#hamiya

Day 5 : Your OTP

🍍 Miyaji × Hayama ⚡️

Many consider this a crack ship. It is mostly because the characters have less than 5 minutes worth of interactions and those interactions aren't really special or cheesy in any way. So, where exactly does this ship come from? What exactly gave us the shippy feels? Personally... I don't know. I was thinking about it a lot, but I seriously have no idea. One day I just woke up and I shipped them. And I still do. It has been around 7 years since this is one of my favorite ships, and I have no clue how it all even started.

Still, I would love to share my views on this very unlikely couple. More precisely, I would like to explain how I think their relationship started, what their relationship looks like, how long their relationship lasts...

After the Shūtoku-Rakuzan match in the WinterCup, Kiyoshi just couldn't stop thinking about his opponent for the game. Kotarō was just incredible and talented, and Kiyoshi hated how useless he was against him. He loved basketball, and that defeat hurt him deeply. Instead of sitting in his room and crying about it, he decided to practice more, become better and face Kotarō again. This time, he would do better, not necessarily beat him, just not feel as useless. He promised that to himself!

He was a graduate student at that time and when college preparations, graduation and all the formalities hit him, he had no choice but to forget about facing Kotarō for a while.

When college started, everything went quite well for him and he continued playing basketball. Practicing harder than ever, one day, he felt ready, and all he had to do was meet up with Kotarō. It was easy! Kotarō was pretty pleasantly surprised when Kiyoshi sent him a message, and he quickly accepted to meet up with him in Tokyo. After all, Kotarō is a pretty social and friendly person and making another friend is something he always looks forwards to! He was also summoned for a rematch in basketball, and that sounded pretty fun!

They met up that weekend and played some one-on-one. In the end, the result was similar to the one from almost a year ago. Kotarō easily won, except that this time Kiyoshi felt better about himself and did a better job. Of course, Kotarō noticed that, so he complimented him and expressed that he would love to play more with Kiyoshi. At that moment, Kiyoshi felt pretty proud of himself, and of course, he agreed to have more matches with Kotarō!

They would meet up on weekends, when both found time to see each other and travel to each other's cities. They had so much fun with each other playing basketbal that they started seeing each other more often. After some time, they started doing other things, like going out to cafés, going sightseeing in the area, going on walks... Being in Kotarō's presence was like a drug to Kiyoshi. He was such a positive guy, always smiling, always searching for ways to have fun, he was so funny and adventurous and hanging out with him after an exhausting week was so refreshing... Seeing Kotarō became something that he was looking forward to every day and his go-to plan for every weekend.

Though, Kotarō was a graduate student this year, and he and Kiyoshi started hanging out less and less since he couldn't find enough time with all the college preparations. They were both pretty sad about it, but there was nothing they could do other than accept it. Kiyoshi realised that his life was rather boring and dull without Kotarō, and he took some time to reflect on how he really felt when he was around him. He was always pretty happy, but also a little nervous, he wanted to be around him a lot, he really cared about his opinions, he wanted to see him smile, impress him by making a good joke, looking good or playing well, he talked about him a lot and now he was thinking about him so much... After Googling his symptoms the almighty Internet diagnosed him with having a crush. Well. That explained everything.

Every time he got a message from Kotarō informing him he has time to meet up over the weekend, his heart would skip a beat. Ever since the day he realised he might have a crush, every time they saw each other it was just becoming more obvious to him. He was really crushing hard. He didn't really want to make it that obvious though, so he started acting a little... Tsundere. He really thought it was a good mask.

At last, when the college stuff was over for Kotarō, they could finally see each other all the time again, and they were both so excited for that! The greatest news ever struck Kiyoshi when he saw Kotarō right after his finals. He wrote in a college in Tokyo! Now, that meant that in a couple of months they would live in the same city and could hang whenever they felt like it.

That time came by soon, and ever since the first day Kotarō moved in, they started hanging out almost every day. But what was Kiyoshi supposed to do now? The more time they spent together, the more he was falling in love and the harder it was for him to wear the fake mask. He would make the first move now, but he was not sure how Kotarō felt about them.

Kotarō knew Kiyoshi liked him, it was painfully obvious. Though, at first, he only loved the attention Kiyoshi was giving him, how Kiyoshi was always so excited to see him and how he looked at him with some strange eyes. After some time, he started finding it cute, and he loved seeing Kiyoshi like that, so silly because he had a crush oh him. It was a little funny how he was trying to hide it and failing miserably, but it was still so sweet! He grew to really love being around Kiyoshi, he loved feeling important to someone and he always felt so appreciated and loved, he also thought Kiyoshi was smart and cool and pretty... He soon figured out that he probably had a litttle crush as well!

Great! Well, Kotarō knew that they both liked each other, and Kiyoshi seemed too unsure about making the first step, so Kotarō decided that he was going to do it. It wasn't that hard for an easy-going person like him.

'Hey, I know you like me, you can stop pretending you don't. You know, I really like you, too... Wanna be boyfriends, maybe?'

Kotarō said that on a completely random day, in the most random moment ever. Of course, after hearing that Kiyoshi was rather confused. Kotarō has known all along? He liked him, too? He thought he was dreaming. Before he collected himself and opened his mouth to say something, he felt a hand placed on top of his.

'Sooo, what do you say?'

Kotarō was looking up at him expectantly with his eyes shinning. Kiyoshi's words failed him and all he could do was just kiss his cute face. And just like that, they became boyfriends!

Just like every relationship, the first few months were just incredible. Magical. They were so in love, they were getting along really well and didn't argue much, just bicker from time to time, they had a lot of fun, went on cute dates, bought each other gifts, went places together, they had told their friends and everybody was supportive of them! It was just like a dream! They really, truly enjoyed being with each other... Until life hit.

Ever since the moment Kiyoshi knew Kotarō was his boyfriend, the silliness of having a crush was slowly, but surely, starting to wash away and now that it was secured that Kotarō loved him, he felt comfortable with being himself. His irritable side, that he didn't really show that much before, was starting to become more and more prominent. A Kiyoshi in a bad mood was not something impossible that Kotarō couldn't stand or deal with. He knew his ways to cheer his sad partner up, or calm him down when he was angry. Kotarō was pretty tolerant and really tried his best to be a good boyfriend to Kiyoshi in those moods. After all, they were a couple and they promised that they will always be together, in happiness and in sadness, understand each other and love each other. He had a lot of patience and loved the relationship.

Though, Kiyoshi's moods kept getting worse and worse, mostly because of college and stress, and Kotarō, who was also in a similar situation with academic pressure sitting right on his lungs, who was in his first year of college and had a hard time adapting to the new pace of life, started slowly losing the patience. They started fighting more and more and bickering over little things all the time. Since they are both rather short-tempered, in the heat of an arguement they would sometimes say things they didn't really mean, especially Kiyoshi with his foul language, and hurt each other. Kotarō was not exactly honey, especially when he felt attacked, so whenever Kiyoshi would hurt his feelings and attack him, his vengeful side would wake up. It wasn't anything special, because Kotarō didn't really want to hurt the person he loved badly. It was some small things, but it was still unpleasant.

They knew things were done when they stopped apologising to each other and created a lot of negative energy. Still, they decided to talk. They really wanted to do something about the current situation, save their relationship somehow. In the end, they agreed that they loved each other and cared for each other deeply, that they had a great time and enjoyed the relationship, but that it was probably just the wrong time. They agreed to part ways for a while, maybe it would turn out to be forever, but they couldn't know that.

Congratulations if you are reading this now and thank you for your patience. This is the shortened version but still it is too long, I promise I won't write a post this long again!

Anyways, this is how it goes in my head. I really tried to explain a lot of things here because I found that my view of this ship is quite different from the common dynamic. I enjoy this ship like this. I quite love the idea of them just being young adults and having fun, forgetting about their not so good past where Kiyoshi had one sided beef with Kotarō, but also finding each other because of it. I also live for the idea of Kiyoshi having a soft spot for someone and becoming this silly confused dork, something very unexpected and unusual for him. The most obvious person that anyone would have a soft spot for is a person like Kotarō. He is just like a puppy, or a kitten.

Still, I can't see them last long, no matter how much I love them. After the 'everything is perfect I am so in love phase' they just learn they don't naturally get along. They are too similar in that one way: short-temper combined with pride. When their arguements break out and they hurt each other with their words, sometimes they feel too much pride and just skip the applogy part. Even if they feel really bad about what they said... Also, college is tough, especially in first year when one is supposed to adapt to this whole new schooling style and, in Kotarō's case, whole new city. Naturally, he went a little crazy. Kiyoshi is always a little crazy so that is why their arguements start getting bad.

Maybe it is good for them to just have fun for a while and then ditch the relationship idea. They could just be friends. Though, who knows, maybe later in life, when they are not so crazy and are more stable and more mature, they could meet up again and fall in love... Still, this is good for me, I like it like this.