Chapter Text
- September 23
The autumn breeze blowing, the maple leaves falling, students chattering and Kohane walking to school, determined to ace that Maths test. She didn’t pull an all-nighter for nothing. Of course, she was ready! Mathematics wasn’t easy but Kohane was smart.
Technically, smart only when it came to Mathematics.
She realised that when she couldn’t recognize the fast paced beating of her heart every time she’d set her eyes on a blue haired boy. His hair actually had two colours. The one half being lighter than the other. She found that really absurd, it’s not everyday you see someone with their hair divided in half.
Before she could even analyse her own thoughts, a heavy weight jumped on her back. Kohane shrieked, “An!”
An chuckled teasingly, putting her hand around Kohane’s shoulder with a smug grin. “Looking at Mr. Nerd again, huh?”
“No!” Her cheeks flushed in red, lightly hitting An on her arms and yanking herself out of the older’s grip, ready to run away. The other laughed loudly.
Kohane rolled her eyes and fastened her pace, letting her feet hastily drag her to the school. Nevertheless, her eyes still wandered around, looking for the two-toned haired boy. To her disappointment, he was nowhere to be seen.
“Akito, Akito.”
“What?” Akito scoffed in reply. He barely spared a glance at the other and kept his attention on his phone, focusing on the e-book he was reading. He couldn’t care less about the kind of shit his friends— could he even call them friends? They were just mere acquaintances! No, they’re idiots who follow him like dogs.
“Don’t you think Kohane and Touya would look good together?” The oldest of the three, Rui, questioned. Though his question seemed really simple, his tone had to make it sound complicated.
Rui leaned onto Akito, trying to get a glimpse of whatever was on the boy’s phone.
“Hey!”
“Answer my question.”
“It’s ridiculous.” He sneered arrogantly as he nudged the purple haired boy, getting him off of his shoulder as he swiftly jogged away from the two older boys. Seriously, they were crazy!
All he had wanted was a peaceful walk from home to school without those two bothering him in the slightest, was that too much to ask?
“Tsukasa-kun. Did you notice Akito’s ears?”
Perhaps, Kohane was terrible at Maths.
What are these questions?! These weren’t tackled at all! She panicked internally, gripping her hair in frustration. Her hands only tightened their grip on her locks harder as each question she read didn’t make any sense. Could she be having a mental block now?
That wasn’t possible, she could think straight. Just that the Maths test never made any sense at all!
“Kohane~” A singing voice cheerfully called. Clearly, everyone in Kohane’s classroom heard her words as their eyes turned to the back door which revealed An waving happily with the usual enthusiasm.
“She’s always happy, it’s getting kinda annoying.” Some girls whispered shamelessly, neither caring about whether their subject was literally right in front of them or that they looked so stupid. An could only inwardly snicker in disgust at them as her best friend approached her.
“You’ve got to stop appearing out of nowhere.” The shorter girl sighed heavily. Her arm found its way around An’s as the both of them chatted about their previous test.
As usual, An was pretty sure she was flunking Maths.
“Did you hear? Apparently, Touya finished the Maths test within ten minutes. What a mad lad!” Quiet and hushed sneers filled the hallways, students secretly leaning onto each other to pass rumours so shamelessly.
Even when Touya himself manoeuvred his way through the busy hallways of the university with his hands shoved in his pockets and his head hung low, the judging looks coming from the people were hard to ignore.
It was a known fact around the school that Touya Aoyagi was a complete loner and was for a reason. He was an arrogant and rude asshole! He brushes off people almost instantly just before they could say a word to him and would always death glare at anyone in his way.
Nevertheless, that didn’t stop the girls from fawning over his good looks and amazing vocals.
Unsurprisingly, Touya found all of them rather foolish. Talking behind his back and yet having the nerve to gush about him in front of others. Absurd.
Arriving at the cafeteria took longer than he expected. A breath left his lips as he bitterly took a tray to get his lunch. After hearing all the bullshit that had been assumed, he didn’t have any appetite. But Tsukasa would kill him knowing that he skipped lunch.
He was quite close to his senior and at the same time, not. Tsukasa was just someone who cared about him. He wasn’t his best friend or anything. Though he did wish he could have at least the blonde haired boy as a friend.
His eyes diverted to the older boy clinging around a ginger that looked his age. He wasn’t sure what the boy’s name was, something like Akuto or Akeita. He couldn’t care less.
Looking around, everyone had a friend group but him. He was alone, once again.
“Hey, An. Don’t you think Touya gets lonely there?”
“Oh, I guess.” She sadly replied, gazing at the boy with a throbbing feeling piercing her heart. Under the table, her hands clenched into fists.
Why am I such a coward?
~~~
- April 7, 2019
Almost seven years ago, An was everything but a happy, cheerful kid. Every time Touya would see her, she always had such a downcast expression on her face as her body slouched on the swings. Her fingers tightly wrapped around the chains that carried the swing’s seat, her legs always trembled. And most of all, she was always crying on that swing.
When she wasn’t on that swing, she was good at looking like she was fine. Touya knew she wasn’t. That smile around those so-called “friends” of hers was fake.
So he had to, he felt the need to console her. After all, he was her best friend and the person she could trust the most.
“You know, Touya?”
“Hmm?” The boy hummed curiously in reply, scooting closer to the girl. An felt weird about the weight shifting on the couch, bringing both her hands on her lap instead of pushing down on the red mattress.
“All those kids in school, they’re always flocking around me as if I’m some goddess or something. In reality, they just hate me. They say bad things about me and…it makes me sad.”
For the first time, An had cried in front of Touya on the couch, instead of on that swing. He was young back then and all he could do was embrace the sobbing girl in a comforting hug.
That day, the rain seemed to be stronger than ever. The raindrops wouldn’t stop falling, the thunder wouldn’t stop growling and the lightning wouldn’t stop striking.
Touya was glad An wasn’t crying on the swing and instead in his arms.
“Why do they pretend, Touya?”
~~~
That specific question strangely stuck with Touya till his university days. Why do they pretend? They all pretend like he’s a king but the next minute, they’re talking crap about him. The world revolved in weird ways, that’s what he liked to think.
There are times he did wish his bond with Shiraishi never faded. But when bad things happen, bad results are bound to come.
He leaned on his hand and his other hand stabbed the rice with the fork. He felt bored. Being alone sure was boring, huh?
His eyes moved to An happily chatting with a smaller girl.
“I’m glad.” Under his breath, a quiet mumble escaped as he stood up and left his food untouched.
Tsukasa was gonna scold him after all.
“Tsukasa-senpai, do you know him?” Akito curiously asked, his mouth full with rice and meat. The chopsticks were still stuffed in his mouth, creating a full pout which looked really adorable.
“Gross! Don’t talk with your mouth full.” Tsukasa retorted and sat back down beside Rui who only rolled his golden orbs at his best friend. Tsukasa could be really mom-like sometimes.
“And yeah, I know Touya. We were close in elementary.”
The youngest only nodded, proceeding to eat his food ignorantly.
However, his senpai did look off. It wasn’t like Tsukasa to space out, especially staring at a person. Did this Touya guy perhaps do such a terrible deed to his friend— dog.
He would never admit it, he loved Tsukasa and Rui. Imagining a world where they weren’t close to him was almost impossible .
Akito barely showed it but he did care about Tsukasa and Rui, after all, they were the ones who were there for him at his lowest time. He would never forget the kind smiles on their faces as they kindly offered their hands to him years ago…
when everyone had already given up on him.
It wasn’t a known fact to almost anyone that An had little- screw that, she had feelings for Touya. Not even Kohane knew, she’d be devastated once she found out! An wouldn’t let her feelings get in the way of her deep friendship with Kohane so, she was letting her best friend go for Touya by herself.
One thing An knew, Kohane and Touya were definitely in their “flirting stage”. It was really obvious with the way Touya’s eyes would divert to her friend secretly. His gaze held the most emotion she had ever witnessed come from him.
She caught him a few times but before she could even fully turn her attention to him, he’d already looked away with a faint red tint plastered on his cheeks.
It was heartbreaking really, like she was shattered. It didn’t matter to her, they were both people she deeply cared about and she’d do anything for them. Even if it meant giving up on herself.
An only smiled weakly at the loving glances Kohane gave Touya from time to time.