「CHAPTER 12」
“Yo, Chiaki. I bought strawberry daif.u.ku from Aiya!”
“Seriously? Yes!! I"ll go make tea right now.”
Strawberry daif.u.ku from Aiya were unique because their outside was made out of
gyūhi and their inside out of fresh strawberries and red bean paste. They were Yos.h.i.+no"s
favorite. He was thinking of taking a break soon so this was perfect.
“Huh? Don"t you have work today, Yuu?”
“It got postponed, so I came to hang out. I can stay until evening, right? I won"t
get in the way.”
“Yeah, take it easy.”
When Yos.h.i.+no came carrying the tea to the table, he saw the bag was open and
stuffed with strawberry daif.u.ku. The soft bag made his heart dance with joy.
“Itadakimaaas! Mm! They really are good!”
The strawberries and the sweet red bean paste were superb, and the springy
texture of the gyūhi was out of this world. His mouth stuffed with daif.u.ku, Yos.h.i.+no
chewed happiness and suddenly remembered an unsolved problem.
…But that"s not something to discuss over tea now is it?
Yanase had confessed to him. Yos.h.i.+no had put off the matter, but eventually he
had to give an answer.
He had resolved the matter with Hatori, now he had to resolve this matter as well.
“…Say, Yuu.”
“Hm?”
“About my answer…”
“Ohh, have you thought about it?”
Although right now he was replying to Yanase"s confession, Yanase"s face
remained unchanged. He didn"t know whether Yanase was indeed calm or only
pretending, so it kind of threw him off.
“Sorry, but I really do only think of you as a friend, Yuu.”
“I figured.”
“B- but, it"s true that I think of you as an important friend! If possible, I want to 
still be friends with you, Yuu. …That"s probably a selfish thing to say, though.”
“I"m happy you say that. I want to be friends with you forever, too, Chiaki.”
“Yuu…!”
Yanase"s kind words touched his heart.
“I like your honesty. Besides, if I were to become a better man, there might be a
chance of you falling in love with me, right?”
“Yeah, probably.”
The moment Yos.h.i.+no said that without thinking too deeply about it, his eyes met
Hatori"s, who was standing on the other side of the sliding gla.s.s door.
Again?!…Why does he have such bad timing!? Or rather, am I the one with bad
timing!?
Yos.h.i.+no"s eyes s.h.i.+fted back and forth as he gave a painful excuse to Hatori who
came into the room with a deep furrow between his eyebrows.
“No! How to say this… It"s not what you think, I was just cheering Yuu on…!!”
“What do I think?”
“Well, I mean…”
In this awkward atmosphere, Yanase took the opportunity to put in a word.
“That reminds me – Chiaki, you wanted to know if I"m a seme or a uke, right?”
Yanase rested his chin in his hand, giving Yos.h.i.+no a flirty look, and Yos.h.i.+no
wondered why Yanase picked now to ask that, but nodded anyway.
“Eh? Ye- yeah.”
“I"ll tell you. I want to do you, Chiaki, from your head down to your toes.”
“……Hah?”
“In other words, I"m a seme. Let me tell you something else – I"m good.”
Hatori"s lip twitched some more when Yanase announced that with a suggestive
smile on his face.
“Yanase… didn"t you plan on going to Satou-sensei"s place?”
“Satou is late with the ma.n.u.script, so there"s no one there tonight. Don"t you have
work?”
“Coming here is my work.”
As sparks flew between them, Yos.h.i.+no tried to slip away, but sharp-eyed Hatori 
saw him getting up.
“Yos.h.i.+no. We have some talking to do later.”
“O- okay.”
The words Hatori said without even looking at him held irritation and anger.
Now, until Hatori wasn"t angry anymore, Yos.h.i.+no would have to continue living off
instant food. Yos.h.i.+no silently cursed himself for saying such a stupid thing as he
desperately stuffed his mouth with strawberry daif.u.ku.