𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒕'𝒔 𝑻𝒖𝒕𝒐𝒓 | Kazutora Hanemiya x Reader

Chapter 10

"You're so annoying, Emma-chan," Kazutora said to the girl pulling on his arm. "Couldn't you ask Mikey to help you?"

"I did! He doesn't want to," Emma replied. "Please, Kazutora! I really need your help finding a cool birthday gift for Draken. Maybe something for his bike? But I don't know anything about that stuff."

"Whatever, maybe you can get him a shampoo guard," Kazutora mumbled as they entered a bike shop.

Kazutora felt bad about ignoring Y/N all day and then not showing up to their tutoring session without telling her, but he figured the best way to keep her away from him would be to get her to hate him. But was that what he really wanted? Of course not, Kazutora thought. I really want to be with her. He just couldn't help but believe that her mom was right about everything she said. Kazutora watched as Emma looked through different mechanic tools. She had her brows furrowed and carefully held each tool as if they were treasures.

"Emma-chan," Kazutora said, "why do you like Draken?"

"What?" That question made her visibly flustered. "Draken is, uh, such a, you know, cool guy. He's really considerate and all." Her voice and her gaze softened. "He's always been nice to me, even when he teases me. He's a dependable person. He's smart and handsome, too. He might look rough around the edges, but he's such a warm-hearted person." Emma blushed.

"A warm-hearted person," Kazutora repeated. They were talking about Draken, but he immediately thought of Y/N.

"That reminds me," Emma exclaimed, "Mikey said they all met your girlfriend! They said she's cool and really pretty. I want to meet her, too!"

"My girlfriend," Kazutora whispered. He smiled at Emma, but it didn't reach his eyes. "She's not my girlfriend."

+ + +

Kazutora was expecting Y/N to come up to him again the next day, but when he entered the classroom, she was seated at her desk looking out the window facing away from him.

"Hey, L/N!" one of their classmates called. "Can I run my spooky lighting ideas by you?"

She looked at her classmate and then turned to Kazutora's desk, making quick eye contact with him. She looked at her classmate again and said, "My head's a little painful right now. Hanemiya is there, so you can ask him to check them out." Then she turned back to face the window.

Hanemiya? Kazutora thought. I wanted her to hate me...but I didn't think she could hate me this fast. He was completely crushed by the interaction. Their classmate made his way to Kazutora and explained the lighting setup, but he could only half-listen to the ideas presented before him. If I apologize now, maybe she'll forgive me. But her mom told me to stay away from her... He was at a loss about what to do. He couldn't stand not speaking with her, but he felt like he had no choice.

Kazutora okayed the lighting ideas and then turned his attention to Y/N once more. He was still thinking about whether or not he should apologize to her, when four seniors were noisily making their way down the hall outside the classroom.

"Is she in this class?" One of them asked.

"Yeah! I see her!" Said another one, looking into the classroom.

The first one peeked his head through the door and yelled, "Yo, L/N Y/N! Someone has a crush on you!"

"Shut up!" the senior hanging behind them hissed. He was tall and had a mop of jet black hair nearly covering his dark eyes. It was easy to tell he was handsome, even if he was wearing an embarrassed expression.

How annoying, Y/N thought. She knew she was pretty and she wasn't naïve about it. This wasn't the first time something like this has happened to her, but it hasn't happened in a while. But from her periphery, she saw Kazutora look at them, clearly annoyed, then face her, waiting for her reaction. She plastered a smile on her face and waved at the seniors, causing all of them to blush. She then saw Kazutora put his head in his arms at his desk. She turned again to face the window. Stupid, she thought.

+ + +

What am I doing here? Y/N thought. It was 7 p.m. and she was at her and Kazutora's usual spot at the library. She knew in her heart that he wasn't going to show up. After that morning, he hadn't tried to talk to her or even look at her. She was beyond miserable about it, but she didn't have the guts to face him knowing he was probably dating someone.

She opened the textbook in front of her. I might as well get some studying in since I'm here already. She was solving some practice equations, and eventually, she became stuck with one of the problems.

That can't be correct, she thought. She poured over her notes and even checked the answer on her textbook answer key, but she couldn't come up with the solution on her own.

"You're supposed to transpose X to the other side," said a voice from behind her. She jumped in her seat and was surprised to say the dark-haired senior from that morning pointing at her equation. "If you do that," he continued, "you'll get the right answer."

She looked at her notes and did what he said. "You're right," she admitted. "Thanks for your help." She really didn't want him to get the wrong idea, especially since she smiled at him and his friends that morning, so she tried to dismiss him as politely as she could. If Kazutora was here, she thought, this guy would be too scared to approach us. She made herself sad with that thought, wishing she and Kazutora would go back to normal. She was so wrapped up in her daydreaming that she almost didn't notice the senior sit beside her and look at her other notes.

"Hmm, the rest seem to be correct. Hey, you're really smart!" He smiled at her. Y/N was dumbfounded and uttered a feeble "thank you."

"By the way, I'm Tanigawa Arata. You're L/N Y/N, right?" He asked.

"I am," she said, "Nice to meet you Tanigawa-senpai. Anyway, I should be going. Thanks again for your help." She quickly packed up her things and got up from the table.

Tanigawa also got up and said, "Where do you live? I can walk you home since it's kind of late. Or at least to the station?"

"That's not necessary," she smiled, already walking towards the door.

He followed her. "Are you sure?"

"Yup, it's no problem!"

She opened the door and said Kazutora standing outside. He looked at her and then looked at Tanigawa. His fist clenched, but then softened when he saw Y/N's uncomfortable expression.

"I'll walk with you," Kazutora told Y/N.

"Okay," she said weakly. "Thanks again, Tanigawa-senpai," she said to her senior, who looked terrified of the gangster before him.

Kazutora and Y/N walked in silence. When they were far enough away from the library, Y/N stopped in her tracks. Kazutora noticed and turned to properly face her—the first time in two days.

"We can go our separate ways here," Y/N said with her gaze on the ground.

"But—" he started, but didn't know what else to say.

"Sorry for what I did last time," Y/N said softly. "I didn't mean to make things awkward between us. You can forget that ever happened and we can just go back to being classmates and cultural festival partners." She walked past him towards the direction of her house, but his feet were glued to where he was standing.

She's the one apologizing to me? She's apologizing for the kiss? He couldn't believe what was happening. He desperately wanted to chase after her, to say he was so happy that she kissed him, to beg for her forgiveness for how coldly he had acted around her. But her mother's words filled his head. Stay away from Y/N. He wasn't good enough to be with her, and he believed it.

When she was far away enough from Kazutora, Y/N let the tears freely stream down her face. Well, I guess that's it, she thought, we're not even friends anymore.

The stars that night were brighter than usual, and Kazutora and Y/N looked up at them from where they were in Tokyo, wondering if the other was looking up, seeing what they saw.