ADMIRE ME |Brothers Conflict

26

"You know," I began, my voice soft, and my gaze turned towards the ceiling. From my position on the floor, I couldn't see Fuuto who was splayed out on the bed, but I knew that he was listening carefully.

"I have always admired you as an idol. Someone who was so far out of my reach that I wouldn't get hurt if I fell in love with them. It was easy. But then I met you in real life, and you were nothing like the idol in my imagination."

Fuuto sat up to look down at me with a hard expression.

"I'll admit that I disliked you at first, but..." I shrugged helplessly. Although I knew that he liked me at least a little bit, this didn't lower the difficulty level of confessing to him at all.

"When I heard that you wrote the mermaid song for me, I was so happy. Surprisingly, it wasn't the fact that the idol I liked had written a song about me. No, the fact that Asahina Fuuto had been thinking about me while he was supposed to be working was what pleased me so much. And all that's because I—"

Fuuto covered my mouth with his lips for a brief moment, muffling my confession.

"I like you, [Y/N]," he said, the words rushed as if this was a competition.

Blinking dumbly, I tried to respond, but Fuuto didn't remove his hand.

"Go to the dance to me, and I'll tell you about the deal I made with your father," he suggested.

Finally, he removed his hand.

"I would love to because I love you."

Fuuto moved to sit down next to me, moving carefully to avoid bumping against my ankle.

"There's something you should probably know," he said, a hesitant tone in his voice. Warily, I turned towards him, ignoring the sinking feeling in my gut.

I knew that his next words could cause us to drift apart and fight if I let them since that was how things had always been between us. If whatever secret Fuuto was going to divulge to me could cause his brows to furrow like that, something serious had happened.

Something serious that could potentially be related to the icy atmosphere between Fuuto and Yuusuke.

"The problem is that you could make the most outrageous confession, and I would probably still love you," I sighed.

Fuuto laughed softly, but there was no humour in the sound. With a defeated sigh, he rested his head back against the bed.

"During the culture fair," he began, pausing after these words. "I tried to kiss Ema," he added as an afterthought.

It made sense.

Ema didn't like Fuuto romantically at all, so this had probably been an attempted forced kiss. If Yuusuke somehow discovered that Fuuto had cornered Ema in his usual fashion, then Yuusuke was sure to be pissed.

"Did she push you away?" I asked him before my real thoughts could make themselves known.

Was I second-choice after all?

Fuuto scowled, glaring at his hands which rested limply in his lap.

"That's not it," he said, frustration lacing his voice.

"Well, she did, but that's not what I meant," he stammered, adding even more confusion to the mix

When he turned to look at me, I felt tempted to smooth out the deep frowns that marred his forehead. Whatever he wanted to tell me, he appeared incapable of finding the correct words.

"Will you still go to the ball with me?" he asked, sounding timider than I had ever seen him.

"I just said I love you, I'm not going to retrace my steps that quickly. I'll still go to the dance with you, Fuuto."