Estelle was floored. He often had some sort of weird reason to do what he was doing. But this time, it was a rather straightforward reason.
"You wanted to what?" Estelle needed clarification.
Murasakibara seemed bothered that he needed to repeat himself.
"I wanted to see your face up close."
For what reason? To see if I was wearing make-up? To check for bibimbap sauce? To check me out? Why?
A multitude of thoughts reeled through her head but all she could manage was to sputter out a "Why?"
He didn't answer. He just kept looking at her. Though her heart rate was climbing, she couldn't help but feel bitter that her own body was betraying her. Out of all the people she could have her heart rate spike at, her body chose the one person who showed absolutely no interest in her. When it seemed that Murasakibara had finally seen enough of whatever he wanted to see, he drew back his frame a little, at leisurely pace. In contrast to his unaffected attitude, Estelle was very much affected and it bothered her how much she was affected by it.
It must be the suspension bridge effect, where you misattribute the cause of your high heart rate to something else.
That must be it. She was on edge from things, or persons, that went bump in the night. And her heart rate was suffering because of it. Estelle quickly tried to rationalize and compartmentalize what she was feeling.
It wasn't that Murasakibara was super handsome or anything. Estelle had turned down much more handsomer guys before without much of a fuss. It wasn't that he was unbearably tall. Though Murasakibara was the tallest person she had met by far, Estelle was quite tall herself. Height didn't really intimidate her. And it definitely wasn't that he was eloquent. Murasakibara often mumbled, "hm"-ed, and "mm"-ed, barely talking to her in full sentences at any time. But maybe it was his unpredictable manner in his not being affected by her, like his teammate Okamura was, and his tendency to not abide by the normal rules of personal boundaries.
"Look," Estelle started, as she used her forearm to push Murasakibara's chest back, "I really appreciate you walking me home, and putting up with…"
Estelle trailed off and didn't finish her sentence. There was too much that she could say he was putting up with.
Murasakibara opened his mouth to speak, but Estelle quickly decided to finish her sentence, "…walking me home so late. But it kinda surprises me when you get too close to me without permission. I'd appreciate it if you gave me some room."
Murasakibara relented and removed his towering torso from above her.
"Your eyes."
She blinked at him. What about my eyes? And furrowed her brow.
"Are bright."
She hadn't stopped blinking at herself in the mirror since Murasakibara left those words hanging in the air. After he had said that, he wordlessly lumbered back to the elevator and Estelle quickly slinked back into the safe confines of her apartment.
No one had ever described her eyes as "bright" before. In fact, they were dark. Exceedingly dark. Dark to the point that when she wore color contacts for events and shows, the opaque color looked too unnatural. Her stylists had given up on using color contacts on her. Her hair was dark too. Dark to the point that when she tried to bleach her hair, after letting the chemical process, her puzzled hairdressers asked whether she had dyed her hair black before.
So while she had received many a compliment before. "Bright" was not one she was used to. She had to fake brightness of complexion by spending hours before a mirror expertly piling on foundation, and fake brightness in her eyes by using eyeshadow that would bring out whatever hidden color there was other than black in the depths of her irises.
So no. Her eyes were many things, but hardly bright.
Maybe he was just looking at my eyeshadow in the apartment lighting.
She swiped a gentle finger across her eyelid and rubbed her fingers together. Delicate shimmer rearranged itself on her fingertips, catching the light as her hand shifted.
She stared at her own eyes in the mirror again. Obscure. Black. Definitely not bright. Estelle had let Murasakibara influence her too much. She finally left the mirror.
She decided that he had simply caught her in a moment of weakness and he was milking it for all it was worth. Putting his face too close to her. Scooping her up because she was "slow". Dragging his thumb across her lip in the infirmary. Unceremoniously shoving a spoon in her mouth. Maybe he thought it funny that she, perhaps one of the more popular girls in his school, was at his mercy and never stopped him from creating situations that could be easily misinterpreted.
Once again she made the determination to stop. She had worked too hard for her rising fledging career as a small town idol. And she didn't intend on letting her hard work stop there.
Estelle was going to stop this before it, whatever it was, went any further.
"You WHAT?"
The sound of basketball hitting the polished floor loudly echoed throughout the gym.
"It's just something like… an occupational hazard sometimes. It happens," Estelle replied as nonchalantly as possible, a smile never leaving her lips.
The rest of the team were on the court practicing, while their vice-captain took a quick drink of water. Estelle casually mentioned that she thought someone might have been following her on her way back from school and Fukui was completely aghast, which was refreshing in its own way. Since he seemed to show little regard for her, she assumed that he wouldn't be so affected by such news or be too worried about her.
"Shinya-chan, that sounds kind of serious." Fukui was uncharacteristically serious, and his trademark sarcasm was nowhere to be found.
"I don't have definitive proof or anything, but you know our practice runs late sometimes and—" Estelle started.
The rest of the team bounded over.
"What are you talking about? Fukui looks unusually serious," Okamura couldn't help but suspiciously eye his vice-captain's one-on-one time with their manager.
"Do you know what she just told me?" Fukui was in disbelief, "She just said someone has been following her home after practice!"
Estelle was surprised that his statement had such an effect on the hearers. Even Liu Wei's typical disapproving face, had a deeper wrinkle of disapproval after Fukui's statement.
"No, no. I didn't say someone was for sure following me or anything. It's just sometimes. I get a weird feeling is all, when I walk home," Estelle made sure to downplay it.
She didn't really want to straight up ask the team members to walk her home. It seemed weak to her. Despite her knowing her situation was not something she could really muscle through on her own, weak or not, she still had her pride. And she wasn't going to wheedle them into walking her home.
"I'll walk you home!" Okamura volunteered overenthusiastically.
Estelle smiled. She could always count on Okamura giving her the reaction she wanted.
"Oh no, I couldn't possibly…" Estelle cloyingly refuted.
"Every night! Always!" Okamura shouldered his way in front of Fukui to, once again, emphasize how much of a willing volunteer he was for the task.
"That sounds more like a punishment to me," Fukui sneered.
Himuro turned the conversation back on a serious note, "Shinya-san, have you always felt this way walking home?"
"Hm, no. Before I had gotten away with not being involved in any extracurriculars, so I was able to walk home much earlier. But now that I'm manager, I go home much later," Estelle carefully responded.
She needed to word her response cautiously so that the basketball team would feel somewhat of a responsibility in walking her home at night, but at the same time, couldn't make them feel like she was blaming them for anything.
Himuro nodded thoughtfully, "That's true. Sometimes our practice does run long."
"Did you guys know?"
Estelle turned and was surprised to see Murasakibara behind her. She was surprised that she didn't notice such a large person behind her before and surprised that Murasakibara was actively joining in on a conversation that seemed he had absolutely no interest in.
"Elle-chin is scared of the dark."
It was an odd addition to the conversation. No one had asked for Murasakibara to join in, and frankly, Estelle didn't expect him to. His teammates seemed equally startled that Murasakibara would join this conversation, and that he knew such a fact.
"Why dost thou know that?" Liu Wei couldn't help his curiosity.
It had only been the second or third time Estelle heard Liu Wei speak a sentence more than three syllables long. And though she assumed from his soft accent, he wasn't a native Japanese speaker, it was the first time he formed a sentence long enough to reveal his odd choice of pronoun.
Is no one going to comment on his archaic speech? Are we just letting this go?
Before Murasakibara could create any more misunderstanding, Estelle cut in, "Oh, I bumped into him buying groceries the other day. And I got that weird feeling again, so—"
She didn't know which explanation would cause the least amount of misunderstanding. If she said that she asked him to walk her home, that would seem, maybe, a little desperate on her end, and perhaps even seem like she liked him. But if she said, they happened to be walking in the same direction, she didn't know how willing Murasakibara would be to participate in the her lie.
"Oh I see," Himuro responded.
Estelle saw always thankful for Himuro's ability to read the atmosphere and that he was too much a gentleman to let her finish the sentence.
After some more thoughtful nods, Himuro looked to the rest of his team, "If we're free, why don't we take turns walking Shinya-san home?"
Before letting anyone answer, Estelle beamed, "Really? Would you guys do that?"
Inwardly, she grinned. This conversation was going exactly the way she planned the night before. Okumura agreed readily. Estelle could sense Liu Wei's assent through a barely-there nod.
"I think it works out," Fukui said, "There's five of us, so we each can take a day."
"Eh? I don't want to."
Estelle turned. Of course, it was the whiny purple titan.
"That's a hassle," Murasakibara drawled, gesturing with his lollipop.
She bit the inside of her cheek again to avoid allowing her irritation show on her face. He always threw a wrench in her plans. But Estelle had no idea why he was refusing do to so now, especially since he had walked her home twice before without putting up a fight.
"What?" Okumura yelled, "You aren't even busy half the time! And you just sit on the risers for all of practice anyways! If you won't do it then I—"
It didn't matter to Estelle if Okamura took two shifts or not. But Himuro cut in.
"You've walked her home before," Himuro said, "How come you don't want to now? Are you busy a certain day of the week?"
"I don't want to. It's a drag," Murasakibara popped his candy into his mouth, eyebrows drawn.
Estelle intervened, "It's ok if he doesn't want to." She gave her most modest, charming, idol smile, "I'll be ok. I'm not certain if someone is actually following me anyways. It might just be my own thoughts."
She inwardly sneered. If Murasakibara was in such opposition to her. She would make him feel guilty about it.
"Well if Atsushi can't do it," Himuro mused, "Okamura, you're ok taking two days?"
"Yes," Okamura replied, a little too quickly.
It was settled. Estelle would have a rotation of the school's tallest athletes escorting her home on a daily basis for school nights. Save for the tallest one.