Original Art by zen0006 on Twitter

"Hey there, A-YA-PI," I greeted her in a singsong voice.

I walked closer to the two friends but Aya clung onto Kenma even tighter.

They are rather close indeed...I wonder if she likes him? Not that it matters, I'm just curious.

"You're scaring Aya. She really thought you were going to murder us or something," Kenma warned me, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"That's not true!" she jumped up, our eyes locking once more.

"Eep!" she squeaked and buried her face back into Kenma's jacket.

Wait, is she scared of me?

"C-calm down, Aya-pi. I'm harmless!" I raised both hands to show I had no ill-intent. "Actually, I'm classmates with one of your club members, Sakurai-san. My name is Kuroo Tetsurou."

She looked back up to me, her shoulders relaxed.

"Sorry for my rudeness," she apologized, finally showing herself.

"It's alright. I don't think Kenma has ever had that much action his whole life," I joked.

"W-what!" she shouted, embarrassed.

She looked to Kenma then back at me, her face was getting redder and redder.

She's so easy to tease, it's kinda cute.

⟣ ⟡ ⟢

The three of us were on the train going back home. The train was packed and the three of us were stuck in the corner of the cart. I was hunched over Kenma and Aya with my arm supporting me over her head. I was trying to protect her from the people piling into the train.

I breathed in the sweet scent of her floral shampoo. Her lips were glossy with a light pink tint.

Aya looked up at me.

Crap, did she notice me smelling her hair?

"Don't fall in love with me," I teased, trying to hide the fact that I was basking in her scent.

"Hmph!" she huffed and looked away.

More people came in, pushing me closer to her.

"Damn it," I whispered under my breath.

I was trying to resist the people pushing me.

"Oh, an SSR drop," Kenma commented, unphased at the situation at hand.

"What? Another one?! You really are blessed by RNJesus!" Aya peered at his game, her cheek brushing against his.

Damn Kenma, always grabbing her attention.

"Oi, the next stop is us," I interrupted them.

Aya looked forward, pulling herself away from him.

"Next stop is Nerima Station. Nerima Station. Please exit on your right."

The doors opened.

"Let's go," I said irritatedly.

I grabbed Aya's wrist and pulled her with me as we exited the train.

⟣ ⟡ ⟢

Aya was sitting across from Kenma and me inside my favorite barbeque restaurant.

Aya had opposed going here, seemingly due to financial reasons. But I had the intent to pay for her anyway.

"So how was your date today, you two?" My question was more so directed to Aya because she looked so glum.

"I-It wasn't a date!" she retorted, suddenly full of energy.

"Oh? A boy and a girl going to the shrine together sounds like a date to me," I teased.

"Aya-pi wanted to pray to the gods for a 5 star character. It wasn't a date," Kenma explained, eyes glued to his smartphone.

"W-wait Kenma-kun! Don't go announcing that to the world," Aya told him, getting embarrassed.

"WAIT! THAT'S WHY YOU WANTED TO GO TO THE SHRINE?! BWAHAHA!" I started laughing hysterically, my fist pounding the table.

To be honest, I thought she had a thing for Kenma because she chose to meet at a major dating spot. But maybe I was wrong.

Aya started to look uncomfortable in her seat.

Maybe I should lay off on the teasing...

"So? How'd you like my gift?" I changed the subject.

"Huh? Oh, it's very cute. Thank you so much," she smiled.

It was the first time she smiled at me. Her smile felt so gratifying.

"I'm glad you liked it, My Kitten."

"M-MY KITTEN?!"

Or not...

"Yeah, the keychain is of my kitten. Want to see pictures of him?" I showed her a photo of a black cat that was on my phone's lock screen. "What? Did you think I was calling you 'My Kitten'?"

I chuckled to myself. I've been waiting all week to use this punchline. I can be quite funny sometimes.

We received our food and Aya started cooking them on the grill.

"Ow!" she jerked her hand back after oil sputtered everywhere.

"Are you okay?" I immediately grabbed her hand to inspect it.

Her hand is so soft and small in mine.

"I-I'm fine! It barely even hurts!" she tried to reassure me as she pulled her hand back.

"Good thing we're eating all this protein! My burn will heal quickly," she joked.

"Yeah..." My voice trailed off as I stared at her.

"Nerd," Kenma coughed.

"I'm not a nerd! That's common knowledge!" Aya protested.

But it wasn't common knowledge. Not that many people know that consuming more protein is a common practice for burn victims to heal faster. And Kenma only knows this because I always tell him interesting science facts.

What kind of person is Aya-pi?

Aya and I talked the rest of dinner, Kenma would speak up here and there. It turned out, Aya and I had a lot in common. She's a huge otaku which wasn't too surprising since I already knew that she loves video games. But we shared a lot of the same favorite games, anime, and manga.

"Hey, Aya-pi. I was wondering why you were in the archery club? You don't look like someone who plays archery," I asked.

"It's because...I really enjoy playing the archer class in video games, so I wanted to try it out in real life." she answered while looking down at her food.

"BWAHAHAHA," I burst into laughter, banging on the table again.

Even Kenma stopped playing his game to laugh with me.

"Hey! That's not funny!" she fussed.

"You do always play as an archer in our games," Kenma commented.

"You're full of surprises, Aya-pi," I noted, wiping away a tear.

Things are always interesting with her.

At the end of the dinner, the bill came out to be ¥13,230.

"Here's my portion," Aya quickly handed me some money.

I counted the bills and coins in her hands.

¥4,410. That's the bill evenly split into 3. How did she do the math so quickly without using a calculator? Is she some sort of genius?

"Don't worry, it's my treat," I smiled at her while pushing her hand away.

She shoved her money at me again and I pushed it back. This went on a while longer until Kenma settled the fight.

And of course, I won.

I smiled at Aya. It kind of felt like a date and I just paid for her.

⟣ ⟡ ⟢

Aya didn't want us to walk her home because, in her words, "we are still strangers from the internet." Even though we go to the same school.

And it turned out, Aya lives a lot closer to us than we expected. So close that she made us wait at a nearby convenience store for 10 minutes so we couldn't see where she lived. We exchanged our emails so she could notify us when she got home.

"Hey, Kenma," I called out to him, hands in my pocket and leaning against a bike rack.

"Hmm?" he hummed, not looking up from his phone.

How much battery life does that thing have?

"Do you like Aya-pi?" I asked, looking up at the darkened sky.

"She's cool and fun to play games with," he answered, the same answer as before.

"No, I mean, ugh...nevermind," I dropped the subject, too embarrassed to clarify what I meant.

BEEP BEEP

Both of our phones rang at the same time.

"Aya-pi just got home," Kenma said, reading off his phone.

We both straightened up and walked home together.

"I think I like her," I blurted out.

Kenma was quiet for a few minutes.

"By the way..." he spoke first.

"Hm?"

"Why do you have a photo of my cat as your phone's lock screen?"

"Shut up," I blushed, rubbing the back of my neck.

He saw right through me from the start.

⟣ ⟡ ⟢