You and I

Chapter Four

My next class is math. When I enter the lecture hall, I spot Saki.
"Hi, Saki!" I say, approaching her and sitting in the seat next to hers.
"Hey, Yukito," she smiles. "You seem like you're in a good mood."
I blush. "Really?"
"Mhm. Does it have something to do with that Kinomoto guy you met yesterday?"
"Well..." I grin, "I kind of hung out with him today. We exchanged numbers, and now we're on a first-name basis!"
"Damn! Already?" Saki exclaims.
"Yeah. I... I think we're becoming friends!"
"Well, good for you!" she says, patting my shoulder. "Are you still... 'interested' in him?"
I hesitate. "Well... I think I was being too hasty. Right now, I only want to be friends with him."
"Ah, that's fair," she nods. "That's actually how my partner and I got together! I was MEGA attracted to them at first, but I decided to take things one step at a time. And now, my little cutie and I are a happy couple!"
"Alright," I smile.

After the lecture is over, I have a few hours for lunch. I pull out my phone and text Touya, "I'm omw to sandwich shop. See u!" A few moments later, he responds. "k," his text reads. I hurry to our meeting location, and when I head inside, I see Touya sitting at a small booth. As I walk towards him, he looks up and waves at me.
"Hello, Touya!" I greet him as I sit down across from him.
"Hey," he replies. "What are you gonna get?"
"I was going to get an egg sandwich."
"I've never had one of those before... I might try it."
I smile. "Okay. Do you want me to go order?"
"No, I can do it," Touya says, standing up. "Oh, what do you want to drink?"
"Water, please!"
"Alright." He walks over to the girl at the counter and orders our food. I notice the girl at the counter consistently blushing and flashing him "seductive" looks. Is that what I looked like yesterday? ...Wow. I must've been annoying. Suddenly, I'm snapped out of my trance.
"Whatever," I hear Touya say loudly. He walks back to our booth with an annoyed look on his face, holding our food in his hands. He sits down with a huff.
"W-what's wrong?" I ask cautiously.
"That dumb kid asked if I would date her. Can you fucking believe her? My god," Touya snarls. I flinch at the hatred in his voice.
I quietly say, "W-well, why are you mad? Shouldn't you be happy that she l-likes you, or whatever...?"
"I... it's a long story," he says.
"We have time, do we not?" Touya stares at me for a few moments and then sighs.
"Well... okay." He takes a bite of his sandwich and continues. "When I was in high school, I was very popular among the girls. But... all that attention just annoyed me. I hoped that all of that would disappear once I went to college, but I guess people are still immature..."
I nod understandingly. "I guess I was also really liked by girls when I was in high school. Thankfully, it all stopped when I..." I pause, "...never mind."
"When you what?" Touya looks at me curiously. "Now you have to tell me."
"W-well..."
"Did you come out as gay, or something?" he asks. I spit out a fake laugh, but when I look at his face, I realize that he's not joking. "Why are you laughing? It's a serious question. I'm not homophobic or whatever."
I stare at him silently for a few seconds. "Actually... yeah. I am gay, and I did come out of the closet in high school."
"I see," Touya says. "I wish I could've used my sexuality to get all the girls to stop liking me. Unfortunately, I'm bisexual, so that wouldn't really work..."
"You're bi?" I ask. "I had no idea."
"Yeah, well... it took me a while to figure out that I like both girls AND boys."
I tilt my head. "How did you find out?"
"I don't really know," he says, taking another bite of his sandwich. "It just kind of hit me, you know? How did you realize you were gay?"
"I just kind of realized that I never really liked girls. When I was in junior high, I decided to tell this to my grandparents. They said that they loved me for who I am and that they would accept me wholeheartedly. It's actually kind of funny, because my twin brother also realized he was gay around that time."
"Oh, you have a twin brother?" Touya says. "That's cool. Are you two identical?"
"Mhm!" I reply. "But a lot of people say that we look different. Probably because I wear glasses, and my brother dyes his hair white."
"Can I see what he looks like? I want to see if you two look similar."
"Sure!" I pull out my phone and find a picture of my twin brother. "His name is Yue. This is what he looks like," I say, showing Touya the photo.
He raises his eyebrows. "Wow, his hair is really long..."
"Yeah. Grandma and Grandpa keep asking him to cut it, but he insists that he likes it long. Apparently his boyfriend thinks it's pretty."
"And his name, 'Yue'," Touya ponders, "that's a Chinese name, right? Are you two not Japanese?"
"Our mom was Japanese, but our dad was Chinese, so they decided that one of us would have a Japanese name, and the other would have a Chinese name," I say. Touya nods and takes a few more bites of his sandwich.
"Hey, you haven't touched yours yet," he points out, his mouth full of food.
"Huh?" I look down at my own sandwich. "O-oh, yeah, I guess I got distracted!" I pick up the sandwich and take a few small bites. Suddenly, Touya stands up.
"Shit! I have a lecture in a few minutes!" he exclaims. "Sorry, I have to go. See you later." Touya pats me on the shoulder and dashes out of the sandwich shop. I stare dumbfounded at his hasty leave. Wow... I guess he was really in a rush. I just shrug my shoulders. Oh well.