Different Kind of Beautiful

Chapter 6

Oikawa stood with his back to the setting sun, skin still glistening slightly from practice. His messy brown hair moved gently with the soft breeze that pulled at his clothes. He was outlined with the bright hues of the sunset and his taller figure cast a long shadow but despite the very picturesque scene, that wasn't what stood out the most. 

The expression on his face was hard to decipher. His mouth hung slightly open while the right side of his lip tilted up slightly in half of a grin. The dark chocolate brown of his eyes shone brightly and swirled with emotions. His brow was furrowed slightly in confusion but his broad shoulders were relaxed. 

I squinted up at him and decided that I should explain first. 

"I just wanted to apologize since Rinko sent you on a while goose chase for a while. I accidentally gave her the idea and it got out of hand," I sputtered. I felt very unprepared. "I should have just cleared things up at the beginning when I overreacted."

To my surprise he laughed a bit. "No, no. I think I deserved it, at least somewhat. It didn't really hit me until recently that I had been blackmailing and mocking you."

It was my turn to be shocked. "Really?"

"Yeah, it's kinda obvious now that I think about it," he sighed. His eyes turned back to me. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I've been on edge recently so it wasn't entirely your fault." His eyes lingered on me before turning front again. I wondered briefly how long it would take for him to realize that our houses were close. 

"I'm sorry to hear that," he honestly replied. I smiled a bit, glad that I was able to read him like Rinko at times. He certainly wasn't an open book, but I was able to read through the cracks well enough. 

He smiled back, smaller than what I had seen before, and there was a pause as we kept walking. 

"Oh! I need to give you your book back," he stated, eyes going wide as he remembered. 

My heart jumped a little, as I had wondered what had happened to one of my only remaining books. "Oh-"

Oikawa suddenly stopped and pressed his hands together. "Can I just keep it for a little longer though? I started reading it out of curiosity that first day and I'm really close to finishing."

I was a bit startled at the quick movement, but nodded. "Sure, go ahead and finish, but I would like it back eventually."

Who was I to stop him from enjoying a story that had helped me stay afloat for years? It was nothing more than a simple fiction but something about it always sucked me in. I was glad he was enjoying it, though I wasn't sure if he would be too happy with the ending. 

"Thank you so much-" he started to celebrate, but shut himself down again. I paused, confused as an almost pained expression landed on his face. 

"I wanted to properly ask your name this time," he sheepishly explained, "considering that I still don't know it."

"Anzu Michishio, it's nice to meet you."

"Same here."

For a while he walked down the sidewalk with me almost proudly strutting as he had finally learned my name and cleared up the major mess. It was starting to get dark as a cooler breeze rushed past us and straight through my uniform. Oikawa seemed to enjoy it as he was radiating heat, assumedly from practice. I shivered slightly and forced myself not to walk faster. 

"Are you cold?" 

I looked up at him, to see the signature grin on his face, wide and bright. I decided I liked his smaller smiles better and narrowed my eyes. 

"A bit, but I can't control the weather. I plan on grabbing a light jacket from now on just to be safe," I responded, readjusting my bag straps. 

"I can-"

"Keep your jacket."

"Eh? How did you know?" he shot back. 

I gave him a blank look and kept walking. "It's a romantic clique, I know nearly all of them."

"Fair enough, but how?"

"How what?"

"How could you know all of the possible cliques?" he demanded, looking slightly smug. 

"You're kidding right?" I retorted. "I've been in the same school as you our entire lives and you have never once noticed me for a reason."

His face was covered in signs of shock. I tried to keep my amusement reigned in. 

"I stay out of sight and out of mind, and I stick to books. It's much easier than dealing with people, and you learn a number of things."

"Wait- you're saying that you've attended school with me since we were kids and I've never noticed?!" It was clearly driving him crazy as he tried to recall ever seeing me in the past. 

"We only shared like one class together, but yes."

I was short circuiting his brain. 

The rest of the walk was spent in silence, only broken by Oikawa asking a question that he thought I wouldn't be able to answer about out schooling. It was amusing, but I could see that our houses were getting closer. 

"My house is right here," he said. "How much further do you live? I'll walk you home."

"Not far." My head didn't hurt as bad but I could still feel it there, and as enjoyable as he was, I could feel my interaction limit for the day quickly drying up. "I'll head on by myself from here. Goodnight Oikawa."

"Ah, wait-" he started, cutting off as I started to speed walk away. Just down the road I walked up to my door and turned around, noticing that he was still standing on the sidewalk. Raising my hand in a wave, I quickly entered my home and pretended not to hear his shout of surprise.

Would I have to deal with walking with him in the mornings?

I cursed slightly under my breath. Now that he knew we lived close by, my chances at winning the bet with Rinko had shot lower. If he saw me each morning or made a habit of walking with me in the next few days, then I wasn't sure how it would turn out. 

Even so, I was still rather confident that the brunette wouldn't stick around for very long. I just wasn't that interesting in the long run.