Love Confusion: Chapter 2

[lilly0]

Title: Love Confusion Chapter 2
Pairing: Aimiya, Juntoshi, Sho/Masami
Rating: PG-13 (for now?)
Genre: romance, AU (college/work/coffeeshop), love-hexagon you could say^^
Plot: Nino, Masaki’s best friend and co-student, has a crush on Masaki’s older brother Satoshi since forever. Satoshi however, a young barista, loves Masaki’s university lecturer Matsumoto, who is a regular in his coffeeshop. But Jun has a friends with benefits thing with his former senpai Sho. Sho however, a young lawyer, has never believed in love, until he falls in love with Masami, a young pet shop owner. Masami however laid her eyes on the cute guy Masaki, who helps in her shop sometimes. And Masaki? He can’t see Nino the same anymore ever since that night two years ago…
Note: Happy birthday to my dear yukitsubute !!!!!!!!!! I hope you will like this story! (I tried to go for a different main pair this time - I have never written Aimiya for you after all!

The plate with the cake looks perfect. Okay, maybe not perfect, but perfect enough. And as always Satoshi wants his favourite customer to try it first.

 

Said-customer sits hunched over a bunch of essays, a frown on his forehead. “No good, Jun-san?” Satoshi chuckles when he approaches him.

 

Jun looks up, his dark eyes sparkling when he sees Satoshi and the cake. “You just made my day better,” he says.

 

Satoshi’s stomach jumps happily. “Just tell me your honest opinion afterwards.”

 

Jun chuckles. “We both know your cakes are always the best. I don’t even need to eat them to know that. We can just skip to: Could I please have another piece?”

 

Satoshi smiles. He doesn’t even know what it is about Jun that draws him in, but from the first moment on when he saw him hunched over his students’ works, so serious, so dedicated to it, smiling when Satoshi offered him a piece of cake, he was head over heels for the guy. Jun would come ever Tuesday and sometimes on Saturday mornings.

 

Of course Satoshi has no idea what to make out of his crush, after all he doesn’t even know if Jun is interested or if he dates someone.

 

“Sa-chan!”

 

Satoshi spins around, waving when he eyes Masaki and Nino. Both of them seem to freeze though when they see Jun. “Sensei,” Masaki stutters.

 

“Ah,” Jun looks up. “You two.”

 

Satoshi chuckles as the realisation kicks in. “They are attending your class?”

 

“Yes,” Jun says, eyes flying over the names of the essays in front of him. “I’m about to read and rate their works.”

 

“Oh please,” Masaki groans. “Not when we are here.”

 

Satoshi smiles, amused by how easily his brother gets worked up. He is always like this. Straight-forward, open in his emotions, approachable… likeable. People naturally like him, while Satoshi always had to work hard to make people like him or even see him.

 

“Oh,” he blinks. “Right, I forgot to introduce you. This guy here,” He pats Masaki’s shoulder. “Is my little brother Masaki. And this here.” He puts his hand on Nino’s shoulder. “Is his best friend, Kazunari.” Nino looks at him shyly, he is always so adorable, Satoshi just wonders why he is so nervous around him. Did he say something wrong to him? He remembers when he and Masaki were smaller, and they would do stupid things, and Satoshi would scold them sometimes. And one night they went to a club and got drunk, underage. Satoshi admits his reaction might have been over the top back then when he yelled at them. But most of the time he gets along well with his little brother and his best friend. Maybe Nino holds a grudge against him or his scared of him?

 

 

~~~

 

 

Nino and Masaki share three pieces of cake with each other, as far away from Matsumoto-sensei as possible. “Creepy,” Masaki whispers. “To meet him here…”

 

“I know,” Nino chuckles. “To imagine he is just about to rate our essays.”

 

“Shoot,” Masaki sighs. “I’m sure I failed. I mean, English poem analysis.”

 

“I didn’t do so well either,” Nino mumbles miserably. He needs to do well on Matsumoto’s classes, he has to ask him for the letter of recommendation after all. “Look, he is frowning at the moment. Is it because my essay is so bad?”

 

Masaki shifts his head. “I doubt it, I’m sure you did well! If anything, I did badly, as always…”

 

Nino loves Masaki for always being so supportive, and always cheering him up, but he wishes he would be more self-confident too. Masaki always believe he does horrible in tests or homework, just because he is Masaki. He is so certain he will fail that Nino is sure it truly affects his work.

 

“Hey guys.” Satoshi approaches them. “Have some cookies,” he chuckles. “You seem pretty tensed.”

 

Nino’s stomach twitches nervously eye to eye with Satoshi again. Why is he always turning into an incoherent mess in front of him? It’s not only because he likes him, but also because that night two years ago… since then Nino is not able to think coherently anymore. It seems like Satoshi was too drunk back then to remember anything, but Nino does.

 

“We are tensed,” Masaki argues. “Sensei is rating our essays. He is so strict.”

 

“Really?” Satoshi blinks. “He seems to be pretty nice.”

 

“He is good. But he demands a lot,” Masaki explains, shivering slightly. “He is known to be a perfectionist. I’m already dreading his classes. A whole term with two classes with him, each Monday.”

 

Satoshi smiles in amusement. “But it means you will learn a lot, won’t you?”

 

“And grow grey hair,” Masaki points out. “Right Nino?”

 

Nino has carefully stayed out of their talk, but wince when Masaki asks him out of a sudden. Right in front of Satoshi. He is supposed to talk in front of Satoshi. “Yes…” he stutters, shifting around nervously. “I… but… he has… you know his name…”

 

WHAT THE FUKC IS HE TALKING ABOUT!?

 

Satoshi blinks at him in confusion, but to Nino’s utmost relief his personal everyday-life-safer Masaki takes over. “Yeah,” he agrees, looking at Nino soothingly. “His name weighs quite a lot.”

 

“Ah,” Satoshi nods. “Then I can tell you a secret.” He looks at Nino warmly, making his head spin even further. “He told me the both of you didn’t do bad.”

 

“Really?” Masaki blinks. “Me too?”

 

“Yeah, he said you will need some more work, but your essay was somewhere in the middle-field.”

 

“Not at the bottom,” Masaki sighs in relief.

 

Satoshi rolls his eyes. “Can’t you be a bit more ambitious,” he complains. “You always seem to expect the worst.”

 

“But I’m not really smart,” Masaki argues. “I’m pretty stupid actually…”

 

“What!?” Nino exclaims fiercely. “That’s not true! You have a different perspective on things sometimes, but you are not stupid!”

 

To his surprise Masaki blushes slightly. “Thank you, Kazu,” he stutters, showing Nino one of his genuine smiles. It makes Nino’s stomach warm up immediately.

 

Satoshi seems to be happy too. “Listen to your best friend, Masa, he is right,” he says fondly.

 

 

~~~

 

Hey Masaki, I forgot to tell you: Sho has tickets for the amusement park! Wanna go? :P

 

Of course Masaki wants to go! Even if it means just tugging along with Nino and his cousin.  Sure, thank you! But won’t I disturb you and your cousin?

 

Don’t be silly. He even asked me to take you along! He has a fourth ticket by the way, any ideas who we could ask?

 

Masaki tilts his head, frowning slightly. He lets out a sigh, well… as his feelings for Nino will never get returned, he can as well help his friend with his own. I could ask Satoshi.

 

He can see Nino typing a message, erasing it again, typing, erasing. Before it finally comes. You think he would join?

 

Yes, please ask him.

 

Only if you don’t mind  ofc.

 

Masaki sends a thumb up emoticon back. That’s all he is able to do now. There is a lump in his throat that doesn’t go away, even after he put his phone away and bought himself a hamburger to eat. It’s still there. Hence he decides to go to the most soothing  place in the universe.

 

Animals always make him feel better.

 

 

 

 

“Masami-san,” he greets her politely. She is one of the nicest persons he knows, always friendly, always patient.

 

“Masaki-kun!” She seems to be happy to see him. “I didn’t expect to see you today.”

 

“Sorry, am I coming at an inconvenient time?” he asks, suddenly feeling guilty. He should have given her notice beforehand.

 

“Not at all. Here-“ She hands him a white ferret. “I got it today. It needs a bit of pampering, and then I will hopefully find a new home for it.”

 

He giggles when the little piece of fur snuggles around his neck, robs into his sleeve and settles somewhere inside his sweater. He lets it snuggle against him, happy about the warmth against his body.

 

“Here,” Masami says and hands him a cup with tea. “I have some fresh fruits in the fridge. My brother gave them to me. Do you want some?”

 

“Is it so obvious that I am down?” Masaki asks calmly.

 

Her lips tug slightly, like she is nervous. “You are always so happy,” she finally admits, biting her lips nervously. “And today you look… sad.”

 

“I’ll be okay,” he mumbles.

 

“If you want to talk about it, I am here…” she offers.

 

“It’s nothing,” he admits, not sure why he even talks about it. “Just a broken heart.”

 

“Oh!” She seems to be surprised. “You are in love with someone?”

 

“Liked a friend of mine since two years now…”

 

“But?”

 

“My friend seems to like my brother,” he admits quietly. She looks to the side, looking sad all of a sudden. “I’m sorry Masami-san, I didn’t mean to bother you with my stupid problems. An adult like you probably finds me pretty stupid.”

 

“Not at all,” she says quietly, sitting down next to him on the sofa. “I know how it feels.”

 

“To have your feelings not returned?”

 

“Yes,” she says, and something about the way she says it makes his heart ache. He didn’t know she was in love with someone who didn’t return her feelings.

 

“You are such a charming woman, Masami-san,” he says honestly. “I think anyone would like you!

 

“He doesn’t,” she admits, before turning towards him. “Masaki-kun, your friend… you know… maybe it’s just a crush he has on your brother. You still face a chance.”

 

“And you don’t?” he asks in surprise.

 

“Not really,” she admits, lips tugging slightly. “But a woman can dream, right?”

 

“A guy too,” Masaki answers.

 

It draws a chuckle from her. Much to his surprise he indeed feels better now. Maybe Masami is right and he faces a chance. He hasn’t even confessed to Nino or anything, he hasn’t shown his feelings to him. Maybe he should try to win his heart… somehow, he has no idea how to win someone’s heart though.

 

When Masaki goes home that evening he grabs his notebook and a pen, writing down his thoughts on Nino and his brother and himself. It’s not really a diary, but sometimes he does things like that. He accompanies what he writes by a few doodles and comic sketches about him and Nino, laughing slightly when he scribbles down a picture of himself, drooling over a cake and then throwing heart-eyes at Nino.

 

 

~~~

 

“Dinner or lunch?” Sho asks in his phone.

 

He can hear Jun snort at the other end of the line. “You really want to take me out for food? Or was this just a very bad suggestive question in which you are gonna say, you would love to eat my butt?”

 

Well, Jun’s butt is one of the finest, no chance denying that… still this time… “No, I really want to go out to eat something,” Sho chuckles. “I don’t have much time today, and thought we could grab some lunch?” Jun is quiet at the other line, apparently surprised. Sho isn’t quite sure what he is surprised about. They know each other since a long time now, it’s certainly not a weird suggestion to eat something together. “Jun-san? There is a new hipster curry restaurant next to my work.”

 

“Fine,” Jun answers.

 

“Great, I’ll send you the address!”

 

To be honest he could have met Jun today too, for fun activities, but he was just visiting a client, and if he walks home by foot, he can pass the area where he met that crazy woman last time. No one has ever hit him. The fact that she stomped outside her shop, looking like an avenging angel and slapped him, surprised him big time.

 

She is kind of… interesting.

 

 

 

His assumptions were right, because when he walks through the park close to her shop, he can see her outside with a fluffball slash dog. She waves at him once she sees him. “Sho-san!”

 

Sho’s chest feels instantly warm at her jumping around like a lunatic and waving, the weird dog running around her in circles until his leash gets caught up with her legs. Sho grabs her arm before she can drop down, helping her to free herself from the leash plus dog. Once they are finished they both laugh.

 

“I’m exhausted,” she sighs, leaning against the wall of her shop. “This was more than I could bear for today.” She pats the dog’s head. “I need to find someone to adopt him fast.”

 

Sho chuckles. “Endless energy?”

 

“So you could say,” Masami smiles apologetically. “And here I am bothering you again. My brother will scold me, if he knows.”

 

“Your brother?” Sho asks curiously.

 

“Yes, he is younger than I am, but much more serious.” She chuckles. “He should work less and hang out in my shelter instead.”

 

Sho’s lips tug in amusement. He could name quite a few reasons why Masami’s brother is probably staying away from his sister’s chaotic shelter. Sho doesn’t mind though. “Say, Masami-san, care for a drink?”

 

She blinks at him and for a moment Sho is scared she will decline, but to his surprise she nods with a smile. “I would prefer drink and food though.”

 

“I’m sure we’ll find a place that harbours both,” he chuckles.

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Hey, little brother-chan!” Masami switches into a pair of guest house shoes and walks through her brother’s apartment.

 

Jun peaks through the living room door. “You are late, Masami,” he pouts. “I was waiting for you!”

 

“I’m so sorry,” she sighs. “I just bumped into this guy again.”

 

“Guy?”

 

“Well, you know, the one who helped the child.”

 

Jun grins. “The one you hit out of nowhere? You met him again and he didn’t run?”

 

Masami blushes. “He is actually surprisingly charming…”

 

Sho is actually not her type at all. He comes off as serious and like the business-man-type of guy. He told her that he works as a lawyer, the most serious job in the world! Yet, he is surprisingly fun to be around. She sighs slightly. He is not like Masaki, but she has accepted that Masaki is going to stay a dream for her… She would have fought more for him if it was just the age, but she also knows he is more interested in guys. So maybe she should take a look at someone else? This Sho could be an option…

 

 

A/N: Hello~ So now we know who Masami's brother is... and Nino and Satoshi apparently share an incident in the past?
Don't ask me why I decided to take it up with a love hexagon *lol* All the messed up emotions and hurt feelings...
Btw is anyone even reading this or am I talking to myself? XD