Not Today
The afternoon sun poured into the library through the windows. Kousuke sat there almost lifelessly, watching the visible specks of dust dance in the air, wondering what topic he wanted to research for his biology class summative. All of a sudden, a book was dangling in front of him. The person behind him began to whisper.
"Look, Kousuke. It's about the health benefits of laughter." Kousuke slipped the book out of Makoto's hand and began flipping through it. "So what do you think? It has a lot of citation thingies at the back, so it looked pretty credible to me."
"Looks thorough," he whispered back. "Sure, I say go for it."
"Yay! So what are you doing?"
"I'm thinking the medical application of nanotechnology."
"Sounds complex. Perfect for a nerd like you."
"What did you just call me…?"
"A nerd. You know, a person who's boring because they study too much. Chiaki calls you that all the time."
He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I know he does. I just didn't think you'd start too. Speaking of Chiaki, wasn't he here too?"
"Yeah, upstairs. He's looking for books on quantum biology, or something like that. He can be nerdy every now and then too. No wonder you two get along."
"We have more in common than just that."
Makoto raised a brow. "Oh? What?"
"We both like baseball, basketball, and..."
"And?"
And we both like you, Konno Makoto. As true as it is, the words just wouldn't make it out of his throat. The mere thought of her misunderstanding, and the days of awkwardness that would come out of it wasn't worth the risk. "... and, we both like to tease you, of course." He handed the book back to her and pointed to the sign-out counter. "I'm going to find my material upstairs. You're probably dying to get out of here, so we'll meet you at the field in... 20 minutes?" Makoto feigned a grin and skipped away.
Author's Note: A slight change made to the last paragraph, since I wasn't too happy about it. I know this is a few months late, but I am finally starting to write again (which is probably good news if you're following this story). Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a fantabulous rest of July!