A/N: I'm sorry! I didn't know who would be Osano's match, so I just made up a character. I hope that's fine with you guys.
They both collide and fall together, on top of each other. Taro's eyes are closed.
"Oh, sorry!" the masculine voice says. "I was in a rush and I wasn't seeing where I was going. You okay, Taro?"
He knows that voice. He nods awkwardly, still underneath the other him. He opens his eyes.
It's Budo, on top of him.
Taro forces on a smile. He still does remember the conversation between his Kohai and Osano he eavesdropped-well overheard- yesterday.
"It's fine, Budo. Where are you going?" he asks. Because you better not be running to see my precious Ayano, or I will fucking stab you, he thinks.
"I have an important meeting with my club members and the headmaster that started ten minutes ago. I'd love to stop and chat, but I gotta run! Again, sorry!" He stands up, helps Taro up, and bows slightly. Then runs off up the school steps.
He didn't have a reason for to really hate Budo, much less kill him, did he? But the rumors could be true, and if they weren't, then that would just be another small problem gone. He didn't really know what to do.
Maybe just kill him.
Taro shakes his head. He had other things to worry about. Then he'll get to Budo.
He goes out into the plaza, where it was now filled with social butterflies and teacher pets. But not one of them was his Kohai. Maybe she would just be somewhere else...
And he does find her, when he turns around and sees that his Kohai is putting on her indoor shoes on, Osano leaning against the locker beside hers. Osano and Taro catch eyes for a second, and Osano nods. Not smile, but nod. Were they on good terms? Even though Taro wanted badly to murder him so?
He goes out into the plaza and sits on a bench. None of his close friends are out here, so he just sits there, looking down at his feet.
He hears footsteps, and he knows it's them.
Taro checks his phone for the time again. 7:30.
Just then a phone rings. Taro looks up.
It's Osano's phone.
"I've gotta go and take this. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone, dummy."
He walks away from his Ayano, back inside the hallways of the school again.
Taro follows a couple of seconds after.
Osano walks to the end of a hallway, Taro right around the corner, and he hears every word he says.
"Hello?" he answered. Then a face of disgust runs across his face. "Ugh! I told you to stop calling me, you creep! Like I said, I'm NOT interested. If you keep this up, I'm calling the cops."
"...what? NO! Leave them out of this! Look, I don't care what you say to me, but don't you DARE do anything to them! I swear if I see you anywhere near them, I'll kick your ass! Now, for the last time, stop calling me!"
He hangs up his phone, putting it in his pants pocket. "Ugh," he groans to himself, putting his face in his hands. "Why did something like this have to happen..."
Taro walks away before Osano can spot him. He goes back out to the plaza, where he sees his Kohai sitting at the edge of the fountain. He resists the urge to look at her all day long and instead goes back to the bench.
Who was "them"? Could it Ayano? And who was the one who called Osano? A thought passes him that maybe it was the man in his dreams, but he wants to shove that away. It couldn't, he keeps telling himself.
After a couple minutes after Taro came back, so did Osano, with a stressed-out look on his face. His Kohai stands up when she sees him, and walks quickly over to him.
She puts a hand on his shoulder.
He should've killed him when he got the chance.
"Everything okay, Osa?"
Osano puts on his usual face. "Of course everything's okay! Why wouldn't I be okay? Idiot!"
Ayano's face darkens and she frowns a little. Osano must have noticed because his face softens and looks panicky.
And that frown makes Taro want to stab Osano thirty-seven times in the chest, cut him up, and feed him to the dogs. But he couldn't. Feeding him to the dogs would not be good for their diet. That would just be cruel.
And then before Osano can say anything, Ayano pulls Osano into a hug. He sees his Kohai whisper something he couldn't make out, but the whisper from Osano he hears.
"Thank you, Aya."
They stay like that for a couple minutes, like they were afraid of letting each other go. Like if they did let each other go, they would die. And they held on tighter.
Some students in the plaza turn their faces to look at them, but only for a few seconds. But he hears all the murmurs and whispers, from all the social butterflies to the loners, there were whispering and murmuring everywhere. But it seemed that the pair hugging in public could not hear or see anything. Not now, not in this moment. Not in their moment.
"Are they a couple now?"
"I thought they were just friends."
"Ha! I knew they'd end up together eventually!"
And those whispers, those whispers make him furious. He clenches his fists.
So
furious,
so mad,
he wouldn't care if the entire population, human or not, had to die and suffer, just so he can be with his Kohai.
No one
will get
in his way.
And if someone does?
Ha, he chuckles to himself, a trace of a smirk, his eyes burning with fire. They'll be the ones sorry.
***
????
It's an interesting thing, being in love. How you would always want to protect them, to always be with them. Yet they don't even know your name or remember it. But you're still in love with them, and they don't even know it. They don't know anything. They don't.
And yet you're still falling for them.
Bit,
by bit.
Little,
by little.
Or all at once.
You never know.
You never, ever, know.
***
When the bell rings for lunch, Taro stays behind for a few minutes, looking out the window, thinking, once again. Thinking of ways to kill Osano that would never happen, or how to kill Osano without hurting his Kohai.
His Sensei walks back into the room, probably to get something from the classroom.
"Oh, Taro, you're still here. Wouldn't you like to eat lunch?" she asks.
He simply nods and gets up. "To be honest, I'm not feeling very hungry right now. Maybe I'll just get a drink," he replies, already walking out of the room to the rooftop. He didn't feel hungry, never at school, really.
His Kohai wasn't anywhere out on the rooftop, but Osano was. This was his chance of actually being close enough to Osano without Ayano and him blushing and sometimes shaking.
Taro walked over to Osano. He doesn't notice him at first, but once he does hear his footsteps approaching, he turns around.
"Hey," greeted Osano with a nod.
Taro returns the nod as a greeting. "Do you need anything?" He gets straight to the point.
"Do I need anything?" repeats Osano.
Taro forces on a smile and swallows the words he were going to say to him. "Yes."
Osano puts one fist on a stuck out hip. "Now that you mention it, yeah! There is something I need help with. I lost my phone charm-it's in the hedge maze- it's in the shape of a cat.
"I know that I lost him somewhere in the hedge maze, but I don't want to go back in there. It's scary! I'm worried I'll get lost and stuck in there for hours...
"I feel bad for asking, but...would you be willing to go into the hedge maze and get my phone charm for me?
Taro forces a small smile and says, "Yes."
"Really? You'll do it? You're a lot braver than I am. Good luck!"
And for once, he sees Osano smile a bit.
They had an extra thirty minutes of lunch, and Taro decided to find Osano's cat charm in the hedge maze.
Once he gets there, he enters straight in.
After a while, he does find the cat charm. He puts it in his pocket, gets out of the hedge maze, and searches for him. Once he did find Osano, still standing on the rooftop, this time with his Kohai, there's someone else up there, just a few feet away, looking at Osano longingly.
Could this be the person who likes Osano? Taro thought. How could he love a thing like that? He didn't know his name, but he had messy brown hair and the same color eyes. He wore thick framed glasses.
Taro smiles a bit. Maybe this would work after all.
He walks over to Osano and his Kohai, trying to will himself not to blush and not to shake.
Surprisingly, he didn't shake but he did blush a bit. He hands Osano the charm.
"Oh my gosh! You actually found it! Wow, that's amazing! Thank you so much! And if you need anything, don't hesitate with asking me."
Taro hesitated for a second. "Uhm, well there is something... It probably does sound weird, but... could you follow me? You know... around the school."
"Er, sure. But first-" he takes his phone out and attaches the returned phone charm to his own phone. "Ok, all good to go. We still do have twenty-five minutes left for lunch. See you, Aya." He waves to her, and holds her hand for a second, then leaves it hanging.
"See you, Osa. And thanks Taro for finding Osano his phone charm. I'll see you later."
And with that, she went.
***
When Taro led Osano on, he didn't talk much, leaving a silence between them. Though it wasn't an awkward silence, it wasn't a pleasant silence, either. But they still did stay silent. Sometimes the silence can speak words even a million can't express.
He took Osano to a different variety of things around the school, like the roses. He heard him say to himself, "I would love to get one of these for a gift..."
And whenever they happened to pass the boy who had brown hair and glasses, Osano would look at him with a gaze and blushing cheeks.
He smirked to himself. This job was almost done.
Before the bell rang, he dismissed Osano and ran to find the brunette boy. He wasn't that hard to find since there were apparently not many people in the school who wore glasses and he was basically one of the only kids in the school who kept their natural hair color or just had brown hair.
"Hello," Taro said, this time with a real (well as real as it would get) smile. Using the same tactic as he did Osano, he asked the boy if he could do anything for him.
Eyes going wide, he says, "Really? Oh, that would be wonderful! You see, I've lost a book my little sister made me, named after me, Hiroshi Ikina. Even though she made it when she was six, it's still very special to me. I know I lost it somewhere around the school. I don't know where. Could you please find it? I'd be forever in your debt if you did."
Taro smiles gently and nods. "Of course."
And then the bell rings again.
"Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me."
And maybe it's the relief Hiroshi has on his shoulders, or the "Thank You" he gave to Taro or the way he reminds him of Hanakō for some reason. But it makes him smile.
A real smile.
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Another A/N: Thank you for a 100+ reads! If you did like this chapter, vote! Thanks for reading!