Lost in a Pursuit

Candies

A/N: Happy Halloween everyone! :)

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"Yeah... Mom, I'll be going off now, with Yuri-chan..."

"Have fun!"

The door closed behind me as I slipped into a pair of grey sneakers. Dressed in a simple white T-shirt and long jeans, I slung my small excursion bag onto my right shoulder and held Yuriko's tiny hand in my palm. I used my other hand to caress my single-braided hair.

Today, I had decided to try out a new hairstyle -- braids.

I did not know the reason why, but perhaps it was due to the day. It was holidays, after all.

Well, it did give me confidence.

***

After reaching the playground with that swing, I let Yuriko play on her own while I sat down on a nearby bench, checking my phone for the time. 1:50PM. Ten more minutes, huh? I had always been fond of being an early bird for every meetup.

But since Akashi wanted to start the discussion as early as we could, I figured, why not call him now? Probably better than wasting the precious ten minutes.

I went to my phone's keypad. Last caller: Akashi Seijuro. I had saved his number a while ago so the contact was now his name.

My thumb hovered over his contact, knowing that if I tapped it, I would be calling his number. The number which his fan club would run to the ends of the Earth just to acquire it.

Oh man, what is this... Something chilly ran down my spine all of a sudden. I'm scared of calling him...

Well, but he's already called you, so you should call back, my brain told me.

...Ugh, fine, I told my brain.

It still took me a minute before I managed to tap it. Quickly, I put the phone to my ear. I gripped my phone tighter because my fingers were getting really sweaty and the thought of my phone dropping onto the floor would not help my nervous state to calm down.

After a few seconds, Akashi picked up.

"Hi, Shizuko, you're there already?"

"... Uh... yeah," I almost lost the ability to talk for a second there.

"Right, I'll be right there..."

"Was that a pun...?"

"Someone finally understands it!"

I could tell from the tone of his voice that he was on cloud nine. Well, normal people wouldn't be able to tell that was a joke, since his tone always killed the jokes.

"Haha, that's good... see you later." I ended the call without even hearing his reply.

Around three minutes later, Akashi arrived at our meeting place, wearing his Teiko basketball jacket and long pants. I almost gasped.

"That looks really cool," I commented, taking out my notebook and pen.

"Thanks," he sat down before continuing, "Your braided hair looks great on you."

"Well, then let's sta--"

"Ichi-neechan! Who is he??" Yuriko came running forward to the both of us and instantly, I knew, that can't be good.

Before I could even reply, Akashi took out several flavours of candies and lollipops and told her, "Nice to meet you, little girl, I'm Akashi-kun. If you want these goodies, would it be okay for you to play with yourself for some time?"

"Woaaaaahhhh," Yuriko drooled with her eyes shining bright. "Okay!" She took one of the candies and ran off to continue playing.

I stared at the candies for a while. Why didn't I think of this?! I'm such an idiot!

"I obtained some of these from my teammate who loves to eat candies," Akashi explained before keeping the rest of them into a small plastic bag. "Let's start, shall we?"

"Um... yeah. Can I have one of those too, later?"

***

Thirty minutes later...

"'Kay, I'll get the character designs and stuff done. We can use the scanner to scan my drawings, right?"

"Yes. Can you complete your work by this week?"

I glanced at Yuriko, who was sliding down a slide. "... Maybe not, with that girl over there... She's going to be with me for the whole of this week. And she's going to kill me."

"... You should try to. It's better to keep everything organised."

"Okay..." I agreed reluctantly. "Can I have the candy now??"

Akashi nodded and handed me the plastic bag. I took the orange flavoured one and tossed it into my mouth.

"Ahh... this tastes so sweet and heavenly..." I cupped my cheeks with my hands and savoured the taste of the candy. "It's been a few months since I've eaten this... oh thank you so much I love you-- WAIT I DIDN'T MEAN IT THAT WAY. I MEANT, AS A FRIEND!!"

I looked away hastily and covered my mouth. To think such embarrassing words slipped out of my mouth! ... Well, I'm used to saying those three words to my female BFFs.

"Ah, it's alright..." he assured. I looked back at him. He was slightly smiling and simply said, "It just means we're closer together."

"... Right, hahaha," I said. "Anyway, we finished quite early... Do you want to like, go somewhere to play or something? There's a lot of time left..."

"We're at a playground, though."

"I-I meant, somewhere else," I stood up and grabbed my stuff. Yuriko then came running towards me.

"Are we leaving now? Can we go eat something? I'm hungrrryyy...." She took one of my hands and pleaded.

A light bulb lit up in my mind and I turned to look at Akashi. "Well...I guess we could say... she's... Hungary... pun intended!" I broke into a small laughter after finishing the sentence.

" ... Seriously, I like your puns."

"Thanks. Well, maybe we can go to a place to eat for now? There's a cafe with a piano nearby, but it's expensive..."

"I'll pay," Akashi decided. "It's holidays, anyway..."

"Really?! Let's go then!" I held Yuriko's hand in delight, knowing there would be free delicious cakes again... I should be ashamed of myself for letting someone pay for me and not feeling any shame. Just kidding.

---End of Chapter 9---

A/N: Next chapter will be tomorrow, 1/11(Sunday).