Fight

“Let’s do it again.”

“S-Sure, just need a minute to rest.”

“Well, it seems your age is showing in your lack of stamina, Mr. Glasses.”

Eloy collapsed onto one of the couches at Harmony, sweating and breathing hard. He knew that Genta was just teasing him, but he still threw a tired glare at his idiotic boyfriend as this one laughed.

“Hey, you’re doing great,” Genta said, giving Eloy's shoulder a friendly pat as Eloy reached for the water bottle on the table. “I knew you were exaggerating about your ‘lack of coordination’.”

“That’s because I’ve spent every moment I have in the share house practicing.”

“And do you think I’m not doing the same at home? I swear, yesterday my mother almost threw a gigantic turtle plushie at me while I was practicing because she couldn't take it anymore. ” Eloy had to pause drinking to laugh, imagining the scenario in his head. “So don’t worry. We’re half-way through the whole choreography and we still have three and half days ahead. We can do it.”

Eloy sighed and nodded. He had eventually agreed to Genta’s idea of preparing one of King’s choreographies. As he had foreseen, the amount of practice required to execute it decently, without being anywhere close to King’s level, was insane. In fact, there were a few muscles that Eloy didn’t even know he had until they started to ache.

“Alright, enough rest. Let’s go.”

Eloy let out a deep breath and accepted Genta’s hand to stand up. Well, at least he was working on his stamina, which would probably come in handy if they ever…

He managed to stop his thoughts before they fully formed. In his defense, it wasn’t entirely his fault. The t-shirt that Genta was wearing adjusted way too tight to his body, outlining the guy’s defined torso. Definitely the physical attraction between them was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, even if they were really working hard to stay focused on the challenge.

They repeated the song, and this time they managed to flawlessly reach the part where Eloy ended up lying up on the floor, facing up, a couple of seconds before Genta caged him against it, with both legs and arms on either side of Eloy’s body.

Eloy was supposed to place his hands on Genta’s shoulders and ‘forcibly’ revert their position at the rhythm of the music before standing up and continuing with the choreo.

But their eyes met then, and Eloy had barely time to detect the intensity of Genta’s gaze before Genta grabbed his wrists, pinned them against the floor, and kissed him passionately.

“I thought we had to avoid distractions,” Eloy said with a breathless tone, feeling goosebumps as Genta started nipping at his neck, still without releasing his wrists.

“Oi, we’ve been practicing non-stop. We deserve a break.”

“But if Mako and Narumi come back now–”

“They’re going to take a while. Besides, we’re hidden from view thanks to the counter.”

Tired of trying to come up with more excuses, Eloy turned his face towards Genta and nudged his nose against Genta’s cheek, effectively making Genta abandon his neck to kiss him again. Genta released Eloy’s hands at that moment, allowing Eloy to enclose his arms around Genta’s back as they continued to make out.

Just as Eloy was about to try to slip his hands under Genta’s tight t-shirt to feel his skin directly, the door chimed.

“I told you it was a bad idea!” Eloy hissed while Genta cursed and started to stand up, but like Genta, he was suppressing the urge to laugh.

“Wow, you’ve been really fast with the shopping–”

Eloy was about to stand up as well when seeing Genta tense completely while staring at the door.

“Oh, so Taichi wasn’t lying when saying that you had grown up, huh. Now I bet you could almost pull off a decent fight.”

Eloy’s eyes opened wide upon hearing the disagreeable comment. He didn’t recognize the voice, but by basing on Genta’s posture, it seemed he knew the newcomer. Eloy was about to stand up but Genta gestured with his left hand, concealed from view, for him to stay there, hidden.

“Jiro Matsuda. So you have four lackeys now? You’ve leveled up. Last time you didn’t have that many.”

Eloy’s heart started beating faster when realizing that they were outnumbered. He had to call the police before those people caused trouble.

“Well, while some participate in gay music contests, others triumph in life.” While Jiro talked, Eloy rapidly retrieved his mobile that was resting on the counter. Luckily, the jerk was so focused on Genta that he didn’t notice the movement. “By the way, that scar really makes you look manly. You should thank me for it.”

Eloy had barely finished texting in their common Line group to explain what was happening so that the girls could call for help, when Jiro’s comment provoked a wave of laughs in his group. Eloy gritted his teeth with anger. He deduced that Genta’s plan was to gain them as much time as possible, but there was no way that he could let Genta face those jerks alone.

“Our friends are calling the police as we speak,” Eloy warned while revealing himself, startling everyone in the bar, Genta included. “If I were you, I’d leave this place right now.”

Eloy deduced that Jiro was the guy in the front line. He wasn’t as tall as Taichi was, but was bigger. He also dressed in expensive clothes and jewelry, and had the arrogance of someone who believed himself untouchable, as his next words showed.

“Please, you know who my father is?” Jiro snapped in a disdained tone. “Probably not. Foreigners like you are busy enough stealing our women. But anyway, you can call the police all you want: they won’t do shit when they see I’m involved–”

Eloy had barely put himself at Genta’s level when the door chimed a second time.

“H-Hey, Jiro, man, what are you doing here?” Eloy’s eyes opened more when seeing Taichi enter in a hurry, talking with a tone that tried to sound nonchalant, but that had undeniable worry in it.

“Well, you told me that your ex-best friend didn’t want to talk to you,” Eloy froze when, without averting his eyes from Genta, Jiro extracted a knife from the pocket of his trousers. He had never faced a situation like that one, and things were escalating too much too fast for him to know how to react. “So I came here to give him a small lesson on your behalf–”

Both Eloy and Genta’s eyes snapped open when Taichi didn’t hesitate in putting himself between them and Jiro, causing the latter to also show a shocked expression.

Jiro blinked in disbelief, snorted, and then simply pointed with his chin towards Taichi. Before anyone could react, one of the four guys approached Taichi and punched him hard in the face. The guy was going for a second hit when Genta lunged at the guy, provoking a domino effect that made him fall on the floor together with Jiro and another two guys.

“Eloy, lock yourself in the office, NOW!” Genta ordered, rapidly crawling on the top of Jiro to stop the guy from standing up.

Eloy didn’t obey. He had never been in a fight before, but when seeing that one of the guys was about to reach for the knife that Jiro had dropped during the fall, he lunged at him on pure instinct.

He managed to give Taichi time so that this one kicked the knife away from anyone’s reach, but his lack of experience in fighting became evident. The other guy quickly got the upper hand and roughly pushed Eloy back against the counter. Eloy cried out at the sudden pang of pain, feeling useless because Taichi was now handling two guys on his own quite effectively, while Genta did the same with Jiro and the remaining guy.

Eloy heard Genta call his name with worry before cursing, as Jiro took advantage of the distraction to throw Genta against one of the tables. Eloy had managed to avoid a new punch, and also pushed his attacant away to try to help Genta, when the door chimed for the third time, revealing Mako and Narumi.

What happened next happened so fast that Eloy barely had time to process it.

He just knew that one second Jiro’s group seemed to be winning, and the next the four guys were on the ground, groaning in pain, and Mako and Narumi were holding a half-unconscious Jiro facedown against the floor.

“And now you’re going to stay still while we wait for the police, alright?” Narumi softly said while Eloy and Genta stared at the girls in awe.

“Oh,” Mako said with a proud smile, “didn’t we mention that we learned self-defense a while ago?”