𝙢𝙮 𝙩𝙮𝙥𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 ༉‧₊ 𝙠𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙣

02

• kenma's pov •

it's not like i didn't know why i agreed to the friendship thing. we were neighbours, his bedroom window was right in front of mine. large, floor-to-ceiling bedroom windows. he could, like a creep, (which i hope he doesn't) watch me sleep if i forgot to close my curtains someday - something i mostly did on weekends since i fell asleep in the middle of my gaming session. he was probably the only guy around my age on the sixth floor, the others were just couples who used me either for their chores, or for babysitting. or maybe lent me some coffee when i overdose and run out of it unexpectedly in the middle of the night before an exam.

i'm not complaining, i was fine with it. with the babysitting too as long as they returned before my shift at the café. it's not like i didn't like my other neighbours. they were good. but with the lack of social interactions at college and at the café, i thought maybe it would be good to have a 'friend' around my age where i lived.

except that i was wrong. really, really wrong.

kuroo was the type of person that everyone wanted to be friends with. everyone but me.

it had been two weeks since my last encounter with kuroo. and ever since then, things have been going smoothly. i mean, i was avoiding him very smoothly so i don't see where's the problem. it was yet another saturday night, and kuroo was probably having yet another party at his apartment. while i was at the café taking yet another order from a customer who couldn't hear me properly.

"that'd be ten dollars," i said, staring up at the guy in front of me, probably above 6 feet.

"what? sorry i wasn't paying attention," he looked at me with a sly smile.

it was annoying, really. because from nowhere was he a decent person who just didn't get the chance to catch what i was saying. and what's worse was probably his friend group, gathered behind him, maybe recording his little session with me. it was bad. really bad. because not only was i alone in the cafe (because takeru, my coworker, had to go and deliver an urgent order), it was almost 1 am. i took in a deep breath, and repeated myself;

"that'd be ten dollars." 

i made sure to be as loud as i could be, without shouting. if he really thought i'd get scared and he'd get another chance to use the same trick twice, he had another thing coming.

"that sure is a lot, you guys charge more than most of the cafes honestly," he smirked taking the order from me. "oh, and by the way, can i get your number by any chance?" he asked, handing over the order to his friends who just laughed at the situation. i sighed.

"no, we aren't allowed to do that," i replied. "plus, you're not my type."

as soon as i said that, i realised that i probably shouldn't have. because at  that, something ticked inside him. probably his alpha male instinct or whatever he'd been learning from those self improvement youtube videos, because he was clearly the type to shout at you to stop crying because men didn't cry. and he probably wasn't interested in me either, and was just messing with me. it'd happened a lot by now, most of the people just assume my sexuality based on how i look (theyre correct half of the time, but still.) he was probably like those guys too. he had bad timings, and i did too with the late night shifts at the cafe, but they weren't as bad as devil himself.

because the next thing i knew was kuroo rushing towards the counter and punching the guy in the face, before he was even about to get the hold of my arm.

"what the hell?" the guy growled, and looked up towards kuroo. his tall figure was towering over the guy, and his eyes looked darker. stronger.

"what?" kuroo replied, his voice sounding deeper than usual, which he was probably doing on purpose, making me sigh. the other guy just tsked as he scrammed out of the cafe along with his friends.

"are you okay?"

"do you watch romcoms?"

we both said at the same time. kuroo's face turned into confusion as he raised an eyebrow.

"what?" he asked.

"that was the perfect time to say that you were my boyfriend, you know," i shrugged.

"OH," he shouted. "I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THAT."

"yeah, clearly you don't read enough romcoms," i shook my head.

"honestly," he started. "i was about to do that, but i thought you'd get mad, you're kinda scary you know."

i raised an eyebrow, and scanned his whole figure. a tall, broad, probably above six feet, grownass man was telling me that he found me scary.

a chuckle escaped my lips at that, which later turned into a mellow laughter.

"youre kinda funny," i said, wiping the small tear forming in corner of my eyes.

"oh," he replied, going slightly stiff. "they say making them laugh is the first step," he said after a while, smirking at me and i just rolled my eyes.

as if you'd know a thing about the steps of dating or asking someone out.

"by the way, where have you been for the whole week? i thought you left for some vacations or something."

"vacations in the middle of the semester?" i raised an eyebrow.

"i don't know, you were avoiding me pretty skilfully then," he said, and i immediately looked up at him to see a very small smile on his lips. i may have been imagining things when i saw the hurt in his eyes. and i may have been imagining things as well when i felt a pang of guilt in my chest. because who was he to get sad over me ignoring him? and who was i to feel guilty over it?

before i could reply to it though, the door burst open and takeru barged in, panting heavily, soaking wet from head to toe.

"what the hell?" i asked

"don't ask," he replied, shaking his head violently to get the water out of his hair. "it's raining pretty heavily out there."

"really? i don't hear a thing though."

"you soon will if you don't head back right now," he chuckled. "take the umbrella with you. i talked to mei-san, and she said it's better to close the cafeteria since we're short on staff right now. you should head home, i'll take care of things here," he gave me a huge smile.

"oh," i replied. "okay then," i said, untying my apron and going inside the workers only room. i came out, holding the umbrellas in my hand. 

"takeru, there's only two here," i said.

"yeah so take one with you, and i'll take the other one," he replied, getting in the workers only room to change.

"do you have an umbrella?" i turned my head back and asked kuroo.

"huh?" he replied. "oh, no, i didn't know it was gonna rain."

"it technically isn't," i said. but maybe i shouldn't have. maybe i shouldn't say anything at all today, because everything i was saying seemed to have one consequence or the other. maybe when they said you should think twice before speaking actually applied to my situation. because the next thing i knew was hearing a loud thunderclap, followed by the pitter patter of rain, which immediately turned into buckets and buckets of it. 

i sighed, because the worst situation of every romcom had descended upon me when i needed it the least;

kuroo and i had only one umbrella.

(a/n); heyy everyone!! it's probably been a year or something and idek if anyone's reading this atp but i'll just keep updating this because i have some free time and i wanna write! to the ones reading, i hope you guys enjoyed.

stay safe and don't forget to drink water <3