Kento turned to look at Shori, but pulled his hand out of the younger's grasp. Wordlessly, he kept on walking. Of course, the other two couldn't say anything. They knew their friend was hurt beyond words. Fuma took the box from Shori, noticing the younger boy was frozen in place now. "I'll take her to my house, you can pick her up after work, alright?"

"No." Shori immediately takes the box back, finally unfreezing. "I'll put her in the staff room and take her home with me after I get off." The older boy just stares at his friend sympathetically before letting out a sigh. He couldn't argue with Shori. Especially when the younger boy was in this kind of condition. But, he could reason with him.

"You know... You don't have to trouble yourself because you feel guilty."

"Be quiet. You've been friends with him even before I have. You know what makes him tick better than I do. You know him a lot better than I do."

"Do you not like that?"

"It's not that... I'm kind of envious, I guess... Sure, I've known Sou and Marius about the same time, but... Even they've known each other longer than I've known them, so I kind of felt left out. When Kento confessed, I was really happy. It's true, that you two have been friends longer. But, I thought that I was finally at your level since he never had feelings for you..."

"To be honest, I would be repulsed if he did." Fuma interrupted, making a gagging face at the thought, which fortunately, made Shori smile again. That smile disappeared as quickly as it came though. 

"But, I guess good things really don't last long. I mean, I messed up and we broke up."

"Technically..." Fuma starts. "He didn't say anything about breaking up."

"He doesn't need to. Isn't it obvious that he wants to?" Shori asks. "Who wouldn't unless they were madly in love? I mean... I did cheat, right?"

"Just give him some time... He's just angry right now." The older boy pats the other's shoulder gently.

"Speaking of... Aren't you angry too?"

"I was..." Fuma nods. "But then I realized. You gave me a chance. Sure, I didn't know it was you, but you knew from the start! You knew that I liked you way more than a friend and even if the first date was forced, the others weren't. So, I'm really happy that you at least gave me that chance."

"I see..." The younger nods, hearing his name being called. Well, Dani's name. Either way though, the person wanted him there. "I have to go. You should probably get Sou and Marius." Fuma nods, following Shori back inside. The older boy goes to their friends as the younger ignores the calls for him and goes to the staff room. When there, he puts the box down, gently taking the puppy out of it, being careful not to wake her up as he lays her down on the couch. When he had returned after fixing his wig, Amu was growling at him.

"Where were you? You just left us!"

"Sorry." Amu calmed down once he heard Shori's voice. He wasn't in the same condition as he was before leaving. "Here, let me take those for you." The younger boy let him but watched as the older walked away to serve the food. Amu turned to Fuma and Shori's other friends before going up to them.

"What happened to Shori?" Amu asks them.

"Amu? Is that you?" Sou asks him, looking at him oddly. Amu just nods in response, not trying to hide his identity anymore since all of Shori's friends basically knew now.

"How do you know him?" Marius asks.

"We're in the same club after school." They both answer.

"Anyway..." Fuma starts, getting them back on the topic at hand. "It wasn't specifically said, but... By his actions, I would say that Kento dumped Shori." The three other boys stare at him with bewilderment. 

"That... Would make sense..." Amu looks over at Shori, who is serving another round of food to a different table. The fake smile was pretty obvious to him since he had given the customers numerous fake smiles before. It wasn't that he didn't like them. It was more because of what he was wearing while serving them. "He did love Kento, right?"

"That's not it..." Fuma frowned. "Of course he loved Kento, but... Kento basically made him feel horrible before walking away." The three others blinked at him questioningly, wanting to know what he meant by that. "Kento gave him a puppy. Remember?" He looks to Sou and Marius. "It's their one year anniversary."

"Yeah, that's why Kento wanted to see Shori after this." Sou nods. "Well... Before he found out that Shori was here..."

"Right." Fuma nods. "So... He gave Shori the puppy and... Shori had completely forgotten about their anniversary and so... You guys can basically picture what happened next." The boys all nod, picturing Kento saying something along the lines of Shori thinking that he was a bad boyfriend when in reality, it was Shori who was the bad boyfriend. After that, he left.

"That's so harsh..." The youngest boy frowns at them. "Does that... Does that really sound like Kento to you, Fuma?"

"I don't even know right now, Mari..." He answers Marius. "He's hurt right now, so... It could happen, I guess."

"We'll take care of Shori for now, but... Please do find out what Kento is thinking." Amu advises them as the rest nod.

"Of course we will, we don't want this to ruin the group friendship." Fuma smiles and with that, the three boys leave. Amu went back to work after Jinguji had yelled at him for lazing around with Shori's friends. Once their work was done, the boys were teasing Kentaro about how he was all over his boyfriend earlier. And vise-versa too. Shori didn't join in though. The topic just made him more depressed. So, he put the puppy back into the box and left without a word to the rest of Chicken Basket.

When he got home, he left the puppy out again, watching as she explored around the house. And of course his siblings were overjoyed at the fact that they had a pet now. His parents, not so much. They gave Shori a lecture about how he had to be responsible for the dog since he brought her home. Shori agreed on those terms, taking the dog from his sister, taking her up to his room with him.

Putting the dog down on his bed, Shori stared at her, wondering what he should name her. Or if he should even keep her. It wouldn't be right, since she would only remind her of Kento and how wonderful he was compared to himself. As if the dog could sense his regret, she nuzzled his hand, whimpering at him sadly. Assuring the puppy that he was okay even if she didn't understand him, he pet her head gently, smiling when she nuzzled her head against his hand affectionately. 

"How's the dog?" Fuma asks him at school the next day. "Did you name her yet?"

"Yeah, I have." Shori nods. "Her name is Ai-chan."

"Ai?" Fuma asks. "Isn't that a little..."

"I know... It's ironic, isn't it? That Kento gave her to me when he was angry and most likely not feeling any love towards me... But, I couldn't help it. It just seemed right to call her that." Shori explained to Fuma. The older boy could only nod with understanding.

Like before, the routine was to go to the restaurant and perform as Chicken Basket. And while the others were taking their time to get ready, Shori quickly got ready before starting on his homework. The rest noticed, wondering why Shori was keeiping himself busy. All except Amu who knew the reason. Sitting beside the older boy, Amu looked at his homework before he looked at the other's concentrated face. "Are you okay, Shori?"

"I'm fine." Shori answers without looking away from the paper. "I just have a lot of homework today."

"We don't have that much, Shori..." Ryuya frowns at him.

"Well, I want to make sure I understand it well. Is there anything wrong with that?" The leader of Chicken Basket snaps, making the others go silent.

"Guys, don't push it... He's not in the best mood." Amu tells the rest. They all nod.

"We can tell by how he snapped at me just now." Ryuya replies. "What happened to him though?"

"I don't think I have the right to tell you guys that..." Amu frowns. "Sorry, but... Shori would have to tell you himself. Either him or one of his friends." The others agree on that, not wanting Shori to be in a worse mood than he already was. So, their routine went as it always did. Chicken Basket got ready, performed, and then served the customers.

Things went like this for the next week. They found that Shori was drowning himsefl in both homework and their job. So, even when they had their free days, they never got to hang out with him. By the next week of work, Kaito was back. But he tried his best to avoid eye contact with them, especially with Aran.

The day was slow, so there were times when the boys got to just hang out because they had nothing better to do. Of course, Shori didn't join them, claiming that he wanted to study more. "We have to fix things... Shori seems so down and..." Aran looks over at Kaito who is sitting at one of the tables on his phone, still avoiding them. "Kaito hasn't looked or spoken to me since he found out about our secret."

"Same thing with Genki for me." Jinguji nods. "But, he does talk to me. I'm happy about that. It's just... He seems like he's forcing himself."

"At least you're lucky... Reia doesn't talk to me anymore. Though, he does send glances. Good or bad, I don't know..." Amu adds in. "So..." He looks around at all of them. "We all regret this, right?"

"Of course." They nod.

"Glad to hear that. Now you guys can explain." A new voice came into the conversation. Looking over to where the voice came from, the Chicken Basket members are shocked to see the group of boys that they knew. The group consisting of Kaito, Genki, Reia, Keigo, Marius, Sou, and Fuma.

"I thought you said you weren't angry, Keigo..." Kentaro started and got a nod from the younger boy.

"I'm not, but I did say that I was annoyed at you, right?" Keigo answers his boyfriend. "And so are the rest. The real angry ones are Kishi and Kento."

"You know..." Jinguji starts, getting interrupted by Genki.

"We've all had a chance to meet and exchange stories about how you guys tricked us." The younger boy explains. "Before we get angry at you though, we want an explanation."

"To what?" Amu asks.

"To what?" Reia immitates him before motioning to the group of crossdressing boys. "To that! Why did you have to keep this secret? We're your friends, aren't we?"

"Reia's right. Why did you guys not tell us?" Genki asks, glancing at Jinguji for an answer. The rest of Chicken Basket look to Jinguji too, not wanting to explain themselves.

"Well... We all have different reasons. For me, it was because I was afraid. Afraid what you, Kaito, and Kishi would say if you knew."

"Sure, we would have made fun of you a little..." Kaito starts. "But, in the end, you're still our friend, Jinguji. We wouldn't have ditched you or anything like that."

"That and it's for a job..." Genki adds. "It's not like you want to actually dress like that."

"That's true... But..." Jinguji keeps going.

"But what? What else were you afraid of?" Genki asks.

"You know how I said you were cute?" Jinguji asks, getting a nod from the older boy as a reply. "That... I was scared that you would reject me if you knew my true feelings towards you. As Sera, I could just say them and you would think it was Sera instead of me saying them."

"You... Like me?" Genki asks, getting a hesitant nod from Jinguji. "But, I asked you out! Well... I asked Sera out, I mean... Who is you... Anyway, you rejected me! Why would you reject me if you liked me?"

"Because at the time you didn't know I was Sera." Jinguji retorts. "I didn't want you to like me for Sera. Just like you wanted to know Sera's true feelings, I wanted to know yours. Not towards Sera, but towards me."

"You really want to know what my true feelings are, Jin?"

"Not right now, since you're annoyed with me..."

"I'm pretty much always annoyed with you. You're seriously a brat." Genki sighs. Jinguji gasps at his friend as the rest of the boys just laugh. "But, despite that... I love you."

"You..." Before the younger boy could even process what his best friend had said, he found himself being pulled into a kiss. A quick peck on the lips, really. But, it was enough to get the rest of the boys to make a fuss about how cute they were together.

"Alright, what about you... Kelly?" Keigo asks, snickering a little at his boyfriend's alias. "I mean, when I was cold to you or when you were avoiding me, sure. I get it. But, even after we became a couple, you never told me. Why?"

"I was going to." Kentaro insisted.

"Oh, please. I already know you weren't going to. I know you well enough, Yassu."

"Fine." The older boy sighs with defeat. "I didn't want you to know because just like Jinguji, I was afraid of what you would say. I just got you to be nice to me again and we had repaired everything. I didn't want to ruin that by telling you something like this."

"Alright... I guess I'll accept that. But, no more secrets, okay?" The younger boy asks, getting a nod from his boyfriend as a reply. Keigo happily pulled his boyfriend into a hug as Kaito glared at Aran.

"And you? You know you broke us up, right?" Kaito asks. Aran nods.

"I know... I'm sorry about that, Kaito. I just... I liked you so much and Kishi had you... I hated that. When you showed interest in me as Yuri, I thought I could use that as my advantage and... It worked but then..."

"Yeah, we all know what happened." Kaito waves it off.

"I never meant to break you guys up, seriously."

"Well, you did. And Kishi's angry. Really angry."

"Speaking of angry... Where's Shori?" Fuma questions the rest of Chicken Basket.

"Working on homework." Amu answers.

"Working on homework?" Shori's three friends question him. "Why now?"

"He's probably trying to keep himself busy... You know, to not think about Kento." Amu answers, but shrugs, telling them that was only a guess from his perspective of things. Fuma sighs, making sure to talk to Kento about this later on.

 

---

 

A/N: Alright, I'll end it there. I'm not going to say how many chapters until the end since I usually end up lying about that due to underestimating myself, but the story is close to finishing now.