Confusion (Part 14)
CookiesSummary:Sho suddenly becomes confused regarding his brother.
Sho was looking forward to going home right after Masaki was finished with baseball practice. However, his brother decided to drag him away from their usual pathway back home and into the busy afternoon streets of Harajuku. When Sho looked around them, he realized that they weren’t the only students that decided to hang out at Harajuku today.
“I wanted ice cream,” Masaki explained enthusiastically when Sho had asked him where they were going.
“But we have ice cream at home,” Sho whined, hoping that it would encourage his brother to change his mind and head back home instead, but it didn’t stop Masaki at all. Instead, Masaki kept dragging him along as he talked about ice cream and the place they were going to sold very tasty ice cream that was worth dying for. I wasn’t ready to die yet for ice cream, but when I saw how ecstatic Masaki was about ice cream, I might consider it.
“Oh!” Masaki squealed when we finally came to a stop in front of an ice cream vendor. It looked like any ice cream vendor, but when I saw the long line ahead of us, I assumed that there was something special about this vendor. “This is better than the ice cream we have an home, nii-chan. The one mom buys barely has flavors at all!”
Sho raised an eyebrow at his brother. “And just tell me how you learned about this? Don’t tell me you snuck out somehow just to taste this.”
“I didn’t, I swear!” Masaki pouted. “Nino told me about it, and well… I wanted to try it out with you.”
Was he blushing? I almost pouted when Masaki immediately turned around, but I stopped myself. My brother’s blushing cheeks weren’t a first for me to see, but why did I feel like I wanted to see his face more often? I must be tired out of my mind, reminding me why I wanted to go home in the first place. I snapped out of my thoughts when I felt Masaki’s hand slightly brush past mine. I quickly pulled away when I felt a sudden shock pass through my body and I wondered why I felt this. It must be because I haven’t held his hand since last week. I slipped my hand back to my side and had the strong urge to hold his hand, but I stopped myself when I remembered that we were in a public space. But why should that matter? I’ve always held his hand in public when we were kids, so why should it matter now?
“Nino says that this isn’t normal,” Masaki’s words repeated in his head as the image of them holding hands at this age popped up in his head.
Okay, sure, it wasn’t normal because they were two teenage boys and they were brothers. But since when did Sho care about what others thought about them? This was all too confusing and it was making his head hurt a ton. All he wanted was to get the ice cream that Masaki so badly wanted, head home right after, and rest his exhausted mind. There was no way he was probably going to get through this without passing out. That is, until, Masaki turned to face him with a huge happy smile on his face. As soon as Sho saw it, he felt better and the tiredness in him completely vanished.
“We’re almost there,” Masaki giggled as he slipped his arm around Sho’s arm and pulled him as the line moved forward. “I’m so excited!”
There were times that Masaki reminded Sho of a very excitable brown puppy and often times Sho had the urge to pet his brother. On the times he accidentally did without thinking, however, Masaki would frown at him and remind him that he wasn’t a puppy.
“We’re next!” Masaki nudged him, snapping Sho out of his thoughts. It was a good thing Masaki did that before Sho began to imagine Masaki as a puppy playing with other puppies.
“A chocolate chip ice cream and a strawberry, please. Thank you.”
Sho gasped in surprise. For as long as Sho could remember, Masaki always got the same ice cream flavor as him. Until now.
“I wanted a change in flavor,” Masaki told him, but Sho took it in as a bad thing and assumed that his brother was getting tired of Sho’s preference in flavor. Besides, the only real reason why Sho prefered chocolate chip ice cream was because he was reminded of the cookie Masaki gave him when they first met. “I like strawberries so I wanted to give it a try this time.”
“Oh…”
“It’s not because I’m tired of it,” Masaki told him right away as if he sensed Sho’s distress. “But since I’m trying out this place, I wanted to try something new because why not?”
“Yeah, you’re right. If you don’t mind, I’ll try yours out then.”
Masaki grinned. “I don’t mind.”
After the man was finished with their order, they paid for their ice cream and decided to walk home as they ate their ice cream.
“Wow, this is really good,” Sho announced out loud after his ice cream for the first time. Although it looked like any other chocolate chip ice cream, it tasted more than that. Both the vanilla and chocolate chip tasted amazing in his mouth that he felt like melting along with it. “We have got to go back again.”
“Yup!” Masaki agreed. “Do you want to taste my ice cream? It’s soooo good.”
“Sure.” Just as Sho was about to taste Masaki’s ice cream, however, he stopped halfway when he saw a pink smudge on the corner of his brother’s lips. Without thinking, he reached out, wiped the smudge from Masaki’s lips and his thumb to clean it off. He smacked his lips when the flavor reached his tongue and he was about to exclaim how amazing it tasted when he looked up at Masaki and saw the shocked look on his brother’s face.
“Masaki?” He waved his free hand in front of his brother’s face, but Masaki didn’t flinch. “Hello? Masaki?” Sho began to worry for his brother when finally, Masaki blinked three times and shook his head for a second.
“Is something wrong?” Sho asked curiously as he followed his brother who began walking ahead without him.
“N-nothing,” Masaki mumbled. “You just shocked me, is all.”
“The strawberry tasted amazing, by the way,” Sho told him, but Masaki just kept on walking without saying anything or reacting at all to his surprise. Well, whatever was going on with Masaki, Sho sure was glad that he decided on going along with Masaki to get ice cream.
They finished with the ice cream as soon as they arrived back home so their mother wouldn’t get mad at them. As usual, they were expecting their angry mother standing by the entrance, nagging them about how they should come home earlier and get a ride home from their chauffeur than walk home. They were greeted by their butler instead and had told them that their mother went out earlier in the afternoon with Jun.
Sho usually wasn’t curious about what his mother was up to because she was a stay at home mother, and the only places she ever goes to is the grocery, library, or bookstore not far from where they lived. This time, Sho was awfully curious and wondered why his mother would ever go out with Jun when it was obvious that she disliked him a lot. Whatever they were up to, Sho would ask his mother later anyway. As of right now, all he wanted to do was rest his mind, and to his surprise, Masaki didn’t follow him into his room just like he usually did.
TBC
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