Chapter Text
She carefully threads each bead onto the rather cheap elastic cord that came with the pastel colored jewelry set. "These will definitely break later.." she thinks quietly to herself. Miriko thought this whole idea was a bit silly from the get go, friendship bracelets..? she hadn't seen those since middle school! Isn't this a bit..childish? Well, of course she'd never say that to Fuyuko.
She's snapped back into reality by her eager eyed friends shouting, "done! what do you think Miri?" The nickname makes her heart flutter. Miriko, still not yet used to these situations, was a bit thrown off but still managed to stutter out some kind of a response before she started to look too foolish. "O-oh! that looks beautiful Fuyuko-chan" she stammers through her flustered state..she really did like the bracelet, she thought it was cute of course! Anything Fuyuko did was cute in her eyes.
she's snapped out of her mind get again by a soft playful bonk on her head "I told you to call me Fuyu! when will you stop being so formal with me huh Miri?!" She felt her whole face heat up with embarrassment, she had completely forgotten! Miriko lowers her head in shame her face burning with embarrassment "r-right..I'm sorry..Fuyu-chan" Fuyuko beams happily at the change in her title but her expression softens at Miriko's shameful expression.
"hey don't beat yourself up over it!" She places a hand on top of Miriko's head, rubbing soothing circles into her scalp. "Your just not used to talking to people much, you'll be a pro in no time!" She says, flashing that big bright smile that Miriko loves so much, that one that triggers all the strange tingly feelings inside her stomach that only seemed to dig her deeper into this strange hole of feelings she didn't understand.
It had been two weeks of this. Two weeks since Miriko opened herself to the world yet again, deciding maybe it wasn't all that bad after all, that she wanted to escape this isolation she had created for herself for so long. She quickly proved herself wrong..the world was terrifying! everything was so loud and scary and all she wanted to do was go home.. Just when Miriko feels like she's gonna fall apart an angel grabs her hand and asks in the kindest voice she'd ever heard "are you okay..?"
Okay maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but still! the gist is the same and in that frightful experience she met her first new friend, Fuyuko!
its only been a few days and Miriko still feels like she's always doing something wrong but somehow Fuyuko always seems to know when she's getting to far into her own head and is able to pull her right back out of it. It would be strange if it didn't feel so nice.
Finally, she knots the end of the cord, solidifying the beads place on it. Miriko lifts up her creation looking up at it, "a bit sloppy.." she thinks.. It was a bit janky looking for her first time, the tie was too tight and the way she wrapped the cord around the beads made them stick out in all kinds of directions. "This is to embarrassing to give to Fuyuko..The knot is sloppy and i wasn't thinking about the colors much at all.." she thought quietly clutching the bracelet closer to her purple oversized sweaters pocket. she could feel herself falling into that oh-so-familiar spiral again but before she could get to far she felt two warm hands grabbing her own.
"thats adorable Miri! wow, you sure are talented! Your color choices are so good with one another and you know how to knot so well, I could never do that! You sure do have an artistic eye huh Miri?!?" there she goes again! its all so specific, it's exactly what she thinks every single time sure it could be a coincidence but..so frequent..?
Despite her thoughts, Miriko smiles softly still a bit embarrassed for her initial thoughts "Thank you, Fuyu.." she mutters, she's just overthinking things..Fuyuko is just very kind! Maybe that's why she always seems to feel better when she's around..