Chapter Text
Aoi has a lot of questions about her friends now. Since when were Nene and Akane close enough as friends for him to be getting her a present? Have they been lying to her this whole time? What if they became close to bond over how annoying she is?
Her mind races with so many questions that she doesn’t notice that Nene has sat down next to her, trying to get her attention.
“Aoi-chan?”
She waves a hand in Aoi’s face.
“Aoi-chan!”
She jolts out of her thoughts, feeling embarrassed at being caught off guard.
“Aoi-chan are you okay? You’ve been zoning out.”
“Oh really? Sorry, I was just thinking about the homework due today…”
Nene tilts her head with a worried expression, she clearly doesn’t believe it but she doesn’t push.
“Oh okay then…”
She stares at Nene for a moment, she wants to ask a lot of questions but she doesn’t want to annoy Nene, especially on her birthday!.
“But anyways happy birthday Nene-chan!”
She says quickly. Nene’s face immediately lights up at the birthday wish, her worries from earlier fading.
“Oh! Thank you!”
She nods quickly. She’s debating on whether this is a good time to give Nene her present… it’s just them in here and it’s quiet, this is a nice time to confess too, isn’t it?
“Nene-chan, I have something to tell you..”
Nene turns her head to face her and she blushes, just a little, Nene blinks at her expectantly with that dumb smile.
“Yeah? You can tell me anything!”
She takes a deep breath, bracing herself for what’s to come next.
“Well I-”
Just as she was gonna start her heartfelt confession the class door slams open and a few of their classmates start filing in, talking and laughing, making her grand confession get interrupted, but maybe she can still continue right? She can just confess quietly so no one hears, but that’s not romantic enough.. she wants the confession to be special.
“Ah- it’s okay Aoi-chan, you can keep going, if you want to of course.”
She knows how much Aoi hates talking over her loud classmates. Aoi takes aIt’ deep breath, if Nene wants to know then she’ll tell her–
“Well-”
She gets cut off even shorter this time when someone comes up to the both of them– but more so focused on Nene.
“Happy birthday Yashiro-san.”
It’s Fuji. Nene’s cheeks tint with a cute rosy color that she finds cute, but she doesn’t like how it’s for him instead of her. She feels a weird feeling set in her stomach.
“O-Oh, thank you Fuji-kun.”
Nene stammers, a little nervous. Despite her telling Aoi she got over him she still gets flustered. It’s the pretty boy effect, she supposes.
“No problem Yashiro-san. I hope you have a good day.”
He smiles at her before turning to his desk where his friends are.
Aoi is not so happy with that interaction, she doesn’t know why. She knows that it may factor to the fact that she likes Nene but she never thought of herself as a jealous person. She isn’t a jealous person, right?
“Uh.. Aoi-chan! Are you okay? You're glaring at the desk like it hurt your family.”
Aoi blinks, snapping out of her thoughts. Oh.. was she zoning out again? It seems like she’s been zoning out a lot today and it’s only 8:30 in the morning.
“Oh-.. yeah. Sorry I was just thinking about uh.. how boring class is.”
She lies weakly. Why is she failing so hard today? Nene definitely thinks she’s getting possessed now or something.
“Uh- you sure it’s just class? You’ve been zoning out a lot, Aoi-chan! Are you sure everything is fine?”
Nene grabs both her hands and she can’t help but blush slightly at that. She really hopes Nene doesn’t notice it.
“Yeah, I swear I’m fine! I just barely got any sleep.”
Which is half true. Nene nods, squinting and analyzing her. She looks at Aoi’s face, uniform, hair– everything to make sure it’s fine. Aoi doesn’t like how she’s being dissected.
“Okay.. wait- are you sick?! Your face is turning kind of pink!”
Oh god she noticed. Aoi gulps, her face turning even pinker at that.
“N-No.. I’m not sick. It’s just… so hot in here.”
A weak lie, Nene totally doesn’t buy it.
“You sure?”
She furrows her eyebrows with worry and squeezes Aoi’s hand.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Don’t worry too much, okay?”
Nene sighs but nods slowly.
“Uh- okay then.. but anyways- you were gonna tell me something?”
Oh, right. She was supposed to confess until she so rudely got interrupted by loud classmates entering and a certain annoying blonde wishing Nene a happy birthday.
“Well.. since it is your birthday I have a surprise for you.”
Nene’s face lights up. She clearly wasn’t expecting anyone at school to surprise her with presents or anything.
“Really?! What is it? You’re the best Aoi-chan!”
She leans over to give Aoi a tight hug filled with warmth, Aoi gasps at the sudden hug, her face is warm and the blush on her face from earlier turns darker.
“Y-yeah!”
(God why did she stutter?)
“Just wait okay? I’ll have to give it after school.”
Not much of a surprise anymore is it? She just wanted to make Nene happy and well– the surprise was the first thing that came to mind at the moment. Nene huffs, pulling back from the hug with a pout.
“Awe man. Can’t I just have a tiiinnyy peek?”
She chuckles at the girl's impatience, this is why she shouldn’t have told her. The girl is gonna be bouncing on her toes all day with excitement just thinking about this surprise.
“No, then that would ruin the surprise. We wouldn’t want that, would we?”
Nene pouts more, giving her big eyes. Aoi hates how the big eyes almost always work– but not today! This surprise is supposed to be special and it must not be ruined.
“But technically I’m not supposed to know about the surprise in the first place so it’s not a surprise anymore.”
She huffs.
“Hehe~ weeellll.. you still don’t know what the surprise even is~ so it’s still technically a surprise!”
She loves when they bicker like this. Nene pouts more and crosses her arms with a small ‘hmph!’ (Aoi finds her so cute.)
“Well it better be good!”
She huffs, puffing out her chest. Aoi giggles, giving her hand a squeeze.
“I swear, it’ll be good.”
She says with a cheeky smile
“So what are you going to do for your birthday?”
“Hm.. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll have a party but I don’t really know yet.”
Nene puts a finger on her chin and looks up thinking. She finds Nene cute when she does small things like this.
“Well whatever you do I’m happy with! <3”
Nene’s face turns a light subtle pink and she swears Nene is blushing, but she won’t get her hopes up that it’s because of what she said. Nene is probably just really happy… she is a very expressive person after all.
“You’re too nice Aoi-chan-”
(‘Only to you’ she wants to say.)
“But I’ll think about what I wanna do. As long as you’re with me anything is fun.”
Aoi blushes (again this morning), does she really mean that? She shouldn’t take it as romantic, though. Nene is just a great friend and a nice girl, it’s only normal for her to say something like that.
A few more of their classmates start filing in the classroom, chattering and laughing with one another, some even interacting with them as they come in, but Aoi’s focus is all on Nene.
“Happy birthday Yashiro-san.”
She blinks out of her thoughts. She certainly didn’t wish Nene a happy birthday again, did she? Was she too lost in her thoughts? She blinks and looks up to see that it’s Akane now. Nene looks up, blinking in surprise.
“Ah- thank you Akane-kun..”
(Since when did she use his first name? Since when were they close?)
Nene smiles at the boy. Aoi feels that sudden weird feeling in her stomach again, in fact it feels even worse right now. Seriously, what is this feeling supposed to be? Whatever it is, she doesn’t like it. These two are her friends. They should only know each other at a surface level.
His eyes drift over to Aoi and his expression softens more.
“Hi Ao-chan.”
He greets her normally. No grand confession right now which she is relieved by. He’s been trying to tone down on those but it’s clear that it’s just an instinct to start confessing to her whenever he sees her. She manages a small smile and waves at him.
A classmate comes up behind Akane and taps on his shoulder, it’s some group of guys asking him for help on something. He sighs but agrees to help them. He turns back to the two girls with a sorry expression.
“Sorry guys- I’ll be quick.”
They both nod. She watches him go and join the group of guys to help them with something.
“I didn’t know you two were close..”
She rests her head on her hand as she watches him help their classmates.
“Oh- I-I wouldn’t say we’re close.. he’s just a good friend.”
Nene says, fidgeting with her fingers. As Aoi looks at him her eyes are on Aoi– watching her best friend closely. Aoi’s been really weird this morning! She’s just worried for her. She doesn’t want to be the reason Aoi is sad or anything.
Before she can ask Aoi what's wrong again the teacher steps in class, telling kids to go back to their seats and that class is starting. She sighs and looks up at the board.
The teacher starts teaching about the next lesson to which they both aren’t paying attention to what’s happening up, both lost in their own thoughts.
*
The bell rings, signaling the end of the school day. Students around start to pack their belongings. As usual Aoi and Nene chat as they pack up.
“So… the surprise?”
Nene asks with big eyes. Aoi gives her a smile, but her palms are sweating so hard. She’s so scared that Nene won’t like her surprise.
“Of course! Just let me pack up and I’ll show you.”
Nene nods enthusiastically, she's practically vibrating with excitement, it makes Aoi feel even more nervous and worried that she’ll get disappointed.
“Did… Akane-kun give you anything?”
She doesn’t remember.
“Huh? Oh yeah! He gave me a flower! It was surprisingly sweet of him.."
Nene blushes a little, Aoi feels a weird pang in her chest. She just stares at her with a blank expression. Nene notices Aoi acting weirdly quiet.
"Do you remember Aoi-chan?"
No, she doesn’t remember, she didn’t even know that happened. She was probably zoned out.
“Oh.. yeah.”
She nods slowly, but Nene can see her mind is not really here. She sighs.
“Uh.. if you want I can give you the flower!”
She sighs and immediately shakes her head- that was not what she wanted! She doesn't want to ruin Nene's birthday. It’s not about flower, not even close. Nene can be so oblivious, but she likes it that way. It’s good that she doesn’t know.
“No.. it’s fine, it’s your present after all! I wouldn’t want to take something that's for you.”
Nene nods slowly, her expression skeptical.
“But anyways I’m done, let's go now.”
They both get up and start walking to where their lockers are. The halls are already starting to empty out as students start leaving the school or going into their clubs and afterschool activities. The halls are empty enough for the two of them to talk comfortably.
Aoi’s palms are sweating. What if Nene doesn’t like the present? What if she gets disappointed? She’s so worried. She hates how there’s no interruptions and distractions now of all times where they’re actually left alone, she’s too aware of the girl. The halls are too quiet for her thoughts. It’s just them alone together. She’s scared she might say something out of line.
“Nene-chan I want to tell you something..”
She fidgets with her fingers nervously, she doesn’t want to make this weird but she just needs to get it off her chest.
“Yeah? What is it?”
Nene tilts her head, raising an eyebrow, she has a concerned expression painted on her face, but she can’t blame her. She’s been acting really weird today, she must admit herself.
“Well you’re a really good friend and I just want to say that I..”
She trails off, avoiding looking at Nene’s face, she looks at her fingers getting entangled together. Nene locks eyes with her, she doesn’t look up. She feels her gaze burning into her. Nene looks at her expectantly.
“..that I uh- am really grateful for you. You’re the best friend I could ever ask for and I hope we can spend every year together.”
She’s surprised she didn’t get interrupted this time. She’s a little disappointed that she didn’t, but she saved herself this time around by not confessing. (still, that sounded romantic.) Nene gives a smile and her eyes soften.
“Aww Aoi-chan, that’s so sweet.. you're the best friend ever.”
She manages a small smile, gulping nervously. Yeah, she just wants to say friends.
“I have something els-” This time she gets cut off by a gasp coming from Nene,
“Oh my god! Is this it Aoi-chan?! This is the surprise?”
Nene squeals, she’s practically smiling from ear to ear with the brightest expression on her face. She looks so happy, Aoi likes seeing that expression on her face. She’d do anything to see that on Nene’s face everyday.
“Oh- yeah.. I hope you like i-”
Another squeal from Nene cuts her off, but she doesn’t mnd this time, as long as Nene is happy.
“Are you kidding?! I love it!”
Nene says, practically jumping, suddenly launching herself to give Aoi a hug. She blushes, quickly melting in Nene’s arms. She loves hugging Nene.
“I’m glad you do..”
(I’d do anything to see you happy.)