Beauty With a Brat (The Suzuhara Family 1) ✅

Chapter Twelve

"Y—You told me that you loved me! That you would love no one else but me! B-But now I see you here? This pretty girl is who you really love?"

Rage flooded Wataru's body. "KUSO YARŌ!"

He intended to tackle Komatsu to the floor and wring his neck. But when he lunged at Komatsu, the other boy effortlessly dodged him, tucking his wig back into his duffle bag as Wataru face-planted onto the bathroom floor. Komatsu turned to go."I'll just be on my way—"

"NO YOU DON'T!" Wataru scrambled across the floor and grabbed Komatsu's leg. He tried to trip him. "I'll kill you, you bastard!"

"This is a public restroom Suzuhara, not at school!" Komatsu tried to shake him off. "If you don't let me go this second, I'll call security—"

"IT WAS YOU!" Wataru hollered. "You're that damn waitress who framed me!"

Komatsu stiffened, and he looked down at Wataru with wide eyes. With the way the color drained from his face, Wataru knew that he was right. "You stole my first kiss!" Wataru spat. He succeeded in knocking Komatsu to his backside on the floor. "You ruined everything for me!" He lunged at Komatsu again.

Komatsu boxed his ears, and Wataru hollered as he fell onto his side on the floor. "Aww, I was your first kiss Suzuhara?" Komatsu cooed at him sardonically. "That's so sweet!"

"You—bastard!" Wataru shouted as his ears rang. It took a few moments for the hearing to fully return and he quickly sat back up. "Why did you do that?! Everyone thinks I'm some sort of womanizing asshole because of you!"

"Oh what a travesty!" Komatsu spat out sarcastically, scrambling to his feet. "So people think you're a womanizer? So what?! What you did to Natsuo was even worse than that!"

"What I did to—you mean Daikoji?!" Wataru exclaimed. He rubbed at his ears as he stood up. "I apologized to him, you asshole!"

Komatsu barked out a laugh. "Do you think you can out someone and think everything will be fixed with an apology?! He's still being bullied!"

"I didn't send bullies on him!" Wataru shot back. "Don't blame that on me!"

"Well they wouldn't have started bullying him if it weren't for you!"

"He was reading a Yaoi magazine in the middle of class! He wasn't hiding anything!"

"But the bullying started with YOU!"

Wataru scrubbed both hands over his face and exhaled sharply. Both boys stood there breathing heavily in silence for a long time. Finally Wataru dropped his hands away from his face and looked up at Komatsu. "So...what? What about you, then?" he gestured to Komatsu. "Are you gay? Or transgender? Or both?"

"I'm non-binary," Komatsu said hotly, folding his arms over his chest. "Gender-fluid, more specifically. I am both male and female. I am Ran, and I am Riiko. I am whoever I damn well please when I wake up in the morning!"

"Except you're always a guy at school!" Wataru shot back.

"Sometimes," Komatsu corrected him. "And sometimes I am a girl who wears a boy's clothes. And likewise when I'm at work I can be a boy wearing a girl's clothes. But I do what I can to survive living here by myself in Tokyo. I moved here from Akita. Do you think it's easy being a sixteen-year-old living on the other side of the damn country from their family?! Because it isn't! I had to get a job to survive and live, but since Yukinaga bans students from getting a job it's easier for me to be Riiko when I work!"

"Why did you move cross-country if living here would be so difficult for you?!" Wataru demanded.

"I got fourth place on Yukinaga's entrance exam!" Komatsu snapped. "THE hardest high school entrance exam in Japan! Do you think I would pass up an opportunity like this to attend the best high school in Tokyo and all of Japan?! Never! But the scholarship only covers school! It does not cover my living expenses! So I need this job, and YOU—" he jabbed a finger at Wataru threateningly. "—are not going to ruin this for me!"