Chapter Text
He turns sharply at her call, big round eyes snapping to where she was standing.
Nene feels panic well up inside her. Was he going to jump? She didn't know him, the school year had barely started, was she going to live with the guilt of being unable to stop him forever? She didn't want that.
"Y-you shouldn't be there!" she yells, feeling like her feet were frozen in place, "It's dangerous!"
There's a moment where the only sound she hears is the wind, and when his foot steps off the ledge, onto the solid ground, she feels relief wash over her.
She spots the unravelling bandages that had once covered his arms, and feels her heart drop. She knew there were injuries under those bandages, but actually seeing them made her feel sick to her stomach. She rushes over, grabbing his arm and inspecting it. Did he do this to himself? Who would do this to another person?
"We need to take you to the nurses office!" she says, grabbing his wrist delicately and trying to pull him along. She then notices the bruises that wind around his wrist, like the mark of a rope, and she loosens her grip.
He pulls his arm away.
"I-I'm fine," he tells her, and she thinks that it's the first time she's ever heard his voice. It's quiet, surprisingly soft and boyish. He still seems shaken, surprised at her appearance.
"You aren't," she insists, taking his hand this time. It's red and covered in little scratches.
Is there any part of him that isn't hurt?
He still refuses to move, gaze fixed on the ground and face scrunched up like he was holding something back.
She wraps his hand in both of hers, and he glances over briefly.
"It won't take that long, I promise."
She presses the cotton ball to his wound, but he doesn't move, remaining still. She wonders if he's used to the pain.
After cleaning the wounds, she grabs a roll of fresh bandages, wrapping them carefully around his arm after discarding his old ones in the garbage can.
She wants to ask what happened to him, how he got all these scratches, if he really came to school like this every single day; but something in his expression tells her that she shouldn't.
She'c concerned, though she doesn't really know him.
"There, all done."
She had learned a lot of things trying to impress her middle school crush. Feminine things; how to cook, how to clean, how to wrap up a wound all nice and pretty like one of those girls in a shoujou manga. She'd always thought she'd be using the last skill to patch up her crush after he was injured, a chance to seduce him with her gentle, healing aura.
Amane had watched as she cleaned and wrapped his wounds, looking lost in some other world. She notices the deep bags under his eyes, and thinks that it's no wonder that he doesn't come to school every day.
Silence stretches between them, and she realizes that she's still holding his hand.
"Thank you," he finally says, pulling his hand into his lap. He still isn't looking at her.
Nene gets up, putting the bandages back into the cupboard and cleaning up.
She doesn't really know how to reply, didn't think for once in her highschool career that she would ever be in a situation like this, where she was walking on eggshells and her words could turn into needles. Her stomach growls, and she realizes that she hasn't eaten anything yet.
"Are you hungry?" the boy asks, "sorry you had to spend your lunch looking after me-"
Nene spins around, waving her hands around, "No! It's fine! I wanted to-"
Wanted to what?
"-share my lunch with you!"
What???
He looks just as confused as she is.
"Share... your lunch?"
She screams on the inside, it's too late to go back now. "Uhm, err, yes, I thought you looked... hungry?"
"Oh..." he trails off, "but what about you?"
"Er, uhm, I-I'm fine?"
Her stomach growls again, and he gives her a look. Nene flushes red, putting her hands on the stomach. This isn’t what she envisioned when she decided to climb up to the rooftop, though now she isn’t sure what she was trying to do, anyways. She curls into a ball of humiliation, wishing that a hole would just swallow her up.
A warm hand wraps around her wrist, and she looks up, surprised.
Amane had leaned down, and up close she sees that he’s a little bit red, too. “We can share,” he says, pulling her up a bit, “it’s a thank you, for helping me.”
“A-ah uhm, okay,” Nene lets herself get pulled up, and she sits beside him. He seems to be lot more relaxed than before, but he’s still tense. “Did you… not bring a lunch?” she decides to ask, watching him carefully unwrap the bento box.
“My brother forgot his lunch at home, so I gave him mine,” he explains. He pops open the lid to the lunchbox, peering at the ingredients curiously. “It’s cute.”
“You think so?” She had spent the morning carefully crafting every single character in that lunch box, in the hopes that some boy in her class would notice how feminine she was and fall madly in love with her. “I spent a long time on it,” she crosses her arms and puffs out her chest proudly.
He grabs the chopsticks and mutters a quiet “itadakimasu”, but before he can even touch a single cabbage on the little ghost’s head, Nene cries out, “Stop!”
Amane freezes, and for a moment she feels like there’s fear rolling off of him.
“Sorry, uhm I just wanted to take a picture to show Aoi-chan!” she explains, holding up her phone, “you don’t mind, right?”
He shakes his head, and she quickly snaps a picture. He glances at her as she admires the photos, as if making sure it was okay to eat before taking an omelet and nibbling on it. He starts taking bigger bites, little by little, and Nene smiles, feeling satisfaction that someone was enjoying a lunch that she made.
Maybe it’s not her prince charming, but at least she knows that it isn’t disgusting.
“Is it good?” she asks, just to stroke her own ego.
He nods around a mouthful of food, he looks like he hasn’t eaten in ages. Nene frowns, looking at his thin arms and pale complexion, that could very well be true.
“Yashiro-san?”
She hears her name being called, and snaps out of her daze. Amane is looking at her with a concerned expression on his face, holding out a chopstick full of rice.
“Aren’t you going to eat any?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.
He’s like a kitten.
“Y-yeah, of course,” absentmindedly, she leans forward and takes a bite, munching thoughtfully on the fluffy rice. She misses the way he tenses up and flushes completely red.
By the time the lunch bell rings, they’ve wiped clean most of the lunch. Nene stands up and wipes off her skirt, taking the lunchbox from the struggling Amane and rewrapping it.
“We should go to class now,” she says, looking down at him. His fists are clenched tighly in the fabric of his uniform pants, and his mouth is pursed again.
“U-uhm,” his eyes flicker towards her, “thank you, Yashiro-san.”
Nene smiles. “No need to thank me, if you ever need anything you can just ask!” She flashes him a smile, and pulls him up from where he was sitting.
Amane blinks fast, taken aback by her statement. “O-okay,” he finally says as she pulls him out of the nurse’s office.
During their next break, Aoi comes over to talk to her, and she excitedly shows her the lunchbox she made.
“Hey Aoi-chan, look at this! Isn’t it cute?”
Aoi stares at it for a while, face blank.
“Well?” Nene looks at her expectantly, waiting for her friend to tell her how cute her lunchbox is.
“Uhm… yes, it… really suits you, Nene-chan,” Aoi says, giving her a tiny, forced smile.
“E-eh?”
“Ohh lemme see-” Yamabuki comes around, peeking over his phone to look at her lunchbox. He guffaws, snatching her phone out of her hand to show everyone else.
"W-wait-"
"Haha! What even is that? A halloween-themed character bento?"
"It's so creepy! If some girl gave that to me I'd reject her on the spot!"
"Who even made that?"
Nene feels like crying. "I-I dunno... I just found it... online and thought... it looked funny..." her voice comes out as a croak, and she thinks this is the most humiliated she's ever been.
Aoi looks over at her with concern. "C-come on guys, it's kind of cute isn't it?"
"Pffft, nice once Aoi," Yamabuki snorts, "Hey Yugi, isn't this creepy?" He turns the phone to Amane, who had been staring at the scene with furrowed brows.
Amane glances over at the screen, then looks over to Yashiro, who's on the brink of tears. He smiles.
"I think it's cute."
"I mean, I guess, in a creepy way, if that's what you're into," Yamabuki scoffs, he throws the phone back to Nene, "here you go."
Nene grapples with it before finally catching it, and she turns to mouth Hanako a thank you, and she thinks he's kind of cute when he gives her a shy smile back.