Sho blinked once or twice to make sure he was hearing Aiba’s words correctly. He even shook his head and slapped his own cheeks making sure that he was himself at the moment. Surely enough, Aiba was just starring back at him with a glint of hope in his eyes.

 

Sho shook his head, flabbergasted and unsure of his own mind. “I-I’m sorry Aiba-san. I can’t- I don’t know what to- Sorry. I’ll go now,” Sho apologized hastily and quickly went inside his car and drove away, leaving Aiba to sulk by himself under the dark sky. It’s not that Sho hated Aiba for confessing, it’s just that he was so confused and too many things happened to him in that same day. 

 

“ Jun,” Sho mumbled to himself. It was all Jun’s fault to begin with. If he didn’t even meet Jun, none of this would have happened. Better yet, if Jun wasn’t even born, none of this would happen to Sho. He would live a nice pace in life, married, have children, and he never would have met Aiba. “Aiba…” Sho closed his eyes, remembering all the good memories that Aiba had given him.

 

Ever since that euphoric man came to his life, things changed and he began to smile bit by bit. He even learned to trust people on his own because Aiba was always there giving Sho support, and cheering him up when he was down. It was also thanks to Aiba that he almost learned to forget about Nami.

 

“!” Sho cursed. He remembered why he was out in a night like this in the first place. Aiba had brought him to the beach and now he felt guilty; he left the tall man all by himself out there.

 

As soon as Sho finally reached the beach, Aiba was nowhere to be found. He even checked the last place they were chatting and the latter was nowhere to be found. Sho panicked. So he ran everywhere, searching for Aiba around the beach, the rural areas, and the city until he ended up in front of Aiba’s apartment building. He could see, from where he was standing, that the lights in the latter’s house was brightly lit. Without a second thought, he rushed upstairs almost knocking over some people along the way. 

 

“Aiba-san!” Sho yelled at the top of his lungs as he knocked loudly against the apartment door. “Open up, please!”  

 

There was no answer and Sho knocked a few more times; the door didn’t budge open at all. He wanted to give up, but with a little hope left in him he tried the door knob. Fortunately, the door opened and Sho dashed through the door while hastily taking off his shoes. He wasn’t even able to question himself as to why Aiba had forgotten to unlock the door. 

 

“Aiba-san!” Sho called out from the living room. Once again, there was no answer. Nothing but the silent wind whispering and taunting him. He opened his mouth to shout but he closed it when he heard a new sound embedding in from Aiba’s room. The shower was open and it was on blast. He slowly crept inside Aiba’s room and found that the door leading to the bathroom was open. He immediately rushed to the bathroom and exposed a crying Aiba in the shower under the rushing water.

 

Worried, Sho turned the faucet off, picked Aiba up and brought him to his bedroom. He placed a towel, that he picked from the floor, and laid it gently over Aiba. 

 

“Hey,” Aiba weakly sounded out. Despite the tears that were still falling down his face, he smiled and shook Sho’s hands away from him. He crawled over to his bed and laid there, not moving or saying anything at all but his steady breathing and sniffling.

 

“Aiba I-” Sho started but cut himself off when he realized Aiba had pulled the towel over his head. He knows how much Aiba was hurting and he’s been there before. But it wasn’t like Aiba to be so down and quiet. 

 

Instead, he stood up and headed for the door looking at the latter one last time before closing the door and probably never seeing him again.

 

“Wait,” Aiba groaned. “Don’t. Leave.”

 

Sho turned around and nodded his head; he would never leave a friend in need. He slowly walked over to his friend’s side and patted his back trying his best not to make everything awkward. 

 

“I’m sorry about earlier,” Aiba apologized. “I know you are in a tough time but I just couldn’t help it Sho-chan,” he paused and continued, “your face tonight was just…beautiful.”

 

Sho gulped. The words coming out from Aiba’s mouth sounded sincere and meaningful. He didn’t know how to reply to Aiba so he just simply nodded his head and looked away. 

He pulled his hand away from Aiba’s back and just sat there until the taller male had fallen asleep. 

 

His mind was telling him to leave but at the same time, his heart told him to stay and take care of Aiba. And so he listened to his heart dried Aiba’s hair for him, and changed his clothes to a dry one to avoid getting a cold. Sho smiled to himself, happy that he has finally done something nice to Aiba. 

 

TBC