Training Trepidation Into Composure

Chapter 10

The first time Kuroo saw her, sitting at the desk next to his he was frozen. She had a mirror out and was combing through her bangs, her light grey blazer draped over the back of her chair and the dainty bow tied at her throat exuded class and refinement. She tapped a gloss over her lips and he gulped. Shell shocked and speechless, he stood in the doorway and gaped. The teacher jumped when she saw him standing there as she went to close the door. "Tetsurou?" She asked. He only blinked in response, as though she were asking him a question in another language. Ironic as their names were the only Japanese words the English teach would ever speak to them. "Tetsurou Kuroo?" She tried again.

His head jerked to the teacher and acknowledged her for the first time. He nodded quickly and finally closed his mouth. The teacher gave him a quizzical tilt of her head and nodded to desks, "take a seat, you're already late."

He said sorry in Japanese and she raised a brow, "sorry," he tried again in English, accompanying it with a bow. She sighed and turned to the board to begin writing.

Kuroo sat at the back of the room and tried to pay attention; he really did. But his eyes kept drifting to her long dark brown hair- did her school let her dye it? To her slender hands- she had such a pretty handwriting, all loopy and small. He rested his chin in his hand and smiled with a sigh. Then he felt a wad of paper hit his ear. "Hey!" He shouted, turning to face the aggressor. A good looking boy about his age, hair perfectly coiffed and a slick smile that made Kuroo want to simultaneously shiver and punch him. "Daishou," Kuroo said as calmly as possible. Wordlessly questioning what god he'd angered to be in the same cram school with the tool.

"Paws off, cat boy." Kuroo narrowed his eyes in confusion and Daishou rolled his eyes before nodding his chin in direction of the girl, "Yamaka-chan" he mouthed. So that was her name.

Kuroo smirked, then scoffed, "good luck," he sarcastically added. Which was apparently enough for the teacher who snapped around and demanded to know what was more important than past participles and could they give the first example for the class.

Kuroo threw the balled up paper back at Daishou as soon as the teacher's back was turned.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kenma sounded calm and curious, but Kuroo froze, because he knew Kenma was neither of those things at that moment.

"Having a smoke?" He supplied, fingers hovering over his phone.

Kenma nodded and leaned against the wall next to him. His game console was sticking out of the pocket of his shorts and there was a small tng as it bumped against the sheet metal exterior of the gym. He didn't say anything else, and Kuroo slowly turned his focus back to his cell phone, maybe he'd misread Kenma. It was rare, but he was a little distracted at the moment.

He reread the message and edited it further, trying to keep it concise, not too long. Not too creepy. He and Yaku had done some digging and found out they'd been broken up for- "Are you really that stupid?"

Kuroo's head snapped to Kenma, "what?" he demanded. Shocked at Kenma's bluntness. It normally didn't surprise him much, but it seemed unwarranted at the moment.

Kenma just nodded at the phone and continued the disinterested act, "you're trying to message her right now, aren't you?" Kenma gave a disbelieving scoff and Kuroo blinked twice in shock.

"What- Mika-chan?" He gestured to his phone, "I mean- duh?" What was Kenma thinking? He'd come home from cram school one day and talked about nothing else for two weeks. That had been almost three years ago. And Mika-chan was still a topic he regularly went on tangents about. Why was Kenma acting so surprised that he would message her after finding out she'd dumped a loser like Daishou Suguru?