Chapter 5: Chapter 5

"A-A-Aoi…is this really alright…?" Yanagi anxiously asked for the nth time.

Aoi opened his house's front gate, "Tomorrow is the weekend and you're already here anyway."

"But…" Yanagi fidgeted outside the gate.

For some reason, after he finished explaining to Aoi what happened to him in middle school, Aoi suddenly told him to sleep over at his house.

Of course, he was very happy with the invitation, but his heart hadn't even recovered from the first shock Aoi gave him.

Right!

They were dating now!

That meant he was going to sleep over at his boyfriend's house, right…?

"A-as I thought, this is too dangerous…" Yanagi took several steps back.

Aoi couldn't help but laugh, "My house isn't a demon king's castle or anything."

"I…um…I don't want to disturb your family. A-and I don't have any change of clothes," Yanagi tried dissuading Aoi.

"You come here every single day. Literally," Aoi folded his arms. "Even after I told you to wait inside, you've never rang the bell even once. Why are you so scared to meet my family?"

"What if your family found out that I'm a creep and told me to stay far away from you? I…I don't think I can do that…" Yanagi hung his head. "And I won't be able to handle it if you avoid me…"

Aoi felt his chest tighten.

How can someone be so cute!?

He calmed himself down and went to grab Yanagi's arm, "The solution to this is not avoiding my family."

Yanagi slightly panicked when Aoi pulled him in, "Eh!? A-Aoi!?"

Aoi stopped and looked back at Yanagi firmly, "You're my boyfriend, aren't you? Man up and make my family like you."

"!!" Yanagi's back straightened in reflex, "Y-yes!"

Aoi nodded in approval and continued walking in as he shifted his hand from Yanagi's wrist to his hand, "Besides, my parents give me freedom on who I choose to be with as long as they're morally good. I learn to not pry too much into others' affairs from them after all."

"I understand…" Yanagi noted it down in his heart.

Aoi promptly opened the door, "I'm home!"

"Welcome back!" his mother answered from somewhere inside the house.

Aoi took off his shoes and took the indoor slippers from the shoe rack. He also gave one to Yanagi and walked in first to greet his mother.

Yanagi changed into the slippers Aoi gave him as his eyes took in every corner of Aoi's eyes.

The genkan was pretty spacious with a wide, 3-level wooden shoe rack on the right side. Above it was a circular mirror and on the left side was the umbrella rack.

Because it hadn't rained until now, he didn't know which one was Aoi's umbrella yet. Aoi seemed like the type to prefer folded umbrellas though.

A few steps away from the entrance, the room was split into three ways. On the left was the living room while on the right was the dining room. The kitchen and the pantry were attached to the dining room and continuing straight ahead were the stairs leading to the second floor.

There were many paintings of flowers hung on the wall of various sizes. Aoi told him once that his older brother was a nature painter. He travelled around the world to paint and would send back paintings of flowers for their mother, wines for their father, and postcards and coins for Aoi.

Though Aoi's brother wasn't well-known in the country, he was very famous outside.

"Yanagi," Aoi popped out of the dining room.

Yanagi went to him, "Yes?"

"Oh my, he's so tall!"

Yanagi stiffened from the surprise.

Next to Aoi, stood a middle-aged woman with eyes and eyebrows resembling Aoi's. She had an amiable smile on her face, making her look very graceful and approachable.

"I-it's my pleasure to meet you, oba-sama," Yanagi hurriedly bowed.

"Thank you for looking after Aoi, Yanagi-kun," Aoi's mother lightly chuckled. "Aoi always has trouble approaching people, so I'm glad that he has a friend in high school. You can comfortably call me okaa-sama."

"Mom…" Aoi face-palmed as he sighed.

"I'm the one who's lucky enough to meet Aoi, ob–okaa-sama," Yanagi sheepishly smiled.

Aoi's mother smiled happily and turned to Aoi, "You can take the futon from the wardrobe in the back room as usual. Be careful not to topple everything down."

Aoi nodded and gestured at Yanagi to follow him.

Yanagi bowed at Aoi's mother once again before catching up to Aoi. The back room Aoi's mother mentioned turned out to be really at the very back of the house.

It was a spacious 12-tatami room with a traditional design, different from the rest of the house's interior. It was also connected to the backyard with a wooden veranda attached to it.

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"This is kind of like a multipurpose room," Aoi explained as he opened the wardrobe on the left side of the room. "When my relatives came to play, my cousins and I would usually play here while our parents chat in the living room. It also became a guest room if they stayed over."

He tiptoed slightly to grab the topmost futon. His brother or father were usually the ones who took out the first 3 or 4 futons because the design was pretty high.

Not that he couldn't reach it, but his posture would cause him to fall once the futon fell into his arms.

Just as he was about to give up and risk pulling the futon in the middle, a pair of arms appeared by his sides. They grabbed the corners of the futon and carefully pulled it out.

Aoi promptly let his hands go and moved away, letting Yanagi take out the futon instead. He himself took the pillow for him on the wardrobe next to it.

He was ready to go upstairs when he saw Yanagi putting down the futon to the floor.

"Why are you putting it down? Let's go," Aoi cocked his head to the door.

"Eh? You said this is the guest room…" Yanagi hesitated.

"Didn't I say that that was the case when my relatives came over?" Aoi went to the door and slid it open. "You're sleeping in my room. Obviously."

Yanagi, "!!?"

He sweated cold as he watched Aoi leave the room.

Was this really going to be alright?

No! He must make this alright!

Aoi waited by the stairs for Yanagi. A few minutes later, he saw Yanagi finally coming out with a determined look on his face like a soldier going into a battlefield.

He looked away as he held back his laughter.

The two of them went upstairs to Aoi's room.

Aoi opened the door and entered before opening it wider for Yanagi. When he turned around after closing the door, he found Yanagi collapsed on the floor, burying his face into the futon.

"Eh? What's wrong?" he was stunned.

Yanagi clutched the futon. His answer was slightly muffled but Aoi could still hear it.

"Everywhere smells like you…" Yanagi meekly answered. "…It's making me dizzy."

Realizing that it sounded so perverted, he immediately regretted his words. But before he could apologize, he heard Aoi's crisp laughter by the door.

Aoi blushed from the unexpected answer and couldn't hold back his laughter anymore. He crouched next to Yanagi and poked his head teasingly.

"What do I even smell like?" Aoi curiously asked.

Yanagi tilted his head to peek. Seeing that Aoi wasn't disgusted, he inwardly sighed in relief.

"Like morning grasses after the rain," he had come to this conclusion a long time ago.

Aoi tried to imagine it, but he couldn't, "Is that a good scent?"

Yanagi nodded as he stared at Aoi, "It's calming."

"Yet it's making you dizzy at the same time," Aoi chuckled and stood up. "You can arrange your futon next to my bed. I'll go get us a drink and a snack."

"Yes," Yanagi straightened up.

After Aoi left, he got up and set up the bedding as per Aoi's direction. His eyes couldn't help but keep straying to Aoi's bed.

This was where Aoi slept every day.

Would he be seeing Aoi's sleeping face today?

Would Aoi be the last thing he see before he went to sleep tonight?

Would he be seeing Aoi the first thing he woke up tomorrow?

Aoi's bed was covered with a white bed sheet patterned with his favourite yellow bird mascot character, similar to his handkerchief.

Yanagi unconsciously stretched out his hand and touched it. When he realized it, he was already resting his head on it.

The door suddenly opened, "Yanagi, do you–"

Aoi paused at the door with the tray of snacks and drinks in his hands. His eyebrows rose from the scene inside.

Yanagi hurriedly jumped to his feet in a fluster and bowed ninety degrees down, "No, um, it's not– I swear I didn't do anything! I'm sorry!"

Aoi stood still for a moment and laughed.

This might be a lot more fun than he thought.

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