Oh look, my first fanfic :O I'm sorry if it's not up to scratch as half of it was written past 1am, but I do hope you enjoy this nevertheless.
Reviews are always welcome! :))
Disclaimer: Kimi ni Todoke isn't mine. Never will be. Otherwise, they'd be doing naughty things to each other by now. jk (not really)
This chapter features an original character called Matsuda Shiori, who is a sports scholarship student at Kazehaya Shota's university. She is one of the many girls who was drawn to Kazehaya due to his kind, refreshing nature. She had represented her high school in volleyball and now plays for her university team. Shiori is friends with Kazehaya, and has a few classes with him. Her looks are average, but she's incredibly sporty, with toned upper arms, and always ties her short brown hair halfway up.
PROLOGUE: An Outsider's Perspective
"Hey, Kazehaya!"
Shiori caught sight of a certain broad back in front of her and called out to him. "Oh, Matsuda. What's up?" he said, turning towards her.
Kazehaya Shota… he was probably the most popular 3rd year student in S-University, for obvious reasons. The first thing anyone would notice about him were his looks. He was very handsome, with a smile bright enough to make the rest of your day. Great at any kind of sport, he got into S-Uni on recommendation. He played baseball for the university team, and is both a great pitcher and batter. Best of all, whenever you spent time with him, you'd walk away with your spirits lifted to the skies. He was the person the guys admired and saw as their good friend, and the heart-throb slash idol among the girls. It wasn't difficult to fall in love with Kazehaya Shota.
He always rejects girl's love confessions, but I don't think he has a girlfriend since he never talked about one, Shiori thought. He never goes to goukons either. Judging by his attitude towards girls, maybe he's not interested in dating someone right now...
She headed towards him. "Not much, I was just jogging around campus," she replied. Kazehaya smiled, "That's cool, I should do that sometime too". Shiori begun walking at the same pace as him whilst turning her MP3 player down. She felt a little embarrassed to be dressed in an old t-shirt, tights, and be drenched in sweat in front of Kazehaya. "Don't you already go for training in the mornings?" she asked.
"Yep, but there's no harm in doing extra, right?" he said, chuckling. "But not right now, since I'm swamped with assignments. I'll have more free time by the end of next week."
Her eyes perked up as she suddenly thought of something.
"That reminds me, I still need your side of the report for that Sport Science project," she mentioned casually. "Ah, that's right!" said Kazehaya. "I almost forgot. Since I was on the way home anyway, should I get it for you? My apartment is only 3 minutes away" Shiori's eyes widened. He lives so close from campus? she thought. "It's okay, I'll come with you!" she exclaimed and grinned slightly. Shiori wanted to see the place he lived, which was her ulterior motive for tagging along.
She wondered if this was an opportunity to get closer to Kazehaya.
True to his words, they reached Kazehaya's apartment in less than 3 minutes on foot. All they really did was walk around the corner and down the street.
It didn't look that big, which Shiori thought was normal since he was just a student living alone. Shiori and Kazehaya walked up the steel staircase which made loud noises as they stepped onto them, and headed towards the last door down the hallway. Kazehaya quickly checked the mailbox hanging from the wall before entering, and found a small pile of letters and a supermarket pamphlet. Shiori was a little surprised that he was incredibly… normal, despite his idol-like status in their university.
"Is it alright if I looked inside?" she asked gingerly as he was unlocking the front door. "Yeah, why not? Come on in," replied Kazehaya.
The apartment was actually a lot bigger on the inside than it appeared to be from outside.
… And very nicely furnished, especially for a guy! Shiori thought. She was already starting to like Kazehaya even more, seeing how neatly everything was placed - in contrast to the boys she were friends with in high school, their rooms were forever messy and stank of sweat.
Kazehaya glanced at the letters and sorted them into two piles, placing them on the kitchen counter. Shiori absentmindedly wondered why he did that. She couldn't help but notice the slightly feminine touch in furniture and decorations. Perhaps his mother helped him out with the furnishing?
"Ah, wait a minute. Let me get you some tea. It's the least I can do for disrupting your jogging route." he said.
"Sure!" Shiori smiled and sat herself down at the coffee table in the adjoined living room, happy that she could stay a little longer.
Shiori suddenly felt the urge to explore Kazehaya's apartment. She then came up with an excuse. "Hey, is it okay if I use your bathroom?"
"Go right ahead!" Kazehaya replied from the kitchen. "It's down the corridor on your left."
"Alrighty!" she replied chirpily and got to her feet.
Out of curiosity, she walked past the bathroom and peeped into his bedroom instead.
"Kazehaya, how spoilt! You're living alone and you get this double bed to yourself?" she scoffed. "So you're actually a rich kid!"
"Eh?" Kazehaya poked his head out of the kitchen. "I'm not really living alone. My girlfriend stays here during the days where she doesn't have class". His cheeks, she noticed, were tinted with red as he tried to act nonchalant.
"Girlfriend? You have a girlfriend?" Shiori exclaimed. Her heart sank at the thought of him already being taken - more so that he actually slept together with his girlfriend, which made her blush.
Kazehaya looked confused. "Why is that so surprising?" he asked.
"Well… it's just, you're so popular… and all the girls have been aiming for you. They were all so sure that you were single".
"That's funny! Where did they get that idea? Do I really give off that kind of vibe?" he laughed, flashing his signature smile which never failed to make Shiori's head spin a little.
"Kind of! It's more like, people having been hoping that you were single, I guess?"
"That's ridiculous. What's so good about me anyways?" Kazehaya sighed.
Shiori didn't respond, her head filled with a million things that made Kazehaya everybody's favorite person.
She smiled and walked towards the kitchen counter where Kazehaya was.
"What does your girlfriend look like? Do you have a photo?"
"Mm, yeah," Kazehaya dug into his pocket and flipped his wallet open, pulling out a small photograph. The photo looked like it had been constantly taken out and put back, due to it appearing slightly crumpled. It was of a fair-skinned girl with very long hair, grinning at the camera.
"Wow… she's really pretty," gasped Shiori. As I thought, Kazehaya goes for pretty girls! How typical. Shiori felt a little disappointed.
Kazehaya smiled. "You could say that. She's the type to rarely show her expressions on her face though, so getting a smile like that caught on camera is a great feat!" he chuckled softly.
"How long have you two been dating?" Shiori asked, curious. "Hmm..." he hesitated, rubbing his chin. "A while."
"How long is a while?" she pressed on.
"Well… we got together in our second year of high school… and now we're in our second year of uni… so… it's been more than four years?" Kazehaya counted on his fingers. "Almost five, in a couple of weeks actually!" he grinned, twiddling his thumbs. She thought his reaction was pretty cute. "That's amazing… to be able to stay together for so long…" Shiori said in amazement. Her longest relationship had only lasted five months, back in her second year of high school. In the end, he'd fallen in love with somebody else - causing her to believe that love couldn't last.
"She's my exact opposite, so maybe that's why we get along so well," he said, hiding a smile behind his hand. "I actually liked her since my first year of high school, and tried confessing a couple of times - but she completely misunderstood me!" he laughed wholeheartedly. "She thought I liked her only as a friend, but that wasn't it at all!."
"Eh? Seriously? There's no way someone could be that modest!" Shiori exclaimed. Kazehaya smirked. "Yeah. She's that modest,"
Shiori was very interested now. "So what happened after?"
He hesitated a little "It's not that interesting…" he said. "Aw, you can tell me!" Shiori insisted.
"Well…" he said. "Since it felt like she'd rejected me one too many times, I thought, maybe it was better if I gave up on her…" Kazehaya looked at the floor, as if regretting ever thinking that way.
"And then on the day before the school festival - she came… she ran… looking for me," he said, thinking of the memory with fondness. "She was the one who confessed to me that time. I almost couldn't believe it."
Shiori gazed at him in amazement. I've never seen him like this before. It's as if… he's sparkling.
Kazehaya snapped out of his thoughts while clearing his throat. "I'm getting ahead of myself, sorry," he mumbled, hiding his face behind his hands.
Shiori shook her head. "Not at all… it was interesting," she said softly, hiding the fact that she was jealous of a girl she hadn't met before. Jealous that this girl could make somebody like Kazehaya look that way without even being there in the flesh.
Kazehaya glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.
"…Speaking of which, she should be home soon. It's almost five." he said, while pouring water into the kettle. Right on queue, Shiori heard jingling of keys and the door unlocking. A thin girl with pale skin and long black hair entered. Shiori was suddenly reminded of a horror movie she saw last night. After closing the door behind her, she turned around with a dark aura surrounding her. Her bangs were covering her face, and she was carrying a grocery bag.
"Welcome back!" Kazehaya called from the kitchen.
THAT GHOST-LIKE PERSON IS KAZEHAYA'S GIRLFRIEND…?
Shiori's head was in spirals.
What in the hell… she looks totally different from her picture! Is she a demonic entity!
She could already feel cold sweat beading down from her temples.
The girl in front of her looked down, then looked upwards again, tilting her head slightly which sent shivers down Shiori's spine. "Ah!" the girl exclaimed. Her eyes widened, and she now looked similar to the cute smiling girl in the picture.
"H-Hello there!" she stammered slightly, with her cheeks slightly flushed.
What an innocent reaction! She's like an elementary school girl. Shiori couldn't help thinking.
"Shota? Is this your friend?" she called out towards the kitchen. "Shota…" So she calls him by his first name… that's to be expected since she's his girlfriend.
"Oh, Sawako! I was just making tea. That girl's Matsuda, she just dropped by," Kazehaya replied.
"Ah! You're Matsuda-san? Shota's lab partner! He's mentioned you before." she was soft-spoken, but her voice was very sweet.
"Has he?" Shiori was surprised. So he talked about me…
"I'm Kuronuma Sawako, it's very n-nice to meet you." she bowed slightly towards her direction.
Wow, she's very formal for someone our age…
"I'm Matsuda Shiori. So you're Kazehaya's girlfriend?" she asked, knowing the answer already.
"Ah! T-That's right…" the blush was evident on her face.
"Um, is... is it okay if I called you Sawako-chan?" Shiori asked, not exactly remembering her last name.
Sawako's face lit up. "Y-Yes! Please do!" At that moment, Shiori thought Sawako was incredibly endearing.
"Do excuse me," Sawako said, bowing slightly and walking towards the kitchen. She placed the grocery bag on the kitchen counter and said "I bought the ingredients for hot pot tonight! The lovely oji-san gave me a really good price for the beef," she said, while emptying the bag of its contents. Kazehaya emerged from the kitchen and stood beside her, looking at what she bought. He was almost a head taller than her, and even with their backs facing her, Shiori thought they looked good together.
"It must be because you knit him those gloves for Christmas last year. 'Cos of that, he's always been giving you discounts whenever you buy from him, huh?" Kazehaya said. "That's great!" he grinned, ruffling her hair. "S-Shota-kun!" she stammered, trying to move away in embarrassment.
Kazehaya laughed and turned towards Shiori. "Sorry, Matsuda. The tea's ready. I'll bring it out in a sec," he said, walking back into the kitchen with the groceries in his arms.
Sawako smoothed her ruffled up hair, frowning a little.
"I-I've heard a lot about you from Shota!" she said a little nervously, as if she was making a new friend in school.
I can't really say the same... I only found out about you 10 minutes ago! Shiori thought, faking a smile.
"W-Would you like to sit? At the coffee-table? O-Or would you prefer to sit in the kitchen?" she asked, fumbling. "The coffee-table is fine, thanks," Shiori said, making her way to sit on the floor.
As they sat, Sawako continued, "H-He says all sorts of nice things about you, like how you're really reliable, and how you're always the one who helps in class... " but stopped halfway. Shiori was unsettled. She half expected Sawako to tell her to keep a distance from her boyfriend.
"It'll be really, really w-wonderful if you continued being close with Shota!" she said, smiling genuinely. Shiori's jaw dropped.
She's really weird! Shiori thought. Aren't normal girlfriends supposed to get jealous if their boyfriends start getting close with other girls? "Y-yeah..." she replied, uncomfortably. She could almost see the flowers surrounding Sawako in the background.
"He's so lucky to have a friend like you!" she beamed. Shiori readjusted herself in her spot, and said "Uh... thank you?" - unsure of what else to say.
Kazehaya came out with three mugs on his tray, a simple white one, a light green mug with orange polka-dots, and another that said "Sports Junkie" in big blue letters. He placed the white one in front of Shiori, the green one in front of Sawako, and took the last one for himself as he joined them on the floor.
"Ah... I'm beat! It's been a long day," he said, breaking the ice. "Uhn, I've been attending tutorials all day today," said Sawako.
Turning towards Shiori, Sawako asked timidly "Um, c-can I call you Shiori-chan?". Shiori wondered why she was so hesitant. "Er, sure. Why not?" she replied.
As she sipped on her green tea, Shiori observed the couple engage in light conversation about their day. She noticed they had some kind of inpenetrable aura surrounding them.
"Sawako-chan?" Shiori interrupted. Sawako lit up at the sound of her name being called. "Y-yes?"
"What are you studying right now? Do you go to a different uni than us?" Shiori asked, curious.
"U-um... I'm currently doing a degree in teaching at J-University... I've always l-liked teaching," she said, blushing. Kazehaya cut in "She's a natural at it! I sat next to her during our first year of high school and she helped me through a lot!" he beamed as she turned even redder.
Kazehaya smiled, quite adoringly, as he watched his girlfriend talk. The conversation dragged on a little too long, and Shiori decided it was time to leave as Kazehaya looked increasingly irritated while glancing at the clock occasionally.
On her way out, Shiori noticed a few framed photographs that she hadn't seen coming in.
One was of Kazehaya and Sawako holding their high school graduation certificates and smiling at the camera - Kazehaya smiling with teeth and Sawako without. Another was of Sawako, gazing at the sunset and looking quite beautiful, with her hair blown back by the wind in the orange light - Kazehaya probably took that picture. And there was one with both of them wearing formal attire - Sawako in a pale pink dress with her hair in a knot, and Kazehaya in a tuxedo. Their arms were linked, and they were looking at each other - he was smiling softly and she was gazing at him in slight amazement. Typical Sawako-chan. Shiori guessed that it was their senior formal event. A larger frame displayed a photograph with the two of them in the centre, surrounded by three other people - a tall girl with narrow eyes that looked somewhat intimidating even when she smiled, a mature looking girl with thick lips and heavy make-up, and a tall boy with a crewcut who smiled with his eyes, not with his mouth. They were probably Sawako and Kazehaya's friends from high school. Shiori somewhat wished that she had been a part of them.
And she spotted one last photo, displayed in a simple wooden frame with the initials "S+S" engraved at the bottom - was of Sawako, laughing like she had in the picture Kazehaya kept in his wallet, and with him embracing her gently in his arms from behind, wearing a grin that was identical to hers.
After seeing that photo, the tiny hope Shiori had of them breaking up in the near future disappeared completely. There was probably no one who could make Sawako laugh as Kazehaya did, and nobody could make Kazehaya as happy as Sawako could.
"Thanks for having me over," Shiori said. She then turned to Sawako "It was great meeting you! Is it okay if I have your number?" she asked, and she meant it.
Sawako's eyes lit up. "O-Of course!" she exclaimed, and hurried to get her cell phone from her bag. They exchanged numbers and Shiori smiled, thinking maybe it would be nice to have someone like Sawako as a friend.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay for dinner, Shiori-chan?" Sawako asked. Before she could reply, Shiori saw Kazehaya waving his hands in the air noiselessly behind Sawako's back, mouthing the word NO as he shook her head vigorously. Shiori got the hint and made an excuse that she had plans. She smiled and waved goodbye at them, catching sight of Kazehaya mouthing "Thank you!" while grinning.
After he saw Shiori out of the door, Shota immediately tackled his girlfriend, and held her close to him. "She's finally gone… I almost thought she wouldn't leave," he whispered into her hair. "Feels like forever since I last saw you," he said, touching his forehead against hers.
"Shota-kun… you just saw me yesterday" she mumbled, trying to hide the happiness in her voice. "And I don't have class for the next two days," He chuckled and pressed his lips against her forehead.
Kazehaya smiled against Sawako's warm skin. "Thank goodness for that. Let's go somewhere nice tonight, okay?"
… and with that, Sawako nodded, happy that she could spend the next couple of days with her boyfriend.