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ramen

The girl sprinted home, her bright yellow rain boots clacking against the hard cement.

Please don't be robbed, please don't be robbed, please don't be robbed—

She turned the corner and arrived at the street of her house.

The door was closed. She slowly turned the knob, making sure not to make a lot of noise, just in case.

Okay, no one there, she thought.

This time, she made sure to lock her house after she came in. She carefully took off her rain boots and held one in her hand as a makeshift weapon of sorts. She explored the living room and bedrooms to make sure no one was there.

However, she suddenly heard something sound from the kitchen. Approaching the room with caution, she eventually jumped into the doorway and threw the boot in a random direction.

"Take that you petty house robbers!" she cried.

The boot was caught, however, by a certain female, dark-haired third year.

"(Y/N), it's just me," she laughs.

(Y/N) blinked. "K-Kiyoko-san? What are you doing here?"

Kiyoko placed the boot on the floor. "I was coming over to visit and noticed your door was unlocked. I was just guarding it until you came back."

(Y/N) eased up. She and Kiyoko were close friends and neighbors, and Kiyoko would always visit her after school to keep her company after what happened the year prior.

"O-oh," she nervously laughed. "Thanks, Kiyoko-san. Sorry for...attacking you with a rain boot."

She laughed. "It's alright, and you can drop the honorifics. We're family friends after all," she replied. "Why don't you just put that boot back where it belongs? I'll make us some early dinner."

(Y/N) glanced at her wall clock. It was five in the afternoon, and she normally didn't eat dinner till much later.

"A-ah, it's alright, Kiyoko. I eat dinner much later anyways, and I wouldn't want to intrude on family meals or any homework  you might have," she said while grabbing the rain boot.

"No, I insist," she replied. "I wasn't assigned much and my parents aren't home yet anyway, and I'm sure they won't mind if it's for you."

(Y/N) gave her a bashful smile. "Alright. But at least let me help you out."

She smiled back. "Of course."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Itadakimasu!" said the girls in unison. They clapped their hands together and broke their chopsticks, digging into some delicious ramen.

(Y/N) ate a spoonful, and it tasted amazing! She was used to cooking for herself, especially ramen, but it seemed that Kiyoko had some tricks up her sleeve that she needed to share.

"So (Y/N), what happened that caused you to leave your door unlocked? Did you just forget to? It didn't seem like you were going out though."

(Y/N) quickly swallowed the food in her mouth. "Well, I was writing to my parents, and I totally forgot that my window was open," she responded shyly. "Sure enough, the letter flew out the window and I dashed out of the house to grab it."

Kiyoko sighed. "(Y/N)...you know you can't be reckless like that. You've already been living alone for the past year, you should know better."

(Y/N) always wrote her parents everyday. Each letter was unique, and clearly (Y/N) wan't any do-overs.

Which reminded her...

"How were you even able to catch that letter? The wind was pretty strong."

(Y/N) suddenly lit up. "Oh! Someone helped me retrieve it. At first, I chased it down a block or so, but this boy intersected it and managed to catch it for me."

Kiyoko's ears were perked. "Who?"

"He goes to our school. I think his name was Su...Sugawara! Yeah! With the gray hair, if you know him. He's also a third year."

"Sugawara? Yeah, he's on the volleyball team."

(Y/N) took another slurp of her food. "Oh yeah, I forgot you were their manager. How's that going?"

Kiyoko paused. "We recruited a couple of first years, all of whom are pretty much trouble..."

(Y/N) laughed. "Sounds like an interesting bunch."

Kiyoko smiled. "You're not wrong there."

After final spoonful, (Y/N) clapped her hands together and gave her thanks for the meal. Kiyoko did the same not long after.

"Here, I can clean up for us," (Y/N) offered. "Why don't you get home, it's getting pretty late."

Kiyoko looked up at the clock. It was about six thirty in the evening, and decided that she should probably leave before her parents got home.

(Y/N) thanked Kiyoko for coming over, to which she said thank you for a nice dinner as well.

Before the third year left the residence, however, she looked back on the second year girl, who was cleaning the bowls the used with a small smile on her face. Part of her knew, though, that there was some loneliness behind it.

Then, an idea sparked in the glasses-girl's head.

"Hey, (Y/N)."

"Yeah?" she called.

Kiyoko stood in the doorway of the kitchen. "How would you like to be a manager of the volleyball team?"

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a/n: hihi again! sorry for a bit of a cheesy chapter, but hope you look forward to more! :DD