Kotone sighed to herself as she headed down the hall to the gymnasium. Normally the sound of the last bell would elicit a sigh of happiness and maybe even a skip down the hall in elation, but today all she could feel was nervousness. She was going to have to actually work on the project with Akashi today.
Granted, she wasn't as nervous as the first day, since their last conversation actually had some semblance of civility. However, she was still wary of the way he seemed to just switch every time she talked to him. Maybe he was bipolar or something.
No, Akashi Seijuro had no imperfections, he was as close to perfection as a student could get. Though maybe his arrogance could be counted as a flaw. But he did usually have the bite to back up his bark so was it really a flaw...?
Whatever, point was she was not looking forward to this.
"Well, it's now or never..." She murmured as she saw the gym doors come into sight. "But should I wait inside or should I stay out here…?"
She looked around the empty hallway nervously until she decided she was just going to go in. She was going to have to see him sooner or later, and maybe watching basketball practice would keep her from getting bored, right? All she had to do was push the doors open and walk in. No big deal. But still she found her palms sweating and her heart pounding.
God, she was a wimp.
Just as she was about to push open the doors, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She squeaked, quite loudly and embarrassingly, and jumped about a foot in the air. Turning, she saw it was the same guy she met in the hallway yesterday.
"Hello, Kono-san~!" He smiled mirth gleaming in his eyes. Probably because she just squeaked like a six-year-old girl. Ugh.
"Oh, hi…" She waved weakly and attempted (emphasis on attempted) a casual laugh. "You're the one from yesterday…"
"Hai. Mibuchi Reo." He bowed his head a little, his eyes flicking from her to the gym doors and then back to her, "Are you waiting for Sei-chan again today?"
"Uh...Sei-chan…?" Kotone stared back up at him blankly for a second. Akashi Seijuro. That must be who he was referring to. "Oh, did you mean Akashi-san? Yeah, we have a project to work on…is it okay for me to wait in the gym or do I have to stay in the hall?"
"Of course you can come in. Go ahead~" Reo smiled and ushered her in through the doors.
Once she was in Kotone was surprised to see there were already a few people practicing layups on the court. School had ended something like five minutes ago, and they were already starting practice up. Sweet Jesus, they were dedicated.
She hesitantly made her way to the bleachers and sat, surveying the practice. She noticed pretty quickly that there were three particularly good players - they never missed a single layup and the other players seemed to give them a wide berth. A big, burly guy who was constantly bellowing about muscles, a blond who always seemed to have a mischievous grin, and Mibuchi Reo (much to her surprise, he didn't seem like the type who'd be interested in a physical sport like basketball).
And then she saw him. Akashi Seijuro in the flesh and blood.
He pushed open the double doors from the locker room and walked in, his narrowed eyes did a scan of the room as all the players fell into line in front of him. Kotone was a little surprised of how conditioned they seemed to be in his presence. She knew Akashi was the basketball team captain but she didn't think it was possible for a first year like her to garner so much respect from the upperclassmen as well.
Kotone crossed her arms and sighed, leaning back against the bleached behind her. The more she observed him, the more she realized he was a pretty amazing. Everything he did seemed to be perfect. It was actually starting to make her feel a little hopeless. She was never going to get the top score it seemed.
Maybe he had some sort of weakness she could exploit. He had to have one. There was no way someone so flawlessly invulnerable could exist. She refused to believe it. There had to be something...
She narrowed her eyes on the back of his head, inwardly wondering what Akashi Seijuro's Achilles heel could be. Maybe if she stared long enough, she could burn a hole into his head and find his weakness.
Right, that would work.
Almost as if he sensed her tactic, he turned around making direct eye contact with her. She jumped a little before averting her gaze instantly.
Damn it, Akashi. It could've worked too.
She did her best to avoid staring at him too long until practice finally ended. Akashi went into the locker rooms to change out of his practice clothes. She figured she would pull out her copy of the packet and work on that while she waited.
"Come." She glanced up seeing that Akashi had left the locker room and was already making his way towards the gym doors. Quickly, she scrambled to grab her items into her arms and tried not to trip as she followed him out of the gym.
"..." They walked in an awkward silence to wherever it was Akashi was planning to take her to work on the stuff. Well, at least she thought it was awkward. She had no idea what he was thinking. Though it wasn't like she ever did so no change there.
Finally, they came to a stop in front of one of the hallway doors. Akashi unlocked it and quietly she stepped into the classroom.
The door shut with a muted click and suddenly a deafening silence seemed to fall on the room. Kotone shifted uneasily, doing her best to look at anything besides him. The tension seemed so thick a knife could cut it. After all, last time he was alone with her he had shoved her into a wall and belittled her. So this time she was keeping her guard up.
There was a scraping sound and a small thud. Kotone looked up to see Akashi sitting at the nearest desk, meticulously sliding the history packet out of his bag. Hesitantly, she sat across from him and set down her own stuff.
In the tense silence Kotone decided to look around the classroom. Obviously this was a room that she had never been in before.
Eventually she decided to speak if only because the silence was starting to freak her out a little, "What is this room used for?"
He didn't even look up when he answered but honestly it didn't bother her all that much. "This is the clubroom."
"Eh? You're in a club?"
"No." Kotone waited for more elaboration but when it was clear that that was all she was going to get she just shrugged and took out her history packet and opened up to the page he was currently scanning.
"Do this half of the essay questions then I will check our answers."
Kotone nodded, pushing down the small part of her that felt slightly annoyed that he didn't trust her academic capability enough to not check her answers. She settled for grumbling under her breath before getting to work.
~x~
After about forty-five minutes of working in a concentrated almost trance-like state, Kotone was surprised when the silence was finally broken.
"Let me see your answers."
She blinked for a second, her eyes sliding down to look at his paper. Each space under the questions on his page where neatly filled out. Her heart sunk as she glanced at her page. Granted, she only had one question left but it still felt like she lost to Akashi. Again.
Stifling her grumbles, she passed him her page and waited as his eyes quickly scanned over all her answers.
"You didn't do the last problem."
Kotone glanced up warily before begrudgingly admitting her incompetence, "Yeah...I didn't have time to finish it…"
He just stared back at her for a long minute while she shifted under his gaze. Finally, his eyes wandered back to the paper. "The other answers are good. Finish it when you get home."
"Oh, uh, sure…" She was taken aback by the fact that he hadn't made a single slight at her work. She was at least expecting him to give her a disapproving look but he was taking it well.
"Then, I will see you tomorrow." There was a quiet scraping noise as he pushed back his chair and stood up. His gaze settled at her one last time, he nodded and then he was walking out and sliding the door shut behind him.
"Hmm." Kotone propped her head up on her hand, turning to look out the window. "Maybe he isn't as bad as I thought he would be."