( dearly beloved, we gather here today )

[outplays]

It's a strange, wholly unique arrangement of circumstances that dictate their reunion. Childhood friends from long ago, unceremoniously and unexpectedly torn away from each other while still young, Akashi has no idea what might've happened to Jun in the years that passed between them. But he's come out of those years apart a very different person at heart, torn away his compassion and caring for others in order to cope with everything that changed around him. Without a friend he could completely confide him, without parents to properly emotionally support him, with the weight of so many expectations heaped upon his shoulders, he'd split off that part of him as if into a separate entity entirely, stowed it away deep in his heart, and tried his best to lay it to rest.

Meeting Jun again in high school, when they coincidentally happen to enter the same academy — a well-known boarding school in Kyoto — stirs a little of his former self in him, but not enough to awaken it entirely. Rather than pure relief and joy, there's a desperate part of him that thinks to himself: he can't leave me again. He wouldn't be able to handle it, if that were to happen a second time.

He knows how to manipulate people well enough that it's a simple matter to get his roommate and Jun's to suddenly decide they preferred alternative living conditions. Besides, he's one of the school's shining stars; a first year ace in every sense of the word — in academics, athletics, and extracurriculars, he excels and dominates even when put up against third years. The school bends to students like that a little, out of a desire to keep their accomplishments under the school's name. That's how Akashi manages to ensure that the two of them end up rooming in a double together during their second semester at the school, even if its somewhat... unconventional, for people to change roommates halfway through the year.

All necessary steps, for keeping Jun where Akashi wants him.

Their summer break comes up, and Akashi's already got his mind made up. The school allows students to board over the summer, if they like, and he prefers not to go home anyway. But he'd also like to convince Jun to stay behind too. It's one late afternoon, after classes are done and club activities wrapped up, and the both of them are studying in their shared room that Akashi decides to broach the topic.

"Hey," he says, suddenly and out of the blue. "Can I ask you something?"

It sounds more like Akashi wants to tell him something by the tone he uses, though.