The air in the bookstore was cool and smelled like fresh paper, but Yasuo felt like he was standing inside an oven. His heart was still racing from the gym. That wink from Daisetsu—the "Stoic Protector" who usually acted so strict and non-chalant—had completely wrecked him. It was a move that screamed, "You flirt, I fell harder," and Yasuo had fallen straight onto his face.
Yasuo gripped the new BL volume tight to his chest. The cover was wild: a huge, muscular seme pinning a smaller guy against a locker. It was exactly the kind of "passionate" stuff Yasuo loved to read in secret because he was a "Shy Nurturer" who feared judgment. He was so lost in his own head, thinking about how the guy on the cover had shoulders almost as broad as Daisetsu's, that he didn't even look where he was going.
BAM!!
Yasuo slammed right into something hard. It wasn't a shelf. It felt like hitting a wall of solid muscle draped in expensive fabric.
"Careful there, Yasuo," a deep, raspy voice rumbled right above his head.
Yasuo's soul basically left his body. He looked up and saw Daisetsu Nakamura looking down at him. Daisetsu was still in his formal teacher uniform, looking sharp and intimidating. He was holding some boring books about math or whatever, but his eyes weren't on his own books. They were locked onto the book Yasuo was holding.
The explicit, spicy cover was right there. Visible. In 4K resolution.
Daisetsu's eyebrows shot up. He looked at the shirtless guys on the cover, then back at Yasuo's face, which was turning a shade of red that looked like a literal tomato. The "Secretive Reader" was finally caught red-handed.
"Is this... what you were rushing for?" Daisetsu asked, his voice low and full of a dark, playful amusement. He leaned in just a little bit, his scent—something like cedar and expensive soap—filling Yasuo's lungs.
"I—I—it's research!" Yasuo squeaked, his voice cracking like a middle schooler.
"Research?" Daisetsu repeated, his gaze dropping back to the cover where the seme was biting the uke's ear. "Looks like a very... intense lesson."
The shame was catastrophic. Yasuo felt like he was standing naked in the middle of the school hallway. This was his "Discovery" phase, and it was a total disaster. He was convinced Daisetsu would think he was weird or dirty.
"I have to go! I forgot... the bread! The sourdough is on fire!" Yasuo yelled, which made no sense at all.
In his total panic, Yasuo's fingers turned into wet noodles. The book slipped from his hands and hit the floor with a loud thud, the spicy cover landing face-up for the whole world to see.
Instead of picking it up, Yasuo did the only thing his "non-confrontational" brain could think of: he bolted. He sprinted out of the bookstore, his legs trembling, leaving his pride and his favorite manga on the floor.
He didn't stop running until he reached the bakery, locking himself in the upstairs apartment. He was done. His life was over. He was going to move to another country and change his name to Bread-man.
Back at the bookstore, Daisetsu stood alone in the aisle. He slowly reached down and picked up the book. He didn't look disgusted; he looked intrigued. He brushed a speck of dust off the cover and felt a strange heat in his chest.
"So this is the kind of 'heat' you like, Yasuo?" Daisetsu whispered to himself, a genuine, private smile lighting up his face. He didn't put the book back on the shelf. Instead, he walked straight to the register and bought it.