SECRET ; SHIRABU

十一

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"No, wait but what's up with his hair? Why are his bangs cut in such a dumb way", Natsumi asked while laughing at the picture of Kenjiro that Seito was showing her.

Seito chuckled a bit, "It's actually really funny, this year for April first his younger siblings decided to prank him while he sleeps and well I may have accidentally left some scissors laying around their house for them and they just cut his bangs like this."

Natsumi laughed again, this time her smile was softer as she heard Seito talk excitedly about his boyfriend and his family. "And he just slept through it? Damn, not even I am such a heavy sleeper."

"It was just after a tournament, I think, or some practice match, so he was really tired."

"Wait, he also practices a sport? How did you score yourself a guy like that, Seito? Give me some advice!" Natsumi exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest in offense. "I have been trying to get Sugawara's attention for such a long time and you never once thought about giving me advice?"

"Uh, I'm sorry? But really we got only together because he was fed up with pretending to only like me as a friend and shouted at me for being too scared to make the first move." Seito told her with a nostalgic look on his face.

Suddenly Natsumi stood up, "Okay, that's enough you're just pissing me off now. And from now on I expect your help with Sugawara. So let's go."

They got up and Seito decided that on the way he could also show her a picture of him and Kenjiro that they took over the weekend, it felt wonderful to be able to share all of this with his best friend.

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(the pic seito showed her)

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The boys in the gymnasium could hear a loud scream as they were practicing their receive. Immediately all heads turned towards the door, which resulted in Hinata getting hit in the face by a ball once again. 

Not really caring, the others still looked at the door, unsure if they should go outside to look who screamed and why.

Luckily no one had to sacrifice themself, because a few moments later the doors were pushed open by a smiling Seito and a somewhat shocked and annoyed Natsumi. This was a first seeing as Seito was almost all the time serious and Natsumi was more of a sunshine, never really being annoyed by anything; not even Tanaka and Noya.

Seeing as the team was now distracted and there were two new people in the gymnasium, Ukai decided that it was time for a small break.

Sugawara was the first one to stand next to the duo, looking at Natsumi, who didn't even greet him, "Hi, Natsumi and Seito", he said with a smile on his face.

"Hey, how was practice up until now?", Seito asked.

"The usual, though, Hinata got hit in the face by a ball when we heard a scream or something outside", he responded, looking at Natsumi whose expression darkened at his last words.

Finally she spoke up, "Oh, really? We didn't hear anything, seems strange."

"Boys, get back on the court!" Ukai shouted from somewhere.

Sugawara looked in his direction and sighed, "I'll talk with you later."

"Yeah", Natsumi said with a dreamy smile and then turned to Seito, suddenly being  serious. "You can't just show me something like that and then play it off like it's nothing!"

"Hm? It was just a picture though, nothing special. You really didn't have to screech like that," Seito shrugged her words off.

"I didn't have to screech like that?" she asked, her voice getting louder, realizing this, she immediately switched to whisper-shouting at Seito, "Are you serious right now? I just saw a picture of you and your boyfriend hugging and being cute and shit. I have NEVER seen something like that. Up until now, I couldn't even imagine you showing any kind of affection towards someone other than me and Akemi."

"Could you please talk a bit quieter? I don't really want everyone to know about this", he looked around nervously, his eyes glancing back and forth between the practicing boys and the managers. "And really, it took some time for me to get this comfortable around him. You know you're my best friend, that's why I actually show you some affection, I don't want you to leave me and well, Akemi, she's a bit of a special case."

Natsumi was at first moved by his kind words, then however furrowed her brows before asking him, "What do you mean Akemi is a special case? Don't tell me you're poly and are in a relationship with her and this guy."

Seito looked at her in disgust, "What? No, never! Akemi's his cousin. And was the first one to figure out that we had feelings for each other, even before either of us."

"Wait so that's why you're so friendly to her and always talk with her. I could have never guessed, I sometimes really thought you two were secretly dating or something."

"Yeah, no, Akira's more into those happy-go-lucky guys who seem like baddies at first. So I'm not really her type."

Natsumi nodded at that, she could somewhat understand the younger girls' attraction to those kinda guys. "Anyway, do I get to meet your lover or something, I still have to do my duty as your best friend."

Seito looked at her amusedly, "And what would that duty be?"

"Just checking if he's good enough for you," She said while smiling menacingly at him, Seito just sweatdropped at that, already regretting telling her about his relationship. She would never stop with the teasing.

"But I don't get any say whether or not Sugawara's good enough for you?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Natsumi deadpanned at that, "Uh, yeah no, you don't. We both know that he's perfectly imperfect and if anything I should worry if I'm good enough for him."

Just in that moment Sugawara returned, practice now over, "What are you talking about?"

Natsumi flinched, not having noticed that practice was over. "Nothing important. Are you already finished?"

Sugawara knew something was up, but just let it be, it really wasn't his business what the two were talking about, "Yup, we're going to the grocery store after changing, do you wnat to join us? You of course too, Mizuno."

Before Setio could even think about refusing the offer, Natsumi stepped onto his foot, shutting him up, and responded in his stead, "Yeah, we would love to, we're gonna wait outside."

"Great!" Koshi smiled one of his brightest smiles and went over to his teammates to help them finish up.

"Oh, he's just amazing."

"You know, if you continue to just secretly simp over him, you two will never get together," Seito said from behind her, "Just a small piece of advice from the person with a boyfriend here."

Nastumi turned around and stepped on his foot once again, "Shut up, let's just go outside."

"But I thought you wanted advice from —"

"Yeah, but I wanted useful advice and because you can't give me that you better shut up and introduce me to your boyfriend, maybe he can help me."