While there was never any actual conversation of what Murasakibara was trying to improve on, Cassie tried her best to find out what he was trying to do by watching him more than she usually did. She was a bit worried he would take it the wrong way, so she only did it when he seemed focused. Every other time, she would do her job as usual.
When practice was over, Cassie was getting ready to head for the train station like normal, she reached the door when she was stopped by a team member. Giving him a pleasant smile, she spoke right after.
"Yeah?"
"Sorry to bother you, but I was curious if you could let me see my records. I forgot to ask you earlier."
"Oh, that's fine. Anything specific you wanted to see?"
While they discussed things by the door, Murasakibara was leaving the changing room and saw Cassie there. He watched at first and then felt the same feeling he had gotten days before again when Himuro talked about Cassie. He didn't exactly know why that was happening, but he knew he didn't like it.
Making his way over to the pair, he grabbed Cassie's shoulders and started pushing her out the door.
"Murasaki? What are you doing?"
"I wanna go home, come on already."
"You just got here, can you wait a second?"
He pouted and stepped back. Cassie let out a small sigh when she pulled out the records and handed them to the team member.
"Thanks, again, sorry for bothering you."
"It's no problem."
When he walked off, Murasakibara was quick to start pushing Cassie out of the gym entrance. Cassie groaned and tried to move from him. They now faced each other.
"What is your problem? Why are you in such a rush?"
"Because... I wanted to ask you something."
"Okay?" Cassie waited for him to go on.
Though, Murasakibara didn't seem as if he actually had anything he wanted to say, but after a second he said, "can you stay over at my place?"
Cassie's eyes went wide. "What? Why?"
"Because... it'll be easier for you to get here right?" He paused. "It'll just be for the last two days of the break."
Cassie's eyes narrowed. "This isn't just to get me to bake for you... is it?"
"Man, you really think the worst of your friends huh?"
She didn't speak when she heard that. Cassie somewhat froze and no matter how hard she tried to speak, nothing came out. It was simply something Cassie never expected to hear... it must have meant she really was speaking her mind.
Murasakibara moved on in her silence. "You don't have to stay over if you don't want to... I was just asking."
Cassie's head slowly shook. "Uh... no, that makes sense, but I..." Before she finished that thought she shook her head again. "I don't wanna bother your family with some unexpected visitor."
He yawned. "My mom probably won't care... Neither would my dad. Besides, we'd probably never see them anyways, since they're always at work."
"Really...?" Cassie's gaze went down and Murasakibara noticed what she was doing.
"Hey, you're just coming up with excuses aren't you?"
"W-what? Of course I'm not."
"Yeah right. You just don't wanna stay over."
She huffed. "It's not that..." Her voice trailed off. Cassie held her arms and at that, Murasakibara started to push her along the sidewalk. "Hey, stop it!" Cassie groaned and tried resisting, but there wasn't anything she could do to budge him.
His grip would even sometimes lift her off the ground, so she eventually caved and allowed him to nearly drag her off back to his house.
...
Without any stops, they made it back where they once again went inside finding the house pretty much empty. Murasakibara was used to it, but with Cassie there, he unconsciously felt more aware of his surroundings.
Seeing Cassie just standing around, he wondered why she was always so anxious looking when she was at his place. He sat down and turned on the TV to fill the silence around them.
"Hey..." She looked at him before sitting down on the opposite side of the room. "Are you gonna tell Kagami you're staying over?"
"Yeah... uh, eventually." The grip on her bag only tightened.
Murasakibara couldn't understand why she seemed so on edge. Before he could concern about that anymore, he felt his stomach growl and let out a small sigh.
"I'm hungry..."
"Is there something here?"
"Probably... probably not." He then stood up. "Maybe we could get some Maji Burger?"
Cassie shrugged. "I don't mind."
"Okay, it's a pain to go out again though." Cassie got up also, which made Murasakibara stop prematurely. "You don't have to go with me."
Cassie's eyes avoided his. "Yeah, but... you'll probably wind up buying snacks instead of food. I'll just go with you."
Before he could say anything else, Cassie was already at the door heading out.
It was strange how she was acting, but he couldn't wrap his head around what was wrong and just ignored it for the moment. He went outside and saw how it had gone from sunset to night. It was only six thirty, but it appeared as if it were nighttime.
Cassie was already down the block and Murasakibara made an effort to catch up to her and managed to in a few steps. This was a good time for him to observe the habits Cassie was showcasing.
He was aware she often got lost in her thoughts, but not so much that she wouldn't react when someone was staring at her.
She seemed to always know when someone was watching her, but tonight was different. Murasakibara was able to get a good look at other small things she did. Like how her fingers played with the strap of her bag or the repeated unnecessary adjustment of her shirt.
He had never seen her do this stuff before, so he wondered if she always had these habits or was this something she did in this specific scenario.
They hadn't been walking for very long, when Murasakibara got the urge to ask her about it, however before he could someone called out for them. It was easy for him to recognize this voice.
"Murasakibaracchi!" He turned around and let out a sigh upon seeing the blonde former teammate. "Hey, don't sigh when you see me."
"How can I not? You're probably just gonna ask me to hang out."
"Some friend you are."
Murasakibara yawned. "Why are you here anyways?"
"Oh, we had a photo shoot here. It's the last day, so I wanted to sight see before I left. Guess I got lucky finding you out here." Cassie hadn't stopped walking and Kise noticed her once she got a bit further away. "Huh? Were you with her?"
Knowing they were the only ones on the street, Murasakibara answered. "Yeah, she's our new manager, Cas-chin."
At her name, she stopped and turned around. "Huh?"
Kise smiled once he saw her face. "Oh. She speaks Japanese?"
"Yeah."
Cassie joined the pair and Kise held out his hand to her. "Nice to meet you, I'm Kise."
She didn't move for a second, but she then gave a small bow to him. "Nice to meet you too, I'm Cassie."
Slowly, Kise's hand dropped. "How long have you been a manager?"
"It's only really been a few months or so," Cassie said.
"Really? And you were able to tame him? That's impressive."
She gave a shy nod. "Thank you..."
As they spoke, Kise seemed more interested in speaking to her than he did Murasakibara. The giant noticed this and started to frown seeing how much attention was being put on her.
"Where are you guys going right now anyways?"
"To get something to eat. We've been at practice all day."
Despite Mursakibara being the one who answered, Kise's gaze remained on Cassie.
"You? Practicing? Don't tell me you did that too?" Murasakibara nodded, confirming his suspicion. "That's really amazing! Do you mind if I call you Cassiecchi?"
Her head shook. "Is that a certain honorific?"
"Nah, it's just something I do. Hope it doesn't bother you."
Cassie's once timid demeanor returned and she simply shook her head. Kise chuckled and started walking, putting his arm around her shoulder.
"If you guys don't mind, I could pay for some food."
It wasn't like either one of them could disagree, Cassie simply didn't want to say anything while Murasakibara was starting to get annoyed.
Cassie eventually spoke. "You were... in the Generation of Miracles, right?"
"You know about that too? Well, I guess you would if you know this guy." He laughed. "But yeah, I was."
"It's a little strange, meeting another one of you guys. It just seems like some kind of myth."
"Doesn't it? A lot of the time it seems like we're in a league of our own, like no one else even exists."
Cassie frowned. "That's a little mean spirited..."
"Huh?"
Cassie looked off. "I told this to Murasaki too, but I can't understand how you guys ignore improving yourself just because you have amazing natural talent. Personally, I'll always find something wrong with me and want to improve on even the smallest of things."
Neither one of them said anything, and Murasakibara in particular listened intently to her. She had said this before, but he couldn't fully understand it.
He got wanting to be better, but he couldn't see how that factored in with someone like him—now, it made more sense. Understanding how Cassie truly felt meant she would never view herself the way he and, presumably, Kise did.
While in his thoughts, Kise laughed and went to Cassie's front.
"You're a pretty interesting girl... mind if I get your number?"
Cassie's eyes went wide. "W-what?"
"Your number. You do know what I'm saying right?"
Cassie blinked in a mass of confusion; but with Kise standing in front of her with a smile, she eventually searched for her phone and realized she didn't have it.
"Uh, I might not have it on me."
This wasn't out of sorts for her, but Kise simply chuckled before reaching his hand towards her.
"It's right there."
"Huh?"
Kise easily reached over and pulled out her phone from the front zipper. "See?"
Cassie said nothing and just gripped the strap of her bag tighter while Kise smiled and put his number in her phone.
Murasakibara had been nothing more than an onlooker during all of this, but every second of their interaction only grew his frustration. For an unknown reason, he didn't take any pleasure seeing how Kise and her interacted, but at the same time, was it worth getting visibly upset?
He knew the answer to that, but before he could act on that response, Kise handed her phone back.
"There, now we can go eat!" Kise, once again, put his arm around her shoulder and they walked together.
As Murasakibara watched them, the frown on his face only grew deeper. His thoughts were filled with nothing but annoyance and he couldn't even bring himself to smile.