Chapter Text
"Kanata, can i talk to you for a minute?" Chiaki said, tapping his shoulder a little. It was just yet another day of RYUSEITAI practice, and they had just finished wrapping up. "what is it?" Kanata replied, looking quite curious, as it seemed his best friend was failing to contain his feelings about what he was about to say.
"You see," Chiaki paused. "Recently.....Kiryuu has agreed to go out with me! He said we can try things out, see how it feels."
"ah." The words just came swiftly out of Kanata's mouth, like a natural reaction. He felt....something odd. Like a small needle had just pierced through his chest. This kind of emotion felt even stranger due to the seeming lack of reason for it to exist.
See, it wasn't the first time Chiaki mentioned someone he was interested in. Even before they graduated, he had mentioned previous crushes to Kanata several times, and there was no particularly notable reaction from his body then, so why would it happen now?
Nevertheless, he had to congratulate his best friend. "that's 'wonderful' news, chiaki." he said with a slight smile. "though, you had not mentioned you were 'infatuated' with him to me up until now, so i am quite surprised."
And indeed, that was the case. Usually Chiaki just couldn't keep what he felt to himself, and ended up either accidentally blurting it out while chatting with someone he's close to, or he just eventually couldn't take keeping it a secret anymore.
"Ahah, that's because....it's quite a recent crush i've developed, see." He said. "But it seems that Kiryuu has felt similarly towards me for a while now, and so he approached me. So, although it's....a bit fast to me, he seemed so sincere that i couldn't even think of turning him down. Not that i particularly wanted to, anyway."
"hmmm....is that so." Kanata said, and suddenly there it was, that strange feeling again. He wondered if he had eaten something bad earlier that day. Then, he received a sudden text; it was from Souma, asking about when he would come to do a circle activity with the rest of OCEANS, which he had surprisingly almost forgotten due to the conversation he was just having.
"ah, i am gonna be busy in a 'bit' so i must go now but, you can tell me as much more as you want later, chiaki. since i've always liked listening to you talk about that kind of 'thing'." He said, before going off.
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The idea of Chiaki with another man. It was something that he wasn't unfamiliar with, yet for whatever reason it was something that kept bugging him ever since the Kuro situation had been brought to his knowledge. In fact.....Kanata's perspective of a lot of things related to Chiaki were changing recently.
For instance, he suddenly felt a lot more disappointed when he didn't have any lessons with the brown-haired friend in a while, and he kept thinking of him when they were apart. His scent, his eyes, the warmth of his embrace.....those were all things that kept popping up in his brain. Not to mention, the strange anxiety he felt when their faces were close together. He had been dismissing it as just missing his best friend, though, so he thought nothing of it so far, but...?
"You've barely touched your grilled fish, Buchou-dono." Souma said, in a slightly concerned tone. "Is everything alright?"
It was only then that Kanata realized how much he was dozing off. "my apologies, souma. i am fine, just a bit lost in thought is all." he said, in a very unconvincing tone. Souma didn't really feel the need to pry, though, so he just went back to eating his own food, and Kanata then went on to eat his own grilled fish. Something he hadn't noticed until after taking a bite of his fish is, he has been choking on things a lot easier recently as well, even when he hasn't eaten anything, like there's something stuck in his throat. The blue-haired boy wonders if he should go see a doctor.
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Upon getting back to the ES dorms, Kanata sees Hiyori and Rinne eating cake and playing cards on the ground through a small crack in the door, doing whatever they pleased as always. As soon as he opens the door, he is greeted with a loud:
"Kanata-kuuuuun! Tired today? Yes, no? If not, why not join me and Rinne-kun in our deadly UNO battle? Maybe if we put some higher stakes on the line? I'm open for almost anything, and this guy is no question gonna comply! Interested?"
That voice very obviously belongs to Hiyori Tomoe. Though Kanata doesn't really have anything against having some fun with his fellow roommates once in a while, he passes the opportunity this time around.
"thank you for the 'offer', ohisama-san. however, i would like to rest in my 'bed' for now, as a lot has happened today, and my throat feels quite painful." He says, with a smile, before continuing to walk onto his own bed in order to lay down in it for a while.
He remembers what he said to Chiaki about talking some more later, and so he decides to take the iniciative himself, as he believes it's his job to listen some more as a good friend. They text back and forth for a few hours, about things even unrelated to the topic of going out with Kuro, and before he knows it it's already midnight. So before ending the conversation to sleep, Kanata asks one final thing
"so, chiaki. if you and kuro were to become an official 'couple', and went so far as to get married...would that make you happy?"
There's a 2 minute-long delay between the point where Chiaki sees the message and the one where he actually answers it, most likely for him to recompose his thoughts due to embarassment. And so, he replies with
"Right now, i'm not too sure if i can even wish for something that far down the line. But, if it does end up working out, then i suppose....yeah, it would, i'd love to! Maybe. I'd hope for it, at least."
And upon reading those words, Kanata suddenly begins to cough. Quite hard, actually, for a few more seconds than usual. And suddenly, he notices he's coughed out....one, two, three red flower petals into his own hand. In an usual context, he would get more than simply confused by the fact that he had just coughed out flower petals. But rather than that, what was plaguing his mind was a much more simple thought...
That these petals reminded him of Chiaki.