Polaroid | Suna Rintarou

03: Side of Her

"Oi, Suna, wake up. Oi." Someone's shaking my shoulders, trying to rouse me from my slumber. As I open my eyes, I see Osamu's face and frown. What an eyesore.

"What?" I stretch my arms and let out a yawn.

"Let's go have lunch. Ya didn't even hear the bell when it rang, did ya?" he says, taking out his bento and raising an eyebrow. Not my fault our sensei bores me to death. When he starts talking, I fall asleep faster than I can count.

"Can you blame me? Sensei's voice sounds like a lullaby." I stretch my sore neck and shoulders, then search my bag for my bento... which is missing. "Shit." I curse under my breath.

"What is it?" Osamu asks.

"I must have left my bento back home." I rake my fingers through my hair and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Not gonna share with ya." My jerk of a friend munches his lunch.

"At least chew before you talk." I narrow my eyes at him.

"Ayyondtvare." He rambles, pieces of rice flying out of his mouth. Tsk.

"RIN-KUN!!" A very familiar voice calls my name, and there she is, running towards me.

"Rin-kun! Why didn't you come to my classroom? We're supposed to eat lunch together." Her brows crease into fine lines as she poses with one hand on her hips.

I sigh and reply, "I don't remember having that conversation."

"Don't you remember what we agreed on? That you're my—" before she could finish uttering the word 'my loyal fox' or whatever she wanted to call it, I cut her off. It would be a pain if Osamu hears that, and I won't be able to stop him from teasing me.

"Yeah, yeah. I remember." I nod.

She puts her massive bento box on my desk and pulls herself a chair. "Oh! Hi, Osamu-kun!" she cheerfully greets him and sits in front of me. "Hello, [Reader]-san."

"[Reader] is fine." She opens the bento and takes another pair of chopsticks, handing them to me, which confuses me.

"Okay, [Reader]."

"What are you waiting for, Rin-kun? Hurry up and eat." She opens another bento and hands it to me. I never expected her to make me lunch. I'm speechless but take it anyway. I want to thank her, but I don't know how.

"Thank you for the food." She immediately takes a bite of her food, but I can only look at her.

"What's going on between you two? Don't tell me, you're dating?" Osamu looks at us with suspicion in his eyes.

"N-no, we're not!" She answers straight away. I quickly see her tinted cheeks, but she hides it by swallowing her egg roll.

Osamu turns to look at me, demanding an explanation. I'm about to open my mouth and make an excuse, but she beats me to it. "He's my secretary. Yup, my secretary." She nods to herself.

"What? Why do you need a secretary?" Osamu asks, brows knitting together.

"Well— well, I'm bored and I wanted one. So, I made Rin-kun my personal aide."

"Yer odd, you know that? And I can't believe you agreed to this." He says.

"I don't have much of a choice."

"Forced, huh? I didn't know you had so little resolve when it comes to women." He snorts.

"Just to this woman." I mutter.

"What?" they both ask.

"Nothing." I answer and take a bite from my lunch that [Reader] made for me.

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