Safety. [Baji Keisuke]

6. Caring

The entire day people had been giving Keisuke looks of fear. It was because it was the first time in three years that he was in school and was not in his usual nerdy disguise. This had also started a popular rumour: Baji Keisuke the barbaric delinquent broke nerdy Baji's bones and now was taking his place in school as compensation until he recovers. He was also part of a legend in which he was some sort of beastly superhuman who only woke up from his deep slumber when he was hungry for war. Today was the day everyone got to know that he was, in fact, an actual student who attended the school, not some legend.

Of course, none of this bothered him one bit. The rumours about him were so exaggerated and overdramatic that he only found them slightly amusing. What a load of fucking crap coming from a bunch of fucking shitheads. It was the first and last thought he had about this whole situation before he completely forgot about it. All the teachers and his friends knew the truth about him and that's all that mattered to him.

The rumours weren't a problem but he was in a very bad mood. For one thing, it was a Monday. More importantly, he hadn't heard a word from Sayuri the entire weekend. He had texted her but she hadn't even read the messages. He hadn't seen her in school today and he was getting worried. Chifuyu was absent too because he had gone to visit one of his relatives. He had no one to hang out with and couldn't even study because he wanted to keep his "double life" a secret.

The bell finally rang, signalling the end of the day and hence the end of Keisuke's misery. Since he couldn't study anyway, he decided to make a quick exit from the school. It would give him more time to search for Sayuri, beat up some delinquents who had pissed him off and then he could study at home in peace. However, before he could leave, he saw her smiling face peek into his class. She waved at him and entered the class as the teacher had already left.

Suddenly, she was standing in front of him and his bad mood was gone like it was never there in the first place. But it was replaced by slight annoyance. He lightly pushed her head with his finger making her shut her eyes and her smile widen. He crossed his arms and glared at her expectantly. Once the seat in front of him was vacated, she sat down. "How have you been for these past few days, Kei-kun? Hopefully not getting into trouble?" she asked cheerily, only to receive his bored stare.

She sighed and nodded in understanding. "You're right, I deserve the silent treatment after disappearing on you and being silent myself the entire time." He continued to give her an indifferent stare.

"Well, I'm very sorry but there is a good reason. Will... you let me explain?" He nodded. She handed him two boxes which were neatly wrapped with dark blue paper, both rectangular and one was small while the other was tiny. "Open them."

He held them up to his face. "How's this supposed to explain anything?"

"Just open them." He could hear the excitement in her voice which made him curious and he delayed no further. The papers were shed and the boxes were opened to reveal two exactly identical spectacles but one was much smaller in size.

He gave her a look of confusion. "I mean... this is nice and all but... I don't get it, what should I do with these?"

She waved her hand as if to wave away his confusion. "Remember how I said I would take care of your specs problem? That's what I did. I was busy the entire weekend looking for the perfect fake specs for you and I also wanted to get a matching pair for Soba, I thought it would be cute. I was so busy because getting something like this is pretty difficult. And I'm sorry I ignored your texts and disappeared like that, I wanted this to be a surprise."

He still looked confused. "What are fake specs again?" Once she explained it to him, he finally gave her his signature wide grin which showed off his fang-like canines. He pulled her out of her chair and into a hug. It was too sudden for her to be prepared for this. She was glad that her face was resting on his shoulder which would prevent him from seeing her flushed face.