We exist together and without each other- both in this space and when we are far. I want you and I don't know if I can hide it.
Alone at Seven
It was a question derived from a misconception, and this misconception was derived from the script Masayuki handed her this morning. But the script Masayuki handed her was written with the misconceptions by Umetarou, so really, this whole situation was Umetarou's fault.
Masayuki made a mental note to treat him to food later.
Yuu liked to skip practice without warning, which annoyed the boy to no end. His usual response to this would be hunting her down and taking her to club by force, but today was an important day, the day they distributed and went over the script, and Masayuki was informed (for once) of her plans ahead of time. So he let it slide, making it clear he expected her to arrive after she finished her plans (tutoring, she had said) to go over the script with him.
It was uncharacteristic for Yuu to follow through with promises regarding drama club. Thus, a few minutes after the general body was adjourned, Masayuki was surprised to see Yuu walk through the door.
Despite his surprise, he was silently pleased.
So they went over the script together, and Yuu asked the question that started it all: "Do Westerners really kiss when they greet each other?"
Masayuki shrugged, "In this setting they do."
"But what kind of prince just greets everyone with a kiss? The stage direction here: 'The prince kisses each of the maidens and they swoon with delight'... Should I just go down the line kissing all of them?"
"They are all potential brides for the prince, so I guess treating them courteously is important."
"So to kiss someone in Western culture is courteous?"
The boy shrugged again, "Ask someone who isn't Japanese, Kashima."
The tall female sighed and stood up and paced for a second. It was getting late, Masayuki noticed as he glanced at the clock. They would need to leave soon- the Friday train to get home stopped running past 11.
Yuu finally stopped pacing and sat down next to him. He tried to look more awake than he felt.
"So if I wanted to treat Hori-chan with respect, I would have to kiss you?"
Masayuki clicked his tongue. "Get that thought out of your head, and use the correct honorifics during club."
Yuu pouted. "It was an honest question! Don't you want to help me understand the script better, Senpai?"
"Of course I do. But this isn't something you should be confused about."
"I need practice. I don't understand how he can do it so casually!"
"That's a lie," Masayuki scoffed. "You've kissed your fangirls multiple times. And if you needed practice, come to club on time and rehearse with the actual cast!"
"But none of them are here right now, and I really had to tutor someone earlier…" Yuu pouted again. "Can you show me how it's supposed to play out?"
The brunette hesitated. He kept a straight face as Yuu stared him down. What could he show her? Yuu, the school prince, who whispered flirtatious words in maidens' ears and kissed their hands daily in greeting both onstage and off- she would know better than anyone how to play this part.
Maybe because kiss, as Kashima interpreted it, was much different than the chaste kisses on hands and cheeks that Masayuki was thinking of.
While the directions weren't explicit, Masayuki knew Yuu was smart, and she couldn't be possibly of misinterpreting it… right?
It wasn't like he did not want to kiss her, but he reasoned that he did not absolutely want to either.
Masayuki sighed.
"Maybe next week. It's late; go home."
The boy stood up and shuffled the papers in front of him. He started tidying up the room, and expected Yuu to either get up and leave, or sit and pout some more. He wasn't expecting her to get up and help him tidy up. He was thankful. It made the process faster.
They finished up and walked to the train together. Before they went their separate ways, Yuu stopped him.
"Senpai, if they use kisses in Europe to greet people, do they use kisses to say good bye too?"
"I wouldn't know; I've lived in Japan my whole life."
And then, Yuu reached towards him, and kissed him.
Her lips were soft, despite the action being so sudden, and Masayuki felt foolish for thinking he didn't want this.
There was also a soft pain in his chest when he realized Yuu actually did misunderstand- that kisses on the lips came just as easily to hands and cheeks in the Western world.
She pulled away eventually, and he tried to squish the feeling of disappointment.
"Bye, senpai! See you tomorrow!"
The boy who was about to fall asleep on the train ride home felt very awake after that.
The next week, Yuu claimed she had tutoring again.
"Senpai! I'm here!" She called as she opened the door. Masayuki was sorting through a box of old props, his back turned to the main entrance. Masayuki pretended he hadn't been thinking about their first kiss the whole weekend, and greeted her just as casually.
When he turned to face her, she closed the distance quickly, and he was surprised to feel her lips on his again.
He short-circuited. By the time he made the thought to move away, he actually leaned forward.
He pretended that he didn't think this kiss was better than the first. Having Yuu so close to him, kissing him, in an enclosed room spelled disaster in his head. So why didn't he want to move away?
When they finally did, he pushed her face away in case she tried to kiss him again. It was time to clear up this misconception so he didn't have to ignore the dull thud when he remembered why she was so intent on meeting his lips with her own.
"Stupid, when the script says kiss they mean on the hand! Like a normal prince!"
"But I'm always kissing people on the hand! Can't we switch it up more?"
"Kiss them on the cheek. That can be romantic too, you know."
"Can you show me then?"
Yuu knew the repercussions of challenging her senior. To say that this all was just a sly way to get Masayuki to kiss her would not be a lie. When the aura around her senior changed, and Yuu knew he went into acting mode, she felt more pleased with herself than she intended. To be on the receiving end of her beloved senpai acting, and to be kissed by him? It was killing two birds with one stone.
"If I was playing the part of the prince, when he finally decides the maiden he wants to marry is the traveling merchant, I would make it known in small ways. If you wanted to make a chaste kiss more romantic, you have to start softly."
Masayuki stroked her cheek, and slowly moved his face towards hers.
"You push the hair out of her face gently, so she can look you in the eyes. So she can face your feelings full-on and know you are being serious."
He moved so his lips were next to Yuu's ear, and she felt a chill run down her spine from his warm breath.
"You whisper in her ear how much you love her. How much you don't want your time with her to ever end. And then…" Masayuki withdrew himself and kissed her cheek gently.
It sparked a totally different feeling than their kisses on the lips. It felt more planned and thoughtful.
Masayuki quietly withdrew his hand from her face and moved back. Yuu smirked. She followed his directions.
Like he had just instructed, Yuu traced Masayuki's temple down to his cheek (he had no hair in his eyes to move), and moved closer.
"Even if that's the method, can't they continue?" Yuu whispered. She kissed outer shell of his ear, which caused him to flinch, and moved back to kiss his cheek. She didn't stop there. She kissed his cheek, then his temple, then down his nose, and lingered over his lips for a second.
Masayuki closed the distance, and there was silence.
And then they continued.
It started to become a weekly routine for the two of them. Their secret meetings weren't exactly secret, and it wasn't like they weren't trying to hide it from anybody. The two just stubbornly refused to call what they did anything other than rehearsal when the club members asked.
Making out with the drama club's prince on the club president's lap was definitely not practice; a heavy makeout scene in the corner of the club room was not in the script, even if you squinted and looked in between the lines of text.
These meetings excited both Masayuki and Yuu to no end. Every Friday at 7PM in the club room was a world just for the two of them, where their lips collided and they tried to best each other in who can make the other swoon the fastest.
The strange thing was what made what they did not a solid relationship. Neither one of them said anything before or after the went on as if life was normal and nothing had changed.
That was a lie of course. Masayuki felt a restlessness growing deep inside of him every single time they ended up with him sprawled over her against the floor, the wall, the desk, or her atop his lap dominating his lips. Even when their positions switched, he could feel his stomach doing summersaults and a buzz in his brain.
He did recognize his sadness that this was the only time they could be together in a space like this. It became clearer to him that maybe this is what he wanted to do every time they were left alone and she said something or did something that made him freeze and hear nothing but the sound of his heart and see nothing but her. Maybe he wanted something more general than kissing.
Masayuki just wanted to be with Yuu.
It wasn't that he wasn't aware of that. He knew about it, yes, but he was subconsciously choosing to ignore it until he graduated. But these meetings in the dark of the clubroom sped up how he planned to cherish his time existing, and he knew he could not live (metaphorically) without her or her lips on his.
There still wasn't anything he could do about it. It was too risky to do something drastic like confront her about what they were doing and what this was called because they both knew, since the second day after their gentle kisses turned into hands running through each other's hair and up and down each other's sides and their lips meshing and moulding together continuously for the next hour or so that what they were doing went beyond being club president and lead actor, beyond being upper and underclassmen, and beyond being just friends.
It was because he was scared, and whenever she kissed him all of his worries and fears disappeared and there was just Yuu Kashima and Masayuki Hori.
Alone in a clubroom at 7 on Fridays, Yuu and Masayuki simply were. They existed in a space together and it made Masayuki's heart hurt. Were his feelings reaching her every time their lips touched? Did she feel the shiver run down his spine every time she grabbed his hips and brought him closer? Could they possibly exist and be together outside of this?
The weather outside was getting colder, but they never felt it while inside the clubroom. But two months into their ritual, laying on the floor in the middle of October, Masayuki felt cold and scared and (despite his disgust at himself) desperate.
"We need to stop this."
Masayuki spoke with his arm over his eyes, pretending his own heart didn't drop at his own words. He felt and heard Yuu sit up suddenly in response.
"What?" She asked. His chest hurt- did he imagine the fear in her voice?
"This is unprofessional. We need to stop meeting like this, Kashima."
"No offense, senpai, but since when has our relationship ever been professional?"
Masayuki bit the inside of his cheek. "We can't just keep doing this."
"Why? Do you not like it anymore? Did I do something wrong?"
The brunette couldn't lie anymore. He didn't want to keep leading himself on with thoughts and ideas that Yuu would be happy being with him in a defined relationship. His head had been spinning by not being able to label it the way he wanted and being unable to analyze how she felt.
He needed to be the mature one.
"You didn't do anything wrong. I just can't handle this. I like being here with you and helping you but…" Masayuki finally moved his arm and winced at the bright light and at the pained expression Yuu was looking at him with. "I'm not acting anymore."
"I'm not either," Yuu insisted. "I really like kissing, senpai."
"I know you're not acting but…" Masayuki ignored the pain in his chest, "I think I'm in love with you."
There was silence. Not the good silence from when they were kissing or the comfortable silence they have when they run out of things to say but are still enjoying each other's presence. It was an awkward, heavy silence, and Masayuki felt like he was choking on the heavy air he was breathing in.
Yuu reached forward, and moved his short bangs away from his forehead. She cupped his face and rubbed her thumb against his cheek and under his eye. She leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together and closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I love you too, senpai. From the beginning of all of this."
Suddenly, he could breathe again.
"You love me?"
"Yes."
"That's… nice."
Yuu chuckled. "You played the prince part so well but now all you can say is "That's nice?""
Masayuki like his face was on fire but he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. He ignored her laughter and asked, "So do you mind me labeling our relationship?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you mind if I consider us dating now?"
"I'm fine with that."
He smiled.
Yuu Kashima and Masayuki Hori could simply be outside the clubroom and nothing was wrong with that.
(A/N) Thank you for reading!
This is probably the most self indulgent thing I have ever written lol,,,, It started with just kissing and no plot and then I went back and tried to give it one?
I hoped it worked lol
Happy Birthday, Yuu! This is the last of the 3 updates I currently have on hand.
I hope you enjoyed!