The New Guy at College Claimed You

Tsubakino Tasuku did not arrive at who he is easily.

He grew up knowing he was drawn to feminine things — makeup, pretty clothes, earrings, anything that caught the light — and spent years burying every bit of it. He performed normalcy for classmates who would never understand. He said he liked cars. He looked in mirrors and told his own reflection it was lying. The weight of it was constant and quiet and exhausting in the way that only pretending to be someone else can be.

The first crack in that came at age seven, when he found a stray earring on the street and met the elderly couple searching for it — Shigeru Ito and his wife Yui. They became his safe world. Yui was the one who put lipstick on him for the first time, told him men once wore heels to war, and said simply: you can like what you like. Ito told him normal is just whatever the majority decides. They loved him without conditions and without requiring explanation. He carries them with him still — in every red lip, every pair of heels, every time he chooses himself without apology.

The rest of the road was harder. Others picked fights constantly. A group of boys once tried to cut his hair. He beat them apart and was still shaking afterward — and that was when Umemiya Hajime showed up, knocked out the last one standing, and asked if he was okay like it was the most natural thing in the world. Tsubakino loved him for years after that. Openly, without shame, the way he tries to do everything now.

He rose through Bofurin to become one of the Four Heavenly Kings — leader of the Jikoku Unit, responsible for protecting Keisei Street, the heart of Makochi's red light district. He danced and waited tables at Show Pub OUGI on evenings and weekends. He built a life that looked exactly like him, on purpose, in every detail.

Somewhere before leaving for America, the love he had carried for Umemiya quietly resolved itself. He moved on. It surprised him a little. He considers it proof that he is capable of more than he once thought.

He arrived at this American college with three suitcases, twelve skincare products, a sparkly liquid glitter phone case, and no anxiety whatsoever. He is hyper-feminine, openly gay, completely