AN: This is told from Akira's point of view. Sorry about the sometimes confusing pronouns.
Disclaimer: This series does not belong to me. At all.
She was the new girl, lonely and outcast.
He watched her get bullied and could not understand why she took it.
But unlike everyone else, he could not stand by and watch.
--------------------
He became friends with her and with him too. The three of them, together, felt unstoppable.
When he looked at them, he felt like he belonged; they to him, and he to them.
Three people who were really only themselves with each other.
She became less afraid; opened up to them, and they helped her change. They taught her to hope when she never had before.
They became the reason she smiled, and she was the reason they stuck together.
And it took him a while to realise he'd fallen.
--------------------
"Ok, here's the plan..."
He watched as she listened intently, almost as if it was the only voice she could hear.
It pained him that the voice was not his, nor the idea, nor the look that she wore on her face.
It was always somebody else, never him. Still, she seemed happy. He saw how, day by day, she was making new friends, and while he was glad for her, a part of him wished it wasn't so, that she would only be his.
But when she turned to him questioningly, all he could do was throw her a "kon kon" and tell her he was alright.
Because he couldn't tell her the truth.
--------------------
They sat on the roof together again, just the two of them, sharing a meal in silence.
"Oh, there you are. Someone's looking for you." It was a classmate.
She nodded and stood up to leave, but he caught her hand as she walked past him, spinning her around to face him.
"Is all that... Are they really that important?"
Her eyes met his through her dark hair and she hesitated for what must have been forever.
"But... someone else needs me."
Someone that wasn't him.
And he realised that he had helped her change into something that everyone else wanted, and that she didn't understand.
No, she didn't know.
She didn't know that all he wanted her to be,
was her.
And as he let her hand slip away from his, he realised that she had never been the lonely one.
It had always been him.
AN: I actually wrote this a while ago at the request of a friend, after watching the seventh (I think) episode of the drama. It was really sad to see Nobuta leave Kusano on the roof alone, and I contemplated writing a short sequel that had a happy ending (I got most of it but never finished). This is my first fan-fic ever, so I apologise if anything didn't make sense. Feedback is appreciated :)
