The Side You Don't See (Yaoi Boyxboy)

24

We laid out our sleeping bags on the floor when we found a good spot. I'd nearly forgotten all about this field trip we were supposed to take in English. Kizumi had crumpled up his and tossed it in the trash a while back and I had lost mine, so we had to ask for a new one. We'd gotten them signed the night before the trip, even though the deadline was two weeks ago, but our English teacher was nice enough to allow us to go anyways. We were her top students, though, so it shouldn't have been surprising.

Technically this field trip was supposed to be informational and about writers in the past, but everyone was most excited about this place because of the pool. We'd spent the whole day going to museums dedicated to writers. It wasn't the most exciting field trip I'd ever taken but it was nice to escape the classroom and get out of other classes. Kizumi and I avoided the pool, though. Too many of the other students were there pretty much the whole night, and the hot tub area was restricted so we couldn't go there either.

Instead we just stayed in our room with a few other people who didn't feel like swimming. I'd brought cards and Kizumi was trying to teach me some weird game I couldn't even remember the name of. About twenty minutes into that and I was still completely lost. He sighed a little as I tossed my cards down in frustration.

"I'm just not getting it." I shrugged. He gathered all the cards into a pile and said,

"That's alright. We can play something simpler." He thought for a moment. "How about 'go fish'?" He suggested. I smiled, even though I was slightly insulted.

"Jeez, I'm not that bad. We could play rummy, or BS." I laughed at his ridiculous suggestion.

"BS isn't fun unless we've got more people." He said.

"We could play!" Karin and some of my other friends sat with us. They had returned from the pool and were still in their swimming clothes.

"It must be a sign." I smiled at him. Yuji also entered the room. He caught sight of us and walked over.

"What's going on?" He asked us.

"We're going to play BS. Do you want to join?" I asked.

"Sure." He smiled and sat down. The others followed lead and Kizumi shuffled the deck saying nothing. They watched as he dealt the cards relatively quickly. While he did, Yuji said, "You guys better watch out. Kizumi plays cards better than a computer probably could."

"Seriously?" Karin asked.

"Well, BS is kind of a chance game...almost...so it won't matter much." Isaac said it looking a little worried about losing. Kizumi almost smiled at them as they chatted about how they could beat him. When the cards were dealt we decided who was going to start and the game began.

I had never been very good at these types of games. I was terrible at keeping a poker face, but at least I wasn't alone. It seemed like pretty much everyone was except for Kizumi and Yuji. In a way, the battle was mostly between them and we just happened to be there causing inconvenience by possibly having cards they needed. That was okay with me. I may have imagined it, but I couldn't really sense much tension between them as they played.

One by one each of us collected cards until Kizumi was down to a single card. As his turn came he tossed it down and said, "King of hearts."

"Hmm..." Yuji narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously. He didn't know if he should call BS on him. A long moment passed as they stared at each other. Finally, Yuji sighed. "I'm not calling BS." A smirk flashed across Kizumi's face as he flipped up the card to reveal exactly what he'd said. King of hearts was indeed the card he had laid down. Yuji shook his head with a smile on his face.

"Looks like you won." He said and set his cards down. They kept solid eye contact for a second longer and Kizumi eventually said, 

"Looks like I did." More confidently than I expected. I felt that there was a little more to those lines than it seemed, but the others would never know. With that, the game ended.

"Ahh, I didn't realize how hard this game really was until I played it with poker face masters." Isaac yawned.

"You guys would be geniuses at games like poker." Karin laughed. The other agreed and then stood up.

"Alright. I'm off to bed." Emily yawned next and walked off. The rest agreed and everyone dispersed to their own sleeping bags. Kizumi packed up the cards and was putting them back in his bag as Yuji spoke to me.

"Long game. I'm tired." He sighed.

"Same. I can't wait to get to sleep." I agreed.

"I'm excited for tomorrow though. I'm ready to go home. I've seen enough writer's museums to last me a lifetime." He laughed, and I chuckled with him. "Do you want to sit with me on the ride home?" He asked me.

"No." Kizumi suddenly spoke for me, barging in on our conversation.

"Oh come on, you got to sit with him on the way here." He argued.

"I said no." Kizumi was serious. A glare flickered across his face and Yuji simply sighed, throwing his hands up.

"Fine, fine. I'll sit with Isaac again." He backed off quickly not wanting to push Kizumi any further. It had been a week or so since they'd finally come to an agreement, but Kizumi was still always on guard. I appreciated that Yuji respected that, and I understood why Kizumi was still worried. He would need to allow Yuji to build his trust eventually though. For now I didn't say anything. I was too tired to say anything anyways. 

There were too many people in the room for Kizumi to kiss me goodnight, so we ended with a simple 'see you in the morning', and I crawled into my sleeping bag. After getting comfortable, I closed my eyes. It didn't take long for my tiredness to overcome me and soon I was peacefully drifting off into sleep.