Chika stared at Ishi, his hand still gripping the edge of his locker door so hard the metal bit into his palm. I'm an idiot. I'm a total, Grade-A moron, the thought hammered in his brain again.
He looked at Ishi—really looked at how the 'Robot' was actually shaking, his eyes darting everywhere but Chika's face—and the guilt hit him just as hard as the confusion.
He'd spent all morning convinced he'd ruined everything, but here was Ishi, looking for 'data' to process it all.
"You don't... understand it?" Chika repeated. His voice was scratchy. He stepped away from his locker, nearly getting clipped by a group of first-years running past. "You're the smartest guy in school. You have a formula for everything. What happened to your books?"
Ishi's grip on his bag strap didn't loosen.
"Books provide theories," he muttered, finally looking up. His glasses were slightly crooked from his frantic pace down the hall. "But theories aren't facts. And the facts of the other day's... incident... don't align with any known behavioral pattern I am aware of."
Chika felt his face get even hotter. He wanted to laugh because it sounded so stupid—talking about a kiss like it was a lab report—but his chest felt too tight for a joke.
I'm such a fool, Chika thought, the word looping like a broken record. I should just tell him it was a prank. I should just let him go back to his grades and it will all be normal again.
But he didn't. He couldn't.
"So what?" Chika said, his voice dropping as a teacher walked by. "You're saying you need to 'observe' me or something? That what this is?"
Ishi didn't back away. He looked like he was about to vomit from the stress of it, but he stayed planted.
"I'm saying I can't find the answer in the library. I've tried. I spent three hours looking."
Chika blinked. The image of the school's top student frantically flipping through books trying to 'solve' a kiss was almost enough to make him smile, if he wasn't so terrified himself.
"If you want to solve it," Chika said, his heart hammering against his ribs, "then stop looking at your shoes. Look at me."
Ishi forced his gaze upward. He didn't look like a robot anymore. He looked completely and utterly lost.
"I'm looking," Ishi whispered. "But the numbers still aren't adding up."
"Well, that's because you ain't looking properly," he snarled and then grabbed Ishi's hand, leading him towards the stairs.
"Hey, wait... What are you going?" Ishi protested as he was being dragged away, his glasses crooked on his face. "This is inappropriate."
"More inappropriate than the kiss you're trying to solve?" Chika snuggly asked and Ishi looked away.
There were students watching and this conduct was... Not becoming.
But he couldn't just yank his hand back either. He wanted... To know.
The heavy metal door of the rooftop groaned as Chika shoved it open. The wind on the roof was loud and messy, blowing Chika's blonde hair into his eyes and nearly knocking Ishi's glasses off.
Chika let go of Ishi's hand fast, like he'd just realized he was holding it. He shoved his hands into his pockets to hide how much they were shaking.
Ishi stood there, out of breath, pushing his glasses back up. He looked around the empty roof.
"We're not supposed to be up here," he said, his voice shaky. "It's against the rules during lunch."
"Forget the rules for five minutes, Ishi," Chika snapped, but he didn't sound mean. He leaned back against the fence, feeling like a total mess. I'm a moron. A total, finished moron, he thought. I just dragged the top student to the roof like I'm some kind of villain.
"You want to 'observe'?" Chika asked, his heart thumping against his ribs. "Fine. Take a good look at me. There's no one here to interrupt us. No books, no teachers, and no Kenji making lame jokes."
Ishi took a small step forward, his shoes scraping on the gravel. He looked at Chika—really looked at him—without a desk or a book in the way. "I've been trying to figure it out," Ishi said, his voice cracking. "I thought maybe it was a joke. Or some kind of dare from your friends."
Chika flinched, his brow arching a bit. "A joke?"
"But it didn't feel like a joke," Ishi said, twisting the strap of his bag. "And you didn't stay to laugh or boast about it, which was unlike you. This time, you looked just as shocked and... You ran away." He looked up, his eyes searching Chika's face. "I need to know why. You thought I was asleep, so why would you do that when I wasn't even looking?"
Chika felt his throat go dry. He looked away at the trees past the school fence. He couldn't tell Ishi it was a 'calculated move'. That's because it was never in hell a calculated move.
"I didn't have a plan, you idiot," Chika muttered. "My brain just... stopped."
He looked back at Ishi, feeling completely exposed. "You looked so peaceful. For once, you weren't frowning at me or telling me I was in your way. You were just... there. And you looked so soft that I just...I couldn't help it."
He dragged a hand through his hair, cursing himself. "I'm a fool. I know. I'm a Grade-A moron for messing everything up when you were just trying to nap."
Ishi blinked, his mouth opening a little. "I... I wasn't even napping properly. I was just resting my eyes."
"Well, that makes it worse!" Chika groaned, his face turning a deep red. "So you felt it? You felt me being a creep?"
Ishi looked at his shoes again. Was that what it was? Him being a creep? He didn't know about that but...
"I did feel... something. But I didn't know the answer was just because I looked 'soft'."