⋆ ˚ ｡▐ 𝚰𝐍 𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏.
❝ I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE BAMBI. I'M IN
DEEP FOR YOU. ❞ ━━━ KAEDE HAYASHI
𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐄𝐓𝐓𝚰.
Daughter of David and Boipelo Moetti. The media calls her the "Mantra Ray". She's used to being under fame'...
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KAEDE | HAYASHI
IF I WAS being honest, I wasn't keeping up with whatever Neo was saying.
I'd almost immediately lost interest in his fast-paced retelling of some story as we scaled the stairs. My mind had wandered to this morning and my departure for St Everfields.
Nana was the only one who'd seen me off in-person, although she didn't live in Dublin. She'd travelled down from County Louth just so she'd be there for the moment I was boarding my flight. I still didn't know whether to feel flattered or tell her to never do something so over the top again. Regardless, I appreciated the gesture and the tight hug she'd given me before letting me board.
Neither of my parents were currently in the country; Da was in America in preparation for the start of the NBA season while Mam was in France on government business as one of the PM's Business Ambassadors. I'd had to settle with a Facetime call from the both of them.
Still, I wasn't alone at home for the big day since my older brother had a flight the same day as mine. Already an alumni of St Everfields, Benjiro's plane was headed to Norway for the start of the tennis championships he was competing in. It was scheduled a few hours before mine so he wasn't able to see me off at the airport, but he was able to surprise me with a breakfast of all my favourites.
I smiled at the thought of his thoughtfulness. Even though it had been a few weeks since his breakup with his longtime girlfriend, I'd wanted to support him. I wasn't surprised that his big brother tendencies were too interweaved with his personality to dissapear.
I shook my head in an attempt to clear it and turned my attention to the notes in my hands. They were team lineups from last year and I wanted to analyse them. Going over them wouldn't be too difficult, in fact I liked looking at starting fives and figuring out how they could be improved and how teammates could be switched to increase how well we played. It was a mix of chess and maths— and I'd always had a knack for both.
Sang-hun Yamada, our captain from last year and a great friend of mine, had been the one to spot and nurture the talent in me. Maybe it all clicked because I was enrolled in maths, further maths, business and accounting. Besides, this was more important than whatever would be said in assembly; half the team were in the year above, so their places were empty this year and I had to look for replacements.
And one for Ro.
I only left my head when I noticed the stream of words coming from Neo had stopped— and his steps. I leaned forward to follow his eye-line to two girls on the other end of the bleacher we were hiking up. They were sat at the very top and I had no right to judge them because I was tailing Neo to do the same.
I couldn't help but notice that Neo's gaze remained on one of the girls in particular. She was decked in fur and pearls that shined in the bright space. They contrasted the claw clip that held back some of her braids and let her face be visible.
