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“How many times have I told you? I’m not looking for a relationship!” You huffed, annoyed. Yuji and Nobara held you by the sleeves of your black adidas zip-up, afraid you’d storm off, whilst Megumi stood a little further back with an amused look on his face.
“Oi! Do something about your stupid friends!” You yelled out in frustration to Megumi, desperate to get these whiny bastards off of you. Nobara held onto you just as tight, with Yuji practically engulfing you in his arms to keep you from moving.
“Please, big sis! Just this once!” He begged, gripping you firmly. To call these teenagers strong would be an understatement. You don’t recall gaining such immense strength during puberty. It was crazy to see how much these little demons had grown.
”You need to trust us on this one, Yuna. Our tutor… he truly is the perfect match for you!” Nobara quite literally beamed, eyes glinting in the sun as she continued to tug at your clothes. With a long and heavy sigh, you slumped down in defeat.
”Fine…” you muttered, causing the kids to go wild, jumping up and down and cheering for what felt like eternities. You could only throw your head back and stare up at the sky in a desperate attempt to distract yourself from the chaos erupting in front of you.
That was, until your phone buzzed in the right back pocket of your dark blue flared jeans. You grabbed it to see who was calling and smiled when you saw the display name:
Sugar🖤
You picked up the phone call, ignoring your silly brother and his friends.
”Hey.” You spoke, holding your phone close to your right ear as you covered your left ear to muffle out the voices from behind you. Yuji sure was a loud kid.
”I’m assuming you’re with the kids?” He judged, based off of the high pitched voices coming from behind you, and you couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh, humming in response.
Noticing your unusually tired mood, he paused before speaking again, his low voice sending shivers down your spine for no reason whatsoever.
”Where are you? I can pick you up-”
“No, no, it’s fine!” You interrupted, quickly, not wanting to be a burden to him.
Throughout your childhood, you weren’t used to receiving much help when it came to handling problems. Whether that was a simple math equation in your homework, or your crippling body dysmorphia that never really seemed to go away.
When the universe threw countless of problems at you, you always managed to figure out a way to solve them all on your own. Going to others made you feel weak. That was, until you met Suguru Geto. The closed off, dark haired boy who seemed to smile extra when around you.
His parents were close friends of your mother, and you have foggy memories from when Yuji had just been born and your mother had unfortunately passed away due to complications during birth. You were only five, unable to process anything that was happening, when the slightly taller boy approached you, a toy in his small hands.
“Hi! I’m Suguru!” He introduced himself, almost a little awkward, but he had the spirit.
“Hi, Sugar… I’m Yuna.” You practically whispered in response, the entire situation overwhelming you. His expression turned from curious to mad in nanoseconds.
”H-hey! My name is not Sugar, it’s Suguru!” He protested, crossing his arms.
”Sugguu- sug- sugu-“ your tiny five year old self struggled to pronounce his name, which earned an exasperated sigh from him and a pat on your shoulder.
”Ugh, fine, you can call me sugar. But only you.” He demanded, not wanting any other kids to get to know the nickname because that would lead to endless teasing. You could only smile warmly in return, before he yanked you by the wrist and started dragging you outside of the hospital room to the nearest exit.
”Sugar, where are we going?” You asked, a little scared. Your dad wasn’t exactly the most patient guy and would have your head if he knew you were out without his permission. Not that he cared anyway, he just liked to be in control.
“Away from this mess.” He muttered under his breath, dragging you along with him. Your frail body stumbled into his multiple times, but he didn’t care. He dragged you out of the hospital building, and forward towards the beautiful park.
The sun was setting and you looked around with wide eyes. Everything was just so… beautiful. The fields were green and vibrant, flowers blooming practically everywhere in all sorts of colors. There were some fuzzy bumblebees resting on a few of them, and birds were flying up in the sky.
He handed you the little toy from earlier and as you took a moment to observe it, you noticed it was a betta fish plushie. Its colors were a mix of white and icy blue.
The only reason you even knew what type of fish it was, was because your mother was so caught up with the ocean. Although, you only got to spend roughly five years with her, throughout that little time, you managed to pick up on a few of her interests, the ocean being her favorite one!
”Woah! Should we go to the pond over there and make it swim?” You asked, innocently, holding the plushie as if it was a valuable diamond.
Suguru snickered in response before lightly flicking your forehead.
”Don’t be silly, it won’t swim. It’ll only sink.” He said, before grabbing ahold of your small wrist and tugging you with him once again, exploring the beautiful park awaiting you.
That day, the day your mom died, should’ve been the worst day of your life, but Suguru somehow turned it into the start of a friendship you’d never forget, a moment that made you smile through the sadness that you couldn’t even quite come to fully understand yourself.
~~~
“Oi! Big sis, I’m talking to you!” Yuji punched your shoulder, frustrated, causing you to jolt as you took in your surroundings. You had been zoning out for god knows how long and the kids were staring at you with concerned gazes.
”Yuna… are you okay?” Nobara asked, hesitantly, with Megumi standing beside her, looking equally as concerned. You could only nod in response, forcing out a low hum.
It was only after Yuji pointed to your phone, that you remembered you were in the middle of a phone call before your brain spontaneously chose to make you zone out.
”Shit, sorry, Sugar. Are you still there?” You asked, guilt ridden in your voice.
”You know I never hang up on you first.” His response was almost instant, and by the sudden change in his tone, you could tell for a fact that he was smiling.
That only warmed you up more, causing you to smile, your free hand reaching up to absentmindedly twirl a couple locks of your silky hair in between your dainty fingers. That’s when you remembered where you were standing.
In the middle of the street.
In front of your little brother.
And his nosy friends.
Nobara was the first to try and take a sneak peak of your phone. Then came Yuji, pretending to stretch so he could make a miserable attempt at catching you off-guard and snatching your phone out of your hand. To your surprise, even Megumi was interested, inching a little closer to hear the voice of whoever was on the other end of the phone.
“Can you guys calm down? He’s just my friend. I’m not turning down your stupid tutor.” You sigh, side-eyeing the kids, before returning your attention to your phone call.
“Sugar, I’m gonna hang up now-”
”What were you saying just now?” Suguru interrupted you, the previous amusement in his tone having completely left his body. You could tell he was frowning just by the sound of it, and his sudden change in behaviour scared you a bit, even though you knew there was nothing to be afraid of. This was your childhood best friend after all.
“It’s nothing, really-”
“I’m coming to pick you up.”
”Gosh, stop it!” You whined.
“Then tell me.” He hissed, causing you to bite your lip. You knew that he was fully aware of the fact that you had never been in a relationship before, but for some reason, telling him about your date made you feel shy. Like full on red-in-the-face shy.
Despite being such close knit friends, you’ve never really had a conversation about relationships and love in general. Speaking about such things around him made you slightly uncomfortable, because just at the mention of another boy, he would get all fussy over you.
You didn’t like when people bossed over you. You hated it. That’s why you refrained from talking about other boys in front of Suguru, but now, realizing you were both grown, you couldn’t keep going on like this forever.
It was about time you started experimenting and finding out the true meaning of love. Even if it meant pissing Suguru off.
“Yuji and them set me up on a blind date. Well, technically, it isn’t a blind date since i know it’s their tutor, so you don’t need to worry about me getting kidnapped or anything-”
“Like hell you’re going on that date.” Suguru spoke through gritted teeth, causing you to internally panic. The tension was thick through the air, and even the children could sense it. It only took you a few dreadful moments, to muster up the courage to break the awful silence.
“Sugar,” you spoke softly, taking in a deep breath before continuing.
“I’m not a big fan of this whole blind-date thing myself, but my whole life I’ve lived as a single prick with so many responsibilities that I just kinda forgot to make time for myself. For what I truly want. And as much as this shit sounds embarrassing,” you lower your voice so that only Suguru can hear, “I don’t want to keep staying up, late at night, wondering why I’m so hard to love.”
His breath seemed to hitch at that last part, and you couldn’t help but cringe at yourself.
Quickly, you cleared your voice and opened your plump lips to speak: “Even though this might be the most awkward experience of my life, the kids might be right. Maybe, just maybe, that god forsaken tutor of theirs, truly is the one for me?”
You swear you could see tears in Nobara’s eyes. The cute girl had admired you for years. Ever since becoming friends with your little brother, Nobara and Megumi were two, annoying but very active presences in your life. As much as you found their behaviour immature, especially when in close vicinity of your little brother, they were good kids. And you reckoned you could trust them on this whole blind-date thing.
“Fine, do what you want.” Suguru finally spoke, his tone blunt.
”You’re not mad, are you?” You questioned, skeptical.
At that Suguru could only chuckle, his beautiful voice bringing warmth to you straight through the phone.
”I can be a little bossy, and I know you hate people bossing over you. If this is what you think will make you happy, go for it. You can hang up now.” He spoke, causing you to let out a little giggle. That boy and his stupid traditions of never hanging up first.
“Bye, Sugar.”
”Bye, Yuna.”
You hung up on him, placing your phone back into the pocket it was originally situated in, and let out a sigh of relief.
Maybe this blind-date wasn’t going to be so bad after all?