SHINTARO KISARAGI IS DIFFICULT TO WRITE.

I've wanted to do a Shinaya fanfic for so long but I didn't get a concrete idea until yesterday. And when I started writing, I felt myself getting more and more frustrated because Shintaro Kisaragi is super difficult to write okay. How do you write this NEET. I don't know. Someone teach me.

Okay, that's out of my system. I hope I have not made them too OOC, but then again, I'm a weeb writer.

Kagerou Project belongs to Jin.

The boy stared at the cloudless sky, sighing for the one hundredth time that day. It was yet another boring lesson, a lesson he knew quite well despite not listening to the lecture, and he resorted to watching nothing happen in the sky. Earlier this school year, he remembered when the teacher would scold him for not paying attention, but when he received full marks, they wouldn't bother him anymore. The students began avoiding him as well, which he fully accepted. After all, life was boring anyway, and he would rather not interact with those who participated in it.

But then there was her.

One day she sat beside him, humming a happy tune as she did. Her paper was flashed quickly in his eyes, and he saw the low mark she received. Nevertheless, she turned to him, and without hesitation, she flashed her brightest smile.

Ayano began talking to him when others wouldn't, always smiling, always folding paper cranes out of her tests, and always cheerful. Slowly, he accepted that she wouldn't leave, and began opening up just a little to her friendly conversations. They varied a lot – their school life, her need for tutoring, and so on. A lot of them were about her siblings, though, and their many misadventures.

On that particularly cloudless day, the girl tapped his shoulder. He turned around, and once again, he saw her smile.

"Can I ask you something?" She said it so sheepishly, and he couldn't believe that he thought that her hesitation was rather cute.

"Go ahead," he replied dismissively, trying to get rid of the earlier thought. The classroom clock ticked on as he waited for a response.

"I was wondering…" The girl trailed off, looking outside the window. Beneath the cloudless sky was a small courtyard, and it was filled with cherry blossom trees and contained only one bench. Nobody went down there, mostly because of the mass amount of blossoms on the ground that nobody in the school faculty ever bothered to clean. "Would you like to spend lunch…there?"

It was a surprise. Shintaro Kisaragi, classified genius, was not able to answer a simple answer such as this. He tried to think of a reasonable reply, but as she kept a hopeful look in her eyes, showing off her striking smile, he could feel his brain give way to his heart.

"I don't see why not." He tried to say this as flatly as possible, but despite his serious face, she smiled even wider.

The lonely bench was occupied by two figures, both trying to remove the blossoms on the floor. The boy pulled out a simple soda can as his lunch, and the girl pulled out her most recent test. The score was a decent sixty – seven percent, and she was rather proud, but she knew her father would not take it, and so she began creasing the folds of her crane.

The girl turned to the boy disapprovingly as he opened the can. "Shintaro," she said, a small pout forming on her face. "Won't you get sick drinking soda all the time?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he shot back, looking down at her. "You're not even eating."

"I…" The girl hesitated, and she shook her head slowly, a small grin plastered on her face. She straightened out her black skirt and said, "I had to prepare breakfast for my siblings and forgot about my own lunch. By then it was too late anyway."

"They sound like such a handful," Shintaro assumed, taking another sip before continuing. "Don't you get tired?"

"Of course," she said. "But even if we're not related by blood, they're still my siblings, and I'll strive to take care of them until the end."

"Hm."

There was a silence, and Shintaro took this time to delve into his thoughts. I'm a genius, he said to himself, looking at the ground. If I'm a genius, why am I an idiot around her? What is it about her that makes me unable to think properly? Am I sick?

From the corner of his eye, the boy saw Ayano tug at her scarf. Biting the bottom of her lip, she kept folding her paper, becoming the creation that she wanted it to be. She looked rather proud at the finished crane, and she tugged on her scarf once again.

"I know I've said this a lot, but why do you keep wearing that thing?"

Ayano looked up from her work, still smiling as an embarrassed look crossed her eyes. "I know I've said this a lot, but I wear it because I want to be a hero."

"A hero," he echoed before rolling his eyes. "Tch, as if there's a chance you can become one. There are no heroes in this town."

"I believe there is," the girl replied back. "And I'm trying my best to become one of them, too."

The boy turned back to look at Ayano, who continued admiring the crane she had made. His eyes drifted towards her hair, which had held fallen cherry blossoms in the loose strands. The blossoms made a small halo around her hair, making her absolutely beautiful.

You think she looks like an angel, don't you?

A voice from the back of his head called to him, but he couldn't answer. He could only admire everything about her, and when he found out that he was staring, he grew frustrated with himself.

Okay, he said to himself. She looks like an angel. So what?

So what, idiot? His heart was in an eternal battle with his not – as – reasonable brain, frustrating him even more. Don't you want to admit that you have feelings for her?

You know what? Maybe I do, maybe I don't.

So admit it. Admit everything you've ever thought. She's made your life better, anyway.

How would I even admit it? I'm a mess around her.

Just do that thing you've wanted to do for a while, idiot.

"Fine!" He exclaimed out loud, startling the girl beside him.

The girl turned to look at him, and she blushed when she realized that he was staring. She managed to say, "Are you okay, Shintaro?"

"I'm not," he said, and concern filled her eyes. "There are no clouds, there's blossoms everywhere, and life can be extremely dull, but you…you have managed to brightened up my life, and it's irritating that I keep thinking about you, and there's blossoms in your hair – "

"Oh!" The girl began to reach towards the blossoms, probably to pick them off, but he stopped her by grabbing her hand.

"I'm not finished," he said, and she could only look, dumbfounded. "There's blossoms in your hair, and they make you look pretty, and I don't know what to say so I'll just – "

He pulled her in, sloppily pressing his lips against hers, and he felt warmth spread on his neck and his face and everywhere on his body. His heart was beating so fast, and he didn't have a rational thought of his head, and he couldn't understand what took over him. When he pulled away from their kiss, he rubbed the back of his neck, feeling so stupid for doing such a stupid thing.

Ayano turned as red as her scarf, burying her face in the cloth. Both of them were speechless, but Shintaro was probably more embarrassed that she was. They sat in silence once more before the bell rang. Just as he was about to get up on his own, Ayano grabbed his hand, striking her signature smile.

"I want for us to go to class together," she said, and he could only nod as he was dragged into the classroom.

It wasn't as boring as before. As long as she sat next to him, it would all be fine. And even thought they were playing it off as if the event never happened, they would both remember it for a very long time.