Their first semester sped along and Furuichi was quite thankful for it. After what the silvernette dubbed the "Creepichi incident" Oga had gotten very strange. Furuichi caught the brute staring at him hard several times. The few times they were in the same room together for more than ten minutes, Oga would take it upon himself to invade Furuichi's personal bubble. Oga wouldn't touch him, just stood uncomfortably close for whatever reason. One time Oga commented that Furuichi smelled strongly of strawberries and what kind of guy smells that good?
Furuichi was torn between being delighted and emasculated. He decided to shove a large piece of cooked beef into Oga's mouth to distract the Alpha male while Furuichi made his escape. It was worse that Furuichi wasn't having any luck in the lady department either. All of the good-looking women in his classes shunned him, and even the really nice girls who weren't all that pretty started getting suspicious of Furuichi's motives.
Furuichi sighed as he ate his lunch sitting outside on the campus tables. The days were growing cooler as rainy season was fast approaching. He'd have to make sure to have several umbrellas ready. Furuichi enjoyed all kinds of weather now that he thought about it. Of course, he didn't quite like the days of extreme heat or cold. Holding the heated tea in his hands to warm up his chilly fingers, Furuichi yelped with indignation as his drink was ripped away from him as the hard body of the brute settled beside him.
"Ah! That was satisfying!" Oga stated as he crushed the empty can with his forehead and tossed it over his shoulder. "I bet it was," Furuichi stated glumly while pushing off Oga's arm that managed to snake around his shoulders again. The silvernette had looked forward to drinking his tea under the cloudy sky in peace. "Hm? Did you say something?" Oga was too busy eyeing a large group of tough would-be yakuza initiates probably itching for a fight. "I'm going to class." Furuichi gathered his things completely missing the slight hurt in Oga's eyes as he walked away.
Oga rose to leave shortly after the smaller man, kicking the crushed can. Trying to figure out the colors and words around the squashed aluminum, Oga reached inside his pockets and rushed to the nearest vending machines. When Furuichi returned home that evening, he found that same can resting on his bedside drawer.
…
Oga wasn't a man of many talents he knew. Getting up in the morning was not on that list. The brunet took a look at the clock that read 1:49pm and shrugged off the fact that he missed his 9am class. He wasn't even sure he was on the roster anymore because Oga had the sneaking suspicion that he didn't even go to class on the first day. Oga still didn't know who pulled which strings to get him into university. Whoever they were, they were probably yanking the hair out of their heads.
Stretching and rolling over, Oga faced the hallway. Furuichi's door was closed today, as it usually was. It never stopped Oga from barging into his room though. Oga never stole anything, he just stood there in the center of the room taking Furuichi's scent in. Oga had gotten to know the smaller man quite a lot just by being in Furuichi's room while the silvernette was away at class. The room was immaculate and always smelled nice because of the oil diffuser that was scheduled to burn strawberry oil every 2 hours. There were pictures and posters of women everywhere in the room, and if Oga didn't know that his roommate was male, it really would've seemed like a fangirl's room. Aside from the fact that there were plenty of porn magazines underneath the pillows.
Being in Furuichi's room always brought Oga a feeling of impatience because what was Furuichi trying to prove? With the way everything in his room looked, and how the idiot acted while trying to chase women, Oga knew that Furuichi was desperately trying to hide something, and by the looks of his room, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Furuichi was hiding it from himself. Oga came to this conclusion all before the "creepichi" incident.
While he stared hard at the closed door, Oga remembered the pain, humiliation and fire in Furuichi's eyes. Oga remembered that night he found it hard to breathe. Oga remembered fighting with the desire of his loins and it infuriated him immensely. Furuichi knew something was off and stopped trying to be around Oga anymore. It still didn't stop Oga from scouting him out on campus. Or trying to get closer to the other male back at the apartment. When Furuichi let his guard down, they bickered back and forth like a married couple. It isn't until a few moments later that Furuichi notices how much chemistry they have that he flees to hide in his room. Oga had done a lot of thinking to come to that conclusion and it angered him that he cared so much about the silvernette to think at all.
Reaching for the clock behind him that now read 2:50pm, Oga scoffed at having wasted time thinking about idiot Furuichi. Finally getting out of bed, Oga made one last look at the door across the hall. He shook his head and searched for his clothes.
…
"Ah crap! Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!" Furuichi stood underneath the nearest awning as temporary shelter from the rain. He knew he should've brought his umbrella. The morning's weather reporter confided in her viewers that there wouldn't be any rain despite the swollen iron grey clouds hanging outside, but Furuichi knew that it would rain. Anyone could figure out that it was going to rain just by stepping outside! Furuichi sighed as he slumped against the building's outside wall. He could forgive her he guessed, since she looked super cute in a peach peplum top. Furuichi hoped that his essays hadn't gotten wet. It would've sucked if he had to spend another ¥3500 to print out another freshly minted copy.
Furuichi watched the rain fall harder and harder. The women in his class didn't take his advances seriously at all. It was kind of okay when they avoided him, and he'd even admit that it was much better when they called him "creepichi" because they believed that he was really trying to pursue them. Now, they mocked him. Furuichi considered dropping out. Or at least drop his classes, but then he came to his senses in finishing the semester. Then he'd try again next semester because if he was anything, he was a stubborn optimist, and someone was going to give him a chance. The rain hit harder.
Furuichi wished it would hurry up. It was getting cold. He really would've preferred listening to the rain in his apartment. Snuggled up, warm, with a cup of tea and preferably cuddling with a cute girl with ample cleavage to sleep on. Even as Furuichi thought this, the image that came up in his head betrayed his true feelings. In his mind, he was cuddling in the arms of an infuriating brunet with a cocky grin, then that cuddling turned into something more…
"Are you going to stand there like an idiot or do ya want this umbrella?"
"What are you doing here?"
Furuichi's heart leaped into his throat when the brute of his imagination stood right next to him looking very grumpy. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm trying to give you an umbrella, idiot."
Furuichi preferred Oga's rising irritation to erase the comforting image of them staying at home with hot chocolate and a nice American Hallmark movie.
"I mean what are you doing this far into campus? You never go to class. And why are you calling me the idiot when it's probably been ages since you've last read a book!"
Oga's smirk caught Furuichi by surprise. It was dripping with Oga's usual sadism, but the glint in his eye said something else entirely. Furuichi knew that the shiver that ran down his back wasn't from the cold. Suddenly, Furuichi felt like a cornered animal again. "Are you going to accept my kindness, or am I going to have to force it on you?"
"J-just give me the umbrella, you weirdo."
Furuichi reached for the umbrella, glad for his foul mood to mask all of the other emotions he was feeling, except Oga didn't let go. "The hell are you doing? Give me the umbrella."
"Mmm," the infuriating brute made a show of the contemplating look on his face, "I've changed my mind."
"Why offer it in the first place?"
"Because you looked pathetic and weak standing out here in the rain. I started feeling sorry for you."
Furuichi felt his ego deflate to the lowest it has ever been. Oga noticed the shift in mood and tried to wrack his brain for something else to say to salvage the conversation. "What are you doing out here without an umbrella? Only a moron would forget his umbrella stepping outside today."
Scratch that, this was the lowest Furuichi ever felt. Not even his roommate took him seriously.
Oga's internal alarms rang louder as the silvernette looked as if he was about to cry. What do people do in this situation? The brunet never had to worry about these kinds of things before. Why did Furuichi have to make his life so complicated? "Well, at least I'm probably the only one who saw you like this. That way no one else would think any lower of you."
Furuichi looked Oga directly in the eyes and had the oddest feeling that the brute was actually trying to cheer him up. Still, it didn't help that Oga's words confirmed what everyone else thought of Furuichi. The light in Furuichi's eyes snuffed out and Oga's internal alarms blared. Oga couldn't even open his mouth to remedy the situation when the silvernette pulled back his arm and popped Oga in the mouth.
Oga knew that he deserved it. So, he fought against reflexively sending the smaller man flying. Instead, he offered the umbrella, which Furuichi took, and they both walked back home in a comfortable silence.
A/N: Hope you have a great rest of the week! I'm rooting for you, fighting!
