A cage was opened and the little bird who had always watched the skies from behind it, courageously took the first step into a new world. Like the pole star guided the voyagers, the birdie eagerly hopped behind the kite which had long captured its attention ; the kite which had brought rainstorms, thunders and cyclones into his world while he was barely equipped against it. Nevertheless, he liked it.

Their affection continued to grow, Asahi's shackles continued to break, although it all happened in the comfort of the dark. Their trysts in the gym, in their dorm rooms, hidden corners in the campus and in the privacy of clubs where Endo introduced Asahi to people like them, all these gave Asahi the greatest rush he had ever experienced. He learned to love Endo and accept a part of him which he had spent so much effort ignoring.

He was in a dreamland where he wanted to stay forever and therefore, when life woke him up, it hit him harsh and cold.

A news had spread among his classmates - Endo, is gay.

Slanders could be ignored, they never mattered without proof but when the gossip made its way to the school forums with a proof, the newsmongers didn't bother to stay silent anymore. Asahi's brief interlude of joy was shattered by a picture ; he saw a young Endo, clearly drunk, kissing a boy on the cheek holding the other's face tightly while the boy, smiled at the camera as he took a selfie.

The boy was rumoured to be Endo's boyfriend from high school.

Now, Endo was high profile. He was good looking, smart enough, good at football,extroverted by nature and hence had a lot of admirers from all different departments. It didn't take much time for the news to spread and his desirability index to take a dip.

Well, all that never seemed to bother Endo but it did bother Asahi. People knew Endo had a lover. While the girls he rejected never bothered to spent much time thinking about the identity of the other in the past, now they all wanted to play Sherlock for some reason.

This scared him off. He'd grow anxious every time he saw a gossip in the forum or in the group chats he was a part of. Everytime he talked to Endo in public, he'd keep a distance and scan the passerbys' faces to see if they noticed something or not. At night when they four sat together in his room to discuss things, Mizutani and Shiiba would console Endo but Asahi could barely get a word out of his mouth. He would listen to Endo but neither would he ask him anything about the photo, nor would he ask how he was doing.

That's right, Shiiba had accepted his friend's coming out incident very naturally, almost as if he'd known it long ago and Mizutani - once he got over the shock, came around pretty quick.

But Asahi found himself falling deeper and deeper into an ocean after having fallen straight from the heavens and the suffocation overwhelmed him. He avoided Mizutani and Shiiba, only finding time to talk to Endo late at night and alone in his room. Often he'd simply lie down, silent, with his head on the other's shoulder, greedy for comfort when clearly he wasn't the one bearing the burden.

He thought he could hold on and like Endo told him repeatedly, he believed the noise would die down with time - that was until someone threw a rock in the pond again. Pictures of Endo and Shiiba in which they hugged, put hands over the other's shoulder and even sitting together were uploaded on the forum. Those were clearly innocent actions and interactions between friends, but with the new lens they had gotten, people want cut it open and squeeze the juice out of it.

Is that the gay guy's boyfriend?

yuckkk(*vomits*)

Endo was still not shaken but it seemed his bottom line was touched. He was worried about Shiiba since they were both from the same department and so he went ahead and told his friend that he can choose to stay away from him for a while if he wanted to. Shiiba said that he didn't care, and he wasn't lying. He stood beside him, at times even mocking those who stared at them in public by shamelessly serving them some PDA.

On the other hand, Asahi was done. Endo had noticed this too. Recently, he couldn't feel at peace even in the privacy of their rooms, behind locked doors. Their talks grew empty, silence reigned and in the end, Asahi felt that it was time.

The kite continued to fly, but the little bird had reached the edge of a cliff. It hadn't yet gathered the courage to take the leap so it could only choose to retreat, blaming itself for not being strong enough.