The True Apex Predator | Male Reader x Beastars |

V1 | 8.0: Rehersal

Heya! I didn't dip for a half a year like last time. So, I've been thinking about it, I think I might make sort-of love triangle. BUT. Y/N is gonna keep playing wingman, yup. And Haru is gonna like Legoshi AND Y/N.

Maybe.

I still haven't decided lmao.

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Y/N P.O.V

"Are you feeling any better, Haru?" I asked, gently setting down the flower pot beside her. The weight of it wasn't much, but the significance... that was something else entirely.

She didn't answer. Instead, without even a glance in my direction, she hefted her own pot—a smaller, more delicate thing—and walked toward the shed. I watched her, my arms folding as I considered her silence. There was something different today, something more distant in the way she moved.

I guess I should follow her. I thought, I trailed after her, stepping into the dim light of the shed. "Haru?" I called softly, my voice barely louder than the rustle of leaves from the plants around us.

In the corner of my vision, I caught sight of her small frame. She was dusting off the old wooden workbench with a duster, her movements mechanical, almost too precise. I stepped closer, the creak of the wooden floor giving away my approach.

She froze, and stayed like that for just a few more seconds before calmly setting down the duster and turned to me, "You're such a jerk, you know that?" she said, her words sharp, like the first cold breeze of autumn.

I blinked, raising an eyebrow. "What?"

"Saying things like that," she muttered, her voice dropping, "and you don't expect a girl's heart to be struck?"

"I don't get what you're saying."

Haru's frustration flared in the form of a low growl. Her petite body tensed, and for a brief, ridiculous moment, I thought she might actually pounce at me, all fury and fire. She looked like a kitten ready to claw at my knees—small, but full of spirit. Truth be told, I was just playing her. I'm not some classic dense main character.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, if I've managed to pull at your heartstrings," I said with a teasing grin, "then I apologize. I thought you needed cheering up, that's all."

"Oh, you cheered me up alright," she snapped, annoyance thick in her voice. "More than enough, thank you very much."

I knelt down so that I was eye-level with her, the light filtering through the shed windows casting soft shadows over her face. "I'm serious though," I said, my voice lowering, more earnest now. "We've known each other for only a few days, but I can see it, Haru. The kind of person you are. You're fragile, even if you try to hide it."

Her eyes flickered, her anger dimming ever so slightly, replaced by something I couldn't quite place. I pressed on, "And with everything going on around us, the world has a way of playing cruel tricks on people like you. People who care too much."

She stared at me for a long moment, her expression unreadable. Then, with a dry laugh, she muttered, "You sound like a boy who's in love."

I smiled at that, shaking my head. "I'm not. But I know someone who is. You might want to start paying attention to the people around you, Haru."

She blinked, the tension between us easing as the weight of my words sank in. I rose to my feet, brushing off the dirt from my knees, and turned toward the door of the shed. "Well, I'm done for the day," I said, pausing in the doorway. "Take care of your babies."