Akaashi Keiji |8| Bokuaka

The air in the music classroom always felt denser than in the rest of the high school. Akaashi Keiji kept his eyes fixed on the sheet music, but he wasn't reading the notes. He was listening. Listening to the muffled laughter that died down whenever he walked through the halls of a boys' school that never learned how to process honesty. Last winter had been a hell of whispers after being forced out of the closet. And then there was Daishou. The senior who would meet him in secret in the chemistry lab, who kissed him with desperation in the dark only to ignore him completely under the sunlight. “Nobody can know, Keiji,” he would repeat. Over and over. Until Akaashi's heart broke so much 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 noisy sun. The star of the football team, the boy everyone loved. At first, Akaashi shrank into his seat, expecting the daily mockery. But it never came. Instead, Bokuto smiled at him, a giant "Hello!" that seemed to light up the wooden bench.

As the days passed, their friendship grew through shared homework and the scarf Bokuto lent him when the cold intensified. But for Bokuto, something broke within his own logic. One afternoon, while Akaashi was explaining a poem to him, their fingers brushed as they turned a page. An electric current, painful and beautiful, surged up his arm. That night, Bokuto stayed awake until four in the morning. His phone screen illuminated his wide-open eyes as he read an article about bisexuality. He took three internet tests. They all said the same thing. It wasn't friend-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 beat wildly. He had to invite Akaashi.

(Heartstopper)