I yawned and stumbled down the quiet street, the bus leaving me behind with a loud roar. The sun beat on my back and reminded me that yes, spring was coming, and summer wasn't far off.
A gentle breeze tickled my still sleepy face and cicadas droned, rinsing the residue of dreams from my ears.
"No, no, no!" I heard a voice and it jolted me to life.
"Shut up, idiot, just accept the truth!"
"Will you two please be quiet? I'm trying to find out what shampoo Kaito uses!"
I squinted into the distance and saw three figures: Len, Miku and Neru. Neru had her head tilted downwards and Len and Miku were looking daggers at each other, scornful expressions painted onto their faces.
I ran up to them and smacked Miku and Len hard, on the back, making them both yelp.
"Gumi!" They yelled.
"Hey, guys," I smiled and found myself a place between them, draping my arms over their shoulders, "What's the hubbub? Did Len steal your clothes, Miku?"
Len gagged. "I'm not a pervert!" He pouted, "And even if I was, this squeaky rat isn't even worth fantasizing about!"
"He keeps saying that bananas are better than leeks!" Miku glared at him momentarily and we all kept walking, "Leeks are clearly the superior food!"
"Leeks sound like something a little kid would do!" Len laughed before putting on a baby voice, "Mommy, I did a leeky all over the cawpet!"
He laughed like a hyena. Miku pulled a leek out of her bag and swiftly smacked him with it. It made a loud cracking noise and snapped in two. She gobbled it up.
"That hurt, girly," Len groaned and rubbed his arm, "Gumi, you settle this."
"Huh?" I looked at him, then at Miku.
"Which one's better?" Miku scowled at Len, "No...which is best? What's the superior food?"
"Hurry up, Gumi!" Len slammed his side into me playfully and I crashed into Miku.
"Well, if you really want to know what I think," I said, looking at both of them, one by one, "Then carrots are the best."
"What?" They both cried out in unison, "That's...that's not..."
"Hey, they're crunchy and they have that nice, long shape that bananas do!" I tried to defend my stance. Miku scoffed and Len grabbed my head, giving me an intense noogie.
"Geez, Gumi...," he mumbled as I squirmed, "Whatever."
"So apparently, Kaito bought this new ice cream scented shampoo...," Neru looked at us, "What do you think it smells like?"
Len chuckled and rolled his eyes, grabbing my shoulders and pressing hard, making me cry out. "Like ice cream?"
"Len, that hurt!" I pushed him back and he just laughed.
We headed off to our classes. Len and Miku both had English and Neru went to Math. I had Accounting. As I hurried upstairs, I felt a pang of guilt because I did so badly on the test yesterday.
I got into my seat and put my head down, listening to footsteps as students began trickling into the classroom. I felt the chair beside me slide back and I raised my head to look at the boy beside me.
"Hey, beautiful," he winked, flipping back his purple ponytail. I scowled.
"Save that for Luka," I mumbled, "Flamboyant chess player Gakupo..."
"If you'd have told me that she liked me, I would've done something!" Gakupo flailed his arms, "And I am pretty good at chess, you know!"
"Of course I know!" I said, "You've been president of the chess club all year. You're unbeatable."
Gakupo unzipped his bag and pulled out his notebooks. "Actually, that's not true."
"Hmm?"
He took his pencil out and started rapping it against his notebook. "There's this one guy who could beat me..."
"Do I know him?"
"Nah," Gakupo smiled, "He sort of left."
"Moved?"
"No, he just...," Gakupo furrowed his brow, "He sorta disappeared. I think he's skipping a year of school or something."
"Sounds like an idiot," I grinned, watching the doorway as our teacher bumbled in, "Speaking of idiots..."
Gakupo laughed. "He was an idiot, all right. A sharp idiot. Used to play with the tennis team..."
Gakupo's voice trailed off and his mention of the tennis team reminded me of Kaito. I was relieved at first, because Kaito hadn't been on my mind all this time. However, as soon as I started thinking about him, my face started to grow hot.
"S-Say," I began, trying to compose myself, "You're on the tennis team, right?"
"I was," Gakupo said, "The season's over."
"You know Kaito, then," I stumbled on his name. Gakupo grinned slyly.
"Of course I know Kaito," he smirked, "The question is, what do you want to know about him?"
My face flushed and I inhaled sharply. "Nothing!" I said, "I was just asking! How...how'd the last game go?"
Gakupo shrugged. "Meh. Same as usual. We won."
"Okay...," I glanced towards our teacher as he started lecturing, then I looked back at Gakupo, "I have another question."
"Fire away, fangirl," he pressed a hand against his mouth, concealing his amused smile. I huffed.
"Why didn't any of the girls know about this?" I asked, "That he's on the team, I mean."
"Well, we, the males," Gakupo crossed his arms and acted all pompous, "While it is true that many of us are jealous of Kaito being a chick magnet, we also understand his pain. You ladies adore him way too much! I'd bet that some of you even go so far as to find out what shampoo he's been using!"
I giggled a little. "That's exactly what Neru was doing this morning."
Later that day, I was hanging around with the girls, as usual. I was flipping through a novel and chewing on a carrot. Neru was texting back and forth nonstop; the clicking of her painted nails against her phone was nearly maddening, but I had learned to block it out.
"Hey, Gumi, do you think Kaito's going to pop in and say hello to you again?" Miku giggled. I glanced up at her, grimacing, before focusing on my book again.
I had been fine till she mentioned Kaito. I was actually not thinking about him, but then she had to go and bring him up, because he was really all these girls cared about.
Teto giggled and I knew that whatever she was going to say, it was going to be about him.
"Maybe he'll look at us this time!" She chirped. I slammed my book shut and put it in my bag before tossing my bag over my shoulder.
"What?" Neru looked up from her phone, her eyes following me as I briskly walked out of the classroom.
"I need to go," I mumbled before finishing off my carrot and swallowing it down. I didn't turn around; I just kept walking.
For once, I was actually angry with my friends. They kept bringing that damn Kaito up, and now I was becoming like them.
I heard their distant squeals and knew that Kaito must have passed by. I left the school building and walked out onto the field.
I padded over to the spot by the tree where Len had taken me yesterday and I plopped down in the grass, pulling my book out. I was about to open it when I heard a meow.
"Hmm?" I looked to my right and saw the cat staring back. It was licking its front paw slowly, eyeing me. I smiled a little and cooed it closer, "Come here, kitty...come here..."
I reached forward and gently stroked its fur, watching as it closed its eyes and came closer. I laughed softly, amazed by how warm and soft the animal was.
"There you are," I heard a voice. I looked up and saw Len.
"Yeah," I nodded.
"Why aren't you upstairs with the girls?"
I glanced down at the cat before looking up at Len again. "I dunno," I answered, "The weather's nice..."
Len sat down in front of me and gently lifted the cat in his arms, plopping it down in the space between us. He took his bag off and pulled some food out, offering it to the cat.
"Did they see Kaito again?" Len asked.
"I left before they did, but I heard them squealing," I said, "All they ever do is talk about him."
Len looked up at the tree's leaves. "Does it bother you?"
"Huh?" I leaned back against the tree's trunk, "Yeah, I guess...but I don't know what to do..."
"They're still your friends," Len smiled, "Friends are weird like that sometimes."
"Sometimes, not all the time," I countered.
"They're weird around you because they know that you'll accept their weirdness," Len poked my arm playfully, "Besides...don't lie."
"What?"
Len winked. "You think Kaito's nice looking, don't you?"
I looked down at my lap. "Yeah," I mumbled, simply because it was something that Len knew, something that I couldn't deny, "He's attractive, I guess, but...I dunno, Len. I think they talk about him too much."
Len patted my shoulder. "You need to get your mind off of this," he said, "Let's talk about something else, okay?"
I nodded and showed Len my book. He flipped through it, commenting on the names of the characters and the dialogue. He made me laugh a lot. I liked being around someone who didn't talk about the same thing all the time, especially if all they talked about was Kaito.
I still saw Kaito after school every day or so. I did my best not to make a big deal out of it. He was just another student, a handsome one, but still. I liked looking at him, but I didn't want to obsess over him like my friends.
I went back to Miku, Neru and Teto the day after walking out on them. They knew how I felt: I could tolerate their constant Kaito blabber to a certain point. I didn't need to apologize or anything. We just needed to talk about something else every now and then.
A few days passed and my relationship with Kaito changed, but not in a crazy way or anything. He'd say hi to me or nod when we passed each other in the halls, and sometimes we'd talk about things in the bus.
"Hey," I waved to him casually one day, about a week after I had walked out on my friends. He nodded but didn't smile. We passed by each other and I kept walking quietly with my head down.
Suddenly, I bumped into someone and cried out.
"Sorry!" I looked up and saw Oliver. He looked at me, his expression tainted with concern.
"Are you okay, Gumi?" He asked. I nodded.
"Fine," I said, "Just gotta get back to class."
"Right," Oliver nodded before running a hand through his pale blond tresses, "Say, do you want to hang out with us at lunch?"
"Huh?"
"Just me and Len and some other people," he smiled, "It's getting warmer, and we were thinking about playing basketball and then maybe grabbing some ice cream."
I grinned. Basketball was one of the only sports I enjoyed. "Sure! Where should I meet you?"
"Don't worry about meeting," he patted my shoulder, "I'll come by the classroom you and the other girls eat lunch in."
I nodded. "Sounds like a plan!"
QUESTION FOR THE READERS!
Back in Chapter 1, when Gumi begins narrating and talks about the school's heartthrob without mentioning his name, who did you think it was going to be?
I dunno why but I just really liked Gakupo's line so I used it as the chapter title.