Meeting the cousin

Martin is kinda glad now that Leonardo and Mariella start dating officially, since this means he gets more alone time with Giorgio to walk home with after class without having Mariella tagging with Giorgio, or he have to tag along with Leonardo even though he likes him as a friend, walking with Giorgio feels so much special.

He is packing his stuff after finished baking for the class, and he grins when he sees his container that is holding the chocolate cream cheese cake, where he earned a huge praise and grade by Professor Buccio on the taste and presentation, and now he is eager to share it with Giorgio, since all good things must be shared with friends, right?

“You look really happy lately, like more than usual,” Martin turns to see Kai smirking, and he knows him long enough that expression of his is when he thought of something to tease about, “is it a girlfriend?”

“Dude, no. It’s a friend, and it’s not a girl.”

“No way man, if it’s a friend, your head won’t be in the clouds often in class. Oh! Is it a crush?!”

“Sadly, yes, it’s a crush,” Martin finally finishes packing and he hangs his bag over and starts walking and Kai follows him out the classroom, “I’m still thinking whether I should confess though.”

“Hmmm, what food does he like? Maybe you can cook his favorite food and bam! Tell him you like him. Oh! Or you can try the Japanese bento style?”

“What style now?”

“You know, arrange a packed lunch with the words I love you with vegetables and meat.”

“What the, that doesn’t sound like my way-” and Martin stop dead in his tracks when he sees the pompadour king at the entrance talking with Giorgio who seems to be excited about something, and he unknowingly feels like he might not be the only one that can make Giorgio looks so happy-

“Yo Tao!”

Tao immediately turns and he waves his hand rapidly, “Kai!”

Giorgio looks on and when his eyes sees Martin, his lips curve upwards into a huge smile and he calls out, “hey Martin.”

Ba-dump. If someone comes and shoots Martin dead now, he will not regret anything- wait, maybe one thing, not being able to confess to Giorgio. He tries to compose himself and waves back, and gives the blonde his best looking grin. When the four of them are near enough, Kai gives Tao a bear hug and they both giggle and keep patting each other’s back and start speaking in Japanese, “dude! I miss you coming here to get me before going to the dorm!”

“Sorry sorry, you know medical school sucks most of the time.”

“The both of you are so gay to those that doesn’t know you.”

Martin’s mouth hangs open when he hears Giorgio speaking in Japanese, and sounds so fluent too! Like he didn’t have any accent or anything, and if he closes his eyes, he will think that it’s a real Japanese that spoke. Tao says something and Giorgio just shakes his head, and when Giorgio turns to look at Martin, he starts speaking in English,

“Martin, so this is the friend Kai you were talking about?”

“Huh? Yeah! Meet my junior in cooking class Kai!”

“Oh! How did the both of you meet? Or did you know Giorgio from Tao?” Kai then realized something’s up with the way Martin is looking at Giorgio and he smirks, then he tugs at Tao’s sleeve and says in Japanese, “I think something’s up and I can see it brewing!”

Giorgio ignores the both of them and Martin explains, “well, we met when I lost my phone in general studies. Then we kinda hang out once we know each other are from Naples!”

Tao stares at Giorgio with one raised eyebrow and he leans nearer to him and whispers in Japanese, “I can’t believe you are actually eager to make friends with a Neopolitan. I thought you have bad memories of that place.”

“He is- different.”

Martin is feeling conflicted again with how close Tao and Giorgio is, and he keeps reminding himself that Giorgio is allowed to make friends with anyone, or even date anyone else-

“So I guess everyone of us knows each other in a different way huh? Cool,” Tao breaks Martin’s thoughts and he grins at Martin, “by the way Martin! I think I didn’t really introduce Giorgio properly to you yet-”

Properly? Don’t tell me-

“Giorgio is my cousin! We used to share one room when I was in my first year studying here and things got hectic with my classes and I kinda moved to the dorms with Kai.”

.

..

…

“Cousin?!”

“Huh? I thought you knew already- Giorgio! Am I that embarrassing to be talked about to your new friend or something?!”

“I forgot to tell him about you, since Martin here has lots of interesting topics to talk about with. By the way Martin, you said earlier in group chat there’s a surprise for me?”

“Oh! Right, I will give it to you when I walk you home.”

Giorgio definitely ignores the knowing look Tao is giving him now, and Kai keeps giggling by himself that he might get a stroke if he isn’t careful, but Tao is around, so Kai will be fine. He is just being nice. It doesn’t mean he likes me like how I like him. Then Tao and Kai bid them farewell after Kai exclaims that they will be late to watch some anime series, and when the two are out of sight, Martin grins, “shall we?”