Birch sat again in his muddied room letting the loneliness overwhelm him. He was remembering Hyacinth’s cool breath. He had turned down Hyacinth’s advancements but he wasn’t quite sure why. Well, that’s wrong. Birch was fully aware. He couldn’t cope with the fact that he was still in love with his expedition partner. Love. That word rolled around in Birch’s head until it lost all meaning. Is that what he was feeling. Yea, I’m pretty sure it is. Unrequited. Unrequited Love.
Suddenly Birch got a call. The signal made a light sound and Birch grabbed his pitcher plant device. Birch looked at the name displayed on the plant. Great. It was Fir. What perfect timing, except that it wasn’t.
“Uhm…Hello?” Birch stuttered as he answered the phone.
“Birch…I’m the most shit person in the whole fucking world.” Fir said clear, his voice reverberating in Birch’s ear.
“Wha-....What’s going on?” Birch stammered.
“I think I ruined a marriage.”
“What do you mean”
“I went over Enoki’s house and his husband Shimeji thought we were fucking and things got heated. They started arguing and I only made things worse because I didn’t leave, but I just couldn’t find an opening to let myself out.”
“So…” Birch started. “Y-y-you guys didn’t fuck”
“N-n-no.” Fir stuttered. “Why would I fuck Enoki, I thought we were like…”
Birch stared at the ground with eyes staring blankly.
Fir tried to gather exactly what he wanted to say. “I’m trying to find the right words, I thought we were like…”
Birch waited for his response, and what was a few seconds seemed to span centuries.
“Ugh, I didn’t fuck Enoki because I thought we were like…anitemorsumthi-mmanah…” Fir’s voice muttered the last few words, and Birch couldn’t hear it audibly.
“What.” Birch tried to respond.
“I thought we were anitemaojroeja…”
Birch sat in literal confusion. “I really can’t make out what you’re saying.
“I thought we were an item or something. I AM BAD AT EXPRESSING MY EMOTIONS OK!” Fir breathed heavy on the phone angry at his own shortcoming.
Birch sat on the phone silent unable how to take this response. It completely caught him off guard.
“Birch?” Fir said trying to break the silence that filled his little hovel.
“You thought we were like dating?”
“Oh shit…wait was I wrong? Oh shit…I’m so sorry, I just. Gawd, I must seem like a creep. Geezus. If you want me to be taken off the expedition team that’s totally fine I’ll jus-” Fir droned on and on about leaving the expedition and how unprepared he was to leave, and how the elder would hate him while Birch laughed to himself over the phone. “Wait-...Birch are you laughing?” which got a little laugh out of Fir as well. “I must seem like a complete idiot.”
Fir let out a long exasperated sigh. “No you’re not an idiot. Yea, I would totally love to be, ‘an item.’” In that moment Fir suddenly got a vision of a flashback.
The cool scent of mint. His large hands pressed against Birch’s chest.
(Why did his breath have to smell like mint…)