The Sun Will Come Up

Fifteen

Rin had been mindfully avoiding his phone so effectively that he'd unpacked, done laundry, and cleaned his entire room and was back to feeling restless as he snuck glances at it from where it sat on the desk.

He'd gotten exactly three texts from Bachira since dropping him off, and they had him feeling like he was just on the verge of losing his mind.

that was interesting...

in a good way!!

And then, a few minutes later:

I liked it

That last one was undoubtedly the worst, though them as a group was nothing short of traumatic in its own way. He'd read them five or six times, knew what they said, knew them by heart, and still felt the need to look over them to see if they did indeed say that.

Was this something worth reading into?

No, it wasn't, Rin reminded himself. This was just how he was. Break up with him.

Rin couldn't help but feel a little bad about having to put Bachira through his second breakup in two weeks, but forcibly kicked that idea out of his mind. This was hardly a real breakup. They could still hang out and be friends. Or maybe they couldn't. But Rin would say it anyways, and he'd figure out how much friendship he could handle later.

He was crafting things in his mind, where to meet, how to go about the best breakup possible despite how fake it was, when he heard his door handle being turned and the door click open. He whipped his head over his shoulder so fast, Sae had barely stepped into the room.

"Would you just fuck off already?" Rin yelled at him.

Sae raised his eyebrows, like that was unexpected. Which it both was and wasn't.

"Did I catch you in the middle of a mental breakdown or something?" Sae asked. "I figured you'd be in a great mood after today."

"Well, you're ruining it." Rin somehow managed to make that sound calmer. "Get out."

"Does Bachira, like," Sae started, and then paused. Rin was just about to get up and shove him out of the room all over again, because he was just not in the mood, when he noticed the tone of it. "Make you happy?"

"What the fuck did you just say to me?" Sae didn't repeat himself. It was obvious enough to both of them that he'd heard what he said. "Who the fuck are you and what have you done with my brother?"

"Fuck off," Sae said, rolling his eyes. "It's just a question."

Which it was, Rin supposed. A surprisingly nice one. A suspiciously nice one. "What do you care?"

"I don't," Sae said. It was unconvincing. It was fucking weird, is what it was. "I was just wondering."

Rin was doubtful, but part of him didn't want to be. The world's shittiest brother was being surprisingly less shitty than usual, and it brought a lot of old stuff back up. He wasn't always like this. That had been a true thought. Sae used to be like this. Maybe this was a misguided and horribly overdue attempt at bonding, and under other circumstances, Rin might have been more receptive, maybe he would have even asked him about Isagi and hidden his disgust and tried to be nice about it. But Sae had indeed caught him in the middle of a bit of a mental breakdown, and it wasn't the kind of thing he felt like discussing.

Because he couldn't really answer that question in a honest way without this conversation taking a very yes, he does. Sometimes. Sometimes he doesn't. Not because of anything he does, but because we started fake dating like you thought and I fell in love for real like you thought, and I'm in way over my head, nii-chan type of direction.