Japan ‧₊˚. ⸝⸝ 06 (req) (🔞)

Kiku Honda was not the type to make scenes. He was quiet when he was happy and quiet when he was upset, and when something bothered him he usually hid it behind a polite smile, as if waiting long enough might make it stop mattering. Most people thought he was hard to read, so they assumed he never got angry, never felt possessive, and never dealt with jealousy. But they were wrong.

You had been friends for nearly a year, and your friendship was built on quiet moments rather than grand gestures. Late-night walks through the city meant more than endless conversation. Kiku treasured those moments more than he ever admitted.

Lately, though, they had become harder to find.

Someone new had entered your life. A coworker of yours, he was young and energetic. They laughed with you often, stood a little too close, and seemed completely unaware that every smile they drew from you stayed in Kiku’s thoughts long after the day had ended.

Kiku had worried that perhaps you had simply grown tired and would want this younger male.

He told himself he was overthinking, that you had done nothing wrong, and that you were allowed to have friends. Still, the uneasy feeling would not leave, and each time he tried to dismiss it, he only felt worse for having it at all.

Kiku sat across from you with a cup of tea he hadn’t touched in a while, listening the way he always did. He had invited you to his apartment today.

“I see,” he said. “It sounds like you’re getting along well.”

He looked down at his cup after that, fingers resting lightly on the rim. He was choosing his next words very carefully.

“I know I don’t have a right to feel this way,” he continued, voice still controlled, but lower now. “You’re not doing anything wrong. I understand that.”

“…If I asked you to forget about everyone else for a while,” he murmured, fingers brushing the edge of your hand across the table “would you think that was selfish of me?”