She only knew him from afar.
That day, she sat motionless by the steps at the school exit, patiently waiting for the rain to subside. She stared vacantly at the heavy rainfall that just wouldn't stop, calculating the odds of her getting safely back home without getting drenched in the rain too much.
She wouldn't have noticed him if they weren't the only ones there at that time. She looked straight ahead but she realized with some slight annoyance that his every move caught her attention. He stood by the door for a moment, then he walked farther and stood leaning on the wall, perhaps resigned to the fact that the rain wouldn't be stopping anytime soon. She looked around. It seemed as if they were the only ones left.
Finally, he settled on sitting on the steps a bit farther from where she was. Without fully understanding why, she turned her head towards the boy that was interrupting her thoughts; sharing the same space and time she's in. Almost immediately, he noticed her staring at him. When their eyes met, she didn't see the guy that she was used to hearing about from the gawking girls in her class every morning. She didn't see the Ryouta Kise that she was used to seeing on magazine covers. Not even the Generation of Miracle member that she saw on the court.
In that millisecond-long moment that they shared, she saw a boy—just like any other guy—whose blank gaze probably wouldn't pay attention to the way some girl would look at him. A boy who would never smile back at her; or he probably would have. But she'll never know, for she averted her eyes a second sooner.
After a moment, he finally looked away as well. The weather was making her sad. With a brief sigh, she picked up her bag and walked off towards the rain.
Her odds weren't that good after all.
