𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐌𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 | 𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞 ! 𝐤𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐨 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 |

5: paranoia

You washed your tear-streaked face in the impractically small sink, still sniffling a little. You desperately did not want to be the isolated girl who cried in the school bathrooms during lunch break, but you couldn't help it.

Naoka's bullying had escalated recently — it started with the name calling and spreading rumours around the girls in your year, but now she was physically going out of her way to slam into you in the hallway, knock your bag off your shoulder, throw balls at you in P.E., and pull violently on your hair when she sat behind you in class.

With her charismatic personality, she'd managed to turn the whole class against you, save for your two close friends, Futaba and Yuri. You were so grateful that they stuck with you through this.

Not only that, but lately, you'd been dwelling in an indescribable feeling, one you couldn't quite shake. It felt like... someone was watching you.

Silly, you knew; surely it was nothing. But you'd seen, more than once, a flicker of movement in the corner of your eye, a tall figure clad in black, a hoodie cast over their face. Maybe you were imagining it, or maybe Naoka had put one of her friends up to it to scare you.

But you wouldn't allow anyone to see how much these events affected you. No, you'd have to deal with this alone, it seemed.

With a final splash of icy water on your face, you patted down your hair and exited the bathroom.

"Ah!" you cried in surprise when you saw your upperclassman lingering in the hallway near the stairs. Oh, it's Kuroo — the guy I ran into a while ago.

You bowed your head at him respectfully, "Hello, Kuroo-san."

Kuroo offered you his trademark grin that gained him so much popularity among the female student body. "Hey, y/n," he said, casually abandoning any honourifics. His expression changed when he got a better glimpse of your face. "Are you okay? You look upset."

"Oh, it's nothing," you started to wave it away, but unexpectedly, a surge of emotions washed over you and you found your face crumpling up in despair.

Kuroo's brows creased in genuine concern and he put a hand on your upper arm. "Hey, what's going on?"

You sniffed and wiped at your nose with the back of your hand before you dribbled snot everywhere. "I-its nothing I should bother you with—"

"Don't be ridiculous, y/n. Let's go sit outside and you can tell me what's wrong." The tall, protective boy led you outside the school and sat you down on the edge of the grassy sports oval, then sitting next to you. "Talk to me," he said encouragingly.

He'd caught you out at a time when you were overwhelmed by emotions, and though you normally wouldn't open up to a person you barely knew, you found yourself telling him everything.

"Her name's Naoka, I don't know why she chose me out of everyone in our grade to pick on, but she wont stop it. Sh-she's spreading rumours about me being a slut—" you choked back a sob and looked down into your lap, "but it's not true, I swear, I'm not the type of girl to sleep around. I've never even been with someone romantically." You sniffled as you kept going, "my whole class hates me except for Yuri and Futaba, and I didn't even do anything to her. She keeps finding w-ways to hurt me, physically too. It's... it's so unfair," you wailed.