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“So why do we have to share a bus with Nekoma High School again?” One of your classmate asked the teacher. The teacher explained, trying to calm down the protesting attitude, “See, we know their school is our rival but I need your cooperation to behave well during the journey. Their parents rented the bus so we had no choice, okay?”
The students nodded. They will be getting deducted of curriculum marks if they refused to participate in this camp anyway. The day came eventually and you had to share the transportation with the said Nekoma High School. The bus journey was awkward because the two schools did not mesh nor the students themselves bothered to socialise with each other.
So you arrived at the camp at five star hotel. You walked to the registration table to register your school and acquire the materials for the five days camp. Once you collected the materials and handbooks, you and your friends marched inside the ballroom to see six tables are separated with each students given a laptop each. You greeted the students from other schools that have registered and arrived before you. Once you settled in, you grabbed your seat and had a chat with your friends as the facilitators were trying to set up their sound system.
You turned your head to the sound of the speakers being connected and accidentally made an eye contact with a boy with lean and muscular body, his hair was spiked almost looking like a rooster. His smile looked vicious but his eyes formed into a crescent moon resembling eye-smile. Your heart skipped a beat. You faced forward.
He is adorable. You thought. But from the look of his P.E outfit, it was the same as the people in the bus. The people from the rival school! He was in that bus? Eugh.
You nudged your friend, “Hey. See that guy. With the hair spiked up, sleazy eyes… was he in the bus with us?”
Your friend scrutinised the boy through her glasses, “I did not notice. But were you awake and someone in the bus was passing Pringles around? Think it was him?”
Your mind took you back to the three hours before. You were slightly groggy and getting carsickness but you remembered that there was a boy walking on the bus aisle and passing Pringles around to the students in the bus. You rejected politely and did not make an eye contact but you remembered his boots that he was wearing. The fur boots he was donning and you would think he was a snob because who wears fur boots in summer? The next few days you learnt that he was truly a snob, spoiled even.
A day in, you found out his name was Kuroo Tetsurou. It seemed that he was truly a popular guy in his school. He was also their school’s volleyball star. With that height and that face, he would be some sort of sports school’s sweetheart, sure. That the teachers had to convince him to participate this programming camp despite his busy volleyball schedule and he joined to improve his curriculum marks. Apart from being a snob, he was quite friendly and bubbly. Even the girls from other schools were interested in him. They were practically throwing themselves at him and it irritated you. You had no idea why. He was like a totally bad idea for you. During the camp, he practically stuck out like a sore thumb because he was an attention seeker. He lead his team, engaged with other students and facilitators, participated well in the games and questions and gauged their reactions. He was good looking so people would want to look at him and get friendly, without a doubt.
You did not get to be in his team for the ice breaking session nor even the team building so you just watched him from distance. Now did you just develop a crush on this snob? As if! Go like the other boys… maybe they weren’t as half as a snob that he was.
But on the final night of the camp. There was themed party dinner to commemorate the students for completing the camp until the end of the journey. You thought you would care less about him anymore but oh wow.. you saw him walking down the stairs. He was stunning and gorgeous in his white-tailored suit and gelled hair, the rooster spikes were not going anywhere though.
You were marching in one line into the ballroom with your classmates and suddenly there was a provocating aura behind you. The boy definitely towered over you and his scent was… interesting. You glanced at his protruding shoes and was shocked at the gigantic feet. Taking slow steps and you can see the sleeve of white suit.. Kuroo was walking right behind you, fool. Why would he…? It must be a coincidence, you were being a little bit delusional. But his taller figure felt homey to you, it made you feel like a little girl for a while.
“Hey.” You heard a hoarse voice calling you and somehow tapping your shoulder politely. You were brought into a reality with the gentle tap and immediately turned around. Kuroo smiled at you and shoved a cloth towards you, “Your handkerchief fell.”
You took it, said your thanks and fled like an idiot.
The camp ended so this meant we were back to norm. Of course you ought to ride the same bus as Kuroo. The same freaking bus that Nekoma High School specially sponsored. Kuroo probably did not give a shit after whatever happpened last night because you were just a nobody to him but you did hope to ogle him for the last time thinking it was not a bad opportunity. Your male classmates were some lost cause so seeing a fresh, handsome boy as if he was a character written in Shojo manga was a nice treat for you for the past five days.
You sat at the two-seaters seat so you could occupy the vacant seat with your bags while your two friends sat with each other in front of you. The bus moved and you were giggling with your friends and Nekoma High School students were entertaining themselves with their own game that was played during the camp. Your friends had dozed off and left you alone so you played with your phone to text your mom that you were coming home tonight. You did not realize that there was a figure standing by the bus aisle watching over you. You slowly glanced to find—
“Is there a vacant spot?” Kuroo asked, smiling at you.
“No. I had to put my bags here.” You said and he looked disgruntled. But there was an empty seat across you so he sat himself down uninvited.
In your mind, you were praying that he would go away because there was no way your heart could control its swift beating. The boy you liked was trying to be friendly with you, you might as well explode if he continued to chat and hang around.
Kuroo continued, “They (his classmates) told me that you knew the secret to the game we’re currently playing so if you don’t mind.. can I know about it too?”
You were not expecting the turns of events going on now. The Kuroo Tetsurou was talking to you personally! He just wanted to know the game that the facilitators taught you yesterday, not more than that.
You nodded shyly. How were you supposed to act at impromptu times like this? It did not help that he grinned and leaned his body and face forward to you that his face and yours were inches apart. You gasped in surprise with his boldness. This was diabolical to the very least.
“Tell me only.” He whispered, while offering a polite smile, “I’ll tell you mine too.”
What was the point of all this? Was this some sort of prank camera? Why would he gain from chatting with you? He was too good to be true to talking a loser like you. You really did not care about the game and you were thinking of ways to push him away. It was better for your heart rate’s stability anyway.
You gave him an awkward grin, “Uhh.. I don’t want to know about your game that much… really.”
Kuroo tilted his head, the smile never left his lips, “Oh no, I have to tell you about it. As an exchange.”
You ended up telling him the secret because he kept pestering you, it was annoying but you had fun because his reaction was after figuring it out was adorable. But to your dismay, Kuroo enjoyed your company and he kept clinging by your side and his friends took notice. They were Yaku, Lev and Kenma.
Yaku, the shorter guy, peeped his eyes narrowly at you. You felt intimidated. He voiced out as he finally remembered you, “Weren’t you the one who closed the door on me during the team building race?”
“I did?”
”Yeah. I almost died.”
Kuroo chortled behind him, his laughter ringing in your ears, “You deserved that.”
Yaku rolled his eyes as he punched Kuroo by the waist. It seemed that Yaku was one of Kuroo’s classmates. They looked close enough but they were bickering nonstop so you really wonder what kind of relationship they’ve had. You apologized for your wrongdoings to Yaku yesterday despite you not remembering anything of the alleged claim. Somehow Yaku warmed up to you and was indulging in a good conversation with you. He was asking questions about yourself and you found a common ground with him, like having mutual friends in middle school and whatnot. Yaku was more on the silly side so his behaviour made you giggle the entire time you were talking to him but you were well aware Kuroo did not like it. AT ALL.
Kuroo kept on intervening into the conversation you’ve had with Yaku and wanted to talk to you more as if he was a dog wagging his tail in front of you. You almost had to double check if the delusion got to you. Even when the time Yaku made you laugh, he was getting aggravated and kept his voice loud to argue with the shorter guy. Yaku took his panda neck pillow and put it on his head and started making stupid faces so all the people in bus laugh… but one person was not laughing and it was Kuroo. He was studying your expression when Yaku was doing his skit and guessed it reached to his boiling point that he rolled his eyes and snatched the panda pillow away rapidly.
But you were least expecting the follow-up action Kuroo did that made you weak in the knees. He snatched the pillow only to offer it to you. You looked at him in confusion. He smiled, it was almost stupid, “Use that so you can sleep, okay? It would look better with you.”
You failed to comprehend what was Kuroo’s motive in doing this to you. But you did not sleep.. how can you sleep when he made your heart throb like crazy?
You ended up joining the game after being persuaded by Kuroo with the rival high school despite how shy you were interacting with Nekoma students. The game went on for long time as you got dazed as the carsickness imposed onto you. But you also felt you need to stop interacting with Kuroo because it was impossible to have his eyes gazing at you that ample amount of times and you trying to control your elation at this situation.
“Kuroo-san, Yaku-san. I’m a bit sleepy and dizzy so can I sleep for a while?” You lied, praying he would stray away and go back this previous seat. He needed to leave you alone because you could never get used to the crush reciprocation. You were happy he wanted to be around but it was unnerving to actually interact with your crush for more than five minutes.
“Oh sure.” Kuroo declared, with a smirk, “Once you wake up, let’s talk again! I haven’t told you the secret!”
You put on your sweater in front of your face – there was no other reason but to hide your face. There was no way your crush going to look at your ugly sleeping face with the probability of face contorting and saliva dropping. But you were too overwhelmed with the situation that you did not even realize you had your shoulders lifted while you were pretending to sleep. Not until Yaku, who was sitting behind you, joked that he thought you were lying about sleeping because your shoulders were levitating. You did not reply. But you heard Kuroo got mad at Yaku.
“Dude if you bother her, I’ll punch the heck out of you,” and that brought a big smile to your face and it lulled you to sleep.
Hours passed, you felt the heat got up to your face and the bus did not move so you woke up. By this time, Kuroo should not be at the seat across you because why would he wait for you to wake up, right? He should be playing or joking around with Yaku or Lev or bothering Kenma, not like you give a damn what he was going to do.
You shuffled your feet, tried to look for his reflection at the window and cleared your throat. It seemed he was missing! Great! Now you pull up the swea– it was beyond worse. You saw Kuroo was actually facing his full body towards you. He was sitting, watching you sleep for like an hour? Was he an idiot? Now you could not help but feel embarassed. You looked down to see Kuroo actually putting his stupid branded boots next to your sneakers. You remember taking off your sneakers before sleeping and now you wonder why would Kuroo put his shoes next to yours? He was starting to creep you out. But you did not hate it.
Kuroo noticed that you shuffled your feet and gazed at you with half-baked anticipation, he put his phone down, “You woke up? The bus broke down.”
You fixed your hair awkwardly, your friends were not around too, how dare they left you like this! You asked, trying to mask the bashfulness, “I see. Mmm. Do you happened to see my friends?”
“Yeah, they went to the washroom.”
You frantically got up from the seat and went out of the bus to find your friends. You eventually found your friends in the washroom. You washed your face. You kicked your feet to the ground. Now that he had seen your face waking up, he’d be gone for good! You can sit peacefully… so you went to the bus again with your friends .. and he was NOT FREAKING LEAVING THAT SEAT STILL. Kuroo Tetsurou, what is your problem?
You sat and played with your phone; ignoring him again. Kuroo peeked his eyes at you, trying to catch your attention. He announced, “You’ve got a cute casing there.”
You act shocked, you pulled up your phone at him showing your Rillakuma phone case, you smiled again, “Ah, yes. I love Rillakuma. It’s very cute, right?”
Kuroo grinned with his sly smile, “Yup. Very cute, like its owner.”
Then you would never know how your face reacted to him saying that impulsively. Was your face red? Was your eyebrows furrowed? Was your mouth widened that showed your teeth? Kuroo just beamed at you. He was very sweet and flirty with his words.
Lev and Yaku appeared and now they were talking to Kuroo and also including you in their conversation. While you were listening to the Nekoma boys’ antics, you laughed while covering your mouth and this somehow piqued Kuroo’s interest. He was smiling and stared at you like an idiot for good 10 seconds. You looked at him, confused. Kuroo was stomping his feet excitedly when he watched your reaction.
“Oh shit. She is so cute and naive. I can’t do this!” Kuroo did not even realize he said it out loud. There you were hoping the blush did not get splotchy anywhere on your face. Being near this boy definitely would cause more damage.
Even after the games and joking around, Kuroo did not intend to leave his seat soon. He was trying hard to still engage a conversation with you like asking your favorite movies, what type of music you would listen to. Then he asked which elementary school did you went and after you gave him an aswer, he was practically gaping, mouth and eyes wide as if he was going to swallow a globe.
“No way. I went to that school too?!” Kuroo excitedly announced. How did that make sense? You never saw him.
“But I never knew you.”
Kuroo looked disappointed, his face was frowning, “Guess so. I transferred to other school when I was in Grade 2..”
You sighed but tried to sound cheerful, “.. and I transferred to that school in Grade 2. It’s crazy isn’t it? We did not get to meet that time but we’re bound to meet here! It felt like destiny!”
Kuroo’s eyes softened at your words. One thing you learned from his body language, Kuroo always looked amazed when you talked and reacted to him, as if you were an interesting subject worth to study about.
“Do you want to exchange our social media?” Kuroo asked. This guy have no ounce of shamelessness and it was attractive. You thought this would be great; a jumpstart to a budding friendship. A friendship with your crush? Insane actually. You nodded. He held out his smartphone to you and you reached your hand out but at the glimpse of moment, you felt his fingertip touched yours and it sent you to other realm. The time that was ticking paused as the serene wind of innocent romance came blowing the lonely petals in the flower garden. The contact made you shudder in bliss.
Time passed and it’s past dusk, the bus almost reached your destination but they had to stop at highway rest stop for the dinner. When the bus halted, Kuroo watched your movements before deciding to ask something. His eyes gleamed with excitement as he asked, “Let’s eat together?”
Eat together? With him? At that time, you’re having an extreme case of self-consciousness and it was not working in your favours. You could only imagine looking ugly while eating in front of him and he would probably never talk to you again. You shook your head, “Uhmm.. no since my friends aren’t going to.”
He scowled, “Aren’t you hungry?”
You shook your head again. His shoulders dropped low and he walked out of the bus. You breathed a sigh of relief. You leaned your head against the chair and played with your phone for good five minutes until you heard footsteps stomping on the bus to your seat. It was Kuroo again, now his rooster hair was wet; he probably went to the toilet. Kuroo gave you a ‘I-am-not-giving-up-yet’ grin, “Let’s have dinner together.”
He refused to give up. So you just followed him. It was insane that now you had to put up with eating with people you’ve never properly interacted. You just sat next to Kuroo at the end while surrounded by his classmates. Not a single classmate of yours were around. You ordered Karaage Don and Kuroo ordered Niku Udon. It seemed that his delicacy preference was quite exquisite and fancy… the thing he ordered was expensive and he’d change the beef option specifically into Kobe beef. Suddenly, you felt there was a distance between you and him and it made you glum. You ate silently while observing him and his classmates chatting. You had heard him talking about his volleyball practice schedules for next week. You almost forgot that this guy you’d taken liking into was actually a celebrity in his school.
After eating, Kuroo told you to go to the bus first because he wanted to buy some snacks at the mart. You nodded and just went back to your seat.
Kuroo then came towards you and showed a plastic bag consisted chocolates and snacks. Before he offered to it everyone else, he looked at you and gesturing you to take it first. Your heart melted. Kuroo was just a boy who loved to share his food and it was certain since the first day when he shared his Pringles. While rummaging the inside of plastic bag, you took the chocolate coated nuts in purple wrapping and said thank you. His eyes cracked into a crescent shape in return before he went to his classmates to distribute his remaining chocolates.
The ending page to your fairytale was almost near. The bus arrived at Nekoma High School to drop their students off first and you were ready to bid your final goodbye to him.. all of the Nekoma students departed from the bus except for him. He was looking unbothered at his seat. He was just done hanging up a phone call.
“You’re not leaving?” You asked concernedly. He laughed as he kept his phone inside his pocket, “Nah. I’m dropping at your school because my house is nearby the neighbourhood.”
Time felt short. His mother’s car had arrived before your parents did. He walked to his car and pulled up a quick wave to you and you gave him a smile hiding some sort of longing that you could never meet him again. It was such a bittersweet journey for you. He was endearing and nice to you until the end.
That night, you were barely asleep because you were in cloud nine. You kept rolling around on your bed because you could not believe a crush reciprocating is actually a thing! You took your phone that was now fully charged and searched for his social media that you exchanged with few hours ago. You smiled to yourself at his profile picture, he surely was a photogenic person because he looked good in photos as well as in real life. Then you started scrolling his tweets down and…
@tetsurou94: She’s toooooo innocent I just can’t.’ — 19/06/2013 4:41 PM
You looked at the details of the tweet, it was tweeted seven hours ago. Seven hours ago, huh? He was sitting next to you the entire journey. Just why..
Your heart dropped. Your hands trembled. Your tears pooled in your eyes. You drowned yourself into a deep sleep, unbelieving of what just occured..
A week later, your class had a post-mortem meeting for the camp for follow-up progression, you gathered with your nine classmates and teacher in charge for the camp. You were not feeling the discussion and you just bored your eyes at the stationeries until your teacher decided to spill a quick TMI. With your teacher’s revelations, your friends looked at you alarmed.
“Y/N-san, do you know that Kuroo’s parents were the ones that rented the bus?” Your classmate questioned. She did not mean harm but the question felt unsettling to you.
Now, aside from your friends, all of your classmates observed you, their eyes were widened mixed with full-fledged curiosity. Of course, everyone in the bus saw how he was sticking to you during the bus journey and he never had his eyes off of you. Everyone knew, he liked you.
You looked down, continued to doodle on the blank paper, “No, I don’t.”
How do these people expected you to react? Imagine the shock to know that Kuroo was a boy living in different league than yours. He was the school’s volleyball captain, his parents are the Head of Parents Teachers Association who sponsored the bus and you found out he lived in a fourth-tier villa with a swimming pool and his family members were quite high-class socialites. At this point, he seemed to be out of your reach and it felt like an agony clouding inside you. It was a chucklehead of you to think that you had a chance with him. He was too good to be true anyway.
After that partial goodbyes, Kuroo never tried to contact you again nor you did. It was quite mindless how he tugged with the strings of your fragile heart and left you alone to suffer with the memories of him. It was agitating to the very least.
The thoughts of him lingered in your mind every single day. Days became months and months became years. It was unreasonable that he had occupied some space inside your brain and lasted there for years. But he was just a first love that only your paths were meant to cross on that particular period of time.