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Sayaka knew she was falling before she even lost her balance.
It had been a normal relaxing day she had taken for herself. As relaxing as strolling in the park by the sculpted fountain was. Well relaxing wasn’t exactly true. Ever since Hitomi had made her confession to Kyosuke, Sayaka’s relationship with her had been strained. Madoka, however, tried incredibly hard to keep them together with her sweet puppy dog eyes.
And how could Sayaka say no to Madoka’s sweet puppy dog eyes.
She seemed to back off more though when a girl with long black hair moved into their school. Homura and Madoka were practically attached at the hip. Honestly, Sayaka disliked the shy girl. There was no reason for it: perhaps jealousy or pettiness? Whatever the reason, Sakaya tried to smile at the girl when she was obligated to hang out with her. She didn’t think she would get rid of her anytime soon, since Madoka had gushed to Sakaya about her crush on the girl.
So with Madoka planning a confession and Hitomi going on the date of her dreams, Sayaka felt a tad bit left out.
So here she brought herself to a park…at ten o'clock at night. Sayaka wandered for a bit, with really nothing to do. No one was out at this time, and she felt lonely enough already. She had paused in front of the fountain and looked at the sparkling water pushing towards the sky.
At that point Sayaka made a idiotic decision. She decided to hop up onto the edge of the fountain. She walked in circles around the fountain’s edge(s) a few times before getting bored and instead crouched down to touch the water. It was cold.
“Gosh guys,you really know how to make a girl feel alone.” She said to her reflection staring back at her.
The more she looked at her pale blue hair and yellow hair clips, she wondered if she was even pretty. She pulled the hair clips out, releasing her grip on the side of the fountain to do so. She fidgeted for a moment, rocking back and forth trying to remove the clips.
That’s when she felt the sudden loss of balance. She wobbled frantically trying to lean backwards to avoid falling into the water.
She cursed under her breath. “Shit!”
Sayaka fell backwards and braced for the feeling of the sidewalk crashing into her head.
It never came.
Instead she felt a warm body catch her, holding up the half of her body that was falling off the edge. Her legs were still braced on the side of the fountain leaving her looking up at the person who broke her fall.
“I’ve got you!” The stranger yelled.
She, Sayaka had discovered, had ruby red eyes with long red hair falling into Sakaya’s eyes. A piece of pocky was placed in her mouth as if it was put in there quickly to remove anything from her hands. Sayaka thought she looked pretty in front of the moonlight.
“Could you please help me out here?” The girl sneered.
Sakaya blinked. And blinked again. And then remembered her position.
“Oh! Sorry!” Sayaka placed her feet down onto the sidewalk while the girl helped push her up.
“Geez, are you so obsessed with your own face that you’d bash your skull in for it?” The girl said.
Sayaka readjusted herself and quickly turned around to face the girl, placing her hands on her hips angrily.
“No!” She flushed. “I just…”
“You just what?” The girl smirked at her assumed correctness.
“I was trying to take out my hair clips and I fell.” She tried to explain herself. “Wait!”
She rushed over to the fountain and glanced into the water as a mirror looked at her hair. It was a complete mess of hair clips tangled in hair. She began the process of untangling them when she saw the girl lean over the water next to her.
“What are you, a narcissist?” She smirked into the reflection.
“Shut up! You’re the worst savior ever.” Sayaka stuck her tongue out at the girl via reflection.
Finally got the clips out and ruffled her hair a bit. “Guess it didn’t change much…” She sighed into her reflection.
“Change much of what?” The girl was now sitting on the edge.
Sayaka looked up and pouted at her. “Why are you even still here?”
The girl shrugged. “Not everyday someone almost bashes their head in front of you.”
She bit her lip. Would it hurt to vent to some random person about her life? The girl looked about her age and seemed bored enough to listen. Sayaka slumped onto the edge of the fountain. The girl presented a box of pocky with one stick pointed at Sayaka, clearly an offer of goodwill.
“Want one?”
Sayaka stared at the pocky and cringed. “No, I don’t even know who you are.”
“More for me!” She chopped down onto the stick. “So spill. You look as if someone ran over your dog.”
“I do not!” Sayaka yelped. “I do not…”
“Sure you don’t.” Snickered the girl.
Sayaka gave her a sharp look only to see the huge black bow holding up the ponytail of her red mop of hair. She wondered if she might be as pretty like this girl if she had long hair. Like Hitomi. Like Homura.
She looked down to her hands and clasped them together. “My friends were all busy with their love lives today and I guess…I guess I just felt lonely.” She laughed slightly at the cringeworthy statement. “So I thought, ‘hey Sayaka, maybe you just aren’t that pretty’ or ‘maybe it’s those clips’ and tried to see how I’d look without them. You saw the result.”
Sayaka didn’t look up from her hands. Saying it out-loud had made it much more real than she ever had intended and she felt her face heat up. It was absolutely humiliating. She felt angry tears form in her eyes.
“Oh shit are you crying?” The girl gasped.
“Shut up!”
Sayaka quickly stood up and began to leave when she felt a hand grasp her wrist.
“Wait! I’m sorry geez, calm down.” She pulled Sayaka to a sitting position. “Look, do you like your hair clips?”
Sayaka rubbed at her eyes with her free hand. “What?”
“Just answer the question!” The girl groaned.
“Okay! Fine! Yes I like my hair clips.” She said angrily.
The girl just stared at her for a moment. “Then keep them in.”
“Huh? No-but what if it’s not-”
“Doesn’t matter.” The girl refuted. “Do what you like, live for yourself. That’s what I do.” The girl huffed and leaned onto her hand. “I think you look pretty with them.”
Sayaka felt her jaw drop. She had never been called pretty by anyone other than her parents. Her face quickly heated up as sounds came out of her mouth gasping for a response.
“I-”
“Whatever!” The girl quickly stood up, letting go of Sayaka’s hand, and turned away. “I’ve done my yearly good deed so I don’t need to do anymore.”
The girl started quickly walking away with her hands in her hoodie, but Sayaka could see that her ears had turned a pale pink as she ran off into the night.
“HUH?” Sayaka screamed.
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A few days passed and Sayaka could barely focus on classes with the red haired girl on her mind. She hadn’t told her friends about the girl. It would’ve been too embarrassing to admit that she not only almost bashed her head at a fountain while thinking about her love life.
That was until the school had a new exchange student.
A girl, with ruby red eyes, and pretty cherry hair walked into the room with her bag resting on her shoulder. Sayaka felt her face turn bright red as she barely pointed towards her. The girl turned to the class and smirked brightly. That smirk turned into befuddlement when her eyes landed on Sayaka. Then embarrassment.
“YOU?!”