Seven Days /// Yesterday: Talk me Down
Banner by naomi0211 ♥
Title: Seven Days /// Too short to last forever
Pairing: Akanishi Jin x Kazuya Kamenashi //Akame//
Genre: AU!!!, Romance, School Life
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story. I don't make profit with this.
Summary: Every Monday Jin starts going out with the first person asking him. However, he would always dump them by the end of the week, and the game replays from next Monday on. Until Kazuya enters the school and gets annoyed by that behaviour, but can't get Jin to change. There is just one way to make Jin pay attention to him.
A/N: English isn't my mother tongue, but I lived in the UK for quite a time, so I basically write and speak well. You're welcome to correct any mistakes, though. Of course.
A/N#2: This is NOT COMPLETELY MINE. The idea is based on a manga by Tachibana Benio by the same title. I thought the idea was quite interesting, but it's the only thing I took from that manga; character devolpments and plot are going to be completely different from the original.
Here I am with a new Akame Multichap. Again.
I thought about making this as a Oneshot, but, well... somehow I planned out an at least 9-Chapter-Story so far O_o
So, I hope you're going to enjoy this. It's slightly different this time; since I think I already wrote a lot about their real lives, I decided on an AU story this time.
Well, I can just hope for you to like it, though!
Yesterday: Talk me down
It had been two weeks, since Kazuya had entered the school. And so far, everything had just been like in every other school, as well.
They had moved for the third time by then and for every place Kazuya always hoped again, they’d finally stay.
It wasn’t particularly for the people he met, but just for the sake of feeling home at any place.
The town they had moved to this time was rather a village, but it was okay. People in his class were nice and treating him well and he had gotten easily into it.
It was a rather usual public school with not many students, actually. In his grade there were only 3 classes.
Kazuya had turned sixteen that year and it was his first year in junior high, so changing classes during such a time could get difficult, but it hadn’t been, fortunately.
He sat in his chair in class, staring out of the window and eating his bento, when he heard the door in the class room open and two people coming in.
“It’s Aya”, a girl said and everyone else in the room got quiet, looking at them.
The other girl nodded and went to her seat, everyone else getting up to gather around her. “She’s the lucky one for this week.”
“Didn’t you date him, too, Misato?”
She nodded. “But I’ve been one of the first ones.”
“You’ll probably get another chance after two years have passed!”
Everyone laughed, until the girl, who had come in with her, said: “He always only dates a person for one time.”
“Stupid, aren’t they?”
Kazuya looked up at the boy standing next to him, leaning against the window. His name was Ueda Tatsuya and they sometimes went home together, since they lived in the same direction. He had slightly reddish hair and a gentle smile.
Kazuya frowned. “Is that about that senpai everyone keeps talking about?”
Ueda nodded. “He’s popular, for some reason.”
“I heard he’s really good looking.”
Ueda tilted his head and watched the crowd in the room, getting excited over the news of a girl from their class dating said senpai. “I guess he is.”
“I haven’t seen him yet”, Kazuya commented. “But heard plenty about him.”
“He’s not picky, that’s what I found.”
“You can’t be picky when you change your girlfriend every week.”
That was basically what all those stories where about.
That senpai was dating someone else every seven days. The first comes, the first serves; that’s how it went.
Whoever asked him first on Monday would be the one he’d be dating for the following week.
And then he would break up on Sunday evening.
Kazuya had heard a lot about him, Akanishi-kun.
“He’s actually really nice.”
Ueda turned his head, as a boy with blonde hair joined their conversation.
“Is he?” Ueda smiled slightly. “Do you know him that well, Tanaka-kun?”
The blonde grinned and took the seat in front of Kazuya, putting his arms onto the back rest to look at them. “I’ve heard”, he said and then added: “My sister told me.”
“Did she date him, too”, Kazuya wanted to know.
“A few months ago.”
Ueda nodded. “And you just let her, Koki? Didn’t he break her heart?”
Koki shook his head. “Not at all. She said it was okay he broke up with her. But he’d been a very nice and caring boyfriend.”
“Does he only date girls?”
Ueda smirked at the brunette. “Ah, Kamenashi-kun, do you want to give it a try?”
Kazuya laughed clumsily and shook his head quickly. “I was just wondering, since at some point there can’t be any girl left for him to date. When he had them all, you know?”
“You have a point”, Koki said. “I am not sure, but I think, so far, no boy tried.”
“I can’t really imagine he’d reject the offer.”
“Why is he doing that?”
Ueda shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows? He’s probably looking for the right one.”
Kazuya pouted his lips and continued eating, his expression frowning. “I can’t really imagine it’ll work out this way.”
They first met, when Kazuya left school to go home the Friday after that.
Since he had been late, Kazuya had had to stay for a bit longer than usual. So, as he left, no one else was still there and the school yard completely empty.
Except for one person who was standing at the gate; leaning against one of the cribs.
Kazuya didn’t see him immediately, but he took notice of someone being there, without paying much attention.
Only, when he walked past him, the other boy spoke up suddenly.
“You’re Kamenashi-kun, right?”
Kazuya stopped and turned his head, blinking at the other one. “Eh… Yes. Why?”
The other boy tilted his head and smiled friendly, giving Kazuya a confusing feeling in his stomach. “I noticed, you are quite popular amongst the girls; even the older ones.”
Blinking, Kazuya looked at him. “Well, that’s none of your business, is it?”
“I just noticed.”
He looked older than himself, Kazuya assessed. His hair was dark brunette and longer, a bit curly. He looked good, so Kazuya couldn’t quite figure what that was about. “Well, people tend to judge others from their appearances.”
“That’s easy, isn’t it”, the other one replied.
“I don’t know”, Kazuya said, but then thought about it for a second. “It’s probably not.”
“People tend to break up with you, because you’re not the way they assumed you were.”
That pretty much hit the point and Kazuya tilted his head, looking puzzled. He just was about to answer it, when a girl approached them.
“I am sorry to make you wait”, she said in a cheerful voice and gripped the boy’s arm. Then she noticed Kazuya and smiled at him. “See you tomorrow, Kame-kun.”
Kazuya nodded slowly. “Yeah, see you tomorrow, Aya-chan.”
They walked away; the girl was cheerfully talking and clinging to her boyfriend’s arm. Kazuya was just staring, until he couldn’t see them anymore.
So, that had been Akanishi? The one everyone talked about?
He had left a rather cold impression on Kazuya. He didn’t see satisfied, happy or cheerful to Kazuya; rather unpleased.
But Akanishi’s words had struck his heart, since they were the truth. Kazuya knew it just too well.
People kept just looking at a person’s face, judging them from their appearance, whether they were pretty and good-looking.
It didn’t matter if the character was bad, as long as the outer appearance was pleasant.
But only as long as they didn’t have to get closer to that person. Because when they did, they noticed that character was something important, that one couldn’t love a person only for their pretty face.
Kazuya knew that just so very well.
How often had he heard those words, those excuses, often accusations, too?
I was wrong, thinking you were a wonderful person; you’re not half as pretty as your face made me think you were…
That was how things went and by then, Kazuya had gotten careful to not let anyone too close to himself. They would only get disappointed, in any way, so it was better to not get involved in the first place.
But, as it seemed, Akanishi had chosen it the other way around, had chosen to let them hurt him, to let them close, to let them see his true self.
And Kazuya wondered if it was hurting him, if it was painful to know people started to dislike you because you weren’t the way they assumed you would be.
The whole situation made Kazuya interested in what Akanishi’s reasons were, why he’d do that, who he really was and where he thought it would lead him.
Strangely, it made Kazuya interested in Akanishi.
Jin was sitting in a café the next day.
As usual, he was early, waiting for his date. That’s what a perfect boyfriend was like, after all. He’d never make his girlfriend wait for him.
Actually, he had offered Aya to pick her up from home, but she had rejected it, said, it was alright to just meet in a café.
So, there he was, looking at the menu while waiting.
Since it was a rather small town, there weren’t many people in the café that Saturday afternoon; only a few elderly women had tea at one of the corner tables.
Outside, there weren’t many shops, so people didn’t even bother to go shopping here. Only for grocery, when it came to it. To shop for clothes and other things, they would all go to one of the larger cities near by or even Tokyo.
Of course, Jin had offered that, as well. Going to Tokyo with her to shop or watch a movie or whatever she wanted. But she had rejected that offer, as well.
He wasn’t quite sure what she expected him to do to entertain her, but he was sure she expected something, after all.
The weather was nice, so he could surely come up with something.
As the door opened, Jin turned his head, and frowned, as not Aya came in. She was surely late.
Jin had never seen the boy before. He was rather small, slim, with light brunette hair and quite huge eyes. In the moment, he turned his head to say something to the person behind him, Jin recognized the other boy.
Kazuya smiled at the friend he had come with and pointed to a table at the window. “Lets sit there.”
Jin watched them taking a seat and the alien boy noticed his look, tilted his head and staring back.
“Whom did you spot, Tegoshi?” Kazuya knew exactly that something had drawn in his friend’s attention. He turned and saw Jin sitting a few tables away.
Kindly nodding his head in a greeting, Kazuya turned back to his friend.
Tegoshi smiled. “You know him?”
“Well, everyone here’s at the same school. I saw him before, I think.”
“He’s pretty, isn’t he?”
Kazuya laughed, as the waitress brought them each a glass of water. Tegoshi was talking loudly enough for Akanishi to hear them and it was amusing to him how his friend didn’t care for that.
They both ordered something cool to drink and Jin raised an eyebrow. Whoever that guy was, Kamenashi had brought along, Jin wasn’t fond of him.
His outer appearance was way too smooth and innocent; Jin didn’t think he was an honest person at all.
The door opened again and this time, it was really Aya coming in. She seemed calm, not as if she had hurried just a bit to be there in time.
Jin didn’t like those manners, but it didn’t matter, since he would break up the next day, however. He had known he would on Monday already, so there was no use in making himself illusions of having found someone worth his trying.
She spotted Kazuya on her way to Jin and stopped at his table.
“Kazuya-kun”, she greeted him friendly, “it’s nice to see you.”
“Hey, Aya”, he smiled back. “On a date with your boyfriend?”
“That’s it.” Then she looked at Kazuya’s company and tilted her head.
“That’s Tegoshi-kun”, Kazuya introduced him. “He’s a friend from where I lived before. Yuya, that’s Miura Aya, she’s in my class.”
Tegoshi smiled at her sweetly. “Nice to meet you, Aya-chan.”
She looked back at Kazuya. “It’s just so typically you to have only friends looking just as pretty as you do.”
He didn’t answer that and just let her walk over to Jin like that.
Tegoshi frowned and leaned in to him. “Who says I am your only friend?”
“No one.”
“Well, but she can’t know whether the others are pretty, too, can she?”
Kazuya shook his head. “Let them think, what they want.”
Tegoshi lifted his head again, a surprised expression in his face. “Ah, he’s her boyfriend”, he said, as Aya sat down at Jin’s table.
“Until tomorrow, yes”, Kazuya answered and Tegoshi tilted his head, looking confused, so Kazuya explained the situation to him.
Jin threw them short glances from time to time, while Aya made her order. He didn’t like that they were so obviously talking about him. But, he told himself to ignore it and concentrated on Aya, giving her a smile, as the waitress took her leave.
She frowned at him, though.
“Did you walk here”, she asked.
Jin nodded, knowing exactly what was coming.
“In those clothes?”
He wore jeans, but they were far from fit; instead they were wide and baggy. His shirt was rather simple, the boots so old, he couldn’t remember when he had bought them. But he liked those clothes; they were comfortable and they were suiting him.
“What were you expecting”, he wanted to know.
“I don’t know. I mostly see you in your uniform at school. But… judging from your face, I would have thought you’d be dressed more fashionable.”
Jin just smiled at that and shrugged a shoulder. “I like these clothes.”
“Well, then it’s good we didn’t go shopping”, she pointed out and took a sip from the ice coffee the waitress had just brought. “When we’ll go, I’d better make sure you wear something stylish.”
Jin didn’t answer that; it wouldn’t come that far, however. When he looked over once more, he saw the cute boy giving him a rather pitiful look and Kazuya turned his head, as well.
His look was more of an angry one, as if he couldn’t understand, why Jin didn’t spoke up for himself.
Jin looked away again, not reacting to it.
She didn’t look depressed, at all, Kazuya thought, as Aya came into the class room on Monday morning.
Tegoshi had left the evening before again, and on his way back from the station, it had crossed Kazuya’s mind that it had been Sunday evening; the time Akanishi would usually break up with his girlfriend.
He had thought about, how he wanted Akanishi to break up with Aya and it was a rather confusing feeling, since Kazuya didn’t know where that sympathy for Akanishi came from.
Of course, what he and Tegoshi had overheard that afternoon was rather cruel and made Aya look so very superficial, but he knew people were like that, it wasn’t something new to him, actually.
It was Akanishi’s own fault, Tegoshi had said to Kazuya later. He had decided to date that girl, even though he had known she would look at him like that; say things like that.
And sure, Tegoshi had a point; it was stupid to just date whoever would ask. People had a right to refuse if the person asking wasn’t their type.
But Akanishi didn’t make any exceptions and that made the whole thing just so very weird.
Aya was sitting in her seat, cheerful as usual and joking with her friends. He wondered if Akanishi had really broken up with her.
Since there was still plenty of time, until classes would start, Kazuya decided to find out.
No one had said anything about it so far and Ueda wasn’t there - the only one, Kazuya would have asked about it.
So, he decided, he’d talk to Akanishi, made him see that what he was doing was just wrong and couldn’t go on like it did.
As Kazuya saw him in one of the corridors, he stopped and thought about it for a second.
Akanishi was walking alone, just as he always was. If he was seen with anyone, it was with a girl; the girl he would date for that week.
He surely was popular, the girls all loved him, as it seemed. But that was just one side of the coin. The other side showed a pretty lonely person to Kazuya.
He never saw Akanishi with friends; he was always alone.
It was a pity, and Kazuya didn’t know why, but he wanted to get to know him better and help. He wanted to change how things were then.
“Akanishi-senpai”, he yelled over the corridor, before the older one could get out of sight.
He turned and blinked at Kazuya.
The brunette approached him quickly and pulled him aside; ignoring the curious looks they got from those walking by. Gils were whispering and he knew they were talking about what it was going on between those two good looking boys.
“I’m sorry”, Kazuya apologized and bowed. “I just… I wanted to talk to you.”
Jin leaned against the wall and gave him one of those smiles. It wasn’t honest at all, Kazuya thought and swallowed. “Okay, what is it you want?”
“You know, I was thinking about what I’ve heard last….”
“Just forget it”, Jin said and shrugged a shoulder. The smile had completely disappeared, was replaced by an indifferent expression. “People keep saying those things. It’s not important at all.”
“But it’s not fair and you know it’s superficial to judge a person like that”, the younger one countered.
“I do know it is, but I don’t let it affect me. Not anymore.”
“But…”
Jin patted his shoulder. “Thanks for your concern, but it really is none of your business.”
“Akanishi-kun”, a weak voice said from behind Kazuya and he froze.
Jin on the other side tilted his head to look past Kazuya and smiled. “What is it?”
The girl made a step closer. “I heard you broke up with Aya-chan from 1-C yesterday.”
Kazuya raised his look to Jin, saw him briefly returning it, before he walked past him to stand in front of the girl.
He couldn’t possibly let it go like that again, Kazuya thought and turned to them. “Akanishi-kun…”
“We’re done, Kamenashi-kun, aren’t we?” Jin looked at him over his shoulder, his look cold again. “There’s nothing more to discuss.”
Kazuya closed his mouth and looked to the ground, a stern expression in his face, when he heard the girl say: “I thought you would probably…”
“I see”, Jin answered without hesitating at all and leaned in to her with a smile to look into her eyes. “I’ll pick you up from class later, okay?”
She smiled and nodded, walking away happily.
Jin turned back and without saying any more, ignoring the other one’s pitiful look, he walked past Kazuya.
One week could be so long. Way too long when one was waiting.
Kazuya tried to approach Jin again over that week; again and again, but it always had the same outcome.
Jin just wouldn’t listen and Kazuya couldn’t figure why exactly it was so important to him, but he wanted to change something and make Jin see that what he did was wrong.
So, as it was Monday again, Kazuya went to school earlier, to make sure he’d get to talk to Jin, to make sure they were alone and no one could interrupt their talk.
It was still a bit cold and Kazuya closed his jacket tighter over his chest, rubbed his hands. Days were getting warmer day by day, but the nights were still so very cold.
Slowly, students started to appear and made their way through the gate in front of the school.
Many of them noticed Kazuya standing there, waiting and were giving him curious looks.
He ignored them, as best as he could, staring at the horizon where more and more people came from.
Until Jin came in sight.
Kazuya tensed and started to walk into Jin’s direction. He could see annoyance in the older one’s look, as he noticed Kazuya, but he ignored that, as well.
“Akanishi”, he greeted him politely. “Good morning.”
“Morning, Kamenashi”, Jin answered. “What is it today?”
Kazuya shook his head. “I just wanted to say sorry.”
He got a slightly puzzled look for that. “So, you’re finally giving in?”
Not answering that, he slowly started walking next to Jin. “I realized it was wrong to be that persistent wanting to chance your view.”
Jin just nodded.
“It’s your decision after all and really none of my business.”
“Okay, well, that’s what I kept telling you. You needed quite some time to let it go through to you.”
Kazuya smiled at him and shook his head. “I thought you were unhappy like this, but I guess you really do enjoy it.”
There was a very short moment, Kazuya could see disappointment in Jin’s eyes and that was what confirmed him in his thought, made him realize that he had been right all the time.
This wasn’t what Jin really wanted; it was painful for him after all to have people looking at him like that.
“Whoever asks you first today”, Kazuya said and Jin looked at him again, “I hope is going to make you feel valued finally.”
Jin frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, whoever asks first is going to date you for the next week, right? No matter who it is.”
Slowly nodding, he walked through the gate with Kazuya. “Well, it had been like this for more than a year now, so why do you ask?”
Kazuya smiled. “Just wanted to make sure.”
Jin didn’t wait, as Kazuya fell back and let him walk in alone. He changed his shoes and frowned over that, wondering what exactly that was about.
Somehow, he had actually felt valued by the way Kazuya had cared for him over the past week. He had actually been the first one to think about Jin.
Mostly, everyone else pitied the girls he dropped after a week, and of course, they were to pity - Jin pitied them himself - but after all, he suffered just as much.
Kazuya had been the first one to notice that, to think of that.
It made Jin feel oddly sad about what Kazuya had just said; that he had realized Jin wasn’t really suffering.
He smiled over it, tried to not let it affect him, told himself that it didn’t.
When he walked up the stairs, a group of girls came from upstairs and passed him, laughing and talking. One of them stopped and looked at him with a shy look.
It was as every week; it wouldn’t ever change or be any different from today.
“Ah, Akanishi-kun….”
He smiled at her, about to answer, without making her ask actually.
“Jin!”
He turned, frowning, since he wasn’t often called by his given name. Especially not by that voice.
As he saw Kazuya standing at the base of the stairs, he turned completely, finally noticing that the younger one was playing some odd game; that he had a plan. Everything he had said before had been to bring them exactly to this point.
“Jin”, Kazuya said again and took a few steps, getting closer. “No one asked yet, right?”
Slowly, Jin nodded his head.
Kazuya gave him a smile, knowing, Jin had grasped the plan already. It didn’t matter. This wasn’t out of love, however, it was only to make Jin see his own mistakes.
It was the only way Kazuya could make sure to get through to him, to get close enough.
“For the next seven days, please date me.”
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Thanks a lot for reading, I hope you liked it :) ♥