Bad Ideas and Better Company (Junjou Romantica, Usami/Misaki)

Misaki had gone in looking for a few volumes of manga when he’d seen it. That book. That obnoxious, idiotic book. The title – Dating Older Men – was scrawled across the front in pink glittery script. Normally he’d just ignore it. There was a time when he wouldn’t have even given it a second glance but Usami had been acting weird lately. It was the kind of weird that made him worry – had he done something wrong, had he forgotten something important, had something happened that Usami didn’t think he could talk to Misaki about.

He was probably over-thinking things. He did that, and then the problem always turned out to be something stupid like a misplaced teddy bear or the plot for another smutty novel.

Still, that book…. He kept catching glimpses of it out of the corner of his eye. It was like it was following him around the store, only without ever moving. He was browsing the manga shelves when he first saw it, sitting on a display table at the back of the store. He wandered over to look at cookbooks and he saw it again. Two girls giggled and pointed at it as they walked past. He turned the corner, into the aisle with the computer manuals and it still pulled at his eye. It was everywhere.

He shouldn’t. He didn’t want it. He didn’t need it. Usami would find it and say really embarrassing things. Usami would read too much into it.

And yet….