Chapter 14: Chapter 14 - Mina Wants a Date

The first attempt by Kuro Kurogane at peaceful escape from his after-school activities was an instant failure.

It only makes sense that this would occur.

When class was dismissed, Mina Fujikawa made a big show of grabbing Kuro’s sleeve and saying, "Kuro-kun, let’s go on a date."

The whole classroom erupted, "DATE!?"

Kuro’s reaction was that he was already tired.

"...Why were you saying that?"

Mina gave Kuro a mischievous grin.

"Because your reaction was funny."

"Then that means I’m not accepting your offer?"

Mina pretended to put on a deep-thinking face, "If it then is not a date, we can call it a pre-date."

"That somehow sounds worse than what you just said?"

But still further away, Akari was squeezing her juice box empty.

Aoi quietly closed her notebook.Danger levels are rapidly rising.

Mina saw the instant switch in expressions on their faces and became even more mischievous by saying, "The twins are looking scary today."

Akari replied, sweetly, "We’re not scary."

Mina then looked toward Kuro, "Your family scares the crap out of me."

"Right."

Before the twins could do anything to stop her, Mina grabbed Kuro’s wrist and started to pull him toward the door of the school, saying "I’m stealing him away for an hour or two~"

"Kuro-kun."

Akari called to him, and his body came to an immediate stop.

He turned slightly, and Akari was smiling at him like a kind of "I’m going to kill you" kind of smile.

"...Come home on time?"

Aoi then quickly added, "If you don’t, we’re going to kill you."

Kuro´s response was to look like he has no idea what they are talking about and was scared out of his mind.

"Why does that sound creepy?"

Neither of them responded.

Mina was still pulling Kuro down the hall as they both tried to keep their eyes off of their still moving targets.

Half an hour later Kuro was standing in the centre of the shopping district carrying all of Mina’s bags.

"Why am I here again?".

Mina walked along happily beside him, singing.

"You are useful in a surprisingly productive manner".

"I am unpaid labour".

"You look cute when you are being grumpy.".

"I don’t agree with that".

Mina laughed with pure joy.

Unlike how he felt being with the twins, Kuro felt comfortable when he was with Mina.

Chaotic and destructive but comfortable.

From the time they got to the first store until they left the fifth store Kuro was dragged along by Mina who didn’t stop talking the entire time.

Kuro initially thought Mina was just messing with him as always, but he slowly felt different.

It didn’t feel as if she was just bullying him anymore, it felt much more like an actual date.

This was a dangerous moment.Very dangerous.

They stopped at a crepe stand where Mina ordered the biggest chocolate strawberry crepe possible while looking at Kuro.

"What do you want?" She asked.

"Nothing." Came Kuro’s reply.

"Not the right answer.".

Five minutes later Kuro ended up carrying a second crepe as well.

"This is coercion" said Kuro.

Mina took a large bite of her crepe and said "Kuro-kun".

"What?" He said.

"Try this." As she brought her crepe closer to his face.

Kuro froze.

"No way" he said.

"Such a coward.".

"No way would I do it, too embarrassing." Kuro told her.

"Are you shy?" Mina said leaning in closer to tease him.

"I am not." Kuro answered.

"Then eat it" she said.

Nearby girls began whispering and repeating phrases such as:

"Oh my god, how cute are they" and

"They have to be dating"

Kuro wanted to disappear from existence.

Mina still kept a tight grip on the crepe.

"...Fine."

Kuro took a tiny bite.

Instantly, Mina’s grin became triumphant.

Then she stopped.

"...That’s an indirect kiss."

Silence; Kuro almost choked on the crepe.

"YOU JUST FIGURED THAT OUT AFTERWARDS?!"

Mina powered out laughing.

"Your expression is worth a million dollars!"

"You are the devil."

"Just a touch."

Meanwhile, a few feet away behind a sign , Akari watched quietly.

"...That’s an indirect kiss."

Aoi held binoculars blankly.

"...Confirmed."

"Why the heck do you HAVE binoculars?"

"For emergencies."

The arcade was already bad enough.Mina wanted to play all of the couple games together.

Kuro, on the other hand, wanted to die peacefully.Of course, Mina’s longtime experience with ignoring Kuro had kicked in.

"Come on, Kuro!"

She pulled him excitedly up to a claw game.

"I want that cat stuffed toy."

"But you already have, like, twenty stuffed animals."

"Twenty-one sounds better!"

Kuro sighed, and tried the claw game unsuccessfully.Mina was laughing beside him.

"You’re terrible!"

"Then you try!"

"I’d rather watch you suffer."

Shocker.

After many attempts, Kuro finally won the stuffed animal by sheer luck.Mina looked at Kuro in shock.

"Wow!"

Kuro, ever so slowly, handed the stuffed animal to her.

"Here."

For the first time in a long time , Mina looked genuinely happy.Her smile softened slightly.

"Thank you."

The way she said it out loud actually sounded real.Kuro blinked. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Then looked away awkwardly.

"It’s just a stuffed animal."

"Regardless."

When they were at the noisy arcade, there was a strange silence surrounding them.

Then, Mina suddenly hugged Kuro’s plush toy to her chest.

"Kuro-kun won me the prize," she said.

"That’s dangerous to say."

"It IS dangerous," she said as she smiled at him brightly.

The mood returned instantly.

The sun sets more quickly than expected: evening came upon us much too fast.

The last ’boss’ level: the ’train home.’It was super crowded.

So much ’crowded-ness’ that Kuro and Mina ended up standing pressed against each other near the train door.Way too close together!

Every time the train moved, Mina was pushed just a ’little’ against Kuro.

So warm. So soft. So dangerous!

Kuro was looking directly above, like a monk in training.And, of course, Mina noticed.

"You’re making a HUGE effort not to look down!" she said with a laugh.

"I like to live ," he said.

He could tell that he made her ’giggle’ softly at his comment;

Then suddenly... the train jerked hard !

"WHAT THE ’KYA’!"

Kuro reached over and grabbed Mina’s hand (totally by ’instinct’) to steady her.

Mina’s hand on Kuro hand.There was a moment of complete ’dead’ silence.

They both froze for a moment!

Mina’s hand was warm.Small.Soft.

Then she slowly looked down at the two of them holding hands and slowly looked up at him.

And quite surprisingly?

Mina didn’t tease Kuro instantly.Instead, her expression became more ’serious.’

She looked almost ’shy’.

"Thanks."

Kuro blinked rapidly for a moment. Then he let go way too fast!

"Touch ’reflex’," he said.

Mina continued looking at him `forever’ before soft smiling; "You’re much kinder than you let on."

Kuro turned away and stared blankly at the train window.

Mina chuckled. The warmth of their empty space between the two lingered on like a butterfly...but they had already forgotten about the two people by now—twins who were still secretly following them from the next railcar over.

Akari pressed herself against the glass and whispered, "They held hands!" Aoi coolly jotted that comment down in her notebook as the threat level increased.

"Kuro-kun is once again accidentally dating," Akari exclaimed; she turned toward Aoi, who simply nodded. "We might need to implement some countermeasures."

Still blissfully unaware of the impending doom, Kuro and Mina continued sitting together under the bright lights of the city.