A List of Things I Like (Without You)

A sleepless night

It's late.

So late that the stars dotting the sky are beginning to fade away, and the sun is threatening to rise and bathe the atmosphere in its warm glow.

Nevertheless, Akane Aoi is still awake.

He dares not look at the sunlight attempting to creep into his window, and he narrowly avoids reading the depressing numbers displayed on his alarm clock; the numbers inching closer to its eventual deafening ring-

But Akane doesn't want to think about that right now already has plenty on his mind.

Namely, he's thinking about his childhood crush, Aoi-chan.

Akane can't remember when it started, but for a while now, he has no longer been dreaming of a future relationship with Aoi-Chan.

He no longer wants to go on elaborate romantic dates with Aoi.

He no longer has the motivation to profess his undying love to her anymore.

And he no longer feels butterflies fluttering in his stomach when he sees her.

Akane Aoi is no longer in love with Aoi Akane, the girl he has loved for his whole life.

'Who am I if I'm not in love with Aoi-chan?'

Akane thinks as he tries to piece together an identity that doesn't have anything to do with Aoi, but he can't think of anything, he was an extension of Aoi-chan his whole life and now he is nothing.

He doesn't realize he had been crying until his tears begin staining his pillow.

Akane sighs, a feeling of hopelessness washing over him. How could he let things get this bad? What was he going to do now?

Akane stares at the ceiling, feeling empty. but then a small light flickered in his mind. If he doesn't know who he is without Aoi-chan, now is the time to find out.

To reinvent a new Akane Aoi, with a real personality and real interests that have nothing to do with Aoi-chan.

Full of determination he gets up, switches on his desk lamp, opens his notebook and flips through it in search of an empty page.

Upon finding one, he grabs his pencil and begins writing.

"A List of Things I like"

At first, Akane thought that writing this list was a bit silly. No sane person uses a simple piece of paper to reinvent themselves, but the more Akane thought about it the more he realized that he wasn't reinventing himself but rather recovering his true self.

It was as if his true self was a pirate's treasure locked in a chest and buried God knows where, and the list was the map, or was it the key? He wasn't exactly sure how this metaphor worked, but that didn't matter.

He looked at the list again with a newfound confidence as he wracked his brain to find something to write on it. The only two requirements being, 1: it had to be something he genuinely liked and 2: it had to be unrelated to ao-chan.

That would prove to be difficult because no matter how hard he thought about it he couldn't find something he actually enjoyed.

Raspberry pie?

It's fine but Akane only really liked it because it was Aoi's favorite.

Studying?

Definitely not. Even though he is top of his class, he only got good grades to impress Aoi-chan. And nobody in their right mind would actually enjoy studying.

He didn't like karaoke, or books, or the occult, or sports.

Akane sighed. He figured he would find more ideas at school tomorrow, but when he went to turn his desk lamp off in defeat, he thought of one more thing he could add to his list.

The Student Council.

Sure the original reason why he ran for student council vice president was because of a comment Aoi had made, but that was years ago and he still found himself running for vice president every year. His fellow classmates really looked up to him.

He'd be lying if he said he didn't like feeling wanted.

Even if he had to deal with Minomoto Teru and his cruel pranks almost every day, it was still worth it.

But strangely enough, nowadays The Student Council president has been less of a sadistic psychopath hell-bent on causing him pain and more of a run-of-the-mill nuisance who, for some reason, is being suspiciously nice to Akane as of late.

Akane thinks of the pros and cons, weighing and considering each of them. But finally, and with a smile on his face he decides that he really does enjoy Student Council.

So, he finally makes the addition to his list, turns off his lamp, and goes to sleep; his mind finally calm.