Chapter Text
It’s been one month since Hirose Aiki started high school, he didn’t know what to expect from it, watching all those stereotypical school romance movies, which his older sister of course pressured him into doing. He didn’t find them boring, but it’s as if they forgot that school is a place of work, not a drama simulator.
With everyone getting comfortable in their brand new school, that meant it was only some time before romance started becoming a hot topic around every classroom.
“Didja hear that .… got with her?”
“Oh my god, really? Wow, but .… wouldn’t …. have been better?”
Hirose didn’t have any interest in romance, he thought about it from time to time, but it seemed too complicated to grasp. It was like this in middle school too, while rumors of so and so getting together, then breaking up after only a couple week. It seemed like romance would create more trouble for Hirose’s already content lifestyle. He avoided romance all the way through middle school, it was easy, he didn’t get confessed too that often. Maybe because they were just too embarrassed to say it. He did notice a couple glances here and there, the occasional chocolate hidden in his desk. Yet if they weren’t going to approach him, then he’d be content with just having a secret admirer.
He wished it would remain the same in high school, although his friends, mainly just Takeuchi, would constantly rant about finding the “one”.
“She’s perfect, sigh, I can already see the rest of my life with her”
“Dude, did you really just say "sigh"? Also have you even talked to her?”
That's where their conversation would usually end, Hirose sorta missed when Takeuchi would just be his good old goofy self, of course, sometimes he pushed it, but it was a lot better than hearing him yap about some new crush he found himself.
He was lucky that Mukai was more casual about romance, he rarely spoke about it. Yet even if he didn’t say it, it didn’t help that he was constantly being asked out, maybe that nonchalant attitude does something to people?
“What took you so long? You missed most of lunch, again”
“Uhh, well that girl from Class 1-B asked me out”
“And?”
“Nah, barely know her, although she did request for my contact info”
“Did you give it to her?”
“Yeah, why not, maybe something will happen.”
“Ugh.. Mukai you’re so lucky”
“Takeuchi, if you worked on your attitude as much as you do daydreaming about some girl you've never talked to, I’m sure you could find someone”
“Pshh, sure, maybe once you transfer out of this school will I actually have a chance.”
Their at it again, this is when Hirose starts phasing them out. While he can’t blame them for talking about something as typical as romance, he wishes they could just have had a normal conversation about something besides that. Or at least avoid venturing into romance when they did start having a conversation.
Hirose groaned a little, then got up.
“I gotta go back to our classroom, forgot something there”
It was a lie, but he really didn’t want to stay any longer and listen to Mukai's romantic success and Takeuchi's jealousy over said success. He just wished he could have had some friend that would have a normal conversation with him.
When he finally did reach the classroom, it was mostly empty, besides for the 3 girls in the corner speaking in hushed voices over some notebook, with some sort of content that he’d rather stay in the dark about. Besides them, remained one other person, a boy sitting all by his lonesome, he seemed to be staring off into space. His bangs were covering his eyes, he wore his uniform fully buttoned and seemed like the polar opposite of Takeuchi. His expression was soft, he seemed a bit bored, yet, somehow content with that boredom.
Hirose went to his desk, he tried to remember the boy's name, yet it was sorta hard when he barely even talked to the guy. He wondered if anyone else would know him, he did seem very shy and isolated so he doubted it.
“ Hey, Nakamura, you have cleaning duties today, don’t forget again” said the teacher of the classroom, Otogiri sensei, who seemed to be prepping for some type of hell to come in the next math lesson.
~Nakamura, so that's his name. Hirose caught himself grinning a bit, he wasn't really sure why. He figured for the rest of the class period, he’d just kill time on his phone, and maybe try and interact with Nakamura.
“Although, I don’t want to scare him, there will be other chances to talk to him”. Thought Hirose, surely there would be better instances to talk to the shy kid of their class without breaking him.
5 minutes until lunch ended. Hirose realized that maybe chugging all that water was a bad idea at the time. He got up, desperately rushing to the classroom door. But at the same time, Nakamura also got up, in the same row as Hirose. It was already too late when Hirose did notice, yet the collision between the two was much more noticeable.
Yet at that split second, when Nakamura was falling, Hirose noticed the boy's eyes, while as deep as the sea, glistened of such beauty. And hair that while remained a jet black, almost seemed to shine a deep blue in the right places when it hit the sun. A mouth that while only realizing their sudden crash, seemed as soft as when he first saw it.
Thud
Both of the boys hit the ground
“Ah-h, Nakamura, I’m so sorry”
“You-u-u know my name, Hirose?” said the boy nervously, “Are you okay?”
Hirose didn’t realize at that moment, but he rushed out of the classroom as soon as he got up. He felt a bit bad not helping Nakamura up, but he really did have to use the restroom. “Sorry, I’ll make it up with a drink” thought Hirose. He didn’t realize it until he looked at himself in the mirror, but he seemed very red in the face. He kept replaying the moment in which he saw Nakamura up close. With that, he kept on getting redder and redder, until he could feel his heart beating at an unusually fast rate.
“Why am I so red.. W-wait, am is it love?” The second he said that, and looked at himself in the mirror, he could only feel his blush and dumb looking grin expand even larger. “With Nakamura? B-but I barely even know him.” Oh god, did Hirose just experience love at first sight.
“This is so stupid..” He thought to himself. Of course deep down, he didn’t deny the fact that he did feel something. Something that he never thought he would ever experience in his high school career.
“Oh man.. I’m..” He couldn’t even finish his sentences.
He wanted his heart to calm down, he took a couple of breaths in, until he could at least bear to look at himself in the mirror again.
“I’m in love with Nakamura”
Well that screwed him up again, the heat from his constant blushing and a wide smile is the only thing that Hirose was able to feel for the rest of the day.