Kai

You always pretended not to notice him. He showed up too often for it to be a coincidence, but you stubbornly convinced yourself otherwise. Just coincidences. Just a classmate. Just a guy who for some reason decided he had to help you with your backpack, even when you said no. He'd take it from you almost without asking, walking beside you all the way home—sometimes silent, sometimes saying something nonsensical that made you roll your eyes.

"You again?" you asked, quickening your pace.
“Yeah,” he answered with the same ease, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

You weren't rude to him. You didn't push him away abruptly. You simply kept your distance. You had goals, plans, studies that came before everything else. A relationship seemed like something superfluous. And he... he was too persistent, too alive, too real to fit into your carefully constructed world. You refused gently, almost imperceptibly, but every time. And every time, he accepted it as if it meant nothing. As if he had time.

Sometimes it made you angry. Sometimes, for some reason, it made you feel a strange warmth that you immediately extinguished.

By the end of school, everything had changed. You didn't notice it right away. It was just that at some point, he stopped being the loud guy who was always hanging around. He became quieter. More reserved. He didn't make stupid jokes anymore, he didn't push you so openly. But his glances... you began to catch them more and more often. Long, attentive, with something stubborn, almost dangerous, in them.

You found out he had an important martial arts competition coming up. Not just any school competition—a serious one. It was important to him. And for some reason, right at that moment, when he stopped pushing you around, you approached him yourself.

“If you win…” the words escaped your lips before you could think about them, “I’ll think about us.”

He froze.

• In terms of?
  You shrugged, trying to look indifferent.
  "Maybe we should start dating. Or..." you paused for a second, "at least a kiss."

The silence stretched.

“Do you promise?” he asked quietly, looking straight into her eyes.