Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Isagi Yoichi considered himself organized with his academic life.

He went to bed at a reasonable time, never missed any classes and made sure to check his emails everyday at morning—even though most of the times there was nothing important.

Keyword, most. Of course the one time Isagi decided that he could spend five more minutes in bed would turn out to be the exact same day that Ego dropped the biggest announcement ever in his mailbox.

Havoc was the near-perfect definition for the current state of the hallways. Everyone had something to say about the message they received overnight. Since when did any of these people even check their mailbox?

“—There is no way. This is probably just another stunt that Ego pulled off to scare the shit out of…” Someone with a raspy voice answered, still half asleep. Isagi wondered who Ego was trying to warn this time, usually, the victim of his threats was Shidou, sometimes Otoya with noise complaints.

“—sure, but did you see that there are new cameras? We should have seen this coming way earlier. They even placed a camera in that hidden hallway that people used to go to make out…” Another person spoke from across the hall, not minding the presence of the other students while speaking as loudly as she wished to.

After hearing only a part of what the girl had to say, Isagi couldn’t help but throw a few glances up to random cameras. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but he did notice a small red light flickering a little. It seemed like those were not the new cameras mentioned in the conversation—unless all of them shared the same brand, which sounded likely.

His steps always held a steady rhythm, however, a unsettling sensation caught Isagi off guard, which made his pace drop significantly. This feeling was familiar, but he couldn’t identify its origin—only that it belonged to someones intense gaze fixed at him.

The thought was dismissed as quickly as it appeared. Isagi’s mind couldn’t focus on anything else when he still hadn’t figured out the content of the email everyone talked about so eagerly. Asking a random person to explain the situation didn’t sound like a bad idea at this rate.

Just as Isagi was about to execute his previous plan, a voice cut through the crowd surrounding him. “There you are! You saw the email right? We are so done and I wish I was joking. I swear, if that rule-obsessed-freak separates us, I will-“ Bachira’s words came out in a rush, being interrupted by his own shaky breaths, seemingly from running around the whole school spreading the news. Of course he would be the one searching for Isagi at such an early hour, except that for this time, Bachira had some company with him.

“Calm down, he ain’t goin’ anywhere.” A soft voice with a slight accent emerged from behind Bachira. “We already have enough people freakin’ out.” Hiori’s voice was calm, laced with tiredness. It seemed like he had seen enough out of everything that was happening.

Before anyone could utter another word, Isagi pulled both the boys closer to the wall, avoiding the growing crowd in the hallway.

“I need an explanation on whatever is going on, I am clueless.” Okay, Isagi was not completely clueless. He already had some theories from what he’d heard—but he ignored the fact, preferring to add a dramatic effect to his speech while doing so.

“So you haven’t heard about anything? At all?” Bachira asked, his cheerful tone almost absent.

Haven’t heard about anything is an overstatement. Isagi had heard about a new rule, dorm changes, and something in regards of the two main buildings of the school—the ones that separated half of the students from each other—but again, he kept this to himself so he could get the whole story faster without having to explain anything. “Of course not! Stop with the gatekeeping and just tell me what is going on!” He exclaimed, his patience was clearly being tested today.

“Alright, calm down! I’ll make it as short as possible.” Bachira said while leaning against the wall on his side. “Ego said that everyone has two days to pack everything in their dorms since all of us are changing rooms and roommates.” Bachira explained while gesturing with his hands, a habit Isagi was quite fond of.

Okay, this is bad. Like, really, really bad. Before Isagi could even form a coherent thought, Bachira continued voicing his thoughts.

“I think Ego hates us, because there was no reason to swap everyone out!” Hiori, who stood by Bachira’s side, agreed with a nod. “Like, why not just separate the ones causing trouble and leave us alone!? I bet Ego is probably thinking something like ‘That’ll teach them a lesson!’.”

If the situation wasn’t as tragic as it already was, Isagi would’ve laughed at Bachira’s depiction of Ego.

Now, going back to what is actually important. What. The. Fuck. They had just settled in after coming back from winter break and now they are already changing dorms? Really?

This was Isagi’s second year studying in this school and he had managed to find the best roommate ever—Obviously he was talking about Bachira, his best friend. They seemed to have some type of special connection, because that was the only explanation on how quickly they became friends—but now, because of another stupid rule Ego just had to create, they would be separated.

Before Isagi’s thoughts started to spiral, Hiori decided to add a final detail to Bachira’s explanation. “Also, Ego went as far as to mix the buildings. Apparently, half of the students from each are swappin’ sides.”

Yeah, no fucking way. Ego does hate us, because there is no other explanation for this shit unless he is a psychopath!

This whole building system was really weird, especially in the moment Isagi first discovered about it.

Basically, the school is divided by two nearly identical manors. They have dorms, classrooms—everything they needed exclusively to the students from that building. It was almost like these were two different schools built in the same plot—except that, once again, they are nearly identical. Only a few things were shared between buildings, for example the cafeteria and gym, who were almost like meeting places for friends who got separated.

The big thing about this whole system was for a competition. In the hallway that connected the two buildings stood a leaderboard. It was updated every single time a test result came out and showed the 25 highest grades from both sides.

The goal was simple, Ego wanted to encourage students to study more so they could get some recognition or even compete with students from the other building. As crazy as it may sound, this actually worked really well. Some students dedicated themselves into getting on the leaderboard, and others studied hard to keep a constant streak.

And there was also the Itoshi’s—one of the biggest rivalry between buildings that anyone had ever seen.

The origin or reason of their rivalry was unknown, all that people cared about was how they shot each other death stares whenever both crossed paths and how their interactions seemed to never occur, even though they were brothers.

And of course, how could you talk about an Itoshi without mentioning both their beauty and intellect?

Itoshi Sae and Itoshi Rin are the textbook definition of beauty. Both have similar long lashes adorning their teal eyes, a silky pink and dark green hair accompanied by an amazing build—It was hard not to notice how alike both of them looked, even with many differences. Many discussed about who was the prettiest sibling, but only a few managed to get an concrete answer.

Isagi never got the chance to actually talk to Sae since he was located at the West. Isagi rarely ever had the chance to go there, let alone talk to any specific person.

Rin, on the other hand, was always by Isagi’s side, like it or not. Their friend group was rather messy, so even though they were declared nemesis, both shared more time together than wished. Sure, the pair kept their distance and always argued once they got too close, but that doesn’t erase the previous statement.

Handsome was an understatement for Rin, and Isagi could acknowledge that much. His eyes were magnetic, easily locking anyone in place with his death glare. Every single time he was annoyed, you would only have to wait a few seconds to get either the nastiest glare you’ve ever received in your life or an eye roll followed by a snarky comment. (Of course, considering that you are Isagi Yoichi, if you’re not, then you would probably get ignored by Rin.)

His beauty, however, was not limited to the outside. His genius mind was also amazing, but only a few people were able to appreciate this part of Rin.

He managed to calculate in mere seconds the amount of strength required for his shot so the ball would be sent flying directly to the goal.

Rin always managed to pass every single test with ease, always had an insult ready to throw at Isagi, never repeating any of them (outside from lukewarm and halfbaked, but that was part of their little rivalry tradition). Also, he’d never-

We are getting carried away. Actually, Isagi is the one being carried away in his troubled thoughts about Rin. Lets go back to the explanation.

If you’re not amazed by the Itoshi’s looks—which is an extremely hard task—you could always take a look at their academic acheivements. Both always got the first place in every single test possible, which resulted in a great number of students requesting their time to tutor them—offering crazy amounts of money for a single hour of teaching. Of course, neither of the Itoshi’s ever accepted any of these offers, preferring to spend their time on literally anything else.

That had been the tradition of this school for a long time. The Itoshi’s command of the school’s leaderboard, not giving anyone a single chance at getting to the top one was expected, because getting in the way of either one of them meant declaring a war you knew you couldn’t ever win.

Well, that had been the tradition until a certain someone entered the equation. Isagi Yoichi, to be more specific.

Isagi’s determination to be the best never once faded throughout his life, he always adapted to the various types of grading systems, teaching methods—everything and anything he needed to in order to be the number one, or at least considered the best by the majority. It was obvious that once Isagi eventually found out about the leaderboard system, he would certainly go absolutely crazy over it.

He still remembered vividly the amount of time he had spent studying for his first test—he and Bachira even made a bet on whether he would be able to beat Rin or not! Bachira grinned for the entire week, thinking he’d just get some easy money out of Isagi’s pocket and see his over-confidence shredded to pieces.

Turns out Isagi could actually hold up to his ego.

The moment the leaderboard started updating, a group of students stood around the screen, waiting anxiously for the results.

Once the loading finally came to an end, there stood his name at the top of the list.

Test results - East

1. Isagi Yoichi - 100
2. Itoshi Rin - 99

   …

The moment everyone's eyes met Isagi’s name sitting at the top of the leaderboard, a collective gasp echoed through the room, and for a few seconds, the world stopped spinning for Isagi. He had surpassed Rin, The Itoshi Rin.

Of course Rin was not happy about losing his number one streak he had built alongside his brother for so long. Everyone present in that room knew exactly how the next scene had played out.

Isagi and Bachira started celebrating the moment their brains processed the information written out on the screen, and seconds later, the rest of the crowd cheered with them.

Rin stood by the corner of the hallway, lips slightly parted. His face, who always carried the same bored, uninterested expression, was now painted with a clear mix of anger, confusion and shock. That was the first time he’d ever been surpassed by someone who was not his brother.

Rin, The Itoshi Rin had been surpassed.

Anger filled his veins, spreading through his whole body. He moved against his will towards the only person he could see in that moment, his target. Isagi Yoichi.

Before he could stop it, the words already spilled out of this tongue, sharp, precise. “Listen, Isagi. If you and your pitiful excuse of a friend actually believe that you’ll be able to surpass me and become the number one, trust me, you both are very wrong, and I will make sure to show it. I will devour you, Isagi Yoichi.” Rin’s hand snatched Isagi’s shirt collar firmly, that was the only thing controlling the distance kept between them.

Their faces were only a few inches apart, and Isagi could easily count all of Rin’s eyelashes at this distance if his shirt hadn’t been pulled forward, reducing the space between them even further.

At this rate, both their breaths mingled together and Rin’s frown only grew more intense as his previous words left his mouth. Isagi caught himself staring at his new rival lips, who looked extremely dry. He refrained from commenting on the subject, avoiding a possible shove against the wall that stood a just few meters away from their current position.

Once Rin finally fell quiet, Isagi’s hand shot up and grabbed Rin's wrist, who was still pulling his shirt. The sudden contact made Rin lighten his grip, but he still chose to maintain the small distance between them. Isagi noticed it, but his mind was too focused on something else to properly address the situation.

His thoughts were now fully swallowed by his determination, and his stare perfectly translated it once he stared at Rin—Isagi’s gaze was so intense that it felt like he was trying to trap someone with his own eyes. Their deep blue color paired with his glare formed something akin to a whirlpool on a never-ending ocean. His lips morphed into a smirk before responding to Rin’s previous threat.

“I would like to see you try, Itoshi Rin. I already surpassed you once, let’s see if you can keep up with me.”

Rin’s expression flickered for a second, his scowl switching to something similar to surprise. If you weren’t basically glued to his face, you probably wouldn’t notice it, but Isagi took the advantage of his position to register the moment in his memory. Every time he was pissed off by Rin, the scene would replay in his mind—just like it did now.

That day marked the origin of one of, if not the biggest rivalry that school had ever encountered—except his time it was between two students from the East building fighting for the top spot.

“Isagi? Is everythin’ okay? You’re really quiet.”

He was snapped out of his trance once Hiori’s voice cut through his thoughts. Isagi blinked a few times before answering, trying to shake the memory away. What were they even talking about earlier?

“Yeah, everything’s fine, I was just thinking about…“ He paused, remembering everything Bachira said just a few seconds ago. “…Wait, does that mean we will be changing buildings? Is Ego insane? How are we supposed to pack everything in two days and still go to class?”

“That’s the problem! No one knows who’s changing sides, but it seems like Ego will send us our new room numbers tomorrow.” Bachira explained before pushing himself off from the wall he was leaning against. “Also, Ego was just so kind that he decided to give us the week off to settle in, so I was searching for you so we could start packing together.”

At this rate, Isagi was silently praying for all of this to be a big, sick joke.

“By the way, where the fuck were you? I was waiting for you to get ready in the cafeteria and you didn’t even show up!” Bachira questioned Isagi, who was just listening to the conversation up until now.

“Right! We were both searchin’ for you and Rin. You two just disappeared! Did you even see him today?” Hiori chimed in, asking even more questions for Isagi to answer.

Speak of the devil. Why would Isagi, out of all people, know were Rin is? If he had to guess, he should either be laid down in his bed, having an internal crisis about getting a new roommate, or walking around campus trying to maintain his nonchalant act while also having an internal crisis.

“Apparently I overslept on the worst day to do so!” He answered Bachira’s question first. “Also, you guys were the first people I actually recognized today so far, so I have no clue where Rin is.” That wasn’t a lie, the hallways were even more crowded than they already were normally, so even if Isagi had made it across a friend, they would probably be camouflaged by the big groups of people.

After their brief interaction, the trio parted ways after a quick ‘goodbye’ and ‘good luck packing!’, with Hiori going back to his search for Rin and the duo to their respective room so all of the boring packing part could be initiated and hopefully finished as soon as possible.

Their walk back was peaceful, save for the unusual amount of students along the hallways like earlier—except this time there were even more of them.

Isagi’s thoughts kept going back to the same question every single time he even tried to think about something different to distract himself. Who even is my new roommate? Curiosity was gnawing at him, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it other than wait for an update and hope for the best.

The rest of his day was spent trying to fit as many things as possible in small cardboard boxes that could barely even hold their own weight without falling apart. It was stressful, to say the very least, but Bachira’s company alongside their shared playlist blasting through the speakers made it a little more bearable to go through. It’s not like anyone could even complain about noise at this rate, right?

Chapter Text

That’s it, Isagi is officially going insane.

Since when did he have so many things in his dorm? And how is Bachira managing to pack all of his things while dancing and singing, all at the same time?!

Once he finished folding another box closed, Isagi threw himself in his mattress—which was basically bare if not for the two blankets and a single pillow adorning his bed for his last night in this room.

Even as he tried to relax, Isagi’s thoughts kept going back to this morning news—or rather when everyone received their new room numbers.

Isagi knew he and Bachira would be separated, but there was still some hope that maybe they’d still be together in the East building or at least moving to the West together, but it seemed like Ego had other plans for them.

Sure, they could still text each other and play together in soccer practice, but it wasn’t the same. Change is nice, but it doesn’t erase the fact that he will miss his roommate, his best friend, Bachira.

Meanwhile, said roommate—still dancing around the room—shot a glance towards Isagi’s direction and knew immediately what had to be done to distract his friend.

“Hey, Isagi. Wanna see the current updates on the room swaps? Last time I checked, almost everyone on the group chat answered.” He suggested before lowering the volume of the music.

“Also, Otoya and Yukimiya ‘leaked’ some of the new rooms from some people living at the west, I remember seeing Sae’s name on Shidou’s list. Kinda impressive if you asked me…” He said while grabbing his phone. Bachira typed something and scrolled back in what seemed to be the group chat mentioned just now.

Wait, did they really get info about Sae? That would actually be really fucking impressive if it’s true.

Just imagine how it would be to share a room with Sae—the school’s soccer prodigy and the same one who managed to keep top grades ever since he joined the school. Also, the target of many girls—and boys—admiration.

Okay, Isagi had to admit it, Bachira has an impressive ability to grab his attention. I mean, everyone is at least a little curious, right? Especially when almost all of your friend group is located at the same building, meaning that any information about the other side of the school was as rare as seeing Nagi and Reo separated. Now that I think about it, were they also separated?

“How the fuck did they get this shit? Let me see it!” Isagi immediately jumped out of bed and sat down beside Bachira, leaning into a wall of boxes completely filled with their things.

“Shidou just sent a list of showing some of the room numbers so far.” Bachira explained as he searched for said text. “Found it! Here, take a look.”

The moment Isagi looked at the screen, he saw a giant text box with all of his friends names organized perfectly—it was pleasing to look at.

“Damn, he even made it in alphabetical order!” He exclaimed. “Doesn’t he have like, anything else to do?” Isagi asked, tilting the phone towards Bachira.

“How should I know? I’m not complaining though, Shidou is basically the only one who gives us any updates from the West excluding Yuki and Toya, so it’s kinda good that he’s so invested into the job.” Bachira answered with a shrug followed by him sticking his tongue out briefly. Isagi nodded and muttered a simple ‘Right.’

After he refocused his attention back to the phone, Isagi noticed that not everyone had their room number besides their name. Do they want to make a surprise or what?

Another detail Isagi saw was how every contact had an emoji decorating their name. That’s cute. Did Bachira change my emoji? I have to ask him later.

Shidou👿:

‘❗️Everyone’s new building/room number!! NOT CLICKBAIT!! NEW UPDATED VERSION IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER MADE BY THE GOAT!!1!!1❗️

Format used:

Name: New side - Room number - Did they change buildings? - Roommate

•Alexis Ness - East - No updates - Yes - Unknown

•Bachira Meguru - West - W102 - Yes - Hiori You

•Barou Shouei - East - E110 - Yes - Don Lorenzo

•Don Lorenzo - East - E110 - Yes - Barou Shouei

•Hiori You - West - W102 - Yes - Bachira Meguru

•Hyouma Chigiri - East - No updates - No - Unkown

•Isagi Yoichi - East - No updates - No - Unknown

•Itoshi Rin- East - No Updates - No - Unknown

•Itoshi Sae - West - No Updates - No - Unknown

•Julian Loki - West - No updates - No - Unknown

•Karasu Tabito - East - E202 - No - Unknown

•Kunigami Rensuke - West - W307 - Yes - Migake Reo

•Michael Kaiser - West  - No updates - No - Unknown

•Mikage Reo - West - W307 - Yes - Kunigami Rensuke

•Oliver Aiku - West - W504 - No - Otoya Eita

•Otoya Eita - West - W504 - No - Oliver Aiku

•Seishirou Nagi - East - Unknown - No - Unknown

•Sendou Shuuto - East - No updates- Yes - Unknown

•Shidou Ryuusei - West - W508 - Yes - Unknown

•Yukimiya Kenyu - East - E103 - Yes - Unknown

More updates soon! (hopefully!)

If you have ANY info please share it with us, every leak is appreciated! :D ‘

@Isagi🌱 @Rin🦉 @Chigiri🐆 @Nagi💤 UPDATE US PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WE NEED IT FOR EDUCATION!!1! ‘

Rin🦉:

ew, no creep

i like my privacy thanks

if my roommate leaks our room ill kms and whoever they are

Chirigi🐆:

Can I pack my things in peace? Stop spamming my phone. Thanks.

Me:

let them make a surprise, shidou

ur no fun leaking

but i lowkirkenuiely like it so keep it up ig

          -> 6 New messages

Rin🦉:

what the fuck does lowkirkenuiely even mean

Shidou👿:

tell me ur unc without telling me ur unc

Rin🦉:

tell me you fail all your classes without telling me you fail all your classes

Karasu🐦‍⬛:

damn he cooked your ass up shidou

Hiori❄️:

could’ve gone to sleep without this one fam

Shidou👿:

syfm yo no wonder you and rin got separated bc of noise complaints lmao

Rin🦉 is typing…

Okay, whatever that was is already enough.

Right, he forgot to update the group chat about his new room. Eh, who cares? Let them have a little surprise, I guess.

It looked like Bachira didn’t even care to see who his new roommate is yet. He’ll probably take a proper look at the list now, so let’s leave him to his own surprise.

“You got so lucky! Here, take a look.” He handed Bachira his phone back. “My roommate is still hiding himself. I hope he is one of the people on the list. Can you even imagine having to share a room with someone unknown? What a pain.” Isagi muttered, clearly upset at the thought.

‘What a pain’. Who am I? Nagi? Yeah, it’s better for me to cut this shit out of my vocabulary. That lazy genius is infecting my brain from how much we play together.

A loud sigh escaped Isagi’s lips. It echoed through the almost-empty room before Bachira’s cheerful voice was heard once again after a few minutes of silence.

“Right? I don’t even want to imagine getting to my room tomorrow and finding a random ass guy. Like, at least give me someone I know at least a little so I can have their full story or somethi-“ A loud gasp interrupted Bachira’s monologue. “Let’s do our bets on who we think our roommate is! I’ll start!”

A bet? No way. Bachira always placed bets to steal Isagi’s money or get a free favor—he also somehow always managed to get shit right and it was really fucking impressive.

At the start of their friendship, Bachira would blame his insane luck on some type of monster, but overtime he just shrugged and said he had just guessed. Isagi never questioned it, though.

“What if we just say who we would like to have as a roommate, who we wouldn’t like and who we think they’ll be. No money or favors involved, just for funsies.” Isagi suggested, fearing the possible tragic loss of money he could have if Bachira actually guessed that his roommate is, infact, Hiori.

For Isagi’s sake, Bachira agreed to the suggestion and slid his phone back to him so they could start the game.

“Okay, let me think about cool people to have as a roommate.” He stopped speaking for like, half a second before continuing. “I would love sharing with Shidou or Otoya! We’re already friends and Shidou’s also at the West building now, so hey, it’s not impossible! Sadly Otoya is already with Aiku.” Bachira explained. It really looked like he was hoping to be with Shidou.

“Oh! Also, I remember briefly that Reo, Kunigami and… Hiori? Yeah, I think it was him. I think they all are also at the West side now, and I would also love to have them as roommates, especially since they are also my friends.” Silence. It looked like he was trying to remember something. “Fuck, I forgot that Reo and Kunigami are together now.” He paused, realizing what he had just said. “Not like, together together! It’s like, together together, as in like…” He stumbled upon his own words, trying to explain himself.

“Nevermind, you get what I mean. For people I would hate to have as a roommate, let me think... Probably Kaiser. Otoya texted me saying he is a total bitch, and Toya is like, the chillest person I know. Same for Loki and Sae. I don’t know why, but they are always so serious! I feel like they would choke me to death if I tried to play music in the shower. And hey, I might be wrong about them, but unless I’m proven to be I won’t be taking anything that I said back. Sue me!” He held his hands up almost as if he was caught by security guard—or maybe a cop.

“Alright, now for the guesses. Can you tell me everyone who still doesn’t have a roommate in the West?” Bachira asked, pointing at the phone in Isagi’s hand. He nodded, and started searching for the contestants.

“You have five options. It’s either Kaiser, Sae, Loki, Shidou or Hiori. Take your wildest guess, Bachira!” He was curious to see if he would, once again, win another guessing game. Isagi wondered what would be his method for guessing this time.

“Ooh, that’s fun! Well, you said I got lucky, right? I don’t think you would say that I was lucky if I got Kaiser or Loki as a roommate, so they are out of the question. I would eliminate Sae, but I’m not entirely sure about him. Now, there are only three people left. If I’m not mistaken, I remember seeing a text from Shidou saying that his room was located in a high floor, but my room is W102—so I’m in the first floor, which means I only have Sae and Hiori left. Since we’re friends with Hiori, I’m guessing that’s what you meant with ‘lucky’. Am I right?”

Thank god I didn’t bet any money. Isagi slowly nodded, confirming Bachira’s theory. The room quickly erupted in cheers.

After a few minutes jumping around and blasting even more music, Bachira sat back down and started asking Isagi about his own guesses.

“I’ll start now. Let me think about someone I wouldn’t like sharing with.” He stopped to think for a few seconds before answering. “Probably Kaiser, Loki, Barou and maybe Lorenzo? I don’t know, I haven’t really talked to him, so that’s why I wouldn’t like him. Someone I would absolutely hate sharing is definitely Rin. I can barely even stand him normally, imagine having to share a room with him? No fucking way.” Bachira laughed at him, but it somehow made Isagi start laughing too.

“For the next category—someone I would enjoy sharing a room with. Definitely Reo, especially if he got me gifts like he does with Nagi. Hiori and Kunigami also seem to be really good choices to share with. I wonder how Hiori survived all these months with Rin...” He paused, trying to remember another name.

Maybe Nagi? Nevermind, he is too lazy to even do anything, no way im babying him like Reo does—he is a true warrior to put up with all of that shit and still like Nagi. Shidou would also be nice, but I have a feeling he would try to sneak alcohol in and get us in trouble—thank god he is in the West now. Karasu seems kind of chill without Shidou, so maybe he is someone I wouldn’t mind sharing. Same for Yukimiya and Otoya, I guess.

There were a lot of people Isagi haven’t had the chance to meet yet, so he couldn’t say much about them. However, there was a certain someone he knew that he was, infact, allowed talk shit about. Of course he was talking about Rin—or in that case, thinking about him.

Isagi despised Rin, and thankfully the feeling was reciprocated, which meant that he had even more reasons to hate him. Isagi’s goal was to show Rin that he was better than him, to prove how he would be the one to devour him. Yes, he still remembered what Rin said in their first meeting.

As much as he hated Rin, Isagi knew he was equally as obsessed.

Obsessed with the idea of surpassing him, of seeing that same anger leaking through his fake nonchalance. Obsessed with the way he got so surprised at Isagi’s promise back then, even if only for a second. Obsessed with constantly adapting to fit whatever competition he and Rin got involved in just for the sake of competing. Obsessed with the thought of crushing him, proving how he isn’t just a stepping stone for Rin, and how he could—and would—be an unforgettable part of his life. Obsessed with the idea of haunting Rin’s mind as much as he haunted Isagi’s.

And most importantly, how obsessed Isagi was with him. With Rin.

He never felt that way before in his life, so why did it happen so suddenly? Why had Rin, out of every other person Isagi ever hated, got to be the one to trigger this? How did he manage to do it? Was Rin also obsessed or was Isagi just another rival for him—just another stepping stone in his path?

Isagi constantly wondered why Rin wanted to be the best so bad. Why was Isagi the stepping stone? What was the bigger goal, then? Why didn’t him and Sae talk to each other at all?

Isagi wanted it all. He wanted to know how Rin’s mind worked from the inside. He wanted to learn everything about him so he would finally be able to crush everything about his rival and devour him whole, leaving nothing left for anyone else other than himself. He wanted to show to the world how he was never the stepping stone, but something bigger, something important. No, someone important.

“Heyy, Isagi? Are you daydreaming or what? Are you those teenagers who try to be edgy by saying they have maladaptive daydreaming or whatever? We could get you tested for ADHD if you prefer to post about it, I don’t know which one is trending the most though, so I might have to check…”

The moment I start to think a little is when he chooses to start saying some bullshit like that, it’s almost like Bachira wants me to be an irrational, disfuncional being.

“Let’s just go for the last part. I can’t remember anyone else I would like to share a room with. Here,” He gave Bachira his phone back. “tell me everyone that could be my roommate.” Isagi asked.

“Why won’t you take a look? I don’t think anyone else got doxxed by Shidou, did they?” He giggled. “I’m just kidding, let me search this up for you.” He scrolled up and read the same text from earlier, finding every possible roommate option for Isagi.

Now that Bachira placed it that way, what Shidou was doing did sound a little like doxxing, except they all lived in the same school and would eventually find out where each other lived by default.

“Okay, I have the list! I think you won’t really like it though… Anyways, first one is your best friend ever! Rin. Second one is Chigiri, then Nagi, Sendou and the last one is Ness. Wow, I feel kind of bad for you... I mean, at least there’s a chance you can stay with your BFF Rin, so it’s not that bad, right?” Sarcasm dripped from Bachira’s mouth.

His constant teasing seemed like it never met an end, even at the worst moment on Isagi’s life—which was discovering there’s a chance he might be sharing a room with Rin.

Yep, he was indeed going insane today, and not just because of all the packing. Shit, I still have to finish that.

“I might kill myself tonight.” He was not joking, by the way. “Like, no way there’s only a one in five chance of getting someone cool that I’m friends with. If I had to guess, I think I’m sharing with Ness, maybe Sendou—I hope it’s Sendou—Ness just hates me for like, no reason.” Yet another lie to add to his collection.

There might be a reason for Ness to hate Isagi. It happened when a physics test score dropped and Isagi first met Kaiser, standing by Ness’s side at the leaderboard. He noticed Kaiser’s chopped hairstyle that somewhat resembled a rat tail with some blue dye—it was actually really cool, so he went up to the guy so he could compliment him.

Turns out he hated everyone that called his unique hairstyle a rat tail, so a few insults were thrown at Isagi accompanied by a strong, german accent—most of these targeted Isagi’s ‘poor choice in clothing’.

Only later in that same day as he talked about the interaction while gaming with Hiori, Rin and Nagi had Isagi realized that he just met the Kaiser guy everyone talked shit about in the East building.

“Ness hates everyone Kaiser also hates in general. They have this whole thing about sharing a dream, believing in the impossible or some shit like that, so Ness just follows whatever Kaiser thinks is necessary to do to achieve said dream—but somehow that involves following Kaiser’s hate list. Don’t ask me much about it, though. I only talked to Ness a few times and that’s all I managed to extract directly from him. If you asked anyone else about him they would just say he is either a dickrider or Kaiser’s puppy, so I figured that they just hated Kaiser and spread this bullshit around. Not defending them, by the way, I hate Kaiser too so…”

This was probably the first time someone had ever said something remotely positive that sounded real about Ness. It’s nice knowing that Bachira went out of his way to know the story by the root. Maybe it was out sympathy, maybe it was just curiosity, but either way, it was still a good action.

‘…They have this whole thing about sharing a dream…’

Sharing a dream? I remember hearing something like that before. Nevermind, I’m not going to spend my time thinking about him again.

“Anyways! We’ll have to wait for tomorrow to see if your right or not. It would honestly be so funny if you landed on Ness.” Bachira said. “If you do, keep me updated on this whole thing he has going on with Kaiser.” He pauses. “Actually, just keep me updated in general, I need to know what is going to happen now that you have so many ‘good’ options for roommates.” Bachira requested. His usual happy tone was present, but a genuine curiosity adorned his words. As if I would ever stop giving you my life updates.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you about everything that happens, especially now that we are in different sides of the school.” He paused. “Honestly, I’m already starting to miss you.” Isagi confessed while throwing an arm around Bachira’s shoulder and leaning in for what resembled a hug.

“There’s this word in portuguese that really describes what we might start to feel in a few days. Especially if your roommate is actually bad.” Bachira said while replicating the gesture Isagi just made.

“Since when have you ever learned Portuguese? You barely even know english!” Isagi questioned in a genuine way, no harm or sarcasm behind his words.

“A teacher I had a few years ago was Brazilian and he taught me a few words. One of them was ‘Saudade’, which means something along the lines of really missing someone in a nostalgic and melancholic way. It’s basically a dramatic way of saying ‘I miss you’.” Bachira explained while leaning into the hug.

“Before I changed schools, I remember listening to him saying something like ‘vou sentir saudades de você’, which means ‘I’ll miss you.’” He explained in a lower tone now, his voice adorned exactly by the emotion he had just described.

“I didn’t take you for the cheesy type, Bachira.” He smiled warmly. “Just kidding. I kinda like this word. I guess I’ll start to use it.”

“Really? Usually people say it’s easier to stick to the usual ‘miss you’.”

“I mean, it is easier, but it doesn’t hold the same meaning, does it? You just explained me what it meant, and I think it’s fairly different." Bachira chuckled before pulling Isagi in for an actual hug.

He might be wrong, but Isagi could swear he saw a tear stain in Bachira’s cheek.

“Let’s continue packing—don’t you want to keep everything ready to meet your best friend Rin, tomorrow? Ah, sorry, to meet your new roommate?”

Chapter Text

It’s late. Really late.

Rin should be sleeping, but there he is, laid down in his bed, facing the roof above him.

Tiny glow-in-the-dark stars shone, their light slightly faded from all the years they had been put to use.

At least there isn’t anything that important today. I wish I could skip these NPC filled classes and just sleep a little more.

His thoughts were interrupted by a light flashing, shortly followed by a small vibration coming from his nightstand. A notification.

I swear, if this is Shidou texting me about anything, I’ll kill him– 

Oh, an email? That’s unexpected, especially at exactly five in the morning.

It’s Ego. Of course it’s him.

Let’s see today’s bullshit.

'Dear diamonds on the rough,

This message has the goal to explain the new school policy along with some changes made to the school dormitories.

Because in-school relationships have been increasing recently, the school faculty decided to emphasize the restriction surrounding the theme to all students with this email. This has proven itself to be a major issue, especially since it heavily affected the changes made in campus.

After many complaints coming from diverse students, the school board decided that it was appropriate to limit the ability of students to choose their own roommates. If the need to swap students out throughout the passing of the next weeks surfaces, the changes will be effectuated.

Here is a list including some of the reasons you might have been separated from your previous roommate: Dating, noise complaints past 10pm, misconduct originated by both parties, request for a swap, etc. 

For this Thursday (29/01), the school requests every student to have all their belongings packed and ready to be moved to another room selected by the faculty. No exceptions. Your new room number will be sent privately tomorrow, Wednesday (28/01).

Be aware that some students may have to change buildings, so be prepared with the proper packing. To help everyone, boxes will be provided by the faculty.

We are aware that moving rooms in such a short notice of time can be overwhelming, so we decided that the best course of action would be to cancel the rest of this week classes, including extracurricular ones. More informations will be provided as soon as possible in another email, so pay attention to your inbox.

We reinforce the importance of respecting the school policies, especially those surrounding the wellbeing of other students.

If you have any questions, come to Ego's office or simply send us an email back. This includes any questions about your roommates or anything unrelated to the current situation.

Thank you for you comprehension.’

What the fuck.

That wasn’t real, right? There’s no way everyone in school is changing dorms. There’s just no fucking way.

This was a joke, right? It had to be.

Of course Ego would choose the exact moment Rin had actually managed to get somewhat comfortable with his roommate to just throw everything on the fucking trash because of some horny students who couldn’t even keep the dating outside of school.

Everyone was now forced to suffer because of a few assholes. How amazing.

It was almost six in the morning. Rin got up and left the room quietly after changing his clothes to something warmer for outside. Hiori would probably awake soon, so it was the perfect time to leave their shared room and go on a peaceful walk around campus without worrying about anything other than his own thoughts.

In only a few minutes, the hallways got completely crowded. Students walked around, confused about the email they had just received, others were starting to freak out because their ‘amazing roommate’ would be separated from them. It was stupid, to say the least.

Rin had to admit that he had a few concerns—not because of packing or having to leave Hiori behind. No, not at all.

Hiori was a good roommate, the best he’d ever had so far—even if that wasn’t exactly a good scale to use. Let's just say that Rin's past experiences with roommates had been a fucking nightmare.

The first guy was probably in love with Rin and stalked him everywhere, even outside of school when they were allowed to leave campus for a few days. And the worst part? Rin had just joined the school, so he couldn’t even change rooms because every other one was already occupied. It was worse than any type of torture.

The second one was somehow dumber than a rock and couldn’t understand a single social cue. Rin had to spend most of his time tucked away in the library doing his things there because the guy kept nagging him, constantly asking Rin to cheat off of him in tests and trying to copy all of his work.

The third one was Hiori. He was okay, nice at best. He respected his boundaries, watched horror movies with him, and was overall pretty chill.

They sometimes talked to each other about random things and their conversation always reached an enjoyable flow where Rin never felt obligated to respond, but did so anyways just to hear more of Hiori's opinions on the theme. His voice was never too loud either, and Hiori was actually really good at explaining whatever he was talking about.

And to make everything even better, Hiori also had a great taste in both music and games, which sparked many late night discussions between them, even though most of their time together was either spent in silence or with some music in the background—which was also fine by Rin. 

He was probably the least infuriating person in Rin's friend group—which he was dragged in by Hiori himself.

Rin actually liked Hiori, but his own consciousness wouldn’t ever allow him to even admit such thing to anyone, not even to himself. 

So now that his best roommate so far would soon to be gone, Rin was forced to place his fate in Ego’s hands, maybe even Anri’s.

He wasn’t expecting nor wanted anyone in particular to be his roommate, the only thing Rin truly wished for was a chance to keep as much distance as he could from Isagi with this new opportunity.

This wish wasn’t only because of their rivalry, it was a chance for Rin to get a few weeks—months even—of clarity.

Maybe distancing himself would stop his mind from flooding itself with memories of those infuriating blue eyes filled with crazy amounts of determination—those same eyes who could easily pull anyone in and trap them there for as long as he wished, just like a whirlpool.

He wanted—needed to stay away from Isagi.

Rin’s hate for him only grew bigger with each passing day, just like his need to destroy him. Only a glimpse of that fucking hair tuft managed to make his blood boil for the rest of the day. Imagine how awful it would be to share a room with Isagi?

Just the cogitation of spending even more time with him was already draining. Thinking about Isagi was draining. Why? Because once the thought came to Rin’s mind, it hardly ever changed unless something else could occupy it just enough so Isagi—or any unwanted idea in general—could be set aside. That’s why you would rarely see Rin outside of the soccer field on his free time.

That was just how his mind worked. Obsession or disinterest. There was no in between.

Soccer? Obsession. Horror? Obsession. Being the best? Obsession. Crushing Isagi Yoichi? Obsession.

Having to share so much time with him meant that his thoughts would be constantly redirected to Isagi, or rather on how Rin would completely destroy him.

And that couldn’t ever happen.

Being together with him meant that he was doomed to spend even more time thinking about every action he managed to catch a glimpse of and analyze them to spot a weakness, a flaw, anything that would help him to devour Isagi.

That would also mean that Rin would be forced to listen to that lukewarm voice of his every time Isagi said something—That same stupid, melodic voice that haunted Rin’s mind for every single day ever since that damned afternoon when they first met.

‘I would like to see you try, Itoshi Rin. I already surpassed you once, let’s see if you can keep up with me.’

Isagi’s words echoed through his mind, a constant reminder of who Rin was aiming to crush—a reminder of how determined he truly was. And lastly, a reminder of how obsessed Rin was with him and those stupid promises both made to destroy each other.

If Rin shared a room with Isagi, he was sure he would eventually go insane, and insanity meant weakness—something Isagi could exploit and use on his favor—

Stop it. That lukewarm piece of shit can go to hell. Fuck that stupid promise of devouring him. Once I get the chance, I’ll make sure to kill Isagi Yoichi and finally get rid of him for the rest of my life. That way, I’ll be first and last one to ever destroy that stupid, half baked shit he calls an ego. I’m the only one who ever gets to see the end of Isagi Yoichi.

Rin walked around the school aimlessly. He took a deep breath, clearing his thoughts in a swift motion and focused on his surroundings instead.

At this rate, almost every student was already outside of their dorms, talking to each other about the recent news. There were so many ridiculous theories it was almost funny.

Rin decided to take a break and sat in an empty chair used by the school security. He took out his phone and started reading all the texts he received overnight.

“Yes, of course I saw it!” A girl exclaimed while talking to a guy. Rin saw his mouth moving, but since his voice held a lower tone than average, he couldn’t hear a single thing he said. “It does fucking suck, sure, but did you see that there are new cameras? We should have seen this coming way earlier. They even placed a camera at that hidden hallway that people used to go to make out! Do you really think Ego did all of that for nothing? No! He was watching us so he could separate everyone and avoid relationships!” The quiet guy gasped at the revelation.

Before Rin could even make sense of what he had just heard, he saw someone walking through the hallway faster than needed.

When he adjusted his head up to take a proper look at their face, Rin was met by a familiar blue hair only a halfbaked loser carried. Isagi Yoichi. It seemed like he was in such a rush that his observant mind couldn’t even spot Rin sat at the side of the hallway.

The universe was clearly making Rin suffer on purpose, because there was no fucking way that the second he finally got rid of Isagi from his mind would be the exact same moment that the real one would show up to extent his torment even further.

Rin’s gaze was fixed at Isagi, and it followed him until he stopped just a few steps ahead. Hiori and Bachira emerged from the crowd shortly after, so Rin decided that would be his cue to leave before he was spotted by any of them and dragged into a conversation he did not want to have in this moment.

The rest of the day went as he had already expected it to be. Rin and Hiori sat in their room packing everything they owned—and that included their computers, who had to be disassembled and packed in many different boxes.

They spent at least an hour trying to figure out how to even start doing that without breaking anything in the process. The task could’ve been finished way faster if they searched for a tutorial, but their egos were too big to allow such a thing to ever happen, so both preferred to burn a few braincells together.

I wonder how many trips I’ll have to make in order to move all of this shit around the school if I get transferred to the West.

Luckily, Rin didn’t have as many things as the average student had, so he managed to pack everything in only a few boxes, a suitcase and two backpacks he had stuffed in the back of his closet. He made sure to pack one separate bag to use for the next few days since he knew he surely wouldn’t be organizing his room as earlier as anyone else would. He needed to have an easy access to a change of clothes, phone charger—the basic stuff.

Before the day ended, Rin was already done with his packing duty, so he used all the free time he had to take a proper five minute nap before a neighbor started blasting some shitty pop music. Rin never felt this amount of disgust towards any song before, but he felt like if he ever had hear that melody again he’d likely throw up or go deaf. Maybe both if he was in a bad mood.

The next day was back to chaos. Once all students received their new room number, everyone in school suddenly started to sound like a creep asking ‘what’s your address’ to random people online, except everyone was both the random person and the weirdo.

Rin refused to reveal his new room to anyone. He simply wasn’t interested in discovering who his new shitty roommate was and ruin the small amount of joy he felt after finding out his new dorm was exactly in front of his current one, meaning that Rin only had to walk a few steps and he would arrive to his new place.

Hiori, on the other hand, would have to cross the entire building to get to the other side of the school in order to reach his new room. Rin would probably help him carrying his funko pop collection to kill some time tomorrow. Good luck, Hiori. You’ll need it.

“Hey, Rin. Aren’t you goin’ to tell the group chat ‘bout your new room number? Shidou is spammin’ my dm’s askin’ me to leak it.”

“If you ever leak this shit I swear, Isagi won’t be my only rival anymore. Tell Shidou he can fuck himself and go live on his ‘fifth floor room on the West’ and leave me alone for once.”

After a few seconds of silence, a noise filled the room as quickly as it lasted. A notification.

“Well, now you can tell him that yourself, Rin. He is taggin’ everyone who still has to share their room number.” Hiori giggled a little.

“I don’t have to share anything. That demon can fuck off and stay away from me."

Bobcut:

let them make a surprise, shidou

ur no fun leaking

but i lowkirkenuiely like it so keep it up ig

Me:

what the fuck does lowkirkenuinely even mean

Antenna freak:

tell me ur unc without telling me ur unc

Rin stared at his phone in shock, unable to respond to whatever these two had just sent.

“Hiori, what the hell are Shidou and Bachira even talking about?”

Hiori took his phone and opened the chat to check what Rin was talking about.

“Oh! Unc means uncle, it’s used to call someone old.” He explained in his usual soft tone.

"Shidou is older than me! How does that even make any sense?” Rin started typing something, but kept deleting it over and over again, trying to think about the best answer.

“It doesn’t. We’re talking about Shidou, aren’t we?” Hiori said before continuing his previous explanation.

“Lowkirkenuinely is a mix between lowkey, genuinely and kirk. Kirk is only there to add an emphasis, just like ‘of-fuckin’-course’.” Hiori explained, once again.

“What the fuck are you even talking about?” Rin asked with genuine concern.

“You asked for an explanation and I gave it to you.” Hiori answered with a shrug.

Me:

tell me you fail all your classes without telling me you fail all your classes

Karasu:

damn he cooked your ass up shidou

Hiori:

could’ve gone to sleep without this one fam

Antenna freak:

syfm yo no wonder you and rin got separated bc of noise complaints lmao

Me:

i prefer noise complaints over fake allegations of me dating my so called “home boy”

Karasu:

the fuck

we were separated bc we snuck out that other day

Antenna freak:

STFU PEOPLE ARE GOINF TO TELL EGO ABOUT IT

YOU BITCH

Nagi:

whats goin on

m tired 2 read, pls resume :x

Antenna freak:

go back to sleep you lazy ass

Nagi:

k

“I hate that demon so bad. I’m glad he finally swapped buildings.” Rin said while dropping his phone on the mattress.

Hiori—who was still enveloping every single figure he owned in bubble wrap—looked up from the floor, shooting Rin a quick glance before returning his gaze to were it originally was at.

“Y’know, I’m kinda excited to see the West side of the buildin’. I mean, people say it’s identical to this one, but I want to see how the vibe there is going to be like. Maybe I’ll finally be able to also meet Sae.” A small laugh left his lips after his last sentence.

“Yeah, whatever you say.” A sigh. “You got Bachira as your roommate, right?” Rin asked, changing the subject with ease. He wasn't the biggest fan of Hiori's last phrase and the possible direction this could take them to.

“Oh, yes! We are sharin’ room W102. I think we got lucky, especially for the moving part—no stairs or elevators needed.” He paused for a second. “Also, I’m very happy that Ego was as kind as to allow us to be together. Imagine if I had to share with Kaiser?”

Kaiser. That name brought him back memories of unfortunate encounters they’ve had in past interactions. Nothing serious ever happened, but they were still unwanted memories nonetheless. Let’s just say there were a few insults thrown around.

“You and Kaiser? I couldn’t imagine that happening in a million years.” Rin said.

“Neither do I.” A pause. “Whatever. Let’s leave him to his own friend group and I’ll stick with Bachira and keep my mouth shut.” Hiori let out a small sigh. “What about you, Rin? Who’s your roommate?” Hiori’s mood lightened up the second he changed the subject.

About that. It seems like whoever his roommate was also enjoyed some privacy, because no one who had their room leaked so far was Rin’s roommate, and honestly? Even if it was leaked, Rin was too tired to even think about opening that group chat again to check.

“I guess it’ll be a surprise.” Rin answered, uninterested in the subject.

“Aren’t you even a little curious? I mean, you’ll have to get a really good excuse to change roommates if he’s an ass, plus havin’ to convince Ego about it. I would be a little worried about it if I were you.” Hiori explained.

Huh, he does have a point. Whatever, I’ll figure it out if I end up having to change roommates.

“If you were me, you would be thinking the same as I currently am. So no, you wouldn’t be worried at all.”

“If you say so.” Hiori finished taping another box shut before placing it on top of other two boxes. “Phew, finally. I’ll get changed and go to sleep right after, I’m wasted. Good night, Rin.”

Finally, he’s done. “Good night.”

Chapter Text

The day everyone was waiting for has officially arrived.

The corridors were full with both people and boxes who had names written all over them, indicating who they belonged to. Rin was already tired from all of it, and the day had barely even started.

After a few minutes staring at the wall with occasional screams from other floors as background noise, Rin took his earbuds out of his pocket and started playing some music to try to cancel it out.

Thankfully, the previous owners of room E302 had some sort of knowledge in moving out quickly, (or maybe others sucked hard at it. Rin wasn’t sure on what was the best answer) which meant that right as the two guys emptied out the room, Rin could start placing his things there before 8:30 a.m.

Considering the small amount of things Rin had and the short distance he had to walk, he rapidly managed to finish the task—taking him less than a hour to throw his belongings in a corner of the room, taking up just enough space to indicate the side he had chosen for himself.

Usually, people would start unpacking the moment they finished moving their things, but Rin decided to wait until late in the afternoon to do that. Why, you may ask? Well, the answer is simple.

Rin guessed that his roommate would start to bring their things over pretty soon, so he decided to spend the rest of his morning helping Hiori, just like he promised.

Later in the afternoon, he would practice a little bit of soccer after spending the last few days without doing anything sports related. The field would probably be empty today, so it was the perfect opportunity to distract himself from the stress of the busy day everyone had ahead of them.

So, he followed his list just as he planned it out to be, starting with his promise to Hiori. Rin grabbed some of the heavier boxes he had—probably filled with his computer parts—and followed him through the multiple hallways they had to walk until they finally reached their destination, Hiori’s brand new room.

When they arrived, the door was already open with two people inside organizing Bachira’s things.

Bobcut sat at the floor, opening some boxes and taking his things out of them. By his side, another guy crouched down to set something on the floor for Bachira.

Hold on. That shirt looks famili-

That’s when Rin saw that same stupid hair tuft sticking up. Isagi Yoichi.

Why the fuck is this asshole here? Is he obsessed with me or something?

There was no way this wasn’t intentional. Even when Isagi had no reason to be somewhere, he would show up just to piss the fuck out of Rin. He closed his hands in a fist and dug his nails into his palm, trying to keep his composure.

Before Isagi even had a chance to take a proper look at Rin, he shielded himself behind a wall, dropping Hiori’s stuff right there before quickly turning away, going back to their old dorm to bring more boxes.

“Hey Rin, would you mind placin’ the boxes inside? I mean, only if you want to.” Hiori requested, staying respectful even now.

Before Rin could even respond, a shocked gasp followed by a way-too-enthusiastic voice came from inside the room. “Wait, Rin’s here?” Bachira raised his voice. “Hey Rin! Come here! I have a surprise for you!” What a fucking curse.

Another voice started talking this time. “What the fuck is Rin even doing here? Doesn’t that asshole have anything better to do other than stalk me around school?” Oh, so now I am the stalker? I swear, Isagi does this shit on purpose just to irritate me.

“The asshole you’re talking about, shitty Isagi, already moved all of his things to his new room. What about you? Did you even start to pack your things or were you too busy stalking me, trying to log-in my school email to see my new room number?” He stepped in the room and dropped the box down. A loud thud echoed through the room.

“Oh wow, are you trying to impress me by showing off how quickly you can unpack your things? Y’know, I’m not impressed that easily, so you’ll have to try harder if you want to catch my attention that bad, Rin.” Isagi teased with that same devilish smirk he carried, sarcasm dripping from his lips like venom.

Rin could feel his ears warming up by each passing second. Isagi still held that same smug expression that managed to piss Rin off so fucking much.

“Fuck off. I’m leaving.” Rin muttered.

“What, are you flustered already? Don’t be shy, Rin!” Isagi laughed. He had the audacity to start laughing with that same soft tone his voice carried when he enjoyed something way too much. “C’mon, don’t be disrespectful to Bachira, he only wanted to say hi to you.”

“And I am saying bye. I’m not entertaining your bullshit today.”

Rin left the room in a quick motion, not sparing a single look back. He went back to his old room and moved a few more boxes for Hiori while trying his best to ignore Isagi by blasting songs with the heaviest beats he knew in his earbuds. Rin didn't even care about a possible headache, as long as his mind was free from Isagi, everything was fine.

His arms were starting to burn before he finally decided to make a pause for lunch. Rin excused himself and went on his way to the cafeteria.

He placed his usual order, took his food tray and sat on the same outdoors table he had always chosen to sit at since his first day on this school—someone even scratched Rin's name at the side of the table. He never figured out the true intentions of the person who did that and neither did he want to—If they wanted to mock him? Well, it was clearly a failed attempt.

As he took a bite out his food, Rin pulled his phone out and started to read all of the multiple texts he received throughout this morning—none of them were anything relevant, what a surprise, huh?

Rin was about to close the main group chat—the same one with a huge mix between three friend groups from the East, who was basically just an entire new friend group at this rate—until he saw a text from Shidou that really caught his eye.

-> 58 New messages

Lukewarm:

I finally finished helping bachira to bring his things to his room!!

Same for my own things too

I think I’ll organize everything after lunch.

Anyone wants join me, Bachira & Hiori? We’ll be at the cafeteria at around 1 p.m ;D

Reo:

Good luck with the organization part, its hell.

Nagi’s lucky that he didn’t even have to change dorms, only roommates.

By the way, Nagi, me, Chigiri and Kuni are joining you guys, is that okay?

Bobcut:

hey!! this is isagi on bachiras phone

i didn’t even notice that nagi didn’t change rooms at first, but i just checked shidous list and its true

honestly? im super jealous of him. of course the lazy one gets to be lazy forever

and yes, it’s totally fine if you guys join us!! we’ll be waiting for u all :)

Antenna freak:

GUYS

YOU WONT FUCKING GUESS WHO IS MY ROOMMATE

I WON THE LOTTERY WHAT THE FUCK

Otoya:

WHO OMG WHO

WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING OVER TEXT

Antenna freak:

BECAUSE I GOT SAE FUCKING ITOSHI AS MY ROOMMIE

LIKE, THE HANDSOME ITOSHI WHO HAS THOSE GODLIKE PASSES

AND THOSE BEAUTIFUL ASS TEAL EYES WITH BIG UNDERLASHES LIKE RIN

AND THAT GORGEOUS PINK HAIR

Karasu:

shidou i believe every single person in this group knows who sae itoshi is

he is kinda like a celebrity honestly

Antenna freak:

IDCC

I WILL BE BRAGGING ABOUT THIS FOR EVERY SINGLE DAY IN MY WHOLE LIFE

EVEN THO HE KEEPS IGNORING ME MOST OF THE TIME

Looks like Sae was the unlucky one who’ll have to deal with the demon. Rin almost felt bad for him. Almost. But sadly, he couldn’t bring himself to give a shit about this at the moment. Rin had bigger goals for today, such as finishing his to-do-list.

He quickly finished his food, setting his phone aside because he wasn’t a fucking loser who couldn’t even control their phone addiction, unlike some people in this school who keep walking through the hallways like zombies, bumping into anyone they crossed paths with because looking up from the screen was too big of a deal nowadays.

After Rin was finished with yet another item from his list, all he had to do now was rest for a while before stepping onto the field once again.

He grabbed his bag—packed with his training clothes, water bottle, a towel and some hygiene products he needed for a shower after playing—and went right to the school’s gym area.

Yes, they had a gym. Since students could only leave school with parental authorization for a specific reason, students couldn’t go to gyms outside the school, so Ego decided to add one. It was pretty nice, actually. It had multiple materials for many activities like pilates, meditation, yoga—even a sauna, but it only worked on a few specific days.

Rin decided to settle in with some meditation followed by a little bit of yoga as a warm up. It was rather simple, but he wasn’t going to play a whole 90-minute soccer match, only practice a few shots, so that should be enough to avoid an injury.

The meditation worked, offering Rin a good amount of time with a cleared up mind. Yoga also went as usual, nothing remarkable about it other than the emptiness of the room. Of course no one else would be doing yoga—or anything gym/sports related when they had to move out in the span of a single day.

It was exactly 3:02 p.m when Rin finally stepped foot into the field.

He dropped the ball he was holding in his hand and sent it flying with a kick before it even touched the ground.

The field was big, but that didn’t stop the ball from perfectly hitting the net. A familiar sound echoed through the empty field, and the moment it reached Rin’s ears, his mind was instantly cleared.

It was almost like a black hole swallowed all his thoughts away. Or like Isagi’s whirlpool eyes trapping anyone with his gaze, and just like how the TV screen hypnotized Rin the moment a horror movie or game started playing in front of him.

Rin spent a good amount of his time like that. Kick the ball, pick it up. Kick the ball, pick it up again. Kick the ball, pick it up again, again and again.

This was the type of repetition Rin would never get tired of. He liked the feeling of controlling the ball as he wished, sending it to any place he wanted to with an astounding precision.

His moves were clean, controlled, practiced. They were almost similar to a puppeteer—doing whatever he pleased to his little puppets, knowing they would listen and do as he asked—except here, Rin was the puppeteer and the ball was his puppet, spinning through the field just as he commanded it to.

After countless shots, Rin was now getting ready for yet another one.

He didn’t have anything specific planned in mind, preferring go just go with whatever he felt like doing at the moment.

Rin wasn’t the type of person to be scared of an audience. He always performed the same, no matter the amount of eyes locked in him. But now? Now he felt two eyes piercing his skin, observing his moves with a different type of gaze—one that others never seemed to hold towards Rin. Some would call it admiration, but he refused to believe in such a possibility.

Rin couldn’t bring himself to even look for whoever was currently watching him, and neither did he want to.

After spending a few seconds thinking, Rin finally started to prepare himself for the shot.

He took a few steps back from the ball, looked at the place he wanted to hit—the top right corner of the goal—and went all in for the kick.

A loud thud! spread around the field as his cleats met the ball surface, and shortly after, another thud! was repeated, but it was softer and further away this time.

A soft whistle from the other side of the field froze Rin in place. Of course, it is Isagi Yoichi, again.

“Are you obsessed with me? I thought you had to organize your things in your room this afternoon.” Rin pointed out, not turning around to face his rival. Isagi laughed, leaving Rin both confused and mad. His ability to irritate Rin without even saying a single word always amazed him in the worst way possible.

“I think you’re the obsessed one, Rin. You always emphasize that you never read the group chat, and yet here you are with an information you could only get reading my text from earlier in this morning. Weird, isn’t it?” Isagi refuted with ease.

He had always been observant, maybe a little too observant for his own good.

What Rin meant with that was, every little movement, sound, or anything in general would never go unnoticed by Isagi—that both applied to on field and off field situations.

That could be seen as something good for the ordinary person watching from afar, but Rin noticed how tired Isagi looked after matches—even when he tried to hide it—and how overwhelming that ability could be on his daily life.

“You didn’t answer my question.” Rin paused, crouching to grab the ball sitting tangled between the net. “But don’t worry, I’ll change it. Why are you here?”

“I was going back to the East when I noticed someone alone on the field. I instantly knew it was you—there is no one else as stubborn as you are to be training instead of organizing your things—so I just came here to check how you were doing, maybe even offer some help since my new room is in the same floor as your old one.”

‘…since my new room is in the same floor as your old one…’

No, that could mean anything. Maybe he is in another room from the same floor. Yes, that must be it. It surely is.

“I don’t need your help. Your presence would only be a bother to me, so I’ll pass.” Rin answered, ignoring that same old unease feeling gnawing at his chest.

“What a shame. If that’s the case, I guess I’ll be on my way back then. Good luck, Rin.” Isagi said as he nodded, turning his back to Rin as he walked away from the field.

It was noticeable how Isagi’s voice softened at the end of his phrase, carrying something different than the sarcasm he used at first. Is he really trying mock me? Tch, lukewarm Isagi. You’re still halfbaked, just like always.

After he finally detangled the ball out from the net, Rin went back to his previous position and continued with his training as usual, allowing it to extend itself until the sky was darkened by the lack of the sun in the horizon lightning everything up.

Rin threw the ball back to the storage room and went to the lockers, placing his bag in the first bench he could find before taking a warm shower, symbolizing the end of his to-do-list of the day.

Now, all that was left to do was unpack a few of his things and meet his new roommate.

Rin really, really hoped he was wrong about his theory. He wished that he had simply misheard what Isagi said to him earlier—that it had been just a misinterpretation, anything that gave him the confirmation that Isagi was not his new roommate—but he simply couldn’t find anything that proved this.

In order to refrain himself from having a crisis over the identity of his roommate, Rin chose to change the subject of his thoughts by thinking about his mistakes made during today’s practice to work on them next time.

After getting dressed, he stopped by the cafeteria once again to get something for dinner. Surprisingly, Rin wasn’t too hungry today, so he just chose whatever he saw first in the menu that sounded good enough.

When he sat down in a hidden empty table, Rin once again checked his texts. This time, they were full of messages about some dinner plans for later in the evening, but Rin wasn’t paying much attention to the details about it other that Isagi had confirmed his presence.

There was also Shidou talking about Sae a lot of times. Like, a lot.

Rin would never admit this to anyone, but he made sure to read every single text Shidou had sent throughout the day. They were way more entertaining than the usual messages he used to spam the group with—probably because Sae was the one Rin was reading about.

Sometimes he wished Sae would just go back to being his big brother who he once shared a dream with, not his rival—someone he had to destroy just so he could prove himself being worthy of his recognition.

But ever admitting that meant Rin had also admitted defeat, admitted that he was weak and need to prove himself of being someone Sae could share a dream with again, and he wouldn’t ever admit that to anyone, so he just kept his mind occupied with literally anything else to avoid these thoughts.

Rin stabbed his food with much more force than needed as he finished eating before getting ready to leave the cafeteria.

Now was the time for the worst part of his day. The same surprise he tried to avoid so much.

Rin threw his bag over his shoulder and went on the way back to his room. Once he reached the dormitories building, Rin chose to take the stairs, delaying the encounter even more.

E302. The same number he’d received yesterday, right?

Rin took his phone out and opened his mailbox to check whether he was actually right even after reading the same fucking email every single time he had a chance to do so today.

To no ones surprise, it was correct.

All that was left to do was simple. Rin had to open the door, greet his new roommate, introduce himself and organize everything he had to while avoiding awkward attempts at small talk.

That was it. It was simple, so why was he hesitating so much?

Rin wasn’t nervous, and to prove that he grabbed the new key from his pocket and unlocked the door.

Click.

The door got pushed open and Rin was instantly greeted by the same blue hair, with the same hair tuft sticking up on top of his fucking head—the same shit Rin had already seen more times he could ever count.

All of this time mentally begging Ego, Anri—anyone who would listen—had been wasted, because all he asked for was for this to not happen under any circumstances.

There he was. Isagi Yoichi. The one who still haunted Rin’s mind, dreams—even his life—for such a long period of time.

Rin stayed frozen in place, incapable of moving for a few good seconds. No amount of cope or acceptance would’ve ever prepared me for this.

The moment Rin had opened the room a few seconds ago, Isagi started talking, too focused on his closet to even take a look on who stood at the door waiting for him.

“Oh, you’re my new roommate, right? Welcome! I’m Isagi Yoichi, it’s a pleasure to-“ Isagi’s bright smile quickly dropped to a frown the second he saw Rin’s face. “Oh, it’s you. Ignore everything I just said, I hold no pleasure in ever meeting you, Rin.”

Isagi’s tone quickly soured. He was not happy to have Rin as his roommate and made sure to show his dissatisfaction through his condescending tone.

Meanwhile, Rin simply stood at the door, holding his bag over his shoulders, hair still damp. 'He probably took a shower after practice', Isagi thought to himself.

“Cat got your tongue? C’mon, is everything okay?” Isagi questioned. 'Rin never got as quiet like this before.'

He blinked a few times before answering Isagi. “This is not happening. We are not going to be roommates, shitty Isagi.”

“Do you really think I want to share with you? Because I don’t, so listen up. If you want to make things even harder, act like a fucking brat. But if you want keep things a little more bareable for both of us, chill for once in your life and accept it.” He scoffed back at Rin, keeping his voice steady so he could be sure that Rin would actually listen to every word he had just said.

“Fuck you, I’m going to speak with Ego. You can go to your little ‘dinner with friends’ shit, I don’t give a fuck, just leave me alone and I’ll make sure that one of us will be sent to the West, no matter what happens.”

Those weren’t just words he was throwing at Isagi. Rin meant every single one of them, including the promise he just made.

Both of them knew that sharing a room wouldn’t ever work way before they were even paired together, the difference is that Rin would actually try to do something about it.

“Go on, I don’t care about whatever you want to do either.” Isagi responded with indifference.

“Hmpf.”

Rin dropped his bag on top of his bed and left the room, taking the shortest path he knew to get to Ego’s office as quickly as possible.

He knocked twice before a sweet voice told him to just push the door open.

After following Anri’s orders, Rin found himself going directly to where Ego always stayed at, muttering a polite ‘hi’ to Anri.

Rin is now face to face with Ego. He was sitting by his desk, holding a cup of coffee in one hand with an eyebrow raised at Rin's sudden appearance.

“Are there any problems with your new roommate, Itoshi Rin?” Ego questioned, spending no time of his day with small talk.

“Is there a way to swap roommates without a concrete reason?” Rin asked impatiently, but still keeping his tone respectful.

“Yes. However, I won’t allow many of these swaps, so do not expect me to accept it, got it?” Rin nodded, so Ego continued speaking.

“As long as two pairs of roommates are interested in swapping with each other and I, alongside the rest of the school board, believe that the change won’t bring any harm, I’ll allow it.” Ego explicated, wearing that same intimidating tone he always carried. Rin, however, wasn’t phased by it.

“Is there anyone who’s already interested in this change?” Rin, once again, demanded.

“Great minds do think alike.” He teased. “Yes, there is someone interested in a swap. I think you’re going to… enjoy your options.” Ego replied, too eager compared to his usual self.

“May I ask who are these options you mentioned?”

“This afternoon, Sae came to my office and asked to get a new roommate.” Of course. That’s why Ego even teased me. “I wasn’t expecting that his brother would also be drawn to this idea.” Ego smiled.

“Are you still interested? I believe you already know who Sae’s roommate is at this rate, don’t you?” Rin grimaced, not even trying to hide his disgust towards the thought of sharing a room with the options Ego just gave him.

“Yes, I do know about Shidou and Sae sharing a room.” Rin replied sourly. “And no, I would not be interested in the swap anymore.” He stood up abruptly, making his way to leave. “Thank you for your time, Ego.”

“That’s what I imagined. If there are no other questions, you may leave.” He paused. ”But do keep one thing in mind, Diamond.”

Diamond? Ego only called his students diamonds on the rough, or some corny shit like that. That’s a new one.

“Only a diamond can polish another diamond, Rin. Give Isagi a try, maybe you both can learn more than you imagine from each other. Now go, I have more things to do.” He waved his hand as he dismissed Rin from his office.

The door was opened in a swift motion by Rin as he left the room. A weird feeling sat at his chest as he replayed what Ego just said to him.

‘Only a diamond can polish another diamond…’

Rin walked his way back in silence, passing through the many empty hallways of the school. He was greeted with an empty room, save for all of his and Isagi’s belongings.

It seems like Isagi went to get dinner now, which meant that Rin had a few minutes of peace to organize his closet and place a few of his things around before Isagi came back to torment him—so that is precisely what he did for the rest of the night.

Chapter Text

Isagi arrived at the cafeteria just in time.

Earlier on this day, a few people from the main group chat decided to have dinner together so everyone could talk about their new roommates or just how things had been playing out so far. Of course Isagi would be the first person to confirm their presence.

As soon as Shidou spotted Isagi standing awkwardly at the cafeteria’s entrance searching for the group, a loud, characteristic whistle blew through the air, creating a big echo that silenced every person nearby for a few seconds.

Isagi followed the direction of Shidou’s whistle and managed to find his way to their table. Everyone sat nearby a wall this time, they chose a different table than usual—probably to avoid all the other students who were also eating dinner. The chatter dimmed as Isagi approached their table.

The group was pretty damn big, occupying every single inch of the two benches stuck to the sides of the table—filled with a good amount of trays holding various types of food. Considering that there would soon to be eight people eating with Isagi’s arrival, the current amount of food wasn’t as big as it seemed.

“Hey, we all thought you wouldn’t actually come, y’know?” Shidou greeted Isagi as a devilish smirk quickly appeared in his face. “By the way, do you know why Rin kept us on read for the whole day?” His smile only grew wider, if that was even possible. The slight mention of Rin’s name made Isagi’s blood boil, and Shidou somehow seemed to know that.

“Why would I, out of anyone else in this table, know what the hell he was doing to ignore you all?” He replied while pushing Bachira and Chigiri apart so he could fit in between them.

“There’s no need to hide it anymore, Isagi. We all know you and Rin are completely obsessed with each other.” Chigiri mumbled in his seat with an eye roll.

“Right? Plus, you two are sharing now, haven’t you guys spoken at least once today?” Reo chimed in. Looks like they already figured out who his roommate is, great.

All that Isagi managed to do was drop his head to his hands and let out a mix of both a groan and a sigh. This will be a long hell of a night.

“They did speak today! I remember two people on the soccer field at the end of this afternoon. When I checked, there it was! Isagi and Rin talking to each other." Bachira exclaimed by Isagi's side.

"I would’ve thought that I was watchin’ a romcon if I were in your place, Bachira.” Hiori added not only to the conversation, but also to Isagi’s torment. Bachira chuckled and agreed with what Hiori said. Sharing a room with Rin is already enough torture for me today.

“Alright, calm down! I’ll explain...” Isagi took a deep breath before proceeding. “Yes, I am sharing my new room with Rin. Yes, we did speak today at the soccer field and no, we are not obsessed with each other.”

“Two truths and one lie.”

Yes, that simple phrase was all that Shidou had to say just to get the whole table laughing, save for Isagi, of course.

“Whatever helps you to sleep at night. If Rin is so obsessed with me, why is he so determined to separate us?” Isagi replied as he took a sip from whatever Bachira had in his cup.

“What do you mean? Is he building a wall in the middle of the room or what?” Kunigami—who had been quiet until now—questioned.

“It’s so crazy, honestly.” He sighed. “When Rin arrived at our room just half an hour ago, he got super annoyed that I was his roommate and said that he was going to talk to Ego and just left me there! He even promised me that one of us would end up on the West.” Isagi said, raising his voice as he progressed with the explanation.

“I really wanted to understand the concept of talking to Ego right now. Like, what the hell is he going to do?” Reo pointed out, keeping his tone quieter than usual to not disturb a barely conscious Nagi on his side. Shidou, who was munching on something, raised his hand and mumbled something before swallowing—probably an attempt to indicate that he had something to say.

“I asked myself the same thing this afternoon! Sae got hella mad at me—even though he kept that smug ass face and nonchalant tone of his—and even threatened me, saying that he was going to get me sent back to the East or some shit like that.” Shidou commented from the other side of the table.

“I thought he was just bluffing, but then he disappeared for like… forty minutes? Yeah. When Sae came back, I asked him where he was for this whole time. At first, he just ignored me, but when he did answer it definitely had Ego involved. I think he tried to swap us out but there was no one else… Fuck, I really can’t remember it right now…”

“Are they tryin’ to do some evil brotherhood ritual with Ego or what?” Hiori asked from Shidou’s side.

“I hope Rin gets sacrificed then.” Isagi giggled. “I would do so many things to get rid of him.”

No, Isagi was not being ironic. He really disliked his current situation and was willing to do a good share of things to change his fate for the rest of this school year.

“Even kiss him?”

What? That was nowhere near what Isagi had in mind and neither did he want to think about such a possibility. He got so caught off guard by the question that he couldn’t even process who was the criminal that dared to say such thing.

“He would do that for the love of the game, getting something in return is just a bonus.” Shidou teased with that same smirk he had just a few minutes ago, and once again the table erupted in laughter. Isagi now rested his head in his hands, hiding his embarrassment.

The rest of the night went by quickly. There were still some occasional questions about Rin, but they weren’t unexpected—after all, what were they even supposed to talk about if not their new roommates?

“By the way, Shidou. Did you manage to complete that big ass list you made of everyone’s address?” Bachira asked while trying to feed Isagi another french fry like he was a baby.

“Basically. I still need the new address of the two lovebirds that hate each other so bad.” Shidou answered as he took his phone out and started tapping on the screen quickly. “Here, take my phone and fill it in.” He slid his phone through the table, placing a good amount of trust on Isagi to not snoop around and find some great blackmail material. “Unless you prefer me to stalk you after we are done eating.” Nevermind!

Isagi took the phone out of Shidou’s hand and searched for his name at the note.

Official list:

Format used:

Name: Building side - Room number - Did they change buildings? - Roommate

•Alexis Ness - East - E103 - Yes - Yukimiya Kenyu

•Bachira Meguru - West - W102 - Yes - Hiori You

•Barou Shouei - East - E110 - Yes - Don Lorenzo

•Don Lorenzo - East - E110 - Yes - Barou Shouei

•Hiori You - West - W102 - Yes - Bachira Meguru

•Hyouma Chigiri - East - E408 - No - Seishirou Nagi

•Isagi Yoichi - East - E302 - No - Itoshi Rin

•Itoshi Rin - East - E302 - No - Isagi Yoichi

•Itoshi Sae - West - W508 - No - Shidou Ryuusei <3

•Julian Loki - West - W402 - No - Michael Kaiser

•Karasu Tabito - East - E202 - No - Sendou Shuuto

•Kunigami Rensuke - West - W307 - Yes - Migake Reo

•Michael Kaiser - West - W402 - No - Julian Loki

•Mikage Reo - West - W307 - Yes - Kunigami Rensuke

•Oliver Aiku - West - W504 - No - Otoya Eita

•Otoya Eita - West - W504 - No - Oliver Aiku

•Seishirou Nagi - East - E408 - No - Hyouma Chigiri

•Sendou Shuuto - East - E202 - Yes - Karasu Tabito

•Shidou Ryuusei - West - W508 - Yes - Sae Itoshi<3

•Yukimiya Kenyu - East - E103 - Yes - Alexis Ness

IMPORTANT:

-ask loki 4 saes number

-crow hangout: try 2 sneak in while bumass ego is asleep at 2:30 am this sunday (01/02)

-get a copy of crow and toyas keys

-ask sae for good hair dye brands

-study session w the three idiots next tuesday (03/02)

-ask bee n hiori abt isagi n rin address 2night at dinner (!!!)

Isagi gave the phone to Bachira after typing in his new info, immediately going back to the argument Chigiri and Reo were having about who had the worst roommate. So far, Nagi was not beating the 'worst roommate ever' allegations.

Nothing memorable happened after that—most of the conversations were shit talk about names Isagi never heard in his entire life, so he didn't make much effort to pay any attention to it, preferring to instead take care of an unconscious Bachira and Nagi. These two slept anywhere at any time.

The group dispersed itself a few minutes before they’d eventually get kicked out of the cafeteria by the staff. Some of them chose to still keep hanging out for a while, but Isagi decided to go back to his own room so he could resume his day and have a well deserved night of sleep after carrying so many boxes around—One of them even got ripped open when he was going up the stairs. It was almost like a humiliation ritual.

Isagi took a key out of his pocket, unlocked and opened the door. That’s when he remembered who his new roommate was.

He had grown too used to the sight of Bachira either sleeping or scrolling on his phone when he arrived to their old room, but now? Now Isagi had to face that stupid, handsome face Rin had—those lips that could easily morph into a scowl and spit the ugliest insults he had ever heard.

Isagi couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever get used to all of this. Would he and Rin stop arguing? Or even worse, would they stop being rivals?

No, that’s impossible. Isagi couldn’t ever picture a world were the name Itoshi Rin wasn’t associated to rival, because such world didn’t exist. They hated each other—the only difference is that for the first time Isagi’s hate came with a slight obsession for the target.

When the door clicked open, Rin—who was sitting at the floor with a suitcase laid open by his side—shot a glance at Isagi for a few seconds before going back to whatever the fuck he was doing. Not a single word was spoken, all Isagi received was a stare—a puzzled type of stare.

As surprising as that sounded, Isagi wasn’t mad at the lack of a response for the first time ever. Why? Because that simple glance showed him more than any words ever could.

Rin was thinking about something. Not the usual type of thinking, it was closer to overthinking—not exactly it because he wasn't as distracted to the point of not noticing Isagi. Yes, he has an amazing skill at reading others, especially Rin.

“Aren’t you going to tell me about your ‘meeting’ with Ego?” Isagi asked.

“Why would I? It’s none of you business anyways.” Rin answered while folding a piece of clothing. Isagi recognized that shirt, Rin usually wore it on summer or hotter days.

“I fear it is. You went there to try to convince Ego to separate us, didn’t you?” A pause. All that filled the room was some clothes being shuffled around. “You don’t look like someone who's satisfied with the answer they received, but you do look quite puzzled about something.” Isagi pointed out.

A sigh. “Ego gave me two students to choose from, but they were somehow worse than you already are, so I gave up on the idea. Done, are you happy?”

‘…When Sae came back, I asked him where he was for this whole time. At first, he just ignored me, but when he did answer it definitely had Ego involved. I think he tried to swap us out…’

Wait, did Rin just stay with me because his other options were either Shidou or Sae?

“What else did he say? And don’t tell me he didn’t because I’m 98% sure he did say something else, Rin.” A lie, Isagi was a hundred percent sure. His guesses about Rin were never wrong.

Even more shuffling was heard, but it was messier this time. Maybe angrier.

“Will you shut up and leave me the fuck alone if I answer?” He dropped the piece of cloth he was holding to his lap.

“You can count on me. I was planning on going to sleep pretty soon anyways.” Isagi answered, his voice was noticeably happier now.

Another sigh escaped Rin’s lips. “When I was about to leave Ego’s office, he stopped me and started saying some motivational bullshit to change my mind from trying to get a new roommate. He said something like ‘only a diamond can polish another diamond’.”

Oh? So that’s what Rin has been thinking about?

“Did it work?” Isagi asked. “I mean, did his motivational speech change your mind?” Isagi added, explaining his first question in the process.

“No. I made a promise, didn’t I? We are getting separated and I don’t care about the cost of it.” If this was in a romance book with a romantic context, Rin would be considered the biggest sap of all times.

“Aww, are you willing to go that far for me, Rinrin? I’m blushing.” Isagi joked. He could be wrong, but he was almost sure that he saw Rin’s ears turn slightly red.

“Shut up! Why won’t you use those underworked braincells of yours to help me figure out a plan so we can be separated and just get this over with.”

He looks so cute when he’s flustered. Wait, what the fuck am I even thinking?!

“I’ll just change and go to sleep, you should too.” Isagi advised as he took some clothes from his closet.

“I can take care of myself. Im not lukewarm like you.”

“It doesn’t look like it.” Bam! Isagi closed and locked the door before Rin could even insult him back or try to rip his head off. Yes, both were extremely different things yet held a similar chance of happening right now.

Isagi didn’t have any major plans for Friday. Actually, he just didn’t have any plans at all—not even for the weekend.

Usually, that would've been something good. It meant that he and Bachira could play soccer together, study a little or just hang out like friends did and keep scrolling without anything in mind.

But guess what? Bachira isn’t here anymore, so now Isagi had to figure something out urgently, especially since Rin wouldn’t be on the soccer field 24/7 and he did not want to interact with him.

What Isagi meant with ‘figure something out’ was in the sense of finding something to do, not helping Rin with his plan of separating them.

Don’t get him wrong, Isagi wants to get rid of Rin, but he also wants to see how far he would actually go just to get rid of him, especially if he would be successful.

Isagi did have some ideas in mind, but he quickly realized many flaws in them. They were fixable problems, but that would require even more thinking, and all Isagi did not want to do right now was to think.

Rin was already awake, still organizing his closet. Isagi guessed that he would only leave the room for lunch and maybe for a little bit of soccer drills later in the afternoon, which meant that Isagi had the whole morning for himself if he stayed away from their dorm!

But of course, the second Isagi decided what he wanted to do, Rin had to stop him from grabbing his things before leaving.

“Isagi,” A pause. Not the usual pause he did, it was a nervous one. Isagi cursed Rin from having his head turned away from him, he can’t read his face expressions like that! “I think…nevermind. Just forget I said anything.”

That’s really weird. Why is Rin acting so nervous?

“You better tell me whatever the fuck you were just about to tell me or else I’ll kick your ass, bastard. You did not interrupt me for nothing!” Isagi exclaimed. “And don’t say it is something stupid, you always say stupid stuff.”

Rin was now facing him, Isagi noticed how he looked slightly shocked. It was probably because he guessed his next choice of words.

“Yeah, whatever.” A sigh. “Look, this is like, actually stupid, but I think that it is our best shot at getting rid of each other, so just hear me out, okay?” Rin said between many nervous pauses.

Isagi nodded, so he took that as a sign to continue speaking.

“Ego said in his email that relationships were a reason on why you and your roommate could get separated, right?”

Oh no. Isagi was not a fan of what that implied.

“…So I was thinking. If we started fake dating, would Ego actually separate us?” Rin proposed the idea, and it wasn’t… too bad. Actually, it made a lot of sense!

Also, if they started fake dating, Isagi would be forced to learn more about Rin, so he would have many more weaknesses to use and finally destroy him!

“So you’re basically asking me to date you, right?” Rin’s ears were burning in such a bright red they almost glowed. “I’m down!” Isagi said with too much enthusiasm for their current situation.

Silence. Both just stared at each other, too stunned to even speak. Isagi almost felt trapped in those teal eyes Rin had, adorned by so many long, pretty lashes. Soon, his ears also started burning, and he had a feeling it wasn’t only because of his hate for Rin.

“You’re… okay with it? Aren’t you going to mock me or whatever?” Rin asked, he actually seemed rather… intrigued about Isagi’s answer.

“I mean, now I’m kinda embarrassed, but sure… I guess we can make it work. Whatever it takes to be away from you, I guess.”

How was that even going to work? Would they get in bigger trouble rather than just being separated? At this point, Isagi couldn’t care less, he was too thrilled with the idea of finding Rin’s weak spots so he could attack him and finally devour him, just like the other promised to do so many times.

Isagi already started to make a plan on how to completely destabilize Rin so he could prepare his final attack.

His plan was rather simple: He would take full advantage of this whole dating situation and completely plague Rin’s mind. He would do his best to haunt Rin’s dreams, mind, actions, thoughts—his being as a whole.

With such power over him, Rin was doomed to make an eventual mistake in something—soccer, academics, anything. Isagi would then use that as an opportunity to destroy him using Rin’s own game against him.

“So, when should we start discussing about the details of it? Like, what lines we won’t cross… the basic stuff.” Rin asked as he organized his shoes.

“We don’t really have any plans for today, do we?” Isagi replied, throwing Rin another question back.

“I do.” He mumbled.

“Oh yeah? Where are you going, then?” Isagi asked.

“…” Rin inhaled sharply. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Hah! Of course you don’t have any plans!” Isagi said.

“Shut up, you’re in the same position as me, Lukewarm freak. And I do have plans for this afternoon, okay?”

“Playing soccer alone doesn’t count, just to let you know.”

“Of course it does! I thought about it yesterday, so that’s a plan.”

Isagi sighed loudly before laying down in his bed.

“Okay, what is your big mastermind plan to even make this work, oh-so-great Itoshi Rin?” Isagi asked, sarcasm sprinkled in his words.

“We can’t make it too obvious, but we also need to make it seem like we are making a really poor attempt at hiding our relationship from others.” Rin explained.

“So how do we even do that?” Isagi asked, still laid down in his bed.

“I… don’t know. I guess we just fake date and hope for the best? Valentines is in two weeks, so I guess we can make something to show off to Ego and his new cameras.”

“You guess? We will need more than that to be separated. What do couples even do, after all? And don’t say makeout, I would never kiss you.” Isagi said, disgusted by such an idea.

“Ew.” Rin rolled his eyes, exaggerating as much as he could. “As if I would ever try to.”

“Okay, focus! Let’s start to get super close, especially in class. Every opportunity we get to stay together we do.”

“I came up with this plan to get us separated, not closer.” Rin objected.

“How do you want us to be separated for dating allegations if you’re not willing to do even the basics of a relationship?” Isagi questioned.

Needless to say that Rin quickly dropped his organizing duty to keep listening to Isagi’s explanation of what couples did and didn’t do—even if his only reference were many shitty rom-con movies he and Bachira watched to laugh at midnight.

Both spent the rest of their morning making plans of interactions they would have for the next few days and a few rules of what they would and wouldn’t do.

For their first spectacle, Isagi chose lunch.

Yes, they would eat lunch together. Not with their friends, not alone by themselves either. Just the two of them.

Later on that same day, Rin decided that both would play soccer together in the afternoon and then go on a walk around campus, trying to pass through the sight of as many cameras as possible to raise Ego's suspicions.

Their plan was simply flawless according to themselves—who never even dated anyone, let alone fake dated. But that didn’t mean that they couldn’t make good plans for a fake relationship even though they hated each other, right? Well, I guess we will have to wait for the results of this mess.

There is no way this shit is going to work. That was not what I meant when I said I would do many things to get rid of Rin!

.

..

…

“Rin."

“What?”

“We’re still rivals, right?”

“Of course we are. What a Lukewarm question.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault I still need to devour you.”

“That was my promise! You’re so pathetic you can’t even come up with something original for yourself.”

“If it is cooler on me I’ll steal it. What are you going to do about it?”

“Kill you.”

“I’d like to see you try, Rin.”

“Hmpf. Just shut up already.”

Chapter Text

Isagi couldn’t be happier right now.

It was almost like the world wanted him and Rin to succeed with their friendship performance (that would sooner or later escalate into a dating one.)

This plan was nothing more than a lie, fiction. Something that had one solid goal to convince its audience that all that had been shown to them is the truth.

If everyone believed it, the story would hopefully spread itself until Ego also discovered about it and eventually did something to finally put an end to it, which included separating Rin and Isagi.

Since all of this is a show, they obviously needed a crowd—and that’s precisely why Isagi is so happy.

Today is Friday, there are no classes at all, and most of their friends were currently in the cafeteria eating together.

It was—to put it lightly—their perfect opportunity to make a debut into the world of pretending, and Isagi was not going to lose this chance.

Since he had been the one to drag Rin into this whole thing of having lunch together, Isagi decided it was only fair for him to be in charge of planning what they would have to do. Rin would have to make the same thing for their soccer practice and walk around campus later, obviously.

So, let’s take a look at Isagi’s mastermind plan to make sure that everything is going to go just as he planned.

The first step is to make sure that the cafeteria is at its fullest whenever they arrive to maximize their spectators. Isagi was not going to play nice with Rin for nothing in return, so the least they could do is choose a crowded place to execute their plan and hopefully get the word to spread as quickly as possible so they would finally be free from each other.

Also, they had to be careful with their friends. Neither Rin or Isagi could read the group chat at any costs, or else they might be questioned on why Isagi ignored them, and right now, too many questions were the last thing they needed.

Another thing to be mindful of is their time of arrival and where they would be sitting.

The seating part wasn’t that big of a problem. Those idiots Isagi called his friends always made sure to sit at the same spot, so he had a good knowledge of tables that stayed partially hidden amongst the crowd but were still visible from the place where the group was, serving as an excuse on why they didn’t join the group. Also, the big amount of students helped a lot. If the cafeteria was too cluttered, Isagi could use that as an helpful excuse if questioned on the seating choice they made.

However, the timing part was the most complicated.

Isagi had only seen the notifications of the chat, not the entire texts, so he had no clue if the time they had chosen to meet up was still the same as before, so unless he checked, there was no way to discover whether Isagi was right about their friends meeting starting at twelve thirty.

The worst thing about it was that he and Rin couldn’t arrive at the exact same time as their friends or else it would be too suspicious. The perfect timing had to be at least fifteen minutes later than the time chosen by the group.

Now that he thinks about it, Isagi kind of feels bad for basically ignoring his friends for the sake of spending time with Rin out of everyone else.

Now, let’s go back to the plan. The second—and hopefully last step—was the easiest one on paper but hardest in practice. Why? Because it involved acting like Isagi was actually friends with Rin—which was probably the biggest lie of his life.

Rin had always made sure to keep it clear that he did not want any type of friendship, his cold actions only emphasized that. Isagi was probably the one who had seen them the most out of anyone else in that school.

Since the beginning of his first school year, Isagi had always tried to approach Rin and was determined to do whatever it took to at least learn a little about him—after all, his reputation really caught Isagi’s attention.

At first, his only goal was to talk to Rin, comprehend how his mind worked and adapt to it so he could destroy him—just like he always did with anyone else in his way. However, once Isagi started to grasp how complex Rin actually was, his interest towards him only grew bigger, reaching the point of actually wanting to be his friend.

Isagi would often find himself trying his hardest to catch Rin’s attention to try to break that cold surface he held onto so tightly, but it hardly ever worked.

Some time had passed with no success whatsoever. Rin never spoke to Isagi, and when he did it was just to shut him down or try to shoo him away. That's when Isagi finally realized how closed off and cold Rin could be just to keep everyone away from him. In the end, that same avoidance he kept towards Isagi was exactly what lured him in even more.

Isagi managed to quickly adapt to Rin’s preferences and actually made a lot of progress back then, almost achieving his goal of befriending him. Almost.

When the first test results came out and Isagi held the top one title, surpassing Rin for the first time ever, was the same day that marked both the start of their rivalry and the end of Isagi’s desire to be Rin’s friend. Now, the only thing he wished to see was that same anger Rin felt in that day for a second time, maybe even third.

As much as Isagi disliked Rin nowadays, he knew that he was still equally interested on him, his genius mind, his soccer skills—his whole being. Even if he hated Rin more than anything else in this world—even if they were declared the biggest enemies of the whole country, nothing could ever erase that fact.

Isagi still wanted to know, study, analyze, understand everything about Rin. But why? If he didn't want to be his friend anymore, why would Isagi be still so interested in Rin?

The only thing that could ever surpass his obsession for Rin was his goal to be the top one, and if that were to ever happen, Isagi had to get rid of whoever stood in his path—no matter how much he needed to adapt to do so.

Sadly (maybe hopefully?) Rin was the only one in his way to become the number one, which meant that Isagi had to understand Rin in order to achieve his goal, just like he’d done in the past. 

He assumed that this was the reason for his obsession, but even with all of this explaining, Isagi still felt like something else also pushed him to this wish of getting to know Rin—he only needed to figure out what that something was.

Now that he had finally gone through his whole plan and a few other things in the way, Isagi decided to take a look at how many minutes they still had before starting to go on their way to the cafeteria.

12:43

Shit, we have to be there in two minutes!

Isagi quickly stored his phone in his pocket before glancing to his side, showing him a Rin laid in his bed watching a random horror story—a Rin who did not have a single piece of clothing in his body that didn’t look like it was taken straight out of his pile of sleeping clothes—because guess what? That was precisely where those clothes belonged at.

Thankfully, when Isagi asked Rin to change, he managed to actually do it pretty quickly, not taking them too much time.

They went down the elevator, walked around campus for some minutes until they finally arrived at the cafeteria while standing a little bit too close from each other. That was the key moment where their first performance started.

Both went on their way to the counter where they could order their food.

“Hey Rin, what are you getting today? I’m thinking about some ochazuke. It’s your favorite dish, right?” Isagi questioned, even though he already knew the answer. This was something that wasn’t in the script, since Rin didn’t even know that Isagi had this information about him.

But how did he even discover that about Rin? No, Isagi wasn’t some crazy stalker, he just payed a lot of attention to things that people say without even realizing.

He randomly remember this from a day where they were sitting on the grass from the soccer field after some intense training.

Everyone was drinking almost all the water they had in their bottles, but Rin? He just sat on the floor, panting like crazy with a towel in hand. Isagi assumed that he forgot his water bottle, so he bought one from a nearby vending machine and handed it to him.

“Not even a thanks?” Isagi asked jokingly.

Rin refused to say anything at first, but just when Isagi was about to leave, he mumbled something along the lines of 'Buy me an ochazuke next time and I might thank you.'

Most of the phrase was a guess, but Isagi was sure about the word ochazuke, so he decided to store this information for later, he just never imagined that it would ever be useful.

Isagi was an observant person by nature, so that wasn’t that big of a deal for him. But Rin, on the other hand? He looked quite confused, but kept his posture by giving him a nod, answering Isagi’s question. He internally cheered for his guessing skills.

Both got their dishes before heading to a table, which was specifically chosen by Isagi to make sure that everything went according to his plan.

Both chose to sit side by side so they could stay closer and avoid the gaze of their friends, who were staring at them by the other side of the cafeteria. Isagi had to advert his gaze from there at least five times before he almost got caught once and finally decided to stop looking at them entirely.

After eating a few bites out of his food, Isagi decided that this would be his chance to start some small talk with Rin.

“For the first time ever I’ll admit such a thing, but you do have great taste in food, Rin!” Isagi said with an exaggerated grin, even if his words were truthful.

“Or maybe you just can’t dislike any food at all.” He responded back with a huge lack of the same enthusiasm Isagi had just been faking. Maybe he had to steal Rin’s emotions in the process just to do such an exaggeration.

“No, I’m dead serious. This is actually really good!” Now he was being honest, finally allowing his actual thoughts merge with the acting.

“Whatever you say, then.” Rin answered almost expressionless.

This is not working, Rin just doesn’t even try to maintain the conversation! Couldn’t he at least give me something to work with?

“C’mon Rin, aren’t you even a little excited? I mean, we are going to play soccer together! And after that maybe we could even hang out a little! If you want to, of course.” Isagi suggested, even thought both already had the answer prepared in their mental script.

“If you stop being so Lukewarm I might consider.”

“So I’m counting that as a yes!” Isagi exclaimed, leaning his head to touch Rin’s shoulder for a few seconds before going back to his usual position.

When Isagi looked at Rin, waiting for an answer, he managed to see a little of his ear completely red. Seems like he really got into character, huh.

“Think of it as you want to, I don’t care.” Rin responded before taking a bite out of his food—a poor attempt at hiding his embarrassment.

Both continued to eat mostly in silence, except for the few times Isagi actually tried to talk to Rin without being the only one yapping for the entire conversation. It clearly wasn’t working, so he would have to get used to it.

As hard as it might be to believe, Rin is actually doing a great job at his acting. Both had talked about it a few hours ago when they were still planning this whole thing. Their final conclusion on the topic was that if they wanted the crowd to believe anything that they showed, it had to actually make sense to their previous interactions.

To make it easier to explain, if Rin started to act like he was a hopeless romantic whenever he was around Isagi, it would look like they were making some type of cheap comedy show. This had to be something natural, almost like they were actually falling in love with each other because of Ego’s poor choice in making them roommates.

The same thing applies to every single aspect of their previous relationship with each other. If Isagi suddenly stopped caring about surpassing Rin, everyone would notice it, be forced to look at their performance and see all the flaws it had.

Like, wouldn’t it be weird as hell if the two biggest haters ever suddenly started to just do all this stuff without an apparent reason?

That’s why their plan was perfect. The best movies have actors who can get perfectly in character, but in this case, both Rin and Isagi were playing themselves falling in love.

Isagi was snapped back to reality once Rin called him.

He was already ready to leave, just waiting for Isagi to follow along. It was uncanny, usually Rin just left everyone behind and went on his way to whatever place he had to be, but now? Now he was willing to wait for Isagi, even making sure to call him.

It would’ve been really cute if it wasn’t just for the sake of this stupid plan whose only goal was to separate them.

Isagi’s mood soured, but he swallowed it down and shot Rin a brief smile before following him out of the cafeteria.

Once the doors behind them closed, both clearly relaxed, letting the tension leave their bodies immediately. All of this association of their pretend friendship being some type of stage play was just an exaggeration Isagi made in his mind to go around the details without getting lost, but he swore that this sensation was the same as leaving a stage after a presentation. Rin seemed to share the feeling—the look on his face said it all.

“Hopefully we’ll be alone at the field today, just like you were yesterday.” Isagi muttered more to himself than anyone else, but Rin still heard it nonetheless.

“Hopefully.” He answered.

Isagi could still remember as clearly as day when he invaded the field and kept watching Rin train his shooting, alternating through many different types of techniques like it was nothing.

Rin was just a few moments away from getting another shot in, but the second he sensed someone else watching him, his posture got slightly fixed unconsciously.

It was small, almost unnoticeable—even Isagi doubted that he would’ve been able to spot that if he was unaware of this habit Rin had—but of course Isagi wouldn’t let that slide so easily.

Even with the brand new crowd of one person, Rin still kept himself up and went all in for the shot.

It was perfect. The strength Rin placed in his shot was the exact amount required to immediately send the ball flying to the top right corner of the goalpost, hitting the net perfectly with a soft thud!

Isagi, unable to keep his admiration to himself, let out a whistle, showing Rin his approval of the amazing shot.

Rin was still facing away from Isagi, but now fully aware about the identity of the person who was watching him.

“Are you obsessed with me? I thought you had to organize your things in your room this afternoon.” He started, voice covered in his same false indifference that usually did the opposite he wanted it to, showing Isagi how much he actually cared about certain things.

It was funny. Rin acted like he wasn’t the one reading Isagi’s texts religiously while ignoring the rest of the group chat.

“I think you’re the obsessed one, Rin. You always emphasize that you never read the group chat, and yet here you are with an information you could only get reading my text from earlier in this morning. Weird, isn’t it?” Isagi refuted with ease. He watched as Rin tried to dodge the question by going after the ball he had just kicked a few seconds ago.

“You didn’t answer my question.” Rin paused as he took the ball in his arm. “But don’t worry, I’ll change it. Why are you here?” He asked, swiftly changing the subject once it got to a point he no longer enjoyed anymore. Isagi ignored it, deciding to play along with his game.

“I was going back to the East when I noticed someone alone on the field. I instantly knew it was you—there is no one else as stubborn as you are to be training instead of organizing their things—so I just came here to check how you were doing, maybe even offer some help since my new room is in the same floor as your old one.” Isagi answered, giving Rin a hint that they might turn out to be roommates if his theory is correct.

After a few seconds of silence, Rin finally answered.

“I don’t need your help. Your presence would only be a bother to me, so I’ll pass.”

“What a shame. If that’s the case, I guess I’ll be on my way back then. Good luck, Rin.” He said, letting out a small chuckle as he turned around to leave. He doubted Rin heard that, but if he did it would probably be mistaken by Isagi mocking him.

It was a fun memory to go look back to, even though it happened just a day ago.

Both continued their path back to their room so they could rest for a while before grabbing their bags and start their soccer training for the day.

Once they were finally back inside, Isagi sat on his bed and checked his phone, who was full of messages. Seems like our debut was a success.

Bee🐝:

@Isagi @Rin🦉 why didnt u guys join us today? everyone saw u 2 tgther

Otoya:

wait what happened bee pls tell me

me shidou yuki n crow were so busy we didnt even go to the cafeteria today

Chigiri:

They were missing for the whole morning just show up in the cafeteria together when half of the whole group was there watching.

Not even a hi btw.

I think they were so busy focused on eachother that they couldnt even care to look at their phones or surroundings.

Shidou:

THEY WHAT?????????

FUCK I KNEW SKIPPING LUNCH FOR RAMEN WAS BULLSHIT

CROW UR ON THIN ICE @Karasu

Karasu:

WTF DID I DO THIS TIME

Reo:

—> @Isagi @Rin🦉 why didnt u…

Wondering the same thing @Isagi @Rin🦉

—> They were missing for the…

RIGHT?? What are these two on omgg

Like, im not even mad about them not joining us, im just mad that they’re gatekeeping the story...

Me:

Hey guys!! Im really sorry for not checking the gc today

Me and Rin stayed up yesterday until late organizing our things and we just slept for too long

Not going to happen again tho, so just @ me next time and ill definitely show up if i can and drag Rin along

Shidou:

dawg we aint mad at ts just tell us what the fuck is going on between u and rin

Me:

—> dawg we aint mad at ts ju…

OTOYA JUST SAID YOU WERENT EVEN THERE??

But answering your question, I kind of already did…

We overslept, did not check our phones and just showed up to eat at the cafeteria

Bee🐝:

im pretty sure thats not what he meant but let me ask this for the sake of everyones sanity

why the fuck are u 2 not hating eachother

yall already acted like two idiots before but now its just worse

Me:

Hey bachira!!

Not sure about what you mean by that, but if it helps we both were like, super sleepy when we where in the cafeteria

So maybe Rin was just too tired to even care about arguing with me?? Idk what that miracle was either

But yeah thats all I can think about rn

I gtg now, guys! Have a good day!! :D

Shidou:

DONT YOU DARE TO LEAVE

people cant have shit nowadays

Bee🐝:

right?? like give us some good context and not whatever ts is

Damn, that was both easier and harder than I expected.

Isagi placed his phone on his nightstand, plucking it in so it could charge for a while before they left for their soccer drills later.

“Hey, Rin. Check the group chat.” Isagi said with a smile plastered in his face.

“Which one? You and Hiori added me to so many I don’t even know the difference between them.” Rin answered as he tried to keep his focus on the same horror story he was watching this morning. He looked really distracted for some reason Isagi still couldn't quite figure out.

“Don’t play dumb to try to prove a point, you know damn well I’m talking about the big one.” Isagi’s previous smile was now gone, swapped by a frown because of Rin’s stupid question.

A loud sigh escaped Rin’s mouth as he opened his messages and searched for the group Isagi mentioned.

As he started reading the texts, Isagi stood there, waiting for his reaction.

“Is that it? These losers never have anything to talk about, I don’t know why you’re so hyped over this.” Rin stated before going back to his previous story that was paused.

Isagi decided to not argue this time and just ignored Rin’s comment before moving on to start packing some things on his bag for their training later. He assumed Rin already had his bag prepared, so he chose to leave him alone for now.