Chapter Text
Kise Ryouta was not someone I thought I would grow close with. He always seemed from another world, untouchable. I saw him play basketball at school, messing around with his friends and being surrounded by girls constantly. But most of all, I heard his name everywhere. "Did you see Kise in that new magazine?" "Kise is really carrying our school team" "Did you notice Kise this morning? He looks so fine!"
The amount of times I heard the combination of letters that formed his name were absurd, it got to the point I was sure I could’ve recognized it in every spoken language.
It almost seemed as if the whole school was based around him. It was as charming as it was presumptuous. Kise had a reputation to say the least, and everyone was obsessed with him. I didn't think I would become one of them.
Before Kise became something touchable, something I could reach, I don't think he ever knew who I was. Not until he became best friends with my older brother.
I was grabbing a snack one night, I heard my brother's familiar voice talking with an unfamiliar one when I entered the downstairs floor. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the star player and promising model who was the prima donna of my school, there in my kitchen, chatting up with my own flesh and blood. My brother then introduced us, as if I didn't know his playing schedule by heart just because I heard people talk about it so much. Of course my brother didn't know we went to the same school, and of course Kise didn't even know his friend had a sister that was his age.
"Do you know each other?"
"No" we replied at the same time. Right, I shouldn't have expected something different. I'm just a background character for him and his flashy world after all. I didn't know why I let myself feel disappointed, a little pathetic even.
I heard them out as they told the story how they grew to know each other, they've been friends for an embarrassing long amount of time for me not to know anything about it. Apparently this wasn't the first time Kise had been to our house, he even met our parents a few weeks back (so fun they didn't care to tell me, thanks a lot). They went to the same middle school, they were friends then, but only the kind you talk to in school. They were also one year apart, so they only shared a few friends and never had the same classes.
Only when they both went to different high schools did they become the good friends they supposedly are today. They talked and joked as if they've know each other for a life time, I guess they kind of did. How did I just find out about this?
"So, Wes' sister. What you doing up so late?" Kise turned to me. No hello's, no deep introductions. Maybe he assumed I knew who he was, which wouldn't be weird because who doesn't? He wore that confident smirk I've only ever seen from a distance. Up close I could see the charm in it. I started to see why everyone fell for him so quickly. But as charming as he looked and as warm his voice sounded, I turned skeptical again. Just because he was friends with my brother didn't mean he suddenly didn't have a huge ego and wasn't used to people kissing every inch of ground he walked on. I put some distance between us and opened the refrigerator door.
"I have a name"
"Right" He exchanged looks with Wes.
When I peeked at them from behind the refrigerator, Kise was still waiting for an answer. Of course he didn't think there was a possibility someone would ignore him.
"Obviously I'm not the only one awake" I raised an eyebrow, directing the look to my brother.
"We went to a party" He said, like I magically should've know. It's not that they looked very post-partylike. Especially Kise, he still looked perfect. No stains on his clothes, hair perfectly styled, his skin glowy. My brother? That was a whole different story, but he still looked like he always did.
You wouldn't take Kise for the party type, at least I didn't. To me he seemed way too focused on the things he was passionate about, he wouldn't waste his energy on something like this. Plus, he was a model and an athlete, sleep and no alcohol were important in both fields. I found it strange. Maybe they were lying, or maybe Wes had rubbed off on Kise and convinced him to join his weekend adventures. Wes just had gotten into college, the party phase were to be expected.
"Well I was up doing something other than destroying my body" I closed the door of the refrigerator, my usual drink of choice in hand. No snack unfortunately.
"Like what? Watching soft porn reality shows?"
"Wes!!!" I cried out.
I didn't have a counter argument because he was right in a sense. But he was exaggerating by a lot! Reality tv is very educational in my eyes, you could perform hour long psychoanalyses on the people crazy enough to participate in one. Plus, entertainment and drama. Enough reason if you ask me.
Kise looked terrified and Wes wore his 'imma burst out laughing in a second' look. Oh god, I couldn’t bare the awkwardness. Wes would hear of this later, but in approximately 3 seconds I was going to bolt right back up the stairs to the safety of my room. I heard laughter when I started running.
After that I performed a whole anecdote about my shit of a brother to my best friend Kuroko who happened to be watching 'soft porn reality' with me on the phone.
"He embarrassed me in front of one of his friends! Again might I add! I'm so over it Kuroko" I said as I played with my hair tie while staring at the ceiling, phone on my stomach.
"Who was it this time?" I heard him sign on the other end of the line.
Kuroko was a quiet yet bold spoken guy who happened to sit next to me on the first day of high school. His presence was so underwhelming that I didn't even notice anyone sitting at the two person table I had chosen for exactly that reason. We didn't speak much until on some random day, he decided he wanted to talk to me. I don't know exactly why we became such good friends, but it was clear we were going to have each other’s back the moment we started speaking with one another.
Kuroko had only ever heard stories about my brother and wasn't exactly fond of him. That might've been my fault since I complain about Wes on the daily, and he was the one to hear about it. Wes didn't like Kuroko purely because he wanted to return the grudge.
So, I avoid letting them be around each other until they can find a common ground.
“Kise Ryto or what’s his name…” I knew his name perfectly. I did. I had heard it a million times, I simply wanted to make him sound less important then he was. “…The famous guy nobody can stop talking about. He was standing in my freaking kitchen, in the middle of the night! I just wanted-“
“Kise? Your brother seems to know everyone…”
“I know. Apparently he’s the best friend. Can’t believe I didn’t know” I mumbled.
“He’s on the basketball team”
I almost wanted to ask how he’d known that, but everyone knew at that point. Besides, Kuroko was part of the same team and he played a damn important part as well, I seemed to forget that sometimes. I should’ve know that they knew each other. Kuroko never mentioned this though… But again, why would he?
I rolled on my stomach as he had caught my interest. If they were friends, maybe I could discover some things about him? I’ve always thought of Kise as an arrogant ass even though all the sucking up people were doing when it came to this guy, but how was he really like?
“Are the things people say about him true?”
“That his skin is always flawless?”
I wanted to cry into my pillow.
“No! That he thinks he’s better than everyone else” I said, although the skin rumor was a real thing. I think they were right.
“I don’t think people say that about him…”
I rolled my eyes. Of course, everyone thought he was great. That question came from me and me only.
“He’s actually pretty nice and down to earth, to me at least”
“Mhm…” Interesting.
I insisted Kuroko to tell me his whole perception of Kise’s personality, how he acted on and off the court, about all his friendship dynamics. If he thought my extreme interest was weird, he didn’t show any signs. I ended up dreaming about him as a result of how much I was thinking about this new revelation.
I wasn’t a fan of Kise Ryouta.