Chapter Text
Kaeya peeked his head into the classroom, searching for a certain short-blonde girl. Once he spotted the mentioned girl, he called her and waved his hand, indicating her to come close. The girl, Lumine who was talking to a classmate quickly excused herself to them and then walked to where Kaeya stood.
“Kaeya! Good morning!” Lumine greeted him with a bright smile. Kaeya greeted her back and then he led her to the hallway to talk more privately. “Do you need something?” she asked him.
“Not really. I just want to see you first in the morning,” Kaeya said as he smiled at her. She chuckled at his statement.
“Wha-? Kaeya, please refrain from saying something embarrassing!” Lumine lightly hit Kaeya’s chest. Kaeya laughed at the cute gesture. He then leaned his back on the hallway’s trail.
“Let’s grab some ice cream after school.” Kaeya invited.
Lumine, who was smiling, now let out a sigh. “Ah, sorry today’s not good. Aether asked me to do groceries with him after school.” She rejected the offer.
“Really? It’s too bad then.”
“Sorry!”
Kaeya smiled as his hand ruffled Lumine’s hair. “Hey, you don’t need to apologise twice!” he said. He then stared her for a moment before he hugged her tightly while he muttered ‘cute!!’ multiple times.
“Kaeya! I can’t breathe!” Kaeya ignored Lumine’s small protest and kept hugging her, now while swaying her body. His act then stopped by a smack in the head by Diluc, a dear friend of Lumine and a dear step-brother of Kaeya, who was on the way to see Lumine too.
“Ow! It hurts!” Kaeya complained as he rubbed the spot where Diluc hit him.
“Serves you right!” Lumine muttered as she crossed her arms and turned her head away.
“Ehhh that’s cold Lumi~”
Diluc shook his head at Kaeya. “Kaeya, act your age.”
“But Luc, isn’t Lumi so cute that you just want to squeeze her???” Kaeya said as he made a hug gesture at Diluc.
“Kaeya, please stop. Diluc will never call some girl ‘cute’.”
“Hm, why do you think so, Lumine?” Diluc asked Lumine. “But Kaeya is right, you are cute. However you can’t squeeze people just because someone’s cute,” He stopped talking as soon as he saw Lumine’s face reddened. “Lumine? Your face is red, are you okay?”.
Lumine was caught off-guard because of him. She really didn’t think that the word ‘cute’ came from Diluc’s lips. Diluc is known for being ‘the cool senior/junior who does not praise girls easily’ since freshman year. And this is actually the first time that she heard him called someone cute, moreover it’s her who was called cute.
“D-Diluc, from now on you are forbidden to say ‘cute’ to girls bluntly!!! Especially if you don’t mean it! The girls will cry if you said so to them!” Lumine frantically said as she tried to hide her blushing face.
“Huh? I’m sorry, do you hate being called cute?” Diluc asked her, panicking that he may upset his friend.
Kaeya laughed hard at her reaction and then he playfully pinched her cheeks. “Heh… so you also can make this kind of face? I’m jealous that you can make Lumi a blushing mess, Luc,” He kept teasing the poor girl whose heart was still weak from the sudden compliment.
“Kaeya you idiot! Stop laughing!”
Diluc raised an eyebrow at Kaeya’s statement. “Huh? So you don’t hate it, Lumine? Or Do you?”
Lumine, who was still half-embarrassed-half-upset, stormed off back to her classroom, ignoring the still-laughing Kaeya and the still-confused Diluc. She wished that her other friends would not tease her as much as Kaeya for being so conscious–or probably jealous–about being called cute by Diluc, if he ever announced it to the whole world.
She also wished that Kaeya would stop making the fool out-of-her.