The Not-Boyfriend

The moment we forgot we were just good friends, I moved my arm, her face went red again. One more bus home, another silent weekend.

Souhei Sasahara was starting to regret the day he decided it would be ok to try and be friends with Asako Natsume.

Back then, all those years ago, the girl and the crazy couple she called her friends were just… interesting.

Haru Yoshida had been a mystery, with the manner he glared at people, his crazy temper and the courage he hid behind those aggressive ways. When the elusive boy finally started to attend school, no one could blame Sasayan's need to satisfy his curiosity.

The boy didn't know what pushed him to talk to Mizutani that day. Maybe it was a sense of responsibility for what Haru had done – what Sasayan hadn't –, but it had landed him with a rooster that he had to take home and with a very scared cat.

When they first interacted, laughing and cheering because they would be allowed to keep Nagoya, he hadn't paid much attention to her.

Asako had been a very pretty girl with a very bad attitude. He disliked that kind of person, simply because he couldn't see a reason behind her actions. Being nice came naturally to him; he liked to make people smile, he liked to talk and laugh and do nothing for the sake of doing nothing.

His easy going temper contrasted greatly with her over-thinking and over-doing ways.

He recognized that his true mistake had only come on that afternoon out of school, when he'd proposed that they could be just friends and she had accepted, but maintained a warning that made it clear that she had no interest in him as anything else.

In his defense, he hadn't had any further interest in her then.

The actual problem came with the becoming friends and getting to know her part.

"And this is the library!" Asako exclaimed, bringing his thoughts back to her tour. "Mitty loved this place. She said it was quieter than the one in her university." The girl grimaced. "But it's too dusty for my taste."

He snickered.

"Yeah, you prefer greasy tabletops in diners where people come and go all the time."

At his taunt, she pouted, turning away from him slightly.

"It was easier that way! And it's not like it didn't work! Look where we are now."

Sasayan had to agree with her on this. If it weren't for those study sessions, he had no idea what would have happened to his grades. Becoming a part of a group that involved Mizutani was enough to make anyone start taking their studies more seriously, though.

"Do they have one of those around here?" He asked, smiling at the thought. "I could use some food, and I miss that kind of place. Around my apartment, there are only ramen stands or supermarkets. I've been living off of instant food for months!"

His complaints only made the girl next to him laugh, and she put a hand on his shoulder, any annoyance towards his previous words now forgotten.

"That's your own fault! Chizuru taught me to cook, and she offered to teach you as well." She leaned against his arm, forcing him to make a turn that led them into a new building. "These are the dorms. The building is mixed, but my entire corridor only has girls!"

The excitement in her voice reminded Sasayan of her old ways and how she would dread any situation that put her in contact with males.

"Are you still not talking to boys?" He questioned in a deadpan, making Asako freeze besides him.

"Wha-What?!" She choked out. "Well, it's not like any of them are trying to be my friends! I've only been hit on, so far." She was frowning and tugging at the end of her complicated up do, but her expression held honesty. "I promised I'd be more open to them and I will." A pause. "When someone who isn't a pig approaches me."

Sasayan chuckled, but said nothing. He knew that she was right in the sense that many man would only see her as someone they were attracted to, but he still couldn't accept that as a good reason for being rude to them. If she was nicer, they might even understand that she wasn't interested and decide they wanted to be her friends, instead.

But the time for his lectures had passed. She was trying her best.

"And it's not like I'm looking for someone." Asako muttered under her breath, leading him into the elevator and pushing one of the buttons. "I already have enough guys in my life right now."

The boy shook his head, sending her an entertained glance.

"Be careful. People might misunderstand what you mean with that." He advised, noticing the way two girls that had just gotten out on the first floor had been looking at them.

As easy to rile up as she had always been, Asako turned to him with wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

"They won't!" She brought her hands to her heart, as if the idea physically pained her. "They can't!"

Accustomed to her tactlessness, the boy decided not to let her panic hurt him and merely laughed at her expression of terror.

"Well, I think they already are."

Her reaction to that wasn't what he'd imagined she would do.

Asako had always been exaggerated, all dramatic poses and too beautiful to be real, but if their years of friendship had taught Sasayan anything, it was that the true trouble only came when she started to be quiet. When the girl retreated to the corners of her mind, preferring not to share whatever was bothering her, it was a sign that something was seriously wrong.

So, when she responded with a sigh and shifting eyes to his wide-grinned teasing, Sasayan began to feel uneasy.

They stood in the elevator, silently accompanying as the digital numbers showed the floors they were passing by.

"How long have we known each other, Souhei?"

The boy turned to her quickly, feeling the back of his neck sting with the strain, and simply blinked at the flushed color that had taken her complexion.

"I– I don't know." He sputtered out, very flustered by her abrupt use of his name.

Asako snickered softly, obviously making fun of his discomfort, and raised a hand to her cheek, trying to cool herself down.

"Of course you do, you fool!" She snapped back, maintaining the gentleness of her expression. "It was… What? Three years ago?"

He crossed his arms over his chest, letting her get out of the elevator first as its doors opened. She clearly felt awkward about the way their conversation had gone, but she also didn't seem about to stop talking.

Oh well, it was still better than if she kept it all to herself.

"I guess…" He mumbled, eyeing her with distrust.

That was another aspect of their relationship that Sasayan didn't like much. She had always had this unexplainable ability of troubling him, of making him blush and stutter like he was back in middle school. The others seemed to think it was a good thing, how she was able to break his nonchalant façade, but the boy only found it bothersome.

Asako was twirling a strand of her reddish hair with a finger. She walked down the corridor with the practiced ease of someone who belonged. The concept struck him as oddly real, because he hadn't thought about the changes that university would inspire in his friend, just like he hadn't thought about the changes he had gone through.

"Three years, huh?" He smiled. "We are growing up."

His comment made the girl turn and, walking backwards, she laughed.

"That's so weird!"

Sasayan's grin turned into a grimace as he tried to reach for her.

"Asako!"

It was already too late. He was able to grab her arm and pull her to him, but the girls she had stumbled upon lost their ground and fell, shrieking as they did so.

"Fugioka! Hanaro! I'm so sorry!"

The boy rested his hands on her waist, helping Asako recover her balance, as she wavered on her feet.

Fugioka and Hanaro were two dark haired girls who reminded him terribly of Yuu and Chizuru. One of them was short and quite pretty, with big eyes full of mischief, and the other was tall and athletic, with a sort of beauty that was more similar to Mizutani's than it was to Asako's.

"Natsume!" The taller one exclaimed with a smile, already getting up. "We didn't see you there!"

"You didn't see her there, Fugi." The shorter one argued, dusting herself off. "I did that on purpose to stop them." Hanaro twisted around to look at him. "Hello there."

Sasayan frowned, surprised that he was being addressed so casually.

"Uh, hi."

The girl didn't let his doubtful greeting trouble her. She turned to Asako, smirking, and elbowed her on the ribs.

"So, Natsume, is this your boyfriend, the guy you never seem to shut up about?"

Fugioka gasped in disapproval while Sasayan felt his embarrassment return.

"I– I never said anything about that!" Asako screeched back, pointing a finger at the girl in accusation.

"Yeah, well," Hanaro snorted. "It's him, isn't it? Your not-boyfriend. You always use him as an excuse to refuse the other guys."

Her statement was enough to break Asako, because the girl merely stared at her friends with wide eyes, muttering incomprehensible things that were too low to be heard. Sighing at this, Sasayan shook off his uneasiness and took a step away, letting his hands drop to his sides.

"I'm Sasayan. You're probably talking about Haru." He chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. "He is like a sibling figure to her and Asako has always had a father-brother complex."

The girls shared a look that clearly showed they didn't agree with him, but they laughed anyway. His friend, however, didn't seem to hear the humor in his tone, because she attacked his arms with her fists, yelling that he shouldn't say such scandalous things about her.

"It was great to meet you," Fugioka began, after a moment of watching Asako's anger. "but we have to meet Tahiko now."

The girl smiled at them apologetically, linking her arm with Hanaro's. The other rolled her eyes, but didn't resist as she was pulled to the elevator.

"I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of you around here, Sasayan-kun!" Hanaro shouted as she went, turning to wink at him.

Her action didn't go unnoticed by Asako, who puffed her cheeks and said something about needing new friends.

"Won't you reprimand me now?" She asked once the elevator doors were closed.

Sasayan wrinkled his forehead in confusion.

"What for?"

She had given her back to him, fumbling with her keys as they walked to her apartment's door.

"You heard them." Asako replied in a shouted-whisper. "I'm using you to refuse other guys."

His laughter took her by surprise, making her look over her shoulder to stare at him.

"So it was me after all." Sasayan explained, seeing as her eyes grew with her distress and embarrassment. He put his hands on his pockets, lifting his eyes to the corridor's ceiling as a light blush appeared in his cheeks. "But I'll be honest, Asako, it's not like I want you to meet other guys." He hesitated, before lowering his gaze to meet hers. "Less competition."

She didn't squeal, nor did she hit him, like he'd expected her to. Instead, Asako Natsume smiled sheepishly and opened the door to her dormitory.

"There was never a competition, Souhei." She uttered softly, too shy to look him in the eye.

Sasayan was left frozen in her door frame, shocked and unsure of what she meant by that.

I'm not sure if I like this or not. The idea was awesome: Sasayan visits and people think he is Natsume's boyfriend. But I couldn't do it quite the way I wanted to.

This was a gift to Candice, for being the sweetheart she is. I hope I didn't screw it up too badly.

The song is You Already Know, by Bombay Bicycle Club.