level up | kuroo tetsurou

14 | mimori and yuko

nekoma highschool
behind the gym
2 years ago

"Kuroo-san, I like you!" she confessed with all her guts, staring into his surprised look. Mimori raised the letter she wrote last night, hoping he'd accept it.

"Mimori Tsubasa, right?" Kuroo clarified, unsure what her name even was.

"Y-yes," she nodded enthusiastically, delighted he knew her name. Mimori's grades were far from Kuroo's, which is precisely why she could never get in the same class as him.

"I'm sorry, Tsubasa-san," Kuroo rejected. He couldn't possibly date someone he didn't know that well.

"I have someone I like," he reasoned.

"Can you at least read this letter I made? Please?" she pleaded, with her excitement unfaltering. The rejection wasn't even sinking in for her.

"Um," Kuroo spoke. "Okay, okay."

He grabbed the letter from her hold, not knowing what to do next.

"Mimi-chan!" they both heard her name get called.

"Ah, then, I'll go now," Mimori said with a bright smile, "I like you a lot, Kuroo-san," she remarked before leaving. She had a bright smile on her face, almost as if it wasn't a rejection. "What a weird girl," Kuroo mumbled.

nekoma high school
college prep classroom
the next day

"What's this?" Kuroo mumbled as he gazed at the small box on his desk. "Did you see who placed this here?" Kuroo asked his seatmate.

"It's been there since I got here," they answered. "Looks like its from a girl though."

"Huh?"

Kuroo sat on his desk and lifted the nicely wrapped box. Curiously, he pulled the ribbon and raised the cover to see its contents.

"Chocolates?" he realized. Homemade, too. There was a note as well, further surprising the first year.

Dear Kuroo-san,

I hope you like the
chocolates I've made! I
heard you like science and
all, so I tried learning too.
Apparently, chocolate is filled
with iron and copper? Why
metals and minirals though,
Kuroo-san?? It's also good
for the blood preassure
and flow! <3

Kuroo painstakingly read the awfully written characters and even noticed the spelling errors. Heck, he even noticed her erasures in the paper. But strangely, it was quite sweet, not just literally.

"You say it's nutritious but it's not even dark chocolate," Kuroo thought with a smile. "It's the sugary kind."

Kuroo broke a piece of the chocolate before setting the box aside. It was sweet, too sweet. "How much sugar is in this?!" he thought.

With Mimori's persistence and Kuroo's fascination with such a strange girl, that was how all it started.

present day
tsubasa household

"I'm home," Mimori raised her voice while she removed her shoes. Silence was the only response she received and it was no longer surprising.

"I bought dinner," she announced and walked towards the backyard.

"Miyu-nee-san," Mimori called and paused upon seeing a familiar figure sitting on a wheelchair.

"Leave it on the table," the woman instructed, refusing to face Mimori.

"Okay," she said and nodded. "If you want to go outside, you can tell me, you kno-" Mimori offered as the woman stared into the dark nightsky through the window.

"Leave."

Mimori nodded once again, "Sorry," she spoke. She placed the plastic bag she held before making her way to her room. She changed to her nightclothes and looked at herself in the mirror, particularly the scar on her shoulder.

° ° ° ° ° °

daiwa residence
the next day

° ° ° ° ° °

The weekends, finally. Yuko woke up to the sounds of her siblings' loud voice, followed by the ringing of the house phone. "Yua! Give that back!" she heard Ryo downstairs. Annoying, she thought.

"It's fine, really." Now who was that?

"No, it's mine!" Yua's voice was even louder. The two were chaotic when they quarelled. One may think the age difference would've made Ryo the kind and understanding sibling, but he was too immature for that role.

"Yua-chan, what's going on?" Yuko got out of her room to ask, with her vision still blurry. "Did he do something?" she continued before letting out a yawn.

"Good morning, kitten."

Upon hearing that familiar suave tone, Yuko's brows furrowed in surprise. She narrowed her eyes, a futile attempt to give herself a better look at the man at the end of the staircase.

"Who are ya calling, kitten?!" Ryo interrupted, now making an appearance from the kitchen.

"Can I have this, Ondori-nii, Rooster-nii?" Yua added, probably from the living room.

"Te..." Yuko muttered, "Tetsu?"

"Good morning, kitten."