You know when you’re out on a date and you happen to run into someone you know? Awkward, right? Luckily for Toyomi and Sahana, the person who spotted them stayed far away.
Atsuji’s table in the food court was several tables away from Toyomi and Sahana but their bright, attention-garnering Main Character Hair™ stood out amongst the black and brown hair in the background. He stared at them. Well, it was more like a glare.
He watched them laugh together and wondered what was so special about Toyomi, the boy who was always late to council meetings, frequently spoke in a sickly sweet voice seemingly dripping with condescension and was currently resting his hand atop his limp wrist as he leaned forward during his conversation with Sahana. Not that Atsuji cared. If Sahana wanted to be a discount lesbian, fine by him.
Part of his heart cracked upon thinking that. He had dared to sully Sahana’s good name. But he definitely didn’t care.
If Sahana was to date Atsuji, you know, just hypothetically, he would surely be a better match. He was punctual, hardworking, romantic and humble. But did he care? Of course not.
Wooh, reading people’s minds takes a lot out of you. I’m slowly getting better at it, though. Give me a moment.
Okay, the story continues.
Atsuji found himself slamming his hands against the table as he pushed himself up. When he saw a few pairs of eyes on him, he put his hands in his pockets and hightailed out of there.
Once home he took out his laptop and continued writing a story on his bed. A big grin came onto his face when he laughed at a joke he wrote. He regularly checked his notes for plot points he should include. He stopped at the point where a teenage boy confesses to a girl, deciding to leave it until a day he could fully focus on writing the girl’s reaction.
He had a general idea of how he wanted the character to respond, but his inexperience barred him from imagining the details. That is, until he started thinking about Sahana and wondering how she reacted to Toyomi’s confession. If he was the one who confessed, of course. Knowing his disposition, it could have easily been the other way around.
But imagine Atsuji did, and over time Toyomi’s delicate features were replaced by Atsuji’s until he was the one confessing to Sahana.
Once he got to the point of kissing Sahana, he pushed the laptop in front of him and crawled backwards until his head whacked against the headboard. The pain was numbed by a confusing mix of fear and anger.
In the middle of the confusion was one certainty. Toyomi needed to feel as miserable as possible.
This mandatory misery was enforced, or at least attempted to be enforced, by Atsuji, who dumped a landfill’s worth of mostly unimportant work on him. He did this under the guise of ‘student council’ duties.
First he made the poor boy clean the council room. Naturally, he inspected every inch of that room and barked at him to reclean any part that was not spotless.
Another command of his was that Toyomi compile a list of every club and the number of toilet breaks they offered. Atsuji pretended that this was necessary to ensure the efficiency of club activities. Toyomi’s repetition of this excuse to club leaders did not prevent them from giving him dirty looks.
Towards the end of the week, the student council president... By me, I dare not speak of it, for it is much too cruel and disturbing. Wait, you really want to know?
Atsuji gave Toyomi several pieces of red string, which he had confiscated from a club planning to use them on Valentine’s Day, and ordered him to cut them into smaller strings.
The horror of it all! My beautiful invention treated as a weed ruining a lush garden!
This task did not work as Atsuji had planned. Toyomi didn’t come to the realisation that his relationship with Sahana was doomed to end, nor did he receive the message that love was pointless and that he should lead the single life.
What he did notice was humanity’s capacity for cruelty. No, not from Atsuji’s actions, but Gitan’s. After catching wind of Toyomi’s quest for toilet break information, he absolutely had to make a comment while Toyomi was walking from one club room to another.
‘Do gay guys even cruise these days? Honestly, you must be getting desperate if you’re using school toilets.’
Toyomi gave him a bewildered look. What did toilets have to do with gay people? Gitan grabbed him by the strands of his hair and pulled them up, mimicking the cutting of hair with his fingers.
‘Hey, maybe if you cut your hair, you can be better at sneaking into men’s stalls. Or do you like being an attention whore, faggot?’
Toyomi’s voice was strained as pain circled around his hair’s follicles. ‘H-how am I a-’
Gitan stretched his arms until they were open, still holding onto Toyomi’s hair. ‘Come on, we all know the truth.’ His voice and gestures were loud and dramatic enough to rival Toyomi’s way of moving. ‘Your hair and visage are terribly reminiscent of a BL character.’
‘BL? How do I look like one of those characters?’
‘Do you have a pile of dust for a brain?’
Toyomi shook his head and immediately yelped from the pain that action added to his head. Gitan snickered at him.
‘What’s the matter, faggot? And try not to sound too condescending when you answer. I know that’s hard for you.’
Before Toyomi could answer, a certain mint-haired girl shouted at Gitan, the sun creating a glow around her through the window behind her.
‘Let go of him before I bring a teacher here!’
Gitan didn’t even have a chance to let Toyomi go because Fumie snatched him from him. All he could really do was smirk and make another remark.
‘I see you need a girl to fight your battles for you. Isn’t that right, faggot?’
Fumie checked Toyomi’s face for any injuries. ‘You’re an abomination, Gitan.’
‘Oh, get off your high horse, you third rate nun!’
The yelling gathered a dozen students to the scene. Rumours dripped from the tongues of students in deafening whispers.
‘Are you really okay with him prancing around like he does?’ Gitan continued.
‘I never said I approved of his behaviour,’ Fumie answered. ‘That isn’t a good excuse to bully someone, though!’
Toyomi crashed into their conversation. ‘What behaviour? Why does everyone think I’m… and what’s wrong with gay people?’
Gitan crossed his arms and scoffed with pride. ‘Of course you’d defend gay guys.’
Toyomi didn’t know how to respond to this accusation, so he shut his mouth.
Whenever Sahana wasn’t around, he could hear people calling her a fake girlfriend in a failed whisper. Every word pinched his heart inch by inch until the entire thing throbbed in pain far worse than what he felt after Gitan’s insults.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
