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

Chapter 21: Waterfalls

This had taken ages to plan. It was the hardest Makoto had worked at pretty much anything in his memory. The organisation that had gone into this would be enough to impress even Ishimaru. Not that he hadn't begged for Ishimaru's help in the planning of his confession.

   And the amount of money that he'd spent was frankly ridiculous. Leave it to Byakuya to have some of the most expensive tastes of anyone he'd ever met. And the watches? Why on Earth were watches so goddamn expensive? Makoto had originally wanted to give Byakuya an artisan watch, something really fancy, but even the more average watch he'd ended up settling for was way out of Makoto's price range. He'd had to borrow so much money to make it possible that he'd owe his friends for years to come.

But that didn't matter to him one bit. Byakuya absolutely deserved every luxury the world could give, and Makoto wanted to give him as much of it as possible. What kind of confession was worthy of Byakuya Togami if it didn't go all out? Not to mention... Makoto needed to show Byakuya that he could do something cool like that even though he was as average as they come. It was expensive, tiring, and more than a little stressful, but Makoto wouldn't have had it any other way. He just hoped Byakuya felt the same way.

Standing there in Hina's dorm room, Glass Animals still playing from the speakers positioned around the room, Makoto began to think of the worst possible scenario. What if Byakuya didn't actually like him back? What if it had all been a lie? Some kind of joke that Makoto had been the butt of. Byakuya didn't seem the type to do something like that but, then again, he'd misjudged the blonde in the past. After all, Byakuya didn't seem the type to fall for a guy like Makoto, either. So maybe it was all a cruel prank.

But he'd known Byakuya for months now. There was no way that he'd do something like that. Byakuya... he'd once been the only person Makoto would consider an enemy. Not that it had been that dramatic, but still, they had not been friends in any capacity. Makoto still wasn't sure how or why that had changed in such a short period of time, but he was very grateful that it had. Without Byakuya, where would he be? Nowhere near as happy as he was now, that was for certain. The time he'd spent with him had been some of the best times of his life, and that wasn't an exaggeration or oversimplification by any means. Byakuya Togami was, to put it simply, the best thing that had happened to him.

   And it just so happened that the best thing that had happened to him was looking like he wanted to be anywhere else. Eyes darting from side to side, looking everywhere but at Makoto. Byakuya looked more uncomfortable now than he ever had before. Instantly, Makoto felt cold dread sink in his gut. He'd done something wrong. What had he done? Had it been the music? The chocolates? The flowers? The watch? It was then that Makoto realised his mistake: there had been too many variables in this particular equation. Too many things that could have gone wrong.

   It didn't matter what had gone wrong, though, not right now. What mattered was what Byakuya was going to say next. And from the looks of things, it wasn't going to be anything good.

   "I... I..." Byakuya stuttered, words seemingly failing him at this crucial point. He looked like a deer in headlights, eyes wide and lip trembling. Makoto had only seen Byakuya this way once before, and that had been right before he'd yelled at him and told him to leave him alone. That did not bode well for how this was going to go.

   "I... Makoto, I- I can't... I can't do this." Byakuya managed to say, before casting his gaze back to the floor.

   "Can't do this?" Makoto blurted out, unable to stop the words spilling from his lips. "What do you mean? You were quite happy to kiss me yesterday. You were quite happy to talk to me about it this morning. What changed? What stopped you from wanting this? What did I do? Please... tell me where I went wrong." Everyone watching seemed almost as uncomfortable as Byakuya. They were sharing covert glances, testing whether it would be acceptable to slink away, and avoid the fight that was clearly about to break out. In that moment, Makoto realised he was alone.

He had thought he'd had friends. They'd all smiled and laughed and agreed to help him. But they were really helping themselves. They weren't doing anything kind, they were just collecting a good story to tell to their families and friends. Now that it had turned sour, they didn't want any part of it. They didn't care about him, not at all. It was just him, and just Byakuya, both of them equally alone together. It was a sobering realisation, to say the least. He felt the colour drain from the surroundings, saw people's faces blur into a swirl of colours until it was just him and Byakuya in a vortex of nothingness, the only thing he could see was that awful look on the blonde's face. It was the expression of someone about to say something that they knew would ruin the other person's life.

   "Please... just let me go.. I never wanted this!" Byakuya cried out, and pushed his way through the crowd and out of the room. Everyone fell silent. The walls became real again and Makoto was aware that every single person was staring at him. The room itself seemed to be holding its breath, surveying the damage that had been done. All of a sudden, nobody wanted to help him anymore. Nobody wanted this as a story to tell their friends anymore. Nobody wanted to even look him in the eye anymore. They were all staring, though. When they thought he wasn't looking.

   "What are all of you looking at?" He snapped, and stalked out of the room after Byakuya. He wasn't out in the hall, not that Makoto could see. The corridor was eerily quiet, what with everyone having the time of their lives in the room behind him. The rooms were soundproofed, too, so it was almost like stepping into another world. Maybe Byakuya was in his room? Not that he'd answer the door if he was, but it was at least worth a try, was it not?

   Every step down the hallway echoed and creaked, like he was trespassing. It felt as if he were breaking some sort of rule, like he was out after curfew. He got to Byakuya's door, right opposite his own, and rang the doorbell. As he might have expected, no response came. But Makoto wasn't about to give up that easily. He rang the doorbell again.

   And again.

   And again.

   And again.

   Eventually, Makoto reconciled himself to the fact that Byakuya wasn't going to answer. Why should he? He might not even have heard the doorbell. He might not even be in his room.

   Wait. He might not be in his room. All of a sudden, Makoto knew exactly where he was. He took off down the corridor and careened around corners, footsteps slapping and echoing loudly around the empty halls. The school was dead at this time of night, all of the rooms were locked. But one room wasn't locked. He knew from experience. He took the stairs to the second floor two at a time, and swerved around the corner recklessly, almost slamming into the wall. He burst into the locker room and into the swimming pool. The site of their first kiss.

   But when he got there, Byakuya was nowhere to be seen. Not in the stands, not by the lockers at the back, not even sitting on the side of the pool with feet dangling in. Had Makoto been wrong? He'd just concocted a fairytale coincidence story for himself with no backing. Classic Makoto. How stupid he'd been. Byakuya was probably just in his room, ignoring him. Why should he do anything else? Come to a swimming pool in the dead of night? Makoto was just about to turn to leave when he saw a dark shape in the pool. With a rush of shock that shook him to the bone, Makoto realised, horrified, that Byakuya actually was in the pool. In the deep end. Underwater. Not moving.

Word count without A/N: 1439

A/N: Soooooooo.... Been a while, huh? I took a li'l breakkkkkk but I guess it was longerrrr than I'd thought. Not me waiting nearly four monthssss between uploading chaptersss. I'm so sorry, youse lot. Youse're very cooolll for sticking with me through this hiatus, and though I can't promiseeee any more frequent updatesss, I can sayyyy that I hugely appreciate everythinggggg that youse do in relation to this ficccc. Every vote, every comment, every readdddd, it means so much to meeee. It's genuinely wilddddd to wake up and see 20+ notificationsssss. I read every single commenttttt, and I appreciate it so goddamn muchhhh. Youse're so funnnyyyyyy it makes me wanna cryyyyy. Aaaanyway, thank youse so much, and I love you alllll. Alr peace
— Winter