EPISODE 14 [⎷]
p a g e f o u r t e e n : H E A T W A V E
takemichi tried his best to suppress a giggle; biting his lips unintentionally cutely with his two bunny front teeth chewing on his bottom lip. rindou couldn't help but stare, completely forgetting haruchiyo drawing circles around a sleeping ran's eyes and open mouth, adding freckles on the sleeping boy's cheeks with a permanent marker he had asked to borrow from takemichi who hadn't had any bit of idea what the boy would use it for. not until now.
as soon as the white haired male was finish, he closed the marker with its cap with a click, slightly causing the sleeping boy to stir awake.
takemichi swiftly places his mug of milk down and went back to making sunny-side-up eggs, bacons, and hotdogs for the five of them — grandma chiyo was still asleep due to the exhaustion from work yesterday. but thankfully today's sunday; her day off. she could sleep all day and trust the four boys to help around the house.
and ran seemed like he didn't get much sleep from him still dozing off on the dining table. "did you guys sleep alright last night?" takemichi asked, seemingly in a good mood as he didn't get the nightmare while he was asleep.
rindou perks up, switching his focus on his mug of hot chocolate. "slept alright. better, even. well, kuya here stayed up chatting with his friends all night. now look at him." (kuya / older brother)
ran grunts, hearing what his young brother said but he still looked sleepy and drowsy. drunk, if you could call him that. "i did not." before his forehead met with his forearm again, napping for exactly three seconds before he looked up again. "i was talking to them about the training camp. which is an important topic."
"oh so you can't talk to them the next day? tomorrow?" haruchiyo monotonously asks with all the sarcasm in the world, twiddling the marker between his index and middle finger.
early morning and they're already ganging up on me. ran rolled his eyes annoyedly and faced away, his temple meeting his forearm.
his eyes fell on the blonde; wearing a brown apron with his back facing them. ran couldn't help but smile. "good morning, pretty." almost looking like a drunk with his sleepy lazy eyes and lop sided grin. "napanaginipan kita kagabi. nasa beach tayo tapos gabi non tapos sobrang ganda mo." ( / i dreamt of you last night. we were at the beach and it was nighttime and you were so pretty.)
takemichi blushes; hearing someone call him pretty 's definitely the first time. but all the pink shade on his cheeks blew away when the thought of ran kidding with him crossed his mind. he slightly turned and smiled sunnily at the boy. "6 am and you're already talkative? side effect of staying up late?"
rindou shook his head lazily. "side effect of dreaming about you." he purposely trailed off, taking another loud sip of his hot chocolate milk. "madaldal yan pag maganda panaginip."
"so sinasabi mo nga na maganda si takemichi?" haruchiyo casually asks, placing both his elbows on the table as he circled the mouth of his mug with his finger, a tiny glint flashing across his eyes.
rindou shifted, fumbling with his words as he tried to find the right answer. "i mean, you can call a boy cute and pretty, right?"
rindou settled his lips on his mug awkwardly, peeking through his lashes only to see takemichi smiling warmly at him, cheeks slightly pink though his cheeks are naturally in a light shade of pink. he immediately turned away, his whole body taking a swift turn and his back is now facing the blonde. "oo na! maganda ka na. wag ka na ngumiti ng ganiyan sakin." (/ okay fine! you're pretty. now stop smiling at me like that.)
rindou grumpily huffs. ran was now fully awake and is glaring at his younger brother. haruchiyo was taking a long, leisure sip of his coffee, staring at the back of rindou's head with a smirk hiding behind his mug.
takemichi couldn't help but smile giddily, once again chewing on his bottom lip. must be nice being called pretty all the time. he thought, referring to those people who have pretty, head-turning features.
❀
takemichi watches the three play, constantly tackling each other. ran and rindou almost broke into a fight but immediately backed away from each other as soon as they realized that takemichi was with them. well eventually, the heat between the two cooled off and went back to being playful and continued to play basketball.
just as he's about to sit down on the concrete, a dreadful noise of slippers walking towards the court came from behind. those footsteps could belong to anyone living in the neighborhood.
but being with mikey and some others for a very long time told him that they 're the ones approaching the court.
"yo! haitani!" a deep, cocky voice yells, catching the three coconut heads who abruptly stops playing, snapping their heads towards the boys entering the court. "which team am i in?"
they all entered one after another. starting from baji, to mikey — draken — matsuno — smiley and angry — hakkai — mitsuya — kazutora — and lastly, ryohei (peh-yan). none of them bothered to greet the blonde who watched them walk past him in dismay.
except for ryohei. he raised his eyebrows at the blonde as his quiet way to greet him before taking a sit next to him. "sa inyo daw natutulog sila?" ( / 'heard those guys are sleeping at you house?) ryohei cocks his head towards the three boys who almost have the same haircut.
takemichi was quite surprised. if he probably had memory gap, this would be the first time ryohei has talked to him. "ah oo. hindi ko pa natatanong kung bakit sila pinapunta dito but we're getting along pretty well. i think." ( / ah yes. i haven't asked why they're here but we're getting along pretty well. i think.)
"pretty well? you think?" ryohei had sensed the hesitance and uneasiness in the blonde's voice when he answered. "you guys seemed to get along more well than what you think. especially with ran."
"hm?" the blue eyed male tilts his head, eyebrows furrowed upward in confusion. "what do you mean?"
ryohei scoffs playfully, chuckling. "that guy chatted us up till 3 am last night. he wouldn't stop talking about how he always see you whenever he closed his eyes."
when ryohei looks up to the blonde, he wouldn't say he expected a flustered reaction. but he wasn't expecting the blonde paling at what he said. the healthy color of peach suddenly draining from his skin. "you alright?"
takemichi jerks up from his daze, promptly shaking his head with a smile. "y-yeah yeah!"
i thought ran meant his friends from his school. takemichi thought to himself.
"oy! peh-yah! you playin or not!?" the two boys sitting next to each other abruptly looked up to baji, who was holding a basketball from a distance.
"no! don't want to sweat!" the brunette shouts back, earning a plain thumbs up from the black haired male before the latter turned his back, not even bothering to ask the blonde if he wants to play to.
ryohei seemed to sense the tension lying on takemichi's shoulders as he took a glance at the lad, only to see him biting his lower lip tightly. "... you don't play, right? b-ball?"
the boy turned to him ever so quickly, suddenly perking up. "oh no no! not really into basketball."
"figured that too. you're a monster during v-ball trainings." ryohei casually compliments, though he seemed to confuse the blonde as he watches the boy raise an eyebrow, a grin slowly blooming on the boy's face. "that's right. i'm complimenting you." ryohei nodded, a small smile playing on his lips.
takemichi giggles joyously and proceeds to tease the taller male anyway — yet another bond forming between him and another person who suddenly came crashing into his life.
he hasn't realize that he's being talkative, actually having many topics to start talking about. he expected for their conversation to drop and simply watch the others play, but they ended up not caring about the match and prolonging their chit-chat for as long as the others are not noticing their interaction.
and he actually feels lighter than usual.
until all of the sudden, he felt his head throbbing, a stinging ache on his temple that he struggled to realize that he's been hit by a ball.
really hard.
ryohei stilled. then snapped out of his thoughts before he looked up. "gago ba kayo!?" ( / are you guys insane!?)
ran was the first to rush in. "shit." he hissed under his breath, dropping on one knee, promptly wiping his dirty, sweaty hands on his shirt before he delicately tilted the wincing blonde's face up. "buti di nabangasan mukha mo." ( / good thing there's no scratch.)
"bakit? sayang mukha niya?" rindou humors, trying to light up the mood. earned a few laughs alright.
"tanga ka. sino sisisihin ni tita pag may gasgas sa mukha toh? sila ba?" ( / you dumbfuck. who do you think aunt chiyo will blame if she sees his face bruised up? them?) ran agitatedly asked, cocking his head at the gang that had entered the court.
rindou almost instantly nodded. "oo. sila. sinadya ni draken patamaan ng bola sa mukha si takemichi e." ( / yes. them. draken deliberately hit takemichi's face with the ball.)
"fuck no i didn't. it was an accident. i thought mikey was next to me. i was supposed to pass the ball to him." draken defended cooly.
"oh talaga ba? kahit di naman siya kasali sa laro, hm?" ( / oh really? even though he's not part of the game, hm?) rindou states, pointing at mikey who haruchiyo subbed in for before the 2nd match started.
"no no i'm okay. nawawala na yung sakit." ( / the pain's gone.) takemichi weakly cuts in, softly taking ran's face off his face but ran kept on trying to take a hold of his chin, examining his face for other scratches and more. "i'm fine, ran."
"you sure? you look pale."
"i swear i'm good. i think i'll head home. i'll just come back out." the blonde stood up, catching everyone's attention. "i feel a little dizzy. i'll stay in for a bit."
"i'll come with you." ryohei offered before ran could stand up to say the same thing as well.
"you don't have to."
"yeah you don't have to, peh-yah. he can get in by himself. he said he's good." kazutora states, completely ignoring whatever had happened — like he gave a shit in the first place — before stealing the ball from chifuyu and shooting it into the hoop with his shoes behind the three-point line.
ryohei huffs disbelievingly. "the fuck— samahan na kita." ( / i'll come with you.) ryohei insists. takemichi couldn't keep declining that. the boy was being thoughtful.
"i'll come with you too." ran steps forward.
in the end, takemichi agreed to let the two come with him back home even after his protests.
but it dawned on him; that seeing a certain long black haired, pony-tailed boy secretly slap hands together with a blond braided headed boy before joining the others in the game was far more suffocatingly painful than the strong ache tingling in his head.
S O Y A
ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉ ᶜᵒⁿᵗⁱⁿᵘᵉᵈ