Laureate || OiSuga

16

It's summer.

It's summer, and Tōru had moved on from Hajime. He felt no regret or disappointment when Hajime and Yukie announced their engagement, he gratefully accepted the role as best man, he planned parts of the wedding for Hajime.

It's summer, and he's spent more nights at Kōshi's new apartment than the one he now rents with Eita. It was a fair trade off, since Kenjirō had spent many nights there.

Satori had pestered Tōru almost nonstop about confessing to Kōshi, and Keiji had done the same. He told them that no, he would not confess, that he had been rejected once at the hands of Hajime and he didn't plan on experiencing that yet again.

Tōru's train of thought halted as he arrived to Kiyoomi's apartment, the only one large enough to house the small gathering they were holding. Tōru was fashionably late, but the sheer amount of alcohol he brought excused him.

They had all finished their classes, and they deserved to get as drunk as they could without getting alcohol poisoning. Satori, Wakatoshi, Eita, Kenjirō, Kōshi, Keiji, Kōtarō, and Rintarō had already arrived to Kiyoomi's apartment and cheered when Tōru entered.

They all got drunk, playing ridiculous party games and laying on the floor pondering their very existence. At one point a few joints were passed around, and they all felt at home with one another. Times like these were some of the few times Keiji was loud, his laughter ringing throughout the room. It was also one of the rare occasions that Kiyoomi felt comfortable enough to lay his head against Tōru's and Kōshi's while they did facemasks and talked about who they liked.

Kōshi and Tōru were so far gone that they were talking about each other to one another, going on and one about how much they liked the opposite person, with Kiyoomi interjecting his own thoughts of admiration for the pair.

Rintarō, the person most capable of handling his drugs and alcohol, recorded the whole thing, under the guise of keeping memories. He was a filmmaker, after all, and even stoned out of his mind he could create cinematic masterpieces. He filmed as Kōtarō told Keiji an unfunny joke that elicited a laugh anyways, he got shots of Wakatoshi and Satori sleeping on each other, he recorded blushy and oblivious Eita while he was being flirted with by Kenjirō.

He filmed all of this and he filmed the lovebird's confessions, winking at Kiyoomi from behind the camera.

Tōru woke up, head on Kōshi's lap, sighing and leaning into the feeling of fingers in his hair. He felt the fingers hesitate, eyes still closed, before they started moving again. He peeked the eye Kōshi couldn't see open, making direct eye contact with Keiji across from him.

He could see everyone... everyone but Kōshi.

He blushed before closing his eyes and sleeping once more, determined to stay in Kōshi's embrace as long as possible.