Yeesh, I haven't been on this story in forever. Anywho, here's the next chapter! I also don't think I'm gonna do anymore prologues from here on out. They're killing my motivation. Also, a couple of OCs are going to be introduced in this chapter, but they probably play a very big part in the rest of the story unless you guys want them to.
A huff left Yusuke as he took one look at his sister and her friend sitting across the room.
He would be lying to himself to say he wasn't jealous. The two of them spent, it seemed, nearly every waking moment together, talking and laughing. She didn't even sit at his and Fuuto's lunch table anymore (much to the chagrin of both boys), instead choosing to join Kaito and the band of friends the two of them had made together. He would watch the two of them laughing with their clique, and after weeks of watching Kaito shamelessly began flirting with her, Yusuke had had enough. He stood straight up from the lunch table, shamefully sporting his meal in his hand and a blush on his face, and went to eat outside in the freezing, snowy courtyard.
That was how Fuuto found him: grinding his knuckles into his other hand, nose almost touching his rice, and muttering 'stupid, stupid, stupid' over and over again into his food.
"What are you doing out here, stupid? Trying to catch a cold? It'll be your fault if I get a fever standing out here with you, you know."
"Then go back inside," Yusuke grumbled.
"Yeesh, you're even more of an idiot than I thought. As dumb as you are, and as much as I hate you, you're still blood. I'll have to tell Masa-nii later that you made a fool of yourself in the middle of the entire lunchroom."
"Wha—?! You little punk!" Yusuke accused, standing up and glaring at Fuuto.
"Ah, that's more like it. Now, tell me what happened back there."
"Don't tell me you didn't see it. They were sitting there with their entire gang, all of them acting like they owned the universe."
"So Neesan's made some new friends, and you can't be a part of their posse because they're all too good for you. Quit crying over it." Fuuto deadpanned, plunking into the seat beside Yusuke.
"Well, I don't see you joining them!"
"I could if I wanted. Neesan loves me, after all."
"Spoiled brat..." Yusuke grumbled under his breath, but eventually put his head in his hands in defeat. "That's not it, though."
Genuine concern flickered across Fuuto's face for a fleeting moment. "Aah, what the hell happened?"
"I still can't believe you didn't see it."
"Tell me already!"
Yusuke sighed, and turned to his brother with a scowl. "That Kaito kid. You didn't see him flirting with Hinata?"
Fuuto's eyes widened, his breath hitching. "What? I wasn't paying attention; I was being flocked with girls! He was flirting?"
"Yeah. He was going at it with pick-up line after pick-up line, and all she did was laugh. She even flirted back a little bit."
"You're lying."
"I'm not!" Yusuke defended, and hesitantly added, "Though I wish I was. That kid was unstoppable. He was being arrogant about it too, as if she had a crush on him."
Fuuto harrumphed, running his fingers through his hair. "The nerve..."
The two sat in grudging silence, each pondering over what Yusuke had said. Finally, Fuuto stood, throwing a half-hearted smirk at his brother. "I need to get inside. I might get a sore throat. And you know that I need to take care of these vocal cords, ne?"
With that, the boy chuckled and made his way inside, taking a detour through the lunchroom and casually glancing at his sister as he passed her table.
Yusuke, it seemed, had not been wrong.
Ema giggled sweetly, a blush spreading across her face as Kaito flashed one more dimpled smile and cheekily tossed another carefree, flirty joke her way. Their friends roared with laughter, and she almost couldn't hear her own response— but they all did, and that sent them into waves of fresh glee.
"Oh, the two of you are too cute!" Kiyomi, the sweet-faced blonde girl with whom Kaito had partnered up for the first project, sighed in bliss. "I still don't understand why the two of you don't just get together already; you both obviously like each other."
It was just like Kiyomi to be so straightforward; the girl, who had been infatuated with Kaito when they had first met, eventually let her good nature accept his feelings for Ema. The three of them remained close friends, adopting more and more people into their camaraderie till Ema could have sworn they had someone from every type of friend-group imaginable.
But she wouldn't have it any other way; almost two months after she and Kaito had confessed their feelings for one another, her small, restrained, family-exclusive social life had grown to include the mix-and-match pack she'd grown to know and love. Their crew consisted of everyone from the muscle-bound sports buffs, to the most petite, paint-splattered artists, to the handy mechanic who could fix just about anything. And they all loved and protected each other like family, holding each other together like glue.
Granted, Ema oftentimes felt guilt for leaving her brothers to their own devices. But she knew that they'd be welcomed with open arms. There was only one thing she worried about: their reaction to Kaito.
After the two had made their mutual feelings known, he had begun to flirt with her harmlessly, and as she blossomed under the encouraging smiles of her friends and the sweet gaze of Kaito, she found herself returning the gesture. And she was still careful, never doing so outside the safety of her group.
While most of her friends didn't know the entirety of her family situation, they all respected her enough to understand that Kaito and Ema's almost-relationship was to be kept secret.
Which was why Kaito playfully elbowed Kiyomi in her side after her declaration. "You know better than to shout something like that out loud."
"Ow," she hummed. "That hurt. But I deserved that, I guess."
"Ah, cut her a bit of slack. It's not like anybody heard, eh, Ema-chan?" Mitsuo, a herculean, towering boy, caught the small girl in a headlock, muscles rippling in his arms as he ruffled her hair while she laughed helplessly in his grip.
"You're gonna break her neck!" Kiyomi cried, and lightly tugged Mitsuo from Ema.
"Eh, sorry. Isn't it time we get to class now?" Mitsuo suggested.
"Probably," Kaito agreed, hefting up his bag and offering his hand to Ema. "Last thing we want is to be late."
The flock all stood, laughing and rough-housing down the halls to their next hours, and as Ema entered her classroom, she felt a fond smile growing on her face.
The school bell rung at the end of the day, and Yusuke stood outside, smoothing down his clothes and inconspicuously flattening down his hair as he waited for his sister to emerge. And she came, Fuuto in tow and her friends waving their goodbyes. They unceremoniously slid into the car, the silence between them all tense and uncomfortable.
"What had you laughing today?" Yusuke turned to her, russet eyes alight with false nonchalance. But Fuuto knew better, and when Ema looked at her red-haired brother in surprise, the pop star butt in:
"What he means to say is, 'were you flirting with Kaito today?'"
Ema's quickly flushed, trying to stammer out a reply while Yusuke made a noise of indignation. But both boys waited for their sister's answer, and when it came, she just simply said,
"I wasn't. Did it look like I was?"
And with that, she looked out the window, chastising herself for not being more careful and hoping that her two companions would believe her.
They didn't.
Ok, so for those of you wondering, yes this will still be an Ema/Asahina story. I just find it really important to let her character open up and bloom a bit, because let's be honest, if she were to go into a relationship with one of the brothers at this point, she would never come out of her shell. Hence the friends; it's a big thing for me that she expands her horizons, and I do believe that with Kaito, her friend group and her comfort zone would definitely expand. I think I might make a bonus chapter at the end of the story with profiles for her friends.
EDIT: Because I have gotten a lot of PMs and reviews asking me to pair Ema up with Kaito in the end, there is officially a poll in my profile for the end ship. I am also counting PMs and non-anonymous reviews that I get that explain why you want Ema to end up with so-and-so (I won't be counting reviews that just say "Kaito" or "Iori" or "insert-name-here.")
As usual, please review (and vote)!