All You Need Is Love (MewGulf AU)

🌞Chapter 22🌻

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"Seriously. It's only gotten this bad because you hardly ever go to class."

Gulf set the beer can he'd taken from Mew on the table and sat back down on the sofa.

"After you score on the midterm, if you fail again at the end of the semester, it's going to be hard for you to graduate. Do you get that?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

Mew casually started to open the other beer that he had brought for Gulf. Gulf moved quickly to take it again  but this time Mew got out of the way.

"Mew!"

"Who cares if I have a little beer? Aren't you thirsty?"

As if there was nothing in the world to feel guilty about, Mew popped the can open with a hiss and chugged its contents loudly. Gulf's eyes were drawn to the way his Adam's apple leapt up and down as he drank.

Mew wasn't at all muscular. But he looked toned compared to Gulf, who was simply frail rather than skinny because he had never exercised at all outside of P.E. in middle and high school.

Gulf had become especially aware of that since they'd switched to their summer uniform in June.

Whenever Mew casually bent his arm, his biceps would flex naturally. Gulf was constantly struck by the urge to touch them. He would always be overcome by a feeling of shame, suspecting that there was something weird about that impulse, but the same thing would happen again the next time.

"What's up? You sure you don't want a beer after all?"

Gulf had fallen silent, and Mew was peering at him. He was so surprised by the proximity of Mew's face that he couldn't even breathe. But he held his feelings in check and tersely replied, "It's not that."

"Why you gotta be so uptight? There's no one here but you and me." Mew set his beer down and pulled a crumpled oack of cigarettes from his pants pocket, from which he extracted a similarly crumpled cigarette.

Gulf hated how good Mew looked lighting the cigarette with a cheap disposable lighter and blowing the smoke up at the ceiling.

"Really?"

"You're not still surprised by that, are you? My mom and dad are in Tokyo. I got in trouble at the school near us, so I came to my dad's old town by myself."

Usually Gulf forgot all about it, but he was struck now by how very different Mew's background was from his own. "I thought you had a guardian or something with you the first time we met. He doesn't live with you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The tall guy with the glasses. He had his hair parted to one side."

"Oh, AA. You've got a good memory." Mew's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "He only came to the school that one time."

"I saw him for a second in the office too."

The man's aura had been unique, unlike an ordinary citizen's, though that was kind of a strange way to put it. Judging purely from appearances, he could probably pass as an office worker. He was nothing like the classic image of the yakuza that was always on TV and in movies, the kind who didn't care about life or honor.

But perhaps because he was, after all, part of the underworld, there was something about his eyes that seemed different from other people's. But the only gangster Gulf knew about were the prototypical yakuza from TV and movies. Most 'modern' gang members were probably not like this man either.

"He's my guardian. He's been working for my dad since before I was born. He's kind of my lieutenant."

"Your lieutenant?"

Gulf didn't understand exactly what that meant his job duties were, but he'd heard the term so often in movies that even Gulf knew it was the title of a very important position.

"My dad picked him up when he was young and helped raised him, so AA said he would pay back that debt with his body. He's a lifer. He's not a bad guy. Plus, he sees situations really clearly, so it's really great to talk to him about stuff. But it kind of sucks how formal he can be." As he listed off AA's qualities and flaws, Mew truly looked his age. "Sometimes he sticks his head in to see how I'm doing on the weekends, but he's usually busy with stuff in Tokyo. There's nothing to do for fun in a backwater town like this. He hated it as soon as he got here."

"But he's working too hard to actually have any fun, isn't he?"

"I guess. But if he wanted to, he wouldn't have anything to do."

The ash had grown long on his cigarette. Mew stretched his arm out to flick it into his can, even though there was an ashtray right next to him.

"There's downtown, by the train station, or the club in the second district..."

"Who wants to go to some place that's full of kids?" Mew waved his hand dismissively in front of his face.

"What do you mean kids?"

"Middle schoolers. I even saw some elementary school kids there. Man, you couldn't get it up with girls like that if you tried."

Goose bumps prickled Gulf's skin at these evocative words coming out of nowhere.

"And that was just like AA to stick me in an all-boys school. Nothing but guys everywhere you look. It sucks. What's the point of even going to school and paying attention when it's like that? Isn't that right, Gulf?"

"W-what?" Gulf responded awkwardly after the surprise of being called by name.

Mew turned a dubious look on him and laughed, "Pay attention! I said, don't you think it's frustrating going to a school full of guys?"

"Not really..."

Gulf remembered the rumor about why Mew had left his other school.

He was such a handsome man. Plus he was smart and could play sports. In the end, he was a man of few words, but that didn't mean he was unfriendly.

Gulf's thoughts continued along this track. He decided, even if it was a bit nonsensical, that no girl would ever let go of this bold man who paid no attention to what other people thought of him.

And it wasn't just girls.

Since Gulf's school was all boys, they didn't get any truly outrageous rumors, but there were people among them who liked boys. He'd hears that those boys, too, found Mew appealing.

Gulf did, too. His pulse quickened under Mew's direct gaze.

TBC