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English
Series:
Part 2 of An Unstoppable Force Meets an Immovable Object
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Published:
2019-05-21
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6,699
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1/1
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Kissing Booth

Summary:

Someone on Mob’s class had the bright idea that the best way to save money for their end of the year class trip was to hold a kissing booth. Volunteers get to man the booth for a few hours and this is how Mob ended up making more money than the rest of his classmates combined.

Notes:

I am… currently stuck in the entrance exam hell. I’d love to write more, but I’ve got no creativity left. I’ve got no time, just unfulfilled dreams. So please, have this one shot while I waste away with my studies. See you in a few weeks, hopefully. When all of this is over and summer starts, all I want to do is write, write and then write some more.

Just to clarify, this is not a continuation of What’s a Little Kissing Between Friends, this is a separate oneshot. I guess they could somehow work together, but if they do, that’s just a coincidence. Separate ideas for separate one shots.

Also, my apologies to those in emimob rarepair hell. I wasn't sure if I should tag it or not, but in the end, decided to put it there anyway. It's barely there, friends.

Beta reading was done by Caiman. Thank you once more!

Work Text:

When the subject of making money for their class trip came up, someone suggested a kissing booth. Most of Mob’s classmates seemed to think it was a good idea. Other classes had done it before them after all and it seemed a little exciting. They were all into it, right up to the moment it came time to pick volunteers to man the booth and suddenly people were avoiding eye contact and muttering excuses.

Mob didn’t think much of it. Kissing for money felt a little weird, but he would volunteer for a good cause.

His classmates had given him one look and offered him the worst slot on the timetable, an early Wednesday morning.

“It’s okay with you, right Kageyama?” the class representative had asked. “It’s, uh. Well.”

“It’s because you probably won’t be getting much traffic,” the treasurer had said. “Sorry. You’ll get to set up the booth for the morning and watch over it, but…” She had thrown a look at the class representative, who’d shrugged helplessly.

Well. That had been kind of rude. But he supposed he could see the reasoning behind it. Mob knew he wasn’t popular. Much as he would have liked to dream about Tsubomi coming over and buying a kiss from him, he probably wasn’t going to be the biggest draw.

They didn’t have enough volunteers to turn him down, though, so an early morning shift it was for him.

The booth wasn’t anything special. Setting it up just meant wheeling it out of the storage room and slapping on his class number on the top. Apparently the classes before them had collected some bits and pieces from old culture festival stands and cobbled together something that could be considered a booth if looked at from the right angle. The painted letters above head declared boldly this to be a ♥Kissing Booth!!!♥ Mob pushed the booth into the lobby and set out a small pricing plaque telling that a kiss on the cheek cost 500 yen and a kiss on the lips 1000 yen. To finish things off, he taped the shoddily printed timetable for the volunteers he’d been handed yesterday to the side of the booth.

After that, there wasn’t much more to do. Mob sat down and pulled out a manga he’d brought in preparation for a boring couple of hours, getting ready to watch minutes tick by.

He was fine with it. His shift would only take him two hours, so even though he’d sacrifice a free period, he’d also be getting out of math. So. He considered it a win anyway.

”Oh man, that’s just sad.”

He lifted his eyes to see Tome approaching. She smiled wide, seeing him slouch behind the booth.

”Hello,” Mob said.

”Been a busy day?”

Mob looked around. ”I just started.”

The lonely plastic cup next to him was empty. Supposedly having a see-through disposable cup as your cash box was a good way to encourage people to approach. The theory was, that if a shy student saw people had put their hard earned cash into it, they’d feel braver to approach as well.

Mob wasn’t sure how an empty cup was going to persuade anyone, though.

”Get ready for a slow couple of hours,” Tome said, crossing her arms. ”We did the same thing last year and I got nothing on my turn!” She leaned closer, lifting a hand to speak from behind it. “Pro tip. Put your own money in there, make them think you definitely got some customers.” She grinned from ear to ear. “Saruta still thinks I actually had people lining up on my turn!”

That sounded like cheating to Mob and he didn’t really think it would help, since they were going to have to pay for half of the trip anyway.

Besides, all he had here with him was his manga.

“I don’t have any money on me.”

“Oh?” Tome said, leaning back. “Well, that’s just too bad. But really, no one in their right mind is going to come and spend money on a kissing booth. It just doesn’t work like that. It’s stupid.” She waved her hand around dismissively. “You’d make better money handing out fliers for the city or something.”

Mob hummed and shrugged. He didn’t really know anything about that. He’d let his classmates make the big decisions.

Tome dug her hands into the pockets of her skirt and rummaged around for a moment, before pulling out some lint and coins.

”I got like…” She blew air through her teeth. ”400 yen.” She dropped the coins into the cup.

”You want a kiss?” Mob asked, confused. He hadn’t taken Tome to be the type.

”What?” she squawked. ”No! Just helping a friend out. Not like your class is going to be making much more than that. You don’t even have anyone popular and I bet half your guys even refused to attend.” Tome leaned back and read the timetable. ”Yup!” she said. ”Well. Good luck with your kiss fundraising, dude. Don’t let that master of yours get any ideas.”

He doubted even Master Reigen would be desperate enough to set up a kissing booth in the office. But then again, sometimes it was hard to tell what sort of ideas he’d be coming up with next. He waved Tome goodbye before going back to his comic. Students arriving to their first morning classes passed him by, some of them voicing their interest, checking the timetable, then moving forward without another word.

He barely got ten pages in, when someone knocked on the side of the booth.

Inukawa met his eyes and lifted a hand awkwardly.

“Hey, Mob,” he said. ”Doing okay?”

”Hmm.” Mob shrugged.

”Man,” Inukawa said, looking the booth over. ”Am I glad my class is selling laundry detergent now. I thought that was going to be embarrassing. But this? This is just…” He whistled low. ”Whose idea was this anyway?”

Mob wasn’t sure, to be honest. He’d kind of blanked out, staring through the window until the decision had been made.

“I mean, my mom told me she’d ask around if any of her coworkers needed detergents, so maybe I don’t even have to go around selling the stuff, but still. I really don’t want to go talking to my creepy downstairs neighbor about laundry. I don’t think he knows what that is.”

Mob hummed in agreement when he couldn’t figure out what else to say in the moment. He supposed he was glad he didn’t have to go door to door, selling stuff to people. He doubted he would have been very good at that.

Master Reigen would have probably helped with that one, though. Promote it to his customers.

Hm. Well. It didn’t really matter.

Inukawa kept talking about his neighbors and Mob caught about half of it. His eyes wandered and landed on the person standing behind Inukawa.

He hadn’t realized there was an actual line to the booth now.

Emi met his eyes for a moment, before looking away quickly and gnawing on her lower lip, looking like she was about to turn around and leave. She was messing with the strap of her bag, swaying back and forth with nervous energy just a few steps behind Inukawa.

When he noticed Mob staring behind him, Inukawa followed his stare, before turning back around quickly. He wiggled his brows at Mob.

“Well!” he said. “I think I’ve taken enough of your time now! But good luck with this thing!”

“Thank you.”

Inukawa wobbled his brows a few more times, up and down with enough force to make his eyes wrinkle before pulling away. Mob wasn’t really sure what that was about, but Inukawa seemed to be in a good mood despite his laundry detergent troubles, so he supposed the reason didn’t really matter.

After a moment of hesitation, Emi stepped up to the booth, nails dug into her bag strap like she was planning on tearing it apart. She wasn’t really looking at Mob, but somewhere around the booth, so Mob didn’t really look back at her either.

It was… awkward.

It had been a while since they’d spoken to each other.

“Hello,” Mob said.

“Um. Hi.” Emi offered a small smile, shooting a look his way, before looking away. “It’s… it’s been a while, huh? How have you been?”

Mob hummed. ”Good,” he said. ”I guess. What about you?”

She swept some hair behind her ear, smiling at the ground.

”Yeah,” she said. ”Me too. I’ve got a new draft in the works, actually. I have a good feeling about this one. If you want to read it when it’s done, I’d really like to hear your opinion on it.”

Ah. That made Mob a little nervous. He nodded. He’d be happy to help. He just didn’t know if he’d have anything good to say this time either. He just didn’t really know how these things worked.

Maybe he should ask Ritsu to help. He was better with all this wordy stuff.

Emi just stood there for a moment, neither moving closer nor turning to leave.

“Did you need something?” he asked.

A slight dusting of pink spread over her cheeks.

“Um,” she said, starting to sway again. ”I was thinking… Since you’re here. Um.” She hesitated, then waved her hand at the sign. ”It says here that, um… it’s 500 yen for a kiss on the cheek? Would the kiss be for the buyer or does the buyer get to kiss the, uh, vendor?”

Mob turned to look at the sign. He wasn’t sure, actually. He hadn’t thought to ask.

Well. Master Reigen said that the customer was right most of the time.

”I guess it would be up to the buyer,” he said with a firm nod.

”Oh.” Emi was worrying her lower lip between her teeth again.

The first bell rang, people around the lobby starting to meander towards the classes and Emi jumped a little, looking around. With a quick decision, she turned back to the booth and dropped a 500 yen coin into the cup before leaning over to give Mob a quick peck on his cheek. When she pulled back, she was blushing furiously.

“Thank you for your purchase,” Mob said.

“Um. Yes! Thank you. Have a great day!” she yelped, turning on her feet and hurrying off.

”Bye,” Mob said.

Huh. He pulled the cup closer. He’d made 900 yen already. That was 900 more than he’d thought he was going to make. It was pretty good as far as he was concerned. More than he made with Master Reigen for sure.

He thought about that for a moment.

Oh well. It wasn’t like Master Reigen was doing that great monetarily at the moment and he didn’t really have that much use for the money anyway.

But now that the bell had rang and everyone had gone to their classes, he doubted he’d be making money until next break. Save for a handful of late students running past the booth, he wouldn’t be seeing much traffic at all.

That was what he’d been warned about. People with a free period in the morning were more likely to stay at home and sleep. The real rush hours would be during lunch breaks and right after school.

Mob picked his manga up, took a more comfortable position on the chair and sunk back into the action-heavy world of black and white.

He wondered if there was any truth to what Tome had said, that they wouldn’t be making much money from this. The idea had been that they’d make half the budget themselves and then ask for the rest from their parents, but if they weren’t going to be making much money at all, then were they even going to be able to take the trip?

That would be pretty bad.

Well. He was sure the others had thought of that too. Besides, if he’d been able to make 900 yen already, the others would surely be making so much more.

He turned a page. The door to the lobby opened and someone ran past him to the lockers, before making it towards the stairs.

Mob kind of lost track of time for a while. He wasn’t sure how long he read his book for exactly, but he was about halfway through it when he heard the door opening again. Really late arrivals, then. Or perhaps early birds heading for the school library to do some work. Either way, he didn’t lift his head from his comic until he saw a shadow fall over him.

Mob looked up and met the bright smile of Hanazawa Teruki.

He blinked once. Twice. A few times more, trying to process what he was seeing.

“Kageyama, hi!” he said, smiling from ear to ear, pose relaxed and confident as always. “What a coincidence to run into you.”

Hanazawa didn’t go to his school.

“Hello, Hanazawa,” Mob said instead of voicing his thoughts. There must have been some reason why Hanazawa categorized this as a coincidence, even though Mob couldn’t see it right now. He put an old receipt between the pages of his manga and put it away. “What are you doing in here?”

Hanazawa was all bright smiles. He leaned down against the booth. “Oh, it’s a funny story, actually,” he said and waved his hand around. “I was just having my free period by myself when I remembered you saying something about a…kissing booth?” He laughed loudly and there was something weird about his voice. It was deeper than usual. Deliberately so.

Mob wasn’t sure what that was about and he didn’t really see how that had been a funny story either, but he smiled anyway. Any day spent with Hanazawa was a good day, after all.

Hanazawa leaned in closer, propping his head on his hand, looking at Mob with a smile Mob had come to call playful, because he usually associated it with Hanazawa saying weird things.

“Whose idea was this, am I right?” he said, running his finger along Mob’s arm.

”Hmm,” Mob said and shook his head. ”Inukawa said the same thing.”

Somehow that had been the wrong thing to say. Hanazawa’s smile grew a little stale and he looked away. “Right, right,” he said and pulled back, drumming his fingers against the booth.

Something was knocking at the back of Mob’s mind, an insistent thought he couldn’t place at first. He frowned a little, trying to catch it.

Hmm. Oh! Now he remembered.

He was pretty sure they’d had a conversation before about their free periods. Yes. He could remember Hanazawa lamenting the fact that theirs didn’t match. Hanazawa was supposed to be having his history class right now.

But he was right there.

Weird.

He could have sworn he was remembering it right. But now he wasn’t so sure anymore.

Mob supposed it didn’t really matter. Hanazawa was here now and even though Mob wasn’t sure why, he was happy to have company. He offered Hanazawa a smile.

Hanazawa lifted his hand and ran a finger over the rim of the cup holding the 900 yen and tilted it a little.

”900?” he said and laughed again, a little strained this time. ”What? Someone didn’t have the resolve to take it all the way? What did they get? A kiss to the corner of the mouth?” He laughed again, loud.

Louder than necessary.

”Oh. Tome just had 400 yen.”

”Oh?” Hanazawa repeated, his voice stiff, his smile rigid. ”Very kind of you to give her a discount, then.”

”I think she was the kind one,” Mob said, thinking about it.

”Is that so? How very nice of her. Hm. Yes. Very nice.” Hanazawa was drumming the side of the booth again, faster this time. Mob caught his tongue peeking out and running across his lips. “It’s a real shame, though, that she couldn’t provide for you. Not enough money, but too many dreams. It’s a real tragedy.”

Mob wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but he nodded his head all the same. ”Well. Inukawa gave no money at all. So I think it was nice.”

There was a strain to Hanazawa’s jaw. His fingers stilled.

”Yes. Really. Nice.” He pulled back, threw hair from his eyes and seemed to stop to think about something for a moment. Mob watched him carefully, trying to read what he might have been thinking about. Hanazawa was a complicated person. He had layers and layers and Mob found trying to read him to be very interesting.

People in general were sometimes hard to read, but Hanazawa made the expressions he was wearing into an art form.

Mob, unfortunately, was neither an artist nor an art critic.

Hanazawa seemed to reach a conclusion on how he wanted to present himself. He relaxed visibly. Or he pushed his shoulders down at least and worked his jaw until it no longer looked glued shut. He pushed more hair off his face and offered a smile that was considerably more genuine than the others had been.

“But really,” he continued, like nothing at all had happened. “I think it’s a travesty they gave you this timeslot. It’s really inconvenient, isn’t it?”

Mob shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “My classmates said it’s better this way. They don’t think I’m going to be seeing much traffic. So.” He shrugged again. He would have rather been sleeping at home, but he was here now. It was fine.

And he’d made 900 yen! That was pretty good.

Hanazawa scoffed and shook his head, leaning back. ”Clearly they don’t know a good thing when they see one!”

“I don’t know about that,” he said and reached for his manga. They probably knew better than him anyway.

For a moment, they just sat in silence. This was nice and familiar. Mob would often find himself at Hanazawa’s home, sitting down together on his bed while Hanazawa surfed the net and he read his comics. Doing it at school was a little weird, he had to admit, but he didn’t mind the small change in the norm.

Mob read his manga and Hanazawa stood next to the booth. After a while, Hanazawa started to fidget, rocking on his feet and swinging his arms back and forth. When Mob looked up, he stopped abruptly and smiled.

”Hey, so. Since I got here. It’d be pretty rude if I didn’t help the cause, right?”

Mob looked at his smile and tried to read what he was trying to say. Hanazawa could be so difficult sometimes, when he said one thing and meant something different completely. The smile looked sincere, but they often did when Hanazawa wanted something. Mob rubbed his finger on the side of his book.

Hanazawa’s hands were holding on to the booth really tight. He seemed nervous.

Mob just wasn’t sure why.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “You don’t have –“

A 500 yen coin rolled across the counter to rest against Mob’s arm. He picked it up and looked at Hanazawa, whose smile was strained again.

”Thank you,” Mob said and placed it in the cup with the others and picked his manga back up.

For a moment there was silence. Hanazawa cleared his throat once. Then for a second time.

”Uh,” he said. ”Am I… not going to get my money’s worth?”

Mob looked up.

Oh. Oh!

”I’m sorry,” he said. ”I thought you just wanted to help.”

Hanazawa opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything. He floundered for a moment.

”I mean… I mean, of course! Haha! That’s right. But. Um. It is a trade based economy, am I right? And the sign clearly said that – I-I mean. I mean, only if you’re comfortable with it. I just assumed that… since I paid the price, there’d have to be… a kiss.”

He looked sweaty.

”Oh,” Mob said. ”We don’t have to do that. Tome just gave 400 yen. So. If you don’t want to, it’s fine.”

”Oh!” Hanazawa said and laughed uproariously. ”Oh no, yeah. That makes more sense! Ha. But.” He kept looking at Mob with a weird insistence.

”Okay,” Mob said, opening the manga and returning back to it.

The cup next to his elbow clinked. Another 500 yen coin was resting next to the first one.

Hanazawa smiled at him.

”So, it says, that 500 will get me a kiss on the cheek, right?” he said.

Mob looked at the coin again, then at Hanazawa.

Guess they were doing this, then.

”Yes,” he said. ”Do you want to give a kiss or get a kiss?”

Hanazawa opened his mouth, then seemed to freeze, the look in his eyes glazing over. For a moment he just stood there, staring at him, or maybe past him, mouth closing slowly. He made a quick turn, dropping his bag on the counter before diving down into it, fumbling his wallet out.

Five 100 yen coins fell down on top of the others.

”Hah! Can’t decide, so why don’t we do them both!” Hanazawa laughed. He slammed a hand on the counter, making Mob jump on his seat. Hanazawa leaned closer, fluttering his lashes at him.

Well. It was his money and if he wanted to use it to help out, Mob wasn’t going to be ungrateful. Mob grabbed onto his chair and pulled it closer. Hanazawa surprised him by reaching a hand to run his fingers over the side of his face before taking a firmer grasp on his chin.

“You go first, Kageyama,” he said, his voice as smooth as silk.

This was maybe a little odd. Kissing Hanazawa for money. But then again, that was the whole idea of the booth, right? They were just playing along. And Hanazawa had paid the price. Mob lifted his head from Hanazawa’s hold and pursed his lips like his mom did when he was sick and she’d give him a kiss on the forehead. He pressed his lips right in the middle of Hanazawa’s cheek and pulled back. The contact was short, skin barely touching skin. Maybe it was just him, but he really couldn’t see himself spending money on something like this.

When he pulled back, Hanazawa’s cheeks were red and his smile had turned weak.

“You… never cease to amaze, Kageyama,” he said breathlessly, swaying a little against the hand he was resting on the counter. “Here, let me – It’s my turn now! I’ll just.” He touched Mob’s face again, completely unnecessarily, held it with just two fingers beneath his chin. Hanazawa closed his eyes before leaning forward. The first thing to hit Mob’s face was a stuttered exhale just before his lips landed. The contact was far longer and softer than Mob’s quick peck had been and when Hanazawa pulled back, he made a small, smooching sound.

When Mob looked Hanazawa over, the flush had spread farther. Hanazawa had a satisfied little smirk on when he pulled back, looking Mob in the eye with an expression that he usually had when he thought he’d done something great and was looking for compliments.

Mob didn’t really get it. At least he was pleased with his purchase.

“Good, right?” Hanazawa asked.

”Hm.” Mob shrugged.

The smirk fell.

Hanazawa pulled further back. He had his arms crossed when he laughed, looking away from him.

”Ha. But. That’s of course just… a kiss on the cheek. A. Very simple show of affection.”

”Thank you for your purchase,” Mob said.

”Had it been a… a kiss on the lips, the experience would have been very different. Life changing, one could say. Hah. You could… you could say I almost bought that with my money! Because… there’s 1000 yen there.” He was looking at the wall next to the booth instead of Mob. “But I guess, if we’re looking which one had more bang for buck, so to say, I did get two kisses for the price of one!”

“I guess,” Mob said. It did sound like the better deal of the two, if you actually wanted to get something out of it.

Mob thought it would have been easier to just get the kiss on the lips. There was less work in it for him that way.

Hanazawa wasn’t done talking, though.

”But since this whole kissing booth thing, a silly idea really, is your way to save money for your class trip, it would be very unfair of me, downright irresponsible to deny you the chance to make as much money as you can. And. Well. I am here right now and I still have, like…” Mob heard some ruffling and lifted his eyes to see Hanazawa digging out bills from his wallet. ”5000 yen and some change. So. It’s only fair that I help you out in need, right?”

“You don’t have to do that,” Mob said. “It’s fine. It’s not your responsibility.”

Hanazawa pressed the bills against his chest as if hurt by the idea.

“Of course it’s not my responsibility,” he said. “I consider it my honor, Kageyama, to help you out in any way I can. To. To offer you any support I’m able, since you’ve been such a great influence in my life. If you’d allow me, I’d spoil you every day of your life.”

“I don’t think there’s –“

“So it’s only fair that I offer you help when you are in need. Right?”

There wasn’t really any arguing with Hanazawa when he got like this. And he did make a good point. This was going to help Mob’s class get to their trip. Any money helped and Hanazawa was being very generous with his.

“Do you want kisses for that?” he asked, pointing at the wad of bills trembling in Hanazawa’s fist. 5000 yen… that was… Hm. He moved his fingers around as he counted. Five kisses on the lips, or ten on the cheek.

”Yeah,” Hanazawa said.

“That’s… a lot of money.”

The bills had already been stuffed into the cup with enough force to topple the thing. Hanazawa leaned right back over the counter. He took Mob’s face into his hands and held it there for a moment, looking him over with this weird, pinched expression.

Well. Might as well get to it. Mob moved his head forward.

It was a kiss in the loosest definition of the word possible. Their lips were technically touching. Mob pulled back.

He couldn’t believe someone would pay actual money for this.

Well. Hanazawa was just doing it out of kindness, he supposed. Four more to go. Hanazawa was pulling back, so Mob grabbed his arm to hold him in place and gave him two more in quick succession.

Hanazawa was positively pink when he wrenched himself free. He turned away from Mob, hiding his face behind his hand, trembling from head to toe.

Had Mob done bad? He looked like Mob had done something wrong.

“Was that bad?” he asked, tilting his head and trying to catch a better view of Hanazawa’s face. Mob didn’t really have any experience with these things. He hoped he hadn’t somehow broken some very important kissing rule.

Between his fingers, Hanazawa’s cheeks were burning red.

Oh no. He’d made him uncomfortable.

”No!” Hanazawa yelped. “No, no, that was… perfectly wonderful, like everything you do.” His voice came out muffled through his hands. ”Very… very authentically you.”

The ending part didn’t really sound like a compliment to him.

They still had two left. Or… a few more, if Hanazawa wanted the cheaper ones. Hanazawa pulled his hands down from his face, turning to Mob with that weird, half-lidded look he sometimes got.

“You have two more,” Mob reminded him.

“Oh. I know. I know, Kageyama,” he said. He licked his lips and looked away for a moment. He started drumming his fingers against his thighs, twisting his mouth. “Would you,” he started, then seemed to think better of it.

Mob made a questioning sound.

“Ah. I was just… Would you take, uh… constructive criticism?” Hanazawa asked carefully.

“For kissing?” Now Mob was really confused. He felt like he was reading this situation wrong somehow, like he was missing some important component that was going to make it all make sense.

“Yes,” Hanazawa said. “Not that… not that those first three weren’t absolutely enchanting in their honesty. I just think that for your… for any future experiences you have, it might be good to have some practice. When you’ll be with… with Tsubomi or whoever!” He threw his hands up, smiling so brilliantly wide Mob thought there had to be more to it than that. “To make sure you’ll charm them with your first kiss.”

Hanazawa did have a good point and Mob supposed it wouldn’t hurt to hear what he had to say.

“Sure,” he said after a while. “You’d have more experience than I do.”

It would have been a wasted effort to try to read what Hanazawa’s smile meant. It went through so many emotions, while still remaining a smile that Mob could only watch in confusion. From cocky to unsure, then pleased, the smile wavered through different expressions. Mob wasn’t sure if he was reading any single one of them right.

Hanazawa had always been good with emoting. Mob could only watch with envy. It came so naturally to him, whatever these smiles meant.

“Well then!” Hanazawa said, setting both his hands on the booth between them. “You know, that’s what I admire so much about you, Kageyama. You’re always ready to take a chance to learn something new.” His hands were trembling, Mob noticed. When he looked down, the waver turned quickly into a drumming motion before stopping completely. He heard Hanazawa swallow. “So… What you want to do is make the moment last a little longer. Small kisses are fine. Trust me, they were… very good. But. If you really want the moment to be unforgettable – and you do – then you’ve got to give it some time.”

That made sense to him. Mob nodded.

Hanazawa lifted a hand and ran his fingers over the side of Mob’s face, playing around with the tips of his hair, pushing them off his forehead. For a moment Hanazawa gnawed on his lip, looking around Mob’s face before cradling his chin on his hand again. Okay. This was familiar. This was what he’d done with the cheaper kisses as well. Mob supposed it was all part of the act.

”The lead up to the kiss is almost as important as the kiss itself,” he continued, his voice dipping a little deeper as he leaned in closer. “You’ll share some meaningful looks between you and the lucky guy. Or girl! Anything is fine. But… in this hypothetical situation.” Hanazawa looked him in the eye, a smoldering burn just beneath the surface. His breathing was getting heavy, Mob noticed. Hanazawa fluttered his eyes a few times.

He was very good at this.

”You know,” he said quietly. ”Your eyes will speak louder than any words. They’ll let them know you want them more than air itself.” Hanazawa was leaning closer. ”That you’d do anything to spend a moment longer with them. To have just one meaningful look from them.”

And then he was kissing Mob.

The difference was apparent from the first touch. Mob could see it now. Just like with the kiss on the cheek, the difference experience made was staggering.

Hanazawa’s lips were moving against his, the hand under Mob’s chin keeping him stable. Mob watched how Hanazawa’s eyes slid shut, how his brows dipped into a frown and then his free hand rose from the counter to slide to Mob’s neck, tilting his head a little for better access.

When Hanazawa pulled back this time, Mob’s lips felt moist. Hanazawa was breathing heavier, his eyes opened slowly and he met Mob’s look.

”How… did you like… that?” he said, breathless.

There was a lot to process here. Mob ran his tongue over his lips, trying to mimic the sensation and coming short. Hanazawa watched with rapt attention while he tried to put it into words.

“I guess…” he started and thought about it a moment longer. “It was good.” With a firm nod, he repeated with more conviction. “It was good.”

Hanazawa’s face split into the widest smile yet.

“Right?” he said. “I just can’t help it sometimes. I just… put on my charm on full blast for you.”

He supposed Hanazawa was a bit of an all-or-nothing type of guy.

“How about you give it a try?” Hanazawa asked. “We’ve got one more kiss to go. Just think about what I did and do what feels natural to you in the moment.”

When Mob took a moment longer to think about what Hanazawa had done, Hanazawa started fumbling again.

“Like. Only. If you want to. For practice. Like we talked about? Unless you don’t feel comfortable about it. I get it. We don’t have to. But. Like. When are we going to get another chance like this? If you want to practice on me, I’d be fine with it. Like. Anytime you want to.”

Mob wasn’t really listening to him. He thought through the actions. He rose up from the chair and reached for Hanazawa. With one hand on the booth to support his weight, Mob reached the other to copy the way Hanazawa had ran his hand over his face and he must have done something right, since color bloomed where he touched him. When he rested his hand on Hanazawa’s skin, he could see his throat working up and down.

Okay. So far so good. Eye contact? He could do that. Then lean closer? That was easy. Tilt your head a little and close your eyes.

Despite Hanazawa’s assurances, this didn’t really come naturally to Mob. It felt a lot more awkward like this and Mob had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. He tried moving his lips like Hanazawa had done, but the response he got from Hanazawa was a muffled little sound of distress.

That couldn’t be good.

He started pulling back to make sure he hadn’t done something wrong, but before he could get far, Hanazawa’s arm had shot around his neck, pulling them right back together with enough force to hit their teeth together.

That didn’t seem to be enough to slow Hanazawa down, though.

He was more frantic this time. Faster. Held on tighter, like he didn’t want to let go. His hold was like a vice around Mob’s neck, holding him in place over the booth. The position wasn’t comfortable and admittedly nice as this whole kissing thing was, Mob’s arm was starting to get a little numb.

This was… taking a lot longer than Mob had thought it would.

Hanazawa let go of his neck only to bury his hands into Mob’s hair.

Okay. He was starting to lose feeling in his arm. Mob pulled back and for a moment, Hanazawa chased after him, swaying a little when Mob sat back down on his chair.

Hanazawa looked very strange right now. Mob looked him up and down. He was breathing so heavy he was heaving half way on top of the booth, red-faced and sweaty like he’d been out running.

“Wow,” he said, a glassy stare in his eyes. “That was. Wow. That was very good. You. You’re a quick learner, Kageyama.”

Mob wasn’t really sure about that. He felt it had been a bit awkward and aimless. But Hanazawa knew better. This was his thing, after all.

The way he was looking at Mob, like Mob was a tall glass of water on a warm day, was pretty flattering, though. It was a nice touch.

Hanazawa was so talented.

“Thank you.”

Hanazawa ran his tongue over his lips, a faraway look taking over his face.

He jumped, when he phone started buzzing. Hanazawa pulled it out and his eyes grew large, the haze washing away.

”Oh,” he said weakly. ”Ha. Would you look at that? I’ve got to run. Next class is… Can’t miss next class. Ha.” He reached for his bag, slinging it on his shoulder before turning back to Mob. ”But this?” he said, pointing a finger between them. “This was really nice, right? Like something we could try to do more often? Together? Right?”

”Practice kissing?” Mob asked, confused.

Hanazawa faltered a bit, then smiled.

”Yeah! Absolutely! To get you into tiptop shape! It’s like your training, right? You’ll only get better the more you do it!”

Mob thought about it for a moment.

It was a kind offer from Hanazawa’s part, but he didn’t really think he was going to be needing the practice.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t see why we’d do it outside the kissing booth.”

Hanazawa stared at him for a long moment, mouth opening but nothing coming out. He started playing with the straps of his bag, indecisive.

He stood there long enough for Mob to start getting worried.

”Hanazawa,” he said. ”Your class.”

”Huh? Oh. Right. Yes. The class. Ha. I’ll get going, then! Good luck with the booth!”

Mob waved him goodbye and turned to look at the cup.

Over 7000 yen. Not bad. He nodded to himself, smiling a little. Nothing to scoff at, for sure. If this was the low bar for their class, they’d have the whole thing financed in no time.

Mob leaned back in his chair, looking the booth over. Now that he was looking, he could see where the parts had come from. He could see how poorly the pieces fit together.

That seemed a little risky. Like maybe it should have been thought through more thoroughly before just jumping into building it.

The chair creaked under him. Mob’s eyes wandered to the ceiling.

Kissing Hanazawa had been a curious experience. He ran his tongue over his lips in thought. Not really unpleasant. Just. An experience. He’d known what holding the booth was going to entail, but he had to admit, he hadn’t been expecting this.

Funny thing, how Hanazawa had just so happened to be there at the right time.

Hmm.

He wasn’t sure what to think about it yet. He’d have to give it some time, think it through later.

But he supposed Hanazawa was right about one thing. Practice made perfect. And getting a first hand experience with him, Hanazawa must have practiced a whole lot, because that had been pretty nice.

Oh well. Mob leaned back in his chair and grabbed his manga. He was fully intent on spending the rest of his time manning the booth just reading.

He didn’t get two pages forward before the lobby door hit the wall with a loud bang and Hanazawa stood there, heaving heavy like he’d been running.

“Good news!” he shouted, making the whole lobby ring. “My next class was canceled as well! What are the chances, am I right?!”

“Um.”

“And I just so happened to notice that I’d left some money in my back pocket!”

“Oh.”

There went that idea, then.

*

When they tallied the earnings from the kissing booth, the profit they’d made wasn’t at all that impressive. It would hardly even be enough to pay for the busses back and forth. Many of the students behind the booth had made nothing at all and had spent their time just sitting around, bored out of their minds.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Kageyama was the one who brought in the most money. The consensus between the class treasurer and representative was that Kageyama must have cheated and put his own money in, but to put in nearly 15 000 yen was overkill. They knew he had a job, but they hadn’t realized he was making that much.

In the end, it didn’t really matter whether he’d put in his own money or not, because they didn’t have enough. The kissing booth had been a complete failure and they were forced to look at the others classes to see how they were making their money.

In the end, they too were forced to sell laundry detergent to make the cut.

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