𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 - 𝘵𝘦𝘵𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘰 𝘬𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘰

3: pride and prejudice

Tetsurō slept through his alarm and as a result, his grandmother refused to serve him any breakfast when he finally came downstairs to eat.

"If you insist on being so lazy, why should I put the effort into making you food?" She grumbled, stirring the miso soup on the stove and wiggling her finger at him.

"Grandma how can I excel at school without having a healthy breakfast first?" Tetsurō pouted, resorting to puppy-dog-eyes as he leaned his elbows on the countertop in order to be closer to his grandmother's eye-level.

His mother gave him a fond swat on the behind as she bumbled through the kitchen. "How did I manage to birth such a free-loader of a son?"

Tetsurō stuck out his bottom lip.

"Take some tamagoyaki and vegetables on your way out," His grandma said. "But I swear the next time you sleep in, I'm not feeding you."

Tetsurō kissed her on the cheek before she could shoo him away.

When Tetsurō got to school, Kenma was waiting for him at the water fountain like he did every day.

"Have you seen Yamazaki yet?"

"What's your hurry?" Kenma didn't look up from his phone.

"I want to talk to her before home room,"

"Hasn't she made it clear that she's not interested in talking to you?"

"I want to bring up the newspaper again, she loves talking about that, right?"

"Good strategy, but you have to stop trying so hard." Kenma said uninterestedly as he started to walk towards the locker room.

"Whatever," Tetsurō said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Look, there she is."

Rini was ahead of them in the hallway, talking with some of her friends.

Tetsurō left Kenma to join the group.

"Hey girls," Tetsurō smiled. The party returned the greeting with unwavering enthusiasm, well, except for Yamazaki.

"Are you here to talk to Rini about her article?" One of Yamazaki's friends asked, her eyes glittering up at him.

"I actually already did, yesterday." Kuroo smirked towards Yamazaki. It would be difficult to talk to her with all her friends around. "I'll see you in home room?"

"Unless you find something more interesting to stare at,"

Tetsurō bit his lip, refusing to admit to himself that his cheeks were becoming pinker. So she'd noticed the way he looked at her in class. Damn it. "Don't flatter yourself," He heard someone say. Hell, that someone had been him, hadn't it? He managed to gather himself quickly. He saluted lazily with two fingers and walked off with a smirk, mentally cursing at himself for what had just come out of his mouth.

♥

Rini was dumbstruck as she watched him leave. Had he just insulted her? What was his last comment even supposed to mean? She wanted to call out a snappy response, but nothing came to mind.

"What was that all about?" Kaneko turned to Rini.

"He's such an idiot," Rini muttered. "But the bell is about to go." She hurried away from the group before they started interrogating her about her interactions with Kuroo.

She took her seat in home room and stared numbly at the doorway as the students trickled in, her mind still buzzing.

Kuroo walked in the door and Rini quickly averted her eyes to the front of the classroom. His desk was one row ahead and one row to the left of hers, so he'd walk right in front of her in order to get to his seat. She refused to let her focus budge from the spot she'd chosen to stare at on the white board.

She wondered if he was staring at her, hoping to see her reaction to what he'd said before walking away earlier.

She gathered the nerve to sneak a peak at him.

His hands were folded behind his head as he slouched back in his seat. The desk wasn't quite big enough to properly situate his long legs, but he still managed to look cool and comfortable. The sun shone through the window and bathed him in golden light, as if it had risen strictly for the purpose of making him glow.

He caught her gaze and the corner of his lip quirked.

Her eyes hurried to focus on something else, and she was instantly annoyed at the sudden butterflies in her stomach when he smiled. She needed that to stop. Both the butterflies and him smiling at her.

The more and more Rini wanted to ignore him, the more she reacted to his presence.

♥

"Are you angry with me?" Kuroo asked Rini when he found her at her locker after second period.

Rini didn't reply, trying to look occupied with organizing her textbooks so she wouldn't have to talk to him.

He squeezed between her and her open locker, smiling mischievously down at her. Rini scowled, but didn't have the nerve to try and shove him away.

"Was it something I said?" He asked.

"What could you have said to make me angry?" Rini scoffed.

"I don't know, you tell me." Kuroo bent towards her face playfully.

Rini crossed her arms and looked up at him. "I need my lit textbook, please."

He finally stepped out of her way so she could access her locker again. "Speaking of lit class, I've been meaning to ask you, what's your average?"

"I do pretty well," She was an A student in that class, mostly due to her love of reading and writing. "Why?"

"I'm trying to find someone willing to help me with a project, I've been hanging onto a C average but I need at least a B+ average to stay in the volleyball club."

"You're asking me to tutor you?"

"Not really, I just need you to proofread my project."

"What kind of project is this exactly?"

"Will you help me, yes or no?" Kuroo asked.

Rini bit the inside of her lip, knowing she'd regret what she was about to say. "Yes."

♥

𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆
𝘪 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘰 𝘪 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪'𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.

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