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Another day at this damn school. Just 2 more days till Friday, you tell yourself. This school was so run down, that the toilets clogged every time you flushed them. The lunch was crappy, but what else could you ask for? The only good thing about school was your friend, Toko.
You liked to be left alone and for the most part and kept to yourself besides the times Toko would join you for lunch. But today, she was nowhere to be seen, unfortunately for you. Lunch was nothing but noise pollution to your ears. You even went to the bathroom just to avoid it at times. Or pretty much anywhere else than the lunchroom. This time, you were not feeling particularly hungry, so you opted to just going to the bathroom to skip there.
As you made your way down the hallways, you saw the janitor cleaning the floors, albeit very sloppily. He was missing most of the actual debris and junk, but who were you to judge on how someone does their job? Well, you were you. You judged as much as your heart desired! You tried not to, but it was hard.
Your shoes squeaked against each footstep you took on the recently cleaned floor, the sounds of your footsteps echoing on the desolate hallway. Finally, you reached the bathroom, you spoke to yourself. They should really build one with less distance between the lunchroom. But that’s never gonna happen, probably…
Just as you were about to make contact with the unhygienic door to the girls bathroom, you heard a toilet flush followed by a squeak and a frantic-sounding voice.
“Hmmmgh! Nonono…what the hell am I gonna do?!”
You soon began to feel your feet becoming wet, looking down at your feet and seeing a puddle beginning to form. You tried to turn the knob to the door, but it just broke off. Great!
“Who’s in there?? Should I get help?!”
No response. The voice sounded familiar, so you didn’t want to put them in danger just in case it was someone you were friends with. Not that you wouldn’t save someone who wasn’t your friend but…this just motivated you more to shove yourself against the door with more fervour.
Eventually, you managed to break the door off its old, rusty hinges that are definitely going to need to be replaced now. As you shifted your gaze from the broken hinges to the inside of the bathroom, you looked up to find…
“Toko?? Oh my gosh!! Are you ok? I-!”
Suddenly, she widened her eyes at the sight of you and immediately crouched down to pick up pieces of paper all over the puddle. What was going on?
“Oh! Do you need help with your homework? We can probably dry these outside and-“
“N-NO-!” The girl in braids looked up immediately and bit her lip, looking away.
“N-no it’s ok…I’ll be fine without your help…” she said with a bit of sass in her tone, but you got used to this by now. She just got nervous, it wasn’t her fault whenever she acted rude! Happens to the best of us!
“Uuh…Are you sure? The teacher could get really upset at you with all the ink spreading over the words…”
“Ugh..! J-just mind your own damn business, ‘k-kay?!”
You pouted your lips and huffed, crouching in front of her and watched her pick up the pieces of paper. As you observed her face whilst she picked up the wet papers, was that a red tint that dusted her cheeks or-
“W-what?! Why are you staring at my face?! I-I bet you’re thinking how much of an ugly pig I am!”
There she goes again making crazy assumptions.
“What! Why would I ever think that about you??”
“You pretty girls always t-think the same a-“
Suddenly she yelped and flinched a bit, her eyes going wide like a bug’s.
“What??” You tilted your head.
Without a single word uttered after that, she huffed and got up, holding the paper close to her chest and dashing out the bathroom. You were about to chase after her, until you looked down at the growing puddle beneath your shoes and found a missing piece of paper from her stack. You immediately picked it up and yelled out after her:
“TOKO WAIT-!! YOU FORGOT-!”
But she was long gone.
You sighed out in defeat. You’ll just have to wait until History class, you say in your head as you walk to your locker and leave the paper drying out in there.
You looked down at Toko’s homework and were immediately puzzled. In what class was she in that taught her how to confe- CONFESS???
You had to double take at the paper, your eyes widening and bringing the paper closer to your face. In the paper, there was her beautiful cursive handwriting, the letters “confessing to her” stood out the most and were bolded in your brain.
The paper she dropped must’ve been her diary pages, not her homework!! That’s why she was so defensive about me helping her, she was afraid I would see the contents written on it!
Well, not like I can really see them that well. The rest of the words are mostly smudged, so you can’t make out what it says. But Toko’s got a crush! On a girl! You were internally jumping up in the air, because this meant she was over that pompous asshole, Togami!
And it also meant you could have a chance…she also liked girls!
_______________________
Toko was outside under a nice tree shade, sitting on a wooden bench as she straighten out the half-dried papers on the wooden planks. She sighed, relaxing her back and hunching over slightly. She was glad she managed to drag your attention away from her diary papers, or else she would’ve passed out right there and then. She couldn’t let you know she had feelings for you, not yet. She was planning on confessing today via love letter, just like in her books. She knew you were totally into that anyway! But she wasn’t ready to do so yet…she was way too nervous. She felt bad she was acting with a bit of attitude towards you today, she only does that with people that aren’t a friend. Which is practically everyone. You’re her first friend…like ever. She doesn’t want to lose you, she’s so nervous about confessing to you.
But her heart wavers around you. It feels like it’s gonna burst everytime she just thinks about you! And then she just freaks out and acts super over the top. Stupid toko…
She looked down at her papers, trying to organize all her diary pages in order. Until…she noticed a missing date. Today..! Where is it…??
She looked behind the bench, under, checked under her butt to see if she sat on it, but nothing! Oh no…
What if you took it?! What if you read what’s on it?! She heard you calling out her name whenever she ran out on you, you must’ve been trying to give it back!
She huddled the papers together and stuffed it in her school bag, putting the strap over her shoulder and dashing to your locker. There was still time before class, you always hang out there before!
______________________
You held up the dried paper and smiled at proudly. Toko is gonna be so glad you dried it up for her! You can almost hear her voice: “I-Im here! I swear I was going to tell you eventually!”
Wait, that was actual Toko you were hearing! You turned around, waving the paper in the air.
“I dried up your diary page! Say…can you tell me who your crush is..?” You smirked at her as your voice lowered in volume, closing in on her ear.
“H-huh? N-no one..!” Toko realized that you didn’t know. You didn’t know what the page contained. She looked over at it and saw smudges of black ink corrupting most of the paper, only making out small words and the date up top. It was a different date than today! So where was her diary paper that she had written this morning?! You didn’t have it! She started panicking internally, fidgeting and breathing a bit louder now. How had she not notice she was not only missing this one, but along another one…?!
“Hey, Toko, are you ok?” Your face fell from a smile to a slight frown, your eyebrows furrowing in worry. Toko snapped out of it and pretend to be fine. She didn’t want to worry you. And she didn’t want to drag attention to herself.
“I’m fine…thank you..” She tried to smile softly, adjusting her glasses. You found this adorable, but chose not to say anything.
“No problem!! Wanna walk to class together? I gotta show you something that always happens before class!”
“Sure but-“
“Come!!” You interrupted, too excited to notice and apologize. You grabbed her surprisingly warm hand, though it was sweaty. You didn’t mind, it was Toko after all! You dragged her to the empty classroom, in which stood a large window that had a view straight out into the courtyard. In front of the window was a large tree, and a birds nest on it.
In the birds nest, two birds sat and nestled against eachother, cuddling. Toko smiled softly, you were so excited to show her this, she tried hard to focus on the cute sparrows, but there was just something much cuter right next to her. You were practically grinning ear to ear at the sight, sparkles in your eyes. She was more focused on your face than her surroundings or anything else.
She was so focused in fact that, she hadn’t realized that you were staring right back at her before too long.
Pink dusted your cheeks, so did hers. You gulped, and forced yourself to stop staring and looked to the side. She was probably going to scold at you for doing so.
But, as you waited for it, it didn’t come.
You slowly turned your head to look at her, which who was now looking down at her fidgeting hands playing with a long loose strand of her hair.
Just as you were about to open your mouth, the bell rung, signifying that class time was now in session. Soon, students were going to start filling in the classroom, so you and Toko telepathically agreed to take your seats now. Your seats were very close to eachother, the teacher putting her in front of you since she was smarter. You sat behind her, and so that gave you the advantage of watching her beautiful long hair, her mannerisms, and just get to observe her in general with no one batting an eye.
…Except for that one time your classmate caught you ogling her in the middle of the lecture, in which they smirked at you and glanced at Toko, who wore a bored expression on her pale face. That classmate never said anything about it, but whenever they passed you in the hallways after that incident, they would give you looks as if they could read you like a book. As if! They were known for being a sneaky gossip, so they probably knew something you didn’t. While that put you on edge, you tried to ignore it, to not let you get intimidated by them.
You dreaded the end of class, to be honest. You would be separated from Toko until after school, in which you walked home together. You sounded like a clingy girlfriend. You guys weren’t even together! A part of your mind said ‘I wish we were though.’
_____________
“Class dismissed!”
Those words echoed in your head as you packed up and waited for Toko to grab her things as well. You looked around at the students making their way to wait the classroom, except them.
Were they waiting for you…?
“U-uh…is that your friend or what? Why is that weirdo staring at us like he’s waiting for us or something?” Toko looked at you, not really caring if they heard. You shook your head.
You guys tried to ignore them and walked out the door, going as your usual routine and walking Toko to her class.
After you were done dropping her off, you were walking to your class, well more like speed walking so you wouldn’t be late. While you were looking down as you fixed your clothes to look more presentable, you looked up to see the classmate from before. As you passed them, you heard them say:
“She likes you, ya’ know.”
That. Made you stop dead in your tracks. Just who are they talking talking about? Is “she” referring to-…?
You stayed silent as you turned around to face them, gripping onto your bag tightly.
“If you don’t believe me…I’ll show you evidence…I’ve got this little page I snooped from her locker. Though, if you wanna read it, you gotta do me a favor.”
“What. What is it.” You said flatly. You couldn’t deny, you wanted to see where this was going.
“I just need you to back me up in an argument later on, all you gotta do is be on my side!” Oh. That wasn’t so bad. They smiled innocently, putting their hands on their hips smugly. They didn’t seem to have any malice behind their words, so you agreed to it. That was an easy deal!
They shoved the paper in your chest and walked away without saying anything else. Whistling to themselves they, you assumed, made their way to class.
The paper was neatly folded, so you slowly undid this action and straighten out the wrinkles on it.
The next few words on the page will forever stay with you until you take your last breath.
“I have no one to tell this to, so I’m writing it in here.
I don’t think I can keep these feelings to myself any longer, I have to tell her soon.
The problem is, only times I see her is lunch, history class, and after school. I told myself I would do it soon, and soon I will. Today. Today I will confess after school. I have my love letter prepared along with a small gift for her…I hope she likes it. Not that I care or anything about what she thinks. But I think I know her pretty well by now, we’ve been friends for a while now.”
You stared agape at the diary page, your grip tightening. At the bottom you could see she even signed it with her inicial: - T.
Your cheeks were bright red and warm as you looked around and held the paper close to your chest, by your heart. You could tell she was talking about you because of how she tried to quickly retort to saying she “doesn’t” care about you. She always says that. You ponder about her, smiling to yourself softly as you close your eyes. You were her crush.
You suddenly opened your eyes, realizing you were in the middle of the school hallway. Luckily, no one was around like usual since you always took the longer routes. You checked the time on the clock attached to the wall on the hallway and realized you were about to be late! You quickly tucked the page in your pocket and ran as fast as you could to your last class. You couldn’t afford another tardy!
_________________
The whole class period. The whole class period you spent it zoning out, you couldn’t get yourself to focus on anything else besides that page. You couldn’t wait until after school now! You couldn’t wait for the walk home, would you even go home today? Maybe you could come over hers…
You stomach started feeling funny. You were excited yes, but you were nervous as hell. What if she backs out last second? What if you’re getting yourself psyched up for nothing? You couldn’t think straight, mind racing with thoughts and…
Deep breath.
It’s clear she feels the same way about you the same way you feel about her. It’ll be ok.
You feel slightly calmer, but still twiddling your thumbs on the desk as you try to listen to the teacher rambling about some formula you can’t be bothered to learn.
_____________________
The after school bell rings. School has ended for the day, and you are immediately on your feet as you dash out the classroom first. You don’t care if left anything behind, you have the note safely tucked in your pocket, keeping it safe by your side. That’s all you need. You wait outside the front gates, where you and Toko usually meet up to walk home together. You couldn’t stand still. You keep shuffling your feet, swaying side to side, looking around impatiently. Students walking by gave you weird looks, but you didn’t care. You had other things to worry about, like Toko.
Suddenly, you felt your name being called out.
“T-Toko?”
“Yeah…? Are we going to walk home…?”
You stared at her for a moment. Her face was so nice to look at…you could stare at it for hours. Days. Months, yea-
“Hello??” She waved a hand across your face, raising an eyebrow. You shook your head and blinked a few times, trying to get it together. Should you tell her you know about the diary page and her plan to confess? Or let things play out?
“U-uh…yeah!! Yeah. Let’s go.” You awkwardly smiled, turning on your heel and walking alongside Toko.
You guys talked for a bit, and you did notice Toko kept taking deep breaths and wiped sweat off her forehead a few times. She was just as nervous as you were, probably even more. You wanted to hear her say the words you’ve been wanting to hear for months, come out of her mouth. The same tone of words that were written in the page you have in your pocket this very moment. You were snapped out of these thoughts when you realized you two were going a different way, you’ve been following Toko this whole time.
“Where are we going, Toko?” You spoke up, your voice sounding a bit weird since your throat was dry from nervousness.
“U-um…the park nearby…I-..”
“I need to get something off my chest.”
You gulped. You kept looking straight, because you knew if you even spared a glance at her, you would freak. You could feel her glancing at you from time to time, playing with her hair.
Once you two found a nice spot in the grass to sit on, she took a deep breath and gripped her skirt. She looked straight ahead at the pond in front of you both and started speaking.
“I-…um…” This was not how her romance books went. The confessor was always confident, chivalrous, and brave. Toko is brave, but she can be unconfident and nervous at times. Like this one for example.
She turned her head to face you for a moment before turning back.
“I’ve been planning to tell you this for months so I decided to do it now.” You stayed quiet and listened.
“I like you. I like you a lot. I have felt like this for so long, I get s-so nervous around you, I-I can’t control my feelings. At first I thought my heart only had space for Byakuya. But-…”
“I thought wrong…you came up and ruined it..” Toko said in a teasing way, still nervous, but glad she got it over with. She noticed that you stayed silent the whole time. She turned to look at you but then suddenly let out a small yelp as you passed out and laid on the grass flat.
You passed out from excitement. You were too nervous and your stomach had way too many butterflies, your body gave out for a bit to settle down.
A few minutes later, you woke up and her face was casting a shadow overs yours as she looked down at you. You sat up slowly, and she got back to her sitting position.
“Do you remember anything I said before I passed out or will I have to repeat it for you.” Toko said with a huff, a blush covering her cheeks and tip of her ears.
“Of course I’ll remember, Toko! How could I forget something as meaningful as what the words you just spoke to me were?!” You suddenly pulled her into a hug, she froze up and stayed stiff, until she relaxed and hugged you back, smiling.
“D-does this mean y-you feel the same way orrr…?”
“YES!” You say with pure joy in your tone, laughing and gripping her tightly in the hug before letting go and smiling at her back.
“I would have never guessed you felt the same way that I did for you! I’ve liked you for months now! This whole time I thought you were still after that smug pig!” You said with eager in your voice, clasping your hands together.
“Oh and before I forget! I have to come clean about something…promise you won’t be mad at me alright?”
Toko faces straightened and she crossed her arms. “What did you do…”
You told her about the classmate from earlier snooping through her locker and giving you her latest page of her diary, the one she was missing. Her eyes widened and she snarled. “I’ll kill him! Why did that douche even think of snooping through my damn locker?!” You nodded along with her, and you did feel bad but…at least you got to know how she truly felt about you!
You continued explaining and you even offered back the diary page, but she looked down and smiled, pushing your hand back closer to you.
“You can keep it. It can be like a little memory you keep with you…”
“Toko, really? I wish I had something to give you…I’m sorry!”
“W-what are you sorry for?! Oh, and before I forget!” She reached to dig in her back pocket and pulled out a small, pink and cute gift box, with a lavender ribbon on top. You gasped and took it gently, making eye contact with her before opening it.
Inside the box laid a cute bunny charm. The texture was fuzzy and soft, and it had a cute little ribbon on top of its head! You squealed and immediately attached it to your phone, smiling up at her. She lifted her phone up, to show a matching bunny charm just like yours. You went in for yet another hug, both of you laying in the grass for a while until the sun set.
Least you can say, you were happy with how things turned out.