"THEY SAY THAT THE...

     universe has a funny way of shipping two people together. what do you think, chiyo-chan?", ozawa asked, as she was holding up her monthly girl magazine.

     the first-year glanced up as she realized that chiyo wasn't even listening to her, much less responding.

"what're you looking at?", ozawa questioned, following the second-year's gaze, as she was suddenly met with the sight of sukuna dribbling the basketball away.

     "ah, of course", the younger girl lightly chuckled.

     sukuna had then grinned whilst dunking the basketball into the hoop without much effort, causing mahito to playfully whine.

     "ugh, how do you have so much energy?! I'm sweatin' buckets over here!!"

     "who knows", the pink-haired boy shrugged, slyly diverting his attention to chiyo, as he lifted up the hem of his shirt to wipe the sweat trickling down his face.

     "I've just got good stamina", he smirked.

     mahito raised a brow in confusion, as his heterochromia eyes drifted off to his second-year manager that was blushing profusely.

     "who is that hot guy?", chiyo breathlessly uttered out, covering the lower half of her face with her palms.

"girl, relax. that's your soon-to-be boyfriend", ozawa teased.

"y-yūko-chan!! we don't know about that yet!", chiyo mumbled, as ozawa just hummed.

     "by the way, did you make those chocolates like I taught you?", the first-year asked.

"ah, I did! but I don't know when would be a good time to give it to him..."

"how about right after their morning practice? it's about to end in five minutes, and usually he walks you to class, right? that'd also be the perfect time to confess", ozawa whispered.

chiyo's tummy filled with butterflies at the thought of her confessing to her crush of almost a year.

'can I do it? what if he says no? he seems interested, but what if it's all just an act? what if he's just pranking me? no no, sukuna's not that type of person...but what if—'

"I can tell your brain's overheating, chiyo-chan. just confess! he'll for sure say yes", the blonde first-year encouraged.

"I mean...I did it, and now I'm dating the boy of my dreams", ozawa shyly smiled, glancing over at yūji, who had coincidentally made eye contact and flashed his girlfriend a cute smile.

"true...I-I'll try then! if I can't confess today, then surely—"

"today's valentine's day, the best day possible! I believe in you, chiyo-chan!!"

the second-year manager determinedly nodded, as she timidly shuffled around her bag and handed ozawa a bag of handmade chocolates.

     "this is for you, yūko-chan. thank you for being such a kind friend!", chiyo exclaimed, as ozawa too had chocolates for her friend.

"practice's over! start getting ready for class!", kamo announced, as he wiped his sweat from the towel given by ozawa.

     "u-um...s-sukun—"

"OI, OZAWA AND AOKI, COME 'ERE FOR A MOMENT", tōji commanded.

chiyo held her breath, as she jogged over towards their basketball coach with her fellow manager.

sukuna glanced over briefly before yuji had ushered him to go take a quick shower and head off to class.

     chiyo sighed as she wasn't able to hand sukuna his chocolates before class started, as tōji had taken up the entire time, right up to the minute before first period began.

"alright class, settle down!! I know today's a special day for some of you couples", gojō smiled, "and for you singles...ahahaha, yikes!"

     many students chuckled and sighed at their teacher's comment, as gojō proceeded with the lessons for the rest of the day.

     "ah chiyo-chan! a word with you please", gojō chirped, as the rest of her classmates had headed towards lunch.

    "yes, is there anything wrong, gojō-sensei?", chiyo questioned, hoping it'd be quick so that she could catch sukuna at lunch.

     "I have a little side quest for you and sukuna today", the white-haired teacher smiled.

     "but sukuna's not here right now...", chiyo noted.

"I already had suguru inform him of his task today. so now, let me explain before I send you off to the principal's office!"

chiyo hastily made her way towards principal yaga's office, as there was apparently a new transfer student that needed some guidance around the school.

the light-haired girl repeated gojō's challenge for her and sukuna in her head before knocking on principal yaga's door.

'remember chiyo-chan, no technology involved. you and sukuna must find all ten red ribbons that are tied to the branches of the trees within the school before yūji-kun's remedial lessons end'.

     "ah, miss aoki, perfect timing! this is our new transfer student: futaba arisa", principal yaga introduced.

"nice to meet you, aoki-san", the transfer student greeted with a delicate smile.

she was gorgeous.

     she was unlike anybody chiyo's ever met, which made sense considering she came from the outer states. she was the type of pretty girls aspired to be; the type of girl guys would grovel to be with.

     "n-nice to meet you too, futaba-san...", chiyo mumbled back.

     "miss futaba, I assure you that miss aoki will give you a splendid tour of our school. we're happy that you've chosen here, and I'm sure you won't come to regret it", yaga nodded.

     "thank you, principal. I look forward to studying here this upcoming school year", arisa stated, as she had looked towards chiyo for her to start the school tour.

     chiyo wasn't the best at communicating to strangers, but at least she tried. she explained where everything was and gave a brief rundown of the school's schedule to arisa.

     arisa's expression remained neutral, not seemingly to hold much care for it all.

     "um...if I may, what made you decide to transfer here, futaba-san?"

     the green-haired girl paused in her footsteps, as she glanced towards the school's courtyard, noticing a couple of red ribbons tied to some branches.

     chiyo also seemed to take notice, for she had quickly went to go take those down. she supposed that she could get a head start first since there were still eight to go.

     "I wanted to experience something new", arisa curtly replied.

"something new...", chiyo quietly repeated.

the platinum blonde second-year also once thought about trying something new, such as confessing her feelings for once. however, that ended up resulting in her home room teacher to get involved, and a whole lot of unnecessary teasing.

"say...I don't mean to be rude, but how do you know if trying something new won't hurt you?", chiyo questioned, her fingers unconsciously fiddling with the red ribbons.

     "if you don't try, you'll never know", arisa honestly answered.

     "would you rather live in a constant state of not knowing and safety? or would you rather take a chance, but perhaps find something even more comforting than your current safety bubble?"

     the dilemma seemed to have put chiyo into a deep thought. though arisa wasn't sure what her senior was talking about, that was how she had felt about her own situation.

     "personally, I believe that although taking a chance may be scary and unpredictable, at least at the end of it, you come out with an experience that you could learn from for next time. especially if that chance may not always be waiting".

     a sudden tap on chiyo's shoulder had brought the girl out of her daydreaming.

     looking up, chiyo suddenly had a burst of adrenaline. seeing megumi appear before her with a slightly concerned expression was like a lightbulb lighting up.

     "I-I'm sorry fushiguro-kun, but please look after futaba-san for me!!", chiyo exclaimed, as she rushed towards sukuna's classroom.

     megumi internally sighed, as he turned his gaze towards the new student, who was just staring back.

     "futaba arisa", she introduced.

     "fushiguro megumi". 

     chiyo zoomed through the halls, ignoring the hall monitor that was shouting at her to stop running.

     huffing and puffing, chiyo attempted to politely slide open sukuna's classroom door, only to be reprimanded by sukuna's teacher that she was disturbing class time.

     "he's at the infirmary", the teacher stated, "and shouldn't you be in cla—"

     chiyo closed the door and started jogging towards the school's infirmary, to which ieiri had informed the poor girl that sukuna had just left.

     "I sent him back to class but he's probably not going back there", she yawned.

     "thank you for your help", chiyo hastily bowed, before returning back to her tiring jog.

the second-year had almost looked everywhere for sukuna, yet could not even find him at his favorite napping place: the rooftop.

'where could he possibly be??'

after taking various deep breaths in and out, chiyo's feet had walked themselves towards the school courtyard, back to where she had started.

there, she spotted a tuff of pink hair attached to the very boy that she had been looking for.

sukuna was rummaging through the branches, having to have found seven of the red ribbons already. unbeknownst to him and chiyo, the last one was barely within his grasp.

'I must've missed it when I was snatching the other two', chiyo thought, as she slowly made her way towards the older itadori.

     for some reason, with each step that chiyo took, her heart had matched the rhythm.

     it was loud. it was unbearable. it was so ridiculously obnoxious that chiyo couldn't help but want to put an end to it.

     "sukuna", she called out, nearly surprising the boy, for he had never expected the blonde second-year to be skipping class like him.

     "chiyo. what are you doing here? looking for the ribbons too, huh?", he assumed.

     nodding, the girl had took out two, to which sukuna was glad that they had stumbled upon the last one together.

     "you know, if you untie these ribbons and connect them, it makes a pretty long string", sukuna stated, taking chiyo's two ribbons and adding it to the other eight.

     once a long line of red string had been formed, sukuna had handed it to chiyo, who just took it and looked at it.

she hesitantly handed one end to sukuna, whilst holding the other end.

sukuna stood there confused, for he just thought of untying the ribbons that gojō and getō had made to screw with them.

chiyo's breathing seemed to quicken, as she couldn't even meet the first-year's gaze.

sukuna was about to come closer and ask if she was alright before chiyo had finally blurted it out.

"what?"

"I said...", chiyo mumbled, "I like you".

sukuna wasn't sure how to react, for he had replayed this scenario in his head far too many times to count. he had planned when to provoke chiyo into admitting it and planned on what to say afterwards. however, this, this was beyond his calculations.

he was not prepared for this, not prepared at all.

"I like you", chiyo repeated, as if sukuna hadn't heard her the first time.

"I like you", she said again, seemingly to like the sound of her confession finally getting the release that it deserved.

"I like you, sukuna".

     upon hearing no response, chiyo had daringly looked up from the ground, only to find sukuna completely flabbergasted.

     the same hand that he used to shoot a three-pointer was now used to shield his embarrassed expression. although it didnt work very well, for even the first-year's ears were coated in pink.

     "I'm sorry for making you wait. I-I know this is out of nowhere but I was worried that you might—"

     "no", sukuna interrupted, causing chiyo to swallow down a fear that had uncontrollably stemmed from the boy's sudden response.

     "you don't have to be sorry", he muttered, removing his hand from his face as he tugged on the red string to cut down the distance between him and chiyo.

     "because even if you had taken longer to confess, I would've waited".

chiyo's eyes widened upon the closeness of her crush. her stomach exploded with all kinds of butterflies, desperately fluttering in anticipation as to what will happen next.

     gently, sukuna held chiyo's face in place, grazing his thumb against her reddened cheek.

     their hearts synced, beating in harmony.

     "I like you too, chiyo", he said before placing a warm kiss against the girl's lips.

     her shock soon melted into relief, as her feelings had been returned. her hands clenched onto sukuna's white t-shirt, dropping the red string that had become entangled with parts of their arms and legs.

alas, they shared a kiss that blossomed after finally waiting through summer, fall, winter, and spring.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: hey my darlings!! I apologize for taking so long to update, but hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the epilogue!!

     see y'all next chapter!! <33