Chapter Text
Being assigned as classmates was already bad.
“Whoever got 3A, raise your hand.” The teacher called out.
Becoming seatmates was even worse.
Two arms are raised and they both quickly meet each other's eyes from across the classroom. Her eyes are no stranger to his, and his are no stranger to hers. They both realize who they got as their seatmate for the rest of the year, and they aren’t exactly happy about it.
Shock and dread fills his body, refusing to believe that his seatmate for this entire school year is none other than Shiraishi An. As he finally processes it, he groans as he rolls his eyes. “Great…” He mutters under his breath. Akito would’ve loved sitting with anyone else in this class. He already deals with her crap every other time of the day, now they have to sit together.
An is barely able to focus during assembly, how is she gonna focus with him beside her? Akito already knows she’s gonna start chirping in his ear every single second. He sighs as he picks up his desk and walks over to 3A. As An is also picking up her desk, he watches as she somewhat struggles carrying both her desk and chair at the same time.
“You need help–”
“Nope.”
He shrugged as he leaned on his desk, watching as she dropped the chair and attempted to pick it back up. After what felt like forever, she finally aligned her desk with his. An sighed happily as she leaned on her desk.
Only for her to push the desk back and eventually cause her to nearly fall.
The teacher sighed as she watched this happening, she knew—no, the entire class knew how disruptive these two can be. They’ve all heard the amount of times both their names have been called to the principals office over the P.A. Its only the first week of school and they’re both already on warning for passing paper airplanes in class.
As An fixes her desk and decides to not lean on it this time, she glances at Akito and he knows that she knows exactly how he’s feeling. Well, he was making it pretty obvious anyways. His arms were crossed and he had a killer scowl on his face. He wasn’t trying to hide how he wasn’t exactly fond of this, he was more so trying to announce how he wasn’t pleased with this seating arrangement.
He sees from the corner of his eye An huffing as she looks away from him, hand on her hip. “I’m not happy about this too, you know.” Akito rolls his eyes as he looks at her. “Really? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure the one who threw the first paper airplane was you.”
An scoffed, acting offended as if it wasn’t true.
“Yeah well…” She tries to think of something to say, but he knows that look on her face. It’s the same look on her face she has during practice when he tells her that takoyaki before practice isn’t good for her vocal chords. Translation: it’s the look she has on her face when she wants to bite back, but knows she’s wrong. An just looks away, mumbling something that he can’t quite make out—not that he wants to know what she said anyways.
They haven’t even sat down yet and they’re already bickering.
Akito walked to the nearby convenience store with his friends after school, complaining about how he was dreading sitting next to An during class. He opened the fridge as he bent down to grab a drink. “So if you hate her so much, why are you even friends with her?” His friend asked as he scratched the back of his neck, leaning his back on the glass of the fridge.
“What?” Akito looked back at his friend after he said that, standing up straight and closing the fridge. He didn’t hate An… Not at all. He would never hate her. “I don’t hate her… She just—I already struggle enough in class, I don’t need her to distract me even further.” He grumbles as he looks at the drink he got.
Sure he talks about all the things An has done to his friends, says he hates her and stuff… But he doesn’t mean it. Akito glances back at his friend who just nods. He looked like he had something else to say, but was holding back.
He just ignored it and they both paid for their snacks before grouping back with their friends outside. Akito wasn’t exactly in the mood for immersing himself in whatever topic the rest of the guys were talking about, and his friend definitely noticed. He felt a nudge on his arm as his friend glanced at him.
“Hey, cheer up.” His friend said as he offered him a piece of the bread he bought—which Akito declined. “Maybe she won’t be the nuisance you expect her to be.”
“Yeah, right.” Akito scoffed, taking a sip of his drink. “In my dreams.”
His friend just shrugged. “Just watch, maybe you’ll grow to actually like her company.”
Akito groaned, scratching his nape as he looked at his friend. “You just—You don’t get it, okay?” He doesn’t dislike her company, that's not the reason he’s not looking forward to this seating arrangement. “I don’t hate her company, I don’t hate her, okay? I just think she’s going to bother me during class. I mean we’re already on our first warning… And that time we weren’t even seated together.”
His grip on his bag tightens as he looks away. “Just… Whatever. Let’s just drop this subject and talk about something that won’t stress me out.” He huffs.
“Sounds good to me”
Akito tried his best for the rest of the day to just think positively, maybe An wasn’t actually going to mess with him. Maybe she’s just as worried he’ll distract her like how he’s worried. Then he remembers this is An he’s talking about. When is she not going to mess with him?
And lo and behold, as the next day rolled by, he was right. Well, semi-right. He could barely focus at all during class, everything about him apparently was ‘distracting her.’
“Can you move your papers off my desk?”
“Stop tapping your pencil.”
“Why is your chair so close to mine? I barely have any space.”
“Stop tapping your foot.”
“You’re breathing too loud.”
From his papers to his breathing, he was somehow ‘being a bad seatmate.’
Literally how?!
Every single command she made, the sharper his glare was at her. Tapping his pencil? Sure, he understands. How was his breathing distracting?? It’s not like he’s doing it on purpose, he’s just trying to live. Akito thought she’d be annoying him by poking at his sides or something, but this is much worse.
“Akito—” Before she could even finish her sentence, he just groaned and rolled his head back. “Oh my God, what do you want from me?!” He lightly slammed his fist into his desk, looking directly at her. An gave him a flat, unimpressed stare.
“I was just saying… The teacher has been calling on you to answer number 7.” Her lips twitched to a dry half smile.
Oh.
Akito snapped his head towards the teacher, where he saw her staring at him as well as the rest of the class. He cleared his throat as he looked down at his paper, trying to read the question when he heard An hum behind him. He couldn’t afford to waste more time so he shot her a sideways glare as he answered the question.
“That was incorrect. Shinonome-kun, if you continue to zone out then I’ll have to see you after class.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
An rested her chin on her palm as she gave him a thin teasing smile.
He took that as a challenge. After this, for the next following weeks, Akito made it a goal to breathe louder, obnoxiously tap his pen more often and purposely move his files onto her desk.
An knew what he was doing, obviously. She wasn’t going to let this silent war between them be too easy for him. She started observing and seeing what she did that he found annoying.
She found out that Akito absolutely couldn’t stand the sound of her humming when she was deep in thought, or the sound of her hair brushing. So she started doing it more often, which obviously he noticed. The two of them didn’t bring this to lunch or practice, it stayed strictly inside the classrooms.
The silent glares and the pleased smirk they both gave each other became something they both grew used to seeing.
So when Akito walks in one day, late for class and sees that the teacher hasn’t yet arrived, he sighs of relief.
But it looks like neither has An. Her seat next to him is empty, and he’s confused. Sitting down anyway, he looks around confused. Was this a joke?
Was she trying to prank him?
But when he gets a notification from the VBS groupchat, he quickly opens his phone.
#VBS!!!
6:42 AM
An : gyus, i cant make it to practice tdy
An : o(╥﹏╥)o
7:02 AM
Kohane : Oh nooooo !! ૮◞ ‸ ◟ ა
Kohane : Get well soon, An-chan !! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡
An : THANK YOU KOHANEEEE ( ˶˘ ³˘)♡
Now it makes sense. An caught a fever. He couldn’t deny, he saw how sluggish she was during practice last night, even if it was ever so subtle—a shorter high note or less body control in a movement she usually does perfectly. Akito sighed as he taps his foot, trying to figure out a response.
He usually never does that, but ever since he’s been trying to annoy An, it’s become muscle memory.
8:38 AM
Akito : get well soon an
Akito : dont eat ice cream
She responds almost immediately
An : bruh
An : i wasnt even thinkign of it but ill do it now just for u (¬､¬)
He scoffs, but there’s no actual annoyance in it
Akito : im gna shoot u i swear
An : dont miss me too much in class !!
An : and thank u
Akito : ಠ_ಠ
Him? Miss her? Actually, he’s gonna make the most of her absence. He’ll note everything down, answer every question the teacher asks. And by the time she comes back, she’s gonna be left speechless as she watches him ace every quiz.
Yeah.
He’s definitely not gonna miss her.
Akito : lol in ur dreams
Akito : get some rest
An : yeah
An : i will
An : ദ്ദി(˶ •̀ ᴗ -˶)
Her and those stupid kaomojis.
Well, he can’t think too much about her, right? He has a goal that he has to achieve by the end of the day and thats to make an academic comeback.
After the first class ends, Akito does not remember anything the teacher said. But that’s okay, it was physics anyways and he’s never exactly been a STEM guy. He gets over it and enters his next class, Math.
As he tries to pay attention to what the teacher is saying, his mind starts to wander.
“Wonder how she got sick.”
He quickly realizes that he was drifting off when he hears the sound of papers flipping in the classroom and the sound of the teacher telling everyone to turn to page 32.
When the teacher dismisses the class, he realizes he doesn’t remember anything he said either. Now he’s panicking a little bit. But dont fret, Math has never been his strong suit either.
As the bell rings for that class, he packs his stuff and goes on his phone. After a few minutes, he looks up and realizes that he’s alone.
“You’re so fast… Wait for me.” An pleads as she tries to fit all her books and unnecessary accessories into her bag.
Akito just nods, not even looking at her as he scrolls through his socials. “I’m here… Chill.”
Must’ve just been muscle memory.
He shrugs it off and walks out of the classroom, mindlessly walking. When he looks around and doesn’t find his locker anywhere, he realizes he’s been going in the wrong direction. He usually walks with An to her locker first before walking to his own. He sighs as he turns around to walk to his own locker.
“What is up with me today?” He thinks to himself.
A message he read earlier that day then pops back up into his mind.
“Dont miss me too much.”
He scoffed at the thought of her message. As if her absence was getting to him… It wasn’t and it never would.
For the rest of the day, he can’t seem to focus. He’s not doing anything else, but he can’t seem to hear what the teachers are saying as it just slips from his mind the second it tries to land.
Akito leans back in his chair, scratching his head trying to process whatever the teacher just said. But when he glances over at An’s empty seat, that’s when it clicks to him.
The little humming.
The hairbrushing.
The obnoxious drinking.
The tapping on the desk.
He’s gotten so used to An’s presence, he can’t seem to focus in class without her annoying little habits in the background. No way…
Akito groaned as he adjusted his collar, brows furrowed. He must actually be going crazy if he’s missing her presence that much.
“Dont miss me too much.”
He shook his head, attempting to shoo his memory of that message away but obviously, it doesn’t work. He glances at the clock and sees that class is nearly over. He knows he isnt allowed to do this, but it wouldnt hurt to try.
An
11: 43 AM
Akito : how are you feeling?
She reads his message almost instantly.
A beat before she responds.
An : told u u’d miss me
He rolls his eyes at her response.
An : im doing better
Akito : get some more rest
Akito : we need u for practice tmr
An : i WAS getting rest
An : u woke me up (¬､¬)
Akito : we both know i didnt
Akito : u are a heavy sleeper
Akito : ಠ_ಠ
An : bruh
An : ok whatever
An : have fun at school ( ˶˘ ³˘)
An : we can talk after
An : (˶ •̀ ᴗ -˶)
Akito smiles as he reads her last message. When he turns his phone off and catches his reflection, his smile quickly drops.
He groans in frustration as the bell finally rings for lunch.
He’s barely halfway through the day and he’s already acting like an idiot. He decides that he refuses to let this get to him and stands up, grabbing his bag and walking to the cafeteria.
Akito spends lunch talking to Toya and their other friends, relieved that he’s finally talking to someone so he isn’t left alone with his thoughts.
As he goes on with the rest of his day, he tries his best to focus on the subjects and tasks he has to finish, trying his hardest not to glance over at the empty seat next to him.
When the final bell rings, he’s the first one out of his seat. With his reaction time he might as well just become a track runner.
As he’s walking out of the school, he bumps into his friend, the one from the convenience store. The one that told him he’d grow to like An’s presence.
“Yo.” Nodding at each other they both ended up walking home together since they lived in the same neighborhood. He’s in a class with Toya and Mizuki, so he often just talks about what they’ve been doing in class and such.
They both stay silent for a beat.
“My friend said you seemed out of it during class,” that made Akito furrow his brows, looking at his friend next to him. “What’s up?”
He didn’t really wanna talk about this. But hey, maybe it’ll help him since he hasn’t really told anyone. “Nah, I guess you were right.” He placed his hand on his nape, looking straight head.
“How so?”
“I do like her company.”
His friend was about to ask who’s, but he quickly realized by himself. He chuckled softly as he looked straight ahead as well. “Right, my friend told me she was absent.”
Akito clicked his tongue as he watched the guy next to him try to cover his laugh, he nudged his elbow to his arm, shoving his hands into his pockets after. “Whatever.”
Inside? He was going crazy. Why was he feeling like this? He’d see her again tomorrow anyway.
As the next day rolled by, he entered the classroom and saw those same eyes talking to Nene who sat in front of them. He sighed of relief, then snapped back into reality and shook his head. Why was he so worried?
As he made his way to his seat, he ruffled her hair.
“Hey–!!” She snapped her head to look at him, before grumbling a little.
“Have some pity… I missed a whole day of school, not that you probably cared.” She rolled her eyes.
He sat down as he heard the familiar sound of her fingers tapping on the desk.
Oh, if only she knew.