Those Funny Feelings (Najimi X Tadano)

Chapter 2

Najimi sat in the back of Jeanne's car on their way back to their own house, ever since the night in the forest (which was about a week ago now) they hadn't been home at all, instead opting to stay with Tadano and his family, school started again the next day and Najimi had to return to their actual home to get themselves ready. The two finally arrived at Najimi's house "stay safe Naji!" called Jeanne as she dropped them off "and you can stay with us again anytime!" Najimi gave a very big smile "bye bye!" they called loudly, and they watched Jeanne's car take off, turn and corner and disappear. Without skipping a beat, Najimi skipped up the stairs, pulled out the key and entered their house for the first time in what felt like a long time. "I'm home!!!!" shouted najimi to nobody in particular, only silence returned them "ah, Mom and Dad still aren't back i guess" Najimi was a little disappointed but honestly unsurprised.

Later that night Najimi hadn't done any preparing for school at all, instead they were eating a homemade serving of 2-minute noodles while watching whatever they could find on Netflix, as they sat quiet and alone Najimi began to feel very lonely, flopping onto their side they decided to look at some pictures from the summer and think about the fun times they had, for a moment they considered calling Tadano to talk for a while but decided not to "it's only one night" Najimi said to themselves "I'll see him and all of my friends tomorrow at school". Najimi opened the camera roll on their phone and began looking back at all of the things they had done that summer, but one photo caught their specific attention, it was a photo Najimi had taken in secret the morning after the incident in the forest, it showed the two still in bed, Tadano comfortably fast asleep and Najimi with a big dumb smile looking into the camera, Najimi thought about that night, more specifically about the feelings they had felt after Tadano had held their hand. "There's no way I really actually like him" Najimi thought, they had been denying their feelings ever since that night. "he's so... so..." they knew what they wanted to say but didn't quite have the strength to say it yet, instead Najimi closed their phone and continued watching Netflix. Before they knew it they were fast asleep.

*BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP* Najimi was rudely awoken by their phone's alarm going off, drowsily Najimi grabbed their phone off the floor and looked at the time, the clock read "7:30am" "OH SHIT" screamed Najimi, realizing that they hadn't prepared themselves for school the night before at all, they now only had an hour to do everything. In a flash Najimi jumped off the couch and ran to their bedroom, quickly got dressed and did their make-up, then grabbed one of their many bags and stuffed their books and some food into it before bolting out the door and sprinting to school.

At 8:25 on the dot Najimi arrived in class huffing and puffing, every other student was already there, after standing in the doorway for a few seconds to catch their breath they promptly strode over to the tables were Tadano, Komi, Manbagi and Katai sat. "hiiii!" Najimi said, they all greeted them as usual and continued with their conversations, Najimi wanted to join them but was very quickly whisked away into their social circle of nearly half the school. Najimi had the ability to listen to up to 6 people at once but today they found themselves not able to fixate on a single person, through the cracks of people surrounding them they kept catching glimpses of Tadano and Komi talking, this made Najimi feel a feeling they hadn't felt before but it wasn't what they felt in the forest when Tadano held their hand, this was a new feeling. "hey Najimi are you listening?" said what sounded like 3 people at once "oh yeah sorry guys, I-, I'll be back in a little bit, kay?" before anyone could respond Najimi nudged their way out of the circle on their way to return to Tadano and his group, but as soon as was out of the circle they stopped dead in their tracks unable to advance towards them, just staring at them with a blank expression without a thought in their head, Manbagi glanced up and noticed Najimi staring at them, Manbagi and Najimi weren't very close but even Manbagi could tell this was really out of character for them, she leaned over to Tadano and Komi "uh, I think Najimi wants to talk'' Tadano and Komi both looked up at Najimi, after an awkward moment they snapped out of their trance and realized what was going on  "uh- watcha looking at?" Najimi said awkwardly, trying to play off what just happened "come sit with us for a bit Naji" said Tadano kindly, Najimi held back their blush and quickly kneeled down, the 3 of them chatted for a bit but Manbagi was mostly silent, she had something on her mind.