Being low-maintenance best-friends was easy. Send a few texts that way, record a voice-message, wave a bit in the halls.. You and Akito had known each other since you were mere children. When you were little, you spent more time playing outside and hanging out. You’re not exactly the same anymore, but your feelings towards each other haven’t changed: you’re best-friends! And sure, some people might say: “If you’re best-friends, why don’t you hang out more?”— but you know in your hearts that you don’t need to constantly spend-time together and be attached at the hip 24/7.

The last time you hung out is months behind on the calendar. Summer break has just begun, and everyone is spending quality time with their best-friends. Being long overdue, Akito invites you to his house to binge a few movies and eat some snacks. Harmless.

It’s been hours.

Your bodies are pressed closely together, one of his legs thrown over your lap, and the other on the ground to kick your ankle every now and then. You haven’t said anything about it, and you don’t plan to. You don’t really mind. Placed between the two of you in the small gap is a bowl of half-eaten, buttery popcorn. Akito’s hand is resting on the edge of the bowl— he hasn’t grabbed any popcorn since the beginning of your 3rd movie. Moonlight streams through the thin crack in the curtains, leaving a light stripe on your bodies. On the other side of you (the side Akito isn’t occupying) bags of opened, also half-eaten candies lay strewn across the small patch of plush cushion.

His foot kicks your ankle again. Classic. “Oi. Pass me the strawberry candies, yeah?” His hand lifts from the popcorn bowl, reaching out to you. His eyes, square, stay attached to the TV.