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Every Saturday, J would make up an excuse to hang out with Teruko. Whether it be needing help setting up backstage for a production that J had to run later in the afternoon, or in the afternoon sometimes when J was free, she'd invite Teruko to get off campus for a little while, always with a fun plan. Teruko would usually accept, despite saying she didn't really want to be “friends” with her classmates.
It had started off as simple admiration, that's all. Not even as much admiration as what Xander and David had for each other upon meeting. J saw Teruko for the first time and knew she wanted to be friends with her, simple enough. But as the Saturdays go by, and J spends more time with Teruko, J quickly realizes her liking of Teruko was much more romantic.
Today, J texted Teruko, just asking her to come to her dorm. The text had been at least five minutes ago from the present moment and Teruko said she'd come, but J was nervous because it shouldn't be taking this long to get from one dorm to another, and another reason being that J had nothing planned. Usually she'd propose an activity that Teruko would go along with, so she could distract from her feelings by doing the activity, but today J made an impulse text and it was going to be just J and Teruko, together, doing nothing.
J groaned and pulled the drawstrings on her hoodie, then slamming her palms onto her face. She almost wanted to text Teruko and tell her not to come, saying she had an emergency, but it's too late especially when you're too in your head to realize that someone was knocking at your dorm door, and that someone was likely Teruko.
“I'm here,” Teruko called from the outside, which broke the silence of J’s thoughts and immediately made her run towards the door to get it for Teruko.
J opened the door, and despite her best attempts to play it cool with Teruko, she couldn't help but smile as she opened the door, “Hey.”
“Hey,” Teruko replied back as she pulled a ponytail holder from her right wrist and started working on her hair.
J watched as Teruko pulled her hair into a ponytail, and she couldn't help but love the outfit Teruko was wearing, even if it was just a white tank top and a pair of jeans. J could tell that Teruko had been working out with Levi again, and the muscle had really toned her arms. J blushed and stared a bit more at Teruko’s arms before pulling her eyes to meet Teruko’s, startled by the fact Teruko was already looking at her.
“So? You got a production you need me to help you out with today or what?” Teruko asked bluntly, piquing her eyebrows.
J looked away from Teruko’s eyes, visibly embarrassed, “Um about that… no. I uh… just wanted to spend time with you.”
Teruko gave J a suspicious look, “You know I don't just “spend time” with people. Why would you even want me here anyway? We barely talk when we work on your shows as it is.”
“Hey, be grateful that someone even wants to spend time with you. You've basically burned every other bridge you've got,” J retorted, giving Teruko a look that easily read that she wasn't going to take Teruko’s bullshit.
J knew it was weird having a crush on Teruko, a person with so many flaws and a complete disinterest in others (or so she says), but she loved all of her flaws, and her disinterest in others is exactly what made J interested in her. Even if they were brutally honest and didn't take each other’s shit, J loved Teruko regardless because Teruko was real.
Teruko was a real person, not an act.
Teruko is everything J wished to be, and wished to have in her life.
“If you're here to tell me I need to be more social, I'm walking out the door,” Teruko said, and she started to turn around slowly.
“Wait!” J called out, way too loudly considering Teruko was barely three feet in front of her. Teruko froze in her tracks, “Don't go. I'm not here to lecture you on that, I swear.”
Teruko smirked, “Good, because then I'd have to remind you that I'm pretty sure that last time I checked, I'm the only friend you had.”
J huffed and crossed her arms, “That's not true! I get along with…. Uhhhh…” naming a friend that J had was harder than she thought, “Arei? I guess.”
Teruko snorted, “We both know that Arei only talks to you to annoy you, and that you can't stand her anyway, so try again.”
“Whatever!” J surrendered, “It's not like you have any friends either, so…”
“So..” Teruko mocked, but J didn't pick up on it, too focused on just having been insulted by Teruko, “What are we going to do?”
J thought to herself for a moment, anxiously playing with the drawstrings of her hoodie, “We could go downtown?”
“Sure, whatever,” Teruko rolled her eyes, “I've got nothing better to do.”
“Where do you wanna go?” J asked, pulling out her phone, “I'll plug it into the GPS.”
“You choose, I'm down to do anything,” Teruko responded, shrugging.
J lied and said she had a place they could go, and then they were off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Okay, we've been walking almost an hour, and we still haven't arrived to wherever you wanted to take me, so where the fuck are we going!?” Teruko yelled at J, clearly pissed at her for wasting her time. In the hour that they had been walking Teruko had tripped and fell five times, ran into two poles and two buildings, and successfully got grazed by a car. They had been talking about their mutual dislike for Arei and David, how school work was going along and new tech coming out for J’s productions, but Teruko just kept getting into an accident word after word. J almost felt bad for forcing her out of the dorm rooms, but J selfishly couldn't help but want to keep Teruko by her side.
J broke eye contact with Teruko, desperately searching for a place they could go, “Uhhh,” J quickly glanced down at her phone, “We've got five more minutes, I think you're going to like the surprise.”
“I'm going to hate it if we walk longer than another five minutes,” Teruko snarkily said, rolling her eyes, “We better be there soon.”
J nodded and the pair crossed the street as J was desperately observing her concrete building surroundings, trying to look for a place to take Teruko. J noticed on this block there was a Dunkin’, and J could go for a coffee anyway, and hopefully Teruko could too.
As they made it to the next sidewalk, J spoke up, “I lied, we’re actually closer than I thought. Just follow me.”
J walked a few feet in front of Teruko as they swarmed through the city crowds, and within two minutes, J had made it into Dunkin’ relieved, with an angry Teruko storming in now.
“J Moreno, there were six other Dunkin's on the way here. Are you trying to fuck with me!?” Teruko whisper-shouted, her face going red, “All that, for this?”
J looked down at her feet, her face having flushed red from embarrassment. She couldn't look Teruko in the eye, and she didn't have the courage to respond to Teruko.
“Look, I don't know what you gained out of this whole ordeal, but-”
J overcame her nerves, “I just wanted to hang out with you, that's all,” she cringed as she looked Teruko in the eye, “I'm sorry I wasted your time and I didn't have a plan, it wasn't fair to drag you here with me.”
Teruko looked at J in quick shock, then her face went back to neutral, but J could tell Teruko was genuinely thinking about her words.
“Why…” Teruko mumbled, then spoke louder and more clearly, but there was still a tremble to the words from the shock, “Why would you want to hang out with me, out of all people..?”
“Because you're the most tolerable person in this damn class, besides Levi,” J lied, because she obviously couldn't tell Teruko she wanted to hang out with her because she was desperately in love with her, “Everyone else is up my ass constantly, of being a prick. You're a prick, but not an annoying prick.”
Teruko chuckled, “Gee, thanks.”
J got flustered and was pulling on the hood of her hoodie, “You know what I meant!”
“Whatever, you're paying right?” Teruko questioned, her gaze softening on J by the second.
“Yeah,” J confirmed, starting to walk towards the line, “I'm paying, so what would you like?”
“I'll just take a large black coffee,” Teruko followed after J in the line.
J rolled her eyes, “Teruko, I'm paying. You can get something nicer than that.”
Teruko gave J a knowing look, “And J, what are you going to be ordering?”
J walked a few steps ahead, catching her place in line, and she scowled at Teruko, “A large black coffee, but what does that have to do with this?”
“That's what I want too, so just let me have my drink, J,” Teruko smiled at her.
Despite having been humbled by Teruko, J couldn't help but genuinely smile back at Teruko as they walked up to the register.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After receiving their coffees, the two had started to walk back towards the dorms, and they were having a period of relative peace with Teruko not being in danger for the past five minutes, “J, has Arei asked you yet about which of the girls from our class who you'd wanna date the most, but then started to cry if you didn't say it was her?”
“No! What the fuck?,” J looked weirded out in response, “I know it's Arei, but I didn't expect that question.”
“Hu and Veronika and Eden and myself were already asked, and now Arei won't talk to any of us besides Eden, because Eden answered Arei,” Teruko explained.
J was intrigued, “Who did you say you'd wanna date the most?”
Teruko smirked, “You.”
J’s face flushed and she was holding direct eye contact with Teruko, “Me?”
“Yeah,” Teruko agreed, teasing J, “You said I've burned all my other bridges, which is true anyways. And I'm not as oblivious as you think.”
“Huh?” J asked, scared of what Teruko’s answer would be, “What do you mean by that!?”
“J, you take time out of your day to spend with me, you take me places one on one and always cover the expenses, and you get insanely flustered every time I even slightly tease you. It's obvious you like me,” Teruko summarized, looking fondly at J.
“So what!? I like you okay!?” J yelled, slightly too loud as other pedestrians on the sidewalk started to turn their heads to her, “If you're just going to toy with my feelings, we're done here.”
“I may be a prick to you, but I'm honestly a bit surprised you think that lowly of me,” Teruko feigned confusion, but then her face turned to sadness, “And here I thought you may be smarter than I’d hoped.”
J was confused, “What do you mean, Teruko?”
Deep down, Teruko wanted to tell J that she felt the same way, and this whole time, she hadn't been toying with her feelings, but instead looking forward to spend time with J, and loved when they got to hang out.
However, Teruko knew the drill. Teruko knew if J stayed too close to her, that if Teruko allowed her to get to know her and bond with her, J would be taken out of Teruko’s life forever, and Teruko couldn't take another loss.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” Teruko said, trying her best to keep eye contact with J, “So where's the next street we cross?’