Chapter Text
One day
One week
One month
A month in which all his experiments failed.
A month in which insomnia kept him awake, because if he slept, he would dream of him.
What does it mean to constantly dream of someone? Sadly, he didn't know. But there was someone who did know.
He looked at Gen's last message.
Good night, Senku-chan, I hope you manage to sleep tonight
He hadn't replied since. Not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't know what to say.
If you had asked Senku last year if he liked "daily chats," he would have said no, that he found them a waste of time. Now, he still believed that, but with the sole exception that deep down, he did want to continue the daily conversation with Gen, but only with him. With anyone else, it would have been exhausting.
Perhaps it had been a bad decision to start this fake relationship with Gen, because now everything he did was seen as an insinuation. He sighed, staring at the ceiling of his room, still thinking about how his perception of his dear friend had changed.
He remembered when Gen would arrive at the lab, always a pleasant surprise, even though what was truly surprising was when he didn't show up. He thought about how Gen's smiles were always different when they were directed at him. Sometimes he even swore that if the mentalist ever needed more than just a simple Senku-Cola, he would do it without a second thought.
So, if they had once been so close, why couldn't he even look him in the eye now?
Every time he saw his partner's smile, he could feel deep inside how that smile was directed at him, only at him. And that was slowly destroying him.
Shame gnawed at him. Every time he spoke to the mentalist, he noticed how his voice was high-pitched and how his words lost their scientific meaning; he looked like an idiot. He hated this feeling of vulnerability; it made him feel like a newborn baby who didn't know how to act or what to say, because everything he did would seem foolish or pointless. Everything Gen did, on the other hand, was effortless, almost as if he were a celestial being who did everything right by nature.
Where did this inferiority complex come from? He didn't know, but what he did know was that this curse only surfaced when he was near Gen.
Gen... Did his decisions really affect him that much? Since the conversation (or argument, depending on your perspective) he'd had with Kohaku, it had become impossible for him to stop thinking about Gen. Sometimes, he even imagined what it would be like if Gen confronted him directly. Unfortunately, neither his imagination nor his human understanding extended far enough to create a story even remotely close to reality.
Perhaps it was time to talk to the person he'd been ignoring since turning 16 and leaving home: Byakuya.
The following afternoon, after school, Gen was walking through the familiar hallways. Every turn he made was automatic, a consequence of repeating the same route every day.
He carried his bag, where he concealed three books on psychology and the human mind that he was reading.
As he passed through more crowded hallways, people he had helped in the past greeted him. Truthfully, he didn't mind meeting so many people. Thanks to the support he gave others, he had helped the psychology club thrive and become less stigmatized, which led to more people joining. Sometimes he grew tired of being everyone's psychologist, but he recognized all he had gained from this emotionally draining task.
Speaking of his feelings, after his conversation with Kohaku (and a few tips from Ukyo), he finally felt more confident about his relationship with Senku-chan. They allowed him to realize something he hadn't considered before: perhaps Senku-chan was very inexperienced in matters of the heart, so he might think he was now expecting more from him, like dates or romantic outings. And that was the very reason for his visit to the science club; he would clear things up with Senku, tell him that he wanted nothing more than to be friends. Well, he'd also spend some time with him, after all, who could blame a lovesick fool trying to spend time with his crush?
"Senku-channn!" Gen's sing-song voice called out as he opened the sliding door. A familiar chemical scent immediately reached his nose. He looked out from the doorway, noticing something unexpected. Senku wasn't there. "Huh?" he muttered to himself, glancing around for someone he knew. Upon seeing a familiar head of brown hair, he smiled and approached.
“Chrome-chan!” exclaimed the mentalist behind the other scientist, who seemed engrossed in a group of stones. The newly summoned man turned around in surprise; he hadn't heard Gen enter
“Gen! Look what I’m doing, it’s really cool!” Excitedly, he showed him a stone that seemed to have different layers, each with a different shade of blue. When he put the stone back, he turned to the mentalist. “What brings you here?” The question, despite having a known answer, would never be rude to ask.
“I wanted to talk to Senku-chan, but I don’t see him here. Do you know where he might be?” He got straight to the point; at this moment, he didn’t have time for many distractions, or his courage would go down the drain.
“Well…” The metal specialist hesitated for a few seconds, trying to remember if Senku had told him where he was. “I don’t really know, but I think he might have left campus for the day.” He paused a bit before continuing, approaching Gen and whispering, “To be honest, I heard a group of friends say they saw Senku at the exit.”
Senku’s whispers? Well, it wouldn't have been so strange if simply seeing the scientist somewhere other than the lab didn't signify a drastic change in his usual routine.
"I understand, that's fine, Chrome-chan, I'll try to find out what's going on," the mentalist replied in the same low tone before leaving the lab, making a quick mental note to look for a rock that resembled the one Chrome was studying so much, since he owed her a birthday present.
"Senku-chan... where did you go?" the mentalist wondered to himself, sighing as soon as he left the club.