Work Text:
“students, something serious has recently come to my attention,” the principal says one day during assembly, “that the rooftop has undergone some unwarranted renovations.”
almost instantly, the hall erupts into a chaos — filling the room with gasps and whispered chattering, along with pointed and accusatory look at certain troublemakers. tsukasa naturally, defends his honour while rui smiles like an angel sent from heaven.
nene herself, is horrified by this piece of news, because she’s certain it had to be one of the two, or both, who had probably set off a bomb on the rooftop. judging from rui’s innocence facade, the idea must have had to come from him.
suddenly, the principal straightens, effectively silencing the previously loud uproar of conversation. “now, the school has already arranged the necessary repairs of the rooftop,” he nods gravely before continuing, uncaring of the ruckus his announcement has caused, “we will take the appropriate measures to ensure that it gets repaired as soon as possible. in the meantime, no student shall be allowed to enter the rooftop.”
just like clockwork, the restless student body erupts into chaos again, some complaining about the lack of a rooftop now, while some grumble about the soon-to-be increase in crowds at the canteen. nene turns to glare at rui and tsukasa, but tsukasa is too busy scolding rui for a crime she knows he won’t admit to.
she turns her head back, softly sighing to herself. where will they go for lunch now?
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it starts off as per usual, like nothing more than their usual juvenile arguments.
“the state that the rooftop has been reduced to, it's completely unbelievable,” tsukasa is saying to nene, scrutinising an image of the rooftop that has been circulating amongst the students. instead of having their lunch at the benches there, they've now settled into a routine of huddling into one of the tables at the canteen, all four of them sharing a bench from the arrangements the school has made to accommodate the students.
nene leans over to peer at the photo. there’s a huge dent in the flooring of the rooftop in the picture, accompanied by multiple chipped tiles lining its sides, darkened from the explosion.
unimpressed, she looks away after less than a minute. tsukasa, as expected, keeps talking, even without a response from her. “it’s undeniable that this is one of rui’s works! really, how have the teachers not suspected him yet?!”
“but tsukasa-kun, not every troublemaker’s works are definitely his!” emu defends, standing a few paces behind the three of them. “besides, the canteen is pretty cool too!”
“emu, everyone in class has been pestering me for the details! as if i’ve committed this heinous crime with rui!” tsukasa looks at rui, then up at emu, a distasteful look on his face. “as if giving us an embarrassing nickname wasn’t enough.”
nene feels the need to argue on emu’s behalf, because even if rui was truly the culprit this time, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d set off an explosion in the school. however, this whole canteen situation was enough to sour her mood, especially because the area is noisier and more crowded, so she cannot find the energy to defend emu.
emu says something to him about feeling bad for rui when he’s being blamed for a crime he didn’t commit, but she can't focus much when the canteen itself is already brimming with chatter and noise.
“tsukasa-kun, blaming me immediately without any evidence.. oh, the agony…”
“even a teacher stopped me in the hallway to ask! just the idea of my reputation being this bad ruins my appetite.”
beside nene, emu nudges her, saying she'll be off to check out what food the canteen has to offer. she nods and watches her go sadly, wishing that she too, could escape.
“well, if you aren’t hungry, you should share some with me!” rui sings, putting away his vegetable-infested lunch. “it’s not good to waste food, as tsukasa-kun would say.”
“fine!” tsukasa grumbles, and before nene can react, he scoops up half his lunch onto the cover of his lunchbox and hands it off to a more-than-delighted rui, then digs into the remainder. rui eats the tsukasa-made food without any hesitation, all with nene staring after the both of them in bewilderment.
she turns to rui, who is sitting on her right. “did tsukasa just share his food with you?”
rui, still smiling as he chews, nods and swallows. “tsukasa-kun simply gave me the food he didn’t have the appetite to finish, nene.”
“..which is basically sharing,” she deadpans.
he just hums, not looking up from his makeshift plate of tsukasa’s lunchbox cover.
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over the course of the week, nene, unfortunately, comes to find that rooftops cannot be repaired within a day or two.
by some very unfortunate circumstances, the rooftop showed no signs of completing repairs anytime soon, causing the influx of students at the canteen to stay, so nene would have to will herself to not listen as tsukasa complained on and on and on about how unsightly, and humiliating it was to be questioned by students asking how he and rui did it. rui would undoubtedly deny innocently, then they'd have a go at it again.
“innocent until proven guilty, tsukasa-kun! is it so bad to be associated with me?”
tsukasa shoots him a deadly glare. “not when i’m supposed to be keeping an eye on you! what kind of class representative gets into trouble so often?”
“oh? are you saying you wouldn’t mind being associated with me if it were aside from troublemaking?”
nene is horrified when tsukasa goes red after that bold statement, now without a good rebuttal. now that she gets a good look at the both of them, she notices how closely they’re sitting next to each another. like they were attached by the hip and inseparable, in stark contrast to the wide distance between her leg and rui’s, almost enough to fit another person. not that she minded, though.
“well, it wouldn’t be that bad, if that’s what you’re asking,” tsukasa says quietly, and nene starts getting an odd feeling that she’s eavesdropping on something private. which is completely ridiculous, seeing as she’s the one who found this table for them in the first place, amongst the sea of occupied ones.
“ah,” rui blinks, something imperceptible shifting in his face. if nene didn’t know any better, she’d think that rui was flirting with tsukasa and hadn’t expected it to work. “that’s good to hear.”
nene looks away from the both of them, and then towards emu to see if she’s watching this shamelessness too, because she feels a bit like she’s about to lose her mind if she watches on any longer. however, emu is busy eating her lunch, oblivious to the scene playing out in front of them.
“hey, don’t change the subject! did you do it or not!?”
“ah, i can assure there’s not a single piece of evidence at the crime scene that would suggest that i did it, tsukasa-kun.”
then, tsukasa’s next response almost sends nene’s jaw to the floor. of course, she wouldn’t be caught dead reacting that way.
“you always say that!” he furrows his eyebrows into a frown, looking down as he continues, “honestly, from the questions i’ve been asked lately, it’s like they think we’re a couple..”
it is now that emu looks up, bewildered and brimming with excitement. “you and rui-kun are a couple?!”
nene suddenly thinks about how much she misses the rooftop.
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it really only gets worse from there. tsukasa and rui don’t even bother hiding it anymore, and nene can no longer contain the disgust in her expressions as she listens. in the past, perhaps she could’ve written off the way they always gravitated towards each other with that strange look in their eyes, but the way rui purposefully changes his tone, his expressions when he sees tsukasa is too painfully obvious. how he doesn’t even try to hide it is beyond brazen.
and tsukasa on his part is no better than rui as well, as his eyes always scouring the crowd for a certain someone, even during conversation with others, until they land on rui. he would then look away in that unconcerned manner of his, but still talk a little louder to let rui know of his presence.
“—and that’s why i’m worried about the english test!”
nene winces at the sudden change in volume. “tsukasa, i’m sure rui knows that you’re here..”
still, tsukasa looks towards rui’s direction to see if he caught any of that, because there was no way he didn’t notice him after that stunt he pulled, and it does work, because rui is already headed in their direction while beaming at them. nene wants to dig herself into a hole and leave.
she starts going to the library immediately after eating with emu more often, because with all the tsukasa and rui activity going on, she finds she can hardly listen on in the canteen anymore, especially with all the noise. all her thoughts go back to the disturbing way tsukasa glances at rui, which looked a lot more like fondness rather than the usual irritation. she shudders at the memory.
a few minutes later, nene stretches in her seat, satisfied with the math homework she’d completed with emu’s help. and with emu happily telling her about how she wants to try the drinks in the canteen, as much as she wants to avoid rui doing that weird eyes to lips again thing with tsukasa, she reluctantly agrees to go with her.
the canteen is mostly empty by this time, since classes would begin soon, except for a few students still eating their food. nene decides to stay near the entrance while emu skips off to buy her drink, her eyes scanning across the canteen. they stop once they land on their usual table.
she almost gets whiplash from the way her head snaps back to the other side of the canteen, only to find tsukasa and rui closer than ever, a lunchbox between them. they’re sitting leg to leg, even with the amount of space they have by their sides.
nene fights the urge to stop looking. she hardly knows what has gotten into her, watching the both of them like a creep, but she’s in too deep into observing this strange thing brewing between them that she has to see it through, whether she likes it or not.
she watches as tsukasa lifts a spoon to rui’s mouth, making the latter blinks in surprise, but tsukasa’s hand doesn’t back down. nene raises a mortified hand to her mouth. rui obliges, opening his mouth a cautious fraction, so tsukasa simply places his other hand to his chin to collect any dropped food as he feeds him.
at that, all the leftover curiosity dies in nene. and tsukasa looks at rui as he chews, his initial hesitation fading to something that looks like gentleness, and he raises a spoon too, on his way to feed tsukasa back.
nene stops watching them, her head hurting and frankly, disgusted at their display of affection. she runs off toward the canteen stalls to tell emu.