Chapter Text
Harua enters his new dorm room, his roommate nowhere to be found. He knows the boy has already been in the room because there are things scattered across his bed. Unfortunately that means Harua got second pick on beds, meaning he has to sleep in the one closer to the door, but it’s fine with him.
Harua’s best friend, Taki, is helping him move in. They make quick work of moving all of Harua’s bags and then decide to go to a nearby cafe for coffee. Harua orders an iced chai latte while Taki gets an iced americano.
“I don’t know how you drink those,” Harua comments.
“What do you mean? They’re so good!” Taki defends.
“If you say so..” Harua says and catches a glimpse of someone familiar out of the corner of his eye. Maki. His ex-boyfriend. He just sits there and stares. Taki turns around, trying to see what Harua is so focused on.
“Are you okay? What are you looking at?”
“Maki. Is right outside the cafe.” Harua says slowly.
“Seriously?!” Taki asks and quickly looks around until he spots the familiar boy.
“Holy shit man. I hope you don’t have any classes together.”
Harua hadn’t really thought about Maki in over a year. He had finally moved on from their messy breakup. He had no idea when he transferred colleges that Maki also went there, if he had he would’ve never done it.
“So are you just gonna avoid him for the next 3 years?” Taki asked
“What else would I do? I’m not gonna talk to him ever again, I can’t face him. I thought I was over it but I’m clearly not,” Harua said quickly.
“It’s up to you man, I know how much he hurt you.” Taki said.
-
Taki said goodbye to Harua before dropping him off at his dorm around 7pm. Taki didn’t go to college and instead had an internship as a choreographer, which was going pretty well for him. Harua and Taki grew up as neighbors and their parents still live next to each other to this day, which is why they always stayed close even though they didn’t go to the same schools.
Harua slowly walked up the one flight of stairs to his dorm. He pulled out the key to unlock the door, but found that it was already unlocked. He was excited to meet his roommate, he knew nothing about him.
He walked into the room to see none other than Maki. He froze. He considered running out and calling Taki. But he stayed.
“Harua…?”
Harua couldn’t speak. There was no way this was actually happening. He had sworn to never speak to Maki again, he couldn’t handle it.
“Are you my roommate? Wait. That’s a dumb question, obviously you are. Um… I can see if we can swap rooms tomorrow…” Maki ranted.
“I think- I’m gonna be sick.” Harua said and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
“Hey- wait! Are you alright?” Maki yelled and ran towards the bathroom door.
After a few minutes of sitting outside the door, Maki decided to knock. He could hear Harua crying and he wanted to help, even though he knew Harua didn’t want it.
“Can I come in?” Maki asked softly.
“I guess…” He heard Harua sniffle.
Maki slowly opened the door and sat down on the bathroom floor across from Harua, trying not to overstep. He waited for Harua to speak first.
“Maki… we need to talk.”
“I know. Look, it was just a high school fling… we shouldn’t be this messed up over it. I’m sorry that I hurt you but we both know it’s for the best that we stayed apart. Like I said, I’ll see if we can switch rooms.” Maki said.
“I’m gonna go stay at a friend’s tonight…” Harua said and quickly left the bathroom, grabbing a bag, and leaving the dorm room.
Harua sat down on a bench in front of the building and pulled out his phone. He knew who to call when he was in a situation like this. His older friend, Kei, who has always been very protective of him. He also has an apartment nearby.
“Harua? Hello? Are you okay?” Kei answered, knowing something was wrong when Harua didn’t immediately speak.
“Can you… come pick me up? Something really bad happened.” Harua couldn’t stop himself from crying.
“Of course! Send me the address. I will be there as soon as possible.”
“Thank you.”
Harua hung up and brought his knees up to his chest, burrowing his face into them. He cried almost silently as he waited for Kei to save him from this nightmare. Kei arrived about 10 minutes later, frantically looking for the boy.
“Harua! Thank god I was so worried about you,” Kei said, placing his arm on Harua’s shoulder. Harua looked up at him, eyes swollen and red.
-
The two got back to Kei’s apartment and he made Harua a cup of tea. Harua sat on the couch, criss-cross, cuddled up in a blanket with his mug of tea. Kei sat down next to him, careful not to get too close.
“So… do you want to talk about it?” Kei asked cautiously.
“Yeah. Basically, my ex-boyfriend, Maki, is my roommate.”
“Oh my god. How did that happen?! You didn’t know he went to the same college?”
“I was trying to forget him, and I didn’t pay attention when he was applying to colleges.”
“Well can you switch rooms?” Kei asked.
“He said that he’d ask about it tomorrow.”
“Well you can stay here as long as you need.” Kei said. Harua knew that he would offer and he honestly felt like he was taking advantage of Kei. But, getting away from Maki was much more important to him.
“If you don’t mind me asking… What happened between the two of you? It seems like more than just a high school romance.” Kei asked. Harua had only met Kei the year before, when he was a freshman in college, so he never told him about his past. At least, not about Maki.
“Everything was great for the first few months. It started as a very innocent relationship, we just held hands in the halls and kissed each other on the cheeks at school. We didn’t even have sex until we were together for nearly 6 months, although after that we did kind of get crazy. Then, after nearly a year, things changed. Maki started hanging out with this girl from our school a lot. I didn’t know her at first, so I thought they were just friends, but I found out they were actually exes. I confronted him about it and he kind of just ignored me, telling me that nothing was going on between them and that he didn’t even like girls. I accepted that and tried to move on. But she was constantly flirting with him, so I asked her to stop. Maki got mad at me for talking to her and that was the end of it. I’m pretty sure he was cheating on me.”
“Wow… He seemed really protective of her and not you… I’m sorry.” Kei replied.
“It’s alright, I should’ve broken up with him when I first saw the red flags. Then I wouldn’t be so heartbroken.” Harua said.
“No, none of that is your fault, I would’ve done the exact same thing.” Kei said and scooted closer to Harua, pulling him into a hug.