Chapter Text
the sun was past the horizon as cherry blossom petals dropped to the ground. a few of those petal got stuck at in particular light brown haired girl. in annoyance, she attempted to shake off some of the petals at the cost of messing her hair up. letting out an annoyed sigh, fixed her hair up before continuing her walk to school.
its my second year already, she thought as she continued listening to music. her older sister bought a new mp3 player as an early birthday gift before she went to college. all the way to kyoto from tokyo, the distance was unbearable.
getting closer to the school, the amount of students around her seemed to increase tenfold. she could hear the chattering first years talking about their spring break and their excitement for high school. in addition, she could catch the ongoing gossip between the students of her year. a chuckle left her mouth at some of the things she heard.
as she approached her shoe locker, a familiar yet annoying voice called out her name. ah its only him. i guess i could walk to class with him. but another voice followed, a voice that made her freeze in place. shit, he's the last person i wanted to see. quickening her pace, she switched her shoes and hurried to homeroom.
"oi kanzaki, slow down." a voiced called behind her.
still continuing her way up the stairs, she glanced behind her to find two boys following her up. the one who called her out was a green haired boy with a grin on his face and his hands in her pockets. the other boy has brown hair and glasses. he made eye contact with her but the two quickly looked away.
at the top of stairs, kanzaki waiting for the two to catch up. once they were all together, they walked together to their classroom, 2-B. however an awkward silence filled the atmosphere. the green haired boy sighed before attempting to break the ice.
"how was your spring break kanzaki?" he asked, looking at the girl on his left, who was looking away towards the windows.
"it was alright, we had to see my sister off last weekend and we went to hokkaido to watch my brother play..." kanzaki's voice trailed off.
"is aki-senpai doing okay then?" the brown haired boy finally spoke up.
"yeah, nii-san played in a second string game. he played center field and then closed out as pitcher in the last inning." kanzaki answered. "i think it was good for his debut in the pros."
"ah really? good for him then." he replied.
they reached finally reached their classroom, and the three went to their respective seats. after settling herself at her desk, kanzaki laid her head on the desk. she sighed before lifting her head up to see the green haired boy in front of her.
"you okay?" concern was in eyes as he looked down at the girl in front of him. it's not normal for her to act like this but after what happened, it wasn't suprising.
"not at all." she buried her face in her arms. "how can i be okay after i've been rejected! i feel like i just ruined everything with miyuki because it feels too awkward to even greet him."
she looked back up at the boy. "kuramochi, what do i do?"
a hand came down on her head, ruffling her hair softly. "you guys will be fine, i'm sure of it." he smiled at her, to which she smiled back.
~
the bell rang, signaling the start of their lunch break. before she could even get out of her seat, kanzaki was approached by a girl who she'd call her best friend.
"nozomichi, i haven't seen you since the start of spring break! and are you okay? you don't look okay."
sumeragi mitsuki was a girl kanzaki met in her first year. she was one of the first friends she made at seido and was one of the first to bring kanzaki back to high spirits. she was sweet and such a worrywart. any guy would be lucky to have her.
a gentle expression covered kanzaki's face as she stood up a grabbed her lunch from her bag. "let's have lunch outside today." she began her way out of the classroom and sumeragi followed suit. as she walked out, she caught a glimpse of miyuki looking at her.
"anyway mitsuki-san, i met him over spring break, a few days after it started." kanzaki took a bite of her lunch before continuing, "we met up at the park near my house, you know that one?"
sumeragi nodded as she swallowed another bite of her rice ball.
"we talked for a bit, and then i confessed to him." heat began climbing up to her face. " i'm still embarrassed when i think about it. i shouldn't have confessed to begin with." kanzaki's mood deflated as she covered her face with her hands.
panicked, sumeragi tried to think of ways to cheer her friend up. maybe i should bring up the new romance novels that came out? no no no, she would become even more upset. or the new chapter of the webcomic that came out? wait no, she said that the ML reminds her of Miyuki! and then a thought crossed her mind that she knew would cheer her up.
"ne ne nozomin, there's a new cat cafe that opened my family's bakery. since the area is pretty quiet, i'm sure it wont be crowded as the ones in the city." sumeragi smiled at kanzaki perking up upon hearing the word cat.
"really?"
"yeah, you can come with me after school and we can stop by for a bit."
nodding, energy came back into kanzaki as she began eating her food again. but a thought crossed her mind that dropped her mood again. she has a solo shift after school until pretty late, so she wouldnt have time to stop by.
"...i have work today." kanzaki sighed as she ate her food.
ahhh. "it's okay, i'm sure this week we can see them." sumeragi reassured her, trying to keep her mood up. heartbreak was a terrible thing to experience anyway.
~
kanzaki let out a yawn as she stretched in her chair. school was finally over but she dreaded having working in the next hour and the commute to her job takes takes nearly 40 minutes. so much work it was only the first day, she thought as a sigh left her mouth.
getting up, she packed up her things in her bag and began her way to the station. before she left the classroom, someone called her name. it was the one person she didn't want to hear from.
turning around, miyuki walked towards her, stopping in front of her. the boy grew taller from the last time she saw him, and his face was attractive as ever. her heart was beating fast and hard, she thought it was beating so loud everyone in the class would hear it. the boy that rejected her was standing in front of her and she could barely make eye contact with him.
"nozaki-san...can i walk you out?" miyuki asked, looking down at the girl with soft eyes. he feels bad for hurting her but he doesn't have the time to have a girlfriend because of baseball. it would be worse to date someone you barely have time for and plus, he wasn't sure if he could even make her happy.
"uh, yeah, sure." kanzaki's voice shook. how can she even face him right now? it's only been a few weeks since they last met and she has barely recovered from the pain she felt.
the two walked out of the classroom, but remained silent. the two weren't sure what to say or what to do given their situation. kanzaki didn't want to say anything that might make their situation worse nor look like she's pushing herself onto him. miyuki doesn't want to hurt her more than he already had as it hurts him to see her this way as well as a certain someone would kill him if he did further damage.
miyuki cleared his throat and looked at the girl, "do you have work today then? you're leaving earlier than you usually do."
kanzaki nodded, still avoiding eye contact. "i'm by myself for today so hopefully it's a light day." she paused. "how is this years first years? anyone that catches your eye?"
the thought of a certain first year crossed his mind and he laughed at the image in his head. their first encounter as him being officially on the team is a moment he won't ever forget.
"there's an eccentric first year that joined us. he wants to be a pitcher and has his eyes set on being ace." miyuki began laughing again, causing kanzaki to look his way and small smile made its way to her lips with a small blush spreading on her cheeks. miyuki is adorable when he laughs.
"he's a total idiot too! the total opposite of aki-senpai!"
"ah! that idiot sawamura!" kuramochi added, catching up to the pair. "he had me, miyuki, and masuko-san running laps with him on our first day. that bastard." he clenched his fist with an expression to kill.
kanzaki tried to hold her laugh in as she stopped in place. she caught the attention of the two boys, who were caught off guard by her stifled laugh. this is what the atmosphere around their trio should be like and feeling it get back to normal somewhat made kanzaki feel happen about what happened in the past few weeks.
"haha, he must be alot to deal with." she said, trying to wipe away the tears that built up from laughing.
as they made their way down the stairs, a certain brown haired boy caught the attention of the two boys. kanzaki could already tell this boy was the first year they were talking about.
"miyuki-senpai! kuramochi-senpai!" he exclaimed.
miyuki sighed while kuramochi jumped down the stairs to put the poor boy in a headlock. sawamura began tapping on kuramochi's arm while struggling to get out of his tight grip. as kanzaki and miyuki reached the bottom of the stairs, sawamura was able to avoid death once again.
"this is the eccentric, idiotic first year." miyuki pointed his thumb at him as he attempted to catch his breath. "let's go, he's irrelevant."
"hey! wait! are you not going to introduce me to your girlfriend?!" sawamura yelled, pointing at kanzaki, oblivious to the mood he just created.
a punch met the boy's head. "what was that for?!" he began rubbing his head and glared at kuramochi, to which he glared back, ultimately scaring the first year.
"you idiot."
kuramochi grabbed kanzaki's wrist, pulling her to the lockers. "kuramochi, i'm fine." she pulled away from his grip. "he doesn't know, so it's fine." she said with a sad smile, something that pained kuramochi.
clicking his tongue, the two walked over to where miyuki and sawamura were. sawamura was still trying to rub the pain away as miyuki jokingly scolded him.
"oi sawamura, apologize." kuramochi demanded, in a threatening way. his face was scary as ever to sawamura.
pushing his face away, kanzaki pushed kuramochi into miyuki as she approached the first year. "i'm kanzaki nozomi, a classmate of those two idiots over there." she pointed at the two watched them conversed.
"i'm not dating either of them." she reached up and put a hand on sawamura's head, rubbing it gently. "i'm sorry that dumbass hit you."
her actions made sawamura's face turn red instantly and a wide grin was plastered on his face as began scratching the back his head. "hehe..."
yet in his ecstasy, he could feel daggers being pointed at him. sawamura wouldn't dare to look in the direction they were coming from because he was sure to be dead if he did. kanzaki-senpai is a nice person. alot nicer than those two.
kanzaki turned on her heel and headed toward the lockers as she would be late if she hung around longer. the three boys followed her and went to their respective lockers before meeting again outside the school entrance. the boys would have to head a different way as they had to walk to the dorms to get ready for practice, while kanzaki had to hurry to the station.
before she could leave, miyuki caught her wrist. "nozaki-san, can we talk about something?"
kuramochi caught the two together and kept his distance. he wanted to give them some time apart if it meant their relationship would get better. he wanted them to be happy so why did it feel like he was getting stabbed in the heart? seeing them together made a part of him feel unhappy, like he was more deserving to be in miyuki's position. if only kanzaki would look towards his direction, but he was used to it. miyuki would always be her first pick and it was okay with him. as long they can remain friends, kuramochi could be content with it.
glancing between the pair in the distance and kuramochi, who was looking towards them, sawamura had a confused expression. he noticed how soft kuramochi's gaze was towards kanzaki, something he never seen as his roommate would always be energetic and aggressive. "kuramochi-senpai?"
the calling of his name shook kuramochi out of his trance. he looked towards sawamura, who was looking at him at a puzzled manner. "huh what? what are you looking at?" kuramochi's typical aggression towards sawamura returned.
the first year shook his head rapidly before noticing miyuki walking towards them. it seemed as their conversation finished as kanzaki walked out, waving goodbye at the three of them. after getting kicked a few times and made fun of by his seniors, the three made their way to the fields.
checking the time on her phone, kanzaki realized how much of a time crunch she was on. she had been messing around too much earlier that she might miss the train. her walking turned into a jog as she hurried towards the station. her manager would kill her if she was even a second late.
the first day wasn't as bad as she thought. upon seeing miyuki after confessing, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to even get near him without losing it. yet she did it, and she was able to talk to him after such little time has passed. maybe they'll be okay and that they can still remain as friends even after what happened.
scanning her card, and hurrying to the platform, kanzaki got on the train on time. it wasn't as packed as it usually is, so she was able to get a seat and finally relax. she put on her earbuds and got out some of her homework to pass the time, she had about 15 minutes before she would have to get off. but before she started working, she got her phone out to text kuramochi.
[to: kuramochi]
you were right. i think we'll be okay :)
-kanzaki
feeling his phone buzz, kuramochi checked it to see a message from kanzaki. upon reading it, a smile formed on his face. his signature laugh left his mouth as he put his arm around sawamura, dragging him down.
"kuramochi-senpai!"