Jun regretted being harsh to Nino without listening to his reason. But he knew it was too late to go back since he was already in the room he was told was his, and was staring hard at the ceiling. He thought about it at school, while he was trying to ignore Nino, that he must have had a reason not to tell him. He tried to come up with the courage to ask him, but when he saw Nino was trying to walk up to him, his feet moved and ran away until he could no longer see him. Sighing, he just turned to face the wall.

As he traced his fingers on the wall, a knock came from the door. Jun ignored it since it might be the person he was told was his father, or that woman he didn’t like. However, he heard the door open and close and small footsteps making its way towards him. Annoyed, he turned around and was about to tell this person to get out when he realized who it was. He turned around again, trying his best to ignore his presence.

“J... I’m sorry,” Nino whispered, “i was going to tell you...but I was afraid you’d be mad at me.”

Jun rolled his eyes. “I would have liked it if you told me instead of keeping it a secret. I wouldn’t be mad at you then.”

“But J, you don’t understand. It... it was my fault...”

“Yeah,” Jun scoffed, “Your fault for not telling me the truth.” It was true. If he found out sooner, they wouldn’t be in this situation. Crossing his arms, he scooted closer to the wall, wishing that he can leave him alone.

It was very quiet in the room and all he can hear was his own breathing and Nino behind him breathing irregularly. It was starting to become annoying to him and was about to turn around when he felt arms wrap around his body. The bed creaked under him as Nino got on his bed and pushed against his back. He wanted to push him off, but Nino’s arms were just too strong for him to move, and he wanted tell him to leave, but he felt something wet on his back.

“J... I didn’t mean to. It was my fault...” Nino sobbed, his arms hugging him tighter. “I shouldn’t have become your friend. She was right... I am bad luck...”

Jun prayed for Nino to get off of him, but the latter didn’t. He kept on crying, saying it was all his fault and it should have been him instead. He had no idea what he was talking about. All he was aware of was that Nino didn’t tell him about an accident he doesn’t remember having, and that he was mad at him for it. However, he was surprised with himself. He didn’t fight off from his arms, or tell him to get off and just continued to be hugged by him.

As time passed by, Jun didn’t realize that Nino had gone quiet until he heard him breathing deeply. The arms around him loosened a little, but he found himself unable to take them off. Instead, he just turned around and stared at Nino’s sleeping face. There were dry tears on his face and Jun’s hand immediately went up to wipe them off. While he was doing so, Nino’s arm released him and he felt his hand being held. Jun stopped at the same time his heart did. There was definitely something wrong with his body to react this way. When Nino’s hand pushed his hand on his tear-stained face, his heart started again, beating faster and faster as the warmth in his hand became comfortable. He couldn’t believe it himself either as he slipped his hand under Nino’s body, and held him close until there was no space in between them. Sighing, he stared at Nino one more time before going off to sleep too...

He woke up the next day, trying to stretch but something was stopping him from doing so. Looking down, he saw a teenage boy, probably the same age as him, holding him tight as if he were a plush toy. Eyes growing big, he pushed the person to the floor causing the teenage boy to wake up, his eyes red and puffy.

“J...” The boy yawned, “We don’t have school today. Wanna come over?”

“W-who are you?!” He shrieked. “Are you some kind of ert?!”

“Oh,” the boy sighed and mumbled something he couldn’t hear before speaking again, “I’m Ninomiya Kazunari... Nice to meet you.”

“Well it’s not so nice when I meet you hugging me. It’s strange you know!” He pointed out, though he doubts that the teenager even cared. He waited for him to leave but seeing that he decided to stay on the floor, he just ignored him.

Getting up, he examined the room he was in and saw photos of two little boys either rassling each other, or just plainly smiling. He picked one of them up, the one with the two boys smiling, and it towards the teenager. “Are you in any of those photos? You look like one of them.”

The teenager nodded before taking the frame from his hand. He saw him trace his finger over the chubbier boy next to him, wondering who he was. Ignoring him, he moved to the corner of the room and saw that it a desk had papers stacked on them with a mountain of journals. He curiously picked one up, not caring if he was invading privacy and just opened the journal. He skimmed and scanned through it, noticing how the names Matsumoto Jun and Ninomiya Kazunari popping out in every pages. They seemed to be repetitive, something about being friends with ‘Nino’ while being taken care off.

“Whose room is this?” He asked the teenager.

“Yours,” he simply stated out, “And this picture was when we took it at grade school. It was good times...”

He knitted his eyebrows together in confusion. Grade school? We? He didn’t know what he was talking about or who he was. He’s never even met him before in his life, let alone he just met him when he woke up. Shrugging, he just sat back down the bed, his eyes wandering around the room.

“J, I think it’s better if you and I live together,” the teenager sighed, “So that way, you can always wake up in my arms.”

He shook his head. “No way. I am not living with a stranger, not someone who is a ert.”

“But I’m not a stranger,” the boy pouted, “And I promised your mom I would be taking care of you anyways.”

“My mom? I don’t have a mom.”

“And then you don’t have to wake up with that evil stepmother of yours. I promise I’ll tell you everything this time.”

“Tell me everything? What do you know that I don’t know?” He asked him in confusion. Every word that was coming out of the teenager’s mouth was making him so lost that he felt like his brain was hurting just trying to understand what he was saying. “Wait...” He stopped thinking for a moment and realized he didn’t know his own name, “What’s my name?”

“It’s Matsumoto Jun,” the boy answered him before picking up the frame from the ground. “You see this boy next to me? Your him.”

He grabbed the frame from his hand still not believing him until he saw a small reflection of himself on the glass. It was very weird since he doesn’t remember being a child this small, or being next to that strange teenager as a kid. Shoving the frame back in the teenagers hand, he stood up before saying

“I agree. As long as you stay away from me, and help me remember who I am, then we can...live together.” It wasn’t that bad of a deal either since it looked like the teenager knew more about him than he did himself.

“If you don’t mind,” he coughed, “Is it ok if I call you Nino? Your name is too long.”

The boy shook his head before looking at him and a smile was on his lips, “I don’t mind.”

TBC