Angel...

The air in the room was still; no one moved or said a thing. Both Aoi and Kosuke were still staring at each other, with different thoughts going through their minds.

Kosuke had this heavy feeling in his chest, a familiar feeling like he had seen this person before, but he couldn't tell where. While Aoi continued to feel the little confidence he had summoned up being deflated, he began to think; he thought maybe his roommate was already irritated with him and subconsciously took a step back.

Kosuke instinctively reached forward, but Aoi was faster. He dashed into his room and locked the door behind him with a click on his side of the door. Kosuke stood there confused, his arm extended in front of him. He didn't really understand why Aoi ran away, but maybe it had something to do with him.

Aoi pressed his back against the wooden frame, hugging his knees and letting the tray slide to the ground beside him. He felt embarrassed for running away because he felt intimidated by his roommate.

For someone he was just looking up to, how could he just run away at the first sign of what felt like danger? She hugged his knees closer, just thinking of the kind of impression he had given his roommate.

From now on, he would have to get up by 5 am to get ready and leave the room before his roommate. How was he going to survive? Aoi kept beating himself when he noticed something.

Or, to be exact, he smelled something… something good, good enough for him to unwrap himself and willingly open his door and walk out to find a fresh batch of chocolate cookies sitting on the kitchen counter.

Aoi looked around like a small, cute, defenseless animal before approaching the enticing desert on the table. He took a second to stand up straight, and he turned around, but his feet just wouldn't move. Maybe it was because he was hungry or the fact that the cookies were still warm.

Aoi continued to fight himself until he heard a small laugh at the other entrance. Shocked and losing balance, Aoi stepped back, tripping over a chair. He closed his eyes and prayed to survive the impact.

Waiting to pass out from the pain, Aoi slowly opened his eyes, wondering what had happened, but was met with the face he ran away from earlier; his roommate had managed to catch him before he was majorly injured.

Now that he was up close, he couldn't help but stare at the other boy’s face, his narrow brown eyes slightly covered by his somewhat perfect hair, the little beauty spot under his left eye and most importantly, his

“You should really watch your step there... You wouldn't want to get a scar on that pretty face of yours.” Kosuke said he was trying to break the ice, but to Aoi, he felt like God had reincarnated as a human before him. How could someone with that kind of face be this nice?

Kosuke watched the young boy lost in thought; he too was drawn in by his small face and long lashes, but he couldn't be sure and tried to play the scene as cool as possible. He slowly stood the pink-haired boy up straight and helped him take a seat.

Aoi watched Kosuke unknowingly, like a prey turned predator. He watched as Kosuke walked over to the fridge to grab a beer and an orange juice. He picked out a paper plate and cup and placed them in front of him.

He poured the orange juice into the cup and placed a few cookies on the paper plate. Kosuke pushed the plate and cup in front of Aoi with a warm smile as he introduced himself.

“Kazumi Kosuke, physical health major, but you can just call me Kosuke; nice to meet you.” Kosuke was introduced from behind the counter.

Aoi felt a light blush spread across his face. Feeling embarrassed again, he lowered his head but tried his best to muster words through his lips.

“Haruno Aoi, nice to meet you.” Aoi said he was folding his small hands into fists

“What?” Aoi’s head shot up, learning that Kosuke didn't hear him introduce himself.

“Just kidding, Aoi, right? That's a nice name.” Kosuke said, taking a swing at his beer.

“No, it's not... It sounds like a girl's name.” Aoi smiled sadly.

“Sure, you’d probably be the prettiest girl on campus if you were.” Kosuke said absentmindedly. He turned to look at Aoi but found him with a huffy expression on his face. He looked so adorable that Kosuke couldn't help but laugh.

“Now you’re laughing at me... Fine, I'll go back to my room,” Aoi said, but Kosuke caught his wrist before he got down from the chair.

“I’m sorry, I mess up a lot.” Kosuke took a deep breath. “What I meant was that Aoi really suits you.” He said it genuinely.

Aoi could feel his face heating up again and looked away, he hated the effect this complete stranger had on him but it didn't matter for now, he was going to get better, fired up he leaned in closer to Kosuke also catching him off guard.

“Will you teach me how to be confident like you?” Aoi said with a serious look on his face, Kosuke felt pale for a second, confused about the entire situation, and before he could get himself.

“Oii, Kosuke-san, let's go shoot some hoops if you’re done unpacking!” A young boy barged into their room.

The two stayed frozen as their eyes subconsciously trailed over to the person talking, the boy was also confused and stood frozen, wondering if he had interrupted something. The two roommates turned back to face each other only to realize how close they were.

Aoi’s face turned red in an instant, and he clapped a hand over his mouth before running off to his room and screaming, “Nice to meet you too, Kosuke!” The door closed with a bang, shaking Kosuke out of his trance.

“Yeah...” was the only thing he could trail off.

"Sorry, man, bad timing?” The boy walked in, his eyes glued to Aoi’s door.

“It’s cool, Mitsuki; we were just introducing ourselves, and things took a weird turn,” Kosuke answered.

“Oh cookies… Wait, THAT WAS YOUR ROOMMATE?!” Mitsuki screamed, almost choking on the cookie, but Kosuke didn't seem to notice; he was more concerned about Aoi.

“I think I’ll take you up on that game.” Kosuke sighed before picking up the ball from the corner it had rolled into. He needed to clear his head. Aoi couldn't be the same boy, could he?

“I’m choking to death, and all you can talk about now is basketball?” Mitsuki said, drinking his third glass of water.

“You were the one who barged in here, remember?” Kosuke answered with a bored look in his eyes.

“Yikes, fine. I'm sorry, Kosuke-san. But seriously, the person who ran in there right now wasn't a girl but a dude.” Mitsuki asked again. Kosuke looked at Aoi’s door and nodded slowly.

“Damn, you better stay awake, dude. If I almost fell for him, who knows what’ll happen if you share a room with him?” Mitsuki advised.

“Shut up and let's go play ball.”

Aoi sat quietly hugging his knees as he lay on the bed. He couldn't hear the voices, but he believed they were talking about him. He stayed there quietly until the voices faded and he heard a door close shut. That was when he flew up to take a deep breath; he hadn't realised he was holding it in for so long.

Feeling better, he fell back into bed, staring at the poster he plastered on the low ceiling. MeiMei was one of the big artists their company had produced; she was beautiful, confident, and pure. She always smiled at Aoi whenever she saw him, making him always look up to her.

But now, Aoi was preoccupied with thoughts of what Kosuke and his friend thought of him, and after a few minutes of going back and forth in his mind, he mumbled as he drifted to sleep.

“Mei-chan, what should I do?” And he fell asleep.

A few hours later, there was a loud crash in the hallway—so loud, it woke Aoi up. Fuzzy, he rushed out the door to go check what happened.

And in front of his room, there was a boy, lean, pale-skinned, with brown hair and giant glasses. In front of him were four large moving boxes; that must have been what crashed, Aoi thought.

Quickly, he crouched next to the boy, who seemed to have passed out.

“Hey? Are you okay?” Aoi shook the body lightly; thankfully, the boy moved a little.

Aoi breathed a sigh of relief. He pulled the boy away from the passage and leaned him against the wall before he proceeded to pick up the things that had fallen out of the boxes and reseal them. Although a few things were broken, they would sort them out later.

He went back to the boy to try waking him up when another boy passed, Aoi felt a chill down his back as he looked up, a tall boy with purple hair and fashionable clothes walked by with a backpack, incidentally his eyes met with Aoi, a deep purple, cold and uninterested, a second later he looked away and continued on…

Aoi stared a bit longer, not able to stop the chill he felt, he was distracted by the morns of pain of the boy in front of him.

“Hey… hey, are you alright? Can you hear me?” Aoi asked worriedly, the boy looked through his cracked glasses at Aoi and was first blown away by such a beautiful person.

“Hey, can you hear me? You fell in front of my room and I helped you gather your things, are you okay to move?” What was better, this beautiful was also his hero, this was the best day of his life, he thought.

“It must have been a nasty fall if you're still unable to speak, I'll take you to Megumi-san, you might have a concussion,” Aoi said trying his best to pick the boy up despite his weak body.

The boy couldn't believe it, he couldn't believe that there was someone who would go out of their way to help someone as insignificant as him, he felt touched by this and almost felt like crying…

“By the way, I'm Haruno Aoi, but you can call me Aoi, nice to meet you,” Aoi said with a breathtaking smile.

The boy felt his heart skip a beat at Aoi's smile and said one word.

“Angel...” and passed out.

The weight of the boy pulled Aoi down with him as they both fell to the ground. Dragging the boy aside again, Aoi tried calling out to the boy again, but this time he was out cold.

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