The Desperate Tales of Oikawa and The Bus

| xvii |

"Fudo, can I ask you a question?" Kyoshi sheepishly asked.

It was like any other afternoon; Fudo had his glasses on the brim of his nose, playing around with machinery for a project of his, and had been patiently waiting for the girl.

What he'd hadn't expected, was her coming for advice.

Kyoshi was a seemingly confident girl. She had a cold head and was able to make decisions when everybody else was busy panicking. She hardly ever needed advice and did as she thought was right, whether it was or not. She was never afraid to deal with the consequences of her actions and never once regretted her decisions.

Karasu Kyoshi was a dangerous girl indeed.

"Yeah, shoot." He shrugged, trying to appear unbothered as he quickly inspected the girl.

She was nervously fiddling with her fingers, trying to get the words out of her throat.

"Do you... do you think T- I mean, Oikawa and I are friends?" She finally let out, quick to go back to referring to him by his last name.

She hadn't mentioned that one encounter to Fudo and didn't want him to know just how familiar she'd become with him.

The boy raised a brow, immediately noticing the girl had retracted when speaking of the boy. Since when were they on first name basis?

"Why do you want to know?" He questioned as she sighed.

"Well... he wants to know which school I go to. And I told him it was irrelevant to our chess lessons. And he replied that we were friends." She explained, taking pauses and big breaths here and there. Nervousness was eating her alive.

"Ah..." was all Fudo replied. "Do you think you guys are friends?"

"I wouldn't be asking you if I knew the answer, would I?" Kyoshi snapped but Fudo remained unfazed.

"Despite your constant bickering and insults, I think you guys are friends." He shrugged, looking at the girl's reaction.

She had simply gulped, looking down to her feet as she processed Fudo's words. Truthfully, she'd come to that conclusion herself; some part of her was hoping Fudo would contradict her before finally giving in.

There was no denying it; she and Tooru were definitely friends.

"So are you going to tell him?" Fudo inquired as the girl regained some composure.

"I guess so... it's just I can already hear his damn voice. "Kyoshi-chan, you go to a military school? How amazing! Are you a spy?" " Fudo chuckled at her imitation as she sighed in exasperation. "It's going to be a loong bus ride."

But despite the annoyance her voice was deeply coated with, Kyoshi could tell it wasn't how she truly felt.

Some, weird, psychotic part of her enjoyed the bus rides. And she didn't know why.

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Oikawa was tempted many times to leave practice early. In the end, it was with a heavy heart that he convinced himself he couldn't bail on Kyoshi and waited for Koto's bus.

He'd spent the whole day thinking about her, their discussion, and how much hesitation he'd read in her eyes when he'd said they were friends.

Was it really that preposterous of an idea? Why did she hate him so much anyways? This would have all been easier if she was one of those lovesick fangirls of his.

But, then again, maybe he wouldn't have fallen for her if she was. It was all very confusing in his head, and he wasn't even sure he'd be able to face her after what had happened.