𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 - 𝘵𝘦𝘵𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘰 𝘬𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘰

2: forget-me-nots

Rini was glad she had this week off from the newspaper. She could finally relax.

"On your way home?" Kuroo's voice interrupted her as she prepared to leave.

"Are you stalking me now?" She asked, allowing some annoyance to slip into her voice.

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On how creeped out you'll be if I say yes."

"I need to get home." Rini shoved her backpack higher on her shoulder and turned on her heel. Kuroo was just fooling around, trying to get attention.

Before she realized what was happening, Kuroo was walking beside her. He was tall and had long strides, so he caught up with no trouble.

"You write a lot of articles for the newspaper?" He asked, walking backwards with his hands shoved in his pockets. His uniform tie was undone and he wore a lazy smile.

"I'm one of the chief journalists." Rini answered curtly. Why was he pretending to be interested?

"Are all of the members of the newspaper club as stuffy as you are?"

She met his eyes. He was still smirking. It'd be so much easier to stay annoyed if he was uglier.

"By your standards, probably." Rini responded.

"You don't think you're stuffy?"

"You've never even talked to me before today, you don't know me well enough to accuse me of being stuffy. Besides, what does that even mean?"

Kuroo laughed and turned to walk facing forward again.

"Boring, I guess. Uninteresting, flavourless, humdrum, dull."

"Did you need a thesaurus or did you come up with all those by yourself?" Rini said frigidly.

"Now who's making accusations?"

"I didn't accuse you of anything,"

"So that remark just now wasn't meant to insinuate that I'm just a dumb jock?"

"Maybe it was." Rini shook her head. "You're confusing me."

Kuroo chuckled. "You don't know me well enough to say I'm just a dumb jock, now do you?"

"I suppose I don't."

"And you're okay with that?"

Rini blinked. "Why shouldn't I be? You're okay with calling me stuffy. So we're even." She had no idea where this conversation was going or what he was trying to get at. Kuroo seemed to be one big mystery. Any sincerity he might have been inclined towards showing was masked with smugness and charisma. She didn't know how to read him.

"Well most girls—"

"Adore you and watch your every move with bated breath," Rini finished for him. "I know. Sorry if I don't see the appeal." Okay that was definitely a lie. She saw the appeal.

Kuroo was so enigmatic without trying. His height combined with his confidence made it impossible not to notice when he entered the room. He laughed at everything, and his laughter was contagious. He knew what he wanted and how to get it, but he wasn't forceful. Most of all, he was impossible to pin down.

"Maybe with time, you'll learn." He was saying.

Rini was so caught up in her own thoughts that she replied with a "Yeah, maybe," before she had time to check herself.

"Well I like that answer," He said. "Listen, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Unless you're okay with me walking you home,"

"No, thanks anyway." Rini turned him down quickly before saying something stupid again.

He smiled and turned back in the direction of school. "See you around."

Rini sighed loudly once he was out of earshot. It would take her a few minutes to process what had just happened.

♥

Tetsurō got home and went next door to Kenma's house. Kenma was at his computer, engrossed in a video game.

Tetsurō lay down on the floor in the sunlight that came through Kenma's window. He didn't know what to make of the conversation he'd just had with Yamazaki. It seemed to him that she misunderstood almost everything he said. She was a puzzle, but he liked puzzles.

"You're an idiot, you know," Kenma said suddenly, breaking the silence. "That girl isn't interested in you at all."

"How do you know?" Tetsurō sat up and leaned against Kenma's bed frame, crossing his arms.

"It's obvious. Every time we're around her, she ignores you completely." Kenma's voice was disinterested, as he was focused on his game and probably didn't really care that much about the whole thing anyway.

"She's playing hard to get." Tetsurō insisted.

"No, she just has better things to do then talk to you."

Kenma probably had a point, but Tetsurō had too much pride to admit it. "I think you're wrong." Tetsurō said, laying back down.

Kenma was quiet after that, his focus drawn entirely into his game once again.

Tetsurō silently strategized about talking to Yamazaki the next day.  She'd said something about asking his help with the newspaper, and though she hadn't been serious, it'd be a good entry point of conversation.

Maybe if he lead in with that, she'd be more willing to have a conversation. Yamazaki was passionate about journalism, that much he knew already. Her eyes had a way of lighting up whenever she was talking about her passion.

Tetsurō had observed this mostly from a distance, like when he'd discovered she had uneven dimples. She'd never actually smiled at him, but her smile had been one of the first things he'd noticed about her.

She had long black hair that fell almost till her elbow. Her eyes were bright and blue like forget-me-nots. Tetsurō thought about her eyes often, and how he wished they'd soften towards him and see him as he truly was. So far, that didn't seem to be a very hopeful possibility.

𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆
𝘪 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘬𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘰'𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦. 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘪 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.

𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒅𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒏𝒋𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒅! 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓!