An Onigiri's Rock Collector (Bo x Masao)

Chapter 3 | Masao Said I Looked Cool

Autumn had taken Summer's place and Winter was on its way. Bo felt the days had gotten longer since he had been staying after school to support his friends in whatever they were competing in. As soon as the time struck four and class was no longer in session, Shinnosuke asked him to spar with him, but an hour later Kazama had unexpectedly showed up and volunteered to be his sparring partner from now until Shinnosuke's match date was set. He told Bo to save himself the trouble of keeping up with his odd behavior.

"But friends are supposed to support each other." Bo said to him.

Kazama told Shinnosuke to take a five-minute break and grabbed Bo by the arm, pulling him out of the gym so they could converse without Shinnosuke hearing them.

"Bo-chan, don't take this personally, okay?" Kazama started. "But...I hardly get to be alone with Shinnosuke now that he's committed to being better than his competition."

"Why do you want to be alone with Shin-chan?" Bo asked him.

Kazama shifted his gaze to the ground. "Because...Shinnosuke is..." he wasn't sure if saying what he was thinking was the right thing to do.

Bo pat Kazama on the back, hoping to get the words out of him.

"Shinnosuke is-just-so absentminded. I don't want him to get distracted by other people. I want him to have his mind set on annihilating Kawamura since I already talked so highly about him. I'd be a shame on us if Shinnosuke ended up losing. You get what I'm trying to say, right Bo-chan?"

Bo shook his head.

"You don't?"

"He won against Sugido the Boxing King."

"Sure, but that doesn't mean he hasn't lost his experience in boxing." Kazama sighed. "Bo-chan, I can trust you, can't I?"

Bo nodded.

Kazama motioned for him to come closer. He cupped his hands to Bo's ear and said to him, "I...really like Shin-chan. I want to tell him how I feel, but I want to wait until he claims his victory so that he already feels content when I tell him."

"Kazama-kun likes Shin-chan." Bo thought to himself. "I could tell, and I'm not very surprised."

"So do you understand now? I need to help him win this so he can think highly of me." Kazama said. "Don't tell anyone I said this. For now, it'll just be a little secret between you and me."

"Okay. I'll go home then."

"Perfect!" Kazama felt relieved. "Seriously, if you tell anyone, it'll be the death of me."

"I won't tell anyone."

Kazama and Bo parted ways.

Bo wasn't sure what to do. Of course he was going to keep his friend's secret hidden, but that got his mind jogging. "Should I tell Masao-kun how I feel, too?"

How did he feel towards Masao? His felt his heart stir when they hugged each other at the zoo, he could hardly comprehend what motivating words Masao was saying to him the day prior because their hands had touched, not to mention when he foolishly got rice on his glasses Masao wiped them for him. To finally get his feelings out to him would feel like a heavy steel weight being pushed off his chest.

But there were multiple problems: There was first and foremost Ai Suotome, Masao's crush since what felt like ages ago. When she first stepped into the Sunflower classroom in kindergarten, he was head over heels for her and allowed himself to be toyed with over and over again, thinking their bond was real love.