people pleaser | nishimura riki

9. bingsu

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

It has been a week and so far, everything was going smoothly. Not only did Aira finally get to catch a break from doing other peoples' homework and always running errands, talking to her classmates was also becoming more easy as they seemed to finally include her as one.

People was beginning to see her with respect.

However, there were still times where Aira find that it was hard to say no, meaning she had to clean up their mess despite being busy that evening. Malice students still gave her treatments for they thought she did not deserve to have a choice. Jealousy, a new trait, had caused the mean behaviours as others envied her interactions with Riki.

Today was one of those good days where she did not have any homework or assignments. Though she had tried contacting Remi since it has been a long time since they had hung out, she also understood that her friend had other friends. Friends that were her age.

Fine by her.

As she walked out the gates, she noticed a familiar figure with his hood up and possibly airpods in too. She noticed how much he was always wearing his airpods whenever he was alone or feeling reserved.

And so, instead of calling out his name and drawing attention, she decided to run up to him.

"Riki!" She jumped to his side, grabbing onto his arm incase she loses her balance after jumping. Sport was never her thing.

Taken by surprise, Riki turned to look at the excited girl. Not only was it was her first time seeing her this excited, it was also her first time calling him by his first name. It almost warmed his heart a bit.

"What is it?" He chuckled, unable to hide his reaction due to her joyous nature.

"Are you free right now?" She asked, letting go of him and matching his pace.

"Depends. Why?"

"Do you want to get bingsu together?" She asked, taking out and unfolding some sort of flyer.

"You taking me out on a date?" He smirked and leaned closer just to tease her. "How romantic."

The relationship between Aira and Riki were not as rocky as it was initially. Instead of insulting her with his blunt words, he would usually tease her. It has taken some experience for her to realise he was playing with her most of the time.

Upon his no-filter words and sudden action, Aira would be a fool not to be taken aback this time. "W-what what what!?" She subconciously repeated her words due to her flustered state. "No of course not! It's just a friendly hangout."

"Hahaha just kidding." He ruffled her hair, a habit Aira had picked up on. She noticed he would pat her head whenever he was a safe-to-say 'good' mood. As curious as she words, perhaps she had spoke her thoughts out loud this time. "I'm free."

"Nishimura, why are you always patting my head." She re-combed her hair in case of it being messed up. "Am i your pet or something."

"Something like that."

"WHAT!?" Her jaws dropped from hearing his unexpected reply.

Instead of elaborating, he only laughed. It was probably her dramatic facial expressions that caused him to burst out in laughters but for a moment, they were both on the same page. First time seeing the infamous 'cold and intimidating' Riki Nishimura was like seeing the sunrise after a snow storm. Aira couldn't help but laugh along.

"I did say I was going to adopt you." His laughters finally began to die down.

Aira didn't know where to start.

And so she didn't.

---

"Nishimura, which flavour do you want?" She asked as they both observed the menu.

"I don't mind."

"Okay! Then strawberry and mango please!" She chirped at the worker behind the counter.

Just as Aira was taking her wallet out, Riki had smoothly tapped his card on the machine following with a signal of approval.

"Why did you-" Aira stuttered in disbelief as he followed the male.

"Think of it as a reward for your good effort." Riki shrugged nonchalantly.

"You're really treating me like a dog now."

"I'm not a complete asshole." Riki shook his head with a smile. "I just felt like treating."

When the bingsu came out, he was ready to dig in but was stopped by a fierce looking girl.

"Wait." Aira had stopped him so abruptly that he had almost think it was an emergency. "The phone eats first." Smiling sheepishly, she took her phone out and began spamming her phone of the same picture in all sort of angles.

Just as Aira had finished taking her pictures, she had noticed how quiet Riki was. Feeling guilty, she looked up to see his chin resting on his palm, head slightly tilted.

"Um. Sorry. I got excited." She spoke robotically.

"Here let me take a pic too." He pulled out his phone and pushed the dessert towards Aira.

"Wait no, i'll be in the shot if its close to me."

"That's the point." He chuckled and faced his phone to her direction.

As awkward as Aira could be, she stuck out a peace sign and her best smile she could do in the moment. The duration was short as if he had only taken one picture and called it a day. Totally different to Aira's photography session.

"I'm posting this on my story." He flipped his phone to show the picture he took.

"Okay." Aira shrugged, trying to play it cool. Acting as if the she was not going to be on one of the most popular boys' social media account. Like any other normal human beings, she had tried to stalk his account and lucky for her, it was public. She noticed the difference in following ratio as there were more followers than following. There were no posts beside this one post of a mirror selfie from a year ago.

"Wait. I don't have your account. What's your user?" He asked, handing his phone to her.

'@/airalovesstrawberry' typed before handing it back to her.

"Okay i sent my request." He chucked at her username before putting his phone away.

Aira was going to have sometime to process this moment. Not only has she became kind of close to Riki, but to the point of hanging with each other after school and exchanging socials and phone numbers was too much for Aira to contemplate.

However, she like it.

Maybe even loved his company.