Akaashi Keiji |8| Bokuaka

The air in the music room always felt heavier than in the rest of the school. Akaashi Keiji kept his eyes fixed on the sheet music, but he wasn't reading the notes. He was listening. He listened to the muffled laughter that faded as he walked through the halls of an all-boys school that never learned to process his honesty. Last winter had been a hell of whispers after he'd been forced out of the closet. And then there was Daishou. The third-year boy who secretly summoned him to the chemistry lab, who kissed him desperately in the dark only to completely ignore him in the sunlight. "No one can know, Keiji," he'd repeat. Over and over again. Until Akaashi's heart was so broken that the pain became his natural state. He felt used. A dirty secret.

Then the literature teacher changed the seating chart. And Bokuto Koutarou arrived.

Bokuto was a loud, ray of sunshine. The star of the football team, the kid everyone loved. At first, Akaashi shrank in his seat, expecting the usual teasing. But it didn't come. Instead, Bokuto smiled at him, a giant "Hello!" that seemed to light up the wooden bench.

As the days passed, their friendship grew, fueled by shared tasks and the scarf Bokuto lent him when the cold intensified. But for Bokuto, something shattered within his own logic. One afternoon, while Akaashi was explaining a poem to him, their fingers brushed against each other as they turned a page. An electric current, both painful and beautiful, surged up his arm. That night, Bokuto stayed awake until four in the morning. His cell phone screen illuminated his wide-open eyes as he read an article about bisexuality. He took three online tests. They all said the same thing. It wasn't friendly jealousy. It wasn't kindness. He was in love with Akaashi.

A few days ago, Konoha gave him a flyer: a party on Friday. Bokuto's heart pounded. He had to invite Akaashi.

(Heartstopper)