The Desperate Tales of Oikawa and The Bus

| viii |

The next day...

"So what school do you go to? I've never seen you wear an uniform." Oikawa charged again. Though he kept losing the chess games, he was determined to find out more about the girl.

"I'm not telling you that. No offense." She quickly added, as the boy let out a huff.

"Well what are you willing to tell me?" The boy pouted, still unfamiliar with the taste of defeat.

"Ideally, nothing." She declared calmly, as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

While Oikawa was a rollercoaster of emotions every time they met, she always kept her composure. She might have been frustrated with the flirtatious setter at times, but she made a point of never letting it show, nor any other emotions for that matter.

"Fine, I'll ask something else then." The boy quickly racked his brain, keeping in mind what the girl had revealed the previous day. "You have a brother, right?"

He noticed a slight change in her demeanour, but it was so little and invisible that he thought he might just have dreamt it.

"Yeah, my big brother Katashi." She let out after awhile.

"Wait, you're telling me I get to know your brother's name but I don't get yours?"

"Apparently so. Oh, and Checkmate." For once, the boy didn't let the defeat faze him even a tiny bit, quickly readjusting the pieces and starting a new match.

Now that he was finally breaking through, he needed to hang onto the thread as long as he could.

"So how old is he?" He said as she moved the first piece.

"He's 33."

"Either you guys have a really big age gap or you look far younger get than your real age." The boy chuckled, and the girl was almost inclined to laugh as well. Almost.

"He's just a bit older. I'm a third year in high school."

"Me too!" The boy chirped in happily, moving a piece and finally managing to attack her king for the first time since the beginning of their numerous matches.

"That wasn't too terrible." The girl declared after some thought, quickly defending her king and breaking through Oikawa's defence.

"And you say that right after destroying me." He rolled his eyes as the girl stared at him, secretly amused.

She'd been playing this game since as long as she could recall and found it hilarious that Oikawa seriously thought he'd manage to beat her after a week of superficial studying. He seemed to get a tad better but still made rookie mistakes, which ultimately cost him all his matches.

"So what does he do anyway?" Oikawa kept pressing. Hey, if all went to hell, he could at least try to flirt with her brother. Maybe it would work.

"He's a cop." The girl replied, further attacking Oikawa's pieces.

The boy stopped to think. As much as he wanted to ask some more about her brother, his pieces were in grave danger and he needed to concentrate to find a way out. His hand was resting on his chin, his body bent towards the board as he analysed it carefully.

The girl stared at the boy, debating on what to do. After a small pause, she finally sighed. "I win in 3 moves."

The boy's head shot up. "Eh? How do you know?"