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mio laughed along with her friends as they switched between eating their lunches and talking about random topics. she looked questioningly at miyu as the girl stared at her. “you look tired,” miyu deadpanned, eyes not leaving mio. with miyu being on the other side of the table, the rest of their friends heard and looked towards mio. she was caught. mio awkwardly chuckled to herself. how was she going to get out of this one? she didn’t want to admit why she only got a couple of hours of sleep. that would be way too embarrassing.
“there’s no point trying to get an answer while she’s this tired. you’ll just annoy her. i’m sure she’ll tell us later when she’s napped through the rest of today’s classes,” sakura advised. the rest of their friends nodded in agreement. they wouldn’t want to be pestered when they’re tired either. mio looked towards sakura thankfully, but noticed that the other girl was focused on her food. mio’s heart warmed as she kept her gaze on sakura. she couldn’t help but stare at her. there was something about sakura that mio couldn’t get enough of. a feeling of affection that she had never experienced before.
as lunch ended, mio tried to catch up with sakura who was the first to walk off towards her class. she panted as she squeezed sakura’s shoulder to get her attention. surprised, sakura stopped walking and turned around to face mio. eyes meeting sakura’s, mio nervously moved her hand away from the other girl’s shoulder. “ummm… i wanted to thank you for stopping the others from bothering me,” mio explained, trying to keep her voice as stable as possible. sakura simply smiled at her, insisting it was fine and that she could assume what mio was really doing. a blush made it’s way across mio’s cheeks. did sakura really know?
mio put her earphones into her ears as soon as she left the school gates. she felt comfort in the alone time the walk home would give her. the majority of her friends had clubs to attend, so it was the perfect time for her to get lost in her own world. she would sometimes walk with sakura, but she was so tired that she didn’t think to wait for the taller girl. her peace was disturbed, though, as she felt somebody’s arm brush against her own. she quickly turned around to see who it was. unexpectedly, the person she saw next to her was sakura. she considered taking out her earphones, but she didn’t know if sakura wanted to walk in peace too.
her internal question was answered as sakura tapped her on the arm. she hurriedly took out her earphones so that she could hear what sakura wanted to say. “i’m sorry if i worried you earlier. saying that i could assume what you were doing. i don’t want you to feel like your privacy has been invaded or anything.” the usual warmth that came to mio while talking to sakura returned. she hadn’t worried about that at all. it didn’t surprise her that sakura thought to apologise though. everybody knew how kind hearted she is.
“what were you actually doing? to see if my assumption is correct.” panic immediately washed over mio. she knew by sakura’s tone of voice that she didn’t need to tell her. there was a sense of ‘you don’t actually need to tell me’ that left mio unsure of what to do. sakura was the last person she wanted to expose her embarrassing secret to, but at the same time, sakura was someone that she felt she could tell anything to with no judgement. she was truly in two minds. deciding it was better to just say it, she told sakura what she was doing. “i was reading fanfiction.”
mio watched as sakura’s expression turned from curiosity to smugness. “i’m that predictable huh?” mio laughed. so sakura really did know. the two of them continued walking until they reached mio’s house. “which ship?” sakura blurted out just as mio was about to unlock her front door. she froze in place as she processed the question. there was no backing out. she wondered if sakura would let her go into her house without answering. she slowly turned around, looking up to look into sakura’s eyes. mio mentally prepared herself with a sigh. “yuunaa,” she hurriedly admitted, before unlocking her door at an impressive speed and closing it behind her.
she immediately walked up the stairs to her bedroom and allowed herself to fall back onto her bed. her heart raced as she thought about the implications of what she had told to sakura. would sakura even know the ship? it didn’t seem likely to mio. it also opened the possibility of sakura asking about mio’s gender preferences. something that she hadn’t said out loud to anyone. the lack of sleep began catching up to her, showing itself in her struggle to keep her eyes open. eventually she gave in and fell asleep, despite the annoyance it would cause her the next morning.
rubbing her eyes, mio reached for her phone that would usually be placed next to her to check the time. her eyes opened widely as she realised that it wasn’t there. this worry faded though as she looked down and noticed she was still in her uniform. her phone would likely be in her jacket pocket. relief washed over her as she felt it there. taking it out of her pocket and checking the time, she sighed. 3am. far enough away from when she had to start getting ready to want to go back to sleep, but too close to trust herself to not oversleep.
trying not to get too frustrated at the consequences of her actions, she got up and turned her light on. next, she decided to change into some more comfortable clothes and arrange her uniform for the next day. once she had everything sorted out, she sat back down on her bed and looked at her phone properly. what she hadn’t noticed at her glance at the time was the messages from sakura from after she had fallen asleep. she hurriedly opened the conversation, a mix of nervousness and excitement knowing that sakura had actively contacted her.
saku-chan: i looked up this yuunaa.
saku-chan: i didn’t know that you’re an akb fan!
saku-chan: show them to me tomorrow morning :)
mio instinctively smiled reading the messages. sakura wanted to know more about her interests! that was really exciting for her. the warm feeling returned as she began allowing her thoughts to flood with fantasies about what would happen the next day. would sakura realise mio’s preferences and say that she’s the same? would she make subtle hints that she was interested in reading similar things? would she admit that she actually also reads things like that? mio held her phone close to her chest as her smile widened with each possibility.
unfortunately, that’s not what would end up happening at all.
sakura was surprised to see mio jogging into the library. she was usually the last one to arrive. closing her book and placing it down next to her, sakura gestured for mio to sit down next to her. similar to a well trained puppy, mio immediately did as sakura asked and sat down. “tell me more about these people you’re interested in,” sakura smiled, aware of the effect that would have on the shorter girl next to her. mio took her phone out of her jacket pocket and opened up twitter. she showed sakura everything she could about the two idols, explaining the ship as she went along. sakura happily listened as mio rambled on, laughing at the moments where mio got too ahead of herself and stumbled on her words.
mio took a deep breath once she had finished explaining everything that she wanted to. she turned to sakura to gauge her reaction, seeing her thinking carefully. that moment was possibly the most nervous mio had felt in her entire life. waiting for the response she would get from her beloved sakura. she seemed to come to a conclusion, turning to look back at mio who’s eyes were intensely staring deep into her soul. “it seems like you’re really interested in this stuff. it’s good to know more about my friends’ interests. talk to me about it any time.” mio felt like time stopped hearing the word friend. unbenownsed to her, she ended up muttering the word out loud, causing sakura to tilt her head in curiosity.
“you see me as a friend, right?” mio whispered, barely audible. sakura nodded enthusiastically in response. “of course i do! we’ve been friends for the past two years dummy,” she smiled. mio didn’t have the heart to tell sakura what she really meant. she kind of hoped that somehow a hole in the ground would form and pull her down into it in that moment. just as she was about to stand up and leave, the rest of their friends walked in. “weird to see you here so early,” sayaka laughed as she sat down in front of mio. the rest of their friends laughed along, sharing the shock of mio not being the last one to arrive.
the days after that felt both incredibly long and too short for mio. she couldn’t hide her awkwardness when sakura tried to initiate conversations with her. this confused sakura greatly. mio had always been the first person to run up to her and bombard her with affection. asking too many random questions and begging her to check out places that looked fashionable. it felt like something was missing from her side. she missed how mio used to be with her, causing her to wonder what had happened. she didn’t think she had done anything wrong. she never mentioned it to mio, however. she was scared of getting a cold response.
these cold feelings towards sakura slowly began to change over time. there was a new transfer student to their school. somebody that miyu had introduced to the group. “i’m runa,” the girl beamed as she stood in front of the table of friends. mio wondered how she could be so brave to stand in front of a group of people that she didn’t know and happily introduce herself. something about that intrigued her though. the courage that mio knew she would never be able to have. from that day on, she found her thoughts and fantasies turning to runa instead of sakura.
sakura was surprised as she felt someone hugging her from behind as she exited the school gates. just as she was about to push the person away, she recognised the feeling. it was mio. she moved her hands from her sides to hold onto mio’s arms that were wrapped around her waist. “long time no back hug,” sakura laughed, feeling mio laughing onto her back as well. letting go of sakura, mio moved to her side and the two of them began their walk home. “what brought this back?” sakura questioned. mio sighed as she tried to think of the right words. she’d thought about this moment a lot, but none of the responses she had thought of seemed perfect enough.
“i just needed some space. to collect my thoughts.” sakura hummed as she took in what mio said. in that moment she partially caught on to what happened. a possible misunderstanding. she wanted to ask what had changed, but in reality she didn’t want to hear the answer. she knew what it would be. she knew that it would be about runa. the way mio looked at her was something that sakura had only seen towards herself. that thought made it click. mio was moving on. all sakura could do was be supportive. as a friend.
it was interesting to see how mio usually acted around her happening with runa in front of her own eyes. their friends seemingly hadn’t noticed, but the empty space next to her felt heavy. like losing the person who she cherished most. of course, mio was right in front of her on the other side of the table. but, if anything, that felt worse. she could only sit and watch as mio laughed along with runa’s jokes, using the moment to gently place her hand on the other girl’s arm. something that sakura didn’t notice mio did to her until she saw it happen with somebody else. she felt the feeling on her arm despite nobody being next to her, prompting her to place her own hand on the space.
excitement grew every moment mio got to spend with runa. she began offering to show her around to all the best places in the town with the guise of wanting to help her get used to being somewhere new. unaware of mio’s intentions, runa graciously accepted every offer and the two of them began to spend more and more time together. on one particular day at a local cafe, they began to talk about their interests. mio was surprised to find out that runa also liked idols. her interest only grew with everything that she found out about her.
mio didn’t stop clinging to sakura. they would still sometimes walk home together and sit next to each other when the opportunity presented itself, but as soon as runa showed up mio would run off to be next to her. every time it happened it shattered sakura’s heart a little bit more. she wanted the old mio back. the mio that would run up to her with the widest smile and mischeviously call out ‘saku-chan~’ until she smiled back. she wondered if runa felt the same about mio. she went along with her playing around, something that took sakura a little while to warm up to. runa was almost like her opposite in that regard.
a few days later, sakura noticed mio spending a lot of time on her phone. that confused her. she had never seen mio so concentrated on her phone before. every time she looked in mio’s direction she saw her typing. she knew she wasn’t messaging runa since she was busy having a conversation with miyu and rika about something that she couldn’t really hear. she took out her own phone and messaged mio to ask who she was talking to, but it got left on read. her eyes didn’t leave mio who briefly looked up at her before turning her attention back to her phone. sakura sighed as she leant back in her chair.
as the end of the day approached, mio’s nerves grew. she had planned to take runa to the last place that she offered to show her. the park. she had it all thought out in her head, but she was scared. she had already technically been rejected by sakura. she didn’t want that to happen again. luckily none of her friends were in her last class of the day, leaving her to think everything through one last time, making sure that she knew exactly what to say and how to convey her feelings properly.
the time quickly came around where the two of them met at the school gates, ready to walk to the park together. mio was comforted by the smile that runa greeted her with. she didn’t think it could go wrong. too engrossed in the moment, she didn’t notice sakura walking right past her. unable to see the expression of pure heartbreak on her face. a look that a mere month ago she would’ve run up to to check what was wrong and comfort her. seeing mio not even look in her direction caused sakura more pain than she could explain. especially when it was because of her focus on someone else. holding back her tears, sakura sped up and tried to get home as quickly as possible.
“this is my favourite place to go!” mio exclaimed as she directed runa through the park to the bench that she usually sat on. runa immediately remarked how pretty it was, looking around and taking in the scenery. on the left was a field she assumed would become occupied with parents playing ball games with their kids in an hour or two’s time. behind them was a row of trees, while a footpath leading into the trees was to their right. she did wonder why mio took her there– it was somewhere that she likely would’ve come across on her own anyway. she didn’t think too much about it, though, instead taking in the needed fresh air after a day stuck in school.
runa was surprised as mio suddenly placed her hand on top of hers. “there’s something i want to tell you,” mio muttered, looking anywhere but into runa’s eyes. a sigh accidentally left runa’s lips. she knew what was about to happen. all she could do was hope that mio didn’t hear it. “so… i- i like you!” mio stuttered. runa nodded gently at mio’s confession. she should’ve predicted that a lot sooner. “i’m sorry, mio. but i’m actually dating someone else.” in a flash, mio felt her body weaken. it had happened again. “can i know who it is?” she meakly asked, at least wanting to know that. who she got rejected for. “miyu. i’m sorry.”
a knock was heard at sakura’s door, prompting her to pause the drama she was watching and open the door. she didn’t expect to see mio stood in front of her, tears streaming down her face, but that told her what she needed to know. she quickly cleared her throat and wiped her eyes to remove any evidence of her own crying. she gestured for mio to come in, which mio complied and stood awkwardly next to the sofa. “you can sit down,” sakura half smiled, sitting down on the sofa herself. before sakura could even ask what happened, mio clung onto her arm and sobbed onto her shoulder. sakura’s heart somehow managed to break even more at the sight.
there was a bittersweet feeling occupying sakura. she was very aware of it. the combination of the pain of knowing she no longer had the chance of having mio by her side as more than a friend, and the happiness knowing that she also wasn’t taken by somebody else. a hope for the future that maybe one day mio would regain her feelings for her. that things would go as they should’ve done the first time. without her nervously blurting something stupid out in the heat of the moment. those chances were slim in her mind, though. she knew that there were a lot of cute girls that could catch mio’s attention at any time. all she had to do was hope that she was a good enough competitor.
mio knew she would be able to recover from this. being next to sakura was already bringing her the comfort she needed. the most painful thing would be telling her online friends the reality of the situation. that she got rejected once again. she didn’t think she would be able to handle thinking about it, let alone telling it to someone. looking up at sakura she saw the glint in her eyes. tears? she instinctively reached her hand that wasn’t wrapped around sakura’s to wipe the tears that began to fall. she didn’t understand what they meant, but it was her job to wipe them. as a friend.