𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 [ᴋ. ʙᴏᴋᴜᴛᴏ]

𝚝 𝚑 𝚛 𝚎 𝚎

It's been a quiet and uneventful rest of the week, for Katana at least. She didn't really change her routine consisting of going to college, getting back home and regretting every life decision so far, doing assignments occasionally, and going to sleep. And repeat.

So far, the dark-haired woman hadn't had a confrontation about her relationship with Bokuto. But with the way she noticed more stares in the hallways than usual, especially hostile ones from all her fellow female students, it would only be a matter of time until someone approached her about the topic.

The thought of someone meddling in her business alone, had Katana roll her eyes. It wasn't that she gave any fuck about the stares and whispers in the hallways when she walked by, but the sheer audacity of people feeling entitled to know every single thing about her relationship with Bokuto was unbelievable.

They had been keeping their relationship low-profile as Katana recommended. While Bokuto wanted it as loud and dramatic as possible to make sure everyone knew they were together, Katana suggested not doing so. The only good thing that option would entail was the fact that everyone would be aware of them dating. But it wouldn't really help keeping all his fans at bay. Though Katana believed there was nothing they could do in the first to get them even remotely off his back.

Their lack of decency is really astounding...

Plus, making a show out of it would only raise suspicions. So, the least they could do is make their relationship believable. And keeping it subtle was the key to it.

The bell snapped Katana out of her thoughts. Packing her laptop and water bottle into her bag, she followed the rest of the students out of the lecture hall, not feeling the need to stay any longer than necessary. She had zoned out halfway through the lecture anyway, thus, not even knowing what questions she could potentially have.

"Hi, Morita."

She turned around when a familiar voice reached her ears. "Ikeda."

He shot her his usual charming grin, showing off his dimples. Putting his hands in his pockets, he spoke up. "Hey, I haven't seen you around that much lately. Is everything alright?"

Katana raised an eyebrow, eying the soccer club's captain. "I'm fine..."

Ikeda's dark brown eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. He shifted his weight on his right leg and ran a hand through his blond hair. "Are you sure?" He seemed almost hesitant.

"Of course," Katana shot back rather quickly.

Ikeda wasn't a bad guy by all means, quite the contrary actually. He was too nice and good to be true. And combined with his ethereal looks, he was the whole package, there was no denying that.

However, Katana had felt a certain dislike towards him from the very start. There was no reason for that, but sometimes there were people she just couldn't get herself to like, no matter how nice and good they were.

That probably says more about me than about them.

Ikeda continued to eye her before heaving a sigh. "Listen, I heard about... well... you and Bokuto..."

Katana's eyebrows shot up. "And?"

"And..." Ikeda repeated and avoided direct eye contact, running a hand through his hair, "is it true?"

His eyes snapped back to the dark-haired woman, not even giving her a chance to answer first. "I mean, you never mentioned him before. And also, I've never seen the two of you spending time together here. It's weird."

"Well... I'm a private person." Katana adjusted the bag hanging off her shoulder. She didn't just go around, telling anyone about her personal life. First, she didn't have that many friends she could tell everything to, second, she wasn't someone that made friends easily. But that was a result of her careful approach to the term friend. She didn't consider everyone she met and talked to a friend, say for example her fellow students. For her, building up a deeper connection and trust was the key to a friendship. And that took some time.

The tips of Ikeda's ears turned red and he smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I figured. I just wanted to let you know in case it's a rumor and... yeah." He shrugged and pressed his lips into a thin line.

"Thanks, I guess." Katana said and cleared her throat. "But it's not a rumor, so..."

"It's not?" His eyes widened and he straightened his posture.

The dark-haired woman shook her head. "No-"

"Kata-chan!"

Ikeda and Katana turned towards the voice interrupting their conversation. Bokuto was grinning widely and approached them.

Katana smiled softly and watched him come to a stop in front of her. "Hey you."

Ikeda eyed the couple with a clenched jaw and put his hands back in his pockets. "I'll see you around, Morita."

Katana just nodded and watched as he walked away without even waiting for an answer.

"Who was that?" Bokuto's question snapped her back to reality.

"Oh, that's Ikeda. A classmate." She curiously eyed Bokuto. "Did you need something?"

She let out an amused and annoyed breath when he just smiled sheepishly as an answer. "Spill," she almost chuckled as the two of them started making their way downstairs towards the cafeteria.

"We failed!" He exclaimed dramatically, his shoulders slumping. Even his spiky hair seemed to bend down as he sulked. His theatrics caught the attention of passing students and Katana eyed him questioningly.

"Failed what?"

"Us!" His big eyes locked on her face. "This didn't help at all! We're so bad at fake dating!"

"Jesus, Kabuto-san relax," she breathed out calmly and looped her arm through his to prevent him from making any more dramatic gestures. Also, she needed to keep his loud voice at check or people might hear him. "I told you, keeping it subtle is key."

"We need to up our game." Bokuto straightened up and puffed out his chest in determination. "We'll make it more real."

The dark-haired woman raised an eyebrow, amusement flashing in her usually cold eyes. "Yeah? And how are we gonna do that?"

Bokuto opened his mouth to say something, but closed it as quickly again. He stopped in his tracks and stared off at seemingly nothing for a few heartbeats. "I... I don't know!" He almost shrieked in horror.

Katana giggled softly behind her hand, finding amusement in his panic. "Fine," she said, trying to suppress the smile on her face as she held out her hand with her palm facing upwards, "give me your phone."

"What? Why?" He asked but still pulled his phone out of his pocket, putting it in her palm.

"We're dating but we don't even have each other's number." Katana mumbled and typed her number into his phone. Saving her number in his phone, she handed it back to him. "Now, there was that. Also, maybe we should meet up this weekend. You know, to get to know each other better."

They could pretend as much as they wanted to, but if they continued doing it as they did this week, this would lead nowhere. Building at least some trust and familiarity was an important foundation for this act. They needed to know each other at least to some extent.

He took his phone and put it back into his pocket, nodding with a smile. "You're so smart, Kata-chan."

What an idiot. She cleared her throat and averted her eyes. "It's called rational thinking."

Bokuto chuckled and threw his arm around her shoulder. "Are you free tomorrow morning? I would just text you the details later today. I know a café with great waffles."

"Waffles sound great..." Katana mumbled and glanced at him.

She had a feeling that fake dating Bokuto was just getting started for real.

A/N - hey y'all. chapter three rewritten finally. i hope you enjoyed reading this so far. i certainly have a lot of fun diving back into this story and rewriting it, hopefully really improving it along the way too, haha.
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stay safe and healthy 
love y'all <3