could always decide to do it later, but for now he wanted to experience getting to know him properly. He especially wanted to find a way to make the other genuinely laugh in return first somehow. It was only fair, really.
Then he wanted to learn his favorite color, his favorite book, his opinion on poetry…
Ren giggled happily at the return text he got from the other, scolding him sternly for his improper grammar through text.
I wonder how he’ll react to me bringing him a bouquet of flowers next time we meet. I hope I get to see that cute blush of his again.
I can’t wait.