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Bowing in Japan (お辞儀, Ojigi) is the act of lowering one's head or the upper part of the torso, commonly used as a sign of salutation, reverence, apology or gratitude in social or religious situations

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A slice of golden ray bled through a tiny slit in the dark window blind, casting an illuminated line across Itsuki's face, rousing him from the deep slumber he hoped would have lasted just five minutes more. He turned away with a quiet whine, pulling his pillow closer to his body and wrapping his legs around the lower half whilst he snuggled his face in the top half, desperately chasing after the remittance of sleep even though he knew it was pointless. The spell of sleep gradually stripped away and reality filled the void immediately, already forcing the grogginess out of his limbs and eyes.

His head popped out from under the covers, his messy brown hair sticking out in every direction against the pillow. He kept his eyes closed as he savoured the peacefulness of the morning and the way the bed swallowed him like never before, also absorbing the fresh fragrance wafting off the sheets that were currently pooling below his shoulders. The intoxicating scent clung to the pillows too, and the sheets felt oddly silky against his skin, unlike the regular polyester ones he usually used. Did Ryoko do the laundry?

Itsuki scoffed, trampling the abhorrent idea.

Ryoko doing the laundry or not getting drunk for once? The idea was laughable.

Itsuki sat up, resisting the urge to flop back on the bed as it tried to lure him into its comfortable depths yet again. Lifting his hands in the air, he stretched, sighing in content as his joints popped in delight. "Ah, I slept well," he said to himself once he finished stretching and began rubbing his eyes.

He opened his eyes and looked around for a bit, though the act was futile because without his glasses, the whole room was in discernable, melded into the fuzz of his horrendous eyesight. He reached across the bed, his hand fumbling on the bedside table for a short while before his fingertips brushed something, the smooth rims of his glasses that sat on the adjacent as usual. Flipping the straps and brushing some of his tousled hair back, he slid the glasses onto his face, pushing it up the bridge of his nose and giving his eyes a second to adjust before looking around again.

An unfamiliar room stared back at him.

Blank white walls in the place of where blue ones should have been, the bedside table was actually a computer desk Itsuki had never seen before, nearly stacked with unfamiliar books; but that wasn't the only uncanny discovery Itsuki made. Glancing down at the dishevelled silk white sheets that pooled around his waist only amplified his confusion, because that too wasn't his.

Itsuki quickly suppressed his confusion as he conjured multiple explanations for it all, like the possibility that Ryoko hired a hangman that painted the room overnight? Or maybe lack of sleep or eating was making him hallucinate somehow? He banished one idea after the next as he began chewing on his lips nervously, twirling his index finger around his hair at the nape of his neck, thoughts blazing.

Despite how many times he tried fooling himself into thinking otherwise, the facts that lay in front of him played their part in hauling him back to reality he eagerly wanted to avoid.

It wasn't his bed, it wasn't his room.

What the hell was he doing in someone else's bed, in someone else's clothes?

Did he get drunk the previous night at a club and ended up doing unspeakable things with a random girl in a random place? Or worse, a guy?

"N-no way in hell!" Itsuki furiously shook his head and tapped his hot cheeks to regain focus and some level-headedness in the situation. Maybe that worked in the shojo manga, but this was reality. The idea of a guy being with another was something Itsuki couldn't fathom, something he didn't want to think about then or ever.

His growling stomach and eagerness to get some answers were what eventually booted him out of his head and drove him out of the bed, because sitting around all day wouldn't help him or anyone else. He threw the blankets off and bounced to the edge of the bed, his legs dangling off the edge before they met the smooth wooden floorboards below. He stood, stretching and yawning, lingering in the room for a moment longer until he felt mentally prepared enough to deal with whatever ordeal he was warped into.

The light sound of feet tapping against the floorboards echoed through the empty house as Itsuki padded to the door, twisting the knob and stepping out into the other room, which was yet another unfamiliar place, the living room. It was a simple room, scarcely decorated with a broad leather sofa and an oakwood table surrounded by two chairs of equal calibre, naked white walls marking the boundaries of each corner of the room. It gradually led into the kitchen, which was another open space that consisted of a small microwave sitting atop the refrigerator and regular counters and two-burner gas stove stacked between the kitchen sink countertop and the adjacent wall. Aside from the white air conditioner hoisted on the living room wall and a heater at the other side of the room, there wasn't anything remotely interesting.

Yuuto stood outside on the balcony, leant against the railing with his elbows propped onto them, the cool wind gently ruffling through his hair and clothes. Eyes focused on his smartphone, he expertly navigated to the messaging app and pulled up Kaito's name, his fingers swift and nimble as they sprinted across the keyboard.

Yuu-chan: we need to talk

He pressed send and the message vanished from the type box and popped up onto the screen, along with the two ticks that meant it was delivered. Even though Yuuto knew it wouldn't take long for Kaito to respond, he still clicked off the screen and shoved the device into his pockets, letting his mind drift, wandering to the one thing that kept him up for a while; the events of last night and the unexpected discovery.

Soejima Chiho was a guy. The same dorky Yuuto encountered when he'd stupidly flowed 'Soejima' home.

The revelation wiggled and coiled in Yuuto's stomach like an overzealous worm, only that this time it wasn't excitement, rather stemming from his unease with the situation and the inevitable aftermath. Before he could think further into it, his phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out again, swiping the screen to view the new message.

Kai: well good morning to you too, darling.

Yuuto responded to that with an eye roll, readying his fingers to respond, 'whatever dumbass' when he noticed that the typing icon appeared on the screen. A second later that icon morphed into a text that read:

Kai: can't today. I have basketball practice. Raincheck?

Yuuto tapped his finger on the side of his phone, chewing on his lip as he considered the delicate situation, which left him deciding between telling Kaito now or later, through text or face-to-face. Yuuto enjoyed meeting up with a friend or talking on the phone as much as the next guy, but this wasn't a situation that couldn't be summarized in a simple text message, especially when it wasn't a short story.

Yuu-chan: it's about Soejima

Not even a second later:

Kai: what time are we meeting?

Incredulous, Yuuto snorted. He typed the time and place for their meeting; Ichijirou Ramen shop at noon, because Yuuto at least wanted to enjoy a peaceful morning before having to endure Kaito's melodramatic meltdown. Kaito confirmed with a thumbs-up emoji. He then proceeded to try and make small talk with the question 'so what u up 2 man', so marking that as the end of their conversation, Yuuto put away his phone and opened the door to his living room. The door creaked as it swung open, a layer of warmth enveloping him as he removed his balcony shoes and stepped into the living room.

Itsuki jumped at the abrupt sound, stumbling to regain his footing at the speed he'd swivelled around to face the door, instantly meeting the eyes of another. A guy, much to Itsuki's horror. A tall boy no older than seventeen entered stared back at Itsuki, his black hair, which usually fell over his eyes in a wavy fringe, now dishevelled from the wind, sitting atop his head like a disarray bird's nest. The pair of square frames pushed up the bridge of his nose was currently reflecting the thin layer of light peeking through the windows, hiding the deadpan expression he wore; the frown dancing on his lips accentuating everything. He came to a stop at the center of the room, and that's when it clicked in Itsuki's head.

Masuyama Yuuto, the same guy from before.

"You're finally awake," Yuuto pointed out, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall, glancing at Itsuki up and down in a way Itsuki couldn't decide whether it was sizing him up, or conveying shock, somehow. "Good morning," he said as he bowed slightly, using the polite form of the greeting.

"G-good morning," Itsuki stammered, quickly lowering his head to mirror his senior. He rose shortly after, twirling his finger around a messy lock of hair behind his head as he looked around, anything to not look at Yuuto, which would have his mind spurting all sort of nonsense that wouldn't help anyone.

For starters, he and Yuuto were never close; just schoolmates who happened to be in two different grades, yet there Itsuki was, waking up in Yuuto's bed, in Yuuto's apartment, in Yuuto's clothes. How did that happen? Why?

They didn't do something bad, did they?

Itsuki didn't know about Yuuto, but he wasn't into guys. He wasn't into anything that involved guys.

Itsuki ditched that thought process and refocused his attention to discerning the situation, but the thick fog still enveloped his memory from the previous night and jammed his thought processes, making it hard to remember anything besides having left Cire Maid Cafe at the regular time, going into the nearby convenience store then—

Itsuki's eyes widened.

As though sucked in by a vacuum cleaner, the fog dissipated and memories piled into Itsuki's head all at once, snatching the very air from his lungs and leaving him cold. The realization almost knocked him over at the impact of the harsh realization of not one, but two things; how he ended up in Yuuto's apartment, and what exactly that meant for him now.

The man's bloodshot eyes resurfaced in Itsuki's memory, followed by the occurrence of being pulled so close to him that he could smell the man's clothes and breath. He remembered punching the man in an attempt to defend himself and escape, which miserably ended in him clumsily toppling over his own feet and diving face-first for the ground. He'd bruised his arms against the pavement, shortly before being wheeled into Yuuto's hold, and not to mention the final words Itsuki heard before he passed out:

"She's mine. Back off."

All that happened as Soejima Chiho, not Hanae Itsuki, and unfortunately even after pinching himself a few times, Itsuki wasn't waking up. wasn't a dream.

It wasn't a dream, it was real.

Judging by the knowing look plastered across Yuuto's face, Itsuki knew his secret was out, but a part of him refused to come to terms with the fact that he was discovered for what he was, a cross-dressing weirdo who acted like a girl and worked in a maid cafe.

It should have never come out, especially not when someone like Yuuto discovered it, out of everyone. Itsuki raised a trembling hand to the back of his head again, and his fingers brushed the ends of the hair that touched his shoulders, the hair extensions he clipped in whenever he worked. His skin paled, his lips parting in shock.

Itsuki looked at Yuuto, trying for words. His mouth emptily opened and closed, unable to mesh words together in his perpetual state of shock.

"I'm..." he managed, but where was he to even start? Should he explain the reason he worked at a maid cafe of all places, or perhaps express his sincerest apologies for causing Yuuto so much trouble? Or even worse, bring up the elephant in the room; Kaito and Yuuto, and the reason their faces were so familiar — because they visited the Café every day for one reason.

Chiho.

The terrified look on Itsuki's face made Yuuto know what was to come; a full-on breakdown, something he didn't want to deal with in the slightest. Yuuto closed his eyes and sighed before pushing himself off the wall. "Look, you don't have to freak out about it," he began speaking, which immediately yanked Itsuki out of his head. "It's just a misunderstanding, and I'll clear it up, so don't worry about it."

Itsuki blinked a few times at first, as though he was still struggling to come to terms with the situation, as well as the fact that Yuuto spoke to him in such a non-judgmental tone. His eyes fluttered closed his eyes, his dark lashes fanning out against the bags under his eyes. The opened them a second later and he tilted his head to the side, a sink appearing between his eyebrows as they pinched together.

"Clear it up?" he echoed, trying to make sense of those words.

Yuuto nodded and uncrossed his arms. "I'll be the first to admit that finding out you're a guy is irritating, which means that I wasted all those evenings coming to the Café with Kaito — not like I wanted to," a memory flashed before his face, of Kaito burying his face behind the menu, a blush growing on his cheeks as his eyes followed Soejima walking across the room. Yuuto pinched the bridge of his nose, an explosive exhale exiting his mouth. "Just when I thought it was almost over, now I have to explain this."

"Y-you can't!" Itsuki blurted. "You can't do that!"

One of Yuuto's eyebrows arched higher than the other. He curiously stared down at Itsuki, watching him, waiting for him to expound on his disagreement.

Itsuki pulled at his hair extensions harder than before, using all his fingers to toy with it. His eyes lowered, darting from side to side as he visibly readied himself to say whatever he had on his mind, which came right after he exhaled. "You just can't, okay? One person knows and that's it," he said, his voice catching. His fingers unfurled from his hair and fell to his sides, where he rolled them into slack fists. "I'm very sorry for causing you all the trouble of saving me and bringing me here, but you weren't supposed to find out that I'm a guy. I really need this job."

Yuuto assessed Itsuki for a moment.

"That's not my problem."

The coldness of Yuuto's word and tone made Itsuki take a step back, as though he'd been physically punched in the face with fists instead of words.

"You can go around dressing like a girl all you want because, as I said, that's not my problem. What is my problem though, is that my best friend likes you because he thinks you're a girl, and I don't want to see him get hurt," Yuuto said then sighed, adjusting his glasses. "Kaito's shy around girls, so when he finds out about this I know he'll bounce back, but it'll just be onto the next girl and he'll take forever to ask her out. In conclusion, I'll have to nurse him until he gets over you and moves onto the next girl. That is the pain on my ass."

"That's it!" Itsuki exclaimed as he immediately bounced back, shaking off the irritation that previously nipped away at his nerves. Despite thinking what a jerk Yuuto was or wasn't, Itsuki steeled his emotions and ground himself in rationality once again, and facing Yuuto once again, his fists clenched under the weight of his resolution. "After helping him get over it, he'll just bounce to the next girl, won't he? Don't you want a moment of peace and quiet after all this? After everything is said and done? You won't get that if you tell him now."

Yuuto's lips parted to say something, but then they closed and he firmly pressed them together, brows twitching together in a calculating look, almost like he was at a loss of words for once. Sensing that he was processing and considering the words, Itsuki prodded again, relying on Soejima's strong persuasion skills to aid him in such a trying time.

"I didn't tell anyone when you broke into my house the other day, in fact, I get it. You did it for Fujita, right? I know that you've been friends since middle school, but this is highschool now. It's stressful for everyone, and it's even more on you because you're always putting Fujita first; how about you do the same for yourself for once?"

It wasn't what Yuuto could do for Itsuki, it was the other way around. Months of working at Cute Maid Cafe taught Itsuki well, that a bit of playing on the customer's emotions and nudging them in the right direction could help loads in hooking or losing them. Trying to pierce Yuuto's cold, stoic façade felt like an impossible feat at first, but nothing beats a trial than a failure, right?

The calculating look stripped away from Yuuto's face, his eyebrows rushing into their usual positions as his lips relaxed, his piercing eyes returning to Itsuki's face. Twisting his lips to the side and sighing, Yuuto raked his fingers through his hair, combing through the tangles that formed as he contemplated Itsuki's words one last time, weighing the pros and cons and what everything could mean in the long run.

Lying to his best friend to cover for a kid he didn't even know, or telling Kaito the truth like a good friend would, no matter the drawbacks?

"What do you suggest I do then?"

Itsuki held back a shout of triumph at the last moment, folding his lips under too for good measure. It worked. It actually worked. Or was he just counting his chickens too early, because right after the momentary swirl euphoria of relief swirled in his chest he went straight back to the reality he wasn't ready for; Yuuto's question, something he had thought of whilst running his mouth a while earlier.

How exactly would Yuuto keep Itsuki's identity while Kaito still liked Soejima?

Itsuki racked his brain for an answer, from setting up Kaito with another girl to brainwashing him into focusing on his schoolwork instead, but nothing seemed like a viable plan. Even if Kaito moved onto another girl, Yuuto's sanity would be at stake and there would be no reason for him to keep Itsuki's secret, and as for the other plan, that was plain silly. It would never work.

Itsuki's shoulders fell in defeat, his lands limply falling by his sides. "I ... I actually don't know," he admitted.

Yuuto snorted.

"But I'll do anything. Anything you want me to." Itsuki concluded, swallowing and keeping his jaw locked so he wouldn't go back on his resolve. Anything? That was a dangerous thing to say, but how cruel could someone like Yuuto be?

Surely it wouldn't be worse than running errands for him? Maybe bringing him lunch every day, or doing his homework, or something similar. It wouldn't be as extreme as selling his soul, right?

Itsuki's eyes pinched close as he awaited a terrible judgment. After seconds spanned into almost a full minute of only hearing the cars roaring past the road below and birds chirping outside, Itsuki opened his eyes and hesitantly glanced up, where he noticed that Yuuto's gaze was already settled on him.

Itsuki awkwardly cleared his throat. His face grew hot and he subconsciously touched his cheek, thinking he had a piece of food on his face or worse, dried drool flaking at the corner of his lips. Brushing the areas in question dispelled all doubts, which made Itsuki confused instead. He cleared his throat again to dispel the shakiness in his voice as he squared his shoulders, brazening out the ordeal in a way that made him seem unbothered by Yuuto's stare. It was intense and unblinking, cold, yet beautiful, just as the girls frequently gossiped about.

But of course, it didn't bother Itsuki. Not one bit. "What is it?"

"How did you know that Kaito and I have been friends since middle school?"

Itsuki blinked in surprise. Tense beats drifted by as he delayed speaking, hands impulsively reaching up to the back of his head again to play with his hair whilst adjusting his glasses with his other hand. Lulu glanced up from her bed on the couch, blinking lazily as her bright blue eyes curiously bounced between the two boys.

"I mean, I don't ... I just guessed because you call him by his first name and he calls you by yours. It's not unbelievable that you'd be childhood friends, r-right?" Itsuki said at last, lowering his head and taking a deep breath afterwards to contain the seal in his mind that he struggled to keep closed for so long.

The past was the past, and it'd stay that way.

Yuuto nodded at the response, thinking nothing more of the situation than what it actually was, a mere coincidence. Shoving his hand in his pockets, he walked forward, his light footsteps echoing through the room as he walked right past the tensed Itsuki and headed for the genkan. Running shoes fell to the floor with a low thud as Yuuto retrieved them from the getabako and sat on the raised floor, yanking the shoes onto his bare feet.

Itsuki came bending the corner a second later, having recovered from irritation tied to the fact that Yuuto blankly ignored his entire existence.

What a jerk!

"H-hey, where do you think you're going?" he demanded, glaring holes in the back of Yuuto's head once he rose from tying his shoelaces. "Did you already forget that we were just talking about keeping this a secret?"

Yuuto stood, smacking his palms together to brush away any dirt he picked up from the shoes. His frizzy hair flopped before his forehead in his regular bangs as he turned, shoving them away and tucking them behind his ear as he pulled his phone from his pocket, followed by a dangling pair of Samsung earphones. "I'm going for a run." he turned to face Itsuki. "I made you breakfast, so eat it. Your stomach's been grumbling all morning and it's annoying me."

Itsuki quietly gasped, his hands automatically bolting to cradle his stomach, where he noticed that it was indeed groaning and wailing, the sound akin to an old wooden door breaking open back and forth. A deep-seated aching in Itsuki's stomach sent a wave of nausea spiralling through his body, inducing a headache and weakening his muscles. Somehow through all that, his face still managed to heat in embarrassment. He quickly apologized, but Yuuto waved him off.

"It's whatever," Yuuto dismissed. "Anyway, I don't expect to see you when I get back, so hurry up and leave before I change my mind."

And so, Yuuto left, the door slamming behind him before Itsuki had a chance to apologize for the trouble he caused or tell Yuuto just how much of a jerk he was.

It was clear that, at least for now, Yuuto would keep it a secret, that was at least one thing to celebrate, right? That someone like Itsuki, puny and weak, managed to get through to Masayuma Yuuto, of all persons.

Something soft brushed against Itsuki's leg. He looked down to see Lulu arching her back as she walked ahead before doing a U-turn, her bushy black and white tail curling around her tiny frame as she perched on the space her owner previously sat in. She innocently looked up at Itsuki with knowing eyes, as though she'd tell him something if her voice box produced human vowels instead of meows.

She'd tell him that the next few days were going to be eventful, but Itsuki already knew it would. The carefree days of dealing with Ryoko's antics, working in a maid cafe and keeping up to date with the latest released manga series was about to get a bit more complicated, and Itsuki wasn't sure if he was ready for it.

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Now that Yuuto knows Itsuki is a guy, what do you think will happen? Do you think Yuuto is going to tell Kaito? Why or why not?

Leave a comment and a vote :3