'If you beg hard enough I might reconsider.'
A smile graced Kise's lips as he neatly folded the scribbled napkin, having re-read it for the final time before he would be required to relinquish his hold on it to its rightful owner. Golden eyes then settled onto the hanging wall clock, noting that in fifteen minutes, it would strike nine-thirty; the time that Saeri would reach the stadium at. Although the Kaijo High Basketball Club had already assembled a quarter an hour before, the usual routine during extra practices would be for its members to change and stretch at their own pace for about forty-five minutes before assimilating with the entire group to do team warm-ups together. As such, the Ace would be allowed some time to interact with his new friend without interrupting his practise nor her schedule.
"Oi, Kise, what are you doing smiling at a piece of napkin like that?" His captain partially stepped into the changing room, stern frown set upon his thick eyebrows. "Come and help me for a bit."
"Alright!" The blonde set the paper beside his bag on the wooden bench and followed his senior out.
"You seem especially happy today."
"Oh, I do?"
About a minute after the footsteps and conversation have faded away, the room was once again occupied when a door conjoining its space to a small toilet was flung open with excessive force, and Hayakawa Mitsuhiro frantically scrambled in, pants and underwear sweeping the floor as he tried his best to move hastily without tripping. He had mistakenly drank some expired milk in the morning, and after enduring an agonising hour-long journey of churning bowels, he was finally able to relieve himself much to his great bliss. However...
"ARGH! What kind of good facirrities does this stadium have if none of its toiret cubicres have any toiret papel?!" He intensely ransacked the changing room with flaming eyes, and locked on to an innocent napkin on a wooden bench in the middle with the obstinacy of a fired missile. The paper looked incredibly dirty, but it would have to suffice (it's going to be soiled in the end, anyway...). Thus, Hayakawa grabbed it like he would a rebound and disappeared back into the restroom, slamming the door in his wake.
Kise had left and returned to the room with the same grin and cheerful aura emanating off his being, already knowing the exact words and actions to coax the girl he would be meeting into exchanging email addresses with him. He padded towards the bench, and was about to collect the important article of his interest when his smile and mood plunged deep into the depths of Hell like a sinner bearing the heaviest guilt.
The napkin-letter was gone.
"Rejection letter...?" The languid flipping of bags expedited into a hysterical overturning of the bench as Kise rummaged high and low, left and right, and basically everywhere for a sight of the inked material. A numb sensation gripped his chest as he realised that the paper was nowhere to be found. Don't tell me it got blown away? But the windows aren't even open! Or did I actually take it outside just now? Or—
An obnoxious flush drowned the panicked speculations in his thoughts and Hayakawa appeared with an incredibly relieved and calm expression on his usually agitated face, patting his abdomen with satisfaction. "Ah, that was good... Ah Kise! Terr captain that this prace's no good, damnnit! They don't even have toiret lorrs, ret arone a good gym!"
"Hayakawa-senpai, what are you—" the model muttered distractedly, having no time to entertain his senior when a thought flashed across his busy mind. He ceased lifting shoebags, and deliberately turned to face the puzzled Power Forward with a dawning, chilling realisation. "Senpai, don't tell me... No, it can't be..."
"Huh?" Hayakawa was undeniably shaken by the blonde's sudden fear, and he raised a hand to scratch the back of his head when he caught sight of black smudges on his fingers. "Oh, damn, what the herr! I shourdn't have used that dilty piece of papel! Kise, don't misundelstand! I sweal I washed my hands, but this weild brack ink stuff flom some papel I used wourdn't come off!"
Kise felt his soul leaving his heart.
"Oi, Kise! Some girl wants to see you. She's waiting outside the stadium," Moriyama Yoshitaka entered, jerking to his back with a thumb. "A real cute one, if I have to say. She says that you have something to give her."
"What?!" The model swivelled around, urgency and panic stabbing life back into his chest. What should he do? It wasn't even his fault! In fact... He grabbed the still-befuddled Hayakawa by the wrist and proceeded to stalk out of the room with him in tow. "Senpai, you're coming with me!"
The rebound expert could only succumb to the Ace's strong grip with unsettled confusion. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?! Plactise is about to stalt!"
The model stepped out of the glass doors amidst curious stares, and saw a brunette girl sitting on the granite stairs with her cheeks in her hands. His footsteps alerted her of his presence, and she turned to face him expectantly, but slightly widened her eyes upon seeing another stranger.
Saeri frowned and gestured repeatedly to the blonde, her wave becoming more flustered with each motion. No way on Earth she's going to let somebody else in on her embarrassment, or derive clues from their exchange, and as such, motioned exasperatingly for the handsome guy to meet her alone. She didn't even want anybody to know that they had some odd, twisted kind of relation! Her plan was to simply collect, leave, and cut all links between them, and she wasn't going to let anything mess it up (although it did pain her considering the calibre of his beauty).
It took half a minute of repetitive wrist-flapping and pointing before Kise could finally decipher the game of charades. He gestured to his incredibly confused teammate beside and mouthed a silent "without him?" for affirmation, which he received with a bout of vigorous nodding from the girl. Sighing, he told his senior to wait and jogged towards her, deciding that he will explain the situation before inviting the other male to apologise.
Hayakawa's bewilderment was compounded with his witnessing of their highly kinaesthetic exchange; although it wasn't an odd occurrence for the first-year star to be called out by and interact with girls, it was different this time in the way that they seemed to share a secret?! He hasn't seen the girl before and wondered if she was from another school, all the while watching as she dragged the blonde a couple of metres further and spoke to him in hushed tones.
Could it be... His mind ran wild and he felt his body burn up a hundred degrees hotter. His girlfriend?!
"Oi, Hayakawa, what's going on?" He heard Kasamatsu's voice and turned to see the captain, Moriyama and Kobori Koji sauntering up. The Point Guard stopped beside him and placed his hands on his hips, surveying the scene before with the authoritative air of a leader. His eyes widened at the sight of a female. "Who's that girl?"
"I don't learry know, Captain, but she doesn't seem rike just a nolmar fan to him," the second-year Forward informed with increasing enthusiasm, his fists now balled up in front of his face. "Do you think... Do you think... Do you think that she's his gilrfliend?!"
Sense finally struck the three other males after several moments of processing his words, invigorating them to bend over and stick to a nearby pillar like metal pieces attracted to a magnet. They clambered and pushed to attain a clear view of the interaction between their junior and this unknown girl and the concrete structure barely concealed the squirming mass of their bodies.
"No wonder he was smiling so happily at that dirty napkin. Maybe it was some kind of letter between them or something!"
"What?! Oh no! I used it as toiret papel! No wondel he was so mad!"
"If you think about it, he's really treating her with much more tenderness than he does with other girls."
"Damn, that sly brat, actually advancing ahead getting a girlfriend before his seniors! I wonder which site he goes to for dating tips."
The four strained their eyes and ears to pick up further clues, and their intent backfired as her voice screeched through the morning air, alarming them out of their wits.
"WHAT?! MY CONFIDENCE AND SELF-WORTH IS ON WHOSE ASS?!"
Saeri could not believe it. She had woken up an hour earlier than she was supposed to, obsessively fretted over what to wear (he was a male worth impressing, admittedly), and missed her morning television serial for nothing?! No, it wasn't for nothing; it was for her to find out that her reputation and dignity were smeared up somebody's dirty rear end. Great. As such, she could do nothing else but gape at the apologetic blonde boy before, eyebrows raised and muscles slack in incredulity.
"I'm so sorry, Saecchi!" Kise slapped his palms together and bent down till his golden head was below hers (a rather significant arch considering their height difference).
"Saecchi?! What kind of name is that?! I don't even know you well, and I don't want to be called 'ecchi'!" Taken aback by the sudden term of familiarity, she narrowed her eyes and glared.
"W-Well, I call the people whom I respect with a -cchi," the model explained in an attempt of honeying his words. "So, please forgive me!"
"What the... Do I look like I want your respect?!"
"Please, Sugiyama-san! I really didn't know! You shouldn't blame me! In fact, blame my senior!"
He angled his bowed head to give himself a view of the stadium's entrance, noting the additional members and their odd stances in surprise. The eavesdroppers sweated buckets upon realising that they've been discovered, but uncontrollably leaked a shocked 'geh!' when the girl shot a glare towards them as well.
The brunette glanced back and forth from the group of strangers to the guy before her with her mouth gaping in increasing disbelief. Finally deciding that all she wanted to do right now was to head back to Hiroki's apartment and never see them again, she clenched her fists and let out an exasperated groan. "ARGHHH! You- You Golden Retriever!"
"G-Golden Retriever?!"
"Yes," she started to turn, "whatever, I've wasted enough time. I'm going off, this is goodbye for real."
Kise straightened his back, regarding the retreating girl with rising panic. From the way things were going, it would be highly unlikely that he would be able to be friends with her after all. He called out helplessly, distraught evident in his voice. "Hey! Come on! Don't leave me!"
She merely lifted a hand in a half-hearted attempt to wave her definite farewell, and the model could only watch with slumped shoulders as she disappeared round a corner. Presumably forever. There goes his best chance of having a close female buddy, despite his best efforts. Sighing, he briefly recalled Midorima's preachings about fate and destiny and dragged his feet towards the stadium for basketball practise.
Meanwhile, the seniors of Kaijo Basketball's starting members had witnessed the entire exhibition with aghast expressions, all the while formulating several speculations regarding the couple's affairs, each turning out more insane than the last, when the final (and only) audible words confirmed their suspicions.
"Did he say "don't leave me"?! Oh my God, are they breaking up?" Moriyama asked.
Kobori nodded. "They were having a quarrel after all, it might be true."
"Shh!" Kasamatsu elbowed his players upon noticing the Ace listlessly walking towards them, his current disposition a complete opposite of his usual cheery self. He stopped right before the automatic doors after wordlessly trudging past them, and informed in a flat, dejected voice, "uh, just to make it clear, she's not my girlfriend."
Because she was your girlfriend, the other members nodded collectively, all mentally agreeing to not bring up the matter for the rest of the day, or the week, depending on the Ace's emotional recovery period. Kise blinked lifelessly, and proceeded to continue his depressed journey to the inside of the stadium, an empty atmosphere drowning his presence. The moment his blonde head had disappeared behind the doors, Kasamatsu reclined a hand and smacked it across his Power Forward's head.
"Hayakawa, what have you done?"
Liar, Liar
Try Me Three Times
Saeri was on a roll. A roll of bad luck, that is.
To pile onto her disastrous weekend, she had reached home much later than scheduled as bad traffic had delayed the bus from Kyoto station to her house, and upon setting foot onto her genkan, her very displeased mother had zeroed straight in to lecture her about the importance of money and her disapproval of the girl's spending on expensive Shinkansen rides for no apparent reason at all. In her defence, Saeri argued that she paid for the tickets using her own savings (further exemplifying the pains she took for Akashi, although her mother need not know that), only for the elder Sugiyama to reiterate the fact that those savings originated from pocket money supplied by her parents over and over again until it was way beyond her usual bedtime.
As such, Saeri woke up with a jolt at eleven-thirty the following morning; more than three hours past the start of lessons. She rushed through her morning routines of bathing and freshening up sans breakfast, and furiously texted her friends and classmates to inform them that she was on her way while running for the bus. In her haste, she temporarily forgot about her rejection and lie, and was reminded of them upon zooming past the gates of Rakuzan High. Once safely inside, the girl bent over to regain her breath and composure, mentally complaining about her dislike for rushing when she felt a presence before her.
"Sugiyama-san."
Her heart was caught in her throat and she slowly straightened her back, anticipating a look of pity or disgust from whoever it was. The brunette came face to face with a girl from a neighbouring class, who simply smiled an earnest smile with her hands clasped behind her back. "I just want to say 'congratulations' to Sugiyama-san!"
With that, the girl skipped off, leaving a very confused dancer in her wake.
...What, Saeri thought with rising apprehension as she navigated her way through the lunchtime crowd towards the school cafeteria where her friends would be at, is going on? Ever since stepping into the school, she had been receiving congratulatory words from classmates, acquaintances, and even people she did not know, and in her confusion, she could only thank them in response for the lack of a better reply. It wasn't until somebody had said: 'what a good catch! I'm so jealous!' and another 'he's a keeper!' that the brunette started to form links in her addled mind, and the realisation grew along with the size of her eyes.
Oh my God, the whole school's bought my lie that I'm attached. But, to who? Saeri had to grip a railing to steady herself as she recalled her words and actions on Saturday. Does that mean that Mariko had figured out that I meant Akashi-kun?
Then, that must mean that he knows of my lie?! The girl now depended her entire support on the metal bar, her heart beating fast and hard and her skin freezing up in eerie cold. This must be the end of her short stint in Rakuzan High; surely, he would dispel all rumours with his serious demeanour and everybody would believe him, thereby condemning her to the pits of Social Hell for the crime of being desperate, shameless, and above all, a pathetic lying loser. She would face relentless bullying and eventually lose all her will to live, then throw herself off the highest building on the campus and her spirit will haunt the institution forever more.
It took another word of 'congratulations' from a random passer-by to snap her out of her delusion. Come to think about it, rather than giving her dirty or pitying looks, everybody—especially the girls—was congratulating her. They were showing their approval and some had even complimented her. Her independence gradually seeped back in and she felt her hands leaving the railing. Does that mean that Akashi-kun did not deny anything? Does that mean that he... accepts me?
In a blink of an eye, Saeri was leaping up stairs and bounding towards the cafeteria. She needed confirmation. She needed it right now. Her once withered flower of a heart was slowly blooming with life again, nurtured and restored with the power of Love. Maybe that explains her horrible weekend! One must always endure bitterness before tasting sweetness. She didn't understand why he would accept her confession after rejecting it, but it was the only plausible and most logical explanation to her recent interaction with her schoolmates (or so she forced herself to believe). By the time her slippers had reached the entrance of the large eatery, she felt as though she had spent the previous two days in a short trip to Heaven.
And casually sitting at a table on the other end, looking amazingly beautiful despite his bored expression, was the Love of her Life, Akashi Seijuro. She decided that he was probably the only high-schooler who could make a school uniform look like a style recommendation from GQ magazine.
As though sensing eyes on him, the redhead blinked and turned, facing her direction. In a smooth motion, he stood up and raised his hand in a slight wave, displaying the softest, mildest of smiles on his usually straight lips. He was motioning to her. He was smiling to her. To her.
The usual chatter and buzz that engulfed the cafeteria was mute to Saeri's ears, as her mind and chest were focused on the explosion of bliss that overwhelmed her entire being. This was it; her title as Mrs Akashi was no longer a pipedream. All those months of hard work, all those months of studying, dieting and painful facials did pay off after all! Her life was finally complete. Unable to stop her own lips from lifting, she smiled back and her left hand floated upwards to return the wave while her right hand clutched her violently thumping chest.
As she was about to move towards him, a voice called out from behind her. "Oh, Sei-chan! Thank you so much for saving us a seat. It would take forever to find one in this crowd."
Large boulders of bodies brushed past her shoulders and dealt devastating blows to her pillars of happiness, and all her dreams came crashing down as she saw Akashi direct his line of sight from her to the three immense boys striding towards his table. The stars of Rakuzan's famous basketball team, Mibuchi Reo, Hayama Kotaro and Nebuya Eikichi.
"I think I'll go get my food first."
"Eh?! All you think about is food, you muscle gorilla!"
"Thank you."
"Now, now, boys."
His team had been standing behind her, and she didn't realise it in her ignorant bliss. He had been motioning to them. Not her.
She was absolutely mortified.
"Saeri! Over here!"
It was extremely fortunate that a call from the other end of the eatery was able get through to her ears and provide a more favourable purpose to her life at the moment as compared to repeatedly smashing her head against the floor, and Saeri immediately scuttled towards its source while fighting the glowing blush and heat on her cheeks. That was it, she would never, ever, assume anything regarding Akashi Seijuro again. Ever.
"Anego, you look terrible!" Hanayama Daichi, a fellow first-year boy with wiry hair and small eyes, commented as Saeri dumped herself onto an empty seat and hugged her bag.
Although she got along well with her classmates, the strongest bonds that she forged so far were those from her club, or more precisely, the committee members of it. The founding and original members of the Rakuzan Street Dance Club comprised of herself and three other friends from middle school, Chiaki being one of them along with two other boys. Slowly, the group expanded and gained a modest membership of twenty from the first and some second years, and out of that number, only five were recognised to be the better dancers (having a dancing background) and were thus elected to take up leadership positions as well. It was imperative that people know that the troupe did not choose its leaders based on skill; they chose them based on passion. With such a strong, common base, Saeri soon found her own clique of best friends.
The newcomer was allowed a minute to settle down before Kirishima Chiaki, an exceptional (and arguably the best) dancer with unruly light-brown hair slammed a magazine before her Vice-President and started her interrogation. "Saeri, what do you think of him?"
The brunette recognised the face on the print to be that of the blonde boy who she embarrassed herself to, and immediately snatched the papers up with deep scrutiny, mumbling the first thought that came to her mind: "they sure photo-shopped a great deal of his face."
Upon hearing and witnessing her reaction, the surrounding students slumped against their seats and sighed, "so it's true after all, only a girlfriend would know how her boyfriend's face really looks like."
"I guess so..." Saeri replied faintly, her mind still heavily distracted by her folly before Akashi. It took a moment before their words sank in. "Wait—what?!"
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Chiaki cried out abruptly and grabbed the girl's hands with a schizophrenic mixture of happiness and anger. "HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT WE ARE NOT THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP?! NOT ONLY THAT, YOU HAD KEPT IT FROM US?!"
The brunette could only stare in wide-eyed confusion at her best friend's sudden fervour. "W-What are you talking about?!"
"OH, STOP PLAYING DUMB!" Tears were starting to form in Chiaki's honey eyes. "DO YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT EVERYBODY IS STILL UNAWARE OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE RISING ZUNON MODEL STAR, KISE RYOUTA?!"
Her loud voice had successfully attracted the attention of almost the entire cafeteria, and the volume that the conversations within it operated on was significantly and notably reduced to a few murmurs. It took a whole minute for Saeri to gather her bearings from the sudden disorientating silence and the incredible news that she was so delicately informed of.
"M-My relationship with..." Her dark eyes blinked thrice, mind registering the familiar name, "...Kise Ryouta...?"
Kise was feeling confused. Very, very confused.
Having committed himself to strenuous body conditioning the day before, he had woken up with particularly sore muscles and what felt like a persistent migraine, and as such, he decided to take the day off (trainings were not held on Mondays, and he admittedly was feeling quite lazy). After lounging around his empty house and aimlessly flipping through channels till afternoon, the basketball prodigy returned to his room to check his phone, and perhaps ask his classmates about the work he'd missed. Being realistic, he had expected many messages from his fans in school wishing him the best of health and a speedy recovery, but what he did not expect was to have all seventy-eight unread texts congratulating him.
"Congrats, Kise-kun!"
"OMG, congratulations! :)"
"Wow, bro, 'gratz man!"
Congratulations?! The blonde scrolled through his inbox for a clue as to why he was being congratulated. Did he win something? Did he top the cohort for something? Did the basketball team achieve something? As far as he could remember, he had not participated in any contests nor taken any tests, and Kasamatsu did not inform him about anything note-worthy. So why—
"Congratulations, Kise-kun! I hope that you 2 last long!"
"I dont rly noe the gal, but I hope shes a nice gal. Cngratz!"
"I cant help but feel jealous, but as long as Kise-sama is happy, Im happy! XD"
"I hope that your new girlfriend treats you well! When are you introducing her to us?"
Kise blinked forcefully, vigorously shook his golden head, and blinked once again as he re-read the earlier messages, his eyes growing bigger with every scroll. A-A girlfriend? Since when did I get one?! He thought long and hard about his recent interactions with members of the opposite gender; as far as he could remember, he has been politely declining every confession he has received, his primary interests and priorities lying in a certain sport instead. Did one of them misunderstand his words or something?
The basketball star was at a huge loss for actions and words. How could he possibly dispel this rumour without hurting the poor girl's feelings? As much as he hated being unable to reciprocate the feelings of his fans and eventually causing them heartbreak, he really did not want to stand for something that was simply untrue. He had no choice, he would have to be the villain. But firstly, who was this person spreading false stories about him?! There was only one person he could count on.
"Kasamatsu-senpai, are there any weird rumours about me going around school?"
It took ten whole minutes for his highly anticipated reply, which came in the form of a call.
"Don't worry, Kise," his captain's voice was levelled. Far too levelled. "It turns out that your relationship was actually an open-secret speculation, and Hayakawa accidentally confirmed it when he came to look for you at your class this morning...
...
Three Hours Earlier
"KISEEEEEEE!" Kaijo's rebounding expert came charging down the hallways of the first-year classrooms, his disposition hotter and more intense than usual. He spotted his desired marking and skidded to a halt, sliding the room's door so forcibly that it risked shattering its glass. "PREASE FORGIVE YOUL SENPAI, I DIDN'T MEAN TO DESTLOY YOUL ROVE RETTEL AND CAUSE YOU AND YOUL GILRFLIEND TO BLEAK UP! PREASE, I'RR EVEN APOROGISE TO HEL FOL YOU! PREASE PATCH THINGS UP, I DON'T WANT TO FEER GUIRTY ANYMOLE! YOU ROOKED SO SAD YESTELDAY DULING PLACTISE! OI, KISE, SAY SOMETHIIIING!"
When he finally opened his clenched eyes, he saw that the familiar blonde head was nowhere to be seen. "Kise...?"
"Kise-kun called in sick today," a girl informed timidly after recovering from the shock.
The Power Forward slowly blinked in surprise, feeling very stupid when suddenly, a flock of girls (including those wandering around the corridor) attacked him like a pride of lionesses would to a lone buffalo, all exclaiming, inquiring, interrogating in excited, shrill voices.
"OH MY GOD! SO IT IS TRUE!"
"I THOUGHT THAT KISE-SAMA WASN'T INTERESTED IN GETTING INTO A RELATIONSHIP AT THE MOMENT!"
"PLEASE, TELL US MORE, HAYAKAWA-SENPAI!"
"THIS IS TOO SUDDEN! SHE ISN'T EVEN FROM THE SAME REGION!"
"JUST HOW DID THEY MEET?!"
"I HEARD THAT THEIR RELATIONSHIP WAS TOP SECRET!"
"PLEASE ENLIGHTEN US, SENPAI!"
It was the first time that Hayakawa had received such overwhelming female attention, and he could not say that he liked it.
...
...so it's okay now, you don't have to hide it anymore. Just talk things out slowly with her." The tranquillity in Kasamatsu's tone was feeling more and more forced by the second. "I still can't believe it though, getting a girlfriend without your seniors and not telling us. Whatever happened to camaraderie? You better seek our approval on her. If she's restricting you in basketball, don't expect us to let it slide, no matter how cute she may be."
His jaw could very well be permanently dislodged from his head. The blonde model managed to speak after two minutes of silent bafflement. "...T-This girlfriend of mine... You know who it is?"
"What, of course. It's that girl who looked for you yesterday, right? According to your fan page—mind you, I overheard it from my female classmates—her name is Sugiyama Saeri? Like I said, Kise, you don't have to hide it anymore. I'm sure that your agency will understand."
Kise could feel his headache returning, the pain increasing tenfold.
"M-My relationship with..." Her dark eyes blinked thrice, mind registering the familiar name, "...Kise Ryouta...?"
"Oh my God, what a good actress!" Minagawa Keiko, the second-year club Secretary, pointed at her friend's dumbfounded expression. "It's okay, Sae-chan! Everybody knows now."
Saeri turned dazedly to a tug on her left sleeve, facing Maruyama Masahito, the effeminate first-year Welfare Charge, "yes, anego! We all understand why you have to keep it a secret."
"It's because his agency manager disapproved of her models having relationships, right?" His twin brother and Physical Training Charge, Maruyama Akihito filled the rest in. "Since it might involve scandals and jeopardize his reputation and popularity."
Kawakami Sachiko the first-year Logistics Charge nodded. "Everybody knows about it already, so it's safe to be open about it! A nice girl like anego won't drag him into any scandals, I'm sure!"
This was too much for Saeri to process. She wasn't sure if her heart could take it any longer.
Murmurs and whispers broke out in waves throughout the cafeteria, and the brunette was becoming excruciatingly aware and conscious about the stares that her table was receiving. Why, when, how did she end up becoming the girlfriend of some model she barely knew?! She had never seen nor heard the four characters of 'Ki Se Ryou Ta' in her life up till the day before yesterday, and now she's being told that he's some model?! She briefly glanced at the magazine that was stuck in her frozen grip: Zunon Boy; she had not actually read an issue before, preferring other titles for more masculine men and juicier gossip, and that was perhaps why she was so ignorant about his existence until now. But that wasn't the main problem at the moment...
Saeri licked her dry lips and slowly scanned the area. Apart from her friends, there were two very important faces giving her their rapt attention right now: one was Shijima Mariko, looking detestably expectant as though she was waiting for her to declare the falsity of her relationship status, and on the other end of the spectrum (and eatery) was Akashi Seijuro, his sharp, piercing gaze regarding her in a mildly curious manner.
The pressure on her was unbelievable, a thousand times heavier than that during a dance competition. She could not fathom the consequences of telling the truth, and neither did she want to lie to her friends. But then again, how could she possibly own up to her lie in front of such a huge mass? She had already passed the point of no return, and the brunette knew that Hell had a special place for people like her. As such, she shakily rose to her feet to address the anticipating crowd.
"I-I guess there's no point hiding it a-anymore," Saeri declared in a volume barely different from the norm, "I am dating Kise Ryouta."
It was then the school bell rang, signalling the end of lunch break.
A/N: PHEW FINALLY DONE! Firstly, I really hope that I'm getting all canon characters in character (omg repetition). Please do tell me if I've portrayed them out of line because I detest OOCness. (and typing Hayakawa's dialogue was really confusing HAHA! I hope everyone understands what he's trying to say). Secondly, I know that I've introduced quite a number of Saeri's friends here and explained a little of her club's background, so I hope it isn't anything too confusing or vague (it will definitely be expanded in later chapters). And thirdly, I've changed it to a KiseOCAkashi pairing because I plan to have Akashi playing a bigger role (TOTALLY HELPS THAT HE'S HOT LOL). But it will be predominantly KiseOC (not spoiling anything, I swear), so I hope it's alright with you guys!
About how everybody, including close friends (especially on Kise's side), totally buys Saeri's story, I hope that I've explained and constructed it in a way that is plausible does not seem unbelievable... Loopholes will be explained in the following chapter!
And to clarify: when Kise keeps wanting to exchange email addresses, he means to exchange numbers. In Japan, it's kinda like the equivalent of texting because its cheaper (or free?) to send emails. He's not outdated if you're wondering XD
And a huge thank you to AmarathineImbalance, hokkyokukou, Ninja99, SnowstormX, Anya Ishikawa and Guest for the reviews! :') And of course, to those who favourited, followed, and read as well. Haha I like Hiroki as a character too! If he proves popular enough, I will definitely include his own mini subplot in this story as well! :)
My mind is mush... I really hope to update ASAP! As such, please leave your...
Thoughts? :)