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As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Sayaka was defeated.
Before she left for school that morning, she’d got into another fight with her mom.
“You are an ungrateful little girl!” Her mother’s loud, booming voice still rang in Sayaka’s memories.
Little arguments would transpire starting from just two times a month. Gradually, they’d transform into being two times a week. Two times a day.
“Walk away! Walk away with your disrespectful ass!”
Sayaka had distracted herself all morning by working on some paperwork behind her desk. Well, she ultimately tried to but her emotions had prevented her from performing her best that day.
She held her head in her hands, blocking out the outside world for just a couple of minutes. She’d get back to work, she promised.
“Just leave me alone!” She heard herself scream, her voice shaky as she was on the verge of tears.
In her own bubble, she hadn’t noticed Kirari had entered the premises. The silver-haired girl held a cup of Earl Grey tea in her one hand, her other hand holding a spoon as she twirled it around in the cup.
“I assume the Life Plans for that Second Year student has been finalized, Sayaka?” Kirari walked around the room as she spoke. She always liked to stride across a room when speaking to someone. Something about always keeping her guard up or some shit like that.
Usually, Sayaka would answer the President with the most energy she could muster. After all, Kirari was the only reason Sayaka was on the student council in the first place. Even through her worst days, Sayaka never broke her composer in front of Kirari. She wouldn’t dare.
However, today simply just wasn’t one of those days.
“Yeah,” Sayaka responded, taking a deep breath before raising her head up from her hands. “I sent them to Runa first thing this morning.”
“Has the Jun Kiwatari issue been settled?”
“Yes. He’s been received a two week suspension and his parents have been notified.”
The sound of Kirari drinking from her tea cup could be heard somewhere in the room “Excellent.”
Sayaka nodded before deciding to get back to unfinished paperwork. Well, she tried to before Kirari spoke again.
“Sayaka?” She asked, her blue eyes narrowing as she stared at her secretary.
“Yes, President?”
“Just out of curiosity,” A hint of a smile popped out from the edge of the tea cup as it was near Kirari’s lips. “Why were you reported fifteen minutes late this morning? That isn’t like you… not like my perfect and school-dedicated secretary.”
Sayaka knew she was just being lighthearted, but Kirari’s words hit a little too hard for Sayaka’s wellbeing. Maybe the ponytailed girl was being a little too sensitive from the fight she had that morning with her mother.
“Um,” Sayaka began, her voice a little shaky as she prayed to every god that she wouldn’t start crying, especially not in front of the woman she’d admired for so long. “I missed the first bus so I had to wait for the next one.” Not a lie, Sayaka did have to wait for another bus, but she chose to purposely exclude the reason as to why she was late for the first bus.
If Kirari heard the shakiness in Sayaka’s voice or saw how distracted the secretary looked, she didn’t comment on it. “Hmm,” she merely said, sipping from the cup again before moving across the room again.
Sayaka wanted to close her eyes for just a minute, giving herself the first opportunity that day to escape reality.
However, closing her eyes brought her back to that morning.
Raindrops lightly rapped against the window outside.
Sayaka was in the kitchen, scrubbing her dish in the sink after fucking up her plate of eggs and toast that morning. Snoring came from the living room; from her mother’s boyfriend who was passed the fuck out one of the couches. Sayaka could hear screaming and clapping from the television. Sports?
The boyfriend’s own breakfast plate was sitting on the kitchen table, little flecks of food resting on the unwashed plate. He couldn’t wash his own plate?
From the hallway she could hear the familiar stomping of her mother’s footsteps. She emerged into the kitchen wearing nothing but a towel over herself and a towel on her head. Fresh out the shower.
“Clean that up,” Sayaka heard her mother say to her, pointing to the boyfriend’s plate on the table before making her way back to the hallway.
“That’s not mine,” Sayaka replied, stopping her mother in her tracks.
“Did I ask if it was yours?” Ms. Igarashi questioned. “Clean that shit up since you’re already cleaning at the sink anyways.”
“Why can’t your boyfriend clean his own plate?” Sayaka immediately froze once she said that. She didn’t mean to, the heat of the moment and her agitation caused her to react without thinking.
Her mother looked equally as surprised as she stood there with her towels, eyes bulging. “Excuse me?” Sayaka moved to respond, but Ms. Igarashi beat her to it.
“Sayaka are you serious?” Her voice grew, clear anger starting to form. “Whose house are you in? MINES right? The ACTUAL adult? Who the fuck are you to speak back to me and to disrespect both me and the other adult in the house?”
It’s seven in the morning… the neighbors hearing this are probably like ‘bitch if you don’t shut up and take your ADULT ass to work.”
Ms. Igarashi’s boyfriend managed to wake up because of the sudden yelling. He looked groggy and confused, breathing heavy from waking up without warning.
“You are an ungrateful little girl!” A punch straight to Sayaka’s heart. She always hated being called ungrateful because deep down she knew she wasn’t. She was appreciative of everything in her life, even if her home life sometimes made it seem she didn’t.
“Your Oba was right! I should’ve given you up when I had the chance!”
Sayaka’s heart just broke in half. If she thought the ungrateful comment gutted her, the given you up comment killed her.
Her mother kept yelling obscurities at her, but Sayaka tuned them out. She tried to register what was said to her as tears violently fell from her eyes.
The boyfriend remained on the couch as he peeped back and forth from the mother to the daughter, too pussy to say anything or tell his girlfriend that she was bugging the fuck out.
Coming to her senses, Sayaka realized that she had enough. She picked up her backpack from the floor before slinking it across her back. She was grateful that decided to put her shoes on while getting dressed instead of waiting until she had to leave five minutes before the bus came. Her mother can’t call her ungrateful now!
She picked up the keys from the kitchen counter before opening the door to outside, trying to ignore her mother yelling at her.
“Exactly!” Sayaka could hear her mother scream as she left the home. “Walk away! Walk away with your disrespectful ass!”
Sayaka forgot what happened next, but before she could find out she was pulled back to reality.
“Sayaka,” she could hear someone call out for her. “Sayaka, calm down, honey.”
Kirari was face to face with her, handing her a cup of tea that she had made for her sometime when Sayaka was reflecting back to this morning. Sayaka hadn’t noticed her make it, nor had she noticed that her breathing was labored.
Sayaka took the tea cup from Kirari’s patient grip. “Thank you,” Sayaka thanked, her voice quiet and shaky.
Kirari merely sat down on the seat in front of Sayaka’s desk. They were separated by the desk between them, yet Kirari was able to establish eye contact the whole time.
“Sayaka,” Kirari began, placing her fingers to rest underneath her chin. “As my secretary, I demand you tell me what’s wrong. Your behavior might impact your performance as a student council member and I can’t have that.”
Sayaka slightly shook, anxiety taking over. The cup rattled in her fingers. “I’m fine,” Sayaka lied, although both parties knew she was obviously lying. Although Sayaka desperately wanted to tell someone what was going on, she didn’t want to annoy Kirari with personal problems.
Kirari was not accepting Sayaka’s response. “Sayaka,” she began again, rising from her seat before bending her tall figure across the desk, really becoming face to face with Sayaka. “Either you tell me what’s going on, the truth this time please, or I’ll have no choice but to replace you.”
Sayaka froze. She didn’t want to lose her secretary position after working so hard for it.
“What’s going on, Sayaka? I won’t ask again if you won’t be truthful.”
The girl in question had no other choice.
“I got into a fight with my mom.” Shakiness filled the girl’s voice, her bottom lip quivering a bit. “This morning.”
“Hmm,” Kirari responded. “But that’s not all, is it?”
“No.” Sayaka was going to go all the way. “We’ve gotten into multiple fights recently. We fight at least four days a week over nothing.”
“Over nothing?”
“Over her boyfriend, I think.”
Kirari moved from in front of the desk, making her way to where Sayaka was sitting on her office chair. She took the almost emptied tea cup from the darker-haired girl’s shaking hand, setting it down on the desk.
“I don’t know when it started,” Sayaka began to spill her guts out while Kirari stood there, bent down. “But she stopped loving me and started picking her boyfriend over me.”
“I used to be her little girl,” Sayaka openly started crying for the fifth time but at this point, she didn’t care. “She used to love me. She was my best friend.”
“When her boyfriend came into the picture everything changed.” Kirari wiped a couple of tears away from Sayaka’s face. She didn’t speak nor was she going to until her secretary was done and had let everything out.
“There were times where they would argue but instead of squashing it like grown adults, she’d take her anger out on me when I didn’t even do anything. I started avoiding her which made her even angrier at me. I didn’t want to speak to her because it started to feel like everytime I did, an argument was going to break out.”
Kirari pushed some loose hair that fell out from Sayaka’s ponytail behind her ear. “Then what?”
“Then… our relationship took a downfall. She stopped being my mother and started catering to her boyfriend who doesn’t do anything except sit there.”
“I can’t do this anymore, Kirari.”
“Stay with me, then.” The President's voice was so assertive you could tell she was being serious, even if Sayaka thought the statement was irrational. “I need my secretary in a good mental state.”
Sayaka looked up at Kirari, sniffing her nose. “You know I can’t, Kirari. She’d never allow me to leave home to stay with a friend.”
“I’ll have to kidnap you then.”
Sayaka laughed, before moving in to hug Kirari. Was it unprofessional of her? Yes. Did she give a fuck? No.
“Thank you,” Sayaka whispered, closing her eyes as she melted in Kirari’s warmth.
Kirari herself had been taken aback by the sudden action, yet she made no move to stop it. She slowly wrapped her arms around Sayaka, completing the hug. Kirari wasn’t used to such affection, so she had to take her time when it came to unforeseeable jumps like this.
“What are you thanking me for?” Kirari eventually asked after she finally wrapped her arms around Sayaka back, completing the hug. It felt… nice. Comfortable.
“For listening to me.”
Kirari lightly squeezed the girl in her embrace. “Of course.”