I Think I Like Him - KuroKen

~Chapter Two~

I was back up in two hours to get ready and head to school. I got dressed in my school uniform, grabbed my bag, and then headed outside. I headed next door to Kenma's place, like I did every morning.

I knocked on the door and waited for it to open. When it did, I stood face to face with Kenma.

"Morning!" I said with a smile.

"Morning, Kuro. I'll be ready to go in a minute here, I just have to grab my bag from my room." He said. I nodded as I waited in the mud room for him. When he came back down the stairs a few minutes later, we started on our walk to school.

I'm going to miss this when I start college next year. It's hard to believe I'm a third year already. I wish Kenma wasn't a year behind. I bet college is going to be boring without him around. If I'm being honest, I'd thought about taking a year off, just so I don't have to move away from Kenma. We could go to college together.

~~~

When we got to school, we went our separate ways. He went towards the second year wing while I headed towards the stairs that led to the third year wing.

"Hey, Kuroo!" I heard from the top of the stairs. When I got to the top we started walking down the hall together. We walked to class together most mornings, seeing as our classes were close together and all the way at the end of the hall.

"Yaku, hey." I smiled.

"How was your night?"

"Decent. How was yours?"

"Boring. I'm starting to apply to universities, so I was up late last night researching some places."

"Find anywhere decent?"

"Not yet. You start looking for colleges yet?

"No...I might take a year off, I don't know yet." I replied honestly.

"Does that have anything to do with the fact that your best friend doesn't graduate with you?"

"Possibly..."

"I swear, you two act like you're dating." He teased.

"I wouldn't say we're that close."

"Really? Who did you walk to school with this morning? Who'd you walk home with yesterday? Who do you walk to practice with every single day? I'd also bet money that you two talked last night or hung out after school."

"Okay, fair point. But that doesn't mean we're dating. I'm straight." I defended myself. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm straight anyways. Even if I wasn't, would I actually fall for my best friend? I doubt it.

"Right...I'll see you at practice. Later." he said as he dipped into his classroom. I walked a bit farther to my classroom where I sat down and waited for my teacher.

~~~

As the last bell of the day rang, I threw my textbooks into my school bag and started to head down the stairs to the main entrance. I met Kenma at the bottom of the stairs before volleyball, like I do most days.

"Hey, how was your day? I asked.

"It was...okay." He shrugged, not looking up from his handheld. It looked like he was playing Pokemon.

"Anything interesting happen?"

"Not really." He said. He sounded down, but I wasn't going to ask him about it in the middle of the school hallways.

Once we were changed for practice, Kenma and I hopped onto the court and started practicing some quick attacks. His sets were perfect, as per usual.

We were finally getting into a groove when the coach blew his whistle and signaled us to gather around the bench. We walked over and listened to what he had to say before starting our warm ups.

We spent practice playing practice game after practice game, working on our already nearly perfect techniques.

After practice, Kenma and I walked home together.

"Video games tonight?" I asked.

"Nah, not tonight." he replied.

"Are you alright? You've seemed kinda off since school let out." I finally decided to bring it up since we were alone.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied. I didn't believe him, but he's always been honest with me, so what reason do I have not to trust him right now?

"Alright, if you wanna talk later, just call me. You have my number, use it." I reminded him.

"I know, Kuro." He said. We walked the rest of the way home in silence.

When I got home, I headed upstairs to get a shower. That's always the first thing I did when I got home from practice. I grabbed bed clothes, threw on some music, and hopped into the shower.

I was singing along to some random Panic! At The Disco song when my ringtone went off. I wasn't going to answer it, seeing as I'm in the shower, but once I saw that it was Kenma calling I answered it.

"Hey, what's up?" I answered.

"I lied. I'm not okay." He said. His voice was cracking all over the place, "Are you free to talk?"

"I'm in the shower at the moment, I can call you back or be over in like five minutes." I offered.

"Either is fine...I'm sorry I bothered you." He said.

"You're fine, give me five and I'm all yours." I said. He said okay and then hung up. I rushed through the rest of my shower and got dressed. I decided to just head next door to Kenma's instead of calling him.

I knocked on the door and was greeted by Mrs.Kozume.

"I wasn't expecting you tonight yet." She joked.

"Sorry, Kenma invited me over."

"Don't apologize, you're always welcome. Head on up, come find me if you guys need anything." She smiled. I nodded and headed up the stairs and down the hall. I walked into his room, not bothering to knock.

"I'm here. What's going on?" I sat down on his bed beside him. He was still crying.

"Bullies. Today some of them decided it'd be fun to spend the day trying to wrist check me."

"People still do that kind of shit?"

"Yeah, and one of them kept telling me I should cut or off myself and it kinda got to me. I've thought about those things before and..." He stopped to breathe and tried not to break into sobs.

"Are you thinking about them right now?" I asked. All he could do was nod before he did break down into sobs and tried to curl in on himself. I pulled him into a hug to try and help him calm down. This doesn't happen often. Usually he can talk these kinds of things out or find a distraction and be fine. It must really be eating away at him this time.

It took a minute, but eventually Kenma calmed down and pulled himself away from me. He sat up against the wall his bed was against and stared out into space. I couldn't tell what was going through his head. I couldn't tell if he was still thinking about it and trying to ignore it or if he was going numb.

"Why am I such a freak? Why do people feel the need to target me?" He rolled his eyes after a few minutes of silence.

"You're not a freak, Kenma." I said. He just shrugged. I hate seeing him hurt like this so fucking much.

"Can you stay tonight?" He asked.

"Yeah, I can stay. I'll be here as long as you need me." I said. I wanted to see him happy again.

The thought of wanting to see him happy reminded me of what Yaku had said earlier about us dating. I didn't think I was gay, and I'm pretty sure Kenma isn't either. He's just my closest friend, my best friend. We've known each other since we were small kids, so it makes sense that we're as close as we are, right?

~Word Count~
~1292~