Kyouseke's Story

Kaori rolled her eyes. "Okay bug-boy, if you say so. But you better not be spying on me next time, or I'll hit you harder than that." She hummed and went over to her desk. History was the worst. She could hardly keep her eyes open in normal classes, so history she was out cold. She looked back at Kyouseke and wondered if he really had peeped on the girl or not.

Kyouseke sighed. So much grief over something so small.

History drummed by slowly, as every class did, although at least Kyouseke was able to keep up. He enjoyed history the most because all he had to do was soak up information, instead of having to actually think like with math. Though his version of "enjoying" simply meant it bothered him the least.

Halfway through the class, he peaked back at Kaori, head down on her desk. He wondered how she managed to pass any of her classes like this. He looked back down at the notes he had been taking. His hand writing wasn't the best, but he had decent organizational skills so it wasn't too sloppy.

He got an idea, but it gave him a headache just thinking about it. Why should he be bothered? Obviously what she was doing has worked for her so far. Then again...

He peered back at her.

Not really the makings of a top student.

His fingers tightened in his hair as he came a decision that went against his nature. He began transcribing his notes on a separate sheet of paper. At the end of the class, he sighed as he put the second copy of notes under the sleeping girl's hand. He lingered for a moment before grabbing his bag and headed out the door, headed for his locker.

Kaori woke up after the third bell rang after school. She rubbed her eyes and then looked at the time. Only the students who had to clean the room that day, were still there... And she was going to be very late to her clubs. She jumped up, opened her bag and swept all of the things from her desk inside. She would get back to them later. She ran downstairs as fast as she could, exchanged shoes from her cubby and zoomed out the door. She didn't notice as she zoomed by Kyouseke.

She almost tripped over herself while running to the schools dojo. It was where judo and kyuudo were held. Tonight was judo and the day after was kyuudo. They were run by the same third year senpai, someone who everyone wanted to impress; Akira Fujioka. He was what people called the cold intellectual type, and somehow this is what made him so popular with girls. That and he was very attractive.

Kaori wasn't blind, she could appreciate that he was attractive, but she didn't like the way girls acted around him and how they would sign up for his clubs without any interest in the actual activities. She was really just there to learn how to use a sword or bow because weapons interested her.

She got suited up as quick as she could and joined the others. Akira was a hard teacher, thus the ever dwindling members, but Kaori was resilient and liked a challenge, plus the club ate up a few hours of her time, and she always appreciated the time away from home.

It was a nice afternoon as the sun was getting lower in the sky, so Kyouseke decided to walk through the park. He had a bit of disposable energy left, and he though the cxool breeze ruffling through the quiet trees would ease his mind after the hectic day he had. So far, he hasn't done too good of a job remaining anonymous. In a single day, there had been two rumors about him, both of which made him look out to be a pervert. He was lucky he didn't care about what other people thought.

He sat down on a bench and watched the sunset. He was in no hurry to go home to an empty house. If he would've remembered, he would have brought some money for the arcade.

At last, he began he trek home. He decided to reread the text from his dad detailing how he'd be spending the night over at his new girlfriend's and that was food in the fridge that he had prepared when he was hungry.

He opened his front door, greeted only by the darkness and slight chill of his house. The only sound was his footsteps echoing through the halls. He took off his shoes at the entryway, bypassing the light switch and going straight to the kitchen. Although dim light seeped through the drawn shades, it didn't help make the space any more cheerful. He opened the fridge, momentarily blinded by the light.

He took the food out of the fridge and, without hearing it up, slowly began eating. Once he was full, he covered it and would save it for tomorrow.

Many would consider this a depressing scene, but not to Kyouseke. He enjoyed the silence and peace by himself, especially after a day of such stressful socialization. He considered what to do for the rest of the night. Having thought of nothing, he settled on playing one of the video games that he owned.

Once practice was over, and Kaori was officially worn out, she decided to head home. She made the walk as long as she could stretch it, making sure to stop by the convenience store to pick up dinner, but before long she was at the little house on the corner of her street. She sighed and then smiled and headed inside.

"I'm home!" she called into the house and slipped off her shoes. Silence was the usual response.

Kaori padded into the living room area and set the food on the table and her bag in the corner. She then turned back around to face her guardian, who was asleep on the floor. She leaned down to the woman and shook her softly. "Mom... Time to get up. I'll take you to your room..." The woman stirred and looked up at the girl. Chiyo Kita reeked of alcohol and cigarettes, but it didn't phase Kaori. Chiyo groaned and slowly got up with Kaori's help. The younger girl dragged her off to bed and tucked her in. "Night Mom... I'll leave some food in the fridge for you."

Chiyo grabbed the girls hand before she left. "Could you stop calling me your mother?" She spat. Kaori just laughed sadly and left the room.

She settled down in the living room and began eating her dinner. Halfway through she pulled out her phone and looked at the new number she had. The thought of the perverted bug boy made her smile. She sent him a text:

"I'll see you at school tomorrow! Should be another eventful day~~!"

He groaned when he read the text. That's exactly what he didn't want. He supposed it couldn't be help with that girl around though.

"Not if I can help it." He texted back. For some reason that made him smile, but he quickly composed himself.

He played his games for a while longer until it was boring. Unsure of what to do to fill his time, he decided to just get some sleep, the only light radiating from a small fishbowl in the corner of his room. The small hum of the oxygenation was the only sound as he closed his eyelids and fell asleep.

(Is not a good time for a time skip? Or you got something planned tomorrow?)

Kaori smiled and giggled when she got his text. He was weird, but that was okay. She liked weird people.

After finishing her food she decided to ale a nice warm shower and then headed to bed after towel drying her short brown hair. It was too much work if it was longer. Her bed was cold and helped cool off her warm skin so she could sleep properly. Before she knew it, she was out like a light.

(Go ahead! I don't mind! :))

(I'm just gunna skip ahead a little bit. Either on the coming weekend, or the weekend after that)

Kyouseke sipped from his hot drink as he sat waiting on the bench Kaori told him to be at. He had bundled up in a jacket and scarf, and despite that he still felt cold. It was mid-way through fall, so the wind started to have a bite to it.

He didn't quite remember how Kaori had convinced him to hang out with her on his precious day off. She probably asked during one of his half-awake states. Never the less, he took another sip to temporarily alleviate the chill. The noon high sun did little to help.

Kaori, as usual, was running rather late. She had woken up late and then was in a fluster trying to get ready. Luckily her mother was out, so she wasn't disturbing her with all the fuss. She had spent almost an hour pondering what to possibly wear when she realized that she was an idiot for even caring. Not like it's a date. Nevertheless Kaori ended up putting on a simple black dress with black pantyhose, red combat boots and a long white peacoat. She slapped a white hat on her head and headed out. But once behind schedule, always behind schedule.

She ran all the way to their meeting spot. When she saw the boy there, she almost collapsed in happiness. She swore he would have left. She padded over and collapsed beside him. Luckily she had grabbed her purse on the way out. "Gareki-chan... Sorry. Uh, there was a cat stuck in a tree and I had to save it... y'know?" She muttered and sighed, closing her eyes in exhaustion.

"No, I actually don't," he replied. "But that's pretty common, isn't it?"

He crumpled his empty cup and threw it over to the trash, but it missed and toppled to the ground. He grunted annoyingly before getting up to go pick it up and throw it away properly. "So I'm guessing you didn't call me here to just sit on a bench. Is there something you had in mind?"

Kaori paused and looked down at her hands. Not a date. Not a date. Not with Bug Boy. Never. She kept chanting this in her head.

"The zoo just got a new panda exhibit and I wanted to go see them! They are my favourite animal. All they have to do is sleep and eat. Such a nice life." She hummed happily. "So... Will you go? We can go to the arcade at the zoo after and play some games?" She murmured hopefully and looked at him with excited eyes.

"Sure, that sounds fine," he spoke casually. He actually enjoyed the zoo and hadn't gone in quite some time, so he unexpectedly was looking forward to it now. "We'll need to take the bus over, it's a bit too far to walk."

He looked to the bus stop in the distance and saw the bus was already there. His mind quickly spun to the thought that if they didn't make this bus, they'd have to wait another 30 minutes at least until the next one came. If they ran, they could probably catch it, but that was a lot of energy he didn't was to give up so readily. He quickly weighed the two scenarios against each other and came to the logical conclusion that running for the bus would save him energy in the long run.all this happened in under a second.

"Come on," he said simply as he grabbed Kaori's hand. Without much warning, he began speeding up, careful not to trip Kaori behind him. As he reached the bus, he hopped on just as it was about to leave. He found them both seats at the back of the bus. As he was about to sit down, he realized he was still holding Kaori's hand.

"Oh, sorry," he said quietly before letting go. He took his seat on the bus.

Kaori's eyes were wide. She blushed brightly and sat beside him quietly. She kept chanting that it wasn't a date and the hand holding meant nothing, but she couldn't get the blush off her face. "I-It's okay." She murmured and sat quietly. When they arrived she jumped up and ran out, far too excited at the images of zoo animals to sit still. She ran up to the man selling tickets and bought two. She waited for Kyouseke and handed him one. "Here, I got you a ticket. Now lets go see some pandas!!"

He gave a slight smile before it vanished away. "Lead the way," he said. He took the ticket from her hand and they went through the main entrance together. Despite the cold creeping in, it was still decently crowded. Little kids ran around to venders selling ice cream and colored balloons. Kyouseke looks over at Kaori and she has the same bright expression the kids had. He was surprised he found it endearing. Back in middle school, it would have annoyed it, probably.

Towards the panda exhibit they went, passing slowly through the crowd. When they finally reached it, they had to stand patiently while others gawked into the enclosure and then move away. When it was finally their turn, Kyouseke looked down to see a few adult pandas wandering about, but there were also two small cubs playing with each other.

No wonder this is so popular, he thought. Those pandas were probably on a few months old. He looked over to Kaori once again and we taken aback by how starry-eyed she looked. He momentarily wondered if he should be worried about her jumping in.

Kaori almost screamed when she saw the family of pandas. She clung to the cage and grinned. They were so adorable; a perfect family. Two parents and two children. They could depend on one another, take care of one another. She wanted so badly to just go live with them instead and sleep all day and eat all day. She stayed there as long as she could, ogling the babies and the parents. The cubs rolled around one another and the parents ate bamboo lazily. It made Kaori happy that they were such a nice family. Eventually though she was pushed away by the crowd and made move on.

She walked beside Kyouseke and swung her arms. "Isn't that so cute? The babies had each other to play with, and the Mama and Papa were there too." She grinned as they walked towards the wolf enclosure. There was a small pack of grey wolves in one enclosure, but in another was a singular, lone black wolf with neat green eyes. Kaori walked up to the cage and looked in mesmerized. So alone....

Kyouseke looked at the wolf Kaori was eyeing. He was away from the pack, resting his head in his paws but looking straight at them.

That's my kind of wolf.

He got a closer look at him, and noticed he had green eyes. "He has eyes like mine," he spoke to Kaori. "Maybe that's my spirit animal."