Work Text:
Long distance was hard.
"So I ended up passing by the skin of my teeth. I'm taking Maki out as thanks tomorrow." Nobara speaks into her phone, balancing it between her ear and shoulder.
There is a pause on the other side before Yuji's voice comes through. "Congrats. I failed Algebra so it's a good thing you didn't ask me."
Nobara frowns.
That was his third pause since she called five minutes ago. She let it pass the first two times because she wasn't sure but now, she was.
"Yuji?" She asks, keeping her voice level.
He makes a distracted sound of acknowledgement.
"What are you doing right now?"
"I'm talking to you." He says, the smile in his voice apparent.
She pushes back the warm feeling his tone brings. "I mean what are you doing while you're talking to me?"
"Oh, I'm playing Mario Kart with Megumi."
A vein forms on Nobara's forehead.
"We haven't spoken since exams started and you're playing Mario Kart? Can't you pause the game for a second?" She argues, frustration clear in her voice.
There is another pause before he speaks again.
"Aren't you doing your nails right now, though?"
Nobara looks down at her half-painted toes with a flat stare.
"I'm hanging up."
-Scene Break-
"So you actually hung up on him?" Maki asks as she picks up one of her fries.
Placing down her milkshake, Nobara nods. "Of course I did! He probably thought he got me with that zinger."
"You did sound like a hypocrite."
"That doesn't mean anything!"
"Your whole argument was lost."
Nobara pouts. "Ugh! You're supposed to be on my side, Maki!"
"Which is why I'm correcting you."
Unable to refute, Nobara picks up her phone. She scrolls through her notifications, pausing when she sees 4 missed calls from Yuji.
She huffs. The idiot never liked texting so he always called her. It had irritated her when they started dating but that dissipated embarrassingly quick after he insisted that he wanted to hear her voice.
“You could answer.” Maki remarks. “Knowing him, he won’t even bring up that you were the wrong one.”
Nobara chokes on her spit.
“No way!”
“So, you’re gonna be stubborn?”
“I don’t think I was wrong.” She sighs. “We haven’t seen each other in two months so I feel like we should be focused when we’re calling. I know I was painting my nails this time but I feel like it’s a constant thing you know.”
Maki adjusts her glasses. “Long distance is hard, huh?”
“Yeah,” Nobara clutches her phone. “I’m thinking we should take a break.”
“It’s that bad?”
She nods slowly. “Before, he would always tell me about work even if it was boring as heck. He would send pictures of Sendai and complain about how he wishes that he could move to Tokyo like I did. He hasn’t been doing that recently. And he’s always distracted.”
“…You think he’s cheating or something?”
Nobara laughs. “Heck no! That idiot’s too honest for that!”
“Good.” Maki smirks. “I was about to smack you.”
The light moment falls quickly.
“I just think the long distance might be affecting him too. He might be getting bored, y’know?”
As the words leave her mouth, Nobara feels a sinking in her chest. The idea had been floating in her mind but actually saying it makes the notion more real.
Yuji was a man of action. It’s why he gave up on college and started working after high school after all. He liked things fun and he thrived on human interaction. While Nobara was also a woman of action, she wasn’t that into people.
But she liked that part of Yuji anyway.
The first time they met in person, she wasn’t sure how it would be. She didn’t know if to hug him at the train station or play it cool. While she was overthinking, Yuji had ran out of the train and grabbed her into a warm embrace, excitement in his whole being.
During his visits, he would never stop touching her, even if it was just holding her hand. She would complain about personal space but she secretly loved it.
“Maybe he would prefer a relationship where he could actually be around his girlfriend for more than three days.” Nobara mutters.
Maki gives her a sympathetic look. “Don’t say that. You said it yourself, Yuji is too honest. He would tell you if he was getting bored.”
“Yeah, unless he hasn’t realized it himself.”
He was also stupid at times.
Maki sighs. “True. So, you’re gonna call him?”
“Heck no,” Nobara huffs as she unlocks her phone. “I’m gonna text it.”
Her friend’s jaw drops.
“Seriously?”
-Scene Break-
Nobara tries to ignore the hard look Maki gives her as they walk back to their dorms.
She fails.
“Are you still mad?” She asks.
Maki clicks her tongue. “No, I just break ups should at least happen on the phone. Even I know you don’t end it over text.”
“It’s not breaking up. It’s a break.” Nobara adjusts her purse on her shoulder. “And what other choice do I have? It would be too awkward to call.”
“Whatever you say, chicken.”
“I am not chicken!”
“I can’t understand you. I speak Japanese, chicken.”
Realizing that her friend was going to keep mocking her, Nobara folds her arms and huffs.
If she called Yuji, he would undoubtedly say something that would break her resolve so text was the safest option. Does that make her a chicken? Yes. Will she admit it? No.
As the dormitory comes into view, Maki sighs once again.
“You gonna check your other grades when you get in?” She asks.
“Oh, you speak chicken now?”
“Stuff it.”
Nobara smiles. “Yeah, I just have to see how I did in Biology and Physics.”
“Cool.” Maki nods. “I left my laptop at Yuta’s place so I’ll check my grades on yours.”
Giving her a dry look, Nobara says, “You left your laptop the other day too. You might as well move in together at this point.”
“No can do. He wants to wait.” Maki lifts up her left hand to reveal an engagement ring.
“I still can’t believe he asked you after 4 months.”
“He said something about having a dream where all his friends were dying so he thought he should make his move now.”
Nobara hums. “That sounds like him.”
“Yup.” Maki says this with a flat tone but Nobara spies a small, fond smile on her lips.
She doesn’t comment on it though, expecting a smack if she did.
“I can’t imagine wanting to rush into marriage like that.” She mumbles as she looks into her pocket for her keys.
They were almost to her room after all.
“Actually, I think I’ll check my grades in the morning.” Maki says suddenly.
What? She says that now?
Nobara turns to scold her but finds herself speechless.
She hadn’t planned a lot of things this week. From passing Algebra to almost burning down her kitchen while boiling rice, she hadn’t expected it at all.
But all those things paled in comparison to her shock at seeing Yuji sleeping outside her dorm, his head leaning on her door. His bag was on the ground beside him, so stuffed that she could see the arm of a sweater poking out.
“I’ll see you in the morning.” She hears Maki say but barely registers it.
With slow, unsure steps, she approaches him.
Why was he here?
She feels her eyes moisten.
Almost too soon, she standing in front of him. She lowers herself to his level and, with a hesitant hand, shakes him.
Did he see her message and run over to see her?
“Erm, what time is it?” He mumbles as his eyes open.
She holds back a wince as his gaze locks on her. He takes a moment to register that it’s her before his stare sharpens.
“Nobara! You’re back.”
Before she can speak, he wraps her into a tight hug, burying his face into neck. She can only gasp as confusion floods her mind.
What’s with his reaction?
“Wait a minute!” She yells, pushing him back.
He pulls away. “Oh sorry. I must stink.”
“Not that!” She shakes her head. “What are you doing here?”
Yuji blinks slowly, a tell that he is now assessing the situation. Once he seems to understand, he takes her hand in his.
“I have to confess something.”
Nobara swallows.
Here it is. This is why he’s here. He saw her message and wanted to discuss their break up in person. A very Yuji thing to do, honestly.
She steels herself.
“I was actually planning to come over the past month!”
Huh?
Yuji doesn’t catch her shocked look. “When you called yesterday, I was actually getting ready to come over but I wanted to surprise you so I said I was playing Mario Kart.”
“Wait a second…”
“Megumi said that I should have just told you since you got mad at me. So, I was trying to call and explain.”
“W-what about work?” She stutters out, still confused.
“I was taking extra shifts so that I could get these two weeks off to spend time with you.”
Extra shifts?
Her mind finally clicks. “So that’s why you weren’t talking about work?”
“Yeah,” He sighs. “I thought I would spoil the surprise.”
Then, what about the message?
“When did you get here?” She asks cautiously.
He smiles. “This morning.”
Nobara feels her eyes moisten once again. Against her control, tears begin to flow down her cheeks.
“Whoa, are you okay?” Yuji is quick to use his sleeves to wipe her tears.
She lets him.
Much like their first meeting, she had been all worked up over their relationship and what to do. And just like then, Yuji took all her anxieties away in one swoop, as if without effort.
“What’s wrong, Nobara? Did I make you that mad?”
As he cradles her face and looks her over, she can only say one thing before kissing him deeply.
“You better marry me one day, you idiot.”
Omake
Two hours later, Nobara and Yuji are sitting on her bed. She makes a conscious effort not to comment about the irony of him playing Mario Kart while she manicures her fingernails.
He doesn’t have the same delicacy.
“I didn’t know you wanted to get married already, Nobara.”
She glares at him.
“I-I just said that in the heat of the moment!” She exclaims, her face flushed.
He smiles. “Well, I better prepare soon or you might propose first.”
“Shut up!” Nobara throws her nail file at his head, smirking when he makes a small noise of pain.
“I’m kidding.”
She doesn’t respond, going back to her nails. He laughs before allowing them to fall into a comfortable silence.
Eventually, she hears him pause the game so she looks up.
“Done already?”
He picks up his phone. “Nah, I was supposed to call supervisor when I got here.”
“That weird guy with the ‘totally legit’ blue eyes?” She asks, remembering him from a picture.
“That’s the one.” He snorts. “I had my phone on do not disturb since I got on the train so I probably missed some messages.”
She hums, going back to finish her last nail.
“Whoa! That’s a lot of texts! Hey, there’s one from you too.”
Nobara pales.
The definitely-not-a-break-up text!
“Hold on, Yuji!” She shouts, jumping out of her seat.
His eyebrows fly up. “What?”
“Uh um…”
Her eyes run around the room as her brain tries to come up with an excuse. Finally, they land on her innocent, broken rice cooker on her desk.
“My rice cooker!” She belts. “It stopped working all of sudden so no rice!”
“Oh, maybe I can fix it.”
She ignores the bubbling guilt as he gets up and presses a kiss to her forehead. Once she’s sure he is occupied, she picks up his phone and unlocks it. Victoriously, she finds her message and deletes it.
Nobara makes a conscious effort not to make a peep when he asks where the message went.