‘That’ Side Character Chapter 23: Jealousy

“Hey!” she greeted brightly, “you’re so smart, I really like how you focus in class.” 

She was clutching at straws by now, just trying to find something to compliment him on that would make him open up but she had no idea where to start.

He basically ignored her, putting his PSP in his bag first while she struggled to find her next line.

“Oh! You play?” she asked excitedly, spotting the blue handheld.

He paused and looked at her with a small nod.

“Oh. Uh… my brot— I mean, I play, I left mine at home,” she lied.

“What game do you play?” he asked.

“Monster Hunter,” she replied, remembering the name of the title on her brother’s console.

“Same,” he said, straightening a little.

“It’s so fun, isn’t it?” she said with a grin, happy that she had found something that had caught his attention.

He nodded, more enthusiastically than before.

“I bet you’re amazing,” she said, giving him a cute giggle and touching his arm.

He gave her a small smile in return but didn’t feel all too comfortable with her touch. 

She said something else, but all of a sudden you appeared out of nowhere, grabbed Kenma by his arm, and had yanked him with you off down the hallway away from her.

“Kenma?” the girl called out after you both but you just kept your head down, fist locked around his shirt, and your face scrunched with determination, drowning out her calling for him while you clunked down the busy hall, pulled him away from her.

He let you take him away and you didn’t stop until you were well away from everyone at the other end of the building, next to the water fountains.

Once you had gotten him well away from her you stopped and let him go, staring down at the ground.

“Oh no! I have no excuse as to why I did that! What do I say?? I don’t even know why I did that. Well… I know I didn’t like her talking to him, but it’s not like I own him so I can’t exactly say that he can’t talk to any other girl? He’s not really the type to talk to other girls anyway?”

“Thanks,” he said softly, “she talks too much. She’s way more annoying that you ever were.”

His sudden speech made you burst out laughing.

It was mostly laughter of relief that you didn’t have to explain yourself, but also he had said the ‘annoying’ in past tense. Which meant that he didn’t currently find you annoying and after laughing until you were content, you grabbed him in a hug.

He was a little shocked at first, but allowed it, and then you let him go quickly, heart a-flutter and feeling like it was as light as air.

“My bag is still up there though,” you said a little sadly, “now I gotta go get it.”

“No. Let’s wait until everyone goes and then you can get it,” he said, looking around.

He turned to the building again and walked to the corner that was at the very back and you followed curiously.

Slowly he peeked around and you followed suit, poking your head past him to see just bushes, and not much else.

“We can hide here,” he said, walking over to one of the bushes and sitting down behind it.

You followed, with your booted leg, and sat down next to him. Super happy with his choice of hiding space.

You cuddled in close to him and he didn’t seem to mind.

“Are you comfortable enough?” he asked you as he pulled his PSP out.

“Yeah,” you replied.

He nodded.

“If you’re cold you can have my jumper?” he offered.

“Yeah, actually, it is cold,” you lied, you just wanted to put his jumper on. Any excuse would do.

He took it off and gave it to you and you put it on and snuggled into it with a deep inhale in.

Kenma didn’t have a strong smell. He didn’t reek of male deodorant spray like some of the other guys did. You often likened them to male flies, spraying themselves with repellant to keep the girl flies away. He had a nice smell, and you were about to ask if it was his shampoo or deodorant that you could smell, but decided against it as you didn’t want to come off as weird- it was hard to hold the question in though.

“Don’t be weird Y/N, this is the perfect situation here. Don’t make it weird.”

Happily, you stayed still and just watched the ants go by in a line past your boot.

Kenma was, again, trying to beat a particularly hard boss and grunted with frustration when he lost again.

You looked over and rested your chin on his arm.

“Hard one, huh?” 

“Yeah,” he said, keeping his arm still so you could rest there.

“Is that game fun? Even if you keep losing?”

“Yeah. Because when you win it’s a really good feeling. I like taking on hard opponents,” he said.

“Maybe I should try it?” you asked.

Kenma looked at you and you looked up into his eyes then quickly looked away and lifted your head off his arm.

You were so close to him that it was all of a sudden making breathing more difficult!

“Try,” he said, handing the PSP to you.

“Wait!” you gasped, looking back at him, “I’m allowed to play it??”

“Yeah,” he said, “you’re allowed to. I don’t let many people play it… actually, I don’t let anyone play it.”

“Oh! Well! I take that as a compliment,” you said with a smile as you flapped your arms out if his jumper sleeves and took it from him. You stared excitedly at the loading screen and then panicked. “Wait. What do I do? Kenma? I don’t know how to play?!”

“When it loads, press this button,” he instructed calmly.

“But then what?! There are probably a sequence of buttons to press and I don’t know how to—.”

“Come and sit here,” he said, uncrossing his legs and pointing for you to sit in between them.

You stalled and took a few seconds to compute.

“Sit? Lap?” you asked, unable to speak in proper sentences.

“Yeah. Here,” he pointed between his legs, and somehow you managed to get there without falling over, but then he put his arms around you to point at the screen in your hand and you nearly passed.

“Ok, press B,” he said into your ear.

Your thumb smashed B.

“A,” he said.

Quick as a flash you hit A.

He kept giving you instructions and you followed closely.

<<< ‘That’ Side Character Chapter 22: Competition? 

‘That’ Side Character Chapter 24: Sweet Lolita >>>