Chapter Text
Takane Tsubomi did not get crushes.
Yes, there was always a particular boy in one of their classes who, by what her friends said, was 'totally her type'. She could see it, maybe. If he was attractive in looks and in potential, it wasn't hard to imagine her hanging off his shoulder during lunch or walking home from school. (She never did think about anything more than that. She didn't like to.)
But even if she could see herself doing it, that didn't mean she ever felt the way books and her friends told her love felt like. The swooning, the flushed face and flutter of butterflies in the sufferer's stomach at the sight of the boy of her dreams. Sukiko-san, one of the girls who sat with her at lunch, would always lament over whoever had currently caught her eye. "Isn't he handsome," she would say, "Doesn't the sight of him just take your breath away?"
No, no it never did. She had mentioned this before to Niwa-chan, one of her classmates and her chosen confidant. "You seem like you have high expectations, Tsubomi-chan. It's not a bad thing, no, but maybe you just haven't met the right boy yet. He'll come along soon, I know it," she had said. She almost hadn't caught the last part of her sentence, if Tsubomi was honest. Her friend had been wearing a very nice shade of lip gloss that day, and she made sure to tell her that once the two had headed their separate ways.
It wasn't really something she cared about, since a crush on someone would make functioning at school kind of difficult. It would be inconvenient at worst, she admitted, but she would probably feel different if she had one. Although, it was a topic always lingering at the back of her mind. Maybe she would have to figure something out. She could always date someone even if she didn't really like him like that. Maybe love is something that grows on you slowly, like a green moss on the side of an upturned log. Love is different for everyone after all, and Tsubomi knew secondhand how different the experience could be from the lovestruck girls around her.
Today, her walk home was fairly boring. It was a little later than usual, which was apparent by the light shade of orange tinting her surroundings as she walked towards her house. The streets were quiet, so she couldn't occupy herself by watching the people live their lives around her. Niwa-chan couldn't join her in walking home either, since she had late practice at one of her many extracurriculars. She would've asked to accompany her and watch from the sidelines, but Tsubomi had homework to finish before the next day came around.
Her fingers ran across the chipped surface of a concrete wall, trailing across it as she absent-mindedly walked along the sidewalk. The pink nail polish she had applied the day before had a chip on it, right on her left ring finger, she thought to herself. She'd have to fix it once she got home, then.
The building she had been poking at boredly finally ran out of wall, and Tsubomi stood at the crosswalk waiting.
She didn't dislike being alone, or at least left to her thoughts. She wasn't really sure what to do with the time though. Every minute of her day was usually spent chatting or talking or listening or moving or working, so when she found herself in the freeing serenity of a street turning towards a neighborhood it felt a little empty.
A sudden clatter from a nearby alley broke her out of her thoughts, and she quickly slowed to a stop. It was between that quaint little used bookstore she popped into from time to time on her walks home, and the cafe right next to it. Her eyes narrowed the slightest bit. Was it a stray cat? She'd seen them around her before, and there was no doubt that a cafe’s dumpster would be a very nice spot for a hungry kitty to dig around in. Another loud clatter came from the alley, followed by a very faint string of unintelligible muttering. Probably not a cat then.
Curiosity compelled her to creep a little closer. She wouldn't make her presence known, of course, but she did have to pass by it to go on her way. She took a cautious little step right up to the corner of the sleek building wall, and cranes her head to catch a peek of whatever was in that alley.
Someone, a girl from Salt Middle judging by her uniform, was rustling around in the dumpster next to the bookstore’s wall. She was on the tips of her toes, her shoes starting to hang off of her heel just a bit as she reached to pull at something unseen inside of the admittedly gross metal box. She was… about to fall in, it looked like. She was really reaching.
Tsubomi peered closer at her, trying to get a better look. She couldn't immediately recognize who it was. There was a bag by the girl’s feet, littered in alien stickers and miscellaneous patches sewn on haphazardly. That wasn't giving her much either.
“Oh, come on, I'm almost there…” the girl mumbled, angrily loud enough for her to hear it as well. Tsubomi’s eyes traveled over her, pulling at little details like how her shirt was untucked slightly, how her skirt kind of brushed the tops of her knees and was dangerously close to getting wrinkled further from the position the girl was in. She began to creep closer, finding herself straining to see who this mystery girl was.
“Got it!” the girl burst, her free hand shooting back onto the rim of the dumpster to pull her backwards and out of its aluminum rim. Tsubomi stopped on her tracks.
The mystery girl had her dark hair cropped to a messy bob that curled at the ends, frizzing up in places and almost curling in others. She wore a very satisfied smile on her face, cheeks a flushed pink from the blood having rushed to her head, and a few strands of hair were plastered to her forehead. Her eyes were a deep brown, and Tsubomi felt the breath from her lungs being sapped out into the atmosphere.
With lightning fast speed she tossed herself back behind the safety of the building's wall. Hands flat against it, her chest rising and falling a little more erratically than she would've liked, Tsubomi could feel her face heating up. Her stomach felt like it had been tossed in a blender and turned up to the maximum speed, her legs felt like weak jelly. Did she get sick all of a sudden? Was the smell from the alley doing something to her? What was happening?
Quickly, she tried to regain her breathing. She would never be able to forgive herself if the girl turned the corner to see Takane Tsubomi having what seemed to be a heart attack on some random sidewalk. She would never be able to live it down. Gulping in air as quietly as she could, she straightened herself up and brushed off her skirt. She adjusted her bag’s strap on her shoulder. Maybe she should turn around and find a different route, just to be safe. She could probably slip away and leave the girl unaware she had ever been here, actually, which sounded very good to Tsubomi.
Just as she was about to turn around, she could hear footsteps rapidly coming out from the alley, and she turned quickly to see the girl speed walking out of it. Her head swiveled and her eyes locked with Tsubomi’s gaze, which earned a very undignified squawk from the stranger as she stumbled to a stop.
Very fortunate that she had the good idea to calm herself before leaving, she gave the girl a small polite smile, raising her hand in a wave.
“Hello! I didn't expect to see someone from school out so late like me.” she said, keeping her tone as level as she could. The girl seemed frozen in place, and her face was still.. very flushed. Maybe she was still tired from the dumpster diving.
“I, uh.” she said simply. “Uh.”
Now that she was up close (and personal), Tsubomi could see a great deal of the stranger’s face. Her eyes were, in fact, brown and her hair was very ruffled. It looked good on her.
“My name is Takane Tsubomi, I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting you before.” She stuck out her hand, maybe a little too quickly she thought to herself. The girl looked down at her hand, then back up to her, almost dumbfounded.
It took a few seconds for the girl to process everything, she guessed, because a few seconds later she stopped gawking at her.
“Oh. Yeah. Well. I'm Kurata, Kurata Tome.” she coughed, starting to reach a hand out to meet Tsubomi’s before stopping and retracting into her pocket. Oh. She had forgotten about the dumpster thing.
Tsubomi quickly retracted her hand too, still smiling. “It's very nice to meet you, Kurata-san.” she glanced back towards the alley, then back to Kurata. “What are you doing at such a late hour?”
Kurata was speechless again. Her mouth moved wordlessly, and she glanced down at the item in her hands. From what she could see, Tsubomi deduces it as a book of some kind, a book that must've been important enough for Kurata to dig it out. Her smile couldn't help but grow a little wider. That was kind of cute.
The word “cute” almost sent Tsubomi spinning; she never called anyone cute, cute was reserved for her cat, cute was for the dresses in shop windows she could never hope to buy because the colors suited one of her friends more and she wouldn't like seeing Tsubomi wearing it. Luckily enough, she recovered from the reeling just in time to hear Kurata’s reply.
“Well, I was wandering around for a bit, didn't really want to go home so soon and I started walking past here and I saw them throwing out some books and I was like ‘Well, I'm not one to pass up free shhh.. free things so I started looking around to see what was up and I found this cool one so.. that's what I was doing.” she sniffed, glancing from side to side and at her book occasionally. She was avoiding Tsubomi’s eyes.
“That's cool! What's it about?” she asked, stepping forward to take a peek at the cover. It looked a little dark. There was gum on her sleeve. Kurata leaned back a little, finally looking back up at her.
“Not too sure, honestly. The cover makes it look like it's about some paranormal encounters or something so I thought it'd be worth a read.. I don't really find stuff like this often.” Kurata shrugged, gripping onto the book. Tsubomi thought back to her backpack, which had been covered in alien memorabilia.
She stepped closer again, only Kurata didn't back away this time. “That sounds very fun. I think it's cool to have something you're very passionate about.”
The two of them were only a few inches apart now, Tsubomi could also reach out just a little to help her fix her hair and pull it out of her eyes. She risked a glance at it.
Kurata seemed to notice this as well, because she froze up again staring directly at her. It was endearing, but it was getting a little scary. Was… she okay?
The two stood in silence again, Tsubomi awkwardly wringing her hands behind her back. Kurata was very close, and her eyes were really nice to look at. She had… small flecks of a darker brown in her irises, and her eyelashes were very, very long..
The tip of her tongue swept across her lip, and she had to keep herself from reacting in case she gave herself away.
“Well! I think I'm going to head home now , it was nice knowi- I mean, nice meeting you. Takane-san. I'll see you again soon!” Kurata spun on her heels and didn't hesitate to start power walking away again. Oh. Oh, she didn't need to…
“Wait!” Tsubomi called out. Kurata stopped in her tracks.
Oh, that was very loud. Well, there's no turning back. “Come have lunch with me tomorrow.”
“H-huh?”
“Meet me in the library, after lunch starts, okay? I'll see you then!”
Kurata spun around again, but Tsubomi had vanished, leaving the girl very confused. Tsubomi had sprinted off in the direction of her house, her heart thumping in her chest. She wasn't a stranger to asking someone to meet up with her but this was different, kind of, in a way. For one thing she had just met this girl, in an alley, digging up a book out of a trash can, and she had just signed away her lunch break on a whim. A whim!
She ran her hand down her face, slowing to a brisk walk, groaning a little. What had gotten into her, this was so odd for her, why would she say that? Hopefully Niwa-chan wouldn't be too angry with her.
Didn't she forget to say something else to Kurata-san? What was it? What was going on? Did she-
Oh! Tsubomi’s face was tinted a soft pink. The gum. Maybe she should've told Kurata-san about the gum.
Well. She'd tell her tomorrow.