WILDFLOWER [Ryunosuke Tanaka x OC]

Chapter 7 - The Deal

❀

"Hey, butthead."

Crouched and leaning against the side of the gym, Tanaka panted in the cool shade, his head hung until he heard the voice of his favorite person. He squinted up through the spring sunshine, sweat trickling down his face, and found Kano Abe before him, appearing like a vision in a stunning white sundress. "'Butthead' is a weird way to say 'future husband', Kano," he teased with a smirk, "What's up? No practice today?" Kano's cheeks flared instantly, and Tanaka gave himself a mental pat on the back.

"I was going to invite you to a party Friday night, but if you're going to be like that... then I'll just invite the rest of the team and not you. Bye, dorkwad." She turned on her heel and marched off toward the open gym door, carefully avoiding the question about practice.

But Tanaka was faster.

He jolted to his feet in milliseconds, cutting her off before she could enter the gym full of horny teenage boys... the same ones who would definitely tease him about Kano making a scene. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's just backtrack a sec, babe," Tanaka chuckled with his hands on her shoulders, gently walking her backwards, away from the gym full of sweaty, shirtless dudes who might hit on her, "Tell me about this party! Where is it? Who's going? You gonna be there? Who's hosting?"

When they were out of panic radius of the gym, Tanaka wiped some of his sweat from his brow with the hem of his t-shirt, visibly distracting Kano with the peek of his abs he flashed her. In a futile attempt to re-anchor herself to reality (and not her strange new dreamscape of Tanaka's abs), Kano shifted her backpack higher on her shoulder before crossing her arms, keeping her expression neutral the entire time. "Yeah, I'm gonna be there. Nekoma is hosting a back to school celebration. All of you guys and the girls were invited, sooo pass it along? I'll text you the address later."

She walked off before he could answer.

"Wait! Where are you going looking so beautiful?!" he yelled after her, jogging to keep her in his sights.

Kano raised her middle finger and answered without looking by yelling over her shoulder, "Wouldn't you like to know?" Her voice seemed wrong, broken, and tired. But Tanaka couldn't push her about it, because she disappeared beyond the schoolyard and into the city.

Without thinking too hard about how Kano could've been invited to a Nekoma party or about her cryptic reply, Tanaka already knew he was attending the party. There was no way in hell that he would let Kano attend a Nekoma party alone.

Over his dead body.

Over his probably unrequited love.

Over his pining heart.

❀

That night, Tanaka sat huddled over his homework at the table in their dining room, grumbling and groaning about his complicated English homework, when he received a text.

Grateful for the distraction and secretly hoping it was Kano, he dove for his phone, only to be intercepted by his sister. Saeko stood over him in sweats, a mug of steaming tea in one hand and his phone in the other. "You and Kano are texting regularly now?" she smirked, raising an eyebrow at her little brother. "What a development, Ryu... are you gonna give her a nickname soon? Or borrow her pencil? Actually, it's taken you two years to pluck up the courage to get here, so maybe you should take it slower than that. You don't want to scare the poor girl."

"Shut the fuck up, Saeko! Give me my damn phone back!" Ryunosuke shouted, punching her in the back of the knee to try and make her fall or drop his phone. He knew his ears were hot, which meant the rest of his face was just as flushed, but he needed to know what Kano texted him. "It might be about homework!" he lied, hoping Saeko would believe the fib.