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You were widely known in your highschool to be the person with the highest social skill, able to befriend everyone around you with your easy going and calm nature. Extroverts and introverts alike, even the scary delinquents that normally keep to themselves cannot help but become friendly in your presence. The only person you haven't been able to befriend is none other than the captain of your highschool football club, Barou Shoei, and that was your biggest challenge ever since you started kindergarten. You have never dared to cross his path, the aura that he emits being something else entirely that you just cannot grasp and understand. However, today that all changes, your entire class has made it their problem as well to see you so down after finding that out. Even though they are all slightly scared themselves, they will do anything to help you and if need be, to get the entire school behind your back, just to conquer your last challenge before graduating in a few months.
"Here he comes" someone runs to class as casually as they can to announce the arrival of the self proclaimed King.
"(L/N)! Someone's here for you!" Barou appears on the door that enters your class, with an impressive stature and bulk, his delinquent-like hair makes him seem even bigger. With red eyes that seem to want to devour anything in sight, you gulp to push down any doubts and everyone puts themselves in their positions to support you.
"You wanted to see me?" He comes near you after your classmate pointed you out and you gleam so joyfully everyone in the room seems to be affected, everyone except Barou.
"Yes! Yes! Come on, sit" you invite him to sit in front of you but he stays unmoving, only deepening his frown "or stay up, as you prefer" you chuckle nervously.
"What do you want?" He takes a deep breath as if to calm himself.
"Nothing, nothing, I just wanted to get to know you, maybe even exchange contact info" you smile sweetly as you take your phone out.
"Waste of time" he sighs as he turns to leave. Everyone gasps, wondering how he didn't find you such a beacon of light and warmth, they want to support you and stop him from leaving but they all seem to become paralyzed.
"Wait!" You try to get him to stay but your arsenal is nearly empty, you want to say something but, like the others, you're completely frozen over how you just can't get through to him. He stops to look at you but turns to leave again when you don't say anything. You try one last ditch effort, a forceful approach, getting up, your phone in hand, as you skip towards him with an even bigger grin.
"There they go!" a classmate says as he shields his eyes.
"Barou can't resist them now!" A close friend says as he clenches his fists. You pat around Barou's pockets as he probably is too choked by your boldness to stop you, you find his phone and take it out, similar models you notice and get ready to share it with one way or another.
"You peasant! Don't touch my phone!" He barks and you turn your back to him to type away at it. He tries to take his phone back but you dodge his attacks until he finally has enough. He shoves your shoulder, pushing you to the ground making you let go of both phones.
"Don't you ever come near me again, you peasant" he commands menacingly at you and then proceeds to pick up his phone. He looks around the class glaring knives at everyone before slamming the door shut.
"(Y/N)..." Your friend whispers as he kneels beside you to make sure you're not hurt.
"I'm fine!" You give him a big grin as you push yourself off the ground and smack your knees to dust yourself off.
"Damn, that Barou!"
"Let's go to his class and show him who's boss for hurting our friend!" Your class is about to start a mutiny and you might have made a mistake getting them involved.
"It was my bad guys, I'm okay, really" you smile bitterly but it seems to calm them down. They all go back to their desks as you pick up your phone and sit on your chair. The day then proceeds to go by as normally as it goes and before you know it you're on the train ride home. As your friend gets out on his stop you wave and finally let your smile fade away. Upon arriving home you don’t even bother saying anything to your mother, just making your way upstairs and crashing your body on the bed and burying your face on the mountain of pillows.
“What did I do wrong…” you whisper and sigh. You're not even mad at Barou, you're more mad at yourself. As socially capable as you are, that sometimes makes you extremely pushy and unable to see people’s personal boundaries. You try to push your sadeness down and grab your phone to text your friends. As soon as you grab it, it starts ringing, but you have never heard this song before. The number that is calling your cell phone is none other than…your cell phone. You frown as you click the pieces together and immediately turn off the call and are greeted by a wallpaper of a lion and your mind goes blank. You have Barou's phone! And he has your phone!
Dropping the phone on the bed you stare at the ceiling dumbfounded at what you only realized once you got home. Sure you could give it to him tomorrow but after today you aren’t so sure if you're ballsy enough to approach him again. You could ask your friends to do it for you but they would try and pick a fight with him and you don't want that for some reason. You grab the phone again and wonder what Barou’s reaction must have been like and why he didn't approach you in school to do the switch again.
“How was school today?” His mother comes up to the entry way and asks.
“Someone got on my nerves” Barou sighs as he takes his shoes off and walks to his room.
"You didn't get into a fight did you?" His mother walks behind him worried, but if her son did get into a fight she would have been warned by the school by now.
"Slam!" The door closes harshly and she goes back to the living room, deciding it's better to let Barou cool down first.
"Fucker…" Barou clutches the phone in his hands so hard it could have cracked. He only noticed it when he was almost arriving home, a selfie of (L/N) with a bunch of their friends on the beach "fucker!" He growls and nearly throws the phone to the wall. He sits on his desk trying to think of what to do, perhaps calling (L/N) was the best he should do to meet up and switch their phones back. He types his number on the emergency dial and hears the phone ring five times before someone, perhaps (L/N), refuses the call.
"Idiot!" He tightens his jaw just to not damage the phone in any way. But as his mind calms down he thinks he might have been too harsh with you, you were definitely being pushy! But he had no reason to throw you to the floor and he began to regret his every decision, perhaps he should have just let you get his phone number and blocked you afterward, he might have not made the entire school his enemy "I'm such an idiot…" He whispers before getting up for dinner.
When the next day comes around you show up with the heaviest eye bags you have ever gotten. You barely got a shut eye just at the thought of having to talk to Barou again to ask for your phone and get his to him.
“(L/N)? What the hell happened to you?” Your friends greet you and you can only look at them and blink slowly.
“I just had a bad night's sleep…”you chuckle before nearly collapsing.
“Oi, get it together!” Your friend says as he grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you. You decide it's better to not tell your friends your phone has been swapped and simply saying you left your phone at home and didn't see anything they might have sent and quickly diverging their attention to something else.
For three days you try to approach Barou, but the routine for those three days never changes. You don't actively search for him and anytime you are about to take a turn you analyze if the self proclaimed King is there, if he isn't you continue as usual. However, in the case that he is there, you stare at him for two seconds before getting scared and turning the opposite away. Barou does the almost exact thing except it looks like he might kill you as soon as he sees you but ultimately turns to go away as well. By the end of the third day you're tired and just want your phone back so you go to the only people you can rely on to deal with Barou.
"And this happened?"
"Three days ago" you clutch your crossed arms and avoid contact over such an embarrassing situation.
"And you want us to…?" The same guy with a pompadour asks.
"Take his phone to him and bring me mine, please" you are sure the gang is going to ask you why you won't do it yourself but rumors in school travel fast and by the time it has gotten to them it might have been something along the lines of 'Barou took out a knife on school's precious sweetheart and traumatized them for life'.
"I see…" is the only thing the boss tells you "I'm not going to do it."
"What? Why?!" You ask bewildered at his reply, you have helped a lot of times and covered some of their bases, why can't they just do you this one favor?
"There are just things you have to do yourself" he smirks and starts walking away.
"Don't give me that bullshit! You're just scared!" You frown with intensity at their lack of courage.
"Who in their right mind will want to walk up to Barou? That guy will devour you!" The boss turns away nearly in tears and his state of misery does calm you a little bit. After that you give up trying to persuade them and go home.
"What has gotten over me…" you pout as you let your head rest on your desk and play with the phone that has been forgotten there for seventy two hours. You never once experienced fear when talking or approaching other people, nothing seemed hard or difficult about it, but now, now you are facing a steep, smooth, concrete wall that does not show any cracks and you can only slam your fists powerlessy at it.
"Ah! To hell with it!" You slam your fist down at the wood desk, if Barou doesn't show any cracks, you will chip away at that concrete until it shows flaws! You aren't going to let him stop you from your easy going nature!
When the fourth day finally comes, you wait until after school, when club activities are on-going to show up at football practice and punch Barou in the guts if need be! You walk robotically towards the field, even if you have steeled your mind, your body is still scared he might do something worse this time. But besides returning his phone you're also in the view of the coach that will bench him if he misbehaves.
"Barou!" You cup your hands next to your mouth and shout as loud as possible. He hears you and turns to you with veins popping from his forehead and you yelp internally.
"Seriously?!" Someone from the team shouts as all their eyes land on you and Barou makes his way towards you.
"Is Barou going to get a confession?!" The guy with the number six screams in shock.
"Shut up you idiots!" He barks angry at his team.
"Here!" You bend down and give him his phone back, partly because of your rudeness throughout it all and because you were scared to look him in the eyes "I'm sorry for everything!"
"For real…" Everyone gasps, from a far away distance it truly seems like a confession, but it's just a big misunderstanding.
"It's fine" he takes his phone and goes to the bleachers "here" he rummages through his bag and gives your phone back as you nearly cry from happiness.
"WHAT?!" It seems even the coach has joined the gossip, Barou too took something out of his bag to give to the most friendly person in the school. If Barou would be charmed by anyone, there was a big chance you could get through his thick skull.
"I'm…" he sucks in a breath and you break from your bliss to look at him "it was...my bad, really."
"No! No! I was too pushy!" You are surprised by his apology but you were also in the wrong.
"It wasn't very kingly of me to push a peasant to the floor."
"Sure…" you're a little clueless, you didn't think he would also apply his king complex to an apology, but it's good that he sees the error in his way, even if it's slightly twisted.
"You're a good person, don't let me, or anyone else tell you otherwise" at this point he has turned his back towards you but that was definitely shocking for you to hear. Is he acknowledging you? Barou? The one who seems to push everyone away? Your eyes widen as your smile beams once again after four long days.
"Does that mean we are friends?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself" he says before jogging back to the other side of the court where the rest of the team has been gossiping away.
"He is not so bad" the coach comes near you and you hum in agreement "we can't treat our ace's friend like this! Go on have a seat and watch them!" Your heart does an entire flip, if the one who Barou is probably closest to sees you as his friend then you aren't about to say no. You sit on the benches right next to Barou's bag and watch them do a small game drill. Upon seeing Barou fly through the field and devour anything in sight do you truly understand what the delinquents might have been talking about, they must have been to his games and that's why they do not dare approach him.
"Still here?" He huffs as he comes for his water bottle and bag, ready to head home.
"Coach invited me" you say as you clap your hands "you're really good, I had no idea!"
"It's nothing special, really" he murmurs as he turns from you with red in his ears.
"Ah, don't say that" you giggle "will you take the train?" You ask wondering if you could get a chance to get to know him a small bit but he shakes his head.
"I walk home" he says as he grabs his bag and walks away.
"Well then, see you tomorrow" you jump down from the benches and walk away as you wave to him and he gives a small wave, your smile nearly blinds everyone in the vicinity but you try to hold it back. Who knew you were actually capable of befriending Barou. You thought it would actually be very easy but it took you nearly a week! You walk down to the train station, excited to read every single message your friends have been letting for you and to tell them of your latest achievement!