Training was usually a frenzy of flying fists and the sound of running, loud and clear, a hail of pink bullets fired at wooden targets, green rubber knives and bruised wrists.
Today, however, it was strangely quiet.
Class E was out in the woods. Instead of the usual brutal assassination practice, they were practicing with guns – namely, sniping. And the art of stealth.
As everyone knew, Chiba Ryūnosuke and Rinka Hayami had it in the bag.
They were both sitting next to each other on a low tree branch, the sun peeking through the foliage, casting interesting patterns here and there as they scanned the area for possible targets.
"There," Hayami whispered in his ear, making his heart skip a beat. Chiba shrugged it off. She pointed to a wooden board painted with rings, partially hidden. "You can do this one."
He bit his lip, very deliberately not looking at her. Focus, focus, focus.
He raised the gun, fully aware of their knees brushing and shoulders touching, her facial features telling him that she was so confident that he could manage.
Focus.
He fired, and, immediately, he knew he knew he missed before even seeing the result.
It missed the target entirely.
Hayami's green eyes flickered with shock, but she covered it up quickly. Too late, though. He already saw it. She smiled encouragingly, "S'alright. No big deal."
He managed to smile back half-heartedly.
I missed? he thought. If it wasn't for the disappointed look in her eyes, just for a second, maybe he wouldn't care so much. I almost never miss.
Then, Just once. As Hayami said, it's no big deal. Not even my sniping skills are perfect.
He watched as she managed to hit the bullseye in one swift movement.
"Let's head down," she said, "we'll find more targets that way."
They climbed down and began to walk. Their shoulders brushed as they did, and Chiba tried his best not to focus on that.
He still couldn't get over the fact that he missed.
Not hitting the bullseye was one thing, but missing the target entirely? That was a whole different story –
"Hey," Hayami said, somewhat sternly. She must've realized the sharpness of her tone, because she loosely intertwined their fingers, eyes still locked ahead. "Don't worry. It was one time, Chiba. One time."
Her hands were warm and – probably out of habit and unconsciously: she liked her hands moving – her thumb was gently brushing his, her fingers drumming gently against his knuckles.
For his sanity's sake, he let go. She didn't seem to mind much, and they continued to walk in silence.
"Where are they?" she muttered under her breath, scanning the area.
A branch snapped, and a familiar head of blue hair tied into twintails appeared in both the sniper's' scope.
Nagisa smiled, friendly as ever, waving once.
Karma appeared next to him – it was quite a sight, given their height difference – eyes flickering with mischief.
"Chiba-kun! Hayami-san!" the blue haired boy called, jogging up to them. "We found out that a whole lot of the targets are hidden. We even found one under a pile of leaves and everything."
Hayami let out a small oh.
"I don't get it," Karma said, stretching his arms out. "I mean, as if that damn octopus can hide under a pile of leaves. To think I chose not to skip today."
"It's the inconsistency of the hiding spots," Chiba noted. "Like his movements."
"Exactly what I've been telling you for the past twenty minutes, Karma-kun," Nagisa said, poking the taller boy's shoulder, looking up at him. "We have to remember that Koro-sensei can move to several places…"
The two disappeared behind the greenery, still arguing.
A rare smile twitched at the corner of Hayami's lips as she watched them go. "Well, looks like we'll have to look harder, then."
Chiba just nodded, gun at the ready.
He spotted a target, vaguely hidden underneath a pile of flower petals and bright, green leaves. Hayami spotted it at almost the exact same time and nudged him, smiling.
He missed the bullseye – though, thankfully, not the target this time.
He chewed on his bottom lip, staring at the ground as his cheeks flamed. Dammit. He could feel Hayami's eyes on him, concerned.
"Chiba?"
He looked up to see her fire at the target, before turning back to him.
"Is everything alright?"
He nodded. "Yeah,"
They continued walking. That's what he loved about her; she didn't force anything out of him. She understood that he'd tell her everything when the time is right.
Still, she was worried. Extremely.
"Thank you," he mumbled inaudibly.
She didn't appear to hear him, because her green eyes – where they always so bright? – were focused on a moving target.
He shot on impulse, but missed.
(It wasn't surprising anymore. Not for him, anyways.)
It didn't seem to bother her as much – though it still did, but she didn't mention it – especially since moving targets were her specialty. She took it down in one swift blow.
Chiba was about to compliment her on it, but his phone's screen flashed to life, bursting with color to form a familiar pink-haired girl.
"Time's up!" Ritsu said cheerfully.
Everyone reassembled, and Karasuma-sensei gave them a ten-minute break. However, afterwards, he told them they would practice hand-to-hand combat for the remaining time.
Hayami noticed that Chiba was slightly unsettled and decided to give him a quick hug.
Their cheeks brushed.
"Next time," she said a little awkwardly, trying for a smile and walking away.
"Hayami-san," Nagisa said, running up to her. She was leaning against a tree, with Chiba nearby, watching him with concern. What was up with him today? He missed three targets – three targets!
"Wait… Really?" The blue-haired boy said in shock.
Hayami flushed a little. "I said that aloud?" she said weakly.
Nagisa smiled gently at her. "Yeah… maybe he's coming down with something?"
She had no time to reply, because a certain red-haired boy – let's face it, he was more of a devil than anything – walked up to said boy.
The two of them managed to pick up a little of the conversation.
"…Karasuma-sensei asked me to check if we missed any targets. Wanna come along?"
Chiba was quiet for a while. "What have you got up your sleeve, Karma?"
A smirk.
"Nothing."
"Nothing my arse," Nagisa muttered.
Hayami almost laughed. "Any idea what's going on in that sociopath's head?"
They watched them return back to the forest, airguns in hand, talking about things that didn't quite reach to where they stood. Nagisa smiled knowingly, blue eyes bright.
"Maybe."
"So, Chiba," Karma drawled lazily, tossing his gun – it was a pistol, Hayami's specialty – in the air with a flick of his wrist. "How've you been?"
Chiba wordlessly shot a target dangling on a tree branch without hesitation.
Karma grinned, all teeth.
"And to think," he said. "Just a while ago you missed three targets."
The black-haired boy froze. Karma leaned against a tree, a lazy smile on his mouth that meant trouble.
He laughed. "Does it have anything to do with Hayami-san, then?"
Chiba did his best to shrug it off and kept walking as the other boy continued asking questions.
He knew that – in his deranged mind – Karma was trying to help. But Chiba himself had no idea. He was useless with feelings and words – much more so with putting words to feelings.
"You like her, you know," Karma said casually. "I sit in front of you in class and you stare at her more than you should."
Chiba was staring at him (though he couldn't tell, what with his bangs all over his eyes) and his cheeks were pink. Karma – the demon he was – revelled in this.
"Ne? What's this?" he laughed. "The love scandal Koro-sensei's been waiting for?" A pause. "Although, I never expected you and Hayami-san to be the first…"
Chiba could've sworn that Karma was sprouting devil horns and a tail.
Still, he felt a little thankful for Karma – perhaps the said boy's insanity was getting to him or something – because he said what he was thinking out loud. It only made it feel more real.
It was a scary thing.
After all, his heart was the target this time. And Rinka Hayami never missed.
Much to Hayami's surprise, Nagisa stayed with her all through the ten-minute break, his twintails slightly out of place due to the wind, though he didn't mind.
She didn't ask him about what Karma was up to, though she wanted to.
She was reloading her guns when her hair ties snapped, probably die to the strain, and cursed internally as her hair fell limply around her shoulders, framing her face.
Nagisa looked a little startled.
Then, to her surprise, he slipped off the hair ties around his wrists and handed them over. "Here," he said with a small smile.
She thanked him and began to tie one side of her hair, with Nagisa helping her with the other.
It was one of those times when she wished she'd interacted with people more.
"Yo, Nagisa-kun!" Karma said, hands in his pockets as he walked over, grinning. He turned to Hayami. "Mind if I steal him for bit, Hayami-san?"
She nodded. "He's all yours."
She watched their retreating figures just as a voice said, "Hey."
She almost jumped and turned to see black hair and sighed in relief. "Don't go scaring me like that."
In reality, she was thinking: stop scaring me, I'm so worried about you.
He grinned. "Sorry."
He was thinking: I'm sorry if I worried you.
And because their thoughts were in perfect sync, they both immediately understood the true meaning in what they were actually saying.
She tilted her head slightly. "What happened to you back there?"
He chewed on his bottom lip. "It's just that – " he paused mid-sentence and took Hayami's hand, where she was still holding a gun, surprising her, and guiding her to shoot upwards.
"Chiba, what – ? "
Her question was answered when a familiar yellow octopus crashed at their feet. Chiba smirked slightly.
"Chiba-kun! Hayami-san!" he said, his face pink. "Uh… I was just – "
Hayami grinned at Chiba, who smiled back. "Can it, octo-stalker," she said, and tossed Chiba a gun as they both fired at him relentlessly, just to get rid of him, since the chances of killing him at Mach 20 was next to impossible.
As they watched him fly off, Hayami said, her eyes still on the sky, "Chiba, do you like me?"
He gaped at her and she smiled. "I'm not dense."
"Then the question isn't whether I like you," Chiba said, "but rather if you like me."
Before she could answer, Karasuma-sensei yelled, "Okay, then minutes are up!"
Hayami simply loosely intertwined their hands together as they walked over, discreetly so no one would notice.
She smiled and she almost kissed him when he smiled back.
By missing three targets, it seemed, he hit her heart.
"Looks like you can play Cupid after all," a certain blue-haired boy noted from afar, smiling despite himself.
"I can't always be a demon, now, can I?" the red-haired one replied, grinning.