The first thing Murumuru noticed the day after the day of the fateful bet was where Aru Akise went for lunch. The boy tended to conveniently slip away from the crowd of people in the cafeteria and off in the direction of the sports field. The throng of girls chattering around her was somewhat hard to escape, so Murumuru decided to use her popularity for good.

"D'you know what sports practice this period?"

"Oh, football!" Kuroneko, a blond girl who'd thrown on far too much makeup today in Murumuru's opinion, spoke up. "Ouji Kousaka's on that team. He is such a hunk."

"Do you who else is on the team?"

"Why d'you wanna know?" Someone else chimed in, grinning. "Have you got a crush?"

Murumuru laughed. "As if. I just want to know for a friend, okay? Who's on the football team other than Kousaka? Is...Is Amano Yukiteru on the football team?"

Kuroneko giggled. "Yeah, I think so. He's not very good though. He looks like his shoulder pads are gonna swallow him whole or something! Poor kid."

Murumuru's eyes lit up. "Aha! Thanks, guys!" She gave a little ta-ta wave for effect, then smiled, tossed her hair, and set off towards the sports field, leaving her friends looking somewhat dumbfounded. Halfway there it hit her that she'd forgotten her lunch, but that was a less pressing issue than the one at hand.

The sports field was a bit of a multipurpose space, hence the vague name 'sports field.' The football team was practicing there, but Murumuru was sure she spotted several people stretching and a few couples having some sort of picnic. The tall, silver bleachers that surrounded it were mostly vacant, but when she squinted she spotted the skinny, jacket-clad shape of Aru Akise on one of the lower bleachers with...Houjou Reisuke?

Murumuru broke into a jog, cutting across the sidelines and quickly making her way up the bleachers. "Hey, Reisuke, what're you doing here?" She tried to make the phrase sound as casual as possible, but she supposed that most everything she said to Reisuke sounded somewhat menacing.

"Oh, nothing, just talking." He seemed to be attempting to contain his giggling, and Murumuru tried to make herself look a bit more intimidating by standing akimbo and pouting her lips in a way that usually made most boys laugh uncomfortably. "Akise here eats by himself all the time, you know? It's a little sad."

"You know, Reisuke, I think you'd better leave. I think Akise needs some company from someone who doesn't do illegal things in their free time."

Akise seemed to be lost in thought, and was staring down at the football field with a transfixed expression. "What do you say, Akise?" Reisuke prodded the white-haired boy.

"Ohuh?" Akise looked a bit startled. "Oh, hello, Murumuru. I apologize, I don't think I was listening to what either of you were saying." He laughed quietly, as though he'd just told himself a joke in thought. "In fact, Reisuke, I don't believe I was really listening to any of what you were saying." He punctuated this sentence with a charming smile, and Reisuke reddened visibly.

"Alright, fine, if nobody's listening to me, maybe I'll just leave! You don't deserve my elite company!" He glared at Murumuru and stormed off, his footsteps making large banging sounds on the bleachers.

"What a toddler, honestly." Murumuru snorted. "So, Akise, I was just wondering, like, why do you come up here all the time? You've got a lot of friends, right? Like, Hinata and Mao and Kousaka and all."

"I do, of course."

"Do you just like football or something?" She tried to look as nonthreatening as she possibly could, which was difficult when you had a permanent scowl like hers.

Akise laughed again. "Well, to be quite honest, I hate football. I think it's pure brutality with very little strategy involved and only idiots and those desperate to fit in play it."

"Well, why do you come up here then?"

"Because…" Akise shifted uncomfortably. "I enjoy the view."

"The view of what?"

"...Football."

Murumuru burst into a fit of giggling. "You just said you hated football!"

Akise looked around somewhat nervously. He wasn't blushing; Murumuru didn't think someone as pale as he was could blush. "Well...I suppose I enjoy watching it from time to time, you know?"

"You know what I think?"

"I don't believe I want to."

Murumuru laughed. "You're funny, Akise, y'know? You're a really cool guy. You could definitely get it with Amano Yukiteru."

Akise opened his mouth, then closed it again. "What?" Murumuru had been wrong; it was possible for Aru Akise to blush. It was sort of ridiculous looking contrasted with the strange crimson color of his eyes, but she could definitely see how he could be considered cute. (Damn it, I'm getting him Yuki, not getting him with me.)

"I think you and Yuki would be great together." She scooted closer to him. "He's cute, isn't he? He's a good football player, too." Well, that was a lie, but she could afford to take some liberties here, couldn't she?

"Yeah," Akise said dreamily, head in his hands.

"Aha, there we are. You love Yuki, riiight?"

"I don't..." The boy who was known around school for having the perfect comeback for everything looked comically flustered. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Look at him out there." Murumuru jabbed her finger at Yuki, who was fumbling awkwardly for the ball from Ouji Kousaka. Kuroneko was right, he did look a bit like his shoulder pads were swallowing him, and he tripped every few steps, but it was sort of endearing, she supposed. "Doesn't he look cute in his uniform?"

Akise chewed his lip, obviously to look like he wasn't listening. Murumuru had to admit that Akise was right, football wasn't a very interesting sport to watch. The team just ran back and forth. Honestly, there really wasn't anything to see. Murumuru felt an idea forming in her head, and smiled to herself.

Just as Yuki stumbled awkwardly past them, Murumuru made sure Akise was still in his daydreaming-about-beloved-Yukiteru trance and kicked one of the players' water bottles at him. Yukiteru stopped too quickly, his foot hitting the water bottle, and toppled over like a human Jenga block.

"Akise, look he fell over!"

Akise turned around, a look of concern suddenly on his face. "What?"

"He fell over. Help him up!" Murumuru grinned and elbowed him in the ribs. "He probably has to sit out for a bit now. Look, he's got a bruise on his knee. Help him up!" Akise seemed to forget about his constant denial and practically jumped off of the bench and ran out onto field.

Murumuru smirked, then got up to go and finish her lunch. Her work here, for the moment, was done.


there arent really any named background characters in mn so i just had to make up some of murumurus friends lmao

an update at long last hooray i have christmas break so i can do whatever i want. my city now. yeah im gonna update a bunch of stuff and all that. anyways i hope you enjoyed this and really thank you for all the kind reviews!