FIFTY. GF-FORHIRE
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the sun had barely risen when ymari shekinah seinaru's body clock struck five.
the protagonist's senses were slowly coming to consciousness as she opened her eyes, only to be met with a dimly-lit room, with only the light of the barely-risen sun seeping through the half-closed blinds.
she felt something heavy on her waist. looking down, she saw that kenma's arm was draped over her waist while he was snuggled against her neck. she could feel his soft, steady breathing against the base of her neck while his nose pressed onto her shoulder blades.
quietly, as to not wake the blonde boy up, she removed his arm from her waist and replaced it with a fluffy pillow. the boy's nose scrunched at the sudden loss of the warmth but hugged the cold pillow nonetheless.
she slightly smiled at kenma. seeing him so peaceful like this reminded her of the nights they spent video chatting while they played games together and eventually fell asleep with the calls still on.
she went to the bathroom and did her business, also using listerine to clean her mouth from possible morning breath— which she doesn't have by the way.
when she got out of the bathroom, she tucked kenma under the sheets and pressed a quick kiss onto her fingers, then relaying it onto his forehead.
she took her belongings from the bedside table and sent him a text, saying that she already left and that she'd see him a bit later today. she went over to grab her coat and her shoes, and then put them on.
she opened the door, taking one last look at the sleeping kenma before she left, locking it behind her so that only kenma would be able to open it from the inside.
she pulled a piece of scrunchie from her pocket and tied her hair up into a messy bun. she held her coat close to her body as she descended the quiet stairs of the hotel.
it was eerily silent. it seems as though people in this hotel usually didn't wake up at this hour. she checked her phone again— 5:12 AM— and put it back in her pocket. yeah, it's way too early.
once she had descended the stairs, she opted to go to the vending machine she had briefly seen last night to grab herself a cold iced coffee before she left, as most cafe's would still be closed at this hour.
she went over the machine and dropped a coin. however, just when she was about to pick a beverage, someone had beat her to it.
"do you depend on regular doses of 1,3,7 trimethylxanthine?"
she instantly recognized the voice. she chuckled lightly. "yes."
"ohayō" the tall boy leaned against the vending machine.
she glanced at him, "ohayō, dori-chin."
the can then dropped at the slot of the vending machine, making a rather loud clacking sound that echoed through the first floor's hallways.
she took the can and looked it over, eyes narrowing in curiosity as she did so.
"sweet black coffee?" she looked at the boy responsible for the coffee flavor.
tetsurō kuroo shrugged, a sly smirk on his face, "just returned the favor."
her eyes flashed in recognition as she remembered what he was talking about. she got him dark coffee as well, so this was him apparently returning the favor.
"this is 50 milligrams." she read the caffeine content at the back of the label.
"canned coffees are usually not that strong." kuroo shrugged. "besides, too much caffeine is bad for your health."
she narrowed her eyes at him. "the recommended intake of caffeine for adults is 400 milligrams per day."
"but you're not an adult yet." he smirked down at her.
she simply rolled her eyes and popped the can open, wiping the lid with her handkerchief's clean side before taking a considerably huge gulp. the cold brew of the coffee slowly seeped down her throat, making her sigh in satisfaction. ah, there's nothing better than the first sip of coffee.
"fancy seeing you here though, hon-chan." the boy raised an eyebrow at her. "spent the night with kenma?"
"don't make it sound inappropriate." she instantly corrected him. "yes i was."
the boy didn't press on it any longer, which made her brows stitch in confusion before she eventually let it go. kenma probably informed him about it already. also, both kenma and kuroo knew that they knew one another. kuroo just doesn't know exactly how she's affiliated with kenma. he was stuck in the assumption that the two were dating.
ymari looked at kuroo who was just.. standing there.
she turned to the vending machine, put another coin in the slot, took the same kind of coffee and handed it to him.
"here." she looked at the boy, only now noticing that he was in his full nekoma gear. "you're a bit early, don't ya' think?"
"eh." the tall boy shrugged, opening the can. "thanks for this, by the way."
she only nodded, before the boy continued talking.
"i'm early 'cos i'm freakin' terrified." he laughed half-heartedly.
she hummed, then glanced at the time at the wall clock of the hotel. "i need to go. but if you'd like, you can go with me? we can talk as i go. you look like you need to cool off anyway."
the boy nodded, instantly jumping at the chance to spend time with the girl.
the two exited the hotel after bidding goodbye to the receptionist who was high-key shipping her and kenma last night, but was now low-key shipping her and kuroo.
after a few minutes of walking in silence, the boy spoke.
"we're versing karasuno today." he looked at her. "y'know, the team from your prefecture."
she nodded, "yeah."
"if you're wondering how i know you're from miyagi, it's 'cos your obaasan talks about you a lot." he said.
"hmm." ymari hummed, drinking her own coffee.
"i heard a lot of things about you even before we met. i just wasn't interested enough to look you up, or to put a face to the name i've been hearing my boss say for years." he shook his head with a light laugh. "but i've gotta admit, i didn't think i'd meet you at a bookstore and have you call me some kind of harasser at first glance."
she chuckled, her laugh resonating across kuroo's mind like an unbalanced chemistry equation. "well, to be fair you were being quite the perpetrator. even looked the part."
"hey!" he lightly raised his voice in offense. "i'm very handsome, thank you very much."
the girl shook her head at him. "you're like an atom."
"huh? why?" he asked at her so-out-of-the-blue statement.
"because you make up everything." she shrugged, sipping her coffee with a smirk.
instead of being offended, an amused grin fell upon kuroo's face as realization hit him— this girl knows science jokes. he already thought that she did before, since she was adamant on getting that chemistry book the first time they met. but to have it confirmed was another thing.
"that's not too bad." he grinned, catching her attention. "but i have better jokes up my sleeve."
"oh that wasn't a joke." she said, staring at him blankly. "because even if you said you're a ten, on a pH scale, you'd still be basic."
kuroo laughed. "okay, that was a good one."
she smiled to herself, sipping on her coffee. "thanks."
"what is the chemical formula for "coffee""
she just hummed and waited for his answer.
"CoFe2."
she blankly stared at him, "it's C25H28N6O7."
kuroo pouted but moved on to his next joke.
"what emotional disorder does a gas chromatograph suffer from?" he asked.
"what?" she raised an eyebrow at him as they walked past one block. two more blocks then she's at her hotel.
"separation anxiety."
she stifled a laugh but it sounded more like she was choking on air. "that's actually correct, but borderline corny."
kuroo smirked, shooting another line. "what do you call an acid with an attitude?"
"what?"
"a-mean-o acid." he grinned.
she just deadpanned at him.
he pouted. "hey that was funny!"
"no it wasn't, it's overused."
"fine!" kuroo huffed. "i got another one."
"oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur, sodium, and phosphorous walk into a bar." he started.
"and then the bartender goes, 'OH SNaP!' "
he looked over at ymari and saw that she was beginning to crack a smile, but not quite. "i tried writing jokes about the periodic table..."
"...but I realized i wasn't quite in my element."
seinaru laughed into her fist, disguising it as a cough as she continued the pretend she didn't find it funny.
kuroo smirked. "want to hear a joke about sodium, bromine, and oxygen?"
"NaBrO."
and then the girl, at nineteen minutes past five in the morning laughed out loud, the sound echoing through the empty streets of tokyo.
kuroo grinned to himself, internally giving himself a pat on the back at the successful endeavor. plus, he got to hear her melodious laugh in the process.
"okay, that was admittedly good.", she wiped tears off the corners of her eyes after laughing so hard.
"i know, i'm just amazing like that." kuroo smugly smirked.
"sure." she rolled her eyes at him and then looked at her slides once they were nearing the last block.
"i have a question."
she looked up at kuroo's words, and motioned for him to continue.
"are you really kenma's girlfriend?" he asked, blinking.
the question took ymari aback but she mulled over it for a bit.
"is that what he said we were?" the girl asked.
kuroo shrugged, "it was implied, really. i saw you literally come out of his room earlier, that's why i was being so casual about you spending the night with him, 'cos you're dating— you just didn't notice me."
she nodded in understanding. she was not informed of that, but she took it in nonetheless and answered it so that the topic could be dropped.
"we're exclusively going out."
kuroo's eyes narrowed at the word 'exclusively'. no, not after what he saw yesterday. that didn't scream "exclusive" to him.
she finally spotted her hotel and then turned to look at kuroo. "i baited you into walking me to my hotel."
"i knew that." kuroo sweatdropped.
she smiled at him. "thanks for walking me then."
she then bowed at him, unintentionally flashing him her lady buts as she did so since her nighties were loose and her coat was unbuttoned.
kuroo reddened when he saw her very, very, very prominent cleavage as he choked out a reply. "i-it's completely fine."
she got back up and nodded, "alright. i'll best be going then."
she turned and started walking away when she halted. she turned her head to the side to give him a backwards glance.
"stop worrying about the tournament. i know you'll do great." she gave him a heart stopping smile that had his lungs pulling at the seams.
"ganbatte, dori-chin."
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