𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐌𝐞// 𝐾. 𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑘𝑒

03

—Morning came by a bliss and Noriko just realized what the hell just happened last night. She cursed herself for a good ten minutes after waking up. Why did I do that? Why am I bothering myself for the both of them and why is my conscience not shutting up!?

Riko sighed. She grumpily jump out of bed and did her morning rituals. She stare at her reflection and frowns noticing that she looked pale again. She shrug her thoughts away and got ready for school. She slings her bag on her shoulder and steps out of her room, ignoring Ayane but then she remembers what she and Kita talked about so she took a step back and looks at her step sister startling the girl a little bit.

"I told Kita he can walk you to school today, you wouldn't mind right? Since you guys are a thing or whatever. " She shrugs her shoulder, a lazy but playful smile on her lips.

Ayane was taken a back because first of all it's not everyday that Noriko talks to her, second they clearly dislike each other and third, why would she do that?

Ayane forced a smile to her and Noriko saw that making her internally applaud herself for irritating the girl early in the morning. Noriko casually slip her hand on her skirt and started walking away leaving Ayane on the hallway feeling annoyed that she has to deal with this first thing in the morning.

Noriko left earlier than usual and as soon as she steps out her house her eyeballs almost popped out from her sockets when she sees the familiar back of Kita Shinsuke, he was leaning on their gate and he was looking at the ground. She suddenly felt bad for giving him the idea. Now he looked stupid standing there.

"Kita-san. Good morning." Noriko walks up to him, he turns around and sees a freshly looking Noriko, her hair for once wasn't in a ponytail since it's still a little wet. Kita froze on his spot. Totally not prepared to see her in another style, she looked even prettier than the usual. What the heck.

"H-Hi.." he barely whispers his eyes never leaving Noriko. The girl smiles at him and stops a meter away from him. She took a moment to look at her house and back to Kita who looks a little in daze.

"You're here early.." Noriko gives him a little smile, her hands playing with the little keychain of her bag.

Kita looks away. He shyly scratches his nape looking down on his shoes feeling a little shy all of a sudden.

"Sorry, I didn't know what time I should be here." He responds to her. Noriko nods. "Well it won't take long before she comes out. Hope you have a good morning Kita." The girl bids her goodbye to him and starts to leave when suddenly his hand held the end of her bag making her halt.

"Uhm.." he trails off. Not sure what to say and why he did that. His hand move out of instinct. "Yes?" Noriko asks him.

"Thank you." He whispers under his breath and Noriko laughs a little. Her delicate hands held his fingers softly, both suddenly feeling short electricity after the skin contact. They both jump and looked at each other with startled expressions.

Noriko gulps and retracts her hand hesitantly, she hides it behind her and gives him a small bow. Not voicing out the feeling she just felt. She foughts the urge to blush and didn't think twice to run off just like that not even properly bidding the boy goodbye who stood there, once again, frozen.

"Kita senpai! Good morning~"

----

What was that? Noriko kept asking herself while she was sipping her juice. She avoided any kind of interaction with the boy after that. She didn't even dare to look at him the whole morning and Kita was a little disturbed about that worried that he might've upset her. He didn't think much about what happened earlier, infact all he can think about right now aside from Noriko was how happy the short walk with Ayane was. He definitely should've done this before.

"Senpai, how'd you know my house by the way?" Ayane asked while they were eating together at lunch time. For some reason, the other volleyball players didn't like the girl beside their captain but they can't really say that now.

"Ah. Kunigami-san told me last night, she happens to be in the same convenience store I was in. " He answers, his mind wanders back to the short events that happened.

Ayane nods her head, "Hope she didn't say anything bad about me.." she jokes and Kita shook his head a small smile forming on his lips.

"Why would she? You guys are siblings right?" He asked her. Ayane bit her lips and just nod, she gets it. No one really knows about the feud between the two and she shouldn't be irritated at him but Ayane just wanted to leave at that moment feeling irked by the question.

"Kunigami? You mean the hot third year in your class senpai?" Suna joins the conversation after a couple seconds of silence. Kita nods his head and looks at the boy.

" Please refrain from saying she's hot, that's very inappropriate." Kita scolds his teammate a little and Suna just smirks lazily at him.

"Sorry, but she's cool isn't she?" He asks again, Kita raises his eyebrows at him. "Do you personally know Kunigami-san?"

"Hmm, not really. But she's really popular." Suna answers, his mind curious as to why Kita seemed interested with the said girl when Ayane is literally beside him, frowning. But Suna can't blame him, everyone is interested with Noriko after all.

"I see.." he quietly responds to Suna, totally ignoring the fact that he felt a little uneasy after knowing that.

But why though?