Pickles ||Inumaki x Reader||

Fourteen || Nerf Guns

-Art by suu_a_maa on Twitter-

My thumb traced around the rubber button on the remote in my right hand before I pressed it angrily. And then again. And again.

I huffed, eyes glued to the television screen we never managed to fix as it changed from channel to channel. Despite how focused I must have seemed while trying to find something to watch, I wasn't interested in it in the slightest. In fact, the real dilemma was not choosing an anime to watch but instead the source of the shuffling sounds coming from the area behind me.

To be more specific, I was bothered about Toge who waddled around the communal kitchen doing god knows what.

It was only last week when I finally told Maki about my feelings for him, meaning it had been a whole week of failed confession attempts. I really did try to tell him but it felt like the universe was against the idea completely.

The first time was the day after I cried to the taller girl. I had planned to tell him after training and spent the entire morning building up the courage, only for it to fall back down to my ankles when Panda body slammed me while I was distracted, resulting in me spending the rest of the afternoon in Shoko's infirmary to recover from the concussion. The second time was worse. A couple of days later, I thought it would be a better idea to bribe Toge into saying yes by buying him some flowers. The catch was I forgot about his pollen allergy and, to make a long story short, I never managed to ask him out because I was too busy trying to stop him from dying when he began wheezing with a red face and runny eyes. And last but not least, when I eventually gave up and decided to text him my confession. This one was going well at first since I was building the tension and setting the scene, but just as I was about to type the question that had been on my mind, the turd Yuji stole my phone and sent him the most atrocious, disgusting and unforgivable photo of me you'd ever see in your life. Despite Toge finding it funny, I simply couldn't bring myself to tell him how I felt after something like that.

The embarrassing memories made me blush as I hid my face in my hands, groaning loudly. It had to be today that I told him, no matter what happened I would tell Toge that I liked him.

Reason for that being was thanks to Maki for the most part. Although she did find it hilarious of how badly my past efforts went, she was really eager for me to get it over with- probably because she was tired of being the only person I actually complained to about the whole ordeal, save for Yuta who rarely had time to answer my damn calls anymore.

She told me that if I managed to confess to Toge by the end of the day, she would buy me a Nexus Pro Nerf gun. And what sort of idiot wouldn't take up a deal like that? So with a strong handshake and a firm nod, we had ourselves an agreement.

I didn't realise how much thought she must have put into it because now that the day in question had finally arrived, it occurred to me that there was very little that could go wrong. Toge and I were the only ones in the whole campus since the first years were sent on a task to investigate a string of murders while Maki and Panda were also on their own missions. Even most of the teachers were out of town for their own business.

But with everyone out of the way, I was still struggling to think of a way to serenade the lavender-eyed boy; hence why it was already noon when I was still sitting on the couch like a sloth instead of making moves on the boy who buzzed about in the background.

My eyes trailed the long crack on the half-working television that ran from the top right corner all the way across and then down the flat screen as the show it played continued to flicker, courtesy of a drunken Kamo from last weeks party. With a sharp breath, I grabbed the remote and swiftly turned it off before making my way into the kitchen behind.