the event | kita shinsuke

8

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You take a step outside your school and wait near the stairs. Delicately, you hold a small bag filled with chocolates to give to Mizuhara, but he's nowhere to be seen. Looking up at the blue sky, you spot a pair of sparrows circling each other in the sky. Their bodies dip and rise but they always stay near each other. You hear the calls coming from one bird's throat and listen for its partner's response. They must be in love, you figure.

Deciding to wait for Mizuhara on the stairs, you gently put the bag to the side and take a seat on the concrete slabs. Several minutes pass and you begin to grow impatient waiting for the boy. You debate just leaving him, but the nervous face of the girl who asked you give him these chocolates comes into mind. You sigh and wait for longer. Another couple minutes couldn't hurt.

Students pass by you but you don't bother looking up at them. You just keep the chocolates near you. Then you hear your name.

Turning around. you expect Mizuhara, but see Kita instead. You haven't really talked to him since the trapped in a storage room incident so you give him a curt smile and hope he'll take a hint.
He does not.

"Are you waiting for Mizuhara?"

"Yep."

Silence befalls.

You look up at him. He's not looking down at you, but looking slightly up to the sky. He observes the sun, the clouds and a pair of passing swallows.

"...Are you waiting for Aran?"

He nods his head and takes a seat beside you, "Mind if I wait with you?"

You shake your head.

"It's working," Aran whispers from the hallway.

"Of course it's working, it's my plan," Mizuhara whispers back, hiding behind the shoe racks.

"Yea only you would come up with a rude plan like making them wait for us."

You look down at your shoes, oblivious to the fact that the guy you're waiting for is hiding behind you. Eventually your eyes wander to Kita's shoes. His brown leather loafers perfectly adhered to the school's dress code. They were shiny and not a speck of dirt dared to sully the shoe's clean appearance.

"How's student council going?" Kita suddenly asks, breaking the silence.

"Oh uh, it's good. There isn't much to do this time of year so we are mostly just managing small requests from clubs. Lately the soccer club has been pestering our secretary so they can get a higher budget," you sigh, slightly stretching your arms forward, "How's volleyball?"

"Good," he replies, "The Inter High competition is coming up soon so we are practicing a lot for that."

You glance at him. Despite your lack of interest in your school's volleyball club, you couldn't help wonder what it's like sometimes. All the previous captains have been starters, but Kita isn't. It made you wonder why he was chosen to be captain.

"It must be hard being the captain when there are some interesting players on the team. I mean just this morning I saw the Miya twins arguing with each other."

He smiles a little, "It's not bad. They get carried away sometimes, but they are all good people and good volleyball players."

You stare into his eyes for a second. The dark brown irises draw you in. He seems genuine. Since the first time you met Kita, you didn't like him. He got a higher mark than you on a test, and even though you scored higher next time, Kita's name was consistently right by yours on the papers depicting class rankings. Immediately you disliked him. It wasn't rational, you'll admit that, but the more you saw him, the more robotically perfect he seemed. But, looking into his eyes now, you realize maybe you were wrong. His eyes are large and kind.
Despite always seeing him, you never really saw him until now.

"Sounds like you really care about them," you say, breaking your gaze from his eyes.

"Well, they are amazing," he smiles.

You turn to look at your shoes again, then up at the sky, hiding a slight smile, "... They're taking a long time aren't they."

"We should go out now shouldn't we? It's been long enough," Aran whispers to Mizuhara.

"No not yet," Mizuhara replies holding his arm out, "Just a little longer."

"What are you two doing?"

The two boys look behind and see Hina. They look back at you and Kita to make sure you didn't hear anything then turn back to girl questioning them.

She looks at Aran then Mizuhara then you and Kita, "Are you spying on them?"

"What? Spying? That's so bizarre," Aran defends himself.

"Yea, we'd never," Mizuhara affirms, "But could you maybe not mention it to them?"

Hina looks at you once again, then Mizuhara and Aran's nervous faces. She remembers hearing about you and Kita being trapped together like a romance movie cliche, then it all clicks. "Wait, no way. You two are trying to set them up?"

The two boys stare at each other, trying to find the proper answer through the other's eyes.

She smiles, knowing she's right, then gently taps the boys' shoulders, "Your secret's safe with me."

She walks forward with a skip in her step and leaves the building. Turning around and giving the boys a quick wink, Hina then acts surprised when gets closer to you and Kita, "Oh, you two are still here?"

You turn around and greet Hina, "We're waiting for Mizuhara and Aran. Have you seen them?"

"No," she lies, "But I'm sure they won't take long, I'll see you two tomorrow."

You watch her walk away, then turn to look into the school building. With a sigh, you face forward again.

"...Do you want to watch our volleyball practice some time?" Kita asks, looking at you.

You take a moment, but before you can reply, you hear a thud coming from behind you. The two of you look back to see Mizuhara lying on the floor with the contents of his backpack spilled all over the ground. He looks up from the ground and stares at the two of you then at his loose school supplies. With a red face, he quickly packs up his stuff and gets off the floor.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he mumbles with a red face. Keeping his head down, Mizuhara does a thumbs up gesture behind his back so Aran can see that his falling down plan worked.

"Whatever it's okay. These are for you by the way," you say handing him the bag of chocolates, "A fangirl asked me to give them to you."

"Oh nice," he replies. looking through the bag. Stealing a glance at Kita, he takes note of how he is staring at you but is unable to decipher his expression, "Well let's get going now."

Still seated on the stairs, you look at Kita then at Mizuhara.

"Aran shouldn't be that much longer," Kita says reassuringly, "You guys go home. "

You give him a tight smile then get up and grab your bag. You take one step before looking back at Kita and saying, "If the offer is still there, I'd like to watch a practice. It'll be nice to get to know some of the people we're using for our date auction."

"Okay, I'll make sure to introduce you to everyone."