I have nothing to do with the ownership or creation of the Uta no Prince-sama anime, game or manga. Credit for characters and story goes to each creator/artist/company respectively (love their work). I also do not have any connection to ownership or design of Instagram. Cover image is a render done by Rikku923 on deviantart; image originally from


It was the day before the school term officially started at Saotome Academy, a refined and renowned school of the arts that educated aspiring artists of the music world. Earlier that day had been the opening ceremony and homeroom introduction, and the rest of the day was set aside for new and returning students to settle-in to their dormitories. He'd had an unpleasant encounter with a certain blond hours beforehand during lunch, but apart from that the day had been fairly ordinary. Hijirikawa Masato, dragging his wheeled suitcase behind him, strode the corridor of the boys dormitory searching for the room number that matched with the key he'd been given by his homeroom sensei, idol Tsukimiya Ringo. He was still reeling with skepticism upon discovering that the incredibly feminine sensei was in fact male.

Toward the end of the hall he finally spotted the matching number. Dodging the other teenage boys crowding the hall, he made his way toward the door, noticing that it was slightly ajar. 'My roommate must have arrived already,' he thought noncommittally, glancing quickly at the nameplate beside the door frame. He had to look a second time to confirm what he was seeing was the truth.

It was his worst nightmare.

Jinguji Ren was his roommate.

'Of all people, it has to be that playboy!'

His hand ceased before touching the door knob, hovering in the air with hesitation, and the thought of swapping rooms already on his mind.

'I cannot run away from my past forever. If I'm truly a man worthy of the Hijirikawa name I must face my mistakes,' he thought with determination, gripping the handle firmly as he threw the door wide open with a little more force than was necessary.

Jinguji was hanging a dartboard on the wall on his side of the room, and ceased his installation to say in his most charming voice "ah, good afternoon. I was wondering when you would turn up, Hijirikawa~ " The dark haired boy turned his nose up and didn't acknowledge the greeting, scoffing a little in his mind at how ridiculous the blond sounded. 'I'm not a girl, he shouldn't use that flirtatious tone with me.'

Seeing that Jinguji had already dumped his things on one of the beds to claim it as his own, Hijirikawa moved directly to the unoccupied one, trying to focus on walking without faltering. However concentrating on walking made it all the more difficult to remain steady on his feet, especially when he felt those icy blue eyes watching him. Hijirikawa could only imagine the smirk on Jinguji's face, plotting ways to annoy him and make him as uncomfortable as possible in his presence.

Placing his suitcase atop his mattress, from behind Hijirikawa on the other side of the room came Jinguji's false whining voice. "Don't you think it's rude to so obviously ignore my polite greeting, especially when we haven't seen one-another in such a loooong~ time?"

Irritated, Hijirikawa whirled around, his posture and tone stiff and clipped. "Good afternoon, Jinguji. It's pleasant to see you after such a long time. I would strongly appreciate it if you refrained from invading my personal space whilst we are cohabiting in this room, as I intend to do the same. Now if you would not mind, I would prefer to quietly focus on settling in without annoyance. Satisfied?"

Jinguji sat on his bed with a superior expression on his face, twirling a single dart between his deft fingers as he looked up through his eyelashes seductively. "Interesting choice of words."

A confused scowl breaking the closed expression on his face momentarily, Hijirikawa replied "pardon?"

" 'Co-habitation.' Isn't that term used to describe unmarried couples living together?" Jinguji winked mischievously.

Hijirikawa told himself the somersault his heart performed that instant was a result of his irritation. Snappily he replied "you know perfectly well I didn't mean it in that sense!" He turned back to his suitcase, violently unzipping it. An amused (and condescending!) 'hmmmm' sounded from the other side of the room.

Hijirikawa felt his face warm in embarrassment. 'Curses, I lost my composure for a moment there. Why did I have such rotten luck as to be stuck with him? A better term would be anti-luck."

As Hijirikawa neatly removed some casual clothes from his suitcase, sorting them into winter- and summer-wear piles, he heard the faint creaking of mattress springs as weight was removed from it. He glanced over his shoulder, ready to swat away a pesky certain someone should he be approaching, and was relieved to see that he'd resumed adjusting the dartboard on the wall.

His eyes lingered for a second, captivated by the length and luster of Jinguji's hair. It had been much shorter the last time he'd seen him, and just now he'd noticed the ear piercing. That was new. Unexpectedly the blond turned his head, making eye contact. His piercing, icy blue eyes looked sly as he said "not straight", over-exaggerating the movement of adjusting the board. He was wearing another one of his smouldering smiles. Fuming, Hijirikawa snatched up one of the throw pillows adorning his bed and literally threw it at Jinguji, who caught it expertly. "My, oh my, what a temper, Hijirikawa~ "

Ashamed of his atrocious behavior, Hijirikawa turned away again, intently folding and re-folding his clothes. Jinguji approached as silently as a cat, suddenly popping up beside him, throw pillow held in front of him like a shield. 'He isn't wrong to do so,' thought Hijirikawa as he clenched his fists, using as much of the self-restraint he had been imbibed with due to his strict upbringing. Hijirikawa gratefully accepted the pillow as Jinguji held it out to him, however the words 'thank-you' that left his lips were at odds with the thoughts in his mind. In reality all he wanted to do was sling insult after insult at the blond, maybe one of his fists into that oh-so-perfect face. But he wasn't a naturally violent, or expressive, person, so such thoughts frightened him a little.

His anger subsided somewhat, but not the intense pain from those two simple, meaningful words Jinguji had teased him with. To anyone else it meant nothing, but Hijirikawa felt the weight of subtle implication. The way he said it... 'not straight'... It brought up memories he would have rather forgotten. The bluenette felt betrayed at the blonds teasing. Though they hadn't officially come to an agreement, he had thought that should they meet, they would never utter a word on the incident ever again in living memory. But Jinguji just had to be his roommate, and he just had to have grown up as a shameless playboy with a proclivity for fooling around.

'Where did his cuteness disappear to?' Thought Hijirikawa, casting a glance over his shoulder. He turned back to the folded clothes on his bed, shaking his head as if to remove something. Maybe the faint redness that crept onto his cheeks. 'That was a long time ago, he's not the same person and neither am I. I like the Jinguji from 5 years ago, not this Jinguji. I don't know him.'

Bothered at his own thoughts, Hijirikawa began exasperatedly shoving the many-times-refolded clothes into his set of drawers. 'I should not have gotten acquainted with him in the first place. He made me realize my inconvenient preferences and since then I've been in a horrible predicament. My family would disown me if they discovered how appalling I am.' A moroseness overtook him with that thought.

Hijirikawa glanced at Jinguji through the reflection of the mirror above his chest of drawers. The blond appeared to be finished with his ministrations on the dart-board and was now lying on his side on the bed. He had propped himself up on one elbow and was watching Hijirikawa, who promptly diverted his gaze.

Uncomfortable, he felt an urgent need to escape the room, but he was expecting the rest of his belongings to be delivered later that day and didn't trust Jinguji enough to accept the delivery. Reluctantly he remained in the room, returning to his suitcase and from within it extracting a novel. Laying down atop the blanket he began reading.

There was an unpleasant silence in the room, though Jinguji seemed to be unaffected as he hummed quietly while messing around on his mobile.

There's nothing odd, I'm just being paranoid and overly conscious. No, I don't mean that. I'm not paying attention to him and I don't care whether he looks at me or not. I just have to read,' Hijirikawa thought, intently gazing at the page. Clearing his mind he proceeded to read, and had nearly finished the first chapter when Jinguji, with a huge sigh moaned "don't be a bore~ Come over here and go a round with me."

The bluenette narrowed his eyes at the blond, who had rolled over onto his stomach and was looking at Hijirikawa with his face propped up and squished by both hands, swinging his legs just like a child. Hijirikawa knew Jinguji was referring to a round of darts but his mind wandered into vaguely indecent territory, causing him to feel massively flustered. He was only glad his voice was steady as he replied in a somewhat short tone "I'm reading. Go find someone else to play with." He held up the book for emphasis before returning his gaze to the page.

He heard Jinguji sigh, and could still feel his intense light-blue eyes piercing him like icy shards, making it nearly impossible to absorb the words inscribed onto the paper. Upon reading the same sentence for the 17th time without comprehending and Jinguji's umpteenth bored sigh, he relented.

Snapping his book shut Hijirikawa huffed "Fine, but only one game. You'll probably win anyway, I don't see why you're so persistent," injecting as much of his irritation as possible. Jinguji pouted with one eye closed like a lazy wink and in his smooth-talking voice answered "I just want to play with you because it's been so long. Do you need me to go easy on you?"

Hijirikawa mumbled, just loudly enough for the blond to hear "don't insult me. Another word and I'll be aiming the dart at you, not the board." Jinguji obviously wanted to say something along the lines 'my, how feisty~' but he held up his hands submissively and zipped his lips.

Hijirikawa approached warily and Jinguji held out his hand, offering three darts to the bluenette. "Here, these ones are yours. You can throw first. We're playing 301 Darts. You know the rules right?"

Hijirikawa gave a stiff shake of his head. Jinguji explained without complaint. "Basically, we each start with 301 points and we have to reduce it to zero or the number closest to zero, and whoever does wins. Red zones are double points and green is triple. Get it?"

Hijirikawa nodded, accepting the darts. 'He's less pushy and mean than he used to be' thought Hijirikawa wonderingly, trying to ignore the fact that their hands were touching without flinching away.

Disgruntled with how his stomach churned Hijirikawa imagined the target of the dart board to be Jinguji's face. However he hesitated just as he threw, unable to maintain the image, and the dart stuck into the wooden backing of the board. Jinguji chuckled and Hijirikawa had to stop himself from shuffling uncomfortably with humiliation. "Honestly, that was as bad as when we were kids." As the blond said this he threw a bulls-eye with practiced ease. "50 points down, 251 to go for me," he said, inputting the score onto his phones note pad.

Annoyed, Hijirikawa took his time to aim properly, yet when he threw it the dart stuck into the outer ring of the three-point lane, only reducing by 6 points. "It's obvious there is little probability in my victory, why are you insistent on making me join you in such a pointless game?" His face was still mostly expressionless, however there seemed to be a pouting quality to his expression, which became more noticeable when Jinguji threw another dart only centimeters from the bulls-eye in the 20's lane.

Jinguji cast a smirk toward the bluenette. "Sulking, are we?" he chimed playfully. Hijirikawa straightened his posture. "The heir to Hijirikawa financial group does not sulk!" he energetically denied.

Hijirikawa threw his third and last dart with little aim, but fueled with his vexation toward Jinguji. Somehow, it managed to pierce the red felt of the bulls-eye with a soft thud. A little surprised himself, he was (only a little) flattered when the older boy praised him. "Nice one! I knew you could do it if you tried! "

"It's no big deal, it was only a fluke," mumbled Hijirikawa abashedly, slightly pleased.

"Is that so?" pondered Jinguji, gaze lingering on the bluenettes face for a moment before he threw. Miraculously, his well honed aim managed to miss completely and stick the dart into the wooden backing, just like Hijirikawa's first dart. "As I see it, it doesn't matter whether it was a once-off or not, it still happened. You should take pride in it even if it happens only once. But the game's still got plenty to go and we don't know what will happen. You never know, maybe it wasn't a fluke and you're great." The smile Jinguji gave seemed genuine, and Hijirikawa's blue eyes widened a fraction in astonishment. 'That was... Unexpected.' The bluenette was slightly relieved Jinguji was facing away from him while he collected the darts. He could imagine he had been showing a slightly impressed expression, and was reluctant to let Jinguji see it.

Jinguji offered the three darts to Hijirikawa again, questioning "so, do you want to continue?"

With determination printed on his features Hijirikawa snatched away the darts, retorting "a man of my status doesn't back out of a challenge."

'I need to calm down,' Hijirikawa chastised himself, slackening his expression as much as possible. 'Not because I'm jittery about him, but because I'm getting too cocky about a single bulls-eye. I still need to focus.'

The game continued.

Of course, the end result was as predicted and the game was over in less than half an hour. Jinguji simply had much more practice and experience. 'He was definitely cheating. He must know that being watched makes me uncomfortable,' scrutinized Hijirikawa. 'Not because it's him, though,' he amended. Aloud he said, "I told you this would happen. There's no point in playing a game when you already know whether you will win or lose." Jinguji draped his arm around the bluenettes shoulder in a consoling gesture, which was entirely unexpected. "Ah~ but you did nearly overtake me that one time, remember? And you ended up getting two bulls-eyes. I was starting to get scared~"

Hijirikawa had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes as he shrugged Jinguji off. His pulse was racing slightly, but his face didn't feel warm. 'Only a little shocked, that's all it is,' Hijirikawa mentally comforted himself. "You're just being patronizing, now. Would you mind letting me continue reading my book without further interruption?" It felt slightly difficult to get his words around the lump in his throat, but he was grateful his voice didn't waver. Hijirikawa didn't wait for an answer before he turned and sat himself on his bed once again, picking up his book and holding it unnaturally close to his face.

Jinguji studied the bluenettes actions, a little wounded. 'Does he hate me? I just want to reconnect our friendship from the old days. Surely that problem has been fixed?' wondered Jinguji, unlocking his mobile. He opened Instagram and took a pouting selfie with the caption 'I think my childhood friend hates me now. What do I do? I'm so lonely...' and a sad face emoji on the end.

Within seconds over 100 of his thousands of followers had liked it and half as many were commenting messages of consolation, offering to be his new friend. A number of girls even offered to be his girlfriend. It was a little jarring when he noticed a male offering the same thing. 'Ah, but at least they care about me,' he mulled, looking at Hijirikawa with a small, glum smile. The bluenette shuffled his book as if looking away. That cheered him a little, thinking that Hijirikawa had been watching him. Without warning Hijirikawa said "why are you looking so smug?" It pained Jinguji slightly to learn that the bluenette saw him in such a way, but he was a heartened that he had spoken to him without prompting. The blond widened his smirk and replied "Hmmm~ I wonder" as he winked. Hijirikawa rolled his eyes obviously at that. 'Ah, that's so childish of you, Hijirikawa. How cute~' chuckled Jinguji. Jinguji frowned at himself. 'It's only because it's childish that I thought it was cute. He's not actually cute.'

The constant buzzing of new Instagram notifications began to grow bothersome, so he switched his phone off with a tired sigh. "Hijirikawa, I'm taking a nap. Feel free to join me." The bluenette scoffed, trying to contain how flustered he was. Without removing his eyes from the page he dully responded "I won't. I'm not a child who needs to nap during the day, unlike you."

Jinguji spoke into his pillow, his voice muffled and indistinct. "Since when were you so snappy, Hijirikawa. At least pretend we get along while we're sharing a room."

Hijirikawa groaned internally. He wanted to tell Jinguji that he'd missed him (only slightly) during the last five years, but... 'the last time I saw you I didn't want to be just friends. You should hate me. So why are you acting as if it doesn't concern you?' He cast a sideways glance at Jinguji, who appeared to be snoozing already. The grip he had on his book slackened, along with his arms. He sprawled out on his bed, book resting open on his chest as he stared up at the ceiling. 'Is it my fate to have a despicable life?'


I've never written tsundere before, so any feedback on that or anything else really is much appreciated ^_^