All You Need Is Love (MewGulf AU)

🌞Chapter 20🌻

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A vague impulse was growing now inside Gulf. But no matter how he tried to express his feelings, they came out sounding like lies.

Gulf's head drooped in frustation at being unable to convey his feelings and he squeezed his hands into light fists.

"You're a really strange guy."

"You think so?"

Mew shrugged at Gulf's question. "At my last school, everyone stayed away from me. They said they didn't want anything to do with a guy like me. Everyone believed the stuff about my dad and all the rumors about me, and no one ever tried to see me for myself."

Sitting in the chair, Mew drew his legs up and hugged them to his chest.

"That didn't bug me. I'm not ashamed of being my father's son. I'm probably going to follow in his footsteps when I graduate. You asked me if I'm a gangster too, just because I'm the son of a gang leader. In my case, I think I am. So I decided that I really didn't care about school. But some really annoying guy kept telling me that I should go to school while I still can. So I decided I would just go until graduation to get him off my back."

There was no trace of self-pity in his voice. Mew sounded rather detached as he spoke.

"But once I saw you, I thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad going to school."

"Really?" Gulf asked cautiously.

"I thought, yeah, why not have some good memories for a change?" Mew gave a bashful smile. Gulf's heart beat faster and his cheeks grew hot at this, the first smile he had ever seen on Mew's face. He had never suspected that this man could possess such a gentle smile. The powerful light of his eyes felt kind now, seeming to wrap itself around Gulf's soul.

Gulf's nose suddenly caught the scent of Mew's cologne. It was unlike anything he had smelled before---the scent of a man.

Gulf stared at Mew. Maybe he could stand a little closer. They weren't gazing at each other impersonally, but as one human being to another. Just as he started to take a step forward, the door to the nurse's office clattered open.

"Huh? What are you doing here, Gulf?"

Gulf froze instantly and turned to look at the person who'd spoken. The nurse was standing in the doorway, wearing a white jacket. The nurse, a beanpole wearing glasses, looked at Gulf in annoyance.

"Uh, he---he hit his chin. His mouth is bleeding."

"I don't recognize him. But oh yes, now I remember. Mister Suzushima told me about the new student that was coming."

The nurse searched his desktop until he found a penlight, then came to stand in front of Mew.

"Where are you hurt?"

He brusquely took hold of Mew's chin and turned his face up disapprovingly.

"It's fine now."

"I'll be the one to decide that. Now open up and don't bother with the marble-mouth impression. Or is there a problem? Are you embarrassed to open your mouth, like a little girl?"

It looked like the nurse's deliberately insults had worked perfectly to skewer Mew's pride.

"Who are you calling a girl?"

"In that case, can you open your mouth nice and wide for me? That's a good boy."

Acting like a dentist with a little kid, the nurse managed to get Mew to open his mouth without difficulty. He was shining the penlight inside Mew's mouth when Mew finally realized that he had played right into the nurse's hands. But it was too late to just shut his mouth again at that point, so he put up with it diligently, though he made some choking noises at the back of his throat.

"Ah, there it is. You probably caught it on the edge of a tooth. That must have hurt. I bet there was a lot of blood."

"Yes, there was," Gulf answered for Mew, who had fallen silent.

"So what happened?"

"He was resting his chin on his hand and I knocked his elbow out from under him."

"I see."

"Then he hit his chin on the desk."

"And that's how he cut his mouth?"

The nurse was looking at him with a straight face, but his hands began to tremble.

"Stop laughing!'

Mew looked like he was running out of patience. He had endured everything up to that point, but now he knocked the nurse hands away. When he yelled at him, the nurse doubled over, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

"Uh, sir?"

"It's so funny that a slick guy like him would hurt himself so badly just hitting his chin on a desk." The nurse couldn't hold back his laughter any longer. He clutched his stomach and guffawed.

"That's real nice, laughing at other people's pain like that," Mew said, aggravated, and stood up to leave the nurse office.

"Hey, Mew! Wait!"

"I've had enough of his treatment."

The voice of the nurse came from behind Gulf, struggling to suppress his laughter. "But your medicine---"

Mew left the room before he managed to finish.

"The bleeding's stopped, so it's all right. If it takes another impact, the bleeding might start again, so he should avoid eating hard things as much as possible. Will you tell him that?"

"All right."

Gulf bowed politely and chased after Mew, who had gotten a good lead on him.

TBC