If I heard him right, he admitted he was jealous about my situation with Teppei. Woah, what. I can't help but look up to his face and ask,
"Aomine, could you repeat what you said? I think I misheard you but did you just say you were going insane from the possibility that Teppei and I are dating?"
Aomine jolts at me calling "Kiyoshi-senpai" Teppei while his sun-kissed face gradated toward crimson red; he shuffles off to the other side of the path . Oops, I wasn't meaning to suggest anything but now that I practically told him how Teppei and I are first-name bases, he probably thinks we're dating. Ugh, damn these Japanese social conventions. I wait a while for him to buck up to his usual self and say something but I guess that's not happening. He's quite sensitive; it doesn't seem like I'll get a grunt or a hiss. Discouraged by his changed attitude to press on the subject further, we fall into a silence that seems to make our twenty-minute journey to the station an eternal ordeal. Finally making to the station with heavy steps, I sigh as I pull out my Suica (a fare card for transportation services), and turn back to grumpily mumble bye to Aomine, only to find his arms pull me into his rapidly pounding chest.
"Can we just stay like this for a bit?" his timid-but-mellow voice finds my ears.
It's now my turn to blush fiercely but thankfully half of my face is pressed against him so he won't see me like this. Finding comfort in the warmth despite the drenched sheets that entangle us, I slowly bring myself to wrap my arms around his waist. We keep hugging each other like the typical lovestruck teenagers, which we aren't, by the way, until he begins to chuckle on top of my head. I break apart from the hug and give him a quizzical look.
Scratching his head, he flashes an uneasy grin and says, "Sorry, it's nothing funny, I know. I kind of lost myself, didn't I? This won't happen again 'cause I'm not that much of a dick to pursue the taken."
I get hold of his dejected eyes and flatly tell him Teppei and I aren't dating, and seeing him instantly perk up and lips curl, I laugh at his simplicity.
"I never said anything about dating Teppei, and besides, I totally wouldn't hug you if I already had that hunk in my life," I had to add the later half of the line seeing his smirk keep widening. Jeez, look at him burst and rant on how I should stop referring to Teppei so friendly now that he knows I'm a singleton. Why do I find this idiot so cute?
Tiptoeing, I plant a kiss on his busily moving mouth and walk off to the turnstile; Aomine snaps out from the whatever trance effect the kiss had on him and hurriedly follows me as he growls.