#series.telephonegame

[luvxiem]

##TELEPHONE GAME 📞

##PART ONE

luca kaneshiro x gn!reader, college au, all humans au, idiots to lovers slowburn, fluff, humor, angst

word count: 2.4k

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you’re fucked. you’re so fucked. at this point you would’ve preferred the ground to just swallow you whole so that you wouldn’t have to face the utter humiliation of coming into class twenty minutes late and feeling the judgmental stares of all your peers burning into your back as you make the walk of shame to one of the few remaining seats in the hall.

of course, that hasn’t happened yet, but you can see it clearly in your mind.

frantically throwing on a hoodie, you slip out of your dorm with a quick goodbye to your roommate while scarfing down a banana as quickly as you could. it’s a wonder how you didn’t choke while running down multiple flights of stairs since the elevators were broken. again.

you made a mad dash across campus and through the halls—bumping into more than a few disgruntled shoulders—before skidding to a halt in front of a pair of double doors. and of course, they were closed. because the universe just loves to fuck with you.

with a grimace, you push one of the doors open—the sound of the metal bar and the creak of its worn hinges seems to echo throughout the room and you hear your professor pause in the middle of her sentence from the disruption. she raises an eyebrow at you and you flush.

“glad to see you finally join us,” she calls, a few snickers coming from the crowd of students watching you try and fail to merge into the wall. you catch more than a couple glances of sympathy.

“sorry,” you murmur, ducking your head in a makeshift bow. heat radiates from your cheeks as you scan the rows for an empty desk, tucking your bag to your chest as you walk over extended legs before you’re finally seated a bit toward the back of the hall. your professor continues her lecture undisturbed, clicking through a powerpoint containing information that you’re 90% sure will be on your midterm. quickly taking out your laptop, you sit back in your seat while waiting for it to boot up and sneak glances on either side of you.

to your left is some asian girl you vaguely remember seeing on a friend’s instagram story a while ago, and to your right is a tall blonde dude with a side ponytail. who’s currently watching spy x family on his laptop. neither of them seem to notice your staring which is a plus, so you lean forward and open your notes app to try and write down the multiple bullet points that appeared to be flying by before you could even finish reading them. the words of your professor seem to go in one ear and out the other, and soon enough you’re feeling the telltale signs of frustration creeping in the back of your mind. shutting your eyes with a huff, you rub them with the sleeves of your hoodie before deciding that since you obviously weren’t going to be productive today, you’ll just sit back and zone out for the rest of the lesson. besides, your best friend uki has this class tomorrow morning and he’ll give you his notes with a little bit of bribery.

your gaze inevitably drifts off to your right and ultimately lands on the blonde’s laptop which is still playing spy x family. thankfully, the dude is watching with captions which makes it much easier for you to keep up with the story. you haven’t seen this episode yet (since when was there a dog?) which is always a plus, although you’ll have to check when you get back to your dorm to make sure you didn’t skip any.

blondie seems to notice you watching along with him and subtly angles his laptop in your direction. blushing from getting caught, you chance a glance up at him and jolt a bit when your gazes meet. striking violet eyes stare back at you and he offers a boyish grin before turning his attention back to his screen.

the rest of the lesson continues without any fanfare and soon enough you’re packing your laptop into your bag alongside your peers. a buzz comes from your pocket which shows a notification from uki saying that he’s already at the campus cafe along with shu, the final member of your little trio.

a tap on your shoulder stops you from leaving, however, and when you turn on your heel you come face to face with the blonde stranger once again. he gestures to your bag with his hand, which you now notice was concealed in dark leather gloves.

“were you able to get the, the uh, notes?”

you blink.

ah. he must’ve noticed your rather pathetic attempt at paying attention today.

adjusting the strap on your shoulder, you shrug. “no, but it’s fine, i can just get the notes from somebody else.” that seems to spark something him as he replies quickly.

“if you need them, i can ask my friend. i didn’t get the notes either but his are usually, uh, usually pretty good.” his eagerness to help doesn’t get lost on you, but asking a stranger to ask his friend for notes that you could just ask uki for felt a little uncomfortable.

offering what you hoped was an appreciative smile, you reply, “it’s fine, my best friend has this class tomorrow and i was planning on asking him for them. thank you though.” he seems to accept your answer and nods. the blonde waves at you with a grin before shoving his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and walking off, taking two steps at a time down the stairs before slipping out the door and disappearing from view.

this happens again your next class. and the next. and the next.

every session since then without fail, you find yourself seated next to this tall blonde man who adjusts his laptop so that you can watch anime with him instead of paying attention to your professor and her powerpoints. uki’s been getting annoyed at your constant requests for his notes and your wallet is suffering from all the iced coffees you’ve been buying him as compensation.

despite this odd sort of friendship (or perhaps it was more of a mutual understanding of suffering) you’ve never gotten the guy's name, and at this point, you’re too embarrassed to ask.

luckily for you, you don’t have to.

a month passes since you embarrassed yourself in front of your peers and as soon as you enter the class, you immediately spot the big, bolded letters being projected to the front of the hall.

you’re being assigned a group project.

suppressing a shudder, you make your way up the stairs and plop down into what you’ve claimed as your seat, pulling your laptop out of your bag as you greet your anime buddy with a smile. violet eyes glance over you briefly before he returns your greeting with a grin of his own.

as the last few students come stumbling into the hall, your professor clears her throat before detailing what the project was about and her expectations for it. you jot down the specifics on your laptop, fingers tapping away at the keyboard as she speaks.

the goal of the project was to research the misconceptions and romanticization of love in modern media and to present on our findings as well as the repercussions of it on today’s youth. easy enough, you suppose, although you wonder why this was meant to be a group project as you could surely do the work on your own. your thoughts get interrupted as your professor continues stating the parameters of the assignment.

“in addition to the research and presentation, you and your partner must provide a personal anecdote on how you experience love with the people around you. i understand that this is a private matter, however for the purpose of this class i wish for you all to provide as much information as you are comfortable giving. the goal of this project is to force you to reflect on how you treat your loved ones and how this affects yourself as an individual. your partner for this project will be assigned by me as this is meant to push you out of your comfort zone.” a multitude of groans are heard in response, although your professor could clearly care less as she reaches behind her to grab the list of partners from her desk. name after name is called out and you fiddle with your laptop charger until she calls your own, as well as who you’re stuck with for the next three months.

“your partner will be luca kaneshiro.” she announces before immediately moving on to the next pair.

you start racking through your mind to try and figure out who this luca is before you feel a nudge against your arm and someone saying your name. turning to your right, you’re met with a bright expression.

“pog! can’t believe we got put together,” the blonde says, who you now realize must’ve been your partner. which also means this must be luca.

“yeah,” you smile weakly, thankful that at least now you don’t have to embarrass yourself by asking your (maybe?) friend for the past month what his name was. you decidedly choose to keep quiet about how he knew your name despite never introducing yourself.

“how did you wanna do this?” luca asks, tilting his head to the side slightly. somehow, he reminds you of a big golden retriever.

“h-huh?” you stutter.

“the project? do you have um. discord? so we can talk about it outside of class.” he explains.

“oh, uh, yeah i do. one second.” pawing your phone out of your pocket, you open the app and hand it off to luca so that he can send himself a request. the blonde opens his own phone and accepts it, sending you that default gif of wumpus waving hello. you send one back. distantly, you notice his profile picture is an image of pompompurin.

another "pog!" comes from your partner and you can't help but wonder if he uses any other twitch slang in his day to day life. it doesn't seem to be ironic either, at least, at the moment it doesn't.

later when you glide out of the classroom and sit down across from shu in your usual spot at the campus cafe, you realize that you have no idea how you're supposed to do this project. luca, although quite friendly, isn't the most approachable guy with his tall stature and broad shoulders, and a nonsensical part of your mind panics at the mental image of the blonde as a tall mafia boss looming over your beat-up body with a crazed smile. you shake your head to rid yourself of the thought.

"you good?"

shu has his laptop open on the table, staring at you with one eyebrow raised as he takes a long sip from his water. the computer science major already ordered you an iced vanilla latte and a bagel (thank god) and you quickly nod before reaching for a plastic knife.

"yeah," you reply, gathering a rather sizable amount of cream cheese. "just worried about my, uh, my groupmate."

"ahh." shu nods knowingly. "are they one of those freeloading people?" you shrug.

"not sure. haven't worked with him before. but he's a little intimidating," you admit, taking a bite of your bagel.

"are we shit talking?" looking up, you realize your missing friend has finally arrived.

uki plops down across from you, dropping his bag onto the floor with a loud thump. he reaches over and ruffles shu's hair, much to the other's dismay as he tries valiantly to brush it back into place.

"no. can i borrow your notes for tomorrow?"

"i want an iced americano," uki counters, side eyeing you.

you roll your eyes. "fine." sadly abandoning your bagel on a napkin, you stand up to go order his coffee. when you return to your friends, you set down the cup in front of uki and he takes a sip with a pleased smile on his face as you sit back in your chair. setting the drink down, he looks at you from across the table.

"okay but, who were we talking about? do we like them?" he asks. again, you shrug.

"his name's luca, he's in my morals class and we're partners for a project. you'll get assigned it tomorrow and we don't choose our partners." shu's eyes widen for a moment.

"oh, i didn't know luca was taking that." you turn to him in surprise.

"you know him?" he nods.

"we actually went to the same elementary school and our parents were friends before we moved," shu explains. "if i remember correctly, he's pretty nice. he always played tag with me during recess."

"aww, i just imagined little shu running around," uki teases fondly. shu chuckles.

"yeah, we used to be pretty close. we reconnected when we realized we both had calculus together. he's a lot taller than i expected."

"that's what i mean," you groan, cutting him off. "he's like, really tall and kinda buff. it's intimidating." you drop your head into your hands as shu pats you on the back with a sympathetic look.

"it'll be fine," he reassures. "really, he's just like a big puppy. a golden retriever. and i'm sure he'll pull his weight so you won't end up doing everything like last time with that one guy."

"i can ask around and see if he's like, weird or something," uki offers. you shake your head, dropping your arms back onto the table as you lean back in your chair and stare at the ceiling.

"no, it's fine. i'll trust shu. just, hoping for the best, i guess," you sigh.

taking out your phone, you open discord and stare at your messages with luca. wumpus continues to wave as if he was taunting you.

it'll be fine, you think. we'll get this project done without any issues and who knows? maybe i'll have another friend after all this is over.

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