Day 3 of YumeLokalWeek : Weather
Suna Rintarou x Asano Kura
“It’s not letting up…”
Kura puts her hand forward, catching the drops of water in her hand. Today it rained too. And the clouds only seem to get grayer every second, making her more skeptical that she can get home before it’s getting too late.
“You’re still here?”
The voice asking that question is familiar to her, so Kura faces the source of the sound.
Suna Rintarou, her… friend, is standing near the shoe boxes, god knows since when, with his bag on one shoulder and an umbrella on another.
“Ah, Suna-kun, I’m waiting for the rain to let up.” she put her right hand back to hold the box she’s carrying, shifting the ache on her left shoulder. “What about you?”
He walks beside Kura before opening his umbrella. “I was just about to go home.”
Kura feels slightly jealous that he has an umbrella.
“Is that so... “ she forces a smile. “I also wanna go home and catch up on the new episode of that crime drama, but I’m stuck here.”
“That’s too bad,” says Suna, eyes glanced over at the box Kura is holding. Realizing he’s looking at the box, Kura brings it up.
“And I’m carrying this french horn so I can’t really hold an umbrella even if I have one.” she laughs and shakes the holding case a bit. The metal french horn inside rattles.
In response, Suna just nods. He puts the umbrella over his head and starts to walk out the school’s entrance. “Well, then, I’m going home first.”
“Be careful on the way home, Suna-kun,” says Kura half-heartedly as she watches Suna’s back.
If only she can go home too, she sighs. The umbrella Suna is holding looks enough for two people… but...
As if knowing she’s thinking about something related to him, Suna suddenly stops walking and turns around, staring back at her. “Mm, what is it?”
Kura averted Suna’s eyes for a while. Should she really be asking him about going home together? Is it polite to ask something like that?
Then she thought again that well, he’s... sort of her friend, isn’t he? Even though sometimes he likes to poke fun at her while the other times he just silently glances at her, maybe she can consider him a friend. So Kura decides to say what’s been on her mind.
“I just thought you were going to offer to share an umbrella or something,” says Kura with a dry laugh, trying to make her words sound not too serious.
“...that, huh,” says Suna, looking up to the sky. He’s thinking again, she knows it from his expression.
When he glances back at Kura, she can see a twinkle in his eyes and a ghost grin on his deadpan face, “that can be arranged.”
After blinking in confusion for a few seconds, she sighs. God, he even pokes fun at her at times like this.
Usually, Suna likes to hear her asking for something politely—which is something she already does on a daily basis anyway—but in Suna’s case, it seems he derives some sort of weird joy from it, so she stops doing it altogether when it comes to interacting with him. But no matter, this time will be a one-time thing. She just needs to ask Suna to share his umbrella politely and she can get home drenched free.
“Suna-kun—”
He shakes his head. “Nope, wrong name.”
...wrong name?
Does Suna have any other name than Suna Rintarou? Is he someone else in disguise or something? And she usually refers to him as Suna-kun, so she doesn’t know what’s wrong with it so suddenly.
“What’s the right name then?” Kura tilts her head a bit.
“Rintarou.”
“Rin…” Kura’s voice trails off as she realizes what Suna is asking for her.
He’s asking her to call him by his first name. And for someone too shy and reserved like Kura, that’s hard. Really hard.
“No way.”
Suna responds with his usual deadpan face, “but I thought you needed the umbrella.”
Well, he’s right. She needs it if she wants to not miss that newest TV series episode (and also to not break her hand from carrying the heavy french horn case all the time until the rain stops). But… she closes her eyes, sighing through her gritted teeth. That’s too embarrassing.
“Don’t take too long. I need to go home myself.”
“Yes, I know,” Kura mumbles to herself, eyes still closed.
Maybe just this time, she thinks. Maybe just this time she’ll swallow any embarrassment she feels and just… say it. Say her friend's name. It shouldn’t be that hard, isn’t it? It’s just saying a name after all.
Taking a deep breath, she starts talking.
“R-rintarou-kun—”
“Without the suffix.”
“R-rinta—”
“Louder.”
“Aagh! Why do I have to do this!” Kura grumbles in frustration, keeping her head down. She’s never really close to any male students and calling one with his first name like this is a first for her. But she must push on. She holds her breath for a second and tries again.
“...Rintarou, will you... share your umbrella with me?” Those words come out a bit shaky and barely audible, but it seems Suna can hear them clearly because when she opens her eyes to take a peek, Kura can see the tall middle blocker nodding to himself.
But just when she’s about to let out a sigh of relief, Suna speaks up again.
“One more time.” And she swears she can hear him chuckling behind those words.
“N-no ‘one more time’!” Kura takes a step forward, feeling her face heats up even more every second. “I’ve asked politely, so just, please, share your umbrella with me!”
“Yes, yes, here you go~” With a small chuckle, he bends down, angling the umbrella so it can cover the short girl and the case she’s holding.
Kura steps under the umbrella, trying to fully get inside it but not getting too close to Suna. Because the closer she gets, the louder her heartbeat becomes. And she 100% doesn’t want him to know how much her heart is racing right now.
As they start walking, Kura feels a bit guilty for not thanking Suna. And maybe she needs to do it now, before the adrenaline rush from saying his first name disappears and she needs to face two embarrassing breakdowns.
While still trying to fight off the heat from her face, Kura mumbles, just loud enough for Suna to hear. “Thank you for the umbrella, um...” just one more time, she whispers to herself, “... Rintarou.”
For a second, a genuine smile appears on Suna’s face, before just as quickly being replaced by his usual deadpan face again.
“Mhm, you’re welcome, Kura.”
***
From a distance, Atsumu and Osamu look at the not couple walking out of school.
“So that’s why he wants my umbrella…” Atsumu mumbles to himself. That Suna can be so forward yet dances around what he wants at times. He said he’s serious about pursuing Kura, but he likes to tease that poor girl who—from what he knows—doesn’t understand how love works.
He sighs. He just hopes Suna will sort things out sooner than later and he wouldn’t need to sacrifice his umbrella again.
“Hey, Samu, give me your umbrella.”
“No way.” his twin moves away from him, holding his own umbrella. “Why did you give your umbrella to him anyway?”
“It’s for the greater good!” Atsumu tries to reach the umbrella but fails. “So just give me it! You can go home without the umbrella, Samu!”
“Huh? Why me! This is my umbrella! You should be the one going home without it!”
And so the two continue to fight until a teacher who’s passing by scolds them for yelling loudly rather than going home.