xX – Set Up – Xx

It was an ordinary day in Gekkoukan High. The classes were already over; many students were leaving, hurriedly running home, some were still roaming down the halls, eventually disappearing behind the classroom doors with a sigh of particular club.  

Minato, too, had some clubs to attend to, sometimes he even regretted joining so many of them; it was difficult to decide which to visit one day and which the other. Standing near the entrance to the 2-F, he was brought back from his thinking by a very familiar voice.

‘Oh, hey Kaz.’ Curling his lips into a smile, he greeted his peer.

‘Hey! You coming to the practice today?’ the way he said it, Minato was sure that he was not accepting ‘no’ as an answer.

‘Yeah, I probably should.’

‘Tell me about it! You’ve skipped training for two weeks now.’ Placing his hand on Minato’s shoulder, Kaz smiled the way he always did, although something seemed a bit different than before.

…

Blinking a dozen of times, Minato finally asked what is going on. Today indeed was Friday, the day when the swimming club meets. But as far as he recalls, there were different members as well, not to mention Yuko and the coach to begin with. Kaz was standing a bit ahead, but when he turned around, the expression of ‘what the heck?’ was written all over him.

‘That’s just weird.’ He boldly stated, ‘oh well—then let’s dive in and have a bit of self study of sorts.’ The sound of the water splash followed shortly.

Some time passed after their self study began, but neither Minato nor Kazushi were complaining about having a whole pool for themselves. Besides, since no one was there to interrupt with his plans, Kaz decided to act and not hold back.

Minato did not had a chance to react, or at least to avoid it; the only thing he saw before getting a nice splash of water straight into his face was Kazushi’s evil grin.

That meant war.

‘I ain’t ganna go easy on you, you hear?’ 

‘Same here, Kaz! Prepare yourself!’

The time was flying by ever so quickly that they did not wanted to believe it. Finally stopping their deadly match, Minato took a moment to glance behind his shoulder to check the clock. It was far passed their training time and the pool will be closed in next twenty – thirty minutes.

‘Guess we have to go soon, right Kaz? …Kaz-?’ As he turned around, his friend was nowhere in sight. Only few moments later it occurred to him that those little balloons popping up on the surface of the water were not something ordinary.

…

Getting Kazushi out of water was nothing compared to the fact that now was the time to use his knowledge of First Aid in real life. At the back of his mind he thanked god that he did not doze off during that class. But when Minato was about to get to it, he wavered a little, an image of mouth to mouth method appearing in his head. Kaz was not a training dummy they had practice on during class, he was a human being. Besides all that, he was a guy. As that thought tiptoed through his brain, his cheeks changed its color from pale white to cherry pinkish of some sort.

He knew better than anyone else that acting now is what matters; Kazushi might as well die if he will continue acting like a little girl that never kissed a guy. Come to think of it, he never did kiss the guy before. Regardless that he thought about it sometimes.

Lost in thoughts again, he felt someone’s hand getting a hold of his shoulder. Starring irritated at him, Kaz hissed: ‘So, you ganna save me or not?’ 

Before Minato could blink, he found his lips pressed against Kazushi’s.

…

They were now going past the shrine, Kaz decided to walk Minato home. He could not tell whether Minato was angry at him or was he just embarrassed of what happened. They haven’t exchanged a single word since they left school grounds. After some long minutes that seemed like eternity, Minato’s words pierced the silence:

‘So you set all that up?’

Kazushi was praying with all his might that his classmate would skip those kinds of questions, but everything was going not according to plan today.

‘Ehh.. well.. um….’

‘All that in order to kiss me?’ Minato turned around so that he could look Kaz straight in the eye.

All he did was nervously scratching his nape and looking anywhere except at a blue-haired boy. In reply to that nervousness of his, Minato came up to him in few steps and gently, yet very confidently, kissed him. Kazushi could only stare back.

‘I wondered why you never thought about it earlier.’ Minato smiled and took Kaz’s hand in his; their fingers intertwined.

-End