They heard footsteps again, along with a very faint sound of a phone ringing. Panicking a little, Tsumiko held her breath and instinctively shuffled a little closer to the boy, as if doing that would hide her – especially not when she was, sadly, nearer to the door.
The footsteps grew faint and she almost jumped away from the boy, when she realized how close they were. Fortunately, Kise had held her to prevent her from jumping and making some noise, that could blow their hiding spot. Unfortunately, as Kise became aware of their proximity, an idea came to his mind.
With golden eyes staring straight into dark eyes, he popped a question.
.
.
.
"Can you be my girlfriend?"
...
Tsumiko blanked for a moment.
Cheeky golden eyes still fixated to glazed dark eyes.
It was, however, only for a while.
Because, before she could even recollect her thoughts, the door slid open – revealing a boy in his training wear.
Golden eyes and dark eyes both resigned, as both gold and silver heads turned towards the door.
.
.
.
Click.
It took a clicking sound from a phone camera for Tsumiko to recover, stand up and shriek.
"Wait! This is a misunderstanding. What did you do? Delete it. What's that for?"
"It was for evidence, Irosuzuka. I believe that this is the most efficient method to explain to the captain and to the team why you were late for practice –", a boy with red hair spoke in an unfazed manner.
Gesturing to the bag he was holding on his other hand – that so happened to be Tsumiko's – the vice-captain continued, "– and why you weren't answering your phone. I was tasked, specifically, by the captain to go and find you, and bring you to practice", making sure to emphasize on the word 'captain'.
With the mention of the word 'captain', the coach-in-training lost all rational thought and decided for the best action.
Without hesitations, she squarely reached out for the red-head's phone, only to fail – as Akashi had predicted. Nonetheless, Tsumiko, was persistent, and so was Akashi, who never did back down in any challenges, despite how childish some may seem.
The white-haired girl didn't give up and became more aggressive, while the red-haired boy was still being a gentleman by being cautious enough to dodge – making sure that they wouldn't come into contact to each other. However, because of her forcefulness, she tripped forwards, and Akashi – being the Akashi he was raised to be – caught her just in time.
Tsumiko saw this as a chance to snatch the phone away. It caught him off guard, but Akashi was still quick enough to dodge. Unfortunately, in the process, he had lost his footing and courtesy of the additional weight of the girl's bag and the girl herself, he had tripped backwards.
Meanwhile, Kise was watching the scene in front of him, feeling so confused and lost. When the other two fell, he gawked and fought so hard to prevent himself from cackling at the odd situation. Seeing that the two were frozen, he took this as a chance to escape.
Oh, he was not going to be part of this – never.
Startled dark eyes stared down at equally startled ruby eyes. The silver-haired girl was currently on top of the red-haired boy, who was still astoundingly clutching his matching red phone.
He blinked.
Her eyes widened even more.
Tsumiko immediately got off him, stood up and bowed to hide her reddening face, "I'm so sorry, Akashi-san. I was too reckless."
Still refusing eye contact, she held out a hand to him.
Akashi took her hand and stood up, as well – feeling extra thankful that the girl still had her head lowered and didn't look up at him, "It's fine. I believe I should also apologize for teasing you. I was not seriously planning to show them the picture."
Listening to his cool voice, she softly pleaded, "Will you delete it, then?"
The sound of the little hum that he did caused her to realize that their hands were still together. She was about to retract her hand when his voice was heard again.
"That depends on your explanation. I'll think about it", he said, while releasing his hold on her hand.
Letting her hand drop to her side, Tsumiko could swear he was messing with her again.
Who knew the Akashi heir could be a little playful and mischievous? But again, he was still 12, isn't he? But then again, he was the best in everything, so maybe, he was also the best in being playful and mischievous?
'Yes, that might be it' , she concluded.
Feeling recovered enough from the embarrassing things that had happened, she finally looked up to him and showed him a weak glare to counter his sly gaze, as she played along, "Fair enough. Please let me know of your decision after I explain it to you later."
At her cooperation, he gave her an amused smile and she returned it with a similar one and said, "Thank you for getting my bag, by the way", before picking up the said bag from the ground.
He merely nodded, in response.
Looking back to the classroom, she explained, "I left it when this guy here decided to drag – ", only to find the classroom to be empty.
Silver head sharply turned towards red, "Wait, where'd he go?"
Not wanting to show that he, himself, was a bit surprised and that he was disappointed at himself for not noticing the unknown boy leaving, he deadpanned, "He left already."
"Seriously, that guy", she muttered towards herself.
Akashi glanced at the time displayed on his phone and decided not to waste any more time. He then reminded the coach-in-training, "I believe that we should leave too."
Her eyes widened once again, as a certain realization hit her.
"How late are we?"
"Very late."
With that, white and red ran towards the gymnasium.
It was a bright and sunny morning, but the light-haired girl's day was already beginning to be dark, as she felt her leg muscles ache – not to mention the bruise she got from falling on her butt yesterday.
On the contrary, a certain red-head was having no difficulty on doing the drills, even though he, along with her, was punished to run extra laps for being late to the practice yesterday.
She could only watch with envy, as Akashi effortlessly ran across the court.
"Irosuzuka-chan?"
Tsumiko met the pink-haired manager's eyes for a while and acknowledged her, "Momoi-san", before shifting her focus back to red hair that stood out in the court.
Momoi followed her gaze and voiced out her observation, "Are you okay? You've been oddly staring at Akashi-kun for some time now."
The coach-in-training flinched, and without taking her eyes off the said boy, she calmly denied, "What do you mean odd? I'm observing, Momoi-san"
The taller girl recognized the slightly cold tone of her friend and decided not to pry in any more, "Hmm, okay~ I'll just bring these reports to Coach Shirogane."
In response, Tsumiko showed her a small smile.
Once Momoi left, the silver head's thoughts wandered towards the events yesterday.
...
"Coach, captain, I'm very very sorry for being late. On my way here, I ran into a friend of mine, that I haven't talked to for a long time, and I lost track of the time as we chatted. I also left my phone in the classroom. It was a good thing that Akashi-san found it.", the latecomer explained, as she bowed.
The vice-captain didn't say anything about her excuse and lowered his head, as well, "I also apologize for not being able to find her on time."
The head coach faced the two first-years and said, "Irosuzuka, I hope this won't happen again. As for you Akashi, go ahead and practice. But you have to run extra laps after to make up. The same goes to you, Irosuzuka."
"Yes, coach", they both answered. Akashi immediately joined the other first-stringers in their practice, whereas Tsumiko stayed on her spot.
"Go and get changed, idiot", the captain said, while giving her a pat on the head.
...
Now for some reason, she thought that the pat felt real.
It was.
Someone was presently patting – no, clutching – her head.
She really wanted to know who it was, but the weight on her head was preventing her to turn around.
"Oi Murasakibara! You're crushing her head!"
Ah, so that's who.
"Hmm, but Mine-chin, Iro-chin wasn't responding. Right, Iro-chin?"
Tsumiko was still absorbing the shock caused by the humiliating fact that someone was clutching her head, as if it was simply a ball. When she failed to respond once again, the owner of the hand had the nerves to even utter a, "See?"
With this, the tan boy effectively swatted the taller boy's hand away and rushed in front of the girl to examine her, "Oi, Irosuzuka!"
Finally feeling free from Murasakibara's grasp, she fixed her hair as she responded, "Aomine-san", which gained a sigh of relief from the blue-haired boy.
Turning around, she faced the taller boy with a neutral expression, "Murasakibara-san, I apologize for not responding earlier."
Changing her expression to a fiercer one, she continued, "However, I prefer not to be roughly handled that way again." With a deep breath, she asked "Now, what can I do for you?"
With not one bit of remorse, the first-year giant droned on, "Mine-chin and I are done with the drills, can we go now?"
"Oi wait!", Aomine protested. "Irosuzuka, are there more drills I can do? I don't feel like going yet."
The enthusiasm the shorter of the two boys possessed pushed Tsumiko to scan her clipboard. She saw that the two were indeed done with their exercises for this morning.
Thanks to her head almost being crushed, an idea popped in her mind.
"Ah Aomine-san, Murasakibara-san! I think I made a mistake. It seems like you're not yet done."
She then told them the drills they still needed to do, much to the glee of Aomine and to the despair of Murasakibara.
"All right!", Aomine exclaimed, as he hurried back to the court.
In contrast, Murasakibara realized her intentions and narrowed his eyes on the girl, "Iro-chin, I'll crush you."
Feeling braver than usual – thanks to her already-sour mood – she taunted, "Is that so? That might be a good idea, because the more that you crush my head, the more I remember the additional drills I have prepared just for you", while tapping a finger on her chin.
His droopy eyelids abruptly lifted for a brief time, "Fine~ I get it." With a pout, he dragged himself towards the court.
To make Tsumiko's day even darker, she found herself alone because Mizuki and Chitose both had their respective club activities. Therefore, she planned to try and eat at the rooftop, for a change. As she exited the classroom, however, she noticed that it was unusually noisier down the hallway. With her bento on her hands, she glanced towards that direction – only to find out that her suspicions were right.
He was there.
Kise Ryouta was surrounded by sparkles and oh – by few girls, with some of them carrying bentos in their hands. He was giving them his signature smile, which probably made anyone's day even brighter. This didn't apply to a certain light-haired girl, who was not happy about the blonde boy's rude escape yesterday.
Finally, the boy faced her direction and locked eyes with her – but only for a split second, because he immediately looked away, pretending to not have seen her.
Seeing through him, she felt a vein pop. With another idea on her mind (she should probably thank Murasakibara for giving her a head 'massage'), she walked towards his direction, still not taking her eyes away from him.
This caused the boy to glance at her once again, but this time, he gave her a questioning one. Now, how he managed to do that, without his fangirls noticing, was something Tsumiko found amusing. Despite the gaze he's throwing at her, she still continued walking.
Oh, she was really feeling ferocious today.
Kise was already thinking of what he should do, when he saw her turn towards the classroom that was a classroom away from his.
Dark eyes peeked inside Class 1-C and saw no signs of the blue and pinkette duo.
Actually, her idea was to join Aomine and Momoi for lunch. To do that, she needed to visit their classroom, thus, part of her idea was to make it seem like she was approaching Kise to see how he'd react.
Feeling a little upset to not find the duo, she faced Kise one last time, and discreetly mouthed a 'rooftop, now', as she gestured towards her raised bento. Good thing, Kise was quick to get her message and gave her a subtle nod.
He decided to clear things with the girl.
The white-haired girl was munching on an onigiri, when the door to the rooftop opened – revealing her expected company at this thankfully-empty rooftop.
His golden hair was shining even more brightly under the sun's rays.
"Sorry, sorry."
He took a seat next to her under the shade, minding a considerable distance from her.
"Have you eaten?", she politely asked.
He sheepishly placed one hand on the back of his head, "Ah, not yet."
With this, the girl handed him her bento, offering an onigiri to him. He muttered a low 'Thanks', before getting one and biting into it.
"My usual lunchmates had their club activities and I couldn't find my friends from class 1-C", she explained.
"Ahh."
.
.
.
"You escaped again, yesterday."
Golden head snapped towards her, "What am I supposed to do? I don't want to get caught in you and your boyfr –"
"Stop. He's a friend"
"Yeah, sure"
"I'm serious", she firmly said, as she threw him a look.
He almost gulped at her look, "Okay, sheesh."
There was a pause before the boy spoke again, "Wait! He took a picture, right?", with horror clearly seen on his face.
"He already deleted it, don't worry", she assured.
Narrowing his yellow eyes at her, he asked, "Are you sure?"
Wearing a confident expression on her face, dark eyes met his, "Yes, he's not the type to keep things like that."
Remembering how the boy from yesterday spoke so politely and appeared to be so collected – as if he just didn't see his friend scooted close to stranger – he found himself convinced of what she just said.
That boy was weird, he felt it.
He shouldn't be associated with this girl anymore – never.
"Okay, I get it."
An awkward silence enveloped them once more as they continued eating. This time, she was the one to break it, "Your question yesterday, you weren't serious, right?", only making it even awkward.
Kise almost choked on his last bite of onigiri, "N-no!"
He gulped, "Forget about it, I just wanted to see your reaction."
"I knew it", she nodded in response, before poking fun at him, "Besides, what kind of question was that?"
Feeling a bit offended at her reaction, the rookie model defensively replied, "I don't know. I–", he halted under her scrutinizing gaze, "– well, I just thought that if someone pretends to be my girlfriend, then maybe there wouldn't be as many girls flocking around me anymore", he continued, while feeling embarrassed as the words came out from his mouth.
Why was he even saying this in the first place? No – why was he even speaking with this girl in the first place?
His thoughts were interrupted by a snort.
"I'm sorry, but that is just ridiculous, and what is this, a drama?"
"H-hey! What about you, huh? Falling on top of that boy, heh, so cliché, right?", the blonde first-year countered.
Oh, why was he even participating in this?
"It was an accident!"
Satisfied with her reaction, he childishly sang, "That's what they always say~", making the atmosphere less dull.
Okay now, maybe, he was enjoying it a little.
She comically gaped at him, "Oh my God, I wonder what your fans would think of you when they see you like this."
Dropping his eyelids and flaunting his long eyelashes, the Zunon boy junior smirked at her, "Then, what do you think, my number one fan?"
She playfully hit his shoulder, to which he responded with a dramatic whine, "Ouch, so mean~"
She shook her head, before halting, then, in one swift motion, she stood up and said in a more serious tone, "Kise-san, you should eat some proper lunch now. There's still time."
This sudden shift in her behavior caught him off guard. It somehow reminded him of himself.
Ah, so maybe that's why he was still here.
But then again, this was more reason to stay away from her.
Kise watched her expression become less serious once again, as she placed her hands on her hips, "You still owe me for everything, you know"
Shaking his head at this, he said, "Fine, fine", as he stood up, as well.
Well, there goes his plan called not-associating-himself-with-this-girl.
"That reminds me, I still haven't answered your questions about modeling yesterday."
He then pondered a little, "Say, I think it's easier if you see it for yourself. Take it as my token of apology, will you?"
Yup, his plan was totally tossed down from the rooftop.
"Wait, is it really fine for me to go?"
The blonde rookie model slapped himself mentally for even making that suggestion. Nevertheless, as he observed how her dark eyes lit up, he resisted the urge to dismiss everything as a joke and shrugged at her, "Yeah, you can watch."
He saw how she tried to fight her excitement and to remain composed – causing him to show her a teasing expression, after eyeing her up and down, "Of course, it would be more difficult if you want to model too."
"No."
"Watching is fine. Thank you", she flatly said.
Afterwards, he suggested to exchange numbers. Texting each other was definitely less of a hassle than seeing each other at the hallways and talking through their eyes, like earlier. How they managed to do that was still a mystery.
"Okay, I'll update you about the schedule of my next photoshoot. Bye, Irosuzuka-san!", he chirped while waving at her. Accepting that his plan of not having any connections with this girl failed, he smiled one last time before closing the rooftop door.
For some reason, the dark day had finally become brighter for Tsumiko.
With her white phone still on her hands, Tsumiko scrolled down on her messages, triggering more of the events yesterday.
...
After finishing her extra laps, Tsumiko saw Akashi, who finished the extra laps faster, waiting by the water fountain.
As if he was some psychic – maybe, he was – he looked directly at her. His clear gaze made her jog towards the water fountain.
"Akashi-san? Were you waiting?"
In response, he handed her a towel, "You should drink water first."
She took the towel from him and muttered a 'Thank you', before drinking water.
Her eyes lit up in realization, "Ah! I see, I do owe you an explanation."
He crossed his arms in anticipation.
Knowing that this was her cue, she first told him about her unpleasant meeting with Kise during the first day of school, then she continued to the incident today. Of course, she omitted the parts of Kise's personality, her questions about modelling, and Kise's sudden question.
Akashi didn't interrupt her as she spoke and at the end, he only nodded, "I see."
"Hey Akashi, you done?", the captain asked, as he neared the water fountain.
The two first years faced the direction of the captain. The taller first year spoke first, "Yes."
"Okay, come with me for a moment." He then glanced at Tsumiko to say, "You can go home now. Don't be late tomorrow."
"Yes, yes", she saluted before waving goodbye to the two.
It was only when she checked her phone at the changing rooms that she saw an unknown number on her missed calls list. Thinking that it might be Akashi's number because of the registered time of the calls, she sent a message to the unknown number,
"Hello, could this be Akashi-san?"
His reply only came in when she was on her way home.
"Yes, Irosuzuka. I got your number from the captain."
For some reason, Tsumiko imagined Akashi's teasing tone at the word 'captain'.
"Okay. By the way, have you already decided on what you would do to the picture?"
It took a few minutes for a message to come in,
"I find your explanation acceptable. Don't worry, I will delete it. I see no reason to keep it."
Nodding to herself, she typed in,
"I'll keep your word, then. Thank you, Akashi-san."
His next reply was the very picture they were talking about,
"After sending it to you, I deleted it already. I just thought that you might want a copy. It's up to you now, if you want to keep it or not."
Oh, Tsumiko could really see his playful expression now. On the other hand, she couldn't stop her amused smile from forming as she thought about how thoughtful and sensible Akashi was,
"I appreciate the thought, Akashi-san. However, I also see no reason to keep it."
He answered,
"If that's what you say, Irosuzuka."
Tsumiko giggled, recalling how he had already uttered the same words before.
...
Once again, she examined the photo. Two figures were squatting near the board, with golden and silver heads turned towards the camera – despite the silver one's back facing the camera.
Tsumiko looked dumb, whereas Kise proved his status as a model – still looking good in a candid photo.
Hearing the bell, she left the rooftop to go back to the classroom – not forgetting to save the picture.
A/N:
Hello! I'm so sorry ;A; I got really busy :(
Anyway, thank you for the follows, faves and reviews! T-T
Hope I got Kise's character right. We know that this ball of sunshine has some darkness in him, especially in Teikou era. But in this chapter and the previous one, his darkness is still a bit milder, because he just started modeling and he still hasn't tried learning some sports and being good at every one of them. Actually, I find him difficult to write (probably even more than Akashi? .o.), since it's kind of hard to balance between his light and dark sides (lol)
For Tsumiko's personality, though Kise said that she reminded him of himself, she's not necessarily two-faced like him. It's more of like she tries to be mature, but sometimes, her childish side just shows. "She's just 12, right?" (lol) It's something like Kise being a bit immature too. Am I making sense? (lol) Idk anymore.
Next, Akashi! How do you like his moments with Tsumiko? :) I think I haven't explicitly declared this, but I guess you already know anyway (lol) There will be a development between Akashi and Tsumiko. I did say that the pairings could change in the future, so, who's gonna end up with Tsumiko is a secret~~~ ;)
Don't worry, this is not GOM x Tsumiko. This is Nijimura x Tsumiko and Akashi x Tsumiko.
Phew, I said a lot. Let me know about your thoughts in the reviews~ :)
