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2 in the morning, and yet Akito Shinonome was still more awake than ever as he laid in his bed, messing around on his phone. By messing around, it would be him opening apps then closing them just to return to said app a few seconds later. opening social media to check it for about five minutes, then some games, to then just checking out his contacts in some messaging app. Scrolling down, he could see various names; from An, to Kohane, a few of his classmates' contacts, then there was one contact right above Touya’s name…
Rui Kamishiro .
He stared at the contact name for a bit, furrowing his brows at the mere thought of the purple-haired teen. And yet, he still clicked on it to see further information. Nothing too special; just his name, phone number and an image of… him posing next to some freakishly weird robot that he probably made. Upon examining the image, he could see a huge smile on the other boy’s face as he had his arms rested on the robot’s head. It was a strange image. The robot looked like one of Touya’s classmates, the boy looked oddly happy and his room was an absolute mess.
And yet he couldn’t stop zooming in on the other’s face in the image.
It was frustrating — infuriating even. He looked so goddamn happy in the image, and it’s not even that Akito had anything to pick on when it came to the teen’s expression. It was just Rui’s presence in the photo in general that made Akito feel fucking weird . That’s all that he’s been feeling around him recently, weird. His chest would feel weird and he would get this overwhelming feeling of wanting to talk to him. He would talk to the other, but most times it would end up with Akito getting angry and the other making that stupid smug expression—
Akito had enough of this guy’s face, so he pressed to exit the contact and—
riiiiiing—
“Huh?” He made a confused expression, not knowing what he just did. Maybe it was the fact that it was so late that he didn’t notice that he just—
“ Hello? ” Said a low and whispery voice. Akito blinked once, then twice…
“Oh shit.” Akito blurted out.
“ Shinonome-kun…? ” Said the voice — Rui on the other end of the line.
Shit. He just called Rui Kamishiro at 2 in the fucking morning. Great. This was terrible. He would just hang up, but something made Akito curious — or more so, slightly frustrated.
“Why are you still awake?” He questioned like some angry mother who just caught their child staying up too late, as he brought the phone to his ear.
All he got back was silence, then he heard a small chuckle coming from Rui. “ You’re the one who called me? ” The other said, he could practically feel the other’s smirk. And that was already pissing him off.
“Answer my question, dumbass.” He rolled his eyes, grumbling. He heard another chuckle from the other side of the line.
“ I’m working on something, why do you ask? ” Rui replied, for some reason this reply made Akito even more pissed. He could hear some noises from the other, but he didn’t know exactly what they were.
“Working? At two in the morning?” It was clear in his voice that he wasn’t happy. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?” He pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.
“ Shouldn’t you? ” Asked Rui. “ Shouldn’t you also be asleep, Shinonome-kun? ” Once again, he could feel the other’s smug expression. “ Why did you call me so late? ” Suddenly, the smugness turned into sudden curiosity.
Akito went quiet for a brief moment before opening his mouth to reply: “it was an accident.” He sighed. “Why would I call you at two in the morning on purpose?” He asked, sarcasm overflowing in his voice.
“ Who knows. ” Rui sighed, he couldn’t help but pick up slight disappointment in the other’s voice. “ Maybe you missed me, fufu. ”
“Piss off.” Was all that Akito could respond with.
“ Classic Shinonome-kun. ” The other chuckled.
There was a brief moment of silence, with neither teen knowing what to say. That was, until Rui broke that silence.
“ You know, I’m glad you called .” He said, his voice softer than usual. Catching Akito off guard. “ I find it nice talking to you. ”
He likes… talking to Akito? What ? Since when ? Akito didn’t know how to react upon this sudden revelation; he opened his mouth and closed it so many times because he didn’t know how to react.
“You like talkin’ to me?” He didn’t seem convinced — he wasn’t convinced. “What's so nice about it, exactly?”
“ I like hearing your voice. ” The other replied. “ You have a nice voice. Besides that, I like it when we have our little banter. Fufu. ”
“I wouldn’t call it banter—“
“ Sure, you wouldn’t .” Rui cut in. “ But it’s fun, despite the fact that it annoys you most of the time. ” This time, he couldn’t really hear anything coming from the other for a few seconds. Rui seemingly got quiet.
“Kamishiro-senpai…?” Akito called, confusion in his voice for the sudden silence.
“I know you’ve said that you don’t like me very much… and I’m almost certain you’ve said you hated me once… ” Rui trailed off a bit. “.. But, that doesn’t mean that I dislike you too. In fact… I do like you, Akito-kun .”
Now it was Akito’s turn to go silent. For many reasons; the sincerity in Rui’s voice, the fact that he called him “Akito-kun” instead of “Shinonome-kun”, the fact that he thinks that—
He thinks that he hates him.
Maybe that statement was true at one point, but perhaps it was the fact that he was forced to hang around the other more often; whether it’s at school or even when Touya brings him to watch Wonderlands x showtime performances with him and the rest of vivid bad squad. Perhaps it was the times that Rui would stop to actually talk to him; whether it was going up to him in the hallways and starting a random conversation, or thanking him for coming to one of the shows. Perhaps it was the few times that Akito would seek him out for no reason just to talk to him…
…
Akito doesn’t hate Rui.
“I don’t hate you.” He blurted out. “I really don’t.”
“ Oh? ” Rui’s voice was laced with confusion.
“Don’t get me wrong, I find you annoying as hell.” He quickly added. “But I don’t hate you… you’re…” he bit his lip, searching for the right word to say. “You’re an alright guy, I guess.”
Suddenly, there was silence once again.
“ I’m glad we were able to talk then. ” Rui said, breaking the silence one more time. He sounded… relieved in a way.
“…yeah.” Was all that Akito could say.
“ Well, I should probably head to bed. I’ll talk to you soon? ”
“…yeah, sure.”
“ Perfect, good night. ”
“Night…”
Then Rui hung up, leaving Akito alone once again.
For some reason… his chest was feeling funny again. And the disappointment he felt when the other hung up was immense. He didn’t know why but… he wanted to continue talking to the other.
“Fuckin’ hell.” He grumbled softly, setting his phone aside and turning away from it. Maybe he should finally get some rest.