WILDFLOWER [Ryunosuke Tanaka x OC]

Chapter 10 - The Plan

Tanaka already took off after her.

Nishinoya smiled softly and walked off toward his first class, with a muttered, "good luck," over his shoulder.

❀

Fucking Mondays.

Kano already had enough, and it was only eight in the morning.

Her personal demon, Isamu Inoue, seemed to be sent straight from hell itself. Maybe she brought Kano's little brothers with her on the way up, because they seemed hell-bent on ruining her life too.

One of the first years from the volleyball club, a cute little thing named Misa, stopped Kano on her way into the shoe bay that morning, glancing around the entry hall and chewing on her bottom lip. "K-Kano, uh, senpai, I know you're a third y-year and that you c-can probably fend for yourself, b-but," she stammered, picking at a fraying string on her backpack strap, "I s-saw Isamu touching your shoe locker this morning. S-s-so please... be c-careful. Okay?"

It wasn't that Kano didn't trust Misa the First Year, because she did wholeheartedly. Misa had done nothing to betray Kano's trust, and had always been kind on the court.

But Kano didn't think very highly of Isamu Inoue. Even less on a Monday morning, when she assumed the girl's brain cells would be fried from a long weekend of spending her parents' money and willfully giving herself skin cancer in her personal tanning bed.

"Thanks," Kano said, bowing her head quickly to her kohai, "I appreciate you looking out for me."

The underclassman flushed crimson and nodded. "A-anytime!" She ran off, keeping her head down and avoiding all outside communication.

Kano watched her slip away, and then eyed her locker. It wasn't like she could skip grabbing her shoes, though... she needed them, or she could get a citation. Potentially detention, depending on the teacher that noticed.

So, despite Isamu being a creepy bitch, Kano opened her shoe locker.

And glittery crimson paint exploded all over her uniform.

Everyone within range of the incident began to laugh and take pictures, quickly spreading the photo around school with a few taps of their phones. Kano, stunned, stared into the depths of her locker with her arms still held aloft in mid-surprise. Did that really just happen? 

Did she really get Carrie'd on a random-ass Monday in April? For no reason? 

Isamu Inoue, of all people, rounded the corner. "Oh, Abe? It looks like you've got a little something on your shirt there. 'Kay? You're welcome." She sashayed out of there like she'd won Miss America, her bleach blonde ponytail flicking through the air. Just behind her, Suzuki and Hashimoto sneered at Kano and followed Isamu out of the room like bodyguards, the remnants of Tanaka's furious fists still visible on their faces and exposed forearms. 

With every ounce of willpower, Kano closed her shoe locker and walked out of the locker bay without a sound. Only after she was out of sight and earshot did she start running.

When the wind whipped her cheeks and the world was quiet, Kano could think. And she needed a plan. If she walked into school covered in red paint, she'd definitely get something worse than a citation; the teachers would probably think it was some form of protest or whatever and suspend her right off the bat.

She couldn't go home and change into her spare uniform because home was easily ten minutes away, even in a dead sprint; with changing and the return trip, she'd never make it before homeroom began.

Rock, meet hard place.

The tears began to fall.

As she found the track and continued to run, Kano tried and tried to think her way around the issue, looking for loopholes in the school's dress code (which she'd memorized long ago due to her weight and her classmates' constant teasing), or for a way to get home and back without missing class. But nothing added up. And every second she wasted looking for an answer was another second she could be running home.

"Kano! Hey! Slow down, will ya?! Holy fuck, you're fast-"

Ryunosuke's voice cut through her inner turmoil, and Kano slowed, her lungs burning with exertion. He jogged up beside her with her backpack in his hand, worry creasing his brow. "Really earned that 'Dark Horse' nickname for a sec there," Ryu said, trying to read her unbreakable expression. He couldn't tell if her cheeks were flushed from embarrassment, tears, running, or wind shear. Kano's bright eyes stared right through him, calculating, unfocused, and cold. "You wanna talk about it?"

"Two things," Kano said with total conviction, zoning back in and piercing Ryu with her serious gaze, "One, do you have a spare uniform shirt with you that I could borrow? And two, how good are you at pranks?"

Confused and admittedly a little proud, Ryu answered immediately. "I don't, but Saeko could have it here in five. And what kind of pranks are we talking, Kano Felicity Abe?" He loved knowing the secret of her middle name now, courtesy of her mouthy little brother... it was like knowing a cheat code to the world's hardest video game. And he was the only one with access.

But if she heard the middle name drop, she didn't call attention to it.

She exhaled a sigh of relief as Ryunosuke pulled his phone out and texted Saeko, who agreed to deliver his backup uniform shirt within the next few minutes. "Revenge pranks, Ryu," Kano said evenly, never taking her eyes off of him, "Nothing that will get us expelled or detention. But... I'm done sitting on the sidelines. It's our fuckin' senior year... so, I'm fighting back now." In one swift movement, Kano reached back and gathered her long, dark hair into her signature ponytail, tying it off with a scrunchie from her wrist. "Will you help me?"

Ryu smirked devilishly and held up his pinky. "Partners in crime, right?"

Kano mirrored his expression, locking her finger with his.

"Hell yeah. Partners in crime."