Author's Notes: Some segments refer to chapters 173 to 175 of the manga. Sorry if some parts are a bit confusing.
Conventional Wisdom
So many things remain unspoken between them.
Everyone always told Oga how smart Furuichi was. So he didn't need to have things spelled out for him, right?
And Furuichi had always assumed that Oga had no need for any sort of sentimentality. This was a person who communicated with his fists. He would just have to learn how to speak his language.
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"Just once I want to beat you."
"You're going to die if you continue using those tissues."
"I know."
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Furuichi couldn't believe how inflated his opinion of himself was. It was partly Oga's fault though. Through omission, Oga helped him delude himself that it was his right to stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
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Oga can't exactly remember the first time Furuichi got kidnapped. If he had to guess, he would have said somewhere between sixth grade and their first year in middle school. The specifics (the why, the how, and the who) are lost to him. What he remembered—and what stayed with him up to this day—was the cut on Furuichi's lip and the finger-shaped bruises that decorated his neck like a noose.
He deliberately does not remember Furuichi's puffy, red eyes and tear-stained cheeks.
He was so furious he couldn't form the words. His fingers trembled when he loosened the ropes from his pale limbs.
So many things remain unspoken between them.
Oga didn't say "I'm sorry," or promise "It won't happen again," and he didn't ask, "Are you okay?" Likewise, Furuichi didn't say "Thanks," or confess, "I thought you wouldn't come," and he didn't admit, "It's all my fault."
Instead, Oga dragged Furuichi to the nearest convenience store and handed him a grape-flavored popsicle. He hated that particular flavor, but he finished it in four bites. He blamed the tears that he rubbed away from his cheeks on brain freeze.
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Furuichi doesn't really keep track of the names and insults hurled at him through the years. They were all similarly immature and untrue.
Well that was what he liked to believe.
In reality, he can remember every single one of them. It shouldn't hurt so much but there was a certain sharpness to the names and insults that hurt more acutely than a punch or a kick.
Yeah, he should know better, but he doesn't.
Power flowed through his veins. His vision goes white for a moment and it's as if the ground beneath his feet has disappeared. His insides felt like it was being mangled. The pain alone would've been enough to render him immobile but it doesn't register. He knows this is really, really idiotic but he is past caring. This is the only way. Clumsy things like words were lost on Oga. In the end, it's undeniable that a knee to the stomach left more of an impact.
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"We're fighting," Furuichi declared with his arms crossed across his chest.
"Yes," agreed Oga, "this is a fight."
They glared at each for a few moments. Furuichi hated to be the one to break first, but this was supremely idiotic. So he asked the question that's been nagging him since yesterday. "Why are avoiding me?" Oga had ignored him the whole day and then he broke a promise to come over his house and play video games.
Oga scoffed at him. "You idiot, it's obvious," he declared with the air of someone who knew the secrets of the world.
And well, that was the last straw. It really galled Furuichi that Oga had the nerve to imply that he was dumber than him when he was obviously the one who was an idiot. He shouted something appropriately ridiculous as a battle cry and jumped at Oga intending to beat the shit out of him.
Things did not work as planned. He was sidestepped and he ended up scraping his knees.
Oga made no move to help him up. He simply stood silently, watching Furuichi.
His throat ached and he tried to ignore the tears forming behind his eyes.
"Yeah, I guess it is obvious. Well, I'm so sorry for being such a burden! If you wanted me to leave just say so from the beginning!"
Fuck Oga. Fuck him and his silence. Fuck him and his ability to make him say the very things he wanted to remain unspoken. Furuichi shakily got up on his feet. He fully intended to stomp out in a fit of rage and make a (slightly) dignified exit, but a hand around his forearm stopped him.
"You're really an idiot."
He felt the nerve beneath his right eye twitch. Furuichi made a sound of frustration. "Let go! I'm leaving. That's what you want right?"
"No." Oga didn't let go. What really annoyed him though was the implied "idiot" at the end of his sentence.
He tried to pry Oga's fingers to no avail. After a few moments of fruitless struggle, he eventually gave up and stared moodily at a spot on the wall.
Oga doesn't relax the grip on his forearm. He gets dragged to a convenience store and is force fed a red bean bun.
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In hindsight, Oga should have figured just how abnormal Furuichi was from the very beginning.
He grinned widely the day he first met his sister and the Red Tails. "I like it. There are a lot of pretty ladies," he explained, as if things were really that simple.
He instigated a fight and got beaten up. And he kept standing up despite the blood and the bruises.
Furuichi was nothing like him. He didn't enjoy the rush that came with bone and flesh breaking underneath his fists nor did he understand the utter satisfaction that came over him at having his strength reaffirmed. He stubbornly followed him and stayed anyway.
When asked, the only reason he gave was "It's fun." Oga knows why it's fun for him. He doesn't understand how Furuichi can find it fun, but he does anyway.
He eventually learns to stop asking why.
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"You're damn strong already."
Furuichi was soaked to the bone and every part of him ached.
He met Oga's gazed and thought, 'So this is what vindication feels like.'
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So many things remain unspoken between them.
Oga prodded at Furuichi's prone form with a foot and concluded that he was so much dumber than he looked. He should've known right from the start really. He was the only one stupid enough to stick with him after all.
Furuichi stared dazedly at the sky and twirled the grass between his fingers. He admitted that a little sentimentality once in a while might not be amiss.