Chapter Text
The sun was shining bright in Okinawa. It was a warm and peaceful noon on a school day, as peaceful as it can get at lunchtime, that is.
"Say, Reki.."
"Hmm?" Reki turned his head towards Langa on the right as he took a bite from his lunch, feeling the refreshing breeze on his nape coming from the window he's sitting by.
"Why did you shout my name in class the other day?"
Cough, cough. He was taken aback by the sudden question, remembering the embarrassing memory. "I, uh.."
Honestly, how exactly should he word his answer? He just needed to say it was a nightmare and he was scared his dear friend almost died on him there, but it was somewhat..difficult to form the sentence, for some reason. It felt like he'd be revealing too much of something he intended to keep hidden.
He scratched his crimson hair. He had to start from somewhere. "..It was a nightmare."
Langa stared at the boy with visible concern in his ice blue eyes. "Nightmare? What happened in it? Are you alright? Has something been bothering you?"
Overwhelmed with questions, he was unable to look back at him. "Well, you were, um, hurt pretty badly while skating.." he managed to reply to only one of them under his breath.
The experienced snowboarder's worried expression slowly turned into a soft, understanding smile. "Were you worried about me?"
The reddish-eyed skater felt dumb for being uneasy about nothing but a vision his sleepless brain created. He felt his cheeks slightly heat up at the sudden exposure of his feelings. "S-so what if I was? It felt so real, do you have any idea how scared I was for you? You'd better take care of yourself instead of making me worry then, you're the one who keeps getting hurt like a kid.." he scolded.
Langa couldn't help the smile growing wider on his face at this cute creature in front of him. "Thank you Reki, I'm touched."
"Shut up and finish your lunch before the break ends."
"Hey Reki, Hasegawa-kun."
The two boys looked up at their name getting called by one of their classmates approaching them.
"I'm not intervening something, am I?"
"Ah, Sugawara. Nope you're not, what is it?"
He inhaled. "I was just wondering.. Are you, um, you know.."
Langa and Reki patiently kept waiting until the student managed to let the question out.
"..going out or something?"
What.
The silence in the classroom was too loud as the question echoed in their heads several times until it made sense.
Both of their eyes widened.
Did he really ask what they thought he asked?
Reki felt a blush instantly crawl its way up to his whole face.
"Huh?!" He stood up. "Wha- where on Earth did this come from so suddenly??" Reki broke into a flustered mess, not even a tad bit aware of the suspicious eyes on the two.
Sugawara scratched his head with his forefinger from second-hand embarrassment. "Well, almost everyone thinks something is going on between you two. I mean, you do seem pretty close."
They both knew their classmate had a point. Ever since Langa discovered skateboarding could be done anywhere including school, he hadn't been away from his new skater friend a single minute. Reki was also content with finding a soul who became interested in his hobby as much as he was, so he had no intention of leaving the young Canadian alone on school grounds.
Skating was the most enjoyable when they were together, after all.
"That's a misunderstanding." Langa said after coughing to keep his composure, which was a completely futile effort since a bright red hue was very much visible on his usually pale cheeks, failing to hide behind the shadow of his light blue hair.
We're not dating, he prepared himself to say in addition, but he just couldn't get the words out. He figured that one sentence was already enough to get the point across.
"Y-yes, exactly! We're simply close friends, nothing else! We're not dating or anything." Reki continued to prove Langa's already clear words right. Honestly, why did he keep denying it so strongly with that face of his matching the color of his hair?
"I see, sorry for interpreting it as something else." Sugawara said in return secretly unconvinced, still leaving the flustered boys alone to not question any further.
The headbanded skater sat back on his seat as he practically laid his body on the desk, face down between his arms. "Arghh, that surprised me! Didn't have a clue people saw us like that."
"M-me too." Langa agreed.
"I think it's best if you were honest with your feelings. You like that person, right?"
Suddenly recalling the conversation with his mother made his blush deepen, refusing to go away anytime soon. If he were to be honest, the thought never actually left his mind ever since. He had no idea when or how it happened, all he knew was that his mother was right. He found it hard to admit but, he secretly wished the classmates were, too.
He stole a glance at Reki who was still laying face down on his desk, forgetting to hide his reddened ears.
"Let's go! That's my Langa!"
Reki was rooting for Langa in a usual race in S, in a usual evening, a bit too loudly like usual.
However, one thing was unusual. Perhaps the thing he may or may not have just shouted.
"What do you mean your Langa?" Shadow asked who was standing right next to him with Miya.
Reki froze at the question before he could feel his face burn. He thanked God that the lighting in S was quite dim. "W-what I mean..?"
Shadow replied with a proud smile on his face. "It should've been our Langa, right?" he corrected innocently as he ruffled the boy's spiky scarlet hair.
"O-Oh," Reki sighed in relief. "So that's what you meant.." he mumbled, totally missing the way Miya's eyebrows went up at the silent remark. "Of course!"
"Why, what did you think it was?"
The boy jolted, feeling red-handed. Miya's question was worth thinking, actually. Why did the interrogation make him feel exposed? What did he have to be hiding from them? What did he think it was about? Surely not Langa being his-
"Are you going out or something?"
His eyes went wide.
"N-nothing!"
His sudden yell made Reki accidentally gather all the attention on him. He hid away and lowered his headband until it reached his cheeks, not trusting the dim lighting anymore.
What was happening to him? Was he sick or something?
"Nothing, huh?" Miya kept eyeing the guy's reactions with suspicion. Shadow looked at the two pretty confused.
On the other hand, Joe, who witnessed the whole conversation from the corner of his eye, sported a smile knowingly.
This was getting interesting.