SOCIALLY AWKWARD

07. Pampered Little Prince

"What the hell," Kenma breathed out with a frown after being dragged to the center of the gym before practice and pushed to sit on the floor, Kuroo and Yaku looming over him as the rest of the team clustered around them.

"Any idea what this is?" Kuroo asked as he showed him the letter.

Kenma shook his head.

Kuroo flipped the envelope around. Kenma was instantly taken aback at the sight of his name which was neatly inscribed in large, calligraphic letters.

"This is a letter for you, probably from Ameri."

Kenma's agitation as he abruptly snatched the envelope was surprising to everyone aside from his longtime friend, and he closely inspected it for a moment before asking, "Where did you find this?"

"Some dumbass put it in my closet, thinking it was for me," Yaku seethed as he glared at Lev.

"How was I supposed to know?" Lev whined.

"By reading the damn name, moron!"

"Whatever, just open it!" Yamamoto urged as they now all sat around in a circle.

Kenma wasn't too keen on letting everyone witness what was supposed to be an intimate moment. But since his friends had been too embroiled in this matter from the start and shown concern about him as of late, he knew that keeping them in the dark now would only delay the inevitable as evading their prying questions later on would be impossible.

He still soundlessly pleaded with Kuroo for help, but even he was too invested to take the hint now and needed to satisfy his curiosity.

The gym basked in deafening silence as Kenma peeled the envelope open and pulled out the card inside, his brows pinching together as he skimmed over the lines.

"So?" Yaku asked.

"She wants to meet up at the station and go to the beach together."

The others let out an excited, "Whoa," in harmony.

"That was last Saturday, though."

A unified, "Ouch," was heard this time.

"So is this why she doesn't talk to you anymore?" Inuoka asked.

Kenma's face fell as he read over the letter, again and again, his heart clenching at the thought of having left Ameri waiting there all morning and ruined what was clearly a date she'd taken great effort to plan.

"A girl asked you out and you dared stand her up!"

"Shut up, Yamamoto," Kuroo snapped before turning to smirk at Kenma. "Well, that answers our question. So what are you gonna do now, Mr. Popular?"

"I don't know," he mumbled. "Nothing probably."

"Come on, you screwed up and now need to fix this."

"But I did nothing wrong," he defended. "She should've given it to me. Or texted me. Why do people still give letters anyway when they can just do that instead. I always thought it was stupid."

"You're truly clueless," Yaku sighed.

"I think you should ask her out and make up," Inuoka proposed, and the rest of the team promptly agreed.

"No way." Kenma shook his head profusely. "You guys don't know her. She gets scary when she's mad."

"Even scarier than you?"

Kenma nodded before murmuring, "Besides, she probably hates me now."

"Of course, she doesn't. You think people just flip a switch and change the way they feel?" Kuroo asked. "She still likes you. She just may be bitter now, which is understandable."

Kenma raised his brows at him, his mouth hanging open.

"Come on! I thought you were smarter than this. Why do you think people ask others out?"

"Oh," Kenma whispered as he contemplated his friend's words. There had been many instances where he had thought Ameri could be into him. Her words, antics, and gestures had all hinted at it at times, but he'd still never allowed them to give him much hope. And it wasn't till she'd stopped being around that he'd come to realize his own feelings. Her absence had hit him harder than he'd liked to admit, and he hated the fact that it had been so visible in his disposition no matter how hard he'd tried to restrain it.

But to think that his crush was possibly reciprocated now had butterflies fluttering in his stomach as his toes wiggled in his sneakers.

"So, now the question is, are you interested as well? If you are, I think you should ask her out too. If not, then you should still apologize to her and clear things up."

Kenma remained silent as he glanced away, his cheeks dusting with the faintest of blushes, but that was enough to have his teammates clamoring in excitement.

"They grow up so fast!" Yamamoto cried out, tears streaming down his face.

"We're the same age," Kenma retorted.

"Alright! We'll plan the perfect date after practice. Let's go!"

The players sprung and prepped the court just as the coach arrived, now even more fueled to make this practice session as efficient and quick as possible so that they could focus on resurrecting the love life of their Pampered Little Prince.