sweets ✧ r.kaji ˣ ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ

39: potato corner goddess

act normal, you reminded yourself. let him decide what to do first and then respond to it appropriately.

it was a concrete plan. the only crack in it was the possibility of kaji doing the exact same thing you were planning to do. or that he might've told kusumi and enomoto about it and that they would tease you about it, but this theory was less likely.

another deep breath. another lollipop in your mouth. you put on a smile, and then walked into the gates of furin highschool.

"hey, l/n," a voice said. hiragi was passing by when he saw you entering. "the tamon clean-up team is over there—we're starting in a few minutes." he pointed to a crowded area to the side.

you grinned and gave him a thumbs up. "thanks, hiragi-nii! i'll head there right away." after he nodded, you swallowed nervously. you'd be seeing kaji the entire rest of the day. it's over, but at least i'll get to see kiryu-kun and his friends.

your thoughts were proven correct, as you caught sight of sakura, suo, nirei, kiryu, and tsugeura chatting before you even got to meet up with your own second-year friends. it instantly brought a smile to your face; you wouldn't have to worry about kaji right now.

"kiryuuu-kunnnnnn!" you collided into the boy, wrapping your arms around him in a hug from the back. "how are you?"

"ow! l/n-chan-senpai!" he exclaimed as he untangled your limbs from his. "g-good? you don't need to ram me to say hello, though..." he complained, but it was clear that he was happy to see you.

it wasn't a long time since you've last seen him, but the whole noroshi vs bofurin fight felt like an eternity to those who participated. you laughed. "i wasn't ramming you. i was trying to hug you."

"if you say so..."

"anyway, othello-kun!" you said, moving your attention from your favorite kouhai to the first year that had battled endo. he looked surprised. "i heard that you were the one who fought with endo and won. that's so amazing! i think you're even stronger than me now!"

the compliment put a blush on his face. "eh?! me? w-well, i did fight him, but... it wasn't that big of a deal."

"but it was a big deal!" nirei blurted out with a determined face.

"what'd you say?!"

"s-sorry, sakura-san!" he apologized as if he didn't mean to say that out loud. "the thing is... you keep brushing off compliments and stuff, even if you totally deserve them. sakura-san, you shouldn't belittle yourself! you truly are amazing. you may not think so, but we definitely do!"

"huh?!"

suo added, "well said, nirei-kun. we'll always support you no matter what, grade captain. you know, if this was around the time sakura-kun just joined bofurin, he would've ignored whatever we said and would act all proud. it appears sakura-kun is warming up to us, isn't he?" he said, putting a hand on sakura's shoulder. his smile was cordial and sadistic at the same time.

"wh-wh-wh-what're ya on about? you crazy bastard!" the topic of the conversation yelled and backed away like he was a cat. you thought that sakura's ears would produce steam with how red his face was. "i-i'm not 'w-warming up' to you!"

it made you laugh. the children were being children again. "you totally are, othello-kun! what nice friends you have to be able to make you docile!"

"i'm not some wild animal—!"

"alright, everybody!" umemiya's voice interrupted screechily from the loudspeaker. many boys put their hands over their ears because of how loud it was. "i'm now gonna assign the four groups' areas to clean up. tamon: the eastern side near shishitoren's turf. jikoku: the forest park. zojo: the elementary schools area. komoku: tonpu market street. and that isn't even the whole town yet! there's still the riverbanks, the main road, the north side... anyway, noroshi has done a lot of damage to our beloved makochi, so we should all try our bests to help the people. got that? now, let's begin!"