𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐚 [𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞] ✓

chapter 5: quiet nights

note:

finally, some alone time ;)

━━༻❁༺━━

YOU WERE A wheezing mess by the time you reached the classroom and, from behind the stack of papers you were holding, you could make out Inumaki already sitting at the table, scrolling idly through his phone. At the sound of you entering, he turned to face you before shooting you the peace sign in greeting.

"Kombu." He said, and the skin around his eyes crinkled with a smile. He wasn't wearing his usual jacket collar up, instead he wore a casual short-sleeved shirt and a white mask that covered his nose and mouth.

When looking at him, you suddenly felt different. It was odd seeing him wear anything other than school uniform — not a bad odd, but just mildly endearing odd.

"Sorry... did I make you wait?" You asked through pants, placing the stack onto the table. Inumaki shook his head, and stood up to help you separate the bundles of paper.

Every once in a while, your fingers would brush, which sent a tingling feeling across your skin. What is this? You thought, flinching every time you made contact.

You both then sat down and pulled out identical worksheets. It was titled, Special Grade Curses. You sighed in exasperation before pulling out a pencil from your your backpack, Inumaki doing the same.

Inumaki pulled out his phone and typed something in.

Should we work through it together?

You almost fainted in relief at that and you nodded. "Yes, please."

You spent the next half an hour on the worksheet, talking yourselves through it, with a few snide remarks and jokes from time to time — you enjoyed every minute.

Sometimes, you would go off into a conversation that was very unrelated, distracting yourselves and procrastinating. "What do each of your onigiri words mean?" You said, your eyes drifting away from your worksheet in thought.

Inumaki gladly accepted the distraction, huffing in relief. He typed, pointing out a few certain words like 'shake' and 'okaka' and 'tuna'.

People usually say it's easy to understand from my facial expressions or hand gestures.

You nodded. "That is true." You mumbled before smiling. "Thanks Inumaki-san!" He shook his head. Your eyes widened. "...Eh?"

"Okaka." He said and reached out for your hand. The contact made you blush, his skin feeling like hot iron against yours. He lay your palm flat facing upwards and used his pointer finger to draw a character onto your skin.

棘

"T-toge..?" You said, reading the kanji upside down. He hummed and looked at you. "You want me to... call you..." You trailed off, unsure. He nodded.

Your eyes widened. He traced the characters of your name onto your skin and then pointed to himself, before retracing his own name and pointing to you.

You stuttered, taken aback. "Since you call me by my first name... I call you yours..?" He nodded. You made a confused expression. "But you never really say my name..." You mumbled, looking away, your ears turning slightly red.

When the word flowed out of his mouth, you looked back at him, eyes wide. Your name seemed so beautiful coming from Inumaki, that you wanted him to say it again and again, repeating it like a broken record that you would never get enough of.