Guarded (Sugawara x OC)

Chapter 8

The next day seemed to move in double time for Nakagawa. It had started like any other, but it seemed  he blinked once and the next thing he knew, he was sitting at lunch with Kaido, who had taken the liberty of planning out his evening with Machi. Kaido was insisting he pull out all the stops: fancy dinner, flowers, a box of chocolate. The whole nine yards. Every single cliche you could think of, Kaido suggested it.

"Come on, my dude, you gotta impress her right?" Kaido had ignored his lunch altogether and was solely focused on Operation First Date. He sat across from his friend, elbows resting on the table and fingers steepled in front of him. "Sweep her off her feet!" He waved his arms around now in large swooping motions.  "Make her see you're the perfect match for her! Buy her a dozen roses, walk her home and kiss her under the moonlight."

"You're being ridiculous Kaido, none of those suggestions actually work."

"Have you seen literally any romantic comedy?" Kaido scoffed, feigning hurt feelings. "That shit does too work! Singin' in the Rain? The Notebook? Ten Things I Hate About You? Ugh, when Patrick Verona sings that song for Kat, my heart just melts..."

Despite Kaido's enthusiasm radiating off of him in waves, Nakagawa couldn't feel the same excitement; if anything he just felt nauseous. "Don't you think that's all a bit much? We aren't living in a Rom Com. Plus, when has Machi ever been the kind of girl who would want a bouquet of flowers? Or someone to serenade her with an entire marching band?"

Kaido pursed his lips in thought, stroking his chin as if he had a beard like one of those cool detectives he'd seen in movies. "Yeah, you're right. You don't want to seem too desperate. Gotta play it cool. So then, just the dinner, the long walk home, and don't forget the goodnight kiss!" He jumped up from his seat and shook his friend's shoulders vigorously while puckering his lips in a kissy face. But Nakagawa only clutched at his stomach as the butterflies began to feel a lot more like a swarm of hornets.

"Just once I want you to offer real advice that might actually help me." Nakagawa groaned while shoving his friend away and sinking his head onto the table.

Time sped up again after lunch, despite all of his best efforts. Nakagawa didn't even remember the last few hours of classes; he had spent the entire time chewing on the end of his pencil, trying to figure out what to talk about with Machi tonight. Should he stick to something familiar, like the taekwondo team or the upcoming tournament? Or should he take a chance and ask more personal questions? They'd been friends for six or seven years but she was always so private about divulging too much information, they mostly just stuck to talking about taekwondo, which he normally respected. Now that Nakagawa was thinking of pursuing more, he hoped their long friendship was enough to show her he was trustworthy with more important information. Tonight could be his chance to finally get her to open up, talk about something else. Something serious.

When he finally broke through his own spiraling thoughts, he found himself standing in the middle of the gym with Kaido, who had just finished setting up the punching bags. He had been so lost in thought he didn't even remember class ending, let alone the walk from the main building to the gym and Kaido's constant nagging.

"Welcome back to the real world there Captain Spacey, club is starting soon so stop freaking out." Kaido had taken the liberty to prepare the gym for Nakagawa after he failed to get the captain's attention for ten minutes; his friend must have been more nervous than he originally thought. "It's going to be fine. You're both already friends, so you know she at least tolerates you. Stop stressin' and just be your charming-ass self." There was only a hint of sarcasm in his voice as he tried to be genuinely supportive.

Nakagawa opened his mouth to retort with his own sarcastic remark, but quickly lost his voice at the sound of the gym door opening. Machi strolled in, eyes shining at the anticipation of today's training. She'd been working all week on weapon drills with her father, so when she had texted Nakagawa to see if they could spend club today practicing something else, she had been thrilled at his suggestion of a mock tournament. As she dropped her bag by the mat and started stretching, Kaido ran over to ruffle her hair and just annoy her in general, much to her dismay.