Irresistibly You | A Haitani Rindou Fanfic

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰɪᴠᴇ

୨⎯ ...You're Such a Fever Dream ⎯୧

How long is it before we all graduate? Right, about four months left before graduation day. That means I'm turning into a fully grown adult sooner than I expected, then I can finally be independent and leave that hell of a big brother. He's an adult, I'm sure he won't be needing me. Who am I to him anyway?

I found myself relaxing in the cool breeze by the fountain of the school grounds. It's the center of the establishment so it's easy for people to be spotted. I don't know what I was doing. I was just sitting down on one of the benches resting by the fountain, drifting away at the light blue sky with puffy white clouds. "The weather's great today, I see." I uttered with a blank head.

"It sure is."

"Mhm." I followed along.

Then I noticed that voice, so I looked to my left to see it was him, Haitani Rindou. I snapped out of my relaxed state and began questioning him, "What are you doing here? Do you know how long it has been since you last attended classes?"

"Aww, did you miss me, Y/n?" Rindou bantered. "It's only been three weeks. I'm sure you're doing fine as always."

Suspicions arose in my stomach. I raised my eyebrow at him as I responded, "I'm fine. What's with this behavior you're wearing, Haitani?" Everything about this didn't seem right to me. First, his sudden appearance and second, his cordial demeanor towards me.

"Can't I see my friend after a long while?" Rindou replied, tilting his head as if he was an innocent victim of my uncertainties. I stood up, saying, "I'll be leaving now. You don't look like you're here for a good talk."

"Ah, wait-" His cellphone then rang continuously until he picked up the call. Distancing himself from where we were just now, I stayed to see where this was headed. I accidentally sat down on his bag that flopped open on the bench. "...Shoujo manga?" I said under my breath as I unintentionally saw the content of his school bag. Is this a part of his interests?

Once he was done with his abrupt call, Rindou came back to a girl reading a manga he was a bit familiar with. He snatched the manga out of my hands and spoke in a flustered tone, "W-What are you doing with this?!"

"It's just in your nature to always be rude, huh. I was getting to the good part!" I argued.

Rindou, embarrassed as ever, raised his tone at me as he answered back, "What..?? You shouldn't take my stuff-actually this isn't even mine. It belongs to my brother."

"Uh-huh. There's no need to hide your true self, Haitani." I replied, standing up from the bench and walking towards him. Teasing him a bit more, I continued, "We all have our hobbies, right? You shouldn't feel ashamed for having interest in shoujo manga."

"I told you it belongs to my brother, Ran!" He then exhaled a deep breath as he faced away from my direction. "I shouldn't have accepted his request to buy the latest volume for him."

Wow, he looks terribly humiliated by this. What a child...

Rindou grabbed his school bag and shoved the manga back inside, treating it like it wasn't anything special. Then he brought up a topic, though upholding his embarrassed face. "Where are your friends by the way? It's rare for them to not be here with you."

"Are you stalking me or something?" I joked around.

He said, squinting his eyes at me. "Yeah, right."

It then hit me that feeling of melancholy as that thought about graduation from earlier and the idea of not being able to be with them for a while popped inside my head. "You see," I said with a beating heart. "Seishu has been recruited into a gang recently while Yuzuha has been busy with her paperworks. She's going to America to pursue her dreams. As for me, I don't know what I should do for my future."