Wish We Were Older
Title: Wish We Were Older [Chapter 4]
Author: carcrashheart_8
Pairings: RyoDa, Ryo/OC, PiDa [more pairings to come]
Rating: PG-13 [strong language and sexual references]
Summary: When his parents go overseas to work, Ueda is forced to go to an all-boys boarding school for his high school years. There, he meets Ryo Nishikido, a stubborn, strong-willed boy who ends up becoming his roommate. Ueda quickly falls for the other boy despite Ryo's rude words and bad attitude. Trouble starts up, however, and soon this seemingly one-sided love ends up becoming a love triangle and eventually a love square. Despite it all, Ueda must overcome these obstacles in order to maintain his spot at the elite high school.
Disclaimer: Title taken from "Wish We Were Older" by Metro Station
Chapter 4
Ueda picked his head up off his desk, slowly and without letting himself lose his balance. He turned and looked at Ryo, whose eyes were wide as was his smile.
“Did you hear what I said?!” the younger boy asked eagerly.
Ueda wanted to pretend he hadn’t heard a thing, and instead, he would run off, his fingers in his ears and his mouth wide open, as he screamed. He wanted to, but he didn’t; instead, he got up from the desk and laid down, completely ignoring Ryo who was starting to get annoyed.
“Hey! I’m talking to you!” he growled.
Ueda said nothing and just got up, fumbled for his headphones and put them on; he didn’t say a word until dinnertime.
While at dinner, Ueda groaned and put his head in hands as Koki and Maru were talking to each other about some nonsense. They were surprisingly interrupted by both Toma and Yamapi who came over with their trays of food. There was no sign of Ryo, much to Ueda’s relief and also his dismay.
He picked up his fork and while casually twirling it around in his food, he asked, “So-where’s Ryo-kun?”
Toma had a mouthful of noodles so Yamapi answered for him.
“He’s off with his girlfriend-they met outside of school grounds not too long ago. Ryo’s lucky he didn’t get caught. He’ll probably get his ass kicked by headmistress if she finds out he snuck out to see a girl.”
Ueda begrudgingly stabbed his fork into the piece of beef on his plate. He startled everyone around him by doing so. Ueda looked up and shrugged his shoulders and continued his questioning.
“So where exactly did he meet this-girl?” he asked before taking a bite of food.
Toma’s mouth was empty so he started talking, “I think they met each other while Ryo was hanging out at a music shop a few blocks from here. I don’t know much about her except-what’d he say-oh yeah-‘she’s got big boobs, and blond hair, and she looks like a foreigner but she’s Japanese’!” Toma mimicked the excited face Ryo had earlier.
“She’s supposed to be really cute too-I don’t know. Ryo hasn’t always had the greatest taste in girls for as long as I’ve known him,” Yamapi laughed.
Ueda didn’t feel any better, but instead felt worse knowing that Ryo was with a girl of all people. He figured it was stupid of him to have thought that Ryo was into guys, but to anyone else, it could’ve been either way. Ueda grunted again at the thought of some overly cutesy girl hanging all over his roommate.
“Speak of the devil,” Toma chuckled.
“What?” Ueda turned where Toma was pointing and saw an ecstatic Ryo running into the cafeteria, making stupid noises.
“GUYS! GUYS! GUYS!” he shouted, nearly crashing into other people as he made his way into the crowded room.
“Oh for the love of-” Ueda groaned, turning back around and hunching his shoulders.
Ryo hit the table and started laughing, “Oh my gawd! Guess what I just did! Behind the school!”
“Ugh, Ryo, we’re eating,” Yamapi groaned in disgust as did Toma. Koki and Maru were curious to know and stopped their conversation to hear.
“I just made out with my girlfriend! It was awesome! I’ve never made out with a chick on campus before! It’s so exhilarating!” Ryo boasted, patting Ueda’s shoulder mindlessly, causing the other boy to twitch at the touch.
“Oh really? Good for you. We’re all happy for you,” Toma laughed sarcastically.
“She’s awesome, guys. I wish I had met her earlier. Who knows? I could probably ‘do it’ with her any day now!”
“What’s her name?” Yamapi asked, feigning interest in his friend’s relationship.
“Keiko!”
Ueda spit out his drink all over Koki and Maru who were sitting directly across from him.
“UEDA-KUN!” they both groaned, grabbing napkins and wiping up the mess.
“She-her-her name is Keiko?!”
“Yeah, so?” Ryo shrugged his shoulders, not understanding the big deal.
“Um-isn’t Keiko the same name as your grandmother’s-headmistress?” Ueda couldn’t believe Ryo didn’t realize the connection.
Ryo thought for a moment and all of a sudden grew very disgusted.
“OH MY-WHAT THE-THAT’S RIGHT!”
Ueda shook his head, “You only made the connection now? You really are an idiot.”
Ryo stopped groaning and looked at Ueda, “Hey, what’s your problem, anyways? I tried talking to you earlier and you just blew me off and now you’re making fun of me. Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”
Ueda’s heart jumped, but he didn’t want to show his shock on his face, “W-What? Jealous?”
“Yeah, that’s right-you are jealous. Jealous that I have a girlfriend and you don’t! Well, that’s too bad for you, asshole! Haha!” Ryo taunted.
Ueda sighed; Ryo hadn’t figured it out yet, thankfully.
“Yeah, I’m jealous, alright. You have a girlfriend with the same name as your grandmother-so jealous of that,” Ueda laughed sarcastically, crossing his arms and looking at Ryo, dead-on.
Ryo didn’t say anything at first; he just glared at Ueda. He looked like he was on the verge of going ballistic and beating the crap out of his roommate, but he didn’t.
“Whatever, man. I love her and there’s nothing you can do about it!”
With that, he stood up and stormed off like the childish boy he was. Ueda looked angry and started banging his fist on the table.
“Stupid idiot! He makes me so mad! What does he mean he ‘loves her’? He just got with her! Motherf-I ought to knock some sense into his big dumb head!”
Toma and the others just stared at Ueda who ranted a good five minutes before realizing that he was being stared at.
“What?” was all he said.
“You’re jealous, aren’t you, eh, Ueda-kun?” Toma smirked, holding his bottle of water in his hand thusly.
Yamapi nodded as did Koki and Maru.
“Jealous? Why would I be jealous?” Ueda started to grow nervous at the accusations.
“Your roommate got a girlfriend in such a short amount of time and you’re still single. It’s understandable to be jealous,” Yamapi placed his hand on Ueda’s shoulder, but then took it off and blushed a little.
“Um, no, I don’t think so. I’m just annoyed by the fact that he’s bragging about it. It just bugs me!”
“I see; well, in that case, you shouldn’t worry about it. It won’t last. Ryo’s an idiot-she’ll break up with him sooner or later,” Toma stated bluntly, taking a large gulp of water right after.
“You guys are really great friends, you know that?” Ueda laughed.
Everyone joined in and the dinner wasn’t spoiled for Ueda by news of Ryo’s new girlfriend. However, he did have a lot to think about when he went to bed. Ryo was already asleep when he came back to the dorm, and without waking the other one up, Ueda started mumbling curse words, as he stood over him. He slunk off and got ready for bed, lying still with his mind full of thoughts about Ryo and the smile he had had on his face when announcing the news. Ueda groaned, putting a pillow over his face and hoping that everything would be better in the morning.
A few days later, Ueda came back to the dorm room only to see Ryo scurrying around, dressing and attempting to get ready for something that seemed important. Ueda shook his head and closed the door behind him, leaning against and watching the other boy get ready.
Ryo looked in the mirror, combing his hair just right. He then opened his mouth and checked that his teeth were free from any food morsels that would be deemed unappealing to anyone else. Ueda laughed to himself as he walked over to his bed and sat down.
“What are you running around getting dressed for?”
Ryo didn’t say anything and just scowled; he fixed his shirt in the full-length mirror in his closet and checked for lint. He then turned to smile tauntingly at Ueda who was shocked to see how good Ryo looked at that moment.
“I have a date tonight with my unbelievably hot girlfriend and you’re staying here doing homework and crying about being single!”
Ueda wanted to punch Ryo so badly at that time but refrained from doing so.
“Oh really? You two are still together? It’s already been a week-that’s good. You’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations. Good for you!” Ueda laughed.
Ryo’s smile went away and was replaced by a large frown.
“Shut your damn mouth, you jealous jackass!”
He grabbed his jacket and stormed out of the room; Ueda laughed the entire time, only to frown when Ryo left. He waited a few minutes before looking out the window and watching Ryo as he made his way to the front gates. Ueda could barely make out the silhouette of a girl standing at the entrance to the school.
Sure enough, her boobs were big and her hair was bright blond like Toma had said; Ueda had never been jealous of a girl before but today was a large exception. Ryo was smiling like an idiot as his girlfriend took his arm and the two walked off campus and out of Ueda’s sight. The single boy frowned and felt his heart sink a bit as the boy of his affections went off with someone else.
Not that surprisingly, Ueda found himself unable to eat and chose to refrain from joining his friends for dinner. He also didn’t do his homework and instead, sat in bed, throwing a small baseball up and down. He kept his eyes on the ceiling and didn’t move even when he eventually dropped the ball after it returned to his hand awkwardly.
He sighed to himself; he couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate on relatively anything. This was what Ueda knew to be the way that love happened but he was still going through some stage of denial and wasn’t able to accept that he was actually in love with Ryo. Tossing and turning on his bed, he stopped to see that the clock only read “7:30”.
Just then, the door swung open and someone stomped in, cursing under his breath and knocking everything over that was in his path. Ueda got up quickly and managed to see in the dark that it was Ryo who, from what he could see, was none too happy.
Ueda reached for his nightstand lamp and turned it on. He saw the angry look on Ryo’s face and could feel goosebumps form on his skin. He felt strangely afraid but at the same time, a bit relieved, thinking that maybe something bad happened with the girlfriend.
“W-What’s wrong with you?” he said with a shaky voice, trying to sound calm.
Ryo walked over and looked at Ueda, putting his face extremely close to the other’s. Ueda blushed madly but thankfully, it was still a little too dark for him to be found out by the other boy.
“You.”
“Huh?”
“You-you’re what’s wrong with me! You had to go and tell me that my girlfriend had the same name as my grandmother and thanks to you-I couldn’t get the image out of my head!”
“What in the heck are you talking about?”
Ryo started ranting around the room, going over to switch on the light so Ueda could get a better look at Ryo’s face. He had a giant black eye and a red cheek from where he had gotten slapped.
“W-W-W-HAHAHAHAHA!”
Ueda tried to act concerned but he couldn’t help but laugh at Ryo’s misfortune.
“STOP LAUGHING DAMMIT!”
Ueda tried but couldn’t stop; he clutched his stomach and nearly fell off his bed and onto the floor. He eventually did and stopped laughing long enough to groan in pain.
“Ow!”
“HA! Good! Now you know how I feel!” Ryo stuck his tongue out and crossed his arms.
Ueda struggled to get up and when he finally did, he continued laughing at Ryo, who, for the first time, put his hands on Ueda and shook him in order to get him to stop laughing. Of course, as always, Ueda grew embarrassed at the touch of Ryo’s hand on his body.
He gulped in response as Ryo stared at him.
“If you hadn’t given me that image, I would’ve never called her that.”
Ueda slowly pushed Ryo’s hands off him and asked, “Called who what?”
“Grandma-I called her ‘grandma’! What the hell was I thinking?!”
Ueda couldn’t take it anymore; he burst out laughing once again, despite Ryo’s warnings. He fell to the floor and continued laughing, unable to breathe or speak correctly
“You-You-You called-called-HAHA!”
“That’s it! I’m out of here!” Ryo finally got fed up with Ueda consistently making fun of his misfortune.
“No-No-No-wait-wait-haha! No-no-I’m sorry-tell me what happened. Haha,” Ueda chuckled between words as he got up, pulling Ryo back into the room.
“Tell me what happened,” he said clearly, pushing Ryo onto his bed and sitting next to him.
“Well-we were perfectly fine when the date started. We were talking about random stuff and laughing and everything was fine. Then we got to dinner. We went to this little café not too far from here and we had dinner. Again, everything was fine. She was playing footsie with me and I was sure I’d get some tonight.”
Ueda rolled his eyes and pretended to stick his finger down his throat and gag. Ryo didn’t notice and just continued his story.
“Anyways, I finished eating and the waiter came over to us and asked about dessert. So I asked her-I said, ‘what do you want for dessert-grandma?’” Ryo’s head fell forward in shame.
Ueda stifled his laughter, “You called her ‘grandma’? And what happened then?”
Ryo continued, “She didn’t hear me at first and asked me to repeat what I said. Stupid me-I repeated what I had said and that’s when the night went horribly wrong. She got really mad and stood up all of a sudden and poured water all over me. Then she stormed out of the restaurant; I couldn’t go after her right away because the waiter made me pay for the meal-friggin’ bastard. Anyways-I finally caught up with her and I tried to apologize but she just slapped me-then I did it again.”
“Did it again? You mean-”
“I called her ‘grandma’ again. When I was apologizing, it just slipped out and that’s when she punched me. I fell on the ground and all I could hear was her saying something about us being done and then she left. I managed to get home even though I’m pretty sure I’ve gone blind in this eye,” Ryo said dramatically as he pointed to his left eye, the one that got punched.
Ueda didn’t know what to feel; on one hand, he was ecstatic. Ryo was finally single again! But on the other hand, he was feeling sympathetic since Ryo had clearly liked this girl. Then there was the part of him that wanted to laugh out loud at the thought of Ryo having called a teenage girl “grandma”.
One feeling won out and before he knew it, Ueda had his arms around Ryo’s shoulders in the form of a warm embrace. Ryo was taken aback and was unsure of how to react. Ueda put his head on Ryo’s shoulder as the two sat on the latter’s bed.
Ryo grew nervous and scooted away, “W-What are you doing?”
Ueda wasn’t nervous, however, “Giving you a hug-you looked like you needed one.”
Ryo stood up suddenly, squirming and acting embarrassed, “Don’t do stuff like that. It’s weird-we’re both guys.”
Ueda chuckled sarcastically, “It’s not like it’s weird for guys to hug.”
“Yes it is!” Ryo defended.
Ueda gasped softly; he didn’t say anything to argue with Ryo’s blatant homophobia.
All he managed to spit out was “It’s late. I’m going to bed.”
And without another word, Ueda turned off his lamp and curled up in his covers. He didn’t actually go to sleep but he convinced Ryo that he had done so. Ryo stumbled backwards and sat on his bed. He sighed deeply and the sound sent shivers down Ueda’s spine.
Things had never gotten so awkward between the two roommates. Unfortunately, it stayed that way for a while. Ueda was disappointed in the fact that Ryo was clearly disturbed by the idea of two guys being intimate which only made Ueda feel less than hopeful about what could happen between them. Instead of trying to convince Ryo that there was nothing wrong, Ueda avoided anything but small talk with his roommate.
One day, at lunch, Ueda was sitting quietly by himself, eating some chicken noodle soup and minding his own business. He wasn’t eating with his friends since all of them had club activities and were unable to meet up. Surprisingly, Ueda wasn’t feeling too lonely; in fact, he enjoyed the solitude, considering most of his day was usually spent hanging around Ryo, either in the dorm room or the classroom. Even if he had feelings for the other boy, even Ueda liked a few moments of time away from his roommate.
The moment didn’t last too long because Maru and Koki came barreling into the cafeteria, hungry and ready for some sustenance. Ueda sighed, saddened that his solitude was being destroyed by his two closest friends.
“Ueda-kun!” the pair shouted in unison.
Ueda smiled weakly and waved back at them. The two stumbled over, each with trays full of food, shocking Ueda who had just a small bowl in front of him.
“You guys are hungry, aren’t you?” he laughed, pointing at each of their trays.
Maru looked at Koki who looked back at him.
“Why’d you get so much food?” they asked each other, simultaneously.
Ueda laughed even harder but his laughs were silenced when Ryo came over unannounced.
“Hey guys, what’s for lunch?” he asked, looking around hungrily.
“Nishikido-kun! We thought you had soccer practice today,” Maru said with a mouth full of food.
Ryo pointed and laughed before answering.
“I did but it got cut short when that one senpai got his foot stuck in the net. What’s his name? He’s tall and blond-he always hangs out with that jackass, Akanishi?”
“TAGUCHI!” Koki spit out his food, hitting Maru who looked disgusted.
“Yeah! That’s his name! Man, he’s an idiot. He was juggling a bunch of soccer balls then threw one up in the air and tried to kick it but-somehow he managed to get his foot stuck in the net. I can’t figure it out-” Ryo scratched his head, confused, “Anyways, I’m gonna go get some food. Be right back.”
Ryo hustled over to the food line while Koki and Maru took their eyes off of him and directed them towards Ueda, who was mysteriously quiet when Ryo was talking.
“Ueda-kun?” Koki whispered.
Ueda scratched his head before looking up, “Hmm?”
“Why didn’t you say anything when Nishikido-kun was talking?” Maru smirked knowingly.
“Huh? N-N-No reason. I just wasn’t interested in talking,” Ueda lied.
“Oh-” Koki nodded his head.
He then turned to Maru and the two nodded their heads in agreement, prompting Ueda to look at them oddly.
Then they both said, in unison, “You like Nishikido-kun.”
“WHAT?! I-I-I DON’T-WHAT?!”
“You like Nishikido-kun but you’re too afraid to say anything to him for fear of rejection,” Maru said bluntly.
“It’s understandable when one feels romantic feelings for someone of the same sex. There’s not just the regular rejection you could face in matters of love; there’s also the stigma of being a homosexual,” Koki added, sounding a lot more intelligent than normal.
Ueda wasn’t sure what to say. All he could say was, “Huh?”
“Leave it to us,” Maru smiled.
“Yeah, we’ll sort this out,” Koki grinned slyly.
Before Ueda could object, Ryo came back, carrying a large tray of food and whistling happily. He was about to sit down when Maru and Koki pulled him away suddenly and started whispering to him. They were looking at Ueda while speaking and then looking at each other. After what seemed like forever, the threesome came back, and Ueda looked up to see Ryo staring back at him, scowling slightly.
“It’s great to hear your real feelings. I’m really happy for you. I hope you’re happy as well,” he said in a monotone voice, before walking away and sitting on the opposite side of the room.
Ueda’s mouth hung open; he looked back at Maru and Koki who were still smiling widely and very suspiciously.
“Wait-what did you just say to him?” he asked the conniving twosome.
“We told him you liked Yamashita-kun,” they said, once again at the same exact time.
“WHAT?!”
It wasn’t too long after that Yamapi and Toma came into the cafeteria, talking loudly and laughing just as loudly. Ueda’s cheeks went red and he chose not to make eye contact. But something caught his attention; he saw Ryo get up and run up to his friends. He spoke quietly to them while looking back at Ueda every now and then. Ueda’s hands started to grow damp and he could feel his legs shaking uncontrollably. Then he noticed Yamapi had a huge smile on his face and Toma had a large scowl on his that resembled that of Ryo’s. The three of them came over and Yamapi sat down to Ueda who was growing more and more uneasy.
“So, I hear that you like me?” Yamapi said, suggestively, leaning his head against hand.
Ueda looked up at Ryo who wouldn’t make eye contact and then looked back at Yamapi.
“Huh?”
END CHAPTER 4
A/N: A treat for the weekend :) Managed to finish this during my break while writing paper #1 of 2 =__= Anyways, I hope you all are enjoying this ^^ I'll reply to comments soon and I'll update as soon as I can. Thanks for the support so far and I'll continue working hard ♥
Author: carcrashheart_8
Pairings: RyoDa, Ryo/OC, PiDa [more pairings to come]
Rating: PG-13 [strong language and sexual references]
Summary: When his parents go overseas to work, Ueda is forced to go to an all-boys boarding school for his high school years. There, he meets Ryo Nishikido, a stubborn, strong-willed boy who ends up becoming his roommate. Ueda quickly falls for the other boy despite Ryo's rude words and bad attitude. Trouble starts up, however, and soon this seemingly one-sided love ends up becoming a love triangle and eventually a love square. Despite it all, Ueda must overcome these obstacles in order to maintain his spot at the elite high school.
Disclaimer: Title taken from "Wish We Were Older" by Metro Station
Chapter 4
Ueda picked his head up off his desk, slowly and without letting himself lose his balance. He turned and looked at Ryo, whose eyes were wide as was his smile.
“Did you hear what I said?!” the younger boy asked eagerly.
Ueda wanted to pretend he hadn’t heard a thing, and instead, he would run off, his fingers in his ears and his mouth wide open, as he screamed. He wanted to, but he didn’t; instead, he got up from the desk and laid down, completely ignoring Ryo who was starting to get annoyed.
“Hey! I’m talking to you!” he growled.
Ueda said nothing and just got up, fumbled for his headphones and put them on; he didn’t say a word until dinnertime.
While at dinner, Ueda groaned and put his head in hands as Koki and Maru were talking to each other about some nonsense. They were surprisingly interrupted by both Toma and Yamapi who came over with their trays of food. There was no sign of Ryo, much to Ueda’s relief and also his dismay.
He picked up his fork and while casually twirling it around in his food, he asked, “So-where’s Ryo-kun?”
Toma had a mouthful of noodles so Yamapi answered for him.
“He’s off with his girlfriend-they met outside of school grounds not too long ago. Ryo’s lucky he didn’t get caught. He’ll probably get his ass kicked by headmistress if she finds out he snuck out to see a girl.”
Ueda begrudgingly stabbed his fork into the piece of beef on his plate. He startled everyone around him by doing so. Ueda looked up and shrugged his shoulders and continued his questioning.
“So where exactly did he meet this-girl?” he asked before taking a bite of food.
Toma’s mouth was empty so he started talking, “I think they met each other while Ryo was hanging out at a music shop a few blocks from here. I don’t know much about her except-what’d he say-oh yeah-‘she’s got big boobs, and blond hair, and she looks like a foreigner but she’s Japanese’!” Toma mimicked the excited face Ryo had earlier.
“She’s supposed to be really cute too-I don’t know. Ryo hasn’t always had the greatest taste in girls for as long as I’ve known him,” Yamapi laughed.
Ueda didn’t feel any better, but instead felt worse knowing that Ryo was with a girl of all people. He figured it was stupid of him to have thought that Ryo was into guys, but to anyone else, it could’ve been either way. Ueda grunted again at the thought of some overly cutesy girl hanging all over his roommate.
“Speak of the devil,” Toma chuckled.
“What?” Ueda turned where Toma was pointing and saw an ecstatic Ryo running into the cafeteria, making stupid noises.
“GUYS! GUYS! GUYS!” he shouted, nearly crashing into other people as he made his way into the crowded room.
“Oh for the love of-” Ueda groaned, turning back around and hunching his shoulders.
Ryo hit the table and started laughing, “Oh my gawd! Guess what I just did! Behind the school!”
“Ugh, Ryo, we’re eating,” Yamapi groaned in disgust as did Toma. Koki and Maru were curious to know and stopped their conversation to hear.
“I just made out with my girlfriend! It was awesome! I’ve never made out with a chick on campus before! It’s so exhilarating!” Ryo boasted, patting Ueda’s shoulder mindlessly, causing the other boy to twitch at the touch.
“Oh really? Good for you. We’re all happy for you,” Toma laughed sarcastically.
“She’s awesome, guys. I wish I had met her earlier. Who knows? I could probably ‘do it’ with her any day now!”
“What’s her name?” Yamapi asked, feigning interest in his friend’s relationship.
“Keiko!”
Ueda spit out his drink all over Koki and Maru who were sitting directly across from him.
“UEDA-KUN!” they both groaned, grabbing napkins and wiping up the mess.
“She-her-her name is Keiko?!”
“Yeah, so?” Ryo shrugged his shoulders, not understanding the big deal.
“Um-isn’t Keiko the same name as your grandmother’s-headmistress?” Ueda couldn’t believe Ryo didn’t realize the connection.
Ryo thought for a moment and all of a sudden grew very disgusted.
“OH MY-WHAT THE-THAT’S RIGHT!”
Ueda shook his head, “You only made the connection now? You really are an idiot.”
Ryo stopped groaning and looked at Ueda, “Hey, what’s your problem, anyways? I tried talking to you earlier and you just blew me off and now you’re making fun of me. Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”
Ueda’s heart jumped, but he didn’t want to show his shock on his face, “W-What? Jealous?”
“Yeah, that’s right-you are jealous. Jealous that I have a girlfriend and you don’t! Well, that’s too bad for you, asshole! Haha!” Ryo taunted.
Ueda sighed; Ryo hadn’t figured it out yet, thankfully.
“Yeah, I’m jealous, alright. You have a girlfriend with the same name as your grandmother-so jealous of that,” Ueda laughed sarcastically, crossing his arms and looking at Ryo, dead-on.
Ryo didn’t say anything at first; he just glared at Ueda. He looked like he was on the verge of going ballistic and beating the crap out of his roommate, but he didn’t.
“Whatever, man. I love her and there’s nothing you can do about it!”
With that, he stood up and stormed off like the childish boy he was. Ueda looked angry and started banging his fist on the table.
“Stupid idiot! He makes me so mad! What does he mean he ‘loves her’? He just got with her! Motherf-I ought to knock some sense into his big dumb head!”
Toma and the others just stared at Ueda who ranted a good five minutes before realizing that he was being stared at.
“What?” was all he said.
“You’re jealous, aren’t you, eh, Ueda-kun?” Toma smirked, holding his bottle of water in his hand thusly.
Yamapi nodded as did Koki and Maru.
“Jealous? Why would I be jealous?” Ueda started to grow nervous at the accusations.
“Your roommate got a girlfriend in such a short amount of time and you’re still single. It’s understandable to be jealous,” Yamapi placed his hand on Ueda’s shoulder, but then took it off and blushed a little.
“Um, no, I don’t think so. I’m just annoyed by the fact that he’s bragging about it. It just bugs me!”
“I see; well, in that case, you shouldn’t worry about it. It won’t last. Ryo’s an idiot-she’ll break up with him sooner or later,” Toma stated bluntly, taking a large gulp of water right after.
“You guys are really great friends, you know that?” Ueda laughed.
Everyone joined in and the dinner wasn’t spoiled for Ueda by news of Ryo’s new girlfriend. However, he did have a lot to think about when he went to bed. Ryo was already asleep when he came back to the dorm, and without waking the other one up, Ueda started mumbling curse words, as he stood over him. He slunk off and got ready for bed, lying still with his mind full of thoughts about Ryo and the smile he had had on his face when announcing the news. Ueda groaned, putting a pillow over his face and hoping that everything would be better in the morning.
A few days later, Ueda came back to the dorm room only to see Ryo scurrying around, dressing and attempting to get ready for something that seemed important. Ueda shook his head and closed the door behind him, leaning against and watching the other boy get ready.
Ryo looked in the mirror, combing his hair just right. He then opened his mouth and checked that his teeth were free from any food morsels that would be deemed unappealing to anyone else. Ueda laughed to himself as he walked over to his bed and sat down.
“What are you running around getting dressed for?”
Ryo didn’t say anything and just scowled; he fixed his shirt in the full-length mirror in his closet and checked for lint. He then turned to smile tauntingly at Ueda who was shocked to see how good Ryo looked at that moment.
“I have a date tonight with my unbelievably hot girlfriend and you’re staying here doing homework and crying about being single!”
Ueda wanted to punch Ryo so badly at that time but refrained from doing so.
“Oh really? You two are still together? It’s already been a week-that’s good. You’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations. Good for you!” Ueda laughed.
Ryo’s smile went away and was replaced by a large frown.
“Shut your damn mouth, you jealous jackass!”
He grabbed his jacket and stormed out of the room; Ueda laughed the entire time, only to frown when Ryo left. He waited a few minutes before looking out the window and watching Ryo as he made his way to the front gates. Ueda could barely make out the silhouette of a girl standing at the entrance to the school.
Sure enough, her boobs were big and her hair was bright blond like Toma had said; Ueda had never been jealous of a girl before but today was a large exception. Ryo was smiling like an idiot as his girlfriend took his arm and the two walked off campus and out of Ueda’s sight. The single boy frowned and felt his heart sink a bit as the boy of his affections went off with someone else.
Not that surprisingly, Ueda found himself unable to eat and chose to refrain from joining his friends for dinner. He also didn’t do his homework and instead, sat in bed, throwing a small baseball up and down. He kept his eyes on the ceiling and didn’t move even when he eventually dropped the ball after it returned to his hand awkwardly.
He sighed to himself; he couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate on relatively anything. This was what Ueda knew to be the way that love happened but he was still going through some stage of denial and wasn’t able to accept that he was actually in love with Ryo. Tossing and turning on his bed, he stopped to see that the clock only read “7:30”.
Just then, the door swung open and someone stomped in, cursing under his breath and knocking everything over that was in his path. Ueda got up quickly and managed to see in the dark that it was Ryo who, from what he could see, was none too happy.
Ueda reached for his nightstand lamp and turned it on. He saw the angry look on Ryo’s face and could feel goosebumps form on his skin. He felt strangely afraid but at the same time, a bit relieved, thinking that maybe something bad happened with the girlfriend.
“W-What’s wrong with you?” he said with a shaky voice, trying to sound calm.
Ryo walked over and looked at Ueda, putting his face extremely close to the other’s. Ueda blushed madly but thankfully, it was still a little too dark for him to be found out by the other boy.
“You.”
“Huh?”
“You-you’re what’s wrong with me! You had to go and tell me that my girlfriend had the same name as my grandmother and thanks to you-I couldn’t get the image out of my head!”
“What in the heck are you talking about?”
Ryo started ranting around the room, going over to switch on the light so Ueda could get a better look at Ryo’s face. He had a giant black eye and a red cheek from where he had gotten slapped.
“W-W-W-HAHAHAHAHA!”
Ueda tried to act concerned but he couldn’t help but laugh at Ryo’s misfortune.
“STOP LAUGHING DAMMIT!”
Ueda tried but couldn’t stop; he clutched his stomach and nearly fell off his bed and onto the floor. He eventually did and stopped laughing long enough to groan in pain.
“Ow!”
“HA! Good! Now you know how I feel!” Ryo stuck his tongue out and crossed his arms.
Ueda struggled to get up and when he finally did, he continued laughing at Ryo, who, for the first time, put his hands on Ueda and shook him in order to get him to stop laughing. Of course, as always, Ueda grew embarrassed at the touch of Ryo’s hand on his body.
He gulped in response as Ryo stared at him.
“If you hadn’t given me that image, I would’ve never called her that.”
Ueda slowly pushed Ryo’s hands off him and asked, “Called who what?”
“Grandma-I called her ‘grandma’! What the hell was I thinking?!”
Ueda couldn’t take it anymore; he burst out laughing once again, despite Ryo’s warnings. He fell to the floor and continued laughing, unable to breathe or speak correctly
“You-You-You called-called-HAHA!”
“That’s it! I’m out of here!” Ryo finally got fed up with Ueda consistently making fun of his misfortune.
“No-No-No-wait-wait-haha! No-no-I’m sorry-tell me what happened. Haha,” Ueda chuckled between words as he got up, pulling Ryo back into the room.
“Tell me what happened,” he said clearly, pushing Ryo onto his bed and sitting next to him.
“Well-we were perfectly fine when the date started. We were talking about random stuff and laughing and everything was fine. Then we got to dinner. We went to this little café not too far from here and we had dinner. Again, everything was fine. She was playing footsie with me and I was sure I’d get some tonight.”
Ueda rolled his eyes and pretended to stick his finger down his throat and gag. Ryo didn’t notice and just continued his story.
“Anyways, I finished eating and the waiter came over to us and asked about dessert. So I asked her-I said, ‘what do you want for dessert-grandma?’” Ryo’s head fell forward in shame.
Ueda stifled his laughter, “You called her ‘grandma’? And what happened then?”
Ryo continued, “She didn’t hear me at first and asked me to repeat what I said. Stupid me-I repeated what I had said and that’s when the night went horribly wrong. She got really mad and stood up all of a sudden and poured water all over me. Then she stormed out of the restaurant; I couldn’t go after her right away because the waiter made me pay for the meal-friggin’ bastard. Anyways-I finally caught up with her and I tried to apologize but she just slapped me-then I did it again.”
“Did it again? You mean-”
“I called her ‘grandma’ again. When I was apologizing, it just slipped out and that’s when she punched me. I fell on the ground and all I could hear was her saying something about us being done and then she left. I managed to get home even though I’m pretty sure I’ve gone blind in this eye,” Ryo said dramatically as he pointed to his left eye, the one that got punched.
Ueda didn’t know what to feel; on one hand, he was ecstatic. Ryo was finally single again! But on the other hand, he was feeling sympathetic since Ryo had clearly liked this girl. Then there was the part of him that wanted to laugh out loud at the thought of Ryo having called a teenage girl “grandma”.
One feeling won out and before he knew it, Ueda had his arms around Ryo’s shoulders in the form of a warm embrace. Ryo was taken aback and was unsure of how to react. Ueda put his head on Ryo’s shoulder as the two sat on the latter’s bed.
Ryo grew nervous and scooted away, “W-What are you doing?”
Ueda wasn’t nervous, however, “Giving you a hug-you looked like you needed one.”
Ryo stood up suddenly, squirming and acting embarrassed, “Don’t do stuff like that. It’s weird-we’re both guys.”
Ueda chuckled sarcastically, “It’s not like it’s weird for guys to hug.”
“Yes it is!” Ryo defended.
Ueda gasped softly; he didn’t say anything to argue with Ryo’s blatant homophobia.
All he managed to spit out was “It’s late. I’m going to bed.”
And without another word, Ueda turned off his lamp and curled up in his covers. He didn’t actually go to sleep but he convinced Ryo that he had done so. Ryo stumbled backwards and sat on his bed. He sighed deeply and the sound sent shivers down Ueda’s spine.
Things had never gotten so awkward between the two roommates. Unfortunately, it stayed that way for a while. Ueda was disappointed in the fact that Ryo was clearly disturbed by the idea of two guys being intimate which only made Ueda feel less than hopeful about what could happen between them. Instead of trying to convince Ryo that there was nothing wrong, Ueda avoided anything but small talk with his roommate.
One day, at lunch, Ueda was sitting quietly by himself, eating some chicken noodle soup and minding his own business. He wasn’t eating with his friends since all of them had club activities and were unable to meet up. Surprisingly, Ueda wasn’t feeling too lonely; in fact, he enjoyed the solitude, considering most of his day was usually spent hanging around Ryo, either in the dorm room or the classroom. Even if he had feelings for the other boy, even Ueda liked a few moments of time away from his roommate.
The moment didn’t last too long because Maru and Koki came barreling into the cafeteria, hungry and ready for some sustenance. Ueda sighed, saddened that his solitude was being destroyed by his two closest friends.
“Ueda-kun!” the pair shouted in unison.
Ueda smiled weakly and waved back at them. The two stumbled over, each with trays full of food, shocking Ueda who had just a small bowl in front of him.
“You guys are hungry, aren’t you?” he laughed, pointing at each of their trays.
Maru looked at Koki who looked back at him.
“Why’d you get so much food?” they asked each other, simultaneously.
Ueda laughed even harder but his laughs were silenced when Ryo came over unannounced.
“Hey guys, what’s for lunch?” he asked, looking around hungrily.
“Nishikido-kun! We thought you had soccer practice today,” Maru said with a mouth full of food.
Ryo pointed and laughed before answering.
“I did but it got cut short when that one senpai got his foot stuck in the net. What’s his name? He’s tall and blond-he always hangs out with that jackass, Akanishi?”
“TAGUCHI!” Koki spit out his food, hitting Maru who looked disgusted.
“Yeah! That’s his name! Man, he’s an idiot. He was juggling a bunch of soccer balls then threw one up in the air and tried to kick it but-somehow he managed to get his foot stuck in the net. I can’t figure it out-” Ryo scratched his head, confused, “Anyways, I’m gonna go get some food. Be right back.”
Ryo hustled over to the food line while Koki and Maru took their eyes off of him and directed them towards Ueda, who was mysteriously quiet when Ryo was talking.
“Ueda-kun?” Koki whispered.
Ueda scratched his head before looking up, “Hmm?”
“Why didn’t you say anything when Nishikido-kun was talking?” Maru smirked knowingly.
“Huh? N-N-No reason. I just wasn’t interested in talking,” Ueda lied.
“Oh-” Koki nodded his head.
He then turned to Maru and the two nodded their heads in agreement, prompting Ueda to look at them oddly.
Then they both said, in unison, “You like Nishikido-kun.”
“WHAT?! I-I-I DON’T-WHAT?!”
“You like Nishikido-kun but you’re too afraid to say anything to him for fear of rejection,” Maru said bluntly.
“It’s understandable when one feels romantic feelings for someone of the same sex. There’s not just the regular rejection you could face in matters of love; there’s also the stigma of being a homosexual,” Koki added, sounding a lot more intelligent than normal.
Ueda wasn’t sure what to say. All he could say was, “Huh?”
“Leave it to us,” Maru smiled.
“Yeah, we’ll sort this out,” Koki grinned slyly.
Before Ueda could object, Ryo came back, carrying a large tray of food and whistling happily. He was about to sit down when Maru and Koki pulled him away suddenly and started whispering to him. They were looking at Ueda while speaking and then looking at each other. After what seemed like forever, the threesome came back, and Ueda looked up to see Ryo staring back at him, scowling slightly.
“It’s great to hear your real feelings. I’m really happy for you. I hope you’re happy as well,” he said in a monotone voice, before walking away and sitting on the opposite side of the room.
Ueda’s mouth hung open; he looked back at Maru and Koki who were still smiling widely and very suspiciously.
“Wait-what did you just say to him?” he asked the conniving twosome.
“We told him you liked Yamashita-kun,” they said, once again at the same exact time.
“WHAT?!”
It wasn’t too long after that Yamapi and Toma came into the cafeteria, talking loudly and laughing just as loudly. Ueda’s cheeks went red and he chose not to make eye contact. But something caught his attention; he saw Ryo get up and run up to his friends. He spoke quietly to them while looking back at Ueda every now and then. Ueda’s hands started to grow damp and he could feel his legs shaking uncontrollably. Then he noticed Yamapi had a huge smile on his face and Toma had a large scowl on his that resembled that of Ryo’s. The three of them came over and Yamapi sat down to Ueda who was growing more and more uneasy.
“So, I hear that you like me?” Yamapi said, suggestively, leaning his head against hand.
Ueda looked up at Ryo who wouldn’t make eye contact and then looked back at Yamapi.
“Huh?”
END CHAPTER 4
A/N: A treat for the weekend :) Managed to finish this during my break while writing paper #1 of 2 =__= Anyways, I hope you all are enjoying this ^^ I'll reply to comments soon and I'll update as soon as I can. Thanks for the support so far and I'll continue working hard ♥