Chapter Text
The moment Sakura Haruka’s eyes landed on the pristine, neatly made bed on his side of the college dorm room, he knew it would be a long semester. The opposite side of the room was a different universe entirely: a single, black duffel bag sat on a futon, perfectly centered, as if waiting for a photo shoot. A small, intricate bonsai tree was the only personal item on the desk.
His assigned roommate, Suo Hayato, was everything Sakura wasn’t: quiet, calm, and maddeningly tidy. They were a walking contradiction, a fact made brutally clear less than twelve hours into their cohabitation.
The first fight happened at 5:00 a.m.
Sakura, a creature of chaos and late-night brawls, woke up with an urgent need to use the bathroom. He swung his feet out of bed and stumbled forward in the dark, his bare foot landing squarely on something solid, yet yielding. A muffled grunt of pain came from below.
“What the fuck?” Sakura grumbled, fumbling for the light switch.
The light flicked on to reveal Suo, sitting cross-legged on the floor between their beds, dressed in soft and loose clothes, a posture of perfect serenity. His eye, now wide with shock and a hint of a burning fire, stared up at Sakura. A small, incense-filled burner sat next to him.
“What the Hell are you doing on the floor?” Sakura hissed, bewildered.
“I was meditating,” Suo said, his voice a low, offended rumble.
“At five in the morning? In the pitch black?” Sakura shot back, already feeling the hot flush of anger. “What kind of psycho are you?”
Suo simply sighed, a dramatic, long-suffering sound that made Sakura’s fists clench. “Just someone who values inner peace. Something, it seems, you are entirely unfamiliar with. Well, that’s not surprising, after all…”
Sakura didn’t entirely understand his roommate’s rambling, but in his defense, he was barely awake, and his bladder was on the verge of… exploding, so his brain was struggling to understand whether the weird current situation he found himself in was just a dream or not. Nonetheless, he assumed he was entitled to feel insulted by Suo’s arrogant tone.
“Hey! Wanna fight?” He yelled, raising his fists.
“No, I don’t. Anyway, could you please be a little quieter? It's five in the morning and people are trying to sleep."
“Huh??!! Are you messing up with me?”
Suo sighed, gracefully standing up in one move and without using his hands. It was like watching a ballerina... or the rising of the sun.
“I can assure you I am not, and honestly I don’t see why I would. In any case, I’ll go for a walk now, since you ruined my meditation.”
Then he picked the burner up, rested it on his nightstand, put on his strange shoes, and just like that, he was off. Sakura stayed there, next to his bed, his fist still in front of his face. His very confused face.
A strange thought came to his mind: that incense smelled incredibly good.
Then he rushed to the toilet before it was too late.
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From then on, their dorm room became a battlefield.
He would never had thought his college experience could be so nerve-wracking. Honestly, it was exhausting and Sakura was a breath away from freaking out.
At first, Suo would passive-aggressively fold Sakura’s clothes while he was in class, or leave little notes about the "disruption of feng shui" caused by his scattered textbooks.
In retaliation, Sakura would blast his music and leave empty ramen cups on Suo's desk just to get a rise out of him.
Exhausting soon turned into excruciating.
But in some twisted way, it was also fun.
Smirking at Suo's annoyed face was something he would look forward to. As a result, Sakura would often be in class, daydreaming about different ways to get under Suo's skin.
Hmm…Well, to be honest, Sakura even happened to think that if Suo wasn't a total jerk, he would have liked to get under his clothes. Okay, Suo was attractive, and Sakura had been on a dry spell for a while. Not that he had a ton of experience in the so called bedroom department, but during his last year of school, he'd had a few wild sexual adventures with guys he met at some shady clubs Guys who found his appearance... unusual and would get off on that. The whole thing had ultimately disgusted him, and he hadn't been with anyone in a while. So it was just because of the abstinence he looked at Suo that way - drooling, mostly - because, of course, he would never, ever share anything remotely intimate with that asshole.
The worst part, though, was how easily Suo could fluster him. Suo seemed to enjoy teasing him, a smirk always playing on his lips, and a subtle, almost-flirty undertone to his voice that made Sakura’s skin prickle.
“Leaving your jacket on the floor near my futon is quite a statement, Sakura,” Suo would say, not looking up from his book. “It's like you're trying to claim this space. Or me, maybe? Am I going to find you rubbing all over my sheets to leave your smell?”
“What? What kind of a pervert are you to think something like that?”
“Honestly, I was just pointing out that you smell good, Sakura, but apparently you can’t even take a compliment. Anyway, try to be tidier, okay? This room is a mess.”
“It’s not a mess, it’s lived-in!” Sakura would snap back, his cheeks burning red. He hated how easily Suo could get to him. He hated the way Suo would lean in to speak to him, his warm breath caressing his ear, the casual way their shoulders would brush. He told himself it was just a side effect of living in a confined space. He told himself he couldn't stand the guy. He told himself he would go take a cold shower to cool down. He told himself that obsessively jerking off thinking about Suo wasn’t so wrong after all. It was Suo’s fault. Damn him and his flirty ways.
Fortunately, though, Sakura had met other people too, so his social interactions weren’t limited only to his annoying roommate. His sanity was at stake, after all.
For instance, Sakura had met a totally jacked, gym-fanatic guy he sometimes trained with, named Tsugeura, and his friend Kiryu, a guy with strange pink hair and covered in piercings. Kiryu was a bit too much of a fashionista for Sakura's taste, but he was a good guy overall and would lend him his phone to play video games during breaks between classes. Tsugeura and Kiryu were both quite strong, so Sakura found them interesting and worthy of his time. The other guy Sakura would spend his time with was Nirei. Sakura had met the talkative, clingy, overly friendly guy on his very first day on campus. Nirei had been incredibly helpful in navigating the place, and after a few weeks, they had become incredibly close friends. To Sakura’s utter dismay, though, Nirei was also friends with Suo. Of course he was. It was one thing after another, a string of disasters that made him wonder if he was cursed. Anyway, he wasn't the type to wallow in self-pity, so he stoically endured it when the three of them would end up hanging out together in the campus cafeteria. Watching Suo interact so calmly and amicably with Nirei and the rest of his acquaintances only deepened Sakura's frustration. He despised the guy and the easy way he seemed to contaminate every moment of his life.
Because, you see, Sakura had never had friends before and he hated that Suo was ruining the experience for him. In the small town where he grew up, the fact that he had two-colored hair and mismatched eyes—one the color of honey and the other obsidian—was something never seen before. People considered him a freak, and even at school, he hadn't connected with anyone, as he was seen as a good-for-nothing and a delinquent, always getting into trouble. Fortunately, at university, people seemed more open-minded, and Sakura could finally have friendships. But no, Suo had to spoil everything. Sakura truly couldn't stand him. His constant smirk, his perfect body, his calm demeanor, and even his stupid eyepatch—about which Suo loved telling absurd and unbelievable stories—got on his nerves.
Until one crisp autumn afternoon, Sakura got into a messy fight with a few assholes, who saw him walking by himself, minding his own business, and immediately thought it was a good idea to pick on him. They surrounded him and started calling him disgusting, repulsive, a freak of nature... and other names he was quite familiar with. What Sakura felt was a strange sense of relief. Because this was familiar, this was something he knew how to deal with. He smirked, and then... he reacted. Fast and lethal as always.
He won of course, but got a few blows as well. After all, they outnumbered him and were intent on making him pay for having dared respond to the insults. When he finally stumbled back to his room, Sakura’s whole body was aching, a nasty cut on his forehead was still bleeding and a dull throb behind his eyes was the telltale of a mild concussion beginning to set in. He fumbled with the keys, the room seeming to tilt as he unlocked the door.
He barely made it inside before he had to lean against the wall, his head swimming. The dizziness was too much. He couldn't even manage to get his sneakers off.
“You’re a mess,” a quiet voice said, and Sakura’s eyes fluttered open to see Suo standing in the doorway to the bathroom, a soft frown on his face.
For the first time since they had met, there was no sarcasm, no passive-aggressive tone, just a profound concern in his eyes. Suo closed the door, walked over to a small, hidden cabinet, and pulled out a first-aid kit. Without a word, he sat on the floor in front of Sakura and gently lifted his chin. He cleaned the cut with a cotton pad soaked in antiseptic, and Sakura hissed, but Suo’s touch was steady, his movements a surprising blend of gentleness and efficiency. He looked at Suo’s face, not his elegant moves, but the focused, concerned look in his lone, pretty eye.
This was so new that he didn't know what to do. So he did nothing.
Suo finished cleaning the cut and applied a bandage; the contact of his cool fingers against Sakura’s forehead was a strange, welcome comfort. Then, without a word, he helped Sakura stand, tugging him towards his bed and gently pushing him down until he was lying flat on his back. Suo pulled the blanket up to his chin and then left him alone to stare at the ceiling, the warm, soft mattress beneath him.
The next day, Sakura was still dazed by the events, his head ached, his mind was a mess, and he couldn’t stop replaying the moments from the day before. He couldn’t look Suo in the eye. What was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to say?
Maybe he should have thanked him, but he had no idea how to do so. How to be normal around Suo. They weren’t friends, right? So, he just acted like nothing happened, and things between them returned to normal pretty fast. Normal meaning their fucked up way to interact with each other. That was familiar too, after all, and it was better than admitting that he wanted to get to know Suo better.
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A few days later, Sakura came back to the dorm earlier than usual, since one of his classes was canceled. He unlocked the door quietly and stepped inside. He could hear the sound of the shower running. A moment later, it stopped. Sakura froze, not wanting to make a sound. He heard the bathroom door open and saw Suo walk out, a towel wrapped low around his waist.
Suo’s hair was still damp, a few drops of water running down his pecs. For the first time, he wasn’t wearing his eyepatch. The sight hit Sakura like a physical blow. Suo’s gaze landed on him, and his body stiffened. He turned around instantly, his hand flying to cover the left side of his face. But it was too late. In that fleeting moment, Sakura saw it: the dark, puckered scar where his eye should have been. It was gone, and in its place was just an empty socket.
Then Sakura’s eyes traveled down, taking in the rest of Suo's body. The lean, elegant frame was a deception. Underneath, his shoulders were broad, his back was a V-shape of defined muscle, and his abs were cut like marble. He was ripped, a boxer’s or a martial artist’s body, strong and powerful. It was so at odds with the calm, meditative Suo he knew.
Suo, his face flushed with a mixture of shock and embarrassment, darted back into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Sakura felt his own cheeks burn a furious shade of red. He stood there, speechless, his heart hammering against his ribs. Quietly, he stepped out of the room again, his face burning and a strange feeling of unease in his stomach. He didn't get back until late, and Suo was already asleep.
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A week later, Sakura was walking back to the dorm in the late afternoon, when he saw a familiar figure standing under a tree by the main quad. Suo was surrounded by five guys, none of whom looked friendly. They were older, bigger, and clearly looking for a fight. Sakura's first instinct was to walk away. He told himself he was just going to grab some food. He couldn't stand the guy, right? He should just let the meddling rich kid handle his own problems. But then he saw one of the guys shove Suo, and the instinct he’d honed over a lifetime took over.
Sakura hated people who bullied the weakest, those who couldn't fight back.
And, okay, he was not a complete asshole, so he wasn’t going to let them jump his roommate.
Sakura was about to charge forward, fists ready, when something stopped him cold.
Suo moved.
He didn't wind up, or yell, or taunt. He simply moved, his body a blur of elegant, fluid motion. One moment, he was standing still; the next, a guy was on the ground, knocked out with a single, precise strike to the temple. Suo spun, his foot lashing out with a deceptive gentleness that sent another guy to his knees. His movements were not the wild, chaotic brawling Sakura was used to. This was something else. This was a dance, a form of art. Each block and parry was as graceful as a brushstroke. In less than thirty seconds, all five guys were on the ground, moaning in pain.
Sakura stood frozen behind a bush, his jaw slack, his eyes wide in shock. Suo, with a final, unbothered glance at his fallen opponents, straightened his perfectly pressed vest and walked away as if nothing had happened.
And Sakura could only watch, his heart hammering against his ribs, his mind a whirlwind of awe and confusion.
Suo was… strong. Suo was a force of nature, so graceful and at the same time, lethal.
Suo could fight. And he was amazing at it.
Fuck…
An irresistible urge to confront him came over him. He wanted to fight Suo, to test his true strength. He wanted to expose his facade of misleading calm and impassivity.
Sakura gasped as the air left his lungs in a rush and the realization struck him.
He was completely, utterly smitten with his roommate… and totally, irrevocably fucked.