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Odagiri managed to escape from the crowd and hid herself in a small cove secluded from the rest of the beach by a shroud of fairly thick shrubbery. The shade from the trees was welcome as the heat was starting to get to her head – she was literally about to lose her cool. Most people seem to think that Odagiri was about as dense as a slab of cement, meaning that they never once considered that she would take offense to the comments about her body – positive or negative. She was very much aware that she was… well-developed. And she was also very much aware of the stabbing glares she got from the females of the bunch whenever she hogged the lechearous stares from the males. She usually played it off by acting dumb, because she didn’t want to make things awkward. But sometimes pretending got tiring.
She breathed a heavy sigh as she sat down on a small patch of grass on the sand. Out of the blue, she heard a rustling of leaves and a soft meow. She turned around. It was a kitten! Small, frail, dirty, probably thirsty and hungry. Her heart broke at the sight. The kitten approached her and softly nudged the side of her thigh with its head.
“Hey there little guy,” she cooed, her voice faltered a bit as she spoke, a lump in her throat started to form.
“Oh I bet you’re really hungry and thirsty…” she unscrewed the cap of her plastic waterbottle and poured a mini reservoir into her cupped palm and offered it to the kitten. It lapped it up so fast that Odagiri thought the water fell to the ground. But when she checked, only minimal fallout. The kitten wanted more. She smiled sadly and poured more.
“Here ya go,” she offered her palm to it again, “sorry I don’t have food with me. I’ll bring you back to the camp later and we’ll make sure you get fed and cleaned up all nice and well okay?”
Odagiri stroked the kitten’s back softly, it twitched ever so slightly before it relaxed to her touch. Reminded her of someone she knew.
“Where’s your mommy, kitty?” She asked the kitten, as if it could answer her.
“Did she abandon you? How dare she?” She frowned.
But the kitten gave a satisfied meow, having its fill of water. She continued to stroke its fur. It was still soft, despite the sand crusted onto its ends. The kitten climbed into her lap and nuzzled against her skin. It gave a very soft yawn before it laid its head and body down to nap. Perplexed by how quickly the kitten became accustomed to her, she quirked a brow before shrugging and continued to pet the kitten.
“… Koneko-chan?” she heard someone calling softly from behind her as the leaves rustled once again.
“Koneko-chan?” she heard again, more loudly and clearly this time.
“Ko-“ the voice stopped in mid-speech, clearly having noticed that he wasn’t alone.
“Master?” Odagiri whispered before she raised a finger to her lips to shush him, “the kitty fell asleep.”
Odagiri realized that Aoyama must have been looking for the same kitten that was now sleeping on her lap. She noted the small bag of grilled fish he was clutching.
“Oh, you brought food for it,” she beamed, “we can feed it after it wakes up!”
Aoyama could only nod. He made a motion to leave when Odagiri raised her voice to stop him.
“Wait,” she patted the patch of grass next to her, “sit with me for a bit?”
She was expecting him to leave, but to her surprise, he started to walk towards her and sat down, but not before laying down a towel on the ground to sit on first.
“I realized that we haven’t actually had proper conversation yet,” she said quietly.
“… There’s not much to say,” Aoyama said.
“Oh I’m sure there’s plenty,” Odagiri gave him a light-hearted smile, “But I really did want to thank you.”
“For?”
“For helping me improve at basketball,” she explained.
“… That was mostly you though?” Aoyama tilted his head to one side.
“I think Master had a small hand in it, and the fact that Master doesn’t even know it…” she shook her head, “that’s your style isn’t it?”
“Style?”
“I mean… Master is probably really as oblivious to a lot of things as people say you are,” she explained.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Aoyama frowned.
“I’m not insulting you, Master. Sorry if it sounded like that,” she apologized.
“… Is there something troubling you, Odagiri Mio?”
“Hm?” She hummed, not knowing how to answer.
“You sound… less… enthusiastic.”
“Oh, well…” she trailed off. “I’m just having one of those days.”
“... You mean that time of the month?”
Odagiri blushed, not expecting that response at all. “No!” She said a bit too loudly. The kitten mewled and squirmed in disapproval on her lap. “Sorry.”
“Then is there something I can do to help?”
“It’s really no big deal, Master. It isn’t necessarily a basketball-related matter. Well, I was having a bit of slump during training, but I think I’m improving. It’s… well I’m not really sure what it is really. Is this what they call teenage angst?” She laughed awkwardly.
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“It’s okay, I didn’t expect you to anyway.”
“If you were having a slump in training, just train harder!”
Odagiri sweatdropped and laughed, “Y-yeah! Of course. Silly me.”
“It’s… more of a body image concern? It’s no big deal, but it’s affecting me more today than most days… I’m guessing Master doesn’t really have self-conscious thoughts?”
Aoyama didn’t answer, it was then that he understood a little of where Odagiri was coming from.
“… Everyone does.”
Odagiri really did not expect that one. Aoyama was really just full of surprises today.
“Oh really? I mean, Master has self-conscious thoughts too?”
“Of course.”
“… Would you mind if I asked about it?” Odagiri wanted to be a cautious about approaching such a sensitive topic. She didn’t want to scare him away. She was also not one hundred percent certain that she was even ready to have a sensitive conversation with anybody, let alone someone she barely knew.
“I… have a bit of a cleaning problem.”
“How so?” Odagiri never really paid much attention to what others say about Aoyama. So she didn’t really know, nor did she notice Aoyama’s excessive cleaning habits.
“I… just… I don’t like to…. touch things with my bare hands unless I know that it’s clean. And I can’t ever tell just from the naked eye so for good measure, I clean… pretty much everything before I use it. Every. Single. Time. And it’s… bothersome. I don’t know why, but if I don’t do it, I get this nagging feeling in my head and I can’t pay attention to anything… except for the fact that the germs of whatever I had just touched were slowly invading every inch of skin in my body… and it would eventually swallow me up into a pit of darkness. And it would suffocate me. And-“
“Aoyama-kun!” Odagiri placed a hand on Aoyama’s shoulder to snap him out of it. That was the first time she said his name instead of Master.
“Ah. Sorry. I didn’t realize…”
“It’s okay. I’m sorry I asked,” Odagiri suddenly felt very guilty.
“… It’s not your fault.”
Odagiri stayed silent for a while. Aoyama said nothing as he was finally able to calm down. A gentle breeze blew past them before Odagiri opened her mouth to break the silence that fell upon them.
“So why can I touch you then?”
Aoyama looked at her, his face devoid of any expression. Then he shook his head, “I don’t know.”
Odagiri scrunched her brows together, a small wrinkle formed on her otherwise smooth forehead. She reached out her hand unconsciously, and grabbed Aoyama’s. His hand flinched ever so slightly.
“Is this okay with you?” she asked, eyes wide with curiosity now.
Aoyama nodded. “But I don’t know why.”
She pursed her lips as she thought before she laced her fingers with his, “And this is okay too?”
Aoyama nodded again.
“… Strange, isn’t it?” Odagiri decided that it was too much thinking for her in one day. So she shrugged it off with a laugh. “Maybe it’s because we both really like cats?”
Aoyama was about to say something when he got cut off by someone yelling Odagiri’s name.
“Mio? Mioooooo! Where are you?” It was Odagiri’s friend, Aoyama noted. Not too soon after, leaves were rustling behind them and out came Odagiri’s friend.
“Mio! There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for…” she trailed off when her eyes caught sight of another person. Her breath hitched in her throat and her eyes widened when she saw that their fingers were interlocking.
“I’m sorry… was I interrupting something?”
Odagiri raised a brow in confusion before she realized what it might have looked like to an outsider. Suddenly her cheeks were flushed and she let go of the hand she was still holding. “It’s not what it looks like!”
“Mmhmm,” her friend rolled her eyes before turning around, “I’ll be back at the campsite. Don’t go wandering off on your own. Or at least tell me! I’ll get out of your way now.”
Odagiri was scrambling to her feet, making sure she gently handed the kitten over to Aoyama. “Take care of the kitty, okay?” She bowed before she took off running behind her friend.
“Yuu-chan! It’s really not what it looked like!” She yelled after her.
Aoyama was left behind, stunned by the abrupt end of their conversation. Only one thought prevailed in his mind as he gave the now lively kitten the food he’d meant to give it earlier.
What did it look like?