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Tiara spent the whole day playing in the dirt with her beloved pet mokke Fairy. Kou was one of the beings who had to suffer from this at the end of the day, since now they needed to have an emergency night bath before dinner. The mokke was the other being who was suffering from this, since he wasn't a big fan of water.
Tiara was different, she loves water as much as she loves music. And Tiara loves music, has loved it since she was a baby and their mother would hum a tune in her ear while Kou laid beside them, hearing the baby giggle and seeing her move around with the sound before peacefully going to sleep.
As she grew, her love for music grew too, so now they had these situations where Kou is trying to wash her of all her filth while she splashed the water on him at the sound of Alchemist by Good Kid.
She has fun giving Kou more things to clean, the mokke has fun too despite the water and the mess only gets bigger. However, who is Kou to ruin the fun of his little sister, someone that he loves so much? He lets her have as much fun as she wants, figuring out ways to wash her and Fairy on the beat of the music.
He may have to stay awake a little longer, since if he has to clean he will have to postpone his homework or vice-versa. But it's worth it, in his head. At least he may have the chance to see when Terunii arrives.
He pauses the playlist when the song is over. He takes the towel and yanks Tiara and the mokke out of the bath despite their protests, she wouldn't be having so much fun later if she caught a cold.
"Let me put something on!" She demands as they walk down stairs. Tiara got used to putting on some songs while Kou made dinner, today was no different.
Kou gives her his phone and puts her on the couch. She chose to put on a song called ' Pink Smoke' by The Scary Jokes. Kou remembers this song very well, not only because it seems to be one of Tiara's favorites but also because it reminds him of a particular pink haired ghost that had been on his mind for too long now.
"Kounii," Tiara calls. "What songs are you liking right now?"
He grabs the ingredients for the dinner from the fridge and hums to look like he's thinking. She asks this question everyday. She always wants to know Kou's music taste, but he never has anything specific in mind. So he always answers:
"This one."
"Boooo!" Tiara coos, this answer is not satisfactory to her and he knows. "This says nothing about you!"
"What do you want to know about me? I can tell you right now."
She shrugs. "You can tell a lot by the songs someone listens to, even things they don't know about themselves." She stands behind him with a pose like she invented the music industry and got a master degree in psychology.
"Okay, I'll think about a better answer and tell you."
Her eyes sparkled. "When?! Today?! Tomorrow?!" She approached him while he put all his ingredients on a pan.
"Definitely this year." He says and feels a kick on his leg. "Tiara!"
"You're no fun!" She yells and shows her tongue at him.
She leaves the kitchen before Kou can scold her.
He never thought that much about what type of songs he likes. Most of the time he'll listen to anything, being the ones that Tiara blasts through the house, the ones that Yokoo and Satou recommend to him, or the ones that Nene-senpai puts on while they're cleaning the bathroom, or even the ones that Hanako puts on when he's able to steal Senpai's phone and change the song.
He wonders what type of songs he should like. Which ones make boys look cool? Which ones Mitsuba likes? If he even likes any.
He stops thinking about this when he realizes his onions are almost burning. He can think about that later, but now he needs to pay attention to his cooking.
This was gonna be a long night.
As expected, he could barely keep his eyes open the next day.
Everything that the teacher was saying sounded like gibberish to him and Yokoo and Satou were both sick at the same time! So Kou was alone today too.
The bell announcing lunch break was the only thing that made him wake up a little bit. He decided he would go see Hanako since he had nothing better to do, and he knows that Hanako likes his company even if he pretends he doesn't.
As he stands up and grabs his bento, he thinks about Mitsuba, would he mind his company? What Mitsuba feels about him is still a mystery, Kou has accepted how he feels about Mitsuba, he's in love with him, and has been for a while. But Mitsuba is like a book whose pages have been shutted with glue, he can't expect anything coming from him.
A tap on the window calls his attention. It was Mitsuba, he seems to sense when Kou is thinking about him at this point.
He looked nervous, and signed for Kou to follow him.
Kou got worried since Mitsuba never calls him when they're both at school, so this must be important. He stumbled off his chair and almost hit the wall and some of his classmates while trying to leave.
The pink haired ghost was waiting for him on the window and started to walk away as soon as he spotted Kou out of the class. He giggled as Kou struggled to reach him and some of the other students looked at him weird. If Kou hadn't forgotten to grab raiteijyou before leaving the class, he wouldn't be laughing for too long.
Mitsuba took him to the boy's bathroom, the furthest from his class and decently far from Hanako's bathroom, one of the bathrooms that's always empty.
When Kou arrived, Mitsuba was already waiting for him in the middle of the bathroom, his hands behind his back and a smile on his face. Kou could swear he saw a light blush on his cheeks, but that's probably because of the sun.
"What? What's wrong?!" Kou asks, noticing Mitsuba's strange behavior.
"There's nothing wrong with me. What's wrong with you?" Mitsuba says, sitting in one of the sinks, still with his hands behind his back. "You were passing out and staring at nothing in class."
Kou blushes, he didn't realize he was being so obviously tired. "I didn't sleep well tonight, that's all."
"Your mind was so full of dirty things you couldn't sleep?!" He exclaims, in his dramatic, accusatory, usual way.
Kou groans. "You made me follow you all the way here for this?"
"I mean, you came because you wanted."
Kou cannot believe this guy exists. "You called!"
"Are you a dog or something?" He laughs and Kou decides it's time to go, the bell was about to ring and he didn't even eat his food yet. "Wait!" Mitsuba calls before Kou can head out.
He turned to look at the other boy, he was holding the edge of Kou's shirt. In his hand there was something that Kou only took a glimpse of before Mitsuba hid it with his sleeve. "What's that?" He asks, pointing to what Mitsuba was hiding.
Mitsuba's face was unusually red now, almost the color of his hair. "T-There's actually a reason why I called you here."
Kou feels his stomach turn in knots, it could be because of hunger or because Mitsuba was extremely cute looking nervous like this.
The ghost anxiously shows what he was hiding to Kou with his head low so Kou couldn't see his expression.
Mitsuba was holding a tape. Kou grabs it from his hands before Mitsuba can pull away and examines it closely, it had no name or label, it was just a tape. "It's a…"
"It's a playlist." Mitsuba mutters. "I made it for you."
Kou stares at the tape in his hand again, it feels tingling now. "W-why…?"
"BecauseIAssumedYourMusicTasteIsTerribleAndDecidedIWouldDoAGoodThingToday." He says so fast that Kou took a moment to process everything.
Even when he looks this cute and vulnerable, Kou still wants him to shut up. "Okay…thanks, but…" He scratches his neck, trying to think of a way to tell him. "I don't have a cassette player, and I don't know anyone who has one, I don't even know if they still make them…"
"Sorry, I wasn't able to buy a phone." He says and crosses his arms. "I had to go ask number 2 to get that for me and then I had to get all the songs to put in there, it took me a lot of time and you can't even do the minimum of trying to get a cassette player?"
"You had a lot of trouble getting this for me, huh?" Kou had to hold a smile thinking about Mitsuba spending all this time thinking about him and how he could make something special for him.
He scoffs. "You don't appreciate me. If you don't want it just give me back." Mitsuba extends his hand to get the tape back but Kou pulls it away.
"No!" He shouts. "I-I'll find a cassette player. And then I'll tell you what I think. About your songs and your music taste, promise."
Mitsuba makes that blank expression that Kou only sees when he says something so incredibly awkward and embarrassing that even this guy doesn't know what to say.
The pink haired ghost looks to the floor. "There's a lot of songs, so you don't have to listen to them all in one sitting." He climbs the sink and leaves through the mirror.
Kou holds the tape next to his heart. He's sure he can find a cassette player somehow, he'll ask Hanako about it.
He runs to the other side of the building as he tries to reach Hanako's bathroom, thinking about all the songs that Mitsuba put in this tiny old music device.
Tiara said that you could know a lot about someone by the songs they like, it would be the same with Mitsuba, right? What if there's only sad songs here? Or what if it's just western country songs or some shit like that? Or it could mean nothing at all and he just likes the sound of it.
Mitsuba has things that he likes and he wants Kou to know about them, that's already a lot more than he expected. He wishes his heart would stop beating for a made up scenario where Mitsuba likes him back, but at least he can consider that Mitsuba doesn't hate him. That's enough for now.
"Hanako!" He yells as soon as he enters the bathroom. Senpai was also there, that's a surprise. "Wait, Senpai? Did something happen?"
She looked confused by his question. But understood what he meant a second later. "Not really, Ao-chan was called to help some girls at our class, so we didn't spend lunch together. I came here so I could make Hanako some company."
"Oh…I thought the same, Yokoo and Satou are sick."
Hanako scoffs and floats next to them. "Why do both of you act like I'm a baby that needs company?"
"Do you want us to leave, Hanako-kun?" Senpai asks, to which she receives no answer. "And what about you, Kou-kun, are you okay? You look tired."
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine, just didn't sleep that well. I have something to ask though" Hanako and Senpai approach him with curiosity. "Do you guys know where I can find a cassette player?"
They both frown and Senpai immediately looks at Hanako, the ghost looks confused with her reaction the most.
"What? I don't have one. Why would I have one?" He asks, defensively.
"It's because you're…old…" The girl says cautiously. Kou had the same thought process.
Hanako gasps and puts his hand on his chest. "I'm not old! How could you say that?!"
"But you are, you've been here for so long. Are you sure you don't know where to find one?"
"Nuh uh, I don't keep ancient technology around. Why do you even need a cassette player, boy?"
"Oh, mhm…" Kou scratches his neck, nervously. "Mitsuba gave me a cassette tape with some songs he likes, I promised him that I would listen."
Senpai gasps and she suddenly seemed more excited than he was. The way she looked at him made him feel more embarrassed than before, is he being too obvious?
She grabs Hanako by the shoulders despite him being a few meters in the air and looks him in the eye. "Hanako, find Kou-kun a cassette player." She demanded.
"W-what?" He stuttered. "But I-I told you…"
"Hanako." She says, pinching his cheek and fixing his hat. "Please."
He looks at Kou and then back at her. He sighs and turns around to hide his blush. "Fine. I'll look for it later."
"If you find it before school ends I'll be very happy." Kou says, making both of them look at him.
"Okay." He floats away to one of the bathroom stalls and disappears.
"Thanks…Senpai." He says when they're alone in the room. "You didn't have to, though. If you wanted to be alone with him I could have waited."
"What? Of course not, this is important to you then it's important to me too, and it wouldn't be surprising if it was juuust a liiittle important to Hanako too." She smiles and takes her food that was sitting on the sink in her hands.
"It's a little important, yeah." Kou takes his food that he totally forgot he was carrying, he thought he had dropped it somewhere at this point.
There's a reason why Kou thought Hanako may have the cassette player, Hanako always has a ton of old toys and old devices with him. Sometimes Kou sees him playing with them when he thinks no one's watching. He wonders if Hanako wants to show them someday or if he thinks they're too silly for them to like. Maybe Mitsuba felt the same about this cassette tape, the thought just makes Kou more curious and anxious to know which songs are inside it.
Hanako didn't show up again after school. Senpai and Kou cleaned everything alone today, it didn't feel the same but at least they can guess what Hanako is doing.
They were at the entrance. Kou decided to wait a little longer to see if Hanako would still come with updates on his search today. Senpai was making him company while he was there, he said she could go but she insisted.
While they're waiting, Senpai puts on one of her kpop songs that Kou doesn't know the name of. The melody was catchy and, at least for the parts that were in english, it seemed to be a romantic song, something that Mitsuba would like maybe? He can see him listening to this, Kou could ask the name of it and he could introduce it to Mitsuba later. He can already hear Mitsuba making fun of him for recommending a romantic song, and the worst part is that he would be right for it.
He feels something be put in his head and turn his face to see what it was. Hanako was holding the cassette player. The amount of dust that fell from it when Hanako put it in Kou's head almost made him sneeze.
"I had to ask Tsuchigomori for this. Be grateful." The ghost didn't look happy at all, Tsuchigomori-sensei probably wouldn't give it to him so easily.
"Hanako!" Senpai stands on the tip of her toes and gives Hanako a kiss on the cheek. The ghost backs away in shock and floats even higher, almost hitting the top of the lockers. "You did something nice today!"
"T-today?" Hanako stutters, that's not the word he should be surprised with. "Yeah, I guess I did."
"Thanks, Hanako. That means a lot." Kou says, not sure what he can say besides that.
"Don't get emotional, and I don't want a kiss from you." Hanako teases and Kou was about to respond if Senpai hadn't grabbed his hand.
"Let's go, Kou-kun. You're telling us about it tomorrow!" Senpai pulls Kou through the school's front gate and they wave goodbye to Hanako before leaving.
He wasn't expecting Senpai to be so excited about this, but he's glad he has some…support? He's not sure what she's expecting to happen, but at this point it seems like it's the same thing Kou wants. There's nothing bad with that, but he wishes neither of them would have that much expectation for something that may be 2 hours of dubstep music.
Tiara was almost offended when Kou came home telling that she would not be the one responsible for the music while Kou's making food today, but she quickly changed her mind when curiosity got the best of her and now she was seated on the couch listening to Mitsuba's songs. Kou doesn't know what she's thinking but she's not complaining, so maybe Mitsuba's music taste is good enough to her.
The songs in this playlist were very different from one another. Some were pop, the others seemed to be jazz and some were rock even. Kou couldn't tell what exactly Mitsuba's interestings were, but he couldn't say they were bad, he can't tell actually.
Something about these songs just makes Kou feel something, it never really happened before so maybe there's something wrong with him. Could Mitsuba have put a curse in this tape? He was super nervous about it, maybe Tsukasa forced him to do evilness! He can't risk it at this point, he should take the tape off.
"Kounii." Tiara calls, she was standing at the door way, she looked anxious and was fidgeting with her fingers.
"What's wrong?" He asks with worry. She doesn't answer but starts approaching him.
When she is right under him, she looks him in the eyes. "Are you in love with someone?"
Kou widens his eyes with surprise at the sudden question. "What? Why this? Why now?"
"Your songs…" She says and points to the radio. "You're listening to a bunch of romantic songs, every type of them."
"I-I am?" He walks to the radio and takes the tape off like it would have some type of answer on the cover all of a sudden. "I didn't make this playlist, someone gave it to me."
"So someone is in love with you!" Tiara exclaims, she looks at him with a big smile. "Who is it?"
"No one. And even if there was someone, you wouldn't know them."
"Bring them here! I like their music taste!"
Kou sighs. "I can't bring them here, Tiara."
Tiara crosses her arms at him and groans. "You're ruining my life!"
"Oi! That's too dramatic. I literally can't bring them here…I think."
"What are you gonna do about it?"
Kou stops to process this information he just received. Should he really trust the words of a five year old and the slight chance that these songs actually mean something? How do you even confront someone about this stuff? The idea is now piercing through his brain, he wants to believe that is true but…
"Tiara, do you know how to check how many songs are left to play?"
Tiara nods and Kou puts the radio in her hands. She clicks a few buttons and widens her eyes. "It's six hours long! 117 songs."
"SIX HOURS?!" He shouts and Tiara giggles.
"They're so in love with you!" She states.
Kou takes the radio back. He wants to finish everything today so he can ask Hanako and Senpai for advice tomorrow. He wants to restart listening to the tape because he thinks he wasn't paying attention to the lyrics enough too.
This was gonna be another long night.
"You look worse than yesterday!" Senpai says as Kou enters the bathroom after school.
"Yeah, sorry, I wasn't able to sleep again." He puts his bag on the sink and starts to search for the player. "I need your opinion about something." He puts the radio in her hands. "Yours too, Hanako." He adds, when he sees the ghost staring at them.
They share a few gazes before Hanako clicks the button to start playing the songs. The first one was 'I love you' by Sunday Cruise. Kou knows because he searched up the lyrics on google. He didn't recall the name of every single one but there were some that he kept repeating a bunch of times so they were more recognizable, being because the lyrics called his attention or because they were harder to understand. How did Mitsuba even find these songs?!
They listened to maybe 10 or 12 songs. Kou watched the sunset while they made their analysis.
"I don't get it." Hanako comments after another song is finished. "What are we supposed to give an opinion on?"
"Oh, It's that I…" Kou mutters, he thought that it was obvious by now, he let himself get too convinced, only he and Tiara could see it.
"Mitsuba is in love with you." Senpai states.
Both boys look at her.
"That's your conclusion?" Hanako asks. "I get it, some of them are kinda cheesy, but…"
Kou grabs the player from the floor. "No, mhm…that's what I was thinking too…"
"REALLY?!" Senpai shouts and grabs his shoulders. "Whatcha gonna do about it?!"
"I…" He says nervously, he hadn't thought that much about what to do next. "I want to let him know that…"
"It's mutual?"
"Yeah." He can feel the blush on his face. "Could you guess?"
Senpai shrugs and Hanako rolls his eyes.
"How are you confessing to him?" Hanako asks.
Kou should definitely have put more thought on what he plans to do next. How could he not expect questions? "I don't know yet, I don't even know if I'm doing it anyway."
"Why wouldn't you?" Senpai says. "If he really likes you, and I don't doubt, he won't reject you."
He takes the tape out of the player. It's such a weird way of confessing, if it even is a confession anyway. Being in love can make you creative, but he would never expect or think of something like this. It feels like something taken out of a magazine (and maybe it is).
"Okay, I'll confront him about it." The thought makes him nauseous, but it's not completely bad. "How do you think I should go about it?"
Senpai's eyes sparkle and she opens a big smile. "I'm glad you asked! I have a few ideas! You can tell me which ones you like the most, we need to think of something that is big enough for him to understand how you truly feel but not big enough that he would be–"
Hanako clears his throat very loudly, making Senpai stop on her tracks. "I don't think that's what you should do." He says, calmly.
"You don't want me to confess?" Kou asks.
"No, you do whatever with number 3, I mean that I don't think you should ask us about it, Yashiro is most likely gonna give you something she wishes happened to her. " He chuckles when Senpai gasps offendedly. "You know number 3 better than we do, how do you think you should confess to him?" He finishes.
He can hear his heart pounding. Only in his wildest dreams(or nightmares) he was able to confess to Mitsuba. He fears rejection like any other person, which means that if he's doing this, it needs to be special for Mitsuba and for him. However, what would he consider special? What is special to him is the same as for Mitsuba?
He stares at the cassette tape in his hands. He knows how he wants to do it, but it doesn't feel special at all.
"Do you want me to find number 3 for you?" Hanako asks after a few seconds of silence. "You do seem like you know what you want to do."
"Really?" Kou has a hard time expressing himself. Or it's because his facial expressions make it too obvious or because his actions are always too intense when he really likes someone. He wishes Mitsuba had noticed, and if he did, he wishes he had said something, but that's not how Mitsuba is. "Yeah, find him for me. Tell him to meet me in my classroom."
"Got it." Hanako floats away through the door. Kou has no idea how he plans to find Mitsuba.
"Don't hurt him!" He requires before Hanako is completely out of sight.
The ghost doesn't respond.
"Senpai," He calls. "Can I ask you for something?"
The girl seems surprised with the sudden request but accepts either way. It may not be that special, but at least he wants to have something pretty.
The sun was almost down, the classroom was becoming dark and Kou wished he had done this earlier.
He 's holding a flower. He asked Senpai for a rose but she denied. She gave him a red primrose and called it ' more fitting '. Kou wonders if Mitsuba knows what it means.
He was sitting in one of the chairs, in the table in front of him there was the cassette tape, under it there was a paper with the most shaky handwriting ever, but Kou didn't want to ask Senpai to write for him.
The clock was ticking and the school was getting more and more silent, so obviously the noise of something falling next to the window was noticeable.
Mitsuba groaned and pushed the chairs around. "What the fuck is wrong with that knife guy?!" He shouted.
"Are you okay?!" Kou asked, standing up from the chair he was sitting on.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Tell me what do you want before I get more pissed."
Kou can't imagine what Hanako did but of all the things he could have done to call Mitsuba here, he really could have tried a little more to make Mitsuba not upset while Kou is trying to open his heart to him.
"Okay, mhm…" Kou sits back on the chair and puts his hand on top of the cassette tape, hiding it from Mitsuba sight for now. He only has to say one thing: 'here's your tape back' and wait for him to turn it, it may be dark but not dark enough for him to not be able to see the note. He takes a deep breath. "Mitsuba–"
"Am I going to give you a lecture?" The haired ghost asks with a grin. "Are you seated like that? So polite."
Kou didn't realize he was seated like a focused student would while listening to class.
He pushes his back on the chair. "Actually, can you sit too?"
Mitsuba raises a brow and pulls a chair and puts it in front of Kou, the table with the tape on it being the thing that is keeping them apart.
‘’Mitsuba,’’ He starts. ‘’Here’s–’’
‘’Flower.’’ Mitsuba says. ‘’What ‘sup with that?’’
"Oh, mhm…Senpai gave it to me." Kou suddenly feels ashamed that Mitsuba saw the flower and hid it under the table.
"I see." The ghost looks uncomfortable in his chair.
"Mitsuba," He tries again. "Here's–Ah!" He is interrupted when Mitsuba suddenly gets closer to his face.
He quickly noticed how strange that was and backed away. "Have you slept at any point in the last 5 years? Your eye bags are terrible." He commented.
"No, I spent the whole night…listening to your playlist." Kou says, trying to go back to the important subject.
"My playlist?! Did you listen to everything?!"
Kou feels ashamed, he should have kept this detail hidden. "Yeah, I did…"
"I put 115 songs on that!"
"117…" Kou mutters. Mitsuba puts his sleeve on his mouth but doesn't say anything further, Kou really wished he could read minds right now. "About your playlist," He tries to go back to the point.
"Did you like it?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, they were nice." Kou responds with no enthusiasm.
"Damn, you're terrible at giving opinions." He giggled.
Kou got too focused on the meaning of the songs to be able to appreciate them by themselves, at least Mitsuba didn't get too angry at his basic ass answer.
"Mitsuba," It's at least the fourth time he says this in the last five minutes. "I got your–"
"At least you have a favorite right?" Mitsuba interrupts again. "I had my favorites too, but I won't mind if you choose one of the most boring–"
"MITSUBA." Kou shouts. He didn't want to be mean but if he doesn't finish his sentence now, he's combusting in anxiety. "I got your playlist here. Take it." He pushes the cassette tape closer to the other boy.
The ghost got surprised and the look on his face made Kou regret being so harsh, he's blowing this up so hard.
"Jeez, alright, don't have to be rude about it. If you didn't like it, I wasn't planning to make more for you anyway." He chuckles and takes the cassette tape from the table. He immediately notices the note attached to it, Kou feels like he's going to throw up while Mitsuba stares at it.
The note was ridiculously simple. It was just the words ' I like you back' . Kou couldn't bring himself to confront Mitsuba about his feelings, so the best way he found was to tell Mitsuba about his own.
This way is more risky and as he waited for Mitsuba to say something he got more and more worried. After all, it's four words. It doesn't take a lot of time to read and Mitsuba was taking a lot of time to read, it didn't seem like he was even reading, just staring at the paper with a blank expression.
Kou takes a deep breath. He should start to apologize, tell him about his misinterpretation of his playlist, even though there's nothing he can do to go back to the moment he still hadn't delivered the note.
"A-are you serious?" Mitsuba mutters under his breath.
Kou nods. His face almost creates its own beam of light.
Mitsuba sighs and Kou realizes he's the most stupid boy in the world.
"I wasn't expecting you to notice." Mitsuba says and puts the tape and the note in his pocket.
"W-what?"
"The songs. I chose them for a reason, you noticed, right?" He says with his head low.
"I-I did." Kou felt so confused. Mitsuba was saying that Kou was right about his assumptions, right? Why does he sound so sad? "Wait, so you like me? You really like me back?"
"Yes, obviously, you idiot."
The wave of happiness that went through Kou's body was enough to ignore the insult. "Wait, I don't understand, why wasn't I supposed to notice?"
"I made this playlist because I wanted to put all my feelings for you here and throw them away. But when I finished I realized it wasn't enough, I needed you to listen, so I gave it to you. I wasn't expecting that you would put your two brain cells to work."
Technically he wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for Tiara. "But why? Liking me is that bad?"
"No, it's great and you make me feel all warm and nice and I love it and hate it, and…" He pauses and covers his face. "You should make someone worth it feel all these things."
"Worth it? What even is ‘ worth it ’?" He says. Mitsuba had doubts and Kou should have realized quicker. All this time, he only asked himself if he was worth it, if he was good enough to make this, if he could be by Mitsuba's side by the end of the day despite not being enough to give him what he deserves.
"Kou, look at me." All this time, Mitsuba felt the same. "You should and will like a nice boy or girl that is not me, and I didn't want to stand here suffering."
He pinches the bridge of his nose and puts the flower back on the top of the table. "Mitsuba, I like you."
"Stop it."
"Mitsuba," He stands up from his chair. "I like you."
"I get it. We both need to move on."
"Mitsuba," He turns around the table and stands in front of the other boy. "I like you."
"Did you hit your head?!"
"Mitsuba," He cups Mitsuba’s cheeks and now he seemed to understand what Kou was doing. "I like you."
"Don't do that." Mitsuba whispers. "Pervert." He doesn't move.
"Mitsuba," It's the last time, the word is sounding weird in his head now. "Do you like me?"
Mitsuba stares at his face for a few seconds, Kou thought he wouldn't answer.
"Yes." He says and closes the space between them.
Mitsuba's lips felt cold and he was barely moving, Kou tried to be as careful as he could, like Mitsuba would give up and disappear if he did too much. Kou felt desperate to get Mitsuba closer while Mitsuba felt so nervous he was almost trembling. Both didn't know what they were doing, both were enjoying this.
Kou pulls away and looks at Mitsuba's face, he was as red as him, it's adorable to see him like this. "You do like me."
"How did you figure it out?" Mitsuba asks, sarcastically.
"Will you continue to like me?" Kou says, not sure how to word the question.
"If you want it so much," Mitsuba mumbles, his stubbornness does not work when he's clearly holding a smile. "I will accept your feelings."
"YES!" Kou throws his hands in the air.
"Stupid." Mitsuba comments but Kou couldn't be less bothered.
Kou kneels down and takes the flower from the table, pointing it to Mitsuba. "Hey, I like you and I like your playlist. Can I make one for you back?"
"Do you even listen to songs? You won't give me anything atrocious, right?"
"Nope, nope. I need to be more clear about the things I like, first being you, the second can be that. I would like to have an opinion on it too, and you have a lot of them."
"It's true." Mitsuba chuckles. "But tonight you should get a decent night of sleep. You don't look that well."
"Woah, you worried about me?"
"Dude, I like you."
Kou looks him deep in the eyes. He's sure he will never stop feeling ecstatic with these words. "I like you too."