Chapter Text
Arisu hated Chishiya.
When he first met him, at the start of medical school, he could not stand him. He had this arrogant attitude and a smug smirk plastered on his face every hour of the day. Arisu wouldn’t be surprised if he wore the same expression while he was asleep. He treated everyone in the class as if they were beneath him, just because he got the highest test scores and his father owned every hospital in the city.
This attitude was especially worse with Arisu, who was always the second highest in the class. Every time grades were published, Chishiya would wear his trademark smirk and just say ‘Second place is the first to lose Bambi, you’re going to need to work harder than that if you even want to think about beating me’ or a snarky ‘Don’t go giving up on me now, I’ll miss having you as the little puppy biting at my heels.’
That infuriating nickname pissed Arisu off so much, which, of course, made Chishiya use it more. Arisu could count on one hand the number of times the other used his actual name.
According to one of Arisu’s seniors that worked at Tokyo General Hospital, this attitude only worsened when Chishiya started his pediatric residency. He was officially the youngest resident the hospital ever had and was constantly praised by the other surgeons and admin staff who wanted to kiss up to his father’s ass. This further fueled his superiority complex and made him even more insufferable.
In all honestly, Arisu wished he could blame Chishiya’s success on nepotism but Chishiya’s mind was truly brilliant, he could excel in any field, connections or not. Which may or may not be part of the reason Arisu hated Chishiya. He was beside himself with jealousy, not that he would ever admit that to the shorter man. He made everything look easy, he didn’t have to study, and he aced every test, whereas Arisu would work himself half to death to only ever get second and he was always at least 10 points behind.
Because of this, Arisu was less than pleased to find out that his psychiatric residency was in the same hospital as Chishiya’s. Which is why he was currently nursing his 5th beer at Karube’s bar
"Karube you don’t understand, I can’t work at the same hospital as Chishiya!’’ Arisu exclaimed.
‘‘Why not, it’s not like you’ll see the guy anyways, the hospital is massive, and you’ll see him like 3 times a year, I don’t see what the big deal is.’’
"Yeah Arisu, Karube’s right!’’ Chota said as he grabbed another beer off Karube "You’ve worked so hard for this, it’d be a shame to throw it away over a petty rivalry.’’
"It’s not a petty rivalry Chota, he’s my worst enemy and I’ve never hated anyone more than I hate him.’’, Arisu shouted angrily, "I hate his stupid attitude and his stupid voice and his stupid attractive face and the smirk that he does! That stupid smirk, I just want to wipe it off his smug face!’’
"More like kiss it off his face,’’ Karube whispered to Chota, who was trying not to laugh. "Anyways Arisu, shouldn’t you be heading home? You don’t want to be hungover for your first day tomorrow.’’
"Yeah, yeah I’m going,’’ Arisu said then downed his beer, "see you both later, don’t miss me too much.’’
The second Arisu stumbled out the door, Chota and Karube burst out laughing.
"Ohhhh I can’t wait for their wedding, I think I’ll wear a blue suit’’ Karube wheezes out trying to contain his laughter. "He better make me his best man after all the whining I put up with. Honestly, I swear they’ve both been in love for years they’re both too stupid to realise it.’’
‘‘Hey, I wanted to be the best man!’’ Chota yelled back.
After about 15 minutes of waking Arisu stopped in the middle of the street and stared at the sky. It was a full moon tonight and it was so bright it lit up the whole sky. Nights like these were Arisu’s favourite, when he was a child he used to sneak onto the roof, just to stare at the moon and escape the suffocating atmosphere created by his father.
He really didn’t want to go home.
Arisu’s father was elated when he got into medical school, he had always wanted Arisu to apply himself so when Arisu finally ‘pulled his head out of his ass’, a direct quote from his brother, and got into medical school his father was the proudest he had ever been in Arisu’s life.
It quickly devolved into disappointment again when Arisu would continually place second to Chishiya. Naturally, his father was convinced Arisu was slacking off and decided to show up unannounced at his university to catch him in the act. When he discovered him hunched over his work at the university library he seemed even more disappointed than he was before. At least if his eldest child was slacking off, there was room for improvement, but even trying his hardest he was still only second best. "I have low expectations of you Ryouhei and somehow the only thing you manage to always succeed at is failing to meet them." His father said coldly, prompting Arisu to look up from his notes, "Look at Hajime, he got full marks on his midterms and he’s looking at a full scholarship to Harvard next year. I expect better from you Ryouhei, honestly, you are an embarrassment to this family and I’m ashamed to call you my son."
Before Arisu has a chance to defend himself and make his father understand that being second in a class with hundreds of people is hardly embarrassing, he sees Chishiya walking over to his table with his trademark smirk on his face.
Arisu shoots up and tries to shoo his father away, before Chishiya can make his way to them, apologising, promising he’ll try harder and that they can finish this conversation when Arisu gets back home but it’s too late. Chishiya is already right in front of them, introducing himself to Arisu’s father, who invites Chishiya to sit with them. This devolves into a 3-hour conversation about Chishiyas residency plans, politics, and other topics. Arisu tried to block out, he spent the 3 hours trying and failing to get work done while his father looked like he was about to adopt Chishiya right then and there.
From that moment on, his father treated Chishiya like the eldest son he wished he had, he would invite him for family dinner every Friday. A dinner that Arisu wasn’t invited to despite actually being a member of the family, and Chishiya would show up every Friday because he knew how much it annoyed Arisu. His father once even asked Chishiya to tutor Arisu and to this day the shorter man hasn’t let him live it down.
Suddenly, a sharp pain in his calf jolts Arisu out of his thoughts, and when he looks around to see the cause of it, he sees none other than Chishiya Shuntaro himself.
"Hey Bambi, it’s been a while."Chishiya takes one of his hands out of his pockets to wave at Arisu. He’s wearing his white hoodie and his ever-present smirk is still annoyingly present, although he seems more subdued tonight than normal. "I heard you start your residency tomorrow. I didn’t expect you to make it this far so congratulations! You have exceeded my expectations, I should get you a well-done sticker."
"What do you want Chishiya?"Arisu responds venomously. It might have been a rude response but Arisu was 5 beers in and was in no mood to deal with the other man right now.
"Ouch, that was rude, you wound me Bambi,"Chishiya puts his hand over his heart and pretends like he’s offended. "I’m just here to offer you some friendly advice, that’s all."
"Friendly, you?"Arisu retorts "You can save it, I don’t need your advice, I’m perfectly fine without it.’’
Chishiya’s expression remains almost the same, but his brow furrows slightly, showing how serious he is about this, ‘’ "You should pull out of the program, and reapply somewhere else next year.’’
"Are you kidding me?’’ Arisu shouts at Chishiya, "You’d rather me damage my application and potentially never get into another residency program again than work in the same building as me, we’re in different departments we won’t even see each other that often! You don’t seem to mind me being around when you’re having dinner with my father every Friday, so why are you so bothered about this?’’
"I’m being serious Arisu.’’ Chishiya doesn’t raise his voice but there is a hint of anger there. Something else too, protectiveness maybe, but Arisu can’t help but think he’s imagining it.
"That hospital isn’t meant for someone like you, you need to find somewhere else.’’
"I don’t know what your problem-"
A loud bang in the background cuts Arisu off. He looks for the source of the noise and sees fireworks in the distance.
"Fireworks?"Arisu asks out loud
"Wow you are so observant Bambi, here’s an idea, you can quit your residency program and become a detective instead, seeing as that will fit you so much better.’’ Chishiya responds sarcastically.
Arisu wasn’t going to dignify that with a response, instead focusing on the fireworks, they were beautiful. He wondered what they were celebrating to be setting fireworks off on a random Sunday night.
Suddenly, every light that surrounds the pair goes out, leaving the two with only the moon to illuminate the world around them.