fate, destiny, & love

41 | allegro assai

41

allegro assai [it.] — very quick

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ever since that day, quqi found it difficult to look at kageyama in the eye. whenever she made eye contact with him, memories of what happened that day would automatically play in her head and she would have to look away in embarrassment. hence, she used the tactic that her secondary school teacher had once taught her: if you cannot bring yourself to look into someone's eyes, you should look at their eyebrows instead, so that it would look as though you were still making eye contact.

presently, they were in their elective class, and they had to do a couple of quick sketches of each other by having people to go up front and model while everyone else tries to sketch them out in under ten minutes.

"can we have a volunteer, please?" machida-sensei asked and looked at the students, his gaze flitting between different students before settling on kageyama, "kageyama-kun! could you go first?"

kageyama's eyes widened in shock, but they soon returned to their normal size and he nodded, "okay."

he stood up and walked to the front of the class, where machida-sensei had already placed a chair under a bright lamp for him to use as a prop while modelling. awkwardly, kageyama sat down on the chair and laced his fingers together, looking over at machida-sensei for suggestions.

"you could strike a pose while sitting," machida-sensei offered helpfully.

slowly, kageyama chewed his bottom lip in deep thought before hiking his left leg up onto the chair and resting his arm on it. machida-sensei walked over to adjust the angle of the lamp before clapping his hands together, "okay class, your ten minutes starts now." that signalled the start of the ten-minute sketch, and the sound of pencils scratching against paper soon followed as everyone lifted their head in random intervals of their choice to study kageyama before looking back down to continue sketching.

quqi, who was seated up front, had trouble not staring for too long. with him posing that way in that light, he looked... attractive. charming, even. his side profile was illuminated warmly and his usually cold eyes were softened somehow...

"huan-san, don't stop moving your pencil," machida-sensei's voice pulled quqi out of her thoughts and nearly surprised her, causing her to almost drop the black mechanical pencil in her hands.

"sorry," she muttered before ducking her head down to stare at her sketchbook on the desk. quickly, she moved her pencil across the blank paper, drawing up kageyama's basic figure before adding in his eyes, hair, nose, and mouth.

meanwhile, kageyama subtly shifted his gaze over to her from where he was seated. he watched her stare intensely at her sketchbook while her hand moved across the paper deftly. he watched as she chewed on her lower lip, then stuck her tongue out at the side of her mouth before, all with a concentrated frown on her face. subconsciously, his lip curled upwards slightly at this endearing sight. however, he froze the moment her head tilted upwards and they locked gazes. his eyes widened and he averted them quickly, an undeniable pink flush creeping up onto his cheeks.

she didn't see that, did she? he thought and he crossed his fingers that she never caught him staring so blatantly at her.

unfortunately, she did. she knew that he had been staring the moment they locked eyes. she ducked her head down again and continued sketching, a small smile playing at her lips, cute.