She's Nothing Like That! (Kise Ryouta x OC)

Chapter 2: To The Face

It was the weekend; two days since she had become the representative. Never had she seen so many notifications on her social accounts on the web. Excluding Kise's texts every now and then, random girls even texted her phone! It was really giving her a headache. In a daze, she was greeted with a powerful force against her cheek and knocked to the ground suddenly.

"Maiko! This is the third time already!" her father scolded, pulling her up immediately as he seemed furious. She was in the dojo her father owned, warming up for the students who would be coming in soon. "Get your head together! The students would probably be beating you left and right if they were here right now!"

"Sorry for spacing out. I've been a bit busy recently..." she told him, fixing up her hair in it's ponytail, "I don't think I'll be able to help out the dojo after school for a while dad. Some stuff happening at school since the class field trip is coming up..."

"Oohh. Reasonable enough. Well, you don't need to worry about the dojo then; I'll deal with it," her father explained, nodding to show his understanding, "but I haven't seen you participate much in school activities since middle school. Something happen?"

"Not much..." Maiko muttered, not meeting his eyes, "I just got forced to be a representative of my class to help plan the field trip. Nothing much else, to be honest." With a grin, he gave her a slap on the back, looking proud of his daughter.

"You're slowly getting there. I know highschool gets hard at times, but just know it'll all be worth it in the end, okay?" Maiko nodded, then went through the warm up one more time. This time, her father was the one to be knocked onto the floor.

The bruise to her face hadn't exactly healed as well as she thought so she was stuck with a dressing to her swollen cheek. Goddamn her father for being unable to hold back when it comes to the Aikido and Judo lessons...

"Ah! Bunko-san_ What happened to your face?!" Kise attempted to greet when he entered the classroom. Maiko's mood was brought down to an all time low as glares headed her way. Of course, the blonde model was unaware and continued to pester her about the dressing on her cheek.

"A ball hit me in the face, that was it," she finally answered him bluntly when he splayed his arms over her desk.

"You didn't break anything, did you? It'd be hard to talk to you if you couldn't speak at all," Kise had fretted, but showed a smile, "but I'm glad you weren't seriously injured."

'I think I'd be grateful if I was seriously injured...' she thought to herself, avoiding as much of the scary eyes watching her as possible. "Kise-kun, you should probably get to your seat. We can discuss anything about the field trip later..."

"Riiight~. Well, let's meet up after school then!" he decided cheerily, "I don't have work today so we can finally start some real planning! It'll be like a date!" Her hand slipped from underneath her chin. "Eh? Not a good idea?" he inquired when he noticed her reaction this time.

"It won't be a date!" Maiko said a bit loudly, but that wasn't on her mind, "it's just discussing the plans! That's all!" With a huff, she sat back down and the air had filled with despair. "I... um... I'm sorry. You took me by surprise by saying that..."

"Ah... Uh, well, if Bunko-san doesn't like the idea she doesn't have to go," he offered. Maiko pressed a hand to her forehead, shaking no.

"We have to start planning soon right? Better make a start on it. I don't want to be too much of a pain, but I hope we'll be able to work together without any problems for the time being." At that statement, Kise had laughed. Nearly to the point where tears fell from his eyes. Maiko was flustered yet angered at the same time. "H-have I said something funny?"

"S-sorry, Bunko-san, but you aren't as gloomy as people say," he pointed out bluntly, stifling the leftover laughter in him, "like a lot of people, maybe you're just misunderstood. You should talk more often." Maiko didn't even look at him but down at her desk. If she were to look below that, her hands where clenched into fists in her lap, trembling while her knuckles turned white.

"I don't really... like people," she whispered too quietly. Kise was going to ask what she had said at all, but the bell had gone and the teacher had walked into the classroom. He reminded her to meet at the gates after school so they could go work on the planning. She only nodded silently as he quickly went to his seat after being scolded by the teacher.

Maiko couldn't accept the hope he was trying to give her. If anything, he was going to make everything worse for her. But, her conscience was telling her not to slip up this chance to make some sort of new beginning.