Page 21 of Psync
“Par for the what?”
“Sorry, English idiom for normal.” Eli bit his lip. Haruka’s accent was so faint, he’d forgotten English wasn’t his first language. Idioms were a major bitch for language learners. Every time you started to think you’d mastered something, one would pop up and ruin your confidence.
Except Haruka didn’t seem to care.
“Falling off things is normal for you?”
Oh, Eli really wanted to be anywhere else but here right now. “Sometimes?”
“That’s not a good thing.” Haruka put a hand on the railing and vaulted over to Eli’s side of the fence.
“What are you doing? Don’t you have an exhibition?”
“My part’s done.” Haruka stepped forward, invading Eli’s personal space. “Are you okay?” His voice was quiet, and his eyes searched Eli’s body, looking for signs of injury.
“I’m fine. No harm done, see?” He spun around in a circle to prove everything was in perfect working order and that Haruka was free to leave.
For some strange reason, Haruka leveled a stare at Nate then turned back to Eli to say, “Wait here.” And popped back over the fence as easily as he had the first time.
“Show off.” Eli muttered. Then to his friends he said, “I could do that too if I was taller.”
“Oh, are you two done? I was running out of things to say.”
“I don’t know, Al, I think you were doing a fine job of describing the campus waste removal procedures.”
Alice flicked Nate in the forehead. “Don’t call me Al.”
Nate rubbed his head. “The abuse! Why do I put up with you?”
“You two abandoned me! I thought we were friends!”
“We are, which is why weabandonedyou all the way over here.” Alice pointed to the five feet of distance separating them.
“I thoughtyouliked Haruka. Didn’t you say you wanted me to help you meet him?”
“I did, but then something interesting happened and I changed my mind.”
“What happened?”
“I think I’ll wait to tell you. It’s too early to say.”
Eli looked to Nate for clarification, but he was busy trying to get the blonde archer’s attention.
“Right. Okay, well, let’s go look at the other booths. We didn’t come here to join the archery club.” They already decided collectively as a group that none of them were interested in being in an athletic club.
“Hold on for”—Alice’s eyes flicked to somewhere over Eli’s shoulder—“one more minute. I need to check something on my phone.” Then she pulled out her phone and started typing.
“How did you two find me? This place is crazy busy.” Eli asked Nate, pulling his friend’s attention away from flirting.
“When you didn’t text me back, I decided to look for pockets of chaos. After that, it didn’t take long to find you.”
“I’m not that bad.”
“You are that bad.”
“You seem like you’re that bad.” Haruka had magically materialized beside Eli. He hadn’t made a sound coming back over the fence and was no longer sporting the off-the-shoulder top of his kyudo attire. In its place, he wore a white tank top, though he still had on the black hakama.
Eli could only wish to ever look half as cool in his lifetime. Even if he had the exact same outfit, he would somehow manage to look more like a toy gotten out of a claw machine than thecasually wandered out of a historical J-dramaHaruka effortlessly pulled off.
