their class was currently in physical education. they started off with a few warmups before the coach decided to let them run 2 laps around the track; they had to run, no walking. if they got caught walking, they would be punished.
everyone began running at the sound of the whistle, all students running. it was about 85 degrees [fahrenheit] and they were all in their pe uniforms and it was hot.
while a majority of the students were doing fine, ayame was not. due to her barely eating, being underweight for her height and age and it being hot, she was going to pass out and just throw up.
ayame was one of the few in the back with her hair tied up and she was jogging, not wanting to exert herself since she was on the verge of fainting.
two girls who were on their 2nd lap while ayame was still on her first were coming to pass ayame. the two looked at each other before they sprinted past her, brushing their shoulders against hers and one of them tripping the girl.
ayame fell down, landing on her knees. she looked up at the two girls who continued to run, throwing a small smirk towards the girl on the floor.
ayame gritted her teeth before standing up, dusting herself off of dust, "bitches.." she muttered under her breath as she began walking and was about to start jogging again but was interrupted
"ayame!" the coach called out for her making her sigh, knowing she just got caught for not running. ayame stopped in place, "come over here"
ayame walked back over to the coach, wanting to just die at that moment. she stood in front of the coach, her hands folded in front of her, "yes?"
"why'd you stop running?"
"because i-" she was going to say something about the girls but she knew that the coach wasn't going to believe her, "i fell down myself and i got tired"
"you're one of the slowest runners, you realize that? everyone is basically done and you're still on your first lap" he scolded her and ayame just nodded, "you're sitting out for the games and afterwards, you're picking up everything left out here, got it?" she hummed, annoyed, "words nishimura ayame!"
"yes" she responded in a low voice
"good-yah! yang jungwon!" the coach suddenly yelled. ayame raised an eyebrow and looked at where the coach was looking only to see the boy walking with his hands shoved in the pockets of the sweatpants used for pe.
'jungwon's a good kid..why is he walking?' ayame thought to herself
"come here" the coach pointed towards himself and jungwon nodded, walking over to him, standing next to ayame.
ayame looked at his side profile but jungwon didn't look at her. there wasn't a drop of sweat on his face and he wasn't breathing heavily so why'd he stop?
the coach explained to him what he said to ayame and the boy just nodded, understanding him, "go sit"
the two went over to the bleachers, sitting down as they watched the other students play various games.
"are you okay?" jungwon asked, noticing that ayame was still breathing heavily and had sweat on her neck and her forehead. her cheeks were also very red.
"uh huh.." she responded, knowing damn well she didn't feel fine at all and was on the cusp of just dying for real this time.
jungwon moved the end of the sweater past his hands and placed his hand near her forehead. she leaned back at then looked at him, "can i..touch you?"
she opened her mouth to speak but had no words to say. slowly, she nodded as jungwon began patting her forehead lightly, in attempt to get rid of the sweat on her forehead
"you don't have too" she awkwardly chuckled, "it's gross.."
"i don't mind. i'll just wash it when i get home" he continued patting her head and while she felt uncomfortable with it at first, she didn't mind his touch towards the end. he removed his hand and stood up, "take off your sweater. it's hot. be right back"
before she could say anything, the boy jogged off to go something. ayame didn't want to unzip her sweater for multiple reasons. for one, her wrist and second all she was wearing was a white short sleeved shirt and she hated seeing her arms not covered.
jungwon came back with a water bottle in hand, "here" he sat back beside her and handed the water bottle to her, "drink it"
ayame grabbed the water bottle, twisting the cap open and drinking the water out of it, "why didn't you take off the sweater?"
she stopped drinking the water and shook her head immediately, "i-i don't want too"
"why-" jungwon cut himself off, "a-ah never mind. i'm sorry for asking. i shouldn't have said that"
"no, no don't worry about it. it isn't your fault" ayame now felt bad for him. jungwon was still unsure on how to approach her/not making her uncomfortable. he wanted to know the right things to say to her, "i'm sorry if you feel like you have to restrict yourself from saying certain things around me. you probably feel uncomfortable around me"
he shook his head, "no i don't. it's a learning process on what i can and can't say around you. like i said before, i want you to trust me and i don't want to make you uncomfortable. you don't tell people about yourself right?" she shook her head, "then i want to be the first people you can tell your problems too. i'll be there with you every step of the way if you decide to tell me them. i won't pressure you to tell me them of course. i can wait until you're ready"
ayame let out a small smile towards the boy, "thank you jungwon" he nodded, letting out a smile as well, "can i ask you something though?" he gestured for her to continue, "you weren't sweating or breathing heavily when you came up to the coach. you weren't really tired so why'd you stop running if you knew you were going to get in trouble?"
"you're very observant aren't you?" she nodded, "i saw the girls push past you and trip you so when i heard you got called over, i didn't want you to be alone and clean up after by yourself so i stopped walking so you'd have some company at least. i didn't want you to do it alone"
"you didn't have t-"
"but i wanted to do it and it's already too late so i can't back out now" jungwon cut her off making her roll her eyes while he cheekily grinned at her
｡･ﾟﾟ･ ･ﾟﾟ･｡
"i feel like they purposely used a lot of equipment knowing they wouldn't clean it" ayame told jungwon as they finally finished putting away all the items that the students had used for their games
"i wouldn't be surprised" jungwon laughed as the two began walking away from the field so they can go to their locker rooms and change
"hopefully no girls are still in there" ayame spoke out of the blue and jungwon raised an eyebrow and ayame saw this, "i kinda don't like..my body so other people seeing me change makes me more uncomfortable"
"ah. that makes sense" jungwon nodded, understanding and the two continued to walk until they had to separate, "i'll see you later"
the two waved bye to each other, leaving to their respective locker rooms.
ayame peeked in and luckily she saw no one there. she let out a breath before walking over to her locker and opening it. she took out her school uniform before unzipping her jacket and taking it off.
she looked down at her wrist that was wrapped in a gauze with blood seeping through. before she stared at it any longer, she quickly threw on her uniform shirt and put on her blazer afterwards along with changing into her skirt.
in the 2nd years classroom was riki talking with his friend, "what'd you get on the test?"
"85" riki spoke, leaning back in his chair, "i thought i was gonna get worst to be honest"
"hey guys" another guy came by from behind, patting riki on his back but quickly moved his hand away, "do you guy-woah niki" riki raised an eyebrow confused, "you have blood on your blazer"
"blood?" riki muttered as he quickly took off his blazer and began examining where the blood was, "how did this get here.." he dragged his sentence, remembering the only logical explanation that he could for it
'ayame wrapped her arms around me this morning to hug me..her door was locked'