Hajime's P.O.V.
"What?"
"I'm sorry, I really am! You just....looked.."
I probably looked shocked, so I quickly said:
"Gay? What made you think that?"
I tried to smile, but it ended up looking like a forced smirk.
He seemed even more scared, then he backed up to half-hide behind an arm chair.
"You just didn't look straight! So I thought that if you weren't straight, you couldn't possibly be homophobic, right?"
"Huh?"
"I just wanted to know that! I didn't mean to question your sexuality or anything!"
He was almost trembling.
"Woah calm down, it's not like I'm angry at you...but you know you could have just asked me if it mattered so much, right?"
"Have you ever asked an homophobe if they would accept you if you were gay? 'Cause I have, and it's one of the worst experiences in my life, they just start yelling at you for assuming they could have ever supported such a thing, then they insult you and tell all the people they know you're gay so your social and family relations are ruined, at least most of them, and you won't even show your face near them again. Well, I'm not sure every one of them acts like this, but my uncle sure does..."
"Damn...I- I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you think about unpleasant memories"
"Oh, but it's fine, it's been more than nine years now, it doesn't hurt anymore"
"Nine y- wait so you were five??!"
"Yeah, why?"
I would have never imagined his family could be so fucking....
I didn't even know what to say or think at that point, he looked pretty calm, while I felt like on the verge of tears, so I hugged him tight.
"Aw, you're so cute...but I told you, I'm fine"
He was obviously not, but maybe he didn't know about my ability and thought he could lie to me so easily.
But I had decided to prove he was wrong, and I was able to help.
"Still... is there anything I can do?"
"No, but...can we please change the topic? I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortable..."
The air was getting thicker and thicker every second that passed, and we clearly both felt really awkward, barely glancing at each other every now and then, looking away as soon as we locked eyes.
I don't think I could be considered a shy person, or with social anxiety....perhaps a small amount of it, but in that situation, I had no idea what to do.
I mean, how can you start another conversation after all of that?
"Uhm....I think it's better if we go back where the others are..."
"I'm sorry if I made this awkward"
And with that, he left.
I don't remember much more about that evening, after all I was really tired, but I guess I had fun.
The sad thing was, the party was Tuesday, so I didn't have a free morning to become alive again, only too many hours of school, then finally back home.
I was pretty much destroyed, and having quite hard subjects, History and Maths, respectively the first and the last period didn't help at all.
When I reached home again, I couldn't find the strenght to cook anything serious, so I made myself a sandwich, that ended up, maybe because I was really fucking hungry, being extremely good.
As soon as I woke up to my alarm the next day I knew I would have preferred drowning in sand than actually getting up.
I felt really sad for no reason, I tried to stand but being barely able to sit on the edge of the bed, just to fall on my knees right after.
My face was kind of...wet, but I wasn't crying, I know how that feels, and yet, water was running down my cheeks, making me look redder, as if blushing.
"What the-?"
That felt like a dream.
One of those that aren't actually bad, but you feel horribly in.
Chiaki's P.O.V.
I slept pretty well that night, considering I went to a party the day before, I felt kind of weirdly satisfied, as if I did something good for someone I cared about, or help them get something off their chest.
Then was when I remembered about what happened with Hajime.
He was more than upset, definitely, and also in a different way than usual.
'I'll just call him, but what if he's sleeping? Maybe a text would be better'
Hajime's P.O.V.
Ding.
Ding.
'Huh?'
Ding.
I glared at my phone, that didn't seem to want to stop forcing me to hear numerous notifications.
I grabbed it and turned it on to see a few new messages from Chiaki, Nagito and Kazuichi.
I chose to open Chiaki's first, to see that she was still worried and she intended to tie me on a chair in order to convince me to admit what was wrong with me.
I didn't really appreciate the idea, so I thought posponing our next encounter would have been better for me.
I feared what Nagito could have chosen to text, so I quickly opened my chat with Kaz instead.
What I did not expect was that he could send me such a confusing sentence: 'I did it' and then 'thanks'.
I called him the second I saw that, 'cause I wasn't gonna get back to (hopefully) sleep while curious about something.
"So? What happened, mystery guy?"
He yawned.
"I didn't expect you'd call so early....good morning, have you had brealfast? Because I haven't, and I wish to, so if you could politely call me back in a couple hours..."
"Are you genuinely trying to avoid my question like that or are you just fucking with me?"
"Although you look undoubtedly fine, I do not wish any of such things.."
"What's with you today? Did something good happen that made you in the mood for jokes, and annoying me?"
"Well, uh....I might have confessed yesterday"
{1006 words}
{published the 8th of November 2022}
<Well here we are again.
I had to finish more than half of this is half an hour because the day is ending yay.
I just wanted to thank you for reading this, if you want to comment, I'll be happy to read anything you have to say.
Don't worry, the story won't be too fast....not a slowburn either, I think, but I think it will turn out fine enough for you.
I've also started writing a ChiLi/ZhongChi book, if you're interested.
I haven't published the first chapter yet, and I don't know when I will, since I wanna take my time with that story, to write it good enough (and also I don't have the full plot in mind yet, I'm open to suggestions).
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you in two weeks <3. >
