red string || sano manjiro/ mikey

chapter vi: the key

"who is he?"

"he's so cute."

"what do you mean? he's hot."

"he looks like trouble, to be honest."

"sada-chan! heading out already?"

said raven looks up just after putting on her own shoes by the shoe lockers. she spots one of her friends waving at her with a wide smile, hoping that they'll have some time to hang out first before she heads home.

thing is, kazua isn't the friendliest of the bunch. she just happened to be adopted by the girl on a normal school day.

"i have to go home early, suzue." was her reply. "i have martial arts practice, maybe next time?"

"that's alright! let's go to the cafe next time when you're free."

"sure thing,"

kazua doesn't know when that will be. her parents keep her on a strict schedule that she has to follow at all times to reach the future they're expecting out of her. she rarely has time to hang out with anyone, and she doesn't even know many places around tokyo even when she lives there. she's always locked in her house, or in a practice room or two for hours.

"he doesn't come to our school, right?"

"isn't he super popular in other schools, though?"

as she stepped out of the school building, the buzzing gossips began to grow clearer to her. she paid no attention to any of it as she wished to head home as soon as she could.

she doesn't want any more bruises today.

"yo,"

a pair of black and white sneakers blocked her own two pairs, preventing her from taking a step further away from the school. without being given much of a choice, she looks up and found the blonde smiling down at her.

"that's mikey from seventh elementary."

"why is he here?"

"someone from our school knows him?"

a small crowd was beginning to form, but kazua didn't wait for them to be trapped in the middle of the crowd. she grabbed his left wrist with her right hand, their shoestrings not going unnoticed by the bystanders as she dragged him out of her school.

"why'd you come here, dumbass?" she grumbles.

"to walk you home, what else?" mikey rolls his eyes, speaking as if it was the most obvious thing to do in the world. as kazua began to slow her pace to match his, mikey didn't hesitate to carefully bring his hand up to intertwine their fingers rather than let her hold on to his wrist. "you can't fight and there are dangerous gangs all around tokyo. i don't like the fact that you walk home alone with those punks around."

the blush that popped up her cheeks didn't escape his observant eyes, and he felt accomplished knowing that he has that much of an affect on her. "did you enjoy school, kazu?"

"what a dumb question. did you sleep through your classes again?"

"i'll have you know, i was awake for two or three subjects!" he boasted with a proud smile. "you told me to at least be awake for one, but i surpassed that. where's my reward now?"

"the knowledge that you hopefully retained in those classes." kazua looked up at him with a light grin. "though, i wouldn't be surprised if your brain can't process that much information."