Chapter 3 - And so it begins

Part 1/7

It was getting ridiculous. Ren needed to break eye contact with him. But the closer they got, the cuter he became. It didn’t help that he kept staring back at Ren, as though he couldn’t stop either.

“Are you two having a staring contest?” Niko’s amused voice resonated in the air between them, finally breaking the spell.

Ren narrowed his eyes at his friend at the same time that Yuki looked down, tucking his hands in the pockets of his baggy, colorful jacket. Before any of them could say anything, Kai decided to intervene.

“So, you obviously already know it, but Ren, this is Yuki. Yuki, this is Ren.”

Heart beating faster again, Ren glanced only briefly at Yuki, not knowing how to behave. He knew how he should be acting towards the boy who was probably trying to fuck with his friends' lives, of course. But that damn handsome face of his made something inside of Ren melt. It was hard to keep up with the annoyed façade.

The fact that Yuki seemed to be blushing, his eyes wide, and staring at his shoes, made everything more difficult for Ren. More than once, Yuki seemed to glance at Kai, as if to ask for help. Ren's stomach twitched.

Niko elbowed Ren’s arm, and he could feel the warning his friend was sending him. Be nice. Think of Kai.

Well, I am!

With a deep breath, Ren fully turned to Yuki. Much to his surprise, the boy was already eyeing him curiously, but averted his gaze as soon as it met Ren’s. It was weird, feeling this conflicted about someone. Ren was normally a very collected person, rarely losing his temper or giving much attention to people he didn’t like.

Deciding not to let Yuki hold the power to bring him down like that, Ren straightened his back and gave him a quick nod. “Hi.”

Closing his eyes, Yuki threw his head back and let out a long sigh. When he looked back at Ren, he seemed a lot calmer. He stood tall—well, as tall as he could for his size. A smile slipped across his lips. One far different from what Ren had seen just a few minutes before, when the boy was alone with Kai. 

Ren couldn't read this new smile at all, and it pissed him off.

“You can call me Nakamura,”  Yuki said. His tone just sounded wrong to Ren for some reason. “I've heard a lot about you. You're welcome for the ticket, by the way.”

Flinching at the animosity hidden behind his words, Ren felt lost. He blinked a few times, trying to make sense of how different the boy who stood in front of him right now was from the one he was staring at just a few seconds ago.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, but it was broken by Kai’s not-so-subtle huff. He took Niko’s hand and pulled him to his side, hooking an arm around his waist. Ren knew that was a way for him to feel more grounded when he was too stressed.

He noticed Yuki looking at Kai’s hand on Niko’s waist and letting out a low sigh. Stomach flipping again, Ren’s eyes narrowed. The annoyance he should’ve been feeling all along finally presented itself.

“Well, let’s do what we came here to do, shall we?” Ren could hear how authoritative his own voice sounded, but didn’t care. It got Yuki’s attention off of their friends.

“A little impatient, huh?” It was subtle, but Yuki’s smile faltered for a moment. He lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Kai’s and Niko’s shoulders. “Let's get going, then! First live soccer pro game, this should be awesome!”

“Wait, Kai. You still have my phone,” Ren recalled. He felt a judgy glare from Yuki, but didn't mind it.

“Oh, right!” Kai fished the phone from his back pocket. 

He was about to hand it to Ren, when something flickered across his face. Picking his own phone from the other pocket, he started tapping something in both of them.

“What are you doing?” Ren knitted his eyebrows together.

“Adding Yuki’s number in your phone,” Kai said, as though that was the most normal thing in the world.

Which it wasn’t.

“What?” it was Yuki who asked, in a high-pitched tone. Ren had to agree with his reaction.

“Just in case we all get lost and one of you can’t reach me and Niko.” Kai shrugged.

“Dude,” Ren gasped. "This isn’t—”

“Done. Sent you a text so you can save his number too, Yuki,” Kai interrupted Ren’s complaint, finally handing him his phone.

Ren held it with his free hand, tightening his grip around the cheddar fries bowl, while still processing what his friend had just done. Yuki’s phone pinged and he picked it up, eyes wide again.

Peeking at his own screen, Ren raised an eyebrow. There was a chat open, the name Nakamura Yuki written above it. The message Kai had sent was a simple Hi, I’m Watanabe Ren, save my number. It made Ren roll his eyes.

Touching on the option to edit contact, Ren furiously erased Yuki’s name. Instead, he wrote Asshole.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw that Yuki was still staring at his own phone. His large, full lips were a bit open, and Ren’s heart fluttered while looking at them. 

He licked his own lips, eyes tracing Yuki’s curved cheekbones and large nose, which was also adorably round on the tip. The freckles on his face were more visible now that they were closer, and the will to know all the parts of Yuki’s body they covered took over Ren once more.

Gulping, he looked back at his phone and sighed. He directed the cursor to the beginning of the line and added Gorgeous. Gorgeous Asshole. Save contact.