The whispers of a heart [BL]

Chapter 8

After that incident with Asakura-san, Kurosawa-san kept a strange distance from me. Even when he came over for lunch, it seemed like he had an evasive attitude. He didn't cook or stay to eat with me, merely bringing over a bento and leaving immediately afterwards. He avoided looking me in the eye or talking about trivial stuff like usual. I also noticed that he didn't smile so much anymore, always having a gloomy expression on his face. The few times I tried confronting him about it, he simply shrugged it off as being busy or tired.

Well, if he didn't want to tell me, there was nothing I could do about it. Not like I could just read his mind and find out the mystery behind his abnormal behavior. But I had to admit that it made me feel rather upset. I kind of missed our talks during lunch, or his silly cheerful smile. Could it be that I had gotten used to his presence so much that it made his absence all the more painful? Previously, being alone was natural and felt comfortable, so why was it that now I was feeling so restless, like something was amiss?

Things continued in this manner for a week, until one Thursday night, when something ludicrous happened. Even now when I think about it, I still find it perplexing.

I had just finished taking a shower and was about to lie down in bed and read for a while, when I heard noises coming from the door. The cat and I both stared in the direction of the entrance as if we were expecting aliens to pop out of nowhere.

At first, I thought it might be some neighbor walking past my door and hitting it with something but when the noise kept going on and off, I decided to go and check it out.

I looked through the peephole but I couldn't see clearly. There seemed to be someone in front of the door, trying to use a key to unlock it. The small light on the corridor cast a flickering shadow over the person's face and then, to my utter surprise, I saw Kurosawa-san's side profile.

Confused, I cracked the door opened and was about to ask what was going on, when the door was pushed open and Kurosawa-san strode inside my apartment like he owned the place. When he rushed past me, I could smell a strong scent of alcohol and cigarettes. So, it appeared he had been out drinking and had one too many glasses, which lead him to mistake my house for his.

He was holding a key in one hand, while brushing his disheveled hair with the other. His necktie was askew and two buttons of his shirt were undone, revealing a good portion of his skin.

Kurosawa-san's drunken gaze circled around the apartment several times, until it finally settled on me.

"Ah, this is Masato-sensei. Why is he here?"

"Hah? This is my house, you idiot. Obviously, I'd be here."

"Why do I keep seeing him in front of me? This is bad, really bad. I keep dreaming about him and thinking about him so much that I see his face whenever I close my eyes and now even when I keep them open."

What?! What nonsense is this idiot spouting now? Has he drunk so much that his brain became mush and he cannot think straight? Or has he gone silly from overwork?