III. CHAPTER 3

best friends are usually the first ones to realize something's wrong with you, no matter how well you think you're hiding it. In rooki's case, he didn't hide his emotions very well. so for the other guys, it was no challenge to see when he was upset. They all sat around their friend, Sakewa's, living room. except for wara who'd been working at the time.

"so what's going on rooki?" huke asked as he plopped down next to the pouting boy. he shrugged, feeling like he shouldn't bother explaining himself. he couldn't decide if he were overreacting or if his problems just weren't that important.

"aw come on rook, were here for a purpose! were your friends, so you can tell us anything!~" another friend, soketa smiled. "well, I don't know. I guess its just been weird with me and wara lately. its probably nothing, he did say I overreact a lot." rooki snickered. the others just looked at each other, not expecting a relationship issue with their power couple.

"well, what happened? was it a fight? all couples fight, its a part of growing." sakewa advised.

"mhm, some think the less fights the better. but fighting brings couples closer, as long as they aren't consistent. you should be coming to an agreement at some point." huke added. rooki thought about how many times he had went to bed alone after fighting with wara. "we do fight a lot, but its not like its over everything. its always about me asking why he comes home late. but I know I should understand that he can have some time to himself too, I don't always have to know what hes doing...right?" rooki asked.

"well if I were in a relationship, I don't think there should be an issue with knowing where my significant other is. a simple text takes two seconds. if he has a problem with telling you, maybe we need to have a talk with him." sokera grew irritated. he hoped they wouldn't have to talk to wara, the one thing he hates is when people betray others.

"I don't like to assume things. maybe hes just going to the arcade, he just gets irritated when I nag. I don't think a talk is necessary right now." rooki wears a smile. whether its a real smile or not, the last thing he wanted was to upset wara about something else.

/ I never let our friends hound you about these things, no matter how badly I wanted answers. I thought if I did this, I would only be adding fuel to the flame by assuming things about you. I hated hurting you and I knew by doing this you'd be angry with me. so after that day, I stopped telling them about our fights. /

//

 "wara~, can we talk?" rooki called out to wara who was in the other room. the two barely talk about anything anymore. "yeah, whats up?" he came out and sat down on the couch next to him and turned on the TV.

"I guess I just want to know whats been going on with you, and with us." wara furrowed his eyebrows as he looked in rooki direction. "what do you mean? we live together, its obvious whats been going on lately." rooki sighed, knowing wara isn't getting his point.

"what I meant was we don't talk anymore. you don't tell me how work went, we don't go anywhere, we don't have movie nights, and when you go out you don't tell me how it went or what you did." rooki felt a wave of anxiousness after speaking about wara going out, realizing he previously promised not to nag about it. 

"I thought we cleared that up? look, if you don't trust me just come out and say it. we don't talk anymore because this is what you do when we talk. you question me like im some criminal during interrogation. you wanna know where I go? the arcade. out for ramen. for a walk. anywhere to get a break from my boyfriend who stopped trusting me out of nowhere." he was standing at this point, looking down at rooki who had a knot in his throat from holding back the tears.

"I-im sorry I just-" 

"No. you know what? im leaving. you don't trust me so what are we doing? when there isn't trust, theres nothing. so us? nothing." wara shook his head and scoffed.

"wara please don't leave! we can fix this, don't go. I wont do it againt I swear!" rooki cried out, but wara was already out the door. 

it was in those last moments that his world started to fall apart.

but it was only the beginning.