a hundred times; nobamaki

2

"..."

"Why did you go silent? Do you not have one?"

The short-haired girl bit her lip, putting a finger on her chin as if thinking hard to answer her senior's question.

"Well, I like Itadori and Fushiguro, of course. But in a platonic way. Itadori is well, lively, and full of energy like a golden retriever. Fushiguro, on the other hand, is reserved and doesn't really share much about himself. I treasure them both a lot as really close friends... but don't you dare to ever tell them that!"

Nobara gave a soft glare, punching Maki lightly on her shoulder.

"Pfft, I wouldn't dream of doing that."

The taller gave a slight giggle as if to mock the younger, relief evident in her giggle.

"Oh shut up, senpai!"

Nobara quickly exclaimed, facing away from Maki as her ears slowly turned red.

"Anyway, since you asked, I'll answer your question!"
She began, clearing her throat.

"I like people who aren't useless, broke, smelly, stingy, or dead. But I truly like people who are... strong and determined, I guess?"

She chose her words carefully as Maki gave a discreet smile.

"I see... so you like people who are strong and determined?"

Maki raised a brow, smirking ever so slightly at the now flustered Nobara.

"Yeah-"

"Like me?"

"..."

Nobara had to give it her all to not melt there and then on the spot.
Damn, Maki got her bad. Real bad.

"HAHA! You should have seen the expression on your face! I'm joking, Kugisaki, relax."

Nobara gave a small sigh as if it was a joke, but deep down inside, she felt her stomach drop the tiniest.

Maki joked on the outside, but in reality, she didn't want to ruin what she and her junior had. Something that could never be replaced.

After what seemed to be eternity and a somewhat awkward remaining walk back to the dorms, Maki, being the older, spoke up first.

"Goodnight Kugisaki, dream of me tonight."
She gave a small wink, before heading back to her own dorm with her hands in her pocket.

This absolutely ruined Nobara, her face began heating up without her command, unable to control it. Maki may or may not have intended it but it definitely did it for her.

As soon as she opened her room door, she screamed into her nearby pillow.

"MAKI YOU- AAGFFSUAH@&£@&¥'}~{•€"

She wondered if the others could hear her, but she secretly hoped that Maki did.

"Fushiguro, you said we could have a movie night in your room, remember?"

"Since when-"

"Yeah Fushiguro, remember!"

Nobara and Yuji were both looking at Megumi with their puppy eyes.

"...fine. Whatever."

He finally gave in, opening the door to let them into his room.

"Wah! Your room is so neat!"

"As expected of Fushiguro!"

"Hey! Dont touch anything or make a mess or I'll kill you!"

After they finally settled down, the black-haired boy set up his laptop and chose a movie. He decided on Infinity Wars.

Thus, they were engrossed in the action-packed movie.

"Yeah, kick his purple-looking ass, Ironman!"

"The Avengers are so cool! Especially black widow!"

There would be comments thrown around here and there, but Megumi didn't really mind, to be honest. He was just glad to hang out with his friends.

Nearing the end of the movie, a knock on the door could be heard.

"Who is it?"

Megumi uttered calmly, his eyes not leaving the screen.

"It's me."

A surprisingly low voice replied.

"Oh, come in or whatever."

His door creaked open, revealing a certain green-haired senior with her hair down and glasses nowhere to be seen.

"What do you want, Zenin-senpai?"

"I told you not to call me that, Fushiguro. And also-"

Before she could finish speaking, he cut in.

"Or rather who do you want, I suppose."

His monotone voice irked her even further.

"No one. I'm just checking in because for the past hour and a half, you guys have been making so much noise, and I couldn't sleep."

"Oh? Maki-san!"

Both Yuji and Nobara turned their heads to face the door at the same time.

Looking at her juniors' innocent faces, she let out a sigh.

"Whatever... just go to bed when the movie is over, alright?"

Nobara, in fact, did not hear a single word Maki had just said. Unsurprisingly, she was observing Maki's features. She had her hair down and didn't wear her glasses. The younger female could not take her eyes of Maki Zenin.

Maki was one to notice every single detail of someone, no matter how large or small, and even without her glasses, she had certainly noticed Nobara staring at her for a good minute or so. After all, it wasn't hard for anyone to not notice that.

"Kugisaki, do I have something on my face?"

Her face heated up instantly at her senior's words, pouting.

"Or do you like what you see?"

Smirking almost habitually, the older female raised her brow slightly, not in a questioning way, but rather, in a teasing way. To tease her fellow female junior, of course.

Yuji looked at them back and forth with a questioning look, as Megumi looked on as if it was an everyday normal occurrence.

This was most definitely, not normal.