Chapter Text
“I like you.”
“Ah..”
“Please go out with me.”
A single rain drop reached the bridge of your nose as the boy in front you bowed respectfully, missing your glance at the skies that had grown darker in the course of the morning. He was an underclassman you had never seen before but when your friend called out to you in the middle of lunch break, informing you that there was someone who wished to talk to you, you could hardly refuse with the curious eyes of your classmates on top of you.
The cold summer breeze was nipping at the skin of your exposed legs, rustling through the leaves of the trees in the courtyard as you tried to come up with an answer that wouldn’t insult him.
“Thank you,” you started hesitantly, watching him hold his posture, “But I’m not looking for a relationship right now. I’m sorry.” Unsure whether you saw him flinch you bowed slightly and turned on your heel.
The faint beeping sound of a vending machine reached your ears as another rain drop grazed your cheek and you headed towards the sound, feeling like buying a drink yourself to distract you from the awkwardness the confession of a complete stranger left in your stomach.
You turned the corner with one last glance at the boy who hasn’t moved yet but balled his fists at his sides and you felt your lips twitch at the sight.
“Another confession, huh?” The familiar voice startled you and you came to a halt, realizing that one of your classmates had witnessed the scene that made you feel so uneasy. Your grimace only seemed to encourage that amused smirk of his before he raised the can of the drink he had bought to his mouth.
Sighing silently you walked up to him to look at the options of the vending machine, unsure how to respond. In truth, you weren’t confessed to that often, it just seemed that the second years had taken a strange liking to you lately, despite you being busy with your part-time job and cram school.
“What about you, Kuroo?”
“What about me?”
Putting in the coins for your drink of choice, you pursed your lips. “Don’t you feel weird when a girl you never talked to suddenly confesses to you?” The vending machine rumbled before it dropped your drink and you crouched a little to retrieve it, plucking the straw from the back of the carton as the storm drew closer, its breeze ruffling your skirt, slightly tugging at your hair.
“Sometimes I feel like saying I already have a boyfriend so they would leave me be.”
He chuckled at that.
“I don’t feel weird.” Kuroo leaned his side against the machine, earnestly musing on how to continue, his fringe slightly covering parts of his face. “I’m flattered but like you I don’t have the time.” Nodding in understanding you sipped from your drink, mirroring his posture while crossing your legs to keep them warm.
After having been in the same class for almost one and a half years you felt quite comfortable talking to Kuroo about this. Even if you weren’t really friends since you never saw each other outside of school, you knew he was a reasonable individual that was easy to talk to.
“It must take a lot of courage to confess to someone who doesn’t even know you exist.”
The sweet taste of your drink lingered on your tongue as you stared at the ground between the two of you, processing his words. When you glanced up at him, the lower half of his face was covered by the can he was sipping from, hiding his smirk as he raised his eyebrows slightly in pity. Without breaking eye contact you finally smiled, admitting that it was silly to get worked up over something so trivial.
“Break’s almost over,” you said with a quick look at the watch on your wrist, “let’s head upstairs?”
You wouldn’t have asked him to go back to your classroom together if you had known he’d keep teasing you about the underclassman’s confession, bumping his arm into yours while climbing the stairs, trying to get you to lose your balance just a bit.
Sometimes you weren’t sure if you could be considered friends but you felt comfortable around him, despite the teasing and knowing smiles that left you embarrassed.
The low grumbling of your stomach attracted curious glances at the back of your form as you stood in front of the fridge containing prepared to-go meals. Heat lingering on your cheeks, you tried to ignore the gurgling sounds your body produced while looking at the options of meals in the upper shelves.
Usually there was enough time to cook yourself but cram school had run late today, leaving you with no choice but to enter the convenience store near the train station. But you found your most desirable meal in one of the shelves you were simply too short to reach and with that many customers in the shop you didn’t dare jump to try to grasp it.
You might’ve missed a train already while you contemplated how to go on about this when you felt a presence close behind you. A large hand reached over the top of your head to open the glass door in front of you and you stiffened as you noticed that it grabbed the package next to your desired one which had you sigh in relief.
“Oh hey, it’s you.”
Confused you turned and tilted your head up to look at your classmate whose surprised expression quickly changed into an amused one as he seemed to understand the predicament you were in. You tried not to pout.
“Need a hand?” Kuroo nodded towards the upper shelves in the fridge you’ve been staring at for the past five minutes and you turned away from him again to point at the one you wanted.
“Yeah, could you grab that one for me? Next to the salad.. yes, that one.” You politely stepped out of the way so he could have a better reach for the contents inside the fridge, not that he needed it. He dropped the package in your open palms as you thanked him and turned to look at the boy who was waiting close by, game console in hand.
“Same as always, Kenma?”
“Hm, yeah.”
Kuroo had to bend forward a little to retrieve another package in the lower shelves and you curiously watched him as he did so which caught his eye. He was about to ask what the matter was when he straightened himself and–bonk.
“Ack..”
Your sudden giggle had several people turn their heads towards you as you covered your mouth with your hand, the to-go meal still in your grasp. Rubbing the back of his head that he had hit against the ceiling of the fridge, Kuroo wordlessly closed the glass door again and you failed to notice the deep tint of red adorning his face.
“I figured that was gonna happen,” you snickered and followed your classmate alongside his friend to the cash register, “didn’t think it actually would, though.”
“That wasn’t the first time.” You glanced at the second year you often saw around Kuroo. His focus was on the game he was playing as he talked to you in an almost monotonous tone, briefly glancing up at you. “He hits his head there every time something distracts him.”
“Oi, Kenma,” your classmate warned, clearly embarrassed.
You watched them bicker from behind with a smile and pulled out your wallet when it was your turn to pay. Following them outside, you realized that instead of uniforms matching yours both of them were sporting the red tracksuit you recognized as your school’s volleyball team clothes.
“Do you guys always practice until this late?” Faint rain drops reached your temple as you opened the package of your to-go meal, shooting an inquisitive look at the two boys walking next to you. You were glad that it wasn’t raining as much anymore as it had the entire day since lunch break.
Kenma simply nodded before taking a bite of his sandwich and Kuroo lifted his index finger of the hand that was firmly holding his friend’s game console.
“That is why there’s no time for things like girlfriends,” he explained, referring to the conversation you’ve had with him earlier today. “Same with you if you had to work until now.”
“Cram school,” you corrected, “but yeah, same thing.” If there was no cram school you went to work at your part-time job which you needed to afford the extra lessons. There really was no time but you think you’d be able to handle it somehow if there were someone.
It’s just that you were generally not interested in having a relationship. There had been one boy in middle school who had asked you out but the whole ordeal had been messy and turned out to be a bet he had made with his friends whether you would actually say yes.
Who would like you anyway? You didn’t have any exciting hobbies or talents so you opted to work diligently for school, to try to get into one of the better universities and end up in a job you wouldn’t hate for the rest of your life. You were so plain.
But you’ve come to accept it after witnessing the heartbreaks your friends would have to endure when yet another guy left them for a prettier girl. You figured that the boys your age were simply too immature for a serious relationship so maybe it wasn’t so bad to wait until you were a bit older.
“Which reminds me,” Kuroo said after swallowing, a sudden realization passing his mind, “Kenma, do you have any idea why those guys in your year keep confessing to her?” Startled you moved your attention from your meal to the second year. At first he didn’t say anything but refrained from taking another bite. He tilted his head, turning his sandwich slightly.
“My classmates are pretty loud but I don’t know all the details,” he began quietly, his gaze not leaving the food in his hold, “there’s a list ranking the prettiest girls at our school and she’s at the top because she resembles some idol.”
Kuroo and you exchanged confused looks. Before he started laughing.
“That seems kind of desperate,” you commented incredulous with a side glance at your cackling classmate. Kenma shrugged and finally took another bite. “What kind of idol am I even supposed to resemble?” Your question was left unanswered as none of you knew many idols to begin with.
“You don’t have to feel bad anymore for rejecting them, then,” Kuroo stated after a while, looking at you visibly amused, “since they’re only interested in you because they like to pretend you’re that idol.”
“I guess you’re right.” With a sigh you crumbled the packaging of your meal in your hands and gestured them to give you theirs before discarding it all in a nearby trash can.
This just proved your point, the boys in high school were too immature.
“Though I’d like to look up that idol so I can tease them a bit. Say I’m her cousin or something.”
Kuroo snickered in response and leaned forward to catch a better glimpse at you, both his hands tucked away in the pockets of his sweatpants. “That’s mean,” he said, offering a sly smirk before you could defend yourself, say that it was just a joke.. “Let me know next time, I’d love to see their faces when you tell them that.”