A/N: So, here's what has happened so far: Tezuka is stressed out at the University and is slowly dying at the age of 18; Tezuka has a girlfriend that he's been dating for three months named Akane; Fuji leaves a message on Tezuka's cell to invite him to a Seigaku reunion; Tezuka accidentally erases message and therefore has no idea how to reach Fuji; Tezuka and Fuji are both slightly paranoid at this moment...
Bombastic Love - Chapter 2
December 20, 2006
The first kiss and the first love is a hard thing to let go.
oOo
Fuji's morning coffee was getting cold; to top it off, the bread was now burnt, but the cook wasn't paying attention to the toaster. He stared out the window, eyeing the bare trees, its branches hanging in the sky like bones. Remembering a movie he had seen earlier about singletons living in Tokyo, he quickly got up from the table to the kitchen sink and rinsed his face.
Tezuka hadn't called for nearly three days. Nothing should be wrong with his phone. He's had the same one since ninth grade. Fuck Alexander Graham Bell.
But the truth is, when the two started dating other people in the tenth grade, things got, to say the least, intense. Fuji knew that whenever he would step into the same room as Tezuka, things would get silent, as if they're the only strangers in the entire place. Syuusuke would be mystified. It was...always him and this beautiful stranger standing in the other side of the room.
(And, he has never thought about this before: Why was he attracted to Tezuka? Why was he attracted to the copper in his eyes and not the brown in others'? He had seen many other beautiful people, but why Tezuka?) And although Tezuka couldn't possibly know his brand-new home phone number, he checked the messages on it again before slamming the apartment door behind him.
The traffic light turned red as the cars slowed down and came to a halt; Fuji made his way across the street, camouflaged in this throng of people. Right then and there, he heard his cell phone ring—but the schoolgirl walking beside him flipped on her pink cell and answered the call. OK, never mind.
The tensai collapsed on a bench in the park. This is like the Phantom of the Opera: He's Always There in Your Mind. He didn't feel like a tensai anymore. At least, not right now, when he's being beaten to the ground at his own game. Did Tezuka sense it? Fuji thought. I certainly felt it. You always made me wonder who the stranger in the room was. So either Buchou is waiting for me to call again...or...
…He feels awkward? Was it because of all the prying and interrogating that Fuji did to drop a hint, to try and make Tezuka aware that he liked him? No, he thought, Tezuka couldn't be this deep. For Pete's sake, they were friends; they went to the nationals together; they shook hands, hugged on some occasions; they did not hug intently; they did not exchange words of love; they don't even smack each other's butts on the football field (tennis court?).
Kunimitsu and Syuusuke merely had this minor I-think-I've-got-a-crush-on-you-but-I'm-not-telling, "middle school" feeling that they were both aware of—nothing more, nothing less. Don't you remember middle school? Were you this deep when you were thirteen? After this sudden realization, the photographer wanted to laugh at himself for throwing this whole situation out of logic.
The cell phone in his hand felt cold, and he gripped it tighter. He had tried Tezuka's apartment before he tried his cell. He had left a message on both his home phone and his cell phone, in case Tezuka was staying home for the holidays. Fuji made it to four digits before pausing, thumb poised on the next button. He finally dialed the full thing, heart filled with confidence.
But his heart dropped like an anvil when he heard a girl's voice on the other line.
She yawned, "Mmm...Kuni-chan?"
Kuni-chan?
"Ano," he said, "Is Kunimitsu Tezuka there?"
"Oh. Um, actually, he's on vacation. Who is this?"
"I'm a friend of his."
"Ah, I see. Have you tried his cell?"
"Not yet. Could you tell me the number?"
"Sure. It's..."
Well, what else could he say? There was a woman at his apartment at 7:00 in the morning.
Tezuka found himself a girl. And she calls him Kuni-chan. And she just slept over last night. Which means she has a copy of his key. Fuji has been to Tezuka's house before, but he had never given him a key, not even for emergencies. And Fuji has known him longer than this woman has.
"...So what'cha calling him for?"
Fuji can tell that she is smiling, obviously wanting to converse with someone who is close to her boyfriend. He chuckled, "Nothing, really. Just trying to catch up on our lives."
She giggled and joked, "From the moment I met that guy, I knew he wasn't the type to keep in touch with his friends."
Fuji laughed (hollowly). "Well, thanks again," he said, in the most enthusiastic voice he can muster.
"Oh, no problem! Buh-bye."
"Bye."
Just as he hung up, he caught sight of a man and woman kissing behind a tree; the girl was trying not to giggle as the guy traced his fingers up her ticklish spot. Normally, he wouldn't have noticed something like this and would go on doing what he was doing.
But today, he sat down and watched.
------------------
oOo
The old woman behind the counter stared at the stranger, peering at him from behind her thick glasses. "Who, sweetie?"
"Syuuske Fuji. Haven't you seen his columns in this magazine?"
Tezuka held up the latest issue of Tokyo Bankakyo close to her face so she could see it.
But it seems that this lady is not only deaf, but also blind. "What's that, honey?" She grimaced. "If it's one of those... Aii-ya, you boys shouldn't be haggling over porn these days. Such bright minds. All wasted on the most stupid thi—"
"Arigatou."
Tezuka walked away, making sure not to interrogate any more old people. He had been asking this and asking that, looking around left and right. For the past three days, he hadn't made any progress. And just as he is always about to give up right then and there, he would only have to close his eyes and think of Fuji's face to revive him of hope. What if I never find him? he'd think. And then Fuji's traditional face would come bubbling up. But what if I do?
The sky is on the verge of turning black. Tezuka exhaled for a good ten seconds. He then started to wander off, looking for a place to spend the night. And he was thinking.
Fuji smiled a warm yet sadistic smile. "You're never lonely at all?"
"No."
Fuji chuckled. He's walking in light steps. So carefree. "I thought you'd say that."
Tezuka stared at Fuji's back. He always thinks he knows everything there is to know about everyone. Just then, Eiji came running up to the two, and Tezuka couldn't help but feel both relieved and annoyed.
"Hoi-hoi! Ne, ne, Fuji! I just heard a rumor about you..."
Tezuka was about to open the entrance to the hotel when...
"Tezuka-san!"
He turned around at the sound of his name and couldn't believe what he saw. It was Hikaru, Fuji's ex-girlfriend from the tenth grade. Her hair had grown a bit longer as they swished side to side; she was waving frantically with one arm and was trying desperately to run in her black pumps. Her black skirt fit perfectly with her pink halter. She caught up to him, slapped Tezuka in the arm, and leaned on him for support as she laughed.
"Oh...! Ouch, okay, I think I've got a cramp," she said, gripping at her waist. "But...oh, my God, I was just coming back from work and I thought I saw somebody familiar! Kunimitsu Tezuka!"
She grinned up at him and Tezuka couldn't hide his surprise. "Suzuki-san..."
Full name: Suzuki Hikaru. Popular among both the girls and the boys. Large amethyst eyes; has a knack for inventing new looks with her uniform. Fuji had met her in high school, when they were standing at the ticket line for the school festival.
"Oh, Tezuka-san...you look horrible! Have you stopped shaving?" she said, eyeing the stumps on Tezuka's chin, giggling.
"Suzuki-san, are you still modeling?"
She laughed. "Yeah. I'm just a B-list, but I'm thinking of getting into an audition soon. For Victoria's Secret in the States." She winked. "But in the meantime, my dad scored me a place in publishing. I could use a few extra bucks right now...and, let me tell you, those perverts at the office..." She laughed, trying not to talk a mile a minute. "I've only been in this thing for three weeks, and I'm thinking that I take a break soon. It is, after all, almost Christmas. And what are you up to? Still going to the University of the Indecisive?"
A model for Victoria's Secret. How typical of her. All of a sudden, she sighed. "Oh, I wish I were sixteen...but if I keep at modeling, who knows where I'll be in the next ten years?"
Yeah, sixteen. The time you went out with Fuji and made out with him under the drink stand. Tezuka should know; he witnessed it himself. If Suzuki Hikaru had a theme song, it would be Tim McGraw's Somethin' Like That, and Syuusuke Fuji would be Tim McGraw.
She was nice. She was girly and wanted by all the boys, even some of the senpais. Fuji had been crushed when she broke up with him. Tezuka didn't know her that well, but he remembered the way Fuji had solemnly looked up at an inanimate object during tennis games with closed eyes: a can of Coke, a streetlamp, and anything that was laid in front of him.
Everybody thought Fuji and Hikaru were going to run off and get married as soon as school ended, but she broke up with him, and Fuji hadn't dated anyone since.
"Suzuki-san, can I ask you something about sixteen?"
"Yeah?" she looked at him, the man she hadn't talked to when she was sixteen.
"Why did you stop seeing Fuji?"
She smiled sheepishly. Tezuka was taken aback by her answer: "I didn't."
He kept a straight face and nodded. But she continued, "But it's not how you think. He broke up with me, the other way around."
"Nani?"
"After we dated for an entire year, he admitted that I was his first love." She leaned against the brick wall behind her. A car passed by, blowing her bangs away from her heart-shaped face. Her eyes looked so sad. "He said, 'Aishiteru.' And I believed it, you know? Because...he was one of the best...guys...I've ever dated. No. He was the best guy.
"Fuji was so earnest. I've never met another guy who's so composed and together. I just wanted to be near him, so I tried getting his attention, but he's never paid attention to me that much until he offered me money to buy me my ticket for the festival, because I had forgotten to bring any...
"Usually, I would agree with the girls that a guy should make the first move. But I couldn't help it. I kissed him that day, and I was so excited when he started kissing me back. And I liked him and he liked me. You've seen us. We were lovers. But one night, when he was still at practice, he called me in a gentle voice..."
"Syuusuke-kun? What's up?"
"I know it's late, and I should tell you this in person, but I can't wait that long. I have just realized something that I forgot a long time ago, and I think you should know this... Hikaru-chan?"
"Yeah?"
"I was thinking a lot. About us. I was late at practice tonight, and I fell asleep. And I had a dream."
"About us?"
"I was kissing somebody, but it was with somebody I've known longer than I've known you, Hikaru-chan. And...I liked it."
"Syuusuke..."
"Demo, don't cry. I never thought somebody like me would fall in love until I'm older."
"What are you saying?"
"I don't think I'm ready for this yet. I'm not ready for us. Because there's this person I've liked since I was in Seishun Gakuen, and that person is so close to me right now, and that person is so important to me right now..."
"Don't. Don't say any more."
"Hikaru-chan, can you promise me something?"
"..."
"I know you're crying, but please smile. Smile for as long as you can. And I'll always be here if you need me."
"But, Syuusuke," Hikaru sobbed, "you're not mine anymore!"
"No," Fuji said sadly, "I'm not."
Tezuka looked at her. She is sobbing by now, mumbling in gulping breaths, "Fuji...Fuji..." as if he is still standing next to her. And the man couldn't help but feel guilty.
"...Nya, I heard it from Momo first! He said something about you and Suzuki Hikaru making out at the festival today?" Eiji's eyes widened, for he couldn't yet believe it himself.
Tezuka watched Fuji's expression carefully. "Iya, Eiji..." Fuji said, smiling one of his hopeless smiles, "Who did Momo hear that from?"
"I don't know, but everyone in the school is talking about it! So, how was it?" he grinned, jabbing the sweat-dropping tennis player in the elbow. "Don't be modest, Fuji!"
"But I'm not being modest..."
"But, do you think you guys would start dating now? Nya, I hope you do...you'll be the hottest couple in all of Tokyo! And you're so lucky, too, Fuji. Hikaru-chan is so cute..."
"Then why don't you ask her out, Eiji?"
"Nya! There it is with the sadistic questions again!"
Fuji laughed.
Tezuka had witnessed the kiss. He was sure that Hikaru was Fuji's first kiss. And he feels guilty. Because, as he is watching her cry, he thinks that he has realized something, too.
He took a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. Then, with all the compassion he never knew he had, he wiped away the strands of gorgeous hair that was pasted onto her face. "I know he didn't mean to have that dream."
Hikaru sobbed lightly. After she had caught her breath, she asked, "How do you know?"
He smiled. "I just do." And I have to agree with that sadist on this one. Smile. You look pretty when you do, Hikaru.
And me? Oh, of course I am lonely. Fuji makes anyone hard to be alone.
oOo
A/N: I had Utada Hikaru's "First Love" playing in my head when I was rereading this... XD Like it? No? Remember to review, ne?