Connect

25: Naoki

There are moments during which the cogs of your mind abruptly stop spinning and a little switch in your head flips. Suddenly, something clicks into place and you realize something, you make sense of something. You're left wondering why you didn't figure it out before.

I had a lot of those moments. This was one of them.

"Naoki!" I yelled at him. He chuckled and nodded, stepping away from me.

"That's right," he said.

"Why are you here?"

"I skipped a year," he answered.

"That doesn't mean anything," I mumbled. "Gakupo, you gave this guy my phone number!"

"Huh?" Gakupo frowned. "Yeah, you asked me to give it to Kaito's friend, remember?"

"I asked you to give it to Kaito because you were his friend!" I snapped, covering my mouth with my hands as I realized that Kaito was standing right there. "S-Sorry..."

"It's nothing," Kaito said. "I was stressed out back then, and you were trying to help."

I nodded slowly. Even though Kaito had rejected me, that didn't mean that he wasn't a nice guy. He was very nice, in fact. That was why I couldn't stop liking him.

Bzzz.

I looked down at my pocket, and then up at Naoki. He held his phone in his hands.

"Stop texting me," I said.

"Why?"

"Because we're standing in front of each other."

Naoki grinned and sauntered closer. "Are you suggesting we take this relationship a step further?" He bent down slightly so that we were closer. The minty scent emanating from him was suffocating. I scowled and pushed him away.

"Stop," I said. "Don't do that."

He chuckled, putting his hands in the pockets of his black jeans and looking back at Gakupo and Kaito. "The green flower wants to get physical already."

I blushed and bit my lip, wanting to slap him across the face. He turned to look at me and Kaito stepped forward, smacking Naoki's back, making the pink haired boy cough.

"Stop it," Kaito said. "Sorry about that, Gumi."

"It's fine," I said quickly, watching as Naoki continued to cough, his hands on his knees.

"M-Made me choke on my gum..." Naoki mumbled, getting back to full height.

"Let's get to class," Kaito pulled Naoki along. "Gakupo, get going."

"Right," Gakupo nodded and walked past me.

"Well, I'll see you later, Megpoid," Naoki turned and waved to me, winking. Some part of me wanted to flip him off but I didn't think he was worthy of even that sort of gesture.

"Naoki..." I muttered, turning on my heel and hurrying to get my schedule. I pulled out my phone to take a look at the time.

1 new message.

I grimaced, recalling that Naoki had sent me something while we were standing face to face.

Naoki: it's Yuma, not Naoki.

I didn't reply to him. Instead, I just went on ahead and got my schedule, groaning as soon as I saw it. My day started with Science. I tried to convince myself that this was for the better, as I'd hopefully be more alert if this particular class was the first thing I had in the morning.