He was proud of himself for even walking away. Park unknowingly tormented him all semester, but now? He could move on. That was all he needed to obliterate his crush. Deep down, though, he knew some part of him would have kept going, kept on kissing Milo in the locker room and just ignore whatever he saw at work. It was better to cut it off now, before anything became of their proposed gym plan.
Lee hurried back to Manley Hall. It wasn't long enough for him to completely process Milo Park, pack him up, and ship him off, but it was long enough for Lee's attention to return to Earth. With his brain back from the stratosphere, he glazed over a familiar, gaudy red Ferrari parked out front of Manley.
Lee skidded to a stop. He did a double-take, frozen in the middle of the sidewalk. He flinched at the sound of the driver's door popping open. He probably looked like a goddamn Sasquatch caught mid-stride in the viewfinder of his brother's sniper rifle.
Long black hair emerged from the driver's seat. Sen Asano. Lee cursed under his breath, fully prepared to make a break for it. If he ran, he could make it to the dorm door fast enough for it to lock behind him and block Sen out—
The instant he moved, a hand latched onto his wrist and a taunting, "Ah, ah, ah," struck a shudder down Lee's spine.
"Ellis," he seethed, turning with a scowl. He came face-to-face with Sen's psychopath of a boyfriend. Ellis' grin was maniacal as always, his ginger hair windswept and longer since the last Lee saw of him.
When he loosened his grip, Lee yanked his hand out of Ellis's hand. It was too late to run—Sen was already on the curb.
"Lovely to see you again, as always," Ellis said.
"Not likely," Lee huffed. He pegged his brother with a scowl and said, "What're you guys doing here?"
Sen was decked out in a suit and tie, an olive green blazer his mark of an alum. Lee really didn't want to know what event brought Sen back to campus, but something told him that Sen wasn't at all interested in it.
Sen tugged on the hem of his sleeve as he said, "Just came to visit my favorite brother."
"Oh, really? I didn't know Ma had a secret bastard I didn't know about," Lee said with a plastic smile.
Sen rolled his eyes. "Sharp as always. Get in the car, we're going out."
"Out?" Lee repeated. He glanced at Ellis, who put his hands in his pockets and offered an encouraging, serial killer smile. Lee narrowed his eyes at the guy. "Where?"
"Sushi," Sen said. Lee glowered at his brother. Screw him for knowing all of Lee's weak spots.
Grumbling, Lee shoved past Sen. He swung open the back door of the Ferrari and , fuming, ducked inside.
Sen took the driver's side and, tugging his hair over one shoulder, put the car into drive. Lee glared at him when he dared look at Lee through the rearview mirror. He'd come for the sushi, but he wouldn't be happy about it.
Sen had a stellar internship with their father at the law firm. It was the sort of opportunity USFC Law graduates pined for, and Sen got it mostly out of good old fashioned nepotism. He'd make bank, Lee was sure of it, so he didn't think twice about it when Sen pulled up to valet parking outside of San Francisco's esteemed Asian Cuisine Marketplace.
The Marketplace was a massive, five-star multilevel food court. They bypassed the first floor in favor of the second where the Asanos used to spend their Sunday afternoons splitting bowls of hotpot and arguing over what the Hell to put in it. Their flavor palates could never coincide.
They were silent as they passed the marble archway into the sushi bar. The corner of the bar was empty, so Lee took one edge while Sen took the adjacent one. Ellis perched himself on the stool beside Sen and, waving the waiter over, got them three menus.
Lee put his backpack between his feet and said, "Alright then. Out with it."
"Straight to the point," Sen hummed. He propped his chin on his hand and studied Lee for a moment with those wide, vacant eyes. Lee frowned at him as he leant back in his stool and crossed his arms. "I just want the best for you, Leon."
"Your 'best' is my 'worst'."
"So dramatic," he sighed. "Do our words not have value to you?"
"They do," Lee said. He looked down at the crimson candle holder in front of him as he said, "They cost about as much as gas station gum."
"Kiko applied to USFC," he said.
Lee's breath stilled in his throat. He looked up from the crimson candle. Kiko Asano. Lee knew that some day soon Kiki would pick a university, and given their parents' track record, Lee knew it'd have to be University of San Francisco, California. Kiki's grades were good enough for USFC Law, too.
The difference, though, was a matter of how much value their parents gave to Kiki.
"How much does that cost to you?" Sen inquired, tipping his head to the side.
Lee swallowed hard. He clenched his fists against his biceps. His tongue felt numb in his mouth the longer he stared at Sen's unblinking eyes. "What does Dad want with her?" he asked.
The waiter interrupted them. Sen and Lee had both been there enough times to know their orders by heart, and relayed them without taking their eyes off of one another. When the waiter left, Sen cleared his throat and said:
"Nothing in particular... if you play nice."
Lee ground his teeth together as Sen sat forward on his stool.
"He's willing to pay for Kiki's education, but the major depends on what you decide to do."
"Did she make it in?" Lee said. USFC Law went unspoken.
"We'll know by next month."
Lee relaxed back in his seat. There was a chance that Kiki purposefully bombed the entry exam, but even if that was the case, Kiki's education wasn't necessarily paid for. There was no way he could fathom putting Kiki through the bullshit he had to deal with this semester. It'd only get worse from here on out, but Lee could handle the workload.
He didn't want Kiki to have to handle anything.
He reached for his water glass and said, "We'll talk next month, then."
"Registration is happening soon, isn't it? We should talk now," Sen insisted.
"No, we don't," Lee bit out, teeth clenched. He eyed Sen sharply and said, "I liked you better when you didn't have your nose in my shit."
"I'm just a concerned brother, is all," Sen said.
"Right," Lee droned. He met eyes with Ellis, who closed his fist beneath his chin. Ellis's calm facade unnerved Lee to an alarming degree. Lee looked away for the sake of his sanity and chugged his glass of water to avoid conversation.
________________
The strange thing about the American education system involved parental income. Socially, Lee was disowned, but on paper? The government didn't know that and therefore assumed his parents were paying for his education. Their six figure income put Lee's financial aid down the drain and, as he racked up debt by ten grand every semester, he had a shit ton of scholarships to apply for by the end of the semester if he didn't want to drown in it.
That meant passing OChem and keeping his GPA up. The second would only be easy if the first wasn't so fucking hard.
Lee put his hands in his hair to keep his head from falling on his homework. Lecture was tomorrow, which meant homework was due by midnight, and he spent that entire day forcing himself not to dial Kiki up. His mother wasn't above tapping cell lines and tracking Kiki's phone activity, and Lee really did not want to deal with his mother.
But, whenever his phone rang, he hoped to God that it was Kiki.
He lunged for his phone, only to sigh when he saw Rushil's name on the screen. He put his phone to his ear and said, "Hey, how's it going?"
"Tell me why Milo is interrogating me about you."
Lee dropped back onto his futon with a groan. He put a hand on his face and shook his head, "It's complicated. I'm in the middle of OChem, so could we maybe talk about this after the deadline?"
"We talk about it now because we're literally in the elevator heading to your dorm right now."
"Please tell me you at least brought homework to work on."
"Hell yeah. I'm not a complete idiot," Rushil said.
"Ah, so we agree that you are a partial idiot," Lee said. Rushil cursed him out and hung up. As soon as the line went dead, Lee stared at his phone only to spew obscenities when he realized what Rushil said. We. He's in the elevator with someone else and, more likely than not, it was Milo Park.
Lee lunged to his feet once again and looked frantically around his dorm room. He threw his comforter over his messy sheets and grabbed his discarded clothes in a flurry. He kicked them into the closet and slid the door shut just as a knock sounded on his room door.
He sprayed his least overwhelming cologne and walked through it on his way to the door. He ran a hand through his hair, frantic and fast, before unlocking the door and swinging it open.
"Now is not the time," Lee said as he held the door open for Rushil. He dropped his eyes so he wouldn't have to see Milo's face as Rushil marched inside and claimed the futon where Lee's homework was spread out. Rushil stacked the papers up to make room.
"Why not?" Milo said. Lee let the door swing shut after him and, when Milo passed him, he lifted his eyes to watch as Milo took in the sight of his room. Lee's room was relatively plain in comparison to most of the rooms on this floor. Really, the only form of decoration he had was a dark black and purple mandala tapestry over his bed and the futon. His desk was still decked out with shit from home, which meant an expensive monitor and desktop he planned on selling if need be.
Milo pointed to the tapestry and said, "Nice."
"You look stressed," Rushil commented.
"I'm freaking out," Lee said, throwing his arms out. "My brother stopped by yesterday and I've been in existential crisis mode ever since."
Rushil sat up fast, eyes wide. "You're kidding."
Lee put a hand to his hair and said, "I fucking wish I was. He came with his psychotic boy toy and my grandpa's Ferrari. Shit doesn't get weirder than that."
"Wow, I am not caught up," Milo said. He jumped onto Lee's bed and kicked off his shoes. "Your brother's gay and has a Ferrari?"
"That's what you got out of this?" Lee said.
Rushil waved his hands in the air and said, "What'd he say?"
Lee dragged his hands over his face and moaned, "My sister applied to USFC. My dad's willing to pay for her education if I switch back to USFC Law. She'd get to major in whatever she wants, but—"
"You'd be in criminal law," Rushil finished.
Lee collapsed into his desk chair with a hand over his eyes. "I spent all afternoon applying to scholarships for next semester. If I can pay off my tuition I could work for Kiki's, and I know her grades are good, but I just don't want her to have to deal with this shit."
"I don't know what to say," Rushil confessed, eyes on his lap.
"Have you talked to her?" Milo asked. Lee dropped his hand to look at Milo, who was in the complete draw-me-like-one-of-your-French-girls poses on Lee's bed. He was sprawled all over Lee's comforter and fuck it, if Lee wasn't already planning on never washing that comforter again.
He shook his head, trying to dispel the heat flooding elsewhere. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he cleared his throat and said, "N-No, I haven't. I can't call her. My mom's recorded mine and Kiki's phone calls before."
"Fuck, dude," Milo breathed, and it sounded so gay coming out of his mouth that Lee looked desperately to Rushil in hopes that he'd play the responsible roommate card.
Rushil shrugged uselessly.
Lee sighed. "So... yeah. I have to pass OChem or else. I'm applying to scholarships that require a 3.8 GPA and if I fail OChem, I'll be toast and they'll use my blood for strawberry jam."
"Then let's get it done!" Rushil declared. He dropped his backpack between his legs and unzipped it.
Lee moved to join Rushil on the futon, his eyes trailing over to where Milo watched them with those bright, amber eyes. Milo flopped onto his belly and positioned his chin on his folded forearms. His eyes met Lee's and the silence that stretched between them confirmed Lee's suspicions. The locker room was still on both of their minds, and Milo wasn't going to let it go.
For now, he was grateful to have Rushil as a buffer.
They studied late into the night, trying to make the midnight deadline on their OChem homework. When that was done, Lee was back to his paper and, likewise, Rushil was back to writing anatomy notecards. All the while, Milo lounged on Lee's bed and occasionally Lee would look up and find Milo's eyes diverting from where they had been focused on the two of them on the futon.
The clock ticked closer to midnight. Eventually, Milo said, "Don't you need to be up in five hours?"
Lee looked up, startled by the accuracy of that number. Milo was looking at him, and Lee remembered, Oh, right, we swapped schedules.
"Yeah, I do," Lee said, slowly.
"We should get out of your hair then," Rushil said. He gathered up his notecards as he added, "Alex said there's gonna be a pop quiz tomorrow to prep for the exam."
"Oh, joy," Lee groaned.
"Tell me about it," Rushil said with a roll of his eyes. He stood up and zipped up his backpack. "I'll see you tomorrow in Hell."
"Yeah, see ya," Lee said, leaning forward over his knees as he watched Rushil tap on Milo's arm to get him moving. Milo rolled off of Lee's bed and gracefully landed on his feet.
Lee started to pack his backpack for the morning, if only to distract himself from Milo's receding ass as it headed to the door. Rushil said goodbye again before the door closed and was promptly punctuated by Rushil crying, "Hey!"
Lee looked up as the lock on the door clicked.
Milo was still in the room after having completely slammed the door in Rushil's face. Lee's jaw dropped as Milo strode back to him and crouched in front of Lee's half-zipped backpack, his eyes on Lee's face.
Lee would have stammered and stuttered for eternity if Milo hadn't said a word. "I don't like to have serious conversations over text or on the phone," Milo said. "I wanted to see you in person."
Lee clamped his mouth shut and frowned at him. Milo clasped his hands together between his legs and said, "Just—tell me if I did something wrong. I thought we were both into this. Did I misread something?"
"I-I don't want to talk about it," Lee said. Milo stared at him expectantly, and Lee couldn't maintain eye contact without wanting to simultaneously vomit and make out with him. Lee clenched his hands against his knees and stressed again, "I'm serious, Milo. Just leave it be."
Milo moved as if to stand. Lee's heart stammered in his chest as Milo leant towards him. They stared each other down, and Lee's eyes fluttered between Milo's as he felt the heat of Milo's arm brushing past his shoulder, his hand clutching at the back cushion of the futon.
Lee's breath shuddered out. He smelled sharp peppermint on Milo's breath, which had to mean that at some point, Milo had popped a mint in. He wondered how long ago Milo had done that. Was it when he was finishing OChem or writing his paper?
"Tell me," Milo breathed, and the rest went unsaid. The inflection in his voice was too similar to the one in Roland Ball's bedroom, and the cheeky way Lee had teased him over the phone.
"Do it," Lee demanded.
Milo cocked his head to the side. "Do what?"
Lee reached up as if to strangle him. Instead, he clutched onto Milo's jawline and dragged him forward. He pushed himself to the edge of the seat, meeting Milo's open mouth with his tongue grazing against the underside of Milo's when he slipped into Lee's mouth without hesitation. Lee let out a barely restrained moan of content upon the slow, shaky exhale of his breath into Milo's mouth. The chill of Milo's peppermint tasted like candy on Lee's lips, sticking to the inside of his cheek where Milo's tongue roamed and scoured every inch of Lee's mouth in the matter of a minute.
When they let go, Lee felt lightheaded, out of breath, and dizzy. He pushed up after Milo as he straightened to his feet, grabbing Milo by the shoulder and crushing their lips together with enough force to send Milo staggering to the middle of the room. Lee stepped over his backpack, gasping at the touch of Milo's warm finger against the skin of his stomach.
When their lips separated with an audible sucking sound, Milo stepped back to the door. Lee forced his feet to stay where they were, letting Milo's hands slip from his waist. He watched as Milo dragged a thumb across his sore bottom lip with a grin.
Milo gave him a slanted, drunken smile before turning back to the door. He unlocked it and swung it open, and they both came face-to-face with the sight of Rushil jumping back from the door where he had been standing with his ear against the wood.
"What's, uh... What's going on?" Rushil stammered, clasping his hands behind him innocently.
Milo stepped out and closed the door as he said, "Just clearing something up. Let's go."