Green Light (GeminiFourth AU)

Chapter 12

♊4️⃣

Gemini's family was pretty well off, and their house was big. too. When you stood in front of it, the first thing you saw was a little gate, and beyond that a two-story house. It was a pretty old building, but every part of it was in perfect repair, and I'd been told that sometimes people asked to photograph it. Even I could understand why they would want to-the house had this intense charm to it.

There was one problem with this magnificent house, though. It was inevitable considering how old the place was, but it didn't have an intercom to announce yourself like a modern house would. After stopping my bike at the gate, I stood in front of the entryway with its latticed door for a while, unsure what to do. Some people might think it was silly to get so anxious just because there wasn't a doorbell, but at high school age, it would be majorly embarrassing to just shout, "Gemini, want to play?" Just when I'd hit on the genius idea of calling him on his cell, the latticed door in front of me suddenly flung open, and I jumped back wildly.

"Oh, Fourth, I thought that was you. I heard a bike stopping in front of the house and figured it must be. But what are you doing standing around here?"

"U-Uh, nothing..."

"Oh? Well, never mind, come on in."

At his urging I went inside, politely calling out a greeting. Gemini peered at my flushed face, looking worried. "Wow, you're really sweating."

"Well, excuse me. I overslept."

"You really didn't have to rush so hard. You're sure Mr. Conscientious, huh? Or were you just that eager to see me?"

"Enough with that kind of joke. You're making my skin crawl."

"Oh, so I was right."

I turned a full-powered glare on him and he immediately bowed his head contritely.

Still frowning sullenly, I grabbed Gemini's head and turned it to face the other direction in a silent demand that he hurry up and show me to his room.

"That hurts," he complained.

I pretended not to hear him. I didn't want him to turn around and see me blushing.

"Fourth, did I make you angry for real?"

"I'm not angry."

"Then why aren't you saying anything?" he asked, sounding uneasy. But no way was I going to tell him that I was as nervous as a kid looking forward to a field trip.

After winding through a series of hallways, Gemini stopped in front of the house's easternmost room. Its sliding door was painted with magnificent pine trees. I finally let go of Gemini's head, and he opened the door with a look of relief.

"Wait here, I'll go get us something to drink. Tea okay?"

"Yeah, anything's fine."

After he led me inside, Gemini went back down the hallway in the direction we'd come from. Left behind alone, I stood in the middle of the room and looked around me. It was a Japanese-style room about eight tatami mats in size, and spotlessly clean with everything perfectly in its place, too. It was as if the room was an expression of Gemini's personality. In one corner was a stair step- style chest of drawers, the kind you didn't see very often these days; a lamp with a paper shade sat on top of it providing indirect light. His desk was old-fashioned and simple. The atmosphere of the whole room was classic enough to make you wonder whether you'd somehow stumbled into the Showa era.

There was a low, well-used dining table in the center of the room, maybe set there for his study session with me. I sat down on one of the cushions next to it and finally breathed a sigh of relief. Some people were shy around strangers, but here I'd been acting shy around a room. Yet, as I breathed in the fresh, raw scents of wood and tatami, more and more memories of the old days came back to me.