Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer will apply from here on.
A/N: Deeply inspired by Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. It is such a good book to carry around. Each little story takes like a minute or two to read, but you can ponder the underlying morals and meanings for hours.
NOTE: One-sided (?) Akaya x Yanagi.
Beloved
In terms of habit and development, Akaya was much like the teenage boys of his age.
He first began to notice the opposite sex when he entered junior high school.
There would be a certain girl who catches his eye. He would then approach her and begin a conversation. If she interested him enough, he would seek her out to talk more.
Yet, that would be the most he got accomplished. Because the girls who interested him always ended up liking someone else, or moving away, or becoming something else once he got to know them.
So, he sought out another girl, and another, and another.
The cycle of perpetual loss continued.
For some reason, it really didn't bother him that much.
That was until Akaya met Yanagi Renji in the tennis club.
The other was not the type he would be interested in initially. He was too quiet, too calm, too mature.
And Akaya thought, it would be impossible to begin a conversation with the other, let alone to hold one with him.
Yet, they were in the same tennis club and on the same team. It was certain that they would interact at some point or another.
They did.
What first began as simple greetings between two people grew to coincidental encounters in the hallway, in the library, and in the cafeteria. Soon, they were having appointed meetings outside of school to discuss tennis tactics, class notes, and exam highlights. Sometimes, when they had extra time, they would even go to arcades and bookstores together.
Within the two years of his junior high school experience, they grew from strangers, to teammates, to something that could vaguely be called friends. Or even something beyond that, he added mentally to himself.
Akaya never thought he would give so much attention to a member of his gender.
And like the girls who interested and caught his attention in the past, his Yanagi-senpai was soon graduating, soon leaving him.
He wondered then, once the other graduates, would he, like before, just seek out another and value him/her with the same amount of care he gave the other now?