We fell in love in autumn

Hoshi takes the bowl and lets me follow the scent of popcorn all the way to his room. His room isn't too big, except it equals one half of my tiny apartment if I'm exaggerating. He turns on a warm toned lamp beside the bedside table, which creates a cozy and warm atmosphere. The furniture is matched in light wood colour, including desk, huge wardrobe with a mirror, tall bed frame, bedside table etc. Flooring is a different hue of light wood too, and the only rug is under the bed, in a warm beige colour. The duvet sheets are in an autumn chestnut colour, and the same pillows are interspersed with smaller white pillows. Beside the bed, there is some space before huge windows, with an unfortunate view of a company's offices. No wonder Hoshi has got these heavy beige curtains to provide himself some privacy.

The walls are painted in a soft, yellowish colour, giving this room a true warm, welcoming energy. And between the royal bed and a wide wardrobe, there are doors to a small restroom place.

The bedside table is on the right side of the bed, with a half burned strawberry candle and a tissue package on it. Seems like that's the side Hoshi occupies. And the left side is clearly occupied by Nelson. He walks into the room behind us, and he nonchalantly jumps on the bed, making himself comfortable in the center of the left side. I left the door open, so Nelson could walk in and out freely.

The first thing Hoshi does is he covers the windows with the curtains, although it's late at night, and nobody is in the offices anymore.

"There's no need to cover the windows, is it?" I ask him curiously.

"No, but the sun always wakes me up when they're not covered."

"But we're not on the sunny side tho…" I note down suspiciously.

"See the reflective building in front of the window?" Hoshi points out.

I nod "The sun reflects from it, and it would shine right into my eyes every morning."

"Oh but that's awesome! You have access to the sun almost everywhere in this apartment!"

"You really like sunshine, right?" He smiles lightly.

"I do." I admit, returning a warm smile. Hoshi chuckles and opens the curtains. I mustn't but smile widely at his favour. Thank you, Hoshi. I think to myself.

He sits on the bed and initiates for me to make myself comfortable while taking Nelson onto his lap.

Hoshi places the popcorn between us, and Nelson keeps purring as he scratches his tiny tummy, while I pick a movie. My today's choice is a romcom with my favourite guy, Adam Sandler. Hoshi sighs jokingly and looks at me.

"Listen, I usually fall asleep watching movies no matter how good or bad they are, but don't blame me if I fall asleep too early while watching this one." He says. Comedies with Adam Sandler are golden! How does he dare to mock them?! I shoot him a deadly glare. "Don't make me talk about your 1 star movie I had to witness."

"Don't bring it up again…. and I loved it!" He retorts. I remain stabbing him with my glance. "Okay, I'll give this one a try…"

The movie starts playing, and I struggle to find a right position as I do not want to sprawl on Hoshi's bed, but eventually, I lean comfortably and enjoy the movie. Every time I take popcorn, Hoshi glances at me and giggles. I wonder what is going on inside his head. Every time he smiles or chuckles when a funny scene appears, it brings me some inner peace, a feeling that he's not bored and actually enjoys this movie. When the popcorn is finished, Nelson decides to leave Hoshi, and joins me instead. He's a friendly cat who clearly likes attention, and I don't mind at all. Hoshi just smiles and puts the popcorn bowl aside on his bedside table.

The movie is coming to an end, the most important part - the denouement is about to come, and Hoshi is asleep, dreaming on his brown pillow. He really didn't lie about missing all the ends of movies. But the sight of him is lovely, and it kind of makes me lose my focus on the movie. I would just love to play with his messy hair, while he peacefully rests on my chest. I wanna feel him closer. But then I realise that just being here with him suffices me. It makes my chaotic soul find peace, and maybe he's the denouement in my own story.

The movie ends, and I'm ready to crawl under the duvet, when suddenly my phone beeps. It's Takamori.

Takamori is my classmate who gives me some hard times. I found him cool, and I really wanted to be friends with him, yet he doesn't seem to acknowledge me. I still try to find our topic, and I try to adapt to his humor… kind of fit into his group, but I only seem to be useful for entries and answering him questions when writing a test.

I've been struggling with fitting in, and I thought Takamori would give me a chance, but it's not really happening.

"Heyyy Nikko, could you please send me entries from Friday?? 🙏"

"And why didn't you write them yourself?"

Now, don't get me wrong, I always help my friends. But I feel like I'm being used.

"I swear I'll start writing them. This is the last time! 🙏 🙏 🙏 "

"I'm not home, sorry."

"Oh OK."

The end of our conversation… I don't know if that was an attempt to use some low level manipulation or something, but that's not how a friend behaves, is it? Do I only have to provide to be someone's friend? I don't know. But Hoshi likes me even though I do not provide for him, right? I let out a silent sigh. But let's keep my struggles at home. Now I'm here, with Him, and his calm dreaming. I turn off the TV, and the lights. I cover Hoshi with a duvet, and I can't help but smile at his peaceful sleeping.

"Oh my Gosh… You're so adorable. I wonder what you're dreaming about, Hoshi-kun."