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“Oh,” Nagi realizes one day. “Reo’s mad at me.”
No one responds to this realization for some time. Nagi wonders if maybe he should say it out loud again.
Before he can, he gets unceremoniously hit in the face with three separate pillows.
“Are you seriously just figuring this out?”
“For such a genius, you really can be an idiot sometimes.”
“Just shut the fuck up, you shitty fucking painman—”
Nagi burrows out of his new pillow pile in time to interrupt Barou. “Na-gi,” he stretches out, pointing at himself. “My name is Nagi. Not painman.”
“Whatever, you shitty painman.”
“You cannot seriously just be figuring this out,” Chigiri says again, pausing his haircare routine long enough to shoot Nagi an incredulous look. “I mean, really? It took you this long?”
Nagi fiddles with his fingers. “I thought he’d understand.”
“Nagi,” Isagi says with a sigh. “You chose my team so you’d get stronger, right? For you and Reo’s dream?”
Nagi nods.
“Did you… tell Reo that?”
Nagi goes silent. Barou mutters something under his breath, and Isagi brings a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.
“I thought he’d understand,” Nagi murmurs again, and Isagi shakes his head.
“At least you finally realized it,” Isagi says with a half-shrug. “So, what are you going to do about it?”
Nagi leans over until his head is all but hanging off of his bed. “What do you mean?”
“I’m guessing you don’t want Reo mad at you?”
Nagi hums. “No. It’s a pain when Reo’s mad.”
“Right,” Isagi says with a thinly veiled roll of his eyes. “So—what are you going to do about it?”
“...do I have to do something about it?”
“Oh my god,” Barou growls. “This is why your stupid boyfriend’s mad at you, dumbass, because you’re such a lazy fucking bum!”
“Hey.” Nagi frowns. “Reo’s not stupid.” He pauses. “Or my boyfriend.” He pauses again. “Yet.”
Nagi just narrowly dodges the pillow Barou chucks at him. With a final “fuck you guys,” Barou storms out of the room entirely.
“Where do you think he’s going?” Chigiri asks.
Nagi shrugs. “Does it matter?” He turns back to Isagi. “How do I get Reo to stop being mad at me?”
Isagi looks a bit taken aback to be on the receiving end of this question. “Oh. Uh… I don’t know.”
“You said I should do something about it. What should I do about it?”
Isagi fidgets. “I mean, I don’t know—specifically—what would be helpful. I guess just, like, having a conversation about it could help.”
“Is that really enough?” Nagi asks skeptically.
Isagi throws his hands up. “I don’t know! Why are you asking me?”
“Well,” Nagi hums. “Reo’s mad at me because of you, right?”
Isagi’s eyes nearly bug out of his skull. “What—what? What did I do?”
Nagi nods. “Reo’s mad at me because of you,” he decides. “So it’s only fair that you help me get him back.”
Isagi splutters for a few moments. It’s quite funny to watch. “Why should I help you get Reo back? When have you ever helped me—or anyone for that matter—with anything?” He shakes his head. “If anything, maybe I should be convincing Reo to move on,” he mutters.
Nagi reaches down to yank Isagi’s hair. “You can’t do that.”
Isagi slaps his hand away. “Stop doing that!”
“So you’ll help me?”
Isagi rubs a hand over his forehead. “Yeah, whatever. I guess.”
“How exactly is Isagi going to help?” Chigiri asks from the other side of the room.
“Dunno,” Nagi says with a shrug. He looks down at Isagi. “Maybe you can make me look good in front of Reo. Compliment me and stuff so he knows I’ve been working hard.”
Chigiri makes a strange noise. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Nagi blinks. “Why not?”
Chigiri opens his mouth. He squints at Nagi, then at Isagi, before shaking his head with a sigh. “Never mind.”
Nagi stares at Chigiri for a moment longer before turning back to Isagi. “So. After the second selection. You’ll help me get Reo back.”
Isagi’s lying back on his bed with an arm thrown over his eyes. “Sure, Nagi,” he says with a sigh.
Satisfied, Nagi settles back in his own bed. They’re so close to the end—it won’t be long before Nagi can see Reo again and he can put his plan into motion.
It ends up taking a little longer to finish the second selection than Nagi would like, but he manages to make it in the end. So does Reo—not that he had any doubt about that.
Reo doesn’t acknowledge him though, which confirms Nagi’s suspicion that the other is still mad at him. He wastes no time in finding Isagi after Ego’s spiel.
“Hey,” he says with a tug on Isagi’s sleeve. “Remember. You have to help me.”
Bachira, who has an arm slung around Isagi’s shoulder, peers at Nagi curiously. “Help you with what?”
“He’s going to help me win Reo over.”
“Aww!” Bachira chirps. “How romantic!”
Nagi pauses. Romantic? That wasn’t really what he was going for, but he supposes it gets the job done.
Isagi is increasingly looking more panicked. “Romantic?” he splutters out. “Wait, I thought we were just—I thought you just wanted Reo to stop being mad at you. You actually want to—” His expression pinches. “Win him over?”
Nagi shrugs. “Okay.”
“You’re… really…” Isagi trails off weakly before letting out a defeated sigh. “I guess I did promise to help.”
“Yup.”
“Can I help?” Bachira asks excitedly.
“Maybe if Isagi sucks at his job,” Nagi says bluntly, and Isagi’s eyebrow twitches.
“Then why’d you even ask me to—” Isagi presses a hand to his forehead. “Okay. Okay. It’s fine.”
“Yay,” Nagi says.
“Yay!” Bachira cheers.
Nagi’s first opportunity arises only a few days later, during lunch. Because Reo seems adamant to ignore his very existence, Nagi’s taken to trailing behind Isagi and Bachira when he’s forced to leave his room. Nagi gets the feeling Isagi isn’t the biggest fan of this behavior, but Bachira never seems to mind. Nagi lets his feet drag as he follows the two to the cafeteria, already wishing he was back in his room so he could tap mindlessly at his phone all day.
Bachira and Isagi are talking about something. Soccer, probably. Sometimes Nagi feels like all Isagi ever talks about is soccer. He guesses the same argument could be made for Reo, but for some reason, Nagi doesn’t mind so much when Reo does it.
They meet up with Chigiri on the way to the cafeteria, and presumably, all three continue conversation about soccer. Nagi really isn’t paying enough attention to know. He makes sure to sigh extra loudly when collecting his meal, just so everyone around him knows what a bother it is that he has to be here. Isagi shoots him a dirty look before turning back to Bachira and Chigiri and continuing to yap about—what, the curves of a soccer ball? Ew. Everyone calls Nagi weird, but he thinks Isagi might be the real freak.
It’s fairly crowded after they’ve all collected their plates, and Nagi doesn’t want to risk sitting next to someone he doesn’t know and be forced to hold a conversation. He quickly sits down between Isagi and Chigiri, ignoring the scowl from Chigiri as he does. His plan is to finish his meal as soon as possible, retire to his room, and play video games for the rest of the day.
This would be a lot easier to finish if Reo was here, Nagi thinks morosely as he stares at his plate.
When he looks up, Reo is sitting across from him. Nagi blinks. For a moment, he thinks he must be imagining it. He pinches Isagi.
“Ow, what the f—”
Not a dream, then.
“Reo,” Nagi tries. Reo resolutely does not look up from where he is intensely studying his plate.
“Hi, Nagi.”
Nagi waits for Reo to say something else. Nothing follows. Nagi frowns. Reo had been the one to sit across from Nagi, but he wasn’t willing to talk?
It’s only then that Nagi looks around. Every other seat is taken. He is beginning to realize that Reo is here by necessity rather than choice.
Either way, Nagi could finally put his plan into action. He elbows Isagi in the ribs.
“Ow,” Isagi says again, a bit more annoyed. “Can you stop—”
“Look,” Nagi mutters. “It’s Reo.”
Isagi’s eyes dart between Nagi and Reo. “What am I supposed to do about that?”
“Compliment me,” Nagi hisses. “Tell Reo I worked hard during the second selection. Tell him I’ve improved.”
“I can’t just—”
“Reo,” Nagi says louder. This time, Reo’s gaze meets Nagi’s. “Isagi has something to say to you.”
Isagi’s eyes widen. “What—?” He coughs. “Hey, Reo.”
Reo eyes them both warily. “Hey.”
They’re all silent for a while. Reo clears his throat.
“You wanted to say something?”
“Oh,” Isagi blurts out. “Oh, yeah. Um. You know, uh…” He trails off. “Nagi’s been—working really hard, you know?”
Something flickers across Reo’s face before it’s quickly replaced by a smooth blankness. Nagi isn’t sure if that’s a good thing or not.
“Has he?” Reo says mildly. “That’s good.”
“Yeah, he’s really… improved during the second selection.”
Reo’s gaze travels to Nagi. Nagi tries to sit up a little straighter and probably fails. Reo’s gaze moves back to Isagi.
“I could… really see him… putting in the effort…” Isagi trails off. Nagi supposes that’s the best he’s going to get from him. He turns to watch Reo expectantly. How would Reo react? Would he give Nagi a proud smile, lean over to ruffle his hair? Maybe a fond as expected of my treasure?
“Oh,” Reo says instead. “How nice.” He puts his chopsticks down. “Anyway, I’ll see you guys later.”
That’s odd. Reo’s barely touched the food on his plate. Before Nagi can think to comment on it, Reo stands up with his plate and walks away. Nagi deflates and drops his head on the table before turning to frown at Isagi.
“I don’t think you were convincing enough.”
“...I’m not so sure that’s the problem.”
But Nagi is convinced that’s the problem. So the next time he sees Reo in the hallway, he drags Isagi from where he was probably staring longingly at a soccer ball or something and informs him of his new plan.
“You’re going to ask me if I’m tired,” he tells Isagi. “You know, like if I want a piggyback ride. And I’ll say no. So Reo knows my stamina’s improved.”
Isagi squints at him. “Uh—”
Before Isagi can continue to protest, Nagi shoves him into the hallway. Nagi tries to fix his posture a bit before he walks out himself.
“O-oh, hey, Reo,” he hears Isagi say as he rounds the corner. “We just… keep running into each other, huh?”
“Yeah,” Reo says after a pause as Isagi rights himself. “We do.” His expression does something strange when he notices Nagi, but Isagi speaks before Nagi can categorize it.
“Hey, Nagi,” Isagi says awkwardly. “You look, uh, tired.”
Stupid Isagi. He messed up the script. Nagi gives him a pointed stare. Isagi winces.
“Do you… uh, want a…” Isagi’s eyes keep flicking back and forth between Reo and Nagi. He clears his throat. “Do you want a piggyback ride or something?”
Wow. Isagi is kind of awful at this. Maybe Nagi should have asked Bachira after all.
“No,” Nagi says.
He waits.
No one speaks for a while.
Nagi is a bit confused. Reo doesn’t seem to be very impressed with Nagi, yet. Maybe they’re still not being convincing enough.
Nagi side-eyes Isagi. They’re definitely not being convincing enough.
“Okay,” Reo says eventually. He offers them an obviously fake smile. “Nice running into you guys.”
A few moments later, Reo’s gone. Nagi is left in the hallway with Isagi. His shoulders drop.
“You suck at this,” he mutters.
“I’m sorry!” Isagi finally cries exasperatedly, throwing his hands into the air. “I don’t know why you thought I’d be good at this!”
This is a fair point. Nagi doesn’t really have anything to say in response.
Maybe it’s finally time to take Bachira up on that offer…
“O-kay, Nagicchi!” Bachira says with two thumbs-up. “I got it! You can count on me!”
“Are you sure?” Nagi feels the need to ask. He’s already messed up twice, and he doesn’t know if Reo will take kindly to a third. Who knew it would be this hard to win someone over? If Nagi didn’t know better, he’d think that just talking to Reo might actually be easier than all this.
“Yuuup,” Bachira sings.
Nagi is still a bit suspicious of Bachira’s understanding of his plan, but before he can question the other further, Reo walks into the cafeteria. Nagi has very strategically placed himself in a seat such that he is directly in Reo’s line of sight, so all he needed to do was wait for Reo to notice him, and—
“Reocchi!” Bachira calls out immediately. “Over here!”
Or Bachira could just yell for Reo’s attention. Nagi guesses that works too.
Nagi’s decided it’s much too difficult to get Reo to realize that Nagi’s physically improved over the course of the second selection—now, he’s decided to pivot straight into painting himself as a possible romantic option. Surely, if Reo realized Nagi’s potential in this area, he couldn’t stay mad at Nagi, right?
Thinking about the details for too long is a bit of a pain. Nagi guesses all he can do at this point is trust Bachira in executing his plan.
“Hey, Bachira,” Reo greets a bit cautiously. His eyes keep flitting between Nagi and Bachira.
“So, Reocchi,” Bachira says, leaning forward with his chin on his hands. “Isagi told me to tell you that Nagi would be a great boyfriend!”
Reo’s eyebrow twitches. Nagi nudges Bachira with his shoulder. Bachira tilts his head and glances at him, before his eyes widen.
“Oh! Wait, I got it wrong. Um…” His expression scrunches. “Nagi told me to tell you that Isagi would be a good boyfriend—"
Reo stiffens.
"Wait. No." Bachira taps a finger to his lips. "I’m supposed to tell you that…” He trails off again. He turns to Nagi. “What was I supposed to say, again?”
“Never mind,” Nagi mutters.
This is usually the part where Reo makes an excuse and leaves. Instead, Reo stays. Instead, Reo watches Nagi for a few moments with an unreadable expression.
His expression flickers.
“You’re unbelievable,” Reo says quietly, before he turns and leaves. Nagi watches him go with a strange feeling in his stomach.
“Hey.” Bachira pokes him in the cheek. “Aren’t you going to go follow him?”
“Oh,” Nagi says. He’s not sure why he’d never thought of that himself. “Okay.”
“Good luck, Nagicchi!”
Reo is walking faster than Nagi expected, so it takes him a few moments to catch up. Nagi supposes he’s thankful that it’s ultimately in an empty hallway that he manages to reach for Reo’s wrist.
“Reo, wait—”
Reo snatches his wrist away as soon as Nagi’s fingers brush against him. “Enough,” he spits out, spinning to face Nagi. Nagi reels back. “That’s enough. I’ve tried—I’ve tried to be normal about this, but you—you—” Reo cuts himself off with a frustrated noise. “Seriously?”
Nagi blinks at him. “Are you still mad at me?”
“Am I still—?” Reo begins to repeat before he cuts himself off with an incredulous laugh. “Am I still mad at you? Shit, Nagi, what do you think?”
“Oh.” Nagi fidgets with his sleeve. “Sorry.”
Reo seems, of all things, confused by this apology. “You’re—” He shakes his head. “You can’t just say that and then—” He waves a hand in the direction of the cafeteria. “All of that!”
Nagi tilts his head to the side. “What?”
“Do you seriously think I can’t tell that you’re trying to make me jealous?”
That wasn’t Nagi’s intention. But now that he thinks about it, he can kind of see what would give Reo that impression. He shakes his head to begin to clarify what he was actually trying to do, but Reo interrupts him before he can get a single word out.
“I get it,” Reo says, now pacing back and forth. “I get it. You’re happier with Isagi. You’ll work hard for Isagi. You don’t—you don’t need piggyback rides, not in front of Isagi. So, oh, of course! Isagi thinks you’d make a great boyfriend. Great! That’s great! And—and you think he'd be a good boyfriend, too, so that's—yeah. That's great.” Reo stops pacing. He’s turned away from Nagi. “I want to be happy for you.” He shakes his head. “I am happy for you. I am. But I can’t—” Reo’s shoulders drop. “I can’t take it if you rub it in like this, Nagi. I’m sorry. But I think you’re being cruel.”
Nagi is stunned into a sort of silence at Reo’s words. How could his plan have backfired so horribly? Especially since it was so well thought out?
“Um,” Nagi says eventually. “That’s… not it.”
After a moment, Reo turns. “What?”
“That’s… not what I was trying to do.”
Reo gives him an obviously unconvinced look.
“Really,” Nagi insists. “I…” He puts a hand on the back of his neck. “I just didn’t want Reo mad at me. I thought… if you knew how hard I was working for our dream, even when we weren’t together, you’d…” His gaze drops. “I don’t know. I wanted to prove to Reo that I’m stronger, now. So I forced Isagi to help me make you see that.”
When he looks up, Reo has a strange expression on his face. “But… the boyfriend thing—”
Nagi shakes his head. “I told Bachira to tell you things that would make you think I’d be a good boyfriend.” He presses his lips together. “I didn’t think he’d just come out and say it.”
“...why would you tell Bachira to say that?”
Nagi shrugs. “Because I want Reo to think I’d be a good boyfriend.”
Reo makes a startled noise. “You—huh?”
“Are you still mad at me?”
“You can’t just say that and move on—” Reo begins to say. “You want me to think that you’re a—?”
“Sorry,” Nagi says. “Can I start over?”
Reo’s mouth opens and closes a few times. “Uh—yeah, I guess.”
“Sorry I left you in the second selection,” Nagi says quietly. “I should have explained myself more clearly before I made my decision.” He tilts his head to the side. “Are you still mad at me?”
“...no,” Reo eventually says after searching Nagi’s expression for a few moments. “I… was probably hasty in jumping to conclusions, too. Sorry.”
Nagi shrugs. “It’s okay.” He pauses. “You’re not mad at me any more?”
Reo’s lips quirk up into an amused smile—this time, a real one. “No. I’m not.”
“Yay,” Nagi cheers quietly, before reaching for Reo’s hands. “Also, I’m in love with you. Would you go out with me?”
Reo startles, his face quickly turning a bright shade of red. “Huh?”
Nagi doesn’t really understand why Reo seems so surprised. He squeezes Reo’s hands.
“I’ve been working really hard,” he says. “For our dream.” He blinks at Reo. “Reward me?”
“You’re—” Reo huffs out a laugh. “You’re really so—”
“So…?”
“So cute,” Reo murmurs. He grins at Nagi. “As expected of my treasure, right?”
Nagi lets out a pleased hum, guiding one of Reo’s hands to his cheek.
“I’m stronger now,” he says, “but Reo should still spoil me forever, okay?”
Reo’s grin softens.
“I thought you’d never ask.”