RUN BOY RUN
chapter two
miwa ren arrives two days later than everyone else. it's nightfall when he finally makes it to the dorms lugging his luggage behind him. after giving him a room number and a key, takashima rei left him to survive finding his new home for the next year by himself.
ren drags his feet, hearing footsteps in the distance. he wonders who would be practising so late but as someone who only came to the school because of not want all the trips their scout took to be for nought, he couldn't exactly comment on the way his peers (who actually liked the sport) did their practice.
he found his room, unfortunately, on the second floor. the door was old and rusted sporting the number 207 in big bold letters, next to it read the names of the students inhabiting the room on wooden slaps and it was easy to tell the newest addition from the rest for barely any dirt had yet found itself on it.
ren knocked, looking down at the names, trying his best to memorise them since he would be living with them for the next year.
past the door, there was shuffling and footsteps, something clanking against something else and then— silence. a moment went by, then another before the door was slowly opened, it lets out a loud creak as it was.
a pair of brown eyes emerge from the darkness, blinking at the strange boy who had appeared just before midnight, who had a large and old duffle bag hoisted up on his shoulder. the owner of the eyes stares quietly as ren stands there, awkward.
the realisation of who he was seemed to pop up in the stranger's head as he opened the door the rest of the way. the boy who stood there had a shaved head and a shirt ten times too big for him.
"uh—" a pause. "miwa ren-kun?" asked the stranger after digging the name up from his memory. he reached out his hand for a shake and ren took it in response. "i'm kijima rei, second year." introduced the upperclassman, "we weren't expecting you so late."
"the train got delayed." ren muttered, pulling his hand back. the other boy's hand was drenched in an unusual amount of sweat, especially for spring, the time for the hot weather wouldn't be until a couple of months or so.
kijima ren didn't press on further. "come in." he said, stepping away from the doorway to let the new kid in. the dorm was surprisingly cleaner and neater than ren had expected from an environment of teenage boys.
there was one bunk and one twin bed which had been so neatly made one could think no one had been sleeping on them. kijima picked up ren's duffle back, grunting at the sudden heavy weight of it as he hauled it to the top bunk.
"the third year also staying here went to wash up so i stayed behind in case you showed, seemed it was a good choice." explained the second-year as he picked up a pile of necessities including a towel, toothbrush and paste, and a hairbrush, and of course, the pile was decorated with a seidō baseball cap on top of it all. "we put this together for you."
miwa ren felt like a sham.
he took the pile and he forced a smile, "thank you very much, kijima-senpai."
kijima shrugged, clearly trying to hide the relief that his present seemed to be appreciated, "sure." then he glanced at the clock on the wall, "oh crap they'll turn off the water soon, gotta run." he dusted his hands, picking up a small bag from the bottom bunk, presumably the place he slept, he rushed to the door, creaking it open but before he left he remembered to turn around to look at the first-year left standing awkwardly in the middle of the dorm room.
"ryou-san doesn't bite so if he comes back before me, don't worry. i shouldn't be gone too long though, we'll go through all the basics and stuff tomorrow, yeah? cool." and then he was gone like a flash of lightning, ren had never seen one talk or move so fast. he hadn't even gotten a word in before he'd been left abandoned in this strange new environment.
but kijima seemed nice enough so maybe this year wouldn't be so horrible. right as he was pushing the pile of things in his hands onto his new bed, the creaking of the door announced its opening once more.
it was so sudden it scared miwa ren half to death and due to his jump, most of the things in his hands fell on the floor with loud thuds after every item. ren winced at every item until they finally stopped coming and looked in the direction of the door, his neck heating up in embarrassment.
a boy stands at the door with his hand still grasped around the handle. his hair was in some shade of rose gold still dripping slightly with water, a towel hung around his neck over his plain white t-shirt. he looked at ren for a minute or two without a word, neither of them moved at all, really.
well, until, "ryou-san?" the name came naturally after he'd heard it from kijima, his full name entirely gone from his memory now.
the voice seemed to wake the shorter of the two out of his trance, "miwa ren, i take it?" he asked as if everything was perfectly normal.
"sir." answered ren from habit. he cursed himself, he hadn't come here to play lapdog like he did at home.
kominato ryousuke sighed, letting himself in and closing the door behind him, "if i'm gone when you wake up, kijima said he'd show you around." well, didn't he like to get to business immediately? "we normally wake up around five but we'll let you sleep a bit more." he threw the towel upon an old wooden chair that stood against the wall by the singular twin bed.
"sir." ren repeated through gritted teeth.
kominato sat on his bed, ruffling his wet hair with his hands, "what's your position?" he asked, now no longer looking at the younger boy which surprisingly made ren feel like a weight was lifted off his shoulders.
he crouched down to pick back up his things as he spoke, "i don't have one," and before he forgot; "sir."
he felt eyes on him again, "what do you mean by that?"
"well, sir, i- uh" now how to explain this? "if we were ever missing a position and didn't have anyone suitable, i would cover for them." silence. "though, i, uhm, i think i played catcher the most? we had this really good pitcher though his personality sucked so no one but me really got along with him that much and-" the silence was so deafening ren couldn't help but feel the need to go on and on about things now completely unrelated to the simple question his upperclassman had asked.
"so you can play all the positions?" kominato finally interrupted by saying something.
"sir." ren nodded, this time successfully throwing the pile of things onto the upper bunk.
"that sounds sweet." maybe to someone who, maybe, i don't know, liked the sport? miwa ren, however, could not relate to that sentiment.
"if you say so, sir."
it fell quiet but this time for only a moment. "stop." said the older.
ren hummed, putting one foot on the bunk bed's stairway in an effort to see if it was really strong enough to hold him. he hadn't slept on an upper bunk before in his life.
"you sound like i'm forcing you to talk to me."
"are you not?" miwa ren was an asshole by nature, he could not keep his thoughts to himself longer than fifteen minutes and of course, it just had to be now to the possible third year he'd be rooming with.
but to ren's surprise, there was laughter as the answer instead of more silence. "you're a bit strange."
"you're telling me." shut up. he started to climb up to his bed.
"can you not call me sir?" asked kominato ryousuke, "what you called me earlier was fine."
"what, 'sir' or 'ryou-san'? because if it's the latter, no thanks, sir." and then he pushed himself up the rest of the way, barely avoiding hitting his head.
kominato ryousuke looked up at where the younger boy had disappeared from his sight in simple confusion because exactly what in the world was that?
this was the day that miwa ren met kijima rei and kominato ryousuke, and the day kijima rei and kominato ryousuke met miwa ren. this was the beginning of newer and stranger things which ren at this point, was still oblivious about.
—