Chapter Text
“Achoo!”
You shiver at the cold gust of wind that blew your way. The sun was just rising, and you seemed to be the only student walking in the streets. Roosters can be heard crowing as shops were only starting to open and start their day, but you are already on route to school—not to mention, on the first day of the week too.
"This isn't me," you thought. To be frank, who in their right mind would be willingly going to school as early as 6:22 am? Okay, maybe it's not that bizarre of a situation, especially since there probably would already be a few students at school for their club, but for you it was. You were never this early for school before, plus morning assembly wasn't even until 8:40 am.
This is really becoming an unhealthy habit, all for a boy too. Sure, he's totally your type, but it would be nice to catch up on some sleep.
“Maybe I should try changing it up and start doing it at nighttime," you muttered to yourself.
Your thoughts end at a halt once you see the front gates of your school with the words "Kaijou High" plastered on the wall. As you set foot inside the campus, you glance around your surroundings. There wasn't really a single person to be found on the school grounds, which makes sense since they probably are in their clubroom.
“At least my early waking doesn't seem to be put to waste.”
As you entered through the already open doors of the entrance to the main building, you went straight to your own shoe cubby and took off your sneakers to put on the school slippers.
Walking in hallway, you stay cautious and keep looking around while you make your way towards the stairs.
Reaching the 4th floor, you made sure that there wasn't a single person visible in the vicinity. Walking past your own classroom and another one, you stopped at the rows of lockers in front of the room. Despite the identical visual of each compartment, you stepped in front of a certain one, which at this point has become muscle memory.
Taking one final glance around and turning your head left and right, you reached into your backpack to grab the note you'd prepared the night before and slipped it into the mail slot of the locker. Hastily you zipped up your bag and went straight to your own classroom. Sliding the door behind you, you sighed of relief.
“Safe again for another day.”
Heading right away to your own seat, you hanged your bag on the hook at the side of your desk and buried your face down in your folded arms on the desk. As your body relaxes, your eyes flutter at remembering how early it still was.
“I should probably catch up on some z's before the morning assembly. I already finished the assigned homework, didn't I? Gosh, it's so cold...”
As you ramble inside your head, you feel yourself slowly fade away into slumber.
---
Chatter can be heard around you as you slowly open your eyes only to be met by a blinding light, causing you to close them again briefly.
“Yo dude, can I see your homework? I feel I did mine wrong.” You can hear voices behind you getting louder as you adjust to the chaotic atmosphere.
Raising your head from your desk, you look around you to see that almost all of your classmates have entered the room. Every single window curtain has been opened to let sunshine in.
Rubbing your eyes, you feel a presence take the seat in front of you.
“You look like you got here really early.” Their voice was familiar, it was your closest friend in the room, Risa.
“Yeah, no shit." You reply groggily.
“You're still going at it?”
“Yep, quite surprising I haven't been caught yet. Not even a time for a close call.”
“Gotta say, I admire the dedication. You like the guy that much? ”
“Don't make me think about how much of a hopeless romantic I am, just because you have a boyfriend.” You pouted as you rested your cheek on the palm of your hand.
“I didn't even say that.” She scoffed.
“You basically were with your expression.” You pointed at her face.
Amidst your small banter, the school chime rang, followed by the principal's voice announcing through the intercom that it is time for the morning assembly. Classes gathered outside their rooms to line up into two, separating the boys and girls.
As the crowd of students flooded into the open field in an orderly manner, your eyes scanned the area, trying to spot a certain somebody. Just as your class halted at your designated spot, you saw him.
Kasamatsu Yukio.
Can't help but stare, your mind wondered if he had read your note of the day.
This all started 4-ish weeks ago, when you found yourself in front of the school court.
You could hear basketballs bouncing, shoes squeaking on the floor, and above all, the loud cheers of girls. You were well aware that the school's basketball team was having a practice match today.
So many girls were talking about the new hottie freshman that even you, someone not into sports at all, heard about the match just from all the gossip. And you totally weren't even thinking of going at all, that is, until your homeroom teacher called out to you in the hallway, asking you to tell your classmate to come to the office.
However, she was nowhere to be found. Which led you to where you are now.
“She better be in here, or else I give up." You mutter to yourself as you open the door to the gym.
And you were right, because as soon as you entered, you saw her right beside the door. Once you notified her of the situation, you were planning to walk out alongside the girl but stopped in your tracks when a group of girls loudly cheered. You turned your head to follow where they were looking at, to see a tall blond boy with striking blue eyes.
“Kise!” They squealed.
“So this must be the new freshman everyone's been talking about.”
The boy whipped his head around as he heard his name and waved back to his fangirls. This caused him to get hit by his fellow teammate. Watching the blond freshie get scolded, your eyes fell onto the raven-haired guy. But you felt weird inside, he looked familiar to you, which was the weird part because you could've sworn you didn't know anybody on the basketball team.
“Hey, who's that guy who just hit Kise?” One of the fangirls next to you pointed towards him.
"Oh, that's Kasamatsu, the captain of the basketball club.” Another one answered.
"Wait, he's that guy!” It clicked in your mind as you remembered now.
You actually first met him during your first year. Having just joined the newspaper club, you found it hard to adapt to the environment since there were many tasks to carry out but so few members.
Feeling burned out from previously trying to meet the club task deadline, you were finally ready to go home. Stepping out onto the outside corridor, you cursed yourself mentally as it was pouring hard, as if the time being this late weren't already killing you inside.
Wanting to go home once and for all, you opted to just use your bag as a shield and run—it's not like there's anybody to witness you anyway. But just as you lifted your bag on top of your head, you heard a voice behind you.
“Hey, you!”
You turned around to see the now-named ravenette boy, Kasamatsu.
“Use my umbrella instead, you'll get sick that way.” He reached out to hand you his umbrella with his left hand and pointed at you with his right.
Realizing what you were doing, you felt your face heat up as you immediately took off the bag on your head. You acted as if you weren't embarrassed at all at getting caught in this situation. “Oh no, I can't possibly do that. That's for you.”
“It's fine. I won't be going home yet anyway.”
“But it's already so late.” You thought. A part of you wanted to politely decline once again, but you realized that he will probably just keep insisting. Wanting to get this conversation over with, you decided to just accept the offer.
As you parted ways, you mentally cursed yourself once again as you remembered the awkward encounter. You never really saw him again after that, you wanted to return his umbrella, but you didn't even know his name, so you couldn't ask anyone either.
That was until now.
But it's too late now to return the umbrella. It would obviously be awkward for you to suddenly approach him about an interaction literally 2 years ago. You did wonder how come you've only remembered him just now, despite the fact that you've probably passed by each other multiple times without realizing.
After the day of finally learning his name, you've found yourself lowkey turning into one of the regular girls who would often come by the gym to watch the basketball team practice. It's not like it was out of the usual since there were a handful of girls and guys who would loiter around the gym.
But you weren't there for Kise, you were there for Kasamatsu.
Inevitably, you end up forming a crush on the raven-haired boy. Which leads you to today, where you've just handed in your third handwritten note inside his locker. You weren't that crazy about him, you'd think. You only hand in a short note whenever the team has a match coming up, to say good luck and stuff.
Bringing your attention back to the morning assembly, you were still discreetly staring at him, but as his head turned to his friend behind him, you immediately averted your eyes.
Although you have the courage to be able to slip in a few notes into his locker, signaling him of a secret admirer.
You don't really deal well with confrontations. Which is why you wouldn't want to be caught by anybody, especially him.