Chapter Text
Yosuke stared out the window, watching a few girls in the courtyard gather before home room. He waved when they looked up at him, but they scrunched up their noses and giggled as the hurried away to class. He sighed, draping the upper half of his body across his desk. A swift kick to the legs of his chair jolted him out of his moping.
“Hey what the hell!”
“Jeez Yosuke, at least try to look a little bit more lively in the mornings. You're bringin down the atmosphere.” Chie glared at the boy, crossing her arms as she pouted.
“Ugh I'm not in the mood Chie.”
“Rejected again?”
Yosuke dropped his head again. “I don't wanna talk about it.”
“It's probably that negative mood you got going on y’know, and the fact that you're always breakin other people's stuff.”
“Let it go Chie I already bought you lunch for that disk! Besides, it wasn't my fault my bike chain popped off!”
“Doesn't make up for the fact that it's still broken.”
“Are you still going on about that, Chie?” Yosuke turned his head to look up from his elbow at the sound of Yukiko's voice.
“Yukiko save meee,” he pleaded, reaching a hand out towards her like a beggar.
She giggled. “ I don't think there is a way to save anyone from Chie’s wrath.”
“Hey, hey Yukiko I just got a great idea. Why don't you date me? Chie can't do anything to me then if I have you.”
“No thanks!” Yukiko's rejection was as chipper as her greetings.
Chie rolled her eyes and sighed as dramatically as she could muster. “I don't even know why you try anymore.”
Yosuke shrugged as best he could draped over the desk. “It was worth a shot.”
Class began and ended in a haze in which Yosuke was only drawn out of when Chie slammed her hands on his desk and demanded they order beef bowls from Aiya’s.
“You gotta pick it up from the gate though,” she said, ending her call to the restaurant.
“What why?”
“Uh, you still owe me, duh. You're lucky I'm not making you pay for all of it Hanamura.”
“Chie why you gotta be so cold!” The girl in question only stuck her tongue out in reply, leaving Yosuke to surrender to his fate. He opened his mouth to ask for the money, but the gossiping of some neighboring girls cut him off.
“Have you seen him yet?”
“No, someone said he was sick so he might not even come to school today.”
“No fair! I wanted my shot at Narukami today.”
“Ah, Narukami isn't here yet,” Yukiko said, more of a statement than a question.
“Narukami Yu? Like that transfer student?”
“Jeez Yosuke at least pretend to pay attention to what goes on,” Chie scolded. “Of course it's Narukami the transfer student.”
“Yeah, yeah I just don't see what the big deal is.”
“It's Monday,” both girls said, as if it were the most obvious thing.
“Well no shit, that's why we’re at school.”
“No, it's Monday dumbass, the start of the week! The day when he picks his new girlfriend.”
“At the end of each week he tells them, “I couldn't fall in love with you” and breaks it off, but he'll always say yes to the first person who asks him out come Monday morning.”
“Oh that's right! Yuki, didn't you date him a few weeks ago?”
Yukiko smiled at Chie. “Sure did!”
“Why do you seem so happy about it? Seems like a bit of a jackass to me,” Yosuke growled.
“Hey, don't be so mean just because you can't get a date!”
“Yeah yeah,” Yosuke waved Chie off and stood up from his seat. “I'll wait at the gate for the food. Keep gossiping amongst yourselves.”
He knew he didn’t need to rush, that the delivery wouldn’t be waiting at the gate for him, but Yosuke didn’t want to remain cooped up in that conversation any longer. He didn’t pay too much attention to the new kid himself, but that didn’t stop everyone else from blubbering on and on about how great Narukami Yu is. Yosuke kicked a locker as he walked past, causing a few worried looks in his direction.
Sure. He was bitter. There was no way anyone could convince him not to be. He had been the new kid this time the year before, but no one had given him the time of day like they give Narukami.
“God, what’s so good about the kid anyway?” he mumbled to himself, sitting down at the gate’s steps. “So what if he’s from Tokyo or wherever the hell he came from. Doesn’t mean he’s some big shot.”
After a few more minutes of waiting Yosuke was shaken from his thoughts by a pebble hitting his shoe. He looked up quickly, expecting to see his food waiting for him but instead he looked up straight into a pair of gray eyes peering back at him. Yosuke jumped in his seat, surprised at suddenly being face to face with Narukami Yu. The boy in question just smiled in Yosuke’s direction, but didn’t move to enter the school beyond him.
“Running late today eh?” Yosuke bit his lip, cursing his awkward need to fill the silence with conversation. He had forgotten his headphones back in the classroom.
“Well, yes. I had to help with Nanako this morning before I left.”
“Oh, is that your girlfriend for the week?”
Narukami seemed surprised by the comment, but only showed it by the slight widening of his eyes. He took it in stride. “Not exactly, but I didn’t know you knew about that.”
“C’mon man! Everybody knows about you Mr. Playboy. Even if you weren’t dating a new girl every week, you are the new kid after all.”
“It’s reached even your ears then, Hanamura.”
“Jeez not like it’s some crazy feat. I do still have ears underneath those headphones.” Narukami leaned against the gate next to Yosuke while they talked, he smiled down at the brunet but didn’t make any sound to continue the conversation. Yosuke filled in instead. “So, then you go out with anyone, yeah? Even if they’re not your type?”
“My type?” Narukami looked away to lean his head back while he thought about it. “I don’t really have a type. I don’t care too much about looks, but I guess if I had to pick, your kind of face is nice.”
“EH?” Yosuke scrambled up from his spot on the steps to face Narukami, but quickly looked away again to hid his spreading blush. “What do you mean by that?”
“Hmm, I guess it’s just that you look kind.”
Yosuke opened his mouth, but quickly slammed it shut again. He didn’t know how to respond – that was after all probably the nicest thing anyone had said to him about his face. Usually it was just that he was plain, that he always looked so bored and depressed, but never kind. In that way, he justified the next words out of his mouth.
“Then why don’t we date then? I’m guessing you haven’t been asked yet huh?”
Narukami reacted with the same moderate amount of surprise at he did before, but when he opened his mouth to respond, another voice sounded.
“Are either of you a Hanamura?” The two boys turned towards the new comer, a part time delivery worker from Aiya’s.
“That’s me!” Yosuke bounced over, feeling his pockets for the cash that Chie had just given him, but then it hit him – he didn’t actually have the money. He had meant to ask, but the gossip over Narukami had gotten in the way and now he stood in front of his delicious beef bowls and had no money to pay for them. “Oh shit, uh man can you wait here for like two minutes I forgot the money back in the classroom uh-“
“How much is it?” Narukami came up during the transaction, pulling his own wallet from his pockets.
“2,000 yen.”
Before Yosuke could protest, the boy had already paid the delivery boy and deposited the food into his waiting hands.
“Fuck. I’m so sorry, I’ll pay you back later okay?”
“Don’t mind,” was Narukami’s only answer before he walked through the gate into the school, leaving Yosuke to clamber in behind him.
Class dragged on after lunch, Yosuke’s belly stuffed full to the brim and lulling him into a dazed state all of class. He was only half awake when King Moron called out that a few of the students would be switching seats. Yosuke didn’t think too hard on it as he wasn’t one called upon, until a grey head of hair materialized in his vision. Once settled in, Narukami turned slightly to shoot Yosuke a wink before returning his attention to the front of the room.
Yosuke slouched, squinting at the back of the new boy’s head in front of him. Narukami Yu was some sort of enigma. He didn’t know why Narukami was suddenly being friendly with him, or even talking to him like earlier. He seemed to have no problem socializing with people, but when he thought back to all the times and places he has seen the other boy Yosuke realized that he only ever saw him with other girls.
He must want a guy friend, Yosuke realized. It probably gets tiring always trynna keep up appearances around all those girls.
Not that you would know, his inner voice reminded him.
Before long, the bell rang and signaled the end of class, and the end of his inner turmoil for the time being. Yosuke began to back up, spotting his wallet at the bottom of his bag as he remembered to pay Narukami back for Aiya’s earlier. When he sat up to say something to the boy, he found him already looking at him.
“Oh, sorry you had to wait so long.” Yosuke slid a few bills over the desk towards Narukami. “Thanks again man, you really saved my ass.”
Narukami folded up the bills carefully, taking the time to crease the edges with his long fingers, before reaching over and shoving the paper into the shirt pocket of Yosuke’s summer uniform. “I told you, don’t mind it.”
“What? Nah man I can’t just-“
“I was hoping we could walk home together today,” Narukami interrupted seamlessly, “if you don’t have any plans already.”
“I, um, gotta go to work today.”
“Then, where do you work?”
Yosuke squinted at the other for the second time that day, putting up his guard. It felt like Narukami was trying to play some joke on him. Everyone knew what Yosuke did. “I work at Junes.”
“That’s great then! I’ve been meaning to stop by and pick up some ingredients for miso. I’ll walk you there, if you don’t mind.”
“Well, I guess that’s fine.” Yosuke didn’t know what to do. Narukami genuinely didn’t seem to know of Yosuke as the Prince of Junes, nor know that Junes had such a bad rap in little Inaba. He had no choice but to go along with the other’s whims.
Narukami didn’t talk much, that much Yosuke found out on the short walk to the department store. He responded politely to any question Yosuke asked, but didn’t make any moves to talk outside of that. Like at lunch, Yosuke filled in the conversation, talking about anything he could think of even if it may not have been of any interest to his conversation partner.
As they neared the entrance and Yosuke got ready for his awkward goodbye, Narukami spoke up.
“Can I have your number? It seems that I forgot to ask earlier.”
“Huh? Oh yeah, here let me see your phone.” Narukami passed off his phone for Yosuke to quickly type in his number. “I can’t text when I’m on the job, but just shoot me a message and I’ll save your number too.”
“Sunshine… Shellfish?” Narukami read off, staring at the name typed into his screen. Yosuke blushed and scrambled to recover.
“No, no, I prefer the other reading, ‘jammed in’, like all this sunshine jammed in to a human body, y’know what I mean? Oh god now that I say that out loud that’s embarrassing.”
“Ah,” Narukami looked into Yosuke’s eyes and gave a small smile, “it’s fitting. Can I call you that from now on?”
“Sunshine jammed in? Hell no dude that’s embarrassing!”
“No, I mean Yosuke.”
“Oh. Well, I guess that’s fine. I’ll call you Yu from now on then too, since it’s only fair.”
Yu let out a small chuckle and held out his hand for a handshake. “It’s a deal, Yosuke.”
For the entirety of his shift at Junes, Yosuke couldn’t get that laugh out of his head. Yu was strange. He was friendly, but at the same time he was so distant. Startled, Yosuke realized that in the months since Yu had moved to the school in Inaba he had never really seen the boy laugh, just shoot those small smiles out into the world.
Later that night when Yosuke lay in bed drifting off to the steady beat in his headphones he thought back to how strange of a person Yu seemed to be, eventually landing on their conversation earlier at lunch. He sat up, suddenly feeling a chill down his spine. Yu was acting awfully friendly, awfully fast.
“It can’t be… He actually took me seriously back then?”
Yosuke had a hard time getting to sleep after the rest of the night, his mind constantly reminding him of the fact that he may have accidentally got himself a boyfriend.