’ YOU’VE GOT YOUR WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF YOU, DUDE. we’re not in high school anymore where it doesn’t really matter what happens. but shit that goes down in college follows you forever. how’re you going to get a job with this on your record ?? tachibana’s cool && all, but staying with him is going to ruin your future—-– ’
sousuke deletes the message. && proceeds to empty out the inbox. some names he recognizes. some he doesn’t. sousuke isn’t popular out of his own intentions. it’s just that he’s well known in this university, since he’s the TA everybody wants to learn from. sousuke never gives up on students, he’ll make time for them outside of class to help with assignments, && professors approach him to work with them.
so, he assumes his phone’s blowing up with notifications, because of the upcoming midterm. not because of . . . this. after pulling three all-nighters in a row, sousuke blearily wonders if he’s dreaming while scrolling through his phone. people have known sousuke’s gay, && that he has a boyfriend, but it’s a relatively accepting campus. but he soon realizes the remarks aren’t in the realm of homophobia, but something else. as sousuke sits up && digs online, his breath catches in his throat.
——–it’s the photos && videos sousuke had seen a glimpse of before. sousuke forced the people who showed that content to delete every file. but sousuke soon realizes there’s even more content out there. everything spirals out of control too swiftly. university turns into a witch hunt, a crucible.
sousuke rings the doorbell to makoto’s place. they haven’t seen each other in a few days. sousuke understands if makoto needs space, but his concern gets the best of him. ❝ babe, it’s me. ❞ sousuke talks to the door. ❝ i just want to see how you’re doing. make sure you’ve got something to eat. ❞ after a pause, he says, ❝ i miss you. ❞
𝙼𝙰𝙺𝙾𝚃𝙾 𝙷𝙰𝙳 𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆𝙽 𝚂𝙾𝙼𝙴𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚆𝙰𝚂 𝚆𝚁𝙾𝙽𝙶 ━━━ the moment the mocking laughter and voice reached him with a ( ❛ Hey, Tachibana! How much for the hour?! ❜ ), immediately his mind tingled, though he didn't let that bother him through that day ; he had exams to take and things to do. Makoto spent the whole day ignoring the looks, whispers and jokes ━━━━━━ with each comment his stomach twisted into knots, lips so soft growing more bitten and bruised as the morning turned into afternoon. It wasn't until much later, when Makoto was in the safety of his apartment that he figured out what had happened ━━━━━━━━━ the text message that sent him into the worst panic attack he had ever had in his whole entire life ; ( [txt]: this is what happens when you disrespect daddy, kitten. ).
That had been two months ago, and Makoto's life had turned to hell ━━━━━━ the attacks on him were getting bolder, and yet he couldn't let Sousuke see him breaking, and so Makoto had distanced himself a little from his boyfriend, creating believable excuses for not going to see him these last few days ; when in reality all he had done was lay in bed and agonize ━━━━ how could he have been so stupid?! How could he had upset the one person who could ruin his entire life?! Makoto shut his eyes tightly, curled up on the couch trying to shut out the world ━━━━━━ he wasn't naive enough to think Sousuke was unaware of what was happening, as a TA, Sousuke was probably one of the firsts to know. And yet, Makoto would rather pretend nothing was happening at all, like he did all those years with Haru ; just repress everything, shove his fears down for Sousuke's sake. Makoto was good at that, he was good at living for someone else.
Alone in his flat, Makoto could break, could spend every single moment crying and driving himself sick with anxiety and worry ; how would he fix this? What could he even do against someone like Hidehisa Eijiro? Someone who had almost everyone eating on the palm of his hand, what could Makoto ever hope to do? It would be best to just pretend to be oblivious, to ignore everything for as long as he could ; after college he could move somewhere, take Sousuke with him and forget everything about this. The doorbell startles him, and the voice make his heart soar and break at the same time ━━━━━━━━━ he was a terrible boyfriend, how could he do this to Sousuke?
Makoto hadn't wanted to open the door, he was probably a mess, but not opening would upset Sousuke even more, and so he dashed to the Kitchen first, hastly put some popcorn on the microwave ; he had to pretend he wasn't wallowing in his own misery. And then went to the door, putting on the Makoto mask ━━━━━━━━ the soft eyes and easy smile, a little breathless from the dash he had made, but it gave him back a little bit of colour to his cheeks which worked to his favour. ❛ Sou! I missed you too! ❜ he exclaimed, smiling up at the other man ; Makoto was happy to see Sousuke, but that happiness was just not enough to extinguish the pain he felt.
❛ Come on in, I just put some popcorn on the microwave, and I was about to pick a movie. Will you stay and watch it with me? ❜