The blue sky slowly started turning into a mix of orange and red. Young children were being brought home by their mothers after a long day of playing outside. One person, however, stayed was just about to 'enjoy' herself.

Holding a ball in her hand, was Akashi Seira. Her long scarlet hair tied in twin tails swayed as she made her way to the basketball court at the children's park. A dark green blouse, a black and short pleated skirt with dark brown boots was her attire for the day.

The girl's cold heterochromatic eyes scanned the place for any 'pests' that might bother her but none was in her sight. She was about to start dribbling the ball when a happy male voice called out to her.

"Akashicchi~!"

By the nickname, she already knew who the owner of the voice was. A young boy with a pretty face, blonde hair and a pair of golden eyes wearing a gray hoodie with a green shirt inside and khaki pants ran up towards her.

"Ryouta.." she said, "hello."

"hello~ it has been a while"

"it certainly has.."

Kise was happy like a little puppy who had finally found his owner. He looked at the ball in the redhead's hands and asked,

"want to play one-on-one?"

"…sure"

It became dark when they finished facing off each other. Even though the two did some exercise, they were hardly sweating or panting, thanks to all the basketball training they have been doing.

"say, Akashicchi..want to go for some dinner together?"

She looked at him and gave a nod as a response. Happy, he took her hand and went to a fancy restaurant in the area. Akashi could only sigh at the place as she was used to this kind of thing. Getting to their table, Kise pulled the girl's chair for her to sit down.

The waiter gave them the menus and the two scanned it. She stared at a cake, which was her favourite, on the menu. Hesitating to choose it. She is the heiress to the Akashi family so she has to control what she eats. After some mental debates with herself, she chose only a salad and some water.

"eeeh? Are you sure that's all you want?" asked the person who ordered a quarter of a page in the menu and noticed her hesitation.

"yes. I am sure." She replied coolly.

"really?"

"yes."

"rea—lly?"

"I don't like having to repeat myself, Ryouta." She glared slightly.

"if you say so.." despite saying that, he still ordered the cake for her, without her knowing of course. Hearing her sigh, the blonde shifted his eyes to the redhead and sees her rather gloomy face.

"hey, what's wrong?" he reached out to caress Akashi's cheek but as a result, she smacked him (softly) on the head with the menu.

"what do you think you are doing?"

Kise rubbed his head and retreated, "sorry..~"

Since only their drinks came and the other orders were taking a while to come, they started to chat about their current schools. Apparently, Akashi's school has a one week holiday so she came to Kanagawa to have some fun for herself. As she was telling her companion about her current basketball team, Kise suddenly leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the lips.

The girl's eyes widen and she smacked the menu on his head real hard, "w-w-w-w-w-w-what are you doing, idiot!" she backed up. Her face turned as red as her own hair.

"Akashicchi…I…like you"

"i-idiot! Don't say those kind of jokes with a straight face"

"I'm not joking.."

She blinked, "r-really..?"

"yes. Please go out with me." He looked straight into her mismatched eyes.

Akashi's mind tried to process the situation but she passed out on the table from overloading embarrassment. Panicking, Kise splashed some water on her which made her jolt up, earning weird looks from the others in the restaurant.

"Akashicchi, you okay? I'm so— sorry!"

"It's okay. Now could you please pass me a napkin"

Their food came just after Akashi finished drying herself. The redhead's eyebrow twitched when she saw the waiter serving them the cake that she made a point not to take.

Seeing that she wasn't going to touch it until someone explains, Kise told her with the most innocent smile he had that he ordered it for her since it was her favourite and that she looked like she really wanted it.

"stop doing unnecessary things."

She snapped before she started eating it. The blonde just smiled because in tsundere language, that probably meant 'thanks'. Yes, Akashi Seira was quite the tsundere as well as she was quite the yandere.

An idea suddenly popped into the model's mind. He 'stole' a strawberry from Akashi's cake and put it between his teeth, hoping that she would lean forward and kiss him in attempt to get the fruit back. But since his former captain is very smart and is probably an esper, she used her fork to retrieve the strawberry and ate it while looking at Kise with [too bad] written all over her pretty smug face.

He let out a sigh and started eating his food with a pout plastered on his face. After a period of silence, Kise asked, "say…do you hate me?" Without even hesitating, she (lied) and answered, "honestly, yes." Heartbroken by her cold statement, the two continued dining in silence.

After paying, Kise escorted the female home, after persuading her to let him do it. He kept on glancing over to her, wondering if he should start a small chat but he was worried that she might ignore him because of the incident in the restaurant. The awkward silence between them lasted until suddenly half-way through, the rain started falling heavily.

"ah- this way!"

The blonde grabbed the girl's hand and rushed under a small abandoned guard house in the area. Making up his mind, Kise put his jacket over Seira and smiled to the puzzled girl. "we are going to run all the way to my house, okay? It's close by so it's gonna be fine~"

"but-"

"like I said, it's going to be alright.."

Blame the rain or what so ever but Akashi swore she could see sparkles surrounding him while he was smiling. Reluctantly going with Kise's idea, the two made a mad dash through the rain. Even though she stayed half dry thanks to his hoodie, the boy was getting drenched. As her 'motherly instincts' kicked in, Seira threw the model's jacket over him.

"Akashicch-?"

"just be quiet, keep the jacket over you and continue running. We're near your house aren't we?" she spoke between panting.

"but—"

She stopped and turned to look at him with the most menacing smile she has, "you dare disobey me?"

"n-no.."

"good."

They finally reached Kise's house, both wet but the female was drenched worse. He took his shirt off and threw himself on the couch while the other was squeezing liquid out of her hair and clothes right behind him.

"by the way, Ryouta. I thought that you live with your sisters but I don't see them around anywhere"

"oh, both of them are out on vacation~"

"is that s— achoo!"

The blonde blinked when he heard the sneeze. "Akashicchi? You okay?"

"yes I— achoo!" she started sneezing non-stop and Kise said that she might have caught a cold, considering that she was wet from the rain water and is a (frail) girl.

"being a girl— achoo! —has nothing to do with— achoo! —catching a cold. Achoo! urgh…" she cursed the cold mentally. "how come you're fine, Ryouta?" she glared at the currently half-naked high school student.

He grinned, "I guess I'm too handsome that the cold doesn't infect me~"

"I shouldn't have asked…" she groaned.

"you should go take a bath, Akashicchi. It'll at least warm your body up"

She crossed her arms and put her weight on one leg, "what about my clothes then?"

"you can borrow my sister's clothes~ I'm sure they'll fit~"

"..if you say so."


She sunk herself in the warm water with her long hair tied into a messy loose bun and let out a sigh. 'why am I feeling such discomfort? I, Akashi Seira, shouldn't have these kind of emotions..'

"Akashicchi?" Kise's voice could be heard, quite muffled, from the other side of the door. "I brought the clothes. I'll leave them on the rack, okay?"

"sure.." Akashi replied, blowing bubbles in the tub.

"…say, Akashicchi…"

She turned to the door, noticing his tone of voice was slightly troubled and sad, "yes?"

The boy leaned back on the bathroom's door, "can't you..re-think about it?"

"about what?" she questioned quite lazily, resting her arms on the edge of the tub and putting her head on them.

"about going out with me. you said that you hate me but..couldn't you at least give it more thought? Please? My feelings, they're really sincere, y'know." To Akashi, his voice sounded like a stray puppy begging for a place to stay. "please…"

"..I understand. I'll give it a little thou-…" her voice trailed off and it became silent.

"Akashicchi?"

no response.

"Akashicchi, what's wrong?"

Still no response.

'don't tell me something happened..?'

Swallowing every single manly pride he had, he opened the door with the spare key and found Akashi passed out, from heat stroke maybe, leaning at the edge of the tub with her arms hanging, her bun undone and breathing heavily.

Trying to ignore the fact that she was bare naked, Kise raised the girl out of the tub and quickly wrapped her with a towel before carrying her to his room. There, he made her wear his shirt without anything under and fanned her while sitting on the bed beside her to cool her down. He rubbed his temples with his free hand and tried to erase the image of the bare skinned captain.

Fortunately or maybe unfortunately for Kise, the redhead regained conscious and sat up, having a headache. Mentally cursing her condition again, Seira noticed that she wasn't in the bathroom and turned to look, uh..glare, at the blonde, demanding for an explanation.

"Ryouta. you have 10 seconds to tell me the whole story."

"w-well, I was talking to you then suddenly you became quiet so I became worried and opened the door. Not because of perverted reasons! When I entered, I saw you passed out so I brought you out of the tub— b-but I didn't see anythi-"

"time's up."

He started to whine, "Akashicchi! I really didn't-" He paused his sentence when her head suddenly rested on his chest, breathing heavily. The scarlet hair brushed against his hands and her petite figure became limp. "Akashicchi…?" Kise laid her back down on the bed and by reflex, put his hand on her forehead. He pulled his hand back and exclaimed, "Akashicchi, you're burning up!" A sincerely worried expression formed on the model's face and he rushed out of the room.


Akashi's eyelids shot open as she heard the alarm clocks annoying ringing. Groaning, she sat up and a wet towel fell on her lap. Her eyes then fell upon the sleeping figure of Kise Ryouta. His head was buried in his arms on the edge of the bed and he sometimes mumbled a "get better, Akashicchi…" The boy looked like a small puppy that was waiting for his master to awake.

She looked across the room and saw a small basin of water and a medicine bottle on a desk. A smile crept on her face as she stroked his soft blonde hair.

"thank you.." she whispered in a gentle tone.

She pulled back her hand when he started to wake up. Seeing the girl awake, he gave her a strong hug, asking her how she was feeling. Akashi replied with a "I feel better" which caused him to strengthen the hug. Realizing that she was starting to suffocated, he let go and apologized with a sheepish smile.

"Akashicchi, I hope you don't hate me for what happened yesterday…"

"what do you mean?"

"I..kinda saw you...naked…" he softly said. Instead of wanting to torture him or anything, she just muttered a "I don't really care.."

Kise's face lightened up hearing what she said. "r-really?"

"yes."

"thank you! I'll go and get breakfast ready, okay?" he stood up, ready to leave when..

"wait." He looked at her, puzzled.

"come closer." She gestured with a finger. "I want to give you something as a thanks."

Obeying her orders, the blonde asked what was the thing she wanted to give. After watching her fidget for a while, Kise suddenly felt a warm sensation on his lips.

His eyes widen in surprise as the girl who he loved & sort of rejected him kissed him. Breaking the kiss, Akashi got off the bed and headed towards the door while he was stunned by what had happened.

"Akashicchi, you—"

Stopping midway, she answered, hiding her furiously blushing face, "j-just shut up and go make breakfast! And…" the redhead paused "I..like you too y'know, idiot." With that, she went out the door. Kise smiled to himself and ran out to join her.

'your heart, checkmate.'