Work Text:
The more Rika and Miho chit-chatted beside him, the more Tsubasa Juumonji furrowed his brow. Feigning ignorance, he decided the decades-old exorcism journal he was holding in his hands was more worthy of his attention.
“Sakura-chan has been smiling more since she made up with Rokudou-kun, don’t you think?”
“I told you! They are so dating, they can’t even hide it anymore”
And it was this exchange the one that made him finally take his eyes off the carefully annotated instructions on how to create a special blend of holy ashes. He went on to scan the classroom, as he normally did, in search of the object of his affection. Sakura Mamiya was handing the aforementioned redheaded Shinigami an additional bento box. The memory of the recent embrace those two had shared in the Spirit World –as seen through Annette-sensei’s crystal ball– burned in his mind. Thus, Tsubasa stared intently at the rumored couple, curious to see if the consequences of whatever had happened between them were a threat to his own love story.
His world momentarily sank as he contemplated how the normally stoic Sakura was indeed smiling the sweetest smile he had seen thus far. And she was dedicating that smile to Rinne of all people. He could almost swear he’d noticed a hint of a blush in her perfectly soft-looking cheeks.
But Tsubasa was, of course, a man of logic. This has an easy explanation, he told himself. The additional lunch was at this point a tradition of the friendship between Sakura and the financially broke Rinne Rokudou. And it’s not like the food itself was carefully cooked by Sakura herself, no. Perhaps her mom (age 39) had overdone her cooking portions once again. And the blush? Merely a trick of the mind, a most treacherous doubt that the bumbling Rika and Miho had planted in him with their constant gossiping.
His pulse violently accelerated the moment he noticed Sakura had returned to her normal expression and was staring back at him. He saw her –oh so charming– lips moving, muttering an excuse to Rinne as she strode towards the lovestruck exorcist.
“Is there anything wrong, Tsubasa-kun?” He could honestly never grow tired of the way her voice sounded whenever she pronounced his name, no matter the tone she used. Each of the syllables was his own private concerto.
“M-Mamiya-san,” he initially spouted, a sudden confidence growing in his chest as he came up with a solution to disguise his stalking. “My father got me an exorcism job downtown this afternoon and I wondered if you wanted to come along, that’s all.”
“Oh, sure.”
And then the smile came back, and with it Tsubasa could feel his heart melting in real time. He failed to notice that this version of her facial expression was subtler –polite, even– compared to the one offered to his rival moments ago. After all, if he could elicit the most exquisite upturn of Sakura Mamiya’s lips, then Rinne Rokudou wasn’t as special as the girl’s friends had claimed.
I still have a shot with Mamiya-san, he internally shouted with glee, both of his fists up in the air. Today we’ll go on a date and maybe I’ll get to see more of her adorable smiles!
Or maybe not so internally…
“Juumonji-kun, you said that out loud. Again,” he heard an exasperated Rika say.
But Tsubasa Juumonji, young master of Western-style exorcisms (and self-delusions) paid no attention whatsoever. Not even to the stinging pain the tip of one irritated Rinne’s Shinigami scythe was inflicting on his head as he bluntly hit him, nor to the chilly and tight embrace of the long-distance traveling disembodied spirit of one Ayame Sakaki.
There was nothing for him to be worried about in the end.