18. Hungry Frenemy

Your feet were planted on a grey concrete sidewalk, faced in front of a large shopping district with your hand clutched onto the side of your purse.

"...Wow, this place is huge," you commented, eyes filled with wonder. "...it could fill a thousand of huge elephants in there."

"Tch, you dork, we're just here to get a purple smoothie, then we're out."

You pouted, as you watched the purple haired male with skinny jeans and sneakers matching with a black sweater, while his hair was still swept backwards. You managed to catch up to walk alongside him as you continued to glance around the beautiful area with many trees planted at an equidistant. Many people of all ages were strolling around at sporadic places.

It was a nearby shopping district, about five stops away with a bus, which you two took together. You managed to convince him to get a smoothie at this place instead of working, mostly because you were procrastinating on your work. Nevertheless, it was your first ever time you'd get something to buy with your roommate, out of all people.

You went inside, Shinsou left the door closed for you, making you smile thinly at his oh-so-nice gesture towards you.

You quickly pushed the door in disdain, eventually made it in to catch up with him. The cool atmosphere brisked against the soft surface of your cheeks, causing such startling contrast with the scorching sun outside.

There were escalators upon escalators to who knows how high this humongous building was—making your university's large size to a big fat zero. There was no doubt that you could get even more lost here, causing you to quickly shuffle yourself closer to the purple-haired male.

"Oi, give me some space, you dork."

"Oh, sorry," you murmured before pressing yourself closer to him, abruptly bumping him off the side.

He let out an incredulous look with a light chortle before he reciprocated back the same gesture and pushed you to the opposite end. This kept on going until you two eventually got onto the massive escalator.

That's when you calmed down.

A remnant of laughters were found within your lips, and a bit from his—though he was mostly hiding it. You really liked being with him, having fun around, while sometimes you couldn't help but compare him to Touya. With Touya, it feels as though you couldn't truly be real with him as much as you did with Shinsou.

Maybe you were just thinking through this too much, or maybe not. Nevertheless, you convinced yourself that they're all different and loved them in their own unique ways of expressing themselves. The common denominator you could conclude was that you were definitely working towards getting to a good level of friendship with the both of them, at different relationship stand points.

"Seriously, just stop sticking so close to me," he grimaced, while leaning at the edge of the escalator. "It's getting really annoying."

"Awe, but I might get lost here, and you obviously know your way around here."

"Tch, get lost and I'll be so happy."

"Pft," you huffed as you moved aside to the other end of the escalator with arms crossed. You fished out your phone and began to chat Shinsou.

[4:31 pm]

[You]

I hate you 👿

You looked over to the other side, saw that he was already checking his phone. You averted your eyes back down and saw that it was on 'read'. Suddenly, he began to type.

[4:31 pm]

[Shinsou]

I hate you more 😈

[4:32 pm]

[You]

I hate you more more 👺

[4:32 pm]

[Shinsou]

I hate you more more more 👻

[4:33 pm]

[You]

I hate you more more more more 💀

[4:33 pm]

[Shinsou]

I hate you most ☠️

You growled softly, yet you couldn't help but laugh a tiny bit. You averted your eyes to the side, before you met with those sly, violet orbs before you began to type autonomously with your eyes fixated on him towards the side.

[4:33 pm]

[You]

I hate you mostest 👽

He flickered his gleaming violet eyes back to his phone with a disapproval shake of his head before he began typing once again.

[4:33 pm]

[Shinsou]

I hate your bad vocab.

[4:33 pm]

[You]

I hate your hair less.

[4:33 pm]

[Shinsou]

Less? So does that mean you like my hair?

[4:33 pm]

[You]

The only thing I hate less about you, yea sure.

Eventually, you two made it to the top floor where the food court was. And you two instinctively walked alongside each other, eyeing one another before looking back to the front.

You looked around, spotting other couples holding hands and many families walking alongside together. Many others were seated at the food court, eating their own distinctive meals, causing to give off wonderful scents of smell that aroused your hungry senses.

"Shinsou, I'm hungry," you whined, while purposely tugging the side of his arm playfully.

His violet orbs flickered to the corner before he rolled his eyes away, parting his cherry lips to speak, "...I'm not your father, [Name], go feed yourself."

You pouted. "But we're only here to get you a smoothie, but now I'm hungry too, let's go eat something delicious!"

You two stopped to lean beside a glass railing, before he averted his violet, gleaming eyes back down at you. His eyes narrowed before leaning closer to you, while you inquisitively fixated your eyes into his visage.

"You know..." he began, "I'm really hungry for someone right now."

"...someone?"

He squeezed his eyes shut and began to shake his head. "Sorry, no, I mean I'm hungry for something."

"...okay..." you spoke softly, while backing off. "...then let's go find something to eat, like I said."

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed before he quickly turned away, cheeks flooding with colour before fishing out a black mask once again and plastered it on his mouth.

"What's up with you?" You snarled, clearly offended. "You're always doing that so often now, don't tell me I stink again.

He rolled his eyes before he tugged you forwards by your arm. "We're only here to find a purple smoothie, that's it."

"Awe, that's no fair, I'm getting really hungry though," you murmured before removing yourself from his arm, and turned away from him. "You know what? I'll get my own food, I'll get lost like you said, now bye!"

You began to stomp off towards the food court, earning a chuckled shake of unbelief from him. Yet, in the midst of that, you felt as though a pair of hungry eyes fixated onto you from behind.

You inhaled sharply, kept your gaze affixed to the front as you distracted yourself by looking at the different cuisine venues in the large food court.

Eventually, you found one with a sushi venue, and lined up at the very back. You gulped, feeling a tight knot in your stomach, not knowing why a little moment of not being with Shinsou brought such tensions causing you to be paranoid.

You shook off such thoughts as you rummaged through your purse to search for your credit card. Eventually you found it and prepared it in your hands.

You looked back, found that Shinsou was nowhere to be found. Yet, you felt something from your innermost feelings, that something wasn't right. You inhaled and exhaled anxiously before looking back to the front.

Before you realized it, a pair of cold hands were sneaking behind your neck, causing a shrill of goosebumps down your spine. You froze, not wanting to move for fear with eyes wide.

You gulped, letting out a forced laugh. "Shinsou, this isn't funny, sto—"

You froze, eyes widened further upon realizing it was not your roommate.