Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Summer arrived.

And it was very hot.

Aoi was reading manga in his bed when the doorbell rang. Getting up lazily, he looked out the window to see it was Yanagi.

Too lazy to go down, he opened the window and called out instead, "Yanagi! Just come in!"

Yanagi looked up and hesitated, "Can I?"

"Nobody's home and I'm too lazy to go down," Aoi leaned to the window. "The spare key is under the blue pot by the door."

"Okay…" Yanagi promptly opened the gate.

"Oh, and bring up popsicles for us," Aoi added before closing the window back.

After a few minutes, he heard Yanagi coming upstairs and he soon reached his room. In his hand was a grape-flavoured popsicle

Yanagi opened it and gave it to Aoi, "Um…is it really alright to tell me where the key is?"

"Why won't it be? My family is already familiar with you," Aoi accepted it and continued reading. He showed a scene from the manga to Yanagi, "It's no different than giving a spare key to my boyfriend like this, no?"

Yanagi blushed, "If Aoi said so…"

He put his bag onto the low table and sat on his knees next to the bed.

"Was it hot outside?" Aoi noticed Yanagi's face and neck were covered in a thin layer of sweat. "I only opened the window slightly and immediately got burned."

Yanagi nodded, "It's a lot hotter than last year. The forecast said it's about 37 degrees."

Aoi hummed as he sucked on his popsicle, "I guess I won't be going to the beach this year. I don't want to get a heatstroke."

"Mn," Yanagi agreed. "It's better to stay inside."

Aoi closed his book and lay on his stomach, facing Yanagi, "You didn't get any popsicles?"

"There was only one left…" Yanagi waved his hand and quickly added. "But it's alright. I made sure to drink a lot of water."

Aoi raised the popsicle in his hand to Yanagi's lips, "Here."

"E-eh?" Yanagi shifted away slightly in a fluster.

"Come on. It's melting," Aoi urged.

Yanagi gulped and stiffly bit a little down.

Aoi put the rest back into his mouth with a chuckle, "You're eating the part that I sucked."

Yanagi choked on the popsicle in his mouth and hurriedly covered it to not accidentally cough any liquid out.

He looked at Aoi wrongfully with teary eyes, "Aoi…"

"Hm? Want more?" Aoi teasingly offered the popsicle again.

Yanagi shook his head at first. But with a look from Aoi, he eventually gave in and nodded.

Aoi watched Yanagi's lips quiver as he bit down on the popsicle and inwardly laughed.

So cute.

"Are you not curious why I called you to come today?" Aoi finished the last bite of the popsicle.

"Oh…" Yanagi fiddled with his clothes, "…I thought you only wanted to meet up. I'm sorry…"

Aoi rested his chin on his palm, "It's because a certain someone is too scared to ring the bell without any invitation that we haven't hung out until now. You don't even text me. You wasted a whole 2 weeks, Yanagi."

Yanagi paled and hung his head in remorse.

Even after he promised Aoi that he would fix himself, he was still a coward. All the plans he made for him and Aoi to spend together in summer vacation went into the gutter because of he himself.

"I'm the one who text you good morning and good night. I'm also the one who always text you first for anything. You always reply to things shortly and even that takes a long time for you to do," Aoi listed and tilted his head to Yanagi. "Are you in love with me or are you actually scared of me?"

Yanagi snapped his head up in a panic, "It's not like that! I'm not scared of you, Aoi!"

"Then?" Aoi was inwardly enjoying Yanagi's panic-stricken face though he maintained his straight face outside.

"I…I don't want to accidentally wake you up from sleep in the morning or sleep before you at night. I don't want to b-bother you with my texts and accidentally annoyed you. I'm scared that you'll h-h-hate me if I pester you too much or say the wrong things," Yanagi deeply bowed in remorse. "I'm sorry...I will do better."

"Being boyfriends mean that you have the privilege to annoy me and I have the privilege to mess with you. If I did get annoyed, you just need to redeem yourself," Aoi reached out and straightened Yanagi back. "I don't like being the only active one in our relationship while all you do is apologize to me."

Yanagi restlessly touched Aoi's hand, "I-I'll be more active. I promise. Don't be mad…"

Aoi stopped messing with Yanagi and laughed, "I'm not mad, but I'm serious, Yanagi. Didn't you promise to fix yourself?"

Yanagi blinked a few times and flushed red, "Y-y-you were awake at that time?"

"I'm not exactly a heavy sleeper," Aoi sat up and slid down to sit next to Yanagi. "Tell me, what have you fixed?"

"I've been exercising daily since then," Yanagi honestly answered. "And I feel like I can talk to Aoi better than before."

Aoi thought about it and nodded, "Mn. You do talk a bit louder and smoother now."

Yanagi felt happy from Aoi's affirmation. He couldn't contain his smile as he asked in return, "Um…so, what did you call me for, Aoi? Do you need any help?"

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Aoi took his phone and surfed for a while. He then showed a social media post to Yanagi.

"Summer festival," he simply put. "It won't be that hot at night, so it should be fine to play outside. What do you say we go here today?"

Yanagi's eyes brightened and nodded, "Of course!"

"In return, you think of something for us to do next week," Aoi folded his arms.

Yanagi stood up and went to his bag before returning with a thick yellow notebook. Opening it, Aoi found that the notebook papers were actually blooming because of the things he put there, like a scrapbook.

"I…already did," he handed it to Aoi despite his embarrassment. "But I got too excited and went overboard…"

Aoi skimmed through it and found that the summer festival he just invited Yanagi to was also on Yanagi's list.

Yanagi steeled himself and straightened his posture, "Aoi."

"Hm?" Aoi looked up from the scrapbook.

"Next year, I promise I won't waste any second of our summer," Yanagi's fists clenched nervously. "By that time, can I… spend my whole summer with you?"

Aoi lightly laughed, "Only if you're the one who invite me."

Yanagi firmly nodded, "Of course!"

The two of them discussed about the things Yanagi found and scrapped into his notebook as they waited for evening to arrive.

Yanagi was glad that he took the courage to bring the notebook with him. He was afraid that Aoi would be off-putted by him, but he decided to bring it anyway.

He was really lucky to fall in love with Aoi.

To have someone like Aoi willing to tolerate and spoil him, his fear only seemed ridiculous now. Aoi accepted his feelings towards him, so he should show them and act upon them more.

Getting scared of Aoi hating him was the same as disregarding Aoi's goodwill towards him.

When evening arrived, they finally left the house and headed to the festival together. Yanagi helped locked the door and gate for Aoi.

The festival wasn't too crowded yet since they were early. They decided to play around first and buy food later.

"Yanagi, can you shoot?" Aoi pointed at the shooting booth.

"I'm not sure…I've never tried it before," Yanagi honestly said. He immediately added, "But I'll try. What do you want, Aoi?"

"Peko."

Yanagi looked at where Aoi was pointing.

It was a figurine of the yellow bird mascot character Aoi liked.

"I'll get it for you!" Yanagi determinedly declared.

Aoi chuckled, "Do your best."

He thought he would get to see Yanagi cutely struggle to shoot a gun, but he was wrong.

"Aoi, I got it!" Yanagi happily gave the figurine to Aoi.

Aoi accepted it in bafflement, "…"

Yanagi actually got it in his first shot and it didn't seem like a lucky shot…

He was mixed between impressed and disappointed.

Yanagi noticed it and became restless, "Eh…? Did I get the wrong one? That's not Peko? I still have 2 shots left!"

"No, it's the correct one," Aoi shook his head. He smiled, "Thank you."

Yanagi was happy with Aoi thanking him, but he was still anxious, "R-really? Do you want anything else?"

"It's nothing, really," Aoi sighed in lament. "I was just surprised that you went to the cool route and got it for me in one shot."

"I have a pretty good eyesight…" Yanagi scratched his neck sheepishly.

"From stalking me?" Aoi teased.

"Eh!? Um…" Yanagi didn't really know himself.

He only knew that all his senses became twice better when it involved Aoi.

"I'm joking," Aoi laughed. "Well, that reaction was more than enough. Let's go."

Yanagi sighed in relief and quickly followed Aoi. Watching Aoi's happy smile, his eyes unknowingly softened.

He would do anything to make Aoi happy.

"Aoi..." he whisperingly called out.

"Hm?" Aoi turned to him.

Yanagi meekly asked, "S-should we...wear yukata next year?"

Aoi's eyebrows rose slightly and he nodded with a chuckle, "Mn."

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