Chapter Text
“Yuko, you aho! Come down here before you kill yourself! How did you manage to stack them so high anyway?” The shout from behind closed doors piqued one Maeda Atsuko’s curiousity as she passed the gym that day.
She had gotten lost again, her third time in the first week of high school which was a sprawling campus of buildings amidst a verdant, tree-filled landscape. She decided to just ask for directions like the freshman she was. Pushing the heavy double doors into the gym open, Atsuko barely had time to announce her intrusion when a yell sounded and a girl fell on her.
In retrospect, perhaps Atsuko shouldn’t have been so surprised seeing as how the shouted statements prior to her entry had indicated an accident waiting to happen. Therefore the blue streak of cursing that spilled past her lips while understandable, was unwarranted.
Maeda Atsuko was not someone easily surprised, nor prone to unrehearsed emotional responses unless somehow provoked. And when provoked, no one could guarantee a socially acceptable response to the situation. Thankfully, the gym was empty save for some third-year senpais who were too busy gaping and yelling in consternation at the tangled heap on the floor to notice.
Yuko raised herself on her elbows, shaking her head to clear the deafening roar of adrenaline and blood pumping to her head from the fall. Her vision tunneled as she gazed down at the beautifully delicate and pale face, framed by silky black hair.
“Tenshi,” Yuko whispered before passing out on top of a still profanely cussing Atsuko.
And that was how Maeda Atsuko the freshman, met Oshima Yuko, class idiot of 3-B.
—–
The next day, Atsuko’s solitary lunch was interrupted by the hushed, excited whispers of her classmates.
“Maeda-san, you have visitors,” someone called out.
Turning to the door, she saw the senpais from her incident yesterday- Akimoto Sayaka-san was the only one who introduced herself before hastily hauling their unconscious friend to the nurses office after making sure Atsuko was alright.
“Omigod, it’s Akimoto-sama and Sae-san!” some insipid classmate squealed breathlessly. Atsuko could swear she saw the Sae girl smirk and preen a little while Sayaka sort of shrank under the attention.
After introductions were made and pleasantries exchanged in the corridor, Sae abruptly plodded over to the stairwell and gestured. A sheepish Yuko shuffled into sight and made her way down the corridor to Atsuko, head hung low.
“Here, apologize properly, Yuko,” Sayaka nudged Yuko forward, who immediately bowed, expressing her sincerest apologies.
“No, no. It’s alright!” Atsuko exclaimed, very conscious of the rapt attention she was garnering from the first years nearby. “I’m okay, nothing bad happened. I mean, how are you, Senpai? You fainted…”
Yuko was looking at Atsuko now, her mouth hanging agape, the slight glisten of tears welling up in her large eyes. “What?”
Atsuko was now completely out of her depth, not at all prepared to deal with anyone’s emotional outbursts. “Huh?”
“Yuu-chan, what’s wrong-“ Sae asked, startled by the odd reaction from her admittedly, mostly odd friend.
“What… What did you call me?” Yuko whispered as she grabbed Atsuko by her shoulders, face mere inches away.
“Sen- Senpai?” Atsuko stuttered.
A look of utter joy, no- bliss came over Yuko’s face at that. “Sayakaa~ someone called me ‘senpai’!”
Did Yuko hit her head during the fall? Atsuko wondered, a little disconcerted by the senior’s behavior. Yuko had thrown her arms around Atsuko, rubbing her face against Atsuko’s like a cat.
“No, she’s like this all the time,” Sayaka responded, only for Atsuko to realize that she had wondered aloud. “Sorry.”
They made quite a spectacle that afternoon especially since Yuko had exclaimed that Atsuko was the singularly ichiban cutest kohai in the world at the top of her voice.
Spring had arrived early for Oshima Yuko. She pranced about in the hallways, insisting that people shake her hand to congratulate her on the first time she had ever been acknowledged in that way by a junior, prompting quite a few stares and no small amount of pity.
That was the last time Atsuko ever called Yuko ‘senpai’, to the senior’s consternation.