Innocent | Sugawara Koushi

32.

"He's around our age." The man said and my mind wandered to the group of people Kyo introduced me to.

There was someone with black hair, around our age.

"Is your friend's name Akaashi, by any chance?" I asked, hoping that I guessed right.

"Yes! You know him?" The man asked excitedly and I almost couldn't believe my luck.

"Yes, we've just met." Before I could say more, the man took my arm and pulled me among the people, bowing his head a little. It looked like he was running away from someone. "Hey, not this way." I said, stopping him. But as I started walking in the right direction, he grabbed my wrist again.

"Wait, no." He was low on his knees, trying to get his head as low as possible. "We should wait a moment before we go there."

"Why?" I asked, suddenly feeling nervous. What if the man wasn't supposed to be here? What if he just walked into the banquet uninvited and tried to kidnap me by telling me a story about his friend that he had lost?

"I was looking for a bathroom. I couldn't find it, so I walked up to a room full of food. I wanted to ask someone where the bathroom was, but I already found one for the employers. But then, when I walked out, I couldn't help but eat some of the food that was prepared on the counter. Then a waiter walked in and asked if I ate the food that was ordered by the hotel's guests and he got really mad. I ran away from him, but I think he told his colleagues because every waiter seems to watch me like they recognize me from somewhere. I'm afraid that they will kick me out and Akaashi will be disappointed. Can you hide me?" His voice was a little bit whiny and eyes were pleadingly looking at me.

Like a kid in a grown man's body.

After a quick moment of thinking, I sighed. If he's lying, I will know as soon as we reach the group of people that Akaashi and Kyo are in. "Okay, I'll help you. But stop acting suspicious. Just don't look at the waiters and act like you know what you're doing."

I started walking with the man, trying to look for the waiters in our path. We were circling among the people, trying not to look suspicious. "Couldn't you just take food from here?" I pointed at the table near the wall. It was full of different kinds of food and it looked like everyone could take whatever they wanted to. There was also a couple of bottle of wine and glasses and I couldn't help but pour myself some.

"If I knew it was here, I would." He said, leaning a little to talk to me. Even after eating something in the kitchen, he was almost drooling at the sight of the delicious food on the table.

"Next time think before acting." I said, turning a little as I saw another waiter coming our way. He didn't look like he was after someone, but I preferred to be careful. I pulled the man to the side, where older people talking in circle could hide us.

"Next time I won't leave Akaashi's side for the whole evening." The man looked at the table with longing in his eyes before turning to me again. "Hey, I'm Bokuto Kotarou by the way." He smiled widely.

"Kuroki Miyu. Nice to meet you." I shook his outstretched hand lightly, giggling as he completely changed how he acted. He wasn't sad and lost now, with a wide grin on his face.

"You said you were going back to Miyagi over the phone." Bokuto said, making me look at him with a small frown. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hear what you said." He apologized quickly. "I just have a friend in my team that lived there."

"In your team?" I asked curiously. Now, when I looked at him from the side, I could believe that he was a professional athlete without a blink of an eye. I mean, I could see how muscular he was by the way the shirt was a bit tight over his biceps and chest.