the jacket you never returned- Bokuaka

Part 9

Seasons passed by.

Akaashi graduated and Kuroo hosted a party; invitations got sent out, and old friends became new people, and Akaashi suddenly felt like he's 16 again, playing and setting and sneaking kisses and going out on dates every Saturday by the Aquarium.

Bokuto's invitation came back with a "NOT ATTENDING", red ink encircling the fine print.

That one was so beautiful I used to watch him sleep. If I had to sum up what he did to me,

I'd say it was this: he made me sing along to all the bad songs on the radio.

Both when he loved me and when he didn't.

Jenny Offill, Dept. Of Speculation

"I can't do that, Bokuto-san," Akaashi said, red-faced in spite of himself. By some goddamn deity, his boss turned out as Megumi, and he only went here to pick up his extra duties--the company needed more people that can look over the articles written, and he was qualified to both write and check; he accepted, of course.

But now Megumi is insisting that he try wearing her engagement ring.

At first, he was offended--was she trying to rub in the fact that she's with Bokuto?--but now, he's just embarrassed and there's some kind of pain residing in him, and he's afraid that he just might suffocate.

Megumi suddenly snatched his right hand and inserted the ring, and he stopped short, looking down.

It fitted. Perfectly.

And it looked so good, and it made him feel queasy and ridiculously happy looking at it; for a second, he allowed himself to believe that he's the one married in this room, that he's not the forgotten one, the one that got erased, the one that was written off as a best friend, as a teammate, as someone that used-to-be. Because the ring fits him, and he so desperately wanted to believe that it's rightfully his.

(It's not.)

He took it off and returned it to Megumi with a silent, "Thank you, Bokuto-san," and excused himself.

Megumi stared at the ring.

"It really does."

Kuroo eyed the ring Megumi was wearing, then said, "He picked that ring for him, too,"

"What?"

"The ring," Kuroo pointed at it. "he couldn't stop talking about it in weeks. He kept on showing it to us, asking us how he should propose after graduating."

A pause.

"He said it matches his eyes."

They were silent, then, because what can you add to that? How can you reply to something like that? How do you reply when you feel like you stole something from someone, and that someone isn't even mad at you? How do you reply when you feel like you dismantled something so precious and beautiful?

Megumi just watched the scene outside the cafe window. Thinking.