Xiao Lin's Melancholy

I’m Kobayashi Hideo, a little-known art critic. Out of nowhere, my steady girlfriend, Hasegawa Yasuko, broke up with me.

The ridiculous reason? She had fallen for my neighbor.

My neighbor is a man with orange, shoulder-length hair. He’s under five-foot-three, likes wearing hats and black coats, and is always vanishing without a trace. Sometimes he comes roaring home on his heavy motorcycle in the middle of the night, yet never uses the door.

Weeds have grown all over the front of his house.

I moved from Kamakura to Yokohama and live in a detached house I bought more than a decade ago. When I moved in a year ago, the neighbor was already there. I never went to introduce myself, and he never came by, so I still have no idea what he looks like. Who knows when Yasuko saw his face and fell in love at first sight?

Unable to shake the subtle urge to prove myself, I kept wondering, “What does he look like that could make Yasuko dump me for his face without even knowing him?” One night, when my neighbor once again climbed in through a second-floor window, I trampled through the thriving weeds and knocked on his door.

The door opened. He looked up, and I froze.

...Oh, damn.

Aren’t you that blue-eyed little black lamb who used to lead the sheep back then? Have you seriously not grown an inch all these years?!

I was so shocked that the thoughts I’d meant to keep to myself came right out of my mouth.

Then, quite literally, I went flying.

Halfway through the air, I was yanked back.

My long-lost acquaintance silently raised a hand to hold his hat in place and glared at me. I awkwardly hung in midair under the power of his ability, staring at the tips of his ears, bright red beneath the light. I tried to greet him as calmly and naturally as I could. “It’s been a long time, Nakahara. You’ve grown taller.”

Then he unceremoniously dropped me to the floor and slammed the door in my face.

I stood there, completely dumbfounded. ???

I jumped up and started pounding on the door. “Nakahara Chuuya! You bastard, stealing someone else’s girlfriend! You homewrecker! You’ve got the nerve to steal a woman but not to open the door? Open up! Open the door! Let me in!”

Warnings before reading:

OOC, personal headcanons and preferences included, seme protagonist, pairing with Chuuya.

Written on a sudden whim, with no backlog, no outline, and no logic. Written at an elementary school level.

Updates whenever I feel like it.

This is an abandoned project.

P.S. The idea comes from the real-life history of Nakahara Chuuya, Kobayashi Hideo, and Hasegawa Yasuko, and their complicated story. Search it up if you’re interested.

Theme: People only encounter the things that match their own nature.