SECRET ADMIRER ( ryuurin )

십

There was only one thing that Ryuusei knew for certain and that was football.

The first day of tryouts was when Sae, the new captain, decided the team had to split into two divisions. Not that one was performing worse, but the clash between Rin and Ryuusei was too much for anybody to handle. The final straw was when Ryuusei had gotten incredibly close to smashing Rin's nose with his foot that not even a nose job could fix it.

"Teams A and B rally against each other," present Sae instructed. "Isagi is sick, so I'll play with Team B."

Ryuusei perked up. "You?"

Sae gazed flatly. "What about me?"

"Hell yeah!" Ryuusei slung an arm around Sae's shoulder.

Itoshi Sae did not nearly look as cheerful. "Get to your positions," he said, throwing off Ryuusei's limb.

Sweet. Isagi was a good player for sure, but playing with Sae got Ryuusei so excited. This was going to be a good match—Ryuusei could feel it in his muscles.

"You want to play defense?" Ryuusei overheard Kunigami ask.

"I like to switch things up," Bachira's voice replied, followed by light laughter.

Ryuusei heard Kunigami loudly crack his neck. "Suit yourself."

Bachira was being weird today, not that he was never not weird. But he was being weirder on this particular day, especially back in their classroom.

Him. That one word still rang through Ryuusei's mind, bouncing off the confines of his anatomy. It was like those gas particles stuck in a box Ryuusei learned about, except those gas particles were just him, him, him.

Was Bachira messing with Ryuusei? That was it, wasn't it? The guess was a fluke, a stroke of luck. Bachira himself said it after all. Ryuusei could laugh at himself for being so gullible enough to believe that wretch.

And if Bachira wasn't? Crap. Now there was an issue. Or issues. If Bachira wasn't lying about being a genius speculator, how did he know that Ryuusei had a secret admirer? Did Bachira read their exchange? Shit—there was no way Bachira was his secret admirer, right?

Ryuusei felt sick at the thought. There was no way it was Bachira. It could not be him. So it had to be someone else. Him.

The more Ryuusei thought about the entire ordeal, the more he wanted to shake the answers out of his supposed classmate. If Bachira was uncooperative like earlier, well, that was no problem.

In the end, it was clear Ryuusei would have to hunt down that guy later for some much-needed truth (all paths indeed led to violence).

"Oi, get to your position." Sae's order snapped Ryuusei out of his daze.

"Sure thing, Underlashes Senior!" Ryuusei grinned widely and sprinted to the center of the field, his troubles stored for later. It was time for football.

Itoshi Rin, Team A's striker, stood nearby, his long bangs swept across his forehead like some sort of model. Ryuusei wondered if Rin was ever bothered by them. Ryuusei often contemplated cutting his own two strands that framed his face but ultimately never did.

"Time to explode!" Ryuusei shouted to no one in particular, rolling his shoulders.

Instead of contributing to what would be the start of a routine back-and-forth banter, Rin stayed silent.

Ryuusei was about to say one more unnecessary comment to rile up his rival when Sae arrived before the former.

"Wake up. It's time for you to go wild."