It Was Always You (Chapter 2)
Title: It Was Always You
Pairing: Sakumiya (main), Ohmiya, Sakuraiba
Rating: PG
Summary: Ninomiya Kazunari attempts to confess his feelings to college senior Ohno Satoshi in a letter. However, in a twist of events, the letter did not end up with Ohno, but his roommate Sakurai Sho, who happened to have unrequited feelings for Nino's roommate, Aiba Masaki. The pair finally decide to form an alliance of mutual interests, only to learn that it takes them in a completely different direction...
Notes: Sorry for the long wait- here is chapter 2 (and 3... and 4, possibly), I had to rest a bit due to a medical condition. Having it checked tomorrow at the hospital. I hope it gets better soon. /:
A week later, Nino looked down at the letter in his hands. Apparently, what should have taken him less than seven hours to write ended up taking him seven days instead. He had also decided that giving it to him in person was too much of an embarrassment and opted for slipping the letter in his bag while leaving his phone number under his name.
"This should do it," he thought as he sealed the letter with glue in a plain white envelope and placed it in his bag. He then looked around the cafeteria to see that Whatshisname was carrying over some duffel bags and placing them at the place where they usually sat. He then left them there and proceeded to buy his own lunch. Seeing this chance, Nino took a deep breath and walked towards the table.
He frowned as he noticed that the duffel bags looked exactly the same.
ac
"Oh hell. Just HOW do they even tell their own bags apart?!" Nino grumbled and his eyes caught sight of the name tags that were hanging from a zipper on each of their bags.
"…Sakurai Sho…or Ohno Satoshi?" Nino wrinkled his nose in frustration. NOW he knew why Aiba had suggested that he looked at Whatshisname’s art materials. Just as he was scratching the top of his head in frustration…
".…can I help you?" an unfamiliar voice asked.
Nino turned around to meet not the curious, questioning eyes of Whatshisname…but stern, cautious ones of Whatshisname's friend.
"ERM... NOTHING!" Nino blurted out in embarrassment and bolted away, leaving Whathisname’s friend to stare after him in confusion.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sakurai Sho pursed his lips at the boy who ran off, and caught sight of a white envelope on the floor. He picked it up and gave a sigh.
“Well this is just great. I can’t return it because I don’t know whose it is and I don’t know who to give it to because there is no name on this,” Sho thought aloud as he sat down, frowning at the envelope in his hands.
"Ah! Sho-kun! You are here!"
Sho looked up to see Ohno walking over with their lunches. He gave his friend a smile as he quietly slipped the envelope away. He took his rice bowl and set it before him, his eyes flitting over for a second at the white envelope sticking out of his bag.
He decided that it was something he had better deal with on his own.
Surely, whoever wrote its contents would forgive him for opening it to find out who to give it to.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"WHAT?!" Aiba cried out in shock as he drank his coffee, "so you have NO idea if the letter even ended up with that dude?"
Nino sighed and shook his head.
"I only saw his friend at that point in time. I panicked and ran away. And... I dropped the letter so I have no idea where it is right now..."
"Wait a second. Let me get this straight,” Aiba said, “your envelope has no name on it?”
“I didn’t really know his name, so I couldn’t possibly write it, can I?”
“… Okay.. And when you panicked and ran from that dude, you didn’t tell him to give the letter to his friend?”
“Like I said, I panicked and ran, and so I couldn’t..”
Nino paused as it finally dawned on him.
“… I SHOULD have done that, right?”
Aiba sighed in response.
“Oh well.. did you at least leave your contact details in the letter?”
“Oh, that I remembered.”
“Then it is quite simple to resolve, actually,” Aiba said brightly, “whoever contacts you about this has obviously seen your contact details. Just tell them that it was a huge mistake and retrieve the letter from them.”
Just then, Nino felt the table vibrate for a second. He looked at his phone to see that he had received a text message from an unknown number.
"Ninomiya-san, I have read your letter. Please meet me outside the college gates at 6pm sharp today. It is very much appreciated if you could meet me on your own.
Thank you.
Sakurai Sho."
Nino felt his heart thud hard in his chest at the message. A dude had picked up his letter, and it was formal, even a bit cold for a reply to his letter.
"Oh God this Sakurai Sho dude picked it up and wants to see me…" Nino whined as he rested his head on his arms, "who IS he anyway?”
“There there. Worse things could have happened,” Aiba said, “at least your mysterious recipient does not sound TOO offended.”
“He STILL sounds offended!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sho looked down at the letter that 'Ninomiya Kazunari' had wrote.
"Dear you,
Before anything, thank you so much for helping me out on the first day of school. I was completely lost around the campus and you being there to guide me to my dormitory room was a great help.
Perhaps it was from that time on when you placed my suitcase down right by the door when I felt that you had left an impression on me.
Of course, we never spoke to each other even since that day, but I do notice you every time I see you.
Sometimes I would see you shuffling quietly towards your next class with an adorably sleepy face.
Some other times you would be chatting with your friend, a bright smile gracing your chubby cheeks.
During those times when I saw you from afar, a huge part of me really wished that I was there with you.
I really do admire you a lot, and I really want to get to know you.
Ninomiya Kazunari."
Sho looked at the phone number scribbled neatly under the name on the letter and thought of the student who had dropped it earlier on.
There was no doubt that that guy was 'Ninomiya Kazunari', and the letter was obviously intended for someone else. But whoever its intended recipient was, he had no idea. Also…
"How in the world did he know Aiba-san?" Sho wondered as he recalled watching him find Aiba in the cafeteria soon after he fled.
Presently, he looked around, only to see a familiar figure walking towards the school gate and looking around. Their eyes met for a moment before "Ninomiya Kazunari" hurriedly averted his eyes away and looked around elsewhere as if he was searching for someone.
Sho frowned in confusion at his response and trudged towards the boy standing by the school gates to give him a firm tap on the shoulder.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"You!" Nino exclaimed as he spun around and leveled a glare at the guy who tapped his shoulder.
"How rude," the guy spoke in an unimpressed manner while holding up Nino's letter, "I am the one who sent you that text, you know."
Nino's eyes widened in shock.
"So you are ‘Sakurai Sho’? YOU picked it my letter up and read it?”
Sho nodded. Nino gave an awkward, sheepish smile in response.
“Please, don’t take this wrongly, okay?” Nino said, “but that letter was not meant for you. It was meant for your friend.”
Sho blinked. “You meant to give this letter to my friend? I mean, I KNOW it isn’t for me but.. It’s for my friend?”
Nino looked down, wishing that he were standing in quicksand instead. Anytime now, he would welcome the notion of sinking into the ground and never to be seen again.
“Yeah.. You know.. Tanned, chubby cheeks, always drawing..”
“Tanned, chubby.. Ah! Satoshi-kun?" Sho questioned.
Nino looked up in surprise.
"Sa...toshi..-kun?"
Sho whipped out his phone and tapped on it, and before long he showed the screen to Nino.
It was a picture of the man himself and Sakurai Sho. His eyes widened in recognition of that chubby face, and Sho grinned.
"Yep. I guessed it," Sho said as he brought the phone back to his pocket, "his name is Ohno Satoshi."
"Ohno...Satoshi…huh..." Nino murmured quietly to himself, the name rolling off pleasantly on his tongue.
Even his name sounds as tranquil as his personality (or whatever he knew of it).
"Well I thought I would meet you properly so I could do you a favour," Sho said. Nino looked up at him with a slightly cautious frown.
"…You have a motive of your own, don't you?" Nino asked, "you do realise I could just give him the letter on my own, right?"
"Says the person who had to resort to sneaking over to someone's bags and even end up getting caught in the process."
"It was hard telling your bags apart especially when I did not know your names!"
"Gee, you should really at least learn your crush's name first before writing a letter to him.."
"He is not my crush! He is… he is just an interest."
Sho only rolled his eyes as he neatly folded up the letter and kept it in his pocket, "what is interesting to me is…how in the world did you know Aiba-san?"
"Huh? Aiba-sa-... OH! Aiba-cchi?" Nino answered,"he is my roommate. We share the same dorm room."
"Oh... I see. That makes sense, I guess," Sho murmured as he looked down at the ground in thought. Nino squinted at him as the wheels in his head started turning.
"Wait.. Aiba-kun is MY roommate. How in the world do YOU know him? ...You... are not some creepy stalker, are you?"
"O-OI! I-I'm not some stalker okay!" Sho protested, now visibly offended, "we were in the same high school with Satoshi-kun!"
"Really?" Nino said, completely unconvinced, "he did not mention you at all..."
"Yeah well, we did not really KNOW each other per se. I saw his face in the basketball team in the school yearbook, and I thought..."
"Ah…so you ARE a stalker."
"THAT'S NOT IT!"
Nino smirked. "Gotcha."
"I could say the same to you!" Sho bit back, "fancy stalking my best friend.. why DO you like him anyway? Apart from the fact that he helped you on your first day of school, that is."
Nino sighed as he leaned against the whitewashed wall of their university.
"How do I explain it.." Nino mumbled as he searched his mind for words, "he seems easygoing like me, I guess."
Nino expected the guy to laugh, but only saw him nod in agreement, as if he knew exactly what he meant.
"”He is a quiet guy and a really good listener. It is easy to tell him anything."
"He does give off that feel," Nino agreed as he followed Sho's gaze up to the swaying trees, "and you? Why do you like Aiba-san?"
"I do NOT like Aiba-san!" Sho protested with a blushing face, "I.. respect him. It is different!"
"Right. Right. You RESPECT him. Sure," Nino jested cheekily, "seriously though. Why? He is a complete idiot."
"Hey, he is NOT an idiot!" Sho protested, "do you know that way back in high school, he was the star of our basketball team?! And do you know that he was one of the top examination scorers in our cohort too?"
Nino smirked quietly to himself.
"Wow. If I told him that this same 'Aiba-san' he idolises has a super messy room with a bunch of adult magazines under his bed…" Nino wondered with a wide, knowing grin on his face. He looked at Sho with a brainwave in his mind.
"Sakurai-san, why don’t we cooperate with each other?" Nino said, "I would help you get closer to your beloved Aiba Masaki while you help me BEFRIEND your friend Ohno Satoshi."
"LIke I said, he is not my beloved Aiba Masaki. I RESPECT him!"
"Whatever you say," Nino said as he reached out a hand, and Sho looked at it for a moment before taking his hand in his own for a symbolic handshake of a formed alliance.
Pairing: Sakumiya (main), Ohmiya, Sakuraiba
Rating: PG
Summary: Ninomiya Kazunari attempts to confess his feelings to college senior Ohno Satoshi in a letter. However, in a twist of events, the letter did not end up with Ohno, but his roommate Sakurai Sho, who happened to have unrequited feelings for Nino's roommate, Aiba Masaki. The pair finally decide to form an alliance of mutual interests, only to learn that it takes them in a completely different direction...
Notes: Sorry for the long wait- here is chapter 2 (and 3... and 4, possibly), I had to rest a bit due to a medical condition. Having it checked tomorrow at the hospital. I hope it gets better soon. /:
A week later, Nino looked down at the letter in his hands. Apparently, what should have taken him less than seven hours to write ended up taking him seven days instead. He had also decided that giving it to him in person was too much of an embarrassment and opted for slipping the letter in his bag while leaving his phone number under his name.
"This should do it," he thought as he sealed the letter with glue in a plain white envelope and placed it in his bag. He then looked around the cafeteria to see that Whatshisname was carrying over some duffel bags and placing them at the place where they usually sat. He then left them there and proceeded to buy his own lunch. Seeing this chance, Nino took a deep breath and walked towards the table.
He frowned as he noticed that the duffel bags looked exactly the same.
ac
"Oh hell. Just HOW do they even tell their own bags apart?!" Nino grumbled and his eyes caught sight of the name tags that were hanging from a zipper on each of their bags.
"…Sakurai Sho…or Ohno Satoshi?" Nino wrinkled his nose in frustration. NOW he knew why Aiba had suggested that he looked at Whatshisname’s art materials. Just as he was scratching the top of his head in frustration…
".…can I help you?" an unfamiliar voice asked.
Nino turned around to meet not the curious, questioning eyes of Whatshisname…but stern, cautious ones of Whatshisname's friend.
"ERM... NOTHING!" Nino blurted out in embarrassment and bolted away, leaving Whathisname’s friend to stare after him in confusion.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sakurai Sho pursed his lips at the boy who ran off, and caught sight of a white envelope on the floor. He picked it up and gave a sigh.
“Well this is just great. I can’t return it because I don’t know whose it is and I don’t know who to give it to because there is no name on this,” Sho thought aloud as he sat down, frowning at the envelope in his hands.
"Ah! Sho-kun! You are here!"
Sho looked up to see Ohno walking over with their lunches. He gave his friend a smile as he quietly slipped the envelope away. He took his rice bowl and set it before him, his eyes flitting over for a second at the white envelope sticking out of his bag.
He decided that it was something he had better deal with on his own.
Surely, whoever wrote its contents would forgive him for opening it to find out who to give it to.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"WHAT?!" Aiba cried out in shock as he drank his coffee, "so you have NO idea if the letter even ended up with that dude?"
Nino sighed and shook his head.
"I only saw his friend at that point in time. I panicked and ran away. And... I dropped the letter so I have no idea where it is right now..."
"Wait a second. Let me get this straight,” Aiba said, “your envelope has no name on it?”
“I didn’t really know his name, so I couldn’t possibly write it, can I?”
“… Okay.. And when you panicked and ran from that dude, you didn’t tell him to give the letter to his friend?”
“Like I said, I panicked and ran, and so I couldn’t..”
Nino paused as it finally dawned on him.
“… I SHOULD have done that, right?”
Aiba sighed in response.
“Oh well.. did you at least leave your contact details in the letter?”
“Oh, that I remembered.”
“Then it is quite simple to resolve, actually,” Aiba said brightly, “whoever contacts you about this has obviously seen your contact details. Just tell them that it was a huge mistake and retrieve the letter from them.”
Just then, Nino felt the table vibrate for a second. He looked at his phone to see that he had received a text message from an unknown number.
"Ninomiya-san, I have read your letter. Please meet me outside the college gates at 6pm sharp today. It is very much appreciated if you could meet me on your own.
Thank you.
Sakurai Sho."
Nino felt his heart thud hard in his chest at the message. A dude had picked up his letter, and it was formal, even a bit cold for a reply to his letter.
"Oh God this Sakurai Sho dude picked it up and wants to see me…" Nino whined as he rested his head on his arms, "who IS he anyway?”
“There there. Worse things could have happened,” Aiba said, “at least your mysterious recipient does not sound TOO offended.”
“He STILL sounds offended!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sho looked down at the letter that 'Ninomiya Kazunari' had wrote.
"Dear you,
Before anything, thank you so much for helping me out on the first day of school. I was completely lost around the campus and you being there to guide me to my dormitory room was a great help.
Perhaps it was from that time on when you placed my suitcase down right by the door when I felt that you had left an impression on me.
Of course, we never spoke to each other even since that day, but I do notice you every time I see you.
Sometimes I would see you shuffling quietly towards your next class with an adorably sleepy face.
Some other times you would be chatting with your friend, a bright smile gracing your chubby cheeks.
During those times when I saw you from afar, a huge part of me really wished that I was there with you.
I really do admire you a lot, and I really want to get to know you.
Ninomiya Kazunari."
Sho looked at the phone number scribbled neatly under the name on the letter and thought of the student who had dropped it earlier on.
There was no doubt that that guy was 'Ninomiya Kazunari', and the letter was obviously intended for someone else. But whoever its intended recipient was, he had no idea. Also…
"How in the world did he know Aiba-san?" Sho wondered as he recalled watching him find Aiba in the cafeteria soon after he fled.
Presently, he looked around, only to see a familiar figure walking towards the school gate and looking around. Their eyes met for a moment before "Ninomiya Kazunari" hurriedly averted his eyes away and looked around elsewhere as if he was searching for someone.
Sho frowned in confusion at his response and trudged towards the boy standing by the school gates to give him a firm tap on the shoulder.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"You!" Nino exclaimed as he spun around and leveled a glare at the guy who tapped his shoulder.
"How rude," the guy spoke in an unimpressed manner while holding up Nino's letter, "I am the one who sent you that text, you know."
Nino's eyes widened in shock.
"So you are ‘Sakurai Sho’? YOU picked it my letter up and read it?”
Sho nodded. Nino gave an awkward, sheepish smile in response.
“Please, don’t take this wrongly, okay?” Nino said, “but that letter was not meant for you. It was meant for your friend.”
Sho blinked. “You meant to give this letter to my friend? I mean, I KNOW it isn’t for me but.. It’s for my friend?”
Nino looked down, wishing that he were standing in quicksand instead. Anytime now, he would welcome the notion of sinking into the ground and never to be seen again.
“Yeah.. You know.. Tanned, chubby cheeks, always drawing..”
“Tanned, chubby.. Ah! Satoshi-kun?" Sho questioned.
Nino looked up in surprise.
"Sa...toshi..-kun?"
Sho whipped out his phone and tapped on it, and before long he showed the screen to Nino.
It was a picture of the man himself and Sakurai Sho. His eyes widened in recognition of that chubby face, and Sho grinned.
"Yep. I guessed it," Sho said as he brought the phone back to his pocket, "his name is Ohno Satoshi."
"Ohno...Satoshi…huh..." Nino murmured quietly to himself, the name rolling off pleasantly on his tongue.
Even his name sounds as tranquil as his personality (or whatever he knew of it).
"Well I thought I would meet you properly so I could do you a favour," Sho said. Nino looked up at him with a slightly cautious frown.
"…You have a motive of your own, don't you?" Nino asked, "you do realise I could just give him the letter on my own, right?"
"Says the person who had to resort to sneaking over to someone's bags and even end up getting caught in the process."
"It was hard telling your bags apart especially when I did not know your names!"
"Gee, you should really at least learn your crush's name first before writing a letter to him.."
"He is not my crush! He is… he is just an interest."
Sho only rolled his eyes as he neatly folded up the letter and kept it in his pocket, "what is interesting to me is…how in the world did you know Aiba-san?"
"Huh? Aiba-sa-... OH! Aiba-cchi?" Nino answered,"he is my roommate. We share the same dorm room."
"Oh... I see. That makes sense, I guess," Sho murmured as he looked down at the ground in thought. Nino squinted at him as the wheels in his head started turning.
"Wait.. Aiba-kun is MY roommate. How in the world do YOU know him? ...You... are not some creepy stalker, are you?"
"O-OI! I-I'm not some stalker okay!" Sho protested, now visibly offended, "we were in the same high school with Satoshi-kun!"
"Really?" Nino said, completely unconvinced, "he did not mention you at all..."
"Yeah well, we did not really KNOW each other per se. I saw his face in the basketball team in the school yearbook, and I thought..."
"Ah…so you ARE a stalker."
"THAT'S NOT IT!"
Nino smirked. "Gotcha."
"I could say the same to you!" Sho bit back, "fancy stalking my best friend.. why DO you like him anyway? Apart from the fact that he helped you on your first day of school, that is."
Nino sighed as he leaned against the whitewashed wall of their university.
"How do I explain it.." Nino mumbled as he searched his mind for words, "he seems easygoing like me, I guess."
Nino expected the guy to laugh, but only saw him nod in agreement, as if he knew exactly what he meant.
"”He is a quiet guy and a really good listener. It is easy to tell him anything."
"He does give off that feel," Nino agreed as he followed Sho's gaze up to the swaying trees, "and you? Why do you like Aiba-san?"
"I do NOT like Aiba-san!" Sho protested with a blushing face, "I.. respect him. It is different!"
"Right. Right. You RESPECT him. Sure," Nino jested cheekily, "seriously though. Why? He is a complete idiot."
"Hey, he is NOT an idiot!" Sho protested, "do you know that way back in high school, he was the star of our basketball team?! And do you know that he was one of the top examination scorers in our cohort too?"
Nino smirked quietly to himself.
"Wow. If I told him that this same 'Aiba-san' he idolises has a super messy room with a bunch of adult magazines under his bed…" Nino wondered with a wide, knowing grin on his face. He looked at Sho with a brainwave in his mind.
"Sakurai-san, why don’t we cooperate with each other?" Nino said, "I would help you get closer to your beloved Aiba Masaki while you help me BEFRIEND your friend Ohno Satoshi."
"LIke I said, he is not my beloved Aiba Masaki. I RESPECT him!"
"Whatever you say," Nino said as he reached out a hand, and Sho looked at it for a moment before taking his hand in his own for a symbolic handshake of a formed alliance.