Happy birthday, Shintaro!
Water cooler = water fountain, water spurter, water refilling machine, thing that spurts out water.
:pity this poor author who knows nothing about writing romance:
Drabble One - First
To be perfectly honest, Midorima Shintaro disliked soda. And juices. And milk. Anything asides from tea, coffee, red bean soup and water. Humans needed variety, that he knew, but wasn't it a bit /too/ much to have apple juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, pear juice carrot juice yoghurt juice, watermelonjuicekiwijuicestrawberryjuicebananajuice – and many many others?
He wasn't amused. But of course, with fresh milk, there came chocolatemilkstrawberrymilkbananamilk- just how much of variety do humans actually want over a simple thing such as drinks?!
...obviously Oha-Osa's lucky item everyday must be different. That's an exception to the green haired basketball player's list of essentials.
So, with his great dislike of variety, he had of course opted for the most natural choice - water. To have a healthy lifestyle, it is better to have at least eight glasses of water a day.
Midorima walked down the corridor, his lucky item – a ruler, peeking out from his pocket. A pale, translucent empty water bottle lay in his hold as he walked to the water coolers beside the two machines that sold a disgustingly wide variety of sodasjuicesmilksshakes – and no, he was not going to go into that again.
The corridors were empty, as it was supposed to be, what with the ongoing lessons and classes. He had asked for permission to fetch more water for his empty bottle. It was never good to not have water on hand after all – dehydration may result in a serious problem.
He scanned the two water coolers before stepping to the closer one and starting to refill his bottle.
Another pair of footsteps alerted him to another presence. It was not of his business – if it was a teacher, he had a hall pass to show he had gotten permission.
The tall player tipped his glasses back on its perch, still focused on pressing the button, allowing the transparent, cool water to flow into the bottle. It will condense, he realised with distaste, and make either the corner of his desk or his bag wet. With a short sigh, he reminded himself to bring tissues next time. Maybe he could use his leftover tape...but it would not be practical. Just when he banished the thought with finality, something dropped and rolled to his feet. He looked down, and stopped pressing the button down, letting his three-quarter filled bottle rest precariously on the edge of the water cooler.
A water bottle. A huff caught his attention, and he looked up to see a girl struggling with almost ten water bottles in her arms. A storm brew in her expressive blue eyes as she eyed the bottle that Midorima soon picked up. He stood up, towering over the girl. She blinked at him, as if she had just noticed his presence (how air-headed, he noted), before a bright smile broke off her lips.
"Thank you!" She skittered over to the water cooler beside him before squatting down, letting the bottles she had been holding drop on the ground before righting them up. (Around this time, he should have took the hint and placed the bottle down with a muttered 'you're welcome', but this is Midorima Shintaro, and for goodness sake – he can't pick hints up.)
He realised he was already starting to stare, so he turned back quickly to the water cooler. Then he saw that he was still holding the pink polka-dotted bottle, and (finally pick up the hint? No) rushed to return it.
"Your bottle," he handed the girl who was already starting to fill up her first bottle. She looked at him, blinking once...before surprise overtook her features, and she started laughing lightly (what was there to laugh about? Midorima thought grouchily).
"Ah! Sorry, sorry," she received the bottle over with a grateful smile, "thank you!" And she repeated her expression of gratitude with the same smile again (it wasn't like I wanted to help you or something, nanodayo...it's just common courtesy), placing the bottle down along with the collection of bottles on the ground – somehow managing to simultaneously knock all the bottles down like they were bowling pins.
The girl panicked, and started retrieving the bottles that were playfully escaping her grasp, muttering about how she 'had done it again', while trying to tuck escaping strands of brown hair tickling her face behind her ears. (Midorima didn't know, but the sudden feeling akin to dead-panning that he got was called 'exasperation'. He just knew Takao was a master at making him feel that way.)
He bent down to help pick a few escaping bottles and right them up (this time finally picking the hint up). The girl turned around quickly to catch the few remaining bottles, before realising the green-haired man with a ruler in his pocket had helped her. Slower than a heartbeat, but nonetheless bright, she smiled at the green-haired guy. Midorima quickly turned back to his water bottle. He had been out of class for way too long.
A moment passed, and when Midorima finally filled up his water bottle and turned to leave, a voice stopped him. "Ah – Mister Tall Guy – would it be okay if I called you that? - thank you very much for helping me!" The brunette called out from her position – still refilling the bottles –, half turned to him, her bright blue eyes shining with what he could perceive as gratitude. Really, too easy to read.
Midorima only tipped his glasses, before nodding.
"The bottle is overflowing."
With a slight yelp, the girl turned back to the water bottle, quickly screwing the cap over it before pulling out a handkerchief clumsily with her wet hand to wipe her hand.
Midorima turned and continued on his way.
Well, that was a pretty unexpected – and strange – occurrence.
But nevertheless, it was their first meeting.
don't expect any update for the next three months. Poor author cramming for exams D:
