It was a nice, sunny day. The birds were chirping, the flowers were blooming and on days like this, spring would be the best time of the year for most people.
"I hate you!"
The woman exclaimed with tears in her eyes before she reluctantly raised her hand and slapped the man across the face.
Well… not this guy at least…
The man simply stood there with a blank expression, his light gray eyes looking down on a particular flower, a pink one for that matter, before he looked back up at the woman running away.
He only puts his hands in his pockets and walked the other direction.
"What a pain in the ass… and here I was trying to look out for her."
The man said with a small sigh before he started walking back to school with an ever so nonchalant look on his face as if it's been a neutral expression since birth.
"Yo, Mayeda!"
A voice would call out to him from the side which the man would turn around in response.
The other man would come out from behind the tree and make their way to Mayeda.
"I'm just saying, you did great out there!" The man said with a small laugh.
This was definitely sarcastic and received an unamused response from him.
"Yeah yeah, save your sarcasm for later, Usui. Our first period is starting in ten minutes." Mayeda responded in a calm voice yet a small smile would be seen.
Usui would then wrap an arm around Mayeda's neck as they walked together through the front steely gates of Meriozan High School, a large and well maintained school filled with brilliant minds of the state's finest professors.
They would pass by countless other students who were wearing their alike black uniforms in attendance.
"No way you think I'm gonna forget about earlier, you practically gave the coldest rejection of the century back there! Even I felt heartbroken like you were saying that to me!" Usui said with a lighthearted laugh and climbed his arm more around his neck.
Damn, can he not be so loud and tactless about this?
"We still have 70 more years of this century left…" Mayeda quietly murmured for only Usui to hear.
With a surprised yet teasing glance.
"That's what you're worried about, man?" Usui would respond to that ridiculous statement from his best friend.
The tall, black haired boy wouldn't respond to their teasing. He was thinking of a better way to handle this.
"I just didn't want to waste herself on me. I'm not that great with this sort of thing, you know?"
Mayeda would say in a soft tone despite his near emotionless demeanor appeared to make out to be.
Ah, so that's what this is again.
Usui would let go of Mayeda's neck and pat his back with an enthusiastic smile that could be seen to radiate hope for his friend.
"Don't worry, you'll understand how to express yourself better when you finally have a lover. It just takes time and who knows when that time comes?" Usui wagged his finger with his eyes closed. He seemed to be trying to have a moment of clarity and wisdom.
SLIP!
What a way to ruin a moment.
Usui's shoe found itself on a wet towel and slip back on his rear.
"Oof! What the hell?!" Usui exclaimed and opened his eyes to see himself on the floor. He would frantically look around and notice the wet towel being under his shoe.
Some other students nearby would quickly glance at what had just happened to him, some would even stop their chatter or stop walking completely. A boy would peek around the lockers to see where the sound was from.
"Ah! Sorry about that!"
One woman would emerge from the hallway and into the foyer.
"I'm very sorry, are you ok? I was on cleaning duty this morning and I forgot to take this one off the floor…" She offered her hand to the fallen man while her other quickly grabbed the towel.
Usui would look up at the cute girl, and so would Mayeda as well, taking a glance at her.
Usui would hold his hand up and stand up on his own with a small polite smile.
"It's no problem really! Thanks for the offer though, but I would hope you don't make this same mistake again next time!" Usui gave a small smile in reassurance and fix his clothes in the process.
Despite the reassurance, the woman would quickly bow down a few times with mumbles of repeated apologies before taking off into the hallways.
Mayeda's gaze would follow the woman speed walking back into the hallway before looking back at his friend.
"What's this? Your ears seem to be red."
Mayeda tilts his head with a small smile. Despite how unbothered and nonchalant he would usually appear as, it would be times like this with those who were close to him that would bring a small ray of fun for him.
"Oh shush it, that girl was cute you know and she seemed really nice, so it would impossible to get mad at that."
Usui would adjust his glasses and stood in front of Mayeda next to his locker. He seems to have been stuck in his thoughts.
"I never caught her name before, I should've asked. Maybe I'll ask her later."
He looked fond of the idea. Mayeda would naturally begin to suspect something was up with him. After years of friendship since the beginning of Elementary School up until now, he could practically read his mind.
"You like Yoshikawa?" Mayeda questioned with his head tilted and crossed his arms.
Usui's face immediately turned red and looked to the side with a flustered look on his face. Before he could even respond, Mayeda already found his answer.
"I-I mean, is that weird to say? We just met and all, so I wouldn't really call it a crush yet." His friend would try to downplay the fact of his already growing crush on the girl, he didn't wanna seem to be shallow to his friend.
"How shallow." Mayeda casually said with a sigh.
!!?
Usui would frantically try to respond back in defense before a sudden question came into play.
"Wait, you know her name?" Usui would turn and look back at his friend with a small surprised look.
I mean, out of all people, he didn't seem the type to remember or even care about the name of his classmates over the years.
"Well obviously, I took a quick glance at our final quarter's attendance names, that's Yoshikawa Manami, a third year like us." Mayeda sighs from this revelation and looked back down at him before continuing.
"Standing at about 164 centimeters, quite popular, loves cats, excels in cooking, lives at-"
Mayeda would quickly pause what he was saying after seeing his friend's expression. Usui was very dumbfounded to put it lightly.
His eyes were widened, mouth agape, set to stone in place from that weird hill of information before regaining his composure.
"A-are you a stalker?" Usui questioned him with a curious look.
"Uh… well you see…" Mayeda quickly looked around and took a glance at the time.
4 minutes left until class starts.
"Well, it's probably best we head to class now. Wouldn't wanna be late on our first day of our last quarter now." Mayeda smiled and began to walk to a hallway, opposite of where Usui was heading to.
Usui would reluctantly nod at his only best friend before heading to his class in silence. Obviously he wasn't gonna let it go and ask him later, but class was indeed more important right now.
Mayeda walked through the hallway filled with people, some would frantically speed through due to the more little time that was left.
The thought of what happened earlier before entering the school still lingered on his mind however.
The confession. The breeze. The girl. The flower. His response. Everything.
Why couldn't I have said that better? It's so hard expressing myself sometimes.
Mayeda huffs the air and tries to brush it off to the back of his head.
Yeah, I definitely need that extra large cookie later. Maybe I'll buy two during lunchtime, all this thinking is making me wilt.
Mayeda would thoughtfully smile at the idea and looks forward to later now.
Finally, something to look forward to for today.
The hallways were starting to clear up as the time for getting to class started to decrease down until it was time.
Mayeda finally sees his first period classroom, room 2-D, and started heading just a minute before the bell.
"Wait, please, do you have a second?" A white haired girl calls out to him from behind.
Mayeda paused his feet and glanced back at the person who called out to him before fully turning around.
"Eh? Yoshikawa?" He tilted his head slightly in response to her sudden call.
She looks sick to him. Why is she so red for some reason?
He quickly observed her mannerisms to get an idea of what may be the problem.
Flushed expression.
Shaky legs.
Quick breathing.
Desperate face.
This could only mean one thing…
"Oh? You're that woman with the bad memory from earlier." Mayeda calmly said to her, his expression remained expressionless.
Yoshikawa froze in place, a surprised yet hurt expression would soon form.
…
Oh shit.
I definitely need to learn how to word things better.