You mumbled a few curses under your breath as the school bell rang, signaling the end of the day and the start of afternoon clubs. The start of having to attend track practices you never wanted to attend and run for hours, five days a week.
Everyone quickly got up from their desks excited for the first day of their clubs. Maki and Masumi quickly walk out the classroom door already heading to the girls locker room to get changed. You slowly make your way out of the room dreading the rest of your afternoon.
Finally getting to the locker room you see a few girls leaving already dressed in their running clothes. Maki and Masumi are among the few to leave the locker room already. They both promise to look out for you when you meet them at the track.
Entering the locker room you're surprised with just how many people signed up for track. You can't help but think that at least a few of them had similar motivations as your friends. Hoping to get closer to Reo Mikage. You settle you bag into one of the bigger lockers and quickly get changed. Leaving the locker room you spot Seishiro trudging his way down the halls on his phone.
You look around seeing that there were only a few people around. You quickly walk over to him slowing your steps as you reach him. He glances up the tiniest bit from his phone checking to see who it is, before returning to his game.
"Heading to the occult club?" You ask.
"Yeah but I'm taking my time getting there." He says with little emotion just trying to focus on his game. "Are you heading to track practice?"
"Yeah unfortunately." You groan. "I really don't want to run especially in the heat. I hate this. Why do we have to do clubs?"
"Yeah. But, you could've chosen something more fun." He continues walking and still playing on his phone.
"I guess but at least now I get to hang out with my friends more."
"Hm." Seishiro hums.
"I'll see you later." You say not wanting to be late to the first day of practice. You walk out to the field to meet up with your friends.
As you near the field you see everyone get into pairs to begin stretching. Maki and Masumi begin stretching each other out. You end up being paired with some random guy as he was also left without a partner.
You introduced yourself to him and he returned the gesture telling you his name was Kaido. He was pretty tall, being taller than yourself, but he was shorter than Seishiro. He had a good build and had dark hair that was neatly pulled out of his face.
"We can go stretch by your friends if you want? I see you glancing over at them. That way you could talk with them." He offered with a smile.
You looked over at the two to see them laughing as they messed around trying to do complex stretches with each other. "Nah I'm good. I'll just meet up with them when we start running. Thanks though."
"No problem."
The two of you took turns pulling each other's limbs to get warmed up. You made light conversation with each other talking about simple things like school and upcoming school activities.
After about ten minutes of stretching the coach blew a whistle signaling the end of the warmup time. You made your way over to Masumi and Maki who flashed bright smiles at you.
"Aren't you having fun, Y/n?!" Maki asked.
"I mean I guess. But that was the easy stuff I just don't want to actually have to run."
"No, no, don't worry it'll be fun. It's not like you actually have to push yourself that much."
"Also think of all the new people we get to meet. I mean you were already chatting it up with that cutie earlier." Masumi said. You didn't miss the bitterness in her voice that ran through her soft tone.
"Huh?"
"Come on you can't deny that he has isn't fine." Maki exclaimed.
"Oh who cares." You say jokingly trying to change the conversation.
The track stands at the front of the crowd telling us what we're going to be doing for the next two hours. Everything went in one ear and out the other, nothing right now the coach could say would seem fun. You had already accepted how terrible this was all about to be.
Every lap you took sent more and more needle like sensations down your legs. Thankfully you were no where near the only person struggling. You were able to chat with a few people when you weren't feeling out of breath. Maki and Masumi would talk to you every now and then when they would lap you.
You watched them attempt to make conversation with Reo Mikage every now and then. You couldn't help but laugh at their attempt seeing as there had been many girls who had already tried making conversation with him. All of them would try and make small talk with him and each time he would politely talk with them.
The sun was finally setting and you couldn't be happier. The coach blew his whistle once again calling everyone back over to him. He dismissed all of you with the first practice ending. You slowly trudged your way to the locker room. You threw back on your school uniform deciding that you would bathe when you get home. The idea of showering in the school showers make you want to gag.
You opened up your phone to see a text from Seishiro.
Seishiro
Hey my club finished and I
know you don't want people
seeing us together so I'm waiting
for you at the arcade by school
I don't think it's a good idea
for you to go home by yourself
hope that's okay
Sent at 5:22
Y/n
No thank you for that
I'll be there in a few minutes
Sent at 5:34
Seishiro
K see you soon
Sent at 5:35
You made your way out of school heading towards the arcade. It was only a little bit out of the way from yours and Seishiro's usual path to and from school. When you two first spotted it you decided that one weekend you two would spend a day there.
The flashing neon lights of the arcade contrasted with the setting sun that set everything to an orange hue. Seishiro tapped his phone playing his video games as he usually did whenever he could.
He looks up from his phone pocketing it ready to fully pay attention to you. Your focus drifts over to the arcade and the retro music that booms out as you walk over to him. You watch the few people inside playing away on the machines.
"Do you want to go into the arcade?" You ask pointing to the door. "We always talk about going but we never actually do."
"What about getting home?" He responds. You see how his eyes shift excited to possibly go to the arcade.
"It'll be fine I'll text my Mom that we'll just be home a little later than planned."
Seishiro hums in acknowledgement turning to the arcade doors. A small smile made its way to your face excited to hang out with him again just the two of you.
"I'll get us tokens." You say. Seishiro walks beside you as you head up to the front desk. Behind the counter displayed a series of prizes ranging from candy to nerf guns.
You hand the girl at the front desk cash in exchange for a card with currency that allows the two of you to play whatever games you want. You and Seishiro walk down through the arcade deciding what you wanted to play. Every game drew your attention with enticing lights and setups.
The two of you first start with playing a pinball machine that was superhero themed. You swiped the card filled with tokens and Seishiro went first. You watched him hit the ball up racking up points. You were stunned at how good he was doing, you could barely remember what you were supposed to do in a game of pinball.
When Seishiro finished his game the machine flashed brights lights as his score of 4800 displayed, an almost perfect score. "What the hell! How'd you do that?" You exclaimed bewildered at how good he did.
Seishiro just shrugged his shoulders mumbling an, "I don't know."
You blink up at him a few times dumbfounded before you take a seat in front of the machine. You desperately hit the walls to bounce the pin up and get more points. When your time ran out 3350 brightly displayed on the screen.
To your right you heard Seishiro huff out a laugh. You slowly turn yourself to face him attempting to seem pissed off but it was difficult to keep your smile repressed.
"How'd you do it? You cheated didn't you?" You say sarcastically pressing you lips tightly together to hide your smile.
"I'm just better than you I guess." He says simply.
"Yeah whatever, cheater." You roll your eyes with exaggeration crossing your arms. "Okay but can you beat me at Skee-Ball I think not."
"No I can beat you at that too."
You blink up at him opening your mouth exasperated. "Come on, come on, we're playing Skee-Ball now."
You get up from the Pinball machine smiling and you and Seishiro make your way to the Skee-Ball machines. After each of your rounds you thankfully won beating Seishiro. If you had lost you would have been livid.
Seishiro and yourself spent about an hour going through all the bright flashing games. With each passing minute you face was hurting more and more from smiling. From the past few weeks Seishiro and you hadn't spent this much alone time having fun like this.
You two walk to and from school together, have meals together, and even study together, but it hadn't been years since you two joked around teasing each other and spending time like this. It reminded you so much of the childhood memories you two made together. When you two would watch movies together and pretend to be the characters in the movie or adventures you two had exploring your neighborhood.
You couldn't help how your gaze lingered on Seishiro more than it had when you were kids. Every time you two hung out when you were kids everything was easy and fun. But now you were questioning everything you were saying and doing around him. Your heart raced more than it did as kids and more than it should. And you knew that.
You two decided to head out so you could still eat dinner at a relatively normal time. Before leaving you two took your card to see how many points you had racked up so you could get a prize.
"What do you want to get? We have a lot of tokens." You ask.
Seishiro looks back up at all the prizes you can pick from before looking back over to you. "I don't really care. You choose."
"You earned us most of our points so you just choose."
"Mm fine." Seishiro takes another moment to look up at the prizes before he walks over to the woman behind the counter. "Can I get one charm of Bonobono and one charm of Shimarisu." That lady hands him the two charms and Seishiro mutters a quick 'thank you.'
You softly smile as Seishiro walks back over to you presenting the two character charms. The character are from a manga you two were always reading together as kids. The two animals are good friends just as you two are. "Which one do you want?" Seishiro asks.
You ponder for a moment before speaking up. "Mm I'll take Shimarisu since I know Bonobono was your favorite."
"Honestly he still is. I still read the manga whenever I see a copy."
"Do you really?" You ask excitedly. "I don't know the last time I read it. I really should read it some more."
"I have a few volumes if you want to read them." Seishiro offers. You watch as he fixes the charm to attach and hang from his phone case.
"Well I don't have any homework tonight so mind if a borrow a copy."
Seishiro finishes attaching the charm to his phone and looks back up at you. It takes him a moment to respond to you before he hums in agreement.