#kawata

“i think so…” he answered, his soft voice contrasting his stony expression. 

“perfect! do you think you could help me with something real quick?” you asked, putting your hands together in an effort to move him. “it won’t take more than ten minutes of your time! i can’t do it by myself, but the teacher asked me to grab this ginormous box and i can’t leave until i bring it to the classroom!” 

“oh, okay.” 

“yes! thank you so much! you’re truly a lifesaver!!” you exclaimed, relief flooding through you, (you’d been starting to feel a bit worried you would have to just pray to god that you wouldn’t get crushed by a box). “it’s not that far away from here!” 

“alright.” angry answered, following you as you led him down the hall. he was quiet throughout the short walk, not attempting to make any sort of conversation with you. the silence wasn’t unnoticed by you, but you found that it was calm and nice rather than awkward and uncomfortable, which was something you could appreciate, (somehow, you found silence rather hard to come by nowadays). 

when the two of you reached the supply closet, souya quietly followed you inside, looking around a bit at the cluttered mess of everything in the room. the door clicked closed behind him, which made you sigh a bit, glancing around the room to see if there was anything heavy enough to use as a doorstopper. 

the mess of things around the room made it hard to even see everything that was there, which made you sigh, shaking your head. 

“i’m not sure why it’s so messy in here…honestly, i’ll probably take a bit to straighten things out here before i go home.” you said. “i don’t know how anybody let it get this messy.” 

souya didn’t respond to you, instead seeming to be thinking thoughtfully about something. his silence brought you back to the task at hand, moving a few things out of the way of where the box was on the shelf. 

“okay, anyways, i just need help grabbing this box real quick, but let me prop open the door first…” you grabbed a nearby stool that seemed heavy enough to do the job, walking over to the door and grabbing the handle.

rattle. 

“hah…lemme try again…” you muttered nervously, putting the stool down and putting all your focus on the doorknob. you praying that you’d just had a bad try at the doorknob and that it was not in fact locked. 

rattle. 

once again, the doorknob didn’t budge, only rattling in place as you tried to open the door. 

“no way…seriously??” you said in shock, shaking the doorknob as you kept trying to open the door. “why the hell does a supply closet have an auto-lock door…?” you slowly turned around, facing souya with a sheepish expression on your face. 

the boy only looked back at you, a bit confused at the fact that you’d been muttering to yourself for the past thirty seconds. 

“uh, the door…it’s locked…” you explained. “please tell me you have your phone on you.” 

“smiley’s phone died, so he’s using mine right now for something.”

“oh my god…and i left mine in the classroom…” you admitted, smacking your hand against your face. “okay, actually, it’s fine. someone will walk by and hear me if i start screaming, right?” you pondered. “i’m not sure how long i can scream for though…” 

you heard a small thump! as souya sat himself on the floor of the closet, his knees pulled to his chest as he suddenly buried his face in his arms. 

“gah! souya-kun!” you exclaimed, rushing over and kneeling down next to him. “are you alright?! i’m so sorry, this is all my fault!!” 

“smiley will be worried if i’m gone for too long…” souya murmured, his voice a bit shaky now. 

you hovered over him, unsure of what to do in this situation. in all honesty, you didn’t personally know him too well; of course, you’d heard all the rumors about the kawata twins a million times over, but you’d only really talked to souya in passing and through tutoring sessions you gave the both of them, (when they actually showed up to school). 

you wouldn’t have guessed that he was so sensitive, but you supposed you should have figured. after all, souya always had a soft and kind voice when talking, and he was always so nice and respectful to you that it made you forget all the rumors about him. 

“hey, it’s okay. i’ll get us out of here, no problem!” you assured, (you had no idea how you were going to get out of here). you sprung back up, looking around for anything that could help you. 

of course, there’s literally only junk in here. what was i thinking?

and so, you proceeded to bang against the door for ten minutes. 

you eventually stopped, rubbing your sore shoulder as you kneeled down next to souya. he hadn’t moved or said anything else at all, which was worrying you a little bit. 

“okay, i think i lied…i’m sorry. i don’t know how to get out of here. but! i’m sure someone will find us eventually!” you said, trying your best to assure the boy in front of you. 

what to do, what to do…

you sat down on the floor next to him, shuffling a bit closer to him, (you had to admit, it was a bit daunting that you two were currently locked in a closet, but you chose to put it out of your mind). 

“y’know, when i was younger i beat someone up.” you randomly admitted. souya’s head perked up at this, which made you feel a bit more confident in continuing with your story. “yeah, i haven’t told anybody ‘cause i’m not sure how that would reflect on me as class president…but i mean, he totally had it coming, y’know?!” you exclaimed, your expression reflecting your true emotions on the incident. “he was being such an ass! i don’t even remember what his name was, but he would always pull on the girls' hair and would mess with the quiet boys in the class, and it totally pissed me off!” 

“...you beat him up?” souya asked quietly, a curious expression on his face. 

“yeah! and then i got expelled…but, it was totally worth it!” you said confidently, curling your fingers into a fist. “of course, i don’t think i could beat anybody up now. i would probably be the one getting beaten up, haha.” 

“why?” 

“oh, well…i mean i dunno. back then it was pretty easy because everyone was just as weak as everyone else, but now that we’re older everyone has different strengths. i mean, you and your brother are for sure stronger than i am, right?” 

“...yeah, you’re right. there was this time me and my brother, we challenged these dudes from…” as souya began to talk, you smiled, noticing his head was fully out of his arms. the expression on his face had changed from nervous to somewhat curious and excited, making you feel quite accomplished. his voice was soft and calm as he talked, and unknowingly, listening to him talk was also calming you down as well, making you feel more relaxed. in fact, you even forgot for a moment that the two of you were currently locked in a closet. 

how cute…

you supposed it wasn’t terrible to stay here for a while longer.