*:･ﾟHard To Love ･ﾟ:*

CHAPTER 3 - let the light in

SOUSUKE
—❁—

I already know exactly why Minamoto chose this song. He was trying to send me messages without using his words, like an idiot.

He acts as though he's smooth. He probably believes that all his shitty ideas of romance will work on me, but they won't. He's a loser, and I'd rather crash the car than ever be seen with this guy romantically.

"Okay, we're here." I glance at Kou and turn the car off, unbuckling my seatbelt. "We'll eat and then walk to the tech shop, it's only a couple blocks away." Kou swiftly unbuckles and frees his phone from the aux. "Are you sure? What if we get a massive 75 inch television? I'm not about to walk all the way back here with that." "First of all, you most likely have way too much faith in both of our bank accounts combined. Secondly, we probably wouldn't even be allowed to have a 32 inch in the dorm. Besides.. you still need to buy a camera as well, so we might not even be leaving with a television today." "How else am I meant to entertain myself? I can't just stare at the wall all the time." "You won't be staring at the wall, you'll be studying like what good students should do." Kou groans before opening his door to leave. "You're such a buzzkill, y'know that?" "Oh shut up! I'm treating your ass to a meal, so don't test me right now." I quickly look over at Minamoto from across the roof of my car as he mocks my voice and repeats what I said. "Don't test me right now—" He then swaps the mocking tone for his own voice. "—man, you're hella corny for what?" "For your idiotic ass, now get over here before I regret bringing you along." Kou quickly rushes over to me as I begin walking out of the small parking lot that I parked the car in.

I had driven us to a restaurant that me and my mom go to all the time. It specialized in fast food, so it helped with the fact that I parked in a lot that only permitted 1 hour parking.

"Tell me what you want, I'm buying." I look up at Minamoto and watch him examine the menu for a moment before looking up at it myself. "You're buying, huh? Are you sure that's cool?" "Yeah, I don't care. Just don't get too much because I don't get my next paycheck till Thursday." "Let me buy then.. I insist." My eyes move up and look at Kou again, his lips formed in the shape of an actually decent smile. "Uh—" I quickly look back up at the menu and squint my eyes, trying to act as though I don't already know what I'm gonna get off the top of my head. I get the same dish every single time I come here, so it was pointless for me to study the menu. "I already insisted." I mutter and look up at Kou again. "Please Mitsuba, I don't want you to go broke because of me.. especially since I'm starving and I'll probably get a ton of food to take out with us for later." I softly sigh and cross my arms, adjusting my stance so that I can get off my aching feet while keeping balance. "Fine, but don't forget that you're also gonna have to buy a camera. Those things don't run cheap at all.." "I know, don't worry. I have it totally covered." He smiles yet again and steps forward in line alongside me. "So how did you learn about this place? The consistent style of furniture around here is great, not to mention how delicious it smells around here." My eyebrows subtly raise in response to Kou's sudden display of furniture appreciation before I respond to him. "Are you an old man or what?" "Who the crap are you calling old man?" I softly smile and step up in line once more before looking up at Minamoto. "You. Only old people find furniture interesting." "Whatever man! I'm just saying, I like the overall vibe of this place. What's so wrong with that?" "See, if you said it like that in the first place we wouldn't have had an issue." "You're so weird a picky for no reason." I quickly narrow my eyebrows and glance up at Kou again. "Is that a bad thing?"

I couldn't help but ask just to be sure. I was never one to ask someone something about myself that they says, but for some reason it feels so different with Kou. Maybe it's just because we'll be so close kept for a while..

"Yeah, it usually would be. I don't like to associate myself with people who are too mean or self absorbed, but—" I can feel my chest hollow before I glance back up at the menu. "It's cool if it's you, I somehow don't mind it." The feeling then faded as my eyes moved back up at Kou. It was like my vision had expanded, and things were coming to me more clearly.