GARDENIA ver. Red | You’re Lovely, Secret Love

Ever since that day, Tsubaki has taken notice of the boy named Ren more and more. He was even properly introduced to him the other day when he was with Yuri at the time they met for lunch. As the three of them sat at the outdoor table, Yuri’s gaze would constantly drift over to Ren even if he wasn’t speaking. And if Yuri was lucky, he would catch Ren’s stare, and Tsubaki couldn’t help but think he was the only one who noticed when Ren’s cheeks flushed in a panic when Yuri did such things—but Tsubaki kept that to himself.

✻ ✻ ✻

During soccer practice, the team gathers at the center of the field, and Yuri’s confused when Tsubaki is present wearing a jersey.

“Attention everyone!” Team Manager Holly begins to announce. “As of today, Tsubaki Fujihara will officially be made the center forward position on the soccer team.”

The team's eyes shifted from Holly to Tsubaki, and he couldn’t help but get nervous under the spotlight. When the team suddenly went into an uproar as they cheered for the new addition to the team, he couldn’t hold back a big smile.

“This is awesome!”

“Our team is going to be unbeatable now!”

“Welcome to the team, Tsubaki!”

Tsubaki thanked everyone for the praises when Yuri came up to ruffle his honey-brown hair. “Congrats, man! Welcome to the team!” Yuri says with a wide grin, and Tsubaki returns with a smile as bright as the sun.

The whistle goes off. The team takes to the field with the addition of Tsubaki, and the coach can’t help but express how impressed he is through the practice match.

“Look at those two play together,” he says, arms crossed as he looks out on the field. “Urasaki and Fujihara.”

Holly's eyes begin to follow the said two.

“Urasaki was always good as a center midfielder, but now that Fujihara is the main striker, it’s as if the gameplay is completely balanced.” The coach continues to explain, “I was a bit worried since Urasaki tends to make haste decisions on the field, but Fujihara has been keeping up without an issue. And on top of that, because his reaction time is so fast, the result of his strikes is even faster—he’s yet to miss a goal!”

Holly hides a small smirk on her face. “I heard the two joined soccer together in middle school and had since played together mostly through high school.” 

She watches as Tsubaki makes another goal and gets swarmed by his overjoyed teammates. “It’s a good thing I recruited him,” she notes.

“I got it.” Holly looks to the coach as he nods his head like he’s figured something out, and he snaps his fingers. “From now on, those two will be called the “Fujisaki Pair”. Fujihara + Urasaki. When they’re together on the field, they’re invincible.”

“Ah. I see.” Holly just looks at the coach, who’s proudly nodding to himself with a smile of approval, and she rolls her eyes back onto the field.

The practice game then comes to an end, and Yuri comes up to throw an arm over Tsubaki with a grin on his face. “This feels like the old days again!”

Tsubaki smiles. “Yeah.” 

Their captain, Sho, then comes jogging over with an exhausted expression. “Why’re you guys so fast?” he huffed, hands planting themselves onto his knees for balance. “I can’t keep up with you young kids.”

The team chuckles at their dramatic captain, and Yuri says, “You’re only a year older than me, Sho.” 

“That’s not how my knees feel.”

The field fills with laughter, and the coach blows the whistle to wrap up the end of their practice.

In the locker rooms, Sho’s ruffling out his drenched ravenous hair with a towel when he turns to their newest addition. “So, Tsubaki, you said you stopped playing soccer in your second year of high school, right?”

Tsubaki pulled the clean shirt over his head before answering. “Yeah, I had to move suddenly. Because of the circumstances, playing soccer wasn’t really an option while I was abroad.”

“Abroad?”

“Yeah, I’ve kinda been all over the place.”

Sho let out a nervous laugh. “What, are you like some CEO’s son or something?”

“Well, yeah.” Tsubaki deadpanned while simultaneously—but not intentionally—securing his Rolex watch around his wrist, which he pulled out from his locker.

Sho choked on his breath and leaned against the lockers while holding his chest. The other teammates who overheard the conversation started to dramatically pat their captain on the back while telling him it was okay. 

Tsubaki scratched the back of his head, concerned with the scene he just created. “Technically. Uh … He’s my stepdad, though.”

Yuri, who was sitting on the bench next to them the entire time, just laughed. “Don’t worry about it, Tsubaki. Just ignore them.”

“Ignore who?” Sho taunts, his strong arms wrapping Yuri into a headlock. “You didn’t tell us you had an elite friend hiding abroad this whole time, hm?”

“Hey, it’s not my fault—ack!” Yuri knows he’s not stronger than Sho and just lets the older make a mess of his hair. The sound of laughter echoed throughout the locker rooms—a pleasant sound that Tsubaki hadn’t heard in a long time.

Tsubaki and Yuri walk along the campus sidewalk as the sun brings itself to its horizons and the sky paints itself with warm colors. Yuri slings an arm over Tsubaki’s shoulders as he says, once again, “I’m glad you’re back, Tsubaki.”

Tsubaki turns his head to look at him, but when he does, he sees Ren among the crowd coming into view in the distance. He moves his shoulder and puts a bit of distance between himself and Yuri as Ren’s gaze reaches them.

“Hey, let's go somewhere to celebrate joining the team! How about an internet cafe?” Yuri beams, but Tsubaki refuses, maybe a bit too quickly.

When Yuri tilted his head with an inquiring look, Tsubaki couldn’t help but come up with an excuse. 

“I, uh, still have some things to catch up on in my econ class.”

Yuri gave him an understanding smile, raising his hand to brush down the cowlick atop Tsubaki’s head. As he does so, he tells him not to work too hard, making Tsubaki feel even more guilty for lying. 

The two then waved each other off as they parted ways, and Tsubaki watched Yuri’s back turn as he went to Ren’s side. The usual curve appears in the corner of his lips as he greets him, and there’s a subtle endearment in the gaze he holds. The same hand that ruffled Tsubaki’s hair does the same motion to Ren’s, and when Ren’s face flushes the same color as the reddened sky, Tsubaki finally turns away from the scene.

“Maybe that time apart from each other … put more distance between us than I had thought.”