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1.
Misaka Mikoto had an arch-nemesis. That person was academically gifted, athletically talented, and incredibly popular. With so many standout details, it wasn’t hard to see how she could be the student council president. Such a charismatic person, anywhere she went, she naturally became the focus of the crowd, and everyone liked her and wanted to be friends with her.
But Misaka Mikoto did not like her. Because of that person who seemed to be shining brilliantly from every inch of their body, in everything she did, she found herself facing competition. In her year’s academic rankings, ‘Shirai Kuroko’ was the name that perennially came in first place, while ‘Misaka Mikoto’ could only be relegated to second. No matter how hard she worked, she just couldn’t bridge those last few points that separated their scores.
At last week’s sports meet, she was running the 100-meter dash and seemed to have victory in her grasp, when halfway through who knew from where came killing out one (1) Shirai Kuroko, causing her almost to lose an event which she should have won with ease. Even more ridiculously, after the race, the name everyone had cheering on their lips wasn’t hers as the victor, but the one who had fallen downwind to her at second Shirai Kuroko, not to mention the kinds of ‘in-awe’ words they were all saying were really just gag-worthy.
Before, Misaka Mikoto’s life had been nothing but smooth sailing, she was the one who naturally had been the focus of the crowd. But ever since starting high school, Shirai Kuroko’s appearance had stolen most of her limelight. In everything, it seemed that person just had to one-up her. So Misaka’s dislike of her, it was logical.
But Misaka also felt that lately things weren’t quite right. She didn’t know when the amount of attention she was paying to Shirai Kuroko had seemingly increased.
Strange, when had it started? Was it at the beginning of the new semester when she had again caught a glimpse of that person? Probably not, even though they had come face to face that time, even though the features of that person’s face again she had lingered on and begrudgingly admired for a few seconds, but in her memory, her impression of Shirai Kuroko had still stopped on the level of ‘what an arrogant fellow’.
Had it been after they’d finished running the race, when Shirai had come over handing a water bottle? Fine, Misaka admitted that her impression of her had changed then, but it shouldn’t have been so much that her favorable opinion had shot straight up. Plus, it wasn’t like she was the only one Shirai was handing out water to, it had only been that person’s responsibility.
Then exactly where had the problem started?
“...The next award that will be presented is for the girls’ 100-meter dash.”
It really baffled her, how she could be so concerned with the matters of such a condescending person...
“In first place: Class 2A, Misaka Mikoto.”
What? Hearing her name, Misaka suddenly straightened. Crap! She had been too caught up in her thoughts, she completely forgot about the awards ceremony. She hurried out of the class line. As she was walking up the stairs from the side of the podium, she saw Shirai Kuroko standing in the middle of the podium with the trophy in her hand.
Was she the one in charge of the awards today? Misaka was caught off-guard and instinctively slowed down a bit. Shirai looked at her uncomprehendingly, with some urgency in her eyes, and only then did Misaka come back to her senses, and she sped up her steps to the podium again.
“Congratulations.” Shirai held out the trophy, taking off a white glove, and extended a hand in her direction.
“Thanks.” Misaka took the trophy and Shirai’s hand.
Misaka stared at their joined hands. Unlike her own hands which had some thin callouses, Shirai’s hand was smooth and delicate, the temperature of it seemingly as cool as her ‘congratulations’ just then.
At the conclusion of the 100-meter dash, Shirai had broken out of the crowd surrounding her to walk toward Misaka, and when she reached out to shake Misaka’s hand, her hand had clearly been warm.
Not leaving an opportunity for Misaka to remain dazed, Shirai let go of her hand and walked to the microphone to present the next award.
"The next award that will be presented is for the boys’ 100-meter dash. In first place: Class 3A, Nishida Toru."
Misaka, feeling a little tied up, returned to the class line.
"Hey look, it's Nishida-senpai, he's so handsome." The girl in front of her at the line spoke with an excited expression, exchanging whispers with her friend beside her.
"Don't even think about it, Nishida-senpai definitely likes Shirai-san. Don't you think the two of them look very good together?"
“Is that the case? I didn’t notice it before… But you’re right, now that you mention it, the two of them do look good together." The girl now wore a somewhat glum expression.
Misaka froze for a moment, then she looked toward the two people on the podium. Shirai was holding out the trophy, saying something as she handed it to Nishida. Nishida took the trophy and responded to her in a light voice. Because it was too far away, Misaka couldn’t hear the conversation, but she caught the rare soft smile that surfaced on Shirai's face.
"I heard that in this upcoming election for student council president, Nishida-senpai will also help Shirai-san canvass for votes as her campaign manager." The two girls in the front row started talking in whispers again.
“Then what’s even the point of the election, Shirai-san will definitely win it.”
What long-tongued and chatty people, twittering like birds. How annoying.
Misaka’s mood turned cloudy because of an imagined conversation.
2.
Two weeks after the sports meet, it was the election for student council president. In the school there were two popular factions running for office. One faction was the Shirai faction headed by Shirai Kuroko, which obviously wanted Shirai Kuroko to remain as the student council president, and its campaign manager was Nishida Toru. The other faction was the Makigami faction, led by first-year student Makigami Komaki, whose campaign manager was Misaka Mikoto. Originally, the direction of public opinion was overwhelmingly in favor of Shirai Kuroko, but then for some reason, one (1) Misaka Mikoto came killing out of nowhere, making the originally insignificant Makigami a big favorite to be elected.
Originally Misaka Mikoto had no intentions of participating in this election, in consideration of the Shirai+Nishida duo vs the Makigami Komaki who couldn’t find a campaign manager, it was obvious who would win. But then Makigami came around asking for her, and it turned out that was actually just what Misaka wanted. With Nishida's involvement, Shirai's re-election as student council president had become basically a foregone conclusion, and although she couldn't stop her from being elected, Misaka had the bad intentions of tripping Shirai up so that at least she wouldn't be elected so smoothly. So when Makigami approached her, she agreed to help her almost without a second thought.
News always spread fast around the school, with Misaka joining in, many Shirai supporters immediately fell over to Makigami's camp. Even though this did not seem likely to directly affect the outcome of the election, it still evened out the number of voters from both camps a little.
In the time it took for the voters to go back and forth repeatedly, the official election day soon arrived, and the election hall was packed to the brim, with everyone waiting eagerly to see what surprise move Makigami Komaki might use to defeat Shirai Kuroko, who seemed to be sitting steadily in the position of presidency.
As the election was officially signalled to start, the hall fell silent. Nishida Toru walked onto the stage amidst countless eyes and began his speech. Misaka was standing at the edge of the stage, reciting sentences and words in her mouth, somewhat nervously preparing for her speech which was coming next.
"Are you nervous?" Shirai appeared behind her like a ghost, startling her.
"Of course not, I am very well-prepared.” Misaka glanced back, then looked straight ahead again as if nothing had happened, "You're here to spy on the enemy?"
"No, just here to cheer you on," Shirai smiled, and her look of having some kind of plan instantly made Misaka angry.
“You seem pretty sure of yourself.”
“Not really, after all, it’s Misaka-san herself who has come down to give a speech to canvass for votes, how can I dare relax. You can't see it, but I’m very nervous." She still wore what seemed like a harmless smile, but that kind of expression, how could it be considered nervous—she was clearly mocking Misaka.
Just when she wanted to say something, Nishida Toru at the podium had reached the climax of his speech, and he looked over to Shirai while saying his lines, "In the past year, all the contributions Shirai has made to the student council are obvious to everyone. With everything that I know about her, in this upcoming year, I am willing to stake my reputation to assure you that the best leader in the school, Shirai Kuroko-san, will never fail to meet your expectations!" Finished speaking, Nishida bowed deeply to the audience and walked off the stage as Shirai watched in admiration.
“Very well done.” Shirai walked toward Nishida, holding up her right hand.
Nishida lightly high-fived Shirai’s hand, grinning. “Shirai-sensei taught me well.”
A high-five and two simple exchanges, and yet they were like buckets of gasoline poured straight on Misaka's anger. She gritted her teeth, but could not say anything. She had originally joined the election because she wanted to frustrate them, but she had not expected the situation to be turned on its head, and now she was the one who had ended up unbearably angry.
And just like how it was still the oldest ginger which had the strongest flavor, this kind of situation for Shirai Kuroko she met with ease, and her performance did not disappoint. As for Makigami Komaki as a challenger, no matter how good she was she could not compete shoulder-to-shoulder with Shirai, and the results of the election without a doubt showed Shirai Kuroko as the landslide victor.
Even though the election had ended, the gossip that was circulating around the school did not end with the election, and particularly overzealous students made up many stories based around what had happened.
"Misaka who has always looked at President Shirai with displeasure finally took action” “the rivalry between an arch-nemesis and a pair of childhood sweethearts”—the stories got more and more outrageous, until finally they developed into the version “the Misaka clan and Shirai clan are feuding with an absolute unable-to-live-under-the-same-sky hatred”. At the same time, in addition to the ‘hatred entanglement’ between Misaka and Shirai, the gossip surrounding Shirai and Nishida continued to develop. “Shocking! Nishida-senpai for his girlfriend’s sake actually fought with Misaka!” The list of outrageous topics started to go on and on, and it seemed that every time the two were seen together, a more outrageous story was made up.
“Nishida-senpai and President Shirai are walking together again, Nishida-senpai looks so tired, it must be for Shirai-san’s sake that he was furiously battling with the Misaka clan again!”
"Don’t be ridiculous, it's not like it's a gang fight. But having said that, the two of them definitely must be dating, right? When they walk together like that, they look really like a couple."
Such discussions were endless every day, and Misaka really wanted to shove rags into all those people’s mouths so that she never had to hear anything about those two again. For what reason was she still the villain in all those stories? What was so unbelievable about the idea that she could be the one who was guarding Shirai?
"Ne Misaka, have you heard about Shirai-san and Nishida-senpai lately? Yeah, the two of them really go together like gold and jade, don’t you think they make a good match?" Misaka’s usually quiet deskmate, when she saw those two walking side by side through the window, also came over to Misaka to sigh with feeling.
“How do they match?! Exactly what’s so great about that big dumb guy?!” Misaka was angry, hearing the words of her deskmate. She was suddenly like a tiger which had its tail stepped on, venting loudly.
The atmosphere froze.
Misaka suddenly came back to her senses. She scratched her cheek, and explained, "I mean... Shirai-san, who is so excellent, should... she should deserve someone even better, right?" She laughed a little awkwardly.
Her deskmate also laughed suddenly, then looked at her with a gaze with an unknown meaning.
Misaka was a little scared by such a look, and spoke somewhat quickly, "It's—It’s getting late, we should go eat!" She avoided meeting the eyes of her deskmate and tugged at her sleeve to leave the classroom.
Not good, this feeling of not being in control of herself was very not good. The attention she was paying to Shirai Kuroko had actually developed to such an extent, exactly to what degree did she want to continue to place herself in awkward and embarrassing situations huh? Misaka started to grow unreasonably angry with the innocent Shirai-san, it was her fault she was always distracted lately, and just now, she had almost had a conflict with her deskmate because of her. Shirai Kuroko, who was simply the most evil, unforgivable, heinous...
“Achoo, achoo, achoo!” Shirai sneezed three times in a row.
Nishida: “Got a cold?”
“No. Is there someone who’s badmouthing me?”
Shirai was walking head-on toward Misaka.
No way, badmouthing a person and then meeting said person? What could be more unlucky than this?
"Look, it's Misaka-san." Nishida bumped Shirai's elbow and spoke in a small, teasing voice.
Shirai gave him a side-glare, then turned back around with her hand raised to say hello. “Misaka-sa…”
“I—I suddenly remembered I forgot something! I’m going to go back to get it, you go ahead and eat without me! Bye!” She finished the sentence like firing a barrage of bullets, then she turned around and ran away in the same manner as a person who had fallen from grace.
Shirai's hand stopped awkwardly in mid-air as she looked at Misaka's deskmate in confusion, only to receive a look that made her even more confused.
What did I do to offend her this time? Shirai couldn't help but wonder.
3.
Misaka Mikoto was a girl who was very hard to understand, this was Shirai’s latest and strongest feeling.
At the sports meet when she went to hand her water, she had clearly been very happy, the corners of her mouth were curved so upwards it seemed they were about to hit the sky. But the next second, who knew why, her whole expression had inexplicably collapsed into a devastating frown, as if the whole world owed her money. Accepting the water with a short jerky motion, not even saying a word of thanks, then turning around and just leaving. Okay, that was fine, but then there was the awards ceremony. Clearly she had also been happy when she was accepting the trophy, but then when they were shaking hands, the expression on her face suddenly turned from bright to dark, her eyebrows furrowing deeply, and she didn’t know what had suddenly provoked her, could it be that she was disgusted by skin contact with her? It was fine it was fine, it was all fine, these were all small things, she could accept them. But just a second ago, when they had met each other in the hallway, she had wanted to give a friendly hello, only to be met with the expression of someone who had seen a ghost, throwing out a sentence and then just running away, like a flash of smoke and not even a shadow remaining.
Did Misaka hate her that much? Shirai felt a little down, what could she do to regain her impression in her mind? Shirai just couldn’t figure it out.
4.
“Ring—” As soon as the bell signalling the end of school rang, the students like a run of salmon poured out of the school gates. Even in the midst of such a large crowd, it took one look for Misaka to see Shirai standing by the school entrance. She had a booklet in her hand and was staring absentmindedly at the crowd, her day duty armband pinned to her sleeve.
As if by a supernatural sixth sense, the second Misaka looked towards her, Shirai suddenly raised her head, looking back in Misaka’s direction. Their gazes met in the air briefly before Misaka quickly lowered her head and accelerated her steps to leave the school entrance with the flow of people.
Was she being a little too evasive like this? After walking far away, Misaka suddenly came back to her senses. This kind of avoidance was not because she didn’t like Shirai, on the contrary, every time she bumped into Shirai, Misaka felt like she was losing all control of her brain, her heart would start beating uncontrollably fast, words would fail her, and so every time they saw each other, she just wanted to run away. In all honesty, she really didn't mean to run, but her body never failed to react before her thoughts could catch up, and by the time she’d look back and catch a glimpse of Shirai's hurt expression, she’d have already run too far away.
Ugh, should she go to Shirai and make a friendly overture? But wouldn’t that look to be way too strange? Purposefully being friendly, wasn’t that the same as saying she liked her?!
W-Wait… Like?
Impossible!
“How can I possibly like that person!” Misaka swung a fist heavily through the air, wanting to dissipate her mess of thoughts with a single punch.
“Yo, little miss. Who’s it that you like? Could it be me?” Suddenly from beside her ear came the sound of a casual whistle, then the sloppy-sounding voice of a man.
Misaka snapped to attention. She looked at her surroundings and found it wasn’t actually a road she was familiar with. Really how unfortunate, when did she walk herself to this kind of stupid place, the buildings that surrounded her were all foreign. If she was to run, where she should run she also had completely no clue.
“Hello, hello. No answer? Are you shy, little miss?” There wasn’t only one person who was trying to mess with her, behind the first man came up three or four others, all looking at her with bad intentions.
What should she do, if she was found fighting outside of school, she would definitely get a demerit, right? Then she should run, while she didn’t have a lot of strong points, on running very quickly, she was pretty confident in herself.
“Don’t be in such a hurry to leave, why don’t you play with us for a while?” Seeming to see through her intentions, the men got in closer, forming a circle to trap her in the middle.
"Ugh." She looked at the burly men surrounding her and let out a long sigh. She rolled her shoulders a little to loosen up. If she didn’t put down these guys, it looked like they wouldn’t let her leave, so today, she would have to get into this fight.
"What are you sighing for, you haven't answered me yet..." The man's hand began to sneak toward her shoulder.
She could only pray that she wasn’t seen by any passing classmates.
Bam. Before the man's hand could touch Misaka, he felt a sudden spinning of the sky, and before he could react, the intense pain from hitting the ground had already made him lose the ability to move.
"Oh... Oh! So you actually know how to fight!" The punks surrounding her were startled by this sudden turn of events and took a step back, one of them saying, "That really scared me, but it’s not good for a young girl to be so violent at this age, let these big brothers teach you a lesson!"
Before the words finished coming out of his mouth, the man waved his fist and charged towards her.
Misaka dodged to the side and avoided the blow. She grabbed the man's wrist and pulled it forward gently, and without needing to do anything else, the man fell forward because of his inertia.
Not waiting for the other punks to react, Misaka took the lead in attacking. Her fist slammed into the face of the man closest to her, the sound of a chilling impact resounding through the air, and the man dropped to the ground.
The remaining men were obviously intimidated by her aura and did not dare to treat her with any more contempt, nor did they care about the optics of taking advantage of their superior numbers against a high school girl. They raised their fists and rushed towards Misaka all together.
The sound of fist to flesh sounded one after another in the street. Not more than a moment later, those few men who had been so hostile and aggressive all fell to the ground groaning piteously.
Misaka looked at the people lying on the ground around her and let out a long breath. It was a good thing that she learned some self-defense, otherwise she might have really been beaten by the showy-off moves of these punks.
“Hey! Look! The boss is getting bullied!” Misaka had just put on her school bag and prepared to leave when a second group of people appeared out of nowhere.
Excuse me wait a second, exactly who is it that’s bullying who? Misaka looked at the number of punks popping up at the end of the street, in her mind going this wasn’t good, she had just used up the greater half of her physical strength, in a war of attrition she was sure to lose, and not letting herself complain much longer, she turned tail and started running.
“Over there!” In her escape path suddenly appeared another group of people.
Hey hey, what kind of quack medicine are you all on, this kind of bullying a weak high school girl, don’t you feel ashamed? Misaka's mind frantically worked at a way to escape, but before she could think of something, a fat man rushed at her, and she did the same trick again from earlier, and pulled the fat man down easily.
The people around her obviously didn't dare to take her lightly anymore, they exchanged a look then rushed towards Misaka with a shout.
No matter how good her fighting skills were, they were still no match for multiple fully grown men attacking her at the same time. After a round of fighting, her body was inevitably covered by the colors of bruises, and the last of her strength had been depleted. The man standing stupidly behind her seemed to see through her, and with his baseball bat raised high, he came rushing at her.
Because she was hurt, her reaction was a second slower, and when she realized what was about to happen, the man had already reached her back. She could not dodge, so she had to raise her arm to eat the blow, and the intense pain made her suck in a breath of cold air.
It was so painful, it was so painful that she couldn’t think of the place on her left arm which she had used to block. Panting heavily, she crouched down in place with all of her strength exhausted.
The sneak attacker saw that his attack had worked. Squeezing the weapon in his hands, his eyes signaled to his companions around him, and several men gathered around Misaka together.
It was over, today she was going to fall at the hands of these people. Misaka closed her eyes in resignation.
—Was there anyone who could come help her?
Rumble… Rumble… As if her prayer had been heard by the heavens, from out of nowhere, the roar of a locomotive engine sounded abruptly.
Rumble… A motorcycle rushed into Misaka's field of vision, unstoppably charging in Misaka's direction. Right when it was about to reach her, it suddenly sped up, and the punks who had wanted to take the opportunity to secretly attack were scared backwards a few steps. The motorcycle squealed to a stop in front of Misaka.
“Get on!” A muffled voice came from the helmet.
It was Shirai.
Misaka froze, dumbly looking at her.
“You bitches, don’t think you’re getting away!” Realizing Shirai's intention to save Misaka, the punks cursed and came rushing towards Misaka.
Rumble… A low roar sounded from the engine, as if saying if you got any closer, you wouldn’t be forgiven and would be knocked into the sky. This kind of noise naturally scared the punks, and they stopped their steps, afraid to get any closer.
“Come on, get on! What are you waiting for?!” Shirai anxiously urged.
Misaka didn’t stare for any longer, holding up her injured and tired body, she pulled herself onto the motorcycle’s backseat. She had just steadied herself on the seat when the motorcycle like a wild runaway horse peeled away, leaving behind a curtain of dust for the men.
After successfully getting out of that particular street, Shirai didn’t drive too far. At a safe place, she stopped the motorcycle.
“Are you okay?” She took off her helmet and asked worriedly.
Misaka grit her teeth, stubbornly shaking her head.
“You’re hurt!” When Shirai saw her red and swollen arm, there was a look in her eyes, a flinch. Without saying anything, she put the helmet over Misaka’s head and restarted the engine.
“Where are we going?” Misaka spoke weakly.
“My place, your injuries need to be looked at.”
Misaka didn’t have the energy to protest. She could only weakly rest her head against Shirai’s shoulder, at her mercy.
5.
“Ow—it hurts.” Misaka couldn’t help letting out a pained sound.
“S-Sorry, I’ll be more gentle.”
It must have been karma, who would’ve thought, an hour ago she had been doing her best to avoid Shirai, an hour later, she was somehow sitting in Shirai’s house.
Shirai held onto her arm, very carefully disinfecting her wound. Her words made it seem like she was overflowing with worry and heartache, so that Misaka almost mistakenly believed herself to be a very important person to her.
"About today’s fight, you’re not going to report me are you?" A second before Shirai was about to bite through her lower lip, Misaka finally thought of something to talk about.
“Do I seem like such a lackluster person?”
"Well you are after all the president of the student council with excellent character and academic performance, and you have the responsibility to protect the reputation of the school.”
“‘Excellent character and academic performance’? It looks like you have a big misconception of me.” Shirai picked up a roll of bandages and started gently wrapping them around Misaka’s wrist.
The room once again descended into silence, she could see that Shirai had resumed biting her lower lip.
“Do you live here alone?”
“It’s more convenient to rent a place close to the school.”
“Isn’t it dangerous to live on your own outside?”
“It’s okay, Nishida lives next door to me, if something happens I can go find him.”
Misaka froze. A hint of inexplicable unhappiness rose to the top of her heart.
“...You and him, the two of you are close?” She suppressed her unhappiness, asking in a forcibly calm manner.
“Mm, we’re childhood sweethearts.” Shirai’s attention was still on her wounds, and she didn’t seem to notice her discomfort.
“It’s all over the school, that you and him are dating…” It was Misaka’s turn to bite her lower lip.
Shirai finally noticed her unusual behavior and looked at her in surprise.
“You care a lot about this?” Shirai suddenly wanted to laugh a little, she really couldn’t understand what could be going on in this person’s mind. Clearly a whole manner of disliking her, then showing concern in such weird places.
Misaka avoided her gaze, squirming somewhat and refusing to admit it.
After a long time, when Misaka almost thought that her silence was a confirmation, Shirai finally opened her mouth.
“We’re not.” Finishing her answer, she lowered her head and continued treating Misaka’s injuries.
“The person that I like…” Shirai once more raised her head, then gave Misaka a long and meaningful look, “isn’t him.”
Then who is that you like?
The unthinking words were about to come out of Misaka’s mouth when a sharp pain in her arm pulled her back from the edge.
So dangerous, she had almost asked the question.
6.
It was all Shirai’s fault, she was distracted all day today, no matter how you looked at it, it was all Shirai’s fault.
At the front of the classroom, the teacher, textbook in hand, was giving a hearty lecture, but Misaka's mind was not focused on it. She had automatically blocked out the teacher's voice—her mind was filled with what Shirai had said yesterday.
“The person that I like, isn’t him.”
She didn't know what was wrong with herself, as long as it was Shirai she was facing, she always became at a total loss for words, her mood would switch from one to the next according to Shirai’s actions and words. One moment, she had felt glad that Shirai wasn't dating Nishida, the next moment, she had had her hopes dashed because Shirai said there was someone else she liked. Strange, it was too strange, what kind of feeling was this…
“...ka, Misaka, Misaka!” The teacher who had been at the front of the class a moment ago had walked up to her at some point.
“Yes!” Misaka hurriedly stood up from her seat.
“Why don’t you go over what I just said.”
“Um… That is…” Misaka panicked and opened up her notebook, but the completely empty pages were totally unhelpful. Her deskmate was squinting at her, but because she had been completely absentminded a moment ago, she could not understand what the look was supposed to mean.
She stammered this and that and couldn't say anything, and the teacher hummed before finally issuing an amnesty. "Forget it! Sit down and pay attention to class, don't get distracted again."
Misaka let out a long breath and sat back down in her seat with a sense of relief.
“Even if you were distracted, you were actually found out by the teacher, what’s going on with you today?” Her deskmate looked over at her.
“...Nothing, just something I’m a little concerned about.”
“What’s the ‘something’, why don’t you tell me, maybe I can help you.”
“It’s fine, it’s not anything important.” Misaka glanced at her deskmate, whose entire expression was one of bad intentions. Not being made fun of by her while she had already fallen down a well was already pretty good, how could she expect her to help her solve her problems.
“Liar, it doesn’t look like it’s not a big deal.” Her deskmate didn’t seem like she was going to let up.
“It’s really nothing, alright, pay attention to class.” Misaka opened her notebook, trying to ignore her deskmate.
“Could it be… something to do with Shirai-san, right?”
Misaka was shocked and instantly her face turned red. She turned and hurriedly covered her deskmate’s mouth with the look of someone who had been caught sticking their hands in the cookie jar. “You! How could you know?”
Her deskmate removed Misaka’s hand, coughing for a few breaths. “Come on, you’re too obvious, it would take an idiot not to know.”
“How—How could it be, I clearly never showed any signs…”
“Only you would think it’s that way, even a thick-skinned and straightforward person like myself was able to see it.”
“Then, there are other people who already know…? You—You didn’t tell anyone else, right?”
“Of course I haven’t, originally it was just a guess anyway.”
Who would have thought Misaka would just fess up without fighting…
“Then you, what do you think about it?” Since she had already been found out, might as well ask for a second opinion.
“Think about what?”
“The fact that I like a girl...”
“What else is there to think? If you like her, go chase after her.”
“I’m not asking you about that, I’m saying, the fact that we’re both girls… What do you think?”
“Huh? Please, are you an antique from the last century? In the matters of relationships, what could be more important than liking a person?"
“But…”
“Not to mention, high school will be over sooner or later. After graduation, even if you want to regret it, it will already be too late.”
As her deskmate finished speaking, the bell rang.
Her deskmate stuffed her books into her school bag and turned to leave. "Some things will never come into fruition if you don’t take action. Alright, I'm off to my club activities, see you tomorrow."
“...Hey!” Running away after finishing saying what she had wanted to say, and yet over here, Misaka’s problems were still not solved. Of course, it was easy to tell another person to take action, but specifically how to do it and what to do, that was the most difficult.
Damn, it was really so annoying, her own club activities for today she might as well skip. Now all she wanted to do was hurry home and take a long bath, quietly thinking over how exactly to "put it into action".
She picked up her school bag and went into the hallway. Without meaning to, she walked in the direction of the far stairs. The bell had just rung not too long ago, so most people would have gone to their club activities, and the season for student council work had also started, but Shirai usually liked to stay in the classroom for another five minutes after the bell. If Misaka went over at this time, would she still be there?
Rounding the corner, close to the stairs, there was Shirai's classroom. Maybe she would be able to get one last look at her before going home? She was strangely anticipating this kind of small luck.
“Shirai, aren’t you going to the student council meeting room?”
“Mm, in a bit.”
“Then I’ll be going, see you tomorrow.”
She stopped in her tracks, then hid behind the back door. The last person in the classroom left, and now there was only Shirai who still had her head stuck in a stack of papers writing something.
The classroom was extremely quiet, the hands of the clock quietly ticking away as if there was no one there. The tip of Shirai’s pen moved across the paper as she wrote in rhythm with the clock. Seeing the way she looked, deep in thought, Misaka suddenly felt that liking a person really was a very simple matter. Just seeing her like this made her feel incredibly content. There wasn’t anything really to regret, nothing to worry about in concern of the future, all that mattered was that she liked her. She liked the way her eyebrows arched when she smiled, she liked how when she was frustrated over something, the way her eyebrows furrowed when she frowned. The good and the bad, as long as it was about this person, everything was acceptable, she liked it all.
She couldn’t have expected things to have developed this far. Misaka covered her red cheeks, flustered and heart thumping.
What to do, it seemed that she really did really like her.
“...Misaka-san?” A soft call interrupted her rambling thoughts. The person who had just been sitting by the window in deep thought had walked up to her without her realizing it.
“Eh?”
“What are you doing here? What’s wrong with your face, it looks very red, do you have a fever?” As Shirai spoke, she reached out her hand to touch her forehead.
“No—No, it’s okay!” She took a step back in a panic, dodging Shirai’s hand, and before she had time to think more about it, she was already going along with her body’s instinctive reaction, twisting on her toes and fleeing towards the stairs.
“Wha…! Why are you running?!”
Oh no I’m finished I’m finished, I’ll definitely be seen as a pervert, going to someone’s classroom to peep at them for no reason, and then suddenly running away when caught, that's obviously the reaction of someone who's been doing the wrong thing! Starting now I'm sure she'll look at me like I’m a weird person. Is this it? My secret love story which has barely started is about to end?
“Wait!” A slender wrist appeared out of nowhere in her field of vision, and her unsuspecting shoulder was pushed by a force into the wall behind her. That same wrist also came to a rest against the wall right beside her face, blocking her escape path.
Shirai took a deep breath, and her hand which was against the wall curled into a fist. “Why do you always run away whenever you see me, am I really that repulsive to you? I don’t know what I’ve done to make you hate me so much. If it’s about that matter, I apologize. Going… Going forward, I won’t come near you again.”
“What—What matter?” Something Shirai had done to make herself hate her? Misaka had no clue. But what was more important was that her excessive avoidance of the other party seemed to have caused some kind of misunderstanding. What should she do, how could she dispel the misunderstanding? Should she confess? Okay she would confess, but was this the right time to be confessing? How was she supposed to confess? Should she just say ‘I like you’? And then tack on the words ‘let’s go out!’ at the end...?!
“That I like—like you, that matter…” She hadn't finished writing the rough draft to her confession when suddenly she heard the words that should have been coming out of her own mouth. Shirai's voice was trailing off and getting smaller and smaller, but Misaka felt the words explode in her ears like a thunderbolt from heaven.
“You don’t have to give me an answer, it’s fine if it’s unrequited,” Shirai let down her hand which was against the wall, lowering her head unable to meet Misaka’s expression, “if you hate me, in the future I’ll make sure to avoid you…”
Shirai took a step back. “For all the trouble I’ve been giving you, I’m sorry.” Not waiting for Misaka’s reaction, she turned around and began walking towards the stairs.
“Wait…” Misaka took a step forward and grabbed her sleeve.
Shirai’s footsteps stopped where she was, and she stared blankly at the hand Misaka had used to grab her sleeve. The temperature of that hand was so hot that it seemed to burn through her clothing right to her skin. She didn’t understand what Misaka could mean by this, so her gaze woodenly moved upwards, finally coming to a stop on Misaka’s face.
Her head was lowered, and she was stammering, “I also—I also—”. She had to say it, she had to respond to her, but the remaining words were stuck inside her throat, and the more nervous she got, the less she became able of saying them.
The sunset through the window by the stairs gradually shone on Misaka's face, Shirai still stared at her in a daze, was it an illusion brought on by the sunset? Misaka's face had reddened like nothing else, unreasonably so—how could it be the expression of someone who hated her? Shirai had a bold thought, and a terrible desire rose up in her heart along with it.
—It was all Misaka-san’s fault, if you want to blame someone you can only blame yourself, now there was no longer any way of controlling it. She only wanted to do one thing, and even if it will only make you hate me, even if it’s an unrequited love that can’t get any results, she couldn’t care less about the consequences any longer, only that right now, she didn’t want to have any regrets.
She took hold of Misaka's hand that was hanging in mid-air, slid her fingers through her fingers, and pushed her into the wall behind her. Her other hand gently caressed the side of her face, before her hand moved down to stop at her jaw. With a slight pressure of her fingers, she lifted Misaka’s face, the face which she had been thinking about day and night suddenly becoming clear before her eyes, and ignoring Misaka's stunned expression, she leaned in and pressed her lips softly against hers.
The cry of the cicadas outside the window stopped. The wind also became without sound.
The sun, hidden behind the hills, was slow to set. The sunlight through the glass lit up Shirai's tightly closed eyes. Her eyelashes were fluttering slightly, and the flush of red on her face was clearly visible. Wild, pounding heartbeats that sounded like intertwined drums, making it impossible to tell who they belonged to. Shirai's hands were warmer than they had been during any previous touch, her slender fingers filling the crevices of every one of her fingers, holding her hand tightly in hers. The soft touch of her lips on her lips, the sizzling warmth of her hand, Misaka could no longer think, she only craved the current warmth, she followed her instincts and tightly grasped Shirai's slightly trembling hand back.
The cry of the cicadas resumed. A hot breeze carrying the lingering warmth of the sun blew through the window and lifted the tips of her hair.
Summer had arrived.
The stifling air that lingered around her body, the sweat that came out of her skin as soon as she left the air conditioner, the sticky summer, a season that annoyed her.
“Let’s go out.”
Her words were soft and light, as weightless as the wind passing through. Mixed into the gust of wind was the pleasant smell of her body, the fading sunlight, the long and raucous cicada song.
She looked towards Shirai, looked through her, and Misaka saw a new summer. Popsicles that were split in half, blooming fireworks of summer festivals, daylight hours which grew longer and longer. She began to look forward to the things which she saw as everyday and ordinary, she looked forward to the summer she was about to spend with her.
She had appeared during the summer, that season which was so annoying, the one with so many irritating factors. But as long as she remembered all those other things going forward, all the summers after today, surely it would feel like she liked them very much, wouldn't it?