The final semester had finally ended, things between naoki and kotoko remained the same, and although kotoko assumed that no progress in their relationship was made, naoki on the other hand has already accepted the fact that he has to live with kotoko from now on. He doesn't truly hate or dislike her, but he acknowledges her presence in his life.
His summer was spent with the school's tennis team and kotoko had summer classes despite her placing 100'th on the exams.
One particular day kotoko was so out of it, she just stared off into the window and watched naoki from afar, 'he looks so cool from this distance, trying hard for his team….'
She continues to day dream and although kinnosuke makes an effort to save her, the teacher then catches her daydreaming and punishes her to 10 laps outside
The whole class laughs as kotoko accepts her fate heading outside.
The hot sun met her face and she squints as she faces the sunlight, kotoko then takes out her 2 bun hairstyle and ties her hair up in a ponytail as she prepares herself for the worst 10 laps of her life. Kinnosuke watches her from afar admiring her spirit for trying to be positive. She looked good in a ponytail, and it wasn't just kinnosuke who thought that, most of the boys from their class were distracted watching her run from afar, afterall, she was more entertaining to watch than the lesson.
Kotoko was at her 5th lap around when she felt a strong force hit her forehead.
Falling on the ground she let out a small "ouch"
Naoki rushed to get the ball as he spots kotoko sitting on the ground like a fool.
He couldn't help but chuckle as he held out his hand for her
She took it and stood up.
"Gomen, it wasn't on purpose just so you know"
Kotoko ignored his apology as she was trying to dust off her skirt
In her mind, naoki would take any chance to make fun of her.
"Why are you running laps? Got in trouble?" naoki still couldn't help but smile.
Kotoko shot him a angry look "n-no!" her voice full of denial and her tone was so defensive.
Meanwhile inside the classroom when class F was supposed to have quiet time to answer some practice questions, kinnosuke spotted the two and yelled in horror.
"Its that ugly irie-san! Sensei do something!"
"EHHHHH?!" their whole class stopped what they were doing and rushed to the windows
"Oh my gosh, they SO have a thing for each other"
"It's so obvious irie-san has a thing for her"
"No way! Aihara-san?!"
"Yeah she's actually pretty cute if you look closely"
"They would make such a cute couple"
"No way"
"No look at the two of them! It's so obvious that it's love!"
Chatter filled the room and kinnosuke felt as if his whole world was falling apart.
Naoki couldn't help but he bothered by the loose strands of hair kotoko missed to tie on her ponytail he reached out and used one of her bobby pins to clip it in
Fully unaware that the whole class F was watching them like it was a scene from a shoujo manga.
Kotoko was so taken aback with his gentle gesture that she flinched but stood frozen
She could feel her heart racing, as if she didn't stop running at all.
"There" naoki smirked.
Before kotoko could even respond their teacher was walking towards them and they both pause.
"Aihara-san! No time for flirting! Your distracting the class! Keep running!"
Naoki gave her a smug face that said 'i told you so'
And kotoko was annoyed, frustrated and embarrassed. Maybe running it out would make these feelings go away so she did as told ignoring a smiling naoki.
Class F made such a huge fuss over the small encounter with naoki and kotoko
It was all they talked about the whole summer.
And although kotoko didn't mind the rumors since she was so used to it, kin-chan on the other hand stuck to her like glue the whole summer.
He would go so far as to picking kotoko up early in the morning just to prevent her from walking with naoki.
Summer was a bliss and kotoko spent most of her time catching up on school work and naoki spent most of his time playing tennis.
A few weeks before summer ended, he attended the tournament and did well during the first few rounds just as predicted.
When the first half of the tournament was done and he made his way to some empty benches for his lunch. As he unwrapped the bento box and opened its container, he was greeted with cut- out cute pieces of vegetables and sausages that spelled 'goodluck irie-kun'
He unconsciously smiled and thought of kotoko who struggled to make his obento, she probably stayed up all night just to make it and although he was a little annoyed because her cooking wasn't particularly edible, he shrugged thinking how it can't be helped and that he was already used to these things. After all this is kotoko, she still did unnecessary things to show her love and devotion to him, and even though he never stated it, he didn't mind it. Not because he liked her or anything, but because he was already so accustomed to it, knowing that kotoko will go out of her way to do these things for him.
His moment of peace was disturbed by a girl who appeared out of nowhere, naoki didn't know her but he knew that she was from an all girls team and that she was a strong player
"C-can i sit here?" she held an bento box on her other hand and naoki just nodded as he continued to eat
It was slightly awkward so the girl spoke "i-i'm matsumoto yuuko, but you can call me matsumoto-san, i saw you playing a while ago and i can tell your really good"
"Thank you, i'm irie-naoki, from tonan high school"
"Nice to meet you irie-san…. That's a really cute bento, your mom made it?"
She looked closer to read the remaining letters
"No, not my mom"
"Ah i see…. Girlfriend" her voice sounded slightly disappointed
"No, i don't have a girlfriend" naoki stated emotionless
Matsumoto felt a glimmer of hope and his statement gave her a different meaning, maybe it was a signal?
"Just a special friend" naoki continued, he eyed he vegetable letters envisioning kotoko's struggle to get them done, he smiled slightly again, somehow kotoko's struggles always seemed amusing to him
Matsumoto then understood what he was trying to say and sighed as she thought to herself 'mama was right, guys who are inlove are so cool'
"Ah i see…" she said
"Make sure you do your best, if i happen to face you, i won't go easy on you" she warned him
naoki , taken aback by her warning packed up his lunch
"Sure, i won't go easy on you too…"
He said as he waved goodbye leaving her all alone by the benches
"See you…."
"Matsumoto-san" she added to remind him of her name
"Yeah" naoki then cooly walked away with his back turned to her as she admired him from there.
"He didn't even remember my name" she huffed, clearly a little frustrated with their little encounter.
