HEART TO HEART. blue lock

08. BRIDGE OVER CLOUDS

they crowd hyouma's table, more like y/n.

it kinda pisses hyouma off, and it reminds him of a quote from one of his sister's horrible otome games.

'everyone circles the victim, but never the hero.'

for context, at least as far as hyouma recalls when his sister rants his ear off, the victim was the heroine who was supposed to get cursed by the bad guy until a side love interest stands in front of her and takes it for her. the main love interests who were conveniently in the same party as the heroine fusses over her while the side love interest dies. one less rival, his sister supposes.

but hyouma doesn't want to be the forgotten hero who crumbles into dust! he doesn't want to watch y/n take all of the glorious attention as he dies, and may his mother forgive him for cussing inside his head, but damn it!

positioning himself strategically so that the crowd can get a three-quarters view of his face, hyouma pushes his hair back. casually. "as long as i can protect our friend l/n, bugs will never be scary to me."

"chigiri-san...." y/n mumbles, but why are his eyes suddenly starry? all hyouma did was repeat the line the side love interest said as his final words! don't go falling in love with him now!

"chigiri-kun, isn't that the same hand you used to crush the bug...." someone points out, and the others follow her line of sight.

someone else gags. "ew! chigiri has bugs on his hair now! stinky!"

heck no! this is not the cafeteria gossip he intends to make out! the bugs aren't even real and his hair smells perfectly like his sister's strawberry shampoo!

the moment hyouma opens his mouth to defend himself, the person he least expects beats him to it.

"it's okay, the bug on his left hand was invisible, and the one on his right was an ant," y/n firmly declares.

'your bullcrap isn't gonna work twice—'

"ants are bugs...?" someone muses. hyouma wants to scream, 'how are you just gonna skip over the invisible part?'

"yes." oh my god. "they're from the same family as butterflies."

"woah! no wonder why we draw the weird body first before the wings!"

"l/n-kun's really smart!"

"it's always the quiet ones at the back who know the most...."

again, they flock over to y/n, heaping praise on him like they did to hyouma when he got here. hyouma doesn't try to get the attention back on him anymore, fearing he'll be misunderstood again. he doesn't trust y/n to have any leftover luck to save him for the third time.

hyouma silently turns back to the front, ignoring the creepy, unblinking stare boring into the back of his head, courtesy of y/n.

☆

y/n didn't stop staring at him, with the most unsettling starstruck eyes he ever felt, until the bell rang and another classmate pulled the dude into their seats, which were conveniently just two chairs behind hyouma, making it a free real estate for y/n to watch him for the rest of the day.

(before y/n could approach him, hyouma had to run out when the first few seconds of lunchbreak started. he swore he heard someone whisper "soccer" to him when he was peeing.)

after what may be one of the weirdest school days hyouma ever had, classes are finally over. he can't wait to wash his hair again when he gets home.

now he just has to somehow escape the breathing vintage porcelain doll that unfortunately takes the form of hyouma's classmate, y/n.