Paradox
[Kise x f!Reader]
Chapter 1-2 can be found here!
Chapters 3-4
Word Count:
Part 3: 3740 | Part 4: 2913
soulmate!au, enemies to lovers!au, manga!kise, cursing!kise to bits, LONG SERIES FIC
Hana is the name I decided to give to the brunette who flirted with Haizaki in s3
Synopsis: Kise despises people like you more than anyone else, the type of people who are shallow, coquettish, and so high-strung on acquiring a soulmate more than anyone else. Nothing good ever comes out of someone who hangs out with the brunette girl along with Haizaki.
You despise two-faced people like him... that's what you like to tell yourself. After all, you're only honest about what you want with people, and if it can help you get a soulmate faster... Where's the crime in that? High-and-mighty people like Kise who didn't believe in soulmates were pretentious, and he was no exception. And you'll do whatever it takes to get what you want, even if it means throwing away your heart in the process, because happiness will come to you once you're with your soulmate... you just know it.
current 🏷: @nadav-ii @carinacassiopeiae @kendrex13 @roppongiperfume @thesongstressayre @kimigiri09 @takatul @evierena @one-one-one-one @seijurosempress @inum4k1
Chapter 3, Kise’s POV
———
“Wh-Wh-Wh-What?!” Kasamatsu sputters, with the brightest crimson on his cheeks. You only give a lopsided smile at his reaction, but your eyes show that you weren’t joking in the slightest. “Wh-What the hell?!”
Moriyama only bemoans the development, arm slung over his face in such a dramatic way that Kise completely ignores him to focus on the back of your head.
Is she fucking serious? There’s no way…
“Yet another cute girl escapes from me—my soulmate is still out there waiting for me to rescue her…!” Moriyama cries out, though still, no one bothered to heed his words at all. “Surely, you must have mistaken our captain for me? I sense a connection between us!”
You merely turn to Moriyama before you smile that uncanny grin. “Sorry, sorry! I think Kasamatsu-senpai is the one, though!”
Ouch. Kise looks to see Moriyama absolutely heartbroken from your words. She definitely pulls some punches of her own.
Kasamatsu, frozen this entire time, barely recovers with a cough. “... H-Have we met before?”
You laugh, mirth seeping into the sound as Kasamatsu turns redder, clearly affected by your reaction to his dumbfounded question. “Well, it’s fine if you don’t remember me, but last week, we briefly talked… And, I accidentally bumped into you when I tried leaving in a rush!” You stop dramatically, holding your finger up for effect. Clearly, Hayakawa was buying your theatrics. Kise rolls his eyes. “Then you made the effort to run all the way to me, tapped my shoulder, then shyly gave back my notes. And like, that’s totally unlike the you from your matches! And I thought… ‘oh my gosh, I think he might fulfill my requirements from my soulmate letter!’ So the next week came, and here we are! I was hoping to find you guys at practice… lucky me!”
Kise stops listening to you halfway to pick up a ball across the court. Everyone else remains stuck in their spot, as if you had somehow forced them under a spell to listen to you ramble.
“Uh… yeah…” Kasamatsu clears his throat, before he whips his head around to shout at everyone around you two. “Well, what are you guys waiting around for?! Unless you really want me to kick your ass, then get moving!” Instantly, everyone scrambles to do something and to look busy, but every now and then, they steal a few glances while the captain’s attention is on you.
“Look…” he turns back to face you, voice instantly turning into more of a mumble once more. “W-What’s your name…?”
You beam at him. Kasamatsu bursts into a flurry of nervous coughs again at the sight.
“I’m (l/n) (y/n), ehe!~ ♪ It’s nice to meet you!”
Shut the hell up already, Kise groans in his mind. He dribbles faster to block your presence out, racing down the court to deliver a punishing dunk and letting the rim go with a rattle. How much can one person talk this much anyways? Kasamatsu-senpai, you’d kick me in the face right now if I did the exact same thing… you go way too easy on girls. He stops to look up in thought after the ball bounces unceremoniously away. Then again, I guess I go too easy on them too.
“R-Right.” Kasamatsu clears his throat. “So…” He averts his gaze, thick brows furrowed. “C-Could you… just… Could you wait here until we’re… done, so—”
“Sure thing!” You lean forward to catch his gaze, but Kasamatsu shrinks even further at your forward gesture. You even make the effort to pout at him, reducing Kasamatsu to nothing but a puddle. Kise turns to look at his captain, before he sighs.
Kasamatsu-senpai might need a bit of help here…
“Hey,” Kise briskly jogs over to the two of you, putting on a friendly smile to ease any tension. “Sorry about him. He’s not really used to this type of thing. Can you ease up on him?”
“You—!” Kasamatsu does a 180, ready to whoop Kise into oblivion, but you speak up before he grabs for him.
“Oops! Sorry, sorry! I’ll sit right over here… Don’t mind me! I won’t disturb any of you guys.” And you do exactly that, sitting on the raised platform of the stage overseeing the gym, dangling your legs and crossing them primly with your hands on your lap. You still had the same huge closed-mouth grin on you, though.
Her smile is… so weird.
Kise merely raises a brow, trying to get a good read on you. Something about you irritates him, and he knows plenty of reasons why. But before he can list them out in his head, Kasamatsu interrupts his thought process as he kicks him to get back on the court.
“O-O-Ow!! Kasamatsu-senpai?!”
“If you have time to ogle at someone, then you sure as hell have more than enough time to do eight laps around this perimeter!”
Kise glares at his captain. “I wasn’t ogling!!—erk—okay, okay! I got it, I’m running…!”
———
You sit there patiently, watching everyone nearly barf their lungs out from the drills and practice one-on-ones, but your expression hasn't changed for the most part. Kise can’t help but glance at you every so often. He can’t help it—not when you’re eyeing every single person on the court with scrutiny that doesn’t really suit your facial features. Worst part is, you keep your body near immobile, and you don’t blink much either. It’s off-putting—especially when only your pupils trail after Kasamatsu for extended periods at a time… It’s that unsettling and invasive, the way your gaze has that knowing, expecting glint to it. He looks around to see everyone doing the same thing he was, and hopefully, thinking the same sentiments.
So it’s not just me that feels off about her.
Still, he can tell that everyone’s trying to be polite and disregard you as much as they can, trying to ignore the fact that you’re a distraction. It’s probably because the Kaijo team has never had a girl like this up close to them.
But finally, grueling practice thankfully ends with no real casualties from Kasamatsu’s discipline, and everyone wearily begins to move to refresh, change, and pack up.
Of course, Kasamatsu immediately goes to check up on you even despite his obvious embarrassment. Even through great reluctance, his pride of having great responsibility overrides that hesitancy. While Kasamatsu stumbles over his words, Kise continues to stare at you suspiciously.
… What’s her plan here?
You were clearly friends with that girl from Teiko and somehow even on friendly terms with Haizaki. This can’t be good, not with you showing up out of nowhere and declaring such a bold statement to someone like Kasamatsu… and Kise had plenty of experience with girls who've done that to him… like that girl—Hana, was it?… who just happened to be past friends with you. Which makes a full circle. Who knows what you want from his captain?
It’s troublesome to go out of his way and interfere, but seeing Kasamatsu tripping over by being just in your presence… there’s no other answer than to figure you out and warn his captain of your true intentions. As he sorts out his next plan of action, he watches you give a coy smile and then even giggle when you see Kasamatsu’s reaction. His gaze sharpens.
The captain says something to you despite his shy stupor, and you reply something cheekily. Kise squints his eyes and strains his ears to try to eavesdrop in some way, but he sighs after a few seconds, deeming the effort fruitless. So he opts to wait outside the gym, leaning against the wall next to the door. While he waits, he ignores his teammates exiting the gym, too busy wracking his mind in trying to recall anything he knows of you back in Teiko. Luckily for him, it’s dark enough outside for him to be hidden in plain sight from unsuspecting people. Unfortunately, Kise was never someone into gossip or rumors (rightfully so), so any information in his brain about you is nearly nonexistent. He groans into his hands at the realization.
“Well, well! Look what we have here!” Your bright voice cuts through the still of the night, even louder than the incessant cicadas. He jolts, his face suddenly rising from his hands to stare at you. Has he been mulling over this for that long? How did you manage to spot him? Though, granted… he was standing near the door. He looks behind you to see that you’re the only one left; it looks like even Kasamatsu went home on his own.
You shoot him what he assumes a concerned look and walk to him, but he only gives you a raised brow, still debating whether or not to put on a cheerful front to dissuade you. But before he can stand up completely straight to face you, you suddenly jump to his side and sling your arm over his neck to further bring him down to your height.
“Ehhhh? Now what seems to trouble you?” you muse, giving a little laugh. “Kise-kun, right? I remember you. Quite a reputation you’ve got for yourself all these years, huh?” He immediately glares at your face—unbelievably close to his, by the way—and roughly shakes himself from your grasp to step away from you. He gives you a pointed look, that arrogant aura he’s so acquainted with using for people he knows doesn’t deserve his respect.
“What’s your deal?”
You only blink at his question and tilt your head, crossing your arms to mull over his words. He doesn’t know if you’re doing this to mock him or if you’re that slow.
“My deal?” you inquire. “Eh… well, I guess I like communicating with people so openly. Oh—oops, that’s a scary look on you! My bad, my bad! I won’t throw an arm over you anymore—”
He gives a frustrated quick huff, deciding to get to the point. “What are you planning to do with Kasamatsu-senpai? You think just ‘cause you’re a girl, you can push people around like this? You don’t just go up to anyone and declare that they’re your soulmate or whatever.”
“Ohhhh. You’re concerned about your captain, aren’t you?” You smile at him, but Kise doesn’t like the implications of your “epiphany.” Did you just completely ignore what he said?
Yeah, I’m more concerned about the shit YOU might pull on him, rather than Kasamatsu-senpai himself. But he keeps that thought to himself. Saying that to you may cause you to get the further wrong idea. Besides, he supposes there’s some merit to your words… he does care for his captain, even if what Kasamatsu does is his own business.
“Whatever you’re doing…” Kise says, trailing off to watch your face. “You better not plan anything fucked up, or I’ll be there to pay it back tenfold before you know it. Better watch yourself.”
“My gosh!” you gape comically at him. “Are you really threatening a girl? Honestly, you’re such a brute! I haven’t done a single thing, and you’re getting on my case…” Even despite your words, your facial expressions remain quite placid, though Kise can see a slight furrow of your brows to show that his warning actually does hold some water.
Kise only rolls his eyes as he decides to walk past you. “Look, whatever Kasamatsu-senpai does is none of my concern, but you…” He turns around to briefly face you. “People like you who like to take advantage of the idea of soulmates to manipulate others like that—I don’t like your kind. You might’ve fooled the entire team, but I know who you really are.”
You finally give a real reaction, jumping at the spot and staring at him with genuine widened eyes of surprise. There it is, he thinks. But he puts his guard back up when he sees your next move. You give a crooked grin and that irritating titter that sounds unbelievably ingenuine.
“The ‘idea of soulmates,’ you say…” you repeat what he said, sounding almost offended somehow. “You say that as if it’s not a real thing in our lives. Like it’s just some concept.”
“Don’t twist my words,” he says evenly. “You know what I mean.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you reply. “You’re, like, so weird, Kise-kun. I just want to look for my soulmate… that’s not malicious in intent at all, is it?”
“You don’t need a soulmate to do what you want,” he coolly counters. “Ever thought about that?”
You give him an unreadable look before morphing your features into an exasperated smile. “Haha! Sounds like someone’s a miserable man! Cheer up, Kise-kun! Surely, someone as well-loved as you can find anyone with your preferences to take as your soulmate~ The rest of us normal folks actually have to try to look for ours. Woe is me, especially!”
Kise hardens his glare at you, clearly having a nerve touched by your words. You’re the umpteenth person out there constantly telling it to his face how his search for a soulmate is as easy as he breathes air. Easy? Yeah fucking right. You think you have me all figured out, don’t you?
“I’ll have you know that I don’t care for the soulmate shit. Don’t impose your values on me.”
“Well, then…” You lean forward with your arms crossed, giving him a wink. He scowls. “Don’t ‘impose your values’ onto me either. You’re just as suffocating as the people you look down on, you know.”
You then turn around, back to him but your face is still turned to the side to face Kise to stick out your tongue almost provocatively, as if to piss him off on purpose. And it’s working. “How about you keep your nose out of this? Honestly, people like you who act like they’re better and more righteous than everyone else are the worst.” You finally turn around completely to depart in the opposite direction of Kise, as if you had the final say.
He stands there to watch your back (oh, he’s boring holes into your back) as you skip away, not in the least reassured that you’d refrain from trying anything starting tomorrow. Especially from how you responded to him.
You’re even worse than that Hana chick.
———
“Kasamatsu-senpai…” Kise calls out, looking over to see Kasamatsu in deep thought. Another day, another practice, he would have thought, but immediately walking into the gym today, Kasamatsu isn’t at his usual spot of critically eyeing his teammates before practice. In fact… he’s distracted by a creased piece of paper. “... Don’t tell me that’s…”
“Huh? Oh, it’s just you.” The Kaijo captain flits his eyes from the paper to look at the 1st year before he goes back to concentrating on whatever’s written on the sheet. His thick brows knit together as he goes over the same line over and over, judging by how his pupils were moving back and forth. Kise cautiously walks to his side to try to get a peek… and every other team starter coincidentally has the same idea.
Kasamatsu doesn’t even bother to kick them off to practice, and everyone looks at each other with immense concern and confusion before Kobori is the one to call out his oddities. “Captain, is there something wrong? You’ve been a bit too quiet. You’re unnerving the team a little.”
“Yeah…” was all he absentmindedly said, and Kise shared a knowing look with his upperclassmen. Is it that bad…? Kise flanks on Kasamatsu’s right while Moriyama settles himself on the left, both peering over his shoulders to read the letter as fast as they humanly can:
Addressed to Kasamatsu Yukio:
Your soulmate has been to places you’ve never been before, yet you two will meet for the second time in a place they’d never normally wouldn’t be in. You will ironically meet them the first time in an ordinary commonplace where people utilize to travel about. The place is never a means to the end of a destination and is always bustling with eager activity of all kinds. You will accidentally encounter someone that is completely unlike you among a particularly busy crowd. The floors will be cold and gray, and the walls will be modern. It is long vertically but does not have much depth widthwise. Many doors are located in these types of places as a must. Your fated location, in particular, has many windows and plenty of sunlight shining in with ample ventilation. You do not—should not—think much of this location, like anyone else normally does not. Do not try hard to look for them, or you will certainly miss your first encounter with them. This location is not at the ground floor.
Kise only gets through half a page before Kasamatsu breaks through his stupor, doing an insanely quick prep before he lands a shoe on his cheek.
“K-K-Kasamatsu-senpai?!”
“Idiot! Who said you can snoop around?!”
“What?!” Kise rubs his cheek sullenly before he points an accusatory finger at the other team starters. “They were looking too!! How’s that fair?!”
But when Kasamatsu menacingly spares a glance at where Kise was pointing, the rest of the players already had the keen idea of feigning warming up, putting themselves a fair distance from the captain to avoid retributions. Kise merely balks at the turn of events.
You guys… You guys are so mean…!!
———
After many hours of kicks and spartan orders, Kise somehow finds himself trapped between Hayakawa and Moriyama when he starts heading for home. How do these things always happen to me? He inwardly groans, but truthfully, it’s not so bad with them… you just… need to get used to their quirks. VERY strange quirks. And Kise thinks he’s somewhat grown used to them. Somewhat.
“What was up with that ®ette(l)!?” Hayakawa exclaims, damn near shouting into his own eardrums even if he wasn’t trying. He never needs to try anyways. Kise winces at the sudden volume, putting his fingers into his ear holes to help alleviate the burst of pain. “The captain… he was acting ve(l)y st(l)ange, wasn’t he?!”
“Hayakawa-senpai… you’re a bit… too loud.”
Always too loud.
Moriyama answers the question as if Kise never spoke up to begin with. “Our captain was merely experiencing the awakening of the ultimate blessing… unforgettable romance!! Oh when will it be my turn…!”
And here, Kise thought he was the dramatic one. He merely gives an awkward, polite smile at the woe of his senior. “Though, Moriyama-senpai, the content of the letter was very simple and to the point… It’s not something to freak out over, anyways.” He shrugs with a heavy sigh. “Is it really that bad for Kasamatsu-senpai?”
“... We shou(r)d encou(l)age him to do his best!”
Unsurprisingly, both Kise and Moriyama squint at the offensive rebounder to decipher his words. There’s a moment of uncomfortable silence while the trio walks down the smooth concrete, dappled by the sunset rays filtered through the trees in the neighborhood. As if on cue, gentle wind tousles through their hair strands to emphasize the unnatural… silence? Lack of response? Kise opens his mouth.
“... Anyways. We should mind our own business. It’s his to deal with, you know?”
“I agree!” Moriyama nods aggressively, holding his chin with his forefingers in a “thoughtful” way. “This is the only way Kasamatsu can truly become a man and lead the rest of us! Then, we can utilize his newfound experience to help us all get a cute date… yes, yes… It’s truly a win-win situation!”
“... Right, Moriyama-senpai. Exactly what I said…”
———
Kise knows that he said to mind his own business… regarding Kasamatu and life in general. Definitely more of the latter than anything else.
But what the hell is going on?
Another day, another lifetime of mental toil arrives as he deftly avoids mobs of heads bobbing around him, his mind blurring voices of nauseating adoration as a form of his psyche’s first line of defense to protect the remnants of his sanity. He yawns, faintly registering more shrieks of devotion at the mundane action as he steps past Kaijo’s gates to face another army thrown at him—who, no doubt, were all at his beck and call if Kise truly wanted to take advantage of their blind loyalties. He could’ve been a great general of some sorts, using the crowds to fulfill the desires and whims he sometimes cooked up in his mind, but that idea itself—to use them how he pleased—is also equally revolting. They are always his enemies, so naturally, he never wanted anything to do with them. These are things he’s accepted long ago (actually recently, but that’s besides the point), but what he witnesses at this moment is something he definitely can’t bring himself to ignore and “mind his own business.”
Somehow, your giggle manages to pierce through the disorienting fog of all the censored murmurs and coos of everyone around him—grating and coquettish. He could’ve ignored it all the same—you weren’t the first (and certainly not the last) person to act in such an unashamedly way. But the sight of Kasamatsu with you completely forces Kise to focus his attention on you.
What the fuck is she doing?
Your arms are wrapped around his left arm, pushing yourself up to his side as your lips form a pout with a practiced innocence that Kise recognizes all too well. He’s pissed—no, terrified for his captain, but most of all, he feels sick. But Kise isn’t Kasamatsu’s caretaker or father—hell, he’s not even an upperclassman. He’s more than capable of shrugging her off if she goes too far, he reasons, even if he knew that line of logic is a pile of shit. And if he really needs help, the other senpais can help him out of there. He will mind his own business. For now, he finishes his thoughts with finality. With that note, he briskly walks to his first class of the day, relieved when you and Kasamatsu are gone from his field of vision. His shoulders relax and he releases a steady stream of air, closing his eyes for a momentary recovery. There are too many things to worry about right now, but for now, he’d rather focus on his upcoming English quiz than the what-if’s of your motives with someone like his captain.
You’re just like everyone else, after all.
Chapter 4, Reader’s POV
———
They say that when your soulmate is close within your proximity, your mood begins to lighten up substantially as a sign. It’s just a dumb rumor people spread around, you knew, and yet…
You want to believe in it so badly.
What’s the truth? What’s the lie? All you know is that your soulmate letter is the truth, and all the kisses you shared with countless people ended up being lies on top of lies. You want to believe that your emotions are telling you the truth for once, and that he isn’t like the others. Why would Kasamatsu look so genuinely surprised? Genuinely flustered? Genuinely trying to be nice to you? Why else has your heart begun to beat so fast around him—the first time it’s ever happened to you?
Turning to your side, you curl up your body, clutching your blanket closest to you in the hopes that you can force your body to fall asleep. Ever since you got that momentous letter, sitting daintily on top of the table two years ago, things haven’t been the same. But that should be a good thing, right?
Your fingers automatically move to touch your own lips, tingling at the memories of other countless lips it had already firmly locked with. Your heart just keeps sinking further down the more you run through every single moment.
I have to keep going, you insist, tossing to your other side to dispel those memories away into the backburner of your mind. I have to find my soulmate, I have to…
Otherwise, I…
“You don’t need a soulmate to do what you want…” You subconsciously conjure up an image of Kise back at the gym, eyes cold and brows harsh with a ferocious frown. At the intrusive thought, you form your own fierce frown. “Ever thought about that?”
That stupid ass motherfucker—you curse at him as if he was really there in person—I’ll show you…! When I get my happy ending, I’m gonna rub it in that ugly smug face of yours.
I’ll prove them all wrong, I’ll prove them all wrong, I’ll prove them all…
Somehow, through the cacophony of mantras to yourself, you fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
———
[Your soulmate is of similar age.]
You sigh to yourself as you recall the contents of your letters again, mind so distant from the current reality of your situation. But you’ll never sigh outwardly; instead, you give a placating smile to the people around you as you walk down the hallway, then up a floor to continue down another corridor. Because people always like girls who are friendly, sweet, and outgoing… Those girls are what draw in people the fastest. It’s quite a huge generalization, and you’re aware of that fact, but you also consider that it does hold some truth to it. Your face twitches with a familiar discomfort, but you refuse to let your smile fall, letting your eyes crinkle in an inviting, sweet manner that no person would ever have the heart to deny you a friendly greeting. The brightest flowers always attract the bees, so to speak. Naturally, you have to do your best to attract as many people as possible to you. How else would you find your soulmate?
[You will finally meet them when there is a fresh start—a new chapter—in your life.]
It’s midway through October, approximately six months since you became a 1st year at Kaijo. There must be something wrong… shouldn’t your “first chapter” happen when you first graduated out of Teiko? Or maybe around the time of Kaijo’s opening ceremony? The demoralizing realization almost makes you drop the grin, and to compensate, you grin even wider. Just in case.
“Ah, (l/n)-san!” a classmate called out, catching up to your skipping stride with hurried steps. “You’re so cheery today! Woke up on the right side of the bed today?”
“Awwww, Saori-chan!~” you chime without missing a beat. “Aren’t I always cheery? You’re teasing me, aren’t you!”
“I’d never!” She gave a mock gasp, but her slight giggle after the last syllable immediately gave her away. “I’m just pointing out the truth! It’s really refreshing whenever I see you happy… I think I can speak for most of us when we’re near you… I must be sounding super strange, huh?”
The truth… you wonder about that often.
“Honestly, it really does sound all weird, ehe! Buuuuut…!” you pause dramatically, pleased to see her leaning in out of anticipation. “Hearing that from you makes me happier, of course~” You playfully pinch her cheek with a wink, and you skip away when she immediately blooms a cherry red. You debated whether to blow her a kiss too, but if you were going to win over Kasamatsu’s heart, then you needed to remain steadfast. Of course, it’s a nice change of pace that you don’t have to do anything drastic for once to get someone’s heart beating. For once… you feel a great weight lifting from your shoulders at the realization. No more of any of that anymore—the kisses, cuddles, the games you force yourself to play to find the one. After all—
“W-whoa—!”
“E-eek?!”
Of course, you get distracted when you think too hard about these types of things. Saving a mental berating for yourself during class starting in half an hour, you immediately focus your attention on the poor person you accidentally manage to assail. But your eyes widen when you register a stuttering, comically red captain.
“… Kasamatsu-senpai?”
… After all, he is someone who can have blood rushing into his cheeks from just a simple gesture like a wink and a smile. He is an anomaly—a one-of-a-kind person who you’ve never seen anyone like before. Isn’t he also around your age?
[You will meet them once again when they are most unlike themselves…]
“S-S-Sorry…” He’s already stuttering before he can even face you, and you figure it’s because he recognizes a female-sounding voice coming from you. You quietly watch him pick up the stray papers that manage to flutter out of his binder from the untimely collision, and after he straightens himself, he cranes a neck, rubbing the back of it with his free hand. On second thought… you note. It may actually be harder to win over his affection if he can’t even look at me. And to think he was able to talk to me with such authority in the gym a couple days ago. Oh, what will I do with him…
“H-Huh…? Y-You…?” Kasamatsu finally brings up all of his nerves to at least hold proper eye contact for a solid four seconds before he darts his gaze back to the gray floor. There is no way for him to properly lead the conversation, from the looks of him cowering in your presence, so you decide to speak instead.
“Ah, sorry, sorry!” you say, hoping to break the ice with him. If you are more “normal” with him, as opposed to being your usual outgoing self, maybe he’d see you in a better light? “I wasn’t completely paying attention to my surroundings, and I really messed up, huh? Totally my bad!”
“I-It’s…” Kasamatsu dares to sneak a glance at your face before he turns away again. “... f-fine.” You open your mouth to perhaps talk about the weather or perhaps his class schedule for you to memorize later, but you falter when you see him glancing at you again before averting his eyes. Was there something on your face? You owlishly blink before a flirtatious grin finds its way onto your face again, and immediately, his cheeks predictably lights up a bright pink again.
“Wahhh…!” You lean forward up to his face, hands held together in a gesture of being in love. “You’re really adorable, did anyone tell you that before?~ I’m definitely the first, aren’t I? Right—right?”
“I—!” He’s balking at the shameless assumption, mouth half-opening… half-closing… his mind is in a state of limbo, and he’s being sent into overdrive. “I-I’m… I… mm… nn…” Instinctively, he stumbles a couple steps back, clutching the fabric in the front of his shirt in an attempt to calm himself.
“And wow!” you continue. “Didn’t we also have the same type of run-in the first time we met? I don’t think this is just a coincidence…” You stick your tongue out playfully, fully rendering him speechless and robbing him of any chance to recover his voice.
“N-nn…”
What are his habits? What are his likes? Dislikes? What are his passions and hopes and dreams? You wonder about the countless things you can elicit out of him. Any tidbit about him would be a good start in getting to know him—you tilt your head at him cutely while you continue to assess your options—but how do I ask for it when he’s constantly stuttering or avoiding girls in general? After all, you tried to charm him the other morning, but it was apparently too much for Kasamatsu to even think of any coherent response.
“There you are.” A flash of yellow catches your eye as swoons of mainly women follow close by. “Kasamatsu-senpai! Kobori-senpai has been looking all over for you… you’re going to be late at this point if you don’t hurry up, you know!” Almost as if his voice is a trigger, Kasamatsu whirls around to hurl the usual serving of insults.
“Hah?! Since when were you so confident to tell an upperclassman what to do again? You really want to have your ass kicked again, huh?!”
“Like I said—! They wanted me to go look for you! Not like I had a choice!”
Damn, way to ruin an opportunity like that. You give a quiet sigh as Kasamatsu waves at you shyly before he storms off to find his other teammates to berate them, though you know it was more out of politeness than care from his end. Interestingly, the ace of Kaijo remains behind, watching his senior disappear before he seemingly remembers that you are also here. Flashing a breezy smile at you, you resist your instinctive reaction to twitch an eye as screams fill up the hall in response. But of course, you deliver your own captivating curl of those lips, and suddenly, you sense an aura of hostility spiking towards your end. Ah… so it appears that they view me as a rival, hm?
“Ah… (l/n)-san, right?” Kise laughs, fiddling with a few strands as he tucks them behind his ear, revealing his piercing. “Are you alright? You look like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” Try as he might, but his cheeriness wasn’t able to hide his voice from slipping into a steely tone. … Is he taunting you?
This guy!—you give an airy laugh in response—He’s the fakest asshole I’ve ever seen! Who the fuck is buying this discounted act of his?! When you dare to look around casually though, everyone is hanging onto his every word.
“I guess it’s been getting chilly lately!” you reply. “Maybe I should see the infirmary later for a check up… Thanks for the concern though, Kise-kun!~ But um… shouldn’t you also head to class, too? The warning bell’s gonna ring soon, right?” Even with the friendly tone, you place your hands on your hips while raising a suspicious brow, making sure to jut out your dominant hipbone to emphasize your figure. There’s only so much patience you have in trying to be diplomatic with someone like him. You see no benefit in doing so either, but then again, maybe being on good terms with Kise would allow you to get closer with his captain. Still, Kasamatsu doesn’t hesitate to dropkick him and knock down his ego a notch at all… maybe it wouldn’t matter as much if you just openly hate him. Options, options… Perhaps for now, you’ll see what Kise’s up to.
Ah… You slowly blink. What if he was actually trying to get Kasamatsu away from me just a moment ago? Wouldn’t his upperclassmen classmates come get their captain themselves instead of sending a 1st year to him? Either possibility can happen, but logically… the first option would’ve been more convenient and probable to happen. You scowl at the realization, but just as quickly, you form a tight-lipped smile in an attempt to recover. I warned his ass to stay out of my business too! And to think he’d try to butt in…
“You’re definitely right!” Kise interrupts your train of thought with a bright affirmation. “So I’ll be going on my way to class. You should go too, before you end up late!” You don’t miss the way his eyes go flat on you before he turns to walk away, back to you, immediately pulling away the entire crowd along with him.
“Kise-kun!! Who was that?!”
“Please look at me!”
“No, me!!”
“She’s nothing special at all!”
While it doesn’t hurt to think about his motives, there’s only so much speculation can do within a situation like this. Being openly hostile in front of everyone would serve no one good, and your reputation would tank. And if you lose your reputation, finding soulmates would end up being more difficult than necessary. Besides, if Kise wants to keep playing this farce of roleplay game of “shining knight,” why not join him as another player of “femme fatale sorceress”? Two can play this game.
Don’t worry, you muse to the mobs ahead. That imposter’s all yours.
———
Obviously, anyone can see just how passionate Kasamatsu is about basketball… more than anyone else. Probably even more than the Generation of Miracle guy, Kise. You giggle to yourself, ecstatic to have some type of progress in getting closer. If I learn about basketball, you reason, then maybe he’d have an easier time talking with me? You knew what the “Generation of Miracles” were all about; you’d have to live under a rock to not hear a single thing about them. They’re on the local news, the latest mags, and on the biggest media trends. Many people constantly speculate about their potential soulmates and what they’d be like, even going so far as to associating their known ideal types as holy decrees. But you don’t have a single inkling about what basketball truly entails, and that’s where you’ve been going wrong this entire time.
Nowadays, you find your eyes constantly scanning out in the crowd for a certain individual with cropped black hair, thick brows, and impossibly striking blue eyes. He probably doesn’t even realize just how charming he is. But maybe that obliviousness is also part of his overall charm. But before you can even hit on him, you really need to overcome the obstacle of his stuttering; after all, that was the main aspect that prevented every other girl from being able to talk to him in the first place. You take out a beginner’s guide to basketball rules and guidelines from your bag and lay it out on your desk, not caring about the teacher droning on about the necessity of Japanese literature. You turn to page one and settle yourself into a comfortable position, careful to hide the booklet from the prying eyes, yet you swear you feel a prickling chill down your spine from a piercing stare two seats behind you to your left.
It’s Kise, isn’t it? You can’t help but let out an inaudible chuckle, hand pressed over your lips as you continue to voraciously take in all the information in the book. Weeeell, he can look for all I care. I’m gonna get the last laugh when I play my cards juuuust right…
You manage to reach the last page before the bell rings for the next period, slightly jolting you out of your concentration, and after closing it and placing it back into your bag, you finally decide to turn and spare a look to the model student behind you. He’s putting most of his body weight on the desk, propping the side of his head up with a hand, elbow on the table. Although his body is facing forward to the blackboard, his eyes are honing in on you.
“What?” You stick your tongue out at him. “Can’t resist me after all? You’ve been staring at me all period—gosh, why didn’t you just tell me? You know I’m not someone who’d judge others at all~”
Unlike you.
Your own beam begins to grow at the sight of him gripping his pen so hard that it almost seems like it’s going to snap in half. You knew he couldn’t snap back—not when there were twenty pairs of eyes on him. Imagine your surprise when he barely manages to conceal his revulsion at you… whether he’s disgusted by your words, the way you provocatively stick out your tongue, your delighted smile, or all of the above… you don’t know and you don’t care enough to find out.
“What can I say?” He starts, lips twitching up to force a friendly smile. “I’ve never met anyone like you.” Everyone but you appears to buy his shoddy act, turning to face the front when the next teacher enters the classroom for the next lecture. You shoot one last wide grin at him to signify your triumph, but Kise unapologetically returns a freezing stare… the staredown only lasts for a few seconds before the teacher claps her hands to begin the session, both of you simultaneously breaking eye contact.
