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The sky is basked in a cool, orange and purple color. There is no breeze in sight, and at the same time, the air doesn't feel suffocating. Nene watched her class empty itself earlier after the final bell, and she noticed the noise of the hallway becoming fainter, until completely silent. There she is now, alone, in peace and quiet.
Urgh…
Truth be told, Nene isn't that much of a lazy girl. She was just, in all honesty, hoping to use the noise of her environment as an excuse to avoid doing her much dreaded task.
Her math homework.
She isn't the brightest star — she bitterly gets to know that every semester — but most of the time, she can make do and get a passing grade. Everywhere, except in math.
And hey ! You can't really blame her. There's just something about mixing numbers with letters that doesn't seem right to her. She's of the opinion that letters should stay in the alphabet and that numbers should stay in whatever their imaginary nomination is called. You can't put vegetables in a fruit salad, after all. She also thinks that whoever thought of that odd mix should be jailed.
She normally would ask her best friend Aoi for help — the actual brightest star of the school. The top scorer since they'd known each other. But she has been so busy with everything in her life at the moment, a math assignment was at the very back of her mind. It was no use hiding the fact that she fully forgot about it. It's been a while since it has been assigned as well, and while Nene was somehow in the teacher's good graces, she couldn't risk failure any further. So she woke up today with one goal in mind : get this over and done with.
Anyway, the reason Nene can't ask Aoi for help is quite simple. Aoi is unable to help today because she decided to take care of the garden — a task Nene also totally neglected recently. And truthfully, Nene suspects her best friend to be fed up with doing- um, helping her do her homework. Fair enough. Aoi was teaching her how to fish, not how to let herself get fished… wait…is this how the saying goes ?
Nene shakes her head and gently claps her face in her hands. Focus ! Don't get distracted thinking about fish.
She opens her book, only for the writing to make her dizzy… no, she can't back down now. She has to do it herself!
It's been thirty minutes since she started…or has it been an hour ? She isn't sure anymore. Nene puts her head against her desk and groans. It's so frustrating, seeing how easy it appears to be in the eyes of everyone. Not a day goes by without her feeling embarrassed by the fact that she can't solve a simple problem on the board. Argh ! This is all so stupid ! She wishes she wasn't as stupid…
There are quiet steps in the hallway, the first ones in a long while. They suddenly stop, and a familiar voice reaches Nene's ears.
" Yashiro-san, you're still here ?"
Nene raises her head and wipes her tears quickly, before taking a look at the sliding door. " Huh ? Akane-kun…?"
Akane-kun enters the classroom, and stops by her desk, where he hovers his head over her notebook. He blinks before straightening up and putting his hands on his hips. “Homework, huh…”
Nene lets out a whimper, utterly defeated by the problem. It shouldn’t be this hard ! She got it when Aoi ran over it during lunchtime, but now that she is on her own, it looks and feels like a whole different task altogether. She vaguely remembers how to get to point C, but she has no idea of what point A or B even look like.
“I’ve been stuck on this part forever…” She points at an exercise with the eraser of her pencil. “I just don’t know what to do…”
Akane-kun gets closer again. Takes a peek. “It actually isn’t that hard. You just have to do this.”
He tugs the pencil in her hand gently, letting out a “May I?”, before Nene allows him to take it. Then, he goes around the desk, stands next to her, and slightly turns the notebook in his direction to ease his writing. Nene’s expression lits up. In less than two minutes, Akane-kun resolved what had her in tears for half an hour or more.
“I have somewhere to be. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he turns his heels on her, preparing to leave the classroom.
He barged in at the right time, like a savior. He helped her without her even asking for help. “Wait!” Yet, Nene is bold enough to hold on to his uniform, stopping him from taking a step further. He throws a confused glance at her. In all sincerity, with the long day and the blasting sun, all mixed with her own frustration at her inability to solve a simple thing by herself, Nene is at her wits ends. She doesn’t have the strength to stand here alone without breaking down. And so, despite Akane-kun acting out of pure generosity, she really needs him to continue. “Wait… could you help me…please…?”
Akane-kun looks at Nene in disbelief. Within a few seconds, she starts to shed water from her eyes. Seeing this, he starts to panic, turning around fully to face her. “B-but…” he tries to explain while she hides her face in her hands. He sighs, and takes a hurried look at his wrist watch. He looks at the door, then looks at Nene, then the ceiling. He grunts, ruffles his hair, and sighs again. “... I guess … I could spare you some extra time.” Akane-kun tells her as he grabs the chair of the other desk in front of Nene’s.
“Thank you, Akane-kun…” she wipes her face with her handkerchief.
“But ! I’m only going to tell you how it works. Don’t expect me to do it for you or give you the answers. “ he crosses his arms, looking at her sternly.
“Mhm!” Nene accepts, still happy someone is willing to help her, even if the help came with conditions.
They both sit down, and start to work.
" You're not very talkative, Akane-kun. " Nene states as she notices five exercises went by without him saying anything. Here he was, one hand on his cheek, the other taping the desk quietly.
" What do you want me to say ?" He mumbles without looking at her.
" Well, I don't know. Someone else would have asked me about my day, or what part of the homework I find difficult…"
" Those are none of my business. "
Nene winces at his reply. Not that he said it coldly, but his "honesty" was unbelievably unforgiving. She had the tendency of not remembering how he really was most of the time.
" You're quite harsh, Akane-kun. You could at least fake being interested in anything else other than Aoi !"
" Huh ?" He jolts, snapped out of whatever he was doing or thinking about. " But…I am…I am interested in something else other than her. "
" Oh yeah ?" Nene gets carried away and cracks her pencil against the desk, forgetting the homework completely.
" You only ever smile when she's around ! You're only nice if she's around ! Heck, I even think the reason you helped me today is because I'm her best friend !"
Feeling assaulted but unable to deny anything, Akane-kun's mouth stays agape, trying to say something but failing to do so. Nene nods with her brows frowned. She's right, and they both know it. Still, at least, it's been years since they met; they're practically friends at this point ! But he still insists on behaving like a simple classmate towards her. Wait…can it be that he is afraid she could get mixed signals ? That makes sense…yes, that must be the reason! Nene huffs and smiles. Silly Akane-kun. If he's afraid to make Aoi jealous, he could just clear up that misunderstanding by telling her upfront what kind of relationship he and Nene have!
" We've been in the same class for four years now. And we have many memories together! " Is that even true ? Nene suddenly doubts. Let's…let's just go with the flow… " Yet you're like a stranger. Are you afraid I would fall in love with you ? "
Akane-kun stands up suddenly, moving his hand left and right, and wearing a face of disgust to boot.
" What ? No, no, no. No way. You've got it all wrong. "
Nene frowns. " Excuse you ? What's with the reaction ? You're not my type either ! "
The student council vice president chuckles in embarrassment. " Glad we're clear on that, " He says as he sits back down.
" Then what is it ? "
" What is what ?"
" Why aren't we close ? I even call you by your first name and it doesn't even seem to phase you at all ! Yet you know nothing about me and I know nothing about you ! "
Akane-kun makes the annoyed expression he always has when faced with what he considers an inconvenience (like Hanako-kun, or Minamoto-senpai, it seems). He smiles awkwardly, a pearl of sweat on his face.
" Slow down there… I do know something about you... "
" What is it ? " Nene pitches up her voice without wanting to, too caught up into this homework session turned interrogation.
" You…You have a hamster named…Black Canyon, don't you ?" He shakes his index finger towards her, his rigid smile awaiting for an answer.
But Nene isn't impressed. He surely knows it from Aoi or something.
" Aoi told you, didn't she ? "
The ginger haired boy looks at the ceiling in search of a suitable thing to say. From what she can see, he's really embarrassed. So there are some things in this world that possess the ability to overwhelm him as well, huh ?
Silence settles back into the classroom while Nene pouts and Akane-kun ruminates his brain trying to find an explanation (Nene is sure it is just an excuse, but she is willing to wait and hear what he has to say.)
" Don't you… hum hum , " Akane-kun clears his throat, his cheeks slightly pink, " Don't remember, back in first year, when you asked me, Ao-chan and Lemon for pet name ideas ?"
It's now Nene's turn to look at the ceiling, brushing her brain for the memory. She lits up and clicks her fingers together when she's finally able to recall.
Everything comes back to her like a dancing fog.
She's reminded of Aoi's proposition. With her elegant smile and gracious manners, she said :
" How about Princess ?"
" Princess ? " Nene screamed, " But he's a male ! "
" Prince then ! " Aoi suggested.
" No can do. I want something cool; unique — something unique and cool ! " Nene then turned to her deskmate.
" Yamaguchi-kun ! How would you name your pet if you had one ? "
The phone addict replied with a " Perry " without looking up, then snorted to himself as he watched a video of a dog shaped like an egg.
" How about Black ? The color Black is usually associated with something cool. " said Akane-kun, who had just arrived.
" Black, huh? Yeah, that could work ! " Nene turned to her deskmate again, then tried pulling the smartphone out of Yamaguchi-kun's hands. He had a surprisingly strong grip.
" Help… me…instead…of being… on…your phone ! " She huffed after attempting to get him to look up, but in vain. " What are you even watching, anyway ? "
" Oh, dis' just a documentary about the Grand Canyon in the United States. "
When Nene heard the word " Canyon", something finally clicked within her. Not even the oddness of Yamaguchi-kun watching a documentary out of all things struck out to her, because the feeling of having achieved a long, deep desire (desire she had for less than two days, but still a strong desire nonetheless) overcame everything else.
Nene comes back to the present and is met with the confused eyes of her classmate. Oops, seems she went on a tangent here… she starts laughing as she recalls another event.
" I remembered now. That day, Yamaguchi-kun was caught having a picture of the principal's bald head on his phone !"
The boy shakes his head in agreement.
" He spent the whole afternoon begging for his device back, and threw a huge tantrum when he was told to come back the next day. " Akane-kun snickered lightly.
" I heard rumors that say he slept in front of the door that day !" Nene laughs hysterically, her voice becoming louder and louder by the minute.
" What do you know, I have no idea if it's true, but it wouldn't surprise me, honestly. " He laughs as well.
This makes the girl happy. She has no idea when was it last that she saw Akane-kun laugh, but she knows that it was a very long time ago — if not ever.
Their laughter dies down, and dissipates, leaving them in a quiet that would make one wonder if they were even any noise just seconds ago.
" You see," Akane-kun starts after sometime, " it's not that I see you as a stranger. It's just that for the longest time, I've limited you as 'Ao-chan's friend'. "
Nene jolts. What ? Is he saying she had no life outside of Aoi ? What is it with this boy ! Instead of feeling hurt, her anger flames up and she pulls back her non-existent sleeves. Akane-kun is looking very punchable at the moment, and it just so happens that Nene's fists are itching to land on a face.
" I don't think that way anymore. Especially since I…Since I told you I trusted you. "
Her anger extinguishes, and to her eyes, a sort of shyness overcame the other student. She recalls him telling her that when Aoi disappeared — when she vanished without having ever existed to other people. But it wasn't that long ago…
" I don't trust anyone easily. So maybe it always seems as if I'm hiding a secret, " Akane-kun sighs as he looks at her a little sadly, " Well, it's true, since I'm a supernatural and all… I can't get close to just anyone because they'd be at risk of uncovering my secret. "
He lies his head against the desk, keeping his right forearm up and using his left arm as a pillow.
" But I know. "
" But you know. You know it, so I guess…" He stops there, blocking himself from saying anything more. Nene understands what he wants to say, but she is a little confused about why he isn't able to say it. Must be that timid side of him she got to know (and she met less than two minutes ago… still, it somehow feels natural). Sure, it's a little hurtful to discover he didn't think much of her at first, but that was in the (recent) past — Nene isn't a grudge holder, although self proclaimed — and it's clear that he also doesn't open up easily or just to anyone. The sheer fact that he is able to share his reasoning is enough to make Nene feel like she won something important.
" I'll admit that you're a little weird, Yashiro-san, " Akane-kun mumbles, while Nene interjects a " Hey !".
"...But I haven't really told anyone this before, " He finishes.
A big smile draws itself on her face, a happiness she isn't able to express the origin of flows out of her. She pats his head while he throws a look at her. An older sister instinct kicks in, and even if she doesn't know what it feels like having a sister, or a sibling — or an older sibling that's a sister — she's sure that what she's feeling is akin to that instinct. Silly Akane-kun. Who knew that he was just an awkward fella ? He needn't worry; Nene is now here to keep him company and hold on to his secrets.
" …That makes us officially friends ! "
" It does…?"
" It does, Akane-kun. It does. " She gidley takes a new pencil from her pouch and goes back to her homework.
It didn't take long before Akane-kun lost consciousness to the strength of his fatigue. She didn't mind it though, he could rest for his efforts while she could strive for hers.
And even though his face was half hidden, Nene was able to see a faint smile on her new friend's face.