Rumors
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Disclaimer: I do not own Ookiku Furikabutte.

Mihashi didn't know when the rumor had actually started but he knew that he had first heard it in an empty hallway in winter. Voices had bounced down the walls and he had caught the whispering of girls he didn't recognize.

He didn't think it was true, of course. It couldn't be.

Abe wasn't like that.

It had been three days since he had heard the floating rumor, and most likely the rest of the school had known weeks before him. The loop had always been eluding.

His face burned at the thought of seeing Abe. The rumor couldn't be true because Abe was not like that. He had seen the two together, there was no way that it was possible.

People who… and he gulped as he thought this. People who liked each other would not fight, would not dislike the other. There had been no kindness, no gentleness.

Mihashi knew love wasn't supposed to be hateful. His parents were always kind to each other, they never yelled or said, 'You're the worst.'

He knew that he would not be able to act normal around Abe. That he would end up stuttering more than he already did. He would blush and think weird thoughts. It was just all too strange. He could not believe Abe was with a… guy.

He had known Abe for almost a whole year and he had never once shown interest in anyone. He had always been the one to reprimand the others for flirting. Mihashi of course had never once tried to chat up any girl classmate—it was much too frightening—he had thankfully avoided Abe's glare.

To think that in his junior years Abe had been with someone was as strange as Mihashi himself dating. Abe touching, kissing, and even…

The thought made him flustered and hot. Even when the snow was pouring from the sky Mihashi felt like he was sitting in an onsen. He yearned to sit in a pile of snow and cool off; he just couldn't face Abe. It had been fine over the weekend Mihashi could hide in his room and avoid his teammates. He could ignore the text messages from Abe and the others.

He tried to ignore the pictures that trampled into his thoughts.

"Yo, Mihashi."

But now it was Monday and he was trudging in the cold morning to school and all he could think of was Abe with a certain ex-teammate and how the whole thing was just an itch in the backside of his head.

He scratched and he scratched but he just couldn't get rid of the feeling.

He wanted to ask that voice if it was true; if he was really like that.

Mihashi looked up from the wet, glassy road and saw Abe. He saw the person who had helped him be a pitcher, to not cry over a lost game. The person who believed that he was number one.

When Mihashi looked up he saw his catcher and his friend and the itching suddenly stopped.

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