NO, THAT'S WRONG! ~~Naegami~~

Chapter 16: What are You Saying?

"I don't care."

Three words. Three simple words. But those words fizzed around Byakuya's head like a firework about to go off. He doesn't... care? That's impossible, isn't it? Makoto couldn't mean any of that, could he?

"I.. I don't understand." He managed to speak despite the lump of sadness and dismay in his throat. "I thought... Didn't you want to be together?" Makoto sighed and looked at the floor.

"I did... but then you told me it was impossible. So I did the healthy thing and moved on. You can't expect me to hold on to an impossible relationship forever, you know." Byakuya felt his preconceptions come crashing down around him, leaving him surrounded by the rubble and debris of despair.

"But I was being an idiot! I never meant to hurt you, Makoto." He pleaded, but it fell on deaf ears.

"Well, you did! I'm not going to wait around for you to suddenly change your mind, if you say the relationship isn't going to work, I'll move on."

"What are you saying? That you've moved on over the course of six hours?" Byakuya demanded, which made Makoto groan.

"God, you're so full of yourself. You can't comprehend the fact that not everybody thinks about you every second of every day, can you? Face it: sometimes things happen that aren't entirely about you. And you need to realise that sooner rather than later, or you'll get hurt."

I already am. That's what Byakuya wanted to say to him. I already am, because you've moved on and I haven't. I already am, because you're right. I only ever think about myself. But he didn't say that. Of course he didn't. How could he? Honesty was a tool to be used as any other, and there are some times where a tool is not fit for a specific job. This was one of those times.

"If that's how you feel, Naegi, then I'll leave you alone."

***

Makoto watched Byakuya walk out of his room, and he collapsed onto his bed. Lying to Byakuya had been difficult, but it was worth it in the long run. The Affluent Progeny has been right yesterday: someone like him, and someone like Makoto could never be together. It wouldn't be fair to him, to latch onto him like a parasite and drain him like he drained everyone else he met. Byakuya was doing something with his life, he was going somewhere, and Makoto would just slow him down.

He had known from a very young age that he was average among the average, and would never make a mark on the world as a whole. But he still held on to the foolish delusion that maybe, just maybe, he could change the life of somebody. But now, here, in this stupid academy that he didn't even deserve to attend, he was realising that that, too, was beyond his grasp.

Because no matter how hard Makoto tried, no matter how many people he met, no matter what he had done, was doing, or would ever do in his meaningless, pathetic excuse for a life, he would never be good enough for anyone. Let alone the heir apparent to the most powerful company in the world. Even though Byakuya might be able to convince himself that they could make it work, Makoto knew that it would be a terrible mistake. A mistake that he couldn't allow Byakuya to make. He cared too much about the blonde to let him throw his life away on a waste of space like Makoto.

Sighing, Makoto threw himself onto his bed, making it creak slightly under his weight. He had homework due tomorrow that he'd been putting off, but all of a sudden he didn't care. Not that he typically had some sort of fervour for schoolwork, because he was as motivated as an average secondary school student, but he was certainly struck by the sudden desire to do nothing at all. He wasn't hungry, wasn't tired, wasn't anything at all. For the first time in a while, he felt nothing. Just empty.

   And Makoto realised that, despite the horrid hole swirling in his gut, feeling empty was better than feeling sad.

***

School was boring. The business was boring. His friends were boring. Everything, every single little thing in the world was boring now. Byakuya let out a sigh as he scratched out his history essay onto his thin sheet of paper. He didn't want to be here right now. He wanted to be next to him. Was this what the 99% referred to as a 'crush'? He had to say, he hated it. The powerlessness if it all, the way that he had become the centre of Byakuya's world in just a few short months, it was all so incredibly vexing. For the first time in his living memory, he found himself daydreaming about Makoto. His green eyes, his rumpled hoodie, that gravity-defying ahoge in his brunette hair. Byakuya just wanted to stare at him for however long he'd let him, until he wasted away to nothing. He sighed and looked back to his essay.

   The main cause for the Cold War intensifying between 1945 and 1954 was that gravity-defying ahoge in his brunette hair.

   Byakuya started at his page. Had he seriously just written that? This was far more serious than he had ever imagined, he mused as he scribbled out his mistake. On a normal day, he wouldn't make a mistake. On a day when he did, he'd put a single neat line through it and move on. Today, however, he covered every inch of the words with black ink, because he was terrified that people would read it.

   Not that it mattered, of course, since this essay was not one to hand in, it was simply a practice. And, although practice was barely necessary for Byakuya at this point in his studies, he welcomed the distraction from that 5" 3' boy who invaded every corner of Byakuya's brain.

Word count without A/N: 1003

A/N: sorryyyy for the really short chapterrrr this time, I'm tryinggf to be more timely with updatinggg this fic, so I got this one outtt ASAP. The next one will probably be longerrr (maybe) becauseee thingsss are going to progressss a little more in coming chaptersss. I also realiseddd that I hadn't put an A/N or word count at the end of last chapter, so SORRY ABOHT THAT. I prettttyyyt much forgotttt about it entirelyyyy becauseee I was focused on FINALLY updating the fic. As a side note.... THANK ALL Y'ALL SO BLOODY MUCH FOR ALL OF THE READS THIS FIC HAS BEEN GETTING. When I started this, I had no idea it'd get even 10 reads, let alone over 300. It means so flippin much to me to see through reads, votes, and comments that people are actually enjoyinggggg this thing. I love you all, and I'll see you soon (hopefully, we'll see if I remember to update). Alr peace.
— Winter