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It's been a couple months since Ritsu has started reading yaoi. He wants to kill himself. He’s become an addict. All he’s been willingly reading was yaoi, speaking of which, he’s almost gotten caught an absurd amount of times by his family. He can think of at least 3 different times his family has almost caught.
One time he bought yaoi from the bookstore and brought it home in a bag. He usually put his books in his backpack but he bought a lot that day and decided he’d be fine just carrying the bags. He opened the house door, entered the hallway and opened the door to the kitchen and living room, wanting to get a quick snack. Only to the sight of this dad sitting on the couch in the living room. Instantly he froze. He was screwed.
His dad greeted him at the door, noticing the plastic bags filled to the brim of yaoi. “So, what’d you buy?” He pointed to the bags. “How much money did you save up to buy all of that?”
“Just some books!” He quickly blurted out. “I’ve just saved a lot of allowance money, that's all!” ‘I said that way too fast.’ “Well I’m going to head-“
“Can I see some of the books?”
This was it, Ritsu was going to kill himself right here right now. “Y-yeah, let me find one.” He looked through the book covers, trying to find one that didn’t scream ‘THIS IS A YAOI AND THEY’RE GAY’ he eventually found a cover that only had one character on the front side. Unfortunately for him, the first page had two guys edgazing at each other lovingly. He’d be fine as long as his dad doesn't see the backside. His hand was shaking when he gave the book to his dad. Nervous sweat beading from his face.
His dad inspected it. “The art style is cool.”
“Yeah.” Ritsu sheepishly said. Looking anywhere but his dad. His dad was looking at the title now.
“What’s it about?” He turned over the book looking at some of the little chibis on the back.
‘Please don’t read the blurb’ He pleaded with god, anyone at this point. Don’t let his dad read the blurb. “It’s about this guy who starts a band with his friends.” He was lying straight through his teeth. “May I have my book back please, I need to put it away.” Just when he said that his dad opened the first page. It was quickly snatched away from his hands as Ritsu had stolen the book. His dad was looking at him bewildered.
Ritsu froze, realizing what he had done. “Sorry, I just didn’t want you to crease the book so much,” He nervously chuckled, eventually the chuckling died out and an awkward pause was in the room. “Well now I’m actually going upstairs now,” he turned around heading to the doorway. He wanted to get run over by a car.
There was another time when he was at the book store, checking out the manga. He usually came on Sundays because most people didn’t go on those days. He usually also brought a hat with him to hide his face but forgot it that day. He thought it’d be fine, there was barely anyone there today anyways.
While browsing one of the books he felt a presence. A familiar one. Looking right at him. He looked over to see his brother walking up to him with a smile on his face.
He wished he had the ability to become invisible right now.
“Hi Ritsu, I didn’t know you shopped for manga.” Shigeo had the newest copy of shounen jump in his hand. “What manga are you looking at?” He moved his head around looking at the manga behind him. But was soon blocked by Ritsu in his way.
“Nothing in particular, just looking a bit.” He continued to block Shigeo’s view. “How about you Nii-san? What manga are you looking for?”
“I was looking for the shounen jump magazine when I saw you over here.” He explained, still trying to see behind him. “Is there something wrong Ritsu? Why won’t you let me see what’s behind you?”
Ritsu sighed and stopped blocking his way. “Sorry Nii-san, I was just playing around a bit.” He gave Shigeo an apologetic look, moving out of the way for him.
Finally being able to look with nothing abstracting his view Shigeo looked at the section title reading the word ‘yaoi’. He paused. Looking back towards his younger brother.
“Ritsu do you rea-“
“Hm? Oh! I didn’t notice I was behind this section, haha..I was just about to go to uh,” he looked to the left to see another nametag. “The shoujo section?” Ritsu must’ve had bad luck for this to happen to him.
“Really? I didn’t know you liked shoujo,” Shigeo looked excited, probably something he thought Ritsu and him could bond over. “Maybe you could give me some recommendations!” His face lit up with joy.
“Hahah… Yeah… Maybe…” Ritsu’s mind was racing trying to figure out what to say next. “Well, we should go now, it’s getting late!” He started walking towards the register. “Let’s check out your book Nii-san.”
“But you didn’t buy anything Ritsu,” he turned around, facing Ritsu’s back. “Are you sure it’s okay?”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it too much, I didn’t find what I was looking for anyway.” They walked together to the register, with Shigeo telling Ritsu about his favorite manga series. He continued to talk about it all the way back home.
Those were some of the moments he’s almost been caught in his secret. He needed to find a better way to hide his manga.
The final straw was when he got home after a long day of school. He opened the door to his room to see his mom cleaning his room, her hands underneath his bed, reaching for the bin of yaoi.
“Mom don’t clean underneath my bed.” His mouth spoke before his brain could. He cupped his mouth with his hands immediately. His mom would question him now, he was screwed.
“Why? Are you hiding something under here?” It felt like an interrogation session with Ritsu being the criminal and his mom the detective. She gave him a curious look, one that said ‘Are you doing something illegal?’ “If you’re hiding something inappropriate in here you’re in big trouble young man.” She started pushing the bin towards herself. “What is in here? It’s heavier than I thought it’d be.”
Ritsu could only stare as she pulled out the bin. To his relief he had put his math and science books on top of the bin, concealing the actual contents inside the bin. He let out a sigh of relief. He was safe.
“Why did you panic? It looks like you only have educational books?” It sounded more like a question for herself but Ritsu answered anyway.
“I just didn’t want you to uh, have to work too hard, you know with like, back pain?” Ritsu winced. This was such a horrible excuse, the worst he’s come up with. His mom looked at him suspiciously and was about to move the textbooks. Ritsu was going to jump off his balcony.
“Honey! Can you help me with this?” It was his dad from downstairs. Ritsu has never been this thankful for his dad until this point in life.
“I’ll be there!” She got up from her place on the floor and gave Ritsu a stern look. If looks could kill, Ritsu would be in ashes right now. “If you’re hiding anything in here you’re in big trouble young man.” She walked past him, entering the hallway.
Ritsu waited for her steps to reach the stairs and quickly sprang into action. He took out all of the yaoi and shoved it deeper under his bed. He’ll suffer getting them back later. He looked around for something, anything to put underneath his bed.
He suddenly remembered he had small little stuffed animals in the hallway closet. The stuff animals were from when he was 6-7 years old, perfect. He ran to the hallway closet almost tripping from how fast he went. He reached the closet aggressively, opening it, searching for the trash bag labeled with his name.
He finally spotted the bag, it was on the top shelf. Ritsu would have to jump to reach it, he hasn’t hit puberty yet. Ritsu prepared himself to jump, backing up and touching the wall behind him. He ran up to the closet and jumped. He didn’t reach it. He tried again, but failed. He did it at least 5 more times until he reached it. But, while grabbing it he lost his balance, falling on his back. He didn’t have time to worry about the pain though.
“Ritsu! You better have not done anything when I was gone!” His mom called out.
“Okay!” He answered back, he could hear her steps coming up the stairs. He sprinted to his room. Sliding down onto the floor. He looked at the opening of the bag to see that it was sealed shut by tying the ends together. He started struggling to untie the ends, hearing his mom down the hallway. He gave up trying to untie the bag and ripped the bag. Dumping the stuffed animals into the bin. He shoved the plastic bag under his bed, picked up the textbooks and set them back inside the bin just in time as his mom walked in.
He backed away immediately from the bed. “Hi mom.” He sheepishly said. He made himself look more suspicious. She raised an eyebrow at him, sitting down on the floor. She raised the textbooks up and saw the stuffed animals. Her expression softened.
“Aw Ritsu, you don't have to feel bad about keeping stuffed animals.” She picked up one of them, a blue teddy bear Ritsu won at a festival. Memories of her children came flooding into her mind. “You’re still a child, in fact, you’ll always be my baby boy.”
Ritsu was relieved his mom didn’t find the yaoi. Sure, if the information about Ritsu still owning stuffed animals were to get out his pride would be ruined. But, being known as a yaoi reader was worse. His reputation would be ruined if it got out that Kageyama Ritsu read yaoi….
His mom, after crying over nostalgia, left his room. As soon as she closed the door he looked under his bed trying to retrieve all of the manga he shoved down there. He had to go under the bed just to reach his whole collection. The books somehow got some dust on them in the 30 minutes his mom had been in his room. He put them back in his bin, taking the stuffed animals out of the bin, placing them back in the bag. He shoved the bag under his bed following up with the bin.
He was currently sitting at his desk, writing in his journal ideas on how he could hide his yaoi. He could keep it in the same spot he’s put them in but his mom has already seen that spot and already ‘knows’ what’s inside of it so that would be a bust. He also thought of putting the manga on his shelf using a printed out piece of cardboard of books to hide them but one, that wouldn’t work and two, that is really stupid.
He’d already thought of a disguise for when he buys manga and decided to buy book covers to put over the books. He just needed a place to hide his manga now.
He had the urge to buy a hidden door book shelf and make a whole new room in his house. But, he didn’t want his parents questioning the noise it’d make to do all of that.
After an hour of thinking he finally had an idea. He needed to find the supplies first though. He’ll look for them after school tomorrow.
He put his journal away and finally went to bed.
The school bell rang, signaling that school was over. Ritsu immediately picked up his things and rushed out of the classroom. He felt stares at him as he quickly walked out of the school but none of that mattered right now.
Before he went home he made a quick trip to a craft store. He picked up a small paint brush, mod podge, and an exacto knife.
He finally got home and went up to his room, looking through his books on his bookshelf he found and picked 3 of his thickest books he could care less about and put them on his desk along with the things he bought today.
He took the paintbrush and dipped it into the mod podge. He started painting the pages together, putting one of the other books on top of the painted book to dry well.
After waiting a couple minutes he took the now dried book and opened the first page. Grabbing one of the mangas he used a marker to trace it over the page. He grabbed the exacto knife and started cutting out the pages until he reached the bottom of the page. Perfect.
He grabbed two of his manga and placed them inside the book. The book soon was on the shelf alongside Ritsu’s other books. The perfect hiding spot. He did the same process to the other books until all of his yaoi had a place on his shelf. He was now prepared for the next time he got an unexpected room clean.