WILDFLOWER [Ryunosuke Tanaka x OC]

Chapter 26 - The Three Words

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At breakfast the next morning, Kano ran into the exact boy Ryu warned her about: Taketora Yamamoto.

She found herself cornered by Kenma early on through the breakfast rush, who teased her relentlessly about her apron and her hair — braided into two long boxer braids by one of the other girls... her name was... Kaori-something from... well, Kano couldn't remember exactly. Either way, the hair was new, the girl was new, and Kano didn't really do "new". So Kenma poked fun at her about it.

After a prolonged jab about how much Kano changed and how much he hated all of that, Kenma explained how he'd finally platinumed Dark Souls and was walking Kano through his successful run when Taketora walked up, beaming at Kano and ignoring his teammate. "Hey pretty lady, what brings you to this den of masculinity?" he said, leaning on the counter between them and smiling a little too hard.

Now internally panicking, Kano glanced at Kenma, who apparently took Taketora's arrival as the end of their conversation and already disappeared, heading back to his table with the rest of their team. Of fucking course. Rolling her eyes, Kano used her best annoyed face and said, "I'm working here, dude. Flirt somewhere else with someone else."

"Flirting? Who was flirting?" he said, feigning shock and awe. "I was simply asking a question to the famed Dark Horse. We kinda figured you'd be at your own training camp of some kind."

Kano ignored the 'we' he tried to placate her with and simply held up her busted hand, still protected by the brace. "Can't play for a few more weeks," she said.

"That explains a lot," Taketora nodded. "But why here? Why not relax?"

Without meaning to, Kano glanced over at the Karasuno table, where Ryu was trying to force one of the first years to eat more food. He looked close to ripping off his shirt to embarrass the kid into eating. Kano smiled to herself and tore her gaze back to Taketora. "I have my reasons."

He hummed at that, stroking his non-existent beard as he pondered her answer. "Well, good luck out there, Dark Horse," Taketora said finally, still giving her squinty, inquisitive eyes, "Keep an eye out for me, would ya?"

He jogged off before Kano could say trust me, I am.

But not for the reasons you think.

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Ryu and Kano met outside on the hill every night.

The duration of their secret meetings depended on how much interference Ennoshita and Noya had to run in combination with how many warning texts Yachi sent; Kano didn't even have to tell Yachi that she was dating Ryu, because Yachi already knew, somehow. Some evenings they only had five minutes to catch each other up on their days, but other nights, they won a few hours, talking about anything and everything.

"Ryu, can I tell you something and you won't hate me?"

With one hand holding hers and the other playing with her hair, Ryu laid on the hill with his eyes on the stars with Kano tucked into the little nook of his arm where she laid her head on his chest. He'd never been so at peace. "Of course, you dork," he said. "I could never hate you."

Kano sighed while she rubbed the top of his hand with her thumb. "It's two things, really... I, um, haven't told anyone about this except for Reika, but she was there to witness it, so that doesn't really count, and I'm a little nervous to explain, but—"

"Kano. Just... tell me. I won't be upset," Ryu said, patting her head.

This conversation was a lot easier without him looking at her, she had to admit. "Have you heard of Wakatoshi Ushijima? He already graduated, but he played for—"