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“Oh… it’s raining.”
“Thank you, captain obvious!”
“Shut up Akito!”
Ignoring her classmates usual bickering, Nene was working diligently on her assignment, which she couldn’t say the same for Akito and An.
Technically.. they weren’t supposed to be talking. The students were supposed to be working independently but of course nobody listened and the classroom was full of conversations.
Looking out the window, An was right. The clouds were grey and covering the whole sky, and Nene could see the drizzle gradually getting heavier.
On the topic of rain, the thought about love umbrellas she read about last night rippled in Nenes mind. Basically, you draw an umbrella, then write your name on one side and the person you like on the other side.
Well, it wouldn’t hurt try drawing one, right?
With 4 strokes to draw the umbrella, she then wrote her name on the left with 17 strokes.
And then…
This is embarrassing… why am I doing this I don’t even like him that much..
She sighed after writing the first 12 strokes of the boys name. “Maybe I should get back to work..”
“What was that, Nene?” An said, taking the chance to leave her conversation with the ginger.
“U-uhm, nothing..!” Nene stuttered while quickly covering the umbrella with her hand.
“Oh, what’s this?” The girl with black hair said while moving Nenes hand away from the paper.
“Nothing!” She exclaimed, covering the corner of her paper again. But that second gave An enough time she needed.
“An aiaigasa!”
“Didn’t expect you of all people to draw one of those, Kusanagi.” Akito said, turning around to face the girls.
“I-it’s not a love umbrella! Just a normal umbrella-“
“Hold on Nene, move your hand again-“ An said, moving them again while Nene resisted. “Ah hah! It is a love umbrella!”
Nene sighed, seeing as there was no point in denying that. But she put her finger over the side of Rui her “crush”.
Ugh, calling it a crush just sounds weird, Nene thought.
“Nene stop covering up the name!” An once again moved Nenes hand and took the paper much to her dismay. “Hey, this kanji looks familiar. Do you recognize this?” An said, showing it to Akito.
“Even if I did, why should I tell you?” Akito scoffed back as An rolled her eyes.
“Thanks for the help, carrot head.”
“No problem apricot.”
“Why do you even call me that?! Anyways, let’s see.. who would Nene like…” An said aloud to herself in thought.
“An…” Nene grumbled with her head half buried with her arms on her desk.
An ripped off a corner of the paper Nene drew on and scrutinized it, turning it around and looking at it with different perspectives.
“Hmm.. I swear I’ve seen part this name before.. Oh! I know!” She gave a sly look at the embarrassed girl. An leaned in to Nene’s ear and whispered,
“Is it… Kamishiro?”
“W-well..-“ The girl stuttered, lifting her head and looking away towards the window to cover her growing blush.
“Bingo!”
“Oi, knock it off An.”
“You go back to your work. Last time I checked, I scored 3 points more than you on the test.”
“You got a 53.”
“Better than your 50!- Anyways..” An said, looking back to Nene. “If you like him, why don’t you confess?”
“I don’t think it’s that easy An…” She mumbled.
“Well, true. But you’re an actress, right? You could just say the words ‘I like you’ as if you were acting!”
“Still not that easy… I’m not even sure if I actually like him like that..”
“Hmm.. well I can’t force you to tell him. But if you’re not sure if you like him, then maybe think of what you admire about him?”
Before Nene could respond, the teacher loudly said, “Class! I thought I told you no talking! Get back to work!”
The students sighed as they quieted down to focus back on their papers. But Nenes mind (and heart) still raced on.
Things I like about him…
Well for one, she knew he was… kind. And cool. And had pretty (but messy) hair. And a cute nice smile. And..
The list went on.
As to stop her from being distracted, she moved the doodle to her, finished writing Rui’s name with the remaining 6 strokes and stuffed the paper into her pocket before getting back to work.
—
Nene was right, the rain did get heavier.
She stood outside below the shade as she fished out her umbrella from her bag. Behind her, someone put a hand on her shoulder and a voice asked,
“Mind if we share an umbrella? I believe I left mine at home.”
“Oh, sure.” Nene said casually, praying he didn’t feel her flinch. She opened the umbrella and Rui held it up, seeing as her height wasn’t enough to hold it up to his.
The two walked in silence as their footsteps made the occasional splash in the puddles. The rain was pouring and windy, but not enough to make them have to seek shelter.
While the temperature may have dropped a few degrees, it certainly felt like the peak of summer for Nene. She had to stop herself from thinking about the thing she read yesterday-
“..sharing an umbrella is considered a romantic expression..”
“..When it’s raining, it’s common for couples to walk together under an umbrella and enjoy the closeness of the moment…”
Closeness…
They weren’t that close, right?
As soon as Nene thought this, her shoulder brushed his arm..
I hope he didn’t notice that..!
She discreetly looked towards his face to see his expression. Unfortunately, he was turned away from her.
Wonderful..
As the two kept walking, a sudden gust of wind hit them.
“Geez, the weathers been so rough lately..”
Rui chuckled in response before kneeling down, still holding the umbrella up and asking, “Did you drop this?”
Nene looked at what he was holding and her blood ran cold- a small piece of paper, the very one she had in her pocket and during class…
Nene took hold of the umbrella and without thinking stuttered, “U-uh, no, that’s probably just t-trash…”
“Hmm.. it looks like a note of some kind. Let’s open it.”
Uh oh…
Nene grimaced in an awkward smile and looked away, not wanting to see his reaction.
“Oh? What’s this?” She could already feel his smirk…
“Hey, look at me. I can hear you grimacing, you know.”
Shoot.
“That doesn’t make sense..” The girl said quietly, slowly turning around to face him yet keeping her eyes down.
Well, at least he didn’t seem mad. Time to face rejection…
“Did you write this?” She didn’t have to look up to see his grin.
She messed around with her bow with one hand, hesitating and saying “..uh-.. Well….”
Rui stood up and took back the umbrella from her with a chuckle. “I can recognize your handwriting too.” He said, looking back at the note.
“Ugh….. I, uh, did that as a joke…!” She responded, though not sounding very convincing.
I knew this was stupid, I should’ve just focused on my work-
With his free hand, he pocketed the note and moved his hand towards the side of her face.
Hopefully his fingers didn’t burn off.
“Look at me…”
And so she did. She moved her gaze from the curb to the boys face. The golden color of his eyes contrasted the dark and dreary colors of the outside, his bright purple hair with its teal streak doing so to and-
She didn’t even realize that her heart had skipped several beats.
She didn’t realize where their lips were and why he was leaning in and-
Before she realized things she didn’t realize, he pulled away.
“Hehe, I guess I did that as a joke too then.”
“Wipe that smirk off your face… let’s just get home…” She grumbled, her red face also contrasting with the weather.