Chapter Text
Cover by @Mopyunn
Spring was in full bloom, the air was comfortably warm, the cherry blossoms couldn’t be pinker, and the sky was of a beautiful, cloudless blue.
Today was a great day for starting the school year!
Minori Kushieda nodded energetically, taking in a deep breath and marching into school with her determination strong and her hopes up. She was captain of the now mixed softball team, she had to focus on entrance exams for university or try to get a scholarship, and she had to make sure she got past this school year with minimum hiccups!
Surely that couldn’t be too hard.
She approached the crowd of students around the announcement boards, checking for their new classes. Upon approaching, too, she noticed there were two distinct pockets of people. At the center of each one stood a friend of hers.
Pushing her way through the crowd, ignoring the annoyed grunts and yelps, she ended up in a spot roughly in the mid-way between the two circles. “Hey Amin, hey Takasu!” she exclaimed her greetings, earning her a few weirded out looks from the crowd around them.
The two of them turned to look at her.
Takasu’s pocket existed because his looks intimidated people who didn’t know him. It’d likely take a couple weeks for things to go back to normal with him. Right now, he smiled and waved at Minori with a strangely defeated look.
Ami’s pocket, too, existed because of her intimidating looks. Intimidatingly beautiful, that is. She looked at Minorin with a subtle smile and an air of defeat that most people probably missed.
As if called by her greeting, they also made their way closer to her. Some of the first years seemed amazed at Minori’s bravery. “Hey Kushieda, Kawashima” Ryuji said, still looking down.
“Hello, musclehead,” Ami looked at Ryuji. “And you too, Takasu.”
“So, did you find out what classes you were in?” Minori asked.
The two of them nodded. “We’re… in separate classes,” Ryuji sighed. “Not even Kitamura is in my class this year. I hope some of the others help me out in not scaring strangers off.”
“He’s not in our class either,” Ami said. “Though I’m sure he’ll be fine, being the president and all.”
Minori, in the meantime, had been eyeing the boards.
“We’re together, no need to keep looking,” Ami interrupted her. “Class 3-B,” she pointed the spot where Minori’s name showed.
“Ah! I see Kihara and Kashii are with us too. You must be happy about that,” Minori nodded energetically, though knowing she’d been separated from Ryuji and Yusaku was… harsher on her than she’d expected. Maybe due to the familiarity the three of them spoke with each other, people seemed to be less afraid of them and began closing in to read the boards too. “Well, we should probably get to our new classrooms.”
“Right…” Ryuji sighed, turning and walking with his head hung low and short, dragged steps. People parted for him with worry.
“Maybe we should drop by his class later to give others a chance to see he’s not a bad guy,” Minori said.
“Don’t worry, Noto and Haruta are in there too. I’m sure they’ll do a fine job of it,” Ami didn’t seem too worried, though she still had that strange aura around her.
“How are you taking the class changes?”
Ami shrugged. “No matter where I go I’ll be adored, so not a lot will change, will it?” The smirk she offered was at odds with the rest of her body language, but she started walking before Minori could try to get a more honest answer out of her.
Minori followed, wondering if this was an issue worth pursuing or not.
She and Ami had become relatively good friends in the past few months, but there was a… Barrier, or something like that, between them. A wall that made it so they couldn’t really be honest with each other. A tip-toeing around what they said and did.
But why was that the case? Minori was more comfortable when around Ryuji of all people, and he had been the guy who’d dumped her! Then again, Minori hadn’t ever fought with him either.
As she walked, staring at Ami’s back, unable to speak her mind, a part of her knew this couldn’t go unsolved. Hell, Ami had seen her in her most vulnerable moment and she’d been fairly supportive, in her own way.
But she’d work on that one step at a time. Rushing in wouldn’t do either of them any good. As long as they could have normal conversations and the occasional snow fight—not that there was any snow around at this time of year—she’d be happy.
They reached the classroom without any incidents. As with every year, the class was now full of people Minori knew by sight but not personally, and the hallways were filled with new students. There seemed to be no official seating arrangement, so if they could sit wherever they wanted…
Ami chose a seat next to the window in the next to last row.
Minori made the hasty decision of sitting right in front of her.
“Really?” Ami raised an eyebrow when Minori looked back.
It was a fair question. “Yeah.” With a fair answer.
Ami took a deep breath. For a second, Minori’s brain entertained the idea of what would happen if Ami stood and chose another seat. Luckily, after a few seconds of staring into each other’s eyes, maybe for a hint that either of them were uncomfortable with this, Ami shrugged and looked out the window with clear disinterest.
Minori held back a sigh of relief. Instead, with a smile, she waved at two of their old classmates entering the new classroom, one of them even a teammate of hers.
That reminded her, they had practice this afternoon. And she’d need to fill the papers for the yearly budget. And in a short while they’d have to go to the opening ceremony, too. Today would be busy day!
A busy day it was.
When practice finished, after a whole day of studying and getting adjusted to classes, Minori could really feel the energy of youth running through her. For the start of classes she’d taken a week off her part-time jobs, but that was just because she’d make sure to rest properly and get adjusted to a new schedule and that way she’d make sure work shifts didn’t overlap.
As she said goodbye to her teammates and took a second to unwind, she couldn’t help but spot a figure with glasses near the edge of the field, behind the protection fences. She jogged up to Yusaku Kitamura, who she’d only seen in the opening speech during the morning.
“Kitamura-san,” Minori did an exaggerated reverence.
Yusaku tilted his head. “I don’t really get why you’re being so formal, but good afternoon Kushieda,” he said with a smile.
Minori smiled back. “Sorry, I just wanted to see how others would feel when addressing the student council president, now in his senior year.”
Yusaku chuckled, looking around the field. “Well, I hope they’re not all like that, it would get tiring pretty quickly. How did practice go?”
Behind the glasses and his green eyes, Minori could tell Yusaku was longing to be a part of the fun. “Good! Lots of new members, too. It was pretty fun.”
“Ah, that’s good to know,” He nodded.
Minori eyed the field alongside him, leaning on the fence and letting out a sigh. “You’d like to come back to this?”
“Ah, observant, aren’t we?” He said in a cheerful voice before adding with far more normalcy, “But I won’t deny it. Not that my work as student council president is too much or unfulfilling, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be a part of the team too.”
“You can come whenever you want to play, we’ll always have a spot for you!” she declared.
Yusaku laughed. “I’ll think of it, but sadly, I don’t think I’m cut out for doing these two things at once. Thanks for the offer, though!”
Minori nodded, and they stayed in silence for a few moments. The sky was turning orange, and soon school would close and they’d have to go home, the first day of the school year done for.
“So, how did Takasu do in his new class?”
“From what I saw, he’s already had it far easier to not scare everyone around him. Guess all of our hijinks last year helped with something,” Yusaku walked around the fence and rested on it next to Minori. “How about you and Ami?”
Minori got the strange feeling that the question had been asked with a double meaning. She decided to go for the easy one. “Well, a few of our friends are in class, so we didn’t have a hard time readjusting. Honestly, I think the hardest part of the day was getting used to the lack of Yuri-sensei.”
“Yeah, I guess Takasu got the luck with that one,” Yusaku laughed, completely accepting her choice. “And what about just you, Kushieda? You feeling ok?”
Minori could have said yes. In fact, her first instinct was to jump, smile, give a thumb up and say ‘no problems’. But maybe due to the tiredness of practice, she simply nodded. “A little overwhelmed by everything, but I’ll get used to it in no time.”
“Ah, that’s good to hear. Well, this was a nice chat, but I really should be going,” Yusaku said, taking a look at the watch in his wrist.
“Good luck with your paperwork or whatever it is you do,” Minori waved as Yusaku walked away.
“Good luck to you too, Kushieda! See you later!”
Minori kept waving until he was out of sight. Then, she stood and prepared to close the storage room before going home.
She pointedly decided not to think too deeply about the other side of Yusaku’s question.
Minori entered her house when the sun was already gone from the sky, though there was still some daylight left. “I’m home,” she said, barely hearing an answer from her mother over in the kitchen. She took off her shoes at the entrance, put on some slippers and turned into the corridor until she reached the kitchen and living room. “Hey mom.”
Her mother turned. She’d already begun making dinner. “Minori, would you help me set up the table?”
“Sure, just let me drop my things in my bedroom,” Minori nodded and walked the rest of the way to the end of the corridor, sliding open the door and looking at the mess she’d left before going to school this morning. She’d woken up a bit late and had to run off. Guess she’d have to spend ten minutes or so cleaning up before going to sleep tonight.
Once back in the kitchen, she quickly set everything up for dinner. “Dad’s doing overtime again?” She asked.
“Yep,” her mother nodded. “But he should be back for dinner.”
Minori sighed. Her mother didn’t work, so her father often put in extra hours at work to save for Minori’s—and, eventually, her little brother’s—college education, despite the fact that Minori had told him about her own savings. At this point she’d grown tired of the conversation, so she’d just let it go. Hopefully Minori would be able to get her scholarship. She hadn’t quite told her parents she was aiming for that, as they didn’t exactly want her to go for a sports college, but they knew who their daughter was, which meant they most likely already smelled her goals.
“How much longer?” Minori asked, walking over to see that her mother was making some rice and frying some pork.
“About twenty minutes I’d say.”
“I’m gonna get started with my homework then.”
“Good luck with that.”
Minori left the kitchen and walked to her room. She was about to sit down to do her homework, but then she decided it’d be better to clean up now instead. As she put what things needed to go in the laundry in a corner and stored the others where they needed be, she started thinking of the three part time jobs she had and how she’d need to call them and start making her schedules. She paused for a moment, pushing down the anxiety of it. She’d given herself a free week for a reason.
After finishing with her cleaning, which had taken her far less time than she’d expected, she sat down to do her homework properly.
Keep yourself busy. Focus on the things you can see.
Minori had been repeating this mantra for months now. She didn’t know how long she’d be able to keep it up, but so far it had worked. She had good friends, she had a loving family, and she had good grades and a fair amount of savings. She was, overall, a very lucky person.
And she had no plans to let that change.