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The Secret Life of Kuroko Tetsuya: The (Straight) Boy's Love Novelist
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Jiochirou scowled slightly as he watched Ren lean down to level with the sleeping first year. "Are you sure you want to do that?" He asked, grudgingly. He hated to admit it, but he would have love to swap places with the sleeping first year right now.
Ren brushed off his worries and simply smirked, he leaned down until his face was across from the sleeping first year. "He looks adorable," mused the Coach, snapping a quick photograph of the first year in case he needed to use it in the future. "But it's too bad we have to leave now..." Ren's smirk only widened, he didn't seem remorseful at all as he leaned in.
Jiochirou's breath caught, 'Is he going to kiss him!?' He could feel himself panic, 'No!'
Ren's mouth found themselves beside the first year's ear, he blew a gust of wind into the ear.
Eyes fleed open as the first year screamed, "It's a ghost."
Ren simply smiled in amusement as he watched the teen fall off the bench he rested on, "Have a nice sleep, Kobe?" He asked.
Jiochirou let out a sigh of relief, his face was red, but it was hidden by the palm of his hand as he looked away from the scene, away from being caught.
Slap! Clearly what I had just written was nothing like the scene before me. Riko lifted her hand again as she slapped Kagami hard across the face, he didn't react. He was down for the count.
Somehow, somehow... We won. We miraculously managed to beat Shutuko, the last king we were going to face. Sure, we encountered a few roadblocks during the match... The fact that Shutoku's 10#, who Midorima had kindly identified as Takao Kazunari, could actually see me clearly (thank goodness we did not study at the same school) which made him a threat to deal with, but somehow, we made it. Now, it was finally time for a reward, dinner. We would have been at the restaurant by now... But, just one problem: Kagami was asleep. Well, he had been. The red hair had managed to open his eyes, he still looked sleepy though. Riko sighed, "First years, decide amoungst yourself who will carry Kagami." She ordered us.
We looked at each other, there was only one way to settle this. 3,2,1! We each flashed a sign on our hands... I stared down at my rock, everyone else had pulled a paper... I lost. This was manager abuse. As if I wasn't exhausted enough, I now had to carry Kagami with me, somehow… 'What was the fastest way to carry him?' An idea dawn upon me, 'Wouldn't that be player abuse though?' Then again... Making me carry someone who was twice my size, this was already labour abuse. So, in my mind, my idea was well validated. I grabbed both his legs, and I began to walk, dragging Kagami's half asleep body behind me. So, what if his clothes got caught in the mud? That's his fault.
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I muted out the red head's loud complaints, no matter how much he was yelling in my ear, I still didn't care. "You're just too damn fat." I deadpanned. Well that just added fuel to the fire, but it's not like it mattered. The moment we stepped into the restaurant I could already feel that something was off, my suspicions were confirmed the moment I spotted Rindou. She sat at Kise and Kasamatsu's table, laughing as she ate dinner with them. WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING HERE? WITH THEM! SITTING NEXT TO THEM AND EATING DINNER WITH THEM LIKE NO TOMORROW.
Rindou's eyes twinkled as she spotted me. "Oh, Tetsu-AH!" My palm found its way to her face as I clenched her with a vice grip, my eyes staring down at her like how an exterminator looked down at a cockroach whose death was much too long overdue. "That hurts." Her words were muffled but that was probably what she was trying to say as I continued to squeeze her face.
Kise's eyes widened, "Ah, stop! You're going to her Rin-San!" He exclaimed at me but made no move to remove my hand from her face. He was probably too frightened to try. Kasamatsu just stared on, amused by the entire scene. He didn't seem as though he was going to move any time soon to help either.
'Rin-San?' My clenched tightened. 'She didn't even give them their real name?! But her artist name? Does she want us to get caught?!'
"Eh! Kuroko! Let her go!" The outcry came from Hyuuga.
Ah, that's right... I had an audience present. I let Rindou go, bowing politely before I stated, "There was a bug on your face and I wanted to slap it away." It was clear that nobody believed me, but they dropped it if they wanted to ask me anything.
"So, you two know each other?" Asked Hyuuga, looking between both me and Rindou.
"Sort of." I admitted, the same time Rindou replied, "I'm his slave." My hand instinctively moved to slap over her mouth again. Too bad Kise had already heard it!
"Slave!?" Exclaimed the blonde in shock, escalating the situation even more. "She's your slave." His face was turning red.
'What a pervert...' My eyes flickered over to the rest of the Seirin team who had red faces too, 'They're all perverts.' Then again... It makes sense, they are quite deprived in some teenage departments, being hardcore basketball heads. I made a 'tsk' sound silently before collecting myself. "We work at the same place after school." I bluntly informed them, dispelling all possible fantasies from their head. "Which is why I'm not always available after school to attend practice." I added as they all nodded in understanding, well Seirin did. Kise and Kasamatsu just seemed to take it in stride.
"Where do you work?" Asked Koganei, curiously.
Rindou was about to answer from behind my grasp, but I beat her to it, my eyes glaring to silence her as deadpanned, "A bookstore." I felt her pout her lips beneath my hand, my eyes never left hers. "And I just got a call from our boss a few moments ago, and there's been an emergency." I told her, she stared blankly at me. 'Follow.' My eyes practically demanded. "Please excuse us." I pulled her out from the seat by a vice grip on her arm, she tossed her share of the money on the table as I practically dragged her out of the shop. As soon as we got out the door, we spotted Shutoku's ace duo heading in, but I made sure that we left uninterrupted. No need to get caught in that disaster waiting to happen.
Within seconds, heavy rain fell.
"We should probably get back inside then..." Supplied Rindou. "It seems things are about to a bit wild inside there."
"No, we're running." And so, we did.
Even if the rain drops were heavy, I could still feel it, the tingling in my bones. The excitement almost shaking me to the core, 'Must write...' After today, my brain was overloading with ideas. 'Must update...' My fist clenched tightly.
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"Kids these days… so youthful, so healthy and carefree," muttered Matsuki as he placed his wet umbrella aside to dry. He stared at us, an amused expression on his face as he scanned over our towel huddled forms at our desk. "Did you both have fun playing in the rain before I came to fetch you?" He teased, smirking. The rain had gotten so bad to the point we had to call him to pick us up from the nearest playground when it was clear we couldn't go on any further. Needless to say, he had found us huddled underneath a massive king penguin slide as shelter.
As he took off his wet coat, it was evident that he had gone on another one of his ridiculous dates from the purple suit he was wearing. "No," I replied, sipping at the warm vanilla milkshake in my palms. "We had to run here before 'someone'," I didn't bother to hide it as I jabbed my thumb over at the girl sitting behind me. "Accidentally revealed my identity." I told him. Matsuki raised his brow, urging me to continue. "She went up to Kise Ryouta and spent the day with him." I deadpanned, shooting a death glare over at her. "Even introduced herself as her artist pseudonym."
Matsuki winced and let out a tired sigh, "That's dangerous, Rindou." He told her. "He could link the artwork you draw back to you, and thereby, Tetsuya..."
The girl shrugged, her hands wrapped around the hot chocolate in her palms. Her pen was on the table as she took a moment to sip her warm beverage. Once we were both warmed up to our preferred comfort level, the work adrenaline hit us as my fingers immediately moved to open a fresh new document. My fingers flying over the keys at a rapid pace typing out all the scenes and scenarios that I had so desperately retained in my memories from my imagination. 'Yes... This will be my new Horoscope Romance story, inspired by Midorima's extreme dependence on Oha Asa's predictions.'
Matsuki let out a low whistle as he watched us work. I didn't have to turn to hear the quick stroke marks from Rindou's pens to know that she was clearly working up an art story from the rapid flurry of strokes made. "Well aren't you two such diligent workers, it almost makes me proud to call myself your boss. Almost." You could hear the sarcasm drip from every word. "That reminds me, Tetsuya," he called out to me. I nodded, but I didn't dare speak or risk my train of thoughts currently, my fingers still typing. "Your new book, 'The Shadow' had positive responses, well... Until they got to the ending when you decided to kill 'yourself' off." He smirked.
"Not all my stories can be happy endings."
"Yes, but considering the little cliff-hanger you left them... They would like a sequel follow up." Informed Matsuki. "Good new though, I've managed to kill the idea from the upper bosses with my excellent skills of 'reasoning' that because you had bombed your exams...your mother has grounded you so you can't work on another sequel."
'You mean skills of lying...' I shook my head, "I did not 'bomb' my exams, I did average."
Matsuki shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "Well it got them off your back for now."
"And I am grateful for that."
"As all children should be, but in your case… you don't sound very grateful at all, Tetsuya..." There was a beep. Matsuki sat up in his seat with a raised brow as he moved to check his computer, it was odd for him to get messages outside office hours. His eyes widened as he swore beneath his breath. "They didn't run this through me." He ran his hand through his hair, glancing at the calendar on his desk. "Shit!"
Normally I would ignore Matsuki when he's working, but it was an odd sight to see when the man was actually stressed. He normally had a good grip on all activities regarding my work's production, promotions and activities. He was efficient, that was probably why I've stuck by him so long.
"What's wrong?" Asked Rindou, I guess even she got curious.
Matsuki let out a growl as his finger scrolled down the mouse. "Someone in the upper departments decided to arrange a live interview for Turquoise Angel without my permission, and apparently it's been in the works for months and it's too late to pull out from the event now without the black lash affecting the company's stocks devastatingly." Matsuki let out another string of curses. "I'm going to skin that asshole who arranged this behind my back alive when I get my hands on him." He muttered darkly.
It took a while, but the words suddenly sunk in. "I'm sorry... Did you say 'live'?" He nodded. "As in... In person."
"Live, and in person at FUJOKA*."
"FUJOKA!?" Shouted Rindou, her eyes twinkling now. "That's the biggest event for all Fujoshi books and works in the country! It only comes around once a year and it's being held next Saturday and Sunday." The girl was close to flying over the moon as she gushed about her most anticipated event.
Matsuki rubbed his forehead, "That's probably why they arranged the event behind our backs. They knew that I would have rejected anything live or in person... but the identity of Turquoise Angel is probably one of the biggest mysteries in the fujoshi circuit, and some of the higher ups probably wanted to profit on that. Assholes." He grumbled the last part beneath his breath.
"But it's not like many people in this publishing company itself know that Turquoise Angel is actually normal everyday forgettable high schooler, Kuroko Tetsuya." Rindou added, sending me a look. "Most of them probably got the impression that it was me writing the books and Tetsuya drawing since people only ever see the two of us come in and out of your office."
"Well, they see you, Rindou..." I said. "I doubt that they even know I exist because of my misdirection." 'After all, I am a truly forgettable high schooler…' I internally rolled my eyes at that statement.
"That's it!" Matsuki exclaimed, slamming his hands down on his desk. "I have an idea!" He glanced at me and stared at me with a serious expression. "Tetsuya, how much do you trust Rindou?"
For a second there, I actually thought he was serious. "I'd rather jump off a cliff or get hit by a train before I'd put my faith in her."
*FUJOKA is made up, I don't actually know if there is an actual event like that in Japan. I do know there is one for fanwork (dounshijin), but I'm not sure about one such event purely for BL work.