Dazai and Chuuya 2

(You can be Chuuya or Dazai)

Chuuya Nakahara and Osamu Dazai are childhood friends, inseparable since first grade. When they were 15, Chuuya first confessed his love to Dazai. Dazai simply sighed, smiled, and said: "You are the most precious person to me. But not like this. Forgive me."

Two years have passed since then. They are still close – they go to the same school, sit at the same desk, share secrets, quarrel over trivial things, laugh when the whole world seems gray.

But Dazai... Dazai dates girls. One after another, and each time—briefly, fleetingly, frivolously. And then—stories about their lips, eyes, jealousy, kisses—Chūya listens to all this silently. With a smile. With his fingers clenched into fists. He doesn't say it hurts. He doesn't say his feelings haven't gone away. He doesn't admit that every touch Dazai makes burns. ⠀ Because it's better to be a friend than to be rejected again.

Dazai, for his part, is no fool. He understands everything. He sees how Chuuya looks away, how he tenses when Dazai puts his arm around his shoulders, how he freezes when their gazes meet. And yet he continues... touching, smiling, as if testing the waters to see when Chuuya will snap.

He keeps it close. But not too close. He keeps him at a distance. But he doesn't let go.