She looked outside the window forgetting everything. Often times, she'd stop looking, cock her head sideways then scribble on her notebook with her eyebrows furrowed together. The whole first week of class she had her own little world, barely listening to the teachers' lesson.

"Erika, will you please pay attention?" her teacher called out impatiently.

She hung her head low at the fixed attention her classmates was giving her when her name was called out.

"I'm sorry, I'll try." She replied.

A few chuckled at her answer; she wondered briefly what made them react like that. She was about to go back at her own little world when she was tapped on her shoulder.

"Excuse me; can you please pick up my eraser? It fell somewhere at your foot."

She bent down to look for the eraser, picked it up and placed it on the waiting open palm.

"Thank you." Her seatmate said.

"You're welcome." She went back to her own little world without looking at her seatmate.

Kuroko looked around the classroom observing everything. He didn't fail to notice how his teacher clicked at his tongue with impatience at them, or the student in front of him chewing at the cap of the ballpen with boredom, or how a girl kept glancing back looking at someone (probably her crush) then hastily look at board.

He also noticed how his seatmate avoided eye contact with everyone since the first day. Usually he'd just introduce himself since it's okay because they're seatmates, the first time he'd tried to, the girl was blankly looking out the window with her lips pressed together firmly. He saw a trickle of tear run down her cheek. He decided that he'd just give her space and instead focus on getting into the Seirin's basketball team.

The second day, he wasn't sure how to approach her since girls had always been unpredictable. They always have this mood swings. When her pencil fell down from her desk, he bent down to pick it up and it seemed the girl didn't even notice that it fell down.

"I fell in love once before..." He thought he heard the girl sing under her breath "Now I won't be falling for that anymore."

He assumed the girl had probably had her heart broken so he decided to place the pencil on her desk without disturbing her.

In the end he played with the thought of introducing himself to her. There was no point since he'd spend most of his time on basketball and besides she would probably forget his name anyway.

In the morning, after the second time Kuroko met Kagami and the whole Seirin basketball team at Maji burger, he saw the girl leave a box of chalk at the courtyard. He briefly wondered why, when he picked it up there was a note in it that read

This is for a promise.

So he used the chalk to write his promise. And when everyone looked at it, they smiled. Even her.

Now, he looked at the eraser on his palm oddly. The small thing felt queer as if it wasn't quite the thing he was asking for. His hand felt something missing and it was weird because the eraser was still the same.

Kuroko looked at his seatmate on his left. Her hair was white and it flowed down her waist. The girl had a slim figure, though a bit lacking at the chest. Their eyes didn't meet but he noticed that she had red eyes, deep like Kagami's.

"Okay class, let's have a seatwork." The teacher's voice pulled him away from his thoughts.

He looked at the board and started answering on his notebook. He didn't know why but he took a glance at his seatmate. The girl always had her own little world and then he noticed that the girl wasn't answering their seatwork for getting too lost in thought.

"Hey" Kuroko called softly.

The girl continued looking at the window; it seemed that she hadn't heard him.

"Excuse me but we have a seatwork." Kuroko spoke a little louder this time while tapping her shoulder.

If the girl was surprised with his presence, it didn't show. The girl nodded at him and looked at the board and began writing. With that, Kuroko finished his seatwork and glanced at his seatmate who went back at looking out the window. He leaned to peek at her notebook only to find that what she wrote was only numbers and then she left it blank.

"Why aren't you answering the seatwork?" Kuroko asked.

"I don't know what the answers are." The girl admitted.

Before he could change his mind, he ripped a small piece of paper and scribbled some answers and passed it to her. This time, there was a clear expression of surprise was on her face. She was about to say something when the teacher called out,

"Three minutes left!"

With that she answered (copied) as fast as she can and leaned back on his chair with an impish grin on her lips. The class representative went around and gathered their notebooks and passed it on the teacher. Kuroko tidied his desk when his seatmate thanked him.

"Thank you for that."

"You're welcome but I won't be doing the same favor next time." He replied.

"And by the way, thank you for notifying me about the seat work in a normal way. Usually, at my previous school, my seatmates would surprise me every time they call me out to the point of being difficult to be surprised."

Ahh.

So that's why she wasn't surprised when he suddenly popped from nowhere (supposedly).

"I'm Erika Sakurada, thank you for being my hero in today's seatwork." She stuck out her hand.

Kuroko stared at her open palm for a moment then looked at her face.

"I'm Tetsuya Kuroko, nice to meet you." He shook her hand.

And then came another odd feeling again, this time it was the same yet different. It was weird how his hand seemed at ease and comfortable with her hand, it was like this was the eraser that he asked for. Curiously, looking at their hands, he slowly intertwined his fingers on hers and felt something fuzzy and warm like it was what his hand had been missing.

From their intertwined hands, he looked up and for the first time, his sky colored eyes met her deep scarlet ones.

XOXOXOXOXOX

Author's note:

Was it boring? Comments? Suggestions? Violent Reactions?

Thank you for reading.