Suggestion by : cloudiBear5

Muichiro's pov

I sat in class, reading a book while my classmates ran around the classroom, laughing and being loud like always. I sighed and rested my head on my palm, trying to focus on reading but it was basically impossible in this environment.

"I told you it's useless to bring it here" my brother said and I rolled my eyes "well sorry I don't want to be on my phone the whole time" I groaned and closed my book "I am about to change classes, this is torture"

Yuichiro chuckled a bit and patted my shoulder "we are just three months in this school and you already have enough? Damn, chill out"

"Chill out? Say that to our lovely classmates.. and mainly that dickhead Tanjiro, it's like he's controlling the whole class" I rolled my eyes again, being increasingly annoyed by everyone's acting.

"That's understandable I guess, he can be a handful sometimes but who knows, maybe he's actually nice, you barely spoke to him" Yuichiro tried to argue but I shook my head almost immediately "oh please! I don't care if he's nice, I have enough of him"

"Speak of the devil, here he is" Yuichiro crossed his arms, a small smile tugging on his lips. I groaned "geez, now listen 'Tanjiro! Hi! Wanna have lunch with me today?!""

The second after I finished the sentence, someone yelled out the exactly same thing which made Yuichiro burst out laughing "damn, you know them well"

"Clearly" I said and looked over at Tanjiro who was already surrounded by girls who begged him to be with them during the lunch break.

"You need to calm down or you'll pop a vein" Yuichiro said and I turned away from Tanjiro "you are not helping"

"Alright, I'll shut up"

…

Soon after, the teacher walked into the classroom and we all greeted her. After she made sure that everyone was in class and who wasn't at school today, she began to talk about a big project that will be done in groups of two.

"Can w- oh come on!" I was about to ask if I could be with Yuichiro but I already saw him talking to someone else about it. "Sorry Muichiro, it's not my fault that you don't have friends," he said playfully. I just looked around the classroom, seeing that everyone was yelling at Tanjiro to be with him.

I sighed and looked around more in hopes of seeing someone I could be with but no one was alone, they were either surrounding Tanjiro and we're already in groups.

"Enough! Everyone sit down!" Teacher yelled out as she slammed her hands against her table. Everyone went silent and sat down on their seats.

"Since some of you can't pick a proper partner.. I will do it" she said and everyone in class groaned. She took out her texted book and began to say "Aoi with Kanao, Zenitsu with Yuichiro, Tanjiro with Muichiro"

"Are you shitting my dick-?" I whispered and Yuichiro laughed "the what?"

"Nothing nothing just- why me?? Why him?? What did I do to deserve this?? Those girls will eat me aliv-" before I could finish the teacher interrupted me "do you have a problem, Muichiro?"

"Yes?! Can I be with someone else?" I said and teacher shook her head, smiling "no, you will be with Tanjiro whenever you like it or not"

After that I just kept silent, I could feel everyone's eyes staring at me. It was such an uncomfortable feeling. We are so different from each other and I just didn't want to be with someone who was this popular.. It was just weird.

…

Once the groups were made, we all moved to sit down next to the person who we were in a group with so we could discuss the theme and the place we wanted to start to project at.

I sat down next to Tanjiro, already annoyed by his presence. Teacher listed out the themes for projects and let us pick. There was silence between us two before Tanjiro spoke up "so.. is there a theme you'd like to do?" He asked with a nice voice.

"I don't care" I said and looked at the themes, not finding anything interesting. "Well alright so.. should I pick?" He asked and I shrugged "alright well.. Do you know anything about mental health? I think that would be a great thing to talk about, not many people take such stuff seriously"

"Geez, why is he acting so polite?" I thought to myself and nodded "I guess, I mean, we have Wikipedia, that's enough, no?"

He chuckled "it's not, we can't just take everything out of Wikipedia.. but oh well, let's make a project about this, it has so much things we can talk about too, I am sure we will have the best project h-"

"Okay, I get it, let's start" I interrupted him. His smile faded and he nodded "alright, but first.. should we start today? Maybe we can meet up in a library and work on it there, I think we should just plan out things we want to write about first"

"Sure sure, whatever, 5pm, library today, agree?" I said quickly and he nodded repeatedly "sounds great!"

…

When school ended it was around 3pm. I sighed and Yuichiro looked at me, asking "so? How is he?"

"He acts so polite it's annoying.. three girls came up to me already to get away from him and stuff, I just want to do it with someone else" I mumbled and turned off my phone, both of us walking to the store so we could buy some snacks.

"It's not that deep, Muichiro, just try to be nice, once you cooperate more, it'll end earlier" he said and I nodded "I guess, it just sucks, I don't want to talk to him"

"It's time you do start talking to someone, or you plan on going through the whole middle school without friends?" He asked and I shrugged "hopefully"

"Oh shut up, you'll get lonely eventually"

"Oh right, me? Lonely? If I was lonely I wouldn't be locked up in my room all day" I said and Yuichiro smiled "right right, whatever helps you sleep better"

…

"Geez, it's almost 4pm, I got to go" I said and placed my food in my bag, getting some colored pencils as well so we could work on the project more.

"Alright, so when will you come home? Just so mom doesn't worry" he asked I thought for a bit before saying "I think around 7pm max.. don't know, I don't want to be with him for more than three hours"

He nodded "alright, well, have fun!"

"I doubt that" I said, put my bag on and walked towards the library that wasn't that far from the place me and Yuichiro hung out after we went out of the store.

Once I got to a library, I looked around for a bit before seeing Tanjiro sitting at one of the tables. He waved at me and I just sat down in front of him, not even saying hi.

"Well.. ehm.. I found a couple books a-" Tanjiro started but I interrupted him again "books? I am not reading a book when I have my phone" I said and Tanjiro sighed "well alright, you can search stuff up, I'll look in books"

…

"You've been really quiet.. not just now but at school too" Tanjiro said and laid down the book, clearly wanting to talk with me for a bit and not focus on the project.

"And why are you saying that?" I asked and he shrugged, "Well, don't you get lonely sometimes?"

"Why do you act like you care? We barely talked, only when we were forced to" I snapped, not wanting to talk about it.. or even with him.

"We might have not talked but I care about people even if they are not my friends, and if you want we c-"

"We can be what?! Be friends?! Don't make me laugh, I bet you do all of this just to make your ego bigger! You don't care and you never will, so stop acting like you do!" I snapped again, putting my things back into my bag and walking away.

"Muichiro! Wait!" Tanjiro said and grabbed my hand to stop me "please don't leave, I am sorry I didn't mean to make you mad I just.. please just don't leave"

I stopped, sighing and pushing his hand away. "It might not look like I care but I do, can we at least try to talk to each other? Be friends? I promise I am not doing this to boost up my ego"

"Fine" I said, not wanting to fight with him anymore, knowing I have to finish this project and fighting with him more would make it even more embarrassing than it already is.

I sat back down and we continued to sit there for a bit in silence until Tanjiro spoke up again, asking me a couple basic things like, what my hobbies are and simple stuff like that but this time, I actually responded. For some reason the more I talked with him, the more I wanted to continue talking.

The hatred slowly disappeared and I actually managed to laugh a couple times which was.. nice. I would never think that it was possible to talk with him and not be annoyed.

"Geez this is taking longer than I expected.. but I mean, we have a week to finish so I guess it's okay" Tanjiro said and I nodded a bit, asking "should we.. meet up again after school?"

Tanjiro's eyes widened a bit and he nodded "of course! It's so nice talking to someone who is not obsessed with me.. or is just yelling all the time"

My cheeks flushed a bit as I asked "is that a compliment?"

He chuckled "if you want to take it that way, sure"

…

We continued to meet up every day to work on the project, most of the time we worked on it for not even an hour and then talked about literally anything.

I actually enjoyed talking to him and it made me.. really sad to realize that we might actually stop talking after we finish the project.

There was also something different I felt towards him.. it was really odd, it was something I never felt towards anything before and it was confusing me a lot.

"Hey Yui? Can I talk to you about something?" I said and peeked into my brother's room. He nodded and stopped his game.

I sat down next to him and said "so ehm.. about Tanjiro.. I.. I felt really weird around him"

"Oh? Is it a good kind of weird or bad kind of weird?" He asked and I shrugged "I-I don't know? Ehm.. it's weird.. I feel like.. all warm.. my heartbeat is fast.. I feel like I want to talk to him all t- why are you looking at me like that?"

Yuichiro smirked and said "you are in looove~ with him~"

My eyes widened "what?! No?! E-Ew?! Love is overrated, I could never be this down bad for someone.. and totally not him" I mumbled, trying to argue but Yuichiro didn't back away.

"Awh come on! It's nothing bad to be in love with someone, I say you take your shot, confess to him and see how he feels" he said and I shook my head "I don't know.. he's so popular, everyone wants him.. I don't even know if I am ready for such a thing yet.."

"So you rather keep it to yourself, go through the whole middle school and not ever talk to him, sure" he said and I sighed, not knowing what to do anymore "I'll see.."

…

The next day was the day we were supposed to give our projects to a teacher and present it in front of the whole class. I was very nervous about it.. and was even more nervous about confessing to Tanjiro which I.. yea.. I decided to do it..

"Hey Muichiro! Excited for the presentation?" Tanjiro asked the second I walked into the class. I shook my head "not really.. I am pretty nervous.."

Tanjiro smiled and patted my head "it'll be fine, I can talk most of the time if you are nervous" he said and I nodded a little, saying quietly "I.. need to talk to you about something.. can we ehm.. go somewhere else?"

Tanjiro looked surprised by that but nodded and followed me out of the classroom. We stopped at a quiet place, away from other classmates and Tanjiro said "well? What do you need?"

I sighed, my hands trembling a little "well.." I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves down "..since we.. started to talk I.. I really enjoyed spending time with you a-and.. I.. love you"

Tanjiro's eyes widened. It was clear that he didn't know how to answer, he just stood there for a bit before saying "woah.. this is.. really sudden but.."

"It's okay if you don't feel the same way.." I mumbled, starting to feel really emotional. Without any other word I was about to walk away but Tanjiro stopped me "Muichiro, please listen to me"

I looked back at him, deciding to listed, wanting to know what he actually feels towards me.. but I doubted that he liked me back.

"I.. love you too" he said and my heart skipped a beat. "You do..?" I said and he nodded. Tears filled my eyes as he pulled me into a hug. I wrapped myself around him as well, burying my face into his shoulder happily.

...

Word count : 2298