Chapter Text
Uenoyama-kun's show is tonight.
Or, more specifically, Hiiragi and Shizusumis' bands' show. Uenoyama-kun was only a supporting guitarist afterall.
Now that Mafuyu thought about it, he wasn't even sure what the name of their band was. He had never bothered to find out.
Anyway, their band had now officially debuted. Mafuyu could tell that Uenoyama-kun was slightly jealous of them for that. Mafuyu may not be the most feelings-savvy guy, but that much was at least obvious.
Uenoyama-kun wanted what Hiiragi had. And now he was going off to play support for them like it was no big deal.
Mafuyu was angry.
Angry...and guilty. But mostly angry.
Hiiragi at the very least should've guessed how Mafuyu would feel about this setup, yet he made no attempt to talk to Mafuyu about it, and took up nearly all of his boyfriend's free time. They practised every day after school, and Uenoyama-kun was always busy on weekends. His absence had only served to widen the growing gap between him and Mafuyu, and now the peachy-haired teen was here, alone in his apartment on the night of the live, with only Kedama to keep him company while he wallowed piteously in his own jealousy.
He thought back to when Uenoyama-kun had tried to convince him to come to the show.
As usual, Uenoyama-kun was too busy to see Mafuyu, so the conversation ended up happening via phone call.
Uenoyama-kun wasn't good with words. It was actually adorable. Mafuyu could tell that he had thought long and hard about how to ask his questions. When he finally got it out, it was heartfelt and hopeful. Mafuyu had said at the time that he would think about it.
But he never had any intention of going to the live.
He tried to justify it to himself by making plans to watch a video of the performance at a later time. A time when hopefully, he was in a better place mentally, and could actually spend time with his boyfriend again. Maybe they could even watch it together.
But for now, he just wanted to be distracted.
So he opened Insta and started scrolling.
Kedama shifted her sleeping position near his feet on his bed, and gave him a subtle lick. He looked up at his clock and realized hours had passed. The live would be over by now. Thank goodness.
He was thinking about putting his phone down and trying to sleep when a breaking news story caught his attention.
A hit-and-run involving a young man. A bystander had caught it on video. How lucky that they happened to be filming.
The video was horrific, but Mafuyu had been desensitized to most forms of violence long ago. His brows lifted slightly when he realized the location in the video was not far from here.
An eye witness says the young man heroically shielded another man from being hit. Mafuyu replayed the video to better see the "heroic" part.
That's when he noticed Hiiragi among the sea of onlooking faces. Hiiragi was in the video.
Oh, and Shizu. How did he not spot them before?
Of course, that's why the bystander was filming. They must've been a fan of Hiiragi's band.
Then he noticed his two childhood friends were both looking shocked and panicked. Did they know the victim?
He dropped his phone, it slid off the side of his bed and clattered to the floor. He could feel his heart rate rising steadily as his feelings slowly caught up to what his brain was comprehending.
The victim-- the young man hit by a speeding car in the video-- wore the same shirt as Uenoyama-kun.