Chapter Text
Somehow, Rin was talking to those friends of his again—she didn't say anything on the matter, after weeks of grimaces and yearning eyes, she just thought that, well, if he was content with them, let him be. She was still wary of them, especially the blonde girl and a boy that looked stupid. Shima something, she guesses. He was up to something, really, “Call me crazy, but I’m sure of it! He is sus, girl’s intuition!” she pleaded as they walked down the corridor. Seat-thief was by her side, from the last two weeks, he got used to accompanying her to the club after classes.
If she was being honest, that was… unexpected? It was not bad, sure, it was actually kind of cute, but still, it was just so out of the blue. Some day they were just normally talking at the end of class, started walking and, instead of going to the other side and wave goodbye, he just followed her—the worst part was that she didn't actually realise where they were going until he asked if that was the book’s club. Since then, he has been following her every day.
“He is a good guy, really!” Rin insisted, defending his friend. “Although… don’t talk to him all that much, alright? Talk with Bon and Konekomaru, they’re cool,” she turned to him, shaking her head and tilting her shoulders, exasperated.
“What do you mean?” she asked, almost giggling. He was so confusing sometimes.
“I just—you know?”
“No, I don’t!” She muses.
Rin groaned, even rolled his eyes, “He is a womanizer and probably—no, definitely is going to hit on you.”
Her mouth went agape, not with disbelief or shock, it made sense. What didn't add up, though, made a smile open in her lips, a mischievous one. “Are you worried I’m gonna fall for his flirts, are you?”
It was such a long time since that happened, but his cheeks get flushed. Suddenly, he was the same sheepish boy she knew in the beginning of the semester. Rin was getting confident around her, saying jokes, affirming things, being vocal and, in the last couple of weeks, they were kinda touchy with each other—a hand on her shoulder, her arm embracing his waist by its side, they were always trying to put their weight onto the other, playfully, but sometimes they were just close without a reason. Often, she would touch his shoulder to wake him up and then just keep the hand there while they talked, Rin would hold her arms while guiding her throughout the corridors so they could get out of the class and have lunch in the open. Casual things, casual touches—as if they knew each other for a long time already, she liked that, the proximity they shared now.
“You think you’re so funny, nerd” was his oh-so eloquent response.
She laughed, opened the door to the club and gave an air kiss, “I don't think, doofus, I am!”
For all his embarrassment, Rin still chuckled.
The festival was close and, for all she knows, her class would do something—what it was? Only heaven knows. This past week was harsh, she couldn't attend to any of those things and had no time to read shoujo manga or stupid magazines. Her grades were so low a teacher had to talk to her about it, she had to study harder for the next tests and get something higher than eight on math.
“Seven was the best grade I’ve ever had in my entire life, Rin,” she complained. “Entire life!”
He sighed, his face rested on his hand and he was almost laid down on his desk like that. It was lunchtime, yet they didn't get out nor talked about anything. She just woke him up like usual, proceeded to sit down on her chair and open a stupid book of numbers and equations. Who invented those, seriously? Rin had just asked what she was doing, but she started to ramble on and on and on—complaining about having to study but not exactly doing it, pretty much their specialty.
“And when was it?” He asked, yawned a second later and she had to hold the urge to yawn too.
“I was nine.”
“Shit,” he groaned. “You're fucked.”
“Yes, I am,” she whined, let the book fall on the desk and then got closer to Rin. “Don't any of your friends are, like, I don't know, super smart or something?”
“You want help from one of them?” He tilted his head, a smirk on his lips.
“I am that desperate, you see.”
“What about your girlfriends?”
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and giggled sheepishly, though it was more theatrics than anything. “They’re all just as dumb as me, but they're rich so they can.” Rin almost laughed, she could see him holding against it, lips pressed strongly she almost pitied him for the effort. “You can laugh, we're all in the same boat here.”
And laugh he did, his chuckles filled the whole room, the three other students looked at them confused, she only giggled too.
“You're stupid.”
“And aren't you too?” He said in returned, a smirk still resisting in his lips. “But I think Bon or Konekomaru can help, worse case scenario,” he sighed, “my brother can—”
“No!” she interrupted him, going as far as getting up in her feet and showing her palm as if she was a stop sign. “He is too famous for that. I don't want anyone asking for his number later or bothering me, sorry, but you're brother is out of question.”
Rin actually looked kinda offended by how fast she dismissed the idea, she couldn't blame him though, it was his twin, afterall. So she took her chair and drew it closer to him, pushed in the neck until they were so close it was kinda embarrassing.
“What is it?” He whispered for some reason, but she was no better, since she whispered in return too.
“I heard some girls from his class were stalking a redheaded they saw with him one time. Like, literally following her around campus, but it seems like she vanished…? I don't know, didn't pay much attention to the details. But they said she was older, like, an actual adult.”
Rin looked to the floor, as if thinking, then squinted his eyes, “You're scared of getting stalked?”
“Pretty much! If they followed a grown up, then what chance do I have?”
“Are you five?”
“Are you dense?” She got up, hitting his head in the process, but resisted the urge to groan and complain about the bump. Rin, although, groaned and put his hand on his forehead. “If I get in trouble with his fan club, then you're the one whose going to punch them for me.”
“I would never punch an inoffensive girl!” He said, thought she didn't really believe in that.
Dismissing the subtext that he would, in fact, punch an ‘offensive’ girl, she said: “Then, introduce me to this Konekomaru guy, his name is cool.”
If she was being honest, the only reason she had against his brother was that some of her friends had a crush on him—many times they asked her about the twin she didn't know, wanted her to ask about his ‘preferences’ and all kinds of stuff. Which she did understand, she would be like that too if she had a crush, who was she to judge? But, when she thought about Rin, she thought that maybe, you know, if she was in his place, she wouldn't like to be asked about someone else. Pretending to be scared of a couple of girls was the easiest way out. She didn't lie about the gossip, though, and still wanted to know about the redheaded, but he was kinda defensive of his younger brother and, well, the mood wasn't the best one after—change of topics, the friend with cute name sounded like an easy way out.
And it worked! You're a genius!
Five minutes later, they were out of the classroom, she and a bunch of boys talking out the open. She turned to one side, there was Shima all smiley, on the other there was Bon with a stylish haircut, seated by her side it was Konekomaru, he was actually the only normal amongst Rin’s friends, said boy included. Cute with gigantic glasses, she got distracted looking at it and imagining how she would look with them. She knew Shima, the guy kind of introduced himself one time when they went to call Rin on his class and she was showing him Kaneki Ken iconic panel “I am a ghoul”—if there were any cameras in that place, they would have filmed how she rolled her eyes so hard they might’ve become glued to the back of her skull. Like, it is not even about the bad timing, but definitely has something to do with the flirty way Shima talked. It was just not the time and place, Rin said a ‘come on, man’ pretty angrily, and she repeated, which made them laugh and, fortunately, didn't make the situation worse than it was. From the way the pinkhaired boy was talking now, she guessed Rin said something—and this was funny.
Not to be the one to fantasize or daydream, but could this be… jealousy? Answer: it was probably just him being a tad protective. For all that she knows about the boy, he is like that with every one of his friends.
“Look, you have to pay attention to the signals. Negative with negative means positive,” Konekomaru explained. They were looking over her notes while the others discussed the festival preparations, if you ask her, that was really disrespectful. Konekomaru, apparently, was rather intelligent and a kind teacher. He pointed all the mistakes candidly, said how to correct them, gave her some tips on problem solving, and even helped her interpret some questions—on top of that, the boy was very calm and patient. Totally different than Suguro Bon, the other boys accused. As it seems, Shima and Rin asked for help before to him, Konekomaru laughed and said that Bon was more ‘bright’ than him, specially on the course subject.
“Course? What course?” she asked, they so much as freezed, as if she shouldn't know about this topic.
Rin started blabbering words, she could barely understand what he was saying with all the stutter, although his face looked funny enough. Konekomaeu went stiff, Bon was a mix of anger and shock, Shima, on the other hand, stayed confused for only a couple of seconds, then coughed in his hand a few times to draw their attention. He looked rather suspicious. Although she couldn't pin point exactly why, one more time, he was giving the same impression.
“The occultism club's course, it's like some classes on mythology, spirits, demons, and stuff. It's very stupid, but we never remember things,” then he side budded Suguro, pointing to his even more shocked face. A nervous one of she has ever seen. “but Bon always remember. Although, I think it'd be easier just look at his test than actually studying…”
She cocked an eyebrow, as if that answer was still insufficient, seeing their faces, though, made her sigh and drop the topic. Let the weirdos have their fun while being very cryptic, then.
“And this question? How do I solve it?” asking Konekomaru, she gave them an easy way out.
Her eye cought Run sighing almost relived and, even if she weren't curious, that certainly was not something to let it slide easily. She made a mental note to pester him about it later, probably after Physical Education’s class when he’d be too tired and angered to think about his answers.
The rest of the “studying session” went smoothly, she actually learned something and, about her recent reservations about his friends, she was more or less warming up to them. At least, after seeing all of them together, Rin laughing about stupid jokes, the bantering between the three boys while Koneko rolled his eyes and focused on teaching—sometimes letting out comments about their behaviour, things like “They're always like that” or “I gave up on them”, all the while he tried to stop one or two more serious discussions. It looked fun. If something really bad happened before, some sort of misunderstanding she guessed, it was long gone, missed in the past.
In the midst of her thoughts, math and her teacher soon were forgotten, all that she could think about was how weirdly endearing Rin was when he was laughing.
“He is funny sometimes, right?” Konekomaru said out of nowhere, suddenly, she became very aware that she was staring, cheeks feeling just a little bit hot.
“Yeah, also very stupid!” the last part was said very loudly, a smirk on her lips as Rin complained, knowing full well that she was talking about him.
“Could you stop? You're the one needing extra classes!” As the great and mature person she was, her tongue definitely didn't leave her mouth and, as an equally mature and great person, Rin definitely didn't push the corner of his eye with his middle finger. Despite not having anything to do with their bantering, Bon rolled his eyes while calling them ‘kids’.
“Well, since we're talking about classes… we have physical education in the first period.”
“Oh, really?” He asked, eyes squinting, probably thinking the same thing. “Team again?”
“Always! We’re a winning duo, afterall!”
“‘We’re a winning duo, afterall!’” Suguro parroted a couple times, the boys were playing with his face and, as it happens, he did feel the high of his cheeks burning. “Seriously man, to be friendzoned is bad, but two times around…”
“Hey!” he hissed. “She’s just my friend, okay? It’s different.”
This time, Shima was the one who responded, a sided look and lips pursed, “You sure about that?” he asked first, but didn’t wait for the answer, “Because, you know, she is really cute. And nice. And funny. And, really, she’s really pretty…” Shima let a dreamily sigh slip his lips, Konehomaru and Bon made a disgusted face, Rin just swatted his shoulder. “Ouch! Meanie!”
Rin sighed, his brother just entered the classroom, a couple of minutes organizing his things and he just knew this conversation was over, thankfully. Someone praise the pharmacy class! And may God bless his brother, Okumura Yukio, you’re the best.
Okumura Rin did not like to think deeply about things. Especially feelings. That was the worst thing to think about. Yet, he spent a whole night mulling over this topic and came to no conclusion. In the morning, though, when he greeted his friend, he just thought: “It doesn’t matter!” and just laughed at a terrible joke. Made another worse seconds after. That was nice. And that was it. Nothing less, and nothing more. There were no different feelings, butterflies in the stomach, an uncomfortable churning that made him stop on his tracks—no, not at all. Being with her was easy, it was warm. For the first time, things were just as simple as a stupid joke, a chuckle that didn’t have a reason, even in silence, he just felt… well, safe.
It was nice to have a friend. And, okay, Shima wasn’t lying—she was cute, she was nice, she was funny, and, hell, she was ridiculously pretty. Somewhat even more when she was smiling. Or laughing. And, for some unknown reason, when she was sleeping too. It did not make sense, but she did look pretty while sleeping. Maybe it was the chilled expression in her face or how messed up her hair became after a quick nap. It really didn't make sense.
Still, Rin was convinced he liked Shiemi and he couldn’t mistake his feelings for her just because Shima was being stupid—and there was nothing wrong with being wary of him around her. It was not jealousy, it’s just Shima, for goodness sake! She just didn’t deserve that pinkhaired bastard looming around her.
So, in that morning and during the rest of their year, they were friends. They hanged out sometimes, bought a few things in the festival before the whole fiasco with poor Kamiki and the bastard—and he was so angry that he could not tell her about it, afterall, she did say he was suspicious and she was so right—, went to amusement park together, spent afternoons playing on her nintendo, and they even finished reading Nana and Ouran High School together.
Then, everything was hot and blue. Yukio had shot him.
When he was back to his senses, stupid and collegial feelings did not matter. He guessed his adolescence was over at that point—and when the existence of the demons was disclosed to the general public, Okumura Rin thought about his friend, that one girl that claimed he robbed her seat close to the window, and he really wished he hadn’t burned his phone in that incident.
In the end, Rin just hoped she was safe.