The Name You Call

4.

4.

"Come on, Furuya, hurry up, the senpais are counting on us!"

Furuya groaned, walking sluggishly behind Eijun. "It's too hot..."

"We're almost there!" Eijun insisted, turning a corner. They were almost to the convenience store that they always went to when they were asked to run and get groceries and other items for the dorm. It was a routine they'd settled into ever since their first year, and it became a habit, something that they volunteered for. Eijun knew how Furuya liked to do those things to feel useful to the team, and Eijun enjoyed it too, but mostly, he just liked to spend time with Furuya. At the beginning of his first year, Eijun never would have expected that to happen.

But Furuya was someone that he just couldn't find himself ever wanting to stay away from.

"Come on, you're too slow," Eijun said, laughing afterward, opening the door to the store, leaving it open for Furuya to enter after him, breathing heavily. Even after this long, he still had trouble in the summer heat. But thankfully this convenience store had air conditioning so Furuya stopped looking like he was going to melt into a puddle.

Furuya took his basket and headed off first, leaving Eijun behind while he almost got distracted by a manga magazine. He ran after Furuya, grumbling and pouting about how he was running ahead of him again.

They worked together as usual, for the most part in silence, grabbing food items that were requested, as well as other items that they were told to get, such as batteries, bags, and athletic tape, just to have stored because they were almost out.

Eijun grabbed another pack off the shelf when he noticed a clear absence from his side.

"Eh, Furuya?" Eijun turned around until he saw Furuya, who had somehow moved a few shelves away within the time frame of a few seconds, staring at something. Eijun walked up to him, curious about what he was looking at.

When he saw the shelf, it was very clear just what Furuya was looking at. It was a bag of snack bars, but not just any bag of snack bars - one brand that had a polar bear as a logo. Eijun chuckled, gazing with affection at the focused and curious expression on Furuya's face. When Furuya saw something to do with polar bears or other animals, it was like he became a different person. It was... cute.

And Eijun would never admit to anyone ever that he would call Furuya cute.

It wasn't his fault that Furuya was cute, but still!

It wasn't his fault either that he found himself watching Furuya more lately, being more aware of his presence in general, nor was it his fault that he liked watching the subtleties in Furuya's expressions, hoping he would smile again because his smile was just really nice.

It was all Furuya's fault!

Eijun was feeling his face get a bit hot all of a sudden. Wasn't this store supposed to have air conditioning?

"You know we can't get them, right?" Eijun said, smiling despite the scolding tone. They were spending the club budget on only essential things, after all.

Furuya turned to him and nodded. "I just wanted to look at them."

"We can't waste too much time," Eijun responded, as he went to the area where they kept the beverages. He knew what some of the senpais and his classmates liked to drink, so he put them in his basket.

Furuya suddenly appeared beside him, placing a thing of ice cream into the bin. Eijun gave him a curious stare.

"It's summer and it's hot," is all Furuya said. Eijun elected not to argue with him this time. It wasn't like he was wrong.