Title: puppy love

Author: sllebswap

Characters/Pairing: Seo Yuzuki and Wakamatsu Hirotaka

Type: One-Shot (Complete)

Genre: Romance/Humor

Word Count: 1645

Rating: T (Contains content not suitable for children)

Disclaimer: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun belongs to Tsubaki-san.

Summary: Post!Series. Hirotaka finally figures some things out about himself and, as usual, Yuzuki promptly makes him wish that he hadn't.

Chapter Last Revised on: 05/06/19

Over time, he had grown more and more conscious of her.

It wasn't something that he had intended; this hyperawareness a byproduct of having been made (often against his will) to spend so much time with her throughout their high school years. By the time she graduated from Roman High, he had somehow grown all too accustomed to having her around, to the point where now he was the one actively seeking her out at the local university she attended.

Roman University was about half an hour away from its affiliated high school by train, so it was not that far. And now that he had retired from basketball club as was compulsory for all seniors in order to concentrate on the upcoming graduation exams at the end of the school year, Hirotaka had found himself with more time on his hands than he knew what to do with. As much as he did not want to admit it, the absence of Seo-senpai in his daily life had left a weird, aggravating gap in his usual routine, and it had bothered him to no end until he fixed it by seeking her out after her class one day.

Her lecture mates had been bemused by his appearance; they had not expected that someone as cool and deadpan as Seo-san would be dating such a pure and earnest looking underclassman. Yuzuki had blinked in confusion when they teased her good-naturedly (Hirotaka had blushed so hard his ears turned red) about it, before she cleared the air in her usual blunt manner.

"Hah? Why would I be dating Waka? He's just a kouhai."

There was no falsehood or lie in her statement; she was never the kind to embellish the truth, be they good or bad. Hirotaka felt strangely disappointed all the same. His expression must have betrayed his thoughts, for her new course mates started to feel bad for him instead. After a few nudges from those more tactful ones in the group, they sheepishly excused themselves and left the two be.

Yuzuki directed a lazy stare at the plum haired male before her. She looked like she had just woken up from a nap, and knowing what she used to be like in class, that was not an unlikely assumption. Hirotaka brightened at the sight all the same. Just seeing her again made his morose, listless mood go away.

"…'Sup," she drawled at last when he took too long just standing there staring foolishly at her.

He scratched the back of his head, suddenly feeling terribly awkward and self-conscious. "Seo-senpai," he started almost shyly. "How have you been doing? I haven't heard from you for a while."

She stared at him. "Didn't you call a week or so ago?"

Her pointing out the obvious made him flush again in mortification. "Y-Yeah, I did. But we didn't get to talk for very long, and you haven't messaged me on Line either, so I got a bit worried."

Whenever Seo-senpai got too quiet, it was only out of a sense of learned self-preservation for Hirotaka to be concerned by that suspicious silence, since that usually meant she was up to no good. These days, even though Seo-senpai was too far away to directly impact him with her mischief, he still felt terribly uneasy when he did not hear from her after a while…

Maybe the others were right. Maybe he really was a masochist.

He bit his lip, gathered his courage and quickly blurted out. "Can we…hang out?"

Her garnet eyes sharpened slightly at his request. She cocked her head. His heart rate sped up a little, his palms growing slightly damp with nervousness – what if she said no-

Yuzuki shrugged. "…Okay, if you want to."

"I want to," he quickly assured her. And to make the decision final before she decided to change her mind, he reached out and took her bag for her, slinging it over his shoulder together with his own. "Let's go. I don't think you had lunch yet, right? Let's grab some food, too."

She continued to eye him strangely, as if she had never seen him this assertive before. She slowly followed him and fell into place beside him. She was almost a whole head shorter compared to himself, but yet she always felt larger than life to him. He felt compelled to stare at her some more, but he reluctantly pulled his gaze away lest she thought that he was being a creepy weirdo.

Eventually, they ended up in a nearby Saizeriya, which brought back all sorts of fond memories for Hirotaka. They took their seats at a booth table, and the plum haired Third year paged through the menu with happy nostalgia. "We always came to a family restaurant after the movies. Do you still remember, Seo-senpai?"

She would buy him a meal too, regardless whether he wanted it or not, and a parfait too, even when he protested.

Yuzuki peered at him over the top of her own menu. She gazed at him curiously but kept her thoughts to herself. She did flag down a server and proceeded to order a lot of food though, plus parfaits for dessert (of course). It was only at the end of the feeding frenzy, when he was still smiling foolishly at her, that she finally acknowledged his sentiments.

"You missed me, huh?" she asked casually, propping her chin on the heel of her palm.

He paused, flushed a little at her forthrightness. His throat bobbed as he swallowed. He lifted his head and met her gaze. Confronting the source of his inner turmoil.

"...I did." There was a pause, and then he quickly asked. "Did Seo-senpai miss me, too?"

"If I said 'no,' will you stop coming over?" she retorted in return. His brows drew together in a frown. Why was it always so hard to get a straight answer out of her?

"Does Seo-senpai wants me to stop coming over?" he persisted, and she shrugged.

"Do whatever you want to do."

"Then I want to meet you more often."

"Don't you have exams to study for?" she asked, looking a bit dubious of his enthusiasm.

"I can handle my studies just fine when we're not meeting…"

She shrugged, not about to persistently worry about the little things. "Suit yourself." She waved with a leisurely hand to catch the attention of the wait staff, requesting for the bill.

Weirdly enough, this time Waka scrambled to make the payment, or at least he tried to.

"What on earth are you doing now?" she demanded as she snatched the bill back from him and plunked a bunch of crumpled notes on the payment tray before pushing it back to the server for the latter to take away. "A kouhai should just be good and let his senpai take care of him."

"But I don't want to be a kouhai anymore," he muttered back, annoyed that he had failed this time. And no wonder she never took him seriously – was he just a little kid to her? "I'm not that much younger than you in the first place."

Yuzuki just eyed him oddly.

"If you don't want to be treated like a kouhai, then why are you even here for?" she asked. Hadn't he just admitted that he had missed her, his senpai?

"I'm here because of you," he burst out at last. "It's all your fault, Seo-senpai," he accused crossly, which baffled her even more. "You shoved all these feelings into me and then you graduated and left and now I don't know what else to do with them all."

To the ears of anyone else, surely this would have sounded exactly like what it was; a confession. But Yuzuki was probably one of those rare souls who happened to be completely deaf and blind to that sort of thing.

"How is it my fault when you're the one who can't control yourself?" she pointed out. And what exactly was it that she made him feel, anyway? It was all one big mystery.

Hirotaka had been mortified at first when he had accidentally blurted out the truth…but then Seo-senpai had not even appeared to notice his lapse in composure…which had been a relief to him up until the point he realized that her nonchalance was probably because she had never considered him as anything more than something entertaining to bring out to play with and then maybe occasionally feed treats and chase around…

"Seo-senpai, am I a puppy to you?" he suddenly demanded to know, looking quite comically outraged by the epiphany.

"Hah? You're Waka. I don't know what species you are but if you wish to be treated like a puppy-" she broke off, staring at him curiously. "So, you're into that sort of thing?"

"What? No!" They were getting further and further away from the main discussion and he was becoming more and more flustered by the second. Unfortunately, his expression grew even more florid at the randomly intrusive thought of her husky voice purring, praising him for being a good boy.

Just like that, his heart rate automatically picked up, his body growing hot.

Oh. God.

Yuzuki sipped on her drink nonchalantly as she watched the younger man before her suffer a mental meltdown. He planted his burning face in his palms, muttering unintelligibly the whole time.

Waka sure was a busy guy, she thought. No wonder he needed his naptimes so badly.

She reached out just as he was still whining in distress, and petted his head in pity. His hair was surprisingly soft and silky for a boy, she absently noted, and not for the first time.

"There, there. Seo-senpai understands."

Eventually, Waka lifted his head and gazed balefully at this woefully oblivious, violent, and utterly dumb woman.

"…No, Seo-senpai. I don't think you understood anything at all."

::owari::

Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:

Again inspired by the lastest GSNK update, lol. Always thought that Hirotaka's relationship with his Seo-senpai was kinda puppy/owner like in some aspects, so I could not resist poking fun!

Also, this was also supposed to be a lot sexier, but I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out in the end! Hope you liked as well! :)

xXxXxXxXxX

Your reviews make me update faster; so please leave a comment if you like this fic!

-sllebswap