Cringing at the thought of events that transpired the previous day and the things he had nonchalantly told him, he tapped his cell phone screen on and off, constantly checking the time. 

 

In less than five minutes, the lecture came to an end. Asahi hurried to the door and began scanning the herd of students that were leaving for lunch. And when he spotted a familiar head, he caught his arm and pulled him away from the crowd. 

 

Dumfounded, Nao asked, "What the hell are you doing?"

 

"Nao - isn't it?" Asahi asked, smiling, trying his best to appear cheerful.

 

"It's Mitsui for you. And you haven't answered my question."

 Asahi winced. Nao wasn't hiding his hostility at all. In fact, his expression seemed to scream Fuck off, you asshole.

 

"Right. Mitsui."  The atmosphere had gone beyond awkward but it seemed Asahi was the only one feeling uncomfortable.

 

"So I was wondering if we could go out for a drink or two, you know."

 

His look as deadpan as ever, Nao replied, "I don't understand." 

 

Asahi stared at his face for a brief second. He realized that the conversation was going to be slightly harder than  he'd imagined. 

 

He was too optimistic, slightly curious even and had imagined this convo to go at least  five times smoother, though he had gotten an idea of what Nao was actually like, the other day.

 

Strangely, what he saw was what drew Asahi to Nao.

Yet here he was, expecting the latter to be nice to him, even after reading all the flags right.

 

"I'll be frank with you. I want to make up for what happened yesterday and it would be nice if you could go out with me for a few drinks or lunch or whatever. Of course, it will be my treat."

 

"Oh, does that mean you want to apologize? I'm sorry but I'm not interested." 

Nao had delivered the final blow. Asahi watched as a smug smile grew on Nao's face, him basking in the pleasure of  embarassing the upperclassman whom he hates probably a lot.

 

"What's with you? Your friend didn't seem to have a problem with it!" Asahi questioned. 

 

"Well, unlike him, I was forced to do all hundred and fifty push ups yesterday." The cool facade that Nao was trying hard to maintain was slightly breaking and Asahi could sense it. 

 

I can take this. 

 

He can handle angry. In his experience, angry was a whole lot better than cold indifference.

 

"But that's because he fell down after seventy and was too tired to pick up after that." 

Can he elicit a few more reactions from him? Asahi wondered. 

"Or are you saying that I should've forced him to continue?"

 

That seemed to work.

"That's not what I meant." Nao swore under his breath. "Forget it. And yeah, Akihiko told me earlier that you asked him the same thing this morning. He seemed cool with it so you guys can go ahead. Now, Bye."

Without waiting for Asahi to reply, Nao turned around and walked away.

 

"Huh? "

Even as he thought so, Asahi smiled. He knew this was going to be hard, but what the hell, he liked a good chase.