Romantic Killer But I Made It Gay

Part 19

Geh—what? My childhood friend? I could swear I've never met this man in my life. Looks like my guess was spot on then. Did Kiki cause this strangeness? No, of course it did.

"Mori? What's taking you so long?" Kazuki's voice calls from inside the house and he appears behind me, stopping dead in his tracks when he sees the stranger at our doorstep. The two stare each other down until Kazuki turns to me and asks, "Is he your friend?"

"Well..." I'm trying to figure that out myself.

"I'm Junta Hayami, Haru's childhood friend," the boy introduces himself, a little speechless. "Haru, you have a boyfriend? Why didn't you tell me?"

"What!? No, I—he just—we aren't...I-I don't—" I stammer, flushed. When I finally collect my wits I try as inconspicuously as I can, "Why would you ever think that?"

"Because you like boys and he's over at your house," he states plainly, and I whip around to see Kazuki staring at me. When he catches my gaze he pretends to not have noticed anything. So much for keeping it a secret. I bet Kiki introduced this guy just to mess me up. And now things are going to be all awkward between Kazuki and me. This is the worst case scenario!

"I wasn't even aware of that..." Kazuki murmurs under his breath and I wince. Of course you weren't aware, I went out of my way to make sure you didn't know!

"Oh, then, what are you doing at Haru's house?" Junta's eyes flash over me worriedly. "Is everything okay? Emi told me your parents moved out suddenly, so I came to check on you since we have no morning practice today."

"Uh huh..." I feel like my brain's going to melt from the overload of information but I shake the feeling away. I need to be clear and concise to gather information. First off, he knows Emi, meaning Kiki's crazy mind control power has spread to her too. Good thing I didn't tell her about the egg then, since I don't know what she would do. Secondly, morning practice means he plays some sort of sport, which explains why he's so ripped.

I return to the present to see both boys watching me, Kazuki with a worried expression and Junta smiling nostalgically.

"You still space out as much as ever," the tall boy laughs.

"Sorry," I mutter. "Anyways, Kazuki is just a friend. His room was flooded so he's staying over at my place for a...while."

"He's staying...here?" Junta looks horrified. "For how long? Will you be okay?"

"I'll be heading out," Kazuki's murmurs, looking uncomfortable. He edges around Junta and starts down the street, leaving the two of us alone. Suddenly panicked, I make a hurried excuse about needing my bag and run back inside, slamming the door behind me.

"How lucky are you?" Kiki giggles as I start up to my room. "Not one but two—GWAA—!"
I grab it and throw it as hard as I can into my room, shutting the door.

"How rude!" Kiki starts to fly back to me but I wrap my hand around it and pin it to the ground. It struggles meekly, but I can tell it could get out of my strong grip anytime it wants.

"What did you do, you devil!?" I yell, right up in its stupid little face.

"I'm not a devil!" It complains, zooming out of my grip and into the air. It spins around a few times, then bows. "I'm Kiki the wizard, and you'd do well to remember that!"

"That doesn't matter!" I growl, glaring up at it. "What matters is you hypnotized a poor guy into thinking he's my childhood friend, when we've never even met before. Who even is he?"

"Of course you've met him before!" Kiki laughs giddily. "You grew up together, and have been inseparable your whole lives. At first the attraction was only friendship, but that can easily develop into something more."

"Yeah, but that never happened," I sigh. "I've never had a good looking childhood friend like him. If that were true, I'd already be dating real people."

"Not at all!" Kiki grabs a book out of thin air and flips a few pages in. "You and Junta met in grade school and have been best friends ever since!"

"What an obvious lie. And where'd that book come from?"

Flipping a few more pages, Kiki continues, "He's the sporty type, since he's on the baseball team. You used to always go to his games and cheer the loudest, encouraging him to do his best. In interviews, he's credited you with his success!"

"Again, that never happened," I growl, reaching to pluck the tiny book from Kiki's hands so it'll shut up.

It flies to the ceiling, still reading. "He attended a different middle school than you, so you haven't seen him in three years. But once you found out you were going to the same high school, you became close again."

"That does sound credible," I reluctantly admit. "But why are you bringing him in now?"

"There's always a childhood friend in romance games!" Kiki insists. "And since you're so dead set on having no romance with Kazuki, I've decided to give you an easy target."

"Don't call the poor kid easy!"

"Here's the best part!" It's smile becomes diabolical. "He's had a crush on you ever since you came out to him!" It points to me with its wand. "So all you have to do is accept his feelings of love, and you can start a happy, healthy relationship."

I jump, grabbing the wand and using it fling Kiki into the roof, where it coughs before unsticking and falling to the ground. "There's nothing happy and healthy about this! I can't start a relationship with someone I just met! Besides, I told you not to play with people's feelings like that!"

Kiki floats shakily off the ground over to my bed, where it settles down, crossing its legs comfortably. "And did I ever say I'd listen? Hmm, let's think..."

I glare at it, grabbing my bag and marching out of the room. I swear to God, that thing really is magic. I've never had something drive me this crazy before, human or not.

"Guess I've made him wait long enough," I mutter, opening the door and starting out.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Kiki assures me, flying down after me. "I've put a spell on him to make him think you two are having a lovely conversation right now."

"About what?"

It giggles, flying into my bag without answering. I groan, stopping in front of Junta, who blinks, then laughs.

"Sorry, I've never tried cauliflower cake before, but if you really insist it's that good, I just might."

"I was just kidding," I mutter, walking past him and into the street. Of course it would make me talk about that. I still don't know why it's so obsessed with cauliflower, and I think I'm scared to ask at this point.