Love Live! Sparkling Future!!

Chapter 11 ~ The Unexpected Star

Time seems to pause for both parties as the two best friends and the young man stare awkwardly at each other; neither one of them could move or speak at that moment as they take in the awkward situation that they're currently in.

Yu bits her lower lip in both anxiety and frustration as she glances nervously between the young man she has accidentally kicked the cursed bottle onto and her best friend. The pinkette blushes furiously while staring at the stranger in front of them; it's obvious that she feels bad for what happened just now as well. Her hands are still covering her mouth while she keeps her gaze locked on him. The pinkette's eyes are glued to his green ones as they continue to look at each other wordlessly.

Yu can feel the heat rushing into her cheeks as she notices how those eyes look like they are gazing directly into her soul. There's no ill intent behind them. No hostility or anger whatsoever. They're simply surprised by what occurred earlier.

There is no way she can get her legs moving at this point—especially not after embarrassing herself like that in front of them—so Yu settles on staring right back at the pair of emerald eyes gazing intensely at her. Despite their calm exterior, she can detect a hint of uncertainty within them—the kind of look someone gets when they aren't sure what they're doing or how to handle a certain situation. But underneath that uncertainty is an underlying curiosity about what exactly transpired between them and why the bottle flew off in his direction in the first place.

She gulps nervously, feeling her heart thump loudly in her chest. She knows that she has to say something to break this silence, but her brain refuses to cooperate with her body right now. So she remains frozen in place and continues staring at the young man in front of her, her mouth tightly shut and her tongue refusing to move.

If there's a huge rock nearby, she wouldn't hesitate to bury her head into it at this point—anything to hide from the embarrassment she feels right now.

The boy blinks several times in rapid succession before looking down at the bottle laying beside his feet. He then raises his gaze back up to meet hers again before glancing towards Ayumu. Without uttering anything, he slowly and awkwardly bends down and picks up the item in question. Straightens himself again, he holds the bottle in his hand in confusion, as if he's very unsure what to do next.

"U-Uhm..." The stranger—blesses his heart—speaks up hesitantly while drumming his fingers lightly against the plastic container, "N-Nice... kick...?"

Yu's brain finally snaps back into working order once his words reach her ears. A wave of embarrassment floods through her, and her body trembles violently as she feels the overwhelming desire to facepalm herself right then and there. Why did she even kick the water bottle in the first place? This was incredibly embarrassing for both sides! What a stupid, idiotic decision this was!

"S-Sir, I am so, so, so, SO sorry about what happened." She apologizes sincerely with an embarrassed expression on her face while she bows at a perfect 90° angle, "I swear that i-it wasn't intentional. Honest! I was... u-uhm... being myself, a-and just... y-you know... acting on impulse and stuff."

"U-Uhm, no, no, no. It's okay, miss." The stranger reassures her quickly as he waves both hands in front of his body defensively, "N-No one is getting hurt anyway. And y-your intention was... w-well, it was obviously an... an accident."

Yu, still embarrassed beyond belief, manages to slowly lift her head back up and peer at the young man in front of her, although she still maintains her body in its bowing position.

"S-Still, I want to apologize." She insists with an apologetic look on her face, "That was really stupid of me, a-and I shouldn't have done that. And I-I'm sorry again for hurting you!"