‘That’ Side Character Chapter 10: One Sided Chatty Chats

“Oh, hi,” you said, not being overly friendly but not being dismissive either.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said, his strong eye contact showing the truth in his words.

“Ok,” you said softly.

He nodded and then his PSP made a noise and he looked back down at it before stepping around you and continuing on.

To anyone else it may have seemed insincere.

But you could tell that he had made the effort to come up to you, focus on something other than his game for two seconds- to apologize, then went straight back to playing.

Your gaze followed him as he headed off towards his locker and you just let it be, closed your locker, then went to class.

You felt a little better. None of your other friends had ever come and apologized to you after saying something nasty so maybe Kenma was different after all?

It was hard to figure him out.

A few times in class you glanced back at him, and he caught you looking, but nothing else was said.

At lunch, you got your food and went to the roof to eat, preferring to be on your own and watching the clouds go by as you made up stores about them racing and wondering if you would ever see the same cloud twice.

It was while you were sitting there staring intently into the sky that a tall shadow fell across your body.

At first, you thought it was a very low cloud, but when you turned to look you saw the same captain guy from the gym two days ago.

“Oh hey, tall guy,” you greeted him with a cheek full of half munched food.

“Hey,” he said down to you, “you’re Kenma’s friend?”

“Umm… I dunno?” you replied, genuinely unsure.

“I saw what happened in the gym and Kenma isn’t what you think,” he said, sitting down beside you.

“What do you mean by that?”

“He might come off as cold but he’s just shy,” the Nekoma captain said, “he’s not really good at making friends.”

“Well neither am I,” you said with a sweatdropped smile, “people find me annoying.”

You dropped your gaze and stared at the asphalt between your shoes.

“Kenma doesn’t find you annoying,” the captain then said, “if he did find you annoying he would have either told you by now, or kept as far away from you as possible.”

“Oh… really?” You asked, looking up at him.

He nodded, his black fringe covering one eye.

“Oh… ok,” you replied.

“Just be patient with him,” the guy said, “it’s nice to see that someone other than myself is making time for the guy.”

“What’s your name?” you asked him.

“Kuroo Tetsuro,” the captain replied, “and you?”

“Y/N, L/N,” you said with a smile, “thanks Kuroo, I’ll give Kenma another go. He did say he was sorry for making me sad that time.”

“He’s a good guy underneath it all,” Kuroo said as he stood up, “wanna come watch us play again next time? We don’t have practice this afternoon but we do tomorrow.”

“Umm… yeah, ok. Thanks,” you said with a smile, still holding the mushed food in your cheek.

He smiled then got up, turned and left, and you watched him walk away before looking up at the sky again.

“Oh… Kuroo?!” you suddenly called, whipping your head towards the captain in the distance, “can I have Kenma’s number?”

“Yeah, sure,” Kuroo replied with a smirk, “you got your phone handy?”

……………………………………..

That afternoon, you ran to catch Kenma as he headed across the oval to go home and you pulled up beside him.

“Hey, so, I’ve started working at the animal shelter that I volunteered at in school holidays and there’s a cat there that looks just like you,” you said with a laugh, “like.. you two could be twins but that would be weird because you’re human and he’s a cat. Actually I don’t even know if he’s a he. Maybe he’s a she?? But still… that wouldn’t make it any closer. Do you like cats?”

Kenma stopped playing his game and looked at you though his fringe.

“Cats are good,” he said.

“Cool, I’ll send you the picture,” you said with a grin, then you immediately got side tracked by a bird flying past and you squealed with delight when you saw the bird’s colours, “oh! Pretty birds! Look!”

Kenma looked from you to the birds, then back to you, his PSP making a beeping sound in his hand. He looked down at it and scowled slightly but you just continued on talking.

“I spoke to Kuroo today.” Your ability to be able to switch from one subject to another was always mind boggling to everyone else around you. “He never said that I wasn’t supposed to tell you about talking to him so I don’t think it’s a secret but it sounds like you and I are more similar that I first thought.”

“What do you mean?” Kenma asked.

“Well, people don’t really like me, and you don’t really like people… so… yeah,” you said with a shrug, pausing as you got the the half fallen down wooden fence at the back of the school.

The quiet blond nodded as he hopped over the fence and then turned to give you his hand.

“Nah. I can do it. Here. Hold my bag.” You chucked it at him and he caught it then dropped it down on the ground.

You quickly jumped the fence, then picked your bag up and slung it over your shoulder, and then you kept walking together.

“So… I didn’t think you played anything but games on your thing there,” you pointed to the console in his hand. “Come to think of it, this is the longest you’ve gone without playing it.”

“It’s run out of battery,” he replied.

“Oh. That’s a bummer. You don’t carry spares? They sell heaps at the corner store. What type does it take? I’ll have a look next time I’m there and buy some so that I have spares for you,” you said with a smile.

“Thanks,” he said, keeping his gaze on the ground, “it’s fine though. I can charge it at home.”

“It’s ok. I don’t mind at all. I’ll keep some with me anyway,” you said with a happy sigh, looking up at the trees as they swayed lightly overhead.

“You talk a lot,” Kenma said.

“Yeah. And you don’t,” you said with a chuckle, “so we’re a good match, right? I talk more and you talk less so we’d be average if you added our words together and then divided it in half. But I don’t think I talk more than usual? I’ll have to look that up. Hold up.” You pulled your phone out to Google the average words spoken daily by women and men but your phone had died somewhere during that day and you grunted.

“What is it?” he asked.

<<< ‘That’ Side Character Chapter 9: Animal Shelter 

‘That’ Side Character Chapter 11: Friends >>>