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I.
“Who’s that?” Melody hears her best friend whispering loudly into her ear, her voice filled with awe. “Wow. He’s gorgeous. Do you think I should ask him out?”
Melody looks up, blinking as she tries to track the person her friend is watching. Mr. Tall & Handsome strides by with an air of casual aloofness, the tips of his blue hair curling softly over the back of his neck. He’s dressed in a simple white button-up and dark jeans, a navy-blue backpack with bright red accents half-hanging off of one shoulder, a cute little skateboard charm dangling from the topmost zipper. Melody might be demisexual, but hey, she knows attractive when she sees it.
She turns to her best friend with a solemn expression and says, “Ashlynn, I love you, but I have to say that guy is way out of your league.”
Ashlynn slaps at her shoulder with an affronted look. “Hey! You’re supposed to be my best friend! Back me up, damn it!” She turns back in the hot guy’s direction and sighs dreamily, leaning one cheek against her hand as she braces her arm against the fold-out desk. “I wonder if he has a girlfriend already…”
The unknown guy slips into an empty seat and takes the backpack off, pulling out a slim Macbook decorated with skateboarding stickers. Wow, this guy must be a skater. He’s not carrying a skateboard, though... maybe he just enjoys watching people skating, but doesn’t actually participate in it himself?
There’s still a few minutes before class begins, but Melody still has to tug her best friend down before she can jump out of her chair and try to ask the cute guy out right away. “Calm down, Ashy! Class is about to start, he’s not going anywhere,” Melody tries to reason with her.
Ashlynn pouts. “But what if some other girl gets to him before I do?” she whines, tapping her pen against her open notebook.
“I’m sure you’ll get there first,” Melody says. Her best friend is quite the looker; waves of honey-brown hair tumbling down just past her dainty shoulders and framing a pale heart-shaped face, with a fairly big bust and a trim waist, Ashlynn certainly has her fair share of admirers round the university campus. She just hopes that Mr. Tall & Handsome isn’t an asshole who dates multiple girls at a time and then humiliates them by dumping them in the cruelest way possible.
Their first day of sociology class goes by quickly since it’s just an introduction to the course topic. The professor is nice, if a bit boring and prone to droning on about a topic that Melody is sure that nobody actually cares about. Then, when the professor dismisses the class, Ashlynn all but shoves her supplies into her bag and makes a beeline towards the hot guy before Melody is halfway done packing.
Melody sighs, taking care to make sure her notebooks aren’t too crammed together in her bag, and gets up to join her enthusiastic best friend.
As it turns out, Mr. Tall & Handsome’s name is Langa, and he’s actually only here for one semester before he goes back to Japan.
When Ashlynn tries to push him into agreeing to a date anyway, he smiles politely and says, “Oh, I’m sorry, but I have a boyfriend.”
“B-b-boyfriend?!” Ashlynn sputters, shocked. “Wait, you’re gay?”
Melody hastily grabs her friend’s arm and tries to backpedal as Langa’s eyes grow noticeably cooler at the perceived accusation. “Is that a problem?” he says.
“No, no, it’s not, I’m sure your boyfriend is very lovely, have a great day!” Melody babbles, dragging her shell-shocked best friend away. Man, how embarrassing is it to be mistaken for a homophobe! Really, Ashlynn is so lucky that her perpetual foot-in-mouth tendencies haven't gotten her into too much trouble yet, especially because Melody is usually around to soothe other people's ruffled feathers.
Later, Ashlynn insists that there’s no way that someone so hot could be batting for the other team. “He’s probably shy!” She nods firmly to herself, clenching a fist to her bosom. “Yeah, that’s it. He didn’t want to feel pressured to say yes in public.”
Melody pinches the bridge of her nose with a long, tired sigh. “Ashy, you know that I’m literally demisexual, right? I love you, but I gotta stand up for my LGBTQ peeps, too.”
Ashlynn looks properly chastised, taking Melody’s hand in her own smaller ones. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I guess you were right, he’s out of my league,” she says apologetically. She purses her lips, tapping an index finger against her bottom lip. “I wonder if his boyfriend’s cute… hey, do you think they’ll agree to a threesome?”
“Ashy, no!”
II.
Naixin Yao, or Nai-Nai as she prefers to be called, has worked at the university’s on-campus coffee shop for nearly three years. She knows the regulars in and out, has seen thousands of students pass through for their daily dose of caffeine, and for the first time in her entire undergraduate study, she falls in love with a man.
Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but sue her! The hottest guy she’s ever seen just came through the door, yawning behind a raised hand. He desperately needs a wake-up call, and Naixin has to be the one to give it to him.
“Hey, cutie, you came to the right place!” she says flirtatiously, winking at him as he steps over to the counter. “Can I get you something to drink this fine morning? Maybe with a slice of hot stuff on the side?”
The guy doesn’t even blink at her straight-forward flirting, but honestly, he’s probably just tired. “I’ll just have a medium drip,” he mumbles, fumbling with his wallet. He glances over at the display case, lingering on this month’s special, a lingonberry cupcake with sweet lemon frosting and little round red candies sprinkled over the top. It’s much too sweet for Naixin’s tastes honestly, but if the guy’s got a sweet tooth, maybe she can be persuaded to try to like more sugary things.
“Do you want the cupcake?” she asks, already picking up the tongs to retrieve one.
“Yeah.” The guy nods.
Naixin bags up the cupcake and pours the coffee, leaving space for cream and sugar. Before she turns back around, she grabs the sharpie under the register and quickly scribbles her phone number on the side of the cup. “That’ll be 8.50 today,” she says.
The hot guy pulls out a ten dollar bill, but a wallet-size photo slips out along with the money and lands on the counter. Naixin catches a brief glimpse of a really cute redhead before the guy snatches the picture back up and puts it back into his wallet carefully, a small smile on his face. “Who’s that, a friend of yours?” she teases, punching in the number to the register to open the cash drawer.
“Oh, that’s Reki. My boyfriend.”
Damn, why do all the good-looking guys have to be taken already? Naixin inwardly cries as her first undergraduate crush shrivels up and dies in a corner of her mind, a fledgling love that had lasted for all of five minutes.
“You guys are so cute. You should bring him by some time,” she says, swiftly changing the cup so she can throw the one with her number on it away.
“Ah,” the guy scratches his cheek sheepishly. “Well, I’m only here for one semester. My boyfriend’s in Japan right now.”
Naixin’s eyebrows shoot up. “You’re from Japan? Wow, your English is amazing!”
He laughs, taking his purchase, “I should hope so, I did grow up in Canada.”
Oh god, she’s a fool.
“Thanks for the coffee.” He leaves the shop with a little spring in his step.
Naixin sighs, forlorn as she helps the next customer in line. There goes her first college crush.
III.
Jonathan loves skateboarding. The feeling of the pavement moving beneath the wheels of his board, popping ollies in the skatepark, doing a backside 180 right off the ramp, he can’t get enough of it. He knows not many people share the same passion for skateboarding that he does, but he doesn’t really care all that much what people think of him.
Until one day he goes to the skatepark after class and he sees someone perform a beautiful, perfect Casper flip right as he’s coming down the ramp, then skates up the other ramp and attempts a heelflip 720 as he launches himself into the air, but he doesn’t have enough time to get the rotations in and he bails into the concrete really hard. Jonathan winces at the impact, then realizes with growing horror that the guy isn’t wearing a helmet or any pads for his knees and elbows.
“Oh my god!” He runs over to the other dude and begins to frantically check him for any serious injuries. “Are you okay? I saw that trick you were trying to pull. Cool stuff, but that fall sure looked like it hurt!”
The guy groans and sits up, muttering, “Ow…” His eyes flutter open and Jonathan is met with the prettiest turquoise eyes he’s ever seen in his life. Then he realizes just how gorgeous the other skater is and his gay heart starts beating frantically in his chest because holy shit, this guy is fuckin’ sexy.
“You’re hot, please go out with me,” he blurts out, because he has zero brain-to-mouth filter when he’s face to face with a cute guy and he starts panicking. “Oh god, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that! I mean, do you need to go to a hospital or anything, ‘cause I could take you!”
The hot dude starts laughing quietly as he accepts the hand that Jonathan holds out to him, “It’s alright, I’ve had worse falls. You should’ve seen me the first time I tried to ride a skateboard.”
Damn, even his voice is sexy. Jonathan tries not to think about it too hard as he pulls the other guy to his feet (who, to his consternation, is half a foot taller than him). “I feel that, my dude. By the way, I’m Jonathan, nice to meet you. Are you a professional skater or just a hobbyist?” he asks.
“I’m Langa, it’s nice to meet you, too. I’m just an amateur, but some of my friends have been pushing me to go pro,” Langa replies, dusting himself off. He’s got a few new bruises, but he still looks unfairly pretty and Jonathan kind of hates how he blushes at their proximity. They’re still holding hands, Langa's creamy skin clashing against Jonathan's dark tan. Does… does this mean—?!
A chime comes from Langa’s phone and he lets go of Jonathan’s hand, which instantly makes him sad. Langa looks at his phone and his whole face instantly brightens with the soppiest expression ever to exist. Jonathan’s heart abruptly cracks in half and falls all the way down to his feet in that instant, because That Look can only mean that Langa is already taken. He mentally sheds a few tears for what-could-have-been.
“Got a message from your girlfriend?” Jonathan says knowingly, putting his foot down on his own skateboard to roll it back and forth.
“Boyfriend, actually,” Langa casually corrects him like he’s commenting about the weather while typing a response to the message he had just received.
Jonathan chokes on his own spit and almost falls off of his board. He’s sexy, gay, and a hopeful pro skateboarder? Life is so not fair. He finds himself insanely jealous of Langa’s unnamed, mystery boyfriend.
“Does your, uh, boyfriend… does he skate too?” Jonathan clears his throat meaningfully.
Langa looks up with a huge grin. “He does! Want to see the video he just sent me?” He taps at his phone, then turns it horizontally and holds it out for Jonathan to see. In the video, at first there’s nobody in the frame, but then a redhead in a bright yellow hoodie zooms into focus and nails the sickest railslide that Jonathan’s ever seen. Afterwards, the redhead runs up to the camera and beams while holding up a peace sign. Goddamn, Jonathan’s got nothing on a power move like that. He’s gotta give props to Langa’s boyfriend for his skills.
The video ends and Langa puts his phone away.
“Your boyfriend’s awesome! Even I can’t do a railslide like that,” Jonathan says excitedly.
“He practiced a lot,” Langa agrees happily. His eyes soften as he looks up at the sky. “I’m really proud of him.”
Yeah, this Langa guy is 100 percent not single and ready to mingle. He’s totally enamored with his partner, anybody with eyes can see that. Jonathan takes a deep breath and shoves the fragments of his broken heart away, because while Langa won’t be going on a date with him any time soon, he’s still an amazing skater. And hey, Jonathan won’t say no to making a new friend.
“Wanna do a race with me?” he offers.
Langa at first looks surprised, but then a competitive streak flares up in his eyes and he nods. “You’re on. Where to?”
IV.
Midterms are not quite the stuff of nightmares, but Minako still thinks she’s slowly approaching insanity because no matter how many times she pours over her textbook, her homework still makes no damn sense and this is stuff that she’s going to be tested on tomorrow. She’s about ready to throw her pencil across the table when someone sits down in the seat across from hers.
Oh, it’s one of the guys from her calculus class. His blue hair is pretty distinctive, honestly. What’s his name again, like Renga or something?
She peers at him curiously through her cat-eye glasses. Hey, he’s pretty cute. She should ask him if they could, ahem, study together (she’s totally not trying to procrastinate on her homework, no sirree).
As if sensing her gaze, the guy looks up. “Can I help you?” he asks politely.
Oh yes, you can, she thinks, giving him her best smile. “It’s nothing, I thought I recognized you from class,” she says demurely, leaning forward so that a bit of her cleavage is showing beneath the low neckline of her shirt. To her disappointment, the guy’s eyes don’t stray from her face. What a gentleman. “I was just thinking, I’m having some trouble with the homework that’s due before the midterm tomorrow. Why don’t we study together?”
“Oh, I don’t mind. Show me which ones you’re having trouble with and I’ll try to help you.”
Score! Minako puts the textbook on the table between them and pushes her breasts up by leaning them on her arm. “This page, right here, problem number five. When I tried to do it the first time, I got seven as the answer, but the answer sheet says that it’s supposed to be two,” she explains, practically shoving her chest into his face as he reads over the problem with single-minded intensity. Damn, he really isn’t looking. Either he’s already taken or he’s gayer than the rainbow flag over her roommate’s bed.
He looks over her worksheet and hums. “I know where you went wrong. See, you’re supposed to divide x by this fraction here and then carry the three—”
As he’s writing out the problem for her, the phone by his elbow lights up with a new message. Minako cranes her neck a bit to see that it’s from Bae ❤️ and that her classmate’s lockscreen is of him and another boy making an infinity sign with their hands while grinning at the camera. He must be taken, but still, it can’t hurt to ask, right?
“…Do you get it now?” His voice snaps her from her thoughts and she quickly pretends that she was listening to him all along.
“Yes, it makes sense now, thanks!” She takes the worksheet back and looks over his surprisingly neat handwriting. He’d written the entire problem out for her. How nice. She looks back at him and he’s looking down at his phone with a soft gaze. “Hey, so, I was wondering… are you single?” She holds her breath and prays that she’s mistaken, crossing her fingers behind her back.
He doesn’t answer for a very long moment, too focused on replying to the message. When he looks back up, he says, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening. What did you say?”
“Are you single?” Minako repeats.
The guy smiles and shakes his head. “No, sorry, I’ve got a boyfriend back home.”
Somewhere, over the rainbow~ a voice that sounds suspiciously like her roommate’s singsongs the word through her head and Minako has the sudden urge to stand up and yell ‘shut up!’
She doesn’t, because she’s not crazy, just nods and stops trying to show off her boobs to someone who won’t ever appreciate them. She pushes her glasses up her nose and says instead, “Can you help me with another problem?”
“Sure.”
V.
Being trans in Canada is far more liberating than being trans in America, Ethan decides. No more of those annoying white supremacists who constantly called him ‘gorilla girl’ for his stocky, muscular build that doesn’t fit their stereotypical ideal of a woman. Even when he says that he is a man, they laugh and jeer at him because they don't see him, only his body which they assume to be female. Does he have breasts? Yes. Does he have a vagina? Also yes. But so what? He's still a man.
That being said, now that Ethan is in college, he wants to pick up a new hobby. He used to play on the basketball team in middle school, but once he started identifying as a trans man on official paperwork, his damn high school had actually banned him from playing, those stupid traditionalist fucks. It’s the weekend, so there’s no classes and Ethan finds himself wandering down near the skatepark down the street.
He pauses behind the chain-link fence, watching as two young men perform tricks in front of each other, laughing. The one with blue hair is especially mesmerizing, with his serene face and slim body. He performs some sort of flip with his board and for a moment, he seems to hang suspended in space, as beautiful as falling snow. Ethan’s breath catches in his throat as he thinks, gorgeous.
Without thinking, his feet carry him into the skatepark. The two young men look at him curiously.
Ethan nervously clears his throat, “Hi, sorry to barge in on you like this, but I just wanted to say that whatever trick that was that you did just now? It was sublime.”
“Thank you?” The blue-haired guy’s cheeks flush faintly pink, and oh, that’s adorable. Ethan feels his traitorous heart skip a beat.
“Are you a skater, too?” his friend interrupts, arms crossed. “You don’t look like one…”
“Because I’m not, duh.” Ethan rolls his eyes. He side-eyes the cute blue-haired guy with a small smile, “But I’d be interested in learning how if I had a cutiepie like you teaching me.”
“Oh, well, I’m flattered, but—” the cutie starts to say, but his friend interjects again, this time with a harsh, “He’s taken.”
Ethan raises an eyebrow, glancing from one man to the other. “Oh my, forgive me. The two of you are dating, then?”
The one with dark hair and dark skin sputters, turning red, “N-no! I’m just his friend Jonathan!”
Ethan frowns. “Hun, you don’t gotta lie to me if you don’t actually have a significant other. Just say the word and I’ll stop, quick as a flash,” he says with a snap of his fingers.
“Listen, miss—”
“It’s mister, actually.” Ethan pauses and gives them a wary glance. Just because they’re in Canada doesn’t mean they’ll automatically be accepting of a trans man. If these punks turn out to be transphobic, he’ll be out of here faster than you can say damn.
“What? But you’re…” Jonathan looks him up and down with a confused expression, but not one marred with disgust or hatred. That’s a good sign. The blue-haired cutie just nods at him and goes back to whatever he was doing before Ethan interrupted them, leaving him alone with the dark-haired skater. Oh well, if that one’s taken, maybe Ethan can try with his friend. Jonathan’s pretty easy on the eyes too; if Ethan had to guess, he’d say the guy is probably part-Filipino, with his round face and high cheekbones.
“I'm a man,” Ethan adds, cocking his hip out. “Got a problem with that?”
“N-no, sorry for assuming,” Jonathan stammers, waving his hands frantically. “So you use he/him pronouns?”
“That’s right.” Ethan links his arm through Jonathan’s and the other boy lets out an adorable squeak. He winks. “So, Jonathan, how about you teach me how to skate?”
+1
“Hey, Langa! We’re going to a mixer tonight, wanna come with?” Langa looks up as his group project teammates wave at him after their class lets out for the day.
“No thanks, I’m going to Skype with my boyfriend tonight.”
“Aw, don’t be such a party pooper! Lots of girls have been dying to meet you, you know,” one of the guys chuckles. “You’re always saying that you have to be with your boyfriend, but we ain’t never seen him around. You sure you ain’t just making him up?”
Langa feels offended. “I do have a boyfriend! He’s back in Japan, though.”
“Exactly! He wouldn’t know if you went to one party, right?” someone else wheedles.
“Yeah, Langa! Come on, it’ll be fun!”
Langa is about to say no again when someone casually throws an arm around his shoulders and his words die in his mouth. “Sorry, but he is with me,” a familiar voice says in very heavily-accented English. “No party for him today.”
“What? Who the heck are you?” The guys stare at the newcomer in confusion.
Langa answers for them as he says, with a sort of breathless happiness, “Reki!”
Reki grins and Langa feels his whole world light up with sunshine. “Hey, Langa. Did you miss me?”
Langa forgets all about his classmates and hugs his boyfriend so hard that they both nearly fall over. “What are you doing here? I thought I was supposed to Skype with you tonight!” he says brightly, his eyes shining.
The redhead laughs, tilting Langa’s head down so that he can kiss Langa’s cheek. “I lied, sorry. I wanted to surprise you.”
“I’m surprised, alright. Did you come here by yourself?”
“Everyone’s here, actually! We all wanted to come visit you in Canada!” Reki’s cheeks push up with how big his smile is and Langa can feel himself falling in love with the adorable skater all over again. He leans in and cups Reki’s face with one hand. Reki’s arm slides off of his shoulder and wraps around his back instead as they press their lips together. Langa inhales the sweet-sharp tang of Reki’s scent, tugging him in closer so that he can deepen the kiss.
Someone clears their throat loudly and the two men break apart, startled. “O-okay, so you weren’t lying about having a boyfriend,” one of the guys says awkwardly, shuffling in place. “We’ll uh, leave you two alone.” They beat a hasty retreat.
Langa shrugs and presses his forehead against Reki’s, breathing him in, just feeling the warmth of his presence there beside him. “I missed you, Reki.”
“Me too, Langa. I couldn’t wait any longer to see you.” Reki kisses him again and Langa feels his heart soar. “So whaddya say? Wanna go skating with us?”
“I’d like nothing more,” Langa says honestly, letting go of Reki, but then grabbing his hand the next second so that they can walk side by side. “I should introduce you to my new skater friends, Jonathan and Ethan. They’re probably at the skatepark right now.”
“Aw yeah! I want to see what skateboarding’s like in Canada!” Reki bounces on the balls of his feet as they walk, talking a mile a minute about all the new tricks he tried to learn while Langa was away and what’s been going on at S.
Langa listens to him babble on contently, feeling the sun on his skin and the cool wind in his hair. Maybe for other people, going to a mixer and meeting people there is happiness, but for Langa, his happiness is a person, a thing, a feeling, a home. Everything that Reki is and everything that he represents is Langa’s happiness.
“Reki?” he says as they exit the campus and walk towards the silver minivan that Joe rented for their trip.
“Yeah?” Reki stops talking and looks at him with those big amber eyes that make Langa want to stare into them forever. They smile dumbly at each other.
“I love you.”
Reki blushes, but he’s still smiling and Langa counts that as a win.
“Love you, too,” he mumbles shyly, leaning against Langa’s shoulder. Langa presses a kiss into his unruly red hair.
He can’t wait for Reki and the others to meet his new friends.