The Pink Rose's Promise (BL)

21. The First... ?

Ichirou was incredibly disappointed that the end of summer vacation had come, and now Masahiro was back in school. It meant that they were back to meeting once a week, only on Saturdays. Although they did quite a few nice things for a summer vacation, he felt himself strangely wanting more. He felt regret that he didn't spend more time with Masahiro.

Since he now had time again, he decided to put it towards something useful. He started working out and being more careful about the foods he was eating on a day-to-day average. It wasn't a full-on diet, he was just trying to be more careful. Over the past five months, he had gained four kilos, which explained why his swimsuit didn't fit anymore. He was determined to fit into it again by the time they went to Hawaii, which was less than three months away.

After the first week of school, Ichirou and Masahiro went to a museum together. Ichirou didn't always enjoy museums, but this one he had actually been to before and had enjoyed it. He was particularly hopeful that there would be something to do with kimonos there, as he found them gorgeous. He never had the nerve to wear one, but he imagined that he'd be beautiful in one.

"Ohh," Ichirou breathed, looking at several mannequins that were wearing traditional clothing. The woman in the scene was wearing a Jūnihitoe, a twelve-layer kimono. Ichirou marveled at the ancient fashion.

Although Ichirou was a student of modern fashion more so, he still found ancient clothing fascinating. He had almost gone into costume design for college at one point, but frustratingly, he was not extremely good at sewing. He just couldn't get things to look quite right, so he switched over to doing makeup and hair instead.

"Would you ever wear something like that?" Masahiro asked, grinning down at Ichirou.

"O- oh, I could never dream of that," Ichirou managed, his face bright red.

"You could totally wear it. I think you'd look great in that. Lots of famous omegas wore kimonos like that in the past, too, right?" Masahiro said.

"Y- yeah, they did. The dominant male omegas wore this sort of thing often," Ichirou said. "Recessive male omegas usually wore kariginu and suikan, if they were in high society. But mostly alphas were in high society, as it is now."

Masahiro nodded, staring at the clothes. "Interesting..."

They walked around a bit more, looking at various bits of pottery and scrolls. There was everything from Buddha statues to smashed-up plates. Models of boats and areas of Japan were on full display, as well as some beautiful artwork. Models of various towns, buildings, and farms were beautifully put together.

As they looked at a piece of art that was of an oni, Masahiro murmured to Ichirou, "Hey, look, it's Takeru."

Ichirou let out a surprised snort of a laugh, before quickly covering his mouth and glaring at Masahiro. Masahiro grinned and put his finger on his lips. It was a museum, so he needed to be reasonably quiet, but that had surprised him. Making fun of Takeru like that was playing dirty.

Ichirou looked at a mannequin of an omega, sitting before a stove that they were cooking on. They wore a loose, white robe over a predecessor to the modern kimono and a similar cloth helped tie up their hair. Ichirou wondered what he would look like if he lived during a previous time period. He probably would have ended up being the bride of some alpha with absolutely no say in it. He was grateful suddenly that at least his parents let him choose that much for himself.

Masahiro wandered over to some of the old guns from the mid-1500s onward. They were pretty cool, but he honestly never wanted to handle one. They were dangerous, after all, and because of his occasional depressive episode, he didn't think it was a good idea for him to ever have one. Still, they were an interesting part of history.