Chapter Text
It started with a love letter. Of course it fucking did.
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Kamitani Hayato walked into Morinomiya Academy, tears wet at the corner of his eyes from excessive yawning. Taka was probably babbling nonsense about his plan with Kotarou, along with the other brats, today. And judging from the weird glances they were getting from people around, his brother was being pretty bloody loud.
It was the last week of November, and the weather was already chillier than usual. Now that they were in a heated building, though, the skin under Hayato’s scarf was starting to precipitate beads of sweat.
He was still holding Taka’s dark purple jacket, for the toddler had insisted that he ‘ ain’ even a liltt’ bit cold, nii-chan! ’ when they had left their house; but Hayato could tell that the brat was more than relieved as soon as they stepped into the warmer space.
“Pipe down already, idiot. We’re in a hallway,” Hayato said, not bothering to look down at the little person beside him as he slid the daycare door open.
“Taka-cha!!!! Kamita!!!”
Like every day, the kids exchanged jumbled, noisy greetings before jumping up on Hayato as if he’d vanish on the spot.
Daily hellos, to him, rendered quite unnecessary and power consuming. He did need most of his power for baseball, after all.
Well, unless—
“Good morning, Kamitani.”
“G’morning, Kashima.”
Kashima Ryuuichi, who was flashing him the signature ‘ Good Morning’ smile, was a big mess, colored paper in his hands and vibrant sticker packs scattered around his spot on the floor. It was actually impressive, though, how he did not have any sticker on him—nor his backside—yet.
The toddlers were now back to surrounding the smaller teenager now, bouncing and begging to play with him—except for the quiet one, Kotarou, Kashima’s beloved little brother, who was just half-blankly staring at the things his sibling was holding.
“What are you doing?” Hayato raised an eyebrow, attention back to the weird-looking art tools.
“Ah, well, I was thinking maybe the kids could do some new arts and crafts,” the brunet replied. “So, you know, they can have some fun and maybe find something they like to do.”
“Ryuu-chan, always the considerate one, isn’t he?” Usaida Yoshihito, the Guinness-World-or-whatever-it’s-called laziest pink-haired human. “I’ll be lonely, then, if the guys have something to beat up instead of me.”
Hayato huffed. “Your ass will surely be sleeping.”
Kashima waved his hands urgently with an apologetic expression plastered on his face, “I actually prepared enough for all of us to participate.”
“Oh wow,” Usaida drawled. “What’s the activity, anyway?”
“Decorating paper cookies…” the teen answered, clearly shy about his craft idea. “They weren’t able to fully decorate the cookies they baked with Inomata-san’s club last time. I think they might enjoy putting stickers on fake ones for the time being.”
Hayato thought that it was a brilliant and Kashima-like idea.
“A—anyway. Don’t you have baseball practice today, Kamitani?”
Oh, right.
He managed to forget his dream and aspiration, thanks to the thought of decorating fake treats with kids and a certain brunet. Hello, Monday.
“Right,” Hayato said. “I’ll come back to help you after school, then.”
“Sounds great! Thanks a lot,” another angelic, sterling ‘ Woah, I’m so Grateful ’ smile was thrown ruthlessly at him. The taller teen swallowed.
Yeah. Hello, Monday indeed.
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When he opened the locker door, the disturbing screech of a sound felt like a blow to Hayato’s already confused head. He was immediately faced with a pile of pink and red envelopes reeking of artificial fragrance.
Love letters.
Hayato would never come to understand the reason why people still send these testimonials to him. But they weren’t a hindrance to his daily routine, so all he usually did was keep them all in a box and brush any dust off of them every once in a while. After all, he was not a fool and knew that the girls and, occasionally, boys had to muster up quite a chunk of courage to do this for him.
And that’s exactly why he had a lot of respect for the girl that had snuck in Kashima’s first love letter a while ago; even though it was more than evident that Kashima devoted ninety nine percent of his attention to the little brother.
There was no way Kashima would be interested in love .
Hayato mentally slapped himself on the face. He took another quick glance into the locker, and—
Hmm?
There was one particular letter that stood out. Not that it was radiating more care and effort nor was it some other shit people say when they meet their so-called ‘love at first sight’, though.
It was just the fact that this one was stubbornly stuck to the wall of his locker rather than limply lying on its floor.
It was a yellow sticky note.
Hayato peeled it off with curiosity. Shrugging, he decided he might as well just read this one now, since he didn’t have to waste time take it out of a casing—and how long of a message can one leave on this small piece of paper, anyway.
—Have a sweet Monday. Don’t forget to fill your day with yummy treats!—
Hah?
There was no declaration of feelings, no ‘ Dear Kamitani-kun’ , no place to meet after school, no nothing, only a phrase telling him to eat things that can cause him cavities like he was a petty little child or something.
He flipped it over twice just to make sure that he was not, in fact, hallucinating. The tall teen only found small hand drawn cookies and cupcakes next to the words.
Now that he looked closely, even the message was so neatly written. Some words were of different styles, arranged artistically to fit the others. The round, bubbly curves of the characters elegantly complimented the sharp edge of the writer’s penmanship.
Hayato frowned. All this intrigued him even more.
For now, though, baseball was probably calling for him.
He shoved the yellow note in his pocket and snapped the locker door shut, leaving all the other letters behind.
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Decorating fake cookies weren’t that bad; that is, coming from the person who was not decorating them.
Hayato had decided to at least help the kids and Kashima with the little activity to show his appreciation to the brunet. And it wasn’t like he despised the kids; although it was starting to get on his irascible nerve how Taka was hogging all of the Ranger Five stickers to himself.
“Taka-chan has tu sharre!!” The girl, Kirin, insisted, pointing at an empty space on her ‘cookie’ to show that the Pink Ranger, her favorite, had to tragically—in Hayato’s opinion—live there from now on.
“Nah! I need dem,” his idiot brother stuck out his tongue. “Me only sharre wif Kotarou.”
Bang!
Ah, it was definitely his call to hit Taka, Hayato thought while Taka wailed like a dolphin missing its tail. Kashima was chiding the taller teen for using violence as usual.
Today was really just a typical day—
Until Taka hit him back with his small, unforgiving fists and something flashing yellow fell from his pocket to the floor.
Holy crap. I totally forgot.
“What’s dat!” One of the blond-haired kid, most likely Takuma, asked. “Kamita alsho hassa cookie!!”
Hayato snatched it back right away. He was merely curious and did not want it to be destroyed. That was all. Yes.
“That’s not a cookie, Taku-kun,” Kashima corrected shakily before quickly going back to pamper the teary-eyed Kazuma kid with reassurance. (“No, Kazu-kun, Zebra-san would not be sad if you put him on your cookie. It’s okay.”)
Hearing a telltale shuffling sound from behind, Hayato turned back to see Usaida surprising still alive and not dead from oversleeping. “Could it be that Hayato-chan’s got a secret? Hmm?”
This prick…
Hayato resorted to grumbling threats to the man. “It’s no secret. Here,” he tossed the subject into Kashima’s hands.
The teen examined with warily, shifting his weight between his two legs on the floor. “E—eh? Isn’t this a love letter…of some sorts?”
“Oh, wow, you hottie.”
“That’s what I think,” Hayato told Kashima, punching Usaida hard enough to shut him up. “But maybe some idiot put this in the wrong locker.”
“I don’t think that’s the case, Kamitani,” Kashima scratched his cheeks as he looked up and caught Hayato’s eyes. The doe eyes were wide, brimming with so many emotions he could never be able to decipher.
He hummed, feigning the poker face that was threatening to break down. “I still don’t know who sent it.”
“Me, me!!!” Takuma shouted out. And, oh, how he wished it was true. This whole ordeal was giving him a major headache.
“Kirin wants to sen a love ledder, too, Ryuu-niichama!!”
Laughing awkwardly, Kashima guided the kids back to their cookies. “You can when you get older, Kirin-chan.”
“Old like Ryuu-niichama?”
“Nii-cha,” Kotarou pointed at his brother.
The teen choked. “U—um. Yeah, sure.” He turned back to Hayato, meekly whispering, “Maybe this person will reveal themselves to you some day.”
Hayato raised an eyebrow.
“Ah. That’s what I’m hoping for.”