Spying On Me

〖 ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ 〗

Am I currently biting my lip in anticipation while creating an earthquake with my dominant foot? Yes. Am I also pretending like I'm not watching the clock while taking the time to glance and Karma every few seconds? Also yes, but, I mean how can I not be? I just don't really feel like letting him know seeing as he looks as cool as a cucumber.

The lunch bell rings and Shiiota comes over to my desk, waving to Karma when passing. His words pass through my mind again, when he takes the seat in front of me after Okuda moves. Do you need to talk to him or do you want to talk to him?

"Have you thought about what I said?" He asks and I'm left eyeing him suspiciously because did he just read my damn mind?

I stop chewing on my lip and face the open window blowing a breeze through the class. "I don't know..." He doesn't say anything else, so I try to be more explanatory, "about what I should do."

Shiota takes this into consideration, itches his cheek with a finger, and smiles that side smile people do when they don't know how to respond, but want to be of help regardless. "Honestly, I don't know how to handle these types of things either." He says, I nod, then freeze when I remember my seat is only a few inches if even from Karma's seat.

I slowly twitch my neck in its vicinity and sigh with relief when see he's not sitting in it. Then I jerk my head again, eyes wide open because the reason he isn't there is that we're supposed to be meeting at the clearing right now.

"I have to go," I say without hesitation, and for the first time in, well ever, I feel somewhat relaxed, and when I step out into the breeze that has picked up it feels good, refreshing even. I take in a gulp of air, then walk toward the forest that I've only ever been in..., actually, I don't think I've ever been in this forest.

"How the hell am I suppose to find the clearing!?" I feel a tad bit stupid for not asking beforehand, did I forget I've never actually been in this dumb thing?"

I sigh and start to walk, it can't be that far in, or else Karma would have waited, then again he probably would do the exact opposite because it would cause the recipient a great amount of head pain. He's a sadist like that, something I oddly admire about him.

3 minutes into the journey I get irritated and begin to call out Karma's name. I am defiantly not built for hiking and now will never consider it a hobby nor a vocational experience, no biggie just another thing Akabane Karma has ruined for yours truly.

I appreciate the mild wind that has been my guide through it all. When I see the sun hit something clear I calm down because that could only mean one thing. Yep, I've finally found this damn clearing. Kamra sits on a rock near the water, I approach him, and either he doesn't hear me, or he doesn't care to acknowledge me when I hover behind him. Both of which are semi-plausible the ladder being the plausible bit.

I kick him in the side, looking over his shoulder, and feel my cheeks immediately flush when I notice what his attention is focused on: my blackmail photo, and God could it be any worse than before because he's not smiling or grinning or even smirking, he's freaking frowning and I don't know how to handle a frowning Karma.

"Y/n?" He calls and I force my face to meet his.

"Why does this photo mean so much to you? I mean why is it important that no one ever sees it?"

I look back down, pull my hand behind my back and dig my foot into the dirt beneath it before responding. "I'd be ruined."

I know he's looking at me now, complete and utter focused. "Somehow I find that hard to believe."

"...My family would be ruined."

"Now that's more believable."

"Why are you asking me about this?" I keep the urge from meeting his eyes.

Because," he stands up and dusts himself off, "I need you to see, that I'm nothing like him." He takes a few steps closer, holds up his phone, and when he's sure I can see: deletes it, just deletes it. My bafflement must have shown, because he paces back and forth inf front of me, trying to explain. "If you are that scared of it, I can't really keep it around, can I?" He cocks his head to the side, a half-smile playing on his lips. His hair is in a perfect position to ruffle and I suppress another urge to reach out and dishival it.

"Why?" I ask instead because it's easier than admitting what I need to because asking questions is easier than answering them.

This time Karma doesn't meet my eyes, instead, he looks right past me, then up to the sky, shoving his phone into his pocket. "I've asked myself that question more than I thought possible, do you wanna know what I get out of it every time?"

His head stays locked on the sky while my eyes stay locked on him, his everything. I suck in a breath, already knowing the answer, but needing to hear it from him, "what answer do you always come back to, Karma?"

His eyes meet mine, head still pointed up and hair falling a bit in his face, "I don't know." I knew it, it's the same one I'd gotten too, at first at least.

"When did it start?" I ask, too curious to contain myself.

He sighs and walks over to a tree to lean against it, hands stuffed in his pockets like always. He closes his eyes and tries to relax when saying, "sometime before I first saw you..." then it looked like he was biting his lip like he was going to regret the next words that came out of his mouth, but reluctantly did so, but just before he cracked a smile, "when I found out you were able to hack Principal Asano's firewalls."

"How?–"

He looked away when cutting me off, a smirk returning to his mouth, "I may have watched you when you thought you were...alone."

My face drops, "since before I befriended Shiota?"

Though he's looking away, I can see his grin widening, "yep."

"Wha...how?"

"I have my connections."

"I just want you to know that if I had a pillow right now, I would smack you with it."

He faces me and my heart flutter, "I don't doubt it...come on, lunch is almost over." He waits for us to walk into class when he states, "you look cute in small red things by the way."