𝗢𝗢𝗚𝗢𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗗────── k. aren x original character

𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭

when the bell of the first break rang, kotoe almost coerced herself into forgetting about the cheesecakes, and about kuboyasu-kun.

just as kokomi stood up and waddled over to chiyo—perhaps noticing that kotoe would like to be left alone—kotoe's mindless fingers went to the zip on the top of her dirty pink tennis bag, fiddling with it for a moment. too much was on her mind that day, and at times like these, she began reliving her gratitude, glad that she was a born a normal human, unlike kusuo.

kusuo was cursed with an infinite memory, a way to store limitless thoughts in his head. but kotoe was human compared to him, and she was blessed with the ability to forget one thing as she focuses on the other.

that was what she planned to do that morning.

forgetting toritsuka, forgetting her middle school boyfriend, forgetting her insecurities.

that morning, just as the break started, she planned on hitting some tennis balls against wall of the gym to take her mind off her rotten luck.

but kotoe was not thinking, and in the spaces between the way her fingers pulled the zipper of her tennis bag down, then up again, kuboyasu approached her coolly.

she almost forgot that he existed, despite mulling over herself just moments ago about how he divides his attention.

"kotoe-san," his voice still held the same gentle tone that he had used on her earlier. kotoe thought of ignoring him, but he pulled chair from the table next to her and sat with his chin supported on his hand, elbows on her desk. she tossed her intentions and stopped toying with her zipper, straightening her back at the appearance of the boy.

"kuboyasu-kun..."

a sweet chuckle escaped his lips—one that kotoe has recorded and played over and over inside of her head. one that had always caught her off guard every time.

"that's me."

kotoe slanted her eyes for a moment, and while hers held some amount of despondency, kuboyasu's looked relaxed. the edges of his eyes crinkled in a soft grin the harder she peered into him; it was as if he was teasing her. or urging her to go on. either one of that.

and she eventually could not take the charm behind the lens of his glasses, making her the first out of the two to break their intense eye contact.

the act resulting from embarrassment—with the tips of her ears red and lips pursing, almost pouting, without any valor to look back at him—caused another quiet laugh to leave kuboyasu.

"kotoe-san?" he called out, and kotoe pretended to be busy as her hand messed around with the way box of cheesecakes under her table, that she had just moved to her lap

she doesn't look at him. "hmmmm?"

"kotoe-san," the respond that she gave did not satisfy him—he dragged the chair under him to move closer to her, drawing attention to them, blatantly coming on to her under the eyes of everyone in class.

"what?" not giving in to him, even as he nudged her knee with his playfully, kotoe scoffed.

"kotoe-saaann..."

a curious tone that he was using—curious enough for kotoe to glance at him before turning her gaze away the moment she saw him at a distance she didn't expect.

too close.

for a moment, kotoe could swear that the earth stopped moving.

"kuboyasu-kun..."

he still had his cheek on the palm of his hand, head slightly tilted, and only released himself from the position to titter at her. from the corner of her eyes, kotoe watched as he stretched his arms far above his head, leaning back on the chair.

"yea?"

he's so annoying, kotoe found herself thinking, tugging on one of her ears to comfort the searing heat that it was giving off.

kuboyasu pulled his leg away from kotoe, and instead, places his ankle on his other knee.

and without giving any time to answer, he opened his mouth. "are you feeling better now?"

kotoe scrunched her nose, the pout on her lips appearing more genuine now that he mentioned the difference in her attitude.

"i feel normal," she muttered, knowing damn well that they both knew that that was not true.

"shall i beat up that purple-head creep for you?"

he blinked down at her, and it almost felt too real—too sweet. but the heavy and concrete substance that it has under his gentle tone woke her up.

she scoffed again, not having it in herself to reply with a remark aiming to gratify him. "is that how you face your problem? beat up everyone who got in your way?"

she inhaled sharply as soon as the words left her mouth, all sorts of insults that she had never said flew all around her head and jab themselves on her.

nice going—nice going ko-chan. nice going, kotoe.

"i'm sorry."

before she could think of anything else, before either of them could say anything else, she apologized—the first real one that she said that morning, though she had spent the entire morning wanting to kneel before kuboyasu and ask for forgiveness for something that she doesn't have to apologize for.

kotoe stood up, feeling her eyes well up with another session of tears—today was just too much for her. she had responded to kokomi with a terrible attitude; now kuboyasu has fallen into victim to her vicious mouth.

she poked the cardboard box on her desk lamely, waiting for some form of reprimanding from him.

kuboyasu then followed her suit and stood up.

"no," he shook his head, palm flat on her desk, once again almost invading her personal space enough to make her flush. "you're right. i shouldn't just go 'round and start punching people, right?"

"right," she once again slanted her eyes up at him, before taking a step back, intimidated. "are you just saying that?"

one corner of his lips tugged. "maybe."

kotoe rolled her eyes, for a moment observing him, before turning on her heels, cheesecake cardboard in one hand.

"let's go."

"huh?"

halting her steps, she looked over her shoulders at kuboyasu. while his head was tilted the same, the vexing look on his face was replaced by one of confusion.

she scrunched her nose, looking away for a moment to calm the heat she felt gathering in her chest once again. "are we not gonna eat these cake..?"

a lightbulb went off on kuboyasu's head, and kotoe couldn't help the stupid smile on her face when he kicked the chair back to its place, quickly finding his way beside her.

ㅤ　　

author's note ┃
this chapter is just aren n kotoe calling out to each other.