Chapter Text
To Ayukawa, Iwata is very fascinating. He can’t resist wanting to be by her side, despite the fact that he knows that she likes Kamishiro. He feels at ease when he’s around her, and, in his opinion, they work very well together—demonstrated by the play and other instances—so he couldn’t resist walking over to help her hold up the thing that some other students had made while the glue dries. His dislike of how some other students treat her and ask her to do things that they didn’t want to do also contributed.
“I gotta say, I couldn’t tell what this thing was while they were making it, and now that it’s done, I still can’t tell what it is,” he remarked, holding the thing while it dries with Iwata.
She laughs at that statement, bringing a smile to his face in turn. She doesn’t know the extent of how much brightness she has brought into his life. Students continue to work on the festival around the class room. “Big festival, huh?” he said, making conversation. “My class in junior high only had a total of 7 people. Life in the city is completely different.”
“I’ve lived here forever and I’ve never experienced something like this,” she said in awe.
“Really?” he asked in disbelief.
A student called out from the other side of the room, capturing their attention momentarily. “Hey, we’re out of Duck Tape. Can I borrow someone’s bike to buy some more?” he asked.
“You can use mine,” a boy chimed up.
“I’ll go with you,” a girl said. The interaction went on similarly. Ayukawa then turns back to Iwata, both still holding up the thing while it dries.
“My hometown is on a mountain,” he continues. “None of the roads are paved so no one rides bikes. That’s why I don’t know how,” he said, opening up to her. Whenever he's with her, he feels a need to get to know her and for her to know him. This, he supposes, is why he told her this.
“Ohhhh, sounds like fun to be on a mountain, though. I haven’t been to many other cities, so I’d love to see it some day,” she said, smiling. This girl has no idea what she does to Ayukawa’s mind by saying this.
“Maybe… next summer? But, it’s a town, not a city,” Ayukawa states, basically soft-launching an invite for her to see his hometown with him. I’m being bold, he thinks.
He’s asking like it’s no big deal. Maybe that’s just how things are where he’s from. (It is in fact, not how things are where he is from. Iwata is simply unaware of the fact that Ayukawa likes her.)
A part of the thing begins to come off, and they move at the same time to re-secure it, touching hands in the process.
“Oh, sorry,” Ayukawa says quickly.
“It’s okay.”
The same spot began to peel off again. “I’ll hold it down.” Ayukawa shifted to have one hand on the peeling spot to keep it down while it dried.
His hands are bigger than I realized. But the way he moved shogi pieces was really graceful.
After a few moments, Ayukawa spoke up.
“Not that I mind,” and he truly didn’t mind, “but how long do we have to keep doing this?” At that, Kamishiro walks up, asked them what they are doing.
“We’re holding it until the glue dries,” Ayukawa answered. Kamishiro was kind of expecting the answer from Iwata, but this will do…
“How long is that gonna take?” inquired Kamishiro. The same question that Ayukawa had had a moment ago. Kamishiro deliberated for a moment. “Why not tie it up instead,” he asked more to himself than the little group. “Do we have any kinda’ string? Somethin’ long?” he asked a bit louder to the class. He just wanted to make Iwata’s life easier.
“Here.” A boy from across the room said, tossing Kamishiro a ball of string. Kamishiro then proceeded to tie up the thing to keep it stable as it dried. Kamishiro quickly walked away, slightly disappointing Iwata—Ayukawa noticed—leaving the other two standing there slightly awkwardly.
He doesn’t think he’s been this attentive of any other singular person in his entire life, yet the object of his affection has all of her attention on another.
***
It was time for the class-wide rock-paper-scissors tournament to see who would represent them in the inter-class match for the blackout curtains—blackout curtains that they would need to fully complete their space-themed classroom for the festival.. After an intense tournament between all of the students in the class, it was down to Ayukawa and Kamishiro in the finals.
Ayukawa didn’t particularly appreciate how loud and dramatic Izawa was being, but what can you expect, it’s Izawa. “In the red corner: Yota Ayukawa! In the blue corner: Koki Kamishiro!” Students were making an uproar, cheering for who they thought would win. (Where is the teacher in these circumstances?) Ayukawa stretched, straight-faced before the match commenced. (Bro, why are y’all stretching? It’s rock-paper-scissors!)
“Best of three?” Kamishiro asked, stretching as well.
“Just one round,” stated matter-of-factly, wanting to get this over with.
“Come on, man. No warm up?”
“Yeah, let’s go for it.”
“Hang on,” Kamishiro continued stretching. “Ok.”
Kamishiro held out his fist and waited for him to do the same.“Alright! Rock, paper, scissors…”
“Shoot.” Ayukawa threw rock, while Kamishiro had committed to scissors. Izawa and the other students went wild and Ayukawa held up his hand in triumph, the smug look on his face thinly veiled.
Kamishiro was doubled over in defeat. “Uh, he’s so good.”
Ayukawa was a bit smug, knowing that he had beaten Kamishiro at something. He glanced over at Iwata, and was a bit disappointed when she was focused intently on Kamishiro.
After a few moments of that, Kagawa informed him that it was time for the inter-class matches.
“You got this, Ayukawa!” a student threw out.
“We’re counting on you,” another student said. “Bring us home those curtains.” Ayukawa and Kagawa walked to the area where the inter-class matches would be held.
After a few tense minutes in the classroom, waiting for the results of the matches, Kagawa could be heard in the hallway humming. The classmates were stunned. This is very uncharacteristic for Kagawa. She opened the door, grinning from ear to ear. Ayukawa, completely concealed by blackout curtains, stood behind her. The class erupted in cheers. Their champion had indeed “brought home the blackout curtains.”
He had won match after match, collecting every curtain that was to be had. The students chanted his name as he walked through the door, draped in blackout curtains. It was almost cult-ish. Ayukawa’s incredible, Iwata thought.
“Whatever,” Izawa said under his breath. “I’m still the one who’s in charge here.”
“Psh, such a baby,” one classmate said in response to his comment. “What a huge ego,” another commented. The students of his class had had enough of his nonsense at this point.
As Ayukawa was walking to the other side of the classroom, he began to wobble due to his obscured vision. Iwata acted quickly to try and keep him from falling, but it was in vain. Ayukawa ended up falling anyway and Iwata ended up going down with him, to Ayukawa’s horror.
“Are you two okay?” a classmate exclaimed. Many other students echoed the concern.
“Sorry, I was just trying to help,” Iwata said softly.
“I landed on top of you,” Ayukawa began to sit up. “Sorry.”
“No, I’m fine!” Iwata was practically beaming at him. Much more of this and his heart wouldn’t be able to take it. “I’m stronger than I look.”
Ayukawa sat there admiring her for a moment before the teacher came in. “Time to start cleaning up. It’s almost 5:00. There’s a penalty for staying late.”
“Okay,” the students murmured, mostly in unison.