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"Ah, there you are!"
Startled by the unexpected voice coming at him from behind, Kenma nearly drops his cellphone to the ground below. He scrambles to keep it steady, pressing a few buttons on the app he was currently in and causing a sudden game over screen to appear. He doesn't even know what went wrong this time.
Glancing around in search for the voice, half expecting to see a lurking Kuroo or Yamamoto out to spoil his peaceful lunch, Kenma is met with the waving figure of [Name] running toward him. His eyes widen by a fraction, not really believing that she'd be looking for him. He curses the fact that his every day hiding spot wasn't really a good one now that she knew where it was. He'd have to find a new one for when he wanted to be on his own.
"Kozume-kun, I'm glad I found you," she said, sounding almost relieved as she stopped in front of him.
"Uh…" He really didn't know what to say, eyes averting hers as he tried to think about what another person would do in this sort of situation.
"Ah, s-sorry, this is really random," she apologized, realizing just how awkward it must be for the second year setter. "I know we don't really talk much with each other outside of class activities, but…"
As she began to ramble, Kenma found his mind wandering a little bit. He was looking her over in short intervals, his eyes focusing on her face for brief seconds before glancing back toward anything behind or away from her. Now that she wasn't completely soaked by rain water, he could easily see that [Name]'s hair had a bounce to it. It curled slightly and he wondered if that was natural or not.
"I wanted to thank you for letting me borrow your phone yesterday," he heard her say.
"Ah, you're welcome," Kenma answered automatically. He didn't know why she was thanking him again; she'd done it yesterday after giving his phone back. Shouldn't she be done with that now?
Somehow sensing the confusion—perhaps it was because Kenma unknowingly showed his emotions on his face sometimes—[Name] tried her best to clarify. "Actually, well, I wanted to thank you with more than just words, I guess you could say."
She was beating around the bush, making Kenma nervous about any implications she was making. He could feel a bit of sweat on the nape of his neck and he went to wipe it away, not sure why he was feeling so hesitant in the first place. He didn't feel the need to be thanked any more than necessary, so no matter what she said, he was probably going to refuse anyway.
"So, uh, would you like to go to a cafe with me?" Her question caught him off guard. "I know you were just at one yesterday, but I was thinking I could buy you something as a thanks."
She was right. He was at one yesterday and didn't really feel like going to another one any time soon. Especially if it meant going out somewhere with someone he wasn't exactly familiar with. Just as he was about to refuse her proposal, a third voice chimed in, scaring the both of them.
"Of course he'd love to go with you," Kuroo said with a grin, slinging his arm across Kenma's shoulder. "Right, buddy?" Kuroo's arm nudged Kenma's head, making it seem like he was nodding in agreement.
"O-Oh," [Name] responded, hand still on her heart from being startled by Kuroo's sudden appearance. Then realizing that her request had been accepted, a beaming smile made its way onto her face. "That's great! I'm a little busy after school today, so would tomorrow be alright?"
"We don't have practice tomorrow, so that would work out great," Kuroo said, once again answering for Kenma.
"Great, that's uh, great," [Name] responded, not really sure what to think of Kuroo answering everything for Kenma so eagerly. Pulling her phone from her pocket, she glanced at the time and noticed only a few more minutes left of the lunch period. She also noticed the depleted battery icon in the upper corner. "I should get going now before class starts again. My phone's pretty close to dying, so I have to charge it before it's completely drained."
Turning on her heel, [Name] waved a quick goodbye toward the two volleyball players, promising to meet up with Kenma later tomorrow. Kenma waited until she was completely out of sight before he turned a heavy glare up toward his friend.
"So this is where you've been hiding every time you go missing during lunch," Kuroo whistled, ignoring his friend's glare as he retreated his arm from around Kenma's shoulder. He looked around the small, hidden area, wondering why he'd never checked here before.
"Why did you do that?" Annoyance was evident in Kenma's voice as he huffed out the question.
"Because you," Kuroo started, poking Kenma for emphasis on the second word, "Need to make more friends."
"I've made more friends," Kenma muttered, thinking of a certain orange haired ball of sunshine as he did so.
"More female friends," Kuroo clarified with a shrug.
With another huff, Kenma picked up his belongings before standing. He started to walk away as Kuroo mentioned showing their other teammates this little hiding spot, making up plans to make it an impromptu second club house. Now, not only did Kenma have to find a new place to hide away, but he had to go out with a person he never really wanted to get to know in the first place.
