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Mizuki's next door neighbor Asahina is a mystery just waiting to be unraveled, if you ask her. The guy barely seems to even exist. Never makes a sound, and you'd be hard pressed to run into him in the hallways of the apartment building. Mizuki can count on one hand the amount of times it's happened to her, and they were all at such ungodly hours of the night that Mizuki isn't completely sure she didn't hallucinate the whole thing. Clearly, he intends on keeping to himself and never speaking to any of the other tenants.
But Mizuki wants to know more about him, because, well, he's really hot, you see. And there's something undeniably attractive about the whole almost-a-cryptid thing the guy has going on (yes, undeniably attractive , no matter how many times An tells her "uh, he just sounds like he probably has a bunch of bodies hidden in his fridge". An is a lesbian so Mizuki is pretty sure her opinion doesn't count here.)
So, she’s been formulating a genius plan to force an encounter between the two of them, where she can actually talk to Asahina, create a bond, and gradually make him fall madly in love with her using her dashing good looks and irresistible wits. She’ll be so smooth, he won’t even know what hit him.
The genius plan involves her staying in the hallway until Asahina comes out of his apartment.
(Okay, maybe it’s not actually genius per say, but whatever gets results.)
She gets out of her own apartment at 9 am, and waits. She busies herself by texting An and Rui, playing games on her phone and listening to music. She’ll occasionally say hi to someone leaving their apartment, and then say hi again when they come back and look confused to see her still hanging around in the hallway. Mizuki doesn’t really care if they think she’s weird, honestly. A few of them already dislike her on principle ever since she put little LGBT+ themed sticker sheets in everyone’s mailboxes last year for Pride month, but it was worth it for the way the teenage girl from the second floor started shyly waving at her when she’d leave for school and saw Mizuki on her balcony, or how her upstairs neighbor didn’t let go of his boyfriend’s hand that one time Mizuki shared the elevator with them. It was especially worth it when she saw that one of the trans flag stickers from the sheets had been discreetly placed on Asahina’s mailbox. An had to suffer through her excited ramblings on the phone for two hours on that glorious, glorious day.
She gets so distracted thinking back on how happy that tiny detail about Asahina had made her, she almost misses the middle-aged woman climbing up the stairs.
Mizuki has never seen her before, but there’s something vaguely familiar about the shape of her face and the deep purple of her eyes. The woman nods at her in greeting and walks past her, then stops in front of a door and knocks.
It’s Asahina’s door.
Suddenly Mizuki feels like she can hardly breathe. She’s finally able to place why the woman looks familiar: she must be one of Asahina’s relatives. She does her best to blend in with the wall at her back, eager to see what will happen once Asahina opens his door. It feels a bit intrusive, but, well, Mizuki technically isn’t doing anything wrong by just standing around in the hallway, and if there’s anything the two don’t want her to hear, they’ll just go inside Asahina’s apartment and Mizuki will have to try another day to put her plan into motion.
Asahina opens his door, and Mizuki focuses her eyes on her phone and listens for any interesting details about Asahina’s life.
Silence is all she gets.
Confused, Mizuki looks in the other two’s direction, and sees Asahina’s blank expression as he looks at his visitor. However, Mizuki notices, his fists are clenched so hard it looks painful. She turns her gaze to the woman, and has to stiffle a gasp when she sees how sharp and cold the stare she’s directing towards Asahina is.
There’s a brief moment where silence still remains in the hallway, and then Asahina takes a deep breath.
“Mom–”
“Mafuyu, you’re being completely unreasonable,” the woman–his mother–cuts him off, and Asahina closes his mouth so quickly that Mizuki can hear his teeth click against each other.
“I mean,” the woman continues, pinching the bridge of her nose, then gesturing at Asahina. “What even is all of this?”
Asahina stares down at himself. He’s wearing a hoodie, ripped jeans and a pair of sneakers. His eyes drop to his shoes and don’t come back up.
“They’re–” Asahina swallows with great difficulty, and sounds out of breath. “They’re my clothes, mom. I don’t see the issue.”
“The issue,” Asahina’s mother responds in an annoyed tone, “is that you’re dressing like a man.”
“I am a–”
“No, you’re not,” Asahina’s mother interrupts sternly once again. “Your father and I are very worried about you, Mafuyu. We thought this was just going to be a phase, but at this point you’re just being delusional. You don’t even answer our calls anymore! We’re just trying to help you, sweetheart…”
She puts her hand on Asahina’s shoulder, either not noticing or ignoring the full-body shiver that washes over Asahina in response. Her other hand goes to play with Asahina’s bangs.
“You even cut your beautiful hair. You have no idea how many people would kill to look even half as pretty as you do, do you? How do you even hope to find yourself a nice boy to marry when you insist on looking like this?”
Mizuki is just about to open her mouth, her stomach tying itself into an impossible amount of knots and her throat tight from how much she wants to yell at the woman to get the fuck away from Asahina, but he ends up being quicker than her.
“Leave,” he tells his mother as he yanks her hand out of his hair. “Please leave.”
“Sweetheart, come on, you know I’m saying this for your own good. I’m your mother!”
“Go away,” Asahina continues, taking a step back into his apartment, but his mother follows.
“Mafuyu, please hear me out, this isn’t you!” the woman begins to plead. “I love you, sweetheart. I miss you, I miss when you still talked to me. It’s not too late to fix things…”
“I said go away,” Asahina repeats, his voice wavering but his resolve unflinching. “I don’t want you in my life anymore.” But his mother ignores him and takes another step towards him, halfway inside his apartment.
“Mafuyu–”
“Hey, did you not hear him the first time, lady?”
Two pairs of eyes turn towards Mizuki, who suddenly feels nervous at her outburst, but keeps a hard stare in the direction of Asahina’s mother.
“Excuse me?” the woman asks incredulously. “This conversation isn’t any of your business, so I suggest you stop listening in on it.”
Mizuki scoffs. “Uh, I live here. Not my fault you decided to cause a scene in the damn hallway.”
Asahina is looking at her with wild eyes. Mizuki isn’t sure how to interpret it, but it beats watching him try to hold back tears while his mom stomps all over his identity.
“I’m having a talk with my daughter, which I’m perfectly justified in doing–”
“Your daughter? Where?”
Asahina’s mother frowns at her.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“No, actually, I don’t. I mean, you were talking to your son just now, but I don’t see what that has to do with a daughter.”
Mizuki isn’t even looking at Asahina’s mother anymore. She’s entirely focused on Asahina himself, trying with all her might to convey it’s going to be fine, I’m on your side, I’ll get her out of here and she won’t hurt you anymore through her gaze. Asahina stares back, mouth parted in surprise at the scene playing out in front of him.
“I don’t have a son,” Asahina’s mother spits out, making Asahina flinch. “I have a daughter, whom I love, and I’m doing my best to help her see the mistake she’s making by pretending to be something she’s not. It’s because of people like you who enable her that she’s been acting out like this!”
Mizuki grimaces and looks at Asahina’s mother in a way she hopes is reminiscent of the way she’d look at a pile of trash.
“Are you done? If you don’t leave like your son asked you to multiple times, I’ll have to go ask my upstairs neighbor Watanabe-san to forcefully remove you from the building. He doesn’t have much patience for shitty manipulative parents like you.”
Asahina’s mother gasps at the insult, but all Mizuki hears is the way Asahina gets startled into a small chuckle, his features relaxing ever so slightly. It makes Mizuki’s chest feel warm that she was able to make him feel even just a little better about this entire shitshow of a situation.
“Well?” Mizuki asks, arching an eyebrow. “Are you leaving or not?”
Asahina’s mother grinds her teeth, but steps away from Asahina and heads for the stairs.
“I’ll call you later, sweetheart,” she says to Asahina without turning around. “Pick up the phone this time, would you?”
She then walks down the stairs, and as soon as she’s out of earshot, Asahina breathes out, “No I fucking won’t.”
It takes Mizuki so off guard that she can’t help but laugh, the tension that had been filling the hallway dissipating in an instant. Asahina has a small tired smile on his face and he’s looking at Mizuki like she’s a national hero. It feels nice.
“Hey,” he says, fiddling with the hem of his hoodie. “Thanks for… all that. You didn’t have to.”
Mizuki clears her throat and gives the sunniest smile she can muster. “It was no problem! That shit really pissed me off.” She then gets a bit closer to where Asahina is still standing in his apartment’s door frame, and asks seriously, “You okay? That was really rough.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he says, shrugging. “It’s nothing I’m not used to. I was just a bit taken aback that she’d show up here out of nowhere. I was hoping she’d just give up once I stopped answering her calls, but I guess not.”
Mizuki frowns. Asahina’s words hurt to hear. Mizuki knows what it’s like to have to deal with people like that, but at least she’s always had her sister and An and Rui on her side. Asahina’s secretive nature suddenly makes a painful amount of sense, and it makes her want to give him the biggest hug.
“Hey,” she says instead. “You wanna come inside and have some tea or coffee? I can’t imagine going back to wallow in your own apartment after this would feel all that great. No pressure though, just offering!” She hastily adds that last part.
Asahina looks a bit shocked at the offer, but quickly smiles again. “I’d like that, yeah. Thanks.” Then, he looks sort of embarrassed, as he continues. “I’ve been meaning to try and talk to you for a while now, but I could never muster up the courage to knock at your door.”
The revelation has Mizuki’s heart doing somersaults inside of her chest. “Yeah?” she says, licking her lips nervously. “That’s cool. That’s super cool.”
“Yeah,” Asahina says, “ever since you put those stickers in my mailbox last year.”
“The stickers?” Mizuki asks innocently, even though her heart is still doing somersaults, and so is her brain, and basically all of her organs, because the stickers thing meant as much to Asahina as it did to her, holy shit.
“It was the first time I felt like there was someone out there who wouldn’t judge me for being who I am,” Asahina says, his voice tight with emotion. “It took me an entire week to even be brave enough to put the flag on my mailbox, but once I did, I felt so happy. So, um, thanks for that, Akiyama-san.”
“Aah, none of that, none of that! You did that all by yourself, all I did was put the stickers in your hands!” She can feel herself blush and hopes it’s not too noticeable. “Besides, I’ve also been wanting to talk to you.”
“Is that so?” Asahina tilts his head questioningly.
“Uh, yeah! Because I saw that you put the flag sticker on your mailbox, and like, I thought it was super cool to have someone like me living literally one wall apart, and you’re also really easy on the eyes, but you literally never come out of your apartment, so I kinda just decided to wait for you to do that today, and that’s when she arrived and threw my entire plan out the window by being a total dick to you.”
Mizuki takes a deep breath, cringing at the way she just rambled and basically admitted to finding Asahina attractive, but he doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, the guy is smiling slightly at her while closing his apartment door.
“Well,” he says as he walks and stops in front of Mizuki’s door, “I’m still ending up inside your apartment, so I’d say your plan was decent.”
Mizuki tries not to read too much into Asahina’s words, but the teasing tone and smug look really aren’t helping her out. Instead, she takes her keys out and goes to stand next to Asahina, unlocking the door.
Asahina immediately looks a bit more shy once the door is actually open, but Mizuki gives him a reassuring smile. “Tea and coffee first. Then we can talk about how handsome I find you and you get to decide how that makes you feel.”
Asahina chuckles, his cheeks reddening. “I already know how it makes me feel, but I suppose a cup of tea beforehand wouldn’t hurt.”
He steps inside her apartment, hands in his hoodie’s pockets and shoulders slightly hunched, clearly still a bit shaken by what just happened with his mother despite the easy-going conversation and light flirting, and Mizuki thinks, I’m going to protect this guy with my life. And also kiss him a little, if he lets me.
She follows him inside, closing the door.
“Make yourself at home!” she says, gesturing towards the couch in the living room. “I’m gonna go take care of our drinks. Do you have a preference?”
Asahina sits down on the couch, looking around the living room curiously. “Any tea you have is fine. I’m not picky.”
“Alright!” Mizuki replies cheerfully, then all but runs inside the kitchen, where she does her best not to freak out. She takes the tea bags out, starts heating up some water and gets the coffee machine going, before taking out her phone and texting An and Rui in their shared groupchat.
mizuwuki
HELP
HOT GUY IN MY APARTMENET
annnnnnnn
lol
ruwui
Congratulations :)
mizuwuki
WHAT DO I DO
annnnnnnn
is it ur weirdo neighbor or
mizuwuki
he’s not a weirdo!!!! he’s cute!!
annnnnnnn
he looks like a drowned rat
ruwui
Does he? i’ve never seen him
annnnnnnn
saw him that one time i had to drive mizuki home cuz she was too drunk after ur bday party
he scared the absolute shit out of me emerging from the shadows like that
mizuwuki
he was just getting out of his apartment omg let him live his life!!!
annnnnnnn
cant believe you let him in ur apartment like that
ur gonna be joining the other dead bodies in his fridge
mizuwuki
hey come on i told you to knock it off with that! some really awful shit just happened to him so i’m just making sure he’s doing okay
annnnnnnn
and definitely not attempting to seduce him right
mizuwuki
……………………………
well i mean i told him i thought he was hot and he seemed kinda into it so???? i’ll just see where it goes from here!!
annnnnnnn
u just talked urself out of ur own problem lol
anyways u know i kid
i dont care that u wanna date a guy who looks like hes never met a hairbrush in his life. live ur truth girl
mizuwuki
your words are encouraging but feel distinctly condescending
thanks an i love you <3
ruwui
I support you mizuki :) hopefully things go well and we can properly meet him eventually
mizuwuki
thank you rui!!!! this is why we share a nickname theme and an doesn’t <3
annnnnnnn
hey we already talked about this
1 the uwu thing is cringe
2 my name doesnt work with it anyways
mizuwuki
i just think that’s a lack of creativity on your part
annnnnnnn
shouldnt u be worrying about ur crush on ur neighbor
mizuwuki
shouldn't you be worrying about your crush on kohane?
annnnnnnn
blocked
ruwui
Haha
mizuwuki
anyways gotta go guys! i do actually need to worry about my crush on my neighbor right now lol
Mizuki pockets her phone and fills two mugs, one with coffee for herself and the other with tea for Asahina, then takes them back to the living room with her.
“All done! I hope I didn’t make you wait too long.” She sets the mugs on the coffee table and sits down next to Asahina on the couch.
Asahina shakes his head. “No, don’t worry.” He stares at his hands. “Your apartment looks nice.”
“Oh, uh, thanks! I like spending time decorating it,” Mizuki answers, then tries to take a sip of her coffee to calm her nerves, but immediately burns her tongue.
“Ouch!”
Asahina smiles. “You’re supposed to wait for it to cool down a bit before trying to drink it.”
“I–I know that!” Mizuki feels so embarrassed right now. She’s usually a lot better at this, but Asahina’s introverted demeanor is a far cry from the people she usually picks up at parties. It makes her want to be careful with her words instead of brashly flirtatious, which means she’s a bit out of her depth.
“Uh, well, anyways!” she recovers as quickly as she can. “I guess this is the part where we talk more about ourselves, yeah? First off, you can just call me Mizuki. Akiyama-san is way too formal for me.”
“Oh,” Asahina breathes out. “Okay. Um…”
He seems to hesitate, but Mizuki waits patiently for him to decide on what he’s about to say.
“I know… I know my mom used a different name for me earlier, but I’d like it if you could call me Yuki instead.”
“Of course!” Mizuki does her best to keep her tone kind, despite how her blood boils at this new piece of information regarding his mother. “Yuki it is!”
Asahina–no, Yuki–looks so relieved that it makes Mizuki want to cry.
“Thanks, Mizuki. You’re a very nice person.” Yuki says earnestly, and it has more of an effect on Mizuki than any other compliment she’s ever received in her life.
“Hehe,” she laughs dumbly as a response. “Um, so, I’ve been meaning to ask. Is there a reason why it’s so hard to run into you?”
“Oh,” Yuki says, surprised at the question. “I work from home, and I don’t have much of a social life, so I don’t really have any reason to get out much, I guess. I just go to buy food at the convenience store late at night because there’s less people then, but that’s pretty much it.” He winces at his own words. “I… I realize how lame that makes me sound, but I’m just not very good at socializing. The only friend I have is too busy to come by most of the time since she works in entertainment, so I just text her instead.”
“Ooh, tell me about your friend! What’s she like?” Mizuki asks. She doesn’t want Yuki to focus on things he seems to dislike about himself, and she figures that his friend would be a safe subject.
“She’s really sweet and funny,” Yuki replies, smiling fondly. “She’s the first person I ever came out to, once I got the courage after I got your stickers. She’s been nothing but supportive since then.”
“That’s really good to hear,” Mizuki says sincerely. She herself doesn’t know what she would have done without An and Rui’s support. “She sounds like a great person.”
“She is. Her name’s Emu. We met in high school and kept in touch once I graduated. She helped me a lot when it came to, um,” he takes a sip of his tea before continuing, “moving out and progressively cutting ties with my parents.”
Mizuki hums. They both drink their respective hot beverage. Mizuki breaks the silence first.
“That must have been hard. Cutting ties with your parents, I mean.”
Yuki frowns. “Not really.”
“Huh?” Mizuki stares at him in shock.
“It wasn’t just because of the gender thing that I ended up refusing their calls, if that’s what you’re confused about. They’ve pretty much always sucked. So as soon as I realized I didn’t have to talk to them anymore if I didn’t want to, I stopped. And it felt amazing.”
Mizuki keeps staring as Yuki finishes his tea.
“I… wow… I didn’t realize it was that bad. I’m really sorry to hear it, Yuki.” Then, she laughs, trying to lighten up the mood. “Now I wish I’d insulted her a bit more before she left.”
Yuki laughs along with her. “I should have kicked her down the stairs while I had the opportunity.”
That makes Mizuki laugh even harder, and soon they’re reduced to a pair of giggling idiots, leaning against each other on the couch. It takes them a few minutes to recover from the laughing fit, but once they do, Yuki has his head resting on Mizuki’s shoulder and his hair is tickling her chin. Mizuki does her best to be normal about it.
“So,” she begins, taking a deep breath.
“So,” Yuki repeats when Mizuki doesn’t finish her thought. He gestures at the mugs. “I can’t help but notice that we’ve finished our drinks. And I remember you saying that you’d tell me how handsome I am once we’d be done with that?”
He’s looking at her with a slight smirk on his face, but his cheeks are red and Mizuki can tell how nervous he is. He probably doesn’t flirt too often, and the idea that Mizuki makes him want to get out of his comfort zone and try is enough to get her blushing too.
“I did say that,” she tells him in a playful tone. “And it’s true. You’re very handsome, Yuki. My friends are tired of me telling them about how attractive I find you all the time.”
Yuki’s eyes widen, and his entire face goes up in flames.
“I. I see. Um, that’s good to know.” He turns his empty mug around in his hands, then breathes out. “I think you’re very pretty.”
Yuki looks like he’s about to pass out once the words are out of his mouth, and Mizuki wants to squeeze him in her arms and kiss his sweet, handsome face.
“So, we both find each other attractive. Maybe we should do something about it, hm?” She bats her eyelashes at him innocently. “How about you and I go on a date and see where that takes us?”
Yuki is speechless for a second, but nods fervently. “Y-yeah, I’d love that. I’m free whenever next week, so I’ll just let you pick a time and place, if that’s okay…?”
He looks at her so earnestly that Mizuki has to suppress the urge to kiss him right then and there. Instead, she rummages under the coffee table and takes out a pen and some sticky notes. She writes her number on one of them and sticks it to Yuki’s hand.
“Here, my number. Just text it once you’re back in your apartment and I’ll tell you more about stuff we could do. Deal?”
She smiles sweetly at Yuki, who looks dazed for a second, but slowly smiles back. “Deal.”
They both get up from the couch, seemingly in agreement that Yuki should go back to his apartment right now and text Mizuki immediately. Mizuki accompanies him to his door outside in the hallway, and Yuki unlocks his door but stops before fully opening it.
“Um. Mizuki?”
“Hmm?” Mizuki replies, already lost in thoughts of how their first date would be like, and what the best place to take Yuki would be.
“Can I kiss you?”
Mizuki’s thoughts screech to a halt and she’s barely able to hold back a frankly embarrassing noise. She licks her lips. “Yeah, go for it.”
She sees Yuki swallow and lick his own lips, and wow, okay, that looks really hot when he’s the one who does it, and then she stops thinking because Yuki’s lips are on hers.
By all accounts, it’s not the best kiss Mizuki has ever experienced. Yuki clearly has no idea what he’s really doing (and oh god, there’s a high chance that this is his actual first kiss, what the fuck) and so he doesn’t try to do much, just presses their lips together softly and steps back after a few seconds, but regardless, this is a thousand times better than any make-out session Mizuki has ever experienced in her entire life.
She doesn’t have time to say anything about it, because as soon as it’s done, Yuki opens his door, quickly saying “Um okay so I’ll see you later I guess bye!” and then he’s inside of his apartment and the door is closed and Mizuki is just standing there, the ghost of his lips still hanging around her mouth.
She goes back to her own apartment on autopilot, putting the mugs in the sink to deal with later and then flops down face first on the couch, trying not to scream.
Instead, she gets her phone out of her pocket and opens her chat with An and Rui.
mizuwuki
FUCKEHFBEHJSKFB
YES
I FUCKIN DIDIT
HAHAHAHA
I GOT A DATE
AND A KISSSSSSSSSS
annnnnnnn
wait fr
awesome! happy for u girl
ruwui
That’s great :) now an is the only single one left out of the three of us
annnnnnnn
why would u ruin this moment by mentioning this rui
u evil evil man
ruwui
:3c
mizuwuki
IM SO HAPPY
I AM GOING TO BE SO MUCH MORE ANNOYING ABOUT HIM TO YOU GUYS I HOPE YOU’RE PREPARED
annnnnnnn
wow i cant wait
srsly though… good for u mizuki. u deserve this
ruwui
Yes you do :)
mizuwuki
THANKS GUYS SNZ SZAKD
Mizuki is about to continue her capslock insane ramblings, when suddenly a new text from an unknown number appears on her screen, and she almost drops her phone.
Unknown
Hey, this is Yuki.
More texts follow.
Unknown
I’m really sorry for freaking out there. I was just really happy and didn’t know what to do with myself.
But I enjoyed kissing you a lot.
And I hope you’ll let me do it again many times in the future.
The overall tone is so nice and polite that Mizuki could cry. This boy is going to kill her from how cute everything about him is.
Me
i loved kissing you too!
next time, i’ll make sure it lasts a bit longer though ;)
i have to check my work schedule, but i’ll send you details for our date asap!
i can’t wait <3 <3 <3
Yuki
I’m looking forward to it.
Mizuki watches the three little dots appear and disappear for a little while after that last text, but eventually, a new one comes through.
Yuki
<3
Mizuki’s heart fucking soars.