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“So,” Kou squinted at the other boy with a tone that could only really be described as exasperated. “You called me over at 9-o-clock, on the verge of tears… because you want to take photos for your blog. Is that it?”
Sousuke whined at the other, tugging at his own hair as he paced in a circle around his room. “You don’t get it.”
The boy’s marching came to a sudden halt as he snapped over to grab his phone off his desk, opening it.
“I only got 30 reblogs on my last post. I’m gonna become irrelevant if I don’t do something about it soon!” Sousuke whimpered like a wounded animal, turning the screen towards the other to show the aforementioned post.
Kou only continued to glare.
He never really understood social media like most of his classmates, let alone Sousuke. Grandpa (or some variation) had become Kou’s new nickname, assigned by the other of course. He just never saw a point in publishing your whole life online. It seemed stressful with how often Sousuke would complain of “haters” and “biatches” ruining his life. It’s not like his life was very interesting, anyways. Most of his days consisted of taking care of his little sister and cooking for his family. Even his more exciting days were considered boring by the standards of Sousuke.
“Okay… what do you need me for, anyways? It’s not like I’m good at blog-stuff.” Kou pointed this out as he pushed the phone away from his face.
He expected Sousuke to agree, to hurl insults about his lack of understanding on the matter. Instead, Sousuke smiled. Which was way, way worse.
“You’re so stupid, Minamoto.” Sousuke’s shoulders lifted in a half shrug. “Can’t be helped, I guess.”
Before Kou could further question the other, his brain stopped when he felt Sousuke’s weight dip the bed beside him slightly.
“Lucky for you, you don’t have to do much.” He waved his hand dismissively at Kou as he shifted his attention to his phone for a moment, doing something Kou couldn’t see.
Sousuke grabbed Kou’s arm as he scooted closer, trying to wrap it around himself.
“Uhm–? Sousuke, hey–” Kou hardly tried to tug away before Sousuke gripped his arm harder, scowling.
“Shut up, just do it. I need you to be my fake boyfriend for my blog.” Sousuke said it so casually as if he hadn’t just stolen all the air Kou had in his lungs. There was zero way this was actually happening right now.
“You– What!?” Kou’s eyes were practically bulging out of his head. Sousuke kept his gaze focused on the other, though with a much more annoyed front.
“Don’t be a baby. All of my friends are getting, like, a thousand notes on their couple photos. Your face doesn’t even need to be in it.” Sousuke looked him up and down, before humming to himself.
“Probably for the best if your face isn’t in it. I don't wanna scare the hoes.” Sousuke concluded.
Kou’s head was spinning too fast to register the insult. “Sousuke… I don’t think–”
Sousuke only groaned petulantly, tugging his arm again. “I’ll only take a few, and then I'll let you go. It’s not like anyone from school is gonna find out.”
Sousuke’s childish whining turned into pitiful pleas as he leaned closer and looked up at the other, his eyes wet with performative tears. “Minamoto… pleaseeee… you know how much my blog means to me… don’t you want me to be happy?”
Sousuke was such a manipulative piece of shit sometimes.
Kou felt heat rise from his neck to his face as the other leaned close with each word. “You jackass…”
Sousuke rested his chin on the other's shoulder, his eyes only getting bigger and more pitiful. “Come on… Kouuuu…”
And that was it. Sousuke had won.
Kou pushed the other away, a little more harsh than he intended as he snapped back at the other. “Okay, fine! Just– stop that! You’re so annoying!”
Sousuke didn’t seem to mind the shove as he preened triumphantly, giggling. “You’re too easy. If you really hate doing stuff for me so much, you need to try a lot harder.”
Comments like that really messed with Kou’s brain. Did Sousuke just see this as a game? He wasn’t sure if Sousuke was aware of how much it really affected Kou. There was a non-zero chance that Sousuke was aware of Kou’s feelings, after all. He could recall many times where he had done or said something to the other that couldn’t be interpreted any other way besides romantic. But Sousuke was a bit dense at times as a side effect of his self-deprecation, so Kou could never actually be sure. The thought that Sousuke saw it as a game and acted the same with other people crossed his mind.
He didn’t really wanna think about why it made him want to puke.
Kou’s breathing slowed only slightly. “Uhm… What do you need me to do?”
“Well, for starters, arm. Around me.” Sousuke commanded.
As soon as he did, Sousuke snapped a few photos. Different expressions, slightly different angles, until he settled on one that cropped half of his face anyways.
Sousuke leaned into Kou. “Cute, right?” He grinned as he tilted the screen, before waving his hand at the other to shush Kou. “Actually, don’t even say anything. I know it’s cute.”
Kou felt himself nearly smile. Sousuke was, unfortunately, really endearing without realizing it. All his annoying traits somehow only made Kou more attracted to him, so moments like this struck Kou right in his heart. He’d never let the other find out though, if Sousuke knew he liked his annoying traits, his ego might burst from how full of himself he’d get over it.
“So, uhm… is that it?” Scratched his neck, starting to feel the embarrassment of the situation creeping back in.
Sousuke shook his head. “Nope. I need at least ten pics of us to space out on my blog over the next few weeks. And after that, I can pretend you dumped me so people feel bad for me and support my emo era.”
“So you’re gonna fake-date me on your blog just to pretend I dumped you for sympathy?” Kou scowled. “That’s fucked up.”
Sousuke grumbled. “Oh, please. The internet is all fake. That’s, like, rule number one of the internet. If people fall for it, that's their own fault.”
Sousuke stood up, back facing away from Kou. Kou was relieved the other didn’t pick up on the double meaning of his last comment.
“Now,” Sousuke spun back around, smiling cheerily. “We’re gonna have a little photoshoot! So quit whining and help me out.”
Kou still felt like this was some kind of dream he had conjured up due to all of his delusions. Each photo got more annoyingly romantic than the last. As they stood in front of Sousuke’s bathroom mirror, Kou wrapped his arms around the other from behind. He wasn’t that much taller than the other, so it looked a lot more awkward than the reference photo Sousuke had provided.
Sousuke sulked. “Ugh. you’re too short. Can you, like, stop slouching?”
“I’m standing as tall as I can,” Kou muttered, equally as annoyed. “Maybe you should crouch down.”
Sousuke narrowed his eyes. “Your arms are too loose around me, too. It’s supposed to look like we’re a couple, remember? Hold me like you mean it.”
Kou felt like his head was about to explode. He hesitantly squeezed the other a little harder, and Sousuke tried to bend his knees to appear smaller. When Sousuke finally took the picture, it looked just as awkward as it felt taking it.
“Ugh.” Sousuke slid between the photo taken and the reference photo in his camera roll. “Ours looks like shit.”
Despite the picture already being taken, Kou stayed in the same position, leaning over slightly to get a good look at the screen. “Yeah, it does.”
Kou watched with the other as Sousuke’s thumb scrolled back and forth. The position was almost domestic.
“I mean, it’s not like ours was gonna compare to the real deal anyways. They have practice holding each other like that.” Kou commented. Sousuke nodded in return.
Pretty much all of the photos they had taken were shit. Too stiff, too obviously rehearsed. They couldn’t amount to their inspiration pictures of couples who had been casually doing everything they tried to capture for real.
Sousuke pulled away, and Kou could hardly mourn before Sousuke announced their next goal. “I have one more picture I wanna try doing. It's this overseas trend that blew up recently.” He opened the door to the bathroom before trotting out, making his way into the kitchen.
Kou followed behind, turning the corner to see Sousuke digging in the recycling can. He grimaced at the sight. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Looking… fo–or…” Sousuke dragged out the word as he rummaged around in the bin, before dragging up an empty bottle of Sapporo.
“This!” He beamed as he looked back at the other with the bottle in hand. Gross. Kou was really glad that Mrs. Mitsuba wasn’t home to see this.
“What could you possibly need an empty bottle of alcohol for?” Kou couldn’t help but notice that the bottle still had a few drops at the bottom. Double gross.
“Don’t look at me like that. We’re just gonna put it on the floor between us and pretend we’re playing spin the bottle, duh.” Sousuke loved saying things like that, as if adding ‘duh’ would make Kou immediately understand what he was saying.
“What’s the point of spinning a bottle?” Kou deadpanned.
Sousuke gave the other an irritated glare. “You spin it, and whoever it lands on you gotta kiss. It’s a party game, you see it all the time in those terrible American movies…?”
Kou tilted his head, which only seemed to annoy Sousuke even more.
“Nevermind. I forgot you’re a weirdo who doesn’t watch anything good.”
Sousuke pushed past Kou before he could defend his taste in media, leaving Kou with the only option to follow Sousuke.
Sousuke sat on the floor in the small apartment’s living room, crossing his legs and placing the bottle in front of him. Kou made the assumption he was supposed to do the same, so he followed suit and sat across from Sousuke in the same position.
“Usually, you play spin the bottle with more than one person,” Sousuke started. “But the point is that we’re taking stupid couple photos, so the implication is that we played it just to have an excuse to kiss each other.”
Sousuke pulled out his phone, his other hand positioning the bottle so the opening faced Kou.
Kou couldn’t really hide the disturbed look on his face. Despite the fact that Sousuke (hopefully) wasn’t doing this to mock Kou, it sure felt like it. All of the things they were doing for the sake of Sousuke’s blog were things Kou could have only dreamed of doing before. And now that he was doing it, it felt worse knowing it wasn’t coming from a place of genuine affection between the two. It felt even more bitter remembering Sousuke’s plan to act like Kou dumped him for attention. Attention from who? Other guys? Kou didn’t like the idea at all, but if he said that, it would open the discussion to his feelings he wasn’t really ready to face Sousuke with.
Kou assumed he spaced out as Sousuke’s fingers suddenly snapped in front of his face. Kou looked up, and was more than surprised to see Sousuke looking… worried? Almost. Not quite, but almost.
“You’re being weird.” Sousuke spat out bluntly. “What’s wrong?”
“Huh? Nothi–”
“If you say nothing, I might actually hit you, Minamoto.” Sousuke deadpanned, glaring at the other.
Kou’s lip twitched. He couldn’t really get out of this, huh? He signed, leaning back. “I dunno. This just feels dumb. I don’t get why you care about getting attention from people who don’t know you so bad.”
Sousuke immediately looked offended. Kou felt his heart stop.
“I mean, it’s– sorry, that came out, uhm…” Kou stammered, trying to put out the fire in Sousuke’s eyes.
Before he could, Sousuke giggled.
What?
“Oh. Ooooh…” Sousuke’s lips formed a smirk. Despite the fact Sousuke wasn’t angry anymore, Kou’s heart didn’t slow down one bit.
“...What?” Kou’s eyes darted across the other's face.
“That’s what this is about, huh?” Sousuke gave the other a look that mixed pity and embarrassment. Cute. Too cute. Did the room get hotter?
“Huh–? Quit being cryptic!” Kou’s fists balled up at his sides. The motion only seemed to please Sousuke even more.
“It’s nothing… I didn’t know you were the jealous type, Minamoto.” Sousuke’s fingers danced around the bottle, spinning it absentmindedly as he watched the other with a smile, knowing it would only frustrate the other more.
“The jealous type–? Hey, what does that even– stop looking at me like that!” Kou spat.
He knew for a fact his face must have been red. Unfortunately, his protests were fuel to the fire. Sousuke kept giggling, much to Kou’s dismay.
Once Sousuke had cooled down a bit, he pushed the bottle one last time. It spun between them, and Sousuke’s eyes darted up to Kou’s face. “You know, I still can’t believe you’ve never heard of spin the bottle. It’s in, like, every single shitty American movie.”
The change in topic was welcomed after whatever the previous talk, whatever it even was. Kou crossed his arms. “You already know I'm not into those movies.” Kou glanced at the bottle, which had slowed down, and stopped right back to how it was before. “This game seems stupid anyways. Why would you go through the effort of spinning a bottle to kiss someone instead of just doing it? You’re gonna kiss either way.”
Sousuke stared, his expression unreadable. It freaked Kou out a bit, seeing as the other guy was usually so extra.
“...I dunno. Maybe it gives people more courage. Like– oh no, rules are rules, guess I have no choice but to kiss you! Y’know?” Sousuke’s voice was unusually soft, closer to a murmur than anything.
Sousuke’s gaze had shifted back to the bottle on the floor between them.
“...Not really.” Kou’s eyes fell on the bottle, too. It sat between them like a silent dare, hoping to tempt a poor, desperate fool.
His thoughts were put on hold by the other reaching forward, spinning it. Kou glanced up at the other. Sousuke was chewing his lip, a nervous habit he’d been doing since as long as Kou had known him.
Was this really it? Was this actually happening?
The bottle stopped, and pointed at the wall. Safe.
The tension seemed to thin out slightly. Sousuke left out a soft sigh, shifting to his knees and jamming his phone into his pocket in an attempt to start his escape. But unfortunately for both of them, Kou wasn’t ready to let this go.
Not yet. Not before something, anything got the chance to happen.
Sousuke froze as he watched the bottle spin, and land on the wall again. Likely against his better judgement, he reached forward to spin it too.
Wall. Kou spun.
Wall, again. Sousuke spun.
Wall, just like before.
Kou’s movements were a little jittery as he spun it again, and this time, the opening faced the other.
Hardly, if he’s being honest– it was pointed at the side of Sousuke’s leg. But neither seemed to care much about the specifics when they were already in a clumsy lip-lock.
Kou had never kissed anyone. Was it supposed to be like this? He had kind of just pushed his face into the others. He didn’t know, but Sousuke didn’t call him out on it. Good start. He felt the collar of his shirt being tugged at as Sousuke pulled back, tilting his head as he kissed him again.
That felt a little more natural. A little good, even.
Had Sousuke done this before?
Before his brain caught up to his actions, he pulled away from Sousuke.
When his brain did finally catch up, Sousuke looked like a scared cat. Messy hair, big eyes, his breathing trembling and heavy. It did something to Kou he couldn’t really place.
A tense, uncomfortable silence hung in the air between them. Fuck. Fuck. Did Kou just ruin everything? Was he that selfish that he’d ruin a friendship just to kiss a guy who probably didn't even like him like that?
“Sousuke, I–” Before he could speak, Sousuke slapped a hand over Kou’s mouth.
Kou gaped down at the other, who was smiling nervously. “You seriously suck at kissing. Ew. I cannot even believe you tried kissing me like that. You’re gonna have to try way harder.”
What?
“I guess I can't blame you,” Sousuke rambled, another nervous habit that Kou had noticed. “Kissing someone as cute as me must have made you forget how to do stuff right, huh? You’re lucky I’m so understanding.”
What?
“No one else would give you a second chance after that total fail. But, like, YOLO, you know? I’ll let it slide.”
Huh??
Sousuke removed his hand, standing up with an exaggerated groan as he stretched. “God, I'm tired. You’re probably tired too, after… Well, nevermind. Come on, let’s go to my room. I’m so nice, I’ll even let you sleep in my bed despite how big of a newb you are at kissing.”
Kou’s brain only trailed farther behind as Sousuke dragged the other to his room. His brain didn’t catch up to him until god knows how long, and by that time, Sousuke had already fallen fast asleep beside him.
Kou kept himself completely still as he stared at the other in bed beside him. How had tonight even been real? Was it real? His brain was telling him it wasn’t, but Sousuke sleeping so close told him otherwise. If it was real, why didn’t Sousuke get upset? It kinda seemed like Sousuke had opened the door to the idea of kissing on a semi-regular basis. Why?
Kou’s heart only beat faster against his chest.
So instead, he tossed the blanket off to prevent himself from overheating in his sleep, and shut his eyes.