So This is Love? / M. Osamu

Butterflies

It was an early Sunday morning and Y/N was already out and about. She rode her bike through the park, hair swept with the wind as a nameless tune was hummed from her throat. A smile was still on her face, but this time it was a real one. The events of the night before were still a fresh memory that made her feet feel light. Now that she thought about it, that night was probably the happiest she's ever been in this town.

Y/N stopped in front of the pizza place she was going to start working at, locking up her bike before going inside.
"Hello?" she called out, eyes wandering the empty restaurant. Y/N made her way around the place, trying to look for somebody. Suddenly a loud crash came from behind the kitchen. The girl ran behind the counter and through a door.

"Oh my god, are you okay?"
A tall boy with messy pastel pink hair was covered in tomato sauce as he laid almost lifeless on the floor. Y/N crouched by his side, careful not to slip, and shook him lightly. When he noticed that there was someone else with him, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he scrambled to get up.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know you were here." he stammered as he found his footing.
"That's alright."
"I'm Kiyoshi Sato. You're the new worker, right? I forgot your name, but not in a bad way though! I forget a lot of things, like, I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning. Actually, I do, it was some ramen I made. It was really good, shrimp flavor with lemon. I added some egg too."
Y/N just stood there as the boy rambled on about the most random things, still covered in sauce from head to toe. His teal eyes kept darting around the room until they finally landed on Y/N, his mouth closed shut as he mentally cursed himself.
"Sorry, I get carried away with talking sometimes. You're here for your uniform right?"
"Y-Yeah, and I can help you clean up. You have some pizza sauce...everywhere." she pointed out with a nervous chuckle. Kiyoshi looked at himself, slowly nodding in realization.
"Oh yeah, I mean, you don't have to."
"I don't mind," Y/N assured as she started to grab some rags and napkins to get started. Kiyoshi shuffled on his feet before helping out.

"So what's your name?" the boy asked as he scrubbed the floor.
"L/N Y/N. I'm a second year in high school, what about you?" she continued the conversation, wanting to get to know this boy better since it seemed they would be working together.
"I'm a third year, so I'm graduating soon. What school do you go to? Are you in sports? Your fingers are bandaged up, so volleyball?"
"I go to Inarizaki, and yeah I play volleyball. Wow, it's impressive you found that out so quick." Y/N laughed in amazement as she wrung out the rag in the sink.
"It was a total guess. I've passed by Inarizaki a few times, looks cool. I don't go to school, well I do, but not a school. I'm homeschooled by my dad."
"How come?"
"I have trouble paying attention so I was failing all of my classes, got into trouble a lot too. I mean I didn't do it on purpose or anything, but sitting down for hours is, like, so hard to do. And when the classroom got quiet, it was even harder to focus. So yeah, my dad thought it would be better to learn in a better environment or whatever. I haven't been to a real school since middle school. Not that I care, I never had friends anyways. All the kids thought I was annoying and would either avoid me or pick on me. I was the joke of the school basically, but it's fine. Oh wow, it's 10 already? Wasn't it 8 just a few minutes ago? Crap, I think I was supposed to do something, but I forgot what. Oh yeah! Your uniform. Wait, where did I leave it?"
Y/N blinked as she watched Kiyoshi jump from subject to subject, not sure if he knows she was even there anymore. She decided to let him run out of his thoughts before she said something. The girl walked near the fridge to wipe off the splatter from the door, but took a wrong step and slipped. A yelp left her as she hit the ground, tomato sauce now all over her.
"Wow, that was cool, I mean, are you okay? Here, let me help-"
Kiyoshi ended up slipping and falling too, face flat on the floor as he groaned. Y/N clumsily made her way to him and turned him over.
"Are you okay?" she frantically asked, not sure what was blood or pizza sauce. He just gave her a thumbs-up as he laid there staring at the ceiling.