Strings (Ryuunosuke Tanaka x Reader)

Chapter Three: Falling

"Tanaka? What are you doing here?" I took his hand and pulled myself to my feet.

"Oh I just thought that it was nice out so I should take a walk. I guess you thought the same." He chuckled a little and looked away.

"Yeah I'm just walking with my parents." I pointed at them who were watching from the side of the stream and gossiping.

"You have two....?" Tanaka looked back to me and to the floor immediately.

"Yeah, I'm adopted. Is there a problem?" I tilted my head a bit.

"N-no that's actually really cool!"

I laughed a little, "I meant why you won't look at me."

"Oh that. You fell in the water and your shirt is, um, your shirt's kinda..... see through." He rapidly glanced up then back down and rubbed the back of his head.

I looked down at my shirt and saw that he was right. My shirt was actually really transparent since it was white and drenched in water. I crossed my arms over myself and turned a bright shade of pink.

"O-oh, now I have to go back home and ch-change or something." I stuttered in my embarrassment.

"No need actually." Tanaka took off the sweater he had tied around his waist and handed it to me. "Wear this, don't worry about giving it back. I just don't want you to feel uncomfortable with a wet shirt."

I took the dark gray sweater from his hand and put it on as he suggested. Then I zipped it up and put the hood over my head. It was rather big on me since Tanaka had a larger build than I did.

"It's so big and comfortable. Thank you so much Tanaka!" I gave him a quick hug.

"N-no problem. Do you have to go?" A hint of sadness was in his voice.

"Oh right my dads! I do have to leave, sorry Tanaka. See you again on Monday!" I waved and ran back to my smiling parents.

"Is that the gray string boy?" Dad Tatsuo smirked.

"Blue string, but yeah that's him." I responded.

"Invite him with us, I want to meet this boy who's heart you stole." Dad Tatsuo shoved me in the direction of Tanaka who was walking along the other side of the wide stream.

"I didn't steal his heart, we're just friends," I reassured him.

"Nice try, you don't have friends. Also, you do know you're wearing his sweater right?" Dad Aki chimed in.

"He's just a nice guy, he'd have done the same for any girl."

"Probably but, not in a blushing mess. The poor guy was so excited to see you." Dad Aki joined in pushing me.

"Fine, fine. I'll go."

I carefully hopped across the rocks to the other side and called out Tanaka's name. He turned to me in surprise and stood just a few feet away from the last rock I was on. Just as I jumped off the rock, my foot slipped and I felt myself fall over. The fall wasn't so rough so I opened my eyes and saw that Tanaka had caught me right before my fall.

"You okay there (Y/N)?" Tanaka looked down a little bit at me.

"Yeah I'm fine, just a slippery rock. I'm really falling a lot today." I pushed off his chest and took a step backwards.

"Guess that means you're... falling for me," Tanaka said with a wink.

"Oh whatever." I laughed a little.

I looked back to the other side and saw dad Tatsuo and dad Aki in a laughing fit. This was probably due to the fact that I kept falling. I turned to face Tanaka again.

"Anyways, my parents say they want to meet you so they want me to ask you to join us. Do you want to?"

"Sure! I want to meet them too!" Tanaka seemed excited at the idea.

I turned to my parents again and nodded. "Meet us at the end!" I called out to them.

They nodded in response and started walking down the stream, holding hand. I turned to face forward down the stream.

"Shall we?" I asked.

"Let's go!"