Dark Places | S. Tendou

PASSION IS CRASHING

At school on Tuesday morning, Maeko looked for Tendou again except, this time, he was thankfully there, as easy to pick out of a crowd as always.

Relief, fast and overwhelming, flooded through her entire body at the mere sight of him. Maeko squinted at his side profile as she walked over to him, studying him, on the hunt for an outward sign of ailment or illness that could have been responsible for his absence but, as far as her eyes could tell, he looked like his ordinary unordinary self.

Maeko leaned slightly against the locker next to his, hidden from view by his opened locker door. She was in a good position to try to scare him. The thought even briefly crossed her mind.

However, just as she was on the verge of attempting it, one of her hands hovering over the material of his sweatshirt in preparation to grab on, Tendou slammed his locker door shut and twirled around to face her.

Maeko's spirit might as well have exited her body, leaving behind someone breathless and pale-faced, more ghostly than human. She jumped and let out a small squeak, running into the locker behind her with a metallic, ringing bang that reverberated down the length of the hallway, drawing several sets of curious eyes in her direction.

She turned her attention back to Tendou, glaring, trying not to think about all the eyes that were still fixated on her. "What was that for?"

"Being too focused on trying to scare someone actually makes you easier to scare." Tendou explained nonchalantly, waving one of his abnormally long pointer fingers through the air like an orchestra conductor. Maeko caught her eyes tracing the elegant patterns that his finger cut through the air as if momentarily hypnotized by it.

Maeko shook her head in disbelief. "How did you even know I was there?"

Tendou lifted two fingers to his eyeballs and then twisted his hand around to point them at Maeko next, switching back and forth a couple of times. "I know everything. Don't think too hard about your deep, dark secrets, or else I'll know those too."

That would have ordinarily creeped her out but, now, as she stood across from him, she returned his playful look tenfold, intrigued by his quirky statements and eager to puzzle out what unfathomable thing he'd say next. Tendou also looked like he might have caught onto that difference. His eyes widened, but only by a small fraction, as if it surprised him to look into a pair of eyes that didn't narrow in confusion or at a pair of eyebrows that didn't crinkle in unease.

Maeko's expression suddenly became serious. "Where were you yesterday?"

Tendou's smile faltered, but he was quick to recompose. "Why? Did you miss me?"

Maeko rolled her eyes, sincerely hoping that the blush she could feel burning beneath her cheeks hadn't risen up and tinted them a severe shade of red. "I'm not joking. Is everything okay?"

Tendou fiddled with the sleeve of his shirt, stepping away from his locker like he planned on cutting their conversation short and heading to class. "It's a beautiful, sunny Tuesday morning. Can't you hear the birds singing?"

There was a brief, awkward silence in which Tendou, with a hand to his ear, paused to listen for birds that never sang. Maeko's expression became increasingly quizzical in that lapse of silence as Tendou's wide-eyed grin faded away, realizing that no birds were coming to support him.

He cleared his throat, straightening his posture up again. "Well, there were birds, my point being that there's nothing not to be okay with on a day like today."

Maeko didn't see the link between good weather and a good mood. That certainly wasn't always the case in her life, and she had a feeling that wasn't in his, either. That argument might have worked for other people, but Maeko saw right through it.

Right through it to the simple fact that he had purposefully evaded her question. She supposed that neither of them knew a lot about each other's personal lives, certainly not enough to warrant an open and honest answer in the middle of a busy hallway, but she really thought that he could count on her the same way she felt herself beginning to count on him.

"Maybe I'll see you after class?" Tendou said casually, taking a step down the hallway.

But then Maeko grabbed his arm, rooting him in place.

She felt the muscles in his arm stiffen. When he turned his head to the side to look at her again, she could see it plainly on his face that he was taken aback.

Not once had Maeko initiated physical contact or, until today, even started a simple conversation. It was really killing two birds with one stone. It might have looked quite normal, even irrelevant, from a bystander's perspective on their exchange, but both of them knew how much her touch was changing their dynamic.

"I—" Maeko jostled her brain for the words with an incredibly grave, focused expression.

Tendou stayed quiet, patient. He usually would have said something silly that made them laugh and eased the tension, but his gaping, unblinking stare was a telltale sign to Maeko that he was a lot more shaken by this turn of events than he appeared to be. Perhaps he didn't feel capable of speaking in that moment.

Maeko took a deep breath. This time, when her eyes found Tendou's, they were almost confident. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her cellphone, shoving it into Tendou's hand. "I want your phone number."

Tendou's fingers didn't immediately curl around the cellphone she planted in the palm of his hand. That gaping, unblinking stare of his was beginning to redden the whites of his eyes.

The silence was unbearable, but Maeko tried her best to stand there, while returning his stare, without turning tail in embarrassment.

It was like Tendou just woke up. He was eerily still for one second, and the next he was suddenly jostled into motion, fumbling with the keys of Maeko's cellphone to type in his contact information.

Maeko held out her hand for Tendou's cellphone and spoke with the last bit of courage that she had at her disposal. "I will give you my phone number, as well."

Oh my god, she mentally scolded herself, I sound like Ushijima. Could that have been any more robotic?

Tendou's head bobbed up and down like a seagull, wordlessly rummaging for his cellphone and then handing it to Maeko. After she finished typing in her contact information, they swapped cell phones one last time. There was something akin to fondness in Tendou's eyes as he quickly read the name and number on his screen before shoving it back into his pocket.

Maeko had no clue what to say next. She was quite literally saved by the bell.

Tendou laid a hand on Maeko's shoulder, playfully jostling her back and forth. "I'll see you after class." And then he was gone, taking long strides down the hallway to catch up with Semi and Ushijima who were already a ways ahead.

She was glad he dropped the maybe.

Only then, after he was gone, did Maeko release a deep, shuddering breath, collapsing against the locker behind her. She had to head to class, too, but her legs felt wobbly. Her heart was beating so fast that she thought she might pass out if she tried to support her own weight.

But she was smiling despite all of that.

Maeko wondered, perhaps hoped, that Tendou was, too, as he ran to catch up with his friends.