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To get one thing straight; Nene has been in love. No, it's not like the usual "I love him because he's hot" kind of crush, she's.. fallen in love with someone else.
The thing about it all, is that she only thought preferring good-looking men would get her anywhere. Maybe she did fantasize of a hot guy helping her when she drops her things, or a hot guy tipping an umbrella over her head at a rainy season.
Maybe it could've been a boost for her, but sadly those aren't the fantasies that she's gotten. More likely... the opposite of them.
This.. guy used her as a shield for the car passing by to splash water on her, eventually getting her sick. And this guy flirts and mostly teases her endlessly.
The good part is, he bought her medicine and brought her to her apartment (they're apartment building neighbors) and sort of took care of her, but the worst part is he took care of her horribly, and he jokes around when he's flirting.
Well, sure, she didn't sort of mean it in a romantic way, but nonetheless her weak heart fluttered endlessly. And she dislikes it.
Yes, Yashiro Nene doesn't like her standards at all. Except this guy wasn't visually good looking to her.
But why him? He's probably brought all the misery in her life like an omen, except at the end of each misery it brings awfully amazing luck.
Why him, when most of the things he's ever done to you is to piss you off and to get exasperated easily?
Well, that's the thing — she doesn't know why she's fallen in love with some dude that makes fun of her.
And apparently, that guy was her best friend.
And apparently, her best friend was a popular person.
And apparently...
That popular guy was Yugi Amane.
Of course, she falls in love with a "cool" guy, as others would say.
He isn't... appealing in terms of looks, she's probably only seen that idiotic smirk of his that makes her want to elbow his ribs to the core or something.
And to top it off, a lot of girls are around him sometimes. Maybe Nene does get a little scared of the girls giving the other ones that spoke to him at all glares.
And the other ones is her.
Nene is the other ones.
His "fanclub" apparently threatens other girls he isn't close with. But in Nene's case, they glare at her all the time and the best she could do is try to give them the most annoyed grin ever and returning to talk about what she needed to with Amane.
She doesn't care at all, but they piss the hell out of her to the point she has to go to the infirmary with the girl she hit.
Basically, most of the girls are scared of her, but the "tougher" ones glare at her nonstop, to which she calls them out for humiliation.
Okay, maybe Nene is cool too.
Again, the question "why do you love him, he's literally the worst" comes back to attention.
Well, okay maybe the way he says things (like how his voice deepens) makes her heart sort of flutter, or how he's on a swifter side to flirting.
Who was she kidding, he doesn't mean his flirts.
She tiredly groans, trying to get the thought of her head as well as running her hands through the tons of strands of her hair, bothered simply by the fact that she loves him. A lot.
"What now? Did you not get the x³ part, or the 45²y??" Amane asks, turning over to her a little flared up. "Haha, it's the first time I get to see Yugi Amane angry." She teases him with her fingers in her hair, conveniently combing down the messy strands and blowing out air through her lips.
A smirk tugs on his lips before he leans his cheek on his hand supported by the table. "I can't blame you, thinking of me is something everyone should do."
And another thing about him, is he guesses things correctly when he doesn't mean it.
Nene stood silent until she pulled her chair towards the desk, resting her arms on her notes.
"Do you wanna get this done or not? I'm never helping you ever again after this, you are extremely draining to teach." He openly says, stretching his arm and looking outside the window.
She adjusts her head to face him, staring at the gentle strokes of warm sunlight that illuminated some edges of his face.
Nene slightly squints her eyes to check if what she was looking at was real, cause she really does that a lot.
An explosive sigh escapes her lips, adjusting her head to face front, only to see the chalk board and the door to the cleaning supplies.
For a moment, Amane was distracted, turning his head to her eventually. "What?"
"I'm tired. Let's go home." She quietly states, blankly staring ahead of her. The breeze through the window softly touches her skin, exhaling through her nose in a way more relaxed way.
"Yours or mine?" Once again, Amane began teasing. She frowns slightly, trying to process the question.
"Mine." She nods at her answer, turning over to him. He rests his head the same way she did, looking into her eyes. "I'm going to your apartment?" He continues, having fun considering the situation. She blows a sigh, then saying "Ours.".
"We live together?" He asks, chuckling a little. She slightly frowns at him as a response, shaking her head just a little. "Or.. do you want to live together?"
There it is, the source of her insanity.
I mean, sure his flirts really well but she ever just questions why. Why is he like this. He doesn't mean any of it either, which just sucks. A lot.
But it still never fails to make her flushed, or have her heart flutter. His voice deepens, and it just makes her want to pound her head against a pillow or something.
She stood silent for a while, not realizing her eyelids were closed, slightly snoring a few minutes after.
This slightly surprises Amane. "Hey, are you seriously asleep right now?"
Maybe the snores did answer his question.
He looks at her in silence, not realizing he's begun inspecting her face, little by little.
From her bangs, to her small eyebrows, to her eyelids, her nose, and her cheeks.. He could see a little charm in them.
The freckles on her face..
The shine of her hair.
The eyes looking like rubies, and her soft, lightly pink skin.
For some reason, he's urged to reach out to her face.to softly caress it, or maybe even her hair.
It took him a minute to realize his ears feel.slightly warm, trying to cool them down with his cold hands. He needed to be down-to-earth before he messes up.
Amane sighs softly, putting down his arms to feel the touch of her cold fingertips against his warm ones. Maybe the urge did grow, and sure he teases her s lot but he always wants to make sure she's safe and doing well.
For a moment, he feels his pinky touch hers, and with just a little more force he could hold her hand.
The soft lullaby of the 5 PM announcement goes on, making him slightly let go of her finger, releasing a sigh.
And just a few seconds later, he stands up, lightly nudging her shoulder. "Nene, wake up, we have to go home."
She hums as a response, staying in long silence until she opens her eyes. "..yours or mine?"
This caught him completely off-guard, choking a little on the air he just inhaled. "Hey, that's unfair. You're stealing my flirts."
"What's the point if you aren't gonna mean them anyway?" She mumbles, getting up and packing up her things. Although he may have heard a bit of what she said, he tries to ignore it before packing up his things himself.
And at the back, you can see how red his ears have become, he gently rubs the top part to cool both off, then pushing the back of the chair and yawning.
She does so as well, rubbing her eyelid with the other hand which was free.
"Let's go."
They walked down the halls of the nearly deserted school, and down the tons of flights of stairs to see some elementary children still playing soccer.
And a moment after, they managed to reach the gate, walking down the now darker sidewalks together.
Nene, being the one that attempts to be energetic swings on the lamposts, laughing a little everytime she does and getting back on track beside him, observing the scape of the town for entertainment.
"Geez, what are you so happy for?"
"I don't know, maybe I just am." She giggles, eventually sighing. Amane lets out a sharp inhale, stopping in his tracks to see a small scratch on his finger release like two small droplets of blood.
Nene turns curiously, walking towards him and tiptoeing to see what was going on. Her lips formed a small "o", getting back on her heels to unzip her shoulder bag.
She comes back with a bit of tissuee and an antiseptic. The girl grabs his wrist gently, bringing it to her and wiping out the droplets around and carefully applying the antiseptic on the scratch on the other side of the tissue.
Amane grumbles slightly at the pain, holding back from yelping just a little. Nene puts the things back inside her bag, and she brings out a small bandaid, carefully wrapping it around his finger to perfectly have it pasted.
As soon as she's sure it's stuck, she crumples the wrapper and rams it back to her bag, looking up to his eyes. "Aren't i the best?" The corners of Nene's lips curl up proudly, having her grin a little too brightly.
"What are you now, a nurse? Does that mean I'm your patient?" He smirks, putting his hand back in his pocket. "Hmm.. Yeah, sure." After contemplating, Nene nods to tease him back.
"Then will you take care of me?"
The sentence struck to her like thunder. She could've sworn her heart was the one that struck this feeling. She can't help but hear only the echoing of the beats, slightly feeling a light blush run up her cheeks.
Nene opens her mouth to speak, only to have her tongue immediately run dry, at a loss for words.
She's never felt this flustered before, maybe she got ahead of herself?
She has the urge to run away, but her legs are frozen in place. What's going on??
He takes a few steps towards her, looking at her in the eyes as her breath thins up.
"I'm kidding, why're you paralyzed like that?"
No.
Okay.
Okay, okay, okay, okay fine her heart may have broken just a little bit.
Maybe she really should've it. No, no, no, no, no..
Why. Why the fuck did she expect it.
Why didn't she think ahead of herself?
Why didn't she run away??
Yes, she's thought all of this out right off the bat. He's been teasing her for years, how come she's only felt the pain now?
Is..
is she that far in this whole love thing..?
"Nene?"
She's returned down to earth after Amane snaps in front of her face, making her release such a shaky breath. "Yeah, uh..?"
"Are you.. okay?"
Yeah, no.
Fuck.
She forgot she's ultimately readable. Or at least only he can read her that well, but sadly she can't read her back that fast.
Why would she feel overly sensitive over a joke that's so far ahead anyway?
Gosh, just what was she thinking?
She immediately looks back in his eyes. "Sorry, I'm really tired I spaced out."
"No, I don't think you were."
Please, please, please just stop. She can't get her hopes up again. If this is some other trick to play with her, she can't take it.
She's probably loved him for about a whole year now, and she didn't expect to reveal her feelings this soon.
"I'm sorry, am I too overdramatic for you?"
No.
No, no, no this wasn't what he expected.
"Nene, no.." He softly whispers, looking into her eyes with sincerity. "Look, I'm not complaining that you're dramatic or something. You know I genuinely care for you, right?"
She can't be having this right now. No. No, no, no.
Okay, just.. calm down, Nene, you're too indecisive, you can't just have your hopes up right now.
"You know I love you, right?"
That's it.
That's the only thing that she can't take.
He can't be joking about this right now.
"Amane, christ I.." Nene looks up, furrowing her brows slightly. "That can't be joked about. Okay, you can play with my feelings, but not that one. Not right now. You know I can't do this, you.."
She lets out another sigh, feeling the edges of her eyes threatened by the tears she's held back.
"I don't think I'm joking about that right now, Nene." Amane responds in a serious tone.
However, caught by her feelings she turns her heel and marches off, only for him to grab her wrist and to twirl her close to him, gently pressing her waist, and swiftly kissing her lips.
The movement happened quickly, except she stays in place paralyzed.
She's feeling the warm touch of his lips against hers, and it immediately sent down hundreds of nerves and goosebumps to rise.
She felt the spark dance inside her, the butterflies in her stomach flying like crazy, her eyes finally giving in and letting out the held-back tears that softly rolled down her cheeks.
Softly, Nene finds herself kissing him back, her eyes fluttering shut and moving closer to him.
As if time's stopped, or only that fragment of reality seemed unreal.
As if it was some sort of fantasy she never knew she wanted.
He sighs into her lips gently, pulling away slowly, and keeping his eyes on her, and her eyes on him, gently wiping away the tears that she's shed.
"I love you. I love you so fucking much. I can't help it, okay? I keep thinking of excuses to be with you, but I just really love seeing your face everyday."
Hearing the statement, she chuckles softly. It was followed by more sounds of laughter, until she's laughing hard enough in his arms. "Gosh, you know I'm horrible at words.."
"No, no.. It's just that.." She snorts, wiping her tears gently.
"We're so stupid. I can't believe the guy I loved for an entire year is here confessing to me about how he's loved me and I just.. never knew?"
He scoffs, letting go of her, to which she responds with an abrupt, missing expression.
"Did you wash your hair?"
The boy laughed again as she nudges his ribcage with her elbow, walking ahead of him. "Hey, I'm gonna get you!" He called to her, eventually running after her after she picked up her pace and attacking her with a swooped up hug.
They managed to walk back in their apartments, a little disappointed cause Nene realized the walk was so short.
"I'll go in after you do." Amane playfully nudges her to her building, in which she returns with a somewhat sad smile.
"Alright." She nods, turning her back immediately. Nene, the unexpected once again stroke Amane's assumptions down.
"Hey, hey, wait! You forgot something!" He calls out to her, to which she skips back to him.
Amane unzips his bag, to swiftly cup her cheeks and to peck her forehead, looking into her eyes once more. "Huh??"
She abruptly turns to her right, as if she saw something. He slowly turns his head to the direction she's facing at for her to sneak a kiss on his cheek, and running back off, and turning around to see his reaction.
"Don't do that! Get back safely!" Amane yells out, waving his hand to her. "You too!" Nene yells back to him, waving her hand slightly widely, getting back up to her apartment.
The lovesick boy watches until she's entered the apartment, skipping happily into the building of his apartment.
They both closed the doors to their apartment with a restless sigh, ecstatic until they put their things down.
Guess they'll be missing each other a lot now.
And to Amane?
Falling in love felt like forever ago.