My Roommate Oga Tatsumi

Chapter 2

The entrance ceremony loomed closer with only a few more days to prepare. Furuichi was excited at the prospect of finally sitting next to all the pretty girls in hours long lecture halls. He'd have to choose his classes based on the probability of having a class ratio with more women than men. Pulling out a carefully protected poster of Miwako Kakei in a beautiful white bikini, Furuichi went straight to the difficult task of placing it on the ceiling right above his bed. Struggling with the curling card stock, Furuichi thought back on his brute of a roommate.

As it turned out, his name was Tatsumi Oga. The ramen restaurant was actually owned by his older sister, Misaki. "Three rats tried to skip on paying. I just so happened to give them a gentle reminder of how to be respectable Japanese men." Oga's usual impish grin broadened as Furuichi felt his face contort into a look of mild disbelief. His roommate wasn't an entirely bad guy, but as Furuichi noticed the third night Oga came back to the apartment cackling with sheer delight, Oga still went out to pick fights just because he could.

Finally opening his door for breakfast, the silvernette squawked at the sight of Oga sprawled atop his bedsheets, nude. Furuichi ran to the other side of the hall to slam the door shut, only to hear Oga's snoring sputter then continue after a few seconds. Furuichi grumbled about losing his appetite and ate cereal instead of the delicious omelet he originally planned.

It irritated Furuichi that the memory of strong muscles and a well- endowed member didn't leave him to eat in peace. Turning on the television to some crap variety show seemed just the trick since there was a cute upcoming girl group being interviewed. Engrossed in the delicate and coy movements of the fairer sex, Furuichi failed to notice the rustling coming from the other room. "Oi! Turn that off! I'm trying to sleep!" Furuichi choked on his cereal when Oga entered the room and still hadn't worn a stitch.

"Have you no shame? Put some clothes on!" Furuichi threw a decorative couch pillow at Oga hoping the brute would use it to cover himself. Unfortunately, it bounced off his chest while Oga placed his pinky in his ear at the sound of the nagging silvernette. "The weather is too nice to wear clothes to sleep. What'cha watchin'?" Oga made to sit next to Furuichi and the smaller man began to panic. "No way in hell are you sitting on the couch like that! Get some clothes on now! At least boxers for heaven's sake!"

"Tch. Fine, fine. I'll just go back to bed." Oga yawned, stretched his arms over head and went back to his room. Just my luck, Furuichi thought bitterly, I have to forget the look of his ass too. Furuichi raised the volume up higher.

...

The opening ceremony came and went, and Furuichi was in totally high spirits. His class plan worked! All of his first semester classes were filled to the brim with cute girls and a few of them actually talked to him already. Unfortunately for the silvernette, he wasn't so much as able to get a phone number than several slaps to the face using his usual suave tactics. How could he be so stupid? These were college women. Furuichi's outdated tactics were for high school girls. "Looks like I'll need to find some new material," He thought as he went home for a change of clothes.

Furuichi didn't even try opening the fridge for dinner. The little food that was in there, the brute already ate. He'd have to go grocery shopping on Friday, since he was pretty busy with classes the rest of the week. It was only Wednesday after all, Furuichi could last until Friday. Leaving the apartment, Furuichi heard snapping, cries of agony and chaotic laughter. Furuichi sighed. Oga appeared to be heading home too. "Oi Furuichi!" The brute emerged from the shadows with his usual swagger of a walk. Furuichi fought the blush on his cheeks from irritation with Oga rather than attraction. "I'm hungry. Let's go eat."

Oga threw a friendly arm around Furuichi's shoulders as they walked toward the college town. "Shouldn't you go get your wallet?" Furuichi asked heatedly while shoving off Oga's weighty arm. "Why? We're going to get ramen." With Oga taking the lead to the ramen restaurant, Furuichi was happy he didn't have to pay for food tonight. Until he had to pay for both meals. "It's your fault I don't get customers anymore, Tatsumi! Do you know how hard it is to make money in this sink hole? And just because you bring your first and only friend along doesn't mean I'm going to hand out freebies!" Misaki berated the two freshmen and Furuichi wanted nothing more than to punch Oga's stupid face. The silvernette did have to admit that the ramen really was worth paying for though.

"So what do you want to do now?"

"Nothing that means I'm going to have to pay for you again."

Leaving the establishment, a group of hot, yet mean looking women past them. Furuichi just about drooled a river to the group's disgust. Furuichi prepared himself to make his move because statistically speaking at least one of the women would give him their number, right? Oga ripped him away babbling on about being tired and that they were way out of Furuichi's league anyway. "You could've gone home by yourself to leave me with the girls!"

"By the way your dumb face looks, you can't take any more slaps today."

While the left side of Furuichi's face still did sting, it was nowhere near the sting to his pride.

...

Their days were steady. Oga would get into fights instead of class. Furuichi would get slapped and called names instead of getting dates. Both men would come home in a foul mood made worse over how messy the apartment was getting but refused to clean up after each other. The routine lasted about five weeks until Furuichi popped. "Oi, creepichi can you get me the remote?" The remote sat on the coffee table by Oga's propped up feet. "Don't call me that. And get it yourself. It's reaching distance."

Furuichi had a deep hatred for that nickname. He heard the girls whispering it when he came into class the fourth day the semester started. Now they were getting bolder and had begun to say it to his face. It hurt. All he wanted was to be accepted by the women he pursued. It didn't help that Oga had tons of admirers that left love notes crammed into their shared mailbox. Furuichi wanted that too. Why was that so hard?

"C'mon creepichi, you're standing up already."

"Don't call me that!"

Oga either oblivious or purposely grating on Furuichi's nerves rolled his eyes, stood up to stretch and replied, "Whatever creepichi..."

Furuichi lunged at Oga's back making both men crash into the coffee table. In the silvernette's head, the fight went a lot differently than how it actually went. Furuichi would've been bashing Oga's face in until he apologized. Instead, Oga pinned Furuichi to the ground all too easily before giving Furuichi a good hit to the face.

Though his jaw ached terribly, Furuichi bucked and bristled like a cornered animal. Furuichi struggled despite the sinking feeling in his chest that he knew he wasn't going to win. Furuichi never won in a physical fight. Struggling a few moments more, the silvernette belatedly realized that Oga went strangely quiet. They locked in a stare and the fire glittering in Furuichi's eyes struck Oga hard somewhere in his primal brain. "What? If you're not going to hit me, then get off!" Oga surprisingly listened to Furuichi's words. "What?" Furuichi demanded trying to cover himself with a pillow. Oga just kept staring at him.

"Nothin'. I'm going to bed."

Furuichi released a shiver when Oga left the room, glad to be relieved from the hypnotizing stare of the good-looking brute.