For a long time, Akemi had worked hard for her grades to be at least at the same level as those of her older sister. And if during all her years of middle school she had at least finished in the first three at the exams, her grades had always been a bit lower than Misaki's at her age. In itself, it wasn't a complex she had really carried around, and no one had ever really blamed her for it; yet a touch of bitterness had long crept into her chest.

And even though since she had started to attend high school she had told herself that the relentlessness she put into her revisions was perhaps not necessary, she had kept doing everything she could to get by with very good grades. Especially with her weak point: mathematics. She wouldn't go so far as to say that she was a hopeless case in this subject. But every day, it was as if the explanations went in one ear and out the other, eager to stay free as air across the classroom.

So after spending an hour after school on her algebra paper, it was to her best friend that she had turned. After all, Ritsuka had already seen the syllabus, she could definitely help her!

Or so she thought.

"Maybe more like this...," Ritsuka mumbled while scribbling the equations on a draft sheet, under Akemi's helpless look.

Because if the first questions had been resolved easily, Ritsuka had very quickly arrived at the end of her knowledge and, especially, of her memories. Installed both at her desk, only their words and their reflexion echoed on the walls of the classroom from now on deserted of the 2-1.

"Don't worry, Ricchan, I'll try to ask Misa. You're already pretty late for your club!"

"Yeah, but it's frustrating not to be able to do it," Ritsuka sighed, her cheeks puffing up. "Did Yamamoto-sensei give that awful homework, seriously?"

"Yeah. He's ruthless!"

"Looks like…"

As she closed her pen, not without letting out a grunt of frustration, the taller girl dropped against the back of her chair. Akemi retrieved her paper and the drafts they had used, without getting up, but considering the fourth question for the umpteenth time.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway, pulling them both out of their school bubble. If a few students were still passing by at times, because of the not too late hour, it was an almost familiar figure that cut through the doorway, only to freeze when he spotted the two students.

"Suna-kun?" Ritsuka asked, as he walked to his seat.

Akemi raised her head when she heard the name, and her eyes caught the green eyes of the volleyball player who was looking at them with attention, his face closed. The burgundy of his sweat shorts caught her attention, and the girl realized that training must have already started. However, her brown hair remained in perfect order, just as her face did not show the slightest trace of perspiration. As if he went back to class before starting.

His dark pupils stopped for a fraction of a second on her silhouette, and Akemi didn't struggle to understand that he was wondering what she could do here.

"Hi," she said with naturalness while addressing him a sign of the hand.

He hesitated, wrinkled his forehead, and bent down to grab a notebook from the locker on his desk, without answering.

"Aren't you at training?" Ritsuka asked, who was putting his things away.

"I forgot that," he explained, showing them his Japanese literature book. "I would never have had the courage to come back for it after training..."

The sketch of an amused smile was born on the lips of his comrade in front of his nonchalance, under Akemi's glance. Against all odds, while they both expected him to leave the room to return to the gym, he remained motionless.

"What are you still doing here? And don't you have training, you too?" he asked to Ritsuka.

"I was helping Akemi with her mathematics, but my memories are a bit too far... So yes, I'll go."

Hesitation painted the features Suna's face once again, before his gaze deviated to the younger girl's now loose hair: no bun today, which obviously meant no more little bump to hide.

"What's it about?"

"Oh, that's right that you're good at math," Ritsuka realized. "It's about systems of equations."

Akemi looked at her two elders in turn, as Suna approached, dragging his feet. And while she expected his attention to be on the paper statement of her exercise, she saw him looking at her black hair, the outline of a mocking smile on his lips. He put his index finger on the spot where the bump had been resting for two days before it swelled up, under the questioning face of a perplexed Ritsuka.

"Already over?" he asked, in a voice bordering on disappointment.

"Wha– obviously, I wasn't going to keep it for months! I'll end up believing that you were proud…"

"What'ya talking about?" Ritsuka cut them off, obviously confused.

"My head, that was his service," Akemi said. "Oh, it's true that in the end I didn't explain it to you until the end, since the conversation drifted when we talked about–"

The end of her sentence died at the end of her lips when she realized that, if she hoped to be able to stay alive, it was better to avoid mentioning Kita like that in front of his teammate. And considering the black look that her best friend was giving her, she had undoubtedly done well to stop.

"So it's to make up for it that you came to see the paper?" Ritsuka joked, taking the opportunity to change the subject very quickly. "I guess even you can feel guilty."

Akemi didn't miss the volleyball player's almost evasive gaze, which didn't seem to be on his classmate, even though the latter seemed to be talking to him with a certain familiarity.

"I already answered her questioning, for that," he said by shrugging his shoulders.

"Not really... You didn't help me at all on that point, I remind you!"

Ritsuka followed this exchange with an incredulous look. Now her best friend and her classmate, whom she had never seen talking together, were exchanging private jokes in front of her. In what world ?

"Her questioning?"

Akemi's features tightened. She mustn't let it be known that she had started her little investigation behind her back, because Ritsuka would definitely get angry. If she usually tended to remain calm and almost reserved, it was not for all that she did not have her strength of character. And in this kind of moment, the girl usually preferred to make herself very small.

"About volleyball! There was something I couldn't remember, so I asked him a few questions! Anyway, what were we saying... Ah yes, math!" she said with an absolutely unnatural speed. "Don't worry Ricchan, you can go to your training, I don't want you to get into trouble because of Yamamoto-sensei!"

Ritsuka arched an eyebrow and looked at each of them in turn, squinting suspiciously. An amused "of course" escaped her at the mention of the math teacher who had nothing to do with the story, and she finally left the classroom. A sigh of relief escaped Akemi at the thought that she hadn't insisted, and it was only when he spoke that she remembered Suna's presence:

"So I can be late for training?"

A sly smile clothed his features as he saw his interlocutor's face freeze – before she turned into a sulky pout.

"It's up to you to interpret it that way, senpai."

A glance made her realize that he was staring at her in silence, and that regarding what had just happened, she was the one supposed to speak again.

"Please don't tell Ricchan about our discussion last time," she implored, clasping her hands together in front of her as Suna sat down on the desk next to the one she was sitting at.

"I still don't have the right to know why you asked me what I think of her?"

Akemi swallowed.

"No, I'm sorry, if she finds out, I'm dead. It doesn't look like it, but she's really scary when she's upset!"

"What a pity, this math exercise looked very easy, though."

Without another word, he got down from the desk he had used as a chair for a few moments, already ready to leave the room. In a reflex that surprised them both, Akemi threw herself on him to catch his arm and hold him back, so that he turned around to face her. And even if she would have liked to ignore it, she could not pass by the veil of audacity and victory which took place at the surface of his olive eyes.

She wasn't walking, she was running.

They stared at each other for what seemed like hours, so much so that even Akemi finally let go of his arm to look away, but she felt a strange embarrassment in the air.

Suna was not used to being especially talkative, and even less intrusive. He usually thought much more than he spoke, and was content to observe in silence. However, this girl whose first name he now only knew - having heard it a few minutes earlier - titillated his curiosity, by beating around the bush like this. Nagano was only a classmate with whom he had exchanged several times, to whom he could talk naturally without question, if he wanted to talk. He had no idea what was going on, but there could not be anything happening between them.

But perhaps he was asking himself too many questions. Nagano couldn't be interested…

"Why did you ask me that in particular?" he risked in a weary tone, his eyes crinkled.

The answer would undoubtedly silence his questions, after all.

"Because there's only to you that I could have asked that," Akemi sighed with a surprising seriousness.

Or it wouldn't…

And without another word, Akemi leaned once again on her mathematics, without realizing the double meaning of his words, and the way they could be interpreted.


Hello ! I'm sorry for being late to post this chapter, but thank you very much for your patience :3
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, at least! Suna's really gonna have a hard time dealing with Akemi's stuff hehe, and it's only the beginning~
Don't hesitate to leave a like and leave a review! And thank you very much for those who already did :D