𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐑𝐒! ➛ a. keiji ✔

𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝟬𝟱 ── 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘣𝘦! 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘪 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘶𝘱, 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩...

listen to the song above for a soundtrack!

───── ◦'𖥸'◦ ─────

ichika burst into akaashi's house as fast as she could when she heard the news. filled with anticipation as to how the musician would react, the short-haired woman could barely contain her joy. she often found herself wondering how keiji's usually stoic expression would change into one of happiness, or if he was going to stay just the same. nevertheless, the manager hopped along the man's hallway and knocked on his wooden-framed door.

in contrast to her evident exultation, akaashi's reaction was fruitless. he had clearly just woken up — since it was about 10 in the morning, and was not built to deal with contagious jubilation yet, let alone handle a jumping-up-and-down watanabe-san in his apartment that hour in the morning. the manager's cheerful semblant turned into one of confusion, marvelling about why the man wasn't as excited as she was. still, he made all his attempts to tell the woman his dull expression was not due to the underwhelming-ness of the great news — he was just too tired to process it. however, ichika didn't seem to take it that way.

"well, then you should know this huge producer wants to meet with us. well, you, since the song is yours," she said, trying to lift his spirits. truth was, even though "boy problems" had blown up on youtube, keiji did not think he was worthy of all that attention, given the man couldn't even write his own lyrics — and thus was a poor excuse for a musician, in his eyes.

bokuto, on the other hand, was as thrilled as his girlfriend. still, the feedback didn't come as quickly, for he was as tired as keiji. even so, he embraced her in a tight hug as soon as he saw her, spinning the woman around the room (which evoked desperation from his roommate, since he could break something right there and then). the grey-and-black haired man clearly couldn't contain his enthusiasm.

"dude! that's so cool!" he exclaimed to akaashi, right before giving watanabe-san a loving kiss on the cheek. "you're gonna be famous!"

ichika was quick to retort. "easy, kou. let's not get ahead of ourselves here, okay? tanaka-san wanting to meet with akaashi means he's got an opportunity..." the woman stopped on her tracks, as if she was about to add a contrasting phrase to her previous statement. "of a lifetime! come on, keiji, can't you be a little bit more excited?" the music production student pouted, hoping for at least a frail smile from her boyfriend's friend.

"alright, alright. this is great, don't get me wrong. i just..." keiji noticed the frowns on the couple's faces. they don't know about @musicalities yet. i can't let them down right now. that being said, akaashi made his best effort to muster a smile, finally showing some elation in regards to the news. "you know what? i'm glad. thank you, ichika," he said, giving his manager a pat on her right shoulder.

ichika muttered something along the lines of "don't sweat it, buddy", yet akaashi couldn't properly hear that, given all sound that came from her mouth was muffled by bokuto's biceps embraced around her body. this man really does give the best hugs, watanabe thought to herself.

on the other end, the musician was worried about the whole "someone else is writing these lyrics for me" situation. he needed to confess to someone, and if that someone couldn't be ichika for the reason she'd definitely give him a scolding of sorts, that person had to be his best friend. "bokuto, can you come here for a second? there's this pipe i was you to take a look at," akaashi said, wanting to take bokuto out of the picture for a second or two. "don't worry, watanabe-san, we'll be back in a minute," he added, knowing his manager was the farthest away from stupid.

he pushed koutarou to the bathroom, hoping he'd gotten the message that akaashi wanted to talk in private. needless to say, his hopes went down the drain.

"so, where's the pipe? you know i can't fix things for shit-"

keiji rolled his eyes. "koutarou!" he whisper-shouted, "this isn't about a pipe, okay? focus, now." bokuto looked concerned for akaashi, which made the musician almost immediately regret deciding to confess to his friend. nope. regretting can wait. i need this. "here's the thing: you know how i got into that creative slump?" the blue-eyed man asked and bokuto nodded in response. "well, i didn't 'magically get out of it' like it seemed." akaashi made air quotes as he spoke the previous words. he was dreadfully nervous, still he wished for bokuto to understand. his roommate, however, didn't say anything — which turned akaashi's legs into jelly, shaking from anxiety.

nevertheless, he decided to go on with it. "well, i met this person on the internet, and they're helping me with the lyrics." well, "helping" was a futile attempt at an euphemism from akaashi's part. @musicalities wasn't "helping" per se, more than they were actually writing for him. as an unpaid job. for a failure of a musician. ugh, this rabbit hole is getting deeper and deeper.

bokuto's eyes fired with what looked like enthusiasm, but quickly died with akaashi's somber atmosphere. the tall man wondered if keiji had been talking to a stranger on the internet and getting help with his songwriting through tips and whatnot. however, something in the musician's eyes told him that was not the case. akaashi, on the other hand, knew bokuto was about to ask him a risky question.

"are you dating them? is that why they're helping you?" and there it is, akaashi thought. the baffled bokuto could barely contain his eagerness — my friend is finally dating!

"no, bokuto, i'm not dating anyone," keiji answered, extracting a "aren't-you-really?" smirk from his friend. "i'm serious," he said. "they're sending me the lyrics through mail, that's all." he waited for a response from koutarou, who looked as if he was still processing that bit of information. suddenly, his eyes went back to firing.

"oh, so that's why you kept hiding those letters from me, right?! makes total sense now," he retorted. "are you going to tell this to ichika? she'd like to know..."

"i guess i can tell her later... i don't know. i've got to wait for now," the blue-eyed man said, hoping not to get a scolding from bokuto as well. he had tried to dodge that one by not telling watanabe-san for now, after all. still, koutarou responded to his claim with a confused frown, as if he knew something bad was about to happen if akaashi didn't come clean to his manager. almost as if...

"you better keep your tongue to yourself, bokuto koutarou." keiji knew his friend was prone to falling into the slippery slope of "too big a mouth, too little a conscience". he knew that, if he didn't convince his friend to keep his lips sealed before his girlfriend, keiji's secret would be out in the wild as quickly as the bat of an eye. bokuto didn't say anything, just made a zipping gesture in front of his mouth, saying "your secret's safe with me".

and, as much as akaashi knew he could trust his best friend, he wondered if his secret was in fact worth keeping — and if bokuto would actually do it. he sighed as he came out of the bathroom with a bad excuse as to why the pipe had held him and koutarou in there for so long, making his way to the door as the three of them left to meet with the producer. this is going to be a long day.

───── ◦'𖥸'◦ ─────

a/n: hello my dears !! how's everyone doing? i hope yall are fine. i myself am great, i just finished painting two pictures inspired on the album "three cheers for sweet revenge" by my chemical romance (do yall know them? they recently got back together and i---- yes.). i may update my art book today, so stay tuned! :)

did yall like the chapter? if u did, please consider giving it a vote and sharing the book around! ty so so much <3 as always, thank you as well for reading this far, you guys are my world :) !!

signing off, 

— 𝖒.