A Crush on my Best Friend!!

Chapter 2 - Gym Struggles

The first half of the day had passed quickly. They had been assigned homework and Kuboyasu was going to ask Shun to help him with it, but he couldn't find the right time. He was usually fine with being forward with him, but the nervousness was finally catching up to him. He sighed and thought of the lunch he'd just had. He had spent time with Saiki and Nendou, and they had gone out to get lunch. Shun was spending time at the occult club. Though it was strange, Kuboyasu liked that part to Shun too. It meant while he could gush about motorcycles and movies, Shun could gush about his imagination. He smiled.
"Hey, man!" Nendou shouted, surprising Kuboyasu. He had almost socked him out of reflex.
"Hey" he responded, taking a deep breath.
"Where's our little buddy?" Nendou questioned, referring to Shun. Kuboyasu raised an eyebrow.
"He was at the occult club, remember? He's probably at the gymnasium by now."
"We have GYM?!" Nendou gasped. Kuboyasu slowly nodded. "No way!" His expression changed to one of mischief. "You seem to know a lot about little buddy, huh~" Kuboyasu felt his face heat up at the implications of what Nendou was saying.
"He told us earlier!" He explained quickly.
"Riiiiight" Nendou said with a smirk.
"He did, you just don't listen" Saiki added while sipping his boba he had gotten earlier.
Eventually they made their way to the gym. Kuboyasu immediately spotted Kaidou leaning against the wall. Kaidou seemed to notice him as well, along with the others.
"Hey guys, I found out some important news at lunchtime," he put his hand over his face. "Dark Reunion is planning an attack against us soon."
"What do you mean us?" Saiki asked.
"I don't know what the attack will be yet, so keep a lookout." The group (excluding Kaidou) collectively glanced at each other, feeling embarrassed for him. Kuboyasu gave a quiet sigh as he smiled and shook his head. He was still cute, no matter how cringey he could be at times.
"Alright, class!" Their PE teacher, Matsuzaki called. The room immediately fell silent. Kuboyasu truly respected how easily Matsuzaki could get the class to listen.
"Uh, heyy, Matsuzaki-sensei? I'm not feeling too well..." a voice called from the back. Everyone turned to see Takahashi clenching his stomach with one hand and raising the other. Kuboyasu felt his forehead tense. The kind of guys who were always trying to take the easy way out? Those were the kind of guys he hated the most.
"This is the third time you've made that excuse this week!" Matsuzaki replied sternly. Kuboyasu took comfort in the fact that they rarely seemed to get away with it, though. "Anyways, today we're doing the fitness test. I hope you all do better than you did last year." Kuboyasu glanced at Shun. Though he hadn't been here this time last year, he could guess that his friend hadn't done too well. Fitness wasn't exactly his forte. Kuboyasu suddenly felt his heart stop as he realized he had been staring at Shun for too long, as now they were making eye contact. He looked away swiftly. Though he was good at playing it cool, Shun could definitely tell that he'd been staring.
Crap...
He started talking to Saiki to maybe seem less suspicious.
"So, haha, the fitness test, huh?" He said rather awkwardly. "How'd you do last year?" Saiki took a moment to respond, but soon said "average." Kuboyasu nodded.
"Hah, yeah, same here! How'd Kaidou do?" He internally crumbled at the fact that he couldn't stop himself from asking that. What made it worse was Saiki's expression. Well, it was as cold and devoid of emotion as ever, but it felt different.
"Why are you asking me? Go ask him yourself" he said, as he picked up the paper to record his results.
"Right, of course! Will do!" He said, picking his up as well. He looked around the room to see kids at different stations. He wanted to go to the station Shun was at, which was the flexibility test, but he felt oddly flustered today. He decided to do the push up test. It's best to start at the easiest station, right? He started a timer on his phone for 60 seconds, and began. As he did as many pushups as he could, Shun kept making his way into his mind.
I wonder how many pushups Shun can do... he thought to himself, though luckily his thoughts didn't get in the way of his pushups. When Kuboyasu had finished, he couldn't help but glance one more time at his friend. He definitely was doing pushups, but he took long breaks in between to wheeze, looking very red. He smiled and shook his head, walking over to him.
"Don't. Laugh." The red faced boy said in between breaths. Kuboyasu tried to hold it in, but a but of air escaped his lips.
"No, no, you're doing great, haha!" He genuinely was trying to make Shun feel better, but the fact that he was chortling made his statement come off as sarcastic. He could tell by the look on his friend's face. He decided to go do all his other activities before Matsuzaki-sensei got mad at him.

.

Soon all his activities were done with, getting a thumbs up from Hairo on his athleticism.
"Hey man, you're really good at this stuff! In fact, you might even be better than me..." he said, looking like he was lost in thought. "Where did you get all this strength and talent from?" Kuboyasu gulped.
"Erm, haha, my dad used to train me when I was little. He never really cared about grades, only fitness for some reason..."
"Well, strength is a great asset! I wish my dad felt the same." Maybe Kuboyasu didn't need to act so nervous, but he was scared to have his secret exposed to one of the most popular guys in his grade. Surely a guy like him couldn't keep a secret.
"Hello, fellow men." Shun marched next to Kuboyasu, announcing his presence.
"Hey, Shun" Kuboyasu responded, smiling. Shun seemed to lose his confident persona for some reason.
"Um, I did... really bad" he squeaked. Kuboyasu couldn't say he was surprised, but he still felt bad.
"Don't worry about it, you're not great at sports but at least you have other good qualities!" Kuboyasu comforted, patting his head. Shun looked surprised.
"Like what?" Kuboyasu could think of so many things. How creative he was, how adorable his smile was, how calming his presence could be at times, but all that would be weird to say to his best friend in the middle of gym class.
"Pfft, what, do you want me to compliment you?" He teased, batting his shoulder playfully. Kaidou looked away.
"Hah, no."