𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕 ━━ nishimura riki

chapter sixteen

"What if that no one you speak of, likes you?"

Saeyoung's lips parted at the thought of those words, as if it was a bomb that Ni-ki threw right up her ground making her shock and immediately hide for cover. Saeyoung had mixed emotions and she didn't know if she should be angry, grateful or sad.

Angry? because if she wouldn't have approached Soul and his group earlier, would Ni-ki scold her and unexpectedly confess? He used such time in a wrong yet weird situation.

Grateful? she isn't sure but one thing she knows is that, she's starting to fall for Ni-ki. Of course, not because of his confession earlier but his actions that he had shown her days before the competition. Saeyoung sometimes wondered if she did have the confidence to confess, would Ni-ki reciprocate her feelings? And if he did, she would feel like her heart was about to burst of happiness.

Or Sad? Saeyoung might be close and a bit touchy with Ni-ki but she isn't blind to see that she isn't the only girl who's aiming for Ni-ki. The oh so, wonderful image of Yasuda Takara popped up in Saeyoung's head and seeing how close she is with Ni-ki, made Saeyoung look down on herself thinking that the possibility of Ni-ki and her to happen is one big fantasy.

Saeyoung sighed. Taking a look of the photos that she took from today's competition, she felt relieved that everything looked great and she could definitely send it to her coordinator.

Earlier when Saeyoung took her shots as a photographer of the news committee, she had asked Daniel if he could be the one to take photos of Ni-ki instead during their performance. Relieved, Daniel agreed but all throughout Adroit Dance Team's second number, Saeyoung could feel the intense gaze of Ni-ki looking out for her from time to time. She avoided his gaze and went to do her job but even though, Saeyoung felt so cautious in every move she took not wanting Ni-ki to get mad at her again.

Gone back to Adroit's Room, she packed her belongings along with her friends and proceeded to the bus so that they could finally go home after a long day. And as for Ni-ki's dance team, they were the last ones to pack up since they had to go to the restroom and change into a more comfortable clothing.

"Sorry I'm late! I was talking to a contestant from another school." announced Nina, as she ran to her seat beside Saeyoung.

"Ooohh~ is the contestant somehow a boy Nina? Because I feel like you have a secret admirer on you're hands." Songyee teased.

Nina stuck her tongue at the girl and started to laugh sarcastically. "Very funny. Sorry but the boy already likes someone else and he just asked me some simple questions."

"And may we know on what those questions are?"

Nina shook her head. "Not happening!" she said before turning her attention to Saeyoung. "Hey! Where's the dance team? I thought they were already here before I came in." Nina looked around for any sign of Ni-ki's teammates, and just right on time, they finally entered the bus and fixed their things.

Unlike her fellow news team, Saeyoung stayed quiet and let Nina and the others greet a loud yet simple 'congratulations' to Adroit's Dance Maneuverz. She is still stuck in her thoughts thinking of what happened earlier. Not actually being like her usual confident self, Saeyoung refuses to have eye contact with Ni-ki and would just greet the Dance Team later on. She doesn't know if she's just shy or she's scared.

But the situation was different for Ni-ki. As soon as he entered the bus, his eyes immediately looked around for Saeyoung, same as her, the scene on where he almost confessed kept popping up on his head that even earlier when he was performing, his eyes would be wondering around looking for the girl.

Once Ni-ki located Saeyoung who was staring at a far distance, he brought his bag with him approaching Saeyoung and where she was sitting at. He signaled Nina to get up, which she followed. "Mind if I sit beside Saeyoung?" his request made Nina grin from ear to ear. She nodded vigorously walked to her Songyee unnie and sat beside her instead.

Right from the corner of Saeyoung's eye, she could see Ni-ki approaching. Now that Nina has left to sit with Songyee, made Saeyoung nervous to the point that she was already panicking inside her head. She sat there frozen and did not bother looking his way at all. From Saeyoung peripheral view, she watched as Ni-ki took a seat beside her and hugged his bag.

Unbeknownst to Saeyoung, they were already being given teasing looks by their teammates and friends. But as for Takara, she rolled her eyes and instantly payed attention to her phone.

The japanese boy was aware that Saeyoung might feel uncomfortable with him sitting beside her. Wanting to calm her down a bit and help brush off the feeling, he went to spotify and took out his airpods. He placed the left piece of the airpod on his left ear and he did not hesitate to tuck some of the strands of Saeyoung's hair behind her ear, placing the right piece of the airpod on hers.

"Tell me if I'm making you feel uncomfortable, and I would immediately leave." by those words, Saeyoung felt speechless and looked down on her lap. She bit her inner lip not wanting to let out at least a small smile knowing that Ni-ki might be watching her from his side view.

The ride back to school was quiet between Saeyoung and Ni-ki. They weren't able to talk to each other due to the awkward atmosphere that surrounded them, so all they did was listen to music from Ni-ki's airpods.

Ni-ki wanted to talk to her so bad but he didn't want to make Saeyoung uncomfortable and he guessed that Saeyoung was still taking time, processing about his confession, even though it wasn't really a confession-confession kind of type.

As the middle schoolers of Adroit stands up finally going inside their school, Saeyoung handed Ni-ki the right ear piece of the airpod and immediately rushed down inside school with her camera. Basically it was already 5:53 pm and class has been dismissed two hours ago but in Saeyoung's case, she was just going to her coordinators office and send in the pictures she took.

Carefully opening the door to her coordinator's office she was instant welcomed by Miss Yoo. "Hello Saeyoung! How was today's competition? Did the dance team do well?" she asked leading Saeyoung to take a seat on the small couch.

Saeyoung nodded. "They slayed it, Miss Yoo."

"Mmh, as expected of Ni-ki and his team. He's such a talented and handsome young man! If I were in you're age, I would've had a huge crush on him." Saeyoung had already escaped Ni-ki, but he just kept coming back up right to her mind especially now that Miss Yoo was praising him. It felt like wherever she goes, he would always be there or at least be mentioned.

Wanting to go home and avoid the topic, Saeyoung pulled out a folder with the pictures she took in competition, she had plenty of time earlier so she was able to develop and print out many of them for Miss Yoo. "Ma'am, here are the pictures I took earlier."

"Thank you, Saeyoung." Miss Yoo placed the folder at her table and sat down on her swivel chair. "Will there be anything else I can do for you Saeyoung?" the girl shooked her head in reply.

"No, that's about it ma'am!"

Miss Yoo hummed in response. "Saeyoung, I heard about a report earlier from Nina that something happened to you're head earlier today. Is that true Ms. Roh?"

Saeyoung nodded once again. "Yes ma'am."

"Alright then. I think its better if you don't go to the competition tomorrow Saeyoung, because our heads is very sensitive you know? And it's better if you take time to recover as well." suggested Miss Yoo, who was organising her paper works.

"Will do, Ma'am." for Saeyoung she doesn't mind attending the competition tomorrow since the next day will be the awarding ceremony for the dance teams who won. And after that, Adroit's Dance Team is off to practice for the next competition. So missing out, isn't really much of a problem for Saeyoung and she too sees the concern of her coordinator.

Saying a quick good bye to Miss Yoo, Saeyoung exits out of her office only to see Nishimura Riki waiting for her.

"I'm taking you home."