Chapter Text
Kojiro was screwed.
He’d been screwed for as long as he could remember and through some cruel twist of fate, it was getting worse.
He could’ve sworn it used to be easier to delude himself into pretending he didn’t feel what he knew he did. To say that he simply enjoyed winding Kaoru up because he always provided the most satisfying reactions to his teasing. They’d grown up together after all, their dynamic easy and familiar as they bickered like an old married couple, neither ever backing down or admitting defeat.
Kojiro reckoned it had been about two years since he realized why he was so intent on eliciting this attention from Kaoru.
Things had been so much worse since Adam had joined their skating crew. Tall, imposing, mysterious: it was clear that Kaoru was instantly smitten with him, mooning after him as Adam skated past with undeniable grace. Kojiro had to admit that he was impressed with Adam at first. They’d both been. The three of them formed a tight little trio, skating around town after dark, evading the police and smoking under the freeway. He knew from the moment that Kaoru nearly fell off his board and Adam caught him just in time like something out of a goddamned fairy tale that their trio was starting to lean lopsidedly.
But Kojiro could always bring Kaoru’s attention back to him with a well-aimed barb, bring the full force of Kaoru’s glare on him once more. Kaoru had this façade of being this cool, collected intellectual that seemingly only Kojiro was able to rip away with a single comment.
It became… almost addictive, in a way.
Even as Adam and Kaoru skated together long after Kojiro had to leave, whispering and laughing behind their hands at some secret joke, growing closer and closer whilst Kojiro awkwardly made up the remainder, not bold enough to demand they include him and too stubborn to leave them to it.
Adam may have your attention now, he thought, but I have a sixteen-year head start.
Kojiro had over a decade of friendship with Kaoru, of inside jokes and childhood memories, of being next door neighbours and school friends… Adam couldn’t just overcome that, even with his mysterious charm and his crooked smile.
That’s what Kojiro told himself, anyway.
He knew Kaoru; he knew all of the complexities and nuances of what made him him, how he loved skating but hated math, how on his birthday all he wanted was calligraphy supplies but his family insisted on getting him sports gear, how he grew out his hair just to piss off his dad who said he was always too feminine.
So yeah, Kojiro was screwed.
Not long after Adam joined their duo and irreparably changed their dynamic, Kojiro knew that he had lost. He’d slipped out his bedroom window after his curfew to retrieve the spare board he and Kaoru left stashed under the bush between their houses for when either of their families were getting annoyed with their skating and confiscated their boards.
Kojiro’s family was well-meaning, and he couldn’t begrudge them for their insistence that their teenage son return home before midnight, but it certainly made joining the perennially free Kaoru and Adam more difficult. Kaoru’s father seemed to exist in a state of extremes: too much attention spotlighting down onto his son, or too little. In the months before summer break, it was the latter. Kaoru could be gone for a week and his father wouldn’t have noticed.
As Kojiro snuck out of their street and could relax without being spotted by an eagle-eyed parent well-acquainted with the sound of skateboard wheels, he felt the freedom well up in his chest and grinned, breaking into a run and hopping onto his board.
He would go to the skate park and hang out with Kaoru and Adam, and he would bridge the widening gap between he and Kaoru, stop him from becoming increasingly ensconced with Adam until he didn’t need Kojiro anymore.
The night air was still warm, the slightest breeze ruffling his hair as he rounded the corner towards the skate park where he knew the others would still be. The smile slipped off his face slowly as he took in the sight before him illuminated by the streetlamp.
Adam was sitting on the bench, Kaoru right next to him with his back to Kojiro. Both of Kaoru’s legs were draped over one of Adam’s, and one of the taller boy’s hands was clenched possessively in the back of Kaoru’s shirt. Kojiro realized with a painful jolt in his stomach that Adam’s other hand was tangled in Kaoru’s long hair, tilting his head back roughly as they kissed.
Before he could stop himself, he dropped his board. It fell to the ground with a deafening clatter in the silent park, rolling off into the gloom. Kojiro jumped, and from the looks of it, so did Kaoru, who spun around to see the cause of the noise.
“Kojiro!” His voice sounded strangled.
Adam just tilted his head at him, his cocky smile playing around his lips. “Ah… You’re back. Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
Kojiro clenched his fists, trying not to rise to Adam’s jibes. He cast his eyes around for the board, desperately trying not to look at Kaoru’s flushed face and disheveled shirt. If this was only a few months ago, Kaoru might have sided with Kojiro, told Adam that only he could bully Kojiro.
But no, this was then, and Kojiro was pretty sure that Adam could do anything to him and Kaoru would still follow him anywhere, tugging Kojiro behind them like a distracted child with a balloon.
“Sorry. I’m interrupting.”
“You are,” Adam said silkily, burrowing his head into Kaoru’s neck. Kaoru squirmed, letting out a surprised gasp that made Kojiro’s stomach sink even lower.
“S-see you on Monday—” Kaoru managed breathlessly.
Kojiro turned on his heel, leaving the park. He couldn’t deal with… all of that whilst trying to find the abandoned board.
The air that had seemed warm and pleasant to him on the run over suddenly felt stifling and muggy, his skin feeling like it was crawling underneath him with prickling heat. Insects whined near his ears and he swatted at them as hard as he could, his breathing labored.
Kojiro tried to push out the sickening twist of mortification in his stomach when he thought of his reaction to seeing the two making out. Had he given it away, that he was utterly, ridiculously into his best friend? He imagined his dumbstruck face, his flustered exit. How must that have looked to the other two?
After all, he knew it was coming.
Every stolen glance and secret conversation was leading to this, he knew it was.
So why had it hit him like a fucking truck?
Because you like him, a traitorous part of his brain thought.
Kojiro let out a huff of bitter amusement. Great.
A few days after his worst fears had been realized, Kojiro felt an odd sense of relief.
He had never been one to dwell when he was down, knowing that more often than not, he would bounce back before long. After all, there was something relatively comforting about a worse case scenario. There really was nowhere to go but up.
Kaoru and Adam were together—so what? Kojiro was there with Kaoru before Adam, and he’d be with him after Adam was long gone.
Kojiro whistled as he prepared his bento on the Sunday evening, losing himself in the familiar routine of it all. How long would Kaoru even put up with Adam anyway? He knew his friend didn’t suffer fools gladly, so it was surely only a matter of time until he saw through Adam’s charm and saw him for the sleazebag he really was.
Without thinking, Kojiro had prepared Kaoru’s bento like he always did. Kaoru seemed to run on caffeine and snacks despite Kojiro’s persistent nagging to eat, dammit until eventually Kojiro had realized that if he wanted his friend to eat, he’d have to do all the work for him. It had become a part of his routine, arranging the rice and the vegetables in the artful way that Kaoru always cast an approving eye over, the absence of criticism enough praise.
Kojiro paused. It’s not like it was a big deal that he always made Kaoru’s lunch, but if he had a boyfriend…
He shoved the thought from his mind. It was just a friend making a friend food, a part of their friendship that had been going on for years now. Surely it would be even more weird if he stopped all of a sudden, all but confirming that Kojiro made him the bento because he liked him.
After all, he loved cooking. It was one of the few things besides skating that he felt he truly excelled at, that grounded him and made the daily grind of school and homework and nagging parents bearable. He wasn’t going to stop making food for his best friend because of Adam of all people.
With this, something clicked in his mind.
Of course. He wouldn’t let Adam’s hold on Kaoru ruin his love of skating for him, or his friendship with Kaoru. Sure, Adam had flashy moves and a fascinating way of skating, but Kojiro had some tricks up his sleeve too.
He’d play the long game, act like he wasn’t fazed by Adam and Kaoru’s relationship and carry on playing the part of the longsuffering best friend stuck third wheeling until eventually, Adam fucked off to whatever mansion he crawled out of.
Newly armed with this conviction, Kojiro waited outside Kaoru’s house the following morning. From inside the small house next door, Kojiro heard the familiar strains of raised voices.
“Fuck you!”
The front door opened and Kaoru emerged, gripping his bag strap with excessive force. He slammed the door shut behind him, stalking past Kojiro with his long legs. Kojiro hastened his pace to match the other boy’s.
“Morning loverboy,” he crooned, determined to sound as normal as possible. He knew that asking Kaoru what was wrong would only cause him to clam up further. But the teasing was a constant in the friendship, and he knew that Kaoru needed to be distracted, even if it was with the subject that Kojiro wanted to avoid most.
Predictably, Kaoru’s face colored. “You’re so annoying,” he muttered, shoving at Kojiro.
Kojiro laughed, overtaking Kaoru and walking backwards right in front of him. “So… Adam, huh?”
“Don’t push it, Nanjo—”
“Kaoru and A-dam sitting in a tree~”
“You’re so immature—”
“K-I-S-S-I-N… Wait, no, it was on a bench, what rhymes with bench?” Kojiro cackled at the downright mutinous look on Kaoru’s face. “Wrench? French?
“I hate you. I hate you,” Kaoro hissed, lowering his voice upon their approach to their high school. “This is why you’re going to be alone forever.”
Kojiro pressed a hand to his chest. “Now that’s not very nice. I get plenty of confessions, thank you very much.”
Kaoru rolled his eyes. “And you turn them all down. Hence: being alone forever.”
“Maybe I’m just waiting for the right person,” Kojiro said lightly.
Kaoru laughed. “Yes, hopefully one day a female gorilla will transfer and you’ll finally have found the one for you.”
“Ha ha, the gorilla insult,” Kojiro replied drily, “never heard that one before.”
“Insult?” Kaoru cocked his head quizzically. “You mean you’re not a gorilla?”
“Brat.”
“Ape.”
“Um, K-Kaoru-kun?”
Both of them turned from their antagonizing to see one of the girls from their class. Her name was… Sakamoto, Kojiro recalled. Pretty, he thought grudgingly, watching her twist one blonde curl around her finger as she looked at her feet shyly. Sticking out of her pocket was a pink envelope.
Kojiro’s stomach sank. Twice in a week? Couldn’t he catch a break?
“I’ll leave you two to it,” he heard himself saying. He winked at Kaoru as he walked past, ignoring the twist of jealousy in his stomach.
Kaoru-kun. Kaoru-kun? Who did Sakamoto think she was? He was sure they’d barely interacted before, too. Kaoru hated that kind of presumptuousness; he’d surely cast her off.
Kojiro sat down heavily at his desk, staring at his homework that was due second period. The numbers swam in front of him, teasing him with their inscrutability as he tried in vain not to think about the confession that Kaoru was receiving that very moment.
What he needed was someone of his own to distract him, to take the fact that seemingly all of Okinawa was after his best friend. He cursed himself for turning down that cute first-year the week before.
Kaoru sighed heavily, seating himself next to Kojiro and taking out his own books.
“Yes, dealing with your endless admirers is tiring, isn’t it?” Kojiro said, not looking up from his homework.
“I wouldn’t mind if they were my admirers,” Kaoru replied, “but being bothered by your fan club is exhausting.”
“My fan club?” Kojiro looked at Kaoru, surprised.
“Yes. Sakamoto-san wanted inside information on you before she confessed,” Kaoru said, seemingly unaware of the spin he’d sent Kojiro in. “She’s from Calligraphy Club, you know. Lovely penmanship.”
“And what did you tell her?”
Kaoru blinked at him. “That you’re single but not interested. She seemed upset, but they always are.”
“What’d you do that for?” Kojiro scrambled to his feet, looking wildly at the door.
Kaoru seemed bewildered. “You always say no—”
“Well, maybe this Sakamoto-san is the one for me!”
“But she isn’t your type—”
“What do you know about my type?” he grumbled.
Pink hair, gold eyes, lover of calligraphy and skating. What would Kaoru know about his type?
Kaoru still looked baffled, although now it was tinged with smugness. “I suppose she is prettier than that female gorilla you’ve been waiting on—”
“Shut up,” Kojiro snarled, making his way out of the classroom to find Sakamoto.
She was stood near the classroom, surrounded by a gaggle of her friends who were clearly comforting her.
“He’s not worth it.”
“Wait, shhh, he’s coming this way—”
“Hey ladies,” Kojiro said, smiling his brightest smile. “Could I borrow Sakamoto-san for a moment, please?”
They blushed in tandem and ducked their heads, nodding. All but one, who narrowed her eyes at Kojiro and squeezed her friend’s hand. Kojiro met her distrustful gaze steadily until she left with the others.
Sakamoto blinked up at him, tears still in her big brown eyes. She really was pretty, Kojiro realized with a start.
“Sakamoto-san, I just wanted to apologize for upsetting you,” he said smoothly. “Kaoru wasn’t exactly right with what he told you.”
“So you… you would be… interested?” Sakamoto looked away from him, clearly embarrassed.
“How could I not be?”
That made her smile, and she reached into her bag to pull out the pink envelope he’d spotted before. He ran his gaze over it—Kaoru was right about her penmanship—whilst she watched him nervously. Kojiro looked up from the letter and smiled.
“Would you like to meet up sometime next weekend?”
Sakamoto nodded, and they exchanged contact information. She waved shyly and slipped into to the adjoining classroom for homeroom which, shit, Kojiro was about to be late for.
This was good, he thought. He’d go out with Sakamoto, who was so vastly different to Kaoru with her delicate features and shy personality. Surely, she would take Kaoru completely out of his mind. His crush on his best friend was just that—a crush, and one that he needed to get over.
How better to do that than with someone else, right under his nose?
And if him no longer being a perpetual bachelor made Kaoru jealous?
Well, that was just an added bonus.
He slid behind his desk with seconds to spare, ignoring Kaoru’s probing stare for as long as possible.
“What did you say?” Kaoru hissed, whilst their teacher was distracted taking attendance.
Kojiro leaned over to his desk, relishing in the suspense.
“Let’s just say that you might not be the only one Frenching on a bench from now on.”
Kaoru let out a strangled growl, but his dedication to upholding his put-together reputation stopped him from cursing out Kojiro in front of the whole class.
Kojiro rocked back in his chair, a small smile playing around his lips.
Maybe he wasn’t as screwed as he thought he was.