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When Kaito Fuuga entered his secret hiding spot today, he hadn't expected to find someone else there.
It was lunchtime. His friends had invited him to get their munch on at the cafeteria, but the young man shook his head, indicating his refusal with a simple yawn.
"Nah, I'll pass. Too tired."
Once his friends left, he got up from his seat and made his way through the crowded hallways, bumping elbows with a few students whose faces he'd surely forget the next day. As he moseyed on, the crowd grew thinner, shrinking into single digit numbers. By the time he reached the gymnasium, there was only one person left: Him.
In this area, there was a single door that led to a stairwell. It was quite deserted, which worked perfectly for Kaito. Nobody had ever walked in on him here, and he preferred it that way. With the sun shining in through the clear glass windows, he could retreat into snoozeland, reclaiming some precious moments of sleep.
That had been the plan.
What he didn't expect to see was a girl sitting on the top of the stairs, curled into herself, cradling a red Gibson guitar.
The hell?
His eyebrows were knit together in frustration, a heavy sigh escaping his chest. He was really looking forward to some alone time, and now this random girl was here, dozing off into dreamland before he could. Seriously, didn't she know that Kaito had dibs on this place first? Find somewhere else to sleep, man!
As if on cue (or perhaps due to Kaito's demeanor), the girl's eyelids flitter-fluttered open, blonde eyelashes lifted to reveal her greenish blue eyes.
"...Oh." she gasped softly.
She blinked again, zeroing in on the new presence. Her head, which was resting on the wall, slowly rose from its position. Again, she just stared at him.
Quiet. Curious.
...Seriously, what is her deal?! It was starting to get on Kaito's nerves.
After a few seconds, she shifted to the right, squeezing herself into the wall. Kaito cocked an eyebrow. Their eyes met, and Rin pointed to the now empty spot beside her.
Sit?
Kaito thought about it. Why not? He could still get some quality Z's if he stayed here. Her though, he couldn't care less if she stayed or not. Who knows? Maybe he could even get her to leave, scram, whatever. A sleep-deprived Kaito was a grumpy Kaito, that's for sure.
Soon, Kaito plopped himself down beside her.
Well, he got what he wanted. Now what?
He glanced in her direction. Her gaze was cast downward, but she didn't seem to be staring at the stairs, the door, or anywhere else. Perhaps a supermassive black hole had opened up in this forgotten little staircase, and only she could see it. Yeah. Probably.
His eyes followed hers, but snagged on the way, locked in on the object she was holding. That red guitar. She was cradling it the way one would cling to a teddy bear, entrusting the furry brown beast to shield you from darkness forevermore. As if that wasn't enough...
That damn stare again. She had to be looking at him, right? Where else?
Kaito couldn't take it anymore.
"Say something, will ya? Use your words. If you actually want me gone, say it. And why the hell haven't you fixed that guitar yet? The strings are rusty as hell, it hurts to look at them!"
After that stunning first introduction, Kaito half-expected her to yell at him or show some semblance of anger. He was trying to step on her toes here. Obviously.
What he didn't expect was for her eyes to open wide, staring at him as if the guy had sprouted wings and said to her, "be not afraid" or something.
"You can fix this?"
"...What?"
She scooted closer to him. "You can fix this guitar for me?!"
Kaito blinked several times, absolutely befuddled.
If he had to describe this girl a few seconds ago, he would say she looked lethargic, for one. This girl, who looked like she could doze off at a moment's notice, who stared at everything and nothing at the same time, had suddenly transformed completely. In her place was a person whose bluebell eyes twinkled into his, her lips slightly parted, as if ready to fire off a canon's worth of words.
"I-I uh..." Kaito rubbed the back of his neck, refusing to meet her starry gaze. "I guess?"
"Can you fix it?!"
Kaito sucked in a breath through his teeth. "I mean... I guess I could-"
"Right now?!"
"I don't have the uh- the tools for that, so no."
"Oh..."
When she heard that, she lowered her gaze down to the bottom of the stairs, her blonde hair tumbling forward to cover her face.
Great, Kaito thought sarcastically. What did she expect me to do? Run back to class and get my stuff?
She hunched forward into herself, clinging once more to that damned guitar with all the rusty strings.
Kaito tore his gaze away from the pitiful sight. No, I'm not doing this. Why should I have to-
Before he could even finish complaining to himself, the girl let out a long, cloudy sigh. If Kaito didn't know any better, he'd say she probably had mushrooms growing on her head by now, enough for a whole feast!
This little...
"KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!"
Stop looking like it's the end of the world! he practically yelled into his mind as he power-walked back to his classroom to yank his toolbox out of his school bag.
Seriously! It's just strings! JUST strings! He chewed on his bottom lip furiously as he rushed his way back, performing the tiring dance of avoiding faceless students in the crowd.
"Enough with the guilt-tripping- ARGH! I SWEAR!!" he continued to grumble even as he laid her guitar on his lap, using his wire cutters to slice through every brownish red string.
Snik! Snik! Snik!
By the time he was done, he'd worked up quite a sweat. After easing the guitar back into the girl's hands, he wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead. "There, it's done. Don't go looking so sad now, okay? I don't want anyone coming over, looking at you like that, and thinking I'm the bad guy here."
"It's... wow..." her voice cracked like dry soil, her eyes glued to the red guitar that now rested comfortably in her lap.
"If you like it so much, you should be praising me already!" Kaito huffed, clicking his tongue at the last word.
Rin clasped her hands together, shut her eyes, and bowed at him with the reverence of a Tibetan monk.
"Too serious!!"
"S...sorry," she whispered. She looked at the guitar. Looked at him. Reached out to pluck a string—
"Ah, waitwaitwait!" He exclaimed, his hand reaching out for the guitar once more. "Forgot to frickin' tune it," he muttered. The girl wordlessly slid the red Gibson back into his possession.
"It's not done..?" she tilted her head, watching him fiddle with the head of the guitar.
"No, not yet. You need to tune it properly, or it's gonna sound all weird," he explained, taking out his tuner, a tiny box-shaped device with a digital screen. "This is for tuning the guitar. You clip it onto the top like this," he demonstrated, clicking a button to activate the tuner, "and then you tune each string until the screen shows a green line. If it's red, or orange or whatever, that means you have to keep twisting these little knobs here." He pointed at the head of the guitar, his fingers tracing over the strings that were connected to each tuning peg.
The girl watched, fascinated, as he plucked a string, bent down to peer into the tuner's screen, adjusted the pegs, then plucked again. Over and over, until finally, he broke into a grin.
"Alright, that should do it," he said, his right hand raised into the air.
Twang.
Each guitar string had sounded quite lonely on its own, but when Kaito strummed a chord down, a mini symphony breezed into the open room, ascending into the windows, creeping into the corners, knocking against the door, and finally... bursting its way into the blonde girl's heart.
She grabbed his collar.
"H-hey! What gives-"
"Please..!" she cried out in the loudest voice Kaito had ever heard her today.
"Please..!!"
"Please teach me how to play that thing..!!!"