She hasn't seen him in seven years, and other than the hair (which, surprisingly, no longer makes his head look like a hedgehog), Pin looks the same.
"Arai-sensei," she greets, just to see the reaction she gets when he realizes who's standing in front of him. "It's been a while."
He turns, a frown on his face, and his head tilts in confusion. Ayane knows she looks a bit different, more mature, more refined. She wonders if he even recognizes her. Probably not. He's had dozens of students through the years.
Kimi ni Todoke / Ayane POV / AyaPin (vaguely hinted at)
~
She doesn't turn around, despite all her instincts screaming that she should, that she should slap him across the back of the head for that god-awful pick-up line.
Instead, she huffs, letting all her amusement drip from her words. "Well, I wouldn't be here if I wasn't waiting for someone, don't you think?"
And she can hear his sharp inhale, can feel him freeze just behind her shoulder. Can just see the confused frown marring his stupid, handsome face. She hasn't seen that face in almost seven years now, but she can still imagine it perfectly, down to the crease between his brows and that damned gelled hair.
She wonders if he really remembers her, or if her voice just seems familiar, though half-forgotten, to him.
"...Yano? That you?" Well, that answers that.
And ah, how she's missed hearing him say her name. Ayane had thought she was over that, but apparently… Yeah, apparently not. She rolls her eyes at herself. Dammit.
She turns, a smirk on her lips to hide the storm brewing just under her skin.
the only thing standing in between you and me is reality
kimi ni todoke, pin pov, pin knows about ayane’s feelings for him
spoilers for chapters 112-117
(ao3)
~
he’s known for a while now.
ever since christmas, to be exact, but he’d kind of suspected? for a while before that. he’d just thought he was either reading too much into her behaviour, or if he didn’t, like with most teenagers, it was a passing flight of fancy. and he’d decided that the best course of action was to ignore it.
well, he tries to, anyway.
~
she makes it awkward at the new year’s meet up (and weird, with her insistence that he give her an eraser if she passes her college entrance exams), and, well, even before that, he has moments when it comes to the forefront of his mind unbidden. he almost tells tooru about it, before he realises he’s being ridiculous and there’s actually nothing to tell.
~
the day the exams start, he buys the eraser without even really thinking about it.
he tells himself he needed one anyway.
(it sits wrapped and untouched until the day she comes to tell him she passed.)
~
he doesn’t actually expect her to say anything about it until after graduation, when she’d try to play the ‘i’m not a student anymore, you should treat me like an adult now’ card.
obviously, it doesn’t go like that because why would anything in his life go as expected?
~
the day the results are to come out, he waits.
he tells himself he’s not waiting for her in particular, just that he wants to make sure that any of his students who might want to talk to him can easily find him.
well, he tells himself that for a while. when it’s been six hours and she still hasn’t shown up, he can’t really say that, anymore.
(in the end, he assumes she failed and didn’t feel like coming to school just to tell him. he goes home later than he normally would have. he takes the wrapped eraser with him.)
~
he really doesn’t mean to tell her he’s waited all day. but the words slip past his lips in relief and frustration before he can stop them.
the whole conversation from that point of is a bit of a roller-coaster ride.
he doesn’t expect her proud little smile to affect him so, he doesn’t expect the valentine’s chocolates (though he probably should have, for various reasons), and he certainly doesn’t expect her straightforward (if teary) confession.
he eats the chocolates. it’s the least he can do, acknowledge her feelings even if he has to reject them.
he eats the chocolates (they’re not bad) and tells her it’s ten years too early for her (because it is), and that he’s never thought of her as cute (which is a lie, but she doesn’t need to know that), and the sombre mood breaks.
~
when she leaves, it’s with a small, wobbly smile on her lips and the eraser in her hands.
she’ll be fine.
she’ll be heartbroken for a while, but she’ll move on and she’ll be just fine.
