Partners || KNY x OC

vii - next day

"Well, I have to head off now." Setsuko said, at the Tokitous' front door. "It's late and Tanjirou just texted me saying he was close to arriving at my house." Muichiro nodded with Yuichiro standing behind him. "Thanks for coming!" Setsuko cheerfully walked off. Muichiro closed the door and sighed. He and Setsuko didn't talk for the entire time they were at the cafe. Setsuko was working on the essay and checking their phone, giggling at times. Muichiro spent his time looking out the window or sketching. You can't blame this all on Muichiro for not talking to Setsuko the entire time. Setsuko themself felt like something was off with Muichiro so they laid low. Muichiro didn't know what was going on with him either. He felt like he didn't want to get in the way of Setsuko's love life, but something made him also want to. It was confusing.

"Ah, shit!" Yuichiro suddenly yelled. It scared Muichiro who was inside his own head at the moment. "I forgot to ask for Hakane's number!" He slapped his forehead. "Mui, can you please ask Setsuko for her number? Please?" Yuichiro begged.

"Uhh, yeah sure."

"Thank you!" Yuichiro thanked him and then ran off to their room. Muichiro turned to the couch in the living room. Their father had gone out to a bar again. He clicked his tongue in complaint at the mess that was on the floor and couch. Muichiro didn't care to clean it though.

He walked to the bathroom and laid down on the cold tiled floor. He was thinking about Setsuko. Why was he always thinking about Setsuko though? The way they acted, the things they said, the way they tucked a piece of hair behind their ear when they were studying, all of the things they did seemed so interesting to Muichiro. If he really did have feelings for them, then that wouldn't be good. They were dating Tanjirou already.

Muichiro's head was hurting from all of the thinking and walked out the bathroom into his room to rest a bit. He checked his phone and saw a text sent from Setsuko. It was an image of them and Tanjirou, making cookies together. Then after that was a video. He clicked on it and let it play.

"Okay okay. Tanjirou say hi to Mui!" Setsuko laughed and pointed the camera towards Tanjirou. He was mixing batter in a bowl.

"Hi Muichiro!" He said with a laugh.

"We're making cookies right now for that picnic. Hey, stop!" Setsuko yelled as Tanjirou tried to get batter onto their nose. The two laughed as they ran around chasing each other.

They ran past the phone again and Setsuko grabbed it. "Okay Muichiro I gotta go! Love you, bye! Stop it Tanjirou!"

The video stopped and Muichiro shut off the phone, leaving Setsuko on read. He had to somehow loose feelings for Setsuko and the start of that is by trying to loosen up their relationship a bit.

The next day was like any other except Muichiro and Yuichiro woke up to their father not being back yet.

"Did he blackout at the bar again and didn't make it back?" Yuichiro asked as the two walked to school.

"I dunno. Maybe he'll be back later." Muichiro commented, colder than he usually was.

When Muichiro walked into the classroom, he kept his head down. He knew Setsuko had already arrived with Tanjirou and he just wanted to get to his desk without Setsuko noticing him.

He quickly walked to his desk and immediately grabbed out a journal to start drawing in. He heard steps and a chair being dragged against the ground but still didn't look up. "Hey." It was Setsuko. Muichiro nodded. "Tanjirou really wants to talk to you more. Y'know, get to know you and all. He said that he thought you were a pretty cool person yesterday."

"That's cool." Muichiro answered.

There was a moment of silence.

Setsuko was an overthinker. Any slight change in someone's personality would immediately set off the sirens in their head. It was a bad habit they picked up in junior high. Whenever they did something that was mildly bad in front of one of their friends, they'd immediately start apologizing and feeling bad, afraid to upset them.

Now when Setsuko notices that someone has been acting odd around them, they try their best to distance themselves from that person to give them some space. They wouldn't ask them what was wrong, they would just leave them because they were scared that they would just make it worse. It was a bad habit they picked up from junior high after having a toxic friend.        (relatable ngl)

Setsuko slowly stood up and walked back to Tanjirou's group. Muichiro finally looked up and then down at his sketchbook. 

That's the most I'll update for now until I have something new. I have a very inconsistent update schedule so that'll be fun. Thank you!

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