Disclaimer: I do not own Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun.

5

After the school festival, Natsume went to the back to wash her face. She had put face paint for her attire purposes during the festival and right now, she's thinking it might've been a bad idea. It stuck on her face as she tried to wipe it off with a towel. As she did so, it was as if she was pulling her features out.

"Gaaah." She complained. "This sucks."

"Don't you mean, this 'stucks'?" She heard laughter not far away. She turned to her side and saw nothing. Her face was still covered by a towel. "Natsume-san?" The voice continued, but she didn't need to remove the towel to figure out that it was Sasayan standing somewhere, but she still did, anyway.

She looked at him crudely. He returned it with a stifled laugh.

She wanted to punch him, kick him or whatever for laughing at her, but he was a little far from where she as standing, and it would be weird to come at him to do just that. Nevertheless, she didn't know what he was laughing about, so she asked him. "What's so funny?"

"You." Sasayan paused to breathe in air. He must've lost some inside since he was busy laughing it all off. "I'm sorry. There's still some make up on your face."

"It's not make up!" Natsume argued, but she wiped at her face again.

"Face paint or whatever, but it's all over your face. It's like you're a clown or something."

"Sasayan-kun!" Natsume grunted. It was like she was almost angry. She was still just on the verge of being so.

"Sorry." Sasayan said. He was still laughing a bit, but he was trying his hardest not to, which he should be thankful for. If he continued to giggle at her predicament, he might've had a bath. "Is it really that hard to remove?"

"I don't know." Natsume said, her tone sarcastic. "If it was then you wouldn't have run into me here since I'd be already gone by then. Hmmp. You're just lucky you a wearing a cat nose that's veeery easy to remove."

"I don't think it's that-" Sasayan said, countering back her sentences.

"You try it, then." She cut him off. She was starting to think that walking over to Sasayan just to punch him would be worth it, after all.

But Sasayan's face was red. He looked at her and his mouth opened slightly. "Is Natsume-san asking me to wipe her face?" Sasayan almost laughed at the thought. "I don't wipe other people's faces, especially Natsume-san's."

"Wha-!" Natsume realized the wrongness of what she just said. "Stupid Sasayan! I didn't mean it that way! Stupid stupid!"

Sasayan laughed off again. "Sorry, Natsume-san. You just get flustered so easily all the time, its… It's…"

"What?" Natsume said, her eyes almost in flames.

Sasayan's face retreated to being red. "Nothing." He just said.

"Why is Sasayan-kun always making fun of me?" Natsume started to say. "Are you having fun doing this to me? If that's the case, then you're not very different from other-"

"I'm not like them." Sasayan stopped her before she can finish her sentence. "And it's not that, either." He looked at her, a bit embarrassed, but he kept his serious look on. "I may make fun of you sometimes, but I won't hurt you seriously." He returned to his usual face.

Natsume just realized that she had never seen Sasayan so serious before, until now, even though he was wearing cat ears and nose. That made her unable to talk. For a moment, she thought if the Sasayan in front of him was really the Sasayan she knew.

He walked closer towards her. She instinctively took a little step back. She was afraid Sasayan would do anything to her, even if the thought was really far-fetched.

His face was as shocked as her. "What?" He said. "I'm thirsty. What do you think I came here for?"

He cupped his hands and drank from the faucet. Natsume was a little shy upon her reaction. She kept quiet and listened to the sound of water splashing on the tiles.

When he was done, he looked up. "Sorry, for the last time." He said. "Ah, why are you all red?"

"Sh-shut up." Natsume said.

Sasayan grinned.

"Hey, Natsume-san?" He said.

"What?" Natsume managed to talk.

"Aren't you going to wipe the rest of that make up?"

She wailed. And here she thought he would already act serious. "That's it." She stretched the cat nose Sasayan was wearing, the string almost about to break off. He can see the horror in Sasayan's face as she did so, begging her not to do it. She released it from a desirable length and poor Sasayan winced in pain as it hit his nose. He rubbed the area after he yelled. "Not fair, Natsume-san. I didn't pick on you physically or anything."

"Ha-ha." She laughed sarcastically. "That's because I'm a girl. And you shouldn't hit a girl! Ha-ha."

"But seriously though." Sasayan continued speaking. He was still rubbing his nose. "Wipe it all off." He quickly turned around before Natsume could damage her nose again. "I'm really going now, so you don't have to be embarrassed while doing it."

Sasayan turned around because, one, he was starting to walk away. But before he was really out of her sight, he called her name once again.

Natsume looked at him, who was at the process of drowning her face with water again. "You should've let me took a picture of you before you washed it off."

"Why?!" Natsume thought he was starting to make fun of her once again, but he was already gone.

He turned left so that Natsume couldn't see her anymore. "Because you looked cute in it." And Natsume can no longer hear it.

Sasayan turned around because two, he can't look at her face while he's telling her she's cute…

Yet.