"So I heard you had a crush on me."
The secret was out. Yuma stared at his feet, it was all over now. Nothing was going to be the same between them. How'd he even find out? Did Judai and Yugi tell him? Did he overhear him? Was it too obvious?
Yusei sighed. Poor kid, he's had one too many bad runs in love. And now he fell for him, Yusei Fudo. Yusei found out through Yugi while Yuma was out with Judai buying groceries. Yugi and Judai found out when Yuma came into the lounge room one night and ask to speak with them quietly and privately. At first they were shocked and slightly worried because they didn't want Yuma getting his heartbroken but then they heard more about Yuma's feelings towards him, they didn't have the guts to tell him. After six or so months Yugi had to go against Yuma's promise and tell Yusei about this, it was for his own good.
And now Yusei found himself confronting the kid in his garage. He, himself, had turned down people before and he has had his experiences of being turned down. It was a horrible feeling he knew first hand, so he had always been gentle letting people down. Yusei knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder and looked at Yuma who eyes were still concentrated on his feet.
Yusei was just about to talk until Yuma cut in, "I really love you Yusei. I really believe its real love. Every time I see you, I can't help but smile. My heartbeats faster and every moment I spend with you alone, I cherish. You're like the big brother I wish I had and always wanted." Yuma had barely lifted his head through the confession.
Yusei heard the confession. His confession just made things harder than it already was; Yusei needed Yuma to know that things weren't possible between them. Telling him straight out to his face would make things worse and leave Yuma crying for days .Then Yusei thought if Yuma got a chance to realise why it wasn't possible, but that would be cruel for him to find out like that. Then he came to a conclusion and asked, "If I was your boyfriend what would you do with me?"
"I'd-I'd-I'd," Yuma hadn't gotten that far in thinking what would happen between him and Yusei. Then he started thought for a moment of all the things they could do together, they go many places on his motorcycle, go out for picnics, snuggle up together on the couch and watch a movie. It sounded like things could work out; they could be a happy couple. He thought this was a sign that Yusei had accepted his feelings and that maybe he was hinting that he wanted them to be a couple.
Yusei hoped the message had sunk but he was soon proven wrong when Yuma had caught him off guard and kissed him. Yusei had to end this, he pushed Yuma off him. Yuma stumble back, confused, he didn't understand. Yusei had no time to show sympathy although he could already see the tears of confusion leaking out of Yuma's face.
"You don't get it do you? It's just not possible for there to ever be an 'us'," Yusei said bluntly.
"B-but I-I thought that...," Yuma just didn't understand. How could Yusei be so cruel as to lead him on like that?! Everything had cracked inside him. Why? Why? "Life just isn't fair!" Yuma cried, then he stormed upstairs, slamming the door behind before Yusei could barely say another word.
Yuma ran into his room and locked the behind him. He flopped on his bed and started crying, Yuma grasp the key in his hand and Astral appeared. He sat the end of Yuma's bed and watched him cry, as much as Astral wanted to ask what was wrong. But he learnt from experience that doing that just makes things worse, and in most cases makes the person cry even more. Astral always felt useless when Yuma cried, he always wanted to give the boy a hug and rub his back or strokes his hair to soothe him to sleep. But he couldn't, because his hand would go straight through him and all Yuma would feel is a cold tingling sensation which really didn't help all that much.
Meanwhile Yusei was sitting in the lounge room with Judai and Yugi giving him stern looks. Yusei felt two emotions guilt and achievement, but it felt more like guilt than achievement. Yusei actually wonder if it was an achievement of stopping Yuma before things got too far or if it was an achievement for being a huge douche bag to the kid. He believed he achieved the latter.
Yugi was the first to speak up, "You didn't have to be so cruel to the kid." Yusei sighed; it seemed they weren't the only ones who didn't understand how tough it was to be on the receiving end of the line. But then he did have a point, that's was the reason why he didn't find out until 6 months later, even though Yusei had kind of caught on to Yuma's reactions around him had changed slowly but surely.
"You would have most likely done the same thing if you were in my position," Yusei retaliated.
"No I wouldn't. I would've sat the kid down and explain that things aren't possible and that he should take his time to sob it out and move on in life. But what do you do? You let the kid believe that there is a slight slither of hope, you let him kiss you and then you rip his heart in two!" Judai shouted. He was pretty upset with what Yusei had done with the kid, even though you had to be cruel to be kind, this just wasn't kind at all.
"He's got a point Yusei; I think you should fix things up between the two of you," suggested Yugi. Yusei suddenly felt incredibly regretful about what he did, if only he'd done things differently, and then maybe Yuma wouldn't be as distraught. Judai and Yugi looked at Yusei with his head in his hands, and then their eyes followed him as he got up and walked out of the lounge room and down the hallway to Yuma's room. They had a feeling that getting through to Yuma wasn't going to be easy especially since the whole ordeal had only taken place 2 or so hours ago.
Yusei knocked on Yuma's door, there was no response. Yusei knocked again, still no response. He checked the door knob, it was unlocked. Yusei was thinking that Yuma probably unlocked it because he was sleeping, either that or because he wasn't ready to come out of his room and didn't want to respond but just in case something bad happened. Yusei slowly opened the door just wide enough to see what Yuma was doing. Turns out the kid was sleeping like a rock, snoring and everything. The crying must have warned him out. Yusei figured that it was a little too soon to deal with the issue and would let the kid sleep in peace. Although the down side was that he'd have to deal with the awkwardness in the morning.
