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Nagi's phone goes flying out of her hands, so she moves accordingly to continue playing her game. She didn't die in the game, luckily, even if the phone lowkey just flew down the staircase— but yeah, once she has her phone back, she settles back down on the stair step to keep playing.
But.
There's a voice— an excited voice, shooting these questions and praises at her. A voice so bright, she's forced to look at its source, and now there's a pretty boy fluttering all over her and asking her to play soccer with him. Nagi is stunned silent, peering at the boy like he's made out of diamonds.
Oh no, Nagi realizes, eyes wide with alertness. Mikage Reo. The king of hassles. The guy who went from bifauxen to bishounen during winter break and awakened the prep school queer population.
Nagi knows this guy. Everyone knows this guy. Which means that Nagi does not want to be involved with him, because she's sure to be on everyone's radar by simply talking to him for a little too long.
So that's why the moment some classmates walk down the stairs and temporarily distracts Reo, she quickly slips away at a moderate pace which is pretty damn fast for Nagi standards. Unfortunately, only after the moment she's gotten the hell out of there, does she realize she was so eager to leave that she hadn't noticed that her right shoe had came off somewhere along the way. It was a little inconvenient, because of the way she had to walk like she was limping, her socked foot against the ground, but whatever. This was nothing compared to what could happen to her if Mikage Reo really decided to hang around her. Whew. Crisis averted.
Crisis NOT averted what the fuck.
Mikage Reo is— visiting her class. He stands in front of the chalkboard, presenting a singular cheap black slide styled shoe to the class. A very familiar shoe. A shoe part of a pair that Nagi is decidedly not wearing today in favor of black sneakers because she lost her other shoe to her usual pair. Yes, Nagi wears a slide-sock combo to school. Sometimes. When she's lazy. This is against the dress code but the school can't stop her from doing this if they don't know she exists, so… it is very unfortunate that Reo is desperately trying to draw attention to her breaking of the rules.
Nagi sinks into her chair, tugging the hoodie covering her head further down and pleads to any god that exists that she is not noticed or wondered about or preferably not even looked at, at all.
"If you see a cool girl missing her shoe, please let her know that I have it! Tell her to look for Mikage Reo! She's insanely talented and I totally need to see what other godlike traps she can do. I don't know her name, but she's tall and has long, fluffy white hair, and these big brown eyes, and a cute nose, and, um, what was I talking about again… oh yeah, right! Her eyes…"
The kid sitting to the right of Nagi is slowly turning their head to look at her the more Reo goes on. Nagi shoots them a voidlike stare as if to say do NOT. Do not even TRY. It works, and the kid squeaks before abruptly turning back to the front of the class. Reo takes his leave, holding the shoe like it's a priceless item. What is wrong with him? Seriously.
Nagi cringes, slumping even further down in her chair to the point that she's basically melting, and feeling really lucky that nobody ever remembers her or her name. Please don't tell me he's going to every classroom to ask for me. That's… such a hassle… and so very embarrassing, on his part… ouuuuughhhhhh… oughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Nagi sees Reo making his way down the hall after school. He hasn't noticed her yet, which is good— but he's about to, if she doesn't hide right like, right now— so Nagi swiftly lets herself in the nearest classroom. She has no idea what club this is, but it's pretty packed, so it's easy to blend in and just take a seat in the back.
A few minutes pass until she abruptly lifts her head up from her arms, which were pillowing her forehead. Nagi squints suspiciously, feeling some sort of disturbance brewing.
Something about this place is off.
"Ah, you're awake!" A nerdy looking girl bounds her way to Nagi with a smile. "Welcome to the Reo Fan Cl—"
Nagi stands up and immediately makes her way to the door, making the girl blurt out a shocked exclamation.
"We have membership perks…
"No thanks."
"A-and many volunteer events… and— and—"
"I'm good."
"Tons of resume filler opportunities—!" The girl follows Nagi desperately. The latter ignores the former as she flits around, until Nagi gets to the door. The girl sighs. Nagi waves and then leaves.
Nagi goes out of her way to lay extra lower than usual. Which isn't that difficult, she's pretty good at disappearing, but… one can never be too careful. Reo is— so sparkly. Overwhelmingly so. She hides, passing him in the hallway often hearing him ask about her, which makes her grimace. He really wants her on the soccer team this bad.
"Have you seen this girl? She's incredible," this, and "I'm looking for this brilliant person! A genius!" that. It makes Nagi shakes her head subtly. No one's gonna know you're talking about me, smart guy. That doesn't sound like me. Try slacker or creep instead.
Why won't he just give up?, Nagi grumbles internally one day when she pointedly makes a u-turn to take the much longer, convoluted route to her next class instead of the shorter way due to Reo's presence there. She passes the bullentin board while she's there and down a cute poster that Reo made himself that says "MISSING GENIUS" with some soccer related illustrations.
Why does he want this so bad?, Nagi contemplates, putting her head down in the library when Reo walks by a far distance away and hoping he doesn't catch a glimpse of her, willing her presence to nothing.
Why does he care so much about soccer?, Nagi asks, trailing behind a group of friends as to not stand out in the hallway, making sure they see nothing when they turn around.
And why does it have to be me?
A week or two passes. Nagi has developed a sort of hyper awareness of the color purple, now. Apparently, Reo has gotten some wannabes claiming to be her, which Nagi hoped would've been enough to satisfy him, but these girls didn't have the "godlike trapping ability" that Nagi apparently has, whatever that means.
She's on the roof one day, having her lunch, when the door opens— and Nagi stills, because she knows that pattern of footsteps and that sigh. Just right around the corner, storming over and dropping down against the wall to take a seat on the other side of the building that Nagi is leaning against, is him.
He's muttering to himself— he sounds… glum. Dejected. So very different from that glimmering Reo always around the school. Nagi finds herself mystified, even if she cannot see his face— she stares off into the sky, listening to Reo tap his rapidly feet against the roof ground in contemplation of the sorts.
Nagi pulls on her hoodie. "You're noisy."
The muttering sharply pauses for a moment— before she hears a begrudging exhale. "Well, yeah. I've just been— trying to do this thing for a while. And I've made no progress at all."
He's talking as if the whole school doesn't know about his search…
"Why don't you just give up?" Nagi asks genuinely, eyeing the concrete corner between them— she can just barely see where Reo's hand rests.
"Give up? Are you kidding? As if I'd let a genius like that get away! I don't even think she knows how amazing she is… she has so much potential, it would really suck to let it go to waste, I just— I need to show her my dream!"
Nagi hums. Wraps her hoodie string around her finger. Scratches her forehead, looks down at the sad lunch on her lap. "You make her sound really special…"
"Because she is!" Reo exclaims, excitement surging through his voice and increasing the pitch. "She's the most interesting person I've ever met!"
"Huh," Nagi blinks slowly. She knocks her head back so that it leans against the wall, and takes a slight breath. "Her…? Really?"
"Yes! She's an absolute treasure… Hey, you know—" Reo stands up suddenly, determined. "I think talking to you has gotten me all fired up again… I'll find her, for sure! I have the perfect idea!"
Oops… I made it worse. "Oh," Nagi says instead, a spectator to the unstoppable whirlwind that is Mikage Reo.
"Thanks for the help, stranger! I do hope you'll come to the party— I'll thank you properly when I find my treasure!"
"Party…?" Nagi mumbles. "What party…" I didn't even really help…
Aaaaaaand Reo is already gone. Wow.
Party is more like huge mandatory school event made possible with Mikage money. Nagi stands on the rooftop, watching all the sports festival stuff be set up in one center, while food and music and stuff is also happening somewhere adjacent. Nagi watches curiously. He… he really just… cancelled an entire school day for this… wow…
Hmm. I guess because of Reo, I can just nap here all day.
Nagi decides to test this theory, closing her eyes and getting comfortable in her hoodie on the roof. When she opens her eyes, it's a minute from a proper sunset, pleasant and pink.
Yuuuuuup. Theory confirmed, she thinks to herself, yawning and standing up, head fuzzy. The event is mostly over, but there's still a casual soccer game going on with Reo's team, it seems. They look like they're having fun. Hmm.
Nagi sighs. She opens up her backpack, and takes out her shoe— her other shoe, the matching slide to the one Reo has. She brought this to school today, out of curiosity— to see if Reo would somehow be able to sense that she had the other slide, and that it was she was the one that he was looking for. But alas, looks like that wasn't happening. Reo believed in her— was the first person to ever do so— but even with that, nothing would happen unless she did something, would it?
Ah, it's a strange feeling…
Nagi Seishirou wants to give something a try.
The ball goes loose. It flies over to one of the lower roofs, and the team is already getting another ball. But Reo has a gut feeling, a gut feeling that tells him to keep watching— to follow the ball's path. His eyes trace the object— and then a split second before it happens, Reo realizes there's someone there, in perfect receiving position.
The sunset paints her gold, her hair and skirt fluttering in the wind— and he sees it, that godlike trapping ability he fell in love with. It's like a bell chiming, a choir singing, heaven's clouds parting or something when the ball makes that beautiful ear-blessing thunk! sound, and the girl traps the ball. Reo's eyes go wide— sparkling, reflecting the girl's image in his mind as she controls the ball however she pleases.
It happens in slow motion, to him.
Two-- three, no, four-- touches, then a volley as the girl's socked foot shoots the ball directly into the net. It's like, snap, crackle, pop, BOOM!
It's so loud, so satisfying, a crackling so loud that it echoes far past the entire field, a genuine strike of lightning Reo knows that sound, that feeling of the ball exploding at your feet. He swears her shot is like some sort of comet, some sort of earth-shattering goal that leaves streaks and sparks and stars in its wake. Because that's how it feels, commanding the air around it, slicing through gravity-- until-- SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
The net hugs the ball, and gravity pulls it back to the ground; the bouncing of the ball getting shorter and shorter. Only then, do Reo's teammates notice— shocked, impressed exclamations, pointing and hyped yelling, finally looking towards the roof where Reo's gaze has been locked on all along.
Reo can't look away from her— the stern line of her mouth, her eyelids, relaxed— the way she steadily walks forward, and plants her left foot on the roof. How the wind rustles her clothes and hair, her body heaving with the slight exhale she does. Her left foot, adorned with the other half of what Reo's been looking for.
He sees the world shaping around her. A chill runs down his spine; washed with a feeling. A prince, standing before a celestial body.
"Nice to meet you, Mikage Reo," the goddess declares softly, cool and calm as she meets his eyes for the second time since their fateful encounter. "I am Nagi Seishirou."