It was Saturday at 12:30 pm on the dot, I could already feel my stomach turn. Just behind the cafe's glass doors was where satan's reincarnation resided, and I could already feel his gaze burning into my head from the table by the window.
I swallowed my pride and pushed the doors open, turned the corner, and met face to face with Shigeru Kenta. He wore a tan sweater and brown pants accompanied by a fancy watch and a pair of bifocals. A brown coat was neatly folded over the back of his chair and in his hand was a normal sized book that I assume was just bought from the bookstore across the street.
"Good afternoon, nii-chan." He said, closing the book and setting it on the table. I glared at him.
"Don't call me that, people are staring." I replied, awkwardly sitting down across from him. "I'm here, so what do you want?"
"I thought that was obvious? We're on a date." Kenta said, taking a sip of his steaming black coffee. I started getting annoyed.
"You never just take anyone out on a date without reason, so tell me, what do you want from me? Money? Pleasure? Or do you just regret ditching me after I rejected you and wanted to beg for my forgiveness?" I asked, crossing my arms and leaning back in my chair.
There was a long pause, the conversation in the background faded into silence. Kenta stared at the cup of coffee in front of him as if he saw something I couldn't underneath the surface.
"I... realized something over the past few years. I dated, fell in love, but despite all of that I still found myself more in love with you than anyone else in my life. And then in that moment of thought I found myself wondering, was it worth it? Should I have given you up to begin with or would it have been better to have stayed despite the heartbreak? I know now that leaving was the worst mistake of my existence, and that I'd rather just be a friend than a stranger." He said, his trembling grasp tightening around the cup.
I almost didn't want to believe what I was hearing, but seeing the tremble of his hands and the solemn look plastered across his face made me one-hundred percent sure that he was being serious. I knew that look, I had seen it long enough to know for sure that he was, unequivocally, guilty.
"You... are the most stupid person on the planet, you know that? I can't believe it took you all these years to realize that, of course you can't live without me. I was the one who stood up for you in secondary school, when you deleted all the contacts in your phone you left mine in there, if it weren't for me bringing you soup and medicine when you had that fever in high school you probably would've died alone in your room." I said, "I'm never going to forgive you for leaving, Kenta, but I might consider forgetting about it until you help get Hikaru's roommate back."
He looked up from his coffee and locked gazes with me. It was like a tiny piece of me cracked under the pressure of his expression, I could've sworn my heart stopped beating for a split second.
"Thank you, Kaito."
The silence in my head became filled with the loud thrumming if my heart, I could hear every small falter in its rhythm. What's wrong with me? I can't seriously be getting all soft and squishy for this jerk, can I?! No, this is just... embarrassment. Yeah, I'm embarrassed to have said that to him, that's it.
I felt a lump in my throat. I knew I was lying to myself, I've done it before time and time again over the past few years. But if turning a blind eye towards my feelings meant I had to lie to myself then so be it, I'm not going to fall for this son of a b*tch a second time.
"You okay? You have a very grim expression, what are you thinking about?" Kenta asked, bringing me back into reality.
"Yeah.... I'm fine."
___ ___ ___
I heard the door unlock and swing open, only to slam shut after Kaito had entered.
"I take it your date went downhill, huh?" I said, looking up at him from my seat on the couch.
"Quite the contrary, actually. It was... fun." He said, catching me off guard.
"If it was fun, then why do you look like a pissed off drowned rat?" I asked, glaring at him.
"I didn't want it to be fun." Kaito answered, hanging a drenched brown coat on the coat hanger by the door and slipping off his wet shoes.
His face was flushed, he had a falter in his step, and he stuck to short sentences to cover up his slurring. Kaito, was drunk as a skunk.
"Where'd you get that coat from?" I asked, watching Kaito toss his wallet and keys onto the kitchen counter.
"... nowhere." He said, and walked down the hallway to his room.
"Tch, what an awful liar." I muttered, and turned off the TV to head back into my room.
We both knew he got that coat from Kenta, no doubt about it.