Chapter 8: A Coffee Shop Date

Ichirou was quite certain that he wanted to die when he woke up on Sunday morning. He wanted to say he didn’t remember what happened last night, but he remembered every little bit of it. From him getting drunk fairly quickly, to the lame crying, he remembered every moment. Even after Masahiro texted him, asking him how he was, it took several hours for Ichirou to be able to respond properly. He apologized profusely for the trouble he caused Masahiro, and begged him never to speak of Ichirou’s first love, as it was supremely embarrassing. 

Before texting Masahiro back, he did send Yuuhei a rather long text message, chiding him about leaving Ichirou all alone with Masahiro. This was, after all, the first time he’d gotten drunk around the alpha, and so he wanted to have a friend there to keep him safe. However, that friend had gotten the number of a hot alpha and then bolted, afraid he was going to end up doing it before he was ready. He didn’t take into consideration that Ichirou might have ended up doing it before he was ready as well.

However, this experience had left Ichirou with blatantly obvious information: he could trust Masahiro. It wasn’t as though he wasn’t erring on the side of trusting Masahiro, but with this, he was officially certain that Masahiro wasn’t about to do anything to him. After all, there would be no more opportune moment than when Ichirou was drunk and alone with him. So, going forward, Ichirou decided to believe in Masahiro.

Yuuhei texted him in a panicked fashion the next day, horrified that he had given his number to Takeru. As it turned out, he actually was not quite desperate enough to want to be with an alpha. However, at the same time, he was also really flattered that someone hot and rich was into him. So, naturally, he was at an impasse. He wanted the attention he was being given suddenly, but he didn’t want the attention from Takeru.

In the end, Ichirou suggested that Yuuhei just tell Takeru he didn’t want to date him and that he wasn’t interested in him. A few minutes later, Yuuhei responded, saying that Takeru was now officially chasing him, and that if he just had a one night stand with him, this wouldn’t have happened. Ichirou honestly didn’t know what to do with that, so he simply wished Yuuhei good luck, who begged Ichirou not to let him deal with this alone. Ichirou asked Masahiro to do something about it, and Masahiro said he would talk to Takeru about chilling out. Somehow, Ichirou was not sure that Takeru would stop. He seemed like the sort of guy who had zero chill.

Now, Ichirou had something else to deal with; posting his “date” pictures online. He hadn’t up until this point because he was nervous about what people’s reactions would be. He knew for a fact that some people commented on every single one of his pictures with “marry me,” or something similar. Those people would not be pleased if he had a “boyfriend.” Still, for his parent’s sake, he couldn’t just pretend to have a boyfriend offline and not online. Curse his willingness to share too much of himself on the internet.

So, after careful consideration, he posted photos of when he hung out with Masahiro at the garden and from their dinner. He captioned them simply, “Hanging out” with a bunch of heart emojis. It was a vague enough descriptor that people could assume that “hanging out” meant either with a boyfriend or with friends, based on the section image. Almost immediately, he began to get a barrage of questions as to whether or not he had a boyfriend now. He scrolled through the comments, something he knew better than to do, noticing that some people were trying to figure out who they were already. The internet sleuths were on the case.

Ichirou put it down, deciding that if they figured out who Masahiro and Takeru were, it would be fine. That wasn’t the part that mattered, it was them finding out that he had a fake boyfriend. He wasn’t sure when most people with a significant online following said that they had a romantic partner, but he definitely wasn’t about to do it when they were less than two months into this fake partnership.

Now that Ichirou was thinking about it, he was finding that he really enjoyed Masahiro’s company. Having this end in four months wasn’t sounding as appealing as it did at the beginning. Not having an excuse to meet with a friend every week honestly didn’t sound fun. Ichirou, despite having a small social circle, was actually a bit of an extrovert, so being able to go out every week was really nice for him. He had begun to consider making this fake relationship go closer to a year, if things continued to work out. However, he also fully recognized that this whole thing was still a work in progress. He wasn’t willing to say for certain that he wanted to do that yet.

On Friday, the day before he was set to meet up with Masahiro again, Ichirou had decided that he was going to pull down his flower book. Before he could really write, Ichirou had a book that he kept flowers in. He would (with permission) pick them from other people’s houses, from some parks, and from out in the wild. There were also flowers from people he cared about. 

He pulled it down from a top shelf in his walk-in closet, brushing the dust off. The journal had his name engraved on it, with a painting of a tulip. That was honestly where he got the idea to put flowers in it. He took it out of the closet, sitting down on his bed. It had probably been a year or two since he had last seen the contents. He used to look at the contents once a month, but as time had mostly healed things, he had slowly begun to stop looking at it.

The first few pages held dandelions, but slowly other flowers began to overtake the pages. Carnations, morning glory, hydrangeas, cherry blossoms, tulips, violets… slowly, there began to be scrawlings of words next to the flowers, as well. Things like, “nice park” and “saw a doggy” were written next to the flowers, telling a little story.

Finally, he got to one of the last flowers, a pink rose. Written next to it was simply the word, “promise.” He knew exactly what this was referencing, although he couldn’t remember the details of the moment. From what he did remember, it was a bright summer’s day, and the boy was handing him the rose, asking Ichirou to get married when they got older. He couldn’t remember anything about the boy, other than he was taller than Ichirou.

Ichirou wasn’t sure how they met, but he figured that his family had to have been friends with Ichirou’s. He knew they met when they were still toddlers, and had been best friends as kids, up until Ichirou was seven, going on eight. He also knew that there were probably tapes in the storage room that had more information. His parents had video taped Ichika and his childhood like crazy, so he was certain that boy’s name, his face, and his family would be kept up in that dark, dank space. However, there was something he couldn’t quite place a finger on that was holding him back.

One day, that boy disappeared. Ichirou was sure he had been told at some point why that boy had left, but he couldn’t recall it. All Ichirou remembered was him crying for weeks upon weeks, not understanding why his best friend and future husband had disappeared. They had spent nearly every day together for about five years, so where did he go? He knew that the kid didn’t die, he would certainly remember that level of trauma. Now that he was an adult, he could be certain that the boy just moved or something, but the issue wasn’t that he left all those years ago now.

The issue was now that he had never gotten back in touch. Ichirou was certain that he had made sure that he was easy to find online, both for this purpose and just because he was a vain little guy who loved the limelight. Ichirou often checked his DMs, as well as the attempted DMs to see if he would slide in. If he wasn’t rich, this would be the easiest way to get in contact with him, and if he was rich? Well, all he would have to do is go to the party that Ichirou’s parents set up. But either he didn’t go, or he didn’t remember. Ichirou wasn’t sure which was worse, the idea that the guy didn’t want to meet him, or that Ichirou and that man didn’t recognize each other after all this heartache he had felt as a kid.

Ichirou honestly thought that he was completely over it, and hadn’t cried about it since middle school. But for whatever reason, he had cried over it once again, as an adult. Maybe it was because he was drunk, maybe it was because he had been thinking about love an awful lot lately, but he had cried for that boy who almost certainly had long since forgotten him. It was really embarrassing, and also spoke a lot about who he was as a person. He wanted a fairytale romance, and anything less wasn’t enough for him.

Ichirou closed the book, sighing softly. He wondered, if that boy, now a man, had appeared before him at that party, saying that he remembered Ichirou and he had been waiting to see him all this time, would he have said yes? Would he have a real boyfriend? Would he have been able to meet Masahiro? These questions plagued him, but he decided to put the book back and not look at it again for another year or two. There was no point in wondering about those sorts of things. The man didn’t come.

That Saturday was going to be a shorter date than normal, just a coffee date. Masahiro had a paper that was due, so they had agreed to keep it shorter than normal. It seemed as though it was going to rain anyway, so going and hanging out outside wasn’t really a super fun option. 

Ichirou’s outfit was very simple for the day. A pastel rainbow striped t-shirt, white skinny jeans, and his white trainers. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get dressed up, it was more that he felt like he didn’t necessarily need to dress up for Masahiro anymore, especially if they were only going three quarters of a kilometer or so to the nearest coffee joint. He was admittedly a little embarrassed to be meeting up after his silly little cry.

He walked downstairs after doing his final check. He still wore some minor makeup, in order to hide the (admittedly hardly there) dark circles under his eyes and other little things, but was otherwise pretty much in loungewear for him. Well, other than the skinny jeans, but he needed them, otherwise his ass would look flat, and he simply could not have that.

As Ichirou left the house, he noted that Masahiro was dressing casual today as well, although their definitions of casual were a fair bit different. Masahiro was wearing a gray trucker hat, black joggers, a white t-shirt, and some sneakers. From what Ichirou could see from far away, it seemed as though he may be wearing the necklace that Ichirou got him as well. Although it was almost ten in the morning, Masahiro paused midway through waving to yawn. He had obviously not slept well.

“Good morning, Masahiro-san,” Ichirou said, walking straight up to him. “Did you wanna walk over?”

“I’m too tired for that,” Masahiro grunted, rubbing his eyes. He definitely had dark circles under his eyes.

“Let’s go, then.” Ichirou jumped into the car.

It wouldn’t be more than a two minute drive, but it seemed like Masahiro was really exhausted. Had he stayed up all night working on the paper? Ichirou wasn’t sure, but as he buckled himself in, he began to slightly worry for Masahiro’s health and safety. Would he be able to get back to his apartment safely? It wasn’t a good idea for him to drive.

“Masahiro-san, are you gonna be okay? I don’t want you sleeping at the wheel,” Ichirou said.

“I won’t, I won’t. Don’t worry, I really am okay. I would stay home if it was a real issue,” Masahiro said, starting the car and pulling out.

“I just don’t want you getting in an accident,” Ichirou said with a pout. 

Masahiro glanced over to him, a smile playing on his face. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Can you imagine the trauma you’d have to fake if I got in an accident?”

“It would be traumatic!” Ichirou protested. 

“I know, I’m just teasing,” Masahiro said with a laugh. 

Ichirou pouted once more, folding his arms and glowering at the other man. “Jeez, don’t tease me like that. Our friendship is nice, I’d totally be shattered if you got hurt by something I could have helped prevent.”

“That’s very sweet, Ichirou-san. I’m glad to hear that,” Masahiro said.

He soon after pulled into a parking zone of the small shopping mall. The mall was made up of several buildings, all of which were a beige, almost orange color. All over there was greenery, and the place had a clean, almost Mediterranean feel to it. There were green lamp posts here and there, and a large gate that looked somewhat like a European house with a hole punched through it marked the entrance into a plaza. Down in that plaza, with the brick flooring and open feel, was the coffee shop that Ichirou often went to if he just needed to get out of the house.

Ichirou ordered his usual strawberry creme frappuccino, while Masahiro got an iced coffee with some vanilla sweet cream. Despite it being a Saturday, not many people were seated in the shop. It seemed as though they were just grabbing their drinks and leaving, so Ichirou and Masahiro got a seat next to the window. As though by magic, the instant they got their drinks it began to rain steadily out there. Luckily, Ichirou and Masahiro both brought umbrellas just in case.

“So, what kept you up last night?” Ichirou asked.

“Studying,” Masahiro said simply.

“I see… you work really hard, huh?” Ichirou murmured.

“I try to. It’s the least I can do.”

Ichirou was hesitant before he asked, “Is it for your parents?”

Masahiro nodded. “Yeah. It is. My parents were in charge of the company before my uncle was, and it was doing incredibly well. Unfortunately, despite my uncle’s best efforts, since they’ve been gone the growth has really stuttered to a stop. So I’m going to do my best to help bring it back to its glory days.”

That made sense. It was a more in depth answer than his simple “to honor his family,” although the sentiment was the same. It felt like a weight had been taken off his shoulders now that he had gotten to know this side of Masahiro. The skirting around the issue really had been awkward, and it seemed like he could talk about them fairly easily outside of talking about the fact that they had died. 

“I think that’s really great,” Ichirou said. “I think you’ll be able to do it.”

Masahiro smiled. “I sure hope so. It’ll be nice to get it done with.”

“Then tell me, Masahiro-san, when you’re done with school and you’ve really got the stone rolling on your work, what will you do? Like, do you have any plans, or…?”

Masahiro was quiet for a moment, thinking. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll date or get married. To be honest, it’s hard to see myself getting married.”

Ichirou’s eyebrows flew up at this in surprise. “What? You don’t want to get married?”

“That’s not what I meant. I just mean it’s hard for me to see myself getting married to anyone. I feel like I’m not very good at love, and I’m just better at being a friend. Does that kinda make sense?” Masahiro said, looking out into the rain.

“Not really. Is it just because you’ve only dated one person, or…?”

“No, that’s not it. I just… I dunno. It’s hard to explain. I want to get married, but I worry I wouldn’t be the best partner.”

“Didn’t you say that you were the sort of person who devotes your entire being to someone you date? Why do you think you wouldn’t be a good partner?”

“Because I feel like I can only give myself fully to a very select few people.”

“Oh, so you’re picky?”

“I guess that’s a fair way of looking at it.”

Ichirou laughed softly at that, sipping on his coffee. “I guess I didn’t expect that, since you said your type was someone cute. Such a broad category, but it seems like it is a lot more nuanced than that.”

Masahiro nodded. “It is really specific. I can’t really describe super well what sort of person I’m thinking of and what it would mean to date them.”

Ichirou had mixed feelings about that. Wait, why did he have mixed feelings about that? He should just be glad. The likeliness of Masahiro’s type being Ichirou significantly dropped. That’s right, there was no need to feel bad or weird about it. Where the heck did that emotion even come from?

“Ichirou-san, what about you? I know you want to get married someday, but what other things do you want to do?”

“Oh, me? Well, it would be my dream to work with fashion and makeup. I’ve been trying to get my dad to let me set up a small business under the Kimura umbrella, but he’s been dragging his feet about it. I think he would rather I just become a mom and be happy with that,” Ichirou grumbled.

“I wish I could help you out there,” Masahiro said, sighing. 

“Like, it’s not like I don’t want to be a mom someday! I want to have a few cute kids. I just don’t want that to be all that I am. I want to be able to make makeup palettes, lipstick, shirts, shoes, bags… I want to sell clothes that I would wear, you know? I want to hire some artists and work with them and open a little shop and… well, it doesn’t matter. I don’t know if Dad will let me,” Ichirou said with a sigh.

“Yeah, I can see that. It would be nice for you, huh?” Masahiro said.

“Yes, it would be amazing.”

“You mentioned that you want to have kids. How many do you want?”

“Probably two? Me and my sister always have had each other’s back, so I’d want for my kids to have each other, too. I’m still unsure.” Ichirou tapped his fingers on the table, thinking.

“I want a kid or two, too. I don’t think I could do more than three, though.”

“I get that. I feel the same. I’m still a bit nervous about kids, to be honest.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to do it whenever you’re ready.”

“Oh, by the way, I was wondering if you ever set up that Instantgram?” Ichirou scooted forward a little bit.

“Nope.” Masahiro pulled his phone out of his jogger pockets. “Lemme do that now. I saw that you posted the pics of us. People were guessing that you and I are dating all over in the comments.”

“Yeah, I tried to keep the post vague, but it seems like people figured it out pretty quick. They also looked into you and Takeru a whole bunch.”

“It’s the nature of the internet. You give them a crumb, and they take the whole cake,” Masahiro said. “Okay, what should my username be?”

“I don’t know, that’s up to you. I just used my name,” Ichirou said with a shrug.

“Lemme try that. Oh, nope. It’s taken. Maybe… oh, that worked.”

“What is it, so I can follow you?”

“TheBlueMasahiro. Hold up, I need to pick out a photo for my profile picture.”

Ichirou patiently waited as Masahiro set up the account. Masahiro was not used to social media obviously, although he handled his phone just fine. After some explanation of how to search, how to use hashtags, and where the DMs are, Ichirou finally followed Masahiro’s account. As his first post, he posted a picture from when they went to the garden. Ichirou was his first like and follower, which seemed to please Masahiro.

Ichirou then decided that, in order to get to know each other better, he would be pulling out “a questions to get to know someone better” list. He felt like he already had an idea of who Masahiro was as a person, but getting to know the little things about a person was what made a relationship more interesting.

“If you could have dinner with anyone living or dead, who would you pick?” Ichirou asked. After he spoke, he immediately realized he knew the answer to that question.

“My parents,” Masahiro said, confirming that.

“Yes, um, I should have known,” Ichirou said with an embarrassed cough. “Um, for me it would probably be the fashion designer behind this specific dress I really like. They’re super quiet and don’t meet with anyone, though. I’d like to hear their story. Um, next! Do you consider yourself an introvert or extrovert?”

“I’m definitely an introvert.”

“And I’m an extrovert! We balance each other out pretty well, huh?”

“Yeah, I thought so, too. Next question?”

Ichirou scrolled down, skipping ones he either didn’t like or already knew the answer to. “What emotion do you feel the most?”

Masahiro thought for a moment. “Probably love.”

“Aww, how sweet.”

“Oh? Well, what about you, then?” Masahiro said with an obviously fake huff. Was he pretending to be Ichirou right now?

“Um, probably embarrassment. It’s really easy for me to get embarrassed, and it stays with me for a while.”

“I’ve noticed that about you, too.”

“Stop noticing! Anyway!” Ichirou scrolled down again. “If you could be any object, what would you be and why?”

“That’s a weird one. Hmm…” Masahiro mused. “Probably a cool robot figurine. Maybe one of the ones who turn into cars? That would be pretty cool.”

Ichirou laughed. “That’s so you. I think I would be a grumpy looking stuffed animal.”

Masahiro nodded sagely. “That sounds very correct.”

“What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?” Ichirou asked.

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“I usually gotta go to the bathroom first thing in the morning,” Masahiro said.

“Oh, I see. I always go wash my face!”

“Very different things, but we’re both in the bathroom first thing.”

“It’s just the place to be. What hobby would you like to try?”

Masahiro tapped on his chin. “Maybe taking care of some fish? It seems like it would be hard, though. How about you?”

“I’ve always wanted to be able to bake cute desserts,” Ichirou said. “Do you have a hidden talent?”

“God, no. I wish,” Masahiro said with a laugh.

“Me neither. Anything I do is just out in the open,” Ichirou admitted. “Let’s see… would you rather live by the beach or in the mountains?”

“The beach sounds way better.”

“Completely. What about cities versus countryside?”

“Cities unfortunately have people, but they also have so many restaurants. So I’m gonna go with cities.”

“I guess it makes sense, since we’re both Tokyo boys. Would you rather drink coffee or tea for the rest of your life?” Ichirou asked.

“Coffee’s good, but I think I would prefer tea. There’s a lot more variety,” Masahiro said.

“Big disagree, coffee is godly. I could have this strawberry creme frappuccino every day for the rest of my life,” Ichirou said in response. “What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?”

“Probably cookies and cream.”

“That stuff’s good, but I’m a slut for strawberries.”

Masahiro choked at that and burst out laughing. “You’re a what for strawberries?!”

Ichirou’s face turned red. “I- I’m sorry, it’s something my sister says sometimes and I guess I picked it up from her.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, I loved it. It’s funny.”

“Okay, can you please forget I ever said that?”

“No, I don’t think I will.” Masahiro smirked down at his fake boyfriend.

Ichirou cleared his throat, moving on to another question as quickly as possible. “What languages do you speak?”

“Only Japanese fluently, but I’m pretty good at English, and okay at Mandarin. And you?”

“I’m mostly fluent in English. My parents really only made me study that. Why are you learning Chinese?”

“It’s helpful for a business degree.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Ichirou hummed. “What sort of video games do you like?”

Masahiro seemed to think about this for a moment before responding. “I like role playing games a lot, especially fantasy ones. I enjoy being a hero that saves the world. I like science fiction games as well. I’ll play fighting games, party games, and racing games, but I hate horror. I won’t play horror games.”

“I get it. I don’t like horror either.”

“You don’t play games right?”

“Right.”

“We need to get that fixed.”

“We’ll see,” Ichirou said. “What’s your zodiac sign? It’s Gemini, right?”

“Oh, uh yeah, I think so?” Masahiro said.

“I’m an Aquarius. My birthday is Valentine’s Day.”

Masahiro blinked a couple of times. “Oh, that’s interesting. It somehow suits you.”

“I agree,” Ichirou said. He hesitated for a moment, his voice going up an octave as he spoke. “Um, this question isn’t on the list, but I want to ask it anyway, because I’m really curious. What do my pheromones smell like?”

Masahiro blinked a couple of times. “Your pheromones?”

Ichirou’s face turned pink and he looked out the window, to the rain. A car passed by, making a small wave on the street. He looked at the puddles that had already formed, the drops of water consistently causing ripples to form and dissipate. He took in a deep breath before he continued speaking.

“Well, I’ve never really been close to another alpha or omega to ask. You know, my scent doesn’t smell good to my family, and I didn’t experience my first heat until I was in my first year of high school, which is where I had no friends. My closest friend is a beta, and I know that some betas can smell pheromones, but he can’t smell them at all. So, I’ve never really known what I smell like. If it smells bad, you can just tell me that…” Ichirou rambled, his voice slowly getting more and more quiet as he went along, until his voice came out as just a murmur.

Masahiro smiled that gentle smile of his, although Ichirou couldn’t see it because he refused to look. “Okay, I see what you mean. If I was to describe your pheromones, I think a good way to describe it is like somewhere between a raspberry and a strawberry syrup, with a bit of a floral end to it. It smells really sweet, and I really like it. It really suits you.”

Ichirou’s face turned a deeper shade of red at that comment. That sounded like it did smell really nice. Not only that, but Masahiro wasn’t grossed out by it. It really didn’t matter to Ichirou if he did smell gross to Masahiro or not, he swore it didn’t, but some part of him was glad that he wasn’t causing issues for his friend. He didn’t have really great control over his pheromones, so the fact that it wasn’t a problem for Masahiro was at least good.

“What about me? What do my pheromones smell like? I’ve been surrounded by betas and alphas for most of my life, so I’ve never had a clear explanation for what mine smell like, either,” Masahiro asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Oh, your scent, it, um… it smells really nice. It smells like warm wood and grass. It reminds me a lot of when I was a kid and I would play at local parks. It gives off a really nostalgic and calming sort of feeling,” Ichirou said.

“My scent is calming to you?”

Ichirou seemed to realize what he had said and began blustering. “D- don’t think it’s because of you or anything! It just sort of happened that way. It’s because th- that’s what a lot of my memories are full of! So- so, just don’t get a big head or anything!”

Masahiro put a hand over his mouth, attempting to hide his smile and the laughs that were threatening to burst out. Ichirou looked away, glaring at the rain. Masahiro couldn’t help but think that this tsundere side of Ichirou was quite cute as well. Then again, he thought everything Ichirou did was cute.

“Well, now that we’ve got that question out of the way, what sort of other questions are listed?” Masahiro asked. He checked his phone. “We’ve only got about fifteen minutes left before I need to get you back home.”

Ichirou’s head snapped back over to Masahiro, the red coloring in his face fading and a pout forming on his face. It felt like to him that they’d only been there maybe fifteen minutes, but it seemed as though it had already been just over an hour. He had been looking forward to hanging out and it was already almost over. He didn’t like that.

“Um, okay. How about, uh… oh, which of the four seasons is your favorite?” Ichirou asked.

“Probably summer. Even though it’s so hot, there’s so much outdoor fun you can have,” Masahiro said with a grin.

“That seems reasonable. It’s too hot for me, though. I really prefer spring! Everything is pink and all the plants are coming back to life… it’s really cute. Um, next, do you believe in ghosts?”

“I don’t really know. I know I’m scared of them either way.”

“I believe in them, and I’m really scared of them, too. Do you believe in heaven?”

“I don’t know about that either. I guess I’d lean on the side of no, but I’m still trying to figure that out.”

“I do,” Ichirou said, scrolling down a bit. “What would you name your yacht if you had one?”

“I dunno, something dumb like The Blue Mermaid or something. I’ll never have a yacht, so I never have had to think about it.”

“The Blue Mermaid is cute sounding. I think maybe The Seafoam’s Pearl would be cute.” 

Masahiro sipped on his coffee, and the sucking sound of a mostly empty cup. He sighed, putting it aside. “Damn, it’s empty.”

“Do you want to get another? I can go order for you,” Ichirou offered.

“Hm, yeah. Just get me an iced flat white. I’ll need it to finish off my paper,” Masahiro said, beginning to rummage through his bag to get a card for Ichirou, but the pink haired boy simply got up on his own, his wallet in a pocket of his skinny jeans. He didn’t need Masahiro to give him money for a simple coffee, he could handle at least that much on his own, thank you very much.

Ichirou ordered Masahiro’s drink as well as some cookies for himself. He sat back down next to Masahiro, and they agreed that once the coffee came out, they would head back. Ichirou ripped open the bag and began snacking on the chocolate cookies as they continued to speak for this little bit longer.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I have a couple of propositions for our next dates,” Ichirou said hesitantly, tapping his fingers together.

“Oh? What’s up? What do you want to do?” Masahiro asked, sitting up and leaning over to listen better.

Ichirou, slightly embarrassed, looked out to the rain again. “Um, next week, I want to go shopping. There’s something I really want, but I don’t think I can manage to do it by myself. I’ll just talk myself out of it if I go by myself. I’ve tried to get Yuuhei to go with me, but I always duck out. So, if it’s a date, I’ll have no choice but to go.”

“Oh, sure!” Masahiro exclaimed. “Where would we be going?”

“Um, you know that big mall in Harajuku? I’d like to go there. And maybe after we can go get some food? Does that sound okay?” Ichirou scratched his cheek, face pink.

“I’d be happy to take you anywhere you wanna go on a date,” Masahiro said with a smile.

Ichirou suddenly realized that not only did Masahiro call it a date, but so did he. “I- I mean, it’s more like our next hang out rather than a date, but y- yeah! I’d like to go there!”

“Where else would you like to go?” Masahiro asked.

“Oh, I-'' Before Ichirou could continue, the barista called out Ichirou’s name. Ichirou got up and grabbed the drink, handing it off to Masahiro. With that, they walked outside and opened their umbrellas, stepping into the rain. The rain was pounding on their umbrellas too loudly for them to continue their conversation at that moment, so instead they walked side by side in silence.

As they got into the car, Masahiro sighed, tossing his umbrella into the back of the car. “Where else did you want to go?”

Ichirou buckled himself in, putting his pink and white umbrella between his feet. “Um… well, to be honest, I was thinking that we could invite Yuuhei and Takeru over… well, maybe Yuuhei wouldn’t come if Takeru was coming, but… um, that is, I… I want to maybe try going over to your place and play some video games and eat your cooking. That is, if you want to, it’s completely up to you. It is your apartment after all, and I just, um, you know, I just…”

Masahiro waited patiently for Ichirou to finish. “You want to come over to my house?”

Ichirou nodded quickly, steam pouring from his ears in embarrassment. “I just- we’re friends, and I… I feel like I can trust you a bit by now, so I… it’s not weird, is it?” Ichirou’s voice and body shrunk into themselves as he spoke, his shyness overtaking him.

“Of course it’s not weird! I’m happy that you trust me a bit. I’d be happy to have you and our friends over. Let’s definitely do it,” he said, smiling that gentle smile of his.

Ichirou nodded as Masahiro started the car. “O- okay. I’ll invite Yuuhei, but I really don’t know if he’ll go or not.”

“I get it. If I had Takeru coming after me, I don’t know if I’d show up, either. He can be a little bit of a lot,” Masahiro said, looking behind them as he backed out of the parking spot.

“I’m just glad he didn’t find me romantically interesting,” Ichirou said with a sigh.

“If he did, I wouldn’t let you meet him anymore. He’s a good friend, but when he wants someone, it’s scary.”

“I’ve noticed. He has not stopped texting Yuuhei at all.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. I did text him to cool it, but I don’t think he’s going to. You can tell Yuuhei-san to block him if he needs to.”

“I would, but I think Yuuhei actually likes the attention, even if he doesn’t like Oda-san. He’s always had to chase after the people he wanted to date, so having someone chase after him must feel nice. It’s a change, either way.” Ichirou shrugged.

“I guess that’s true. It does feel nice to be liked and wanted. I’ve only had it happen to me a couple of times,” Masahiro said.

“Really? You’ve only had it happen to you a couple of times?” Ichirou asked, eyebrows raised.

“What, you think I’m pulling your leg? I’ve only had my girlfriend and a kid I knew in elementary school like me, as far as I’m aware,” Masahiro said with a snort.

“But you’re so handsome!” Ichirou blurted out before quickly covering his mouth, face turning red. “I mean, um, you know, you’re not bad looking so, uh, why wouldn’t you have people wanting to date you?”

“Probably because I’m pretty introverted. I don’t give a lot of people the time of day because of that and because I want to focus on schooling,” Masahiro admitted.

Ichirou nodded, looking down. Ichirou had admittedly had quite a few kids confess to him in middle school, but he had a larger social circle back then. It had been quite some time since someone did say they liked him. Part of him missed the confidence he had gained from that time period, but, at the same time, he didn’t like turning people down. It was better this way, he supposed.

Masahiro pulled up to Ichirou’s house, setting the car in park and looking somewhat sleepily at his fake boyfriend. “Okay, Ichirou-san, you have a good day, okay?”

“You too. Please, um, finish the paper and get some rest,” Ichirou said, giving a tiny bow of the head.

“I’ll text you to check what time you want to meet next time. Oh, and let me know what you want to eat, so I can get the ingredients,” Masahiro said.

Ichirou hesitated for a moment before saying earnestly, “I, um, I hope we can hang out longer next time! Bye bye!”

With this, Ichirou opened the car door and his umbrella as quickly as he could. Before Masahiro could even say “goodbye,” Ichirou was closing the door shut. He quickly walked around the car, up the walkway, and into his house. He closed the umbrella, shook it in the open doorway a bit, then put it into the umbrella holder beside the door. 

Ichirou leaned against the door, blowing his bangs out of his eyes. Next week was going to be a tricky date, but he was glad that it would be longer than this one.

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