Title: no shouting in the library

Author: sllebswap

Characters/Pairing: Seo Yuzuki and Wakamatsu Hirotaka

Type: One-Shot (Complete)

Genre: Romance/Humor

Word Count: 2118

Rating: T (Contains content not suitable for children)

Disclaimer: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun belongs to Tsubaki-san.

Summary: Hirotaka is suffering from a horrible case of indigestion and it's all Seo-senpai's fault.

Chapter Last Revised on: 21/01/19

"Pardon the intrusion!" Chiyo called out breathlessly as she stepped into Nozaki-kun's apartment; she had hurried over straight from school once classes ended and was thus a bit out of breath. Shedding her shoes at the genkan, the orange-haired girl pushed her feet into indoor slippers and trotted down the hallway to the living area, looking forward to get started on today's beta work.

She was surprised to see that she wasn't the first person there despite having made haste; slouched on the low table in an uncharacteristic unhappy puddle was…Wakamatsu-kun?

Eh?

She was about to greet the freshman when a voice rang out behind her. "Ignore him; he's sulking."

The petite girl jumped slightly and turned around quickly to see her crush standing behind her, eyeing her with his usual calm stoicism.

"N-Nozaki-kun!" she squeaked, startled by their proximity and trying her hardest to keep that heavy blush at bay. The urge to clap her hands over her heated cheeks was overwhelming, at least until the other second year handed her a stack of drafts for her to clean and correct.

"I'll be depending on you again today, Sakura," the tall, dark haired teen told her seriously.

He will be depending on her…! Chiyo was immensely happy to hear those words.

"Y-Yes!" she stuttered, hugging the sheaf of papers to her chest and feeling inexplicably happy to be a source of support to him. "I'll do my best!"

As always, the short interaction was enough to make her entire day. She floated over in a pleased, flowery daze to the low table where Wakamatsu-kun was steeped in a dark cloud but still automatically, perfectly doing his erasing and screen toning work. The second year set her bag down and settled herself on the spot across her fellow schoolmate.

"Wakamatsu-kun; you're here really early today!"

The much taller boy turned his head and snapped out of his funk long enough to look surprised by her presence.

"Oh. …Hello, Sakura-senpai, I didn't hear you come in," he mumbled. "Basketball practice was cancelled today, so I thought I might as well come here and help out…"

He looked quite out of it, though, but his hands continued to work despite his morose mood. Chiyo got down to work as well, bringing out her inks and tools and setting up her workspace quickly and tidily.

"Is everything alright, Wakamatsu-kun?" she asked, feeling both concerned and curious at the same time. Nozaki-kun mentioned something about sulking earlier, hadn't he? There was only ever one reason for Wakamatsu to look this distressed. "Did Yuzuki-chan do something to you again?"

If anything, the mention of a certain member of the choir club only made the younger man even more depressed, much to Chiyo's confusion. Uh…

Umetarou wandered over to join them, casually setting a cup of tea on the table for his latest guest-slash-assistant. "If anything, it's more of what Seo hasn't done," he quipped rather sagely, not that his input had actually served to explain anything, really. Chiyo shot him an increasingly bewildered look, and Wakamatsu-kun's periodic sighing in the background was mighty distracting, too.

"…What has Yuzuki-chan not done?" the petite female asked cautiously. She wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to know; between Nozaki-kun's gleeful demeanor (he was trying his best to hide it but she knew that manic glint in his eyes by now) and Wakamatsu-kun's kicked-puppy, end-of-the-world expression, it was like experiencing emotional whiplash as she stared from one male to the other.

"Seo-senpai," Hirotaka finally announced with bitter, upset resentment. "Has not bothered me for the last ten days- and counting."

Oh. That wasn't a new development, though. The sporty freshman had been rather delighted by this particular turn of events the week prior and had happily shared the news of his unexpected stroke of good luck with all of them. He had been beyond delighted to get a break from the constant harassment and bullying by his violent, forceful senpai and had relished in the tranquility and peace of mind that he had gotten in Yuzuki-chan's absence. Apparently, that was not the case anymore.

"And how do you feel about that?" Umetarou intoned with interest. He wasn't even hiding the fact that he had whipped out a small writing pad, ever ready to take down notes in the name of inspiration and research. Chiyo squinted at him with withering exasperation.

"Of course I'm happy!" the younger male automatically insisted even though he looked far from overjoyed. He glowered ferociously down at his toning work. "I'm not being harassed anymore and I've slept so well lately. My days are going great! Everyone in the basketball club has been looking at me with relief and admiration! …But…"

"But?"

"If Seo-senpai isn't bothering me, then she must be off bothering someone else, right?" he burst out, finally sharing his suspicions that had made him feel so uncomfortable and out of sorts lately. "I cannot help but feel worried for the other poor unfortunate person caught in her sights right now! How they must be suffering like I did; being roughhoused with and bullied and dragged everywhere by her!"

Chiyo and Umetarou exchanged a glance. Wakamatsu-kun was probably unaware, but didn't he sound a bit jealous?

"Now that you mentioned it, I think Yuzuki-chan has been hanging out in the library quite a bit lately…" Chiyo cautiously allowed. Hirotaka's eyes lit up with a fiery glint and he turned to the shorter girl immediately.

"Seo-senpai has? The library? Is that where her new target is?"

Uh…

Chiyo was so surprised by Wakamatsu-kun's heated, outraged demeanor that she ended up rocking backwards a little in astonishment. There was certainly nothing meek or herbivore-like about the boy, right now.

"I-I don't think-"

"In this case, why don't we investigate this in detail tomorrow at school?" Nozaki-kun proposed before Chiyo could attempt to calm Wakamatsu-kun down. The orange-haired girl's chagrin grew. …Nozaki-kun, she silently thought, you're terrible but I don't necessarily dislike this side of you!

Poor Hirotaka did not seem to realize that his personal crisis had just been turned into an interesting case study. He perked up with earnest, bright eyed gratitude. Oh, to be so innocent…

"Really? Nozaki-senpai and Sakura-senpai will help, too? That's great! Let's do our best to keep Seo-senpai from bullying other people!"

It was not 'let's stop Seo-senpai from bullying people,' it was 'let's stop Seo-senpai from bullying other people.'

"Wakamatsu, you do realize that Seo may end up harassing you again if we do this, right?" Umetarou pointed out. "Your peaceful days will come to an end."

Peace…ful days? Had the past week or so been truly peaceful? It was quieter and calmer for sure. It was also a lot less mortifying, without Seo-senpai and her rowdy antics around to cause him extreme embarrassment. But instead of enjoying his Seo-senpai-free daily life, he felt restless and uneasy instead, instinctively aware that something did not feel right at all.

It had taken him a few more days of queasy trepidation to finally arrive at the understanding that Seo-senpai was no longer bothering him only because she must have found something else more interesting to play with instead. Or someone.

The knowledge was immensely upsetting. He was also feeling strangely indignant and aggravated by it all. His stomach roiled like he had been suffering from indigestion for ten days straight. He was starting to get insomnia again, this time for a very different reason, though still hailing from the same problematic source.

Hirotaka promptly concluded that this feeling must be crushing guilt, because some unfortunate soul out there was currently suffering from Seo-senpai's relentless attention, Seo-senpai's intense staring, Seo-senpai's physically intimidating bumps and hip-checks and shoves-

That dark, churning feeling in the pit of his stomach grew even more, and both Chiyo and Umetarou stared at that amazingly black expression that crossed their kouhai's face then.

…Wow.

"It wasn't peaceful, at all," the first year mumbled at last, before he regained momentum and plowed on. "Besides, how can I be at peace while knowing that someone else is being undeservingly tormented by Seo-senpai?! I must absolutely put a stop to it, immediately!"

Chiyo's expression was completely nonplussed as the now motivated Wakamatsu-kun threw himself back into his work, all but burning with flames of moral justice and righteousness. Beside her, Nozaki-kun nonchalantly sipped his cup of tea, somehow managing to look immensely pleased by the outcome of this scenario despite still donning his usual pokerfaced mien.

After all, if the romantic tension was unraveled too quickly, the readers would quickly grow bored. This pace was fine.

Chiyo planted her face in her palms.

Why, oh, why were all the boys around her so doggone clueless?

The next day…

Chiyo and Umetarou watched with varying degrees of horrified incredulity and expressionless deadpan as a thoroughly pepped Wakamatsu burst into the library with a ferocious battle cry that was incredibly impressive for all the wrong reasons.

"Seo-senpai!" he bellowed with all the courage he could muster, red in the face and pointing passionately at the vaguely surprised girl in question. "You should harass me only!"

There was a muffled ruckus that promptly ensued at the ridiculous declaration. Or was it a confession? Either way, Chiyo could not help but feel a bit embarrassed for her underclassman all the same…and also very awed by the things that just came out of his mouth.

Yuzuki blinked languidly at the trembling finger right in front of her before lazily tracking the digit back up to meet the accusing gaze of its upset, emotionally strung owner. What bee had crawled up Waka's behind again for him to be so ruffled.

"Hah? Why must I," she uttered blankly, completely oblivious to the turmoil that she had put him through the last week or so.

He scowled. "Because it's very inconsiderate, senpai! So if you really must impose on people, then just impose on me!"

Hirotaka looked around them then, very determined to find out the identity of the one who had captivated her attention. "Who is he, anyway? Why are you harassing him, anyway? Are you throwing books at him, too, the way you always pelt me with basketballs while gleefully cackling your head off? Why are you always like this, senpai? They probably are too nice to tell you off so stop disturbing other people already-"

He was sounding more and more upset the longer he rambled along.

"Who is who?" she parroted, head cocking to the side in irritated confusion. He was making no sense whatsoever.

Was she pretending to be dumb?

"That person whom you've been messing around with!" he snapped out, frazzled. "That's why you stopped coming around after school to mess with me, right; you've been off playing with someone else-!"

That definitely sounded like an outburst of jealousy, no matter how one looked at it.

"I came to school late one too many times and got stuck with two weeks' worth of library duties," she cut him off flatly before he could comically swell up even further like a fuming purple balloon.

His mouth snapped shut and he peered at her suspiciously.

"…What?"

"I've been serving detention in the library," she repeated boredly. She was also starting to eye him with interest.

Eh? Ehh?!

"Detention? So you weren't off tormenting some poor guy?" he asked, just to confirm.

"Yes. What's it to you even if I did?" she retorted. "You jealous or what?"

This time, he was turning bright red for an altogether different reason.

"O-Of course n-not!" he spluttered. "I'm just doing a public service by keeping you away from the general populace, Seo-senpai. You're a menace," he added, just in case she needed further proof that he was far from jealous. He was also quickly calming down now that the misunderstanding had been cleared, and also feeling quite foolish.

Yuzuki was unimpressed by all the fuss.

"Yeah, whatever. So are we done here? I can't go home until I've shelved all these books."

That librarian guy peeping at them at the corner looked like he probably needed to be shielded from Seo-senpai's overwhelming attention, Hirotaka promptly determined.

"…Fine, then I'll help you out, senpai."

"Don't need it."

"I said I'll help so don't be so stubborn-!"

Over by the tables, Chiyo and Umetarou observed the conclusion of the lovers' spat.

"…Is this really okay," the petite second year muttered not for the first time even as her crush was furiously making notes beside her.

"Of course it's okay," he replied absentmindedly as he reviewed the pointers that he had just scribbled down. "Maybe I should dedicate a mini-arc to Ose and Waka at this rate."

"…Nozaki-kun, no."

::owari::

Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:

Been wanting to do something for this otp, and the latest GSNK update actually gave me the motivation to bang something out, haha! This ship looks set to sail, woot!

Hope you liked and enjoyed!

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Your reviews make me update faster; so please leave a comment if you like this fic!

-sllebswap