Ikebukuro. A city that has been overrun by violent gangs recently. When Mikado first got here, Kida had to pick him up from the train station and showed him around the place. It had only been a few months since he has gotten here though. Not only was he able to meet up with his childhood friend, but he also made another one in the process. Anri Sonohara. Sonohara-san is what Mikado calls her. Together, they were close friends before anyone knew it.
"Yo!" a voice shouted, waving a hand in front of Mikado's face.
Mikado had gotten out of a daydream he was previously in. He was sitting on a bench in the park that was close by to the school, waiting for Kida to come over. He smiled at his dirty blonde friend.
"Ohaiyo Kida-san!" Mikado greeted him.
"Ohaiyo!" Kida greeted back, placing an arm around Mikado's neck. "So, what should we do today? Go to the arcade? Get some pizza? Pick up girls?"
"Can you not pick up girls for one day, Kida? I'm not going to stand on the sidelines and watch you flirt with a group of girls that probably don't even want you…"
Kida gasped and grabbed at his chest in pure distraught. He fell to his knees and looked at Mikado with playful sympathetic eyes. His other hand was reaching towards the sky and pointed directly at Mikado after a few seconds.
"What are you talking about Mikado! Of course the ladies want me!" Kida exclaimed, getting up and hugging himself. "They just love playing hard to get, you know. They know they want a piece of Kida Masaomi when they first see me! I mean, look at me!"
Mikado just laughed silently at his narcissistic friend and pulled onto his sleeve. Kida looked at Mikado with a smirk and lightly tackled his best friend on the verdant green grass. They both laughed at the seemingly harmless wrestling that they both got engrossed in. Suddenly, a group of girls walked into the park and, of course, Kida had to stop wrestling Mikado to get a good look at them.
"Hello ladies…" Kida breathed as he sat up, eyeing them inappropriately. "Tank tops and short skirts. Just the way I like them."
"Honestly…" Mikado sat up and sighed. "If you're going to go a flirt with them, I suggest that now would be the right time while we actually have some time left."
"Really!"
"Yeah, really. I'll let you pick up girls for a short amount of time so hurry up and get going."
"Thanks Mikado! Don't worry, they'll fall for me right when they see me and I'll give you one of them for being an awesome friend."
Mikado just smiled as he watched his best friend go over to the group of girls and fail horribly at trying to get their numbers. Mikado just got up from the grass and looked at his wristwatch for the time. A total of ten minutes elapsed and Kida was already trudging towards Mikado with an "I-failed-again" expression on his face.
"So, how did it go?" Mikado asked him, obviously knowing the answer already.
"Well, uh…" Kida hesitated and scratched the back of his head. "Like I told you before. They're only playing hard to get!"
"Suuuuuuure…"
Kida just smiled goofily as always and walked ahead of Mikado as they both decided to go somewhere where they can hang out. Mikado had already established that the park wasn't an option since lots of girls are going to be inside of it and Kida won't even pay attention to him but flirt with the girls all day. Kida had stopped in front of the arcade and turned around to face Mikado.
"Then it's settled!" He started; pointing at Mikado with closed determined eyes. "We shall hang out in the arcade until we are bored or out of gaming money to spend!"
"Something tells me that you're going to spend off all your money" Mikado stated quietly to himself.
They both entered the arcade together and went over to the fighting games. Kida sat on one end and Mikado sat on the other. As they played for a total of thirty slow minutes, the same group of girls that were from the park came in afterwards. Kida had taken his attention off the game to look at them again, giving Mikado an unusual victory. This made Mikado raise an eyebrow in suspicion.
"Mikado! Time for round two!" Kida whispered silently to the confused Mikado. "Look at the door!"
"Huh?" Mikado said, looking over at the door.
Mikado saw the same group of girls from the park and sighed again. So that was what Kida meant when he said round two… He looked over at him with a serious expression and Kida just gave him a puppy dog look. Mikado didn't know why but when Kida did that, it sent nice chills down his spine. Kida's seemingly sparkling chocolate brown eyes with a cute puppy dog pout made it impossible for Mikado to say no to him.
"Please Mikado-kun? I promise to come right back towards you after stealing their poor innocent hearts" He told him, pouting a bit more.
A slight pink crossed Mikado's face but he instantly hid it staring in front of the screen where he won the fight. Kida was confused so he got up from his side to get a clear look at Mikado for a straight answer. When Mikado saw him, he turned his head since his face was still red. Kida placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey Mikado, are you alright?" Kida asked him worriedly.
"Y-Yeah! You got ten minutes to talk to them and hurry back here!" Mikado told him quickly, still looking the other way.
"Really! You're the best Mikado-kun! This time, I'll definitely get their phone numbers!"
Kida ran over to the group of girls again and Mikado just watched out of boredom. He can already tell that the girls were not really interested in him. Mostly it was because they seemed a bit older than him. Mikado's eyes averted to the door where he saw Anri enter. His eyes widened with a smile forming on his face as he waved to his other friend. Anri saw him and smiled, going over to Mikado.
"Ohaiyo Sonohara-san!" Mikado greeted her, getting up from the game.
"Ohaiyo!" Anri greeted back, smiling a little. "Uh… Are you here alone?"
"No. In fact, the person I'm with is flirting with a bunch of girls over there."
Mikado pointed to the other side of the arcade and Anri looked over. Just as she thought herself, Kida is the only one she knew who could be the biggest flirt out of all the guys that have flirted with her before. She averted her eyes back to Mikado.
"So what are you doing here, Sonohara-san?" Mikado asked her, smiling a bit.
"I was shopping but decided to come by here since I have nothing else to do" She replied, holding up her bag of groceries. "Hanging out by yourself?"
"I'm forced to right now. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother hanging out with him. He always blow me off when it comes to girls…"
"That's something quite entertaining to watch every now and then though. How he fails to pick them up and all."
Both Anri and Mikado laughed silently to themselves. Kida, who failed at getting the girls' numbers again, looked towards the direction where Mikado should be. He saw Anri and Mikado laughing together and smiled a little. He stopped though and clutched his chest, where his heart is. Mikado's laughing sort of calmed him down a little, but when he's laughing with Anri, his heart begins to heart a little. He doesn't know why though, since he had always been with Mikado and this is only happening right now. Kida just sighed as he ran over to them with a huge smile and an arm already around Anri's neck.
"Ohaiyo! What are you two laughing about?" Kida asked, interested.
"Ohaiyo Kida-kun" Anri greeted him.
"We were only seeing how long it will take you until those girls reject you again" Mikado told him.
"Huh! You guys have no faith in me at all!"
Kida clutched at his chest again playfully and pretended to be shot in the heart by an arrow. Mikado and Anri laughed at him again, making Kida smile as well, knowing that he had successfully made them smile. However, this has also made him clutch his chest more.
What's happening to me? Kida thought, chuckling a bit, looking at Mikado's brilliant smile. This has never happened to me before…
Anri gazed at both Kida and Mikado, knowing how happy and comfortable they seem together. This made her a bit suspicious of the two. Hopefully, she would find out what's actually going on.
As the slow day drew to a conclusion, Kida, Mikado, and Anri were walking home from hanging out together at the arcade. Mikado had sighed because Kida kept running to wherever there's a group of girls, or some that were actually alone, and kept flirting with them. In fact, the same girls from the park and the arcade kept showing up near them. Kida seemed a bit satisfied since he was able to get at least one of their numbers.
"I told you Mikado!" He smiled goofily, holding a strip of paper in his hand. "The chicks love playing hard to get! They always want a piece of me~!"
"Whatever you say Kida-san…" Mikado sighed, a bit agitated from Kida's gloating.
Kida had stopped and looked at him, only to smile again. He turned back around and looked at his surroundings. He was a block from his house already. Talk about a short trip…
"Well then! I shall be getting home now. My house is only a block from here so this is where I take my leave" Kida told both Anri and Mikado as he waved. "Right now, I got a chick to call. Mata ashita de gakuen!"
"Mata ashita de gakuen!" Mikado and Anri told him, waving a little in unison.
Kida walked away, his heartbeat slowing down as if being away from Mikado would kill him. He couldn't stop walking though, so the more steps he took, the slower his heartbeat gotten, and the more pain he feels walking alone. By the time he could reach home, he should be dead inside. Mikado and Anri walked side-by-side silently through the quiet neighborhood and Anri stole secret glances at Mikado. His expression was blank but spaced out. This would be the right time to bring up a conversation.
"Mikado-kun…" Anri started, trying to get his attention.
"H-Hai?" Mikado asked startled, looking over at Anri.
"What do you think of Masaomi-kun…?"
The fact that Kida popped into the conversation made Mikado's face turn as red as a tomato. He tried to hide the blush but sort of failed since Anri had already seen it. She just gave him a small smile.
I knew it, Anri thought.
Mikado just gave up in trying to hide the blush and stopped walking. Anri stopped along with him and he looked at her, confusion taking over his tomato red face.
"Kida… Kida is a very good childhood friend of mine. We've been through lots of things together and done lots of things" Mikado told her, trying to keep the list going. "And…and…"
Anri sighed at Mikado's stubbornness and grabbed both of his shoulders so she could make him look her in the eyes. Mikado, who was confused at this point, was forced to look into her eyes.
"Is that all you think of him as? Just a friend?" Anri asked, holding onto his shoulders tighter.
"Well…uh… He's my best friend" Mikado told her, only to be shaken.
"That's not what I meant" Anri told him in a low voice. "Just a best friend? Or more…?"
Mikado's eyes widened as Anri asked him that. What does he think of Kida? That question came out of nowhere. However, it sort of made his heart race a little. He sighed as his tomato red face just got redder, steam coming out of his ears. He couldn't even look Anri in the eyes anymore.
"I… I don't know. The feeling is confusing and…and plus he's into girls" Mikado pointed out, keeping his head low. "He would always blow me off just to…just to flirt with them…"
"And do you like it when he flirts with the other girls?" Anri asked, finally making progress.
"N-Not really…"
Anri's frown turned into a smile as she got her hands off of Mikado's shoulders. She made him look at her again by placing a finger under his chin and tilting it up just enough for her to see his eyes.
"Mikado?" Anri asked, trying to get him out of his trance again.
"H-Hai?" He asked, looking into her eyes again.
"I got a plan…"
It was a beautiful day in Ikebukuro. The sun was shining, the birds are singing, the sakura blossoms were falling from the sakura trees, and Shizuo was already beating the crap out of a client for Tom-san since that person wasn't paying their taxes. It was time for lunch in Mikado's high school and as always, he goes up to the roof to eat. He sat at the far right corner of the roof and looked down on all the people. Nobody else was on the roof right now except for him. He didn't even have lunch on him since he wasn't even hungry. All that he hoped for was that Anri's plan was going to work.
"Mikado!" a voice from afar called out.
Mikado turned his head around to see Kida, waving his arm and running towards him. He had a bag in his hand that looked like one of the bags that Anri had when she was shopping yesterday.
"Hey Kida" Mikado greeted him, giving him a convincing smile.
"Yo! Uh… Where's Anri? She gave me this bag and said we should eat together" Kida exclaimed, holding up the bag. "The weird thing is that there's only two bento boxes."
"Oh yeah, you're right. Should we wait for her?"
"Nah… She also told me that we have to eat without her if she's late. Too bad… I was hoping for a delicious lunch with a hot lady~!"
Mikado just sighed in agitation as they both got the bento boxes out and opened them. They both contained rice, four pieces of sushi, six pieces of sukiyaki, and two onigiris with the side of wasabi. Kida had sparkles in his eyes when he tasted one of the sukiyaki.
"Ah~ The lunch of a goddess! Anri really outdid herself!" He shouted, stretching his arms.
"Yeah!" Mikado smiled, making Kida's heartbeat speed up a little.
Weird… He thought, clutching at his chest. It's happening again…
Kida took a quick glance at Mikado's face while he sat there, clutching onto his chest as if he could get a heart attack at any moment. He then noticed how cute Mikado looked when he smiles, his eyes glistening along with it to create the perfect package. An absolute chick magnet. If only he could pick up chicks… He just smiled lightly at his childhood friend and looked down at all the people. Kida had liked Mikado as well but there were two problems. One, they were both boys and that would seem a bit weird. Especially since he doesn't know if Mikado was like that in the first place. Two, Mikado likes Anri and he can see it too clearly. So of course, what's the best way to keep him from rejection? Flirt with as much girls as he can and forget about even confessing in the first place. He could already tell that nothing was going to be anything more but both of them being best friends. Kida stopped clutching at his heart, even though he knew it was still hurting, and continued to eat. Mikado had already finished and looked over at Kida. Something popped in his mind that he totally forgot.
"Oh, I forgot. What happened to that girl?" He asked Kida, pretending to be interested.
"What girl? I flirt with many! Be specific my dear Mikado-kun!" Kida teased, smiling goofily.
"You know what I mean. The one that gave you her number…"
"Oh…her…"
Kida got a bit silent and placed his chopsticks down on the bento. He was supposed to call her but ended up not doing so. Mostly because he acted depressed during his short journey home alone. He didn't even eat anything that night. Mikado just continued to look over at the dirty blonde that was his friend and waited patiently. However, he had a feeling that he knew the answer to that and feared for it. Kida just sighed and looked down at his bento.
"I didn't call her after all…" Kida finally said, smiling a little.
Okay, that was not the answer that Mikado was looking for. His eyebrow rose as he gazed at Kida for a quick few seconds. However, he seemed relieved since Kida didn't even bother to call that girl. The only question was why…
"B-But why didn't you?" Mikado asked, leaning forward.
"I don't know" Kida told him, playing with the sukiyaki. "I was too busy thinking about someone else other than girls…"
"Well that's a first…"
Mikado chuckled silently to himself but then remembered Kida's last sentence. He was too busy thinking about someone else other than girls? Wait, so this person was a guy?
"What about you? Ever told Anri about how you felt?" Kida asked in a low tone.
"How I felt? What are you…?" Mikado trailed off and began to understand. "Matte! No! I don't like Sonohara-san like that! She's just a friend!"
"Don't just say that and expect not to be asked again Mikado. Do you like Anri more than a friend?"
Mikado held his head down and Kida just smirked. The smirk vanished when Mikado close to Kida's face, leaving them only five inches apart. He held a serious look.
"I don't like Sonohara-san! I like someone else!" Mikado told him, easing away from him a little.
"Oh really? Spill the beans! Is she in this school? On your block? Do I know her? What does she look like?" Kida asked, getting closer to his face.
Mikado's face flushed pinkly as he leaned in and stole a kiss from Kida's lips. Kida's eyes widened as Mikado kissed him and pulled away slowly. Seeing his mistake, Mikado looked away from him.
"Gomen…" He said silently.
Mikado was ready to get up and leave since he was embarrassed but Kida just got closer to his face. This made Mikado a little bit confused. Kida cupped his chin and brought it up just enough to make Mikado look into his eyes.
"You like me?" Kida asked him, smiling his goofy smile. "And give me a straightforward answer."
"…" Mikado was embarrassed enough but couldn't stay silent. "Yes…"
"…Arigato Mikado-kun…"
Mikado looked at Kida weirdly and Kida leaned closer to his face. Mikado closed his eyes as a pair of soft lips planted themselves on top of his own. Kida had closed his and wrapped his free arm around Mikado's waist. They both pulled away, looking at each other in the eyes.
"I didn't know you went this way" Kida laughed silently.
"I should say the same to you" Mikado teased, sticking out his tongue.
"Oh Mikado-kun! You're going to have to pay for sticking out that pink tongue of yours!"
Mikado just kept his tongue out and Kida licked it, making Mikado flush a dark pink. Kida just laughed at him and Mikado pouted. This made Kida kiss him again, getting a kiss back in return by Mikado. On the inside looking out, Anri was on the other side of the door, giggling quietly to herself for a job well done. She didn't want to interrupt them so she just hurried on back to the classroom to spend the rest of her lunch.