Mondo, Part 3

Mondo slid down his dorm room door, the one he had leaned upon as soon as he'd gotten it closed, and sat on the floor with his hands on his face and his legs folded. He let out a long groan, mostly of annoyance at himself for picking such a cheap way to confess his feelings. Taka deserves better, he thought.

Just then it occurred to him what that train of thought really meant— even if Kiyotaka DID accept his feelings, what was he expecting to come from it?

Kiyotaka Ishimaru planned to become prime minister someday, and there was no doubt in Mondo's mind that he could and would do it. Where did that leave him? What good could possibly come to Kiyotaka out of dating the ultimate biker gang leader?

Taka deserves so much better... better than me.

Mondo glumly stood and changed out his uniform into his usual ensemble. He tugged his Crazy Diamonds jacket on somewhat sadly, and for the first time it felt strangely heavy, like a weight tugging him down. He caught a glimpse of his own face in the wall-length mirror— sharp violet eyes framed in thick liner and a giant pompadour dyed a different color than the rest of his natural hair. He grimaced, trying to imagine such a person beside Kiyotaka as he delivered his first speech as prime minister.

It was impossible to picture.

Just as Mondo wondered if he could somehow steal the note from Kiyotaka without him reading it, he heard a light rapping at his door. He stomped to it angrily. He knew instantly that the knock was not his kyoudai's— the prefect always rapped the door loudly exactly three times.

"What?!" Mondo shouted as he threw the door open. He blinked in surprise.

Standing at his door, acting like it was completely natural, was Makoto Naegi. Yasuhiro Hagakure and Leon Kuwata were just behind him. Leon had a hand thrust suspiciously into his pocket, and he looked almost like he was awaiting some kind of signal. Hagakure looked as dazed and distant as ever (seriously, what does that guy smoke?). Naegi sported his typical friendly smile, but this one seemed almost forceful in the absolute kindness it portrayed.

"Hey, Oowada-kun! We were wondering if we could chat for a while!" Naegi said casually.

Mondo leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms.

"And since when do the three of ya pop by my dorm for a chat?"

"Well we're friends, aren't we, Oowada-chi? We just feel like we haven't spent too much time together lately!" Hagakure supplied. He stroked his chin stubble with his thumb and flashed a wide grin.

Mondo supposed that he considered the trio his friends, but they weren't exactly buddy-buddy in the way that he and Kiyotaka were (he guessed that his own forceful nature was mostly to blame). Chihiro was by his side more often than these three guys were. That said, he respected Naegi, and always had a blast with Leon and Hagakure. He sighed and stepped out of the doorway, allowing the three other boys to squeeze by him.

Leon immediately flopped down on his bed without asking for invitation, though he had removed his phone from his pocket and kept it tightly gripped in his hand. Hagakure set about studying the room, and at the moment was closely studying the motorcycle calendar above his nightstand. Naegi stood politely at the foot of the bed, eyes fixed on Mondo.

Mondo moved to the corner of the room and dragged out several beanbag chairs, pulling them into position around the low round table all of the dorm rooms came equipped with. He sat down and tapped the chair beside him. Naegi gave him a grateful nod before taking a seat himself.

"So what'd ya wanna talk about?" Mondo asked, and Naegi just about jumped out of his own skin. He looked over at Leon, who was now sitting at the end of the bed and facing them, and the redhead nodded and tugged on his goatee.

"...Look, Oowada-kun, I'm just going to be honest with you. Kyouko-chan tipped us off."

Mondo stiffened.

"And what exactly did she say t' ya?"

Leon started to giggle, and tried to cover his mouth. Hagakure's slightly shaking shoulders betrayed that he was doing the same, even if he wasn't facing Mondo.

"You've got it bad, man," Leon choked through his laughter. Mondo felt his own cheeks begin to redden.

"G...Got what?"

(Mondo knew exactly what he meant.)

"We know what's in the note you, uh, handed off earlier. Kyouko-chan figured it out. She said that just about anyone could have, though," Naegi explained. Mondo slapped his hand against his own face in a vain attempt to hide the redness.

"W-Well, what business is that of yours?! I've got everythin' under control!"

"Oh, do you? I mean, really, a note? This ain't middle school!" Leon taunted. Mondo picked up one of his notebooks and threw it at him, and the baseball player easily dodged it. Hagakure finally turned around and clapped his hands together.

"Despite what Kuwata-chi may say, we didn't come here to make fun of you. The opposite, really. We're here to help!" The fortune teller took a seat in one of the plush chairs and placed his crystal ball on the table. Mondo quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Help me? Why?"

"Why?! 'Cause you two are, like, meant to be, man! Says so right here!" Hagakure gestured vaguely at the crystal ball. Mondo glanced at it. He didn't see anything.

"Aaaand also because it's been killin' ya for a while. We can all tell, dude. You keep avoiding everybody, and you're no fun that way!" Leon added. He was just now sliding off of the bed to join everyone else at the table.

Mondo sighed and leaned forward over the table to hold his head in his hands. He hadn't been avoiding everybody. Just Kiyotaka. Which sometimes meant avoiding whoever else happened to be with him.

"...Look, I kinda jus' realized that how I feel doesn't really matter. Taka... He's goin' places, y'know? He doesn't need me holdin' him back. I'm a good for nothin' thug. 'M not goin' anywhere. Nowhere good, anyway."

At that, all three of Mondo's guests scoffed and talked over one another so loudly that he couldn't understand any of them. He shouted over them to talk one at a time. After looking at one another the group apparently decided to let Naegi do the talking.

"...Oowada-kun, literally nothing you just said is true. You're not holding him back, he's a hundred times better when he's with you!"

"Oh, yeah? How?!"

Hagakure interjected before the luckster could continue.

"Dude, Ishimaru-chi is way more laid back thanks to you! Before you guys were such good friends, he was super uptight all the time. He didn't know how to joke around or have fun because he was too busy studying and bossing everybody around! But now, he's... He's... Help me out, guys!"

Naegi took the opportunity to take charge of the conversation again. "This is why you should let Naegi do the talking," Leon whispered.

(Mondo chuckled at hearing that. For all his arrogance and bragging, a certain snooty rich boy was also surprisingly fond of letting Naegi explain things for him.)

"Y-you, um... You gave him the support that I think he really needed, you know? The confidence to try and make friends. He's more comfortable being himself, and we can all see how kind and how smart and how strong he is now. He's more than just the loud hall monitor."

Naegi's eyes bored right into Mondo's as he spoke. Mondo folded into himself somewhat, his face growing redder by the second. The smallest of the gathered young men took the silence as permission to elaborate.

"And, um, you... You have to realize how much happier he is, right? He used to have that scowl all the time, and now it's almost like he can't stop smiling."

"Hell, he looks better now that you can actually see the space between his eyebrows," Leon added. Hagakure and Naegi both shot him glares.

"...I happen to like those caterpillars, thank you very much," Mondo muttered.

"Jesus. It really is bad." Leon reiterated his earlier point and rolled his eyes.

"Hey, they suit his face!" Hagakure argued. Mondo nodded at him, and the fortune-teller flashed him a thumbs up and yet another grin. Naegi laughed.

"See, you're already at that point where you like all the things about him that other people would consider flaws. That's how you know there's no turning back," Leon added. Everyone raised their eyebrows at him, and Leon threw up his hands. "What, I can't be deep?! I was just jokin' around about his eyebrows!"

"...'Kay, so let's say Taka's been happier lately. That still doesn't change the fact that I'm no good for him. I'm a goddamn gang leader, for christ's sake."

"Oh my god, Oowada, have you seriously not even noticed?!" Leon thrust out his arms so quickly that he dropped his phone on the table with an awkward thud before scurrying to pick it back up.

"Noticed what?"

"You've been... You've been pretty well behaved lately. I mean, for you, anyway. N-not to be rude, or anything." Naegi grinned sheepishly, and Mondo waved a casual hand at him. He had punched Naegi in the face not long after their first meeting— not exactly the best first impression.

"You haven't even punched anybody in, like... In months, I think! Not in school, anyway!" Hagakure exclaimed. Mondo glared at him.

"It's not like I went around fuckin' punching everybody in sight!"

"Well, no, of course not, but what I think Hagakure-kun is trying to say is that your temper has greatly improved. A few people have really been pushing your buttons lately, and you've been the bigger person on more than a few occasions. If you were the same guy you were a year ago you would have started a fight by now," said Naegi.

"...What's your point?"

"My point is that, like it or not, the two of you compliment one another. Ishimaru-kun isn't afraid of you, and he has high expectations of you. You can't push him around because he's just as stubborn as you are, and he won't tolerate that from you or from anyone else. I'm guessing that no one else has ever treated you that way, but Ishimaru-kun accepts you and sees you for who you really are, and you're the same for him. You saw through his socially awkward exterior and saw what a great guy he is!"

Everyone fell silent and stared at Naegi, who had gotten uncharacteristically loud and wound up. His face flushed, and he avoided everyone's gazes in favor of looking down to study his own hands.

"U-um, I normally don't catch on to that sort of thing easily, but Kyouko-chan pointed it all out to me, and ever since then, well... It just makes sense, you know? The two of you. I know you would both be really happy, and that's what we all want for you. You're both wonderful friends to have."

Leon and Hagakure loudly voiced their agreement, the latter patting Naegi on the back.

"...How long has Kirigiri been studyin' us, anyway?" Mondo finally asked.

"At least three or four months. I'm not sure exactly."

"Well, shit. I didn't know she was so nosy."

"You'd be surprised."

There was a long silence during which Mondo stopped trying to hide the redness of his face. He figured there wasn't any point to it by now. His face probably matched Leon's hair in shade. That was when something else dawned on the biker.

"...Uh, you guys've still overlooked a small detail. Taka's a dude."

Silence.

"...Y'know, a guy? ...Guys don't normally like other guys!"

"Guys don't usually like other guys. Ain't nothin' wrong with it," Leon corrected. Mondo scoffed at him.

"Okay, I know that, I'm just sayin' that even if we would make a good couple or whatever, we still don't even know if he likes men. And... Somehow I feel like he wouldn't with how traditional he is about everything—"

"Oh, Ishimaru-chi is totally gay."

Everyone turned to face Hagakure, who looked as out of it as ever. Like he didn't realize what he had just said.

"...The hell did you just say, Hagakure?!" Mondo demanded.

"I— I said Ishimaru-chi is gay!"

"I heard ya, but where did ya get that idea?! I think he woulda told me somethin' like that!"

"The girls told me! Or, well, I overheard them talking about it and then they had to explain it to me and tell me not to tell anybody—"

"Who?!"

"Asahina-chi, Oogami-chi, Kirigiri-chi, Chihiro, Maizoni-chi—"

"Why doesn't Chihiro get a 'chi'?" Naegi asked somewhat absently.

"Duh, her name already starts with a 'chi'!"

"But you call everyone else by their last names—"

"The fuck kind of logic is that?!" Mondo roared, cutting off Naegi.

"Dude, it's Hagakure! Just let it go!" Leon whined. "Anyway, why are they all saying he's gay?"

"Beats me. They all said they can just tell. It's apparently a 'girl thing' that I wouldn't understand," Hagakure said with a shrug.

"Well... Well, if Kirigiri thinks so, then maybe..." Mondo began before trailing off and then shaking his head. "No, no, there's no way! He would have told me!"

"...W-well, maybe he's not entirely aware of it. You know that that stuff can get pretty complicated, especially at our age," Naegi suggested. Mondo hummed deeply at that, his eyes focused on the ceiling fan above him as he thought.

Leon interrupted everyone's thoughts by slamming his hands down on the table.

"So, are we doin' this or what?"

Everyone looked to Mondo, who eventually shrugged and looked down.

"I already gave 'im the note. Not like I have much choice now."

The other boys clapped and cheered, and Naegi offered his friend a supportive pat on the back. Leon, however, stood and finally pressed the dial button on the screen of his phone. He'd apparently had a number waiting throughout the entire conversation.

"Wait, who the fuck are you calling?!"

Leon held up a finger to silence him before whisper-yelling his response.

"Look, if you're gonna win over Ishimaru you need to prove that you're a changed man, and that starts with your look! That hair isn't doing you any favors, man!"

Mondo reflexively reached up to touch his pompadour. On any other day, and under any other circumstances, he'd have been irrationally defensive of it. He'd never admit aloud that the main reason for this was the fact that his brother had always sported the same hairstyle.

He thought that maybe it was time to move on, to start letting go of some of his ghosts.

A year ago, he couldn't have done it. He couldn't have even dreamed of it. But after all the time he had spent with Kiyotaka and the others— time during which he had even admitted to his kyoudai, his eyes full of tears, what had really happened to Daiya— he had become truly stronger.

Strong enough to change.

He lowered his hand from his hair and relented with a sigh.

"...Okay," he said quietly.

While we're at it, someone ought to cut Hagakure's hair, he did not say.