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Mayuzumi didn't really understand why he had signed up for a fucking 7 AM class about Historical Politics.
Maybe because he thought he’d ace it easy, maybe because he needed the credits, or maybe because Tetsuya said that Professor Aida was one of those teachers who give out As like it was free flyers and he really needed to boost his GPA this semester. Maybe. But he started to wonder if it was worth it or not at all.
This Monday has sucked, and the morning hasn’t even passed yet. He had to wake up at six o’clock after staying up late for that stupid assignment on philosophy (which he bulshitted the entire two pages of how he view life in all its right), and to make it all worse, he had to be greeted by Akashi.
“Good morning, Chihiro.” The prat had said. And Mayuzumi, still pissed from the lack of sleep, had to snark back at him. “It’s Mayuzumi-senpai to you, Akashi.” The redhead had the gall to chuckle as he sat on Mayuzumi’s table, using Mayuzumi’s favorite cup to drink Mayuzumi’s favorite milk. He usually ignored Akashi’s presence in their place as much as possible, but maybe he really needed to talk to Tetsuya about bringing home his boyfriend on a Monday night- especially since his brother knew that Mayuzumi can’t stand being in the same room as Akashi for more than five minutes.
The Professor still hadn’t come after the clock struck its tenth minute. If he wasn’t going to come in half an hour, Mayuzumi would definitely get his ass out of the uni and get some nap at the nearby coffee shop until his 2 PM class.
He pulled out one of his light novels to pass the time, reading lines he already knew by heart. But reading about cat-eared shrine maidens beat out sitting and idling doing nothing any day. He had such a bad start today, maybe reading about how cute Marina-chan was would put him in a better mood.
On the fifteenth minute, a guy actually wobbled to the seat next to him. And somehow, Mayuzumi felt good that he actually had a better morning than this guy.
The guy was blond, but he wear a black beanie on his head, as if to hide an extreme bedhead (a trick Tetsuya and Akashi often employ during morning classes after their messy night). He wore a yellow zipped hoodie with white undershirt that had obvious coffee stains on them. The faded jeans he wore was ripped in various places and he brought a khaki backpack on one shoulder. From the strong smell of cigarettes and coffee, the guy probably hadn’t sleep for at least two days.
He sat next to Mayuzumi, despite the other seats being as empty as they were. Probably because it was his usual seat or something. The guy took out a white Starbucks cup from the side of his bag and fished out a bottle of energy drinks out of his bag.
“I sure hope Tora-chan don’t come today…” he said to no one in particular as he opened the cup’s lid and pour the suspiciously yellow energy drink into the murky black coffee. “Or else I’m going to fucking die for sure this time.” And he drank it. In three gulps. Mayuzumi didn’t even try to hide his wide-eyed stare anymore.
This was probably the best ‘college is horrible time of life’ example he had seen in the entirety of his college life.
The blond didn’t look energized, in fact, he just looked even grumpier than when he first came.
“Ah screw this. I’m just going to go.” He stood up and turn to leave, but in the exact same time he was about to make it to the door, Professor Aida stood in front of him with a menacing grin.
“And just where the hell do you think you’re going, Hayama?” He said with a big menacing smile on his face. Mayuzumi could almost see the metaphorical flame dancing behind the man. “T-Tora-chan! I thought you weren’t going to come today!”
“No, but Riko-tan made me onigiri for lunch, how could I say no to my daughter who thinks so much for her daddy’s lunch.” His voice changed into a happy, playful one before he flicked the blond on his forehead. “Now sit your ass down before I decide to fail you, Hayama. I’m not going to be your supervisor if you fail my class so let’s just hope you don’t fuck this up, got me?”
“Yeeeees,”
The guy sighed before wobbling back to his seat next to Mayuzumi. He yawned loudly through the professor’s introduction before putting his head on top of his desk, his face facing Mayuzumi’s book.
“Whoa, Marina-chan no Rinne Rondo. I haven’t read that since I was in high school.” He whispered, and Mayuzumi wasn’t sure if he was talking to himself or he was trying to start a conversation. So he took the safer option and just let the guy’s statement hang in the air like he didn’t hear him at all.
But it seemed that it wasn’t his intention to let the conversation die out like it did, because he looked up from the book and directly meet Mayuzumi’s eyes with his own…
…and said nothing. Annoyed, Mayuzumi challenged him with a cock of his head. As if saying ‘what?’ to the other’s face.
The guy kept his silence before he took a deep breath and whispered something Mayuzumi would never forget in years of his acquaintance with Hayama Kotarou.
“Do you know that you have the most beautiful face in the entire campus?”
He would have blushed, but all the blood went to his head instead. He already had a bad day, and now he was being harassed in a 7 AM class. Mayuzumi gulped down everything he wanted to shout at the guy about bad mornings and inappropriate things to say to strangers and took out his new headphones out from his pencil case.
He ignored the guy for the rest of the class, even when the other tried to strike up conversations numerous time in class.
***
“You won’t believe what happened during HP, Tetsuya. Maybe the A wasn’t going to worth all the shit I may have to put up with.” The Mayuzumi-Kuroko brothers had a ground rule when their parents marry each other: they had to get along no matter what. And both he and Tetsuya thought that the best way to get along is to spend two hours with each other twice a week on any day of the weekdays they could.
Mayuzumi didn’t hate Tetsuya. The kid was only a year younger than him, so he really didn’t need to deal with someone so younger he’d be in a totally different phase than Mayuzumi himself. And the kid made it harder to hate him anyway. He kept to himself, although he’d still treat Mayuzumi as he would a brother. He told stories about his own life and of course, introduced all of his boyfriends to Mayuzumi before he even told their parents.
He’d been there to hear the stories about how Tetsuya first found out about his homosexuality with his beloved childhood friend Ogiwara Shigehiro. He’d also been there to hear about the loss of contact breakup he had before moving on to a new relationship with Aomine Daiki. And also when he tried experimenting with Kagami Taiga, but ended up being best friends instead though it lead to having a nasty breakup with Aomine. And he was eventually there when Tetsuya introduced Akashi Seijuurou as his new, and possibly permanent boyfriend.
Mayuzumi himself also told Tetsuya that he was bi. That he had experimented with boys and girls alike during high school. But he never really did have a dramatic love life like Tetsuya’s and his kid brother never bothered him about that. And that was why he really liked being Tetsuya’s brother after all. Because they were so alike with each other and it made things a lot easier.
Tetsuya didn’t move his eyes from the nursery rhymes he’d been assigned to read for the afternoon at all as he answered Mayuzumi’s concern. “Trust me, it’s worth it. HP is worth three credits even though it’s an elective. So I think it is a class designed to be a GPA booster.” He took the vanilla milkshake from the table, still not looking up from the book. “Getting an easy A from such an easy class should worth any ‘shit’ you have to put up with.”
And he hated the fact that it was right.
Still, Mayuzumi frowned when he remembered about the conversation-that-did-not-happen in the morning. He was really pissed now that he think about it. Not because it was said so early in the morning so it practically ruined his already bad mood, instead, he was pissed that he actually thought what if it wasn’t said in a bad morning.
He didn’t even know anything about the guy. And yet he could remember his whisper like it was a line from his favorite light novel.
Tetsuya had put away his book at some point during his daydreams and now was staring at him with a blank look on his face. It was one of the aspects about Tetsuya he wanted to get mad about sometimes, but he knew that he usually had the same look when observing someone so he really couldn’t reprimand him about this habit.
“Did someone piss you off in HP?” Tetsuya asked, his eyes not leaving Mayuzumi’s own. “Why would you say that?” He asked in return.
“Because the only reason why you would be so pissed in a class with a credit you absolutely need could never be something as menial as the time it was being conducted. So the problem is not with the class, it must be with someone inside that class.” Crap. There was also a downside on being so similar with Tetsuya after all.
“There was this guy…” he didn’t really want to seem like a sissy in front of Tetsuya, but maybe the kid has some good advice. Mayuzumi then sighed. He didn’t want to tell Tetsuya after all.
And of course, Tetsuya didn’t push further. He only pull out that stupid smile of his, reserved as the trademark ‘I got your secret’ face he always showed Mayuzumi whenever he decided not to be as much as a jerk as he could have. “Enough about me then. How about you?”
Tetsuya shrugged.
“Nothing special. I’m not really in the same class as anyone you know. Life is as normal as it is for me.” Mayuzumi nodded, because Tetsuya really have nothing to say with how stable everything was for him. If anything, it was him who was weird for having something to hide this early in the semester.
“Anyway, I have a 2 PM class I can’t miss after this. How about you?”
“I have no class for the rest of the day, and I have something to do with Akashi-kun this afternoon. I will be home earlier than you, I think. Do you want me to make dinner?”
Oh, yeah.
“Yeah, and I’m gonna have to ask you to stop bringing Akashi over on Monday nights, Tetsuya.” Mayuzumi sighed as he gathered his belongings and push them inside his bag. “Any particular reason why?”
A silence, then-
“Because if I want to survive the entire semester with Historical Politics every 7 AM Monday, I don’t really want to deal with your boyfriend so early in the morning. At all.”
Tetsuya laughed.
***
“We’re in the same class!”
Crap.
But this was an internal class! Did this guy take the same major as Mayuzumi and he didn’t know the guy? Seems plausible, but still…
“I didn’t get to introduce myself last time, but I’m Hayama Kotarou!” He grinned as he took the seat next to Mayuzumi, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “And I still think you’re the prettiest person I’ve ever seen in the campus.” He said, as if he said it every day in the year. Mayuzumi really wished to ignore him. Really. But…
“I’m Mayuzumi. From transnational crime course.”
“Really? I’m from law enforcement course, but I guess we still have the same class for Penology, huh? I hope we’re in the same class on Basic Human Rights!” And they were, they both just didn’t know that yet. So at this point, Mayuzumi was wishing really hard so that he didn’t have to share another class with this guy.
So in the 5 PM BHR class, Mayuzumi was practically doing an impression of a statue just to ignore the guy who’s been yapping about this and that from so early in the morning.
This would be a normal thing in their relationship, but Mayuzumi didn’t know that yet. So he just try hard to make sure that Hayama Kotarou didn’t make ripple in his completely normal life.
***
Going home at 8 PM to your kid brother making out on the foyer with his boyfriend is not a pretty sight to behold.
He’d always known that Akashi loved to make advances on Tetsuya in places they aren’t supposed to make one. But Akashi is Akashi and Akashi does what he wants.
“Ah, good evening, Chihiro.” And Akashi had this way of saying his name that Mayuzumi really hated. If it was Hayama… no. He’s not going to go there. Nope, no thank you.
“Do you guys have to do it in the foyer?” Was his only reply. No snarky remarks at Akashi, pretty grownup thing to do. “Yes, because Akashi-kun was just leaving.” Tetsuya was the one who answered, and his voice tilted into disapproval. This happened all the time with Akashi and Tetsuya, this battle of sass and underlying meanings to their word.
The redhead chuckled. “Yes, I was just leaving. I will be seeing you tomorrow, Tetsuya.” And then he left without bowing his head to Mayuzumi, still chuckling. Disrespectful brat.
But he’s used to Akashi, just like how Tetsuya was used to having his early morning grumpiness. So he shrug the matter off and tried to handle the problems that he weren’t used to.
Like Hayama Kotarou, for example.
Despite this Monday being the fourth Monday he had HP, Penology, and BHR together with Hayama, Mayuzumi still hadn’t tell Tetsuya about him. He didn’t know if it was because he didn’t want Tetsuya to find out the odd feelings he felt whenever the blond got too near or too forward with his words and say it directly to his face or if it was some other thing…
But in the fifth Monday, Mayuzumi found out that there was no escaping Tetsuya.
After HP, Hayama had taken almost all of his Mondays to follow Mayuzumi around. And of course this resulted to changing his lunch with Tetsuya to another day of the week. And of course Tetsuya felt curious and decided that a stroll around campus with his prick of a boyfriend on 10 AM is a good idea to have.
Pretty much the whole campus know about the president of student executive board’s relationship with a guy from nursing major, so they could hold hands to patrol the campus like nobody’s business. And it was nobody’s business until Tetsuya’s azure eyes caught him standing dumbfounded like an idiot while a blond guy with beanie hat was praising him on and on about how pretty he looked.
Mayuzumi ran. And unsurprisingly, the one who chased him was Hayama Kotarou.
***
When Mayuzumi felt like he hated the world, he always ran to the abandoned garden behind the medical faculty’s old building.
The garden was wild, but there was a spot underneath cherry blossom tree that was well-maintained because Mayuzumi sat there all the time. The smell of alcohol and antiseptics lingered around and calmed him down. The sound of the cherry blossom petals falling onto the abandoned pond also did good to calm him down. He didn’t like feeling like he had to run from Tetsuya. And really, none of this would happen if he had just talk to his kid brother about this… this thing he had for Hayama Kotarou.
No, none of this would have happened if Hayama Kotarou didn’t come to sit next to him in Historical Politics.
Mayuzumi practically fell to his knees the moment he reached his sanctuary and decided to just lie with his face down. Aaaah he hated this feeling. He just wanted it all to get away.
Well fortunately, medical faculty is a loooong way from the social faculty’s building. So he guessed that nobody (with this he really meant Hayama Kotarou) would ever chase him here. Not to mention that people from social faculty always have some sort of disdain towards those who came from medical faculty so Mayuzumi doubted anyone would want to come here.
But-
“Hey, you found my secret spot!”
He didn’t even bother to lift his face up. No, not at all. He just lie there and accept the fact that Hayama won’t ever leave him alone.
But still, Mayuzumi whispered. “Why the hell are you here, Hayama…?”
It seemed that Hayama didn’t hear him. The blond proceed to sit next to Mayuzumi’s head, his back casually leaning on the tree trunk.
He never think that Hayama would be capable of silence, but it passed between them anyway. The silence was comfortable enough for Mayuzumi so he didn’t try to break it. And did Hayama. He stayed with his silence, only humming a few calming tunes that escape Mayuzumi’s mind at the moment.
Tired. He was tired. Monday always brought the worst out of his body and he just wanted to fall asleep, really.
And when he was about to drift off, Hayama let out a quiet chuckle as he put his fingers on top of Mayuzumi’s hair, caressing it slightly.
Mayuzumi could swear that his heart skipped a beat, but he pretended that it didn’t bother him at all. It felt nice, somehow.
“You know,” he spoke, seemingly confident that Mayuzumi didn’t hear him. Or maybe he knew that Mayuzumi was not asleep. He didn’t know exactly. “The first time I saw you, I think I fell in love.” His heart skipped another beat, but he tried to calm down while focusing on the light caress Hayama had been doing all this time. “When everyone else was acting all excited during orientation, you were so calm and graceful. And you looked like nobody could ever disturb your pace…” He took a deep breath and continued. “You were so quiet. Like you were a night sky, busy with your own world. I thought I couldn’t touch you.” He sighed fondly. “But I wanted to get close, you know? I wanted to try if I could disturb your flow. I wanted to be a part of your night sky. I had wanted to be a moon. Like I’m always there, completing your world somehow…” He chuckled again. “Wow crap. That sounded really corny. I’m glad you can’t hear all of this. I must be hanging around Reo-nee too much if I’m this much of a sap.”
Mayuzumi pretended to yawn while stretching his body. “Too bad you came like a lightning instead of a moon.” He spoke, sounding incredibly irritated. And he hoped that Hayama got the message because honestly he was getting incredibly pissed. “W-whoa! You’re awake! Uh-!”
Without letting Hayama make another sound, Mayuzumi pressed a kiss to the blond’s lips.
It felt like chocolates, like oranges, lemons, and everything citrus. Hayama tasted like sunshine and daisies and everything the word ‘summer’ has to offer. At first, Mayuzumi could tell that Hayama was surprised, but as soon as he got his handle at the situation, Hayama put his hands around Mayuzumi’s neck and pulled him into an even deeper kiss.
Mayuzumi rolled off all of his irritation towards Hayama all these weeks into the kiss. He hated everything this guy did, but crave it all the same. If Hayama were to stop pestering him and calling him pretty every second he thought Mayuzumi was paying attention, maybe there would be something missing from Mayuzumi’s life and he won’t be able to tell. He didn’t hate Hayama, he hated the way Hayama made him feel.
How irritating.
Eventually, they broke the kiss, desperate for the air they really need. Hayama looked at him, dumbstruck. As if he didn’t believe that he just kissed Mayuzumi after all this time.
“Ma-Mayuzumi- I- uhm- I’ve been-“
“Just so you know, I’m bi.” Mayuzumi shot first. “I hate that you make me feel like I have to run from Tetsuya. And just who in their right mind would praise a guy they just met with the world beautiful or pretty? You’re an idiot.” Hayama said nothing, but he scooted closer to where Mayuzumi sat, smiling. “Anyway, when we go back we’re going to explain everything to my brother. Including how you’re practically in my Monday classes and how particularly draining it is for me to deal with you so-“
“Will you go on a date with me, Mayuzumi?” His smile didn’t falter whatsoever. “And just so you know, I’m completely gay. I’ve been in a relationship before, and this guy turned out to be a girl in heart instead. So I let him- um, her- go. You’re my crush immediately after her.” Mayuzumi didn’t know how to make of that, so the blood ran to his head instead.
“Ah! You’re making that face you made in HP! So cute!”
“Do not call me cute! And sure, I’ll go on a date with you. And also…” Mayuzumi flicked the guy’s forehead harshly with his fingers. “I don’t date guys who mix energy drinks with coffee in dead mornings.”
Hayama laughed out laughed before tackling Mayuzumi onto the tree trunk and kissed him once more.
A year and a half later, after graduation, under the cherry blossom tree-
“Chihiro,”
“What?”
“Do you know why I took Tora-chan’s HP even though I really don’t have any other 7 AM class in my schedule? Since, y’know, I’m a terrible morning person?”
“The credits are good and Professor Aida is your professor, right?”
“Nope,” Kotarou took of his graduation cape and put his head on top of his shoulder. “It’s because Kuroko and Akashi told me that you’re going to take that elective. That’s why I signed up right away.” They both kissed, and Mayuzumi made a note to himself to never trust Tetsuya’s recommendation on things unless he asked if there was an underlying meaning within.